This Week in History: On August 25, 1537, The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed. Pictured is the Honourable Artillery Company Band at Balboa Park, while on a visit to San Diego, California. — August 25, 1898: 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen were massacred by the Turks in Heraklion, Crete. — August 26, 1789: The National Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution. — August 26,1859: A geomagnetic storm caused the Aurora Borealis to …
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This my recollection about preparing for a natural disaster in the summer of 2017. I had just arrived on a Caribbean island with a single checked bag and a temporary rental. Within weeks of arriving Hurricane Irma, a category five hurricane, passed a few miles north of the island. It took only hours for the island to lose electricity and communication with the outside world. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria hit the island and knocked us back to the 18th century. I was unable to access my money in a bank on the US mainland, due to infrastructure damage on …
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Reader Becky B. in California wrote to ask about a do-it-yourself recipe for the shelf-stable peanut-butter based ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) that was developed in Africa in the 1990s. It has saved many thousands of lives in starvation zones. It is sold commercially packaged in sachets under the brand name Plumpy’Nut. Note: For the best nutrition its is best to buy the commercially-made product. I found a Public Domain practical home-style recipe (approximate and for household use only.) It is is as follows: Ingredients (yields ~750–900 g; ~3,500–4,500 kcal) 500 g roasted, unsalted peanuts (skin removed if possible) 150–200 g …
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Today’s graphic is a map that shows America’s abandoned and out-of-service railroad lines. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) It was posted by “vladgrinch” with this note: “The [American rail] system peaked in 1916 at 254,037 miles of track, at a moment when the railways carried virtually all interstate traffic in the United States, and roughly 138,477 miles remain in use today. Cars, lorries and aircraft pulled the traffic away over the decades that followed, and the branch lines serving small towns were lifted or simply left to the weeds.” The thumbnail image below is click-expandable. — If any SurvivalBlog readers have …
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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 First the penny, now the nickel: Congress moves closer to making big changes with the money in your pocket. JWR’s Comment: Consider this your last chance to acquire un-debased nickels in bulk, at face value. Jamie Forbes: Is the Housing Market Going to Crash? US national debt hits $40 trillion, rising by $90,000 per second. JWR’s Comment: At this late stage, the only escapes from this enormous mountain of debt will be via …
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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, America’s three fragile power grids. Warning That a Nationwide Blackout Could Last 18 Months Reported in the UK Daily Mail: Warning that mammoth nationwide blackout could last 18 …
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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. — A powerful image is seen in this map at Fox News: California counties shed thousands of taxpayers to other states. — First up, from our friend Anthony (“Armed Scholar”): Huge Decision Finds ATF Frames/Receivers Rule Unconstitutional & Permanently Blocks Restrictions! — Over at Bearing Arms: New Jersey’s War on 3D Printed Guns …
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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 Deputy’s Body Cam: Military pilot bails before jet crash in Yakima County. JWR’s Comments: I should mention that the last F/A-18 produced recently left El Segundo, in June of this year. So the Navy’s F/A-18 inventory now has a finite, declining number. Note to you Hornet pilots: Be careful out there. This YouTube series will definitely be one to watch: We Bought an Abandoned Log …
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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 …
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The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: “Sure, Mister, you can live out a perverted fantasy, and say that you ‘Identify’ as a nine year old girl named Susie… …But don’t try to force me to play along and call you that.” 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.
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“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.” – James Madison
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Washington — A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has pleaded guilty to a charge stemming from a scheme to hide federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under a deal reached with federal prosecutors in Maryland, David Morens, 78, agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. He faces up to five years in prison.
Morens, a senior adviser at NIAID's Office of the Director from 2006 to 2022, was indicted in April and charged with five counts for what prosecutors said at the time was his role in a scheme to defraud the U.S. by shielding federal records related to the COVID-19 pandemic from the public.
Tim Belevetz, a lawyer for Morens, said, "By pleading guilty today, Dr. Morens has taken responsibility for what he did and will continue to do so."
Prosecutors said Morens worked with two co-conspirators. The first, "co-conspirator 1," served as the president and CEO of a New York-based nonprofit that received a grant in 2014 titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence." The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, received a subaward from the New York group on the coronavirus grant, prosecutors said, though the National Institutes of Health terminated the award in April 2020 following allegations that COVID-19 emerged from the lab. The NIAID is part of the NIH.
The second co-conspirator was described in charging documents as a physician, scientist and professor who worked for an academic institute that received federal grants.
Emails made public by the GOP-led Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic indicate that the New York-based nonprofit is the EcoHealth Alliance and co-conspirator 1 is its president, Peter Daszak....
According to the guilty plea, Morens and the two co-conspirators agreed to exchange emails about COVID-19 and its origins, as well as the terminated coronavirus grant, through Morens' personal Gmail account, rather than his official NIH account, to hide federal records and evade public records laws.
Morens and his co-conspirators also used his Gmail account to share nonpublic information from the NIH about COVID-19 and "back-channel" information to an unidentified senior NIAID official, who appears to be Anthony Fauci, the institute's former director, according to court filings.
Nothing says integrity like hiding records.
Scott Rank hosts the "History Unplugged" podcast. He excels at highlighting interesting books. We've seen him here before, talking about "The Rifle" where a veteran gets World War II veterans to autograph his M1 Garand, about the tank duel in front of Cologne Cathedral, and about an interesting conservative blog and podcast.
He has a fascinating episode up about how analysis of ancient DNA is entirely rewriting our understanding of "Deep History" - things older than around 10,000 years:
Humanity’s story from 10,000 BC to 3,000 BC (from the end of the ice age to the beginning of civilizations) follows this pattern: primitive hunter-gatherers slowly progressed to farmers, then to village-builders, then to city-dwellers and kings. With enough food surplus to free up everyone from having to farm, religion, medicine, and art developed. But a revolution in archaeological science has completely rewritten the human past. Tools like ancient DNA sequencing, isotope analysis, LiDAR scanning, ground-penetrating radar, and high-precision radiocarbon dating are completely rewriting what we know about the ancient past. For example, the Natufians of the Levant, living between roughly 14,500 and 11,500 years ago, built permanent stone villages, stored food, buried their dead with elaborate grave goods, and developed complex social hierarchies — all before farming a single crop.
We’re going to look at other recent discoveries that have changed what we know about the Ice Age and Neolithic periods, and we’re joined by is Patrick Wyman, author of Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World. We cover the Copper Age megacity beneath modern Spain that was abandoned so completely it wasn’t rediscovered until the 1990s. We talk about Ukraine’s Trypillia culture, which built cities of tens of thousands of people, with no kings, no temples, and no walls. We look at the Neolithic mass graves of central Europe that shattered the myth of the peaceful early farmer, a single Polish burial site where DNA, isotopes, and radiocarbon dating together revealed a family massacre tied to the very moment steppe migrants were pushing into the region.
Highly recommended.
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Police initially said the shooting followed a fight between people who knew each other. Further investigation found that a security guard at the business fired a gun during the incident, striking the suspect before he fled, according to police.
Officers later learned the suspect had arrived at Northside Hospital in a private vehicle. They found 23-year-old James Jenkins, who was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault.
I was a bit concerned that we might have difficulty find good Mexican food so far from the Southwest. Santa Fe Mexican Grill has now far exceeded our expectations both with Carne Asada Tacos and Chicken Fajitas. I notice many dishes on the menu that I have never seen before. I am aware that many Mexican restaurants in the Southwest reflect Sonoran traditions. I wonder if we may be seeing more dishes from other states?
Thank you, dear readers, for your patience. I like to be consistent in my postings, but having moved cross country from Idaho to Tennessee, it's been a challenge!
It's interesting to move to a place where the evidence of Christianity is everywhere. Just like in Idaho, there are numerous churches. In Idaho, it was the LDS church that made its presence greatly felt; here in Tennessee, you find a plethora of Baptist churches.
People are polite here. They smile, call you "honey" and have a friendliness that is very endearing. Idaho used to be like that. When we first moved there 25 years ago from northern California, it was refreshingly nice. People looked you in the eye, smiled and said, "hello." I felt we had died and gone to heaven.
Change is inevitable, to be sure, but it's the kind of change that can be discouraging. Idaho experienced a boom in population that I have never seen before. After Covid, our state was flooded by people who were disgusted with how their governments handled the epidemic. For some, it was the final straw.
We came to Idaho after 9/11 caused my husband to lose his job in telecommunications. HP in Boise offered him a job and we are forever grateful to God for opening up that door to us.
Around 2020, we saw a shift. People no longer looked you in the eye or smiled; they didn't say, "hello" and seemed almost offended if you did. The drivers became more aggressive, bullying you by tailgating and some used the interstate to race other like-minded individuals.
According to the San Antonio Police Department, the man was involved in a physical altercation with his sister when he pulled out a weapon.
The 35-year-old man was actively hitting the other person when the woman's 25-year-old boyfriend intervened, retrieved a handgun and shot him in the torso.
He was taken to University Hospital in critical condition but later died from his injuries.
Around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20, deputies said a shooting happened on Mays Drive in the Edgemoor area. The Chester County Sheriff’s Office said there was between altercation over a vaping device which led to the shooting.
The sheriff’s office said Brandon Tavon Cassidy shot the first person multiple times and died.
Deputies said a second person returned returned fire in self-defense and Cassidy exchanged gunfire and he was struck and died.
| Resin-filled cholla hilt and gold sheen obsidian blade. |
8/22/26 The Hill reports on scromiting, a cute expression formed from screaming and vomiting. Isn't that adorable? The formal description is:
Cannabis (or cannabinoid) hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is as serious as it sounds. The condition, which can cause excessive vomiting with recurring bouts of severe stomach pain and nausea, was first detected in Australia two decades ago. Some have referred to a combination of CHS symptoms – screaming, due to the intense pain, and vomiting – as “scromiting.”
Heavy marijuana use. It does wonders.
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Most of my recreational reading is history and biography. One of my favorite writers is Tom Clavin. I just read his new book “Vengeance: the Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull.” I had been reading about Custer’s Last Stand since I was a little boy, and this book taught me a few […]BSO's Crime Scene and Homicide units also responded to the scene for the investigation. According to detectives, the preliminary investigation showed the man, who was identified as Maurice Wright Jr., and the shooter, an adult woman, were known to each other.
The BSO said that the woman told detectives that she needed to defend herself from a physical attack during the incident, and said the shooting was in self-defense.
The wolfettes went mad, barking. I looked out the front window and there was a majestic doe on the front lawn. Lillie was saying, "Please let me out! You won't need to feed me for a week!"