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Monday, October 31, 2022

The Docent's Memo (October 31, 2022)

 

VIDEO: "Massad Ayoob looks at four different angles of shoulder holster positions - Critical Mas Episode 17"--Wilson Combat (16 min.)

VIDEO: "Concealed Carry: 38 Special Ammo Selection (Featuring Hornady Critical Defense Lite)"--Paul Harrell (32 min.). Harrell tests various loads out of a S&W snub-nosed revolver. The best performer of the lot in terms of all three criterial--muzzle energy, accuracy (i.e., hitting to point of aim with the fixed sights on the snubby), and damage to the meat target--was the Hornady Critical Defense +P. Wadcutters seemed to cause as much damage and deform about as well as the heavier 158 grain semi-wadcutter hollow point bullets; and, if you were in a jurisdiction that did not allow expanding bullets, the wadcutter probably would serve you better than anything else.

Firearms & Self-Defense:

  • A new Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg Ellifritz. A couple of the links that stuck out were: (i) "Best Practices" for concealed carry license holders, which is a list of 12 practical tips/advice; and (ii) an article in the November Rangemaster Newsletter describing research that showed that the test subjects (police officers in this case) made better shoot/no-shoot decisions when they started from a low ready position than when the muzzle was higher or pointed at a target.
  • Jon Low also has a new Defensive Pistolcraft post. A couple things he mentions that seem unrelated is that the majority of officers feloniously killed every year never removed their service weapon from its holster. He also suggests that even people with a lot of training will never apply that training when the need arises. But it ties together when Low delves into the concepts of inattention and misdirection. An excerpt:
     A friend, who is a criminal defense attorney, asked me to view some video recordings for a case he was working on.  The defense attorney thought something was strange about the scenario.  He couldn't understand why the bad guy let the good guy (his client) shoot the bad guy.  
 
     The bad guy (mugger) had his pistol pointed at the good guy (client).  Other bad guys were standing around.  The good guy shot the bad guy in the head, killing him instantly.  I explained to the attorney how the good guy had misdirected the bad guy's attention by hand gesture, verbiage, and body language.  Once the bad guy was shot, the other bad guys fled.  Because none of the other bad guys had seen the good guy draw his gun.  They were all wondering, "What's going on?",  "Who fired the shot?" 
 
     The defense attorney had not understood prior to my explanation.  The prosecutor apparently never understood.  All charges were dropped prior to trial.  Because it's self-defense.  

Read the whole thing and check out the comments and links as to other topics. 

  • Useful information for those using telescopic sights: "What the Hell is Parallax, and Do Hunters Need to Care About it?" by Richard Mann, Field & Stream. Mann explains that "parallax is the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points, not on a straight line with the object," such as, when using a rifle scope and "the reticle and the target are not focused in the same place and you move your head a little bit, the reticle will move." Most scopes, he notes, are designed to be parallax free within a certain distance: 50 yards for a rimfire scope and 150 yards for most centerfire scopes. Some scopes also come with a parallax adjustment: "The parallax adjustment on a riflescope simply positions the reticle focus and the image focus at the same spot." He discusses the topic further as well as offers guidance on how to adjust parallax, so be sure to read the whole thing.
  • "NEW Magpul BDA AR-15 Arm Brace"--The Firearm Blog. The ATF's pistol brace rule is supposed to be finalized in December. I doubt that the millions of people with SBA3 braces from SB Tactical or similar braces from other companies are going to try to register their weapons as an SBR, which means that there are going to be a lot of people looking to replace their braces soon. Or at least that is apparently what Magpul thinks. If you went through the ATF's proposed rule, you probably noticed that one of the braces used as an example, and that passed their point system, was KAK's Shockwave Blade brace. That appears to be the inspiration for Magpul's new brace as it also is a blade-style brace. But to make sure that it is legal under the proposed rule, the brace is also non-adjustable for length of pull and it has a QD swivel mount at the back of the brace to make it clear that it was not intended to be shouldered (and make it extremely uncomfortable to shoot should you do so). MSRP is $59.99. So far it is only being offered in black.
  • "Brutal Beating in Elk Country: Authorities Identify Suspects Who Allegedly Assaulted Two Hunters in Wyoming"--Outdoor Life. The victims had come across an elk that had been shot and, not wanting the meat to go to waste, decided to take the elk as their own after waiting a short period of time to see if any other hunters claimed it. Later, they encountered a group of hunters that accused the victims of stealing their elk carcass. Things escalated and resulted in one of the victims being pulled from his side-by-side and beaten. Not to justify what the attackers did, but the victims were in the wrong to have claimed the elk as their own after only waiting 20 minutes. If the elk had run any distance from where it was shot, or the person that shot it had to climb a steep slope to get to the animal, it could easily take much longer to track down than just 20 minutes.  Anyway, a reminder that the monkey dance can happen anywhere. 
    The Monkey Dance is the most common and the most avoidable of the social violence types.  It can usually be avoided with a simple apology.  It can be defused with submissive body language—an apology, down cast eyes.

    It can also often be simply bypassed:

    “What are YOU lookin’ at?”

    “Huh? Oh, didn’t know.  Worked all night last night I must have zoned out for a minute.”  Bypassing requires extremely relaxed body language. And a low, slow, slightly puzzled tone of voice really helps.  If the guy keeps fishing, treat the follow-ups as thoughtful questions.  Don’t Monkey Dance back and don’t become agitated or show anger.

    If you get caught in a Monkey Dance and don’t realize it until you are a few steps down the road, apologize (a simple ‘sorry’ no explanation) put your hands up, palms out (both shows peaceful intent and makes a classic ‘fence’ which is a very good thing when things go bad) and back away.  Then leave the area.

Also:

    Possibly the greatest danger in the Monkey Dance, for most people, is legal.  It is not self-defense.  No matter how big he was or who started it, there are too many opportunities to walk away for a Monkey Dance fight to be called self-defense.  Even if you are losing, you are losing a grade school-level fistfight.  Lethal response will not be justified. In fact, in some jurisdictions which explicitly state that aggressors cannot claim self-defense an exception is made if the victim introduces the possibility of lethal force. For just two examples, see Illinois statute 720 ILCS 5/7‑4 Ch. 38, par. 7‑4 or Montana code 45-3-105.

    “He started it,” is a grade school defense, not a legal defense. 

    The GMD is another dominance game very different from the individual monkey dance.  In this ritual, members of the group compete for status and to show their loyalty to the group by showing how vicious they can be to someone perceived as an “outsider”.  It is purely a contest to prove who is more a part of the group by who can do the most violence to the outsider.

    Group psychology and the power of mobs plays a huge part in this, making normal decent people behave in a way they would never have imagined, as they get caught up in the “feeding frenzy”.  The victim is completely inconsequential.  Once it starts, the victim is literal a non-person.  Any pleading, fighting, passivity will be interpreted by the group as proof of “otherness” and further justification to escalate.  Sometimes even the death of the outsider doesn’t stop the dance.
There are places in the United States where if you do something rude and improper you will get disapproving looks and people will whisper about you. They might snub you in the coffee room or not invite you to go bowling. And there are places in the U. S. where doing something that society considers rude will get you beaten without a second thought.
    According to Terry Thompson, regional communications manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, mountain lion encounters like the one depicted in Erickson’s video are rare in Idaho. “We haven’t had any attacks in Idaho for years,” Thompson told F&S. “This [cat] looks like it’s kind of in stealth mode. That’s not a good sign. It’s in effect stalking him. It could have kittens back in those conifers and aspens in the background, but you’d never know.”

    Regardless of whether the mountain lion was defending a cached kill, protecting nearby kittens, or engaged in a predatory stalk, Thompson says that Erickson handled the situation well. “I’m surprised the guy held off as long as he did before he shot,” he said. “This cat was really close. Erickson backed away and kept his eyes on it. What he did was right.”

    No. What he did was not right. This is more of an example of a positive outcome despite poor judgment or actions. The most basic rule about dealing with a cougar that is stalking you is to not run away from it. Mountain lions are the largest of the small cats and, just like your pet cat, are "programmed" to chase after things whether a ball of paper thrown past it or prey that is moving away from it. Although the hunter, Erikson, was not "running" he was backing away from it which amounted to basically the same thing. He should have at least stopped while facing the thing. In his shoes, I probably would have not only stopped but stepped toward it to see if that extra bit of intimidation might have caused it to break off its stalk and go elsewhere. 
 
    Another rule is to make yourself look bigger and more aggressive. Erikson did not do anything in that regard until he finally shot toward the cat (I assume that he intended to miss it). He should have shot earlier and shot into the ground in front of the cougar to try and spray it with dirt and stuff rather than kick up dirt behind it where it wouldn't see it.  
  • "Concealed Carry Corner: Are Concealed Carry Jackets Worth It?"--The Firearm Blog. Short answer is "no". Slightly longer answer is that there are some jackets or coats designed to allow easy access to firearms carried in traditional holsters through an outside zipper or a zipper inside a jacket pocket. But you can use a regular jacket and slip a firearm into a side pocket, a breast pocket, or be prepared to pull up on the jacket to access a firearm much as if you were wearing a long t-shirt or pull-over. 
  • Although this article from the Daily Mail focuses on a shootout between black gang members in NYC, the article is notable for reporting that overall violent crime has increased by 31% so far this year, with dramatic increases in felony assault, rape, and robberies, although murders and "shooting victims" had declined since last year.

VIDEO: "'How Will We Know It's Time' - Earth's Disaster Q and A"--Suspicious Observers (6 min.)
Discusses what are signs of a "bug-out worthy event" vis-a-vis super-flare/micro-nova.

VIDEO: "Survival Books, A Few Recommendations"--Boonedockery (53 min.)
Some recommendations for survival/prepping books as well as an explanation why he doesn't like military manuals. 

Prepping & Survival:
    Francis’s son administered some preliminary first aid, packing the gunshot wound with bandages, before ushering him out of the area on the horse. Once they met with rescuers, Francis was taken to a nearby ranch where a medical helicopter was awaiting his arrival. He was then flown to the University of Utah Hospital.

    Bingham said that his condition is still unknown to Sublette County authorities at this time. “I think Game & Fish is trying to talk to the hunter and they’re looking for the bear today,” he said. “We’re not really sure how substantial the bear part of the attack was. The biggest concern was blood loss from the gunshot wound.” 

If he hadn't had the SOS device, it might have been a much longer wait to get the father to medical help with a concomitant greater loss of blood. The article also reports that "Francis’s attack marks the second grizzly bear-human conflict in Wyoming in less than two weeks," the other being the recent attack on two wrestlers.  

  • There are areas of the country where bugging out by a small boat, canoe or kayak would be reasonable. If you are considering such, this article might be helpful: "How to Pack a Canoe or Kayak for a Camping Trip"--Field & Stream.
  • "Ambush: Francis Marion and the Art of Guerrilla Warfare"--American Battlefield Trust. Francis Marion, aka The Swamp Fox, was a partisan general in the Revolutionary War serving in the southern colonies. Marion was known for his irregular tactics and what today would be described as maneuver warfare. This article gives a brief look at the man and his tactical philosophy before moving to its main subject: an ambush conducted against British and Loyalist forces on August 30, 1781, at Parker's Ferry on the Pon Pon River (Edisto River) about 33 miles west of Charleston.
  • "Energy Execs Tell Granholm Shuttered US Oil Refineries Won't Restart." The article relates that "U.S. energy executives told [Michigan Governor] Jennifer Granholm that shuttered crude oil refineries won’t restart, Valero’s Chief Executive Joe Gorder said on Tuesday." The author also reminds us: "In June, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth posited that there would never be another new refinery built in the United States." We've reached peak oil, but it isn't because of running out of oil, but because of deliberate policy decisions by our rulers. 
None of this should be surprising, as we've warned diesel markets have been in crisis for much of 2022. Our latest note titled "Forget Oil, The Real Crisis Is Diesel Inventories: The US Has Just 25 Days Left" outlines the severity of the crisis but also points out underinvestment in the nation's fuel-making capacity, refinery closures and disruptions, strong domestic demand, soaring exports for the fuel, and embargo on Russian energy products have all helped to deplete inventories and the price surge. 

  • Let's Go Brandon! "Threat of Nationwide Railroad Strike Grows after 2nd Union Rejects Proposed Deal." The Administration supposedly had brokered a deal in September to avoid a railroad strike, but there were skeptics who believed that the only deal reached was for unions to not strike until after mid-terms. It appears that the skeptics were correct. The article mentions that all 12 rail unions must approve their agreements to prevent a strike next month, but so far only half have votes in favor of proposed agreements while two have already voted against. The good news--for the Democrats at least--is that the unions agreed not to strike until after the mid-term elections. The Washington Examiner (via MSN) reported:

This bad news from Oct. 26 [i.e., the second union voting down a new agreement] was tempered, however, by an agreement between the railroads and the latest union to say no to the deal, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen. It stipulated that there would be no work stoppage until December at the earliest. The same is likely true for the other holdout unions as well.

VIDEO: "MASSIVE Beach Ripples in Sahara Should Not be Possible (12,000 Year Ancient Event?)"--Bright Insight (15 min.). Probably good to watch this in conjunction with "Micronova/Crust Displacement | Q and A Oct.30.2022" (9 min.) from Suspicious Observers which notes how there could be sudden rises or falls of the crust as it displaces.


VIDEO: "Slavery - Summary on a Map"--Geo History (21 min.)
Not a very comprehensive history because it primarily focuses on Europe and Africa (and the trans-Atlantic slave trade) while ignoring much of the Middle-East, all of the Far-East until the late 19th Century, and all of India and Southeast Asia. However, I give it bonus points for tacitly acknowledging that slavery is a common factor of socialist/communist regimes.

 News & Analysis:

    ... homicide rates rose by an average of nearly 10% in 50 of the most populated U.S. cities between the third quarter of last year and the third quarter of this year — and are still rising — according to a new study.

    WalletHub compared 50 of America's largest cities based on per capita homicides for the third quarter (July through September) of each year since 2020, using locally published crime data to compile its findings.

    According to WalletHub, these were the ten cities with the highest homicide cases per 100,000 residents from July through September:

St. Louis, Mo. (19.69)
Kansas City, Mo. (14.86)
Detroit, Mich. (13.24)
Baltimore, Md. (12.45)
New Orleans, La. (10.99)
Milwaukee, Wisc. (10.46)
Memphis, Tenn. (9.99)
Philadelphia, Pa. (9.36)
Norfolk, Va. (7.78)
Chicago, Ill. (7.71) 
 
    The top prosecutors in most of these cities are backed by progressive megadonor George Soros, a billionaire who's spent the last several years injecting tens of millions of dollars into local district attorney races nationwide, backing candidates who support policies such as abolishing bail, defunding the police, and decriminalizing or deprioritizing certain offenses.

    In St. Louis, for example, Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner is one of the first prosecutors bankrolled by Soros' financial network of organizations and affiliates, heavily funded by these sources in 2016 and again in 2020.

    Amid high homicide figures, Gardner has declined more cases and issued fewer arrest warrants than her predecessor, charging fewer felonies and prosecuting thousands of fewer cases as a result. She has also deferred prison sentences for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies as part of her reform initiatives.

    Gardner has said this is part of her "platform to reduce the number of cases unnecessarily charged in order to focus on the more difficult cases for trial."

    Last year, Gardner came under fire after three murder cases under her purview were dismissed in one week due to prosecutors in her office not showing up for hearings or being unprepared.

    Her campaign website boasts that she's "made jail and prison a last resort, reserved for those who pose a true public safety risk," while limiting "the arrest and detention of people accused of misdemeanors and low-level felonies."
    That’s quite a bombshell. We might quibble about just how much China’s GDP is manipulated, but 40-60% seems a pretty solid guesstimate, and explains a whole host of observable facts, from banking and mortgage problems to tofu dregs buildings to their inability to manufacture advanced semiconductors.

    The question isn’t whether China is massively manipulating their GDP numbers, the only question is by how much.
Dow signed a letter of intent with reactor developer X-energy, and plans to buy a minority stake in the company. The plan is to deploy X-energy’s Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology at one of Dow’s Gulf Coast complexes, with operations expected to begin by 2030.

The proposed power-plant is a new breed of small, modular power plant designs. The article explains:

    The Xe-100 is an 80 MWe reactor design that is optimised to operate as a four-unit plant, delivering 320 MW of electric or 200 MW of heat. The pebble-bed reactor works like a gum-ball machine where new fuel pebbles the size of billiard balls are fed into the top of the reactor to refresh the older ones ejected from the bottom. Each pebble remains in the core for around three years and circulated through up to six times to achieve full burnup. Helium is cycled through the reactor to extract the heat into a steam generator.

    The company says its Triso fuel pebbles, which each contain 18,000 particles of uranium, are coated in layers of carbon that will prevent the release of more than 99.99% of fission byproducts. X-energy says the fuel is its own containment vessel so will eliminate the need for large containment facilities and shrink the safety perimeters required around nuclear facilities. The US Department of Energy (DoE) says the technology would allow the plant to be constructed within 500 m of factories or urban areas. 

DARPA is working on the next leap forward in energy distribution by leveraging wireless power beaming to create a dynamic, adaptive, speed of light wireless energy web. The goal of the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program is to design and demonstrate airborne optical energy relays. These relays are a critical component necessary to allow ground-sourced lasers to be coupled with high-altitude, efficient long-range transmission. Additionally, such relays will enable future multi-path wireless energy networks.

Not the broadcast power on which Tesla worked, but still cool.

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Books for Your Basic Training

Some more e-books I came across that I thought might interest my readers who believe that we are facing a civil war and/or large scale social unrest beyond just protecting your house or neighborhood. The first-aid/medical manuals are of interest because they also include information on NBC related injuries or treatment that you won't find in a civilian manual. Please note that I've only perused or read a couple of these books/manuals, and I haven't served in the military, so please don't take this as my recommendations as to any particular book or course of training:

  • The Official U.S. Army Combat Skills Handbook (PDF) by Matt Larsen. This is a compilation of material from numerous Army manuals and publications including but not limited to STP 7-11B1-SM-TG, Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide MOS 11B Infantry, Skill Level 1 (Aug. 6, 2004) and STP 21-1-SMCT, Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks, Skill Level 1 (Sep. 11, 2012). Covers first aid and preventative medicine, environmental conditions (desert, jungle, arctic), combatives, cover and concealment, fighting positions, general movement, movement and techniques for the urban environment, observation and reporting, combat marksmanship and weapons, communications, SERE, mines and demolition, and explosive devices.
    • Alternate Selection: STP 21-1-SMCT, Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks, Skill Level 1 (Jun. 18, 2009) (PDF). Basic first aid, NBC training, basic movement and drills, navigation, communications, weapons, and miscellaneous defensive skills.
  • Light Infantry Tactics For Small Teams by Christopher E. Larsen (PDF). Basic individual and leadership competencies, patrolling methods, defensive procedures, and offensive operations oriented. You might want to pick up the print version of this as it would be easier to use.
  • SH 21-76 Ranger Handbook (Feb. 2011) (PDF). This is a very clear and clean copy unlike many other PDFs you might find.
  • The Home Schooled Shootist: Training to Fight With a Carbine by Joe Nobody (epub). I have the print copy of this book as well as downloading this copy. It would probably be best to have both. The print copy is easier to use but the photographs and illustrations are black and white, whereas the photos in the e-book are in color with higher resolution.
    • Alternate: FM 3-22.9 Rifle Marksmanship M16-/M4-Series Weapons (Aug. 2008) (PDF).
  • U.S. Army Combat Pistol Training Handbook (epub). Not my first (or even second) choice for a pistol training manual, but since this post is primarily oriented around military manuals or military style training, here it is. 
  • UNITED STATES ARMY COMBATIVES SCHOOL Basic Combatives Course (Level I) Handbook (PDF). If your background is civilian marital arts or self-defense classes, this is useful because it illustrates defensive concepts while carrying/using a rifle or carbine.

And for some advanced or specialized training:

  • U.S. Army Survival, Evasion, and Recovery (epub). This appears to be a commercial printing of FM 21-76-1. Consider this additional information on field craft and first aid.
  • U.S. Army Map Reading and Land Navigation Handbook (PDF) by Department of the Army. This appears to be a commercially published version of FM 3-25.26 (FM 21-26).
  • U.S. Army First Aid Manual (epub). This appears to be a compilation of first aid materials from various Army manuals and publications.
  • TM 9-1005-319-23 M16 Maintenance Manual (Dec. 1996) (PDF). Not an armorer's manual but goes over maintenance, including preventative maintenance. 
  • MCTP 3-01C Machine Guns and Machine Gun Gunnery (May 2, 2016) (PDF).
  • FM 5-250 Explosives and Demolitions (Jul 30, 1998) (PDF)
  • FMFM 0-7 Close Combat And Hand To Hand Fighting (Jul 9, 1993) (PDF). This is the Marine Corp manual.
    • Alternate selection: FM 21-150 Combatives (Sep. 30, 1992) (PDF).
  • U.S. Army Guide To Military Mountaineering (epub). Includes first-aid/medical topics related to cold weather and high altitude.
  • Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook (Jun 1, 2001) (PDF). Browsing through this, I was very impressed. It appears to me that this is probably as close as you will come to a complete course in medicine and surgery short of going to medical school. Much more detailed than Where There Is No Doctor while still covering a wider range of topics. Even includes sections on podiatry, dentistry, and basic veterinary medicine.
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Friday, October 28, 2022

E-Book: "The Russian Way Of War"

The Russian Way of War: Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernization of the Russian Ground Forces (PDF) by Dr. Lester W. Grau and Charles K. Bartles (Foreign Military Studies Office, 2016).

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Thursday, October 27, 2022

E-Books: Medical Treatment of Radiological Injuries

 

Hiroshima burn marks
For the medically inclined, here are links to some books and articles on treating radiological injuries:

  • FM 4-02.283 Treatment of Nuclear and Radiological Casualties (PDF). See also this April 2000 draft FM 8-283 Treatment of Nuclear Warfare Casualties and Low-Level Radiation Injuries (PDF).
  • Medical Management of Radiological Casualties (Online Third Edition, 2010) (PDF).
  • Medical Consequences of Nuclear Warfare (PDF) (epub)
  • "Radiation Injury After a Nuclear Detonation: Medical Consequences and the Need for Scarce Resources Allocation," Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2011 March ; 5(0 1): S32–S44. doi:10.1001/dmp.2011.17. (PDF). From the abstract:
A 10-kiloton (kT) nuclear detonation within a US city could expose hundreds of thousands of people to radiation. The Scarce Resources for a Nuclear Detonation Project was undertaken to guide community planning and response in the aftermath of a nuclear detonation, when demand will greatly exceed available resources. This article reviews the pertinent literature on radiation injuries from human exposures and animal models to provide a foundation for the triage and management approaches outlined in this special issue. Whole-body doses >2 Gy can produce clinically significant acute radiation syndrome (ARS), which classically involves the hematologic, gastrointestinal, cutaneous, and cardiovascular/central nervous systems. The severity and presentation of ARS are affected by several factors, including radiation dose and dose rate, interindividual variability in radiation response, type of radiation (eg, gamma alone, gamma plus neutrons), partial-body shielding, and possibly age, sex, and certain preexisting medical conditions. The combination of radiation with trauma, burns, or both (ie, combined injury) confers a worse prognosis than the same dose of radiation alone. Supportive care measures, including fluid support, antibiotics, and possibly myeloid cytokines (eg, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor), can improve the prognosis for some irradiated casualties. Finally, expert guidance and surge capacity for casualties with ARS are available from the Radiation Emergency Medical Management Web site and the Radiation Injury Treatment Network.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

E-Book: "Atomic Bombing: How To Protect Yourself"


I saw the pictured book cover at Western Rifle Shooters Association and thought I would track it down for those interested in a PDF copy. You can download a copy here. The book was published in 1950. The topics covered include:

  1. What an A-Bomb will do
  2. What you can do in civil defense
  3. Organizing against A-Bomb attack
  4. Keeping A-Bombs away from America
  5. Kinds of A-Bomb Radiation
  6. The danger of radioactive poisoning
  7. How to detect radiation
  8. Decontamination
  9. Preventing panic
  10. Protection is possible
  11. Medical first aid
  12. The treatment of burns
  13. The treatment of shock
  14. How to fight a fire
  15. Preventing sabotage and looting
  16. The history of atomic energy
  17. Peaceful uses of atomic energy
  18. The hydrogen bomb--can it be made?
  19. Can A-Bombing be prevented?
I've only glanced through the book so I can't give a full review but here are a few things I noted. First of all, having been written in 1950, the book is obviously dated--there was a significant amount of testing and research on nuclear weapons and their effects that followed the publication of this book, the dangers of EMP had not yet been realized, and there have obviously been advances in technology and medicine (even first aid) since its publication.

    Second, there is a heavy emphasis on civil defense and being working in conjunction with a federal or state civil defense plan. Thus the information presented is a mix of information intended for civil defense officers and other planners, as well as for the individual. Much of the preparation information deals with community response rather than on how to save you and your family while the world burns. The book also takes the perspective of not just surviving a nuclear attack, but that we would, at that point, be at war with another country (i.e., the Soviet Union), and so it addresses concerns about sabotage and working with the FBI. 

    Third, notwithstanding the foregoing, it does have some good information. It includes a detailed description of what an atomic blast would be like, an simple and basic description of radiation and radiation sickness (poisoning), and delves into decontamination than other books. Although some of the information is obsolete, it has a fairly comprehensive section on first-aid for common injuries after a nuclear attack with an emphasis on treating burns and injuries from blast and debris. It discusses preventing and fighting fires that would result from the thermal flash or other causes. 

    I would not depend solely on this book for my preparations for a nuclear attack, but it has some valuable information and appears it would be interesting from a historical perspective, if nothing else.

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Monday, October 24, 2022

The Docent's Memo (Oct. 24, 2022)

VIDEO: "Walnut Dying Fabric; Making ACU Usable"--Boonedockery (35 min.)
How to use black walnut husk for dying fabric; testing on ACU.

VIDEO: "Walnut Dyeing 2! ACU? From Worthless To Tacti-Cool!"--Boonedockery (15 min.)
This is a follow up to the first video above where the author shows off the results of dying ACU patterned BDUs and pouches for different times and processes using the walnut hulls. Because, let's face it, ACU is probably the worst camo patter you come up with unless you were lurking among bare granite above the tree line on a mountain. 

Shooting & Self-Protection:

  • Be sure to check out the latest Defensive Pistolcraft post from October 15. Lots of good links, commentary and advice. And for the physics nerds out there, he closes with quite a few articles on that topic ranging from quantum computers and decryption all of the way up to cosmology. Not too long ago, I had linked to an article from Greg Ellifritz about third-world problems showing up in the United States. Jon Low also has some comments in that regard:
     Be prepared.  Those who don't prepare suffer.  Don't let your apathy cause your children to suffer.  

     I hope you understand what the Democrats are doing with their policies of open borders, de-fund the police, prosecutors who won't prosecute criminals, immediately releasing criminals after arrest (no bail) as in Illinois and New York, which is the opposite of Florida where "no bail" means the accused stay in jail.

     Police in Illinois cannot legally remove trespassers from homes and businesses. Jews who have fled Los Angeles to Nashville have told me that this is why they fled Los Angeles, as this practice has been going on in Los Angeles for quite a while.  

My experience in this area--Boise, Idaho--is that the police won't remove a trespasser just for trespassing offering up the flimsiest excuses in the world (be prepared to show a the deed and legal description and be able to point out the corner markers to the property because the existence of a fence is not good enough for the cops) and was (erroneously) told by a city prosecutor that a private citizen cannot use self help to remove a trespasser. 

  • "All Pepper Spray Laws by State" by Tim Makay, Modern Survival Online. The author has previously done a series on state-by-state knife laws, and appears to be doing the same here. Although he has several state specific articles, this is a more general look at carrying pepper spray across all jurisdictions. One of the things that Makay notes is that it legal to open carry pepper spray virtually everywhere, so it can be quick to access. 
  • "Concealed Carry Corner: Movement Drills To Help You Succeed"--The Firearm Blog. The Box and Figure 8 drills. 
  • "A Few Tips For Better OWB Concealed Carry" by Sam Hoober. Those of you experienced with OWB carry probably are already aware of most of his tips, as Hoober readily acknowledges, so his article is oriented toward someone with little or no experience with OWB concealed carry. The first suggestions he has are to the size of handgun: he recommends something with a shorter barrel and that is thin. The shorter barrel means that you have less worry about it sticking out from under your concealed carry garment while a thin firearm is less likely to print. Next is the holster, which he says should be one that rides high and tight. Traditional styles are the pancake (a slot for the belt ahead and behind the holster) and Askin holsters (a single slot behind the holster and a "tube" for the belt on the back of the holster).  He then discusses clothing and the best place on the belt to carry it. .
    My personal experience is that a pancake style hugs the body tighter. As to clothes, you could wear some sort of shooters, fisherman's, camera, or travelers vests, although many I've tried on at stores have been too short for me. An untucked shirt, if it is loose, works well, provided it is long enough. In summer, I tend for a loose, untucked button-up shirt or a Hawaiian style shirt. Hoober suggests a polo shirt as a possibility, but I've always found that because of the fabric and cut they hug too tight and, therefore, print. A suit jacket or sports coat work very well. And, in cooler weather, a wind breaker, sweater, or coat works very well if they are long enough. For instance, if you are wearing a coat that only comes down to the waste such as a ski jacket or a bomber style coat, it probably is not going to be long enough.  As for belt position, a 4 or 5 o'clock position is pretty standard for OWB concealed carry, but I've found that with a short enough barrel and holster a 2 o'clock works well and provides easier access to the firearm. 
    • Related: "HOLSTERS" by Jack Wylder, Monster Hunter Nation. A blunt, acerbic, don't give a f**k about your feelings, take on holsters, prompted by the author's irritation on stupid holsters and holster designs offered up in Face Book ads. The author explains:
Because Facebook keeps showing me advertisements for shitty holster companies, here is some advice for your concealed carry rig (I’m talking worn at the waist, strongside or appendix, not whatever goofy esoteric method* you are married to for whatever bizarro hipster reason)-

He then goes into tips on holster selection and why certain holsters suck. The goofy esoteric methods he lists include: small of the back, pocket, ankle, belly band, off the body, gunderpants (for lack of a better term), shoulder holsters, and cross draw. He ends:

    If you’ve got some other weird ass method that I’m not thinking of, ask yourself why you’re the only person who uses this brilliant system, and then just try not to shoot yourself or somebody else. The only times I’ve seen most of these make sense is somebody has an extremely specific role because of their lifestyle, or dudes who carry multiple handguns in different positions because they do weird dangerous shit for a living. Those are bell curve outliers. They probably aren’t you. Quit being weird and get a normal holster.

    Also, an addendum. Magnet car holsters are stupid. Your car isn’t a holster. If you carry in a holster that isn’t an uncomfortable piece of shit then you’re not out there manipulating your loaded gun in public to stick it onto your goofy car magnet holster, which would need to weigh about 80 pounds to actually retain that gun in order to not lose it during a crash. Every time I see these ads pop up on here it makes my eye twitch.

There is a bit more nuance to the subject, but for 90 - 95% of people that carry concealed, the article is spot on.

  • "The AR-15 Barrel Cheat Sheet: Everything You Need to Know"--Everyday Marksman. Good information if you are looking for a barrel for your AR whether you are wanting a lightweight barrel or something for precision shooting with discussions on common weights of barrels, common barrel lengths, the impact of different length barrels and gas systems, barrel profile, and more.
  • "How Do Copper vs. Lead Bullets Affect Your Hunt?"--Rifleshooter Magazine. A history and comparison between these two types of bullets for use in modern high-powered rifles. This seems to encapsulate the key points from the article:
    You won’t recover very many copper-alloy expanding bullets. Most will exit, especially on deer-size game. When you do recover one, it’s usually gorgeous. We hunters love this. About the only thing that can go wrong is a petal or petals breaking off. Otherwise, a copper bullet recovered from game will be in the high 90 percentile for retained weight. In February, I shot a mid-Asian ibex with one of the first CX bullets used on game. I took a strong quartering-to shot into the front of the on-shoulder. We recovered the bullet in the off-hip—plenty of straight-line penetration. Retained weight was more than 99 percent, as pretty much the only thing missing was the polymer tip.

    So why wouldn’t we use such bullets all the time? Some folks do. I love them, too, but I don’t use them all the time because, regardless of their wonderful weight retention, they don’t expand as much as cup-and-core bullets or bonded-core bullets. On game, I want adequate penetration, but I suppose I generally fall on the side of “all energy expended within the animal” rather than expended on rocks and trees on the far side. But that depends on the game. On deer-size game, I am most likely to use a lead-core bullet—sometimes bonded, often not—because unless I’m using a marginal caliber, a bullet that’s very light for caliber or a bullet traveling at extreme velocity, a lead-core bullet will deliver adequate penetration and create a larger wound channel.

    Larger game, requiring more penetration, is a different story. It seems to me, the bigger the animal, the better the copper bullets work. They’re great on elk and bear, and they’re awesome for buffalo. There’s an exception for the latter, though. When working big herds, as is common in coastal Mozambique, we avoid them because of the risk of over-penetration. Hunting our California hogs and blacktails, we are obligated to use lead-free bullets. They’re great for hogs but sometimes unimpressive on our small deer—just in and out, with small exit wounds. The cure is simple. I just borrow a page from African hunters and avoid the behind-the-shoulder lung shot we American hunters prefer. I shoot for the center of the shoulder. Copper-alloy bullets will penetrate, probably through both shoulders, and while a bit of meat is lost, tracking is greatly reduced.

Also, the article explains, copper bullets are likely to be less accurate than lead core bullets. Probably won't matter at normal hunting distances, unless you have a rifle that just hates copper bullets, but probably would be a factor at distances over 400 yards. Although not mentioned in the article, because copper is less dense than lead, you are going to have a longer bullet for a given weight; and longer bullets call for faster twist rates; which is probably why certain rifles will do very poorly with copper bullets. I have a .308 rifle that prints like a shotgun with 142 - 147 grain bullets, but does very well with bullets weighing 168 grains or more.

    The pair had just spotted feces from what they thought was a bear when the attack occurred.

    'Before you could even think or blink, there's a bear that came running out of the trees right in front of me,' said Lowry to Fox News. 'It was beating me up pretty good.'      

    Lowry ended up with a broken arm which needed six screws and bolts to repair. The bear also bit him in his right thigh. He curled up into a ball during the attack.

    Cummings then yelled. The bear charged at him, immediately knocking him to the ground.

    Cummings even grabbed the bear by its ear before he too was chased by the grizzly and injured before he could pull out his bear spray.

    'I grabbed and yanked him hard,' he explained. 

    'I could hear when his teeth would hit my skull, I could feel when he'd bite down on my bones and they'd kind of crunch,' he told Cowboy State Daily. 


VIDEO: "Here's EXACTLY What to Do When the Next Megaquake Hits: Cascadia Subduction Zone"--
PBS Terra (12 min.)

Prepping & Survival:
The notion that a nuclear attack is unsurvivable is demonstrably false. There are people who survived the nuking of Japan who were literally only a few hundred yards from ground zero when the bomb went off. To be fair, they were, I believe, in a heavily fortified bank vault, but the point is that with appropriate protection you could have a nuke dropped nearby and still make it out. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it is survivable. 

He recommends moving away from danger areas, which is where Nukemap comes in handy. 

  • "Junk on the Bunk: An example of how to pack for the Fieldcraft Course"--Badlands Fieldcraft. This isn't for the ulralight backpacking crowd, but I though it a useful article for anyone that backpacks, is prepping a rural/wilderness oriented bug out bag, or packing for staying in the field for awhile. 
  • Speaking of bags: "The Best Bug Out Bag for Urban Preppers" by Tim Makay. Makay looks at certain characteristics of the urban setting that can impact the choice of bag and equipment (e.g., because of the risk of fires and chemical releases, he believes that air and air quality play a much bigger role for the urban prepper over someone in a rural location). He then discusses some specific brands/models. 
    • More: "Sling Bag: The Best Bag for Bugging Out" by Tim Makay. This is a follow up to the article listed above in which Makay argues that, despite it not being able to carry as much as a standard day pack or small backpack, the sling bag is better suited for the urban environment.
  • In "Post-Hurricane Ian Report," Erin at Blue Collar Prepping discusses the need to find an alternate way to power her CPAP machine during a power outage. She follows up on this in her article, "CPAP Battery Solutions." One thing she discovered is that the humidifier in her CPAP machine (which uses a heated plate to heat a small tank of water to increase evaporation) is the biggest power hog. In that regard, she discusses some products that recirculate the moisture from your exhaled breath which would allow you to turn off the humidity feature.
  • "Weather Radios and the NOAA Coverage Area"--Alpha Survivalist. If you haven't used a radio like this, they link to weather broadcasts from NOAA and can be set to automatically turn on when an NOAA alert is issued. The author explains:
    The NOAA network works by broadcasting vital information about hazards and bad weather throughout the entire country. The numerous transmitters that are placed in key strategic locations throughout the country ensure that the signal is strong enough to be heard throughout the local or regional area that it targets.

    The signal can typically be picked up by any weather alert radio but a hand crank emergency weather radio is by far the best option as you can still receive alerts even when the power is down or your regular radios batteries are flat.

    With a hand crank weather radio locals who are forced off the grid for whatever reason, or who have to deal with constant power shortages, are still able to receive relevant support and up-to-the-minute information regarding the state of the weather in their own regions.

    Much of the information presented through the radio broadcast has to do with regional forecast updates and summaries that can be transmitted through NOAA as often as once every 15 minutes.

    Basically, if you get your hand-powered radio, there are very few places where NOAA can’t reach you.

    Whether providing tornado warnings or raising awareness about strong, unpredictable storms, NOAA alert radios have become completely indispensable in this day and age.
    • More: "Which is the Best Hand Crank Radio [2021]?"--Alpha Survivalist. His top pick, although larger than some of its competitors, is the Eton FRX5BT. These radios also run off batteries or AC (with a DC adapter). Some can charge off a built-in solar panel or from a USB cable. 
  • "Long-Term Storage of Gasoline Fuels" (Part 1) (Part 2) by Tunnel Rabbit, Survival Blog. I had recently linked to an article describing a method for storing and cycling through your gasoline storage to make sure that your fuel would not be more than 6 months or a year old (depending on the rotation schedule you used). If you can't use the rotation schedule, whether for lack of space or you are planning on keeping the gasoline for a longer period, this has the information you need. An excerpt from the author's introduction:
    Non-ethanol unleaded premium gasoline is the best to store and use for modern vehicles with modern emission control devices. In all engines, it will not harm the original carburetor gasket material that are not designed to withstand the corrosive effects of 10% ethanol blended fuels. There are still older generators and chainsaw in use or in storage, that were not designed for use with non-ethanol fuel. Non-ethanol unleaded premium grade gasoline treated with a fuel stabilizer such as Pri-G (gas), will start and run a standard compression vehicle motors well after 3 years of storage, and perhaps a tad longer. Modern gasoline fuels are loaded with additives. That is the gummy stuff that gums up fuel systems, and why a fuel stabilizers is needed to keep these additives suspended in the fuel. A fuel stabilizer will not protect the fuel from oxidization, or evaporation, however.

    White gas that is used in Coleman type lanterns and stoves, and Avgas do not have any, or many additives, therefore they do not need a stabilizer. When they evaporate, there is no residue. Avoid running an ethanol blend fuel in 2-cycle motors because of the risk of water becoming adsorbed by the ethanol that is hydrophilic (readily absorbs water). As an emulsion of oil and water is created, there is the risk that this fuel, once saturated with water, and then blended with 2 cycle oil additive, may not lubricate as effectively as needed.

    There are many old chainsaws that are still serviceable, and might put back into service. My favorite is a 35 year old Husky (Husqvarna), an L65. These old saws have an advantage as they can tolerate lower octane fuels. Mine is reliable, and ran fine on 2-year-old premium non-ethanol gas without trouble. Modern high performance saws that require 91 octane fuel at a minimum, will likely not fair as well in the Third World conditions of our future. If the fuel is old, the octane rating is well below what is required by the manufacturer for their modern saws. Be careful not to run these saws so hard that the saw becomes very hot. If pinging is heard, let it cool off, and cut slower. The piston could easily be melted through. I store lots of Avgas, primarly for my saws, and small generators.
  • "Learn How To Haggle And Negotiate: Mastering The Art Of The Deal"--Skill Set Magazine. Other than big ticket items--houses and cars--very few of us have experience with haggling and negotiating for products. Most stores won't haggle because (i) the person you are dealing with has no authority to change the price and (ii) they have plenty of other customers that will pay full price. But the author helps identify some situations where you might be able to negotiate a price and some tips. Being able to pay cash can, in many situations, help. However, I would note that isn't always the case. When my wife and I bought our most recent car, we had asked about a cash price, but found out that what they get from selling a financing deal allowed them to offer a better deal to us (as long as we kept the loan for at least 6 months) than if we had paid cash up front.
  • As you may know, the FDA approved the OTC sale of hearing aids starting earlier this month for mild or moderate hearing loss. That is, such hearing aids can be purchased and configured without having to go through an audiologist or hearing loss specialist. For those interested in more information, UPI has published a helpful article titled "Experts offer tips for buying over-the-counter hearing aids." The hope with this is this is that it will drive down the price of hearing aids (which typically cost thousands of dollars for a pair--mine run about $6,000) so that more people with hearing loss can afford hearing aids. I know people that have resorted to assistive hearing devices and even electronic hearing protection devices for shooting or industrial settings in lieu of hearing aids, but such devices generally cannot be tuned to a specific user and, therefore, may be of limited utility--at least that was my experience. 
  • "How to Grow a Sustainable Source of Food on Your Balcony"--Apartment Prepper. The author explores growing succulents for food and health.
  • "Trapping for Preppers"--Freedom Preppers. A primer on traps and snares. Think of such devices as force multipliers when hunting game and particularly useful for small animals which can be energy (and ammunition) intensive to hunt sufficient quantities. 
VIDEO: "Yangtze’s Worst Drought continues: Millions of people have difficulty getting water/Ocean backflow"--China Insights (17 min.)

News & Commentary:

    Congress gives permission for retired troops and reservists to work for foreign governments so long as they have approval from their branch of the armed forces and state department.

    But the US government fought to keep the hirings secret, until a judge ruled that 4,000 pages of documents should be handed over to the Washington Post in a two-year legal battle.

    Military officials redacted the pay packages for retired generals and admirals, as well as names of lower-ranking personnel.

    They argued that releasing the information would violate their privacy and subject them to ‘embarrassment and harassment’ as well as ‘unfairly harming their public reputation.’

I'm thinking that if what you do for a living will cause you embarrassment and harm your public reputation, you probably shouldn't be doing it. 
    China has recruited dozens of former British military pilots to teach the Chinese armed forces how to defeat western warplanes and helicopters in a "threat to UK interests", officials have revealed.

    One official said some 30 mainly ex-fast jet but also some helicopter pilots - lured by annual salaries of around £240,000 - are currently in China training pilots for the People's Liberation Army, in what a defence analyst described as a stunning breach of security.

Also:

    China is seeking pilots with long-experience of flying British and other NATO warplanes, including the Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets and the Harrier jump jet - which used to operate off British aircraft carriers, to teach its pilots how best to counter their capabilities, the western official said.

    "It's not training Chinese pilots on Western jets. It's taking Western pilots of great experience to help develop Chinese military air force tactics and capabilities," the official said.

    "It's really the Chinese having an understanding of what the latest generation of tactics and approaches and capabilities would be, were the Chinese military to get into situations coming up against those types of assets."

    This also included British military helicopters such as Wildcat and Merlin.

    It is understood that China has attempted to recruit former pilots who have trained on the top secret, US-led fifth generation, F35 fast jet.

    The official said it is thought such efforts had so far been unsuccessful. These aircraft - each one worth more than £100 million - use highly sensitive stealth technology developed jointly with the United States and are a prime espionage target.

    A recent interview on Israeli radio featured prominent rabbis explaining that the Messiah is just about to reveal himself.

    Rabbi Yaakov Zisholtz told religious broadcaster Radio 2000 that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (who passed away earlier this year) had told him that he (Kanievsky) was already in direct contact with the Messiah.

    To understand why religious Jews are taking this seriously, it’s important to know that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky was considered one of the two or three top rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel.

    And Rabbi Zisholtz says that Kanievsky and others of the mystical “concealed” rabbis had tasked him with informing the public of the Messiah’s imminent arrival.

    Rabbi Zisholtz began his explosive three-hour interview with a warning:

“…the process of redemption is about to start happening very quickly and at a fast pace. It is important that people remain calm and steady to act properly in the right time.

“There is a potential Messiah in every generation and there are righteous men who know precisely who it is. This is, of course, true in this generation.

“Getting the word out now that the Messiah is closer than ever is a matter of life and death. Haven’t you heard of Gog and Magog? That is what is going to happen very soon. Right now, the situation is explosive more than you can possibly imagine. Everyone needs to know whether they are on the inside or if they are going to be left out.”

He went on to reiterate a number of signs of which prominent rabbis have taken note and that they firmly believe to be evidence of the coming of Messiah.

“Rabbi Dov Kook, as everyone knows, is a very righteous man. He is one of the greatest men of our generation…[and] ten years ago, when Israel was suffering from a horrible drought, someone asked Rabbi Kook when the Sea of Galilee will again be full.

“Rabbi Kook responded that when the Messiah arrives, the Sea of Galilee will be full. In a few weeks, the Sea of Galilee will be full for the first time since Rabbi Kook made this statement.”

“Another righteous rabbi said that according to the current situation in heaven, there will not be Israeli elections – rather, there will be a war. If the elections do take place, it’s pointless since it will end like the other elections; no government will come out of it.”

    Decades ago, Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, one of modern Israel’s most revered sages, as well as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, both predicted that Benjamin Netanyahu would be the State of Israel’s last prime minister prior to the Messianic Age. A great many, if not most of the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel continue to believe that to be true.

    As Israel’s latest round of elections near (Nov. 1, 2022), Netanyahu again looks poised for victory.

Any such person will be an anti-Christ if not The Anti-Christ. 

    THE SAUDI-LED oil cartel OPEC+’s announcement earlier this month that it was cutting 2 million barrels of oil per day — a move that would drive up the price of oil just a month before midterm elections — rankled Democrats in Washington. They accused Riyadh of aligning itself with Russia, another powerful member of OPEC+, which would indeed profit off the move. “What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable, vicious war against Ukraine will long be remembered by Americans,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

    But Saudi Arabia actually pushed to cut oil production twice as much as Russian President Vladimir Putin, surprising the Russians, two Saudi sources with knowledge of the negotiations told The Intercept, suggesting that Riyadh’s motives run deeper than what top Democrats want to admit. The sources requested anonymity, fearing reprisal by the Saudi government.
Dahbia B., who arrived in France in 2016 on a student residence permit, was indicted yesterday after the body of young Lola Daviet was found stuffed in a suitcase on the street with a slit to her throat, signs of torture and sexual violence, and the letters 1 and 0 imprinted on her corpse.

I find it reprehensible that authorities will not (or cannot, under French law) release the full name of the suspect because it is yet another example in this case how the French government values criminals and illegal aliens over its own, law abiding citizenry. And it is the same in almost every other Western nation: the citizens are second class to non-citizens, foreigners, and anybody else that can fit into some victim group. This is the natural behavior of liberals and leftists because they lack in-group loyalty, have an exaggerated desire for novelty (and hence, a preference for foreigners over one's fellows), and often suffer from a pathological altruism (i.e., altruism regardless of the cost or consequences). Any one of these traits is dangerous when it drives immigration policy, but absolutely poisonous to a nation when all three combine to set immigration policy. 

    The homeless woman charged in the murder of a 12-year-old Paris girl who was found stuffed inside a suitcase reportedly told investigators that she had forced the child to take a shower before sexually assaulting her — and then boasted about “selling body parts.”

    Dahbia B., who was indicted Monday in the grisly killing of 12-year-old Lola Daviet, told investigators that she took the girl to her sister’s apartment, forced her to take a shower and then “committed harm of a sexual nature and other violent acts against (Lola) that caused her death,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Per the article, "Five other people were arrested in connection with the shocking crime, including Dahbia’s older sister Friha B. and a 43-year-old man who faces charges over sheltering the suspect in his vehicle, AFP said," although four of these suspects had been released. 

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has reviewed the scientific foundations of bitemark analysis, a forensic technique in which marks on the skin of a biting victim are compared with the teeth of a suspected biter. NIST has published its findings in a draft report, Bitemark Analysis: A NIST Scientific Foundation Review, which will be open for public comment for 60 days. The authors will consider all comments submitted before publishing a final version of the report.

    NIST scientific foundation reviews fill a need identified in a landmark 2009 study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which called for research to address issues of accuracy, reliability and validity in many forensic science disciplines, including bitemark analysis.

    The draft review finds that “forensic bitemark analysis lacks a sufficient scientific foundation because the three key premises of the field are not supported by the data. First, human anterior dental patterns have not been shown to be unique at the individual level. Second, those patterns are not accurately transferred to human skin consistently. Third, it has not been shown that defining characteristics of those patterns can be accurately analyzed to exclude or not exclude individuals as the source of a bitemark.” 
    At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 20, Officer Brian Marek received a call from the reporting party, who said that they were walking their dog off SE First Avenue, south of New Plymouth, when they spotted something moving the brush and discovered the 3.5-foot alligator.

    The reporting party loaded the alligator into a nearby horse trailer and called Fish and Game, who picked up the animal the following morning.
    To determine an individual's position in the food chain, scientists have until now generally had to extract proteins and analyse the nitrogen isotopes present in the bone collagen. 

    However, this method can often only be used in temperate environments, and only rarely on samples over 50,000 years old. 

    When these conditions are not met, nitrogen isotope analysis is very complex, or even impossible – such was the case for the molar from the Gabasa site. 

    Therefore, Jaouen and colleagues decided to analyse the zinc isotope ratios present in the tooth enamel, a mineral that is resistant to all forms of degradation. 

    The tooth had low levels of heavy zinc isotopes, the researchers found, which suggested that the owner was carnivorous. 

    'Muscles have a lot of light zinc isotopes compared to heavy zinc isotopes,' Jaouen told MailOnline. 

    'Therefore, if you eat meat (muscles) then your body (including your teeth) is enriched in light isotopes compared to that of a herbivorous animal.' 

    Neanderthals at the Gabasa site appear to have been carnivores, and 'plant consumption was not frequent', or made up a 'very small' proportion of their diet, Jaouen said. 

    Broken bones found at the site, together with the isotopic data, also indicated that this individual ate the bone marrow of their prey, without consuming the bones. 

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Peter Grant: "Is the left-wing politicization of our military a threat to our country?"

The short answer is "yes." He cites an article from Cynical Publius indicating that "the resistance" to President Trump...