Category: Odds ‘n Sods

By way of The Energy Bulletin, here’s an interesting article from Australia: Head for the hills – the new survivalists    o o o I heard that JRH Enterprises (one of our most loyal advertisers) is is having a “Black Friday” (Day After Thanksgiving) sale on many preparedness items including night vision gear, gas masks, medical kits, tactical gear, and more. In true “Black Friday” fashion, these specials are available only on Friday, November the 24th.    o o o Israel is reportedly developing a “bionic hornet” micro drone.    o o o Commenting on the recent thread about barter …

Just when we thought that things couldn’t get any worse in Zimbabwe, we opened Cathy Buckle’s latest letter. The inflation rate is now at 1,070 percent per annum. Life expectancies are plummeting. Starvation deaths are increasing. Government mismanagement, nepotism, and corruption are rampant. Cathy’s October and November letters are “must reads.” Please pray for the people of Zimbabwe.   o o o Joe Farah, Editor of WorldNetDaily opines: ‘Jericho’ and ‘Heroes’ TV Series Spark Concern with Civil Defense.    o o o Our friend Kit, author/editor of the delightful Forever Vain blog suggested the following: “I’m not sure if you’ve mentioned …

At the library today, the kids were immersed in Brian Jacques books. The Memsahib was checking out books on fly fishing and travel. Meanwhile, I picked up the book: “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond. The Memsahib commented with a bit of sarcasm: “Oh, so I see that you found some of your usual light and cheery bedside reading.”    o o o Venezuelan president Chavez distributes free energy efficient light bulbs and promises a “energy revolution” including distributed small power generation for emergencies.    o o o U.S. police department radio “10 Codes” being …

Roger sent an article as a reminder to all readers of SurvivalBlog that being prepared is not just for TEOTWAWKI: Vancouverites boil water for 5th day as rain continues    o o o It looks like the spot prices of silver and gold have recovered solidly from their slump, just as I predicted. I still expect higher prices by the end of this year, and sharply higher prices in another year    o o o Wanted: Man to land on killer asteroid and gently nudge it from path to Earth    o o o U.S. housing construction plunges in October. …

In my latest issue of Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) magazine, I noticed that the the magazine, in conjunction with researchers at Pepperdine University conducted a survey of disaster recovery professionals (mainly computer types) about pandemic preparedness. 49% of the respondents said that they had “not determined the potential impact on business related domestic and international travel of a pandemic.” and 42% said that they had “not yet started to identify essential employees and other critical inputs.” The statistics from several DRJ surveys, including the Pepperdine survey are available online. OBTW, although subscriptions are free, I don’t recommend subscribing to Disaster …

From Noah Shachtman at the Defense Tech blog, by way of OSOM: Google Earth — keeping track of nukes.    o o o Reader Hawaiian K. mentioned: “Survival conditions are likely to bring on a resurgence of pests that have troubled mankind for a very long time. One of these might come in very handy.”    o o o Redmist found this piece: Uses of GPS are expanding.

Hawaiian K. flagged this article from Cosmos magazine: Coat of paint could halt pandemic    o o o Rocky O. sent us this story about a minor panic in London caused by a single live .22 rimfire cartridge found on a sidewalk: Bullet found in doorway. When I read this article, I laughed so hard that I nearly cried. Rocky’s comment: “Imagine what you could do with a whole box of .22s. Probably tie up their police force and bomb squad for weeks.”    o o o Vic at Safecastle just launched a new private “Safecastle Royal” buyers club that …

Tom at www.CometGold.com sent this link: More than half of all equities trading in the US will be done using algorithmic dealing systems by the end of 2010.    o o o A clever nuke blast mapping tool, posted by Kurt, by way of Rourke at the Jericho Discussion Group.    o o o Rich at KT Ordnance mentioned that there’s now a proposal to ban BB guns in Massachusetts. Complete with a BB gun amnesty period, and a BB gun “buyback” program. I will refrain from commenting on Taxachusetts politics. I might lapse into saying something un-Christian.  

Michael Z. Williamson sent us this piece: What’s the Story on Silver Coin Melts & Coin Premiums?    o o o Hawgtax forwarded this one from The Associated Press: Tyson Foods sees higher meat prices as cost of corn feed rises. It begins: “Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat processor, warned Monday that rising corn prices could mean U.S. consumers will have to pay more for chicken, beef and pork next year as it ended its fiscal year with a third straight quarterly loss.”    o o o A tip of the hat to SurvivalBlog reader “Redmist” who contributed …

Michael Z. Williamson found this interesting thread about ethanol, over at the Practical Machinist forums.    o o o The EROEI debate on Canadian Oil Sands. Should they use nuclear or natural gas energy to develop oil sands?    o o o Well, the Democrats didn’t waste much time in flexing their new majority muscles.

Thunar pointed us to this news story: The Plunge Protection Team is back in action.    o o o Rourke mentioned an interesting site on current threats, over at his Jericho Discussion Group. You’ve heard of the “30,000 foot view”? How about a global “at a glance” view of world events?    o o o Tom W. spotted this opinion piece from the Online Journal: Bush’s Chernobyl Economy; Hard Times are on the Way, by Mike Whitney

Tom at www.CometGold.com mentioned that www.birdflubook.com has the entire text of the book on H5N1 by Dr. Greger, available for free download.    o o o White House Statement: Iran, Hezbollah Form ‘Terror Nexus’    o o o Jason in North Idaho sent us this link: An M1A rifle goes ka-boom! Jason notes: “Since many of us shoot .308, I thought I’d forward this interesting story. Quite alarming!–the follow up analysis is very informative as well. A lesson to us all to maintain our weapons.” JWR Adds: From the photos, it looks more like an obstructed bore to me. Perhaps …

As noted in the Gulching/Self-Sufficiency Forum at The Claire Files: All 180 VITA publications available free download! Be sure to bookmark this one!   o o o The final RWVA shoot scheduled for 2006 will be held in Grant’s Pass, Oregon, on Dec. 9-10.    o o o Doug S. mentioned this article on Asian Avian Flu: Federal workers abroad urged to store 12 weeks of food and water  

The second Medal of Honor has been awarded for heroism in Iraq.    o o o Rourke (editor of the Jericho Discussion Group) mentioned this article: Jericho, the most heavily “streamed” TV series on Innnertube, will sadly be “split” into two half seasons, to avoid repeat episodes. (The first eight episodes, BTW, are available for free download.)    o o o ‘Aliens could attack at any time’ warns former British MoD chief Nick Pope  

Bad news for American ex-pats in Nicaragua? “Former Communist” Daniel Ortega won the Nicaraguan election. Ortega says he wants an end to “savage capitalism”.    o o o The folks at Ready Made Resources mentioned that they only have a few pair of AN/TA-1042 field telephones left in stock. They are late issue full duplex digital field phones.They even come with a trickle charging photovoltaic panel. I highly recommend these field phones for coordinating retreat security.    o o o John the Bowhunter recommended both our Quote of the Day and this article: Veteran CIA hand is choice for Secretary …