Odds ‘n Sods:

Cheuvreux, the equity brokerage house of the large French bank Credit Agricole has advised its clients to buy gold, citing short supplies and galloping demand. They expect a price spike to $2,000+ an ounce. The report is titled “Remonetization of Gold: Start Hoarding.” For the full text, see: http://www.gata.org/CheuvreuxGoldReport.pdf    o o o “Successful” Wolf Habitat Re-Introductions? See: http://eco.freedom.org/el/20060201/beers.shtml    o o o Hyperinflation-ravaged Zimbabwe has started to issue a $50,000 bank note. The new note is worth a whopping 50 cents, American. This travesty of monetary policy illustrates that Comrade Mugabe and his band of fools could muck up …



Note From JWR:

Yesterday, we surpassed 6 million page hits and 227,000 unique visits.  Thank you for making SurvivalBlog such and astounding success in just six months.  Please visit the web sites for each of our advertisers, and see what they have to offer.  Thanks!


Letter Re: S.F.’s Letter Re: Medical Kits

Jim, In regards to S.F.’s letter regarding medical kits, suture/wound closure, and use of Ipecac… 1. I would not recommend the use of Syrup of Ipecac to anyone without proper training in airway management, i.e.: intubation/suction equipment on hand .The airway problems far outweigh the gains, you have to know what can come back up without problem also, leave this to the trained and save your money for other supplies. 2. Wound closure, "to be or not to be closed," again if you do not have the supplies or the know how ALL wounds can close from secondary intention, that …


Letter Re: How to Buy Silver?

Dear Jim: I noticed in your SurvivalBlog post of January 27 that you mentioned that you have invested in 100 oz. Englehard silver bars. 1.) Do you recommend this type of purchase in today’s silver market? [JWR’s replies are in-line.] Even at $10 per ounce, silver is still a relative bargain.  (It certainly when you consider the real value of the U.S. Dollar–which is essentially nothing.) I recommend that you first buy one $1,000 face value bag of circulated (“junk”) pre-1965 dimes or quarters for each family member as your designated “barter” silver.  Those coins could presumably be used for …


Letter Re: Synthetic Rifle Stocks and Sporterizing Military Bolt Actions

Jim, I have a couple of questions regarding rifle parts for you and the “SurvivalBlog.com” community. This is mostly from a hunting standpoint, as my dad and I are winding down from this last deer season and planning next. I am planning on replacing the wood stock on my .30-06 and going synthetic. Do you, or any of the SurvivalBlog readers, have any other resources for synthetic stocks? I have looked long and hard at McMillan and others, but wanted to make sure there are no others I am missing. Next, what resources are there available for Mauser receivers and …


Odds ‘n Sods:

It was nice hearing the President mention in his recent State of the Union address the need to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil and his goal to get ethanol production into high gear. Hopefully this won’t be just more of the same empty “essential need for energy independence” rhetoric that we’ve been hearing from Capitol Hill and the White House since the Jimmy Carter regime    o o o The U.S. Northern Command recently “hosted representatives from more than 40 international, federal and state agencies for an exercise designed to provoke discussion and determine what governmental actions, including …



Note From JWR:

Today we feature another entry in Round 3 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best contest entry will win a four day course certificate at Front Sight. (An up to $2,000 value!)  The deadline for entries for Round 3 is the last day of March, 2006. We’ve already had plenty of motivational pieces submitted.  Please keep your contest entries focused on practical skills.  Start writing, folks! On another note: If you know anyone that sells preparedness-related good r services, please ask them to advertise on SurvivalBlog.  Thanks.


The Ultra Light Bug-Out-Bag By “Springmtnd”

Can you carry your bug-out-bag (BOB)? If your vehicle breaks down or the roads are impassable can you carry on your back the BOB that was intended to be carried in your vehicle? Just having shoulder straps on your car BOB doesn’t do it. The BOB in your vehicle is not optimized for carrying on your back. This article will introduce you to some of the techniques ultra-light back packers use, techniques that you can use to create ultra-light BOBs for you and your family members if you need to travel by foot. These will be subsets of your vehicle …


Letter Re: Peak Oil and Self-Sufficiency Web Sites

Mr. Rawles: I very much enjoying reading your blog. Keep up the good work. Here are two articles that you might find interesting: How to Plan for [Post] Peak Oil on a Limited Budget http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/article.php?id=limited_budget Very simple plan on what you need at bare minimum…attitude and mind set. Our Village http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/article.php?id=our_village “A few years after the Soviet Union collapsed, I spent some time living in a small Russian village where my wife’s side of the family owns a house…” – S.H.


Odds ‘n Sods:

I spotted two interesting articles on the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) threat faced by our deployed troops, and some prospects for IED countermeasures: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0131/p01s03-usmi.html and: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:hqHuuDmRiN8J:www.opencrs.com/getfile.php%3Frid%3D44184+IED+countermeasures&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6    o o o The Buckminster Fuller Institute has an informative web page that highlights dome building.  (For the sake of weatherproofing I prefer monolithic domes, but a lot of principles are common to both both geodesic and monolithic domes.  See: http://www.bfi.org    o o o It has been reported by the U.S. Commerce Department that the U.S. consumer savings rate has recently dropped to NEGATIVE 0.5 percent. Collectively, we are “spending it all”–and …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking." – R. Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1963


Note From JWR:

And The Winner Is… It was tough judging all of those great entries, but we reached a decision on the winner of Round 2 of our non-fiction writing contest. Congratulations to “EMT J.N.” who wrote the excellent article: “Getting Your Group to Buy In: The $20 Medical Kit.” (This article was posted on Friday, January 13th.) J.N. wins the contest prize: a “gray” fully transferable four day Front Sight course certificate. These certificates can be worth up to $2,000 each! Start writing and sending your entries for Round 3 of the contest. This contest round will again run for two …


A Biblical Defense of Preparedness, by N.

Before we get into this, a few folks may ask “Why prepare? God will take care of us.” If one wants to approach preparedness from a scriptural point of view, consider history when the Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed there would be seven plentiful years followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh was instructed to store corn “that the land perish not through famine.” The Pharaoh was told by God, through Joseph, to set food aside. In the Gospel books Matthew, Mark and Luke we see famine is once again predicted. If we follow God’s previous instructions, perhaps it is time …