Year: 2010

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


Economics and Investing:

The various state budget crises are increasing in severity. Here is the news from California, and Illinois. (Thanks to GG, for both links.) Reader “Burrito Boy” forwarded this warning of darker days in Europe: Greece leads Europe’s winter of discontent Michael H. suggested a piece by Professor Bainbridge: What, Me Worry? Credit Default Swaps on US Treasuries. Oh, don’t miss his advice at the end of the article: “Although sovereign defaults are hardly unknown, things would have to get incredibly bad for the US to default on Treasuries. And if they got that bad, you’d probably have been better off …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Steve W. wrote to mention that he’d found an interesting resource web site with links to appropriate technologies of all sorts: Practical Action.    o o o Courtesy of Kevin S.: Where have all the MANPADS gone? And here is a related article: Anti-Missile Jammers on Commercial Jets    o o o A trend to watch? Spokane Tax Assessor Wants Low Altitude High Resolution Photos of Private Property. A hat tip to Chad S. for the link.



Letter Re: EMP Grounding Straps and Cables (Updated)

Good Morning Sir, My question pertains to a February 24, 2010 blog post, where there was mentioned an EMP ground for one’s vehicle. This is the first I have heard of a ground wire for today’s vehicles that would prevent electronics from being damaged. Is this true sir? Thanks for providing us all the education to survive. – Tim S. JWR Replies: A grounding strap offers only marginal EMP protection for a vehicle. The type that were mentioned are the sort that you can see used on many trucks, especially fuel delivery trucks, where the concern is a buildup of …


Letter Re: Thermoelectric Generators for Wood and Coal Stoves

Hello You folks do an outstanding job of informing those who want to learn! I was just wondering if there was information about homemade thermocouples out there. I was watching my woodburner last night and it has one of those little fans sitting on top that start to spin when they get hot and was wondering if I could find plans to build a bigger version of the thermocouple. I envision something about the size of a briefcase . In a grid down situation this would be set on top the woodburner that would be going for heat and cooking …


Letter Re: Documentary on the Sole Resident of the ANWR

Jim, I’m watching a documentary titled “Heimo’s Arctic Refuge” that I think your readers would truly enjoy, produced by VBS.tv. It is about Heimo Korth, who is the last inhabitant of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), in Alaska. VBS.tv has many unusual documentaries. I’ve truly been educated by the other documentaries they done about the homeless of Las Vegas living in the network of tunnels under the city (they actually got to film down there), and the homeless orphans of Bogota, Colombia. They also live in the tunnels underneath the city. I’ve been a daily reader for SurvivalBlog.com for …


Economics and Investing:

El Jefe Jeff E. sent this one: U.S. New-Home Sales Drop 11.2%. “Unexpectedly”??? What planet are they from? I suspect that we’ll see a further drop, seasonally adjusted this summer, as mortgage credit tightens and as another wave of foreclosures further flood the housing market. GG mentioned an article in an Indian newspaper, wherein Jim Rogers says that the UK will lose its AAA bond rating this year, and that inflation and a currency crisis are inevitable. I noticed that The Total Investor Blog has had some great posts, recently. Items from The Economatrix: Bernanke: Record-low Rates Still Needed Stocks …