Category: Odds ‘n Sods

“Dancing Barefoot” sent us this: H5N1 Asian Avian Flu Now in Germany: “Tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some 160,000 birds were being slaughtered as a precaution, authorities said.”   o o o I heard from Vic at Safecastle that Mountain House freeze dried storage food prices are going up substantially on September 1st. OBTW, they still have some 7 Day Just in Case Kits of Mountain House foods (in handy pouches) on sale for just $100 postage paid. Get your Mountain House orders in …

From France24 (by way of SHTF Daily): Analysts mull contagion from US property market woes. We also read in ChannelNewsAsia: The German state of Saxony has decided to sell the Landesbank Sachsen (SachsenLB), which has been hard hit by the US sub-prime crisis   o o o DAV mentioned Michael J. Panzner’s Financial Armageddon blog. I was pleased to see that Michael is really digging ito the current liquidity crisis and astutely focusing on derivatives. (That will surely be “the other shoe to drop.” ) I was also delighted to see that he has a link to SurvivalBlog in his …

I often get questions from folks looking for survival retreat property about the state tax rates (income tax, property (real estate) tax, sales tax, and so forth.) Here is a useful Internet reference at www.BankRate.com. State and local tax rates should be thoroughly researched before you choose a retreat locale.   o o o American home foreclosures leap 93% in a year    o o o The Credit Crunch contagion spreads yet further. We read this from England: Over 8.5 Million will be denied credit as level of debt soars. Can you spell recession?

The Department of Homeland Security has decreed that propane gas is a “chemical of interest” and will soon require anyone with 7,500 pounds or more of the fuel to register with the agency.   o o o The latest boom: Foreclosures. (OBTW, one of the companies quoted in the article —Foreclosure.com–is one of our Affiliate Advertisers.)    o o o DAV recommended this market analysis and commentary from Jim Willie posted over at Kitco.com: Desperate Measures for USFED

I heard that the makers of Polar Pure water purifier had a visit from the DEA this week. They have plans to so highly regulate the distribution of iodine crystals that they will soon run the family owned and operated company out of business. (They make just one product.) The DEA said that they will expect retailers to get a photocopy of each buyer’s driver’s license, keep track of the quantities purchased, report “suspicious” purchases (with an as yet-to-be determined threshold) maintain the records for at least two years, and on and on. ll this because iodine has been deemed …

By way of SHTF Daily: Bernanke fears economy will hit a brick wall   o o o I just heard that Gun Parts Guy (one of our loyal advertisers) now offers metric FN-FAL parts kits (sans receivers) complete with US Section 922(r) compliance parts, in a wide variety of configurations. FAL parts kits are getting scarce in the U.S., so stock up. When you order, please mention that you saw the kits mentioned in SurvivalBlog.    o o o More from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Top Swiss banker attacks US lending standards as ‘unbelievable’ Jim’s Quote of the Day: “The most important …

The next WRSA shoot is in Douglas,Wyoming, this weekend (August 25-26.). Don’t miss this opportunity for some great rifle training at a very reasonable price!   o o o Frequent content contributor DAV mentioned this article: Panic in U.S. money markets! by Marty Weiss and Mike Larson.    o o o We read that Counrtywide Home Loans is having “difficulties.” I predict that lots of other home mortgage lenders will face similar “difficulties” in the near future. In a year, many of them will be history. As I’ve said before, the only folks in the real estate industry that hat …

Reader Steve H. alerted us that a scan of a brochure from the Kelsey-Hayes Company, Detroit, Michigan for their pre-fabricated fallout shelters, circa 1963 is available for free download at Flicker.com, This set includes scans from a Life magazine feature called “Fallout Shelters” from a September 1961 issue.   o o o Karen B. mentioned a couple of interesting low-budget do-it-yourself (DIY) projects featured at LifeHacker.com: Build a solar water heater for under $5 and Get free air conditioning with a DIY heat exchanger    o o o Why is America falling apart? Ask Ayn Rand

DAV flagged this piece of commentary from Edward Chancellor at The Washington Post: Look Out. This Crunch Is Serious. Meanwhile, writing in the Sovereign Society A-Letter, Kathlyn Von Rohr commented: “The sub-prime crisis that was “likely to be contained” according to Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke back in March – brought more havoc to Wall Street this week. Now that “financial market conditions have deteriorated,” the Fed has changed its tune, as they chopped the discount rate yesterday.” In my estimation this will get a whole lot worse before it gets better. The current crunch has essentially shut downthe major …

John and Abigail Adams suggested this training video on the use of the Israeli field dressing.   o o o RBS thought that readers might enjoy reading this report from Afghanistan: ‘I could feel the breeze as the bullets went by’    o o o Reader Nick M. alerted us to the fact that the Popular Mechanics August “Survive Anything” cover story (previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog) is now available on their Web site to read for free download. Nick’s comments: “The series of articles discusses how technology has made humanity more comfortable, but how our reliance on it has also …

Our friend Nick recommended this article by Douglas MacKinnon at Townhall.com: The Two Things To Know Before Your City is Nuked By Terrorists   o o o My thanks to “J”, who gave a prominent plug for SurvivalBlog over at The Rumor Mill News Reading Room.    o o o Alphie sent us this one: NYPD Warns Of Homegrown Terror Threat

Daniel C. mentioned that a PDF of the book The Alpha Strategy by John Pugsley is now available for free download. (This is the key book that I mentioned in the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course.) I highly recommend Pugsley’s book, which is considered a classic in preparedness circles. It was one of my main influences when I first formulated my investment strategy, back in my late teens. I owe Pugsley the credit for the many useful tangibles that are stacked on the shelves down in Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR). Many of those items were …

Joe P. sent us a link to this news story (by way of The Drudge Report): Prices for key foods are rising sharply. Speaking of food price increases, I heard from the folks that run Best Prices Storable Foods (aka The Internet Grocer) that they will make significant price increases on the 23rd of August. If you have been thinking about ordering, place your order by August 21st to get the current pricing. It is noteworthy that storage food price hikes typically don’t occur until the end of each calendar year. This year, however, the wholesale foodstuffs costs and shipping …

Felix D. mentioned an interesting piece over at The Discerning Texan blog: The Coming Age of Urban Terror   o o o Our colleague Bill Bonner, co-editor of The Daily Reckoning notes that “Bank Owned” is the latest real estate brochure newspeak to describe foreclosed houses.    o o o Frequent contributor Michael Z. Williamson notes that there is a nifty new development that may revolutionize lubricants in the near future: Boric acid nanoparticles.

Aside from some overtly political Quote of the Day blog entries, I do my best to downplay political issues in SurvivalBlog. This is primarily because the blog has an international readership. (After all, what interest would someone in France or Indonesia have in American politics, any more than I would have an interest in theirs?) But I do make an exception for the border control issue. Clearly, lax border security could be the modus operandi for terrorists, possibly with weapons of mass destruction. So that makes this political issue also a survival issue! If you are concerned about border security, …