December 5, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"The Spanish Flu I THE GREAT WAR Epilogue 3"--The Great War (10 min.)

Notwithstanding the horrors of World War I, Indy Neidell explains how the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1920 killed far more people--in fact, it killed more than any other pandemic in history, and its effects were truly world wide. Interestingly, according to Indy, there is still no agreed upon source for the flu, compounded by the fact that wartime censorship prohibited mention of the flu in the news published in the various combatants except as to its impact in neutral countries. There is no agreed upon source of the flu, and it spread rapidly and seemingly simultaneously in widely disparate areas around the word, and even among the Inuit populations of North America who would normally have been isolated enough to not be impacted. This has led a small handful of scientists to even theorize that the flu spread through the upper atmosphere and, perhaps, even to have come from cometary dust. 

• "The Worst Pandemic in History"--Slate. A look at research into what caused the Spanish Flu pandemic, and that scientists still don't know much about it. 
• Grant Cunningham's "Hump Day Reading List" for this week. One article to look at in particular discusses why we sometimes forget our training when we are surprised or caught off guard.
• An example of why it is foolish to trust government to protect you from criminals: "Cowardice at Parkland Shooting: 'Security' Recognized Shooter, Rifle Case"--Ammo Land. More comes out about the shooting, including that Cruz wasn't carrying his rifle in a nondescript duffel bag, but in a rifle carrying case. Moreover, video has been released of the police interview of Andrew Medina, a school security monitor, where he admits that he knew about Cruz and his threats to shoot up the school, saw and recognized Cruz when Cruz showed up at the school, and knew the rifle case for what it was. The article describes what followed:

        Medina called another unarmed security monitor. That monitor hid in a closet during the shooting. This lack of action is an obvious point of failure of the system. If Medina had confronted the murderer, he might have been able to stop him from entering the school. At the minimum, he would have disrupted the murderer's plan and created a delay until armed police.

       Medina recognized him as a threat. He realized he was carrying a rifle case. The murderer was forbidden from being on the school campus. A rifle in a rifle case is not an immediate threat until it is removed from the case. The murderer did not appear to be armed with other weapons. Medina did nothing to stop him. He never shouted at him or called for him to stop.

      Medina is said, after the shooting started or  a minute after the murderer entered the school, to have driven to the front of the school (on his utility vehicle) to get Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer, and Sheriff's deputy.  Medina said he took Peterson back to where the murderer entered the school.

      That is where Peterson stayed, calling backup, and waiting.

• The deadlier weapon: "Terrifying moment American couple narrowly escapes machete-wielding bandits on rural road in Kenya"--Daily Mail. The husband was driving. He quickly started backing the vehicle up when he saw the bandits in order to give him and his wife an chance to roll up windows. Then he quickly accelerated forward through the group and sped off. One of the bandits had a pistol stuck in a waistband, but apparently wasn't able to quickly access it. It would have been better to back away at high speed, turn around, and head back the way you just come in order to put the greatest distance between you and the attackers. But it still worked out fine in this case. Biggest point is to not stop for the bandits even if they are in the middle of the road.
• "The Three Second Rule"--All Outdoor. Key part: "Wherever you go, whatever you do, the thing to do is to exercise the 3-Second Rule. That simply means to pause where you are, inside a vehicle, at an exit to the outside, when you park before you turn off the engine or unlock the doors, to take a moment, 3-seconds, to inspect the area around you."
• "Understanding and Selecting a Muzzle Device"--Kyle Lamb at Guns and Ammo. Some good points, including that "[i]n low light or at night, muzzlebrakes, compensators and blast diverters will light up a shooting position and give bad guys a target or direction to fire."
• The author is sarcastic, but the information is still good: "Costco’s $6,000 Doomsday Food Kit Only Gets Your Family Through Year One of the Apocalypse"--Grub Street. The article notes that "the kit can, if everybody wants 2,000 calories a day, feed four people for 12 months, eight for six months, or 16 for a meager three." Also:

        Your crew gets to select from several dozen ingredients — rice, elbow macaroni, freeze-dried green beans, dehydrated apples, beef- and chicken-flavored tofu, plus a product alarmingly labeled “butter powder.” The best-preserved of these products expire in 30 years, so buying the kit honestly suggests a pretty glass-half-empty view of civilization. (The planet’s gotta go to crap by 2048, or you just burned six Gs?)

       The kit is delivered as two pallets of boxes that together weigh 1,800 pounds. To keep neighbors in the dark, Costco promises everything is “packaged discreetly.” So the reckless Griswolds next door may die of starvation, but your family can relax “knowing you have the essential foods your family will need to survive an emergency or natural disaster!” That’s even better, because you won’t have to fight over territory.

• "NSSF Explains Dip in Black Friday Gun Sales"--Guns America Digest. Basic story is that retailers had spread deals over the entire week, so you can't focus on just one day's sales. And, with that in mind: "The sales for the week of Thanksgiving were the highest on record when compared to all previous years, with the exception of 2015 and 2017."
• "The AR-10 and Big Game Cartridges"--Range365. The author takes a brief look at some of the .308 alternatives that work with AR10 style rifles, including the .243, 6.5 Creedmore, .338 Federal, .358 Winchester, and a couple others.

"Disease, War and The Lost Generation I BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1918 Part 2 of 2"--Time Ghost History (12 min.). Another video by Indy Neidell on the Spanish Flu. While covering much of the same ground as the video I linked to above, the perspective of this video focuses more on the societal consequences of the pandemic.

• "Another diplomat was diagnosed with ‘Havana syndrome.’ Here’s what we know."--Washington Post. From the article:

        Last week, another Canadian diplomat was diagnosed with a mysterious disease so weird it’s been referred to in some circles as “the thing.”

       The illness afflicts only government employees from the United States and Canada. Sufferers report feeling pulsing or hearing a ringing in their ears. Then headaches, dizziness, trouble concentrating and struggles to remember basic words and facts.

      Diplomats have been complaining about “Havana syndrome,” named for the city where nearly all the victims were based, for two years. And it certainly seems like they’ve been targeted by a hostile government or rogue officials. But, though the United States has sent CIA and FBI officials to investigate, we know very little about what’s happening or who’s behind it.

The article notes that (at least officially) no one knows who is behind the attacks, or how they were carried out. But the article adds:

       ... Victims reported headaches, dizziness, confusion and the inability to think straight. Doctors who’ve conducted brain scans of the victims say it looks as if they suffered a concussion without the preceding traumatic injury.

       It’s unclear how the victims might be suffering these injuries. Some have posited that the assailants are using a “sonic weapon,” but U.S. investigators have allegedly ruled out the possibility that the injuries were caused by the sounds themselves. Other experts — including a senior doctor who examined the victims — have suggested microwave rays, though it’s unclear how they would be targeted so precisely. But as The Post reported, “no microwave weapon that affects the brain is known to exist.”

      Others, including a specialist in neuro-weapons at Georgetown University, suggested a device that emitted radio frequencies or electromagnetic pulses that enter through the ears of the victim. (“Structural variations within their heads could help explain why some heard sounds while others didn’t,” the New Yorker explained.)

(H/t Anonymous Conservative).

• Related: "Silent Sound Kills"--Value Walk (also h/t Anonymous Conservative). The article discusses "infrasound"--low frequency sound below 20 Hz. From the article:

         These sounds might occur from the whir of motors, water pumps, construction site noise, equipment room near your residence, or close-by traffic. Daria Vaisman, a research editor at the New York Press told of an incident with Walt Disney and his team of cartoonists. They slowed down a 60-cycle tone in a short cartoon to 12 Hz; they became sick for days afterward. A good example of extreme low frequencies that might be encountered is the church pipe organ. It can cause sensations of sorrow, coldness, anxiety and even shivers down the spine.

       Sounds around 19 hz, matches the resonant frequency of the human eyeball, with reports of apparitions as detailed by the Coventry Telegraph newspaper. The most dangerous frequency is at the median alpha-rhythm frequencies of the brain, 7 hz. This is also the resonant frequency of the body’s organs. At high volumes, infrasound can directly affect the human central nervous system causing disorientation, anxiety, panic, bowel spasms, nausea, vomiting and eventually organ rupture, even death from prolonged exposure.

        The first documented attempt to reproduce the infrasound effects was by Vladimir Gavreau in 1957. He became interested in infrasound when asked to cure a case of “Sick Building Syndrome.” The staff at a research plant in Marseilles were mysteriously falling ill. Chemical or pathogen poisoning was suspected, but Gavreau eventually traced the origin of the illnesses to air-conditioning units rotating fans that were generating low-frequency sound waves.

       Gavreau began to experiment with low-frequency acoustics with the intention of creating a viable audio weapon for the French military. Several prototype designs were produced, christened “canon sonique” consisting of piston driven tubes and smaller compressed air horns and whistles. Gavreau and his team tested the instruments on themselves at the Marseilles plant with unexpected results. One of the team members died instantly “his internal organs mashed into an amorphous jelly by the vibrations.”

       Fortunately, they could turn it off quickly; even so, others in nearby laboratories were sick for hours. Everything was vibrating: stomach, heart, lungs.

• "Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant Households Are on Welfare"--Breitbart. According to the article, "only about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans use welfare in California." Tucker Carlson made a great point yesterday when he questioned the narrative that we need immigrants to make up for falling birth rates; Carlson asked his guest, an open borders pundit, why nobody asks why or cares that the average young American can't afford to have children.

• Related: "Here's what's actually happening in France (from an American in Paris)"--Reddit. The author of this piece notes that protesters are mostly middle-aged and fed up with taxes and high costs of living. Also: "Parts of France are also filled with unassimilated migrants. These migrants get government assistance as well. A large part of the French are sick of paying for migrants when French people are suffering as well."

• Diversity is our strength: "MS-13 members charged in Lynn slay"--Boston Herald. Key points:

        The teen’s body was found in a wooded park in Lynn. He was murdered, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said, because the MS-13 gang members — many illegal immigrants — believed he was cooperating with law enforcement.

       One of the six accused, Henri Salvador Gutierrez, 19, of Somerville, dodged deportation a month before the murder.

       “Salvador succeeded in convincing an immigration court that he was not in a gang, was not violent, did not pose a threat to the public,” the feds said.

       The chilling motion for detention for all six adds: “Four of the six defendants appear to have entered or remained in the United Status unlawfully. At least four of the six defendants have MS-13 tattoos indicating that they are MS-13 homeboys, suggesting that they committed a murder or other violent attack.

      “At least two of the six defendants have felony records. At least two of the six defendants were previously in immigration custody but were released and went on to commit … murder,” prosecutors state.

      One of the suspects was arrested yesterday and the rest are locked up on state charges or in immigration custody, and will appear in federal court soon.

(Underlines added).

• The left eating the left: "Harvard University sued over single-sex club crackdown"--BBC. The gist appears to be that Harvard decided to end "exclusion" by punishing those who joined single sex clubs (I believe that the author means fraternities and sororities). Under Harvard's policy, students who join single-sex clubs cannot receive endorsement letters from college deans for postgraduate fellowships. Moreover, "members of single-sex clubs are barred from serving as captains of sports teams or leaders of other official student clubs." The University has now been sued for discriminating against students based on their sex; or, as the lawsuit apparently puts it: "Harvard's sanctions policy seeks to dictate the sex of people with whom men and women may associate and the gender norms to which men and women must conform." Or, as one of the lawyers involved stated, "Harvard 'should get out of the business of trying to dictate who students spend their time with off campus'." Nice argument, and I think it has merit. However, the same arguments were raised in the past as to racial discrimination and rejected by the courts. As I've noted before, per the courts, civil rights laws trump the First Amendment.
• MGTOW. The following two 2014 articles popped up in something or the other that I was reading the other day:

• "Dear Nice Guy, I Wasn’t Ready For You Before — But I Am Now"--Thought Catalog. From a woman that has tired of dating the "bad boys" and now is ready for a "nice guy." And remember, what women mean by "nice guy" or "good man" are those men that are docile and good providers of equal or higher social status. She writes:

         I’ve learned all the lessons I need to learn from bad boys. I now have the ability to distinguish between when to give up on a relationship and when to fight harder. I know all the excuses and lies and can see when it’s right to say a big ‘f*ck you’ or an ‘okay, I’ll let you make it up to me.’ I know what it’s like get all dressed up for a night out only to sit in your room watching Netflix, crying and staring at your phone because the person you had plans with never showed. And that a “got too drunk sorry” text is not a sufficient excuse or apology. I know all these things. My mom always said that the problem with people who end up unhappy is that they don’t know how to walk away from something that has already served it purpose. Well, I can see now that bad boys have served all the purpose they possibly could in my life and that it’s time for me to learn a new lesson. I want to learn from you, Nice Guy.

       It’s time for me to learn what its like to have someone to fall back on when I feel weak. It’s time for me to understand what its like to open up to someone without the fear that I’ll be emotionally shamed or that it will scare them away. It’s time for me to understand why people write love songs or tear up at the end of the notebook. I want to know what it’s like to be desired for more than my body, for someone to look at me with passionate eyes, slowly but surely falling in love with my mind, body and soul.

      I want to know what it’s like to have someone who will always show up, who will always make time for me and who will always respect me. I want to know what it’s like to be able to count on someone, and know that even though love is never safe, I will be safely hurt by them. Mostly, I know I can learn all these things from you, Nice Guy.

• And a response from a "nice guy": "Dear Girls Who Are (Finally) Ready To Date Nice Guys: We Don’t Want You Anymore"--Thought Catalog. He writes:

        I was wonderful to you, I was a gentleman. I treated you with respect, like a lady deserves to be treated. I enjoyed your company and you had my full attention. I didn’t expect anything in return except a chance to win your heart. I’m stable, I’m a good provider, I want marriage and kids in my future. I’m the man of your dreams, but you couldn’t see that. Or maybe you just didn’t care. You were pretty preoccupied with your texting.

       But now you’re ready to date me? Really? You’ll excuse me if I’m not jumping for joy. You’ve dissed me, rejected me, took advantage of me, dodged my goodnight kiss and couldn’t wait to get away from me. Now suddenly you want me? Sorry, I’m not buying it.

       I get it though, now that you’re on the downside of 30, the wrinkles are starting, the body is sagging and you have stretch marks and that c-section scar from pushing out that bad boy’s rugrat. I know it was impossible to see that that deadbeat irresponsible jerk was actually a deadbeat irresponsible jerk, but that’s not my problem. While you were waiting for those texts that never came I was busy getting my career in order and maximizing my credit score. Now my biggest issue is deciding which color Audi I’m going to buy. Why in the world would I choose to take on you and your problems?

       In your twenties you barely gave me the time of day. Meanwhile you were jumping in bed with any guy with a neck tattoo or a prison record. Why would I date you? I know where you’ve been, and I hope you’ve been tested. From the trail of bad boys and the mistreatment you tolerated, no, invited into your life and seeing all the drama you created for yourself, I can only conclude that you don’t need a nice guy, you need therapy! I’m a simple guy and like my life uncomplicated. You are the human embodiment of drama and chaos, I’d have to be crazier than, well… YOU to take on your baggage.

Read the whole of both articles and laugh (or weep).