Category: Odds ‘n Sods

Michael Z. Williamson sent this: Jakarta Floods Linked to Illegal Construction. Mike notes: “Something to watch out for in a collapsing or collapsed society is failure of drainage and other infrastructure. Floods are messy and spread diseases.   o o o RBS sent this story of a local government running roughshod: Brooksville, Florida proposes to foreclose homes and seize cars over less than $20 in parking tickets.    o o o Rourke (the moderator of the Yahoo Jericho Discussion Group) pointed us to a web page that shows how to convert a typical drill motor into a hand crank generator. …

Hawaiian K. mentioned an article about a piece of “appropriate technology”: Multimachine — a truck-parts-based machine shop for Africa    o o o Any of you that have copies of my recent non-fiction books should update them with our new mail forwarding address. Please see page 207 of Rawles on Retreats and Relocation (Appendix B) and page 239 of SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog – Volume 1 (Appendix A)–they should both get penned with this new mail forwarding address: James Wesley, Rawles c/o Elk Creek Company P.O. Box 303 Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845 USA I have just updated the …

Eric S. mentioned: India Mark II extra deep hand pump by Suksha Exports   o o o Reader RBS sent us this bookmark: The California real estate meltdown begins: Foreclosures up 79% and “short sales” up 10 times from last year’s figures.    o o o Speaking of foreclosures, reader JLM sent this: Foreclosure Wave Bears Down on Immigrants. It includes this frightening statistic: “Nationally, 375,000 high-interest-rate loans were made to Hispanics in 2005, and nearly 73,000 of them are likely to go into foreclosure…”

Ron L. mentioned the Steve’s Pages web site, which has a wealth of free firearms and reloading information. In particular, don’t miss his plethora of free reloading data, his many free firearms parts lists/exploded diagrams, his guns and reloading books archive, and his free downloadable military manuals. Thanks Steve, for putting together so many great resources! If you find Steve’s site as useful as I have, then please send him a donation.   o o o PNG recommend this piece: Lessons From Off The Grid: Important Personal Finance Lessons My Childhood Taught Me    o o o They’re in Deep …

For those considering relocating, I found some interesting statistical data on various cities at Sperling’s Best Places. I may be quoting them in the next edition of Rawles on Retreats and Relocation   o o o The dehydrated squirrel meat advertised by Best Prices Storable Foods is causing a bit of controversy. The vendor created this page as a joke, but it does raise a valid issue. I find is odd that many folks in the politically correct crowd think that eggs from a hen that has never seen the light of day are “yummy”, and some even consider box-raised …

I was doing some web wandering on the topic of night vision gear, and I came across this video tutorial on How to Transform Your Webcam Into An Infrared Cam, (This has possibilities for retreat security.) Because the price of infrared LEDs has plummeted, it is now affordable to use arrays of IR LEDs as the light source. Think of the possibilities. And for those of you are aren’t electronics do-it-yourselfers, battery-powered IR motion detector camera systems are available from Ready Made Resources   o o o A reader mentioned that because of a scheduling conflict, he had to cancel …

Reader “6xddx6” e-mailed us to say that he created a simple solar charging system for his Kenwood TK2100 MURS radios that he got from $49 MURS Radios (one of our advertisers.) For this project, he used an inexpensive photovoltaic (PV) panel from Northern Tool & Equipment. (One of our Affiliate Advertisers.) At Northern Tool’s web site, search on Item # 339973.   o o o Chester M. sent this news story: New Orleans Residents Arming Themselves Chester’s comment: “Better late than never, I guess.”    o o o Any SurvivalBlog readers that homeschool their kids–or that plan too–should visit the …

The Green Mountain Gear “SurvivalBlog Group Buys.” for brand new-in-the-wrapper military specification C-Products M16/AR-15 30 round magazines at less than $10 each ends at close-of-business tomorrow. (Monday, March 26th.). See my original post on this for details, including the special Group Buy coupon codes. Don’t miss out! If the pending Federal ban is enacted, these magazines will suddenly be $30 each.   o o o The 2007 Idaho “Boomershoot” is now just over a month away. It is not too late to make a reservation. You just gotta love Idaho. There aren’t too many places where shooting at high explosives …

The Nanny State run amok: The California state legislature is currently considering AB 1634 — the “California Healthy Pets Act” — which would make it illegal to possess an unfixed dog or cat unless you obtain an “intact permit” from the state. Failure to comply with the law within 75 days would be punished by a fine of $500 per pet per 75-day period, with the only exceptions permitted being guide/service dogs and police dogs. I find it humorous that this is in California, where the populace was emasculated intellectually and politically decades ago by the PC crowd’s vocal whining …

“The Army Aviator” mentioned: Scott at American MilSpec has a really good phosphorescent paint for $12.50 per bottle. He says that it works best if you lay down a thin coat of white, then the Phosphorescent paint then a coat of clear. “It’s so cheap, I got two bottles, painted everything and have hardly tapped the first bottle. Stuff goes a long ways. Also handy on light switches, flashlight mounts, locks, or any other place you might need a quick reference in the dark. I figured it’d be Bravo Sierra but the dang stuff works!+   o o o Hawaiian …

Further evidence that Costa Rica is not a safe place to relocate: Escazú home invaders target dwelling of U.S. embassy employee. (From the A.M. Costa Rica e-newspaper.)   o o o Reader PNG mentioned: Jerry Pournelle has web-published a column he wrote for Survive magazine in 1983. It’s worth a read.    o o o For the remainder of March, Safecastle is discounting their Mountain House #10 cans by 30% and shipping them free when 8 or more cases are purchased. This deal is available to Safecastle Royal buyers club members only, until March 31. The offer applies to our …

Ben L. suggested posting a link to this Reason online article: Gun Control’s Twisted Outcome–Restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.   o o o Today we welcome a couple of new Affiliate advertisers to our roster: SafetyGlasses.com in the U.S. (they sell shooting glasses, ear protection, Nomex/Kevlar gloves, and hydration packs), and MacWarehouse in the U.K. (Just in case a Mac iBook Laptop or an iPod is a survival priority for you. <vbg>) Whenever you use one of our Affiliate links and place an order–with more than 60 companies in nine countries–we get a little …

Many of you have already seen this video clip of a Blackwater shooter plying his trade in Najaf, Iraq. (Warning: some coarse language, but no gore.) Talk about taking the wrong rifle to a gunfight! It appeared that he was dinging Bad Guys at “800 Meters” with a .223. He surely would have been much more effective with a scoped .308 Winchester. (Such as a match grade M14.) He had the wrong tool for the job, but at least the man behind the rifle appeared fairly competent. (He was not using the traditional fire discipline of a sniper, so obviously …

Investment Guru Jim Rogers Sees U.S. Property Crash   o o o Any SurvivalBlog readers that are considering relocating to northern Idaho should contact Todd Savage of Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He specializes in what he calls “tactical real estate.” At any given time, he has several “off the beaten track” properties available with either spring water or shallow wells. Properties with contiguous U.S. Forest Service or state land are also fairly common in the region. Todd is a SurvivalBlog reader, so he understands the unique requirements of survival retreats. He won’t waste your time showing …

Someone over at The Claire Files mentioned a thread on one of the BlackRifles forums about how to make soap. It might be a good idea to print out a hard copy of that one. There is also a lot of useful soap making information in “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by the late Carla Emery   o o o Activity discovered at Yellowstone supervolcano    o o o Interfaith group braves snow storm in global warming march. I think that they’d better schedule their next event for August, just to be on the safe side.