Month: July 2018

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – July 15, 2018

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On July 15th, 1888, the Bandai Volcano erupted on the Japanese island of Honshu killing hundreds and burying many nearby villages in ash. While Honshu is in an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, this eruption was surprising. The volcano had erupted only four times in the 1,000 years prior and none had been particularly deadly. However, this eruption was different. The rumblings started just after 7 a.m. Within 30 minutes there was an explosion on the north side of the mountain and over the next two hours there were dozens of explosions giving villagers very little time to …


EMP And The Modern Computer-Controlled Car, by Oldgeezer

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There seem to be a million different opinions on what will happen to computer-controlled cars, trucks, and vehicles of all kinds after an EMP attack. Maybe my experience will help expand your knowledge base. My First-Hand Knowledge I have spent many an hour reading about EMP, watching numerous videos about its effect on civilization, and had some real doubts about some of the claims. While none of us have experienced a true EMP attack, I now have first-hand knowledge of what we may experience when/if an attack occurs. In 2015, a highway patrol car in our state was struck by …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Old, expired MREs are tested in this edition of Odds ‘n Sods. Walmart Audio Surveillance It would appear that Walmart is now following Amazon’s lead in Orwellian surveillance of it’s employees. Amazon is know to heavily monitor its workers in a bid to squeak out even the smallest improvements in worker efficiency, up to and including making them wear wrist bracelets to track their arm movements. With Walmart under immense pressure from …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” – James 4:1-4 (KJV)


Preparedness Notes for Saturday – July 14, 2018

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July 14th is the birthday of Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom. He was born in 1907 and died August 21, 1954 near Great Falls, Montana, in the crash of a T-33 jet. He was a decorated Air Force pilot, a Luft Stalag POW survivor, and test pilot. Malmstrom AFB was one of the settings for JWR’s novel Founders. (The base was named in his honor.)


Surviving the Age of Disinfomation

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Dezinformatsiya I’ll begin this brief essay by defining a term: Disinformation is the deliberate spread of information that is known to be false or biased, in order to achieve a military, political, or social goal. The term was coined by Soviet planners, during the Cold War era. They dubbed it “Dezinformatsiya“. It has both military and geopolitical objectives. It includes strategic and tactical subsets that include propaganda, camouflage (“maskirovka“), contrived “news”, and political indoctrination. More than simply spreading false news of troop movements, dezinformatsiya is a grand strategy that encompasses all aspects of media manipulation and deception to reach a …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready! …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Helmet Mounted FLIR I just noticed that both SurvivalBlog advertisers Ready Made Resources and JRH Enterprises recently started carrying the FLIR Breach PTQ136. This is an ultra compact thermal monocular that is capable of being helmet mounted just like a PVS 14. This device uses FLIR’s new Boson core and is actually designed and built for Law Enforcement. It only weighs 7.4 oz and can easily be carried in a pocket. It …



Preparedness Notes for Friday – July 13, 2018

On this day in 1787, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance structuring settlement of the Northwest Territory and creating a policy for the addition of new states to the nation. The members of Congress knew that if their new confederation were to survive intact, it had to resolve the states’ competing claims to western territory. o o o SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today features another entry for Round 77 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. …


A Portable Water Distiller- Part 2, by JMD

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Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a portable water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources. In this article, I outlined my objectives for a distiller and now am writing how I built one. So far, in part 1, I have provided a materials list and provided the first few steps, which included …


Letter: Computer Backup Software

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Hello SurvivalBlog Readers I would like to ask what system you would recommend for backing up computers? The reason I ask is that recently I had a hard drive crash in which I almost lost all of my data on my computer- including a couple of novels I had been working on. The crash had happened while backing up the computer to an external hard drive. Luckily it looks like my external hard drive did not die and as I’m writing writing this message it is retrieving the files. In addition to an external hard drive what other things would …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on collectible knives. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)   Precious Metals: Metals slide on escalating trade war; consumers dip in o o o Gold, Silver Hit Hard By Sell-Off in Raw Commodity Sector   Commodities: WSJ: Rising Gas Prices Raise Concerns for U.S. Economy–Drivers across the …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday – July 12, 2018

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On January 12, 1888, the “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” killed 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours. There were many instances of teachers keeping or rescuing children who would have been caught in the storm while walking home. o o o SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today features another entry for Round 77 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round …