Category: Odds ‘n Sods

Thad K. suggested this link on how to grow your own luffa sponges. His comment: “What a great survival plant, eat them when young, wash with them when they are mature!”    o o o The previously mentioned special promotion at Northern Tool & Equipment (one of our affiliate advertisers) ends tomorrow. (December 4th) Northern is offering sitewide Free Gift Cards with purchases over $100. You will need to enter keycode 94660 in order to receive their free gift card.    o o o I got a note from Freeze Dry Guy, with good news: They are extending their November …

There is a very lively thread of conversation over at The Claire Files Forums, titled “Preparing for Abrupt Climate Change”    o o o From WorldNetDaily: Debunking the debunkers–Snopes snookered by 10 Commandments hoax.    o o o Don’t miss out on the Free Shipping special, this month only at Ready Made Resources. They are SurvivalBlog’s oldest and most generous sponsor. Please visit their web site and check out their wide range of products and place your order soon to take advantage of the free shipping special. (Shipping charges can otherwise be considerable, especially on storage food!)

The modern blunderbuss. Is this the ultimate in intimidating a burglar?    o o o Details about the about planned microchipped “E-Passports”. A hat tip to Redmist for sending this link, (Via Claire Wolfe’s site.) And BTW, here is how folks have already cracked the new system.    o o o Gokuryu sent this, from CNN.com: We Were Warned: Tomorrow’s Oil Crisis Gokuryu says “This segment explains how the former CIA director and other experts say we are on the brink of an energy crisis.”

Tom W. at CometGold.com sent this one, from Canada.com: “Hedge Funds Overleveraged, Sprott warns”    o o o Reader CM writes: “A fascinating look at how Mr. Bernanke is radically increasing the money supply, and lying about it..The link is to a DailyKos diary but don’t let that deter you – the charts and information that it contains are worth the look.”    o o o Northern Tool & Equipment (one of our affiliate advertisers) is offering sitewide Free Gift Cards with purchases over $100. This limited time promotion started Monday, November 27th and goes through Monday, December 4th. You …

Are you searching for retreat locales? There is a great site that I often mention to my consulting clients for surveying the extent and types of agriculture in various regions. It is available from Purdue University’s horticulture department.    o o o I was doing a web search and I found this interesting video on British SAS operations, available for free download. It shows the planning and execution of a 28 day Observation Post (OP) mission. I was surprised to see how much detail they included about their weapons and field gear (“kit”), organization, and tactics. There are definitely some …

I was doing some web searches on EMP and I stumbled into this site that describes how to protect radios and other electronics with do-it-yourself Faraday cages.    o o o The documentary video “In Hiding” is about the more than one million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Burma. Some of them–mainly Karen, Karenni, and Shan triibesmen–are being systematically hunted down by their own government. It is a “must see” video, available for free download. It was produced by FreeBurmaRangers.org. Regardless of your politics, there are some survival lessons that can be learned from this video    o o o …

Reader D. Taylor mentioned this article from the New England Journal of Medicine on H5N1 Avian Influenza–Continuing Evolution and Spread. It begins: “There is no question that there will be another influenza pandemic someday. We simply don’t know when it will occur or whether it will be caused by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. But given the number of cases of H5N1 influenza that have occurred in humans to date (251 as of late September 2006) and the rate of death of more than 50%, it would be prudent to develop robust plans for dealing with such a pandemic”    …

The U.S. Dollar’s long term slide versus the Euro resumes, in earnest. I’m still predicting that it will soon take $2 to buy a Euro. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Invest in tangibles to protect yourself from the Dollar’s inevitable demise! If you haven’t already done so, give the folks at Swiss America a call. SurvivalBlog reader Mike The Blacksmith comments on the slide in the dollar versus foreign currencies: “The question is how long, how fast?”    o o o Michael Z. Williamson dropped me a line to point me to a detailed article at …

In response to Tim from Saskatchewan, who asked about the video of the tanker truck BLEVE explosion in Germany that I had mentioned on SurvivalBlog more than a year ago, here it is.    o o o USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight promised Wednesday to keep the national animal identification system (NAIS) a permanently voluntary system. My comment: Yeah, right. Just like they promised the Indians about “permanent” reservation lands: “As long as grass grows and the water flows.”    o o o Redmist flagged this piece: The British Nanny State expands further.

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.