Frequent content contributor Michael Z. Williamson found an amazing web site, by way of an Internet discussion on asthma. Mike notes: “It seems a bit extreme by modern standards, and I hope I never have a need to try the traditional cure.” o o o By way of our friend Noah at the DefenseTech blog: British SAS troops use a commercial gravy mix to darken their skin for Middle East infiltrations.
I don’t know how I overlooked it for so long, but I should have mentioned that there is a great web resource on post-Peak Oil living at Life After the Oil Crash (LATOC), hosted by California attorney Matt Savinar. They also have their own Forums, which are quite active. See: The LATOC Forums. o o o Mike F. sent this article link: Mystery Ailment Strikes U.S. Honeybees. Apiary expert “The Bee Man, Jr.” tells SurvivalBlog: “The CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is a real and devastating threat to our nation’s food supply and economy. At this time, there are few …
Another indicator of inflation ahead? SurvivalBlog reader Bill H. notes: “A trend that I have not seen mentioned on your web site, apart from gold and silver investment, is that [fine] “art” is going through the roof. Most of us cannot afford to invest in art, myself included. However, we can still see the writing on the wall when the moderately wealthy are flocking to acquire art at record prices. You don’t have to buy thousands of pounds of gold when you can pay $20 million for a painting that will only appreciate. That’s a fairly extreme example, but you …
Blog reader B.H. sent this snippet: “Last month I was at the NRA headquarters in Virginia. I noticed a sign across the street for condos for sale for $260,000. I made a comment on how expensive that sounded when a NRA headquarters employee said that he sold his condo in the same development for $465,000 just eight months prior. That’s a decline of 44% in one year. Ouch for the guy that bought at the top of the bubble.” o o o There are just 3 days left in the big “Container load sale” at Survival Enterprises. Looking at …
As reported by The Daily Reckoning: “The Central Bank of Zimbabwe announced this week that henceforth inflation would be illegal. Anyone who raises prices will be arrested.” Do they honestly believe that they can put the brakes on a 1,200% per annum inflation rate, by decree? The Zimbabwean government is beyond corrupt, and beyond incompetent. Comrade Mugabe and his band of fools from the ZANU-PF must go! o o o RBS mentioned this news story at CNN.com: Vagrant: “We killed for scrap metal, hid bodies in manholes.” Human nature hasn’t changed. When times get really hard, you can expect …
Flagged by HPF (one of our regular content contributors): Retired CIA Energy Analyst’s Latest Comments on Peak Oil o o o There are just 6 days left in the big “Container load sale” at Survival Enterprises. Many items have already sold out. Don’t dawdle on this one, folks! All of the storage food items are “first come – first served.” The prices are less than half of retail. o o o It is nice to see that silver has come out of its doldrums and appears to be back on its long term bull market trajectory. (At the …
“Kon Tiki” recommended this article from Tom Feeley’s Information Clearinghouse Blog: The Great Dollar Crash of ‘07 o o o From CometGold.com comes this disturbing news story: Strange Visitors at Barrett Firearms. o o o Our friend JB in Tennessee recommend this site: www.urbansurvival.com, and its sister site, www.independencejournal.com (The former is heavy on economics, while latter has more of emphasis on frugal living and self-sufficiency.)
Jason in North Idaho mentioned: Far-flung exurbs hard hit by housing downturn o o o There are just 8 days left in the big “Container load sale” at Survival Enterprises. I can see from their availability chart that some items have sold out, and that they are now running low on their remaining inventory of both the “Bacon bits” (bacon TVP) and the shortening powder in the #2-1/2 cans. One bit of unexpected good news: The owner of Survival Enterprises just e-mailed me and mentioned: “We just found 10 more cases (we thought we were out) of Corn Starch …
Federal budget explosion: $2.9 TRILLION! Gee, you don’t suppose that this will be inflationary or that it will force higher taxes… o o o An interesting article ran in Disaster Recovery Journal‘s 20th Anniversary issue: No Rain, No Power. Written by Ugandans, it describes how the recent drought in Eastern Africa has created a systemic power crisis. Lack of hydroelectric power has forced the Ugandan power utility resort to lengthy “load shedding” power blackouts. o o o The folks at Safecastle wrote to remind me that they now have a Safecastle Royal Buyers Club, with hundreds of high-quality …
For those of you that have a fast Internet connection, watch SAR expert Robert Nielsen’s recent Google Tech Talk lecture video: Wilderness Survival: Building and Using a Wilderness Survival Kit. It will be one hour of your time, well-spent. o o o Reader P.M. sent me flyer that mentioned the Earth-Box gardening system. P.M. says that he has used these for two years with great success. They can be put on wheeled platform or casters, allowing them to be moved indoors at night when frosts are expected. o o o Rourke (moderator of the Jericho Discussion Group) mentioned …
A new organization, dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear edged weapons: http://www.kniferights.org In my opinion knife ownership should have it constitutional protection recognized on an equal footing with gun ownership. o o o USDA Announces An “Opt Out” Procedure For NAIS o o o Montana and Maine move to reject the Federal Real ID requirements
Don’t miss the recent economic analysis from ContraryInvestor.com (by way of our friends at Gold-Eagle.com): We’re Swimming In Liquidity, Aren’t We? The charts say it all! We are about to experience the inevitable outcome of the liquidity bubble. Major market corrections are rarely fun. When market imbalances get way out of proportion and then markets do correct, it can get ugly. (For example the deflationary Great Depression of the 1930s, which followed the credit bubble of the 1920s.) Rawles Mantra mode on: Be prepared. Diversify out of the dollar. Get out of debt. Invest in tangibles. o o o …
Another derivatives debacle! At least I can say that I warned you. From Bloomberg com comes this story: Sallie Mae 4th-Quarter Net Falls on Derivatives Losses. The article begins: “SLM Corp., the nation’s largest provider of college-student loans, said fourth-quarter profit tumbled 96% because of a decline in the value of financial contracts it uses to protect against swings in interest rates.” o o o Reader J.M. sent us a news story link and asks: “When will the ‘nanny state’ mentality ever end?”: California may ban conventional light bulbs by 2012 OBTW, I also read that in California the …
The price action in the precious metals markets has been uneven for the past couple of months. It seems to be a market looking for a sense of direction. Just as with the base metals, there is of course a habitual tendency for the precious metals to follow the price of crude oil. But as previously mentioned, that linkage is weakening. Even though oil is off more than 25% from its highs of a few months ago (presently it is down in the low $50 range, per barrel), the metal prices have not followed. They’ve weakened a bit, but stayed …
SurvivalBlog reader Norman in England mentioned this piece in The Times of London; Thousands to Test Flu Emergency Response. Norman’s comments: “If this thing does mutate and get world wide then it will be very difficult if not impossible for society to hold together as it is now. What will come from this exercise will be bulls**t. I’ll try to keep you posted but I expect most of it to be kept under wraps. The systems that hold our society together have very little fault tolerance and it will not take much to bring society down. Once we are on …