Month: February 2010

Letter Re: Cost-Effective Emergency Water Treatment

Hello Sir, I’m an avid SurvivalBlog reader. I noticed that in your latest book (“How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”) you mention avoiding any type of pool shock containing ingredients other than “Calcium Hypochlorite” . While searching around for calcium hypochlorite I couldn’t find it at my usual shopping locations and started searching around about “Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione” and “Trichloro-s-triazinetrione” as they seemed to be available in abundance in my area. My local Sam’s Club had the following types of “Pool Shock”: 1.) Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione hydrated 99% Available chlorine 55.5% 50 pound bucket of granules …


Six Letters Re: Empty Hand Survival

Mr. Rawles, I have black belts in two different styles of martial arts: Okinawan Karate and a form of Japanese Jiu-jitsu. I can say without a doubt though that studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Grappling and Mixed Martial Arts (grappling and kickboxing) is bar none the best and most effective way to learn to fight and made my previous training largely irrelevant. You don’t need years to become effective in grappling styles as I’ve seen people with six months of training take down and submit much larger opponents who were fighting as hard as they could. In addition to this, the focus on …


Economics and Investing:

Jeff Recommended an article over at George Ure’s site on the plight of a surveyor, which is a macrocosm of the national economy: And the Bottom Line Is? Don’t like the record number of foreclosures? Well, ban them! See: Obama May Prohibit Home-Loan Foreclosures Without HAMP Review This comes from Pravda, so I’m naturally dubious: China has confirmed the intention to purchase 191.3 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund at an open auction, Finmarket news agency said. (Thanks to J.D.D. for sending the link.) Items from The Economatrix: Sultans of Swap: Explaining $605 Trillion of Derivatives Common Sense …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Matt B. notes that the residents of Hawaii (reacting to the recent tsunami warning, following the Chilean earthquakes) seem to have ignored the Boy Scout’s Motto…..it just goes to show how out of the blue emergent circumstances can catch all of us who ignore preparations unaware. Imagine your family at home and you ‘waiting in line at the super market’ because you were not prepped for the most likely event to disrupt civility. Reader M.M. echoed Matt’s sentiment: “Even if this is a big nothing for the state of Hawaii, it should be a wake up call to everyone. Get …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of …


The Art of Humping a Pack, by Blake in Arkansas

Walking with a loaded pack on your back is what the United States Marine Corps Infantryman refers to as “humping”.  And while it may not take a lot of brains to put a loaded pack on and walk, it has definitely become an art, science, or skill that is constantly honed by infantrymen of all types. With eight years as a Marine Corps Infantryman I have learned quite a lot about the art of humping myself.  There are several factors that come into play before you strap on your pack and take your first step. PHYSICAL FITNESS:  What is your …


Two Letters Re: Thermoelectric Generators for Wood and Coal Stoves

James, To follow up on an earlier letter and your reply, Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs) work by generating power from the movement of heat from the hot side to the cold side of a dissimilar metal junction. An important consideration is that TEGs can become heat saturated or worse if you can melt your TEG, so don’t just throw it in the middle of a fire! I followed a design from “The Boy Electrician” by Alfred P Morgan 1913. It uses German silver wire and copper wire with hammered junctions, there are better combinations but this was easy to get. It …


Economics and Investing:

Damon alerted us to this: Concerns grow over China’s sale of US bonds; Evidence is mounting that Chinese sales of US Treasury bonds over recent months are intended as a warning shot to Washington over escalating political disputes rather than being part of a routine portfolio shift as thought at first. Kevin S. sent us this from John Galt’s blog: Looking at some deadly charts. Another link from Kevin S. is for a video posted at YouTube: Gerald Celente Predictions Jim D. forwarded an interesting article about the financial crisis in Greece and how it may be a window into …



Odds ‘n Sods:

Mike C. liked an article comparing ammunition with other barter items. The authors list and rankings are interesting.    o o o I noticed that there are some great links to information on gun caching and long term storage, over at MouseGuns.com.    o o o I’ve been pleased to see that GunPal–the pro-gun alternative to the PayPal online payment service, is expanding rapidly. You can now buy thousands of items with the GunBroker.com auction service, where payments are accepted via GunPal. As background, I must mention that for nearly a decade, PayPal (owned by eBay, and both headquartered in …


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of …


Empty Hand Survival, by Joe G.

We are living in a time when all has gone wrong and societies rules and conventions no longer hold true.  People no longer respect the sanctity of life and well established morals and honor have become a thing of the past. You have prepared yourself and your family to survive without the amenities we have grown accustomed.  You have enough food, a secure shelter, preparations for clean water and enough fuel and weapons.  At least you thought you did. As the evaporation of society continues and you begin to watch your inventory of all things drastically shrink you begin to …


Letter Re: Which Foods Have Indefinite Shelf Lives?

James Wesley, What are the chances of you posting a link to all food items and such that have an indefinite shelf life as they come from a store, I have heard that items like Crisco vegetable shortening have an indefinite shelf life. Is this true or just hearsay? Thanks in advance for any info and also thank you so much for the huge wealth of information you have made available to me through your blog! You have probably saved more lives than you can imagine. – Jeff JWR Replies: Tables of shelf life info are provided in my “Rawles …


Getting Medieval in London–The Planned New U.S. Embassy

Jim, I recently read the paragraph in your most recent book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” that when we consider retreat architecture, that we should “think medieval castle”. Well, evidently the U.S. State Department must have read your book too, and taken that passage to heart, because an interesting new feature in the proposed US embassy in London is a moat. For some details, including a photo of an architectural model, see this article. That piece includes a link to a Times of London Online article. All the best, – Yishai