Economics and Investing:

James W. recommended this market analysis: Five Charts: The Real Story Behind Silver If you’ve ever wondered which charities are top-heavy, R.B.S. recommended this site: Charity Navigator. BTW, I was pleased to see that Compassion International (one of my favorite charities) was so highly rated. Items from The Economatrix: Billionaire Eric Sprott – The End Game Is Absolutely Horrifying Chart Of The Day: US Labor Force Declines By 25,000 In Past Year Despite 2.4 Million Rise In Employable Americans Washington Is Standing In The Way Of US Recovery


Odds ‘n Sods:

PrepperPress.com has just published R.P. Ruggiero’s sequel to his novel Brushfire Plague. This is the second book in a planned three part series, and it brings the total prize package they’re giving the Second Prize winner of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest to 25 books. The latest novel is Brushfire Plague: Reckoning.    o o o The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post.    o o o Todd Savage with Survival Retreat Consulting has recently completed an evaluation on a …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 50 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $9,400+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) 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 $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) …


Bug Out: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly–You Can Arrive Alive, by Semper Paro

I.  Introduction – Possible Scenarios.   Your automobile becomes inoperable for a period of time while traveling – it is extremely hot or extremely cold and hours to wait. A natural disaster occurs and you have to evacuate. Chaos occurs due to financial collapse or other major event causing civil unrest. An Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) caused by solar flare(s) renders your vehicle dead miles from home. Or, an EMP occurs as a result of a nuclear strike (with collateral fall-out to follow). Use your imagination…in reality, nothing is too far fetched. While these are listed in …


Letter Re: The Dragon Day Movie

We just received our copy of the movie Dragon Day – a new movie that went direct to DVD.  The premise of the movie is that China comes to the USA to collect their debt, which we have defaulted on.  They take over all of our electronics and throw us back in time technologically 50 years.  Survivors find themselves fending off each other as well as the American traitors who quickly join forces with the Chinese – some in an attempt to just survive due to lack of food and water. For a small budget film it was excellent.  The …


Economics and Investing:

North Dakota might have the strongest labor market in the world, with a jobless rate in the Bakken of less than 0.50%. (Adjoining eastern Montana has also greatly benefited from the Bakken Boom.) Life in the Obama era: Private sector shrank in 41 states Dr. Marc Faber: “World Central Banks Are Going To Bankrupt The World!” Items from The Economatrix: More Americans Are Working, But Pay Is Low Prof:  America In Worse Fiscal Shape Than Detroit Low Wages Are Stalling America’s Economy


Odds ‘n Sods:

A reminder that Ready Made Resources is running a pre-Christmas sale on Mountain House foods until tomorrow (December 13, 2013) with 25% to 42% off free shipping, and on request they are willing to mix and match varieties in six-can cases with the varieties that they have on hand.    o o o Do you have an opinion on the introduction of Canadian timber wolves into the Lower 48 and removing wolves from the Endangered Species Act? Then please give Uncle Sam an earful! (The public comment deadline is December 17th.)    o o o Bill Buppert: Obama and the …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 50 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $9,400+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) 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 $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) …


Marksmanship, by Josh B., USMC

The Basics There is a huge focus on stocking firearms, spare parts and ammunition, but using firearms and learning the fundamentals of marksmanship seem to have a little less importance. Not necessarily that it is not important to learn the fundamentals of marksmanship, but more to the fact that it takes quite a bit of dedication and on going training to become proficient using them. I find, being an NRA and USMC instructor, that some people share the idea that they are proficient because they “have been shooting their whole life”. Some of these people assume that they understand proper …


Avalanche Lily’s Book Review: Prepper Pete Prepares

We recently received a review copy of the children’s book “Prepper Pete Prepares.” It was quite well done and very thorough in the breadth of topics covered, and had excellent illustrations. Our young’uns and I read it through once and it was so funny and packed full of information and talking points that we immediately read it again. The book is wonderfully politically incorrect, which caused lots of chuckles to erupt from all of us. I recommend getting a copy for any of your under-prepared relatives who have young children, to encourage their families to get ready. We only noticed …


Letter Re: Stronger Passwords for the Masses

Dear Editor, A long tome ago, I looked at diceware as Michael Z. Williamson mentioned (love that XKCD cartoon), and I don’t find it quite as robust as I would like for password generating (I have one diceware-ish password I use for convenience, but used a couple of foreign words and specific capitals as well). Creating a series of simple words that forces the attackers to use a brute force attack on it anyway, made me want to go out and find out a better way to find brute-force-resistant passwords. I found one (essentially, only one) really good password generator …


Economics and Investing:

Sherry K. suggested: Farmland holding value in tanked market Frequent content contributor H.L. sent this: Gold Smuggling Increases 7x In India And Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade J. McC. mentioned another peril of using social media: Two million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen in massive hack. [JWR’s Comment: In today’s world, your digital persona can be submitted as evidence in both civil and criminal trials. All that it would take is a malicious hacker gaining control of a moribund Facebook or Twitter account to commit wholesale character assassination that might not be detected for months or even years. You could …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Gee, what a concept: Take an under-powered varmint cartridge, and then down-load it to wimpy subsonic velocity. That sounds almost “less than lethal”, to me. In fact, the operative phrase might be: “Hits like a girl.” These wimpy loads will give your 5.56 NATO perhaps just a little more power than the FN 5.7×28 cartridge. My advice: If you truly need a suppressed AR, then get a dedicated .300 Blackout upper receiver group. (See the SurvivalBlog Archives for details.)    o o o The thin veneer: When policemen go on strike, the looters come out: Looting rife in Argentine city …