Today’s graphic shows Population Density, By Country (in the UK and US, it is shown by state). The map graphic courtesy of Reddit.
The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.
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Please send your graphic ideas to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation or uncopyrighted.
“The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.” – Thomas Sowell
On April 28, 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, “Il Duce,” who had become unpopular even among his fellow Fascists, was captured while trying to flee Italy. He was executed, and then his corpse was ignominiously dragged through the streets. Then it was put on public display before a jeering crowd in front of an Esso gas station in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto, hanging head-down. Alongside Mussolini were the bodies of his mistress Claretta Petacci, and several members of his Fascist cabinet — also executed.
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April 28th is the birthday of Aimo Johannes Lahti. (Born in 1896.) This inventive Finn designed (or co-designed) an amazing array of weapons including the L-35 Lahti pistol, the Suomi M-31 SMG, the Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG, the famous Lahti L-39 20mm anti-tank rifle, and even the 20 ItK 40 (a 20 mm dual anti-aircraft cannon.)
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Please pray for the families in Nebraska and Iowa who lost lives and property in the recent tornados.
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Today we present another entry for Round 112 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 112 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
A few years ago, there was a show on cable television called Doomsday Preppers. I saw a few episodes of it a long time after release, and a basic episode usually focused on one or two families and their retreat setups and the scenarios they were preparing for. As expected, the show was mostly composed of stereotypes and odd or eccentric examples, not to mention the obvious glaring OPSEC issues for anybody who would dare to appear on television. But one aspect seemed true-to-life: Each family the producers interviewed seemed to be preparing for something specific. They would say, “I’m preparing for an EMP” or, “I’m preparing for economic and social collapse.” Every example was related to the expectation of a specific large-scale crisis. Perhaps the smallest example was a person preparing to escape from a volcanic eruption.
Maybe it is shocking to say this, but I believe that real life is different from television! I am unsure of the extent to which television and novels have influenced people’s expectations, but I am sure these forms of entertainment have had an effect. They have certainly introduced the concept of “preppers” to a new generation. What is the purpose of a prepared lifestyle? What threats are likely? Can you overcome those threats? How do you prepare for more than one thing at a time?Continue reading“Crisis is Normal, by SwampFox”
The latest meme created by JWR:
Meme Text:
Joe Biden Says It Best:
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.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
And having an high priest over the house of God;
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” – Hebrews 10:1-22 (KJV)
On April 27, 1865, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history occurred when the overloaded steamship SS Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River, killing some 1,800 people, many of whom were former Union POWs returning home from the Civil War.
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On this day in 1789, the crew of the British ship Bounty mutinied, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.
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Today we present another entry for Round 112 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 112 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Somewhere around twenty one years ago my wife asked me if we could move from New Jersey to Maine. My first thought was, “Trout, perch, moose, deer, bear and striped bass. “What’s not to like?” I could have done some further thinking before I said, “yes,” but hey, once I committed, we went on a roll. Nine months later we were living here.
Our first Maine home was in a little town in Piscataquis county, in a neighborhood. The driveway was fifty feet long, with the garage six feet from the house. One of new neighbors suggested getting a walk behind snow blower, but to be certain that we bought one with enough horsepower to really throw the snow.
We ended up with a Husquavarna with an enormous engine and a huge auger. While at the time it may have seemed overkill, it most certainly threw snow. We lived in the neighborhood for about four years and decided to move to a much rural setting.
As fate would have it, we found a hunting camp on a tertiary road which met our needs. A one hundred fifty foot drive way and lot would need snow removal so after some searching we purchased a John Deere 1050, turbocharged, 4 wheel drive tractor, circa early 1980’s. The purchase of an Agro-Trend 2000 rear mounted snow blower competed the system. While this rig definitely moved snow, it was very costly. Thirteen thousand for the tractor and another twenty two hundred for the snow blower set us back some. The addition of tire chains, plus several five gallon jugs of diesel fuel, anti gel/anti algae added a few more hundred dollars to the cost.Continue reading“Snow Removal Considerations, by Hubbyberry”
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!
This past week I was quite busy packing orders and writing catalog descriptions for Elk Creek Company. There are more than a dozen new gun listings. I also did about 2.5 hours of rototilling in the main garden, I hauled another load of alfalfa from our “local” supplier (a one-hour drive each way), and I slaughtered a couple of roosters. Just keeping busy. Now, on to Lily’s part of the report…
“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” – Numbers 14:1-24 (KJV)
On April 26, 1785, John James Audubon, an American ornithologist who became well known for his drawings and paintings of North American birds, was born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue, West Indies (now Haiti).
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On April 26, 1986, one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere; at least 31 Soviets died immediately.
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Today we present another entry for Round 112 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 112 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.)
King David and the Threshing Floor– “But the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying You have shed much blood and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to My name…” (1Ch 22:8)
King David ordered a census to be taken against God’s desires. So, Jehovah sent a plague upon Israel for three days that killed many Israelis. The plague was halted by God at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. To honor Jehovah for stopping the plague, David bought the threshing floor and built an altar there.
Later, David desired to build a Temple for his God Jehovah, but God said no, a man who shed much human blood would not be allowed to build the temple. Instead, your son Solomon will be the one to build my Temple. But God did allow David to make preparations for the building. So, in his later days King David prepared much material and identified the sight for the Temple as the threshing floor of Araunah which was situated above Jerusalem. King David also organized all the workers, Priests, and other officials as needed.
King Solomon and the 1st Temple– “Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest… For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.” (1Ch 22:9-10)Continue reading“Weapons of Mass Deception – Part 4, by R.G.”
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 rising mortgage interest rates. (See the Economy & Finance section.)
Just as I predicted, there has been some profit-taking in the gold and silver markets. As of Thursday afternoon, spot gold was around $2,345 and silver was around $27.65 per Troy ounce. But the markets won’t be fooled. I expect strong buying in the Asian markets to boost gold, in particular, in the next few weeks. The new floor for the spot gold price will likely be around $2,370 USD per Troy ounce. – JWR
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At Gold-Eagle.com: Gold SWOT: The Sharp Rise in Gold Prices This Year Could Provide a Nice Bump to Miners’ Earnings.
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Mainstream Fund Managers Jumping on the Gold Bandwagon.
Over at Wolf Street: Mortgage Rates over 7% and Heading Higher, Housing Market Still Frozen, Lots of Buyers on Strike as Prices Still Too High. The article begins:
“Mortgage rates continue to trudge higher from the abandoned Rate-Cut-Mania low. The average conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 7.13% in the latest week, the highest since early December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association today, as the 10-year Treasury yield has re-surged amid the Fed’s vigorous backpedaling on its December rate-cut visions after the presumed-vanquished inflation raised its ugly head again.
The MBA’s measure of the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has risen 37 basis points from the Rate-Cut-Mania low of 6.76% in early January…”
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Foreign holdings of US Treasuries hit record high; Japan holdings rise, data shows.
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Reader C.B. suggested this article: IMF sounds alarm on U.S. debt, warning ‘something will have to give’.
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The UFC, Mises, and the Six Lessons of Austrian Economics.
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California in a jam after borrowing billions to pay unemployment benefits.
“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” – Justice William J. Brennan, from the majority opinion in Texas v. Johnson (1989)
On April 125, 1959, in one of the largest civil engineering feats ever undertaken, the St. Lawrence Seaway officially opened, linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes.
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Today is the birthday of physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937). He was known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission as well as for the development of Marconi’s Law and a radio telegraph system. He is often considered the inventor of radio.
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Going, going… We are now down to just 15 of the waterproof 2005-2023 SurvivalBlog Archive USB sticks. I’ve reduced the price on those remaining sticks to $28.95, to ensure they will sell out quickly. I expect them to sell out by Friday evening. Consider this your last chance until late January 2025, when the next edition should become available. There will be no more produced this year.
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Today we present another entry for Round 112 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
A $200 credit from Military Surplus LLC that can be applied to purchase and/or shipping costs for any of their in-stock merchandise, including full mil-spec ammo cans, Rothco clothing and field gear, backpacks, optics, compact solar panels, first aid kits, and more.
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More than $875,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 112 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
