Month: August 2007

Note from JWR:

I just noticed that we are about to surpass 1.75 million unique visits to SurvivalBlog. My sincere thanks to everyone for making the blog such a huge success. Please keep spreading the news. Special thanks to our readers down in Oz, where we’ve had huge readership growth in recent months. My only question is: what is that big dot on the map for SurvivalBlog readers out in the middle of the Outback? I can’t imagine that there are that many SurvivalBlog readers in the town Alice Springs, so there must be some very bored “knob turners” at Pine Gap.


Letter Re: Advice on Small, Incremental Silver Investing Purchases

Mr. Rawles As a proud 10 Cent Challenge subscriber and daily reader of your blog I must thank you for the mountains of information and content that you make available to us every day. Worth many times the price! Today I would like to know if you could recommend a reputable seller of tangibles i.e. gold / silver. I have been in contact with your banner advertiser Swiss America. They are a good group of people but I don’t quite have the funds to invest that I think they normally deal with. I think I would be a small time …


Letter Re: Povidone (Betadine) Will Be Exempted from the New U.S. Iodine Ban But Polar Pure Will Not

Jim, I was reading through FR Doc E7-12736 (Federal Register: July 2, 2007, Volume 72, Number 126, Rules and Regulations, Page 35920-35931, online at your link this morning when I found this language at the bottom of the document: Sec. 1310.12 Exempt chemical mixtures. … (4) Iodine products classified as iodophors that exist as an iodine complex to include poloxamer-iodine complex, polyvinyl pyrrolidone-iodine complex (i.e., povidone-iodine), undecoylium chloride iodine, nonylphenoxypoly (ethyleneoxy) ethanol-iodine complex, iodine complex with phosphate ester of alkylaryloxy polyethylene glycol, and iodine complex with ammonium ether sulfate/polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate. It appears that Betadine and some other organic iodine …


Letter Re: A New Lock Bumping Threat–Medeco M3s at Risk!

Hi Jim, Regarding a previous thread in the SurvivalBlog archives, some news has come to light about picking [some varieties of] “high security” Medeco locks.The article begins: “A group of researchers has cracked the security features in what are supposed to be some of the world’s most secure locks — locks that are used at the White House, the Pentagon, embassies and other critical locations. The researchers presented their findings for the first time at the DefCon hacker conference this weekend and showed how they could easily bump and pick the newest high-security M3 locks made by Medeco, a company …


Odds ‘n Sods:

By way of SHTF Daily: Minneapolis bridge disaster draws attention to neglect of U.S. infrastructure   o o o David D. recommended this article on some medicinal uses of honey    o o o Hawaiian K. sent us this: The Incapacitating Flashlight–An LED flashlight makes culprits vomit. If police start to use these, I can predict lawsuits from epileptics.    o o o Thanks to SHTF Daily for posting this piece from Bloomberg: U.K.’s Subprime Crisis May Be Worse Than U.S.’s



Note from JWR:

Today is the last day of the special $99.95 sale for my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. The sale ends at midnight tonight, Pacific time. This is the first time that it has ever been sold for 1/3 off the regular price, and this may be the only time that it is ever sold at this sale price. The sale ends midnight tonight (August 8th), so place your order ASAP! (You can order on-line, or be sure to have your order letter postmarked with today’s date.)


Letter Re: Comments from a Like-Minded Virginia Prepper

Sir: I found your blog about a month ago. I received a copy of your novel “Patriots” from Fred’s M14 Stocks and have probably read the thing about 20 times. It sits by the bed. I sometimes just pick it up, open and begin reading. Good stuff. I am a former police officer (10 years) with sniper training, construction company owner( I have built everything except a church) CPA with many years public accounting and have military experience (like you in Military Intelligence. I was what is now known as a 98C [- Signals Intelligence Analyst]). I shoot a lot …


Three Letters Re: Providing Crucial Fats and Oils in Your Diet

Mr. Rawles: Firstly, I must say I have found your site informative and have implemented many of the ideas/suggestions listed on it. Regarding the most recent post regarding crucial fats in the diet, I must say it was informative but I felt it left out a very viable source of animal fat: The Groundhog. While it may be a rodent, it only eats plants and an occasional insect. The meat is good but greasy since groundhogs actually hibernate. This means later on in the year they will have stored up a large amount of fat which would be of very …


Letter Re: Ammunition Prices in the Future?

Sir: I have pondered your recent posts about stocking up on ammo. I’ve decided to spend $6,000–the same that I spent last year on storage food, a wheat grinder, and heirloom gardening seeds–to buy some ammunition to squirrel away. That will pretty well tap out all of my available cash. I’ll mainly be buying mil surplus rifle ammo (.223, 7.62×39 and .308) plus some civilian pistol ammo–mostly .45 auto, for my two Glock 21s and my Glock 30. But I’m also taking your advice from a post earlier this year and buying 300 rounds of .40 S&W, even though I …


Odds ‘n Sods:

HikerLT, DAV, and Mark B. all forwarded this gem (by way of the Drudge Report) from The Daily Telegraph: China threatens ‘nuclear option’ of dollar sales. Mark’s comment: “This is why trade deficits are a strategic and political liability! The American people have virtually put their economic future and well being in the hands of the Chi-coms!”   o o o Chris S. sent us a news story link that illustrates the signs of the times: Lead stolen from church roofs to ship to China   o o o I have updated my Links page with a new section on …



Notes from JWR:

Don’t miss out on the special $99.95 sale for my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. This is the first time that it has ever been sold for 1/3 off the regular price. The sale ends tomorrow, so place your order ASAP! Today we present another article for Round 12 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $2,000!) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. …


Survival for the Disabled, by Hegh

To survive one must be physically fit! This statement has been said and written over and over, time and again. To say that Survival is for this group of individuals exclusively has strong weight when it comes to a TEOTWAWKI scenario. How ever I would disagree with this assessment. Granted, total invalids could pose a problem but that is not the focus of this article. The focus is on those individuals who are disabled but can still function to some degree and contribute to a TEOTWAWKI scenario. During the fall of the twin towers on September 11th there were 31 …


Letter Re: Geo Metro 3-Cylinder Gas/Propane Engines for Retreat Generators?

James, Farmer John asked for some input on his Chevy Sprint engine project. I had a Sprint years ago, along with several other very-small engine autos – including a 1969 Subaru 360, Fiat with an 850 cc engine, a two-stroke-cycle DKW, and even a car with a 650 c.c. Royal Enfield motorcycle engine. The Subaru had a two-stroke-cycle gasoline engine with 25 horse. On an absolute flat highway at 55 MPH and no wind, it could get 65 MPG. My Sprint could get close to 50 MPG on a flat highway, and dropped to the high 30s on highway with …