Note from JWR:

The high bid is now at $100 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit AM/FM/Shortwave digitally-tuned radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one of our most loyal advertisers. Also included in the auction lot is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. These four items have a combined value of more than $350. The auction ends on November 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.


Letter Re: Lack of Government Preparedness and Infrastructure Upkeep Necessitates G.O.O.D. Planning

Jim, Popular Mechanics magazine outlines five scary Katrina-esque scenarios in various parts of our country might face in the coming years. I find it interesting that two of the five involve California and three of the five involve large bodies of water. People in the affected areas need to seriously consider moving out or having a Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) plan. Also, just because you don’t think you are near any bodies of water, it does not make your home immune to floods. When checking a local university’s Emergency Preparedness Plan, I found out that my neighborhood is part …


Letter Re: Mylar “Wine in a Box” Inserts for Liquids Storage

Mr. Rawles I stumbled upon this thread about these guys doing a cross-Africa trip. Its pretty long, but worth the read. One piece of interest was the use of the bags that wine-in-a-box comes in to store fuel. Here is the link to the start of the thread, just keep clicking “continue” at the end. Warning: There is some National Geographic-type nudity. – Slinger JWR Replies: This topic came up once before in SurvivalBlog. OBTW, it would be quite dangerous to store anything that is more flammable than waste vegetable oil (WVO) in a Mylar bag. Use only proper containers …


Letter Re: The Southeastern US Drought

JWR: I was talking to a friend in North Carolina this afternoon and he was telling me about the drought conditions in the Charlotte area and he relayed to me some interesting drought news. – The several acre sized lake on his property has dried up. – Duke Power has issued a statement, in the local area, to expect power disruptions in the coming months due to low water levels in the reservoirs that Duke operates that is used for hydro power, cooling towers, and such. Here is a link from the DOE about a drought’s drain on power. The …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Does this sound familiar?: Burned by Real Estate, Some Just Walk Away. Meanwhile, with thanks to RBS, here is a housing affordability analysis from Dr. Housing Bubble: A $626,00 Short Sale in Burbank, California    o o o Yet another reason to dislike eBay’s ultra-liberal managers: EBay customers’ cash linked to risky assets    o o o “Kit” sent us this AP wire story on the global SIV fiasco: The credit crisis is far from over, just look at what the new facts show    o o o RBS sent us this article from Alan Farago, posted at the Daily …



Notes from JWR:

If you enjoy reading SurvivalBlog, then please keep spreading the word to help grow our readership. Links to SurvivalBlog at your personal web page and/or in your e-mail footer would be greatly appreciated. Reader Karen B. mentioned the following SurvivalBlog article which was originally posted on August 29, 2005. Karen’s comment: “And look what’s happening now!” Given the recent economic news, I thought it apropos to re-post this article:


From the SurvivalBlog Archives: Dumping of US Dollar Could Trigger “Economic September 11” (Posted August 29, 2005)

I very rarely post lengthy excerpts from other sources. However, I am essentially forced to in this case. You see, this prematurely archived article was posted at The Australian newspaper web site for just a few hours, earlier today. (Actually late afternoon on the 28th in the U.S., due to the time difference and being on the other side of the International Date Line). It was briefly on their “The World” page–one of their main pages. But it now shows up only in their archives. No explanation was given why it has mysteriously disappeared from their “The World” page. It …


Letter Re: Plan B — Your Bug-Out Route

Mr. Rawles, In the event of a natural or manmade disaster you may need to retreat despite extensive preparations at your base of operations, whether in suburbia or in the mountains. You may find yourself in a desperate situation; facing forest fire, fallout from a malfunctioning nuclear power plant, terrorism, organized bands of looters or an invading army. Where will you go? How will you get there? What is your route? Whether you have been preparing for years or weeks you need a Plan “B”. Identifying the threat will help you determine the safest route and mode of transportation to …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From our friends at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), we learned of the National “Empty Holster” Protest on College Campuses, this week.    o o o Bill in Las Vegas mentioned this article about the lengthy drought in the southeastern United States, necessitating severe water rationing in Atlanta. Bill’s comment: “I can’t get over our Federal Government’s arrogance. When asked about what plans are being made in case Atlanta runs out of water, a major with the Corps of Engineers actually said ‘We’re so far away from that, nobody’s doing a contingency plan’. Incredible.”    o o …




Meltdown from Modern Financial Alchemy, by Thomas Tan

Nowadays after all the 3rd quarter write-off announcements from many banks, sub-prime has been mentioned less on television and newspapers. The market has returned to the old high and some more. Is this credit crunch crisis over? What might be coming next? The sub-prime is only the 1st layer of the onion being peeled; there is much worse danger yet to be revealed. It is amazing to see the high growth in all kinds of fixed income products during last 10 years called SIVs (structured investment vehicles) such as RMBSs (residential mortgage backed securities), CDOs (collateralized debt obligations), ABS (asset …


Letter Re: The Fragility of the US Power Grid

Hi , I read the recent statements about the power grid and have to tell you the telephone network in in a similar condition. The reasons are the same as power guy’s statements. I was a tech for the phone company for 26+ years, much of it as a lineman but also in repair and splicing. Fiber optic cables are great but the electronics at each end require [grid] power to run the equipment. [Some other topics deleted, for brevity] The point is that things are a mess. You are doing a great job [with SurvivalBlog] to get people to …


Perspective on the EMP Threat: Looking Back at Starfish Prime, by David in Israel

James, Since there seems to be big interest in the nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect, SurvivalBlog readers might want to see some footage about the Starfish Prime test, [a part of Operation Dominic, a series of tests intended to test nuclear weapons effects in space], which knocked out some power substations on Oahu, Hawaii, around 800 miles away back in 1962. Video clip 1. Video clip 2. – David in Israel