Day: November 13, 2007

Notes from JWR:

Economist Jim Sinclair noted in a recent e-newsletter: “November 15th is approaching quickly. It is this date where supposed real valuations, according to accounting standards, have to be made on value-less class 3 assets.” I think Jim Sinclair is right. Thursday (November 15th) may go down in history as a financial reckoning day. Given the presently very shaky US markets, these revelations could very well precipitate a stock market drop–if not a stock market crash–led by the financial sector stocks. I pray that the readers of SurvivalBlog have all taken my advice and have minimized their exposure to stocks and …


New Zealand’s South Island Readies for “the Big One”, by SurvivalistSam

The whole South Island has been told to prepare for a massive earthquake in the near future. This is due to the Alpine Fault Line which is where the Australasian and Pacific plates meet on the West Coast of the South Island. The boundary between these two plates is locked and the pressure building up needs to be released. A release of such pressure would result in an earthquake about the size of a number 8 on the Mercalli Intensity scale. Such a earthquake would last for minutes, not seconds. Canterbury University Associate Professor Tim Davies was quoted at a …


Letter Re: Show Caution When Dispensing Charity

Jim– Some years ago, we enjoyed a power outage when we were living near Tacoma, Washington. It occurred on Thanksgiving day, so everybody’s turkeys were slowly cooling in their ovens. Our next door neighbor, knowing we were into preparedness, called over (land line phones were okay) asking to borrow our Coleman stove so they could heat up water for coffee. I sent one of my girls over with the stove. After about 15 minutes, the neighbors called again asking for help in lighting the stove. It was an old stove and I was embarrassed that it might have given up …


Letter Re: Recovering Salt from Hickory Chips

Mr. Rawles: Your suspicion was correct. Boiling hickory chips will not provide quantities of salt sufficient to be detected by human taste senses. It is not feasible to use this method as a means of acquiring salt for consumption. Hickory chips are used in the curing process for pork and other meats only when they are heated to the extent that they start to emit smoke. Normally the chips are wetted to prevent them from rapidly burning. The benefits of the process are as follows: 1) The primary benefit of the smoking process is that it coats the meat (most …


Letter Re: Military Surplus Versus Civilian Field Gear

Jim, There is a plethora of gear on the market, whether it is nominated as ‘survival’ or ‘hunting’, etc. Through the years I have basically used military surplus gear as opposed to what the civilian market offers. This includes back packs, sleeping bags, clothing, etc. I have found that much of it is superior to what is offered on the civilian market as those products lack the necessary function, form and fit for day to day and week to week use. My Gortex field jacket is light years beyond the hyper-expensive Cabela’s type jacket my brother owns. With his, you …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Frequent contributor DV sent us this piece of news, which hardly came as a surprise: Currency Controls Return as Central Banks Fight Dollar Freefall    o o o Eric. S. suggested this article from MIT ‘s Technology Review: Oil from Wood–Startup Kior has developed a process for creating “biocrude” directly from biomass.    o o o Courtesy of the folks at Swiss America (one of our loyal advertisers); comes the link to an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Gold eyes all-time high on currency crisis.    o o o Thanks to Richard at KT Ordnance for sending this article by Dan …