Odds ‘n Sods:

I heard from my Editor at Penguin Books that my best-selling nonfiction book "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It" is now available at Sam’s Club warehouse stores, and it will also soon be available in Costco stores! Both offer a price that is competitive with Amazon’s, so here is your chance to buy a few copies for gifts, without having to wait or shipping, or to pay for shipping.    o o o I recently watched the re-make of the western movie True Grit. Overall, it was a fine film that was more than …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, 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.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 …


Fire Protection 101, by Firefighter Charles

Fire protection is very important for the home.  Keeping protection around your home from fire is a very important practice.  Too many homes a year are destroyed to fires.  Too many people die each year from fire related deaths (Note: Most people die from smoke inhalation not the heat of the fire).  You should learn ways on how to prevent fires and learn method on how to fight fires.  Preventing fire will lessen your chance of a fire but learning how to fight a fire will lessen the damage to your home and keep your family alive.       Understanding The …


Letter Re: Unprepared Sheeple in the Wilderness

Good Morning Mr. Rawles!  I had to share this link with you: Maryland Hiker Uses iPhone App For New Year’s Eve Rescue. In brief: a man out hiking on New Year’s Eve Day got lost in the wilderness.  He used his cell phone to call rescuers, and then used his “flashlight” app on the cell phone to shine a light so that the rescuers could be lowered down to him on the trail and lead him out.   My sons, who are both experienced scouters and back country hikers who teach wilderness survival watched this news story in disbelief  last …


Economics and Investing:

Renewed Investor Interest For Silver In 2012 Sue C. sent this: Becoming Zimbabwe: When Nations Regress The Economy In 2012:  Handle With Care B.B. flagged this: Jim Rogers isn’t too optimistic about stock markets in 2012, sees longer term systemic collapse Items from The Economatrix: Euro Hits 11-Month Low Against The Dollar As Banks Hoard ECB Cash Merkel’s Economic Advisor Won’t Rule Out Eurozone Break-up 30 Statistics that Show that the Middle Class is Dying Right Before Our Eyes as We Enter 2012 Mish Shedlock’s 2012 Predictions; 2011 Year In Review


Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS mentioned that more Kmart stores will soon close. [JWR’s Comment: If you do some shopping in the last two weeks before a store closing and use coupons, I predict that you will bring home some genuine bargains for stocking your retreat. At a Kmart that was closing a few months ago, I noticed that a lot of items had been overlooked, particularly in the pharmacy and automotive sections. I took advantage of 50% price reductions on motor oil, vehicle tow straps, tube socks, zinc lozenges, vitamins, extension cords, light bulbs, LED flashlights, shotgun shells, and propane cylinders. Those items …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, 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.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 …


The SurvivalBlog Ten Cent Challenge — Annual Reminder

I only post one reminder each year about the voluntary Ten Cent Challenge SurvivalBlog subscriptions, and this is it. Unlike Jimmy Wales at Wikipedia and those whiners at PBS, I don’t do endless pledge drives. I depend on my readers to help pay the bills to keep SurvivalBlog up and running. Our web hosting on two dedicated servers (one in Sweden and one in the U.S.) cost $850 per month (including 3 Terabytes of bandwidth), and our local ISP bill is $129 per month. We also have other expenses including liability insurance, phone bills, computer hardware, software, a VPN tunneling …


Knowledge of Survival, by Heather F.

Everyone writes about what you need to survive the end; but no one writes about what you need to know before the end happens. Protection, Water purification, hunting, trapping, cleaning an animal, sewing, soap making, and herbal knowledge are just a few examples of what I consider to be incredibly important to know. Now, I know what you all are thinking, males got this down for the most part, right? Well what about your women. What happens to them if god forbid they get separated? Can they take care of themselves. A lot of women couldn’t. Protection is pretty straightforward, …


Letter Re: Subsistence Fishing After TEOTWAWKI

James Wesley: In reference to CentOre’s recent article, “Subsistence Fishing After TEOTWAWKI”, one method not mentioned which works very well (speaking from experience) is to kill a non-edible animal like a prairie dog and hang it over a bank. After a couple of days maggots begin to fall off of the decaying carcass and the fish learn to come to that bank to get a free meal. Then using yo-yo fishing lines you bait whatever hooks you use with scraps and pretty much I’ve never gone without a pan full of fish a day to eat. The other method is …


Three Letters Re: Self-Defense Advice

Dear Jim, Tae Kwon Do is a perfectly adequate martial art, and very accessible. However, it is so popular it has morphed into several markets. Make sure the school you are attending teaches fighting and self-defense. If they say they are “non-competitive,” then they are a glorified exercise program, not a martial art. Also, while all sparring is good, there’s sparring intended for learning to compete, and sparring intended for learning to disable attackers. Stress to the instructor you want to learn self defense and have no interest in competing in tournaments. If they are unwilling to accept that, they’re …


Economics and Investing:

Michael I. recommended this great article: The Long, Long Depression. Michael’s comment: “This is by a National Review writer who predicts a two decade depression.  He discusses similarities with the 1873 depression.” Reality check: Mt. Washington Parking Space Assessed At Nearly $300,000 Verizon reverses on $2 fee for one-time payments Chinese financial bubble update: China eclipses US as top IPO venue. Four Risky Places To Swipe Your Debit Card Items from The Economatrix: You Thought 2011 Was Tough? NASDAQ Wraps Up 2011 In The Red (But then we read: Gold’s 10 percent gain in 2011 extends run to 11th year.) …


Odds ‘n Sods:

L.A. arson wave grows to about 40 fires; most since 1992 riots. (It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do a web search on the phrase “delayed action firebomb design”, so I predict that this will spawn copycats, even if the pyromaniac is arrested.)    o o o From January 2nd to January 15th, Safecastle is offering the maximum allowed discount on all Mountain House can varieties: 25% off.     o o o Two interesting recent posts over at John Robb’s Global Guerillas site: Modern Darknets and The Digital Roll-Out of Resilient Communities    o o o B.B. mentioned a …