A.I. Fake Videos are Destroying the Internet. Amazon Kindle Taking Away Local Book File Saving.

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

James Wesley Rawles February 20, 2025 February 20, 2025

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, another look at the rise of A.I. fakery.

A.I. Fake Videos are Destroying the Internet

Tam of the View From The Porch blog suggested this article: A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated. JWR’s Comments: We need to develop greater discernment of the YouTube “Voices”. I think you know the text-to-speech generated authoritative flat American accent voices that I’m talking about. The ones that are layered over videos or even just AI-gen still images that don’t quite match what is being described. These A.I.-gen videos are absolutely mindless schlock. Some are easy to spot, but others are more sophisticated–especially those that clone voices. Most of these videos are created just to garner viewer clicks and to sell advertisements. Even the tutorials on how to use AI-gens are AI-generated! The sad truth is that millions of folks have no discernment and will spend hours watching this garbage. At the rate they’re progressing, A.I.-generated videos will soon be the majority of what is served up on YouTube. I suggest that my readers divorce themselves from YouTube and get back to old-school human-written blogs and books. – JWR

West Texas Measles Outbreak is Spreading

NBC News reports: In rural West Texas, a measles outbreak grows with no end in sight.

Russia’s Shadow War Against the West

The Wall Street Journal reports: A New Spy Unit Is Leading Russia’s Shadow War Against the West. JWR’s Comment: The Russian term for active measures is: активные мероприятия. (Anglicized: “aktivnye meropriyatiya”.)

Amazon Kindle Taking Away Local Book File Saving

This does not bode well: Amazon’s killing a feature that let you download and backup Kindle books.

JWR’s Comments: This move is particularly worrisome, since Amazon already has a bad reputation for censorship. Essentially, this is “electronic book burning.” One potential countermeasure might be to slightly rename your local (drive-stored) book files. That might foil Amazon’s plan to steal your property. I have been quite vocal about opposing Amazon’s censorship. When I severed my ties to Amazon, that included canceling my Amazon Associates contract, which had earned sales commissions. That took away a fairly substantial revenue stream for SurvivalBlog. There are times when principle must outweigh profit.