A Quick Run Around the Web -- October 31. 2015

Image of Asteroid 2015 TB145, which is passing by the Earth today. (Source: "Dead comet with skull face to hurtle by Earth on Halloween"--AFP)

A video from Survival Lilly--"Survival Herb: Pot Marigold"

• "China’s Demographic Catastrophe"--Washington Free Beacon. "China’s recent announcement that it will end its one-child policy is unlikely to halt a demographic decline that could lead to more social and political instability in the coming decades, analysts say."
• "First pictures of Russian jet crash that killed 224: Victims 'found over three-mile radius' in Egypt - as Moscow and Cairo deny ISIS claims they brought down the plane"--Daily Mail. Most all of the passengers were Russian tourists. ISIS is claiming responsibility, but the Russian and Egyptian governments say it was a technical malfunction, based on a communication from the pilot. ISIS probably should hope that they are not responsible, because it might motivate Putin to do more than merely protect Russia's port in Syria.
• "A Look At A Russian Rotary: The GSh-18 Pistol"--The Firearms Blog. A 9 mm handgun using a rotary barrel system. Interesting design, but the article and photos indicate that the manufacturing quality is not very good.
• "A Time for Peace, a Time for War"--John C. Wright.

 [W]hen is it right, if ever, to fight an enemy without remorse, without quarter, without adherence to the Marquis of Queensbury Rules, savagely, and totally?

* * *

For the life of me I cannot see why such simple principles cause so much debate.

Sports are as artificial as the usages of war among Christian and civilized nations. In a sporting event, you do not cheat to win, because the whole point of sports is not to teach ruthlessness (that is the point of boot camp) but to teach how to win without vaunting and lose without whining so that next week another team will be willing to play you. It is meant to teach courage and self-command.

Wars between civilized nations are conducted with certain mutually recognized restrictions because civilized nations recognize that they will be neighbors after the war is over, and may be allies in the next war.

A mugging is not a sporting event, nor is a war with socialists, barbarians, or Mohammedans, or SJWs. They do not have our worldview, our values, nor our sense of fairfplay.

Barbarians live in a constant state of war, so the idea of existing in peace after the war is over is not merely inadvisable to them, but unimaginable.

For socialists and barbarians and jihadists and SJWs, each war is a total war because each enemy is an absolute enemy, with whom peace is neither sought nor thought possible.

In their warped and twisted worlds, it is considered a sign of weakness to act with restraint on your behavior, and they offer no reciprocity, no mutual restraint, if you do.

I have been astonished that the entire Mohammedan strategy in this century has been nothing but harping on this one folly: the assumption that a gentleman treats a villain like a gentlemen, and fights with civilized restraint when fighting someone who might be a friend or ally in the future.

We offer the restraint of the Geneva Conventions against them, but they do not abide by these conventions, and, indeed, the whole point of their military policy is to abrogate them as flagrantly as possible as publicly as possible. Given a choice between attacking a soldier and a child, the mighty Jihadist warrior will [attack] the child, because the headlines are sexier.

As for the Morlocks, they will never be friends or allies. They have not the capacity. An SJW is deliberately and totally set against the world of civilization, and hates the niceties and rules of war that protect them. They like riots. They cheer at sabotage, at cop killers, at sneak attacks, at ambushes against women and children. Read their literature, look at their politics, listen to their speeches.

They are natural allies with the Mohammedans: both are humans who have repudiated their humanity, thinking subhumanity is stronger.Both praise subhuman barbarism, both hate Christ, both despise civilization.

When fighting such creates as these, after making an initial offer to any undecideds (who should not take more than a deep breath’s space of time to decide) one attacks the barbarian without quarter,without mercy,by any means,fair or foul,and fights to extermination, ignoring pleas for mercy, since such pleas are too often false, and cannot be trusted.

The barbarian is always at your throat or at your feet.

 Read the whole thing.

Where's Waldo?

Happy Halloween!

ISIS Planning on Invading Central Asia?

The U.K.'s Express reports that, according to Russian sources, Taliban that have pledged loyalty to ISIS have amassed on the norther border of Afghanistan. 

The jihadi hate group could be trying to open up a new front to the north of its territories after being pegged back in Syria by Russian airstrikes.

The invasion would be a swipe at Vladimir Puitin as it would take them into the former Soviet states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which are still beholden to Moscow.

They would also secure control of lucrative drug trafficking routes taking raw opium from Afghanistan to be sold as heroin on the streets of Russia and Europe.

ISIS has been looking to grow its presence in Asia and has active cells in India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

A Quick Run Around the Web--October 28, 2015

Earth Science Picture of the Day: Ribeira da Janela, Portugal

• "An interesting idea: Using the Magnus Effect to control the path of a musket ball"--The Firearms Blog.
• "New Announcement: Remingtons RM-380 Pistol Is Now Shipping"--The Firearms Blog. But where is the R-51?
• "Bullet Points on Self-Defense When You're Disabled"--Michael Bane Blog.
• "Permanent unemployment?"--Bayou Renaissance Man. Comments on Europe's employment picture and the growing number of long-term (more than 1 year) unemployed. He writes:

I've seen this phenomenon in certain countries in Africa.  It's genuinely frightening - it can lead to the disintegration of social order and stability.  You see, employers will always hire the cheapest possible solution to their needs.  That involves not only those willing to work for the lowest wage, but those requiring the least training for a new position.  Very often, younger workers are cheaper than older;  and often, those younger workers have more up-to-date skills that can be adapted to the job than older workers whose exposure to, for example, computers or roboticized manufacturing techniques is much less than the younger generation.  As a result, those without recent work experience get 'shut out' of the job market.

When this happens often enough and for long enough, you get a class of people that's not only permanently unemployed, but is also basically unemployable.  Their skills and education have atrophied.  They no longer regard themselves as having any value to an employer;  therefore, they don't see themselves as having any value to their families, or even to society as a whole.  The result is a vast increase in criminal activity - after all, the new criminals reason, if they're of no value to anyone, why shouldn't they take value from those that have it?

• "Shotguns have 'virtually sold out' in Austria as citizens rush to buy arms amid fears of a massive influx of migrants, dealers claim"--Daily Mail. Apparently shotguns are selling particularly well because no permit is needed for them. However, the article notes that the demand for firearms licenses have increased so much that instead of license classes being offered only once every 5 weeks, they have been increased to once per week. And, as noted in a story I cited yesterday, women are driving the high sales. According to the article; "Broadcasters and local media say the numbers of refugees - coupled with a fear of break-ins as a result - is fuelling the arms race." Too little, too late?

• Related: "Germans Panic As Muslims March Through City ‘THIS IS OUR FUTURE’ (VIDEO)"--Gateway Pundit.“Look, when I walk through the streets of the city, it’s only foreigners!”

• Related: "A problem easily solved"--Vox Popoli. 

• "We saw a petty routine discipline issue become a criminal issue in just a matter of minutes”--Classical Values. Thoughts about the video of the resource officer turning over a students desk, and why routine disciplinary matters now require a call to the police. Money quote: "Pretty soon everyone will be calling the police for everything. Otherwise, what’s the point of life in a police state?"
• "DHS Offering Employers Cash If They Hire Alien College Grads Over Citizens"--Truth Revolt. Instituting hiring preferences for illegal aliens.
• "Obama pollster: Voters divided in 'tribes,' politics 'increasingly segregated, tribal'"--Washington Examiner. The left has pushed "identity politics" for decades; both parties have been captured by transnational NGOs and corporations that view the nation-state as passe, and citizens as mere economic units; so, of course people are going to resorts to tribes. Once you lose national homogeneity, all you have left are tribes.
• "Bacon Panic + Poor Math Skills = Easy Money"--Da Tech Guy. According to the article, even accepting the WHO report that you increase your risk of cancer by 18%, that only represents your overall risk of developing cancer increasing by less than one percent: from 4.8% to 5.7% for men, and from 4.5% to 5.2% for women. 
• "Ashton Carter: U.S. to Begin 'Direct Action on the Ground' in Iraq, Syria"--NBC. Boots on the ground in Syria. Somewhere, John McCain is rubbing his hands together with glee.
• "The plasma engine that could take humans to Mars on a single tank: Breakthrough in Hall thrusters could see them power deep space missions"--Daily Mail. According to the article, researches think that they have figured out a way to increase the useful life-span of Hall thrusters so that they can be used to propel craft for deep space missions. Current models only offer 10,000 hours of life, which is too short for deep space missions. Although this doesn't reduce the costs of launching something into orbit, it would make it cheaper and easier to get to destinations once in orbit.
• "How Dark Matter Gave Shape to the Universe: The mysterious particles may have indirectly paved the way for humanity—and killed the dinosaurs"--New Republic.

Paleontologists, geologists, and physicists have shown that 66 million years ago, an object at least ten kilometers wide plummeted to Earth from space and destroyed the terrestrial dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. Our proposal is that during the Sun’s passage through the midplane of the Milky Way—the stripe of stars and bright dust that you can observe in a clear night sky—the Solar System encountered a disk of dark matter that dislodged the distant object, thereby precipitating this cataclysmic impact—and possibly others on 30-35 million year intervals. We hypothesize that a less conventional type of dark matter collapsed into a dense disk (denser even than that of the Milky Way) and the disk’s gravitational influence diverts the trajectories of comets when the Solar System passes through.

• "What Will Be The Next Great American Perversion?"--Return of the Kings. The author does not believe that it will be polygamy (at least, the left won't support it) because polygamy is too "patriarchal." Rather, he writes:

So if polygamy isn’t the Next Great American Perversion, what is? There have been a few cracks in the firmament and a few rays of light have leaked through, giving us a glimpse into what the Left has in store for society. In the past few months, the Left has been testing the waters, gauging societal response to two new and exciting perversions: cuckolding [i.e., wives cheating on their husbands] and pedophilia.

A Quick Run Around the Web--October 27, 2015

Water bottle drip irrigation for tomato plants (from "15 Gardening Tips And Clever Ideas"--The 36th Avenue) (h/t DIY,Gear, prepping, & survival).

• "Video: Glue as a Wound Closure Method, Part 1"--Survival Medicine.
• "Tampon Water Filter"--Neo-Survivalist.
• "A Closer Look at the QYT KT8900 Micro-Mobile Dual Band Ham Radio"--Advanced Survival Guide. Short version: not recommended as a survival radio.
• "The Universal Edibility Test"--Blue Collar Prepping. How to (reasonably) safely test whether something can safely be eaten, including a short information sheet to print and keep in your BOB.
• "Problem Neighbors (Those Who Live By The Feud)"--No Nonsense Self-Defense. Some thoughts, and warnings, on dealing with "the neighbor from hell." A tid-bit:

While conflict, trauma-drama, harassment, vandalism and hatred are not your ideas of entertainment, to the small, petty, mean and venial, it is not only that, but a whole lot more. That's why they do it. A feud is a LOT more fun and exciting than watching TV. More than that, it's a game they can play themselves.

The way you stop it is by making  A) the game no fun anymore and B) it too 'dangerous' for them to act.

• "'Anyone With AK-47' Can Overmatch US Soldier in Fire Fight"--Sputnik News. Another article arising out of the claimed performance issues of the AR during the Battle of Wanat. Frankly, the argument has been so thoroughly discredited, I'm surprised to still see it popping up. The fact that the heavily outnumbered troops at Wanat were able to hold off a surprise attack by some 200 Taliban, itself, discredits the premise of the article. In any event, The Captain's Journal has written several good articles on the issue (see, e.g., "Blaming The Gun For The Battle Losses"). He concluded the latter article: "Blaming the men who made the decision to deploy the way they did would be the hard thing to do because it gets personal.  But at least it would be honest."
• "Sweden Opened Its Doors To Muslim Immigration, Today It’s The Rape Capital Of The West. Japan Didn’t."--The Daily Caller. About the rape epidemic (including gang rapes) that has swept Sweden since they began admitting large numbers of Muslims, and contrasting the situation with Japan, which has been careful to limit the number of foreigners settling in the country.
• "Islamic Invasion Pulls Trigger: Europe Now Scrambles for Guns"--WND. Europeans are beginning to wake up to the fact that their politicians sold them down the river. Unfortunately, their firearms laws make it difficult or impossible to procure weapons for self-defense. 

• Related: "K-selection Advancing"--Anonymous Conservative. Noting several trends in Europe suggesting impending fighting between the immigrants and natives. On the issue of increased gun purchases, the author notes that most of the new gun purchases in Austria have been by women. He observes:  

You know what that means. Interesting that in a rabbitized population many women are exhibiting more manly protective qualities, just as the reversal of sexual dimorphism that r/K describes would predict. That will change as the K-selection advances, men realize fighting is unavoidable, and women find they don’t like killing or being killed.

When the festivities get under way I’d expect considerable selective pressure to actively remove the rabbit-prone genes from the gene pool. The key will be for us to make sure we let nature take its course, and don’t intervene out of some misplaced sense of patriotic loyalty. These rabbits are not our countrymen – they are our traitors.

• "Gear Review: CRKT Otanashi Noh Ken"--Straight Forward in a Crooked World.
• "Re: Jedbergh and Assorted Groups"--Come and Make It.
• "Processed meats do cause cancer - WHO"--BBC. But see "Forget red meat - you're more likely to get bowel cancer from eating CHOCOLATE: Leading colorectal surgeon on why he eats meat regularly - and how sugar is the true culprit"--Daily Mail.
• "Here's How Long It Would Take For Vampires To Annihilate Humanity."--Atlas Obscura. Anywhere from a few years to 50 years, depending on the model.
• "Why South Africa's born-free generation is not happy"--BBC. From the news story:

They mock the idea of a rainbow nation, scoff at any suggestion they need white friends, and rightly ask why is there more wealth in the hands of the whites now than there was back then.

Mr Mandela is dead, a new black consciousness is alive and well. And it is angry.

We Are Not All The Same Shape--Concealed Carry for the Fat and the Skinny

 Govt. of Western Aust. Dept. of Health

Govt. of Western Aust. Dept. of Health

Even when we are fit, people come in different shapes (see above). Unfortunately, not everyone is thin or athletic. So it should be no surprise that not all concealed carry techniques or methods work equally well for all body shapes and sizes. Alien Gear Holsters' blog has a couple recent posts on special considerations for those who are a hefty, and those that are not:

• "Concealed Carry For Big Guys"
• "Concealed Carry for Skinny Guys."

Obviously, things are easier for those who are thin versus those that are not. The main thing is to experiment and see what works for you.

A Quick Run Around the Web -- October 25, 2015 (Updated)

One of the things I like about this painting is that the door lacks an outside handle or knob, indicating that only we can open the door to Christ; he will not force his way in. Although this is generally thought to apply to us individually, I have also wondered if it applies to us as a world--that the Second Coming won't be until we invite Christ back. (Source) 

The Revolution Underway:

• "IRS' Lois Lerner Skates; An Ugly Precedent Is Set"--Investors Business Daily. "The Justice Department declined to file charges against IRS enforcer Lois Lerner, who singled out Tea Party groups for scrutiny on political grounds. With no accountability, it's now open season on dissidents." This is why Hillary was able to smirk through the Benghazi hearings--she knows that the DOJ won't pursue charges.
• "The DOJ Is Wrong: Cops and Criminals Are Not Morally Equivalent"--The Heritage Foundation. Concerning a speech given by the acting head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Principal Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta:

Given the most charitable interpretation, the speech presumes a moral equivalence between the police and those arrested by them. On a less charitable reading, it displays hostility to law enforcement and makes a wrongheaded assumption that Americans and American culture are racist and discriminatory. More broadly, it accepts the progressive line that institutional racism is to blame for the ills in America’s inner cities and ignores entirely the possibility of a culture that encourages individuals to act irresponsibly.

I'm thinking the DOJ should be labeled a terrorist organization, with all that entails, including the prohibitions on Congress providing it funds and it doing business with American businesses.

• "Just Days After Killing Of NYPD Officer, Communist-Organized Protesters Including Quentin Tarantino, Chant ‘F**K Police’ In NYC"--Weasel Zippers. "They’re not ‘against police brutality’, call it what they are, they are against the police, they are against incarceration of criminals and they are for revolution. It isn’t about black people, and you’ll notice many, if not most, are not black. The issue is never the issue. Most black people would never support this nonsense. It is, as it always has been, about the revolution."
• "Bill O’Reilly Cuts Off BET Host Who Refuses To Say If #BlackLivesMatter Leadership Repudiates Calling For ‘Dead Cops’"--Weasel Zippers. The guest was Keith Boykin, who the author notes, is a special assistant to Bill Clinton, and one of the agents responsible for linking up BLM to the DNC.
• "Fox Guest: Black Lives Matter Is A 'Terrorist Group'"--Media Matters. Video at link. Of course, he is correct since terrorism is defined as using violence or threats of violence to affect political or social changes.
• "Black Lives Matter Fights Against Including Police Killings as Federal Hate Crimes"--PJ Media.
• "Unhinged Hatred of the Police"--Weekly Standard. "Killing policemen has always been at the top of the left-wing terrorist agenda."
• "Who Is Behind The Fires Being Set At Churches In St. Louis?"--Weasel Zippers. Noting a string of arson fires at (mostly) black churches, the author observes: 

Except for the first one which took out the door and the fifth one, which spread a bit further, they were all set at the front door, not to cause any real damage, but it seems, set to go out, to be limited. The arsonist always set it in the early morning hours. The police have said the person behind it clearly wants to ‘send a message’.

So the question is who would want to make it appear like black churches were being targeted, while not really wanting to hurt them with real damage? In St. Louis, near Ferguson?

Well, we’ll leave the investigation to the professionals, but we certainly could have a few thoughts as to who would fit that scenario.

In perhaps a coincidental incident, on Easter, the Black Lives Matter folks protested outside a couple of churches in the area. Their point was to ‘wake up’ the people in the churches, to come out and join them to ‘fight against racism’.

• Update (10/30/2015): Police arrest black suspect.

• "Attkisson: Illegal Immigrant Crime 'Self-Censored' by Media, Most Would Be 'Surprised' At How Large Problem Is"--Breitbart.
• "Quentin Tarantino: the new face of #BlackLivesMatter"--Hot Air.
• "Politcon: Black Lives Matter Dubs Itself A Global Movement Opposed to 'Gun-Toting White Racists'"--Breitbart.

[Black Lives Matter organizer Patrisse] Cullors detailed that the Black Lives Matter movement was no accident, but conscientiously crafted. “We built not just a hashtag. It’s important people know that Black Lives Matter wasn’t just this hashtag that circulated around the internet, but we actually built an organization, a platform and a project out of the hashtag so here we are a couple of years later and the hashtag movement has gone global.”

The BLM panel members at Politcon also described contacts with Palestinians in Israel and other unspecified groups in Europe. 

"Cullors also asserted, “Black-on-black crime is a myth.” She called comments on the phenomenon a “distraction” and “an unnecessary debate,” then encouraged the audience that when a conversation goes in that direction to “shut it down.”

• Related? "‘All white people get out or else we will kill you’ – black students"--Praag.Org. Part of the black student riots in South Africa.

Firearms/Self-Defense:

• "Venezuela: How's That Gun Control Working Out for You?"--Gun Free Zone. "Almost three years after the imposition of the most complete and draconian Gun Control laws on this side of the Atlantic (including no sales of new guns to the civilian population), Venezuela now is the second country in the world in murders, with a rate of 82 per 100,000 people or 24,980 murders (Venezuela’s population is 33.2 million, 10% of the US.)" Also, so far, 112 police and military have been killed in Caracas in 2015.
• "Gun deaths down 30%"--Washington Examiner. "In a new report, Pew said that between 1993 and 2000, the firearm murder rate dropped by almost half, from seven homicides to 3.8 homicides per 100,000 people. It also said that all gun deaths -- murder, suicide, police and accidental -- have dropped 30 percent since 1993."
• "Not All Penetration Data Is Created Equal"--Nathaniel Fitch at The Firearms Blog.
• Some articles on the rifle as a home-defense weapon, offering different takes on the issue:

• "The AR for Home Defense: One Expert's Opinion"--an interview with Kyle Lamb at The National Rifleman.

The AR is very easy to shoot. Head out to the range and test my theory. Ask anyone who wants to join in on the fun to try shooting a scored event, under pressure, with a pistol at home-defense ranges. After you see their performance, try the same with an AR, I will bet money you see much better control of the system. Men and women alike just shoot better with a carbine than with a pistol. As long as the carbine is light enough for the shooter to handle properly, the learning curve will be straight-up. 

• "A Long Gun for Home Defense?"--Larry Correia at The Cornered Cat.

 Rifle bullets are going a whole lot faster and do a lot more damage than a pistol, (and keep in mind I’m keeping this simple, and not going into ten pages of argument about AP and SS109 and other esoteric information that will make a newbie’s head explode). When you shoot something with most rifles, you aren’t just poking a hole, but you are actually causing trauma in the tissue surrounding the hole, and most defensive bullets are designed to fragment or tumble and make even bigger, nastier holes in people.

Except when they don't, which was the finding of the recent article I posted about results of a terminal ballistics study of the Stockton, California, shooting where the shooter used an AK-47 style rifle with FMJ 7.62 rounds.

• "Choosing a Home-Defense Gun"--B. Gil Horman at The National Rifleman.

 Although bolt-action hunting rifles may be ideal for taking large game, they make a poor choice for home-defense. These rifles are slow to load, slow to fire, and the high-power cartridges they shoot produce excessive muzzle flash, noise, recoil and are very likely to overpenetrate the target. If you want a rifle for home-defense, then consider a tactical semi-auto or pistol-caliber carbine.

• "Self Defense Tip: Don’t Use a Rifle"--Nick Leghorn at The Truth About Guns.

The only situation where this ranking (pistols best, then shotguns, then rifles) is reversed is if you have large swaths of land and expect the bad guys to be firing at you from dozens of yards away. In that situation, a rifle would come in handy. But considering where most people in the world live (namely cities and suburbs) it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

• "What is Best for Home Defense weapons. Pistol Rifle or Shotgun?"--Ammo Land.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, a 5.56mm carbine like the Beretta ARX-100 we used, is a great home defense option. A standard FMJ 5.56mm round tends to tumble and fragment when it hits things like walls inside a home. So contrary to popular assumption, over penetration is less of a concern than with pistols.

Also on the benefits side is the fact that a carbine is far easier to aim accurately under stress. Also, addition of a light and laser is easy with most AR-type rifles available today. In most states (sorry NJ your not one), capacity can be at least 30 rounds, so the idea for a quick end to aggression is a series of rapid-fire shots. With a compact rifle like an AR-15, it’s relatively easy to make accurate hits with speed, much more so than with a handgun.

• "Guns for Home Defense"--Chuck Hawks. 

Any long gun (rifle or shotgun) is fairly easy for an intruder to grab at close range and the long barrel gives a bad guy plenty of leverage to take the gun away from the homeowner. An experienced and violent criminal may turn a long gun on the homeowner. These facts mitigate against choosing a rifle or shotgun as the primary home defense weapon. 

• "Rifles for Home Defense"--Chuck Hawks.
• "Lifesaving Lever-Action Rifles For Home Defense"--Personal Defense World.
• "Rifles For Home Defense"--a video by Chuck Yeager. 
• "Rifles in Self Defense"--Armed Citizens Network. An interview with John Farnam.
• "Shotguns vs. rifles for home defense"--Gun Nuts Media.
• "Pistol-Caliber Carbines for Home Defense"--Bob Campbell at The Shooter's Log.
•  "Which Long Guns for Home Defense?"--Massad Ayoob. "My own view is that if I can only have one firearm for home defense, I want it to be a handgun for reasons of versatility, but if possible I’d rather have one handgun and one long gun readily available to each person in the household who’s likely to be using deadly force to protect self and family."

Other Stuff:

• "DEA agents tied to sex parties, prostitutes rewarded $95,000 in bonuses"--Washington Examiner. "Drug Enforcement Agency officials linked to sex parties and prostitutes paid by drug cartels weren't fired but rewarded with $95,000 in performance bonuses, ...." And we know there had to be some quid-pro-quo for the cartels feting the agents. They should be in prison, not receiving bonuses. 
• "Before you complain about 'patriarchy'"--Glenn Reynolds at USA Today. Noting that Western society is more matriarchal than patriarchal, but that will change as more Muslims immigrate to the West.
• "New York governor inserts gender identity in anti-bias rules"--New York governor Cuomo bypassed the legislature to enact new laws granting special rights to transgendered persons. The citizens' input no longer needed or wanted.
• "Orbanism Ascendant?"--American Interest. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban drew applause at a recent European People's Conference in Madrid. 

“We are in deep trouble”, Orban intoned. “This is an uncontrolled and unregulated process. We did not get authorisation from [our citizens] for millions to walk into our continent.” He accused left-leaning parties of “importing future leftist voters to Europe” while trying to “hide it behind humanism.” “The German, Hungarian or Austrian way of life is not a basic right of all people on earth,” he continued. “It is only a right for those people who have contributed to it.”

• "Forget the tin foil hat: NSA-proof wallpaper could keep snoopers and 'doomsday' electromagnetic weapons at bay"--Daily Mail. A flexible material used by layering nickel on carbon could be used to act as a Faraday cage, protecting a room from electronic surveillance or EMP.
• "Wimp Nation: Poised to Fall"--Fred Reed. He contends that Americans are no longer brave, independent, self-reliant, individualistic or free. For example:

The United States has become a nation of weak, pampered, easily frightened, helpless milquetoasts who have never caught a fish, fired a gun, chopped a log, hitchhiked across the country, or been in a schoolyard fight. If their cat dies, they call a grief therapist. Everything frightens Americans.

* * * 

 Individualism? America is among the least individualistic countries on the planet. The United States discourages everything reflecting difference, whether architectural, political, or cultural, often under heavy penalty. It is the land of indistinguishable shopping malls, of burger chains and tract suburbs of a hundred identical houses. Urban architecture means the office block. Casper looks like Des Moines looks like everywhere else. When a region like the South stubbornly tries to maintain its identity, the hive forces it to conform. I am reminded of what I believe to be a Japanese proverb: “The nail that stands up is beaten down.” We are more a nation less of nails than of thumbtacks, though.

• "The Amazon drained forest: Incredible pictures show devastating effect of drought ravishing Brazil in area’s worst dry spell for 100 years"--Daily Mail.

Photo of Hurricane Patricia

I thought this was a pretty fascinating photograph of the storm:

Source

"Gun 'Experts' and their Idiotic CCW Choices"--Greg Ellifritz

Greg Ellifritz has a great article with his thoughts (based on experience) on selecting a concealed carry gun and brand of ammunition. I would normally have put this in my "Quick Run Around the Web," but I wanted to especially emphasize it.

Evidence that Bubonic Plague Has Been Around 5,000 Years

Although bubonic plague has been suspected to be much older, until recently the Justinian Plague of the 6th Century was the earliest confirmed instance of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague. That has now changed. The New York Times reports:

[I]n a new study, published on Thursday in the journal Cell, researchers report that the bacterium was infecting people as long as 5,000 years ago. 

Exactly what those early outbreaks were like is impossible to know. But the authors of the new study suggest that plague epidemics in the Bronze Age may have opened the doors to waves of migrants in regions decimated by disease. 

* * * 

The new study arose from previous research by Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues. They were able to extract human DNA from 101 bones found in Europe and Asia, ranging in age from about 3,000 to 5,000 years old. 

As they reported in June, the genetic profiles of people during that 2,000-year period changed with surprising abruptness. About 4,500 years ago, for example, the DNA of Europe’s inhabitants suddenly took on a strong resemblance to that of the Yamnaya, a nomadic people from western Russia. 

Wondering what could have triggered such a shift, Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues realized they could test one hypothesis: that epidemics had decimated some populations, allowing new groups to establish themselves. 

* * *

Dr. Willerslev and his colleagues wondered if some of the nonhuman DNA they had collected from Bronze Age remains might belong to pathogens. They decided to look for traces of Yersinia pestis, even though the earliest evidence of the infection dates to thousands of years later. 

“Plague was just a long shot,” said Dr. Willerslev. 

But sometimes long shots pay off. Of 101 Bronze Age individuals, the researchers found Yersinia pestis DNA in seven. Plague DNA was present in teeth recovered from sites stretching from Poland to Siberia.

Related Posts: "Book Review--Plague by Wendy Orent"

"Wounding Effects of the AK-47 Rifle...."

Click on the image for a larger view. Money quote: "Therefore, many AK-47 shots will pass through the body, causing no greater damage than that produced by nonexpanding handgun bullets."

Quote of the Day -- October 20, 2015

[O]ur ruling class has succeeded in ruling not by reason or persuasion, never mind integrity, but by occupying society’s commanding heights, by imposing itself and its ever-changing appetites on the rest of us. It has coopted or intimidated potential opponents by denying the legitimacy of opposition.

--Angelo Codevilla, "Does Trump trump?"

What Jihadists Mean By A Single Raised Index Finger

Islamic State Fighters

Refugees protest in Budapest.

Demonstrators in London make their way down Whitehall

From Foreign Affairs:

When ISIS militants hold up a single index finger on their right hands, they are alluding to the tawhid, the belief in the oneness of God and a key component of the Muslim religion. The tawhid comprises the first half of the shahada, which is an affirmation of faith, one of the five pillars of Islam, and a component of daily prayers: “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”  

It is no surprise, then, that the shahada features prominently in ISIS’ public image. The group’s black flag bears the vow’s words in white Arabic script (as does Hamas’ and even Saudi Arabia’s). And Muslims have long associated a single index finger with the shahada in a variety of contexts, ranging from daily prayers to conversions.  

But for ISIS, the symbol is more sinister than a mere declaration of monotheistic beliefs. As Salafi jihadists, members of the group adhere to a fundamentalist interpretation of tawhid that rejects non-fundamentalist regimes as idolatrous. In other words, the concept of tawhid is central to ISIS’ violent and uncompromising posture toward its opponents, both in the Middle East and in the West.  

When ISIS militants display the sign, to one another or to a photographer, they are actively reaffirming their dedication to that ideology, whose underlying principle demands the destruction of the West. If rank-and-file soldiers are aware of the precise theological implications of their sign -- and it would be no surprise if they are -- that would be a sobering comment on their deep-seated opposition to pluralism.  

The gesture is equally important for what it means to Westerners, most of whom cannot read Arabic. By raising their index fingers, militants send an easy-to-understand message of the group’s goals of theological supremacy and military hegemony. When potential ISIS recruits in London, New York, or Sydney see the symbol on Twitter, they can grasp the scale of ISIS’ ambitions and its underlying aims. At some visceral level, less-radicalized viewers understand that it means dominance.

A Quick Run Around the Web -- October 20, 2015

"USS Shaw (DD-373) exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor." By an unknown photographer, December 7, 1941

• Our leadership is delusional. "When Kroft reminded Obama that Putin was bombing his proxies, Obama countered that he was leading on 'climate change'."--from "Vladimir’s Game" by Richard Fernandez (discussing a 60 Minutes interview between Steve Croft and Pres. Obama). Read the whole article, as it moves on to discussing why the elite are so concerned with "climate change" rather than real problems.
• Our current Middle-East policy, as described by Henry Kissinger: "The U.S. is now opposed to, or at odds in some way or another with, all parties in the region."
• "The ‘Migrant’ Crisis: Merkel’s Folly, Europe’s Peril"--Michael Walsh. From the article:

... Nationalism is not a dirty word in Hungary.

That it is elsewhere – in western Europe and, latterly, in the United States – is not the Hungarians’ problem; defending their language, their culture, their language and their way of life is. And this brings into focus the critical aspect of the “migrant” crisis – what is the end game?  Thanks to the human smugglers and the speed of modern communications, “refugees” from as far away as Afghanistan are washing up on the landlocked shores of central Europe – legions of able-bodied young men from the ummah of Islam advancing nearly unopposed into the Dar al-Harb of Christendom.

And yet this crucial aspect of the crisis has largely gone unremarked, as has the threat to Western values embodied by the “Syrians” and others who have traveled great distances to march with impunity through the undefended internal borders of the European Union and demand – not ask, demand – asylum in the Bundesrepublik as if that were a self-evident right.  That they trek through formerly Islamic lands like Hungary to do so is just another one of history’s little ironies that may eventually be seen as not ironic at all.

• "UNESCO draft resolution: Western Wall is part of al-Aksa mosque"--Jerusalem Post. "Israel is working to thwart a draft UNESCO resolution which declares that the Western Wall in Jerusalem – the most holy site in Judaism – belongs to al-Aksa Mosque compound." This is not going to end well. 
• "The Moderate Rebels: A Growing List of Vetted Groups Fielding BGM-71 TOW Anti-Tank Guided Missiles"--Hasan Mustafas. The article is mostly interesting because it lists and gives a brief description of each of the groups.
• "Friday Fundamentals (Segment 4) Shooting with a flashlight"--Tactical Professor.
• "The Semi-Auto .22LR Carbine: The Right Choice More Often Than You Think"--Jerking the Trigger. An argument for the .22 rifle as a first weapon for someone new to shooting and self-defense.
• "Skills Drills: El Presidente Drill"--Handguns Magazine.
• "Motivator: Gangs Growing In Rural Areas And A Word About LEOs"--The Lizard Farmer. An article from 2012 noting the growth of criminal gangs in rural America, and implications for the retreat.
• "Moving As A Group When the SHTF"--Preparing for SHTF.
• "Instinct and Knife Attack Defense"--Police. Incorporating instinctive reactions into knife defense training. Not particularly detailed, but suggests that you build your individual training based on how you instinctively react to a knife: e.g., if you instinctively attempt to control the weapon/hand, practice on techniques that teach out to control the weapon/hand, but if your instinctive reaction is different, then learn techniques that compliment your instincts. 

Muzzle Energy and Muzzle Velocity for Common Handgun Cartridges (Updated and bumped)

I had recently posted a graph comparing the muzzle energy of common muzzle energies. Greg Ellifritz was kind enough to link to my graph, but correctly pointed out that muzzle energy is not the only measure of the effectiveness of a bullet. Bullets stop a target (animal or human) by making holes in important things and/or through "shock": "A collapse of circulatory function, caused by severe injury, blood loss, or disease, and characterized by pallor, sweating, weak pulse and very low blood pressure."

Severe disruption to the nervous system or brain will generally drop a target (man or animal); and destruction of the heart can cause a "collapse of circulatory function" faster than hits in other areas of the body. Thus, shot placement is the most important factor in stopping a target (be it man or animal). (See also my earlier post on shot placement versus stopping power).

Secondarily is the size of the wound channel (the hole): both width and depth (and number, but that is not the topic of this post). The diameter and design of a bullet are important to the width of a wound channel. In theory, a larger caliber will result in a larger hole; and an expanding bullet will compliment this by increasing the width of a bullet beyond its caliber. How deep a bullet penetrates, and thus whether it can reach the vitals, will also depend on the bullet construction (whether it deforms or disintegrates easily) or holds together. Thus, bullets intended for hunting small, light skinned animals are typically designed to expand quickly and easily, while bullets for the large, thick skinned African game typically offer very little expansion.

The evaluation of terminal ballistics often relies on proxies (e.g., ballistic gelatin) and inferences to be drawn from other data. While not perfect, muzzle energy is indicative of penetration into a flesh and bone target. That is, a bullet with high muzzle energy will probably have good penetration within handgun ranges. However, at least when considering handgun ammunition, muzzle energy has nothing to do with the width of a wound channel. In this regard, caliber is a better indicator; and, ideally, you should use hollow point bullets that reliably expand. Reliable expansion is typically a factor of velocity (although larger diameter bullets will typically expand much easier than small caliber). Although I've had a hard time tracking down specific information, it appears that the magic velocity is between 700 and 1,000 feet per second (fps), depending on the construction of the bullet.

So, hopefully of interest to some of my readers, I'm reposting the graph of muzzle energy of common handgun calibers (with the axis now labeled) and posting a graph of muzzle velocity of the same calibers. As noted before, the data is an average of data from tests made by Ballistics by the Inch. Feel free to use, reproduce, spindle and mutilate the graphs, but please make sure to indicate that the data came from Ballistics by the Inch. Click on the graph to see a larger version.

In looking over the data from the muzzle velocity chart, a few things jump out. Like the muzzle-energy graph, a few distinct groupings stick out; especially as the barrel length increases. There is also great deal of "messiness" at the sub-4 inch barrel lengths, and some interesting results.

First, with very short barrels (i.e., 2-inch), the clear winner for muzzle velocity is the .357 Sig, followed closely by the 9 mm +P. In fact, only the .357 Sig, 9 mm +P and 10 mm were at or above 1,000 fps (on average) with that length of barrel. However, by 3 inches, the .357 Magnum was quickly catching up, to be running neck-and-neck with the .357 Sig at 4-inches, and achieving the highest velocity at 5 inches or greater.

The .38 Special is popular for small snub-nosed revolvers, but actually had fairly low velocity; and did not reach 1000 fps until using a 4-inch barrel. This suggests that for the .38 Special in a snub-nosed revolver, you should either use premium self-defense loads designed to expand at low velocities, or use wad-cutters. Of course, as I noted in my earlier post, it was not clear that any of the .38 Special tested was of the +P variety. So +P loads may provide the necessary velocity at the short barrel lengths to provide reliable expansion even if not using the premium hollow-point rounds.

The .357 Magnum, as noted above, had by far the highest velocity of any of the handgun rounds at longer barrel lengths. However, when considering the 2-inch barrel, the .357 Magnum was mediocre. Yet another reason to avoid .357 Magnum in a snub-nose revolver. The increased recoil and flash really isn't worth it.

At 4 inches, the top rounds as to velocity were, in order from fastest to slowest: .357 Sig, .357 Magnum, 9 mm + P, .41 Magnum, 10 mm, and .44 Magnum.

The standard 9 mm put in a very respectable performance, being only slightly below .40 S&W.

Surprisingly, the .380 (9 x 17) loads that were tested performed fairly well as far as velocity. However, this is because they use such a light-weight bullet (as can be inferred by its much lower muzzle-energy). So, even if expansion was good, penetration may be another matter.

Although some of the larger calibers, such as .45 ACP, had only moderate to low velocities in the sub-5 inch barrel ranges, these bullets already start at a larger size, and expand better than smaller bullets. Conversely, although both .22 LR and .25 ACP seem to produce respectable velocities, their small size makes it unlikely that they would significantly expand, even if using hollow points.

Some references (including some linked above):

• "An Alternate Look at Handgun Stopping Power"--by Greg Ellifritz.
• "Handguns and Hollow Points"--Bearing Arms.
• "Expanding Bullets: How They Really Work"--American Rifleman.
• "Expansion and Test Firing Results of hollow point bullets"--Hollow Point Bullet Mold Service.

Update (10/19/2015): Added .357 Sig to the chart on muzzle velocity. Added some observations about the velocity chart.

Update (10/23/2015): I uploaded the charts to Wikimedia.

UK and Europe Facing New Mini-Ice Age

The Frozen Thames (1677)

From the Sunday Express: "SHOCK CLAIM: World is on brink of 50 year ICE AGE and BRITAIN will bear the brunt":

Crippling blizzards, snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures threaten a yearly dose of Arctic misery for the next FIFTY YEARS at least - and possibly decades more.

Climate experts warn a rare pattern of water cooling in the north Atlantic will trigger a chain reaction of events leading to a “fully-blown ice age”.

The say the UK is on alert for a “serious climate situation” with regular winter whiteouts pushing emergency services to the limit.

The primary factors driving the prediction are record cold water temperatures in the Atlantic, a "cold blob"in the North Atlantic off of Greenland, and an expected decline in solar output in coming decades.

Flashback: In 2000, the UK's MET very publicly stated that England would soon see no more snowfalls.

Book Review: "All Things Provident" by Tamara Price

(Source)

So you have stocked up your long term food supply, and now have buckets, cans and jars of wheat, "Maggie Moo" dehydrated milk (the best, IMHO), dried beans, various fruits, and so on. Now what do you do with it? There are several cookbooks on the market that have a general focus on using food stores, and one that my wife has used and enjoyed is All Things Provident: Inspiring ideas to help use your food storage, manage your finances, and prepare for emergencies by Tamara Price ($17.99 through Amazon). The author also runs her own website--All Things Provident--with additional recipes, prepping ideas, activities, and so on.

The book is split into three main sections: Food Storage (including recipes), which takes up the bulk of the book; Finances (basically on how to create and follow budgets and live within your means); and Emergency Preparedness (some information on making 72-hour kits and some other basic information). She finishes up with a chapter entitled "Getting It All Done" which delves into ideas on managing your time, ideas for incorporating the preps into your daily life, involving your family members, and so on. Finally, she has an appendix with some example forms and lists.

Since the Food Storage portion takes up two-thirds of the book--and was the reason for our having bought the book--I will just outline the individual sub-sections:

• Food Storage Hurdles
• Creating a 3-Month Meal Plan
• Using Your Freezer
• Storable Meals
• Storable Snacks
• Storable Desserts
• Cooking with Whole Wheat
• Bread Making
• Pantry Mix Recipes
• Cooking with Dry Beans
• Using Powdered Milk
• White Sauce Mix Recipes
• Using Garden Produce
• Preserving Your Harvest
• Just for Kids

In short, the author takes you from the very beginning of a food storage program to building up stores, and then offering many recipes so you can make use of the food storage. The recipes are scattered throughout the book. So, for instance, in the chapter on "Using Your Freezer," the author discusses the "why" of using a freezer, lists the types of food items she keeps in her freezer, and then offers a dozen or so recipes using some or all of those food items.

The chapter on "Storable Meals" is a guide to making meals where at least some ingredients are prepared before hand (for instance, storing hamburger that has already browned) or part of your regular food storage (e.g., substituting reconstituted powdered milk for fresh milk; canned or dried fruits for fresh fruits); or canning some items rather than using dried versions. Many of the meals can be quickly prepared.

I would also note that these are not "bland" meals: the author offers recipes for many American favorites as well as "ethnic" dishes (including Mexican style or Italian style). To us, this is the most important points about this book: unlike others in this category, this book actually shows how to make palatable (some actually quite tasty) meals from your food storage. It shows how to use your food storage on a daily basis (thus saving money), rather than merely in an emergency.

We have, of course, our favorite recipes; and others that we tried out that we didn't like. And, if you are already experienced with food storage and using it, some the basic information may not be as of much use. The author is LDS, and some of her comments are directed at an LDS audience, but don't let this turn you off if you are not LDS--it is only in the sections about getting the right mind-set, and discussing the importance of paying tithing. There is, obviously, nothing LDS specific on making bread or a breakfast burrito.

We found some favorite meals from this book, that we frequently use (we've been using this book for almost 4 years). So, although we've looked at (and collected) cook books oriented toward using food storage, this is our favorite. So, check out the author's web-site for an example of some recipes and ideas and, if you like it, try the book.

California Flash Floods and Mud Slides

I had noted only just yesterday (in a comment about the El Nino), that increased rainfall in southern California would result in more flash floods and mud slides because of the loss of vegetation to help absorb the moisture and prevent erosion.  Today, The Daily Mail ran this headline: "Violent storms and flash floods cause chaos in California as 5ft-deep mud engulfs cars and traps people inside homes north of LA." Fortunately, there were no fatalities according to the article. Here are a couple articles discussing what to do if you happen to be in a car caught in a flash flood:

• "Flash Flooding: Your Vehicle Can Be Biggest Danger"--The Weather Channel.
• "Tips for Drivers Caught in a Flash Flood"--ABC News.

From the latter article: "Underwater rescue experts have a handy acronym for motorists to keep in mind, POGGO. It stands for: First, pop your seat belt. Next, open a window. Then grab your baby and go."

Armed Afghan "Refugees" Try to Fight Their Way Into Bulgaria

Radio Free Europe reports:

An Afghan migrant was shot dead October 15 in a scuffle between Bulgarian border authorities and a group of migrants believed to all be from Afghanistan, Bulgarian government authorities said.

A fight and exchange of gunfire broke out after border authorities tried to seize around 40 illegal immigrants who had crossed the border from Turkey.

All of the migrants were men, some of them armed, authorities said. The migrant who was shot died on his way to the hospital. An investigation is underway.

The original AFP report indicated:

Public BNR radio cited ministry sources as saying that the group of 48 illegal migrants from Afghanistan was armed and aggressive and refused to obey an order by the Bulgarian border guards to stop and turn back.

The main stream media is already spinning the story, to eliminate or downplay the fact that the group was armed, just mentioning (deep down into the story) that it was unconfirmed if any were armed, with Yahoo changing its story without any notice.

We Didn't Start The Fire

To anyone who reads the scriptures, particularly those dealing with "the end times," the decay of our civilization is clearly foretold. Chapter 3 of Isaiah is particularly distressing, because, although on the surface discussing the decay of David and Solomon's empire, it is applicable to any great society that has fallen into corruption and decay. There, we read that both the leadership of God and that of responsible leaders will be taken away, to be replaced by the immature and incompetent: "And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them." "And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour." "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not." In this regard, the Lord makes specific reference to the behavior of the women produced by such a culture: vain, haughty and openly sexual (e.g., cougars); enamored of ostentatious and tawdry clothes, jewelry, and other fashions (e.g., fashionistas).

While we think of the latter as being a consequence of the so-called "sexual revolution" and feminism--and, thus, having appeared within only the last several decades--such a viewpoint is incorrect. Long time readers know that I periodically write about Oswald Spengler's forecast of the decline of civilization, including what he referred to, in the 1920's, as the Ibsen woman:

The primary woman, the peasant woman, is mother. The whole vocation towards which she has yearned from childhood is included in that one word. But now emerges the Ibsen woman, the comrade, the heroine of a whole megalopolitan literature from Northern drama to Parisian novel. Instead of children, she has soul-conflicts; marriage is a craft-art for the achievement of “mutual understanding.” It is all the same whether the case against children is the American lady’s who would not miss a season for anything, or the Parisienne’s who fears that her lover would leave her, or an Ibsen heroine’s who “lives for herself”—they all belong to themselves and they are all unfruitful.

A more modern description of the Ibsen woman--or "new woman" (as opposed to the Victorian, or "old," woman--was given by Gail Finney:

The New Woman typically values self-fulfillment and independence rather than the stereotypically feminine ideal of self-sacrifice; believes in legal and sexual equality; often remains single because of the difficulty of combining such equality with marriage; is more open about her sexuality than the 'Old Woman'; is well-educated and reads a great deal; has a job; is athletic or otherwise physically vigorous and, accordingly, prefers comfortable clothes (sometimes male attire) to traditional female garb.

 But feminism had reared its head long before Spengler. In 1890, Ragnar Redbeard (a pseudonym) published "Might is Right," in which he observed:

There is nothing particularly inviting about barren, dyspeptic, blue-stocking ‘New Women,’ in pants and spectacles; talking idiotic snuffle through their noses; with busts made of adjustable india-rubber; with narrow or padded hips, and “wheels between their legs,” scorching across the curbstones like mad. When such women are ‘captured’ what good are they? They won’t even breed; or if they do so (by accident) their puny embryos, have to be delicately nurtured into life with steam-heated incubator-mechanism and afterwards fed and weaned on ‘the bottle.’ The sons of such women — bottle fed abortions — of what good are they?

It is women of this kind (unnatural monsters they are) that cause so much domestic unhappiness. They have been “educated” along false lines, filled with bookish artificialism, and thereafter when called upon to take up their maternal duty, they are organic incapables. Hence the divorce court scandals — the fruit of wholesale degeneracy — encouraged by State interference with domestic affairs.

“Our times, in sin prolific, first
The marriage bed with taint have cursed,
And family and home —
This is the fountain head of all,
The sorrows and the ills that fall —
On Romans and on Rome.”
Horace

Gradually the curse of ‘Law’ invades the privacy of every home. It encourages emotional feminines to defy husbands, and Deify an irresponsible Authority [i.e., the State]. In other words it deliberately promotes unfaithfulness and unlimited free-love. It undermines the husband’s Control, but at what a dreadful cost? With the “equalization” of women comes wholesale panmixia — scientific concubinage, State-regulated polyandry, and the poisoning of all inter-family intercourse. When average women find in Statute Law a “deliverer” and a “champion” more powerful than their husbands and brothers, they become both unfaithful and profligate — especially if “well educated.” Then it cometh to pass (as in all ages of connubial decadence) “no man knoweth his own father.” Is not that the practical tendency of the times? Again, is that ‘tendency’ itself not the horrible result of State-Paternalism — of majority-box dictation — of Statecraft and Priestcraft? The Church lives by the functional emotionalism of women. Thus the Individual wanes and the State grows more and more. In natural society, every woman’s husband is to her, both priest and king. When the baleful shadow of politics and preacherisms, looms over the marriage bed, dreadful days are at hand.

 And there, in a nutshell, is the result of the breakdown of the family due to feminism, including the rise of the single mother households; where the father is absent (if not unknown), replaced by the State and its subsidy. The difference is that, in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the Ibsen woman was a product of, and existed within, the upper strata of society. Now, it is found at all levels.

Studies Confirm that Ebola Can Be Transmitted Sexually

Time magazine has published an article noting two recent medical papers that confirm that Ebola can be transmitted sexually. The first paper confirmed that a woman (who later died) had contracted Ebola from her sexual partner. The second paper reported the results of a study of 93 men who survived an Ebola infection, which found that some men still produce semen samples that test positive for Ebola nine months after they presented symptoms of the disease.

So, in a matter of decades, we have seen Ebola change from a disease that killed nearly everyone to a slightly less deadly disease on its way to becoming an STD. Eventually, like chicken pox or measles, it could become a rather benign illness. But it is this intermediate stage--still deadly, but able to spread more easily--when it is at its most dangerous.