Day: September 19, 2013

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 48 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) 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 $300 …


My View on Self Defense for Women, by Sheri W.

I wish that all women had some self-defense training.  But, most don’t, even among preppers.  Worse yet, most women I know are too embarrassed to learn anything about fighting.  They don’t know where to learn or maybe don’t want to appear foolish.  And the misinformation out there about how a woman should defend herself is often worse than useless – it’s actually harmful.  Most men teach what works for men and often, those techniques don’t work very well for women.  This article is intended for those women who have little or no experience with self-defense.  I won’t kid you, reading …


Two Letters Re: Preserving a Digital Library

James, I work for a large, three-letter computer manufacturer with a penchant for Blue. Joe Ax’s comments about the problems with maintaining a digital library are right on the money. When I worked in our Storage Division (hard disks, tapes, etc.), this issue came up during a talk on medical systems’ storage needs. There is a requirement for medical records to be maintained 100 years, and yet no computer data storage system has been designed to do this. So what is the ‘solution’?  It seems that doctor’s offices are cajoled/required/encouraged to upgrade their office systems on average of about every …


Pantry Paratus Photo Contest Continues

A reminder: Pantry Paratus is excited to celebrate our second year on as an e-store.  We are looking to expand our digital marketing appeal with real pictures; so in order to do that we are hosting our first annual 2013 photo contest to celebrate all the harvest of this season’s bounty.  All the official rules are here, but the basics are these: -all photos must be original work and submitted to photocontest@pantryparatus.com between Friday, September 6th and Friday, September 20th. -there are two categories: “Canning” and “Food Preservation.”  The first one is easy to define, but the second one can …


Economics and Investing:

Gold Is Not A Safe Haven? Tell That To People In Indonesia U.S. on ‘unsustainable’ budget course: CBO Fed Says: No Taper. [JWR’s Comment: At this point, tapering from the artificial liquidity of “QE To Infinity” would spike interest rates, send the bond market into a tailspin, cause a derivatives tremor (if not a full tsunami), and crash the real estate market. Ben Bernanke has firmly backed himself into a corner. Ben will wean himself of QE about as quickly as your local crackhead will wean himself from his addiction.] Don’t say you weren’t warned: Mulligan Mint Files For [Chapter …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Ay, ay, ay Acapulco: Desperate thousands try to escape cut-off Acapulco    o o o Reader James W. suggested this: How to Meet Mutual Assistance Group Members    o o o Reader Pierre M. sent: The NSA’s secret org chart. Marc presents a fine conceptual chart, but of course what it lacks is the corresponding physical structure, showing the Field Stations around the globe and the relationship between the NSA and its tasked military counterparts such as the Air Force Security Command (AFSC), the Naval Security Group (NSG), and the U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM.)    o o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“There was another thing that the camels carried, and that was various forms of currency. The currency problem was an important one. Through that admirable institution, the Chinese Post Office, I had been able to transfer the bulk of our capital from Peking to points west by simply paying in a cheque at the Peking branch and then drawing the dollars at Lanchow and Sining. But the Mexican silver dollar which they use in China is a big coin, and the country through which we were to pass had a lawless reputation; a suitcase heavy with silver could not be …