Letter Re: First Aid Kits Are Not Enough

I have been a prepper for a while and I have always regarded my current location in rural West Virginia a safe place for WTSHTF. However I failed to recognize it’s vulnerabilities in the time before that happens. To set the stage I live just west of the Shenandoah Valley, the nearest hospital is 20 miles away over a mountain chain in Virginia, a 45 minute drive during good weather. It had been snowing for two days and this route happened to be closed to all but emergency vehicles. The other hospital was a two hour drive away, again, snowed in. Our county had two ambulances, one was in a volunteer fire department (They had no established fire department) the other roamed the county seat, which was 12 miles away over another ridge of mountains.

My wife was cooking and my two children were in their rooms playing. It was at this time that I learned a valuable lesson about first aid kits and how unprepared they actually leave you.

My wife, through some slip and catch routine caught the business end of a carving knife just below the inside of her elbow. The cut was about 2.5 inches long and about a ¼ inch deep. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot but when you are looking at tendons, fat and blood vessels it’s more than enough.

Confident of my first aid kit and training I immediately sat her down and told her to raise her arm. Unfortunately due to the location of the gash, this was unbearably painful for my wife. I opened our medical kit, which I thought was of substantial size, and donned sterile gloves, and opened a pair of gauze pads. I had her hold this on the cut while I called 911 and checked in on the kids. The kids were fine, the ambulance was busy. Busy? Apparently someone had caught their living room on fire and the incident occupied both ambulances which would be unavailable for the next four hours while trudging through the night behind a snowplow to the nearest hospital. Not to mention a plethora of people had been caught in the weather trying to drive.

The severity of that situation did not dawn on me until after the incident. I set the phone down near us as I replaced the dripping bandages. The blood was clotting but it still oozed out of cut. I placed four bandages on and wrapped a triangle bandage and had her lay down so her arm would be slightly elevated above her heart.

For those that do not know when skin is cut that deep it pulls away from itself, all in all the center most opening was nearly ½ inch wide showing more anatomy that I was comfortable with. Upon changing the bandage the third time the blood had stopped and it was clotted enough to allow me to use a small iodine wipe around the cut, careful not to get it into the mound I tried to clean up the blood as best as I could. My wife, now shivering from slight shock of the incident was nauseous and dizzy. I took appropriate actions and assured her everything was going to be fine.(I myself had doubts about this)

It was 9 p.m. when I ran out of bandages. In four hours I had gone through three boxes of gauze as the wound wept, the ‘dull thudding pain’ also taking it’s toll on the medication we had in the kit. I called once more, and said my wife was fine and only needed stitches, and maybe some pain medication. I was told the ambulances were on their way back but someone else had literally slid of the side of the mountain and they were having to Triage people for an ambulance. That sent a chill down my spine. “I’m very sorry sir, but you will be given a call as soon as another emergency vehicle is available.”

I looked at my wife and made the decision to go to the gas station four miles down the road and buy as many sterile pads that they had. The trip took an hour. Luckily halfway through going there I heard the heavy scraping of a snowplow as he rushed through, I pulled into someone’s driveway and let him pass before continuing. I bought the bandages: 8 boxes gauze/ 2 boxes super absorbent gauze non-stick pads. As I made my way back on the uncleared lane, I slid off the road or into the oncoming lane (which was plowed) multiple times. Luckily I made it back in one piece and so did the vehicle. The bandages were replaced and luckily all was good. I double checked her wound before calling the emergency line again and informing them to take us off of the ‘Ambulatory Triage’ list.

It was four days before I could take my wife to the hospital who said she was lucky it was not infected and it would have required stitches had she come in that night. At that point it had closed up and scabbed over enough for them to need only give her some penicillin to ward off any infection and some painkillers.

So in hind sight now I had to ask myself some serious questions…

What if she had cut a tendon or a major artery, would they have diverted an ambulance to our house when someone’s vehicle had flipped off the road? Would my wife have been ‘triaged’ over a smoke inhalation victim?

What if I had gotten stuck in the snow or worse, wrecked as many did that night and was left stranded as I got my wife her bandages? Was I prepared to walk through that kind of weather? Was it a good decision to risk it for bandages and leave my wife alone handicap with two children?

What if the gas station was closed? What if they didn’t even carry medical supplies? What if it had gotten infected early on? What if I had cut myself, did my wife know how to properly care for a wound? Would the situation have been more severe had my children been the victim? I asked these and many other questions after this event and have made adjustments accordingly.

We now have an ample stock of medical supplies (As in hundreds of each ‘basic’ necessity in a first aid kit.), my wife has been to a basic fist aid and CPR class and I am working to educate her to the level of first aid that I am at, the children too, are learning. Remember the lesson here is modern medical kits are designed for the 30 minutes to an hour between the incident and the time the ambulance arrives or you arrive to hospital. Not for extended use.

Replacing the pads as often as I did, I’m sure, is what saved it from infection for as long as it did, all together over 100 pads were used, 2 triangle bandages and 2 rolls of medical tape, three dozen iodine/alcohol wipes, even more pairs of latex gloves, and that’s for just one cut for four days.

Take heed that in TEOTWAWKI there are no drugstores or gas stations down the road, you not only have to cover the wound but you have to maintain it until it heals properly. I highly recommend buying massive quantities of gauze and other ‘basic’ medical supplies.

Learn from my experience and don’t ever think it won’t happen to you before TEOTWAWKI. You can never be prepared enough. Regards,- I.S.

Three Letters Re: Bypassing the Internet Kill Switch

Hello Mr. Rawles!
Long time reader here, but had taken a break from most blogs for almost a year as I focused on generating alternative sources of income. I have an important question for you. How will we access the Internet after the government shuts off “the switch“? Would we still have access via dial up possibly? I’m on broadband now and its been a long time since I’ve used dial up service. I’ve used Ubuntu Linux the past 4, almost 5 years now and I know many old dial up modems do not work well in Linux/ (At least the inexpensive winmodems don’t work well.) Of course, some brand name modems still work great. I’ve have been recently re-watching the Jericho television series to get some ideas of life after the SHTF. My wife from Ukraine says collapse is at USA’s doorstep with all the telltale signs). In the show Jericho, Robert Hawkins continues to use a government computer even after an EMP and mention is made the Internet was designed to be able to survive a nuclear war. What about a Presidential kill switch? In any case, I was thinking of getting to know dial up again. Are there still BBS (bulletin board systems) out there? Should I even consider looking into dial up or am I wasting my time? Regards, – Dave in Southern California

James Wesley,
Take a look at the Open Mesh web site. The content of that site is a bit heavy-technical going in places but useful, given: A.) Egypt’s recent actions, and B.) the current[ly pending] Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) legislation in Congress to give the White House the power to shut down chunks of the Internet in times of “national emergency.”

I’m a frequent reader who appreciates your hard work in making people more aware. – Rick W.

JWR:
I believe that some TEOTWAWKI-prepping “good” will come out of the recent developments in Egypt. See this recent PC World article: Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down Does your government have an Internet kill-switch? Read our guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut. I’m even thinking of a “neighborhood intercom”! – The Other J.R.

JWR Replies: I concur that it is important to develop some alternatives in anticipation of draconian government actions. Yishai mentioned another good article with it own little wiki: Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet.

Since SurvivalBlog might someday be deemed politically incorrect–either by malicious hackers, our by own government, or by a foreign government, we are developing some countermeasures:

A.) As a first step, a couple of months ago we began publicizing our IP address (It is: 64.92.111.122) I got a chuckle when I saw a wannabe blog quickly follow suit.

B.) The next logical step will be to set up an offshore SurvivalBlog mirror server that will be automagically backed up every 24 hours. (Does anyone have some inexpensive server space available?)

C.) Lastly, I hope to find a used satellite phone with modem capability, “just in case.” (Perhaps Iridium…) But even buying used equipment, they seem quite expensive. Ditto for the cost of calls and modem connect time.

Letter Re: The Caliber of SurvivalBlog Advertisers

Sir:
Just a short note to provide feedback on your advertisers. First, as a retired engineer who always dealt with verifiable data, I am always initially skeptical of product claims and hype. However, since I have, over the years, started buying materiel, I have found that your advertisers provide not only great products, but also outstanding service.

I now have come to trust any company I see on SurvivalBlog. Looking back, I have spent approximate $14,000 in the last three years getting my family prepared. From your advertisers, I have purchased books, seeds, food, gear, water filters, barrels, grain mills, wheat berries, etc. I have never encountered any problems with any of your advertisers when I have had the need to call for additional information. I received nothing but outstanding customer service.

Today I purchased a Tri-Fuel conversion kit for my Generac generator from the company mentioned in a recent post. I had been looking for two years for the correct one.

Your site, while it has valuable information and hands on application data, is also a valuable source for saving time in finding the right material for specific uses and situations. As far as I and my family are concerned, SurvivalBlog.com has become a national asset … so (tongue in cheek), be careful. The Feds have been known to take over national assets.

Warm Regards, – Marc N. in Alabama

Economics and Investing:

Egypt and Tunisia usher in the new era of global food revolutions

G.G. flagged a piece by veteran investing guru Richard Russell (of Dow Theory fame): The Dollar Has Lost All Stability And Is Ready For A Crash

B.B. sent this: Why the Smart Money is Trading Dollar Bills for Hard Assets

Items from The Economatrix:

All 100 Oz. Bars of Silver Gone in a Matter of Days

Davos 2011: Roubini Says G-20 Has Become G-0  

America Faces Biggest Deficit in History  

Federal Reserve Concerned Over US Job Creation  

UK Retailers Cut 10,000 Jobs Last Month  

Will Gold, Silver & Oil Prices Soar on Social Unrest in the Middle East?  (Yes, Yes, and Yes)  

Alan Greenspan Entertains Metal Standard, Again

Inflation Watch:

Rocky Mountain Power asks for 13.7% rate hike

Reader Steve C. pointed us to a blog written by Barry Ritchie, a missionary in Honduras. Ritchie mentions that staple foods like rice and beans have nearly quadrupled just in the past year. Steve’s comment: “Food inflation is most certainly on the rise, and apparently even faster in those areas where folks can even less afford the increase.”

The Downsizing of America:  Manufacturers Learn Creative Methods of Repackaging Inflation  

Odds ‘n Sods:

Here is a must read piece by Dr. Gary North on family relocation when war is on the way: Moving How Far Out?

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A company is offering a unique “Multi-Lens TEOTWAWKI Vision System“. These unisex eyeglasses includes complete sets of left and right scratch resistant prescription lens ranging in fine diopter increments from – 1.0 up to – 5.0 diopters.

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Here it comes, just as I warned: BATFE Study On The Importability Of Certain Shotguns. I believe that it was no coincidence that the ATF document featured a picture of a Saiga 12 shotgun. That is the one that has them feeling antsy. They are presently having a “public comment period.” Please politely let the ATF know two things: 1.) The Second Amendment has nothing to  do with “sporting” guns or hunting ducks. Rather, it preserves our right to own paramilitary (“militia”) firearms. and 2.) Detachable magazine shotguns such as the Saiga 12 gauge are indeed popular for sporting shotgun “Three Gun Match” events.

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Davey in Michigan notes that the February 2011 issue of Sky and Telescope has some interesting articles concerning the Sun, the upcoming solar cycle maximum, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and the possible implications that such events would have upon the national power grids and high technology hardware.

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‘Death by GPS’ in desert. (Thanks to Skip T. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light,” Ma considered. “We didn’t lack for light when I was a girl, before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of.”   “That’s so,” said Pa. “These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves – they’re good things to have, but trouble is, folks get to depend on ’em.”  – Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter (Which describes the harsh winter of 1880-1881 in the Dakotas.)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) 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.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 32 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Realistically Raising Chickens for Meat in a Survival Situation, by B.R.

As both an organic, pastured chicken farmer and someone very interested in preparing for any possible future disruption in the food chain, I have given much thought to what it would take to keep my flock going if everything went to heck in a hand basket.

Eggs or Meat?
Over the past several generations, chickens have been selectively bred to either grow fast and put on lots of meat quickly or crank out eggs like a Pez dispenser. The problem with this specialization of breeds is that it has created fragile, problem prone chickens. The modern breeds require high octane specialized feed and even then suffer from leg crippling problems and deformities. Also problematic is the fact that modern meat birds can no longer mate naturally and must be artificially inseminated to reproduce. This is not a good scenario if you are trying provide your family with a sustainable source of fresh meat when you can no longer swing by the grocery store for some plastic-wrapped boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

Ready, Set, Go
To have any hope of realistically raising chickens for meat or eggs in a survival situation there are several factors that must be addressed. Don’t even hope to be able to do any of this after everything goes to heck – you must get started and you must start now.

Survival Breeds
The single most critical factor in your success at putting fresh chicken on the table is the careful selection of breed. You must have a thrifty dual-purpose flock established before everything comes grinding to a halt. This can be three birds in your backyard or thirty birds on half an acre but whatever you do, do it today! Look for birds that can lay eggs but that are also meaty enough to justify the effort of plucking and processing when they are “spent” which is generally at two years old. If you live in colder climates, the heavily feathered Orpingtons are a great breed. In warmer climates, we prefer their heat loving cousins the Australorps. If you are looking online, look for heavy breed brown egg layers. There are many good books written on different chicken breeds and many hatcheries can point you in the right direction if you ask the right questions. Start with “What’s a good, hardy dual purpose breed that does well in (insert your climate here).

Supplemental Feed
The breed you choose should be aggressive foragers but not aggressive birds. Meaning, they will actively spend their day scratching for bugs and seeds but will not try to attack your children when they collect the eggs. Most heritage breed chickens have retained the ability to shift for much of their own food but if you plan on getting many eggs out of them and keeping them meaty, you will have to supplement their diet. The more you can move them to new grass, the less you will have to provide extra feed. Luckily chickens are omnivores and as such will eat almost anything you give them. Any scraps of leftover food especially bits of meat will provide their protein needs. If you catch rabbits, game, mice or rats you can take off the bulk of the meat to feed your family and throw the rest to the chickens. They will pick the bones clean and then you can feed the rest to your pigs or guard dogs. Since you are probably planning to grow your own wheat, barley, corn etc.; set aside a small plot to feed to the chickens or make friends with a local wheat/corn farmer. Once everything crashes and burns, you’ll be able to trade darn near anything for a fresh, whole chicken. As with all of your animals, your chickens will need fresh clean water on a daily basis. Make sure during the summer they never run dry or the stress will negatively impact their health.

No Heat Lamp? No Problem
When everything is working as it should and all is right with the world, you would phone up a hatchery and have them ship some day-old chicks right to your front door. Pop the little peepers under a heat lamp and you are on your way to some tasty eggs and meat. What happens when the hatchery doesn’t answer the call, the phone doesn’t work or the post office doesn’t deliver anymore? How will you get more chicks? The answer is, if you have carefully selected the right breed, and have followed the suggestions so far, you can sit back and let nature take it’s course! Any chicken worth it’s keep will go “broody” meaning she will sit on her eggs until they hatch and then care for the baby chicks. As long as you don’t eat your breeding stock, this will continue to provide nearly unlimited replacements for the chickens that you use for meat. [JWR Adds: As I’ve mentioned in the blog once before: If your breed of chickens isn’t broody, then you can buy a few broody “foster moms” of another breed. Bantam hens are famous for their broodiness.] Although you don’t need roosters to get eggs, you will need some to get more chicks. I recommend getting roosters from at least two or three different hatcheries – that way you can ensure the genetic diversity of your flock if this becomes a long term situation.

Protect Your Flock
Everyone will want your chickens – including hawks, owls, coyotes and raccoons. Unless you live next to a pharmaceutical company and have unlimited access to antibiotics and poultry meds, don’t plan on keeping your flock indoors all the time. Chickens don’t do well in confinement and will peck at  each other out of boredom and become sickly. You can build a shelter for them or buy one of the ready-made chicken houses but either way, they will need a safe place to roost at night. We keep the coyotes and raccoons at bay by surrounding the chickens with portable electric fencing that runs off a deep cycle battery with a solar panel. You can assign one of your kids to watch the chickens during the day and keep the hawks away – what else are they going to do if the Xbox doesn’t work anymore? Make sure the chicken house is closed up tight each night or owls will literally walk in and start demolishing your flock. Have enough chickens so that if you lose one or two before you find out who the new predator is – snake? skunk? opossum? – it won’t be the end of your family’s meat source.

Processing
So now you have raised some chickens, you’ve gotten eggs out of them and they are slowing down production – time for chicken and dumplings. You need minimal equipment to get your bird into an edible form. A rope and sharp knife is all it takes. Flip your bird upside down, tie the feet to something so your hands are free and slit the jugular right behind the jaw bone on each side. While the bird is still warm, pull all the feathers off – cut off the head and feet. Make a slit just above the vent (anus) making sure not to cut into the viscera. Pull out the innards and rinse the bird inside and out. You can see some great videos of this being done on youtube.com – type in “chicken processing” – forget the fancy equipment – it won’t work without some serious power and you don’t need it for a couple chickens a week anyway. It’s not hard at all to process a chicken but you might want to try it a couple times before you have to do it on an empty belly and your hungry kids staring you down. As a fun family project, make a homemade solar oven and see if you can cook up a nice casserole for dinner without using any energy at all.

Cautions
With proper care, sunshine, bugs to eat and grass to nibble on, your hardy dual purpose breeds should have zero health problems and will be a joy to raise and maintain. However, if you ever see one of your birds behaving strangely, off on it’s own, making strange noises, having breathing problems, swollen eyes or any other unusual signs, cull it immediately. Don’t wait to see if it will get “better” remove it from the flock and kill it. Feed it to the pigs and check your flock constantly so that you can catch any other chickens behaving strangely and cull them immediately as well. Don’t take a chance on an illness wiping out your whole flock – healthy birds can fight off most diseases. The ones that can’t don’t need to be part of your breeding stock.

Why Chickens?
On our farm, we raise many animals – pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, goats, rabbits, ducks, dogs and cats but in a true survival emergency the chicken will be our go-to source of meat and barter. They are easier to process than rabbits, reproduce faster than cows, grow out sooner than turkeys and are simpler to raise than pigs. They are small and kid friendly but provide critical sources of protein and fats. The right breed in the right conditions will have few health problems and will reliably produce offspring with no intervention on your part. Starting a small backyard flock today could be one of the most important steps that you can take toward survival when TEOTWAWKI arrives.

Useful Books:
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock by Judy Pangman
Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide by Jeremy Hobson and Celia Lewis
The Joy of Keeping Chickens: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry for Fun or Profit (The Joy of Series) (part of the ‘Joy of’ Series) by Jennifer Megyesi and Geoff Hansen
Chickens: Tending A Small-Scale Flock For Pleasure And Profit (Hobby Farm) by Sue Weaver

Hatcheries:
http://www.ideal-poultry.com
http://www.strombergschickens.com
http://www.sandgpoultry.com
http://cacklehatchery.com
http://www.moyerschicks.com/
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com

Letter Re: Question About Eris (Planet X) Tidal Forces

Dear JWR,  
I will present some facts and allow you to draw your own conclusions.  Having been in Army Intelligence, I am certain that you are capable of analyzing data and arriving at multiple possible scenarios of likely outcomes:

1.)     There are currently 9 [well-known] planets in our solar system;
2.)     According to physicists, objects of greater mass attract objects of lesser mass (same goes for planets);
3.)    On October 31, 2003 a new , 10th planet (Planet X [also known as Eris]), was discovered outside our solar system, but traveling towards it in an elliptical orbit;
4.)    See this NASA web page.
5.)    At first this discovery was heralded with much publicity, then died down… this in itself may mean nothing.
6.)     As our own Moon affects tides and weather on Earth, imagine how disruptive a large mass like another planet traveling close to Earth would become;
7.)    Some people say that the extremes we are currently experiencing in weather and seismic activity is actually a felt influence of Planet X as it currently approaches a closer orbit to Earth.

[some deleted, for brevity.]

Sincerely, Wayne.

JWR Replies: The orbit of Pluto takes 248 years.  Eris (aka 2003 UB313, also aka “Planet X”) is indeed part of our solar system. But it is in a much more distant orbit than Pluto. Its tracked orbital path shows it coming no closer to Earth than the average orbital distance of Neptune. It also has an orbital velocity that is slower than Pluto’s. From what I’ve read in credible sources, there is no evidence that it will ever get near Earth.

As for gravitational perturbations (tidal forces), even when the much-vaunted Grand Alignment took place on May 5, 2000, the tidal effect was so small that it had five or six zeros in front of it. The inverse square law also applies to gravitational forces over the vast orbital distances of planetary space. The gravitational forces exerted by Eris are less than 1/1000th than that of Jupiter, and even those are negligible, here on Earth.

I don’t see any cause for alarm about Planet Eris, even for our great-great grandchildren. It is those large, but as yet un-detected Earth crossing asteroids that worry me.

Letter Re: Increasing Preparedness Planning Through the Rules of Three

JWR,  
SAA Joe makes some good points in his article. He states however that “Hopefully 3 minutes without oxygen is self explanatory.  You have to breathe to survive!” then offers no solutions to a scenario where that may become a problem.   Scenario: You are stuck in traffic on the interstate due to an overturned tanker truck a few hundred feet in front Of you when a cloud of unidentified gas starts rolling towards your car from the overturned tanker. What do you do?   Scenario: You are at home which is located ¼ mile from a heavily used rail line. You hear the sound of a train Derailment and subsequent explosion. Looking outside you see large amounts of smoke and strange colored clouds rolling Towards your house which is downwind from the accident. What do you do?   These scenarios are not farfetched. Some version of these occurs on a regular basis in the United States.   In both cases gas masks stored in an easily-accessible spot in the home or vehicle can be life savers. Perfectly serviceable units are available at reasonable cost from a variety of sources. As with most preparations, discretion is advised when letting Others who may not share your mindset regarding preparations know of you precautions. Better safe than sorry!   Regards, – Jack C.

Economics and Investing:

Bryan E. noted that Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has proposed a list of budget cuts that will total $500 Billion dollars in savings.

“The Houston Cannonball” mentioned a link at Zero Hedge for a map of the dozens of riots in recent weeks across the globe that can be attributed to price hikes as well as a few price hikes in the US.

Sue C. sent this: Budget deficit to hit $1.48 trillion. The congresscritters in Washington D.C. now have us swimming in red ink!

Items from The Economatrix:

Mike Ruppert:  The Beginning of Systemic Failure

Regulators Shut Down Small Banks in Oklahoma and Wisconsin  

World Markets Sink as Protests Escalate in Egypt  

Fitch Downgrades Egypt Outlook to Negative  

More Robust Spending Helps Economy Gain Steam  

The US Goes Back to the Gold Standard  

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson sent a link to this photo montage: Ancient Defense Tower Becomes a Sleek Home

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Analysis: Egypt shows how easily Internet can be silenced.

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Reader J.M.C. sent the CNN piece: Utah Base Lockdown. J.M.C.’s comment: “Scooby-Doo says: ‘Rutro!'”

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I was pleased to see that SurvivalBlog was just ranked #1, among survival blogs.

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Chris Matthews: Obama Plans Separate Gun-Control Speech

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Woe to those that call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light,  and light for darkness;  who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" – Isaiah 5:20

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 250 round case of 12 Gauge Hornady TAP FPD 2-3/4″ OO buckshot ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $240 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, B.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and C.) 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.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 32 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.