Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — January 5, 2022

My sincere thanks to the 83 readers who responded to my post yesterday, requesting Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions. Several folks sent $100, one sent $200, and one sent $365–presumably as a “catch-up’  payment for a decade of reading the blog without previously subscribing. Your generous support is greatly appreciated! — January 5th, 1855 was the birthday of King Camp Gillette (pictured), who invented the safety razor. — Today is also the birthday of actor Robert Duvall (born 1931.) His roles in Open Range and Apocalypse Now are unforgettable. — This is also the birthday of General Courtney Hodges (born 1887 …




Review: A Light, A Battery, A Book, and A Radio, by Thomas Christianson

Editor’s Introductory Note:  This review was written by a long-time content contributor to SurvivalBlog who wrote his articles under the pen name “The Novice.”  Thomas Christianson just had his name added to our masthead. Since he will be a paid member of the SurvivalBlog editorial staff, he will no longer be eligible for our writing contest. — From time to time in my daily life, I run across items that may be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This article is a collection of short reviews about some of those items. These items include a heat-powered lantern, a battery bank, a …




SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Reader Jim. L. sent this: How tech’s richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse. o  o  o An interesting study that I heard about by way of the American Partisan site: The effects of QuikClot Combat Gauze and Celox Rapid on hemorrhage control. JWR’s Comment: It appears that QuikClot provides superior clotting. But note that …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Speculative stock #bubbles ultimately see the gamblers take on too much debt. #MarginDebt popularity accelerates at peaks. At this point the market is dancing on a knife’s edge. Passive investing’s IQ drain, and #stonksgoup hype, add to the danger… …The first step is to recognize that 5:1 is not a natural ratio. It is a product of a paradigm. So what will continue this paradigm? What may reverse it? This is the knife’s edge, because we are at 5:1. It may go to 100:1. Or become -5:-1. But parabolas don’t resolve sideways.” – Dr. Michael Burry, from March 2020 tweets …