Category: Emerging Threats


Letter Re: BBC/Discovery Channel Documentary on Asian Avian Flu

Hi Jim, Last night I watched a superb two hour documentary on one of the science [cable television] channels about the coming avian flu pandemic. It was a co-production of the Discovery Channel and the BBC, so I’m sure everyone with cable television will have a chance to see it. The documentary weaved between the predictions and projections of top epidemiologists, and a fictionalized account of the breakout in Cambodia, and its spread worldwide. The 1918 Spanish Flue pandemic was also used as a major point of comparison. All of the experts on the show said it is not a …


U.S. Foreclosure Numbers are Up–Some Retreat Property Possibilities?

There has been a lot of news in recent weeks about real estate foreclosures in the US. Foreclosure.com (one of SurvivalBlog’s Affiliate advertisers) just published the following US residential real estate foreclosure statistics: National Highlights: * Foreclosure activity increased 36 percent from July * Foreclosure activity increased 115 percent from August 2006 * REO (“Real Estate Owned”)s increased 59% month over month, the biggest increase of any of the three foreclosure categories (Default, Auction, REO) State and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) Highlights: * Nevada, California and Florida posted the top three state foreclosure rates * The states with the most …


Hedge Funds–A Disaster Story that Could Unfold in Quarterly Episodes

One of the consequences of the collapse of the credit bubble and the subprime lending fiasco in particular is with hedge funds. There is a substantial risk of uncontrollable instability in hedge funds that could potentially be disastrous for investors. This instability will likely be seen in waves of bad news that will come roughly once a quarter. First, let me provide a bit of background: 1.) Most hedge funds have rules that allow only quarterly redemptions (“cashing out”) by by their investors. (A few hedge funds even have only one annual redemption “window.”) Typically, the redemption requests must be …


Letter Re: A Security Contractor’s Convoy Experience in Iraq

Dear Jim, A friend of mine who is a contractor sent this. It’s been posted elsewhere. Foul language warning. – Michael Z. Williamson Info from Iraq From Someone Who is Doing the “Run and Gun“ Yesterday a friend of mine who runs a small security company here in Iraq emailed me. He is standing up a protection detail and wanted my opinion on tactics and equipment running the roads of Iraq; Tactics, SOPs, hard car or soft? I have been giving it some thought and here is where I am at. I am willing to speculate I’m as well traveled …


Letter Re: Estimate on the Likelihood of an Economic Depression or Full-Scale Collapse?

Jim, What a lot of folks don’t think about is that during the last depression, almost 80% of the population was still connected to a family farm. They also knew how to can meats and vegetables and had all of the equipment to do so. It was a way of life for them. Today less than 1% is connected to a family/small farm. That is daunting. Even if some of the population knows how to can and has a small garden, How many of them have 500-600 jars, lids and rings? Got lots of Salt, a working smokehouse that doesn’t …


Two Letters Re: New Scanner Technology — An Emerging Threat to COMSEC

James: Regarding the “signal stalker” technology: This type of thing has been available for years in the form of frequency counters. Perhaps the best known in the ham/scanner community is the Opto Electronics Scout series. These units let you scan for radio transmissions and will store the last detected frequencies in memory for later recall. This is a handy feature if you are visiting a race track, for instance and want to find out the frequencies in use while you tour the pit area. They also sell a cable that will interface to various scanners, allowing you to immediately tune …


Letter Re: Counting the Potential EMP Attack Casualties

Jim, I don’t understand why the discussion on your blog regarding EMP assumes only ground based and aircraft altitude detonations. It seems to me an equally likely attempt will be a ballistic missile detonation at maximum altitude, such as with a Scud or Chinese one, launched from a freighter off the east or west coast of the US. Al Qaeda is known to own a fleet of freighters which are not well tracked (stolen in hijacks or even purchased outright). Iran, North Korea, Syria, and [Dr. A.Q.] Khan’s rogue network are all working hard to develop a nuclear capability and …


Letter Re: Counting the Potential EMP Attack Casualties

Jim, I am a big fan of your writings but I did have to try to correct a misconception I saw [posited by a reader] on SurvivalBlog. I am an ex-fighter pilot and am well-versed on EMP effects as it did affect my mission at the time. I am now a pilot for one of the major airlines and have been one for about 18 years now. Not all airliners will fall out of the sky as is popularly thought from an EMP. Many airliners still actually fly by cables like the DC 9 and its versions such as the …


Letter Re: Surviving Major Changes in the Political Landscape

Jim, I’m a believer in being prepared for the worst. However, how do I (we) survive 4+ years of an extreme left wing political take over of our system? Right now it looks like Hillary or Obama will win the Presidential elections in ’08. With either of those two in and a left wing house and senate, I have to believe that we’re doomed. You have to know that firearms will probably be banned similar to Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Are you going to give up your means of defense? When times get tough and food gets scarce, the …


Letter Re: Counting the Potential EMP Attack Casualties

Dear Jim: Your site is excellent. It is on my list of daily reading. Your book is also excellent. I’ve also taken the 10 Cent Challenge. Under scenarios you mention minimal deaths in an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack. You posit the EMP would disable flight controls. Published information indicates that 3,624 domestic commercial flights were airborne during the attacks on 9/11/01. If that number is relatively accurate and it is multiplied by 267 (average) passengers per plane (not including flight crews) you get 967,608. If a number of these aircraft are in/near terminal control areas (cities), wouldn’t their ensuing impacts …


Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

The Disappearing “Jumbo” Creates a Window of Opportunity for Some Retreat Buyers For many years the “Jumbo” mortgage has been the means by which middle class buyers have purchased A.) Large homes, B.) Homes on large acreages, or C.) Homes in desirable suburbs. With the recent credit market crisis, the availability of Jumbo loans has declined precipitously. This has had a number of immediate effects. First, it has been an impetus for owners of houses that had been listed between $417,000 and $450,000 to lower their asking prices to $416,000 or less. Secondly, with a few exceptions, it has effectively …


Letter Re: Suburban Survival

Hi Jim and Family, I truly enjoy reading your survival blog and learn from it daily and weekly. However I believe you are skipping over a topic that would benefit your readers….most of your readers. I would think that most of your readers who check out and read your site on a daily basis do not have a remote retreat in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, or Wyoming. Most of your readers I’m sure live like me in American Suburbs, trapped and looking for a way to get out but in the mean time prepping for what we all know is …


Letter Re: Will Things Get a Bad as Described in “Patriots”?

James: I have been a SurvivalBlog reader for nearly a year. It is my favorite blog, by far. I got a [voluntary] 10 Cent Challenge subscription after about the first month (and I’m about to renew). But it wasn’t until last month that I got around to purchasing a copy of your novel [“Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”]. I had been avoiding it because I’m not the sort that reads novels. They are mostly a waste of time. But I thought that I’d make an exception and get yours, since it had such a high rating on Amazon. It wasn’t …


Letter Re: Purchasing Modern Firearms Without a Paper Trail

My Rawles, I am recently new to your SurvivalBlog web site. I have thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch up and read the thousands of posts. While I have always felt the need to be prepared for any eventuality, I have recently began more intensive preparations up on food, ammo, water and learning every thing (like making soap) that I can. I have grown up around guns and hunting my entire life. Of the four guns that I have, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, .22 [rimfire] rifle and 9 mm pistol, I have only purchased one myself: the 9mm pistol. The other …