Month: May 2008


Letter Re: Challenging Conventional Beliefs on Saving Hybrid Seeds

Hello James: Conventional wisdom holds that one should not plant seeds saved from “hybrid” plants. This wisdom is ironclad boilerplate and generally appears in paragraph 2, sentence 2 of every essay on gardening when it really counts. I want to push back on that idea. My understanding of agricultural history is that most farmers raised landraces of vegetables and animals prior to the 1600s. A landrace is a swarm of similar-but-not-identical plants or animals. There are very few exceptions, Merino sheep being one of them and asexually reproduced fruit trees being another. The introduction of “County Fairs” changed that. Suddenly, …


Letter Re: Potassium Iodide Versus Potassium Iodate for Post-Nuke Thyroid Gland Protection

James, You mentioned stocking up on Potassium Iodide (KI). The head trainer at Medical Corps–(I took their awesome class, thanks for giving it kudos)–developed Potassium Iodate (KI03). It has a huge benefit over KI, in that it doesn’t upset the stomachs of the people taking it [as much as KI]. Medicine is much more beneficial if you don’t involuntarily purge it. Another thing I’d like to mention to SurvivalBlog readers is that KI and KI03 don’t expire, even if the bottles have expiration dates marked. Since it is not an organic–it a very basic chemical compound. Iodine might leach out …


Surviving During the Crisis (Translated from the Energie & Klima Blog)

JWR’s Introductory Note: The following is a re-post from the Energie & Klima Blog, which was kindly translated by SurvivalBlog reader Martyn B., a multi-lingual Danish ex-pat that lives in Spain . To read the original article in German, see: Überleben in der Krise Within the next two years, the price of oil could rise to $150 to $200 per barrel, analysts of the investment bank Goldman Sachs forecasted yesterday under the management of the famous chief analyst, Arjun N. Murti. According to the news agency Bloomberg, the cause is stated mainly as being that the supply of oil cannot …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Matt in Texas: The Rise of Stagflation Means the End of Fiat Wealth    o o o E.J. (our British ex-pat correspondent living in rural Italy) mentioned this piece from The Guardian newspaper: The island house that powers itself – with a little help from 100 mph gales    o o o Readers Sam K. and Stephen S. note that Peak Oil is now getting more mainstream media coverage, such as this CNBC piece: $12 Gas and Rationing? Possible, Says Expert. (The article quotes Robert Hirsch, who was the lead writer for SAIC’s well-publicized Report on Peak Oil, in …




Two Letters Re: Beyond First Aid–Where to Learn Medical Skills

James, It’s funny how life gets in the way. I was in the process of writing a fairly long (I stopped at 15 pages) discussion of pandemics and medical care at home when the report in Chest came out. Suffice it to say that the wind was somewhat taken from my sails. And my take-home messages would have been 1) Hospitals are terrible places to be in a pandemic so stay away (I plan to), 2) Since you’re not going to the hospital, people at home better learn how to do basic nursing care (so finding older nursing textbooks and …


Choosing an HK91 Clone Versus the M1A for a Primary Battle Rifle

Hello Mr. Rawles. My Father bought me your novel “Patriots” and I read it and it really inspired me and woke me up to becoming more of a survivalist. I live in the country just about 50 miles out side of Chicago (pretty much the worst place to be if the SHTF, well even if it doesn’t, it still sucks, LOL), but never mind that we have other places to go, thank God. I have always been around guns. I have been shooting probably since I could walk. Anyway, I am wondering why in your book you chose to [show …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Yishai suggested a Hack-n-Mod video clip on how to make thermite. Warning: Some serious safety precautions must be taken, because thermite burns at temperatures hot enough to liquefy steel, and once ignited, it is almost impossible to extinguish. (It generates its own oxygen.) Note the minor accident near the end of the video. He’ll also have some serious explaining to do about that back porch slab.    o o o Kevin a recommended this piece by Marty Weiss: Brace yourself! The U.S. government could be understating the Consumer price Index by 7.6%!    o o o Frequent content contributor Michael …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“[T]he Clinton administration launched an attack on people in [Waco,] Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. H*ll, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue, why didn’t Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen? – P.J. O’Rourke


Letter Re: The Modern Conception of “Hard Work” Versus a Traditional Farmer’s Tasks

Sir: I recently finished trenching and running a few hundred feet of irrigation pipe on land that has been in my wife’s family for a few generations. We are the proud recipients of this small farm in the Southeast US. My Mother-In-Law was helping, and getting various tools and such out of the 100 year old barn (still standing and strong). We found an old hoe that was worn so that over half of the tine was missing. She said that her father and grandfather had used this hoe to manually weed and till every bit of the 50 acres! …


Letter Re: Positive Feedback on Front Sight’s Self Defense Training

Hi, Jim! I want to thank you for having SurvivalBlog support Front Sight’s current special of $1,199 for the class [with a XD pistol and other extras included.] I took advantage of it, along with my son, aged 20, a couple of weeks ago, and had a great time down there. This was my third time down there, my son’s first. One thing people may want to do is rent one of [the Springfield Armory] XD pistols in 9mm for $100, for the class. This gives you much more control on target, especially for someone (like my son) who hasn’t …


Letter Re: Martial Arts Fact Versus Fiction

Mr. Rawles I just found this blog after checking out Steve Quayle’s web site and links. I must say this discussion is a breath of fresh air. My experience is much different than many who have posted; I have little training in the martial arts, and never been in the military. I don’t even watch those Ultimate Fighting shows. I work with kids in state juvenile facility here on the West Coast of the US. Most of the “residents” as they are called are 14-20 years of age, and usually very aggressive and violent gang members. Unlike adult corrections in …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Wes at WK Books has been working on an index/reference of known U.S. Military manuals and publications. It is hard to find a comprehensive list of military manuals to get an idea of what is out there and what you may want to add to their personal reference library. Please do not confuse this index with his product (the 1600 U.S. Military Manuals, Government Manuals, and Civil Defense Manuals, Firearm Manuals). When printed out, the index of known U.S. Military manuals is 15 pages long and includes the last publication/updates by month/day/year. Wes told me that it is current as …