Category: Emerging Threats

Letter Re: Rethinking Global Oil Reserves

Michael Z. Williamson is correct that folk don’t think about all the uses of oil in the products we buy. The sustainability of our growing population is dependent upon massive amounts of oil used in pesticides and fertilizers in order to obtain spectacularly large crop yields per acre, not to mention the harvesting, transportation, and transportation of food. Shortages of oil could have a severe impact on food production, and last year even the “moderately high” price of fuel caused a few farmers to not be able to harvest their crops. One problem with the oil picture is that not …


Derivatives–The Mystery Man Who’ll Break the Global Bank at Monte Carlo

When I do radio interviews or lecture presentations, I’m often asked: “Mister Rawles, what do you see as a likely ‘worst case scenario’?” People expect me to say “a full scale nuclear exchange in World War III” or, “a stock market crash”, or “a flu pandemic”, or “a sudden end to the current real estate bubble.” But most of them are surprised when I respond: Economic collapse triggered by the popping of the derivatives bubble. Many people that are involved in the periphery of the investing–including most small investors–have never even heard of derivatives. They may have heard of ‘hedge …


Rethinking Global Oil Reserves by Michael Z. Williamson

Ah, oil. It’s close in everyone’s minds because we rely on it absolutely. It fuels our vehicles, some houses, provides lubricants, is used for all our plastics and in many industrial applications. The first major factor in the chain is surveying and drilling of crude. As recently made the news, a massive reserve in the Gulf of Mexico has increased our domestic supply by 50%. There are also newer technologies coming on board for extracting oil from tougher resources (Shales, sands, deep wells, from under permafrost) and also manufacturing oil from organic waste, in a process called Thermodepolymerization (TDP). The …


From David in Israel: The 2006 Hezbollah Rocket War– A Lesson Learned

James Sorry for the lag time, I have been very busy with Torah study and family time using up all the hours in a week. We are three days from Rosh Hashanna as I write this, the day the whole world is judged for the year (this Saturday). This past year has been tough on Israel but reinforces the reason I have chosen to live here. Our defeat on the military side is largely due to an incompetent army chief of staff and Kadima party cabinet appointments who were recognized even at the election to be incompetent in security issues …


Two Letters Re: Personal Hygiene in a Biowarfare World

James: Peter Hardt tis correct about hand sanitation. To which I would add that auto-inoculation (putting your fingers in your nose, eyes or ears) is now scientifically proven to be the #1 way you get a cold. See the work of Kenneth Seaton. It is basically impossible to clean the underside of our fingernails and this is the most infectious part of our body. Learn not to pick your nose or use your fingernails to rub out sleepyheads. Use a napkin or your shirt. If not, at least use your knuckles… When in public and concerned about infection, carry your …


Two Letters Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

Dear James, I concur with The Wanderer’s assessment of the MS-13 gang. That gang is very active in the Houston area where I currently reside. A young teenage girl recently stabbed and killed an MS-13 member in a city park (perhaps in self defense). Her lawyer had her kept in jail because they thought jail was safer for her than being free and in the public, especially since the media had to plaster images of her face everywhere. I’ve bypassed some otherwise nice real estate in the past because of MS-13 activity in near areas. I view those in gangs …


Letter Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

James, Please look up the Gang MS-13 who I understand are a Venezuelan controlled “Mafia” for drug running. These members don’t use guns, (for who knows what reason), they have chosen the Machete’ as their weapon of choice. In a post TEOTWAWKI situation, sizing up a danger by looking for a gun alone will not suffice. Keep your distance. All the more reason to have good firearm training. If it’s hand to hand, it’s probably too late. – The Wanderer JWR Replies: I concur that gang members will be a significant threat in a post-TEOTWAWKI “law and order vacuum” (Just …


Letter Re: What We Learned From Hurricane Katrina

Dear Mr. Rawles, The anniversaries of Katrina and Rita offer us an useful opportunity to reflect upon the lessons of profound adversity. As a Texan and a native of Houston, the disaster and its aftermath have reminded me of three important truths. First, we were all cautioned that the time to leave is well before the mass of people thinks that leaving is reasonable. Second, if you do plan to stick around, plan to be on your own for longer than you expected in conditions more harsh than you anticipated. Third, any mass-casualty disaster is going to let loose a …


Letter Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

Jim, First off I don’t want to come across as a dooms day advocate or an alarmist, but….last night while channel flipping I came across a program on Court TV. It was about the gangs that are in prisons. Mostly in the south west and western regions of the United States. I should have remembered the title but I don’t. Anyway, it was an eye opening session for me. I recalled the different books I have read about post TEOTWAWKI and Mutant Zombie Bikers (MZBs) scenarios. The descriptions in the books are vivid as to their ruthlessness, however, I think …


Letter Re: The Economic/Infrastructure Damage of Just One Nuke

Hi Jim, I don’t know if you have seen this or not, but the Rand Corporation has done a study of a hypothetical nuclear attack on the port of Long Beach, California through which about 30% of US shipping passes. The report shows how devastating this would be to the US and the world economy with damage to the shipping infrastructure, refineries, insurance industry, etc. not to mention the human cost, of course. The outcome of such an attack could very easily be a world wide depression as port activity would come to a halt to prevent any further such …


Two Letters Re: The Coming Energy Crisis: Hubbert’s Peak Or Not–Be Prepared!

Dear Jim: Let’s face it, most of our energy shortfalls are completely self-imposed. Gone are the days of the 1950s when generations looked to and planned for the future, built infrastructure and power plants for the grand cities that would one day be. Now we in the US haven’t built a new nuclear power plant since the Three Mile Island incident. We’ve turned against coal even though we have hundreds and hundreds of years worth of the stuff or more. Ted Kennedy won’t let windmills go up any more since they wouldn’t look nice to Ocean front property owners in …


Novel H5N1 Bird Flu Sequence in Garut Cluster?

Hello Jim: Thought that this might be important, so am sending you a link to an article from Recombinomics. Read carefully–and between the lines. On the first page, click on the ‘alarming’ link. Then on that page, click on the ‘rapidly growing cluster’ link. From there, the next interesting link is ‘have failed to match’. Hopefully this is not the beginning of rapid H2H transfer, but Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) does seem to be mutating rapidly. When the folks at Recombinomics, ProMED, and CIDRAP all seem to be concerned, I get just a bit on edge. Thanks, – Cactus …


The Coming Energy Crisis: Hubbert’s Peak Or Not–Be Prepared!

There has been a lot of ink spilled in recent years, debating the Hubbert’s Peak (“Peak Oil”) theory. FWIW, I am a believer in global oil depletion, but I think that those in the “Peak Oil” crowd are about 20 to 25 years too early in their predictions. In my estimation we cannot depend on the slow-moving bureaucracies of national governments to rescue us from the coming energy crisis. Even if we were t overcome the problem in the First World, the second World and the Third World–with less money available for massive crash programs and probably with a more …


Letter Re: Australian Podcast on Peak Oil

Jim, There’s an excellent, very recent Peak Oil multi-part podcast at the Australian ABC site listed below. I found it informative, and also a good way to brake the news to my wife. She’s a type A personality that works ALL the time, but she doesn’t particularly keep up with world events. (Yes, it’s my fault. I should’ve brought her into the fold long ago.) It brought her to tears. Now I feel bad because I didn’t expect that…but, it had to be done. Since she’s a survivor, and smarter than I am, it’ll be good to have her help …


Letter Re: RFID Chip Hacking and RFID Chip Skimmer Technology

  Dear Jim, Here’s a link on RFID that you might find interesting. I think the implications for NAIS are obvious. Here are plans for a low-cost RFID “skimmer” that can read chips surreptitiously. The clear implication is that it would be a simple matter to capture codes and clone fake RFID chips. Also, an RFID “blocker” chip that floods the interrogating transmitter with garbage. Of note, current RFID transmitter software is likely to be vulnerable to malicious code (“viruses”) transmitted by altered chips. I submit it’s only a matter of (a very short) time before we see security disasters …