Category: Emerging Threats

Letter Re: A New Fungus Among Us

James, I saw this on the net and thought that your readers may not have heard of this yet: Deadly Airborne Fungus Spreading in Northwest. Heads up folks: “A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia.” “The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, and shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.” “The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a …


Letter Re: A Cautionary Tale of the Consequences of the Lean Supply Chain

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have been reading your blog for about a year (sincere thanks for a great job) and have introduced a few dozen folks to its collected wisdom. I pass along this article, from The Telegraph in the United Kingdom, that speaks to the mounting impact/consequences of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. For a long time I have had concerns about the practice that manufacturing businesses have adopted for managing their supplies and inventory – namely the employment of Lean Supply Chain (LSC) manufacturing techniques. While companies (nations) reduce expense for maintaining inventory, in the short run, …


A Practical, Full Spectrum Suburban Survival Plan, by JIR

Survival planning can be overwhelming and a lot of the advice you get is not practical or compatible with our lifestyles. A lot of us choose, or are forced to live in the crowded East Coast far too close to cities to survive TEOTWAWKI. I dare say, a lot of SurvivalBlog readers live in suburbs just outside medium to large population centers. Many of us have jobs that don’t migrate to small towns and would face a substantial loss of income if we moved away from our livelihoods. Some of us like our current lives and feel that hunkering down …


Two Letters Re: Icelandic Volcanic Ash

James, As a geologist (masters degree) I have written for 30 years on issues of geologic hazards for numerous publications and made presentations to governmental entities regarding same. I preach preparedness for disaster as a way of mitigation for the inevitable. This is my heads up for your readers. The unpronounceable Icelandic volcano (Eyjafjallajokull) that is currently erupting and disrupting air traffic mostly over Europe is becoming quite a demonstration of natures ability to mess with our technology. A much bigger worry is a nearby volcano called Katla which is also located under a huge ice cap on iceland. Katla …


Letter Re: The Westchester Burglaries as a Home Security Lesson

James, I found this article interesting: Professional Gang On Burglary Spree In Westchester. The homeowners spend so much money on their houses (prices start at $600,000) but fail to install any kind of security system. The other thing I thought about while reading this is that there are people who don’t take the threat of gangs seriously during a TEOTWAWKI event. Yet here is a professional gang breaking into affluent homes during ‘peaceful’ times. What do people think these gangs will be like when there’s no electricity? No grocery store? No fuel? The mantra is as always: hope, and pray, …


Letter Re: Demographics and Population Density Map Resources

Mr. Rawles: I’ve seen a few posts mentioning Population Density maps, but what I’ve seen so far doesn’t let you really drill into a particular geographic region. Webfoot has population density maps (among other demographics) based on the 2000 census, and using Google Maps. With webfoot you can drill down to a city level and get a good granular picture of an area, instead of inferring density from a static, US-wide map. It can be a little slow to load, but the wait is worth it. So if you’re like me, and trapped in the Northeast, you can use this …


Letter Re: Lessons from The Irish Potato Famine

James Wesley: I’ve been researching family history in Ireland during the 1845 famine and found this interesting online book that describes the food riots, workhouses, rampant death and illness, and other aspects of life during an intense social upheaval. It may be enlightening: The Famine in Dungarvan: The Poor Law, Famine and Aftermath in Dungarvan Union Thanks, – Chris M.


How to Do More than Survive at the Different Stages of Societal Collapse, by Tamara W.

Dmitry Orlov wrote about the five stages of social collapse. In descending order, these stages are: financial, commercial, political, social and – last and certainly worst – cultural. In the face of a collapsing society, what can be done to lessen the immediate and local impact at each of these stages? How can we lessen the personal impact of societal collapse? Preparedness is key in any disaster, and societal collapse is certainly a disaster on epic scale. The question then is what to do at each stage of societal collapse. Here is how to do more than survive at each …


Letter Re: Spokeo and OPSEC

Greetings, This is in regards to the recent letter about the web site, Spokeo: T. in Oregon was right to be annoyed and worried about such a site. But, following their directions to “remove” your name from their DB is not accurate. The privacy link is merely a phishing link to verify your e-mail and your existence. Yes, once you do that your name will not show up for the free search, but it greatly expands their ability to gather info about you and anyone with $30 can get that information. On a side note, I want to thank you …


Letter Re: The Storage of Food as a Strategic National Reserve

Mr. Editor: Many nations around the world, including the USA, place great importance on Fuel Reserves as a Strategic National Resource. However, of growing importance and also greatly unrealized, is the fact that food reserves are at least as strategically important as fuel reserves to the security of any nation and maybe more so. When thinking of a primary food reserve, one would assume that wheat is a major food resource of the USA, and it is. In 2009, the USA was responsible for producing 2.22 billion bushels of wheat. However, of growing national importance and a growing possible concern …


Letter Re: Spokeo and OPSEC

Howdy, Last night on the news I heard a report about a new web site called Spokeo that combines phone book information, map info, personal info and social networking site info to create a profile for people. [It is an OPSEC threat.] I typed in names for my family and was surprised at the amount of info that was available. You can go to their “Privacy” page (linked at the very bottom and on the right) to remove a name. I did it this morning and it already took us off. Just to let you know in case you also …


Economics and Investing:

Mind-Boggling Budget Deficit (The Mogambo Guru) GG recommended this ShawdowStats article published late last year that was previously available only to their paid subscribers: Hyperinflation Special Report RBS sent us this: The Continuing Decline of the Consumer ….More Struggling Borrowers Face Pay Garnishment Items from The Economatrix: Private Employment Fell in March States Delay Tax Refunds to Help Their Bottom Lines Wall Street is Driving Up Oil Prices More Financial Bubbles Ahead in the US Housing Market US Bankruptcy Filings Highest Ever Since 2005 Hoarding Not Hiring–Corporations Stockpiling Hoards of Cash Geithner Delays Currency Report L.A. City Employees Make Impassioned …


Letter Re: How to Remove Your House Image from Google Maps Street View

James, Your readers might be interested to know that the street view of their house can be viewed by anyone using Google Maps. If they do not wish to have the view showing all your expensive SUVs and G.O.O.D. vehicles, do the following: 1. Using Google Maps, find your address. 2. Activate the Street View for that address. 3. At the bottom of the view is a link that says “Report A Problem.” By clicking that link, you are taken to a form that allows you to request that your house photo be removed. Simply follow the directions on the …


Letter Re: Infoworld’s Take on IT Doomsday Scenarios

James, The magazine Infoworld is a fairly trusted source in the information technology (IT) field. They recently posted an article titled, “Tech apocalypse: Five doomsday scenarios for IT”. Here is a quote: “What could happen [from a wide scale EMP attack]: Workstations? Dead. Data centers? Gone. Cell phones might still work, but the cell towers probably won’t, rendering them useless. Your car won’t start. A large enough attack will also shut down automated controls at power substations, leaving everyone in the dark. Think pre-industrial revolution days. In our scenario the New York Stock Exchange shuts down, causing shock waves to …


Letter Re: Vehicle Shutdown Via Remote Control–No Longer Just a Remote Possibility

Dear JWR: I hope that you are well. I thought that the following news report may be of interest to your blog. Not to get too “tinfoil-hat” here, but many of your readers may not appreciate the vulnerabilities their vehicles’ computers expose them to. See: Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely. The article begins: “More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.” In this case the …