Month: August 2006

Odds ‘n Sods:

Seeing our hit map each month is gratifying. The SurvivalBlog readership keeps on growing, globally. What I want to know is, who are all these readers that I see scattered across Asia? I had no idea… I get a few e-mails from soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and South Korea. But who are all the others? Mystifying.    o o o 13 Plague Cases Reported in U.S. As long as there are rodents with fleas, the plague will be lurking in the background.    o o o Reader Joe in Florida mentioned that: www.alarmclocksonline.com has a fine selection of wind-up movement …



Note from JWR:

After years of frustration with the anti-gun PayPal online payment service, we have set up an account with an alternative service, AlertPay. We can now accept AlertPay payments for 10 Cent Challenge subscription donations, advertising fees, consulting fees, and for sales of books and other merchandise. If you are also fed up with PayPal, then I highly recommend that you get an AlertPay account Setting up an account is quick and easy, and their fees are low. .Our AlertPay address is: rawles@usa.net


Letter Re: Questions on Faraday Cages and Radiological Survey Meter EMP Resistance

Hello Jim – Fantastic Blog – I am a little late to the party and just discovered SurvivalBlog last week working some survival related searches on Google. I read your novel [“Patriots”] too, years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. My questions: I have searched around and can not find much practical information on Faraday Cages, especially directions for constructing them at home. What design is effective? What is not? Should they be grounded? etc. I know this information is out there, and I’ll bet that more than one reader of the Blog can help – and I’ll also bet that …


Three Letters Re: The Ethanol Debate

James, Great site. Keep up the great work. Here are two interesting links about the market dominance of ethanol in Brazil: CBS News and Washington Post. Brazil plans to be energy independent by next year, based on conversion of sugar cane to ethanol. In comparison, the ethanol extracted from corn yields only about 15 to 25 percent more fuel than the fossil fuels that were used to produce it. In Brazil, according to industry studies, the sugar-based ethanol yields about 830 percent more. Sugar cane may not the answer here in the US, but it does show what can happen …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Randy in Utah mentioned to me that Dan’s Ammo currently has a great deal on brand new, unissued Hensoldt Z24 scopes with STANAG claw mounts, in the original military carry cases. These are $375 each, postage paid. Once this batch of Z24 scopes at Dan’s is gone, I’m fairly certain that they will jump back up to the normal market price of around $600 each.    o o o Cliff C. alerted us to this article: IBM and Tekvet team to remotely track and monitor the health of millions of cattle. One would hope that this doesn’t get integrated with …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood – the things that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.- Theodore Roosevelt


Prussian Blue for Radioactive Isotope Exposure by P.H.

Prussian Blue (“PB”) is a safe treatment for ingested radioactive isotopes that a person may have been exposed to from a dirty bomb or nuclear explosion. It does not protect against radiation, nor treat radiation sickness (there are supplement and drugs that help, see below.) It does not protect against all known radioactive substances (i.e., you would want to take Potassium Iodide (KI) as well to protect against radioactive iodine from a nuclear explosion.) It isn’t a substitute for evacuating out of the path of fallout, or for taking shelter from fallout in a protected place. It’s just one useful …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I just finished watching a review copy of Larry Wick’s DVD: Split Second Survival: First Strike. It teaches some truly no-nonsense practical self defense. Highly recommended! It emphasizes unarmed defense, and devastating defense techniques with always close-at-hand objects such as pocket combs and ballpoint pens. I’ll post some detailed comments in a subsequent blog entry.    o o o SurvivalBlog reader “Flighter” recommends this US Army web site on water filtration. He notes: “It has an analysis of a variety of water purification filters and disinfection methods, all commercially available. It is interesting stuff.”   o o o The eighth …




Three Letters Re: Some ARM Twisting in the Near Future

James, I wanted to help explain some of the upside to general hyper-inflation. This current well managed hyper-inflation that has been rolling strong since about 1995 went first into the financial markets and then after the dot-com-9-11 went into the overheated housing market,. This inflation is a result of the massive infusion of dollars through fractional reserve bank financing creating new money by loaning out non-existent money. We can likely expect the dollar value of homes to not drop too far if this alleged bubble pops as the fed much like in Australia and the UK central banks try to …


Letter Re: Canned Coffee Beans

Mr. Rawles: The way to store coffee long-term is by purchasing green beans and roasting them yourself as you need them. Green beans (whole beans) stay “fresh” for up to a year in a normal container, like a tin or glass jar or foil lined bag. If you completely seal them off from light and oxygen and maybe even nitrogen purge them then they should stay “fresh” indefinitely, well for several years anyway. See the Terroir site below for how they store their green beans. The thing about roasting coffee beans is that they go stale within two weeks after …


Letter Re: Preparedness-Oriented Homeschooling Curriculum

Hello Rawles Family, We have been viewing your site for a few months after reading “Patriots” (loved it!) and have a suggested resource for other families. We are long term veteran homeschooling family, self sufficiency oriented, husband former military (Viet Nam), ordained ministers who choose to develop house church networks in view of the likely future. We currently reside in upper northwest Montana after being in other regions gaining broad experience. We wrote a preparedness homeschooling curriculum based on Swiss Family Robinson and a sequel based on Robinson Crusoe. The first year builds academics around family teamwork and the second …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson sent a link for this interesting piece of ordnance. Too bad about that pesky $200 transfer tax. OBTW, you gotta love the picture of that WECSOGed fifth wheel trailer hitch mount. A also BTW, I woudln’t be surprised to see one of these Anzio 20mm rifles show up in one of Mike’s upcoming novels.    o o o From NewsTarget: The top ten things food companies don’t want you to know.    o o o Market Watch: The United States is headed for a recession that will be “much nastier, deeper and more protracted” than the 2001 …