Notes for Thursday – January 14, 2016

On January 14th, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Second Treaty of Paris, ending the War for Independence. In the document, which was known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A …




What’s For Dinner?- Part 5, by J.R.

Juice We store juices for drinking as well as cooking. Most juices come in plastic bottles and function as part of our water storage. Store what your family likes. We also store juices for baking and canning as well. Bottled lemon juice is called for in many recipes for jam and other home-canned products. Even if you are lucky enough to have fresh lemons, you should always use bottled lemon juice for your canning. This is because the commercially-canned product has a set level of acidity, while the acid levels of fresh lemons can vary widely, and it is critical …




Letter Re: Baltic Dry Crashes–Zero Hedge article

Gentlemen, The discussion in the Zero Hedge article Baltic Dry Crashes contains a blatant misinterpretation of the use of the AIS system. The author acknowledges that he is not a maritime expert, yet he attempts to use a maritime tracking system as evidence of his already determined conclusion. The reason the referenced map from marinetraffic.com shows no ships in the middle of the Atlantic is that there are no ports there with AIS receivers used to manage port traffic, the source of the data for this site. Using the filters for the map, you can remove ships anchored and in …




Economics and Investing:

The International War On Cash – Sent in by G.G. o o o Reader H.L. sent in this depressing link: This is how much the average American investor made last year o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: US News Oil Plunge Sparks Bankruptcy Concerns – Energy Journal (Wall Street Journal Money Beat) Excerpt: “As many as a third of American oil-and-gas producers could flirt with bankruptcy and restructuring by the middle of next year unless oil prices stage a big rebound…” Is the Auto Loan Bubble Ready to Pop? (Mises Institute) Excerpt: “While the media claims that this record …




Odds ‘n Sods:

A conversation with one of our favorite bloggers, Patrice Lewis, resulted in this link. The Coil Pump – a nearly forgotten invention that can pump water to a head of over 60 feet from a slow moving stream. It’s a very useful skill to know. o o o For anyone looking for gun parts and accessories, especially semi-autos, I highly recommend the forum set up by the Albert Brothers, Sturmgewehr.com. (Commonly called “Buddy’s Boards”–named after the main board administrator.) For the past 16 years, it was a very simplified board with some arcane posting rules, but they’ve recently implemented forum-style …