A Quick Run Around the Web -- November 6, 2015

Neptune (taken in August 1989 from the Voyager 2 spacecraft)

• "Is deep space travel a step closer to reality? NASA reveals successful test of 'impossible' fuel-free engine that breaks the laws of physics"--Daily Mail. According to the article, further tests of the EM drive still indicates that it works; it is not some sort of trick or error.
• "Paradigms lost"--Aeon. "The capacity for self-correction is the source of science’s immense strength, but the public is unnerved by the fact that scientific wisdom isn’t immutable. Scientific knowledge changes with great speed and frequency – as it should...." Except for global warming--there the science is settled.

• Related: "As scientists warn of ‘chilling effect’ on research, congressman doubles down on NOAA to release deliberations on climate study"--Washington Post. Government scientists refuse to reveal how they arrived at the conclusion that there was no global warming hiatus. Global warming "science" is a black box.

• "Russia's strategy in Syria may have just gotten a lot more complicated"--Business Insider. The downing of the Russian airliner may pull Russia deeper into the Middle-East conflicts.
• "Turkish police detain 20 Islamic State suspects in Antalya resort ahead of G20 summit"--The Telegraph. 
• "Tor Just Launched the Easiest App Yet for Anonymous, Encrypted IM"--Wired.
• "Turns Out Police Stingray Spy Tools Can Indeed Record Calls"--Wired. "Now newly released documents confirm long-held suspicions that the controversial devices are also capable of recording numbers for a mobile phone’s incoming and outgoing calls, as well as intercepting the content of voice and text communications. The documents also discuss the possibility of flashing a phone’s firmware 'so that you can intercept conversations using a suspect’s cell phone as a bug.'" As a reminder: read The Lizard Farmer's article on "How They Hunt."
• "Bank Of Ireland Bans 'Small' Cash Withdrawals At Branches"--Zero Hedge. "After all, if people can’t withdraw paper money and stash it under the mattress, then interest rates can be as negative as the government wants them to be in order to “encourage” consumption."
• "Mass immigration is on the verge of DESTROYING Europe, blasts LEO MCKINSTRY"--Daily Express. "Eager to parade their humanitarian credentials politicians will open the doors even further and impose even greater burdens on European taxpayers. So the cycle of decline will gather momentum. None of us ever voted for our demise. ... But without any democratic mandate that is what the politicians have inflicted."
• "AP Sources: Obama Admin. Rejects Application to Build Keystone XL Pipeline"--The Blaze. Unnamed sources have told the AP that Obama will be denying the application for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
• "Shelf Life of Household Bleach"--All Things Provident.
• "Off Grid Cooking: The Haybox"--Neo-Survivalist. It is insulative cooking: you heat an item up to its cooking temperature (generally, something that needs to be boiled or simmered for a while), then take it off the heat source and put it into an insulative box or bag or container (e.g., a thermos) that can maintain the heat over a long time and finish cooking it, It is a method of saving your fuel and/or allowing you to cook multiple items with just a single burner or heat source.
• "Winning Deadly Force Encounters"--Blue Sheepdog. From the introduction to the article:

In a deadly force engagement the threat must be stopped as quickly as possible. Firearms instructors have a duty and responsibility to train their students to win – not just survive a deadly force encounter. Winning means the officer was mentally and physically prepared, observed and identified the lethal threat, engaged and subdued the lethal threat, and was legally justified in his or her actions.

Winning encompasses surviving, but surviving on its own simply means the officer did not die from the encounter. Winning leaves the shooter mentally and physically prepared to continue with life in a healthy way.

To win a deadly force encounter requires several key components, that must be mastered by the officer. The ability to win a deadly force encounter begins well before the actual threat manifests itself. The mental and physical preparation must have begun long before deadly force is required, or the officer will not be able to process through the OODA Loop and successfully respond to the threat. These concepts are so important that I feel compelled to expand on them before I get into the arguments for upper chest targeting and anatomy.

The author then goes into details on what he considers the five keys: 

1. Proper Mindset – Possess a fundamental belief system to be at peace with taking another human life when necessary
2. Understanding the Law – Comprehensive knowledge of when the law allows deadly force in self-defense or the defense of others
3. Firearm Familiarity – Full understanding of the manual of arms for the primary (and back-up) firearm
4. Mastery of Shooting Fundamentals – Proper draw, solid shooting platform, sight alignment, target identification and beyond, trigger pull and reset, follow-up shots, evaluating shot placement and effectiveness, scanning and breathing, securing the threat after the shooting
5. Knowledge of Vital Targeting Areas – Cranial vault, upper thoracic cavity (upper chest), pelvic girdle.

It is a detailed article, and worth the read and, probably, printing or saving. 

• "Five reasons to shoot your Every-Day-Carry Self-Defense ammunition!"--God, Gals, Guns, Grub. Not the least is that you should try to keep fairly fresh ammo in your gun, so you might as well shoot up the older stuff you've been carrying around for a while.
• "When Collapse Is Cheaper and More Effective Than Reform"--Of Two Minds. (H/t Woodpile Report). Charles Hugh Smith restates Tainter's theses in a very short and succinct manner:

Collapse does not need to be complete or sudden. Collapse tends to be a process, not an event.

Collapse begins when you can't find any doctors willing to accept Medicaid payments, when the potholes don't get filled even when voters approve millions of dollars in new taxes, and when kids aren't learning anything remotely useful or practical despite the school board raising tens of millions of dollars in additional property taxes.

Collapse begins when real reform becomes impossible.

• As a reminder, both Ol'Remus at The Woodpile Report, and, more recently, The Lizard Farmer have started putting up new material.
• And, last but not least, it's Friday ... time for Active Response Training's Weekend Knowledge Dump.