James Wesley: I’ve been researching family history in Ireland during the 1845 famine and found this interesting online book that describes the food riots, workhouses, rampant death and illness, and other aspects of life during an intense social upheaval. It may be enlightening: The Famine in Dungarvan: The Poor Law, Famine and Aftermath in Dungarvan Union Thanks, – Chris M.
Jim; In the article, “Sustainable Rural Cabins”, under the headline, “Designing the Outer Periphery”, the author wrote, “Evergreen windbreaks should be planted to block winter winds”. That works fine if the evergreens, (or other trees), you plant and the way you group them is consistent with the way the same trees occur naturally in the area. For example, if white pines grow naturally in the woods around where you are establishing your homestead, then you can plant more white pines and they won’t be noticed. But if you plant, for example, blue spruce where none normally occur, you can see …
Kevin S. recommended this from the Global Guerillas Journal: What Makes a Home Valuable? CBO chief says debt ‘unsustainable’. (Out thanks to reader S.M. for the link.) GG and Chad S. both flagged this: Gold hits record high for British investors; The price of gold has risen to an all-time high in sterling and euro terms. Also from GG comes this video clip: Meredith Whitney: Housing Will Fall Again S.M. sent this: Is the World’s Second Biggest Economy On the Ropes? Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Trade Mixed After Alcoa Results Fall Short February Trade Deficit Increases to $39.7 Billion …
Reader Lee C. sent this: In California, Louder Calls to Prepare for Quakes o o o Reader RBS mentioned a 2008 news story that was recently highlighted in The Survival Spot Blog. This illustrates how even fairly large communities can “disappear”, with terrain masking and some rudimentary camouflage: Lost middle-class tribe’s ‘secret’ eco-village in Wales spotted in aerial photograph taken by plane. o o o The WRSA says: 19 April 2010: Bring Your Sidearms and Longarms To The Banks of the Potomac o o o From Brian B.: Cap and Trade: A License Required for Your Home.
“Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.” – Will Rogers
I just heard that Jerry Pournelle’s next Chaos Manor Reviews column includes a brief review of my latest non-fiction book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”. Most SurvivalBlog readers will of course recognize Jerry Pournelle as a co-author of the now-classic survivalist novel Lucifer’s Hammer, a columnist for Survive magazine, and a key contributor to Mel Tappan‘s P.S. Letter. So I daresay that Pournelle’s review means more to me than all of the other extant book reviews, combined! — Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The …
I came up with the idea for this treatise several weeks ago, but never made it to the point of putting it into print until the recent article on the Saiga family of weapons urged me to move forward. As most readers of the Blog and all owners of “Boston’s Gun Bible” know, the Main Battle Rifle (MBR) is the ideal foundation for the citizen’s defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Boston’s does a great job of enumerating the pros and cons of the various rifles, and based on his evaluations, my associates and I chose to …
James Wesley: Just a short note on the S-250 information. The original writer made an error in assuming all of these are shielded. There are several manufacturers of the S-250 and models differ in not just shielded or non-shielded, but also the level of shielding. NSA shelters (not generally available) have the highest level. Here is a link to one of the manufacturers. My point is that a buyer should investigate the National Stock Number (NSN) of the unit they are interested in and contact the manufacturer to confirm that a specific level of EMP/EMI shielding is installed, if any. …
Ben in Tenn. sent this item from Zero Hedge that shows that the MOAB is going global: IMF Bailout For Greece To Come At SDR Rate Plus 300 bps Plus 50 bps Service Charge, Greece Says “Thank You US Taxpayers”. Here is a quote: “The IMF, realizing it had a catastrophe on its hands, has caved in and according to Reuters will provide US taxpayer money to Greece at vastly below market rates.” Reader “F1F” recommended this from The Washington Post: Debt Burden Weighs on Developed Nations Items from The Economatrix: Greece Debt Fears Hit Fever Pitch Consumer Credit: OUCH! …
R.R.S. sent us this YouTube video link: Army Pro Shooting Tips: How to Speed Reload a Shotgun. Those AMU shooter techniques are fast, but note that they both looked down continuously, while reloading. (Watch it twice, and count how many seconds they take their eyes away from scanning for opponents.) I do not recommend that much loss of situational awareness! Instead, learn to both reload by Braille, and the “shoot one, load one” drill. These may be a bit slower, but I think that you’ll live longer. The “by touch” reloading method is a practiced skill that will serve you …
“In an urban society everything connects each persons needs are fed by the skills of many others our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable.” – Threads. A 1984 BBC television drama about the effects of a nuclear war on Sheffield, England.
Mr. Rawles and SurvivalBlog Readers, I am a newly dedicated reader and have had an interest in your contests since day one. I have a few skills I’ve learned in life (hunting, fishing, marksmanship, tracking and writing) but the newest one is macramé. This is the art of weaving knots to make beautiful and often decorative pieces and is just a craft some folks use to entertain themselves. I’ve combined both of these and applied one more purpose for the art: rope-making, belt-making and strap-making. All three of these have occupied my time overseas for almost a year now. I’ve …
Hello Mr. Rawles: Back in February we ordered a batch of 100 vegetable seed packs from Vegetableseed.net. To date we’ve not received them and the company steadfastly refuse to respond to e-mails, either to their direct e-mail address or via their payment people, Digital River. Now they may just be incredibly busy but we’re beginning to think we’ve been scammed out of our £42.09. We’d hate to see any other SurvivalBloggers getting stiffed Very best wishes to you all. – Michael JWR Replies: Thanks for your warning. There are indeed a lot of fly-by-night mail order companies. But at least …
James, In response to “Suburban Survival, by The Suburban 10” posted on April 10th: I expect that the author will receive a lot of feedback on what he considers ‘Security’. Based on his erroneous assumptions on the role and proper use of a firearm in a suburban TEOTWAWKI situation, I can conclude that he is among the anti-Second Amendment crowd. Living in New York under the Bloomberg/Schumer cloud has obviously affected him. That being said, I shouldn’t have been so surprised when he wrote: “8. I have friends who are police officers and have never fired their weapon in the …
GG flagged this: Property Tax Rebellion Brewing After Real Estate Collapse. Here is my prediction on how this will play out: Property values will eventually drop by 50% in most of the more populous states. Assessed valuations eventually drop correspondingly, but only after a public uproar and some foot-dragging. Tax revenues will decline. State legislatures will respond, increasing property tax rates by 100%. Net result: The politicians still get their money. Also from GG: Total Fed Credit: A Credit to Fed Stupidity (The Mogambo Guru) K.L. in Alaska suggested this piece about U.S. Treasury auction shenanigans, posted by Chris Martenson, …