Month: January 2012

Economics and Investing:

Renewed Investor Interest For Silver In 2012 Sue C. sent this: Becoming Zimbabwe: When Nations Regress The Economy In 2012:  Handle With Care B.B. flagged this: Jim Rogers isn’t too optimistic about stock markets in 2012, sees longer term systemic collapse Items from The Economatrix: Euro Hits 11-Month Low Against The Dollar As Banks Hoard ECB Cash Merkel’s Economic Advisor Won’t Rule Out Eurozone Break-up 30 Statistics that Show that the Middle Class is Dying Right Before Our Eyes as We Enter 2012 Mish Shedlock’s 2012 Predictions; 2011 Year In Review


Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS mentioned that more Kmart stores will soon close. [JWR’s Comment: If you do some shopping in the last two weeks before a store closing and use coupons, I predict that you will bring home some genuine bargains for stocking your retreat. At a Kmart that was closing a few months ago, I noticed that a lot of items had been overlooked, particularly in the pharmacy and automotive sections. I took advantage of 50% price reductions on motor oil, vehicle tow straps, tube socks, zinc lozenges, vitamins, extension cords, light bulbs, LED flashlights, shotgun shells, and propane cylinders. Those items …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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 $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 …


The SurvivalBlog Ten Cent Challenge — Annual Reminder

I only post one reminder each year about the voluntary Ten Cent Challenge SurvivalBlog subscriptions, and this is it. Unlike Jimmy Wales at Wikipedia and those whiners at PBS, I don’t do endless pledge drives. I depend on my readers to help pay the bills to keep SurvivalBlog up and running. Our web hosting on two dedicated servers (one in Sweden and one in the U.S.) cost $850 per month (including 3 Terabytes of bandwidth), and our local ISP bill is $129 per month. We also have other expenses including liability insurance, phone bills, computer hardware, software, a VPN tunneling …


Knowledge of Survival, by Heather F.

Everyone writes about what you need to survive the end; but no one writes about what you need to know before the end happens. Protection, Water purification, hunting, trapping, cleaning an animal, sewing, soap making, and herbal knowledge are just a few examples of what I consider to be incredibly important to know. Now, I know what you all are thinking, males got this down for the most part, right? Well what about your women. What happens to them if god forbid they get separated? Can they take care of themselves. A lot of women couldn’t. Protection is pretty straightforward, …


Letter Re: Subsistence Fishing After TEOTWAWKI

James Wesley: In reference to CentOre’s recent article, “Subsistence Fishing After TEOTWAWKI”, one method not mentioned which works very well (speaking from experience) is to kill a non-edible animal like a prairie dog and hang it over a bank. After a couple of days maggots begin to fall off of the decaying carcass and the fish learn to come to that bank to get a free meal. Then using yo-yo fishing lines you bait whatever hooks you use with scraps and pretty much I’ve never gone without a pan full of fish a day to eat. The other method is …


Three Letters Re: Self-Defense Advice

Dear Jim, Tae Kwon Do is a perfectly adequate martial art, and very accessible. However, it is so popular it has morphed into several markets. Make sure the school you are attending teaches fighting and self-defense. If they say they are “non-competitive,” then they are a glorified exercise program, not a martial art. Also, while all sparring is good, there’s sparring intended for learning to compete, and sparring intended for learning to disable attackers. Stress to the instructor you want to learn self defense and have no interest in competing in tournaments. If they are unwilling to accept that, they’re …


Economics and Investing:

Michael I. recommended this great article: The Long, Long Depression. Michael’s comment: “This is by a National Review writer who predicts a two decade depression.  He discusses similarities with the 1873 depression.” Reality check: Mt. Washington Parking Space Assessed At Nearly $300,000 Verizon reverses on $2 fee for one-time payments Chinese financial bubble update: China eclipses US as top IPO venue. Four Risky Places To Swipe Your Debit Card Items from The Economatrix: You Thought 2011 Was Tough? NASDAQ Wraps Up 2011 In The Red (But then we read: Gold’s 10 percent gain in 2011 extends run to 11th year.) …


Odds ‘n Sods:

L.A. arson wave grows to about 40 fires; most since 1992 riots. (It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do a web search on the phrase “delayed action firebomb design”, so I predict that this will spawn copycats, even if the pyromaniac is arrested.)    o o o From January 2nd to January 15th, Safecastle is offering the maximum allowed discount on all Mountain House can varieties: 25% off.     o o o Two interesting recent posts over at John Robb’s Global Guerillas site: Modern Darknets and The Digital Roll-Out of Resilient Communities    o o o B.B. mentioned a …



Notes from JWR:

An updated edition of the SurvivalBlog Archive CD-ROM, covering every blog post from 2005 to 2011 should be available for sale within two weeks. As a bonus, the CD-ROM will include PDF and MS-Word (.doc), and HTML copies of my book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation”, which normally sells for $28, in hard copy. The archive CD-ROM will sell for $14.95. I will post another announcement when the CD-ROM has been fully tested and is ready for ordering. Thanks for your patience. — Today we present another product review by SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio


Pat’s Product Review: Springfield Armory 5.25 XDm

Today I’m reviewing the new Springfield Armory XDm 5.25 9mm Competition handgun. I carried a Springfield Armory XD .40 S&W handgun for close to two years, and I found the gun utterly reliable and very accurate. The only drawback was that it was an early-production XD, and the finish wasn’t very durable and tended to easily rust if you didn’t pay attention and kept the gun clean and with some kind of preservative on the metal parts. The XDs made today have a very durable “Melonite” finish on the metal parts, and it really holds up extremely well.   The …


Letter Re: NOAA’s Improved Solar Storm Prediction Web Site

JWR, NOAA has updated their web site with an easier to read solar storm prediction description. I’m not sure when they changed this, but I’ve found it helpful. It breaks down into, ‘Geomagnetic, Solar Radiation, and Radio Blackout’ categories.  Instead of just giving an X# or M#, they now have scale of 1-5 (minor through extreme), with a real world description of impact  on communications and power systems.  The descriptive scales are outlined in the “NOAA Scales Activity” For me, this is much clearer and easier than trying to figure out than some M# or X# impact. I thought that others …


Letter Re: Self-Defense Advice

Mr. Rawles, I have eight children, the oldest of whom is 15 years old, and the youngest, 6. I would love to do an at-home self defense course with all of them, but especially the teen girls. Do you have a recommendation for an internet course that isn’t cheesy or a scam? – A Happy Homemaking Prepper in California JWR Replies: You cannot learn how to fight someone by reading a book or watching a video. You need to physically practice, to develop muscle memory. I’d recommend a year of Tae Kwon Do to learn kicks and punches, followed by …