Oops--Having To Rewrite American Prehistory

One of the anomalies in American prehistory were that settlements at the Monte Verde archaeological site in Chile dated back to 14,500 years ago--older than the earliest human settlements found in North America. It sparked huge debates on how South American could have been settled first, from early seafarers traveling across the Pacific Ocean to human settlement leapfrogging down the Pacific Coast before spreading inland. But Popular Mechanics is now reporting that the 14,500 B.C. date may be wrong:

    Monte Verde is certainly ancient, but as it turns out, evidence of human occupation at the site is not quite as ancient as it was once believed to be. Anthropologist Todd Surovell (from the University of Wyoming) and his team of researchers have found that the site was only occupied between 4,200 and 8,200 years ago. 

[snip]

    According to the researchers, several critical observations had been missed. For one, Monte Verde II is actually above an older layer known as Lepué Tephra, which is comprised of rock fragments that were ejected by an erupting volcano. And that lower (and, therefore, presumably older) layer is only 11,000 years old—nowhere close to the original 14,500-year-old estimate for Monte Verde occupation. For another, the original investigation of the site never accounted for the erosion that further separates older and younger strata in the region.

    There is also a significant presence of Pleistocene wood and organic matter near Monte Verde II, which is about the same age as wood at the site itself. Because of geological disruptions in the region during Early Holocene, organic matter dating back to the Pleistocene was exposed, redeposited, and buried in river sediments that Surovell dated to the Middle Holocene. This natural phenomenon convinced previous archaeological teams that the settlement at Monte Verde II was far older than it actually was, even leading some to reject the theory of human migration over the Beringia land bridge. The age of the sediments can only mean that whatever remained of the Monte Verde settlement was from the Middle Holocene, rather than the Pleistocene. While this does not necessarily rule out human presence in the Americas before the Clovis culture, there has not yet been sufficient evidence to confirm that anyone predated them. 

VIDEO: Wraithworks Polymer AR15

A review of Wraithworks WARP-15, featuring a polymer lower and stock, and a mostly polymer upper as well. The idea is that it is metal only where you need it. It seems to me that is a natural progression of the "what would Stoner do" project. The video indicates a price of $340 for a complete rifle, but the website has a price of nearly $400. But beyond the low price, the other selling point is the weight: their 16" barrel version is barely over 5 lbs. They also sell some other firearms, but at much higher prices. 

 VIDEO: "Super Light, Affordable, And Plastic: Wraithworks WARP-15"
PSR (22 min.)

Artemis II Launch

I hope you all had the opportunity to watch Artemis II launch yesterday. If not, the video below starts about 30 seconds before the launch and runs for just over 10 minutes. There was a slight problem with the Orion capsule's toilet, which has been resolved, but it appears that the mission is otherwise going well. 

On a related note, The Debrief reports on the "'First Plasma' Achieved in the Race for a Propulsion System that Could Cut the Travel Time to Mars in Half." From the lede:

    “First plasma” has been achieved by Pulsar Fusion’s Sunbird exhaust test system, marking a major step toward developing a direct fusion drive spacecraft capable of speeds far in excess of present chemical rocket technology.

    The public test occurred during Amazon’s MARS (Machine learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space) conference on March 23, demonstrating successful plasma control, which will be essential to the safe operation of a direct fusion drive spacecraft. As commercial space flights take on a greater portion of cosmic travel, the direct fusion drive featured in Pulsar Fusion’s upcoming Sunbird Migratory Transfer Vehicle could be the next essential technology.

[snip]

    “The baseline approach is a Deuterium / Helium-3 fuel cycle. While Helium-3 is not currently abundant and would require breeding or alternative sourcing, the trade-off is compelling, significantly higher efficiency, and the potential to displace vast quantities of chemical propellant,” [Pulsar Fusion CEO] Dinan told The Debrief.

Fortunately there is a lot of Helium-3 on the Moon, which probably explains Elon Musk's interest in building an settlement on the lunar surface.  

 VIDEO: "FULL VIDEO: Watch launch of Artemis II"
FOX 26 Houston (10 min.)

Israel Passes New Law Making It Easier To Execute Muslim Terrorists

NBC News reports that the Israeli  Knesset passed a new law that "effectively makes death by hanging the default punishment for murderers who kill 'with the intent to deny the existence of the State of Israel' — language that targets Palestinian militants but amounts to a de facto exclusion of Israelis who kill Palestinians."

    Under the new law, the death penalty will be administered by military courts that almost exclusively try Palestinians and have a 96% conviction rate, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.

    Capital sentences will now require only a simple majority of sitting judges rather than unanimous agreement, the group said. And the punishment must be carried out within 90 days of sentencing without any possibility for pardons or commutations.

My sense is that the law is intended to speed up the conviction and execution process to forestall these prisoners from being used in prisoner exchanges between Israel and terrorist organizations. 

Wilder: The Iranian War And Collapse

In his article, "Casualties Of War: Africa, A.I., India . . . And Europe?," John Wilder muses that the disruptions to oil and gas shipments will cause all sorts of unpleasantness because so much of our industry and economy is dependent on oil and gas (and byproducts from gas production, like helium): energy costs are going up, India is running low on fertilizer, and chip manufacturers in Taiwan have lost access to the helium they need for chip production. But the biggest loser may be Africa:

    Why? For starters, Africa imports 85% of its food.

    85%.

    85%.

    Why? Farming is apparently too hard, and whenever they have a few white people farming and feeding Africa, black people decide they’ll take the magic farm and get rich.  Except they don’t. Lush, productive farms fall into disrepair, but, hey, the Africans who looted the place ate for a day.

    Not only that, their governments are also basketcases.  In almost every country, the government requires copious amounts of foreign aid to get anything done. ...   

If foreign aid disappears due to ... I don't know ... a global depression, then Africa will quickly devolve into war and starvation. And a lot of them will head north to Europe. John thinks that the Europeans will stop admitting them. I don't know. The Mediterranean Sea could act like a barrier, but any barrier--such as a fence or wall or sea--is only as good as those manning it. And Europe doesn't have any navies worth talking about. 

    Check out the videos included in the article showing hordes of Africans racing across dark highways in Europe. Now imagine them carrying AKs.  

VIDEO: How Gun Shows Lost Their Luster

The host of this video notes that he doesn't go to gun shows anymore. He recollects that gun shows used to be (i) a way to see and handle firearms which you may not have known about before and (ii) were a source of good deals (particularly when surplus rifles and ammo were flooding into the U.S.) but not so much anymore. He ascribes the decline to the internet and the ability to research, find, and order items online, and everyone now easily knowing the value of what they have.

Obviously I can only speak to my experience with gun shows in my neck of the woods, but I see the beginning of the decline of the gun show corresponding to the popularity of shows like Antiques Roadshow (aka the "overpriced old stuff" show). Suddenly everything that was old, no matter its condition, was expensive. What was once a cheap beater gun was suddenly an "antique" or "collectible". In addition, in this area at least, the shows became less like gun shows and more like flea markets that also happened to have guns. Sellers of bric-a-brac, trinkets, candles, cheap knives and wall-hanger swords, homegrown or homemade food or beauty products, etc., increasingly took over the floor space. 

 VIDEO: "Why I REFUSE to go to Gun Shows Now"
Hegshot87 (11 min.)

Even Everest Is A Scam

From the New York Post: "Mount Everest guides allegedly ‘poisoned’ climbers as part of sinister $20M scam." 

    Mount Everest guides have allegedly been secretly lacing tourists’ food to trigger costly helicopter rescues as part of a $20 million insurance scam, according to a new investigation.

    Police in Nepal have charged 32 individuals with organized crime and fraud charges related to the plot, which involves trekking company owners, helicopter operators, and hospital executives, the Kathmandu Post reported. 

    Guides with the trekking agencies allegedly poisoned tourists by putting baking soda in their food to trigger severe gastrointestinal distress that mimicked altitude sickness or food poisoning, investigators said. 

    Once ill, the visitors were allegedly pressured into agreeing to costly emergency helicopter evacuations, with operators using forged medical and flight documents to bill international travel insurers for the cost, according to authorities in the Himalayan country.

    Those ill-gotten gains were then allegedly split among the guides, helicopter companies, trekking agencies, and the hospitals where the tourists were taken for fake treatments.     

VIDEO: Individual Movement Techniques

 Back to basics.  

VIDEO: "INFANTRYMAN'S GUIDE: Individual Movement Techniques (IMTs)"
Brent0331 (10 min.)

Tactical Anatomy: The Stark Realities Of Armed-Self Defense

From a 2012 post by John Williams at Tactical Anatomy: "Primer: The Stark Realities of Armed Self-Defense." He has a list of good points to take to heart, including this one:

4.   If you shoot somebody, even if you did so in what you think was self-defense, have realistic expectations about what is likely to happen.  

a. EXPECT to be arrested and charged.
b. Expect to be handcuffed and taken to jail.
c. Expect a very nasty series of interrogations.
d. Expect to have to hire a good lawyer, and expect to spend the next 1-2 years defending yourself.
e. Expect to have to mortgage your house and liquidate all your assets to pay your legal costs.
f. Expect to lose your guns.

Start with these expectations, because they are far more likely than the chances you are going to be allowed to go home and sleep in your own bed for a while. (But if you’ve taken appropriate deadly force training, your chances of making it through this horror relatively unscathed is much better than if you follow all the advice you’ve been reading on the internet.) 

The only change to his points that I would make is to #8. Williams writes:

8. The prosecutors are not going to be your friends if you shoot somebody. It’s their job to put you in prison for the rest of your life, whether you deserve to be there or not. They don’t care if you think you’re a good guy. 

 It should end: "They don't care if you are the good guy."  

The Great Replacement

 From X: A video in which Rep. David Morales (D-RI) says the mural for Iryna Zarutska "does not reflect our values." Translation: She was white so Morales doesn't give a sh** about her.