Month: January 2014

Odds ‘n Sods:

Big name search engines face rebellion. JWR Adds: I use and recommend both IXQuick and Privacy Abroad’s VPN tunnel. (But even with those, you should assume that you search history will be logged somewhere, somehow. For any searches on controversial or legal gray area topics, be sure to use a public library computer terminal!)    o o o Cheryl N. sent: When Revolution Comes, What Is Your Logistics Plan?    o o o Also from Cheryl: How This Family Of Four Lives ‘Off The Grid’ In The Middle Of The Desert    o o o Reader Scott L. mentioned a …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 50 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $9,700+ worth of 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.) …


Tactical Solutions for Preppers, by The Grunt

As a sound and forward thinking prepper you should already be on your way to some level of sustainability in the event of some kind of social breakdown.  The food, water, medical, and sanitation needs are boring, but important enough that without them-anything else doesn’t really matter.  As readers of this blog I sincerely hope you’ve utilized the vast wealth of knowledge available here to develop your own systems of storage, rotation, and skills development.  So with all of that as a foundation, I pose a question.  With your family, your plans, and your supplies all depending on you for …


Letter Re: When The Schumer Hits (Literally)

Dear Editor: In response to the article titled: When The Schumer Hits (Literally), by Prepper EMT: I am on board until we reach the recipe, which calls for lemon juice and lime juice. Unless you live in a citrus grove or in  a state where you can grow citrus and are lucky enough to get sick when the fruit is on the tree you are going to be in trouble here.   I suggest that [instead] each person stocks the ingredients to make a simple electrolyte solution that uses common and easily stored ingredients. There are several recipes to be …


News From The American Redoubt:

Some useful data from Atlas Van Lines: 2013 Migration Patterns. The migration trend toward The American Redoubt looks like it is accelerating. The only contrary data point is the recent out-migration from Wyoming, but I suspect that much of that is attributable to the petroleum engineers, roughnecks, and assorted camp followers who are heading toward the ongoing Bakken oil boom in North Dakota and adjoining eastern Montana.    o o o Coeur d’Alene cops release shooting video. (You can see the video here.) JWR’s Comments: This looks like another intentional “Suicide by Cop” initiated by someone who was mentally unbalanced. …



Odds ‘n Sods:

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I worked for a couple of Silicon Valley companies. On my lunch hours I often wandered around Usenet, back when it had miniscule traffic volume. (This was before graphical web browsers even existed. The Internet was public, but just barely. (Outside of a few AOL users who began arriving in 1991, most of the early 1990s Internet users spoke UNIX and wore pocket protectors. And nearly all of us were either in government scientific agencies or worked for big corporations.) On Usenet, I often read and occasionally posted to a Usenet newsgroup …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The Fed’s policy of monetizing one trillion dollars of bonds annually put pressure on the US dollar, the value of which declined in terms of gold. When gold hit $1,900 per ounce in 2011, the Federal Reserve realized that $2,000 per ounce could have a psychological impact that would spread into the dollar’s exchange rate with other currencies, resulting in a run on the dollar as both foreign and domestic holders sold dollars to avoid the fall in value. Once this realization hit, the manipulation of the gold price moved beyond central bank leasing of gold to bullion dealers in …


Notes from JWR:

The Managing Editor position at SurvivalBlog has been tentatively filled. My sincere thanks to the more than 50 people who sent resumes. There were a lot of wonderful candidates, but only a couple of them met all of our experience requirements. — I have a very trustworthy friend who is looking for a live-in caretaker or house-sitter position at a retreat in northern California. (Preferably anywhere between Tuolumne County and Shasta County.) He is a conscientious non-smoking single man in his 50s. Please e-mail me if you presently have an opening for a caretaker or house-sitter position in that region. …


Pat’s Product Review – SurvivAMINO Protein Tablets

When I’m out hunting, and a lot of hunting in my neck of the woods is via logging roads that you drive on, or out for a hike, I like to have a little something to munch on. Quite often, I’ll take some beef jerky or granola bars, as well as high-protein bars. It’s just a good pick-me-up to have something to eat – instead of running home, when I’m a little hungry. Only problem I have with beef jerky is that, while it is quite tasty, it promotes thirst – a lot of thirst. Granola bars and high-protein bars …


Pat’s Product Review: Glock 27 .40 S&W Pistol

Many years ago, when I worked for the late Col. Rex Applegate. We worked with Paladin Press, on the very first video they produced, titled “Manstoppers.” In this video a large selection of semiauto handguns were tested and fired by Tom Campbell, who at one time was Smith and Wesson’s top shooter. I acted as range officer and a consultant on the video, that was shot at the old Applegate pioneer homestead outside of Yoncolla, Oregon. For this video, Col. Applegate obtained a prototype Glock 23 handgun, and we were all impressed with it, albeit there were many malfunctions, due …


Guest Article: EMP Myths and FAQs, by Joel Ho

Q: Do Faraday Cages need grounding? A: No. A Faraday cage designed against EMP, if properly constructed, will keep any charge outside the shield. The shield interior is separate, so anything inside, even though it touches the inside of the shield, is safe. However – if the cage is improperly made and there are wide holes in the mesh exceeding the size of wavelength to be blocked, grounding could help. As an example, this Youtube video link is of EMP testing my company has done with another firm’s professional EMP simulator. You can see a shielded laptop on the left …


Guest Article: Fire and Ice: Inflation and Deflation, by G.E. Christenson

Fractional reserve banking and central banking began their reign of destruction upon our financial world a few centuries ago. Politician’s greed and need for control over people have been ever present. Their mutual interests created an unholy union from which were born two progeny. Call them Fire and Ice. Call them Inflation and Deflation. This is their story – simplified and sanitized. FRACTIONAL reserve banking allowed banks to loan out considerably more currency than was received from depositors – this increased the supply of currency in circulation. If demand for currency did not increase proportionally, then each currency unit was …


Letter: Shopping for Storage Foods at COSTCO

Dear Jim, I just returned from COSTCO on big “stock up” trip for my retreat. (My family retreat/cabin is 155 miles away, and COSTCO is less than 20 miles away from my house.) Aside for maybe driving over 300 miles to Salt Lake City to buy from one of the big storage food companies, is there any better way to stock up, without my UPS driver knowing [what I’m getting]? Am I missing something, or is COSTCO the way to go? Thanks, – L.D.M. JWR Replies: As I mentioned in the Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course, shopping at Big …