Odds ‘n Sods:

G.G. was the first of several readers to send this: The great Asian gold theft crisis    o o o I heard about some American-made Boost Regulators that are useful off the grid. These can produce 14 volts with just 9 volts input.    o o o Linda U. suggested this article: Three Oregon mushroom pickers rescued after 6 days lost. JWR’s Comment: It is indeed a miracle that they survived. Consider: Poor prior planning. (This was a case of PPPPP.) Pitiful clothing and equipment. No signaling capability. No map and compass. No GPS. And if the temperatures had been …



Note from JWR:

A reminder about our new IPV4 (“dotted quad”) address: 95.143.193.148. When we migrated to our new primary server in Sweden, we adopted this new dotted quad address. Please make a hardcopy note of it, and update your bookmarks. This is important!


Book Release! Armageddon Medicine Now Available

SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor, Dr. Cynthia Koelker, has released her much-anticipated nonfiction book: Armageddon Medicine. This massive tome is 589 pages long–about the same size as Carla Emery Encyclopedia of Country Living. I authored the book’s Foreword. For now, the pre-publication edition of Armageddon Medicine is only available at ArmageddonMedicine.net, but it will soon be available through all the major book outlets. If you’d like copy of the pre-publication edition, SurvivalBlog readers all qualify for a 5% discount, with coupon code SB-DC-05. You may have already read Dr. Koelker’s first book, 101 Ways to Save Money on Health Care. So that you’ll …


El Fin del Mundo – And Then Came The Spanish Edition

Newly released by Editorial Paidotribo Publishing, of Barcelona, Spain: Cómo Sobrevivir al Fin del Mundo tal Como lo Conocemos. This the Spanish edition of my international bestseller “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times”. The English edition is now in its 11th printing. The German edition and Bulgarian edition are already in print, to be followed by Portuguese, French, Russian, and Korean translations, now in development. The price for the Spanish edition is a hefty € 29, (about $38 USD), so I recommend it only for your family …


400 Chernobyls: Solar Flares, EMP, and Nuclear Armageddon, by Matthew Stein, P.E.

There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more either under construction or in the planning stages. There are 104 of these reactors in the USA and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet’s ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness not just one or two nuclear melt-downs but 400 or more! How likely is it that our world might experience an event that could ultimately cause hundreds of reactors to fail and melt down at approximately the same time?  I venture to say that, unless we take significant …


Letter Re: Melting Lead for the Meltdown

James, I wasn’t going to say anything about some of the lead info on your site, but this last one warning of perspiration making lead explode was too much.   Yes, molten lead is very hot and it holds many many calories.  It will burn skin like crazy.  But for water to be a problem it has to go under the surface and do it quickly.  If it can make it under the surface before it turns to steam then when it does turn to steam it does so with some violence.  This can push lead out of the pot.  But …


Bowel Issues – Part 2, by Dr. Bob

Mechanical bowel problems   Mechanical bowel problems can include gallstones, bezoars, malrotation, ileus, foreign bodies, food impaction, stool impaction, tumors both cancerous and benign, and intussusception.  Then there is the mechanical problem we can actually do something about in a TEOTWAWKI environment:  constipation.  First, we will review the list and talk a little bit about prevention and conservative treatments of the list above; then we can spend some time reviewing the prevention, treatment, and management of constipation.  We will also talk a little about constipation’s frequent sidekick:  hemorrhoids.  Fun topics, to be sure, but a little knowledge in these areas may …


Recipe Of The Week:

Pumpkin Soup, by Mrs. R.L.B. Pumpkins store very well, which makes this a great recipe to have on hand. I have made this with a variety of pumpkins and other winter squash, including butternut squash, but I have also used some pretty odd looking varieties of squash out of curiosity at the store. (If it kind of looks like a pumpkin, it will probably work. ) This soup has always come out great despite my experimentation.  When you plant your pumpkins, consider planting a variety so that you have a better chance of growing and storing successfully.   Two tricks to better storage of pumpkins are: 1) to let …


Economics and Investing:

Tax Doomsday Is Coming for Amazon Why The Bernanke Effect Has Catastrophic Long-Term Consequences Items from The Economatrix: California To Run Of Out Cash In One Month:  Controller Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners Why Hasn’t The Day Of Financial Armageddon Occurred Yet? Europe’s “Great Deleveraging” Has Only Just Began Silver:  $50 Here We Come


Odds ‘n Sods:

I heard that Ready Made Resources will have a booth at the upcoming Dallas, Texas Self Reliance Expo on February 10th and 11th.They tell me that they will have Mountain House foods available by the case–over $30,000 worth of inventory at the show available for you to take home immediately. They will also have with them: Country Living grain mills Goal Zero solar power products, Katadyn,  and Ultimate Survival kits, as well as many others. Anyone who desires absolute privacy  can purchase there at the show without any records. (So bring plenty of cash!)    o o o Preview of …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, 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.) D.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a …


A Survivalist Plan of Action and a Survivalist Mindset, by Ringo

I have recently retired from the military and have began to dig deeper into the survivalist arena. I have always been interested in this area for quite some time but have not really dedicated the amount of time that I want due to job requirements, life events etc. I have been reading all the blogs, videos and write ups about prepping, survival and there are a lot of good information out there. So I decided to use my 26 years of military experience (4 yeas Infantry, 6 years Long Range Surveillance and 16 years Special Forces)  and apply pertinent concepts …


Prepping for Less and for the First Time Prepper, by Becky Bear

Recently, because of some significant financial changes in our life (including moving halfway across country, one of us unable to find work and the other getting laid off, and then getting a job at 50% of the previous salary) we are no longer able to invest as we done in the past. However, because we invested in prepping prior to our sudden reversal of fortune, what would normally happen in this type of financial emergency merely became a financial irritant. Even without 75% of our previous income, we are still able to live well and continue our prepping effort, if …