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Friday, November 30, 2018

November 30, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

"The New York City Shakespeare Riot"--The History Guy (14 min.)
The riot was in 1849, and was already showing how immigration and wealth disparity was affecting the country. 

In the dead of winter 1944, U.S. Navy officer Frank Grismer discovered an unknown British soldier who had perished on the beachfront of Anzio, Italy, still clutching a .45 caliber submachine gun affectionately known by G.I.s as the Tommy Gun. His body lay in the vicinity of 19 deceased German soldiers.
  • Related: "ADDRESSING AND BREAKING THE 'AK STIGMA'"--American Partisan. The author notes that "[w]ith the virtual explosion of AMERICAN custom shops for both the production of AK rifles and parts and accessories, the AK shooter is finally on level footing, at least parts wise, with the Golden Child of the civilian rifle shooting community, the AR-15," yet there remains a stigma that the weapon is a "terrorist" or "criminals" weapon, or are cheap.
            Stange’s design was nothing short of remarkable. He created a gas-operated weapon using a lightened version of the Lewis machine gun action, which fired from a closed bolt in semiauto and an open bolt in automatic. To reduce the overall length, the magazine well was on the left of the receiver with the pistol grip directly below it. The side-mounted magazine was the weapon’s only real weakness – the weight of the steel box and twenty full-bore rounds unbalanced it slightly – but the result was a rifle half a pound lighter and six inches shorter than the Garand, with more than double the magazine capacity and an integrated bipod and flip-out spike bayonet. Incredibly, it was only an inch longer than the StG44 assault rifle and several ounces lighter, despite firing a full-power round. The straight-line stock and effective muzzle brake meant automatic fire was reasonably controllable, and fired from the bipod it made an effective SAW.
             Some features of the FG42 were remarkably modern. It came with a rail for a ZF 4 telescopic sight, but was also fitted with flip-up iron sights almost identical to the ones you’d fit on your flat-top AR15. The bipod and optical sight let soldiers exploit the power of its heavy round at long range, making it a respectable designated marksman’s rifle. It could launch rifle grenades straight off the muzzle brake without any special attachments. The action was so robust that the USA later modified it as the basis for the M60 machine gun.
      Perhaps this is the route that the West should have followed instead of the M-14 and FAL.
      • "Forgotten Memo Shows Gun-grabbing Built into FBI’s DNA"--Ammo Land. A 1936 memo from Herbert Hoover expresses dismay over the .357 Magnum and other more powerful handguns to come, and suggests banning them.
      • "Revolvers for Women: Guess Again"--The Truth About Guns. I don't know what it is, but I have recently seen a flurry of articles from female shooters getting their panties in a wad because a gun store salesman was condescending toward them or ignored them. Here is the ugly truth: gun store salesmen are condescending to everyone and often ignore them--even males. I'm a middle-aged man and still have salesmen ignore me, or talk to me like I don't know the difference between a rifle and a pack of gum. I try not to take it personal. They know that (a) most people looking at firearms are just looking and not buying, and (b) the salesmen probably know, or think they know, more than the person that just walked in off the street. They only way around this is to talk with the gun salesman and let them get to know you; heck, once they find out that you know something about guns, they are generally more than happy to talk your ear off. 


      "Covert Cosmic Currents"--Suspicious Observers (7 min.)
      Every single attempt to detect dark matter has failed. It is probably because there is no "dark matter" (meaning some exotic particle) but that the extra mass ascribed to "dark matter" is simply ordinary matter such as gas, dust, or plasma, that we simply, for one reason or another, cannot detect at intersteller or intergalactic distances.

      Solar phenomena such as flares and solar energetic particles events are potential candidates to affect the global atmospheric electric circuit. One can study these effects using measurements of the atmospheric electric field in fair weather regions. In this paper, we investigate deviations of the atmospheric electric field daily curve during solar disturbances (solar flares and solar proton events) from mean values obtained in fair weather conditions. Using the superposed epoch analysis, in order to enhance the visualization of small effects, we study the atmospheric electric field data observed between January 2010 and December 2015 at the Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito, San Juan, Argentina. The results show no deviation of the atmospheric electric field after solar flares, and an increase of about 10 V/m after solar proton events. The last result suggests possible ionization effects above thunderstorm in disturbed weather regions, which alters the global atmospheric electric circuit. On the other hand, we analyze the variation of the atmospheric electric field during a ground level enhancement on 17 May 2012, which was capable to produce changes on the surface electric field.
               What should Christian feminists do with their old “purity” rings, symbols of a patriarchal theology that has harmed countless women?
                Melt them down, says progressive Christian author and theologian Nadia Bolz-Weber, and create something completely new. 
                  On Monday, Bolz-Weber issued a call on Twitter for people to send her those rings “for a massive art project.”
                    In certain evangelical Christian circles, the rings were given to young girls as symbols of a pledge they made to abstain from sex until marriage. But the rings ― and more broadly, the Christian purity culture of the 1990s and 2000s ― also shamed young girls into disconnecting from their bodies, Bolz-Weber argues.
                      With the help of artist Nancy Anderson, Bolz-Weber said she plans to melt down the rings that people send her and recast them as a “golden vagina.” She said that the project ― part of a promotion for Shameless, her upcoming book about sex and Christianity ― is about “reclamation” of women’s bodies.
                * * *
                       Bolz-Weber is collecting purity rings until Dec. 17. In exchange, senders will receive a silicone “impurity” ring and a “Certificate of Impurity.”  
                The article also explains that "Bolz-Weber was the founding pastor of Denver’s House for All Sinners and Saints, a progressive, queer-inclusive Lutheran congregation." And, as you would expect, she is a broad-shouldered, man-jawed, tattooed horror. But like a dog returning to its vomit, or a moth drawn to a flame, take note that she is obligated to build an idol of what she worships.  It will actually be kind of hard for us that reached mortality to be cast into outer darkness after the Great White Throne Judgment, but Bolz-Weber is pure evil and, I think, has a pretty good shot at succeeding (failing?).
                During a public event held today (Nov. 29), the agency unveiled nine new partners that will be designing and building lunar landers aimed at facilitating scientific exploration of the moon. In addition to the specific companies chosen, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine also announced that the program running those contracts — the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program — is now part of the science section of NASA's bureaucracy, not the human exploration section.
                The companies are Astrobotic Technology Inc., Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace Inc., Intuitive Machines LLC, Lockheed Martin Space, Masten Space Systems, Inc., Moon Express and Orbit Beyond. I know that there are some that poo-poo space exploration and development, but spreading into the solar system will be more important and transformative than the discovery of the New World.
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                Thursday, November 29, 2018

                November 29, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

                "Portland is a Sh*thole"--Paul Joseph Watson (12 min.)
                The decline of civilization happening right before our eyes.

                • "MEDICAL REFERENCES: TAKING THE NEXT STEP UP"--American Partisan. The author recently gave recommendations as to basic medical texts. Now he lists the texts and references needed to take you to the next level.
                • "Remington Introduces the RM380 Executive"--The Truth About Guns. This new model sports a metal frame, yet is still only 12.2 ounces unloaded.
                • "Homemade Primer Course" (PDF) by W. Marshall Thompson PhD. As the title suggests, this is a primer on making your own primers (well, I thought it was a good pun). Even if you are not interested in making your own rifle or pistol primers, this is an interesting read because of the history of primers and the compounds used in them.


                "Plasma Universe"--Suspicious Observers (11 min.)

                Greek diplomats were issuing visas to unaccompanied children in order to facilitate illegal removal of their organs, "but the press did not write about them." — Nikos Kotzias, Greece's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, in an interview on November 20, 2018.
                       But when re-surveyed a month later, the students, especially liberals — who reported stronger feelings of manichaeism in the first place — basically went back to hating their political opponents.
                        "Liberal beliefs that conservatives are evil only temporarily improved," the study concluded.
                    Good riddance. Many, many more churches need to die. They are not Christian churches, they are Churchian organizations that have been converged and are following the lead of the world into total irrelevance and eventual extinction. 
                               Over Thanksgiving, a group of busybodies started online-campaigning to get people who make money from sex audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Using the hashtag #ThotAudit, these troublemakers attempted to report attractive women to the IRS, presumably assuming that their targets are or have been engaging in mass tax evasion that the bored online hordes suddenly feel must be stopped.
                                Many conservatives and libertarians, including those here at The Federalist, spilled ink on this, some in support of the #ThotAudit instigators. In my opinion, though, there’s something nasty and immoral, from a libertarian perspective, about siccing a government agency like the IRS on people who have been routinely victimized by that very entity––the federal government.
                          Wolfe seems to have missed the triggering point for the backlash, however, which is that the thots were destroying game sites by their never ending spamming, and the users were sick of it. Even Wolfe admits that "[t]he most likely end result is ... sex workers becoming increasingly incentivized to ... stay far away from the countless online do-nothings looking to get them." Which was the whole point of the Audit a Thot campaign.
                            The commander-in-chief said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from Robert Mueller’s probe — and predicted the disclosure would expose the FBI, the Justice Department and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up.
                            • Higher education bubble: "Overseas students turn away from US"--BBC. The article breathlessly reports that "The number of new international students enrolling at United States universities and colleges went down by almost 7% last year, according to official data published this month." The author blames President Trump rather than the increasing madness of the universities. Whatever. The reason the universities are worried has nothing to do with "diversity," but money: "It's the second year in a row that the number of new international enrolments in the US has declined, denting a market worth $42bn (£33bn) to the US economy last year." Maybe aggrieved minority studies degrees just aren't worth much in most other countries.
                            • The collapse of complex societies: "It Was The Blackest Of Pills, It Was The Whitest Of Pills"--Château Heartiste. A short excerpt:
                                      What we see everywhere our eyes are allowed to recognize is one institution after another being destroyed from within by the very individuals who depend on it or who own it. Government (and news media, “churches,” medical systems, pretty much everything) becomes ever-less capable.
                                       All these systems now obey the iron laws of monopoly, inevitably closing in on the Black Hole Phenomenon where resources go in and nothing of value subsequently emerges. The nation-state, instituted to bring order and stop internecine warfare, is now the primary source of disorder and inter-group warfare.
                                         'The Great Plains were originally thought to be sparsely populated, but this suggests that an intricate system of towns and cities dotted the regional map instead.' 
                                           Some artefacts found at the site contained rocks and minerals not found in the local area.
                                            'It is my belief that indigenous groups from the Great Plains traded not only with other groups from the east and west coasts, but with civilisations belonging to Central and South America as well.' 
                                              'It totally rewrites the history books,' Dr Blakeslee said. 'It's a reminder that history is fluid; every answer we uncover just leads to more questions.'
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                                        Wednesday, November 28, 2018

                                        November 28, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

                                        "How does Remington R51 work?"--Noble Empire (2 min.)
                                        A cutaway animation of how the R51's mechanism works.

                                        The radio receives 150kHz-30mHz, and transmits on the amateur bands of 80m-10m. It is a true SDR, having an excellent receiver and a very simple layout for controls. There are not any complicated menus, being even simpler than my Icom 7200 to operate. Finding a frequency is as simple as using the arrow buttons and turning the main tuning knob. The operator can rapidly skip through the various bands using the band button and change the operating modes via the mode button. I have not seen a radio with a layout this simple; the Icom 706 series came close and the 7200 does also, but this rig by far has the shallowest learning curve to getting on the air.
                                        He also notes, later on:
                                        Other features of this rig really demonstrate the thought towards versatility the designers put in. All attachment points are on the rear of the rig, including standard speaker and CW (morse code) key plugs, Yaesu microphone jack, and a standard data jack found on Yaesu radios as well as a USB jack for firmware updates and to pull data being received by the radio over the air.
                                        The unit is a pricey at $1,000, but the author really likes all the features (and there are much more than detailed in the excerpts I've included).
                                        The #1, absolutely, positively, you're going to die mistake, is to take the "Lone Wolf" approach.  You know who I'm talking about.  The guy on the prepping forum that plans to move out to the national forest and "live off the land" like the Legend of Mick Dodge.  I would estimate that only 30% of those individuals actually believe they have the necessary skills to pull it off, while the other 70% are too lazy to actually make long term preparations and they've just convinced themselves that if Rambo can do it, then they can too.  Either way, none of them have ever stopped to actually consider what surviving in the wild looks like AFTER YOU FACTOR IN A SHTF SCENARIO.  While a small percentage of the 30% might make it through the winter in normal times, only a small fraction could do it during a SHTF scenario.
                                        Lest you feel smug, he then discusses why other strategies--being a looter/raider, roamer, living in a suburban bunker, being a pacifist, trying to survive in place or by fortifying your neighborhood are also poor strategies. He continues:
                                        The overwhelming truth in all these scenarios, once again, comes down to a single focus.  It’s not the EMP, the cyber attack, or the solar flare that is going to kill you.  Your plans MUST include staying as far away from the starving masses as possible.  Aside from the resurgence of long forgotten diseases like cholera and dysentery from poor sanitation and hygiene, the starving and desperate masses (even the everyday Joes) are going to be the real killers.  So maybe I’ve convinced you to second guess some of your plans.  Now what?  Back to square one?  Not quite.  All the supplies and food you’ve already attained is still needed.  You just need to stage them far away from the population centers and you can actually do this on a budget.  Don’t bank on the fact that you are going to have a running vehicle or clear roads to load up all your gear and bug out of town.  Regardless, you must get out of town which means bugging out.  To do so requires a pre-organized plan of action though.  Here are my recommendations.
                                        This is a complex subject, and the reality is that no one has any idea what major upheaval will look like in an advanced technological culture with over 300 million people and over 400 million firearms. For every historical example I can think of where fleeing for the hills was better than staying in the city (e.g., the 70 A.D. siege of Jerusalem), I can think of other examples where it was better to stay in the city or, at least, it was no worse than the countryside. Selco survived a civil war in Sarajevo and I've never seen anything he has written suggesting it would have been better for the people living in a small town. FerFal survived an economic crises in Argentina and was adamant that living where the jobs were and trade still flourished was critical. During the Black Plague, in Europe, there were cities that saw as high as 50 or 60% mortality rates ... and smaller towns and villages that were completely wiped out. During the 30 Years War, living in rural communities or remote locations did not save you when roaming armies and mercenaries passed through. 
                                        • "The Top 10 Attacks You Should Train For"--Schafer's Self-Defense Corner. They are: (1) Charging forward and throwing multiple punches; (2) The right roundhouse punch; (3) The sucker punch; (4) Being attacked from behind by surprise; (5) "The sacrificial lamb" where one guy distracts or attacks you from the front, and his buddies attack from the sides or rear; (6) A two handed choke; (7) Having your collar grabbed; (8) Getting stabbed "for real", i.e., not seeing the knife beforehand and being attacked with multiple, quick stabs; (9) Having a gun pulled on you from outside of arm’s reach; and (10) Having a gun pulled on you from within arm’s reach.
                                        • "Marines Get the Official OK to Wear These 7 New Boot Styles"--Kit Up! So, if you are looking for list of boots that are tough enough for the Marines, here you go. Needless to say, models from Danner dominate the list.
                                        • I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked! "Study By Anti-Gun Researchers Finds Universal Background Checks Do Nothing to Decrease Violence, Suicides"--The Truth About Guns. I suspect a ban on beanie babies, however, would show some real results.


                                        "NATO Falls Apart - But Not Because of Trump"--Classiarius (5 min.)
                                        NATO is falling apart because its purpose--defending Western Europe from the Soviet Union--is moot. It no longer has a real purpose ... at least, from the perspective of most European countries and the United States. But it did have an unintended purpose, which was to protect the rest of Europe from Germany. Which is why, the author suggests, France is calling for a European army even as the U.S. signals a reduced interest in supporting NATO. The author predicts that if the U.S. withdrew its forces from Europe, Germany would quickly realize that it needs to expand its military and would do so. He also predicts that there will, eventually, be another European war as a result.

                                                A pair of researchers with the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Norway has found that IQ test scores have been slowly dropping over the past several decades. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bernt Bratsberg and Ole Rogeberg describe their study and the results they found. They also offer some possible explanations for their findings.
                                                Prior studies have shown that people grew smarter over the first part of last century, as measured by the intelligence quotient—a trend that was dubbed the Flynn effect. Various theories have been proposed to explain this apparent brightening of the human mind, such as better nutrition, health care, education, etc, all factors that might help people grow into smarter adults than they would have otherwise. But, now, according to the researchers in Norway, that trend has ended. Instead of getting smarter, humans have started getting dumber.
                                                  The study by the team consisted of analyzing IQ test results from young men entering Norway's national service (compulsory military duty) during the years 1970 to 2009. In all, 730,000 test results were accounted for. In studying the data, the researchers found that scores declined by an average of seven points per generation, a clear reversal of test results going back approximately 70 years.
                                                    The mother seen in a now-famous photo desperately pulling her daughters away from tear gas plumes at the US-Mexico border said she never imagined American forces would fire mace canisters at women and children.
                                                     “We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children, because there were lots of children,” Maria Meza said in an interview with Reuters.
                                                It seems that THOTs [That Ho Over There] on Snapchat and other platforms are using PayPal to charge men to see "premium snaps," which are nudes or pornography. It's also possible that these ladies of social media are not reporting their earnings to the IRS. In an effort that can only be described as hilarious, the anons at 4chan have launched a full-scale war on THOTs across all platforms. Women who fish for lonely and susceptible beta boys are the bane of many gamers, whose platforms are being taken over by the sex trollers. These women solicit in male-dominated platforms and many of the men who use the platforms are sick of it.
                                                   More from Heartiste if you are interested. 
                                                            Bradford, known as E.J., was among the shoppers who crowded the [Riverchase Galleria] mall on Thursday when, police say, gunshots wounded an 18-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl. Bradford apparently was armed. Police showed up on the scene and shot him, and announced that in doing so, they had ended the threat. They later acknowledged that Bradford had not been the shooter. But they claimed that he had "brandished" his gun at the scene, leading to a "heightened sense of threat" in an already dangerous situation.
                                                            Certainly, if a man holds a gun at the scene of a shooting, police are more likely to zero in on him than on others. Officers arrive in the midst of extremely tense, life-threatening and fast-moving situations and must think quickly.
                                                                Yet guns are ubiquitous in this nation, whether we like it or not. Many people carry them legally, and for just this kind of situation — to be the "good guy with a gun" who stops the armed bad guy. No less than the president of the United States has called for more armed citizens, so that in the midst of an altercation, many guns might be wielded by good guys and bad guys alike. Officers should expect it. They should be trained for it.
                                                                Police are human, but they are also specialists. It should not be asking too much to require them to understand who they are about to shoot at before pulling their own triggers — not just in spite of the chaos that's inherent at the scene of a fight but precisely because of it. They represent the law and they represent order. That's what they should be expected to bring to a scene of violence and confusion.
                                                                   China has become a major investor in Africa, challenging Western influence on the continent.
                                                                    It has promised to spend $60bn in investment, aid and loans in Africa over the next three years, mostly in infrastructure development.
                                                                      "The thing that makes you happy about their aid is that it is not tied to any conditions. When they decide to give you, they just give you," Mr Magufuli said.
                                                                  I think what he means is that China doesn't care if corrupt government officials skim off the top.
                                                                  The extreme space weather events of early August 1972 had significant impact on the U.S. Navy, which have not been widely reported. These effects, long buried in the Vietnam War archives, add credence to the severity of the storm: a nearly instantaneous, unintended detonation of dozens of sea mines south of Hai Phong, North Vietnam on 4 August 1972. This event occurred near the end of the Vietnam War. The U.S. Navy attributed the dramatic event to magnetic perturbations of solar storms. In researching these events we determined that the widespread electric‐ and communication‐grid disturbances that plagued North America and the disturbances in southeast Asia late on 4 August likely resulted from propagation of major eruptive activity from the Sun to the Earth. The activity fits the description of a Carrington‐class storm minus the low‐latitude aurora reported in 1859. We provide insight into the solar, geophysical, and military circumstances of this extraordinary situation. In our view this storm deserves a scientific revisit as a grand challenge for the space weather community, as it provides space‐age terrestrial observations of what was likely a Carrington‐class storm. 
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                                                                  Tuesday, November 27, 2018

                                                                  November 27, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

                                                                  "HR 7115: 3D Firearms & "DIY Assault Weapons" Ban"--Liberty Doll (7 min.)
                                                                  A succinct summary and analysis of HR 7115, a bill that has been proposed by House Democrats that would essentially ban the manufacture of receivers by hobbyists, ban builds or repairs of "assault weapons," and defines "assault weapon" as all semi-auto rifles or shotguns with detachable magazines, and most semi-auto pistols, as well.

                                                                  • A new Woodpile Report is up. One of the articles he references is "Why Understanding the Brutal Reality of the SHTF Could Save Your Life" from Organic Prepper. The gist of the article is that we are going to see some truly cruel, brutal things post-SHTF, and if we are aware of it and internalize that knowledge, we won't freeze or be unable to react when we are actually exposed to the brutality. Part of what will be revealed to us, according to the author, are the true predators and monsters that live around us, that will kill and torture for fun. My belief is that (1) such people will quickly be hunted down and destroyed, and (2) it will be transitory until some law and order is restored. Where you live will probably have a lot to do with how long until order is restored.
                                                                  • "Range Review: Glock 26 Gen 5"--Shooting Illustrated. Tamera Keel likes the Gen 5 version, enough so that she is considering using it for her CCW. Key points were a better grip (no finger grooves), better trigger on the Gen 5, and better sights.
                                                                  • "Sunny Italy, New Found Gun Freedoms"--Ammo Land. The new law doubles the number of weapons licensed citizens can own, eliminates limits on magazine capacity, and allows citizens to own military style firearms (by which I interpret it to mean that citizens can purchase weapons that use military calibers). According to the article, Italians are applying for licenses and buying firearms in record numbers.
                                                                  • "THE BACKPACKER’S WOODSTOVE"--American Partisan. The author explains:
                                                                  Recently, I purchased a wood stove made by Firebox. The model I purchased was the G2 Folding Firebox Stove. Along with it, I also bought the Extended Grill Plate. Why did I purchase a small woodburning stove? The answer is pretty simple when you think it through. My primary stove has been an MSR Whisperlite International for about 28 years. It is a multifuel stove, works well in every environment I’ve used it in, and has the ability to use a lot of the liquid fuels available. Problem is, what if liquid fuels aren’t available?
                                                                  • "7 tips for Securing a Cash Stash at Home"--The Modern Survivalist. The issue with this is to avoid the places that would be obvious to a burglar. FerFal notes, however, that "You know your own house better than anyone, after looking around and giving it some thought you can probably think of a little corner or hidden space somewhere where anyone not familiar with your house would have a hard time figuring out. That’s where you want to hide it." But he also warns about hiding it so well that you forget where it is. He suggests telling someone else (e.g., sharing with a spouse) so that it doesn't become a found treasure for a subsequent home owner. Another suggestion he raises is having a decoy safe or stash in an obvious place that has less important valuables or smaller amounts of cash, and then a second hidden stash where the real stuff is hidden.
                                                                  • "Bioscarf – Gear for Preppers"--Ed That Matters. Short take: "The Bioscarf is a great little piece of gear that I am happy to recommend.  Not only is it stylish, but the scarf has a built-in layer that filters out 99.75 % of airborne particulates that are 0.1 microns or larger. "


                                                                  "STOP STEPPING OFFLINE"--Warrior Poet Society (6 min.)
                                                                  The author isn't saying to not try and get off the "X", but that the movement must be useful. A simple sidestep, which can be effective in hand-to-hand combat, is generally insufficient when someone is aiming a firearm at you because the attacker will only have to slightly adjust their aim to strike you.

                                                                  The LAPD, “all the way up to the very, very top,” did their best to protect the dirty cops Carson believes helped orchestrate Biggie’s murder. As part of that effort, powerful forces launched what Carson described as a campaign to assassinate his own character. According to Carson, these forces included the Los Angeles Times, the City Attorney of Los Angeles, members of LAPD Chief Bill Bratton’s inner circle, and cops in the department’s famed Robbery-Homicide Division.
                                                                          And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
                                                                           And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
                                                                              And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
                                                                              A stressed-out and traumatized father can leave scars in his children. New research suggests this happens because sperm “learn” paternal experiences via a mysterious mode of intercellular communication in which small blebs break off one cell and fuse with another.
                                                                               Carrying proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, these particles ejected from a cell act like a postal system that extends to all parts of the body, releasing little packages known as extracellular vesicles. Their contents seem carefully chosen. “The cargo inside the vesicle determines not just where it came from but where it’s going and what it’s doing when it gets there,” says Tracy Bale, a neurobiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
                                                                                 Preliminary research Bale and others, announced this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, shows how extracellular vesicles can regulate brain circuits and help diagnose neurodegenerative diseases—in addition to altering sperm to disrupt the brain health of resulting offspring.
                                                                                  Striking evidence that harsh conditions affect a man’s children came from crop failures and war ravaging Europe more than a century ago. In those unplanned human experiments, prolonged famine appeared to set off a host of health changes in future generations, including higher cholesterol levels and increased rates of obesity and diabetes. To probe the inheritance of such changes at the cellular level, Bale and co-workers performed a series of mouse experiments.
                                                                              Evolution does not take the time that most believe.

                                                                              "Why US Companies Are Leaving China"--China Uncensored (7 min.)
                                                                              The trade war continues to hurt China, with an increasing number of manufacturers (and not just U.S. companies) deciding to depart China for other waters: some to the U.S., but many to Vietnam and Indonesia. The result is that China's reported GDP (what they tell the rest of the world) increased less than 7%, meaning that the real rate is probably much lower.

                                                                              BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

                                                                              Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
                                                                              The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
                                                                              Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
                                                                              Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
                                                                              The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
                                                                              The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
                                                                              The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
                                                                              Are full of passionate intensity.

                                                                              Surely some revelation is at hand;
                                                                              Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   
                                                                              The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   
                                                                              When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
                                                                              Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   
                                                                              A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   
                                                                              A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   
                                                                              Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   
                                                                              Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   
                                                                              The darkness drops again; but now I know   
                                                                              That twenty centuries of stony sleep
                                                                              Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   
                                                                              And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   
                                                                              Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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                                                                              Monday, November 26, 2018

                                                                              Don't Know Much About History -- Pundit Compares Border Wall to Berlin Wall

                                                                              I almost burst out laughing when I saw this headline at USA Today: "As American troops install razor wire in Arizona, images of the Berlin Wall resurface." The author of the piece is Frances Lynch who is an immigration attorney, and, undoubtedly, has a financial interest in continued illegal immigration. Here is the laughable part: "As I watch the military personnel installing mile after mile of razor wire, I’m reminded of another wall, one that caused my own family grief and pain: the Berlin Wall." He overlooks one important fact: the Berlin Wall was constructed to keep East Germans from leaving that communist utopia, not keep West Germans from illegally immigrating to East Germany!
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                                                                              November 26, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

                                                                              "The Dangers of Compliance Are Real | Active Self Protection" (7 min.)
                                                                              In this video, we see security footage from 3 convenience store robberies. In each case, the robber didn't even bother to seek compliance, but simply shot the clerks. While none of these clerks were carrying a firearm, you have to consider that if you were openly carrying, a potential robber may do the same to you--i.e., just shoot you without warning--because they spotted the weapon.

                                                                              • "Getting a Grip on Things"--Scott Wagner at Vance Outdoors. Wagner notes that "[t]he handgun is technically a 'one hand gun' originally designed to be fired only from the shooting hand," and we should take that into account both with our grip and selection of a weapon in the first place. Or, as the author puts it:
                                                                              But this article isn't about shooting technique per se-it's about making sure that the handgun you purchase is first and foremost a one hand gun. Because whether you realize it or not, any shooting conflict you might be involved in comes with little time to prepare for the fight. This means you will likely fight by with one hand only-particularly if lateral movement or advancing movements are needed. One-handed shooting is something that isn't practiced enough.
                                                                              Wagner relates:
                                                                              Lt. Robison told me that in order to be a great shot you literally had to get a "death grip" (also known as a "crush grip") on the gun during the draw and back off just a hair before shooting, otherwise your hand will start to tremble as you hold it, which is why he said to back off a hair until the trembling stopped. It was essential for me to practice this grip acquisition with an empty gun before I engaged in live fire.
                                                                              But:
                                                                                      The problem is, if a handguns grip is too large for your hand, you will not be able to get a crush grip on it. Revolvers are the easiest type of handgun to grip in this fashion as their grip does not double as the ammunition storage compartment. This means that selecting a semi-automatic will require greater care with an eye towards proper grip especially if you have medium sized hands. If you have small hands careful selection is even more critical.

                                                                                       When you select a handgun for defensive use, concentrate on how it fits in one hand, not two. Ideally when you grip the handgun, the tip of the middle finger of your shooting hand should be within an inch or so of touching where the base of your thumb joins the palm. With nearly any double action revolver, -even with larger aftermarket grips-my fingertip is within a half inch or less of touching my thumbs base. The same is true for Walther PPKs .380 whose grip design is superb. With a 1911 pistol, which is sized for nearly everyone, my fingertip is within an inch of touching. With a large circumference pistol like my Beretta 92, the gap increases to about 1 1/2 inches, which is at the maximum distance for me.
                                                                                    * * *
                                                                                            But the crush grip isn't just about accuracy-it's about getting the first shot on the threat. If your handgun grip is too large, and you find yourself having to re-adjust your hand into a proper shooting position after you draw, then you have a problem. Also, if you are constantly readjusting your grip to gain control as you fire, then your handgun grip is too large. Using the correctly sized handgun and keeping a crush grip on it with the shooting hand is also important in terms of retaining control of that handgun if someone should attempt to grab it and wrest it from your control. If there is too much gap between your middle fingertip and palm, it will be easier for them to gain control as that area of your hand as your ability to grip is weakened.
                                                                                        This ties in with what I've said before about selecting a handgun based on what I termed "pointability"--i.e., that when you push it out, the trigger finger extended along the side of the weapon, the sights should be on target or close to it. The more you have to adjust the gun when you present it, the slower you will be.
                                                                                        • "Gear Review: The Laplander Folding Saw"--Tim Gamble. He calls it one of the most useful tools he owns, and describes it as "[v]ery sharp and tough, this folding saw's blade is 7½  inches long. I've used it to easily handle branches up to 3 inches in diameter, and am sure it could handle bigger with a little effort. It is designed to cut wood, plastic, and bone. The teeth are arranged so that the saw cuts both ways - on the push and the pull."
                                                                                        • "Overview of the Holosun 403C Red Dot Sight"--Charles Yor at The Survivalist Blog. Yor likes the idea of the Holosun sight--a red dot sight powered by a solar cell--but did not have a good experience. Of the two sights that he tested, the first stopped working after several hundred rounds through the rifle he was using as a platform, while the second had something go wrong where he couldn't adjust the brightness. I have a Holosun 515CM, which is their "military grade" sight and have not had any issues with the sight or its base (although the lens caps keep popping open). The reviews I see of the Holosun products are mixed, and it seems that you either get a keeper or its quickly apparent that something is wrong.
                                                                                        • "The Hobo Hieroglyphs: Their Secret Symbols, Explained"--Popular Mechanics.
                                                                                        • "Prepping Tips for the Chronically Ill and Disabled"--Backdoor Survival. The author has some good tips, but also warns:
                                                                                          Let me say right up front that not every disability or limitation will be covered in this article. That task is nigh impossible in a short paper. There are such diverse limitations and as many types of scenarios to prepare for. Some folks are not going to make it, although if people with disabilities prepare well they can have a better chance of making it than those who are healthy and totally unprepared and clueless. My point is to do what you can to make yourself as ready as you possibly can. Please accept that this article is limited in scope, but I hope that some of these prepping tips for the chronically ill and disabled will be helpful to you and the situations you face.

                                                                                          "Top 5 Natural Threats to Global Civilization"--Suspicious Observers (6 min.)
                                                                                          Note that reduced solar activity, such as is anticipated for this next solar cycle, makes us more susceptible to several of these threats.
                                                                                                    For some children, America is failing to live up to its reputation as the land of opportunity – and often, the neighborhood where they grew up is the single biggest predictor of what their future will hold.
                                                                                                     Some of the most upwardly mobile communities in the country are just a few miles away from those where children are most likely to grow up to perpetuate a multi-generational cycle of poverty, according to The Opportunity Atlas, an interactive map that uses more than three decades of government data to predict childhood outcomes.
                                                                                                       The Atlas bases its projections on U.S. Census data and federal tax information gathered over time (through 2015) on people born from 1978-1983 – now age 34-40. The project, conducted in partnership by the U.S. Census and Harvard University's Opportunity Insights group, illustrates the average actual outcomes of children who grew up in every community in America.
                                                                                                         The maps reveal some national trends on poverty and wealth – for example, the American South has the greatest concentration in the nation of children who grow up without ever escaping poverty, while the Northeast leads in outcomes of upward mobility.
                                                                                                    * * *
                                                                                                            While the U.S. is considered the land of opportunity – a nation where everyone is supposed to have a chance to pursue happiness – the Atlas offers evidence that for some children that ideal is an unfulfilled promise. In some cases simply merely because of where they were raised. [Underline added]
                                                                                                        Part of the issue is that, like it or not, we do not live in a meritocracy. As the article notes, "[r]ich children of average intelligence are more likely to succeed in life than brilliant people born into poor families, according to a new study that focuses on the intersection of genes and economics." I've noted before that meritocracy only lasts for one generation. The key to success is often what colleges you attend, and the Ive League schools are loath to admit students from middle America. But behind this study are cultural dysfunction in certain groups as well as lower overall IQs.
                                                                                                        • "The Woke Corporate Glass Ceiling"--Rod Dreher at The American Conservative. One of Dreher's readers relates that, as a straight, white male, he is insufficiently "diverse" for his employer, and warns that in corporate America, advancement is increasingly going to require that you publicly proclaim your "wokeness". Just like John warns in Revelation, those that won't take upon them the sign of the Beast will not be allowed to buy or sell.
                                                                                                        • Like Father, like Son: "Archbishop of Canterbury Declares God Gender Neutral"--Breitbart. From the article:
                                                                                                                 Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said that God is “not male nor female,” after female bishops demanded the Church of England stop referring to God solely as “he.”
                                                                                                                   The head of the worldwide Anglican communion told attendees at a lecture at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square: “All human language about God is inadequate and to some degree metaphorical.
                                                                                                                     “God is not a father in exactly the same way as a human being is a father. God is not male or female. God is not definable.
                                                                                                                      “It is extraordinarily important as Christians that we remember that the definitive revelation of who God is was not in words, but in the word of God who we call Jesus Christ. We can’t pin God down.”
                                                                                                                  Apparently, no one told Jesus: 
                                                                                                                           Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
                                                                                                                             Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
                                                                                                                        (John 14:8-9). 
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                                                                                                                        Saturday, November 24, 2018

                                                                                                                        November 24, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

                                                                                                                        "Navy SEAL test Ballistics through Walls | Tactical Rifleman" (32 min.)
                                                                                                                        The Tactical Rifleman has built segments of wall similar to what you might find used for a house or small business structure: plane brick facade (1 layer) over wood, brick facade over cinder block, bare cinder block (1 layer), wood exterior wall, and sheet rock interior wall. He also obtained a section of wall from a trailer house. The rounds he tested against each wall section were: 12-gauge bird-shot, 12-gauge 00 buckshot, 12-gauge 1 ounce slug, 9 mm FMJ (115 grain), 5.56 FMJ (55 grain). Of course, the interior sheet rock walls did not stop anything. The standard wood exterior wall also did not stop anything. As would be expected, the brick, brick/cinder block, and cinder block walls stopped the birdshot, buckshot, 9 mm and 5.56 rounds. Surprisingly, they also stopped the 1 ounce slugs. The damage from the slugs, the 9 mm, and 5.56 were sufficient, however, that multiple rounds at the same location probably could have quickly been able to breech the walls. I would have liked to see more powerful rifle calibers, such as 7.62x39 or .308.

                                                                                                                                ... America doesn’t lead the world in mass public shootings. We’re not even close. Just last month, a school shooting in Crimea, Russia, claimed 20 lives and wounded 65 others. But Americans usually don’t hear about such events.
                                                                                                                        * * *
                                                                                                                                Over the course of 18 years, from 1998 to 2015, our list contains 2,354 attacks and at least 4,880 shooters outside the United States and 53 attacks and 57 shooters within this country. By our count, the U.S. makes up 1.49 percent of the murders worldwide, 2.20 percent of the attacks, and less than 1.15 percent of the mass public shooters. All these are much less than America’s 4.6 percent share of the world population.
                                                                                                                                 Of the 97 countries where we identified mass public shootings, the U.S. ranks 64th per capita in its rate of attacks and 65th in fatalities. Major European countries, such as Norway, Finland, France, Switzerland and Russia, all have at least 25 percent higher per capita murder rates from mass public shootings.
                                                                                                                                   While Americans are rightly concerned by the increased frequency and severity of mass public shootings, the rest of the world is experiencing much larger increases in per capita rates of attack. The frequency of foreign mass public shootings since 1998 has grown 291 percent faster than in the U.S.
                                                                                                                              Second:
                                                                                                                                      ... 98 percent of mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in places where citizens are banned from having guns.
                                                                                                                                  Just a reminder that gun control isn't about safety, or even guns, but is simply about control.
                                                                                                                                    Improvised and craft-produced small arms and light weapons—which vary widely in terms of quality and safety—remain an important source of firepower for a wide range of actors, including tribal groups, poachers, criminals, insurgent groups, and even some states and quasi-state groups. In some areas, these weapons account for the vast majority of firearms used in crime; in others, their production is institutionalized, providing essential income for local gunsmiths. Some of these weapons are used locally, others are trafficked on a national, regional, or international scale. In Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere, armed non-state actors are regularly developing and employing new designs of improvised and craft-produced small arms and light weapons. 
                                                                                                                                    • "How to Stockpile and Store Water"--The Survivalist Blog. The article lists (without details) some places to find water in an emergency and containers that can be pressed into service to collect and store water in an emergency. The bulk of the article, however, discusses different containers that you might use to deliberately store water as part of your general storage.
                                                                                                                                    • "The Comfort of Wool"--Blue Collar Prepping. A reminder of the insulating properties of wool, even when wet.
                                                                                                                                    • "Kershaw Camp 18 Machete Review"--Alpha Survivalist. It features an 18-inch high-carbon steel blade and what appears to be a very nice sheath.
                                                                                                                                    • "The Best Survival Bicycle Transportation"--Modern Survival Blog. The author has compiled a list of things to consider when picking out a bicycle for preppers/survivalist. His choice is a mountain bike because of its off-road capabilities. This assumes using a bike for bugging-out to a rural location, or, perhaps, in a paramilitary role. As I've written before, the more likely scenario may well be using bicycles for day-to-day transportation when gasoline is in short supply or unavailable. In those cases, simplicity, ease-of-maintenance, and ability to haul cargo may be more important than off-road capabilities. Cargo racks and baskets are important, but difficult to attach to most mountain bikes.
                                                                                                                                    • More important than ever: "Spiritual Preparedness"--Tim Gamble. 
                                                                                                                                    Figure out your relationship with God.  This is the most important prep you can make, because the one SHTF event we are all guaranteed to face is our own death. Think about that for a moment. All the things we may be concerned about - an EMP attack, the collapse of the dollar, nuclear war, the Yellowstone super volcano, a worldwide pandemic, or whatever - may not happen in our lifetime, if it happens at all. But death is guaranteed to come for us all. If we spend a lot of time and effort preparing for events that might not happen, shouldn't we spend at least of little time and effort preparing for the one event that will happen?  
                                                                                                                                    Gamble gives some specific points to help boost your spiritual preparedness, so read the whole thing.

                                                                                                                                    "WHAT WOULD STILL BE WORKING AFTER AN EMP ATTACK?"--Penny University (4 min.)
                                                                                                                                            A superheated blast from the skies obliterated cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea around 3,700 years ago, preliminary findings suggest.
                                                                                                                                               Radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures indicate that a massive airburst caused by a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere instantaneously destroyed civilization in a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain called Middle Ghor, said archaeologist Phillip Silvia. The event also pushed a bubbling brine of Dead Sea salts over once-fertile farm land, Silvia and his colleagues suspect.
                                                                                                                                                People did not return to the region for 600 to 700 years, said Silvia, of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque. He reported these findings at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research on November 17.
                                                                                                                                                   Excavations at five large Middle Ghor sites, in what’s now Jordan, indicate that all were continuously occupied for at least 2,500 years until a sudden, collective collapse toward the end of the Bronze Age. Ground surveys have located 120 additional, smaller settlements in the region that the researchers suspect were also exposed to extreme, collapse-inducing heat and wind. An estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people inhabited Middle Ghor when the cosmic calamity hit, Silvia said.
                                                                                                                                              See also this article from Newsweek. 
                                                                                                                                              • "‘True polar wander’ may have caused ice age"--Rice University. "Gordon said, 'It was only about a 3 degree shift, but it had the effect of taking the mantle under the tropical Pacific and moving it to the south, and at the same time, it was shifting Greenland and parts of Europe and North America to the north. That may have triggered what we call the ice age.'"
                                                                                                                                              • Apparently not everyone in Pakistan is on board with China's New Silk Road: "Karachi attack: China consulate attack leaves four dead"--BBC. The article reports:
                                                                                                                                                       A separatist group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, said it had carried out the attack. It is one of a number of separatist groups operating in the province, which has seen a long-running nationalist insurgency.
                                                                                                                                                         "We have been seeing the Chinese as an oppressor, along with Pakistani forces," a spokesman for the group told the AFP news agency.
                                                                                                                                                           Over the years, construction projects and Chinese workers in Balochistan have been repeatedly targeted by militants. Most recently, a suicide bombing in August injured a number of Chinese engineers.
                                                                                                                                                             So far, none of the incidents has been large enough in scale to really threaten the viability of Chinese investment in the country. But this is one of the most prominent attacks to date.
                                                                                                                                                                Officials told the BBC's Stephen McDonell in Beijing they were confident the Pakistani government was able to manage the security situation to guarantee Chinese investment.
                                                                                                                                                        • "A Murder in Bamako - TTG"--Sic Semper Tyrannis. Commentary regarding the 2017 murder of a Green Beret by two Navy SEALs and two Marines. An excerpt:
                                                                                                                                                                 Since the initial reporting of this murder back in June 2017, stories circulated about the reason for the assault. The SEALs were skimming intelligence contingency funds, money meant to pay sources. That’s a mark of death among case officers. It’s a crime of unlimited opportunities. The only defense is the integrity and discipline of the practitioners. SSG Melgar reportedly called the SEALs on their transgressions and was prepared to report their crimes. That the SEALs may have committed a murder to cover up their crimes of theft and breach of trust is especially enraging.
                                                                                                                                                                  At least one report I read said SSG Melgar also confronted the SEALs about their poor fieldcraft or tradecraft. The special operations ethos doesn’t lend itself to running agents. That requires the finesse, patience and humility more common to my Special Forces brethren. 
                                                                                                                                                                     My experiences with the SEALs of DEVGRU did not leave me overly impressed. I and a couple of former Det Berlin Green Berets noted that their fieldcraft was shit when they weren’t assaulting an objective or swimming in the surf. I don’t know if this was a trait of the DEVGRU SEALs or all SEALs. 
                                                                                                                                                              • "50 Years Ago, The Population Bomb Dropped"--The Silicon Graybeard. A look back at one of the most influential Progressive lies--that a burgeoning population would render the planet uninhabitable by 1980 or so.
                                                                                                                                                              • I wonder why the Tech Oligarch's are so supportive of immigration and H1B visas? "Study: Over 20 years, Silicon Valley workers’ median wage has fallen by 14%"--Ars Technica. This is, obviously, looking at wages as measured by real dollars. It is simple supply and demand, and immigration is all about increasing the supply of labor in order to drive down wages. Anyone that supports immigration is in favor of undermining Americans' wages.
                                                                                                                                                              • This should end well: "Germany: Turkish-Muslim Appointed Second-In-Command of Domestic Intelligence"--Gatestone Institute. The intelligence officer in question is Sinan Selen. The article speculates that he was chosen to appease Turkey who has been pushing Germany to crack down on Kurdish separatists living in Germany. However, the article also notes that he might have been chosen for his willingness to investigate German nationalists, such as support the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. In other words, use a non-German to keep a thumb on native Germans.
                                                                                                                                                                       Despite research linking it to everything from breast cancer and blood clots to low libido and weight gain, it remains the most popular form of contraception for women today and is taken by more than 100 million women worldwide.
                                                                                                                                                                         But countless studies have identified strong links between taking the pill and poor mental health, and a new BBC Two documentary sheds light on the severity of the problem, revealing how it’s left some women suffering from depression and experiencing suicidal thoughts.
                                                                                                                                                                           The hormone in the pill that has been linked to prompting psychiatric complications is called progesterone, which is found in both the combined pill and the mini pill.
                                                                                                                                                                             Studies have linked the hormone to depression, anxiety and low mood, but researchers have yet to find an ethical way to prove cause and effect because this would involve distributing placebo pills to study subjects, which could lead to unwanted pregnancies, the moral complexities of which are obvious.
                                                                                                                                                                               A survey conducted by the team behind the documentary, titled The Contraceptive Pill: How Safe Is It?, found that one in four women taking the pill said it had negatively affected their mental health.
                                                                                                                                                                          Common knowledge in the manosphere.
                                                                                                                                                                          • "Smoking, Orphans, and the French"--Wilder, Wealthy and Wise. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but John Wilder notes a strong correlation between the popularity of smoking and incidences of heart disease.
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                                                                                                                                                                          Weekend Reading

                                                                                                                                                                           First up, although I'm several days late on this, Jon Low posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter on 12/15/2024 . He includes thi...