Book Reviews: Last Light and Night Light, by Terri Blackstock

James: I am writing to recommend two novels that may be interest to your readers. Written by Terri Blackstock, I would like to recommend a series of two novels: Last Light and Night Light. These are novels that are written in a series, and while they can be read one at a time, are better read in sequence. As survival junkies, we are always in search of decent fiction centered around survival motifs – a rare genre of writing. Terri does a pretty good job of producing some entertaining and page-turning yarns. I will admit for those of us that …


Letter Re: Communications for Disasters–Are Scanners Useful?

James: The hot thing in scanners right now is digital trunking. Most public-safety services use this approach, without scrambling or encryption. Analog scanners are useless, but the new generation of scanners include direct support for digital trunking. I recently bought a Uniden/Bearcat BCD 396T, which totally restored my ability to listen to common public-safety traffic where I live. Some more sensitive government agencies use encryption on top of digital trunking, but there’s no strong survival-oriented motivation to listen to their transmissions. Unless you’re trying to survive an FBI manhunt, I suppose. In an emergency, being able to monitor fire and …


Letter Re: Yukon Gen 1 Night Vision Rifle Scope – A Product Review

Jim, I had delayed writing a review of the Yukon night vision rifle scope because I have to wonder who else is reading your site. I don’t want to do a disservice to all the good folks that visit your [blog] site. I surely don’t want the bad guys knowing the following. Unless they stumble on it themselves. If they are going to use one I would rather they use one of these gems. I may buy a few other night vision scopes just to see if the problem is in the design or I got a bad one. Here’s …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Thad K. suggested this link on how to grow your own luffa sponges. His comment: “What a great survival plant, eat them when young, wash with them when they are mature!”    o o o The previously mentioned special promotion at Northern Tool & Equipment (one of our affiliate advertisers) ends tomorrow. (December 4th) Northern is offering sitewide Free Gift Cards with purchases over $100. You will need to enter keycode 94660 in order to receive their free gift card.    o o o I got a note from Freeze Dry Guy, with good news: They are extending their November …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of …


Special Note from JWR:

My much awaited non-fiction book, Rawles on Retreats and Relocation has just been released, in time to order for Christmas! It is available as a wire-o bound “print-on demand” book from CafePress – Click here for details Topics in the book include: Retreat Locales, Detailed State and Local Statistics, Weapons Laws, Climate Zones, Property Selection Criteria, Zoning and CC&Rs, Self-Sufficiency, Emerging Threats, Terrorist and WWIII Targets, Offshore Retreats, Privacy, Stocking Your Retreat, and Much More! 225 pages, fully indexed, with detailed maps and retreat locale analysis. Covers 19 western states. A considerable portion of the content in this book has …


Letter Re: Mapping Tools For Selecting Retreat Locales

Mr. Rawles, I’ve been researching retreat areas and found a couple web site useful. National Geographic has a “MapMachine” program which allows for generating satellite, road, physical characteristics maps and, best of all, theme maps. The theme maps include weather, farming, vegetation, and population density. The MapMachine can be combined with [gardening] hardiness zone maps. These may help others in their planning. Thanks, – John H.  


Letter Re: Non-Nuclear Electro Magnetic Pulse Weapons

James: One tidbit I recently learned less than a week ago: non-nuclear EMP bombs are actually easy and cheap to make Its a permanent magnet, a coil, an antenna, and a bomb to push the magnet past the coil. The enormous electrical energy is released through the antenna causes a powerful EMP to be released, depending on the size of the device used. These tend to be heavy so I doubt you’ll see big ones flying around but a truck or railcar sized bomb would be really potent, possibly covering a dozen mile radius. Shipping containers probably won’t work that …


A Preliminary Analysis of the USDA’s NAIS User Guide of November 2006 by Mary Zanoni, Ph.D., J.D.

The following are preliminary points meant to contribute to the early and continuing discussion of this newly released (as of November 22, 2006) USDA document concerning the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). I plan to write further on some of the key issues related to the User Guide in the near future. At the close of the discussion is a list of suggestions for further action. The only real “difference” from this year’s prior Implementation Plan documents is the absence of stated dates for certain target levels of participation. The document still envisions making everyone comply with NAIS eventually. (See, …


Two Letters Re: Build Your Fallout Shelter From Barter Goods, by Mr. Yankee

Jim: Regarding Mr. Yankee’s article: Salt in some water softeners is potassium chloride, not sodium chloride. Both are ‘salts’ but they behave differently. Be sure you are storing the sodium chloride variety.- SF in Hawaii   Mr Rawles, Hope this finds you and your family doing well. I’m not sure if this link has been disclosed in the past, and I am certainly no expert in this field, but this seems like a well thought out presentation for a fallout shelter. Keep up the good work, – R.C.


Odds ‘n Sods:

There is a very lively thread of conversation over at The Claire Files Forums, titled “Preparing for Abrupt Climate Change”    o o o From WorldNetDaily: Debunking the debunkers–Snopes snookered by 10 Commandments hoax.    o o o Don’t miss out on the Free Shipping special, this month only at Ready Made Resources. They are SurvivalBlog’s oldest and most generous sponsor. Please visit their web site and check out their wide range of products and place your order soon to take advantage of the free shipping special. (Shipping charges can otherwise be considerable, especially on storage food!)



Note From JWR:

The winner of Round 7 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest is SF in Hawaii, for his article “Wheat Sprouts and Wheatgrass as Survival Foods” which was posted on November 6, 2006. The second prize goes to “Warhawke”, for his article “Selecting Barter Goods” which was posted on October 30, 2006. Congratulations to both of you. Because there were so many great entries in this round, I decided to award some free books as “Runners Up” prizes. These go to: Making Traditional Cordage in North America, by Ron (posted November 16, 2006) Bullet Casting: A (Relatively) Simple Introduction, by AVL …


Letter Re: Solar Charged Walkway Lights –An Option for Battery Charging

Jim: The discussion about cannibalizing tiny solar walkway lights prompted me to once again remind everyone about one of my favorite tools. Northern Tool & Equipment sells a 5-watt folding solar panel that folds down to the size of a paperback book for only $35. They come with a nice wiring kit that also allows multiple panels to be piggybacked for more power. They’re tough and well-made, with the small panels fit into a ballistic nylon type of carrier to make it fold. One of these lives in each of our Bug Out Bags (BOBs), along with a small battery …


Two Letters Re: EMP Shielding for Electronics

Jim: Maybe I missed something during the acquisition of several undergrad degrees, including one in physics (actually, I probably missed several things)… but how exactly does a Faraday cage have any effect on uncharged particle emissions (neutrons) as suggested by the author of the article that you recently provided a link to? And since when did Einstein claim discovery of an element (Uranium) that was discovered in the 1700’s? His cages might work (hard to actually test anything vs. EMP without doing rather large scale experiments), but that sort of nonsense kinda damages his overall credibility. – Simple Country Doc …