News

Writing UrbanSurvival means never having to say you’re sorry.  At least, not too often. That’s a point I take some pride in because if there’s one thing 50 years of chasing down news (*among other exploits) has taught me, it’s to take the longer view and do so in a measured way. To review:  When … Read More

This week would normally be full of reports from various federal agencies.  But, with the shutdown “just over” we don’t know what the lag times will be in getting out delayed data. Some of scheduled economic news – like the Chicago Fed outlook, which we’ll get to in a second –  hasn’t been impacted by … Read More

In the Saturday report we got into the basics of restoring an old transmitter.  Like restoring an old car, what could be so hard, right? Well…Let’s sit back and take a look at the radio chassis after taking off the front panel: This is after taking the sheet metal off from around the “tuning knob” … Read More

Scoring Power Sources is our topic heading into my “Useful Book of Emergency Power” for subscribers. The whole matter of picking your power sources is vastly more complicated than people give it credit for being. This morning, after the headlines and charts, we’ll scale a number of sources against a wide range of threats that … Read More

My late friend and colleague, Don Stoner (W6TNS, sk) had a marvelous saying about ham radio.  “Ham Radio is the King of Hobbies….” There was a good deal of truth to that.  Few realize, for example,  that King Hussein of Jordan was a very active ham and if you snoop around YouTube, you can find … Read More

My consigliere doesn’t let me miss much. “Did you see the report on what Jack Ma said at Davos?  You need to read it – whole thing – because its about where the world is going and it’s the same view we’ve been talking about for years…” It sure as hell is:  “Tech revolution may … Read More

We’re going to “chunk” two stories and then add some comments about bipolar behavior, so here’s the first data segment: Socialism is an easy thing to defeat.  All you need to do is let it run its course.  Just like you would with the flu or any other disease. But, socialism thrives on opposition.  And … Read More

Since UrbanSurvival and Peoplenomics have been solar-powered since 2008 (a fact I mention only once in a while) we do know more than a thing, or two, about robust home power stystems. Toss in living almost 11-years on a 40-foot boat – which had its own, special kinds of power issues inlcuding a wind generator … Read More

Def. “Tool Slut” A person of any age or gender who can’t resist having just the right precision tool for every task, regardless of how obscure.  As in this example: I don’t know about you, but seems to me that it’s the time of the year when we can begin to eye Big Projects we … Read More

Invention Versus Drama! We sit out here in, deep in the piney woods of East Texas, and observe the world in it’s au natural state:  Insane. What we see is a world that has lost its flipping mind because, let’s face it, drama is an addiction.  And, it’s stoked at every turn by the media. … Read More

This being Dr. Martin Luther King Day, America today  is more than “half shut down.” And in keeping with Dr. King’s “I have a dream…”  it’s a fine day for everyone in America to ask themselves a really simple question: “WTF are we doing here?” Once upon a time, I could have told you. But … Read More

Surplus stores have dried up across America and it has resulted in something of a problem for those of us who are “makers” – that is, people who can pick up bits and this and that and turn it into something useful. My first experience with surplus stores came on Saturday in Seattle in the … Read More

Instead of our usual 4,000 word long discussion of something we have three topics this morning.  Although, any one of them could be treated as book length material. First is Donald Trump promising big news this afternoon.  Then, there’s one of our oscillators that suggests we hit a potential turning point at the Friday highs. … Read More