A millionaire survivalist: Trailblazer: Vernon Pick’s Apocalypse Now.

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 Richard T. recommended this article about a millionaire survivalist: Trailblazer: Vernon Pick’s Apocalypse Now. For some context, Richard also sent these two links:

Vernon Pick mansion on Google Maps.
Vernon Pick mansion visit on YouTube. The comments to the video from people who knew Pick are very informative.

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And, speaking of Canada, there is this report, in the country’s most popular magazine, Maclean’s: Alberta’s New Separatists. A key quote:

“Today, talk of sovereignty is rising again. It would be easy for Canadians to dismiss it as a resurgence of age-old grievances—after all, despite a century of western alienation, Alberta is still here. The difference is that this time there may actually be a referendum on separation, and soon. Albertans can propose “citizen initiatives” to put forth referendum topics. Previously, proponents needed to collect 600,000 supporting signatures in 90 days to do so. This May, Premier Danielle Smith lowered that to 177,000 signatures in 120 days. A group called the Alberta Prosperity Project is already planning to collect enough signatures to force a secession referendum by 2026.”

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Jerome mentioned this news: Trump DOJ Adding ‘Second Amendment Rights Section’ to Civil Rights Division.

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Janet W. wrote:

“I know you like entries based on experience, and I have absolutely none on this topic. But your readers may.

I read chicken articles in preparation for someday raising chickens, and in an article for water heating in winter, saw an ad for a heated 2-gallon poultry drinker with drip-free side-mounted nipples, taking 60 watts, that keeps water de-iced to subzero temperatures.

Great! said I. But what happens when there is no electricity? Immediately, I saw a picture of a baked potato-sized hot rock dropped into the bucket.

This seems like it should work, and is very simple to do without power. I’ve never seen it mentioned in any articles so far, and wonder if your readers who actually do raise chickens have tried it, or think it might work.

A small pile of hot rocks might take the edge off the cold in the chicken house too, with no fear of fire.

What do you think?”

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Reader D.S.V. spotted this: How To Quickly Find Your Phone’s IMEI Number.

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Mike in Alaska sent this video link: A Hole-in-the-Ground Root Cellar at Porter Hill Farm — In the Alaska Garden with Heidi Rader.

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Reader Paul K. wrote to inquire:

“I confess ignorance here… There may be references to this in places I have not encountered. If there are, please forgive the question. And forgive the way it is being said. Not quite sure of how to express the thought.

We each as adults have the natural desire to be able to discern right from wrong. Many of us use filters such as the Bible, religion, common sense, experience, etc to help in this decision making process.

Along comes this technology – for good or bad – we are broadly calling AI — and it is having some effect on some people. Cannot this same technology be used to evaluate the technology?

If the AI learning models are based on the folks that create the AI – and they are mostly leftist/amoral folks (the term ‘mostly’ may be wrong, but from what I’ve read…) , then why have the Christian side of things not created an AI entity that will evaluate other AI entities and offer opinions on their ‘rightness’ or morality so that the Christian folks have something to refer to?

Wouldn’t this be a natural extension of the same reasoning that saw the rise of Christian channels, Christian Press, Christian music, etc?”

JWR Replies:

As I see it, the biggest problems are that AI is becoming ubiquitous and that it is getting harder to spot with every passing month. In just the last month, YouTube has suddenly become crowded with deepfakes. Here is a typical example that I found last week. Oh, and I should also mention the recent huge proliferation of AI-generated animal videos.

Sadly, I don’t think that we can use AI to fight AI. The best that we can hope for is using an AI to spot the use of other AIs.

Pray Hard! – Jim Rawles

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I’d like to get in touch again with actor Josh Duhamel. We’ve been out of contact. Please drop me a line. Thanks! – JWR

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House Releases Text of 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Codifying 15 Trump Executive Orders.

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Michael and Susan Dell pledge historic $6.25B to seed ‘Trump accounts’ for kids.

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From the left-leaning Washington Times: Conservatives cried ‘woke’ and Ken Burns made a correction in his new documentary.