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. 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, more about mass media bias and censorship.
Study Finds Big Tech News Feeds Tilt Heavily Left
Over at The European Conservative: Study Finds Big Tech News Feeds Tilt Heavily Left. Here is an excerpt:
“Major news aggregators—including Google News, Apple News, Bing News, and Yahoo News—overwhelmingly favour left-leaning outlets in the content they present to users, a new media audit claims.
The study, conducted by the U.S.-based group AllSides, found that the imbalance is most pronounced in non-personalised sections of these services—such as curated homepages or trending feeds—where content is selected independently of individual user preferences.
According to the report, just 1% of articles in these sections on Google News came from right-leaning outlets, compared to 73% from left-leaning sources. Apple News showed a similar pattern, with around 2% of content from the right and roughly 50% from the left. Bing News and Yahoo News followed the same trend, with conservative sources accounting for 5% and 2% of content respectively, versus 72% and 53% from left-leaning outlets.”
JWR’s Comments: SurvivalBlog has been heavily de-ranked by Google’s search engine for the past 15 years, so this news story does not surprise me. The most effective way to fight de-ranking and news feed censorship is by word-of-mouth recommendations, and forwarding article links to friends, via e-mail. I suggest sending folks a list of links to timely articles at your favorite blogs and websites that you find interesting, at least once a week. They can’t stop the signal!
Why AI CEOs Are Building Bunkers
And, in somewhat related news: Gone in 9 Seconds: AI Coding Agent Deletes Entire Company Database and All Backups. (A hat tip to reader C.B. for the link.)
AI is Enabling Government Mass Surveillance
NBC: AI is making it very easy for the government to spy on you. Some lawmakers are worried. A pericope:
“Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the government to collect the communications of foreigners abroad, but it also enables the government to collect messages, emails and other transmissions from Americans when they contact foreigners. The government can then perform warrantless searches on those emails, messages and other communications. Though the provision was originally passed in 2008, lawmakers must renew it every few years.“
Welcome to the New Robber Baron Era
A well-reasoned video from Patriot Nurse: NATO, The Dollar, and AI Are About to Change Everything.
Her Life Savings Disappeared After a Systems Glitch
A New York Times report: Her Life Savings Mysteriously Disappeared After a Systems Glitch. JWR’s Comments: Incidents like these are rare. But they are just one reason why I don’t intend to switch to online banking and save a couple of dollars each month to omit getting hardcopy by-mail statements for each of my accounts.
Here Is How The Next Civil War Will Start
A lengthy but must watch video from commentator Nick Freitas: Here Is How The Next Civil War Will Start.
Meta’s Plan for Facial Recognition Smart Glasses
At the ACLU website: Tell Meta: Eyewear, Not Spywear.
Utah’s Planned ‘Hyperscale’ Data Center
Life in the Big City: More Copper Thefts
Copper Theft: A quiet crime is causing internet outages across Oakland. A quote:
“A recent blog post from AT&T global security lead investigator Rahdeese Alcutt said organized copper theft is happening “more frequently and on a much larger scale.” In 2025, AT&T reported more than 10,400 copper theft incidents throughout the country, with an average of 200 per week, Alcutt wrote.”
Keeping A.I. Out of Schools
Surprisingly, this piece by Jessica Winter was published by The New Yorker: What Will It Take to Get A.I. Out of Schools? (Thanks to Tom Christianson, for the link.)
Even Small Redoubt Towns are Getting Flocked
- A flock camera map link: https://deflock.org/map
- Another ALPR map, here: https://deflock.me/
- And newer cars and trucks are also gathering data: Big Vehicle Brother. You will be surveilled, you will comply.
- Don’t upload your photos to the cloud: Google is Tracking Your Life – Photo Cloud Feeding AI System.
- Flock Safety Camera Error Turns Colorado Driver Into Frequent Police Target in Dystopian Nightmare.
The Late 2020s Riots Will Be Far Worse
Avalanche Lily suggested this thought-provoking podcast: Energy/Famine War, Choke Points, Shortages and More — Michael Yon and Matt Bracken. (Pay particular attention starting at 39 minutes, and beyond.)
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