SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR [1]. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, Oracle’s big layoff.
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Oracle Has Fired 30,000 Employees
Oracle fired up to 30,000 people with a 6 a.m. email signed “Oracle Leadership” [2]. JWR’s Comments: I was an Oracle Corporation employee for three years at the turn of the century. Even back then, I witnessed some horribly cutthroat hiring, firing, and offshoring practices by Oracle’s management. This was when the H-1B Visa rush was just starting in the Silicon Valley, and up The S.F. Peninsula. One of my fellow technical writers was sent on a trip to India, to train his replacements. The managers tried to make his trip sound like some sort of reward junket trip, or a perk. But he was laid off three weeks after his return to the Redwood Shores headquarters. At that time, Oracle could hire three employees in India for the cost of one employee in California. Fast-forward 25 years: In the ultimate turn of ignominious fate, many of those “low-cost” Indian employees are now being replaced by even lower-cost generative AI.
Announced Corporate Job Cuts in 2026
And over at NewsNation: Major employers that have announced job cuts in 2026 [3].
Anthropic Accidentally Released Their Source Code
I found this X post linked over at the Whatfinger.com [4]news aggregation site: [5]Anthropic accidentally leaked their entire source code yesterday. What happened next is one of the most insane stories in tech history [6].
Taiwan’s Four Lessons from the Iran War
SurvivalBlog staffer Tom Christianson offered this: The National Interest: Taiwan’s Four Lessons from the Iran War [7]. Here is a key quote:
“The Taiwanese military should decentralize and disperse command-and-control arrangements and other capabilities to boost the defenders’ resilience. To all appearances, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [8] (IRGC) prepared for war by delegating authority to regional commanders to select their targets around the Gulf region—and, on occasion, beyond—and attack them without permission from above. Indeed, the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei [9] in the opening hours of the conflict—while certain to have had an impact on Iran—did not lead it to suspend its militancy while seeking clarification from above. On the contrary, it appears to have increased it, prompting the regime to lash out wildly against American and allied targets across the Middle East.
In the weeks since the war began, the Iranian clerical regime has endured despite debilitating losses to senior political and military leaders from US and Israeli air strikes—yet it fights on. The logic: individuals may perish, but the regime endures.”
Some Costly Senior Scams
Over at Clark Howard’s site: These Are the Biggest Scams That Cost Seniors the Most Money [10].
Investors Can Still Outwit AI if They’re Unpredictable
A Reuters news report: Investors can still outwit AI, but only if they’re unpredictable: Joachim Klement [11]. Here is an extract from the article:
“In another study, Lauren Cohen from Harvard Business School, opens new tab [12] and his collaborators trained AI to learn the decision processes of thousands of U.S. equity fund managers. The goal was to predict which stocks a fund manager would buy, sell, or hold next quarter or the following year.
The bad news is that the AI-equipped researchers managed to correctly predict 71% of all future trades. The good news is that fund managers’ alpha was rooted mostly in the other 29%. Naturally, fund managers have different processes, so there is variability in how well AI can anticipate their actions.”
Oil Price Shock Seen as “Short-Term”
Another piece from Reuters: Exclusive: Fed’s Barkin: Households, firms still see oil shock through a “short-term lens” [13].
Recession Odds Climb on Wall Street
From the hard-left CNBC: Recession odds climb on Wall Street as economy shows cracks beneath the surface [14].
Life Imitates Art: Escape From L.A.
Reader C.B. found this news: Los Angeles leads nation in massive population exodus as ‘breaking point’ hits Golden State [15]. Jdere is apericope from teh article’s opening:
“Los Angeles County, once the symbol of American prosperity and Hollywood dreams, has earned the title of the nation’s leader in population loss.
The latest U.S. Census data shows [16] shows that between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, 53,421 residents left the county, marking the largest decline in the U.S. Additionally, Los Angeles County has fallen from about 10 million residents in 2020 to roughly 9.7 million today.”
Idaho Passes Strictest Law In The US For Transgenders
Idaho Passes Strictest Law In The US For Transgenders Using Incorrect Bathrooms [17].
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