Category: Odds ‘n Sods

Trading on the new Russian RTS oil and gold bourse begins June 8th. The transactions will be denominated in Euros. Sound familiar? This does not bode well for the U.S. Dollar.    o o o The US DoD Upgrades its Assessment of the Chinese Military Threat.    o o o Here in the U.S., the unsold house inventory backlog jumped to 565,000 in April. The housing bubble has popped. There are no more bidding wars for houses. Now its price cut after price cut. In the coastal markets, I anticipate a race to the bottom, most likely starting in September …

When on a recent trip into town, my #2 Son recently pointed out a snazzy Hummer 1 (H1) SUV that was driving alongside us. I mentioned their $80K+ price tag and their pitiful fuel mileage. I added “at least they have high ground clearance and a low center of gravity.” Always ready with his sharp wit, #2 Son replied,”Yep, low center of gravity, but a high center of poverty.”    o o o Russia to supply AK-47s and Mi-24 Hind-D attack helicopters to Afghanistan? I think that the Hinds might be a bad idea, they might evoke too many bad …

Mat the Prop Wizard alerted me to an amazing on-line magazine for do-it-yourself projects, called Make Magazine. It is a fantastic resource that everyone who reads SurvivalBlog should bookmark. For example, one recent story was on how to inexpensively convert any digital camera into an infrared night camera.    o o o The U.S. National Weather Service Hurricane Center predicts a more severe hurricane season in the Atlantic and Caribbean this year than last year. They predict 8-to-10 named hurricanes, with 4-to-6 of them major, just part of a 10 year crescendo in hurricane activity. Oh boy…    o o …

Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness that starts this week. If Bush were a realist, .308 Ball would have been on the tax exempt list.    o o o News from England of a possible H5N1 cover-up.    o o o Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke: ‘Pretty Clear’ Housing Market Cooling, But Should Land Softly Why am I less confident than Helicopter Ben of a soft landing for the U.S. housing market?   o o o When on a drive into town yesterday, a fellow motorist was in such an all-fired hurry that she …

Brett Arends comments on the new Wile E. Coyote (“Falling Off a Cliff”) Markets    o o o The global economic crisis, from the French perspective    o o o The bad news on H5N1 from North Sumatra. Meanwhile, The Lancet released a sobering opinion piece. A tip of the hat to Geri Guidetti of The Ark Institute, who alerted me to these two articles.    o o o There is a great thread in progress over at the Gold Is Money Forums, inspired by an article by David Andrews at Safehaven.com.

There has been much talk about Iran’s new Euro-denominated oil bourse. Presidente Hugo Chavez now says that he might start pricing oil in Euros, too. And President Putin of Russia wants to trade oil and natural gas in rubles. Are they all trying to tell us something about the once-almighty U.S. Dollar?    o o o BBC News Economics Editor Steve Schifferes comments on why the dollar is sinking so rapidly.    o o o The high price of platinum is boosting palladium, as an alternative for jewelry making

I’m nearly done reading “The Protector’s War“” the second installment in S.M. Stirling‘s “Dies the Fire” trilogy. If you can suspend disbelief–getting past the basic premise of the series (an inexplicable overnight change in the laws of physics that renders gasoline and gunpowder impotent) then you’ll enjoy these books. In this installment, part of the storyline takes place in England. The author uses the books in this series as a bully pulpit to preach preparedness and self-sufficiency. (Or at least I think that is his intent.) He weaves lot of history and practical skills into the storylines. Stirling is one …

For our U.S. readers: According to Congressman Ron Paul’s office the vote on his NAIS de-funding amendment (H.R. 5384) has been put off until next week. This gives us more time to reach our representatives in congress. E-mail, call, tell friends and family, et cetera. The NAIS scheme would impose costly and time consuming requirements on U.S. animal owners, without compensation. It must be stopped!    o o o SurvivalBlog reader RBS mentioned these two articles on the fate of the dollar: US dollar weakness likely to crash global stocks and “The Declining Dollar Erodes Personal Savings” (from Ron Paul’s …

Don’t miss this “must read” piece from Chris Laird on gold price increases and the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar.    o o o Yikes! Human-to-Human Transmissible Avian Flu in Indonesia?    o o o The high bid is currently $110 in the SurvivalBlog Bandwidth Fund benefit Book Auction. Please e-mail your bids before May 30th. Thanks to Kurt and Angie Wilson of Survival Enterprises for sponsoring this fund raiser!    o o o The next big Los Angeles earthquake could be strong and prolonged.

Courtesy of SurvivalBlog readers Ben & Melanie, here are updated web links to the text of Where There Is No Doctor and Where There is No Dentist. Since web sites will of course be unavailable in a grid-down situation, be sure to order your own hard copies for your bookshelf, either directly from the publisher of from a discount book seller such as Abebooks.com or BooksAMillion.com    o o o I’ve again expanded my Links page.    o o o SurvivalBlog reader P.M. pointed out an error that I made in an old archived piece from 1997 (that I re-posted …

One of our major advertisers is auctioning a very hard to find P-10 shelter on eBay, on behalf of an acquaintance. These rarely come up for sale in used condition, so don’t miss this chance to buy one for less than half of what it would cost to buy one new. It is being sold “on site”, so you would have to pay for hauling.    o o o As previously mentioned, Microsoft’s president Bill Gates has publicly declared that he’s Short the U.S. Dollar.   o o o From Steve Quayle’s Site: Scientists Warn of Immense Solar Storm Threat …

I recently added a few DVDs and another 19 U.S. Army and USMC manuals from my personal collection to my Mail Order Catalog. Some of the manuals were “restricted distribution” titles and hence quite scarce!    o o o There is now talk of another increase in the U.S. federal government debt ceiling. My precocious #3 Son asked: “Daddy, why do they call it a ceiling if they can keep raising it?” Hmmm…Why, indeed?    o o o The recent Robert Kiyosaki article is evidence that silver gaining popularity with mainstream investors. The first silver exchange-traded fund went live in …

The price of gold appears to have established a new floor at around $675 per ounce, and silver ditto, at around $13.10

I just noticed that Gun Parts Guy is advertising a new batch of U.S.-made metric FAL barrel assemblies. With the BATFE‘s recent suspension on the importation of complete semi-auto rifle parts kits with (barrels being the parts that they want stopped), this could be a genuine “don’t miss” opportunity. If you own a FAL (or clone thereof), buy a spare, and perhaps even a “spare spare.”    o o o The Titan Missile base in eastern Washington that I mentioned a few weeks back has been re-listed on eBay. This time the starting bid is $750,000! Too bad that eBay …

The Daily Reckoning’s Justice Litle comments on the world after the dollar collapses    o o o It just occurred to me that the recent jump in fuel prices will hurt the mining sector, cutting into their profitability. Just as gold and silver are going into a bull cycle, the cost of production for the miners is going up. Thus, gold and and silver mining stocks will not show quite the magnitude of gains that they otherwise would have. This is just another reason to invest in physical metals rather than in precious metals stocks or mutual funds.    o …