Day: July 23, 2009

Notes from JWR:

Thanks to the efforts of my agent, both Ulysses Press and Penguin books have reached separate agreements to make audio books of my novel “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse” and my upcoming nonfiction book “How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times.“ These will be produced by Brilliance Audio, the nation’s largest audio book company. The CDs and downloadable MP3 files should be available sometime in 2010. I will post details as soon as they become available. In other publishing news, Amazon.com now has the …


Three Letters Re: The Simple Reality of EMP — Different Than You Might Expect

Dear JWR, I read the EMP article by Andru and thought it very well done with one minor correction in the power generation area (worked in the nuclear power industry for 20 years before changing careers). The EMP E3 pulse is very dangerous to the transformers in the transmission and distribution system, and hydro-electric and nuclear will also be severely affected. Commercial generators of any output run at 8,000-10,000 volts which is fed immediately to step up transformers to feed the transmission system. The most common voltage for the transmission system is 250,000 to 500,000 volts (3 phase) which reduces …


Letter Re: A Multiple Family Retreat — Lessons Learned The Hard Way

Dear Mr. Rawles: I have been following several good reader contributions including “Bug Out At the Last Minute” arguments versus those who consider “Early Relocation” and most recently “A Multiple Family Retreat—Lessons Learned the Hard Way” in regards to the most expeditious and efficient way to set up a self-sufficient retreat. While I understand that some folks are just simply unable to make a full time commitment in setting up a retreat, I also know that there are many—while there are still the comforts of life available (television, readily available food and gasoline)—that are unwilling to make the sacrifice necessary …


Influenza Pandemic Update:

Global Swine Flu Deaths Top 700 “Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, has warned that swine flu will become the biggest flu pandemic ever seen.” Safety of Swine Flu Vaccine to Face Tough Scrutiny Swine Flu Brits to be Quarantined Little Girl 8th Swine Flu Victim in Columbia CBS 60 Minutes: 1976 Swine Flu: 300 Deaths From Vax, One Death From Flu Airlines To Ban Suspected Swine Flu Victims. Gee, that’s a timely move! First Vaccine for Foiling Swine to be Tested -The first human trials of a swine- flu vaccine are set to begin in Australia as deaths and infections from …


Economics and Investing:

I recently bookmarked the Total Investor blog. It is has become my favorite aggregation sites for economic and investing news. Yesterday, they featured a video clip: Marc Faber On CNBC: “Marc Faber is expecting an ‘ultimate crisis’ that will ‘clean the system. ‘If you pump money into the system and you create large fiscal deficits, you create volatility,’ Faber said’” Items from The Economatrix: Making Sense of Second Quarter Earnings, So Far “As you can see, a consumer retrenchment is happening here. And in my opinion, that is an even bigger story than the individual earnings reports or big profits …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader KAF wrote: “I was most interested and thankful for the recipes in the articles discussing making your own laundry detergent. I also could not find the ingredient Washing Soda. After some searching, I discovered that it is Sodium Carbonate (aka Soda Ash). Here is a bulk supplier for the powder. They also sell Borax (aka Sodium Borate). I’ve ordered some and I can’t wait to try my hand at this lab experiment!    o o o Blacksheep sent this: Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle. OBTW, let me know if your Kindle edition of “Patriots: A Novel of Survival …