Preparedness Notes for Sunday — August 10, 2025

On August 10th, 1897, German chemist Felix Hoffmann (pictured) synthesized acetylsalicylic acid. This would later be patented by his company Bayer under the name “Aspirin”. — August 10th, 1984: Red Dawn, the first PG-13 rated movie, starring Patrick Swayze was released. — A noteworthy obituary: Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell dead at 97. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 120 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a …




JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: For Firefly/Serenity Fans: The Mystery Cause of the Deaths on Miranda Has Been Solved: They Were Doomscrolling Funny Cat Videos Video Link:  Serenity: This Whole World’s Dead For No Reason! News Link: The guilty pleasure of funny cat videos. 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.  




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And …




Preparedness Notes for Saturday — August 9, 2025

On August 9, 1666, Rear Admiral Robert Holmes led a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillaged the town of West-Terschelling. This raid was later known as “Holmes’s Bonfire”. The event is shown in the painting ‘Holmes’s Bonfire’ by Willem van de Velde the Elder. — August 9th, 1831 was the birthday of James Paris Lee (August 9, 1831 – February 24, 1904). He was a Scottish-Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer, best known for inventing the bolt action that led to the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield series of …




The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it. And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields …




Preparedness Notes for Friday — August 8, 2025

On August 8, 1786, Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard became the first men to climb to the top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe. — On August 8, 1911, Public Law 62-5 set the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law came into effect in 1913. — August 8th is the birthday of Terry Nation (August 8th, 1930 – March 9th, 1997), who was a Welsh television writer and novelist. Nation wrote two television series, Survivors and Blake’s 7, in the 1970s. Survivors was re-made in 2008 and 2010. — SurvivalBlog …




Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the volatile global silver market. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals: In modern times, silver has been known for more volatile price swings than gold. This week was no exception. From Friday, August 1st to Thursday, August 7, spot silver climbed from $36.63 to $38.53 per Troy ounce. In my estimation, as …







Preparedness Notes for Thursday — August 7, 2025

August 7, 1588: English sailors set alight eight fireships, with pitch, brimstone, gunpowder, and tar, and cast them downwind towards the closely anchored vessels of the Spanish Armada, scattering the armada. Pictured: English and Spanish fleets clash in the 1558 Battle of Gravelines in a painting by Philip James de Loutherbourg. — August 7th, 1933 was the birthday of the late Jerry Pournelle. He, along with Larry Niven, authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer. — As part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for SurvivalBlog, we’ve launched our biggest sale ever on all of our percussion gun inventory at Elk Creek …




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, more news of nuclear war brinksmanship. Russia’s Terrifying ‘Dead Hand’ Threat Over at The UK Daily Mail: Russia’s terrifying ‘DEAD HAND’ threat as spiraling nuclear rhetoric leaves world …







Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 6, 2025

We are now celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of SurvivalBlog. My first blog post was on August 5, 2005. That was just three weeks before the first report that Hurricane Katrina had formed. There are now 40,836 archived SurvivalBlog posts. That includes 7,296 quotes, with Bible verses on every Saturday and Sunday. All of the blog archives will remain freely available. Thanks for spreading the word and making the blog such a great success. Our special thanks to the 2% of readers who voluntarily subscribe. I hope that more folks will recognize the usefulness of SurvivalBlog as a …




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. — I found this great documentary linked over at my buddy Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker blog: Exploring the Paranoid Country with 374,142 Bunkers to Hide Everyone (how is this possible?)  Pictured above is a fortified Swiss artillery emplacement, camouflaged to look like a house. o  o  o Reader C.B. sent this …