Day: October 27, 2026

Preparedness Notes — October 27, 2026

On October 25, 1415, the Battle of Agincourt (aka Azincourt): Henry V‘s forces defeated a larger French army as the longbow overcame the French armored knights. — October 26, 1774: Minutemen were organized in US colonies. — October 26, 1881: Perhaps the most famous shootout in the history of America’s Wild West took place at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. On the one side stood the so-called forces of law and order: Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday. By reputation these were power-hungry and ruthless men. Opposing them were the outlaws Billy and Ike Clanton, …


Voluntary Associations – Shopping for Survival, by W.T.

A voluntary association begins when two or more people agree to pursue a common purpose together. That arrangement can be remarkably simple. People who already buy many of the same necessities, possess different skills, or have resources that complement one another, can decide to cooperate rather than approach every need as an entirely separate and individual household problem. The significance of that decision is economic as much as organizational. When individual households combine a predictable demand, they can sometimes obtain purchasing opportunities or services that would be difficult to obtain separately. If the resulting savings are retained rather than immediately …


Otis Technology EarShield Ranger RE 23, by Thomas Christianson

During the summer of 2025, I was enjoying a picnic in a park with my wife, “Kari” and my youngest daughter “Rivka.” Part way through the meal, Rivka commented, “Wow, the cicadas certainly are deafening. My immediate response was: “What cicadas?” In the days of my youth, we had access to earmuff style hearing protection. The problem was that they were dumb muffs. They prevented the wearer from hearing both what he wanted to hear and what he did not want to hear. Therefore, I didn’t wear hearing protection whenever there might be something that I wanted to hear. I …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that shows every license plate reader volunteers have mapped in the US: 144,000+, 81% of them are Flock cameras.  Note the dearth of ALPR cameras in the American Redoubt, in most of Nevada, and in the Dakotas. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.       Notes on the available data: OpenStreetMap via DeFlock (mapped by volunteers, so it’s a floor, not a census). An interactive version with city/county/state breakdowns: https://takip.dev/country/united-states/flock-cameras The densest big city per person is Sandy Springs, GA (~193 per 100k); the most in absolute terms is Houston …


Economics & Investing Media of the Week

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. The thumbnail below is click-expandable. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest Housing Starts Collapse Near COVID Lows As Homebuilder Confidence Crashes. US pending home sales tumble to record low in September. Zillow: United States Housing Market update. Streaming Now Costs $144 a Month. That’s More Than Cable Cost When You Cut It. JWR’s Comment: This ties in to my recent article: Endless Expenses: Modern Life in The Subscription Model. Feds Say Bank Of …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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, some more technological risks. Sleepwalking Into World War III? Are we sleepwalking into World War III? Riots are Spreading Across Western Europe Reader D.S.V. suggested this New York …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Ukraine carries out first ever aerial drone evacuation of a wounded soldier from the frontline. JWR’s Comment:  Drone medevac may soon become the norm for all but the most severe trauma cases. o  o  o A practical essay by our friend Patrice Lewis: The power of repurposing. o  o  o


SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

REDOUBT NEWS LINKS This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. Oregon Father Tracks, Kills School Shooter in Bend. (Kaylub Giamanco is pictured above.) Note that this is the second time in four months that armed citizens in The American Redoubt have stepped up to save lives when psychopaths opened fire on innocents. – JWR) Video: Interview: Bend father who fatally shot teenage school shooter. And in related news, D.S.V. sent this: Parent Who Stopped Oregon School …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds …


JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: There Is Artificial Intelligence… And Then There Is Genuine Stupidity Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks! Permission to repost memes that I’ve created is granted, provided that credit to SurvivalBlog.com is included.


Editors’ Quote: 

“The relative freedom which we enjoy depends on public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.” – George Orwell