Category: SurvivalBlog

Letter Re: Quick Tip to Stocking Up Via Amazon

Jim: I just discovered something today that I wanted to share.  I have zero time in life to spend stocking up.  Amazon.com has a “subscribe and save” feature that provides additional savings on over 24,000 items under the grocery category.  You can choose to subscribe (meaning set up regular deliveries) when adding to the Amazon shopping cart, or just make a one time purchase.  I did some comparison shopping and found the subscribe price for coffee (whole bean or ground) to be even better than Wal-Mart or any of the big box stores in my area.  Go to www.amazon.com and …


Letter Re: American Redoubt Coverage

Jim, I’m a long-time blog reader and occasional writer just dropping a note by you to say first of all that I love the blog. I read it everyday without fail. I support you by clicking through to your sponsors and purchasing items. One thing I would like to state for the record is my objection to the constant yammering on about the American Redoubt. [Some deleted, for brevity.] As one who has relocated from Florida to central Kentucky, I can tell you that there are more nice places to relocate to than just the Redoubt. Once again, I love …


Writing Contest Prize Winners and a New Prize Announced

We’ve completed the judging for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. But first, I’d like to mention that starting with Round 42, we are adding a new prize to the First Prize package: a $200 gift certificate, kindly donated by Shelf Reliance. This certificate is good for the purchase of any of their products. (These include: top quality canned food rotation racks of their own manufacture, Thrive brand storage foods, pre-assembled bug out bags and first aid kits, water filters, tents, sleeping bags, various field gear, PV panels, flashlights, Esbit stoves, Aqua Mira, blast matches, sanitation gear, hatchets, …


Letter Re: A Digest of The Best of SurvivalBlog

Dear Mr. Rawles, I am the owner of a small (but growing) family emergency preparedness web site, reThinkSurvival.com. I thought you might be interested in a web page I’ve been keeping updated for some time now that lists my selections for the Best SurvivalBlog.com Posts. The page includes well over 400 links! I figured it might be useful to your new readers and help my readership as well. I do appreciate your time and all that you do for us. Thank you, – D.B.


Announcing SurvivalBlog’s 19 New Book Review Editors

In just the first few hours after I posted my Volunteer Book Reviewer solicitation a week ago, I received more than 150 e-mails. The response was so overwhelming that I had to take down the post to avoid being deluged with additional volunteers. There were so many well-qualified candidates that it was difficult making the selection. I chose the new editors based primarily upon their education, experience, and time available to devote to editing. My sincere thanks to everyone who responded! I anticipate that the new editors will periodically post detailed book and movie reviews. Most of them will probably …


A Special Note on Simultaneous Blog Article Submissions

On two recent occasions, readers have without my knowledge sent me articles for the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest that they had previously submitted elsewhere. In one of these cases, their article had already been posted. (At the new blog site SurvivingPrepper.com.) Once I became aware of their prior copyright, I quickly removed that article. (On my site, the article was titled “Childbirth at Home, by J.C.”) I must remind readers that they are bound by the contest rules and should feel constrained by common courtesy: Simultaneous submissions are not accepted! I greatly appreciate you contributing to the collective knowledge at …


Letter Re: Details on the Rawles Ranch

Mr. Rawles: I’ve noticed that you haven’t mentioned many details about where you live, or much about your daily life, like most other blogs do. Just curious. – R.K. in Alabama JWR Replies: I try not to clutter my blog with daily minutiae. Since SurvivalBlog is intended to be educational, I try to stick to the preparedness issues at hand, as much as possible. That means downplaying politics and minimizing posts with detailed descriptions of what I’m eating, the eccentricities of our pets, my favorite music, and so forth. There are plenty of other blogs out there in the blogosphere …


SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Round 40 Prize Winners — and a New Prize Announcement

And the winner is… First Prize goes to Barefoot Yankee Gal for Kitchen Cupboard Medicine, which was posted on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. She will receive: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from …


Founders Sample Chapter — In The Footsteps of Josephus

Author’s Notes: Founders is scheduled to be released in September, 2012. Please wait until the release date (“Book Bomb Day”) to order your copy. That same day, there will be simultaneous releases of the e-book and audio book editions. The cover art was created by Tony Mauro, Jr., who also created the cover for “Survivors.” The Founders cover depicts Ken and Terry Layton on their cross-country journey. Spoiler Alert: This chapter includes passages of the novel that you may not want to know about before reading the book from beginning to end. So skip reading this sample chapter if you …


Update on the Recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack on SurvivalBlog

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on SurvivalBlog.com started the morning of Saturday, May 26, 2012 and continued until the evening. This was a “ping flood” attack, which can be envisioned as someone ringing your telephone number, several times per second. The attack coincided with a holiday weekend in the United States. The SurvivalBlog.com domain name as well as the unique IP addresses for each of our servers were separately targeted at various times. For several hours at a time, SurvivalBlog was almost impossible to reach because the ping count was so high. We have identified hostile IP addresses …


Publishing Schedule Update From JWR

Here are some updates on my upcoming book release dates from Atria Books and its subsidiary Pocket Books division: Atria trade paperback (6″ x 9″) edition of “Survivors”: September 11, 2012 Atria hardback edition of Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse: September 25, 2012. (With simultaneous ebook and audio book releases.) Pocket Books mass market paperback (4-1/4″ x7″) edition of “Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse” September 25, 2012   To explain: “Founders” is the second sequel to “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse”. It is set contemporaneously to the first two novels, but in …


Seeking Input – Drafting My Next Novel: “Expatriates”

I am now writing the first draft my follow-on novel in the “Patriots-Survivors-Founders” series, under the working title “Expatriates.” Tentatively, this novel will be set primarily in three locales: A.) Darwin, Australia, B.) Tavares, Florida, and C.) Borongan, Samar Island, Philippines. There will also be some mention of Bella Coola, British Columbia. If any SurvivalBlog readers have lived in or near any of those locales , I’d appreciate your input, via e-mail. I’d also appreciate hearing from anyone with experience and seismic oilfield exploration. OBTW, my novel “Founders” should be released in October 2012, in hardback, as an audiobook, and …


SurvivalBlog Writing Contest – Round 39 Winners and New Prize Announcements for Round 40

We’ve chosen the winners for Round 39 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. But first, I’d like to mention several new prizes that will be awarded starting with Round 40: A new prize will be added to the First Prize package: a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear. You may remember seeing them mentioned in SurvivalBlog as suppliers of a variety of U.S. military surplus gear, including full military specification ALICE packs, at great prices. Three new prizes will be added to to the Third Prize package: These include: a large handmade clothes …


Five Letters Re: The FBI’s Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative

JWR: Can you let your readers know what the names, identifying characteristics, and other information is that we can use to check and see if we have the FBI installed cookies on our machines? Thanks, – J.V. Web Forensics Expert Mr. X. Replies: First let me explain how to look for cookies.  The easiest way IMHO (there is more than one way to skin a cat, my favorite method involves using high-pressure air…) because it is easy and anybody can do it with little or no chance of [accidentally] nuking their own machine: In Internet Explorer, go into the File …


Important Message From JWR: The FBI’s Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative

It has come to my attention that from August of 2011 to November of 2011, the FBI secretly redirected the web traffic of more than 10% of SurvivalBlog’s US visitors through CJIS, their sprawling data center situated on 900 acres, 10 miles from Clarksburg, West Virginia. There, the Feebees surreptitiously collected the IP addresses of my site visitors. In all, 4,906 of 35,494 selected connections ended up going to or through the FBI servers. (Note that this happened several months before we moved our primary server to Sweden.) Furthermore, we discovered that the FBI attached a long-lived cookie that allowed …