Weekend Reading #47

 Some longer and more involved reading for weekend:

•  Up first, as is generally the case, is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump. Lots of good stuff, but here are some articles/topics that in particular caught my attention:
• "30 Facts About Childhood Today that Will Terrify You." A brief overview of troubling statistics and trends among our children, most of which derive from too little outdoor activity and too much screen time.
• "TERMINATING TERRORISTS | The Head-Shot Triad." Where you need to shoot to immediately shut down a bad guy. 
• "Controlling Your Fear." Tips on inoculating yourself to the fear that you will have in a violent confrontation. 
• "How to Survive a Mass Shooting While Unarmed." 
• "Tourniquets Can’t Fix Everything. Why You MUST Learn Wound Packing." 
• "Small Unit Tactics for Patrol." This is written for police officers, but discusses some military tactics that are adaptable to use by police. I think this has relevance to preppers in that it teaches different types of movement under fire or in areas of potential ambush.  

• "F&S Classics: The Wire"--Field & Stream. A big-game hunter and guide try and track down a Cape Buffalo that had been caught in a poacher's snare and somehow amputated its leg. A good reminder why Cape Buffalo are considered one of the most dangerous game animals in Africa.
• "The Wendigo and 6 Other Ancient Monsters From Indigenous Folklore"--Atlas Obscura. 
• More: "Beware the Wendigo, the Frostbitten Flesheater of North America’s Chilly Heartland"--Atlas Obscura.  
• "Academia is Women’s Work"--Postcards from Barsoom. Discussing the reason (a reason) men are abandoning academic work:

    Men are constantly on the lookout for arenas in which they can prove their worth, and thereby attract a mate or, more accurately, as many mates as possible. Across the myriad competitive arenas that men have invented, there is one common element shared by all of them, which both men and women are exquisitely sensitive to:

    An arena cannot be dominated by women.

    The reason for this is obvious. The purpose of the arena, from the male point of view, is to demonstrate his worth relative to other men. To enter an arena filled with women is to engage in a lose/lose proposition: if one does poorly, one has been beaten (up) by girls; if one does well, one has beaten (up) girls. Neither outcome is going to impress the girls. Or, for that matter, the guys.

    For this reason, men who enter a social environment in which women predominate will tend to make a hasty exit. There is nothing for them there.

•  "The Deep Rabbit Hole of Israel Spying on America"--Aletho News. This 2015 article is not particularly long, but it has a fair number of links to other sources including a lengthy Newsweek article. It is not just spying on the U.S. that is discussed, but also the disproportionate amount of foreign aid that has gone to Israel, and the suspicion that Israel stole 100 kg. of weapons grade uranium to jump start their nuclear weapons program. Unmentioned is their extensive industrial espionage. And, obviously coming after 9/11, there is no discussion of the extensive Israeli intelligence ring that was discovered in the aftermath which abruptly pulled up stakes and fled the U.S. after the attack. (See my 2023 post, "Dancin' In The Streets: The 5 Israelis Arrested Following 9/11"). Whether or not there was any connection between the Israeli agents and the events of 9/11, one still has to wonder why so many Mossad agents (some 60 were arrested or detained in the aftermath of 9/11) were operating in the U.S. 

• More: "Israeli espionage in the United States"--Wikipedia. 
• More: "Israel’s Covert Economic Espionage Against Its Strategic Ally, US – OpEd"--Eurasia Review.

Terrorist Who Attached Michigan Synagogue Identified

The terrorist that drove an explosive laden truck through the front of a synagogue/school in Michigan has been identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41 year old Lebanese-born restaurant worker. The Daily Mail reports:

    It has since emerged that Ghazali was a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon who worked at a restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, where FBI agents were seen searching his home.

    The suburb's mayor, Mo Baydoun, said Ghazali 'lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon'.

    An unnamed source told CBS News the attack by Israel was ten days ago, and that two of Ghazali's brothers were also killed. 

 [snip]

    Ghazali was born in Lebanon in 1985 and entered the United States through Detroit Metropolitan airport on May 10, 2011, after alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010, according to the New York Post.

    He then applied for naturalization on October 20, 2015, and became a citizen on February 5, 2016, under the Obama administration, the outlet said.      

This is a little discussed problem with having large populations of foreigners is that they bring their animosities toward other nations with them. 

    Also, how come there is no discussion of how and where this guy got his explosives and mortar shells?  

Old Dominion U. ROTC Instructor Identified

The ROTC Instructor shot to death in a terrorist attack at Old Dominion University has been identified as  Lt. Col. Brandon Shah who had been a pilot flying helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. "Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, according to his biography on the university’s website, and had returned in 2022 as a leader for the program." 

    The Reserve Officers' Training Corps students showed 'extreme bravery and courage' and prevented further loss of life by stopping the suspect, identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, FBI spokesperson Dominique Evans said.  

    The ROTC students subdued him and 'rendered him no longer alive,' Evans added. 'I don't know how else to say it.'

How about saying the ROTC students beat the terrorist to death. It's more to the point and acts as a deterrent. 

Artemis Cleared for April Launch

The AP reports that "[t]he 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, leading to a launch attempt as early as April 1." 

Diversity Strikes Old Dominion University

From the Daily Mail: "National Guardsman turned ISIS terrorist named as gunman shot dead after opening fire at Old Dominion University." 

    Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, opened fire inside the Norfolk, Virginia, school on Thursday morning, sources confirmed to several news outlets.

    Jalloh, a former National Guard soldier, stormed into a classroom and asked if it was an Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) class, The New York Post reported.

    After a person in the room confirmed that it was, he opened fire on the professor, sources told outlet. A student then stabbed Jalloh to death. 

    Sources told the post that the professor, a retired military officer, was rushed to hospital where he later died. 

    Jalloh, a U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone, was released from prison in 2024 after being caught attempting to hand information to ISIS and ISIL in 2015. 

    He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars in 2017 which was to be followed by five years supervised release.      

 Why wasn't his citizenship revoked and he deported?

Transmitting Data In A Negative Light

From Live Science: "Scientists use 'negative light' to send secret messages hidden inside heat." The article reports that "Researchers have developed a technology to invisibly transmit information disguised as background thermal radiation. Using a phenomenon called 'negative light,' they transferred 100 kilobits of data per second in a way that was completely undetectable to outside observers." 

    Using devices called thermoradiative diodes, the team created patterns of brighter- or darker-than-usual states that blended into typical infrared background "noise" but that can be read as data by specialized receivers.

    The thermoradiative diodes were born as part of another project, in which the team proved that it was possible to generate solar power even after the sun had set. This "night-time solar" tech captured infrared radiation that Earth had absorbed during the day and was releasing at night as it cooled. The team then used thermoradiative diodes to generate a small amount of power.

    While the initial transfer rate of 100 kbps is quite modest, Nielsen said higher speeds are achievable. The main hurdle was the availability of some of the sophisticated electronics the team required. In principle, there's nothing stopping this method from transferring tens of megabits per second with existing devices, with better devices and detector design pushing the speed to gigabits per second, the team said. 

Attack On Synagogue A Car Bombing Attempt

The New York Post reports: "The driver — found dead inside the car and burned beyond recognition — was armed with a rifle, and mortar shells were discovered in the vehicle’s rear, sources told The Post." The article notes that nearby schools went into lockdown, as if that would keep kids safe from a car bomb attack like this. 

Update: Although the attacker still has not been identified, "[t]he truck that rammed Temple Israel in Michigan on Thursday morning is said to have been registered to a driver from Lebanon."

I'm Not Saying It's Aliens ... Planetary Collision Causing Star To Dim

Scientists noticed that Gaia20ehk, a “main sequence” star similar to our sun but 11,000 light years distant, had three dips in brightness in 2016, but more dramatic changes in 2021 when its brightness became erratic, which is strange because main sequence starts do not normally vary in their brightness. But while the visible light dimmed, the infrared emissions spiked, indicating that whatever was blocking the light from the star was so hot that it glowed. Researchers hypothesize that the material must have come from a planetary collision which has spewed hot debris around the star. I would like to think, instead, that it is the heat from a Dyson sphere. 

More interesting stuff:

•  "The Sun Is Stranger Than Astrophysicists Imagined"--Quanta Magazine. Noting that the sun radiates far more gamma rays than expected, raising questions about unknown features of the sun’s magnetic field and the possibility of even more exotic physics. 
• "Rapid Thunderstorm Charging Produces Strong Gamma‐Ray Glows"--Eos.  

Attack On Detroit Area Synagogue

Not much in details yet, but it appears someone rammed a vehicle into a Jewish synagogue and preschool in West Bloomfield, Michigan (about 20 miles north of Dearborn, which has the largest Muslim and Arab population in the U.S.). The AP is reporting that the shooter is dead. According to USA Today, the attacker was shot dead by security staff and found dead inside his vehicle.

VIDEO: What Was The Purpose Of The SKS?

The video basically matches with what I'd read in various sources. Essentially, though, by the close of the Second World War, the Soviet Union was making substantial use of the submachine gun as a weapon for its assault troops--in fact, whole companies would be armed with submachine guns. But the Soviets were very impressed with the German Stg. 44 both because of the lighter (and less expensive) intermediate cartridge compared to the full power cartridges used in most rifles in WWII; and that it could essentially fill the same role as the submachine gun but with a superior cartridge. Thus, the Soviets developed their own intermediate cartridge and started development of weapons to use them. 

    As the Soviets started into this development program, they envisioned the same mix of weapons as they had used so successfully in WWII: a standard issue infantry rifle, a submachine gun like weapon for assault troops, and a sniper rifle. The SKS, then, was to replace the Mosin-Nagant as the infantry rifle; the AK was to replace the submachine gun; and the Dragunov rifle would replacing the bolt action sniper/marksman rifles. But as the video points out, once the AK-47 began entering service, the Soviets quickly realized that it could do everything the SKS could do--or, from a different perspective, the SKS couldn't do anything more or better than the AK--so the Soviets decided that the AK would become their standard infantry rifle. Thus, when the modernized AK (the AKM) came out, SKS production ceased in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. 

    The video also addresses why China continued to produce and use the SKS after the AKM came out, which was that the Soviets did not want to give the Chinese the technology for the AKM, so the Chinese continued using the SKS until they could figure out their own version of the AK system.   

 VIDEO: "What is the Point of the SKS?"
Cut-Rate-History (11 min.)