Category: Odds ‘n Sods

Thanks to SJC for sending this: Virulent form of cold virus spreads in U.S.. The general trend is for mutation into less virulent forms, but sometimes a “sport” shows up.    o o o Hawaiian K. sent us this: The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock–One of the most eminent scientists of our time says that global warming is irreversible — and that more than 6 billion people will perish by the end of the century    o o o Michael Panzner, writing in his Financial Armageddon blog, posted an article about how troubled Fannie Mae has changed how it …

Thanks to our friend L.C. who alerted us to this news story: Manteca homes up for auction. Manteca (which fittingly means “lard” in Spanish) is a small town at the far eastern fringe of commuting distance to the San Francisco Bay Area–a full two hour drive from San Francisco when there is no traffic. Similar auctions have taken place recently in Los Banos and Tracy, California. Most of the homeowners in these neighborhoods have eaten their slice of Humble Pie quietly, but others have protested. L.C.’s comment: “One recent auction raised howls of protest from some of the owners that …

Mint Fears Losses From Penny Meltdown: Cindy Skrzycki    o o o Gresham’s Law in action: Proposal to ban U.S. coins in Toronto shot down    o o o Next Monday (November 19th) has been declared National Ammo Buycott Day, 2007.    o o o Speaking of ammo, Todd Savage (who kindly volunteers to be the retreat evaluator for SurvivalRealty.com) notes: “I went by the new Cabela’s store in Post Falls, Idaho today while waiting to meet a SurvivalBlog real estate client for a week of retreat property shopping and I noticed that they were selling 1,000 round cases of …

H5N1 in the British Isles? Yes, it’s official: Outbreak of lethal bird flu confirmed in Britain.    o o o Just in time for holiday travel: Pump price to jump 20 cents in next 2-3 weeks    o o o Thanks to RBS for sending us this article from Forbes: Empty Houses Home to Crime As Loans Fail. Here is a quote: “In the Franklin Reserve neighborhood of Elk Grove, Calif., full of subdivisions with half-million dollar homes, homeowners are fighting inner-city problems like gangs, drugs, theft and graffiti. During the boom, the suburb just south of Sacramento sprouted 10,000 …

Could the recently reported outbreak of Asian Avian Flu in England be the dreaded H5N1 strain? Bird flu confirmed on farm in east England. (A tip of the hat to J.P. for sending this link.)    o o o Rod sent us this: US Supreme Court may hear Second Amendment Case. Hopefully they will settle the “individual right” versus “collective right” controversy once and for all, and roll back some unconstitutional Federal laws.    o o o The high bid is still at $400 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit AM/FM/Shortwave digitally-tuned radio, and …

Frequent contributor DV sent us this piece of news, which hardly came as a surprise: Currency Controls Return as Central Banks Fight Dollar Freefall    o o o Eric. S. suggested this article from MIT ‘s Technology Review: Oil from Wood–Startup Kior has developed a process for creating “biocrude” directly from biomass.    o o o Courtesy of the folks at Swiss America (one of our loyal advertisers); comes the link to an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Gold eyes all-time high on currency crisis.    o o o Thanks to Richard at KT Ordnance for sending this article by Dan …

I was saddened to see that the BOGO acronym has changed: It started out meaning “Buy one, give one”–a form of charitable giving–with the Bogo Light campaign. (Wherein someone buys a solar-powered flashlight and the manufacturer also provides one as charity to an African villager. This commendable program is still going on.) But I’ve noticed that BOGO has crept into the Internet marketing lexicon in a perverted form. The Madison Avenue advertisers have turned it into “Buy one, get one (free)”–nothing more than a 50% off sale.    o o o I just heard that Ready Made Resources is now …

A hat tip to L.W., who sent us this: Banks’ Balance Sheets Will Hit The Fan In January.    o o o Helicopter Ben Speaks: Fed Chairman Says Economy Likely to Slow    o o o Reader MGB suggested the Measuring Worth web site. They have some very informative inflation and purchasing power calculators.    o o o Eric S. suggested this Newsmax article: Credit Card Debt a $915 Billion Disaster-in-Waiting for Banks

From Business Times Online, by way of SHTF Daily‘s posts: President Sarkozy warns of ‘economic war’ as dollar falls to new low    o o o Reader BDB suggested this article at FMNN: China Drain US Dollars- Telegraph, Bloomberg Confirms    o o o Bill W. sent us this link to a Wired News article: The End of Oil is Upon Us. We Must Move On – Quickly.    o o o Ben L. found this one: Never bring a taser to a gun fight

Economist and investment adviser Thomas Tan recently posted an interesting piece in his blog: Gold as an Alternative Investment.    o o o Bill P. sent us an interesting article over at TCS Daily about the mainstreaming of preparedness: We’re All Soldiers of Fortune Now. Bill’s comment: “I guess after Katrina and the fires in southern California, at least businesses see the value of being prepared even if it’s only too make a buck from a bug-out bag. I prefer my own rather than a mass-produced bag of dubious value. However, it’s a step in the right direction. The more …

RBS flagged this from The Age in Australia: Crash is coming, warns top investor    o o o Thanks to Eric S. for sending this article on a “polemical documentary”: New ‘disaster’ movie warns world of oil apocalypse    o o o An article that provides some details on the Robert Karhe US Gold Eagle coin payroll tax case, which resulted in a mix of acquittals and a hung juries–no convictions.    o o o The excellent Comet Gold web site (often cited in SurvivalBlog) recently merged with The Contrary Investor’s Cafe. Please update your links/bookmarks.

SF in Hawaii suggested this BBC article: State of the planet, in graphics.    o o o My brother mentioned the WikiHow article “How to Cook Food on Your Car’s Engine”. Back in the early 1980s, before MREs were widely issued, in the US Army we often warmed C-Ration cans on top of our vehicle engine blocks.    o o o From perennial contributor RBS: Credit Bubble Bulletin: Structured finance under duress    o o o Stephen in Iraq sent us this: Atlanta water use is called shortsighted

D.V. suggested this article by Charles Hughes Smith that explains the hedge fund nightmare: The Great Unraveling Begins    o o o John at SurvivalistBooks.com e-mailed us to mention that there is a newer version of Alan T. Hagan’s collection of Food Storage FAQs, available for free download. I just updated my links to the FAQs–both in the blog thread, and in the SurvivalBlog Links page.    o o o Frequent contributor Hawaiian K. sent us a link to the Barefoot Motors web site. They make an electric ATV with regenerative braking. Check out their video clip. Do you recognize …

Alphie mentioned that GlobalSecurity.org hosts an online edition of the US Army’s FM 23-10 Sniper Training    o o o I just heard that a new, expanded version of the promotional trailer for the “I Am Legend” feature film is now available. It looks scary and a bit OTT. But hopefully one result of this movie’s release will be that it’ll get some people thinking about the implications of a pandemic and hopefully get a few of them to stock up and get some training.    o o o RBS flagged this one: Foreclosure filings soar in Third Quarter. One …

Courtesy of KTO: Food crisis looms as climate change, fuel shortages bite    o o o Reader Tim P. found this article interesting from a sociology standpoint: The California Fires: Where were the Looters? Tim’s comment: Of course with a long term situation the results would end up differently, but this is an interesting contrast in any case.    o o o Tim P. also found us this one: The Coming U.S. Drought (Is Here)    o o o China Hikes Fuel Prices Amid Shortages (A hat tip to RBS for sending that link.)