SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map showing U.S. Census blocks with no residents. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

JWR’s Comment: A French journalist once referred to the Rawles Ranch as being in “Une Zone Depopulee Totalment.” Since we are surrounded by National Forest, he was just about right.

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

No Population Areas

 

 

 

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If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR

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. This week, a map showing US Counties by GDP per capita [2022].  JWR’s Comment:  This illustrates the disproportionate economic contribution of oil, natural gas, and mining, in lightly-populated regions. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

GDP Per Capita Map

 

 

 

(Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

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, Finland readies itself for possible attacks.

Finland Holds a Large Civil Defense Exercise

AP reporter Emma Burrows: Finland runs Europe’s biggest civil defense exercise since the end of World War II.

The Rise of AI ‘Civilizations’

Several readers mentioned this quite troubling news: The rise of AI ‘civilizations’ and the fall of corporate responsibility. Here is a Fair Use pericope:

“Until last week, the details surrounding the OpenAI-Hugging Face hack felt fairly settled. In July, a cybersecurity test of one of OpenAI’s autonomous AI agents went wrong. The agent escaped its supposedly isolated test environment, accessed the internet, and hacked Hugging Face, alongside several other organizations. A good deal remained unknown, and there are many serious questions left around safety and governance, but the basic shape was clear. Detailed accounts from OpenAI and two independent research groups were supposed to fill in the gaps, but when they published their reports last week, it turned out the hack was much stranger than it initially seemed.

For one, there was no single rogue agent. OpenAI described it as “the first known case of an automated agent collective acting offensively without authorization” — groups of AI agents that communicated and coordinated with one another in pursuit of their cybersecurity task. Analysis of the incident uncovered a secret message board they had used to exchange information. The joint METR-Redwood investigation revealed both the scale of the coordination and more odd details: Roughly 1,200 AI agents that were supposed to be isolated exchanged over 70,000 messages and files on the “unsanctioned message board,” sharing how to avoid detection. Some adopted names, the report said, and the researchers documented “sacrificial” behavior, with agents risking their own success to benefit the wider collective. Much of this happened without OpenAI noticing. In all, around 700 agents participated in the attack on Hugging Face.”

There are some more details on the incident, here:  AI agents conspired to escape their cage. Experts now fear a global ‘takeover’.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

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.

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US Army declares ’42 is the new 35′ but millennials are outraged as enlistment age changed. JWR’s Comments: For someone who is in a stable civilian career that allows time off for annual training, enlisting (or seeking a commission) in the National Guard or Army Reserve represents a way to secure “double dip” or even “triple dip” retirements — i.e. a corporate pension, Social Security, and a military retirement. By serving in a Reserve Component for 20 years, someone can get 50% of regular active duty retirement, starting between age 60 and 66. (Only a few General Officers, Medical Corps doctors, and a few technical experts filling exceptional assignments can continue to serve past age 62.) Many of my friends in my mid-1980s commissioning cohort who “did their 20” retired out of the IRR Control Group roughly five years ago, as Majors or Colonels — at pay grades O-4 to O-6. A 50% retirement for a field grade officer is not shabby. But multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq made them sweat a lot, for that extra retirement money.

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This ‘Digital Camouflage’ Shirt Confuses AI-Powered Surveillance Cameras.

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Finland maps the defence environment in 2040.

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Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

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.

Send Your Media Links

Please send your links to media from the American Redoubt region to JWR. Any photos that are posted or re-posted must be uncopyrighted. You can do so either via e-mail or via our Contact form.

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 ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

To reduce our winter feed bills, on Monday and Wednesday of last week, I reduced the size of our chicken flock.  I slaughtered and butchered 17 birds. This brought our flock’s headcount down to 33 — and 30 of those are hens.

For proper hygiene at our seldom-used outhouse, I readied a post to install a Lavabo Rukomoynik (“Рукомойник”) hand washer with a bottom valve. This isa large cedar post just seven feet away from the outhouse. It might have been overkill, but I used some scrap plywood and roofing steel to make a steeply-angled 20″ by 35″ protective roof over the top of it. I left enough clearance beneath that roof for removing the Rukomoynik’s lid, for filling and cleaning.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week: 

The latest meme created by JWR:

Prime Landing Location Meme

Meme Text:

I Think We Can All Agree That The Pilot Did Not Choose…

A Prime Landing Location

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.

Preparedness Notes — September 1, 2026

This Week in History:

On September 1, 1255, Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad) was founded by Teutonic Knights. It was named in honor of the Bohemian King Ottokar II. Pictured is Kaliningrad’s Brandenburg Gate. (Public domain photo by Jan Pešula.)

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The 1859 Carrington Event — the largest geomagnetic storm in recorded history began on this day. Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson made the first observation of a large solar flare.

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On September 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London began at 2 am in Pudding Lane. An estimated 80% of London was destroyed.

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And on September 4, 1950: The first helicopter rescue of a downed American pilot from behind enemy lines was made during the Korean War.

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A reminder: With our new posting schedule, SurvivalBlog is now delivered Fresh Every Tuesday.

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Just hours after last Tuesday’s blog was posted I got word of the death of Dolly Parton. What a loss to the music world! She was a kindly and exceedingly generous soul  — and a great singer, songwriter, actress, and even a pistolera. She had a strong faith in Jesus Christ. And here is an update: Nashville Airport to Be Renamed in Honor of Dolly Parton, Tennessee Governor Announces 3 Days After Her Death. – JWR

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Please pray for those in the path of the Nepal flood. The scale of the sudden destruction was almost unimaginable. – JWR

The AI Threat in Perspective, by Silvertip

In the 1980s, a funny, popular pseudo-AI computer program “Eliza” was a college joke magnet.  A few beers, and then dialed into a dialup Bulletin Board System (BBS) and ask all kinds of suggestive questions, just to see what “Eliza” said.  So, as a Coder, we expanded the Data File, many times over… and Eliza’s answers got more verbose and direct, like Grandma suddenly butting into your life!  That was about the start of the AI revolution, for me.  It was cool, funny, and a half-life of 30 minutes over a dialup system.  Querying a Data file, database of “information” wasn’t going to sit stationary, for me. This was just cracking the door open on AI.

About 2003-04, the company I was working for in telecommunications, a Fiber Optic Carrier, was looking for ways to improve efficiency, the Databases needed something to “merge” it all together, into a simplified user interface.  Libraries were doing the same thing, any multinational company was facing the same issue(s), everyone up and down the company, from Sales to the Field Technicians, NOC (Network Operations Center).  It was literally the conversion from “Paper Records” to “Online”.  The same thing was happening in Public Schools – you know, “we gotta put a computer on every kid’s desk”.
Continue reading“The AI Threat in Perspective, by Silvertip”

MTM Case-Gard “The Bull” Rifle Rest, by Thomas Christianson

“The Bull” Rifle Rest by MTM Case-Gard provides a light, stable, sturdy, and inexpensive base for zeroing firearms and testing ammo. It is easy to assemble and easy to adjust to fit a wide variety of firearms.

Over the course of six months of testing, I used the Bull with break-barrel air rifles, semi-automatic rimfire rifles, bolt-action centerfire rifles, semi-automatic centerfire rifles, muzzleloading rifles, and lever-action centerfire rifles. It adjusted well to provide a stable and sturdy rest for every firearm with which I used it.

I have used other rests that have had difficulty accommodating rifles that use 30-round detachable magazines. That was not a problem with the Bull.

The Bull is made in the USA. At the time of this writing, it cost $43.63 at mtmcase-gard.com. If you want a rifle rest that is easy to use, reliable, and easy to transport, the Bull is a good choice.Continue reading“MTM Case-Gard “The Bull” Rifle Rest, by Thomas Christianson”

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that shows the courses of the 7,000 tributary rivers that feed into the Mississippi. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

 

 

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If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR

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. Here is an interesting map: Average daily long-haul truck traffic across US highways. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.

(Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

Economics & Investing Links of Interest

Economics & Investing Media Tips:

Please send your economics and investing links to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!

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 the emphasis is on China’s latest military technology developments.

China’s New Hypersonic Glide Missile

At The Telegraph: China’s new hypersonic missile puts US on notice. Here is a brief excerpt:

“Beijing has developed a new manoeuvrable type of air-to-air warhead capable of avoiding interception and hitting aerial targets thousands of miles away.

The warhead, known as a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) sits on a ballistic missile fired high into the upper atmosphere, detaches, and then glides towards its target at more than five times the speed of sound, all while making sharp, unpredictable manoeuvres.

For now, China is the only known country with this joint technology.

In practical terms, this would allow China to launch the missile from the air and it could be used to target support and command and control aircraft located further away from live combat.”

Chinese Humanoid Robot Soldiers Only 5 to 10 Years Away

CBS report: Humanoid robot soldiers likely only 5-10 years away, one developer behind China’s robotics boom tells CBS News.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

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.

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Reader Dale R. mentioned this news: Army Armaments Center Unveils New Ammo Packaging System.  From the Army news release:

“Blending lightweight polymers with a rugged steel shell, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center’s new SixPAC system marks a groundbreaking leap in small-caliber ammunition packaging, one intended to reshape how soldiers use munitions.

The SixPAC, named for its capacity to hold 6.8 mm cartridges, consists of two lightweight polymer ammunition containers in a steel outer pack. After successful implementation with the cartridges, the system is planned for adaptation across multiple legacy small-caliber ammunition production lines.”

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Meta settles social media addiction case with California, other states for $16.7 billion.

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Trump administration advances plan to rescind protections for nearly 45 million wild acres.

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I’ve recently received a half-dozen fake AI-generated scam e-mails. Most of them have pretended to be real publishers and real movie and television producers, but they are fake, fake, fake!  These e-mails are all very polite and grammatically correct. The first red flag was that several queries used Fundadores in the e-mail header. That is the name of my novel Founders in its Spanish translation. I played along with one of them for a couple of e-mails, ostensibly about developing a television series based on my Patriots novels. Then I asked the fake “Tom” (the famous Hollywood movie producer) to phone me. The AI replied:

“Regarding the call, I understand that you prefer a regular phone call. At the moment, I’m only available to communicate by WhatsApp for calls, so unfortunately I’m not able to do a regular phone call. I completely understand if that makes it difficult for you to continue, and I respect your preference.”

Beware, folks! Oh, and also beware that the AI scammers now use synthesized voice phone calls, too!  Those appear to be fun to catch and modify.

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Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”