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.

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, more out-of-control AIs..

Anthropic Seeks Pause of AI Development

First up, over at Yahoo News: Anthropic calls for pause of global AI development, The article begins:

“Artificial intelligence company Anthropic suggested Thursday a global pause on building the most powerful AI systems as the latest models are beginning to show signs they could escape human control.

The San Francisco-based company, which makes the Claude family of AI models, said in a report that a worldwide slowdown in cutting-edge AI development would “likely be a good thing” — but warned that if only one company stopped, rivals would simply race ahead.”

ECDC: Ebola Risk Low for Europe

European Center for Disease Prevention and Control: Risk to Europe remains very low as Ebola outbreak intensifies in DRC.

New Cattle Market Worries, New Market Highs

At The Liberty Daily: Second Flesh-Eating Screwworm Case Raises Beef Supply Fears as Goldman Warns Outbreak “Could Be Disruptive”.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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Several readers mentioned a recent interview of actor Josh Duhamel by Shawn Ryan.  At just after the 30-minute mark, Duhamel credits reading my novel Patriots for putting him on the preparedness path.

o  o  o

Peter Thiel’s Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D: Why Peter Thiel Is Decamping to the End of the World.

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Reader D.S.V. mentioned this news: Pennsylvania Senate Bill Would Make State 30th to Adopt Constitutional Carry.

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Video interview: How One Company is Building a Parallel Food System in America — Pete Strayer of Azure Standard.

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Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

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.

Redoubt News Links:

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:

In the past seven days, I did a lot of roto-tilling in our main garden.  My aching back is now reminding me of it! We have a rear-tine Troy-Bilt Horse tiller, but making lots of tight turns with it is hard on my back.

We assisted our excellent sheep-shearer, who visited us on Thursday.  He made quick work of shearing both of our sheep flocks, with nary a nick. After he was done, I disassembled the temporary holding pens that I had set up in our ban.  Pictured above is a sheep shearing day at my great-grandfather’s ranch in Mendocino County, California.

Our daughter and three of our grandsons helped me assemble a 4-foot-deep set of rivet shelves in our shop. This was the last set that we had planned for the shop’s main floor.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:


Meme Text:

It Used To Be Shunned As One Of The Seven Deadly Sins

But Now, If We Fail To Endorse “Pride” We Are Shunned as “Homophobic”

 

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 Week:

“Man’s cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round and round it, you can polish it highly, you can even flatten it a little on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the other, but you will never, while the world endures and man is man, increase its total circumference.” – H. Rider Haggard (Sir Henry Rider Haggard) 1856-1925

Preparedness Notes — June 2, 2026

SurvivaBlog Now Comes Fresh Every Tuesday

Today we are commencing our weekly posting schedule, with posts on Tuesdays. After more than 20 years of daily posts I was feeling exhausted. But with this new editorial pace, I’m feeling re-energized and confident that I have another 20 years ahead of me.

  • To recap the changes: Starting today SurvivalBlog will be posted on Tuesdays, and perhaps the occasional Thursday, if the Tuesday posts get too crowded. So, you can expect to see SurvivalBlog “Fresh Every Tuesday.” (An homage the late, great Ol’ Remus.)
  • We discontinued the SurvivalBlog Writing Contest. Round 124 was the final round, and the prizes mailed out early this month will be the last ones awarded. (Note: Any folks with unused Elk Creek Company purchase credits may redeem them until December 31, 2026. And, of course, those credits are still transferable.)
  • We’ve consolidated our SurvivalBlog columns into one-day-per-week. Much the same mix of content will still be there, but you’ll see it just on Tuesdays. You’ll still see: quotes, historical notes, American Redoubt news, economics and investing items, world news, and our prepping progress. There will normally be just one feature article each Tuesday.)
  • Product reviews will be posted just twice per month, instead of four times per month.
  • Recipes will be posted just twice per month, instead of four times per month.
  • I’ll still be consulting, doing occasional interviews, writing novels, producing the SurvivalBlog Old School (SOS) newsletter, and still operating Elk Creek Company.
  • We’ll continue to produce an annual waterproof archive USB stick. To make up for the smaller annual volume of blog content, we will include even more bonus books each year.
  • I’ll have more time available to spend with Avalanche Lily and my family to do some things that we’ve been putting off for years.
  • Note that I often won’t be able to respond to your e-mails immediately, because there will be some days each week when I’m completely offline. (Hopefully, spending more time hiking and hunting.)
  • We’ll still gladly run letters and guest articles written by readers.  There will be be no minimum length for articles.
  • The full archives of SurvivalBlog will remain available free of charge. The SurvivalBlog Writing Contest page has become a static page.
  • In the event of any major crises or catastrophic events I will post on other days of the week, ad hoc.

Rest assured that I’m not retiring! Except for the discontinuation of the writing contest and the consolidation of posts into a weekly format, SurvivalBlog will still provide what you’ve always expected to see.

I trust that you will concur with the wisdom of this new change of pace. – JWR

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Today is the last day of our big sale at Elk Creek Company. Get your order in before midnight, Eastern Time!

Modern Handloads for Antique 7mm Mauser Rifles – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

Is the 7x57mm Mauser M1893/95 rifle obsolete?  The original 7mm Mauser cartridge is in no way an obsolete cartridge, yet it can be improved when modern powders are used.  As of this date, few handloaders are exploring what can be done with the old warhorse when modern propellants are used to make it competitive with modern cartridges such as 7mm-08, 7.62 NATO, and even .308 Winchester.  There is no discussion on this topic that I’ve yet found on the Internet.  Perhaps we are breaking new ground, as we speak.

Continue reading“Modern Handloads for Antique 7mm Mauser Rifles – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”

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. Today, a map showing the States of the Union with more cows than people.

Update: Blog reader Tim in Connecticut wrote to mention that Oklahoma was mistakenly left off the list. But it actually qualifies, with a human population of 3,959,353 versus 4,600,000 cattle.

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: a war on mosquitos, using mosquitos.

Google to Release 32 Million Diseased Mosquitoes in FL and CA

Reader H.L. sent this, from Zero Hedge: Google to Dump 32 Million Diseased, AI-Bred Mosquitoes on Florida and California. JWR’s Comment: Gosh, with such brilliant minds, what could possibly go wrong?

EPA to List Pharmaceuticals and Microplastics

Announced on April 2nd: The EPA’s draft water contaminants list now includes pharmaceuticals and microplastics.

UK Considering Lethal Strikes Without Human Approval

Several readers sent this: UK military looks at allowing lethal strikes without human approval. The article’s opening lines:

“UK defence ministers are re-examining one of the central ethical constraints of modern warfare — that lethal weapons systems should always require humans to choose the targets.

Current UK military policy, published in 2022, said there would be “context-appropriate human involvement” in the selection and engagement of targets. Following rapid advances in drone warfare, some officials are pushing for human involvement to be optional.”

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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New Federal Plan Aims to Replace Synthetic Fabrics With American Cotton. (A hat tip to D.S.V. for the link.) The article begins:

“The United States Department of Agriculture has launched the Great American Cotton Plan to support cotton farmers and protect Americans from “forever chemicals” in our daily lives.

Over the past decade, America has moved to almost all synthetic fibers, often for clothing and linens made of plastics such as polyester, nylon, polypropylene, and polyethylene. While America has been propping up the Chinese plastic textile industry, American consumers have been wearing poisonous clothing, not supporting farmers, and shipping a majority of cotton exports to Brazil.”

o  o  o

Fake CAPTCHA scam can hack your computer.

o  o  o

Trump tells CNBC: ‘I don’t care’ if Iran negotiations are over.

o  o  o

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

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.  The public domain photo above from Wyoming is courtesy of the USFWS.)

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:

I helped Lily again this week with the sheep milking and and feeding our last little bummer lamb that still needs care. We now bottle-feed him just four times a day. He is a handsome little fellow with very distinctive markings. He waits by our back door for his feedings.

I packed and mailed a few more Elk Creek Company orders this week. Every time that we run a sale like the one ending toniggt, we get a burst of orders.

I got some more organizing done in our shop. Now that there are nice bright lights up, it is a lot more pleasant to work there. I still have one more set of rivet shelves to put up in the shop. That one is four feet deep, eight feet wide, and and seven feet tall. That is where I plan to store my chainsaws, extra chains, and spare parts. I also need to find a clever way to store all of my spare oak and hickory tool handles on that set of shelves. There are handles for everything from hammers to picks, axes, splitting mauls, and mattocks, and all the way up to the longest post hole digger and rake handles. I suppose that I’ll find some scrap large-diameter PVC pipe, duct material, or some open-ended crates, to keep all of the handles safe, tidy, organized, and easily accessible. As a dedicated prepper, I keep a lot of spare handles on hand.  I suspect that our grandchildren or even our great grandchildren might eventually use most of them. To quote Clint Eastwood:  “There’s nothing like a nice piece of hickory.”

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR, based on an idea suggested by Bruce Rawles  (JWR’s elder brother):


Meme Text:

It Is Silly To Call This Tool A Post-Hole Digger
If You Already Have a Hole, Then You Don’t Need A Digger.  So This Is Really A Pre-Hole Digger

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.