Month: February 2010

Letter Re: Some Real World Battery Life Data

Hi Jim, There are batteries becoming widely available these days with the lithium/iron-phosphate chemistry (different than the lithium/cobalt chemistry in laptop batteries). These lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP) cells were first used in Dewalt brand lithium power tools. The main advantages are a vastly improved cycle life (2,000 – 7,000 cycles versus 500-800 for lead acid and 500-1000 for NiMH), high discharge current closer to lead acid, better deep-cycling performance, they won’t explode like laptop batteries and need no maintenance, venting or caustic chemical refills and they operate at almost 100% efficiency. If you topped these batteries off once …


Economics and Investing:

Hugh D. zeroed in on this Telegraph article: China orders retreat from risky assets. The article begins: “China has ordered managers of its vast currency reserves to withdraw from risky dollar assets and retreat to core debt guaranteed by the US government, a clear sign that Beijing is battening down the hatches for fresh trouble on global markets.” Randy F. sent this article: Monopoly “Money “ –which notes that it is currently illegal to melt pennies or nickels, and the plans for further debasement of our currency. Reader JTH found this: Bailout panel cites commercial real estate danger UK central …


Odds ‘n Sods:

H.D. in Alaska recommended a piece by Mona Charen in National Review Online: “Frontier Suburbanite“.    o o o Scientists Invent Rice That Doesn’t Need Cooking. (Thanks to Joe P. for the link.)    o o o JRH Enterprises is running a President’s Day sale on new Third Generation AN/PVS-14 night vision weapons sight/monoculars–now with a five year warranty–for $2,995. I bought one of these from JRH last summer, and I love it. I have it mounted on a “flat top” AR, just behind an Aimpoint Comp 3 electronic red dot scope (with a 2 MOA dot). With a flip …



Notes from JWR:

Tomorrow is the last day in the 25% off sale at SafeCastle on all Mountain House foods in #10 cans is in progress. They are offering free shipping to the 48 continental states! The sale ends at midnight eastern time on February 13th, so order soon! — Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. 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 …


Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance, by K. in Pennsylvania

After watching MacGyver as a kid I was left in a awe of how someone could create a diversion by blowing up an old abandoned shed in the middle of the woods with a  propane tank, child’s tricycle, the tire’s inner tube, three ball bearings, and a grinding wheel strategically placed near the shed window.  After he launched that “3rd and last chance” bearing, from the improvised “tricycle-sling-shot”, thru the window, striking the grinding wheel and igniting the propane filled shed…KA-BOOM!  My life was never the same…that was the start of my “improvising calling”. My wife has graciously born the …


Letter Re: Some Practical Experience in Dehydrating Vegetables

Hi Jim, We have been dehydrating foods for a couple of years now and I thought you might like to hear how things went for us. Green beans are dried down south and are called leather breeches. You can do a Google for recipes. Traditionally you use a sewing needle and sew a string through the green bean and then hang them to dry. We blanched the beans prior to drying in our dehydrator. After the beans were dried we wrapped a handful of the beans in a paper towel and shrink wrapped the package. The paper towel protects the …


Letter Re: How I Made My iPhone a Useful Survival Reference

Mr. Rawles: I loved the letter on the iphone. In addition to what LC listed there are also ballistics calculators for the math-challenged like me. (iStrelok is free and works pretty well). One caveat to consider with the mighty smart phone is the fact that it could potentially be used to locate your location and perhaps even as a bug to listen in on conversations. One work-around is to buy an iPod Touch. You loose the phone and GPS features, but you can still carry God’s word and all your multimedia in your pocket! Thanks again for all you do …


Economics and Investing:

From GG: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt Tom W. wrote to mention that he liked a Real Clear Politics piece titled Big Government’s Big Shortfall. Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Up After EU Pledges Support for Greece Moral Support, But No Money, EU Says to Greece Oil Up for Fourth Day on Strong International Demand Outlook The Fed’s “Exit Plan” is Just Another Secret Gift to Wall Street Jason Kelly Reviews the US and European Economies Banking and Housing Payments Devoured Middle Class Income Stocks Fall as Bernanke Points to End of Stimulus Trade Deficit …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Karen H. forwarded this news item: High sugar prices will soon hit bakeries. Here at SurvivalBlog, we warned you about this as far back as May of 2009. Stock up. (But preferably with more healthy natural sweeteners like honey and stevia.)    o o o Bruce T. spotted this in Popular Science magazine: New Armored Wall System Assembles Like Legos, Could Replace Sandbags in Afghanistan. Somehow, I doubt that these Big Boy Legos will ever see much use outside of “Green Zone” roadblock set-ups. Let’s face it: Empty sandbags are cheap, and they fit in a backpack. It is safe …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“As things get worse the next time around, there is going to be violence. When the people realize A.) that what the government has done has been wrong, B.) it hasn’t solved the problem, C.) it has made the problems worse, you are going to see people unhappy, you are going to see social unrest, you are going to see violence, and you will probably see some more governments toppled–no question about that. That may sound like a radical statement; it’s just the way the world has always worked.” – Veteran investment guru Jim Rogers, February, 2010


Letter Re: Post-Collapse Charity OPSEC

James Wesley: A buddy of mine and I were talking about giving out food in a post-collapse world and it occurred to us what we give out could have an impact on your operational security (OPSEC). Unless you come upon the refugees in the middle of your garden, then they’ll probably think (unless you tell them or give them reason to believe otherwise) that you are in much the same situation that they are in. The type of food you give charitably could be a message in and of itself. Give them store-bought food standard-form (processed food that can be …


Letter Re: My Experience in Setting Up a Community Survival Group

Jim, In these uncertain times many of us are preparing, some for economic collapse others for a coming pandemic or EMP strike, either natural or man made. Not having the option of relocating to a more ideal area my wife and I decided a few months ago to try to stack the odds in our favor by going a little different route. We have been able to partner with other local families and friends to be each others back-up and support systems. We initially started with just three families (6 of us total) and thru careful vetting and many meetings …


Letter Re: Combination Guns for Hunting?

Jim, In reading your article on choosing survival guns I noticed that you have a Savage Model 24F listed. Do you have any experience or opinions on the Valmet 412 ST, with barrels for 12 gauge and .30-06? I want to buy one but did not know if it would be a good choice for putting on the list for survival guns. Thank you ,- John JWR Replies: Combination guns are quite useful for areas where you have the opportunity to do both big game and bird hunting on the same hunt. There is many a time that I’ve been …


Letter Re: A Shortage of Mantles for Aladdin Kerosene Lamps

Dear Jim, I was trying to buy an Aladdin Loxon Mantle #R-150 for my Aladdin kerosene lamp and found that all suppliers seemed to be out of stock. Even Lehman’s Hardware here in Ohio was out of stock and showing an April delivery. I spent some time searching and found some very expensive ones on eBay but that was all. I then did a search for “Aladdin mantle problems” and found a cached press release from the Aladdin company. It looks like we have a major problem for Aladdin Lamp owners. From a loyal reader, – Jay H. JWR Replies: …