Letter Re: Rabbits for a Stable (and Staple) Protein Source

Hello,
I enjoyed the recent blog article Rabbits for a Stable (and Staple) Protein Source, by S.F.D. in West Virginia.  With all the rabbits running around this year I have been thinking about giving this a try.  I had a couple of questions after reading though and hope you or S.F.D. can answer them.
 
1. Food pellets won’t be readily available after the stores shut down.  What would you recommend for easily replenishable year-round rabbit food?
2. The temperature swings here in the South between seasons can be drastic.  Is there special care needed in extreme cold or heat?
3. Is there a particular breed that is recommended?  I could easily catch wild rabbits here to start, but they are kind of scrawny.
 
Thanks, – G.S.

JWR Replies: I’ve raised rabbits off and on since the early 1990s. Although feeding hay is more messy than using pellets, rabbits do quite well eating hay. Growing up in California’s Central Valley during World War II, my mother raised rabbits and for their feed simply cut weeds in vacant city lots. Alfalfa is particularly nutritionally dense, but Timothy and Latar Orchard Grass also make good rabbit feed. (Latar is a favorite in the Inland Northwest.) Unless you have a large number of rabbits, you can grow your own and simply harvest it with a hand scythe. If you don’t have room to grow hay, then you can buy it by the bale or more cost effectively by the ton. (Incidentally, Alfalfa bales are heavier than grass hay bales, so there are fewer bales per ton.)

Rabbits can handle cold temperatures well, although they should be sheltered from rain and wind chill. It is heat that kills most rabbits. In hot summer weather, one expedient is providing each cage with a frozen 2 liter water bottle. (Used sodapop bottles work fine.) If you have a double set of bottle sand carefully rinse clean the bottles before refreezing them, it is quick and easy to keep up to a dozen bottles in your chest freezer at all times. Evaporative cooling (using an old terry cloth towel hung vertically near each cage, and kept wet with a dripper system) works moderately well, but only when combined with a box fan.

Don’t try breeding wild rabbits! Not only will the wild does tear you up when you try to handle them, but there is also the risk of endemic diseases, such as tularemia. Most meat rabbit breeders use the New Zealand breed. They were bred specifically for meat production. They put on weight quickly, which makes them economical to keep. If you want a combination breed (for meat and fur), then I recommend Rex rabbits. Rex bunnies are also cute, so you will also have a chance to sell some of your rabbitry’s offspring for pets. But regardless of the breed that you select, be sure to get your breeding stock from a good breeder that has proven healthy bloodlines with does that have a history of large litters and good nurturing instincts. It is better to pay more for your first few rabbits, so that you get started with solid genetics. If you start out “on the cheap”, then you will probably have lots of problems down the road. (Small litters, babies left on the wire to die, and so forth.) You should also swap bucks with other breeders once every year or two, to prevent excessive inbreeding,

Recipe of the Week:

Sunshine Buttercup’s Oriental Green Beans

I make this dish whenever I have a surplus of green beans. Everyone who has tried it says it’s tasty and a great way to liven up green beans.

Ingredients
    1 lb green beans, trimmed
    1 teaspoon sesame oil
    1 teaspoon vegetable oil
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
    Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
    1-1/2 teaspoons light soy sauce
    2 tablespoons water
    1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted, garnish

Directions
    1.    Steam beans for only a few minutes, you want them crisp.
    2.    Dash beans in cold water to stop the cooking (do this the day ahead if you wish) Heat the oils and saute over low heat with the garlic & ginger until you can smell that wonderful aroma (the garlic will be golden). Add beans, pepper flakes, soy sauce, and water.
    3.    Cover cook over high heat for a few minutes until the water evaporates and the oils have coated the beans and they are hot .Shake the pan as the beans cook.
    4.    Garnish with sesame seed.

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Green Bean Recipes

Storing Garden Abundance: Freezing

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Odds ‘n Sods:

For folks with a large stream on their property, a Pelton Wheel system like this is fantastic: Algonquin Eco-Lodge – 12 kW Micro-Hydro Turbines

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Why we face grave danger from space: The discovery that a colossal solar flare hit Earth in the Dark Ages reminds us that catastrophe could strike at any time, says Michael Hanlon.

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.50 BMG shooters might find this reference page on specialty military rounds of interest.

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Mike Brown is planning to build a new generation of reliable 8 horsepower steam engines that will be able to run a 5 kilowatt generator.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them; when the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility, then the Athenians ceased to be free." – Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

How to Wake People Up: A Time-Travel-to-the-Year-1970 Gedanken, by Joe Snuffy

Many preppers and survivalists have tried to convince family members and friends about our current predicament, being the long-term collapse of industrialized civilization. As intellectual survivalists, many of us have studied the works of Dr. Joseph Tainter (The Collapse of Complex Societies), Dr. Nate Hagans (Peak Oil / environmental economics), John Michael Greer (catabolic collapse theory), etc. Many of us collapse theorists have performed a form of fusion between these noted theorists, as well as noting significant events ourselves, since the early 1970s, in particular.

How about a neat little Gedanken (a thought experiment) or role playing game during a family get-together or social event? In this game, we travel back to the year 1970, where the traveler (or even a group of people, which would be better, for collective input) is the time traveler to the year 1970, and the rest simply play the parts of ordinary, average people of that time period (not our usual doomer selves, in the modern sense), oblivious, and amazed that this person was able to travel back through time, from the year 2013. Note-taking and illustrations on a dry-erase board could add to the fun, and create more effect.

Here is how a realistic dialogue could go during the role playing between one of our typically uninformed, NFL/NASCAR/Disneyland relatives/friends being the time travelers, and us as the 1970s people:

Us: “Wow, so you’re from the future! Groovy!”

Traveler: “That’s right”

Us: “Wow, so it’s like 2001: A Space Odyssey, in 2013, right? I just saw that movie.”

Traveler: “Uh…no…not really.”

Us: “What do you mean?”

Traveler: “We don’t put people in space anymore. Only the Russians do.”

Us: “What!?”

Traveler: “There’s an International Space Station in orbit, but the Russians are the only ones flying to it. I think American astronauts are getting rides with them.”

Us: “What!? But it’s like that one in 2001: A Space Odyssey, right?

Traveler: “You mean like a big, giant round thing? No, it just looks like the small one that the Russians had in space from the 1980s, to the 1990s. My cousin said he talked to someone who works for NASA, who said that the Russians even built the modules for the newer space station, because they were they only ones who knew how to do it.”

Us: “Well, isn’t the US going to put something like that in space?”

Traveler: “We had a little one of our own called Skylab for a couple of years. I think that was around 1973. But, I mean…nobody has any money anymore for stuff like that.”

Us: “What are you talking about?! We’re the Unites States of America! We’ve got Apollo Moon missions going on! We’re fighting a war in Vietnam! There’s nothing we can’t do!”

Traveler: “Well, I don’t know. When I hear older people talk, they talk about the economy back in the 1970s, with the gas rationing that went on in 1973 and 1979. I also hear them complain about how Nixon took the US Dollar off of the gold standard in 1971, and that it’s causing problems in my time. I also have this loony cousin, who says that US oil production peaked in December of 1970,… whatever that means…I heard this one guy, Schiff,  I think his name is, saying that we ‘went into debt in the 1970s, in order to pay for everything we did back in the 1960’s’.”

Us: “No gold standard?! Well then what backs the dollar? Nothing?

Traveler: “Yeah, pretty much.”

Us: “Oh my God… But we produce all the oil we need. At least that’s what we’re told.”

Traveler: “Well, I think we’ve always imported oil from foreign countries. I think even in your time, we’re importing oil. There’s a lot of talk about something called shale plays in the US, but my cousin says they’re a lie, that they’re actually starting to peak, as they ‘play-out.’ He says it’s like the lie about food in the movie Soylent Green, whatever that means.”

Us: “What’s Soylent Green?”

Traveler: “Some really ugly movie about the future, with Charlton Heston in it that comes out a few years from now…Oh, by-the-way, that reminds me: I think that people were encouraged to kill themselves in that movie. Just before I time traveled, there was a news story about how since 2010, suicide was the number one cause of death in the US and Europe, exceeding traffic accidents. The article said the numbers were actually conservative, with one researcher saying that the real suicide rate was probably 30% higher, because coroners can’t always tell what the motive behind accidental death is.”

Us: “Oh my God…By-the-way, you don’t seem to be recalling this stuff very well. Didn’t you have any schooling after high school?”

Traveler: “Yes, I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, but I haven’t been able to find a job, so I work two different part time jobs at the mall.”

Us: “You mean one of those new indoor shopping malls?”

Traveler: “Yeah. I work 30 hours a week at an Orange Julius. It’s a place that serves fruit drinks and hot dogs. Then I work 20 hours a week at a clothing store that sells punk rock and goth stuff to kids.”

Us: “Punk rock,… goth?”

Traveler: “Never Mind.”

Us: “So what do you do when you get home?”

Traveler: “Oh, I waste time on the Internet, chatting with friends, etc.”

Us: “What’s ‘the Internet’?”

Traveler: “It’s this global network of computers that all communicate, and share all of the knowledge of the world that has ever existed.”

Us: “So for a time traveler representing the future of humanity, how come you don’t seem to know much?”

Traveler: “I don’t know…

Traveler: “I then usually watch TV. I like ‘Dancing with the Stars’. It’s my favorite TV show.”

Us: “What’s that?”

Traveler: “It’s this show where celebrities go and have these dancing contests.”

Us: “Oh my God…That sounds stupid. Well…Then again,… we have these ‘variety’ shows on TV, that are probably just as stupid.”

Traveler: “What are those?”

Us: “It’s where these celebrities host their own TV shows, and perform skits, play jokes on each other, stuff like that.”

Traveler: “You’re right. That does sound stupid,”

Us: You know, your future doesn’t give us anything to look forward to. I can’t believe it! There is no way I’m going to allow my kids to have any children of their own. Why bother! They’re just going to suffer. Is there anything else that sucks about the future?”

Traveler: “Oh yeah. One other thing: You mentioned Vietnam. I don’t know much about that war, but I heard that we lose that war a few years from now. Anyway, we had another series of illegal wars in the Middle East, after the World Trade Center in New York got crashed into by some airlines, in 2001. A lot of people compared these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Vietnam. Also, my cousin said that the attack on the World Trade Center was a false flag by our own government, because of the way they completely came down from a set of implosions. One building didn’t even get hit by anything, and it imploded in on itself, as well.”

Us: “Oh my God…Martin Luther King himself even warned us about this, in his Beyond Vietnam speech, when he protested the war…He said it would continue, if we didn’t stop acting like an empire…” I think I just saw something on 60 Minutes about how the Gulf of Tonkin incident never actually happened. By the way, next time, have your ‘crazy cousin’ do the time traveling. He sounds a little bit better informed…”

Us: Okay, so apart from the fact that our future is totally screwed, how much do things cost in the future, like a home, cars, stuff like that?

Traveler: Well, a decent house, depending on where you live can cost anywhere from $150,000 on-up to a Million. Most new cars are from $20,000 to $60,000. Bread is about $3.00 a loaf. A gallon of gas, last I checked, was around $3.80.

Us: My God! The average price for a new house now is just somewhere over $24,000. A good new car is around $3,500. A gallon of gasoline right now is about 36 cents. Bread is only a quarter. What happened to the value of the dollar? Oh wait, that’s right. You just said that Nixon is going to take us off of the gold standard. And you said we’re already importing oil. How much are we importing in the future?

Traveler: My cousin told me, because of something called ‘demand destruction’ and those shale oil plays, just less than half of what we use each day comes from a whole mix of other countries. Before the economy got really bad in 2008, we imported over half of what we used…

…

I think everyone can see how this can go. Yes, in this example, the time traveler takes some ribbing, to say the least, but YMMV, based on how cooperative and good-natured your friends and relatives are. Just have fun with it. You can even have a large group, divided into two halves, serving as time travelers and as 1970s people. Also, it may work out better if it’s one of us unplugged types who does the time traveling, as some of us might have a deeper knowledge of history, and the ability to convey it.

Some of my inspiration here comes from the ultimate intelligence officer, himself, the character Gary Seven (Robert Lansing) from the old Star Trek episode Assignment Earth. (He was so high-speed, he knew that the Enterprise crew came from the future, as soon as he encountered them. “Humans, traveling with a Vulcan…”) The Canadian documentary Stupidity also came to mind. This particular documentary, narrated by Donald Sutherland, asks the question: In a world where information is more accessible than in any other period in human history, why do people insist on remaining stupid?

As things quickly transpire, like most other doomers out there, I am convinced that it is simply too late to preach to people who want to stay clueless. However, this could be fun, and have a powerful psychological effect (or at least create a serious paradigm shift.)

Economics and Investing:

India Bans All Gold Coin Imports, Increases Capital Controls

Carolina Jim recommended an essay by Paul Rosenberg: The Blow That Killed America, 100 Years Ago.

Dire Consequences Await As U.S. Debt Nears A Tipping Point.

Items from The Economatrix:

That Which Is Incapable Of Reforming Itself Disappears

How To Prepare For An Economic Depression

US Consumer Bankruptcies Jump By Most In Three Years; Third-Party Collections At All Time High

Odds ‘n Sods:

G.G. sent this: Ten Years Later, How Have We Avoided Another Mega Blackout? And this: Failure is Not-an Option Unless We’re Talking About American Energy Infrastructure

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Ban on carrying loaded guns absent a concealed-carry permit is upheld by Oregon supremes. Reading the decision, it appears that it was the court rather than the defendant that was acting “recklessly.”

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Bellingham to pay $15,000 to man who wore gun in park

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A Mikey Bloomberg nightmare: Virginia gun crime drops again as firearm sales soar.

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British-produced food would run out today, farmers warn: Food supplies for the year would run out today if Britain had to rely on domestic goods alone due to a sharp fall in production in the past two decades, farmers have warned. (Thanks to M.P. in Seattle for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“To whom ye forgive any thing, I [forgive] also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave [it], for your sakes [forgave I it] in the person of Christ;
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” – 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 (KJV)

Notes from JWR:

This weekend only, (August 16-18, 2013), Camping Survival is having a 10% off sale on all Honeyville long-term storage food products. Use coupon code: “honeyville10”, at checkout.

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Today we present another entry for Round 48 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) 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 CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy. G.) Two BirkSun.com photovoltaic backpacks (one Level, and one Atlas, both black), with a combined value of $275, H.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and I.) A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com. The current value of this roll is at least $225.

Second Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. C.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. D.) $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P.), E.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials F.) A full set of all 22 of the books published by PrepperPress.com. This is more than a $200 value, and G.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security., E.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Round 48 ends on September 30th so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Extending Your Vehicle’s Driving Range, Without Cost, by Steven B.

A while back, I remember reading a tantalizingly titled but substantively misleading news article about a group of junior high school students who built a “car” that attained a fuel efficiency of 150 mpg. After reading the story, my skepticism was confirmed that a bunch of junior high school students “out-engineered” those who engineer automobiles for a living, or more succinctly for profit. The vehicle they built was little more than a soap box racer with a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine; more of a go-cart instead of a practical conveyance.

What I did discover in reading the article was that the efficiency was much more attributable to simple driving techniques rather than technological innovation. I immediately saw the opportunity to save a few dollars. When I practiced and developed these driving techniques, it was no longer a matter of saving a few dollars. Upon extrapolating it out over the course of one year, it was over $300 which is quite substantive to me.
Pulse and Glide Driving (PGD) was the term used in the story and it very effectively captures the essence of the technique. It is not difficult to deduce the practical application from just those four words. I have applied this to my regular driving habits, which living in a major city suburb limits me to about 90 percent city driving conditions. I have proven that it does indeed work in stop and go traffic, although not as effectively as dramatically as it does in highway conditions. There are other factors I have also incorporated to further reduce the impact of fuel expenses on my wallet. I will mention them here as well, but be mindful that the bulk of the improved efficiency is gained by cyclical periods of moderate acceleration and coasting along in neutral.

First, let me tell you about my vehicle.  I do not have a good bug out vehicle. I drive a sensible commuter in the form of a 2008 Kia Rondo and my commute to work is less than two miles. In the South Florida summertime with the air conditioning running, it gets about 16 mpg city and 19 mpg highway. Using PGD, I routinely inflate those figures to 20 mpg city and about 25 mpg highway, and that is with the air conditioning still running. These figures represent approximately a 25 percent improvement without installing a penny’s worth of performance improving equipment or sacrificing environmental comfort. You would be totally surprised (or not) how important both those notions are driving around with three females; two of them under the age of eight.
The basic principles of PGD are very simple:

  • Accelerate to a good cruising speed and decouple the transmission (means shift into neutral for automatics or push in the clutch for standards). When in neutral, keep your foot completely off the accelerator. An idling engine burns little gas and keeps your hydraulic and electrical systems working to maintain steerage and braking capacity. Use your vehicle’s momentum to keep going down the road for as long as practical before re-engaging the transmission for another stretch of acceleration.
    NOTE: You may want to get the engine’s RPM up a bit from idle before re-engaging the transmission to reduce the mechanical stress on the power train as it begins to apply force to the ground again. This takes practice to get the transitions smoothed out and is not completely necessary.
  • Use downgrades to your advantage. Let gravity accelerate your vehicle while your engine sips the same amount of fuel as it does sitting at a stop sign. This is especially effective in hilly or mountainous areas. I have averaged 32+ mpg in West Virginia on a road trip; doubling my city mileage and by far my best record!
  • Shift into neutral when approaching red lights and stop signs. There is no reason to be burning any more fuel than at idle coming up to a place at which you know you need to stop. Additionally, other drivers (even those following closely behind you) will have little reason to become angry since it’s obvious why your speed is bleeding off.
  • Try to keep your cycles fairly even. By this I mean accelerate to your cruising speed, coast until about 10 mph have been bled off and accelerate again to cruising speed. There does come a point of diminishing returns if you coast to a dead stop before reaccelerating.
  • Do not use more braking than is needed. Every time you tap the brake pedal is energy burned off your brake pads instead of moving you down the road. Do not be fooled by “engine braking” either. Using an engine to slow your vehicle is not very effective and puts additional mechanical stress on your engine. Brake pads are much cheaper than engines and far easier to replace.
  • Do not make your target cruising speed too high as this will reduce your efficiency. Any pilot will tell you that induced drag is not a great thing to have more of when it is you paying the fuel bill. The faster you go, the harder the apparent wind pushes back on your vehicle no matter how aerodynamically it has been constructed.
  • Avoid accelerating too quickly as jackrabbit starts do not burn fuel as completely as does a moderate acceleration. If you are in a situation where you do need to move quickly as a matter of safety, then by all means punch it without a second thought. Fuel is far less expensive than life.

There are also a couple extra things you can do to stretch your tank’s range even more.

  • Reduce the load on the engine as much as possible. Air conditioning is something that you might not want to do without depending where you live, however the electrical load of headlights are totally unnecessary in clear daylight hours in all but the most unusual driving conditions. Any other high current devices should also be shut off or otherwise disabled when not needed.
  • Although ethanol blends are nearly universally distributed as the main gasoline fuel supply, search for pure gasoline retailers. Make trips there a couple times a year with your gas cans and rotate them accordingly. Pure gas contains no ethanol, burns more efficiently and will increase your mileage since an inefficient fuel is not being added. Go to Pure-gas.org and see if a retailer is open for business in your area.

This is all well and good, but there are times when you definitely should not use PGD techniques.

  • By constantly varying your velocity on the highway in heavy traffic, you are sure to earn the enmity of all who are driving behind you on cruise control. Exercise good judgment and employ PGD techniques only when conditions allow.
  • If you’re on a busy secondary road with traffic close behind you, do not make yourself a nuisance.  Just drive normally until you have a quarter mile or so of empty space behind you.
  • Do not accelerate to unsafe speeds in order to get the longest glide possible. If you have to ask why, then go find the nearest cast iron frying pan and beat yourself in the forehead because you are an idiot. A speeding ticket will negate half a year’s savings. Additionally, fuel savings are of little consequence to the dead. Keep it sane.
  • Do not expect to develop the technique too fast. If you are like me, get used to the idea of steering with your left hand a lot while operating the gearshift with your right. I was surprised how sore my left arm became on long trips. Other aspects of PGD require much practice to develop and you should not expect to be great at doing it right from the start. Be patient with yourself and the results will come as you put more thought into what you are doing.

Another thing to think about is by developing and refining these techniques is that you are not only going to save money now, but you are also extending the driving range of your vehicle. A tankful of gas that used to get me only 250 miles now gets me 300; more if I turn off the air conditioner, headlights and parking lights. In the less austere times that could lie ahead, this may be an important factor. If maximum range is of the most importance to you, use the highest grade premium gasoline you can get. For everyday driving however, use the lowest octane rating that provides acceptable performance without engine knocking or pinging. It’s also cheaper, which is the whole point here. Imagine the extra preps you could have after just one year!

If you are on the road to your retreat for a permanent move, incorporating these techniques could mean the difference between getting there with the fuel you can carry drawn from your own stocks or facing the reality of having to obtain more fuel along the way. It may be prohibitively expensive, dangerous to scavenge or outright unavailable at any price. Bring your jerry cans and have a few 5 Hour Energy drinks readily available– you never know when you might need them.

JWR Adds: Be advised that coasting in neutral is banned in some jurisdictions, for safety reasons. “Gliding” can be hazardous in areas with traffic congestion. Also be aware that you can burn out your clutch if you don’t fully disengage it during your “glides.” FWIW, I used to turn my engine’s ignition off just before very long downgrades (which is illegal in many jurisdictions.) But of course with modern steering column locks, this is no longer possible with most manual transmission cars and light trucks.

Letter Re: Save Your Disposable Lighter Flints

Hello, Mr. Rawles:
I’d like to share a hint with you and your readers: Save all of your empty (discharged) disposable lighters, such as “Bic” brand lighters. They contain flints that you can use in your Zippo lighter. [These lighters can have their striker mechanism quickly broken down with a pair of pliers.] These are longer than the replacement flints that are sold in stores. They also work well in the older Coleman lanterns equipped with flint strikers.

Economics and Investing:

Reader C.D.V. sent: New Fox, Same Henhouse: Wall Street Takes Over LIBOR. This piece includes some interesting thoughts on derivatives: “A former trader who worked in both New York and London recently told me, ‘At the end of the day, this market is running on the [Federal Reserve]. Once they pull out it’s all over. Cheap money, loads of people making loads of money, but no lessons learned.'”

I noticed that Backwoods Home magazine now has a “pay for your subscription in pre-’65 silver coins” option. (We do likewise, for our voluntary Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions.)

Similarly, Late’s diner offers 1964 prices to customers paying with silver coins. (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Has The Landscape For Gold Changed Forever?

Summer Retail Is A Bust, But Watch Out For Fall

Gold Surge Bodes Ill For Economy

Odds ‘n Sods:

I was pleased to see that Mark Levin’s new book The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic hit #1 overall on Amazon.com.

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Ohio Shawn spotted a piece about a single-wheel human cargo trailer, over at Instructables.

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Bob G. sent this study in contrasts: AK-74: Fast Assembly & Disassembly In Russian School. (Most American school teachers would throw a fit before they would allow this in their classrooms.)

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Just for fun: Swiss “Jetman” flies along B-17 aircraft

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New Company Allows Organizations to Hire Fake Protesters