Month: November 2012

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; …


Notes from JWR:

One final reminder that I will be the keynote speakers at the Get Prepared Expo (via teleseminar.) That will me tomorrow, Saturday, November 3rd, 2012. This has become a very popular event. There will be 100 Exhibits and 70 Seminars. You can save 20% by buying your admission passes in advance at GetPreparedEXPO.com ($8 for a one-day pass, or $15 for a weekend pass.) The expo will be held November 3 and 4, 2012 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds in Springfield, Missouri. — November 2nd is the anniversary of The Balfour Declaration in 1917. (British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour …


A Corn Chronicle, by ShepherdFarmerGeek

This spring I purchased Painted Mountain Corn seed from two suppliers following the stirring encouragement of New Ordinance (“Rocky Mountain Corn: The Secret Weapon”). In spring of 2012 seed was selling for around $20/lb. This fall I see it’s commonly selling for around $30/lb and up! I’m planning on saving a lot of seed, selling a little, and experimenting with cooking this amazing field corn in a variety of ways. (Remember, it’s field corn, not sweet corn. You dry it and grind it into flour to make tortillas, tamales, chips, and much more!) GROWING Using a marked measuring line, I …


Letter Re: Will Analog AM and FM Radio Soon Be Phased Out?

James, A friend of mine who is in the know with the FCC told me that in a few years all AM/FM commercial radio stations will be changing from analog to digital broadcast. Most or all AM/FM radios will not work after this is implemented is what he said. Have you heard anything about this and he also told me even the OTA car radios would not work and have to be replaced. I asked him if someone was going to come up with a converter like they did for televisions and he said probably not.  This person is not one …


Four Letters Re: Hurricane Sandy After Action Reports

Hello, I’m a long time reader of your blog and books. I live in Philadelphia. We have a house in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Please look at Seven Mile Island Times and Stone Harbor on Facebook for an idea of our situation there. The whole island was underwater. Our docks washed away and our boat is on the sidewalk, still chained to the trailer.  We lucked out, the house is fine and built high. We still have electricity and water in Philly. What I took away from this experience can be seen in this …


Economics and Investing:

Over at Zero Hedge: It Begins: Ecuador Demands Repatriation Of One Third Of Its Gold Holdings Sweden pays jobless youth to move to Norway Hit By Crisis, Greek Society in Free-Fall On Twitter, there are widespread reports about fistfights and people bringing guns to gas stations, thanks to gas shortages in New York and New Jersey. Items from The Economatrix: Sandy Total Loss Estimate Up To $100 Billion Recession Very Possible In Q1 2013:  Investors And CEOs Getting Very Nervous With Cloud Of Uncertainty, The Announcements Of Layoffs Are Coming Fast And Furious, And We All Start Feeling The Economy …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Some post-Sandy updates: New Yorkers Hold on to Their Canned Goods in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy. Meanwhile, as some residents dumpster dive to survive, Mayor Bloomberg in effect declares: “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche!” by approving the running the New York marathon, on schedule. (Since he is so health conscious, I suppose that his next edict will be that if anyone resorts to cannibalism, that they must refrain from using table salt on their fellow New Yorkers.)    o o o Don’t miss out on the Ready Made Resources sale on Mountain House long term storage foods. They are …



Notes from JWR:

Today is the shared birthday of three notable men: Medal of Honor recipient Sammy L. Davis, science fiction writer Gordon R. Dickson (died January 31, 2001), and economist Martin A. Armstrong. (Born, 1949.) Many of Dickson’s novels and short stories have survivalist themes, such as Wolf And Iron. Regarding Davis, SurvivalBlog reader George S. wrote to mention: “While the circumstances of Sammy’s Medal of Honor award are of course spectacular in itself [as crewman of a 105mm howitzer who resorted to handloading during an NVA attack, among other things] his White House reception of the Medal was probably the most …


Family Continuity Planning, by John from Virginia

It’s 2:36PM; you and your spouse are at work.  Your son is at day care and your daughter is at school.  The Schumer hits the fan. What is your Family Continuity Plan? The scenario above is very real and indeed plausible.  Many families have and will one day experience something very similar to this.  To prepare you and your family from natural or man-made disasters it is recommended to design, develop, and incorporate a Family Continuity Plan (FCP); it may one day save all of your lives. As any prepper, for a natural disaster or a TEOTWAWKI event (or both), …


Six Letters Re: Hurricane Sandy After Action Reports

James, I’m located in central New Jersey not far from the Delaware River. In the days prior to the hurricane hitting, everyone packed the supermarkets, warehouse clubs and home improvement stores to stock up. At the home improvement stores, the people who had best luck getting generators were those who purchased them online and selected in-store pickup. There were lines of people 100+ deep from the front of the store to the back waiting for new shipments of generators to arrive. The only people who were guaranteed anything were those who had already purchased and paid online. For those lucky …


Letter Re: Keeping Cell Phones Operational During Disasters

James: The article you linked to on “Nine ways to make your cell phone last the whole storm even if the power goes out” was interesting but missed a couple of key points: If you’re going to charge the phone from your laptop, only leave your laptop on as long as needed to charge the phone to about 80%, then shut it down again. Cell phone charging slows down as the battery gets closer to full, and it’s very inefficient to run the laptop while the phone is only gaining a small amount of charge. Test to see if you …


Economics and Investing:

G.G. sent: One More Thing to Worry About: Underfunded Public Pensions A provocative video “what if?”: The First 12 Hours of a US Dollar Collapse. (While their premise is sound, I must alert readers about a warning from Peter Schiff about the NIA.) B.B. mentioned: Euro-Zone Unemployment Strikes Record European Commission Single Supervisory Mechanism Items from The Economatrix: As Earnings Falter, Prospects For Q4 Grow Worse High-Level JPMorgan Executives Suddenly Dumping JPMorgan Stock En Masse Forget The Election And Get Ready For Another Year Of Slow Growth Economy In US Grows At 2%, More Than Forecast Spain’s Unemployment Reaches Record …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Andre D. mentioned that the Alone in The Wild documentary is now available on YouTube.    o o o Two bits of follow-up news on the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy: Tempers Flare in N.J. City Where Thousands Stranded. (People out of food after just two days of isolation? (I told you so…) And yes, there is looting: Jersey City on total lockdown from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. after rash of store break-ins, officials say. (Note that the mayor of Jersey City is Jerramiah Healy, one of Mayor Bloomberg’s Cabal of Illegal Mayors.)    o o o A reminder that …