Security companies often fail to supply what their clients pay for, and alarm systems can be beaten. This book shows how, covering everything from magnetic contact switches, window foiling, to ultrasonic alarms and passive infrared alarms, microwave systems, traps, monitored control panels and preamplified microphones, and the many ways they can be defeated. There is also information on guard dogs, central control systems and police and guard responses or the lack thereof. Describes residential, commercial and high- security systems. MC

Publisher: Loompanics
Paperback: 104 pages
Illustrated

“No safe is completely safe because locksmiths must be able to rescue goods if the lock breaks. That means every safe is vulnerable—it’s just a matter of time and determination.
“Reveals every known method for breaking into safes, vaults and safety-deposit boxes. It begins with simple ways to guess (or steal) combinations. In illustrated detail, it shows how to drill, punch and peel a safe, as well as how high-tech hoods use torches and explosives to get at your goods. For the policeman, private investigator, store owner, security professional or anyone fortunate enough to have something worth protecting, this book is eye-opening reading.”

Publisher: Loompanics
Paperback: 88 pages
Illustrated

Cloak-and-dagger tip sheet detailing superserious spy methods. “Now you can study the techniques used by real professional spies and investigators. Learn how to gather any type of information you may want—or stop others from getting info on you!” 007-style contents include:
• The significance of HUMINT, or human intelligence gathering.
• Infiltration and maintaining cover.
• Methods for gaining entrance to enemy installations; how to open and reseal letters.
• Escaping in trains and vehicles; how to avoid dogs; escaping from handcuffs.
• Letter drops, couriers, visual signals, audio signals, scrambling systems, invisible ink.
• Hand cameras, video cameras, night-vision devices. GR

Publisher: Flores
Paperback: 174 pages
Illustrated

According to the author, this book is an insurance policy against tyrants and would-be tyrants; it shows them that a small group of neo-guerrillas can bring down the strongest armies and force any police state to its knees. Long shows the secrets of how to secure and create weapons, and the tactics needed to use them when fighting just about anything imaginable, from attack helicopters to tanks. SC

Publisher: Alpha
Paperback: 147 pages
Illustrated

“Much of this book is concerned with how all of us can take more responsibility for our own shit to save water, soil and money,” declares its author, emeritus professor of architecture at UC Berkeley and former California State Architect Sim Van der Ryn. Originally published in the 1970s, The Toilet Papers is basically a waste-not-want-not rethinking of the relation of shit to water in Western society, beginning with a short illustrated history of toileting and sewage in both the East and the West including a discussion of the relative merits of sitting vs. squatting. Van der Ryn then discusses “dry toilets,” “graywater” systems for gardening, plans for how to build your own “compost privy,” the conversion of waste-water into valuable by-products through aquaculture and other appropriate-technology approaches to this eternal dilemma. SS

Publisher: Chelsea Green
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

This book, written by an expert in providing practical, truthful information on self-defense, talks about the dangers of crime and what to expect. It recommends all types of practical solutions and dispenses common sense counsel about locks, alarms, safes, tear gas, car security and attack dogs. Some basic street-fighting self defense techniques are illustrated, such as the neck twist, takedown, eye attacks and martial arts. The author also discusses such makeshift weapons as flashlights for self-defense, and offers extensive information on guns: who should have them, types of training, the selection of handguns, combat firing techniques, the storing of firearms, and the physiological and psychological aftermath of violence. Includes advice to the elderly and handicapped, and covers what to do about legal problems that can arise out of the use of self defense, including finding a lawyer. MC

Publisher: Police Bookshelf
Paperback: 420 pages
Illustrated

The accoutrements of espionage—the world’s second oldest profession—laid out in full-color, pornographic splendor for all the world to see. “An inconspicuous figure in a raincoat… border crossings at midnight… living under constant threat of betrayal and torture… secretive and shadowy, the world of the spy.” Nothing hidden—all tricks revealed! Thrill at the tiny danger of the lipstick pistol! the wrist pistol! the poison pellet pen! the cigarette pistol! the cigar pistol! the pipe pistol! the wallet gun! the toothpaste-tube gun! the glove gun! the poison pellet cane! and (don’t sit down) the rectal pistol! Then gasp at the miniature madness of the wristwatch camera! the briefcase camera! the cigarette-pack camera! the KGB necktie camera! the book camera! the waist-belt surveillance camera! the button camera! the matchbox camera! and the cigarette- lighter camera! (Sorry, no rectal camera.) Items from the collection of Keith Melton, adviser to U.S. intelligence agencies. Co-foreword by William Colby (ex-CIA) and Oleg Kalugin (ex-KGB), both of whom, during the Cold War, used many of the same spy tools on each other. GR

Publisher: DK
Hardback: 176 pages
Illustrated

This is a jumbo-size sourcebook devoted primarily to locating and researching people, their assets or other information more or less “by any means necessary.” To keep the dry realities of PI work and other investigative work from bogging things down, Lapin throws in plenty of Walter Mitty-appeal espionage lore such as night vision, bugs, phone tapping, scrambling, encryption and video surveillance including some titillating details about Mossad and the KGB of today. Most impressive is the clarity and generosity with which he imparts his hardcore hands-on do-it-yourself-sleuth training, which is as useful for investigative journalists and the merely obsessive as it is for wannabe spooks: handy fax forms for missing persons traces, court-document retrieval services, online databases (with prices) and even tips on old-fashioned breaking and entering. SS

Publisher: Intelligence
Paperback: 440 pages
Illustrated

Complete and unedited reprint of the second and third sections of the Commission Studies presented to President Ford in 1976 detailing “The State of the Art of Electronic Surveillance” and “The Authentication of Magnetic Tapes.” The paranoia that was created by the surveillance and miniaturization technology in the mid-‘50s served as the catalyst which led to these studies, which became an excellent (if unintentional) how-to on electronic eavesdropping, wiretapping, and all manner of microphonal espionage. SK

Publisher: Loompanics
Paperback: 112 pages
Illustrated

Worm Lady rules! This well-conceived videotape and study guide are proof that learning can be fun on a budget. Muffy wants a ride to the mall but dad can't drive her there until he finishes writing his “worm song.” As the subject of worms gets bandied about, a lot of questions arise. Enter (from seemingly nowhere) the Worm Lady. Wearing a green hardhat, a red raincoat and yellow rubber boots, she not only has the answers, but seems to be the very voice of reason in this all-too-perky family unit (which is rounded out by a “dude” older brother and a younger brother with thick glasses, but no mom).
The overall tone of this piece is not unlike a Syd and Marty Krofft production with a female “Wizard of Oz” instead of a Pufnstuf. Footage of every phase of a worm's existence is frequently shown while the Worm Lady answers questions. Since kids like squirmy things anyway and it is the fecal matter of worms which creates fertile soil, there are a lot of opportunities to get the kids really worked up about this whole subject as well as related curricular areas such as math, the arts, communication skills and creativity. Includes a top-notch teaching guide. Oh, and Dad manages to write not just one worm song but four of them. Here are some sample lyrics:
“So when that worm
gets done with that leaf,
like all animals,
it poops for relief.
Now talking about worm poop
might sound rude,
but worm poop is
important plant food.” JAT

Publisher: Flower
Video: 42 pages
Illustrated