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, we look at migrating billionaires and the potential threat of AI.
Over at Forbes: Mapping Billionaire Wealth: Where The Richest Americans Live Now Vs. Two Decades Ago. JWR’s Comments: Most billionaires own several homes, and hop around, seasonally. But it is interesting to note where they declare their home of record, for tax purposes. And that might be different from where they plan to retreat if times get harsh.
And, in related news: Survival of the richest?
also:
Mark Zuckerberg’s $270M Hawaiian Apocalypse Bunker.
Australia Plots Digital ID Launch For This Year
The Day All the Free Food Vanished
Some observations on SAP Culture, from commentator Robert Weissberg: The Day All the Free Food Vanished. Here is an excerpt:
“Like all government programs, it occasionally stumbles. For example, recipients in Georgia recently had their payments delayed due to administrative glitches. Severe weather can also disrupt the transfer of funds as was recently illustrated in several Nebraska counties that lost power due to storms and tornadoes. In both instances, however, the federal government facilitated a quick recovery, and the problems were solved.
But what if Chinese hackers successfully disrupted the entire SNAP network? In an instant millions of Americans across the entire country, all lined up with shopping carts overflowing with food for the next week or two were told, ‘Sorry, your EBT card failed to work. Do you have another form of payment?'”
Today’s AI Threat: Like Nuclear Winter
From the leftward-leaning Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Today’s AI threat: More like nuclear winter than nuclear war.
Biden Admin Funding AI Tools to Censor Speech
Reader H.L. suggested this article posted over at The Burning Platform: Biden Administration Funding AI Tools to Censor Americans’ Speech. Here is a quote:
“On Monday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee, released the “Amazon Files” on X, formerly known as Twitter. The files contain documents highlighting how the Biden administration exerted pressure on Amazon to censor books critical of COVID-19 vaccines.
The subcommittee’s report cites non-public documents and focuses on grants the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided to nonprofit and academic institutions to develop AI tools.
The NSF funded the projects under its “Trust & Authenticity in Communication Systems,” part of a larger NSF initiative launched in 2021, that aims to identify “misinformation” and develop “education and training materials” for those with ‘vulnerabilities to disinformation methods.'”
Special Counsel’s Report on Biden’s Classified Documents
From Associated Press: Takeaways from the special counsel’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents.
JWR’s Comments: [Sarcasm on] If I ever get vewwy angry and decide that I need to have someone bumped off, then I’ll just visit a local retirement home, and hire a demented 81-year-old hitman. And what if he then gets caught? No worries! The State Attorneys will find that he is “too old to prosecute.” [Sarcasm off.]
US Proceeds With $23 Billion Warplane, Missile Sale to Turkey
By way of MSN, Bloomberg reports: US Proceeds With $23 Billion Warplane, Missile Sale to Turkey. JWR’s Comments: The Turkish government has grown increasingly hostile to the west since Erdogan took office. Someday, we may regret arming them so heavily with high-tech weaponry.
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