NOT A WHOLE LOT

Not a whole lot to say today. I talked to a man in meeting who said he had a word that the economy is going to go up and then collapse. But there was no time frame.

I still have a chicken coop to build! But we will be building here for the next 1000 years so if it is to be then it will happen.

My computer has been out of whack all day today and just got back on track this evening and I have not had a chance to write. I will try harder!

Stay alive.

Michael

GET READY FOR EVERY DAMN THING!

I just got through reading Mish Shedlock's article about Whirlpool leaving Evansville, Indiana. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/whirlpool-plant-in-evansville-ind-shuts.html. It will be kinda strange not having Whirlpool down there is the corner of the state. And I imagine the 1100 people who will be without jobs will find it strange also. I hope they get some type of financial help before Whirlpool takes off for Mexico. I just talked to Mike Kemp down in Mississippi and he has heard that a joint venture between Toyota and GM has shut down completely out in Californicate. It looks like things are going to get a bit tough for folks this Winter. But the globalists don't give a damn and therefore I don't give a damn about them. And Whirlpool stayed long after everyone else left. I'll bet they found there was no loyalty to the country anymore and decided to play the game.

I am concerned about the coming Winter. I have a feeling that it is gong to be a cold mutha. Unless our forecast has changed we are supposed to get down to 50 degrees when we wake up Monday and 49 degrees when we wake up Tuesday. And Fall is three weeks away! I certainly hope everyone has an alternative heat source this Winter. Power lines going down in sub-zero temperature don't get fixed quickly, at least not around here. A wood burner can make all the difference in the world is you have one. And ours will cook our dinner too! Nothing like a hot meal in a warm house when it is snow ass-hole deep to a ten foot Indian outside and the power goes off. The Handmaiden and I like to sleep in a cool or cold room in the Winter but just knockin' around the house during the day with no heat is a bitch. You can put more clothes on but it is a hassle and I don't like to do it, but I damn sure will if the situation calls for it. Rednecks have more sense than to sit around in the cold with not much clothing on.

The Elderberry extract is making and we are getting ready for flu season. Not that I think the flu will bother us but you can't always tell. But we have our extract and our high Vitamin C red peppers and our Vitamin D-3 and that ought to do us, along with our normal sensible diet. You gotta eat to live, not live to eat. My belt I wear had gone from using the third notch to using the 7th notch to maintain my trousers around my waist. Got some more to go but with the help of my wife and my God I will make it to slimness by sometime next year. If it gets too cold I may allow my diet to get a little more carbohydrates in it and use them to stay warm. Carbs are like gasoline. They burn and produce heat, it you use them up. If you don't use them your insulin turns them into fat.

I have been reading articles on the great August they had on Wall Street. It's a slam dunk for a great time for stock brokers. And here is the joyful news to end all joyful news. The market has been led by financial stocks, In other words BANKS. Can you grasp the idiocy of that? Can you grasp the fact that for banks to lead the way there has to be manipulation out the ass going on? Banks in the United States are essentially tapped out. They had to get bailed out, remember? They had to get accounting rules changed before they could continue on in business. They had to be able to call toxic mortgages assets or they were dead on arrival. It's all a stupid game and those instant trade programs are making money off of it. If any of you have money in this system please do yourself a favor and get out. The game is rigged. And the game is run by the biggest bunch of crooks on the screen. These people are worse than serial killers. They are taking down the whole country. And as a last middle-finger-salute they will sell what they can of America to foreigners who have money. One day...dogs and guns...'nuff said.

Stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

GUEST COLUMN, ETC.

I have a guest columnist today. He is a man who has become interested in the economy and thus has become interested in survival. Apparently he knows what he is studying. Here we go.

TROUBLE IN THE FUTURE by C.G.

Here is an excerpt from a market newsletter that I subscribe to, which I consider a mainstream-thinking author. It seems that the world is changing fast and people are finally catching on...

We are experiencing a turning point in our culture. The public now expects the government to step in and solve any crisis. It remains to be seen just what the fallout will be from the government�s efforts over the last year; but it will not be positive for stock prices, or for corporate profits, or for employment. You will be advised in the media of the �new normal� which will be a cheaper stock market, lower corporate profits, and a higher unemployment rate.

A bigger concern to me is that we will never get rid of the �solution bureaucracy� being created in the wake of crisis,and we will never regain the freedoms which the public is so willing to forfeit for a solution. I am forced to wonder where corporate America, indeed the corporate form of ownership, will end up after all of this? Who will actually run American business? I suspect it will be the same folks who deliver your mail.

Increased corporate oversight may eventually preclude owning U.S. stocks in the future. I am sure the same thing was said in the 1930�s as the government was bringing stiff new regulations to bear. However, today�s events are beyond mere regulation � they are trending toward direct government involvement. That will change the primary corporate objective from generating profits to something else. Corporations may be forced to operate solely for the common good instead. What ever changes that are in store are certainly not good for investors. We will see this reflected in the prices of paper assets as the secular bear market that began in 2000 resumes this fall.

Freedom will be a victim in this process, and so will the value of your hard earned money � U.S. dollars. How to build wealth, or indeed to maintain what you already have, will require a new approach and a better investment strategy over the balance of the century. This strategy must begin by investing with the idea of a much weaker dollar in mind over the long haul.

Here is an interesting headline in this day and age when deflation is all the rage: �Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors say they will raise prices.� As I have said in past letters, you will only see lower prices for those things that folks can give up easily.
**************
An interesting article and full of things we should be thinking about. One of the things I think about is the bail out money. What the hell happened to all of that money? Trillions of dollars and we can't find out who got what. This is sho' nuff larceny. Right here in front of God and everybody, we are getting scammed and ripped off. Bernanke is going crazy making threats about what will happen if the Federal Reserve gets audited. Can you think for a moment what a business with horrendous power can do if it is not audited? It's mind boggling. And our dear sainted President Woodrow Wilson, another Democrat, was the guy who gave us the fed. Thanks a lot, Woody.

I read some economic sites myself and the news look's pretty bad for some folks. I hope you all have your land paid for and have plenty of preps. I cannot emphasize too strongly the concept of having preps. Food and more food. Non-hybrid seed for your garden. Guns and ammo for your protection. Medical supplies for keeping you healthy. Big John has been talking about tools, old, strong tools. He has a truckload and I think it is a great idea. My non-hybrid beans are just now starting to dry and should be ready in two or three weeks. Then it is going to be shell-out time. I intend to give away last years beans as this year's come in. I am already getting my ducks in a row for next years garden. I must do corn next year. Bloody Butcher Corn. I guess it is a good variety and if my compost works this year I should get a good crop. You gotta have a grain to go with your beans in order to make a complete protein. Rice has always been cheapest but corn will do and rice may not be available when you need it. I reckon the folks down in Arkansas will have plenty but we might be on the low end of the totem pole for any favors in that area. If the fedgov gets low on money they may require the rice to be sold overseas. They can get foreign currency that way. And foreign currency will look nice if the dollar ain't worth the paper it is printed on.

Another thing that is taking up some of my precious thinking time is the news that 50% of the doctors is England have refused to take the Swine flu vaccine. This tells me that I made a good decision when I decided to not get the vaccine. You do whatever you think is best.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

JUST NEWS

Ted Kennedy is dead. I will not miss him. He turned out to be a liberal demagogue and that is a form of human life I cannot hardly bear. He is taking up all the news sites and lots of space on the blogs, but he is gone. That is one less vote in the Senate for Obama's health plan. Obama's health plan is going to bankrupt this nation. Not that there is any way for the nation to avoid going bankrupt, but who wants to give the money to the doctors? I have little respect for doctors. Surgeons may have some good things for humanity but pill pushers ain't gonna cut the mustard as far as I am concerned. When I had my heart incident in 2003 it was a couple of Paramedics that saved my life, with some miraculous help from God. I should have died long before the Paramedics got there but it was not in the plan. I had such an Atrial Fibrillation going that I should have been dead in four and a half to five minutes. This is why you don't want your heart bet to get up to 220 to 230 beats per minute. I was in the A-Fib forty five to fifty minutes! The doctor who came on the scene in the emergency room announced to the crowd that they were witnessing a miracle. And there was a crowd there, for sure. Even the two Paramedics were hanging around with sorta wide open eyeballs. But a more powerful script than what a doctor can do was in charge and it was being adhered to. So Teddy is gone and I am still here. S'long, Teddy. Ain't gonna miss you. And that may sound a bit cruel but it is at least an honest feeling and not some hype from a politician.

I just read an article on the number of banks predicted to fail. The number is over 500 expected to hit the commode drain. I am thus given to wondering what the hell happened to all that bank bail out money? All those untold billions of dollars given away and the banks are still failing. And over 500 of them are ready to collapse. It is a travesty of immense proportions to watch this come about. These bastards are taking us for a ride. With, of course, the blessing of our lawmakers and our president. The best government money can buy. And hey, the officers of the banks are not going to be hurt by this. These guys know the score and are ready to head for the hills. Head for the hills with plenty of money in their pockets I should say. I wonder if most of them are planning on staying in America or are they headed to South America. If they have bought gold they can go about anywhere they wish. Gold fits just about any cash register. But those who don't get out will be hunted with dogs and that is a fact. If people think the rebellion at the town hall meetings over the healthcare plan are disturbing, they ain't seen nothin' yet. The rebellion against the failing banks will light a fire under America's ass, for sure. But we can hunt the congressional give-away boys as well as the bankers. The more game the better the hunt.

I'm getting ready for bed now. I have just had a discussion with my wife about carbohydrates. She sorta feels that there are necessary carbs for your diet. I do not. She says that Vitamin C comes from carbs. I beg to disagree. Vitamin C uses a vehicle of a sweet fruit to get into your system. The Carbs in the fruit are not part of the Vitamin C you take in. But people can believe whatever they like for whatever results it brings. But I know the Atkins diet got my brother-in-law off of 25 units of insulin a day and that counts.

Watch the news. You never can tell when the crooks will let something slip that they have been trying to hide. They have told so many lies that they can't keep track of what it to be said and what is to be hushed up. Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

THINGS

We are the proud parents of a PARAMEDIC! I am so proud of my son it is almost sinful. But 10 years ago I gave him up to God to raise and I must say, God can do a better job than I was doing. He took his National Registration exam this morning and found out later that he has passed the thing. I would say there will be some beer drank tonight, and it won't be me.

Enough of my blather about my son. Probably bores everyone to tears. The latest rumble on the fringes of the financial world is called "financial controls". What this means in a nutshell is that you will not be able to take money out of the country. If you have a million dollars and you want to get out of the USA because you think you will lose all that money, the government will not let you take it out. Hows that for freedom? How is that for respecting your personal property? You gotta remember, we are being chased by some Marxists who want this country in a big way. Just another gang fighting over our wealth and our possessions and our land.

The citizens of this country are wanting health care very much. Times are getting tough and insurance payments are shaky when you think you might be losing your job. What are we going to do? The AMA and Big Pharma have a lock on congress. The bastards keep putting in riders on the bills that make us out to be a bunch of chumps. I think we will end up being responsible for our own health care. We have to study natural herbs and body conditioning. Doctors are not going to do it for us. They just want to treat you like a milk cow and put you in a stanchion and milk you for years. I don't want milked, I want HEALED. And I ain't got any extra money!

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

FOOD AND CHILDISHNESS

We had a flurry of food activity yesterday afternoon. The Handmaiden went to the garden and came back with a sack of sorta dried beans, a big clump of her onions, a bag full of Roma tomatoes to go into her dehydrator, and some regular tomatoes that need to ripen a bit. I got right on the beans but didn't like them too much. Still too much moisture to easy shelling. The damn pods wont pop open like they should. But we got everything done what we could and there is more food now than there was before. I like having lot of food around. You just never know when there might be an emergency. As soon as my beans are in I am going to give away the remainder of last years harvest. I don't want to keep dried beans very long. One year will do for me, I think. The Handmaiden checked our supply yesterday and they look just fine. We freeze our beans and rice for tow or three days before bagging theme up for storage in our big metal cans. We also put Bay Leaves in the bags with the food. The wife has taken to putting diatomaceous earth in the bags with the Bay leaves. Nothing is in there eating our food! Hooray!

The New York Times had an article about the decreasing power of the dollar on the world market. Hey, great! They are finally waking up to the fact that our currency is ruined beyond all recognition. I think we will be using food for currency in a couple of years. And this reminds me that the survival blogs are pounding the welfare state unmercifully. No one wants it. The idea of governing a welfare state is that if there is a problem then you just throw money at it and it goes away. And that is true, to a degree. The Bible speaks of money and wisdom both being defenses, and of the two wisdom, is the greater. So anyone noticing this trait in government will see that we are getting second class governance. There is no wisdom to lead us. In another place we read "Woe unto the people when their King is a child." Well, our president is our King, whether we want to admit it or not. And in the matters of ruling us he is a child. He is not mature and developed as a man. He can make a nice speech but he cannot make his way among the rulers of the earth with any amount of real respect. He lives off the ideas and work of others.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

YOUR NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS

Well, by God, I just found out what I am supposed to be talking about or the next year or two. Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States is going to appoint a special prosecutor. This little bit of drama will take up huge blocks of TV news and Internet pages and print circulation. Think of all the things the Democrats can do with this. Republicans are going to be smeared by this investigation from one end of the country to the other. And good for them! They deserve it. I just want to see Bush and Cheney in court with all the underlings. Gobble, gobble, eat 'em up. The sad and despicable part of the whole deal is that Obama will get his minions elected to office and we will have a socialist utopia before we even know it. This is from the mind of a Chicago Politician. People like this do not make a move unless they can profit from it. It ain't got a damn thing to do with being alarmed with the CIA using torture. It has to do with votes and control of Washington, D.C. Therefore, do no let it inhibit you one damn bit from your plans to prep. No amount of political agitation will keep this economy from going down the drain. You must not give up the drive to survive. It is a chance you will only get once and you better do what you can while you can. We haven't quit here at the ranch and we don't aim to quit. We are drying food every day and storing it, except maybe the beef jerky. It gets nibbled on frequently. I'm nibbling on some of it right now, as a matter of fact. We have canned goods running out our ears and we have just been given a whole crop of garden tomatoes because the lady who grew them does not have the time to can them this year. They will be going into jars forthwith. It's hard to have too much food. And I am sure I will be thinking about the food as I do the canning and whatnot, barely able to tear myself away from the latest news of the special prosecutor. Screw the special prosecutor. Where were all the bleeding hearts when the torture was going on? Probably buying land in Paraguay or Uruguay and getting ready to bug out. Oops. I wasn't supposed to say that. Shame on me.

Short post today. But have a good one anyhow!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

SHORT MONDAY

I was coming back from the little village where I bought my breakfast yesterday. Terry and I eat out on Saturday because the Handmaiden is gone to Amishland. I was just noticing the lay of the land, so to speak, as I have been thought the little village a few thousand times. It is a small place, maybe a couple hundred people. There are numerous homes and some community buildings from another era. There is a big fancy church there with it's own school and some playing fields. The church has a campground with a big barn to hold gatherings and give folks a chance to camp out and so forth. Seemingly strange for such a small town, there are three gymnasiums in the town. The community owns one of the gyms, the church has one, and the school has another. There are three churches in the little town. Lots of religious folks in the neighborhood. The churches draw crowds from the local farmers. But it is a sleepy little town. It has a restaurant, a full service gas station and a metal fabricating place that is about as big as a hobby business will get. But the village is at a cross roads and has plenty of water. There is plenty of land suitable for growing gardens and orchards. Plenty of cattle farms in the area. A couple of them quite large and well stocked. The purpose of this description is to bring to notice that inhabitants of this little village could team up and survive most any financial discomfort that comes their way. It can be defended against any Zombie attacks and the locals probably all have rifles and shotguns. Big deer hunting area. It could be a survivalist paradise. But chances are it won't. People are raised to be independent and to not talk about their plight in life. Typical Americans. It's a sorry thing but it is the way things are. Pain will teach a better way.

Everywhere I look I see ads telling me that all I have to do is click on them and I can have the latest Adobe Flash Player for free. Can't beat the price. But I see know reason to have it. My computer plays things just fine without the latest Flash. What has pissed me off is that YouTube won't give a damn thing unless I get the new Flash. This stinks to high heaven. It ain't gonna make anything better so it must be a spyware thing that will tell American big business what we are up to and maybe the fedgov also. It's crazy! My pop-up blocker is signaling me all the time that Flash is trying to get on my machine. I just can't see it. Why don't these people let us alone? Why can't we use our computers the way we wish? Why do they have to spy on us? Must be some big dollars is spying on the public. Maybe they are using this new Flash to check on us and see if we are extremist forces. You just never know... I most generally accept downloads that up grade my machine. It normally ain't much and it keeps me current. The window pops up and I say OKAY and that is about it. But this Flash thing is not them offering to upgrade my machine but them wanting to have me ACCEPT having it installed. It is a new thing. I still think it is spyware. (I'm gonna miss you tube) (I caved and downloaded it)

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

JUST NORMAL STUFF

Ah, a day off and no comments at all. I never get comments on Saturday. Maybe in January, but that is about all. Americans might read a little bit on Saturday but they don't have time to comment. Too busy stocking up on groceries and mowing the lawn and things like that. I don't mow a lawn and I don't go grocery shopping. I do go prep shopping, though. I have spent as high as $400 for one trip to Walmart. And it is all stashed now.

I have been thinking today about the future and what it might hold. We have pretty much exhausted the possible scenarios concerning financial collapse and war and revolution and pandemics and what not. We will do our best to survive these things. But the thing we always leave out is God. What will God do about this calamity? What is his thinking along these lines? My reading of the Bible and my listening to a Prophet have led my to some conclusions that I think are fairly well grounded. There will be a message brought forth to the nations. Then there will be a punishment given out to the world for not obeying, because the nations are not yet trained to obey the words of God. What can I say?

I have been reading some more about Iceland. It would appear that the banksters have really lit it up! Billions have been stolen. And they are trying to get the people to pay for it. I hope they don't do it. Take back the money from the people who stole it and pay off the depositors. I got the article off of Survival Blog and it is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6034654/Iceland-what-ugly-secrets-are-waiting-to-be-exposed-in-the-meltdown.html. Read it if you will and learn how the banks of Iceland and the UK and the US are all crooked as a dogs hind leg. We have been ripped off!

That's it for today. I am getting tired of writing so much! But I will try to carry on. Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

SHORT POST

Another morning with nothing to write about. So I dutifully open my page and get busy. The weather is to get cold again this weekend. I hear a big cold front is moving in and we are gonna get it pretty heavy. We have a forecast of low 70's during the day and low 50's at night or the weekend. After three weeks of damn near 90 every day it will be something to see our Summer of no heat return. But I have peppers and a ton of beans coming on in the garden and that will be just fine with me. The Handmaiden keeps right on her dehydrating and the volume keeps going up. Lots more beef jerky marinating and getting ready for the dryer. Man, I love that stuff.

I was telling Big John yesterday that I am pretty much ready for a hard time this Winter. I have food and some guns and ammo and some medical and a new wood fired cook stove. Not bad for a poor boy living back in a holler in southern Indiana. The Handmaiden brought me a couple of beans pods from my Cranberry beans and they really looked good. Nice and full and good looking. They should be ready for picking in about a month. I am expecting 50 or 60 pounds of beans from this years yield. Have you ever had 50 or 60 pounds of storage beans in your pantry, beans you grew yourself? I have not, but I am getting ready for it! Non-hybrid seed and vigorous as hell. All I have to do is freeze the little darlings for three days after I do the shell out routine and they will keep very well. I got that tip from Charli Gribble who lives down Alabama way. Damn fine lady. But the thought of having that much bean food is just making my old heart feel all warm and fuzzy. You can get tired of beans but you can't beat the protein you get from them.

Very early in the morning yesterday I got a phone call from my son. He had gotten jabbed by a dirty needle at the hospital. They had flushed out the wound as best they could and took some blood samples to test him. He got a phone call later on from the hospital and their test showed him negative to HIV. The guy who had used the needle did not have it. Thank you GOD!

That is about all for today. Y'all take care and stay alive!

P.S. My wife has for years mashed up her Cauliflower with a hand held machine I bought her and this week she tried doing it to Broccoli. Absolutely great. She added a little whole milk, some butter and a dash of Parmesan cheese. You will like it! Beats the hell out of mashed potatoes.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

NOTICE

My computer all but shot craps last night and it is very difficult to get around on the Internet right now. I am getting email just fine. Had a helluva time posting my blog this morning. But I can now type in my various word processors and that makes things a lot better. If I miss some days or post late, please forgive me.

Michael

MORE MEDIA IDIOCY

Well, just sitting here waiting, as per usual. I read the corporate news this morning and didn't learn a damn thing. Got a few clues to life from the blogs and alternate news sources but nothing from the boys in New York City. New York City must be a filthy place. I haven't been there since the 60's but it sure does have a lot of criminals running around the streets. Especially where you find bankers and stock brokers and lawyers. The mainstream media lives in New York City. They ought to spread out a little bit or one or two nukes could get them all! Can't say that I would miss them. Gerald Celente says that New York City will become like Mumbai, India. Horrible place to live unless you have billions of dollars and lots of hired goons to protect you.

The Handmaiden is drying potatoes and rutabagas this morning. She likes potatoes and I like rutabagas. She is another off-the-all Irish person and I am a refined German English person. Nutritionally I win on this one. There is no nutrition in a potato except for the skin. It is total carbohydrates and I cannot use the damn things. Carbs make fat and I am on a diet. I reckon I have lost 50 pounds just sitting here the last 3 months and I am starting to fell a lot better. Another 100 to 150 pounds to go and I will be back to my needed weight.

Here is some bullshit off of Yahoo Finance. Anyone who reads this blog knows this is horseshit. G.C. up in the U.P. gave us a clue a couple weeks ago. Others have chimed in with more info. Getting ready to sock it to us again! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-prices-jump-on-surprise-apf-1896134727.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices spiked Wednesday after the government reported a huge draw of crude oil from U.S. stockpiles.

The report was surprising because the demand for energy has been knocked down so badly by the recession. Crude withdrawn from storage facilities last week wiped out a buildup in supplies over the past two weeks.

Benchmark crude for September delivery jumped $3.23 to settle at $72.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That contract expires Thursday, and most of the trading has already shifted to the October contract, which climbed $2.74 to settle at $73.83.

If the October contract ends the week at that price, it would set a new high for 2009.

The Energy Information Administration said crude in storage fell by 8.4 million barrels last week. Gasoline held in storage fell as well.

Investors have been looking for signs that the country would recover its energy appetite as the economy healed. The EIA report, on the surface, would suggest that may have begun. Last week's drop in crude supplies was the most since Aug. 15, 2008, a month after crude prices peaked above $147 a barrel.

Yet it may be too soon to say that consumers and businesses are using more energy. For one, crude imports over the past four weeks are down 9.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

"They didn't import more because, at the end of the day, we just don't need it," analyst Stephen Schork said.

Many analysts say there is no evidence that consumers are driving and flying more, or that big industrial power users are ramping up operations.

The amount of jet fuel, gasoline, diesel and crude in storage is still huge, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.

"It would take several reports like this to convince me" that demand has returned, Kloza said.Meanwhile, Hurricane Bill grew to a Category 4 storm, but forecasters said it would steer clear of petroleum refiners in the Gulf Coast. Bill is sweeping up the Atlantic, about 460 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and could effect travel in the U.S.

At the pump, retail gas prices fell less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.628 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 16.3 cents more expensive than last month, but it's $1.102 cheaper than the same time last year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for September delivery climbed 3.44 cents to settle at $2.0346 a gallon and heating oil added 5.37 cents to settle at $1.9187. Natural gas for September delivery increased 2.3 cents to settle at $3.119 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices increased $2.22 to settle at $74.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

What if you had a big pocket of cash that was going to be worthless, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would buy as much neat stuff as I could before the money got to be worthless. I would buy lots of TANGIBLES. And this is what I see China doing at the moment. China is buying gas fields, oil fields and coal fields. The have mountains of Copper and Iron and rare earth minerals and now they are buying energy supplies. And they ere buying all of this stuff with American dollars, or Treasury Bonds. They are using what is primarily worthless to buy what seems to be priceless. Neat trick.

And now a post from Jim Haddix

ECONOMIC STIMULUS

It is the month of June, a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake.

It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted.

It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig raiser.

The pig raiser takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town�s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her �services� on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollar bill to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollar bill, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything.However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism .

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business today.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

PREPPING

Just sitting here prepping and waiting for the next shoe to drop. I suppose a lot of people are in the same boat. It's kinda frustrating but we can get by. We got a little rain this morning, and I do mean a LITTLE rain. Hardly enough to dampen a windshield on a parked car. Most of the preps getting stored up are dehydrated vegetables and some jerky. Love that jerky. I am making plans to build a chicken coop and set up my stove chimney but I already told you about that. I got the woodpile report from Remus last night at http://woodpilereport.com/ and it was very satisfying. The man only posts once a week but he makes it a good one. The subject is not believing what the fedgov propagandists tell you. Lots of good words on the subject. I think everyone should read this post. If you are behind on things political it will catch you up pronto.

I read today on a mainstream media outlet that the fedgov is "scrambling" to find additional manufacturers for swine flu vaccine. Who for? I ain't taking any of it! I have pretty much told you what I will be doing. I'm taking herbs and herbal extracts and watching my diet. That is what is going to be around when all of Big Pharma go out of business because of corruption and overpricing. We have been fed a line of shit as long as your arm and we have got to get it out of our heads. I say the scramble is to create an issue of emergency that will allow the fedgov to move to more higher prices than what they have been paying. Gotta let those big campaign donors make a little money! Bastards. I wonder if this is a build up to the fedgov declaring Martial Law and requiring a vaccination certificates from every one out on the road. I will not be on the road, God willing.

Monsanto has announced it is raising the price of seeds for next year. Read the story at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aLW8VZBkP3PA. This is what you get when you allow someone to grab a phony monopoly on your crops. These people are more than willing to turn us into peasants again and I will resist it to the bitter end. I want to insert an article off of LRC. It may save you from a lot of hardship. Pay attention to this stuff. We are, here in the Boone household.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pr/good-bacteria-fight-the-flu.html
Good Bacteria Fight the Flu

Here's What You Need To Know
by Joseph Mercola

Bacteria present naturally in your body and sometimes found in food could keep cold and flu viruses at bay.According to a study, young children who drank a mixture of such bacteria, known as probiotics, had fewer colds, needed fewer antibiotics, and missed fewer days of school.Researchers have already shown that probiotics can benefit those who are ill, and the bacteria are thought to boost the immune system's response to invaders.~ ABC News July 27, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

For most of you reading this, cold and flu season is right around the corner, and with it will come the yearly push urging you to get a flu vaccine to stay healthy.

This year the push will be even more magnified with the exaggerated swine flu risks � and the dangerous vaccine solution � being heavily promoted.

If you take nothing else away from this article, let it be this: you have at your disposal tools to bolster your immune system and drastically reduce your risk of colds and the flu. You do not need a vaccine to do this. In fact, a vaccine could easily make your health worse.

And one of these "tools" that I urge you to look into right away is good bacteria, or probiotics.

Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive system, so � it makes perfect sense that probiotics would be very effective at warding off cold and flu viruses.

Remember, a robust immune system is your number one defense system against ALL disease, and in order to keep your immune system in top working order you must have a healthy balance of good to bad bacteria in your gut (the optimal balance is about 85 percent "good bacteria" and 15 percent "bad").

The researchers in this new study actually found quite significant benefits among 3- to 5-year-old children who received either a single strain or combination of probiotics twice a day for six months.

Compared to the placebo group, the single and combination probiotic groups had reduced fever by 53 percent and 73 percent respectively, decreased coughing by 41 percent and 62 percent, and reduced runny noses by 28 percent and 59 percent.

Antibiotic use was also 68 percent and 84 percent lower, respectively, which is a major gain in and of itself because antibiotics are vastly overused in children and contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Why are Probiotics so Important?

Probiotics are one of only two supplements that are recommended to all new patients who come to the Natural Health Center that I stared in 1985 (the other being an omega-3 fat supplement). It's also one of the few supplements that I personally take every day.

In many cultures, probiotic-rich food and drinks, such as the fermented superfoods natto, kefir, lassi (an Indian yogurt drink) and sauerkraut, are an integral part of the daily diet.

If you eat a diet rich in fermented foods like these that have NOT been pasteurized (pasteurization will kill the probiotics), then you will likely enjoy great digestive, and immune system, health.

However, if you find yourself strongly drawn to processed foods or rely on mostly cooked foods, as is commonplace in the United States, the balance of bacteria in your digestive tract will have a hard time staying optimal.

This is most unfortunate because this ratio between the "good" bacteria and the other bacteria is one of the critical factors determining your optimal health, as the good bacteria are essential for:


The proper development of your immune system

Protection against over-growth of other microorganisms that could cause disease

Digestion of food and absorption of nutrients

The probiotics in your gut also play a role in helping numerous bodily functions, such as:

Digesting and absorbing certain carbohydrates.

Producing vitamins, absorbing minerals and eliminating toxins.

Keeping bad bacteria under control.

Preventing allergies.

Friendly bacteria train your immune system to distinguish between pathogens and non-harmful antigens, and to respond appropriately.

Providing vital support to your immune system. Beneficial bacteria have a lifelong, powerful effect on your gut's immune system and your systemic immune system as well.

Sugar is also an incredibly efficient fertilizer for growing bad bacteria and yeast in your gut, so if you indulge in a lot of it you're fueling the bad bacteria rather than the good.

Likewise, stress, pollution, and taking antibiotics can further upset the balance in a negative way.Since helpful bacteria are increasingly absent in most people's diets, it is important to purposely include foods that contain live probiotic bacteria in your diet, or take a probiotic supplement � especially since flu season is just around the corner.

Here's What You Need to Know to Avoid the Flu This Year

Now is the time to start making healthy changes that will keep you virtually immune to cold and flu viruses. If you follow the tips I recommend, you can easily sail through each and every winter (and fall, spring and summer) without so much as a case of the sniffles. How do I know this? Because I have not caught the flu in over 20 years, and you can avoid it too � without getting vaccinated � by following these simple guidelines.

Optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D deficiency is the likely cause of seasonal flu viruses. Getting an optimal level of vitamin D will help you fight infections of all kinds. In fact, the largest study yet of the association between vitamin D and respiratory infections found people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu.

Eat plenty of probiotic-rich fermented foods, or take a high-quality probiotic supplement to support your digestive and immune system health.

Avoid or Limit Sugar. Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately and a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness.

Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you're tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight off cold and flu viruses.

Have Tools to Address Stress. We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT), which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma

Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.

Take a good source of animal-based omega-3 fats like Krill Oil, which is crucial for maintaining health.

Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap for this � antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to. Also, be careful not to overdo it. Washing your hands too much can actually remove much of the protective layer on your skin and increase your chances of acquiring an infection.
August 18, 2009Copyright � 2009 Mercola.com

And do not forget to stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

PRETTY MUCH STRAIGHT SURVIVAL

The Handmaiden came from the garden and told me that I actually have peppers growing on my Cayenne plants. Wonderful! I have a real thing for Cayenne Pepper on my eggs in the morning. Now if I can only get a chicken house built and get me some layers I might be taking care of business. And think of the chicken manure! Talk about enriching the soil! I will be able to grow corn out of this world! Enough to feed those laying hens for sure. And my friend Walter found the plow point you use to make the rows for planting. I will get to use up some of this Bloody Butcher Corn I got from Big John Lipscomb. I am impressed the with sprouting vigor of non-hybrid seed. That stuff really takes off. You can buy bulk seed allotments from Big John at http://www.survivalistseeds.com/. He does not screw over anybody but will not sand for it to be done to him either. He also has his blog going again and as usual he is taking on the system. This time it has been religions. John does not have much for religions. And as far as that goes, neither do I. I have not been saved by Jesus Christ. I do not call him Lord, though I might if I met him. He was the most advanced man on the planet when he was here. The most powerful psychic walking around. Organized religion killed him and organized religion will kill you now! Stay away from organized religion. ALL OF THEM! Stay out of churches and synagogues and other places of evil. After the revolution we will use them for granaries. Jesus Christ never built a church or wrote an epistle. He set up no form and no system. Think about it.

But getting back to the garden, which is all of us' ambitions, I have beans starting to turn Cranberry color. That means the little darlin's are starting to turn a little bit hard and finish off for me to shell out. Another month should be their perfection. And if some critter disaster does not befall them, I should have the damnedest bean crop ever. Those plants have made beans like crazy. I planted about a pound and a half of seed and I might be looking at 50 pounds of dry beans. Not a bad ration. Not bad at all. Soybean farmers ain't getting that kind of return. Our tomatoes are coming on, finally. The Handmaiden is drying them and storing them away. She put some home dried mushroom pieces in her Barley soup and I got to taste the mushroom and it ain't bad. Not bad at all. The Handmaidens wine making is moving right along. I just took a wee dram of Sassafras wine and I like it. We will let it age until the start of Winter and then it ill be very good. Just the perfect thing for a cold night. It will be the perfect topping after a bowl of homegrown bean soup!

I think I already told you about the flu preps we do here but I will go into once again. The wife makes homemade Sambucol, better known as Elderberry extract. You take that as soon as any reports of flu come into your local area or you feel the symptoms yourself. Then you dose yourself with Garlic,Vitamins C, Golden Seal, and Echinacea. Mike Kemp said that ester-C is the best, especially if you are fighting the flu or the flu vaccination. Take what your body will allow. For those of you who are not used to self medicating yourselves, Vitamin C will give you the shits if you take to much. Ergo, this will determine the extent of your dosage. Eat super foods like Blueberries and things of that order. I would tell you to eat lots of Broccoli but most of our Broccoli comes from Dole Foods and they are going to buy all of their seed from Monsanto. Another good product down the drain. If you hear anything different let me know.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

WOW!

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html


In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.
The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.
It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America's antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.
Former energy secretary Bill Richardson once disparaged the U.S. electrical grid as "third world," and he was painfully close to the mark. It's an inefficient, aging relic of a century-old approach to energy and a weak link in national security in an age of terrorism.
Taking a load off the grid through electricity production and storage at home would extend the life of the system and avoid the expenditure of tens, or even hundreds, of billions to make it "smart."
The battery breakthrough comes from a Salt Lake company called Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, a world leader in advanced materials and electrochemical devices. It promises to reduce dependence on the dinosaur by hooking up with the latest generation of personalized power plants that draw from the sun.
Solar energy has been around, of course, but it's been prohibitively expensive. Now the cost is tumbling, driven by new thin-film chemistry and manufacturing techniques. Leaders in the field include companies like Arizona-based First Solar, which can paint solar cells onto glass; and Konarka, an upstart that purchased a defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., and now plans to print cells onto rolls of flexible plastic.
The convergence of these two key technologies -- solar power and deep-storage batteries -- has profound implications for oil-strapped America.
"These batteries switch the whole dialogue to renewables," said Daniel Nocera, a noted chemist and professor of energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who sits on Ceramatec's science advisory board. "They will turn us away from dumb technology, circa 1900 -- a 110-year-old approach -- and turn us forward."
Why not just upgrade to a so-called "smart grid" as President Obama has proposed in his economic stimulus package? There are complications, Nocera said.
"First you have to rebuild the grid because the one we have now is a creaky machine from the 1920s, and we keep trying to retrofit it," he said. "Then you're going to have computers trying to manage the energy, which brings up issues like security. You have to make it really secure so you don't have people hacking into things. And then politics. Just wait until you try to run power lines through someone's backyard.
"I can't imagine anything more secure than generating my own energy with the sun at my house, and now I'll have a way to store it. It's the ultimate in security, and the ultimate in control."
With small-scale electrical generation taking place at millions of individual homes -- as opposed to today's large-scale power generation from a handful of giant power plants -- there would be less worry about what's called "point failure" on the grid. That's when a single component gets knocked out and shuts off power to a whole region. California-style rolling blackouts would be history.
The threat of terrorism has heightened the worry. But wide distribution of batteries in homes would virtually eliminate it.
***
Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions -- electrically charged particles -- back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.
This may not startle you, but it should. It's amazing. The most energy-dense batteries available today are huge bottles of super-hot molten sodium, swirling around at 600 degrees or so. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity but it's both toxic and corrosive. You wouldn't want your kids around one of these.
The essence of Ceramatec's breakthrough is that high energy density (a lot of juice) can be achieved safely at normal temperatures and with solid components, not hot liquid.
Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.
Re-read that last paragraph and let the information really sink in. Five kilowatts over four hours -- how much is that? Imagine your trash compactor, food processor, vacuum cleaner, stereo, sewing machine, one surface unit of an electric range and thirty-three 60-watt light bulbs all running nonstop for four hours each day before the house battery runs out. That's a pretty exciting place to live.
And then you recharge. With a projected 3,650 discharge/recharge cycles -- one per day for a decade -- you leave the next-best battery in the dust. Deep-cycling lead/acid batteries like the ones used in RVs are only good for a few hundred cycles, so they're kaput in a year or so.
How do you recharge? By tapping your solar panels or windmills. It's just like plugging in your cell phone or iPod, only you plug in your house.
A small three-bedroom home in Provo might average, say, 18 kWh of electric consumption per day in the summer -- that's 1,000 watts for 18 hours. A much larger home, say five bedrooms in the Grandview area, might average 80 kWh, according to Provo Power.;Either way, a supplement of 20 to 40 kWh per day is substantial. If you could produce that much power in a day -- for example through solar cells on the roof -- your power bills would plummet.
Ceramatec's battery breakthrough now makes that possible.
Clyde Shepherd of Alpine is floored by the prospect. He recently installed the second of two windmills on his property that are each rated at 2.4 kilowatts continuous output. He's searching for a battery system that can capture and store some of that for later use when it's calm outside, but he hasn't found a good solution.
"This changes the whole scope of things and would have a major impact on what we're trying to do," Shepherd said. "Something that would provide 20 kilowatts would put us near 100 percent of what we would need to be completely independent. It would save literally thousands of dollars a year."
Shepherd is connected to the grid through Rocky Mountain Power, which charges a variable rate for power depending on demand during a given 24-hour period. With his windmill setup, Shepherd has what's called "net metering" -- an electric meter that spins both ways. He pays for electricity coming in, but gets a credit from Rocky Mountain for any excess power generated by his windmills that flows back onto the grid. Already, he's cut his power bills in half, and with good storage batteries he thinks he could reduce the bill to zero.
While Shepherd opted for windmills over solar at the time he was planning his alternative energy installation, he said he would reconsider that decision today as the bottom continues to fall out of the cost of solar cells.
"Batteries and PV are about to merge," said MIT's Nocera, using the shorthand for "photovoltaics" or solar power. "First Solar is now saying that it takes $1 a peak watt to manufacture, and another 80 cents for installation. So they're saying that you can get PV for under $2 a watt. That's a reduction of cost by a factor of four. Only a few years ago, it was $8. If CoorsTek and Ceramatec come up with a good battery, the market will develop quickly."
The long-term impact of home electric generation for a power company's business model could be huge. After all, you can't stay in business if nobody's paying for power. Exactly how that will play out remains to be seen.
***
Fifty miles south of Ceramatec's laboratories, Chris Cannon, the former congressman from Utah County, is on a crusade to transform the world through technology. He currently sits on Ceramatec's advisory board with Nocera. No longer burdened by the pressures of Washington, he's using his experience in energy, manufacturing and government to carry the message of innovation and help move research to reality.
"What I choose to concentrate on now are things that will make the world a better place," Cannon said, "and Utah is an incredibly good place to do that."
Approached by Ceramatec after he left Congress, Cannon fills a complementary role in a group of smart engineers and academic types. With extensive Washington contacts and an understanding of the inner workings of power generation, he hopes to be able to make connections that will push the new battery technology forward for the benefit of the country.
"I have an energy and manufacturing background, so I understand the process," he said. "Ceramatec had a gap in their experience which I think I filled pretty well." On top of that, there was "good chemistry" from the start.
While Cannon's six terms in Congress representing what is arguably the most conservative district in America means keeping a somewhat jaundiced eye on the Obama administration, he's far from negative. He thinks of himself as a "post-partisan Republican" willing to run with good ideas regardless of their source. And when it comes to energy policy, he's anything but discouraged.
"If you look at the president, he inherited some really difficult things," Cannon said. "But he hired a guy to be the secretary of energy who is a scientist. And we are on the verge of so many scientific breakthroughs that no matter what the president's ideology is, if we do the right thing scientifically, America is going to do well. Many of the innovations that are coming out of Utah that I'm involved with are likely to be really important, regardless of the leadership."
Last month, Obama introduced a raft of broad energy proposals that were sharply criticized by conservatives as economic back-breakers. Proponents hailed the plans as progressive. Either way the administration appears to be on a path that could soon drive the cost of conventional energy higher -- some say as much as double. Electrical generation at home using solar panels, coupled with storage in effective batteries, could soften the financial impact on many homeowners' utility costs.
The new Ceramatec battery could also change the way private enterprises invest in energy, Cannon said. Instead of building another power plant, for example, maybe they buy 100,000 or a million batteries and distribute those around the service area of a utility to reduce loads and eliminate expensive "spinning reserve," the supplementary power generation that's fired up in response to daily spikes in electric demand.
"The technology could mean a lot of things," Cannon said, "but it certainly means that we change the way we invest. It also means that we shift our expenditures on terrorism, because our infrastructure for power transmission is probably the weakest link in America today. If you have local batteries with local control, that gives terrorists a more difficult target. And local control systems are much simpler than a vast national transmission grid."
***
CoorsTek's manufacturing roots go back to the early 20th century, when Adolph Coors diversified his beer brewing empire based in Golden, Colo. He set up a ceramic manufacturing business called the Herold China and Pottery Company, whose early product line included dinnerware and utensils but later moved to high-tech industrial products made of ceramics. With World Wars I and II, the company stepped up to provide needed ceramics for industry and the military, including materials used in the production of the atom bomb.
"To most Americans, the word 'Coors' means beer," wrote Business Wire on the ceramic maker's 75th birthday. "But to scientists and industrialists throughout the world, the word 'Coors' means technical ceramics of extraordinary quality."
That hasn't changed. Cellular telephones, car engines, computer chips, soda dispensers, semiconductor casings, blood processing pumps, bulletproof vests and armor for military vehicles, to name just a few items in a dizzying high-tech product array, all use ceramic components produced by Coors enterprises. And so it was natural in 2008 for CoorsTek to purchase the hottest ceramics R&D firm going -- Ceramatec, with its 165 employees in Salt Lake City.
Ceramatec was founded in 1976 by a group of University of Utah professors who made important contributions to the sodium-sulphur battery technology being pursued by Ford Motor Company for vehicles at the time. Those early liquid-core batteries didn't pan out well for transportation, though, because of their size and weight, and because of the extremely harsh internal chemical conditions required for them to work.
In the years since, electric cars have remained on the sexy-tech list, with substantial industry efforts aimed at developing various flavors of zippy batteries to power them. Ceramatec had other ideas, recognizing a vast potential market for a different sort of power -- for homes.
"With a house, you don't need to get energy in and out instantaneously. You need huge amounts of storage capacity," says MIT's Nocera. "That suggests a different commercial market and different technical restraints and opportunities."
***
In 2000 Ashok Joshi, a native of India, took the helm at Ceramatec. His international reputation in ion technology and fuel cells kept the company among the first rank of innovators.
Joshi (he prefers A.J.) looked to the potent combination of sodium and sulphur for the basic components of a new battery. That was known chemistry. But while he wanted to achieve a high energy density offered by those elements, he also wanted to get rid of the extreme heat, corrosion and toxicity of liquid sodium batteries.
The key would be found in a paper-thin, yet strong and highly conductive, electrolyte material -- an advanced ceramic -- to serve as the barrier between the battery's sodium and sulphur. The thinner the barrier, the cooler the battery can operate. If you can get below the melting point of 98 C, sodium stays in its solid state, and you've got enough energy to run a house with safety.
Charged particles of sodium and sulphur -- ions -- now scoot so effortlessly through the new ceramic wafer that the sodium doesn't even approach 98 C, let alone 350.
The ceramic that made this possible was dubbed NaSICON by chemists. That stands for "sodium super ion conductor" -- "Na" being the code name for sodium in chemistry's periodic table.
Ceramatec's formulation is a trade secret. With trademark modesty, A.J. observes, "We feel confident it's a good material."
"It's a miracle material," corrects Grover Coors. He's the great-grandson of Adolph Coors, the brewmaster-industrialist who started all this. Grover has a Ph.D and specializes in solid-state ionics and advanced materials. He's working with Ceramatec as a sort of research fellow to evaluate technologies and advise senior management. A.J. stayed on as president after the sale to CoorsTek.
"There are two classes of ceramic materials that are good conductors," Coors explained. "One is what developed here in the early days -- beta-alumina solid electrolyte, or BASE. It's temperamental, brittle. A.J. thought of a better material. It's a better conductor, easier to manipulate and process, and lower cost."
This is where the earth moves for renewable energy. The new electrolyte enables the development of an energy-dense, inexpensive and safe storage battery for use at home. Combined with the rapidly emerging thin-film solar cells, it presents an unparalleled business opportunity.
***
Grover's brother, John K. Coors, is CEO of CoorsTek, the manufacturing company that applies what the scientists at Ceramatec dream up. Their nephew, Doug Coors, oversees R&D.
With some 21 plants producing advanced ceramic products worldwide, the expectation is that full-scale production of ceramic sheets for the new batteries could be tooled up in short order. In fact, only a handful of CoorsTek facilities would likely be employed.
The order of magnitude pencils out along these lines: a target of 20 gigawatt hours of storage in 20 kilowatt-hour battery increments equals 1 million batteries. Or using a different metric, 1 million square meters of thin ceramic electrolyte would yield 20 gigawatt hours of batteries, equal to California's entire spinning reserve.
Nobody at CoorsTek even blinks at such figures. The company already produces 3 million pounds of ceramic material per month. "Once we have a working prototype battery with all the standards and cost requirements met, it will come up quickly," said Grover Coors. "It would scare people to know how quickly we can bring this up."
They're about about six months away from initial scale-up toward a commercial product, he said.
Lots of sodium will be needed to make the new batteries, and Ceramatec proposes a symbiotic relationship with the federal government to get it. Enormous quantities of sodium metals, the byproducts of nuclear weapons manufacturing, just happen be available for cleanup at Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. It's a ready-made source of material that CoorsTek can recycle.
***
In a laboratory at Ceramatec, a small battery -- a NaSICON sandwich in silver foil -- has been cycling up and down since October to prove out the electrochemistry. Engineers are confident the tests will support a projected useful life of 3,650 cycles, which meet the standard of one discharge/recharge cycle per day for 10 years. It's a tall challenge, according to Coors, but doable. "It's very efficient in terms of watt-hours per kilogram," he said. "We're now in excess of 200, which puts us in the sweet spot for all the applications we've been talking about."
There are a handful of small hurdles yet to cross in the science, but nobody seems terribly concerned. One is the fact that when two solids are joined along flat surfaces, there will always be at least a 1-micron gap between them. That needs to be closed somehow. Nocera is making some suggestions for suitable fillers, but neither he nor Ceramatec developmental scientist John Watkins feel that the problem will be a difficult one.
"I want to say, this is no big deal," Nocera said. "But sometimes little things can bite you in the butt. So we'll just work it out."
***
Meanwhile, heavyweight liquid sodium-sulphur batteries from Japan are making an inroad into the United States at Luverne, Minn. They're part of a demonstration project by Xcel Energy, an eight-state power utility. In February, Xcel began testing a 1-megawatt battery installation intended to capture power from a giant 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy, LLC. It's said to be the first attempt to store wind-generated power at a large-scale.
Contrasting with Ceramatec's vision of many small home-based power centers with refrigerator-size batteries, this project is another mainframe -- albeit fueled by wind. Hot liquid sodium-sulphur batteries from NGK are intended to move a lot of energy to the grid. The 50-kilowatt battery modules -- 20 cylindrical cells -- are roughly the size of two semi-trailers and weigh 80 tons. They'll store about 7.2 megawatt hours of electricity, enough to power 500 homes for seven hours, according to company data. The test is intended to validate greater penetration of wind energy on the Xcel Energy system.
It's one of many efforts by industry to cut down carbon dioxide emissions and move to a more sustainable energy model, but it's not without hurdles.
"One of the big problems with the NGK system is that it's megawatt-scale storage," said Ceramatec's Coors. "It has to be on top of the 10 kilowatt side of the utility transformer, meaning that there's a lot of step-down transformers and whatnot involved in hooking those things up -- a lot more system complication.
"If you go with a smaller system like the 5 kilowatts for four hours system that we're contemplating, that's all done on the 110-volt side of the transformer, and so all the switching can be done with solid-state relays very inexpensively."
Such comparisons are batted around frequently by Ceramatec insiders as they seek to optimize the science and develop business models. A recent Sunday dinner with several board members was a popcorn machine of problem-solving and technical musings.
Over dessert, Cannon suggested a new angle: Was it possible to use the thin ceramic membrane developed at Ceramatec to reduce the production costs and improve efficiency of NGK's existing hot liquid batteries -- replacing the old beta-alumina electrolyte currently used in those devices? After all, the new ceramic membrane is cheaper and a better conductor. That got Nocera's attention, and the idea then bounced to A.J., whose mental wheels were rolling.
The exchange was typical of the collegial atmosphere and dynamic thinking processes that characterize Ceramatec.
***
Joe Hunter envisions applications for a new generation of batteries in his specialty of hydroelectric power -- not massive banks of batteries at dam sites, but maybe something along the lines of the 1 megawatt battery array at Minwind's Minnesota wind farm. Alternatively, many small batteries could be distributed throughout a community.
Hunter is a former deputy assistant secretary in the Department of the Interior and was Cannon's chief of staff.
In Hunter's world, large dams typically don't employ batteries on-site because the torrent of juice a hydroelectric plant generates is overwhelming. Glen Canyon Dam, for example, produces close to 1,000 megawatts, which is comparable to a big coal-fired power plant. In eastern Utah, Flaming Gorge churns out 150 megawatts.
The advantage of a dam over a wind farm, however, is predictability. Water must be released continuously to support fisheries and other environmental systems downstream. That's essentially wasted power. If small energy generation and battery storage could piggyback on such flows, the community could benefit at low cost. Inexpensive batteries could be used economically in areas serviced by many dams, Hunter suggested.
Take Deer Creek at the head of Provo Canyon, for instance. Generators at the dam can produce up to 5 megawatts, but they run mainly in the irrigation season. But water to sustain the Provo River has to be released all the time, and local residences, with batteries trickle-charging continuously, could benefit.
It's another value proposition added to others, like the net metering enjoyed by the Shepherds in Alpine. The idea in all this is to ease pressure on the grid while moving people toward greater energy independence.
"What we're talking about is the ability to take the edges off," Hunter said. "We're at a tipping point for alternative energy."
In Salt Lake City, Grover Coors agrees: "This will be the largest industry of all time," he said. "But it's all about cost and reliability."

INTERESTING E-MAIL

I am not planning on writing anything today but I got this email and I thought I would publish it. This man seems to be wanting to start a group. He seems to have some skills at hand and some land that is paid for. Good start.

I do not know this man and cannot vouch for him in any manner. He may be a serial killer or the Jesus Christ of survivalism. More than likely something in between. You might give him an email if you are interested. Go slow and be very cautious. I would encourage him to do the same. You just never know who has a hold on the other end of the rope. I wish successful survival to everyone and hope this pans out for the best of all concerned. Stay alive.

Michael

From: Jonblair8@aol.com
Subject: group To: mboone@rtccom.net

North of Amarillo,TX,reg nurse,former marine,married,kids grown,12 miles to nearest town,rural 15 acres- home/land/well owner,no mortgage,horses,guns,dogs,trucks,tractor,garden,fairly well prepared for first year,if i don't get overrun,hard for few to guard,seeking like minded,possible team up,we live here year round 24/7,many great dane/neopolitant mastiff crosses to discourage interlopers,chickens,duck,rabbits,could use the help,might make deal with the likely,thunder makes the noise boys,lightening does the work,no patience for thunder,no pretenses,place looks like hell,old trailer,junk cars,we scrapped and scraped,everything on it is paid for,no body can repo it,just starting the clean up,pretty up,lots to do,been studying survival all my life,you'll have my e-mail,phone 806-935-5665,Jon

PLANS FOR GENERATIONS

I have a message for Laurie. She read my post on Development and Survival and she wants to know more. I will give you all the ideas I can come up with but I don't have your email address in order to post to you directly. Get that addy to me and I will go further.

I guess I had better get more deeply involved in this career development issue, so here goes. The first thing you may as well recognize is the way your kid thinks he or she wants to go. If they are interested in any sort of education or training that will be useful in the coming collapse then encourage it. Just remember that people getting ready for retirement are going to have second thoughts about entering the Golden Years and more than likely will be hanging on to the jobs with all the seniority they can muster. Remember, the pension funds are getting hit HARD these days and people's plans can change. So beware for kids who want to be social workers or Philosophy majors. It might ring a bell with them intellectually or emotionally but it might not put beans on the table. And putting food on the table may be a major ordeal in the immediate future and beyond. I look for at least a 20 year era of hard times. This is not something to play around with. It is serious business. America is circling around the commode and is getting ready to go down the drain. This needs to be spoken to all kids, to the best of their understanding.

As far as career choices are concerned, there are a lot of things to look at. Will fuel go to $10 or $15 a gallon? It doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot if there is a lot of oil or not, if the dollar ain't worth the paper it is printed on. People will not be driving many places in the future. So think of all the fuel tax the governments are NOT going to collect. And since governments will be short of money due to severely curtailed incomes and spending, people who work for the government will be sucking hind tit. So you must look at what will be in demand and what will be lost in the collapse. Being a car mechanic will more that likely be a really "money short" position. The demand won't be there. But a farrier might make all the money he wants. Shoeing horses is a field to take a look at. Industrial construction may be a thing of history but being a Blacksmith could very well prove to be a gold mine. Old Dobbin may just see a resurgence in popularity. They eat a lot but they can do a world of work. Animal health is a major field, especially in the future. Cows and horses and pigs and goats and so on will be worth a lot of money and trouble and the person who an keep them healthy and producing will be in demand. Same with people who can sex chickens. Laying hens are very valuable but cockerels are decidedly of less value. If someone wants to buy a dozen laying hens they will not be happy if they get a couple roosters in the mix. Raising chickens for sale is a good business if you can do it. Good for money and good for barter. Both methods can put food on the table.

There are positions in the social area that might pay off. I call a social worker a bartender or a waitress or maybe a player in a band. These people who go around playing the game of child protective services are mainly just more government intrusion and do little good. But a waitress or a bartender might be a good area to get into. They are shutting their doors in the cities because of high overhead, but out in the country the cost of having your doors open are much less and can be rewarding financially. The actual money to be made is in the manufacture of the beer and wine and liquor. The University of Wisconsin can teach you to brew beer and give you a degree in the art. But you can go to most wine supply houses and they will sell you the stuff to get started in brewing. You will be a popular guy if you can brew good beer. Just don't ever make the mistake of selling it out of your front door. You will never get a full nights sleep. Folks will drive you nuts!

Any food endeavor will be popular in a given area. Do what ever floats your boat. They are is limitless. You will be able to sell all the eggs you can produce. My next project will be a chicken coop. Meat chickens will be popular also. A chicken is also called a yard bird and one will just about feed a small family. If the family is bigger then maybe two chickens will do the job. The idea of a yard bird is that it does not require any refrigeration. The bird is cooked and eaten pretty quickly and does not spoil. But Cows can give milk that can be made into butter and cheese or just drank with your meal. Wonderful food. But they require milking twice a day seven days a week. Raising hogs for meat can be profitable. But they smell awful. It you can save the manure in some decent manner then you can use it for fertilizer. Same way with the chickens and the cows. Fertilizer comes from petroleum and it will get damned expensive. Basic garden produce will command attention where ever you live. And you can eat it yourself. Grains are a little trickier but still mighty popular. Wheat, Oats, Corn, etc. All very necessary for sustaining life. People will be very happy to help you for a bag of grain for their kids or their animals. Put 'em to work hoeing and weeding the garden! A 50 pound bag of Oats ought to be worth some amount of hours of labor and you should trade it wisely.

I have not mentioned these different occupations as end all, be all, but rather as little ideas to get your brains to clicking. You have to look around and see what will work in YOUR area. You have to talk to the young person and see what they are interested in doing. You must apply your thinking mechanism to this with great skill. And no matter what you do it might not be enough. The kid may want to study underwater basket weaving no matter what you say to it. And who knows what will happen? Jesus was a carpenter. It turned out he had another calling. So approach this area with calmness and a relaxed mind. Kids are not necessarily going to pay you a damn bit of attention. And then again, they just might. Good luck, and stay alive.

DEVELOPMENT AND SURVIVAL

I'm thinking about development and survival. They sort of go hand in hand, you know. Sometime after high school a young man starts to develop the skill and trade he will need to make a living. The sure route to success in this area has been going to college. There were statistics to show that college grads made a helluva lot more money in the lifetime than a high school grad. Skilled trades were the area of choice for those who didn't want to go to college. But a lot of skilled trade positions have gone overseas and are no longer available. So what is a young man supposed to do? Develop a knack for flipping burgers? Develop a knack for running a fast cash register at a 7-11? Jobs are getting mighty scarce these days. What is a young man to do? He has dreams of a wife and a family and desires the ability to afford such a thing.

Listening to Gerald Celente earlier in the week I heard him say that his company is not hiring any Masters Degree people or Doctorate people. They will accept people with Bachelors Degrees. What they are interested in, according to Celente, is people who are ready to go to work. People who are ready to jump in and get busy and produce good results. And I say this attitude will prevail all across the spectrum of employment in our country. A young man will make his reputation where he lives. He will have done everything he could for whomever would hire him and his willingness and results will be his main resume~. And it is the ones who get in there and tough it out on the job who will get picked for full scale employment, something that will feed a family. The guys who say late at the tavern and come to work a little cloudy in the morning will stay near the bottom. The guy who shows up a little early will get noticed and respected. He who shows up early and works hard will get called back the next time there is work.

I spoke at a meeting last night and told my view of what is going on in the world. I said the world is being prepared. It is being prepared for a new day, a new society, and whole new outlook on life. This preparation is much like a farmer plowing and disking his fields to make a good seed bed for his crop to take root. It is being made ready for the new crop. The tools used are not too popular but will be very effective. I will remind you of the two main teachers of humanity: Pleasure and Pain. Pleasure teaches us to procreate and eat too much and get fat. Most other lessons we learn involve Pain. Going hungry because you didn't go to work is an example of Pain being a teacher. Going into heavy debt and not having any extra money is another painful lesson. I am sure you can come up with almost and infinite amount of painful experiences you face along the road of life. But if you are smart you only have to face them once.

My feelings are that a lot what we do as preppers will constitute what we will do to stay alive in the future. A homesteading blogger says the best investment of 2009 is FOOD. Growing, raising, and storing food via some method of preservation will be of good report. If it is not to be sold then it can be bartered for things you don't have and need, thus creating local interaction. Going back to a Bible principle we will discover and old scripture that says "Owe no man anything but love." So we will stay out of debt. Building good strong dwellings will be a prize accomplishment and the name of having good shelter will garner respect. Keeping good medical practices in vogue will make you healthy and prosperous. Having the ability to defend yourself and your family and friends goes without saying. If someone is against the defense of your clan then let them go down the road and live with someone who is of like mind. Develop tradesmen in your clan and let them function freely. They will pay you big dividends. Hunters and fishermen and trappers can play a big role in your clan. It all depends on the terrain you are in and what is going on. If nothing else they will feed you until you get some crops and herds built up and producing. That lady at Indiana Preppers, who calls herself Ernie, is a Veterinary Technician and most likely worth her weight in gold. These occupations will come to the forefront in the coming years. My son's chosen field, Paramedic, will be in great demand. He is not a doctor but he will get you to the bright lights and stainless steel where the doctors hang out!

So in dealing with your children in this day and age, try to get them headed down a path that will lead them to some sort of security and has a place in the society that means something. Your decisions will be based on where you live and what is needed. Just handle it prayerfully and don't make quick judgements. After all, you are dealing with someone's future And stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

SOME GOOD NEWS

Great jumping Horn Toads! My Cayenne Peppers are blooming! It must be a miracle, or the fact that I planted them half way through June. Man! I wanted a whole ceiling of pepper ristras up and drying this Fall and I may yet have them. I went to the Nurse Practitioners office today and got myself a big juicy prescription for blood pressure medicine. I told them I was a survivalist, because they did not understand prepper, and they said they didn't care if I DID get up a supply. But enough of doctors and nurses and what not. Our tomato plants are coming on. They really like this hot weather we have gotten this last couple of weeks. Tomatoes and Peppers are two of my favorite vegetables, especially those peppers.

I am awaiting the Summer of Hell as foretold by the Half Past Human guys. So far there ain't been much hell at all. For the shape the planet is in we haven't had much trouble at all. I be looking for that trouble to arrive pretty damn quick or I will be greatly disappointed. We paid a helluva price for this mess and I aim to see the system get it's ass whipped a bunch for the crimes it has committed. It deserves it, you know. Those rotten bankers are going to reap the whirlwind and I will bet on that. And the stock brokers and the corporate lawyers are going to get their just deserves also. A lot of people are going to have to pay the Piper if we are to get shut of this mess we have been given. They say that confession is good for the soul and I want to hear some confessions! I want to see jail time handed out. I want to see Hank Paulson get his ass in a bind. He made it pretty rough on a lot of people and he needs to make amends as best he can. But for every Hank Paulson there are a hundred more guys who have not had their name in lights. But the light is coming, dear readers, the light of public exposure is on the way. It has already started coming forth in the blogs but when it all goes mainstream the reaction is liable to be astounding. Some politicians and some media people are going to go down with this particular flush of the national toilet. No pity here!

I'm all hot trot on the financial front but my mind keeps drifting to the up coming deer season. I reckon my son will come home and kill 4 or 5 this year. I can only use one but we have friends who would love to have some venison to go through the Winter. It is so good and the price of a 12 gauge slug is cheap enough. Just what some of us poor folk can afford. And that is how us poor folks make it. Catch a little here and a little there and before you know it you have made it another year. Works like a charm.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

GETTING READY

Noting quite like being ready. No matter what happens in the future, a bunch of us are going to face events with some degree of confidence. And that is a wonderful thing. Having friends and family close by to aid in distress and help in an emergency is a great feeling. If you have what it takes to survive on a natural level then you are way ahead in the game. You gotta have shelter, and water. Defensive tools such as guns and knives and ammo and axes are very nice also. Just the raising of an axe will cause another person to back off. Shotguns are nice too. Then you have to have some grub, that good old necessity we call food. You can go without it for a while but it won't be fun. But I would say that a lot of us will lose a bunch of extra weight in the coming years. Medical is highly important. Get all the medications you can afford. The over the counter stuff is great. Simple, inexpensive stuff like Calamine Lotion will be invaluable. All your normal headache and pain medicines will probably serve you very well. Female paraphernalia will be quite valuable. The lack of it will cause consternation from coast to coast. There will be little peace in the camp until this need is addressed. But everything will be addressed because that is what we are about. Our prime stance is that of being a Brother Keeper, as opposed to being a Brother Killer. We know what living is all about. We are comfortable with that knowledge. We accept that responsibility. Cause, hey, we are all in this together.

The wife just got home from the store and she brought in her latest purchased contributions to our stash. She brought me a jar of Vitamin D3 for the supposed flu pandemic this Fall. It is supposed to really strengthen your immune system and help your body fight off bad nasties. I'll take it, believe me. Everything I read says to take Vitamin D starting in the Fall. Beats the hell out of taking those goddamn flu vaccines that don't work anyhow. She also got us a big batch of soap. Bath soap and some Dial and one of my favorites, Lava. We will be clean around here this Fall. I still have my unopened half gallon of anti-bacterial hand soap that I bought last year. A main line of defense in fighting the flu. Keep your hands clan and wear a face mask around suspected or known people who are infected with the flu. We will also be taking measured doses of our homemade Sambucol. And that should be all we will need. Keep your hands clan and say away from infected people as much as possible. If the flu breaks out in your childs school I do not know what to tell you. But if my kids were young I would pull their asses out of school and to hell with the first semester. It won't matter one damn bit 30 years from now if they miss a semester. But it might matter if they have to go to the local "Infectarium" with a bunch of kids whose parents don't know their ass from a hole in the ground about taking care of their children.

I just got on to howestreet.com and listened to their interview of Gerald Celente. It was music to my ears. He talked about a third political party here in America and starting with Peter Schiff running against Chris Dodd for Senator from Connecticut. That should give Obama a good kick in the ass! There was mention of eating locally grown food and not taking flu vaccine. It sounded like freedom to me! They are calling their movement the Second American Revolution. It would be nice to have it come from the ballot box rather than from a cartridge box. I'm gonna listen to these guys and see what they have to say. If we get any local candidates I will post up signs for them along our roads. I don't have the money to become a big campaign donor but I can put up some signs! We'll get Ron Paul out there to campaign for them and it will be a great time. We'll have them offer Ron Paul the post of Secretary of State, or maybe Secretary of the Treasury. A little class for a change!

Stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net