Odds ‘n Sods:

It is nice to see the prices of both silver and gold bouncing back. I holding by my prediction that after the current summer doldrums the precious metals will see a strong rally this Fall. For those of you that took my advice and sold your spec or vacation house at the top of the market and invested the proceeds in silver: hang on! By late 2007, the dollar will go down versus many foreign currencies, silver will go up substantially, and house prices will go down substantially, especially in the most overheated markets. Those simultaneous moves will be a “win-win.” I think that you might be able to buy two comparable houses with the cash generated when you liquidate your silver in late ’07 or early ’08. I’m not kidding.

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By way of “vlad” from The Claire Files Forums, here is a link to a discussion about Tire Balls. (A product recently mentioned on SurvivalBlog.)

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Pat Buchanan’s new book predicts demographic doom–the death of the west.

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Ham operators: Dust off your 6 Meter Rigs and warm them up. You are in for a treat Fred The Valmet-meister reports: “This evening [from the San Francisco Bay Area] I worked Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida!!! This is most incredible [6 Meter propagation] opening I have ever heard of.”