Preparedness Notes — August 18, 2026

This Week in History:

On August 18, 1877, the Martian Moon Phobos was discovered. One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3,700 miles from the surface of Mars. This makes it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this odd orbit, Phobos completes each orbit around Mars in just 7 hours and 39 minutes.

—

August 19, 1895: American frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin was shot and killed by John Selman, Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.

—

August 19, 1915: The British liner SS Arabic was sunk by a German submarine without warning while leaving Liverpool for New York. The deaths of 33 people aboard created a diplomatic incident.

—

We are now halfway through our two-week sale on all of our investment grade guns at Elk Creek Company. Take a close look for some great prices on guns that you will be proud to pass on to your children and grandchildren. The sale will end on Tuesday, August 25th. By the way, we also accept payment in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coinage, presently at a very generous  ratio of 48.5 to one.  (Our silver changes frequently, depending on the spot price of silver.) For example, with a 48.5 divisor: If your order total (with postage) is $955, then you’d pay just $19.70 face value in any combination of circulated pre-1965 90% silver U.S. dimes, quarters, or half-dollars. You may use our automated ordering system for check-out, but instead of paying by USPS money order or check, you’d e-mail us and let us know that your payment will be in silver, and just mail those coins in a well-padded sturdy box to our P.O. box address. It is that simple. Your order will then be shipped ASAP after the silver coin payment arrives. Thanks! – JWR

AI: The Machinist Will Become The Workpiece

When I have conversations with friends and neighbors about Artificial Intelligence (AI), some of them  conclude that I’m an alarmist. I believe that this is because their experience has been limited to simplistic generative AI tools that crank out artwork in seconds, or that can create convincing term papers when given just a simple outline phrase. What they haven’t seen are agentic AIs that scheme, manipulate, and cheat to reach their programmed goals, and often go beyond those programmed goals. If a stated goal is open-ended, then these AIs often improvise in unexpected ways. Recently, for example, a test AI from an Alibaba-affiliated research team escaped its “sandbox” and was caught mining cryptocurrencies — something never requested and far beyond its assigned tasks. Another AI independently went looking for a job.

State-of-the-art AI is very rapidly approaching the level of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This is the level of development where the AI fully surpasses human intelligence. There are already AIs that are subject matter experts that exceed Ph.D. level in one or two particular subjects. But we will soon see AIs that have mastery of multiple scientific disciplines, make practical application of that knowledge, and that can also articulate the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) at a level that is indistinguishable from a college-educated living, breathing person.  And with recent advances in voice generation and video deep fakes, these AIs could pass themselves off as almost any adult human, in video conferences.Continue reading“AI: The Machinist Will Become The Workpiece”

JaseAid Trauma Kit, by Thomas Christianson

Author’s Introductory Note: I am not a medical professional. This article does not constitute medical advice. It merely represents the observations and opinions of an average layperson. Please consult a medical professional about the best training, equipment, and supplies that you should obtain in order to be better prepared for possible emergencies. SurvivalBlog readers who are also medical professionals are strongly encouraged to contribute articles within their areas of expertise to SurvivalBlog. You may provide the vital public service of rescuing SurvivalBlog readers from the simplistic ideas of people like me).

Many first-aid kits are really boo-boo kits. They are designed for the minor cuts, slivers, and scrapes of life.

Other first-aid kits are designed to treat truly life-threatening injuries. These kits are designed for accidents involving things like chainsaws, firearms, or heavy equipment. These accidents can lead to major hemorrhage and death. The JaseAid Trauma Kit from Jase Medical is intended for these types of serious accidents. It contains items that are made to address serious injuries: things like a tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, a chest seal, or a nasopharyngeal airway.

The kit also includes helpful field education cards to explain the use of the various components of the kit. I highly recommend thoroughly studying the cards prior to using the kit in any actual emergency. If you try to read the cards for the first time during an emergency situation, it will already be too late.Continue reading“JaseAid Trauma Kit, by Thomas Christianson”

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic is a map that depicts the most valuable resource in each state. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

—

If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR

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 median household income of each US states relative to the overall US median household income (percentage points above or below.) 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, predictions of demographic doom.

The West’s Demographic Math No Longer Adds Up

The left-of-center Politico reports: The West’s Demographic Math No Longer Adds Up. Here is a pericope:

“Modern welfare states rest on an intergenerational bargain. Today’s workers finance pensions and health care for older people, trusting that others will eventually do the same for them.

Low fertility is straining that bargain. Fewer young people are entering the workforce just as large generations approach retirement. Pension reform has already become one of Europe’s most politically difficult issues, and the viability of the Social Security system is a perennial concern in the United States. Those political pressures will continue to intensify as the population ages.”

Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America

In The New York Times: Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

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.

—

In The Los Angeles Times: How Colorado became the unlikely epicenter of American yak ranching. JWR’s Comments:  In the 1990s, we raised ultra-wooly black Tibetan yaks at our ranch near Orofino, Idaho. In 1997, we brought them with us on our temporary move back to California, and the next year we sold the entire herd. My first wife (Linda, RIP) wrote a Yak FAQ. We found that yaks were very hardy, and quite thrifty grazers. A few key points that the L.A. Times article left out:  Yaks can be cross-bred with other cattle, and the offspring from these matings are fertile.  They have one extra pair of ribs than most other bovines. They have purple tongues — like a Chow dog.  And yaks have the lowest cholesterol beef of any cattle breed. Yet yak milk makes extremely high butterfat content butter. A staple in Tibet is yak butter tea.

o  o  o

Signal Nomad (one of our advertisers) recently added SureFire Stiletto LED Flashlights to their catalog. This 650 Lumen USB rechargeable model has been my everyday carry flashlight for several months, and I highly recommended it. – JWR

o  o  o

A recent Armed Scholar video from Anthony Miranda: Huge Ruling Now In Effect After Finding NFA Unconstitutional & Permanently Blocking Restrictions!  JWR’s Comments: For GOA members in at least 15 states who own MagLite flashlights, it is time to “Drill baby, drill!” But take heed: The window of opportunity for legal paperless home construction may be brief, so I recommend that SurvivalBlog readers get busy, ASAP.  But of course consult your state and local laws first. For legal suppressor construction tips, see these important SurvivalBlog resources from late 2025 and early 2026:

o  o  o

Reader Tim S. wrote:

“I just read an article in The Feral Irishman, discussing your 2/25 comments regarding The Woodpile Report. I had the great good-fortune of exchanging over 40 emails with Remus M. between 8/6/13 and 12/31/19, just prior to his demise in 7/20. For all his “ woodsy” charm, he was high up on the corporate ladder. He had a career in industrial engineering, working in NA, Europe, and Scandinavia for a French outfit. On the other hand, he married his high school sweetheart ( first wife, until her passing in late 2001). He came from a very large family, his Father had eleven brothers and sisters. He came from Northern Appalachia [according to Remus, there is “Plantation, Yeoman, and Northern Appalachia “], with some family in Alabama. He stated he started school the same year he met his Dad, in 1946. Turned out his Father “had been off in the Pacific being a medic”. His insight was phenomenal. My first e-mail to him began “Dear Fellow Old Guy“ and he responded within 90 minutes. We exchanged brief life histories, which had many parallels, and expounded from there. When his second wife passed in early 2020, and his health was less than optimal, I believe that took the wind out of his sails.  Remus, the close and wise uncle I never had, had he continued his existence on this orb, today, would be approximately, 86 years old.”

o  o  o

Tom Christianson suggested this video: Switzerland’s Doomsday Law.

o  o  o

This year, the Paratus prepping holiday will fall on September 18, 2026. It was the brainchild of our blogging buddy Commander Zero.

o  o  o

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets”

SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week

REDOUBT NEWS LINKS

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.

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:

The summer activities are still in full swing. We’ve been busy doctoring sheep, pulling weeds, rototilling, harvesting, and preserving.  Most recently, we’ve been harvesting Transparent Apples.

For the past few days I’ve been packing orders for Elk Creek Company. It looks like our big sale on hand-selected investment grade guns will be a success. Those sale prices will end in just one week.

Today, my neighbor with a back-hoe tractor will be over to remove four old fir tree stumps that are in the way of expanding our near-house pasture. That pasture is just over the size of two football fields. We’ll drag those stumps to a nearby slash pile to burn this fall.

I’ve already begun discing that field with our Plotmaster. I’m speading Dolomite prills over each portion that I disc and roto-tilling that in. And once the stumps are gone, I can disc an even larger area.  I’ll seed it all with a mix of Mustard (Sinapis alba), Fall Barley, Field Peas, and Kale as green manure winter cover crops. Then, late next Spring I’ll turn those under and re-seed it with a pasture grass seed blend.

We haven’t had any luck in seeding our pastures that are closer to the Unnamed River, because they are full of invasive Canary Grass. That grass makes poor forage. But it is a dominant and flood-tolerant species that chokes out just about all other grasses.

Now, Lily’s part of the report…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

JWR’s Meme Of The Week:

The latest meme created by JWR:

AOC Capitalism Meme

Meme Text:

i never use upper-case letters when i write about a.o.c.

because she says that she hates capitalism

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.

Editors’ Quote: 

“There’s risks that come from people misusing AI, and that’s most of the risks and all of the short-term risks. And then there’s risks that come from AI getting super smart and understanding it doesn’t need us.” – 2024 Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton

Preparedness Notes — August 11, 2026

This Week in History:

The Sea Battle of Zierikzeen was fought on August 11, 1304, Franco-Holland forces defeated the Flemish fleet.

—

August 12, 1336 English King Edward III banned wool export to Flanders and later granted a company of merchants a monopoly on selling wool in attempt to maximize taxes.

—

August 12, 1940: The German Luftwaffe bombed British radar stations, suffering a loss of 31 aircraft.

—

August 13, 1521: Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés captures Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan. This brought the Aztec Empire to an end.

—

And on August 14, 1040, King Duncan I of Scotland was killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth, who succeeded him as king. (He was not murdered in his sleep as shown in Shakespeare’s play.) By the way, the name Macbeth has its origin in Mac Beoth, which means “Son of Faith.”

—

I heard that Signal Nomad (one of our advertisers) has added more than 20 new items to their online catalog.  Most of their items are geared toward connectivity, privacy, and off-grid living. Take a look.

—

Today, we are beginning a two-week sale on all of our investment grade guns at Elk Creek Company. Take a close look for some great prices on guns that you will be proud to pass on to your children and grandchildren. The sale will end on Tuesday, August 25th. By the way, we also accept payment in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coinage, presently at a ratio of 47.7 to one.  (Our silver changes frequently, depending on the spot price of silver.) For example, with a 47.7 divisor: If your order total (with postage) is $955, then you’d pay just $20 face value in any combination of circulated 90% silver dimes, quarters, or half-dollars. You may use our automated ordering system for check-out, but instead of paying by USPS money order or check, just e-mail us and let us know that your payment will be in silver, and mail those coins to our P.O. box address. It is that simple. Your order will then be shipped ASAP after the silver coin payment arrives. – JWR

—

The feature article for today is a very practical hands-on piece written by a longtime SurvivalBlog reader. I’m sending him a couple of autographed books, as a token of my thanks. – JWR

Constructing an Off-Grid Shower, by Ozark Redneck

My wife and I were sitting in the living room last winter, our fireplace insert was cranking out the heat, our spark screen was on, and the Eco-Fan was blowing a mile a minute. She had a glass of wine in her hand, and we were enjoying the moment. We were discussing our preparedness. (Like all couples do — right?) The sun was very active that week, with plenty of solar wind and a moderate CME. She asked, “if the power grid goes down, how are we going to take a shower?” I kind of sputtered, “I have at least three solar showers in the shop, I was thinking of rigging a hose into the house, and putting the solar bag on the roof”… She chided: “It is 20 degrees outside and there is no sunshine.” Doom on me.

We have a whole-house generator with 1,000 gallons of propane, but that is not going to last forever, and we needed a backup plan. We both wanted an option better than a sponge bath. Now I have used solar showers years ago when camping, these typically have 5-gallon black rubber bags, gravity fed, sunshine-warmed, and run about $20,. They work great in summer, and if handled carefully they will last many years.Continue reading“Constructing an Off-Grid Shower, by Ozark Redneck”

Recipe of the Week: Dutch Oven Sausage Pasta

The following recipe for Dutch Oven Sausage Pasta is from SurvivalBlog reader R.E.. Note that the spaghetti can go in dry–there is no need to cook it separately first.  This serves four adults.

Ingredients
  • 1 pound dry spaghetti (or substitute other dried pasta from your TEOTWAWKI stockpile.)
  • 1 (12.8-ounce) package smoked sausage, thinly sliced. (I use Andouille sausage.)
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 cups grape tomatoes, cut in halves
  • 2 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
  • 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced (or less, to suit your taste)
  • 4½ cups water
  • Kosher salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions
  1. In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, combine spaghetti, sausage, onion, tomatoes, basil, garlic and water; season with salt and pepper, to taste. (Set aside the Parmesan cheese for last-minute.)
  2. Bring your dutch oven up to medium high heat.
  3. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until pasta is cooked through and the liquid has reduced. This takes 8-10 minutes.
  4. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
SERVING

It is best to serve this immediately, but you can let it simmer at low heat for a while to sync with the completion time of any other dinner dishes.

STORAGE

Any leftovers (quite unlikely!) can be stored refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days

—

Do you have a well-tested recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long-term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven recipes, slow cooker recipes, and any recipes that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week 

Today’s graphic is a map that shows population concentration. Half the American population lives in the red shaded areas. The map is delineated by county lines. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.)

The thumbnail image below is click-expandable.

—

If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name — or pen name —  if you’d like. Many Thanks! –  JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Any graphics that you send must either be your own creation, under your copyright or uncopyrighted in the public domain. Thanks! – JWR