Three Letters Re: Welding Oxygen Versus Medical Oxygen

Jim, I write to you again as I pull another EMS duty shift. So far tonight I have had one EMS call and it was a “difficulty breathing” call. Our local law enforcement officers (LEOs) already had the patient on 15LPM. of 02 via non-rebreather mask (NRBM) before we got on scene. The LEOs tend to over inflate, so I titrated the flow down to 8LPM., which worked for the patient’s breathing pattern. I’m glad our LEOs are proactive, but this means that I don’t get a baseline Room Air (RA) 02 saturation for comparison and it does waste some …




Odds ‘n Sods:

C.S.D. mentioned an interesting product with several survival application: Gloshade. Note that these reflectors will also work with infrared chemical light sticks.    o o o More economic news and commentary, courtesy of SurvivalBlog’s Economic Editor: Fannie & Freddie: Buying Friends in D.C., Fannie & Freddie Bailout Destined to Fail as US Debt Doubles, Mortgage Giant Overstated Its Capital Base, Fannie and Freddie: Just the Beginning of the Derivatives Deleveraging Bailout, Lehman Bros. Worth a Big FAT Zero?, Fannie Mae Faces Investor Lawsuit, Berkshire, in Blow to Banks, Reins in its Deposit Insurer, Wall Street Trading Gets Zero Value from …







Notes from JWR:

Hey! I just noticed that we’ve surpassed 4.5 million unique visits. Thanks for spreading the word about SurvivalBlog! The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $550. The auction for a mixed lot that includes: Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, (donated by Ready Made Resources–a $320 value), a NukAlert radiation detector, (donated by KI4U–a $160 value), a Wilson Tactical COP tool, (donated by Choate Machine and Tool Company, a $140 value), a DVD of 480 E-books on Alternative Energy (donated by WK Books–a $25 value). The auction ends on Monday September …




Letter Re: Should I Get a Bigger Property and a Bigger Mortgage?

JWR, I currently live in a crowded subdivision in a moderately nice house that is worth $240,000. We owe approximately $120,000 on it, and have $120,000 in equity. Based on much of what I read here, we were looking for a house with some land, and recently found one for $370,000 (it’s only 2.5 acres, but that’s much more than we have now). If we buy it we will owe $370,000 -120,000 = $250,000). I currently make around $120,000 per year, in a job in the medical field that should not be too hard hit by financial crises. So what …




Letter Re: Substantially Higher Food Prices at Warehouse Stores

Hi Jim, Yesterday I made my monthly or thereabouts pilgrimage to Costco to buy bulk items for our pantry and other needs. I immediately noticed that prices had gone up on just about everything. The 40 pound bags of Kirkland brand dog food (re-labeled Iams brand) had gone up from $19.90 to $23.64 which is about a 16% increase in price. The 25 pound bags of Indian long grain rice went for $20.00 to $24.00 – a 20% increase and other items here and there had gone up a dollar or two or three. While Costco continues to be a …




Letter Re: Observations on Empty Store Shelves in Louisiana

Mr. Rawles, I am an over the road truck driver and happen to be in Louisiana today. I have been to several stores in the southern part of the state and took note of what was in short supply. The shelves in the camping section were empty, they were out of water, generators, gas cans, coolers and frozen dinners. The frozen dinner thing I didn’t get, I figured they’d be short on canned or boxed food. Just stuff I noticed and thought I’d share. God Bless and I’ve been praying for your wife.- Vincent from Portland JWR Replies: Part of …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader I.T.N. wrote me to ask: “I noticed that [the base metal value of] a nickel is [down to] now 4.9 cents. (due to a sharp decline in nickel as of late) Do you think this is temporary, or should I begin to spend the milk jugs full of nickels I acquired.” I expect that spot price of nickel will rebound in coming months, as the US Dollar resumes its decline. With more rapid inflation looking likely, I expect that a US five cent piece will have a base metal value of 10 cents (twice its face value) within two …




Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“…we have the phenomenon called inflation which is the appearance of rising prices. I emphasis the word ‘appearance’ because in reality prices are not rising at all. What we’re seeing is that the value of the dollar is going down, that’s the real side of the equation. If we had real money based on gold or silver or anything tangible that couldn’t just be created out of thin air, it could be based on microphones, that they couldn’t just create with the stroke of a pen, you would see then that prices would remain stable over a long period of …




Notes from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $550. The auction for a mixed lot that includes: Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, (donated by Ready Made Resources–a $320 value), a NukAlert radiation detector, (donated by KI4U–a $160 value), a Wilson Tactical COP tool, (donated by Choate Machine and Tool Company, a $140 value), a DVD of 480 E-books on Alternative Energy (donated by WK Books–a $25 value). The auction ends on September 15, 2008. Please e-mail us your bid. Today’s posts include an article cross-posted with permission from the new Everyday …




Letter Re: The EMP Threat May Be Worse Than We Had Thought

Mr Rawles, Your readers may benefit from the following current links regarding the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat: Full report of the EMP Commission to the House Armed Services Committee (July 10, 2008) This link has a concise summary of key points from the above report: I also recommend an interview with the Chairman of the EMP Commission. The interview includes the following statements that are very important: Asked just how many Americans would die if Iran were to launch the EMP attack it appears to be preparing, Graham gave a chilling reply: “You have to go back into the 1800s …




Range Report: Advantage Arms .22 Conversion Kit for the Glock, by Everyday Prepper

To start off let me say I’m in no way affiliated Advantage Arms or Glock. I don’t get paid to advertise or test their products and I definitely don’t get paid to write reviews. I took the Glock out today with the Advantage Arms conversion kit installed. I wasn’t exactly skeptical of the kit after reading about it online but I was expecting to have some sort of break in period. I opened the kit up and out fell an orange piece of paper that instructed me to put some oil on the parts in the picture. I grabbed the …




Five Letters Re: Welding Oxygen Versus Medical Oxygen

James: Just a quick note, never ever use oxygen under pressure near oil! Never use oil on the thread’s or fittings! The high pressure will cause the oil to detonate,similar to a diesel ignition! If you must,and probably should never need to, use a teflon tape seal!And if you have an acetylene bottle, let it stand for 24 hours as it may have been laid on it’s side before using it, separating the acetone from the gas. – Dean   Jim The letter in response to welding oxygen versus medical oxygen was interesting. Unfortunately [that readers} was wrong on one …




Letter Re: Firearms Battery Recommendations

Jim, In reference to the post on September 9th concerning the Mossberg Riotgun–as far as I know the only Mossberg available with the steel safety switch (as well as steel receiver, steel trigger guard, bayonet lug and heavier/thick walled barrel) is the Mossberg 590A1. For a few dollars more it is, IMHO a better choice. They can still be had for around $500–steel trigger assemblies et cetera are available for upgrading the plastic parts but they are pricey, and the trigger assembly has to be shipped to an FFL. Once [all of this is] done it may in fact be …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Universal flu vaccine tests start in the UK    o o o We can now chalk up another $200 Billion in the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB). It’s now official: U.S. Seizes Fannie and Freddie. This confirms my suspicion that there is no such thing as “too big to bail out”, but the dictum of “too big to fail” is in full force. I predict that these bailouts will continue in both the public and private sectors, in a “widening gyre.” The bailouts won’t end until the US dollar is destroyed as a currency unit. Get out of any dollar-denominated …