Notes from JWR:

Safecastle (one of our advertisers since 2005) is having a one-day, 25%-off sale on Mountain House cans on Thursday, June 23rd. These canned foods are in stock and ready to ship–while supplies last. It’s their first such sale of 2011, after Mountain House’s well-publicized production/backorder issues through the first half of the year. — Today we present another entry for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round 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 …




The Easy Storage Survival Harvest, by Minnesota Rose

I have tracked down, purchased, and read over 25 books this past winter, all having to do with gardening, food storage, and food processing.  My goal was to come away from many long winter nights soaking and reading in my claw foot tub with more than wrinkled toes.  My agenda was simple: I wanted these new, used, and out of print gems to provide instruction and inspiration in formulating a plan to grow as much of my family’s food as possible as soon as the snow finally melted—and then put the harvest in storage.  As I soaked in the hot …




Pen Names and SurvivalBlog Forums

Two of the most frequent questions that I get from SurvivalBlog readers are why I assign pen names to writers even when not asked to do so, and why I don’t have an official SurvivalBlog forum. I’ll explain both: Pen Names I assign a nom de plume to protect your identity. This is standard practice with my blog, especially with controversial topics.  Please pick your own pen names that are unique. I suggest that you use random pen names each time that you send something to post that is controversial. Also, be advised that if you pick something common (like …




Letter Re: TOR and the Onion Networks

The Onion Routing (TOR or Tor) project is one of the best ways to stay anonymous on the web. The project was initially funded by the Navy, but over a few years evolved into a non-profit organization. The goal of the TOR project is twofold: to allow for the anonymous browsing of the internet, and to allow people to connect to the .onion network. This is a basic illustration of how it works is this. Lets say every internet site you visit is a store front in a basic town. You go in and out of stores in the daylight. …




Economics and Investing:

You might not have noticed that the US Dollar Index has been falling recently. (At 74.77, the last time I checked.) Hmmmm… With all the turmoil with the EU periphery, common sense would dictate that the US Dollar should be appreciating rapidly versus the Euro. But it isn’t. So what is the real story, behind the news? I suspect that the US Dollar is in for some very deep trouble in the next few months. Steven M. sent this from Zero Hedge: After Dumping 30% of its Treasury Holdings in Half a Year, Russia Warns it Will Continue Selling US …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader J.L. has very kindly expanded my “List of Lists” spreadsheet. It is now available for free download. (Note that this spreadsheet and the information contained therein are for your personal, non-commercial use only–not for re-posting or re-publishing in any from. This is copyrighted material. All rights reserved.)    o o o In the past 24 hours, I’ve heard from several AOL users who have mentioned that they’ve been unable to access SurvivalBlog. The problem is with AOL site, not at our server. Please try re-launching your browser and/or re-starting your computer.  If that doesn’t work, then try using either …




Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself." – Dr. Samuel Johnson