On January 26, 1887, ground was broken and construction began on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. It was completed on March 29, 1889, in time for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. The Eiffel Tower then surpassed the Washington Monument as the world’s tallest man-made structure — a record that it held for 41 years. But it was eclipsed by the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York City, in 1930.
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And on January 26, 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, was established.
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All eyes are on the Comex market this morning, after Friday’s surge to $103.91 for silver and $4,999.20 for gold. Meanwhile, silver hit $114.70 (in US Dollar terms), in Shanghai trading. So, at the opening bell this morning, I anticipate that spot silver will be north of $109, and gold above $5,100. Congrats to you folks who took my advice and bought circulated “junk” silver when a $1,000 face value bag could be bought for less than $24,000. They now sell for more than $80,000 each. I recommend slowly unwinding part of your silver holdings as the price spike continues — at least enough to recoup your original investment. Since we’ve entered Terra Incognita, it is impossible to accurately predict the height of the market top, and the timing of that top. In the weeks to come, we can expect to see very wide bid/ask spreads, with physical silver pricing all over the map. Ditto for price spreads between Western exchanges and Asian exchanges. Before you sell any of your stack, be sure to get competing bids from at least three dealers. Depending on the depth of their inventory and local demand, there will probably be quite a divergence in their offers. – JWR
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A USB Archive Stick Update: At last count, we had just five of the standard waterproof 2005-2025 SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks still available to order. And all of the sticks in the limited edition keepsake tins have sold out. The stick mailings began on January 22nd. They are going out in the same sequence that the orders were placed. We should be caught up on mailings by late February. Thanks for your patience. – JWR
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Today’s feature piece is by Tom Christianson of the SurvivalBlog staff.
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We need entries for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest, which begins on February 1st. More than $978,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 122 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.
Read the full article here