Month: July 2012

A Different Kind of Silencer, by K. in Illinois

The topic of obstructive sleep apnea and CPAP machines has been mentioned regularly in SurvivalBlog. These references were mostly related to how an alternate power supply could be used to keep CPAP machines functioning. In a TEOTWAWKI situation or lengthy grid down scenario persons suffering from sleep apnea, especially severe sleep apnea would worsen and probably die without an alternative power source or alternative type of treatment. As a dentist who is a member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine and treating snoring and sleep apnea for almost 15 years I thought I would give the members some …


Letter Re: The Role of Nickels in a Barter Economy

James Wesley: I understand saving gold and silver for preservation of wealth but I’m not sure of copper pennies or nickel five cent pieces. Gold and silver have been used for thousands of years as stored wealth but I’m not sure I could convince anyone to take pennies and nickels that are made with industrial metals. The copper value of the coin may be greater than the value marked on the coin but who is going to have a desire to gather up copper and nickel over silver or gold? Thanks for the great blog and the help. – Mark …


Letter Re: Effective Germ Fighters

JWR, In his recent SurvivalBlog article, Don H. incorrectly stated that alcohol will not kill MRSA or Staph.  I want to set the record straight on this, as working with bacteria is my career.  Any bacteria that does not form spores will be contact-killed by a 70% Isopropanol (or other alcohol) treatment.  This includes MRSA (and other staph bacteria, as MRSA is Methycillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).  The only commonly encountered bacteria that will certainly not be killed with alcohol are Clostridium species (the source of botulism [C. botulinum] and gas gangrene [C. perfringens] and Mycobacterium species [M. tuberculosis].  C. difficile is another …


Letter Re: A Low Cost Source for Powerful Magnets

Jim: Several years ago I was looking for some hi power magnets for a project, and found them, inside microwave ovens. Not wanting to get the wife mad, I placed free want ads for junk microwave ovens and got more than I expected.  As a side benefit each oven netted a small bit of aluminum and some copper wire.  Getting to the magnets was almost too easy. DISCLAIMER:  Don’t hurt yourself.  Sharp metal may be encountered, and a bit of electrical knowledge would be helpful.  Do not attempt repair to broken ovens without proper training and equipment to check for …


Economics and Investing:

Several readers have written to ask about the recent slump in precious metals. This can be attributed to the ongoing sovereign debt and derivatives crisis in Europe, where there are wholesale liquidations of everything. Folks are scrambling to raise cash to settle CDO contracts and to meet margin calls. The crisis will keep the price of metals down until perhaps October. It doesn’t mean that the bull market in metals is over. Far from it! Just look at this as a good buying opportunity. Like a Hollywood set, housing inventory looks to be low only because that is what is …


Odds ‘n Sods:

AmEx (American Expat) sent this report: One Year Later: Lessons from Recovery After the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake    o o o Authorities give 41 guns and 100,000 rounds of ammunition back to militia member after he is cleared of conspiring to overthrow government.    o o o New Hampshire enacts jury nullification law. Hopefully this will be the first of many “informed juries” laws, nationwide.    o o o Mike Williamson wrote to mention that the Armed Citizen Alliance (ACA) has announced their first National Armed Citizen Challenge, which will be held September 21-23, 2012, at PASA Park near …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“No one can say when or where the first war for the Revolution began. Ten years before the fight at Lexington, Americans came out of their cabins in the valley of the Conocheague, and stormed and took Fort Louden. One by one, Americans walked the trails of the Green Mountains, and came down to the lake and took the King’s fort at Ticonderoga”. – Rose Wilder Lane (Daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and originator of the term Libertarian.)


Note from JWR:

There was another hack attempt on SurvivalBlog, beginning on July 4th.  We have been forced to change servers. We are presently re-building the blog site’s content and features gradually. The Search box, permalinks, and the RSS feed have not yet been restored. I will post the new dotted quad address as soon as it is available. Thanks for your patience.


Home Inverter Comparison: Off Grid and Grid Tied, by L.K.O.

Off-Grid Origins Residential power systems – particularly the inverters that provide more popular Alternating Current (AC) voltages, standards and connections – are a far cry from their primitive ancestors of only a few decades ago, when hobbyists and off-grid home or cabin owners needed a fair amount of electrical expertise, as well as tolerance for not-quite-ready-for-mainstream technology and performance. Increased world-wide demand, dramatic improvements in the semiconductor and microprocessor industries, economies of scale, improved safety standards, regulations, plus diligent and competitive engineering have all contributed to the superb home inverter offerings available today. From it’s infancy as an inferior, pioneering …


Announcing SurvivalBlog’s 19 New Book Review Editors

In just the first few hours after I posted my Volunteer Book Reviewer solicitation a week ago, I received more than 150 e-mails. The response was so overwhelming that I had to take down the post to avoid being deluged with additional volunteers. There were so many well-qualified candidates that it was difficult making the selection. I chose the new editors based primarily upon their education, experience, and time available to devote to editing. My sincere thanks to everyone who responded! I anticipate that the new editors will periodically post detailed book and movie reviews. Most of them will probably …


John Hawkwood’s Book Review: Apache Tactics 1830-86

Apache Tactics 1830-86 by Robert H. Watt. ISBN: 978-1849086301  Battles between Europeans and Native Americans in North America started with the first landfall and continued until the late 19th Century. Typically, the wars were limited in duration as the mass of European immigrants expanded into and pacified new areas.  Tribes decimated by war and disease had few alternatives.  In most parts of what is now the United States, peace followed settlement by not too many years. The deserts of the West were another story. Vast distances and non-arable land meant that for many years more people transited the land than …


Pat’s Product Review: SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt

If there’s one thing I stress in my firearms classes, it is safety! Any instructor who doesn’t stress safety in their classes or on the range, isn’t doing his job. Students are always asking me about different ways they can practice without going to the range. Of course, one of the best things you can do is dry-firing. Needless to say, you have to make absolutely sure your firearm is unloaded, before undertaking dry-fire practice. More than one person has shot a hole in their wall with an “unloaded” gun. When you dry-fire, you are accomplishing a couple of things. …


Letter Re: Recommendation for eReaderIQ

James, I’d like to share a great resource with your readers: www.eReaderIQ.com. The site does two things: first, it tracks the price of ebooks on Amazon so if folks have a book list they want to purchase they can add that list and purchase them when they go on sale. The second advantage (and this is what I primarily use it for) is that it tracks all of the ebooks that have gone from a paid price to free. I check it every morning and normally pick up about fifteen books a week. Many of these I’ll get ten pages …


Letter Re: A Low Cost Source for Fresnel Lenses

Jim: By coincidence, I just opened Saturday’s post to find the link to the Fresnel lens YouTube video.  What are the odds? On Friday I went yard sale shopping.  (A rare day of freedom for me since I normally work that day.  We are down for two weeks for factory work and in preparation of the new potato crop.)  At this sale was the Fresnel lens from a scrapped out projection television set on the front lawn. It was leaning up and in the open.  I told the lady that is not a good idea an explained to her the …


Letter Re: New Large Sunspots Generating X Class Solar Flares

James: [ Sunspot] 11515 started out squirrely, was and remains same. The X-output has actually started to resume a slightly more regular decay at this point, not completely but still at least a change in the right direction. I was actually typing a brief update on the “Fading” 11515 and the newly enumerated 11520 ( old 11504) after the M-6.9 earlier when the output rose, fell back, and then rose again. THIS is not the behaviour we’d be expecting just after the previous flare. We would be expecting a precipitous drop  (a spike type) or alternately a long steady, concave-up …