“The Promised Land was a tangible representation of God’s ultimate desire for His people, but they failed to comprehend His gift for at least three reasons: It was unconditionally promised, it was outrageously generous, and it was absolutely free. None of those make sense in the world as we know it.” – Charles Rozell “Chuck” Swindoll The post The Editors’ Quote of the Day: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

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 Canada’s restrictive new gun laws. 11 Places That Will Pay You To Move There SurvivalBlog reader D.S.V. mentioned this article at  Clark.com: 11 Places That … The post The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Gold is one of the most reliable and accurate financial measures one can use. Historically, the Dow/gold ratio has provided a very good signal for silver bear and bull market cycles. Here is a long-term silver chart compared to a long-term Dow/gold ratio chart:     On the silver chart (the top trace in the chart), I’ve highlighted the significant Dow/gold ratio peaks with a blue line. In every case, silver made a significant bottom some years after the Dow/gold ratio peak. These were signals for the (then-coming) silver bull market. Once in the bull market, significant silver peaks occurred … The post Silver is Very Close to a Sustained Multi-Year Rally, by Hubert Moolman appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

On July 18, 1572, the Provincial States of Holland recognized William I of Orange as Stadtholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht at a gathering in Dordrecht — July 18th, 1954 was the birthdate of Ricky Skaggs, an American country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo. — Toiday’s feature article is a guest post by Hubert Moolman, selected by JWR.  It is reposted with permission. — We are in need of entries for Round 113 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $900,000 worth of prizes … The post Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 18, 2024 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Official government data obtained through a Freedom of Formation Act request from the Czech Republic shows that all-cause mortality Moderna’s covid injection was higher than after Pfizer-BioNTech’s injection by over 50%. This […]

by William Upton, The National Pulse: Nearly three days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump, Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have finally gained access to the would-be assassin’s cell phone. “FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his […]

This story was originally published by Modern Farmer. Throughout the summer in the Golden, Colorado, area, you might see a big box truck full of local fresh vegetables hosting a pay-what-you can farmer’s market. Affectionately called Chuck, GoFarm’s mobile market truck travels to low-income neighborhoods, schools, retirement homes, mobile home communities and more. It offers local produce that GoFarm sources from 80 to 90 farms every season, including small-scale urban farms, large family-owned farms and beginning farmers going through their incubator program.  “Our vision is a strong, resilient, environmentally sustainable and equitable local food system,” says Virginia Ortiz, GoFarms executive director. Ortiz sees GoFarm’s role as a hub that takes care of the logistics of supporting small farms and feeding the community.  Virginia Ortiz with the GoFarm team on their farm in Colorado. Courtesy of GoFarm Building community partnerships is a crucial element, and GoFarm works with other food access organizations such as Hunger Free Golden and JeffCo Food Policy Council to reach more people and create a broader base of resources. Founded in 2014, GoFarm started with its local food share program (essentially a CSA curated from multiple farms). More than a decade later, it has become an organization that trains and develops beginning farmers and creatively tackles the problem of how to get affordable, fresh food to the community. As a nonprofit, it is able to fundraise for grants and donations to support its programming and supplement that with revenue generated through produce sales.  GoFarm’s incubator farmer program gives beginning farmers access to a quarter acre of land for the two-year duration of the program. The farmers receive all the training they need to plan, plant and manage a farm — regardless of their background.  Incubator farmers in an irrigation workshop. Courtesy of Lindsey Beatrice “The average age of current farmers is 55 to 59, and we know that, over the next 10 years, half of current farmers are going to retire, which means that we need to develop a new base,” says Ortiz. But she points out that there is a “tremendous need” for agricultural education. “Part of our goal is to change the paradigm of farm ownership. Currently, in Colorado, there are approximately 34,000 farms and only one percent are owned by people of color. Yet, 95 to 98 percent of farm workers are people of color, primarily Latinos,” says Ortiz, who shares that she comes from a long line of farmers and farm workers. She says she is proud that, in the farmer development program, 50 percent of participants are people of color, 65 percent are women and 40 percent self-identify as LGBTQ+. Crushed by negative news? Sign up for the Reasons to be Cheerful newsletter. [contact-form-7] Moses Smith of Full Fillment Farms was an engineer who had gardened before taking GoFarm’s 20-week course and joining the incubator program. “The important thing was the Whole Farm Planning course that really focused on what it takes to actually grow food,” says Smith. “One of the biggest benefits is that they not only provide us with land access, which is very hard as a starting farmer, but they also give us a market avenue,” says Ann Poteet of Three Owls Farm. As incubator farmers are establishing their businesses and learning how to generate their own markets, they sell produce back to GoFarm.  GoFarm’s local food share program feeds anywhere from 500 to 800 members each summer. Members come every week to pick up their share from a few different locations where GoFarm has refrigerated shipping containers to store food after it’s delivered by farmers. Plus, GoFarm takes Chuck out and about in Denver and Jefferson counties every week to ensure they can reach underserved populations that are challenged with food insecurity, disability, transportation and other barriers, such as the communities living in designated food deserts in south Golden.  Ann Poteet of Three Owls Farm and Moses Smith of Full Fillment Farms. Courtesy of GoFarm “I have an interest in nutritional insecurity,” says Poteet, who was a nurse practitioner before starting her farm.  “It’s been really inspiring,” says Smith about being able to see his food nourish the community through GoFarm.  But farmer’s market prices can be high, as producers need to be fairly compensated for their labor and costs. “Customers were clear to us that having access to healthy food was critical to them and affordability was a barrier,” says Ortiz. So, in 2022, GoFarm found the funding it needed to implement a new solution that goes even further to improve accessibility for the 2,600+ households it reaches.  Become a sustaining member today! Join the Reasons to be Cheerful community by supporting our nonprofit publication and giving what you can. Join Customers at its mobile markets can choose from one of three price tiers to shop that day, depending on their needs. For example, bags of mixed greens have three prices listed: $2 (purple), $3 (green) and $4 (orange). And the microgreens are even cheaper, at $1, $2 or $3 for a box. Pasture-raised eggs can be $3, $5 or $7 a carton.  “You are what you eat,” says Kaylee Clinton, a first-time GoFarm mobile market shopper. “I just feel better about myself when I eat fresher.” As inflation has hit grocery stores, she says that SNAP has helped make food more affordable and she appreciates that GoFarm lets shoppers pick their price point. “I really love it. I think it’s great for everybody.”  “Typically, I either buy green or orange. I like buying orange when I can. It’s good to have the flexible pricing,” says Ed Gazvoda, who has been shopping at GoFarm for years. “I want to live a good, long, healthy life, so it’s a personal thing, but I just love the food.” Flexible pricing sign with Chuck, the mobile market truck. Courtesy of Lindsey Beatrice Jess Soulis, director of the Community Food Access program, highlights that accepting SNAP’s DoubleUp Food Bucks (DUFB) — where shoppers essentially get a 50-percent discount — is just one way to make food more affordable. The group also partners with WIC’s Farmers Market Nutrition Program, where participants get a credit to shop. Through its market locations at Littleton Advent Hospital and Juanita Nolasco Senior Residences, the program offers shoppers $10 worth of produce for free. SNAP/DUFB account for 13 percent of its mobile market sales, but all of these incentives combined are closer to two-thirds. The vision continues to grow. The only limitation? “Infrastructure,” says Ortiz. GoFarm is currently seeking out refrigerated warehouse space along the I-70 corridor between Golden and the Denver neighborhood of Montbello.  “That area is important because we need to make it accessible to farmers along the Front Range,” says Ortiz. “With that refrigerated warehouse space, we could easily source from more farmers, distribute more food and serve more communities.” Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at Modern Farmer. The post A Vibrant Local Food System Grows in Colorado appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

In our quest to understand if there is life elsewhere in the universe, we start with the only example we have: life on Earth. So, a good bet to find aliens is to find another Earth. Of the over 5,000 exoplanets known, we are yet to find Earth’s twin. However, this might change very soon. Enter, the European Space Agency's (ESA) PLATO mission. PLATO stands for PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars and it has a clear goal in mind. It will look for nearby potentially habitable worlds like Earth around Sun-like stars.“One of the major goals is to find an Earth-Sun equivalent if you like. So an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a star like the Sun. And to find it around a star that's bright enough that we can really measure the planet's mass, measure its radius, so we can be sure that it's real,” Dr David Brown, from the University of Warwick, told IFLScience. “That's our headline goal if you like.”The telescope is not just a planet-hunting observatory, it is also a stellar observatory, collecting data on a huge number of stars, and the mission team sees the combination of the two as a crucial reason for how this telescope will be revolutionary. We're really trying to understand planetary systems as whole entities rather than sort of planet by planet.Dr david Brown"You have two halves of the mission. One is exoplanets and one is the stars themselves. From a scientific point of view, I think that's quite exciting that we have these two halves working together to get the best possible science we can out of it,” Dr Brown explained.Among the secondary goals is the plan to conduct a census of terrestrial planets but also of star systems as a whole. Another objective is to find other solar systems like our own. So far, our little corner of the universe is quite unique but we do not know if it is truly exceptional or not.“We have a bunch of other scientific objectives,” Dr Brown told IFLScience. “How well can we understand the way that planetary systems evolve and change over time, really? We're really trying to understand planetary systems as whole entities rather than sort of planet by planet.”Beyond the goals, there is another thing that makes PLATO unique: it is not a single telescope. It's actually made up of 26 different ones. Two are fast cameras, the remaining 24 are normal cameras arranged in groups of six with a slight offset. This gives the telescope a large field of view, improved performance, and a way to quickly dismiss false positives.  “One of the big problems with transiting exoplanets is figuring out which of the things you find are real and which ones are not. Using multiple telescopes we built a way to get rid of some of the mimics that we might otherwise see. Plus it also just looks quite cool,” Dr Brown excitedly explained. “You've got this big square with all of these telescopes pointing at you and it looks really unique!”Dr Brown presented an update about PLATO at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull this week. The telescope is being assembled and has passed critical checks recently. The mission is on track to launch in December 2026. It will lift off from French Guiana on an Ariane 6 rocket, the same type of rocket that had its inaugural launch last week.

An archaeological excavation in the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, the square in front of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran in Rome, has uncovered complex layers of remains from different periods, including walls dating to between the 9th and 13th centuries A.D., the period in which the basilica and palace complex was known as the Patriarchate. The Lateran archaeological area extends from just inside the Aurelian Walls near the ancient Porta Asinaria gate to the ground under the cathedral of St. John. The site is of crucial importance to the history of Rome and of Christianity. The sumptuous domus of the Laterani family was built there in the late Republic/early Empire. It was confiscated by Nero after Plautius Lateranus was executed for his role in the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 A.D. The Lateran Palace had passed through the hands of imperial families and eventually inherited by Fausta, sister of the emperor Maximian. The former Domus Laterani thus became known as the Domus Faustae, and when Fausta was married to Constantine I in 306 A.D., the palace fell under his control. He is said to have given it to the Bishop of Rome around 313 A.D. On the grounds of the domus a large cavalry barracks was built by Septimius Severus in 193 A.D. The Castra Nova Equitum Singularium was the fort of the Equites Singulares Augusti, the personal cavalry guard of the emperors. The regiment sided with the emperor Maxentius against Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D., so after Constantine’s victory, he disbanded the Equites singulares Augusti and razed the Castra Nova. Constantine ordered construction of the first Christian basilica in Rome on the site of the demolished barracks. It was inaugurated in 324 A.D. It became the official seat of the Bishop of Rome, which it still is today, while the neighboring palace became the Pope’s official residence until the papacy was moved to Avignon in 1309. The original basilica was all but destroyed in an earthquake in 896. The only visible remnant of the original church is the octagonal baptistery which dates to the 5th century. The church was rebuilt in phases. Much of what we see today is the work of baroque architect Borromini in the mid-17th century, and the statue-festooned façade was added in the 18th century. Despite the great significance of the site, archaeological investigations have been few and far between and most of them precede modern methods. There have been no modern excavations of the square in front of the current basilica until now. The finds attributable to the Patriarchate were found in the eastern part of the excavation, along its entire length: it is a structure that could have served both as a defensive wall for the papal residence and as a support for the slope that characterized the Lateran area in ancient times. In light of the different building techniques found, its construction can be dated to the 9th century AD and it was the subject of various restoration and reconstruction interventions until at least the 13th century. The wall is made of large blocks of tuff, certainly reused from other structures that no longer exist. Evidence of one or more restoration interventions is the presence of a banding of the blocks on both sides, made with a facing of tuff blocks that have a series of buttresses. Continuing towards the West, the wall is instead made with wedge-shaped buttresses and a more irregular technique. The final part of the wall, which runs up to the parvis of the Basilica, has a facing of tuff blocks and buttresses this time of a square shape. Defensive structures would have been very much needed in the period before the Avignon papacy (1309-1376). The noble families of Rome were constantly at war, with the Throne of Peter the main bone of contention, and the city was repeatedly sacked by, among others Arab raiders from Sicily (846) and Normans under Robert Guiscard (1084). The latter looted the city after being called to rescue Pope Gregory VII, holed up in Castel Sant’Angelo under siege by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. Guiscard did get Henry to retreat and delivered the pope safely to the Lateran, but Rome paid the price. The ancient city — Capitoline, Palatine, Colosseum — burned for days. After the return of the popes to Rome, the Lateran was in such poor condition that they set up new digs in the Vatican. The defensive wall was buried and everyone forgot it had ever been there. The archaeological investigations, although conducted in an emergency due to the timing dictated by the delivery of the works for the opening of the Jubilee year, have also brought to light the remains of other structures, dating back to periods preceding the Patriarchate. At the centre of the excavation, a portion of a wall in opus reticulatum was identified, dating back to between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, whose function was to terrace the slope that characterised the area. More interesting are the imposing foundations in opus reticulatum dating back to the Severian period (3rd century), perhaps to be related to the Castra Nova equitum singularium , already documented under the current structure of the Basilica. Two walls in opus lateralis that run parallel are from the same period and, considering their depth (3.5 metres below the current floor level) and the short distance between them, they are probably part of an underground structure. Finally, in the central portion of the excavation, a section of a wall structure in opus listatum was found, dating back to between the 4th and 7th centuries. All of the remains are being left where they were found. City authorities are studying how and when to continue the excavations (likely after the Jubilee) and what can be done to make them safe and accessible to visitors.