Odds ‘n Sods:

John H. mentioned an interactive election results map from 2008 that was designed to show political differences, but with its population density slider it also makes a great tool for visualizing potential retreat locales. You can zoom in on each state. It is fascinating to fiddle with this!    o o o RFJ sent this: Navy Flier Dieter Dengler’s Great Escape During The Vietnam War. OBTW, I highly recommend Dengler’s book Escape From Laos.    o o o Brute mentioned this Gizmodo article: Inside AT&T’s National Disaster Recovery Batcave: Who AT&T Calls When the Death Star Explodes    o o …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of …


Facing Fears to G.O.O.D., by Prairie Chick

This article is my personal story of how some early childhood lessons helped me G.O.O.D. from Southern California in June of 1994.   I have added a few links using today’s technology, but advise you to plan on keeping things as low-tech as possible.   I traveled half way across the country in 1994.  I was a single woman with a ten year old child, no cell phone or gun.  W.T.S.H.T.F. you may not be able to get as far as we did as fast was we did, but by learning to face your fears, and being prepared, you will eventually get …


Letter Re: Lessons About Survival From Fiction

Hello, I’ve been reading and enjoying SurvivalBlog for about one month now. First of all, thank you for the time and effort you put into this great resource! I enjoy reading fiction and especially science-fiction, so a few of the references listed there were familiar. Many aren’t and have no chance of being available at the local library, here in France. However, most of those I did recognise were about dramatic SHTF scenarios, while you and many others have emphasised the likeliness of a “Slow Decline” situation. Two novels that I have read describe precisely this kind of lifestyle: they …


Two Letters Re: Solar Storms

Dear Jim, Regarding the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that occurred this week that everyone is concerned about. I advise some caution in over-reacting to these types of events. While the CME itself was of a very high magnitude and is spectacular in images, it was never anticipated that it would cause us any problems. Predictions for auroral activity were only in the high latitudes, and auroral activity is a dead-giveaway as to how strong the impact on the ground will be. The spectacular images we have all seen over the last week immediately told me we had nothing to be …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Tamara at the View From The Porch blog had a link to a good article about low-light marksmanship training: A Shot in the Dark.    o o o “Robo” sent us a piece that illustrates how our privacy is shrinking: Hacker tries to read a radio identification tag from 29 floors up. Meanwhile, we read: The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets. (Thanks to AmEx, for the latter link.)    o o o Trent H. flagged this article in The Boston Globe: Popularity of farming soars in Massachusetts.    o o o E.M.B.sent us the link to this terrorism map. …



Economics and Investing:

Chris G. mentioned: ACTA: The War on Progress, Freedom, and Human Civilization An interesting piece over at The Daily Bell: Why Bankers Didn’t See Collapse. Frequent contributor K.A.F. says: “States are taking on more debt. Here’s your state’s burden per capita“. JWR Adds: What I found amazing is Massachusetts. How can they tax their citizens so much, yet still end up short of funds? Lee C. recommended a 25 minute long BBC Radio Interview on the Credit Crisis and the Risk of Another Crash.


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of …


Home Sweet Home on the Range–Bedroll Basics, by D.K.

When assembling your post-apocalyptic, biker zombie, total collapse of civilization kit (or just getting started in camping) one item you should consider as part of your kit is a classic bedroll. History A classic bedroll, not the stuff of Hollywood or television, but the kit of real working men is both comfortable and multipurpose.  They are not lightweight, small, or easy to backpack. Please allow me to share the road I took to get to my current bedroll.  I will try to describe the attributes of a good bedroll, suggest the minimum bits for a good durable bedroll, and provide …


Letter Re: Archiving Downloaded Instructional Videos

Jim, With all of the talk about the so-called Internet Kill Switch, and more and more people referencing online instructional videos, it might be time for people to start downloading these videos to their local computers. An easy way to do this is with the Firefox Fast Video Download plug-in. While watching an unlicensed video on YouTube and other sites, select the Tools menu, Fast video download, and then select the video you want to save. The videos may have the name of the video or a generic name like youtube_video. The extension may be .flv or .mp4, or there …


Letter Re: Solar Storms

Hi Jim, Your note of last night regarding the pending solar storm was the strongest prep wake up call I’ve had yet. Especially as I finished reading One Second After Been just last night! I’ve been up all night making sure things are in order the best I can. Now that I’ve done what I can, and still wound up on adrenaline, I spent some time digging through the Internet for more EMP information. I thought that this Huffington Post article really explains some of the real dangers quite well – such as how the transformers that are damaged by …


Two Letters Re: TEOTWAWKI: Getting Folks to Recognize the Possibility

Sir, As a recent “convert” to Rawlesian Survivalist Philosophy, I very much identify with the author of “TEOTWAWKI: Getting Folks to Recognize the Possibility.” I did, however, take issue with his conclusion regarding his treatment of family members in a Schumeresque world. Having recently presented my “list of lists” to my wife, she made the comment to me that my quantities were off. As a future pastor (I am currently serving in the Navy and preparing to enter seminary) she made the point that if the SHTF we would undoubtedly be taking in strays from my congregation who did not …


Economics and Investing:

B.B. was the first of several readers that sent us this: Commodities – Wheat Soars; Rogers Sees ‘Much Higher’ Food Prices. Got your wheat yet? Stop dawdling! L.J. in England sent this: Food prices to soar 10% in time for the New Year. Reader J.C. sent this: Global Wheat Shortage Feared. “Boosters” spotted this: Is the End Game Hyperinflation or Debt Implosion? James Altucher: 7 Reasons Not to Send Your Kid to College. (A hat tip to L.L. for the link.) Allen E. forwarded a news item: A Run on Spanish Banks? K.A.F. sent this: World oil prices approach $82 …