Day: August 31, 2011

Notes from JWR:

I just heard from my editor at Penguin Books that they’ve started an additional printing of my nonfiction book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”. This 12th press run will be another 28,000 copies, bringing the total to 175,000 copies of the U.S. edition in print. When I last checked, it was still ranked around #750 overall, and #80 among reference books, on Amazon. That is not bad for a book that has been in print for two years. Thanks for spreading the word and making the book one of Penguin’s bestsellers. I am …


Experiences of a Novice Gardener, by J.B.

I don’t remember how I stumbled on SurvivalBlog.com.  I had a sense that things were going very wrong and I guess it was just a matter of clicking links that led me to this site.  I found a treasure trove of information on prepping, and a world of like-minded folks who shared my sense that something wicked this way comes.  SurvivalBlog helped me get organized in my thinking, and introduced me to prepping concepts I was unfamiliar with.  I have invested a lot of time and money preparing for WTSHTF.  One area I am weak in, however, is experience.  I …


Four Letters Re: Hurricane Irene Lessons Learned

Mr. Rawles, I am in northwest N.J. I wasn’t affected as badly by the hurricane as others were, but I did learn a few lessons about my preparedness. 1. Inspect your gear on a regular basis. I live on a dead-end street, and the road goes over a country stream, which flows underneath through a 2-foot culvert with a paved berm built over the top of it. Yesterday, that country stream became a 40-foot wide river about 10 inches deep and flowing rapidly over the road surface. To get across that, I got out my waders — and discovered that …


Letter Re: Converting Body Motion and Heat Into Electricity

Jim: The piece that you linked to was simply copied from GizMag. (They did so with credit, as if that makes it okay.) It looks like volumatrixgroup.com is one of those sites that uses stolen blog posts to get hits for ads. The technology itself is a scam under a thin veneer of science. Their “20W” figure is about three orders of magnitude too high, for one thing. That figure describes all of the energy losses in walking, including the energy losses inside muscles and joints and the energy that goes into warming the surface under the shoe. The part that …


Economics and Investing:

The Next Banking Crisis Starts Here The latest Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (August 30, 2011) sums up the prevailing attitude in modern-day America. (Thanks to P.D.K. for the link.) Chuck from The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor pointed me to a special report series, where CNBC belatedly wakes up about the bull market in gold. Items from The Economatrix: Irene Likely to Lead to Higher Insurance Premiums Euro Bailouts in Doubt as “Hysteria” Sweeps Germany Three Years After Lehman, a New Debt Crisis Looms Fear Sets In, Panic Begins, Ruin Perceived, Prepare for Gold $2100


Odds ‘n Sods:

Real Wrath of God Stuff: From Waterbury to Wilmington, Vermonters shocked by Irene’s destruction. Meanwhile, we read about the wisdom of stocking up and owning a water filter: Airlifts take food, water to cut-off Vermont towns. (Thanks to T.E.M. for the links.)    o o o The second person killed by bears this summer at Yellowstone Park: Michigan man killed by grizzly in Yellowstone. Somebody ought to remind folks that it is again legal to carry a gun in a National Park, as long as you are in accordance with state law. (That is, in a state where open carry …