Month: April 2014

Notes from HJL:

Today is the birthday of sci-fi novelist Larry Niven, born April 30, 1938. Along with Jerry Pournelle, he co-authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer. April 30th is also the birthday of Ed Yourdon, born 1944. o o o Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ 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), A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. …


Bug Out Bag Strategy, by S.G. – Part 2

Vehicle Bug Out Bag You’ve just headed out the door after being told to evacuate and driven a short ways. All of a sudden, whamo!, you’ve blown a water hose, and you lose all your engine coolant. It’s late in the day on Highway 88 near Silver Lake, California, or some other similarly remote area, and you realize that the normally light traffic is nonexistent today. You’re probably stuck overnight. To make matters worse, it’s very cold, with rain that’s starting to look more and more like snow. Are you and your vehicle prepared? If you’re like a lot of …


Letter Re: Fire Suppression

HJL, I’ve been thinking more and more about possible fire suppression methods (a.k.a. “Fire Traps”) for SHTF, and I was wondering if you ever considered pre-staging fire-retardant materials in high-risk areas. This is just a theory, but have you considered hanging or placing materials that would dispense fire retardant if an actual fire broke out? This could be something like a bag or bucket hanging in a tree, so when the fire hits it, it melts the bag and dispenses the material. I realize in SHTF scenarios, you neither have the resources to fight a huge forest fire nor even …


Economics and Investing:

America’s Race to the Bottom o o o From a SurvivalBlog reader: “Watch out for your Wells Fargo clients with safe deposit boxes. Wells Fargo has gone up 50% on their prices for a safe deposit box. Mine was $80 for a year; now it is $120 from bill received today. Those with automatic withdrawal will be surprised too late.” – J.Y. o o o The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 Trillion In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP – E.B. o o o Items from The Economatrix: McWages For The McAmerica Job Recovery: The Scorecard …


Odds ‘n Sods:

You have known this for some time, but here it is again: They want to know who you are, what you have – H.L. It’s all about control of weapons, food, transportation, et cetera. . . I’m still getting questionnaires from the Dept. of Agriculture over property that I sold nearly 15 years ago. They want to know how I use the property and what it produces. I routinely throw the notices away and refuse the telephone calls. So far, they have threatened me with arrest and jail, both through the mail and over the phone but no warrants have …


Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“If a secular table reconciles men to one another when they meet together, why should not the table of Christ effect this the more? Since the wildest beasts are tamed by food, why are men not made gentle by this heavenly food? If treaties and covenants are usually sealed by food and drink, why do not the children of God establish peace and friendship among themselves by communicating together?” – Peter Martyr


Notes from HJL:

For those who have eyes like mine, don’t forget to check out this SurvivalBlog post for the instructions on how to set your iPad/iPod/iPhone to work with our new format. Your eyes will thank you. For anyone who has a Windows tablet or Android device, I’d appreciate if you would send the instructions for the zooming function to me, as I don’t have access to one of those devices. o o o Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy …


Bug Out Bag Strategy, by S.G. – Part 1

It’s the middle of the night, and you get a call from the local authorities that a mandatory evacuation has just been ordered because of a major fire. You’ve been given 10 minutes to evacuate because no one expected the fire to turn your way so soon, and you have no time to do anything but grab what you can and jump in your vehicle to head out for parts unknown. What’s a BOB? Let’s start with a simple definition of what a bug out bag is. It’s some form of bag or backpack you’ve prepared that you can grab …


Two Letters Re: Preparedness For Teenagers

Hugh, Preparedness For Teenagersjust once again brought to my attention a matter– we should ALL get a vocabulary change in place. He states getting a shot gun.. then to ‘graduate’ to rifles and ASSAULT rifles (emphasis mine). Please, can we STOP calling them ASSAULT rifles. They are DEFENSE rifles. This is NOT directed to A.H. It is directed to ALL OF US. Stop playing the gun control crowd’s games. Terms and words DO matter. DEFENSE rifles (as opposed to what the “crowd” considers HUNTING rifles, yet WE know any firearm, be it a 306, a 30.30, or a .45, can …



Economics and Investing:

Nickel Enters Bull Market as Supply Concerns Mount After Crimea – Bloomberg. – JBG o o o Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape – NYTimes.com. – RBS o o o Items from The Economatrix: Sentiment Highest Since July White House Ramps Up Housing-Reform Push As Legislation Approaches Key Hurdle It All Begins With This: U.S. Middle Class Is No Longer The World’s Richest CEO ‘Post-Weather’ Optimism Collapses To 5-Month Lows Mortgage Companies Face “Tremendously Difficult” Year As Housing Recovery Crumbles


Odds ‘n Sods:

Driver Finds Himself Surrounded By Cops With Guns Out After Automatic License Plate Reader Misreads His Plate – H.L. o o o Everything at your hospital can be hacked – easily – D.S. o o o Experts Warn More European Muslim Youth Are Radicalizing. – So violent, so bloodthirsty, is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Syria-based jihadist group, that even al-Qaida will have nothing to do with them. – H.L. o o o Pentagon to destroy $1 billion worth of ammo. This makes sense because…?. – K.B. Oh, what a thought… Selling it as surplus …



Reading the New Blog Format for iPads/iPods

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For those who have eyes like mine, the font on an iPad/iPod is difficult to read, but there is an answer. Since everyone’s eyes are different, it doesn’t make sense to regulate that aspect of the blog from the server side. Rather, each iPad/iPod needs to adjust specifically for its user. To that end, these instructions should alleviate the issue. If you are using a Windows or an Android tablet/phone, there should be similar methods available to you as well. For those who want the advertisements to show on the smaller screen identical to the desktop, you pretty much have …


Notes from HJL:

April 28th is the birthday of Aimo Johannes Lahti (born in 1896.) This clever Finn designed (or co-designed) an amazing array of weapons including the L-35 Lahti pistol, Suomi M-31 SMG, the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG, the the famous Lahti L-39 20mm anti-tank rifle, and even the 20 ItK 40(a 20 mm dual anti-aircraft cannon).