Day: April 6, 2008

Notes from JWR:

I’m quoted in today’s issue of the New York Times (Sunday, April 6, 2008), in an article titled “Duck and Cover: It’s the New Survivalism”. The article is buried back in the Fashion and Style section. My quotes are on the second page of the online edition. The article itself is well-balanced, but readers just glancing at the title and accompanying photos will no doubt subconciously marginalize survivalists as some sort of paranoid whackos. Today we present another article for Round 16 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four …


Retreat Livestock Guardians, by TD

When the grid goes down and predation goes up, from animals (wild and feral/formally domesticated) and other people will be a very large problem. The television show Jericho showed some of the problems with diminished game and a lack of dogs and cats. Right now a lot of city dwellers complain about the population of deer, raccoon, opossum, coyote and others. In the city they are a problem right now. If something drastic were to happen it would decimate those populations, removing most outside food sources for cities. Most people, who do not hunt for food, hunt for trophies and …


Letter Re: Homemade Alcohol Stoves

James, A few years ago I was interested in methanol since it worked well in fuel cells to generate electricity without combustion. Alas, I found that methanol [“wood alcohol”] is very toxic. Anyone in a burning methanol [extensively in a confined space] would shortly after feel “drunk” then [might eventually] die from methanol poisoning. Additionally, methanol you spill on your hands enters your bloodstream and damages your liver (permanently), any you inhale does likewise, and any that hits the ground will poison the soil and groundwater. Its bad stuff, not something you want to have around unless you really have …