Year: 2010

Letter Re: Neighborhood Panic Alarms, and Helping Your Neighbors With Home Security

James, I would like to send a quick note along to any of your readers who still live in suburbia. My wife told me about an email going around suggesting that you keep your spare car keys at your bed stand when you retire for the night. If something goes bump in the night you can use your panic button to set your car alarm off to do anything from deterring trespassers that you hear outside to alerting your neighbors that you have an intruder and are in dire need of help. I thought it through and decided to take …


Letter Re: Some Real Life Battery Data

Hello Jim – I took interest in your response to the post by Steven J S “Letter Re: Some Real Life Battery Data” and the concept of storing “dry batteries”. From my long and intensive research on this, you are absolutely correct. Finding a true dry battery (one that was not flooded and then emptied) is nearly impossible. Perhaps some other SurvivalBlog readers can provide some help on this topic, but I have found that in order to truly get a dry battery – one that has never been flooded with acid – one would almost have to work at …


Economics and Investing:

From GG: California Teachers Pension Fund $42.6 Billion Short Truckman sent this; Commercial Real Estate’s Coming $1.4 Trillion Crisis From JDD: Report: 1 in 5 U.S. homeowners underwater Items from The Economatrix: Inflation: Ignoring Doesn’t Make It Go Away (The Mogambo Guru) Chapter XVI: When Shopping Is A Pleasure (The latest in The Day The Dollar Died series) Globalization is Killing the Globe: Return to Local Economies FEAR Davos 2010, Into the Bomb Shelter Why Silver Price Will Boom to $50/Oz. Bernanke Says Discount Rate May Rise “Before Long” Trade Gap Unexpectedly Rises on Imports How A New Jobless Era …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Bobbi sent us this sobering news: Haiti, One Month Later    o o o C.N. sent us an interesting article on bear preparedness.    o o o Several readers mentioned this troubling article, written by Declan McCullagh: Feds push for tracking cell phones


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. I [am] the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” – Psalm 81:7-10 (KJV)


Note from JWR:

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 $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 Fiocchi 9mm Luger, 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP ammo, …


Survival Tips for the Business Traveler, by F. Russell

I’m both a family man and a business traveler. When I’m on the road, my primary mission is to do the best job I can and get home again. In the event of an emergency, that mission immediately reduces down to get home as fast as I can.  Most families have emergency plans that assume that the family or group will be together. But what happens if one or more of the group can’t be there? When you’re on the road, your primary mission in any catastrophic emergency is to get home to your family and support system. You can’t …


Three Letters Re: Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance

Mr. Rawles, Regarding the blog entry “Your Post-TEOTWAWKI Diaper Insurance,” I wanted to add that the problem with the messiness of cloth diapers can be lessened by using disposable liners. Special liners are sold for use in cloth diapers, however a more cost effective solution is to dry out cheaper baby wipes and use those [as liners]. Thank you for your diligent service to the survival community. Keep up the great work. Sincerely, – JD in Richmond, Virginia Jim, I love your blog site. About the article about cloth diapers — they are easy to make and cheaper than bought …


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 …