A Quick Run Around the Web (3/22/2020)

"NEW Ruger PC Charger Review - 9mm Micro Subgun"--TFB TV (12 min.)

Unlike some of the other reviews I've seen on this new pistol from Ruger (e.g., at American Rifleman and The Mag Life), this review notes some problems and disadvantages to the PC Charger. The two main complaints, which both stem from the barrel take down feature, are: (1) it is needlessly heavy, primarily because of the necessary hardware for permitting the take down; and (2) with the sight rail being on the receiver, it doesn't maintain zero if you take the barrel off and reattach.  Another issue that the reviewer had is that recoil was was causing his polymer SB Tactical side-folding brace to flex enough that it would sometimes release the locking and start to fold.

• This is what happens when you get your news from CNN and the major networks: "Anti-Gun People Now Want Guns, And They’re Surprised They Can’t Buy Them Online And Have Them Shipped To Their Homes"--Concealed Nation. Quoting one gun dealer:

Here at Omaha Outdoors, we’ve been inundated with inquiries from out-of-state folks – many from California – asking if we can ship them a gun directly. The answer is, of course, no. Despite what politicians and many in popular media claim, you can’t buy a gun online and have it shipped to your house. Well, you could, if you were a federally licensed firearm dealer (or federally licensed curio and relic collector [ed: and you are ordering a C&R weapon]) and your home was your place of business. Other than that, no, you can’t buy a gun online and have it shipped, especially across state lines, to your home.

• Related: "How Do You Handle People Who Suddenly Want To Borrow a Gun?"--The Truth About Guns. The author notes that in some states, you can't transfer a firearm (even loaning) without the proper background check and licensing, so if you live in such jurisdiction, the decision has already been made. But even if you could legally let them borrow the firearm, the author pretty much takes the view that you should just tell them c'est la vie--"Instead of him bad-mouthing guns (and gun owners) in the past, your 'buddy' could have bought a gun (or three) and learned how to use it effectively. Or at least which end should be pointed downrange." He also notes that you have no idea if such a person and their household would be responsible. 

• What do you know! Criminals don't follow health guidelines either: "Coronavirus, city shutdown not slowing violent crime in Philadelphia"--Philadelphia Inquirer. From the article:

      From Monday — when schools were closed and most public and private sector employees began working from home — through midday Friday, the city recorded three homicides, nine shootings, three stabbings, and one police-involved shooting of a man with a gun, according to the Philadelphia Police Department.

     That violence follows an even deadlier three-day period from March 13 through Sunday, during which seven people were killed, including Sgt. James O’Connor IV, 46, fatally shot in Frankford while his SWAT unit was trying to arrest a man wanted for murder. That man, Hassan Elliott, 21, now also is charged with murder and other counts in the officer’s death.

      As of Friday, police said, the city’s homicide total for the year stood at 86, compared with 66 at the same point last year — a 26% increase.

It will get a lot worse if the Wuhan virus shutdowns crash the economy.

• Related: "African woman ignores France’s lockdown to curb spread of virus; purposefully coughs in faces of police officers when detained"--Voice of Europe.

• "You want Roof Koreans? Because this is how you get Roof Koreans"--Notes from the Bunker. The author explains:

      It seems that some municipalities, in order to avoid crowded jail situations and compensate for ‘blue flue’, are looking the other way when it comes to particular crimes and offenses. Things that might have gotten you a ride in the back of a Crown Vic and a trip to stand in front of the judge are now being adjudicated with warnings and/or citations…or just a stern talking to. (Essentially, British style policing.) Naturally, the media catches up on this and duly reports it..thereby basically telling everyone that it’s okay to commit minor crimes because we don’t have the resources to deal with you. Or, in other words, a low-level indie version of The Purge.

      Problem is, low-level crime doesn’t always stay low-level. Shoplifting a 40 oz. from the Korean grocery is low-level…until mama-san catches you and starts screaming and hitting you with her pricing gun. And in his overwhelming desire to GTFO, our low level criminal busts her one across the jaw and runs. And junior sees mom get her bell rung, grabs a baseball but and runs out the door after our low-level criminal. What happens when the two meet is definitely no longer low-level. So, yeah, those ‘let em go’ low-level offenses and crimes can spin outta control pretty quickly. And its all fun and games until someone needs a chest seal.

• "FIVE REASONS TO OWN A .22 RIFLE"--Survival Common Sense. The author goes into detail as to each point, but the five reasons are: cost (both of the firearm and ammunition), efficiency (i.e., you aren't wasting a larger, more expensive cartridge for small jobs), training (i.e., you can afford to do a lot more), hunting (e.g., small game and predator control), and self-protection (iffy reasoning, but if you have someone that is gun shy about recoil, better to have a .22 they can shoot accurately than a larger caliber that they will miss with).
• "Maximum Effective Range of Buckshot"--Brass Fetcher.  The author tested 12 gauge shotshells utilizing #4, #1 and 00 buckshot (both plated and unplated) to determine the maximum effective range of each type of shotshell when shot through a practical 12 gauge shotgun with cylinder choke. The author defined "maximum effective range" as: (1) "Having a hit probability greater than chance (greater than 50% of pellets make scoreable hits on target)"; and (2) "Buckshot traveling fast enough to make incapacitating hit at this range (12.0” or deeper penetration in nominal 10% ballistic gelatin)". The testing revealed that "[d]eformed #4 buckshot is not acceptable for self-defense at any range." #1 unplated-buffered had an effective range of about 29 yards; #1 plated and pattern controlled had an effective range of 51 yards. #00 unplated-buffered had an effective range of 40 yards; #00 plated and pattern controlled had an effective range of 52 yards. Read the whole thing. 
• For you Glock 43X and 48 owners: "A major enhancement to an already good pistol"--Bayou Renaissance Man. He relates that Shield Arms has released its S15 model magazine, increasing the magazine capacity of the Glock 43X and 48 to 15 rounds by using a steel magazine and a semi-staggered design.
• "Interview With Army Green Beret & SOG 1-0 Jim Bolen"--Loose Rounds. I found this bit interesting:

      ... Another thing I did was load every magazine with tracer rounds. An older Korean war vet at our FOB said you will give away your position, I told him in the jungle every kill is eye to eye.

      I remember my first 3 kills. My point man was crossing a small NVA trail and I went next, there was a slight bend in the trail, as soon as I stepped on the trail 3 NVA regulars rounded the bend, they were walking abreast to each other. We saw each other at the same time While they were bringing up their weapons I fired from the hip on full auto. I could see just like a laser where the rounds were going. I put at least 3 rounds in each man. Believe it or not I could see smoke coming out of the holes in their uniforms where the bullets went in, I will never forget that.

• "The X-5.7 Rifle & Pistol from Excel Arms"--The Firearm Blog. Another two 5.7 mm firearms released this year. Interesting to see the sudden interest in this caliber.
• I've noted before that one of the problems with bugging out to small towns is that in tough times, the residents won't like outsiders--and just because you own a vacation home or cabin there doesn't mean that you are a local. A couple articles illustrating that point:

• "Private jets flock to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket as thousands of wealthy 'virus refugees' escape the cities, angering locals who say they'll wipe out their grocery stores and bring coronavirus with them"--Daily Mail. 

• "‘We should blow up the bridges’ — coronavirus leads to class warfare in Hamptons"--New York Post. From the article:

      The year-round residents, the locals who serve and clean and landscape for the super-rich in the summertime — and put up with all manner of entitlement and terrible behavior in exchange for good money — are silent no more.

      “There’s not a vegetable to be found in this town right now,” says one resident of Springs, a working-class pocket of East Hampton. “It’s these elitist people who think they don’t have to follow the rules.”

      It’s not just the drastic food shortage out here. Every aspect of life, most crucially medical care, is under strain from the sudden influx of rich Manhattanites panic-fleeing, bringing along their disdain and disregard for the little people — and in some cases, knowingly bringing coronavirus.

      The Springs resident says her friend, a nurse out here, reported that a wealthy Manhattan woman who tested positive called tiny Southampton Hospital to say she was on her way and needed treatment.

• "THE MAGPOD: MYTHS, MAGAZINES, AND REVIEWS"--The Mag Life. The product replaces the base plate on a Gen 2 Magpul magazine with one designed to provide support when shooting from a prone position or resting the weapon on some handy object. The author notes that these are not a replacement for a bipod for long range rifle, but great for smaller weapons: "Especially if you are running drills and your breathing is a little more ragged. It lets you keep the reticle still enough to make that game-changing shot." I've wondered about these, but never tried them out. Anyone out there have some thoughts?
• "Why there will soon be tons of toilet paper, and what food may be scarce, according to supply chain experts"--CNBC's Make It. From the article:

      Stuck rationing toilet paper because you didn’t stockpile during the coronavirus panic over the last few days? Don’t worry, according to supply chain experts.

      “All the grocery stores are going to have pallets of toilet paper sitting in the aisles, and nobody is going to buy it, because who needs to buy toilet paper when you’ve got a year’s worth sitting in your garage?” Daniel Stanton, a supply chain expert and author of “Supply Chain Management for Dummies,” tells CNBC Make It.

     But what about food?

      Even if the COVID-19 pandemic stretches over months (President Donald Trump said it could last until August), there will be no big food shortages, especially on staples like milk, eggs, cheese, bread and meat, according to three supply chain experts who spoke to Make It. 

      But your favorite brand or the exact kind of fruit you want could be scarce. 

      “The brand that you normally want may not be available. But, hey, there’s some other kind of pasta. Or instead of rice, we’re going to have potatoes for dinner,” Stanton says.

      “The U.S. produces a huge amount of food. We’re also an exporter of food, so we’re going to be okay,” he adds.

• "How to Get Started with Prepping"--Apartment Prepper. While this is a good article for someone wanting to get started in prepping as a general matter, it is perhaps not the best advice for the current issue of the Wuhan virus. Specifically, the emphasis on water and how to deal with loss of electricity, while good for disasters like earthquakes or floods, is not going to be an issue with this outbreak. Putting aside food and hygienic supplies for a possible two or three week isolation period would be more important. Cash would be great to set aside, but it is probably too late for that.
• "Living through the pandemic — and beyond"--Grant Cunningham. Here is better advice for someone wanting to start doing something now:

       First, use this event as motivation to never be in this situation again. Make a vow that when things calm down, you’ll take your preparedness seriously and do what’s necessary to make you and your family less susceptible to future life-altering events.

      Second, accept the reality that this could go on for another 6 weeks. In fact, I’m of the opinion that 6 weeks is an optimistic time frame. You have have to survive in the midst of increasing shortages and quarantines for at least that much time. 

      Third, prioritize. Focus on your most immediate needs: food, housing, and heat. Everything else is really secondary. The more limited your resources, the more ruthless you’ll need to be in your prioritization. Cut out all non-essentials; the less you have, the more deeply you’ll need to cut.

      Fourth, gather the things you need to see you through the next month or two. I don’t mean go out and buy a truckload of toilet paper! I do mean go to the grocery store and stock up on food you’ll actually eat (plus the essential consumables you need). 

      Don’t buy out the store; if stocks are thin, buy a couple of week’s worth if possible. In a few days, go back and buy a couple more week’s worth. Do that until you have everything you need for the next several weeks. Don’t plan on being able to go to the store on a daily basis; even if you can, you’ll want to limit your public exposure as much as possible. If you can get this done in one trip, while being responsible with your purchases, do so. If it takes a couple of trips, that’s okay. Try not to make more than three trips in total.

Read the whole thing.

"How To Create A Worldwide Depression"--Tony Heller (6 min.)

The panic will be much worse than the disease.

• "Coronavirus, initial jobless claims, Nike earnings: What to know in the week ahead"--Yahoo News. From the article:

      Most of the economic data releases this week will be backwards looking and will provide few clues of the true impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. But, initial jobless claims data released Thursday will be the most relevant and up-to-date look at how the virus in impacting the U.S. economy.

      The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is expected to be in the millions for the week ended March 21, up from 281,000 the week prior. Though economists from major firms have varying estimates, the average estimate among economists polled by Bloomberg is for 1.5 million initial jobless claims.

      Economists at Bank of America predict upwards of three million initial jobless claims for the week. “Job loss will be severe. We expect private payrolls to shed 1mn workers per month in 2Q with most of the loss suffered in April before returning gradually back to trend by 1H 2021. This will lead to a spike in the unemployment rate to 6% in 2Q 2020 and a peak at 6.3% in 3Q 2020,” economist Michelle Meyer said in a note March 20.

      “The disruption to the labor market will disproportionately impact low-income hourly service workers. Industries that have and will be impacted the hardest (e.g. leisure and hospitality, transportation) employ more hourly workers than the average,” she added.

• Some good news for treating the Wuhan virus:

• Paul Sperry on Twitter: "BREAKING: Chloroquine is so safe to use that the CDC has already been recommending prescribing it to even small children and pregnant women to take (in COVID-19 size doses) even before traveling to areas known for malaria transmission, including Central America & the Caribbean" / Twitter

• "COVID-19 CURE: Australia Plans To Roll Out The Use of Two Existing Medications After Patients Have Successfully Recovered in Secret Trials"--Tech Times.  Per the article, the test subjects were all given HIV medication, Kaletra and Malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine.

• "N.J. man with suspected coronavirus treated with anti-malaria drug reports improvement, though evidence is lacking"--NJ.com. Another instance where hydroxychloroquine was used.

• The failures of socialists:

• "New York's Ventilator Rationing Plan"--Real Clear Politics. And why do they need to ration ventilators?

      ... After learning that the state's stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to a fork in the road in 2015. He could have chosen to buy more ventilators. Instead, he asked his health commissioner, Howard Zucker to assemble a task force and draft rules for rationing the ventilators they already had.

* * *

      Cuomo could have purchased the additional 16,000 needed ventilators for $36,000 apiece or a total of $576 million in 2015. It's a lot of money but less than the $750 million he threw away on a boondoggle "Buffalo Billion" solar panel factory. When it comes to state budget priorities, spending half a percent of the budget on ventilators is a no brainer.

• "It’s Barack Obama's Fault There’s a Shortage of N95 Respirator Masks"--PJ Media. 

     ... “after the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009, which triggered a nationwide shortage of masks and caused a 2- to 3-year backlog orders for the N95 variety, the stockpile distributed about three-quarters of its inventory and didn’t build back the supply.”

      That's right, the shortage of N95 masks can be traced back to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic of 2009... when Barack Obama was president.

      A different story from the Los Angeles Times published last week goes into more detail about what happened after the swine flu pandemic depleted the supply. According to their story, “After the swine flu epidemic in 2009, a safety-equipment industry association and a federally sponsored task force both recommended that depleted supplies of N95 respirator masks [...] be replenished by the stockpile.” The problem is that didn’t happen. According to Charles Johnson, president of the International Safety Equipment Association, about 100 million N95 respirator masks were used up during the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010, but, he said was unaware of any “major effort to restore the stockpile to cover that drawdown.”

      In short, even though the Obama administration was advised to replenish the national stockpile of the N95 respirator masks, they didn’t.

• Liberals being illiberal: "Rachel Maddow and others call on networks not to broadcast Trump coronavirus press conferences"--Legal Insurrection. 
• "China Virus: Know Means No?"--Diplomad. The author argues:

      This reaction to the China virus has gone totally insane.

      The more you learn, the more you know, and, hence, the more you have to say "No" to what we are doing to the global economy and society. The mortality rates on this virus thing are falling as we get more and more data. The initial horrendous mortality hype was based on a relatively small "N," just like a bad political poll that seeks to tell you national trends by polling 325 people on the phone in Manhattan--ask Hillary.

      As the testing expands, and the number of "infected" people grows dramatically, the overall mortality rate falls. Surprise! Not. The denominator gets bigger and the size of the fraction goes south . . . It seems as though the mortality rate will prove about that of any flu or other epidemics/pandemics we have had in recent years.

     Perhaps, I am right? The horror of that thought . . .

     We have shut down the economy all over the world in a fit of mass hysteria. More people will die from that, than from the Chinese disease. It appears (that word) Trump's initial skeptical stance seems to have proven right. Unfortunately, in my view, he got stampeded by the "experts" and the media's low rent Jeremiahs into freezing the economy.

      The further we go down this rat hole, the harder to crawl our way back.

• "Coronavirus and Politicians vs. the Economy"--Cato Institute.

      The American economy is closing down rapidly from both voluntary and mandatory business closings. It is not just restaurants, but also manufacturing, construction, recreation, travel, and many other industries that are shuttering operations.

     If this continues, there will be a massive plunge in incomes, and tens of millions of people will not be able to meet basic expenses such as rent and food. Policymakers are acting quickly to slow the virus spread, but I fear they are shuttering too much of the economy because we face a months‐​long health crisis, not a weeks‐​long crisis. The government does not have enough money to keep the economy afloat until a vaccine arrives, maybe a year from now.

• "Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown"--Wall Street Journal. I cited an excerpt of this article the other day, but this is the whole thing:

      Financial markets paused their slide Thursday, but no one should think this rolling economic calamity is over. If this government-ordered shutdown continues for much more than another week or two, the human cost of job losses and bankruptcies will exceed what most Americans imagine. This won’t be popular to read in some quarters, but federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008-2009.

       The vast social-distancing project of the last 10 days or so has been necessary and has done much good. Warnings about large gatherings of more than 10 people and limiting access to nursing homes will save lives. The public has received a crucial education in hygiene and disease prevention, and even young people may get the message. With any luck, this behavior change will reduce the coronavirus spread enough that our hospitals won’t be overwhelmed with patients. Anthony Fauci, Scott Gottlieb and other disease experts are buying crucial time for government and private industry to marshal resources against the virus.

***

      Yet the costs of this national shutdown are growing by the hour, and we don’t mean federal spending. We mean a tsunami of economic destruction that will cause tens of millions to lose their jobs as commerce and production simply cease. Many large companies can withstand a few weeks without revenue but that isn’t true of millions of small and mid-sized firms.

      Even cash-rich businesses operate on a thin margin and can bleed through reserves in a month. First they will lay off employees and then out of necessity they will shut down. Another month like this week and the layoffs will be measured in millions of people.

      The deadweight loss in production will be profound and take years to rebuild. In a normal recession the U.S. loses about 5% of national output over the course of a year or so. In this case we may lose that much, or twice as much, in a month.

      Our friend Ed Hyman, the Wall Street economist, on Thursday adjusted his estimate for the second quarter to an annual rate loss in GDP of minus-20%. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s assertion on Fox Business Thursday that the economy will power through all this is happy talk if this continues for much longer.

       If GDP seems abstract, consider the human cost. Think about the entrepreneur who has invested his life in his Memphis ribs joint only to see his customers vanish in a week. Or the retail chain of 30 stores that employs hundreds but sees no sales and must shut its doors.

      Or the recent graduate with $20,000 in student-loan debt—taken on with the encouragement of politicians—who finds herself laid off from her first job. Perhaps she can return home and live with her parents, but what if they’re laid off too? How do you measure the human cost of these crushed dreams, lives upended, or mental-health damage that result from the orders of federal and state governments?

      Some in the media who don’t understand American business say that China managed a comparable shock to its economy and is now beginning to emerge on the other side. Why can’t the U.S. do it too? This ignores that the Chinese state owns an enormous stake in that economy and chose to absorb the losses. In the U.S. those losses will be borne by private owners and workers who rely on a functioning private economy. They have no state balance sheet to fall back on.

      The politicians in Washington are telling Americans, as they always do, that they are riding to the rescue by writing checks to individuals and offering loans to business. But there is no amount of money that can make up for losses of the magnitude we are facing if this extends for several more weeks. After the first $1 trillion this month, will we have to spend another $1 trillion in April, and another in June?

      By the time Treasury’s small-business lending program runs through the bureaucratic hoops—complete with ordering owners that they can’t lay off anyone as a price for getting the loan—millions of businesses will be bankrupt and tens of millions will be jobless.

***

       Perhaps we will be lucky, and the human and capitalist genius for innovation will produce a vaccine faster than expected—or at least treatments that reduce Covid-19 symptoms. But barring that, our leaders and our society will very soon need to shift their virus-fighting strategy to something that is sustainable.

      Dr. Fauci has explained this severe lockdown policy as lasting 14 days in its initial term. The national guidance would then be reconsidered depending on the spread of the disease. That should be the moment, if not sooner, to offer new guidance on what might be called phase two of the coronavirus pandemic campaign.

      That will surely include strict measures to isolate and protect the most vulnerable—our elderly and those with underlying medical problems. This should not become a debate over how many lives to sacrifice against how many lost jobs we can tolerate. Substantial social distancing and other measures will have to continue for some time in some form, depending on how our knowledge of the virus and its effects evolves.

      But no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health. Even America’s resources to fight a viral plague aren’t limitless—and they will become more limited by the day as individuals lose jobs, businesses close, and American prosperity gives way to poverty. America urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown.

• Never let a crises go to waste: "Fed will make up to $4 trillion in loans to businesses to rescue the U.S. economy, Mnuchin says"--Market Watch. 
• Ditto: "Washington Is About to Pick Which Companies Survive"--Politico. "With American commerce facing an unprecedented shutdown, and just about every business other than Amazon, Costco and Purell taking devastating hits, Washington is gripped in a bailout frenzy. Nearly every industry is sending its lobbyists to ask Congress for handouts, including the private jet industry." 
• "Real Estate Billionaire Barrack Says Commercial Mortgages on Brink of Collapse"--Bloomberg (via Yahoo). From the article:

      Real estate billionaire Tom Barrack said the U.S. commercial-mortgage market is on the brink of collapse and predicted a “domino effect” of catastrophic economic consequences if banks and government don’t take prompt action to keep borrowers from defaulting.

      Barrack, chairman and chief executive officer of Colony Capital Inc., warns in a white paper of a chain reaction of margin calls, mass foreclosures, evictions and, potentially, bank failures due to the coronavirus pandemic and consequent shutdown of much of the U.S. economy. The paper was posted late Sunday on online publishing platform Medium.

       “Loan repayment demands are likely to escalate on a systemic level, triggering a domino effect of borrower defaults that will swiftly and severely impact the broad range of stakeholders in the entire real estate market, including property and home owners, landlords, developers, hotel operators and their respective tenants and employees,” he wrote.

     Barrack said the impact could dwarf that of the Great Depression.

The banking elites think they can maintain control and even expand their power, but this emergency will be such that people will demand a dictator--a Caesar--who may well be beyond their control.

• "Prevention Expert: Data Shows Our Fight Against Coronavirus May Be Worse Than The Disease"--Daily Wire. 

In an op-ed for The New York Times published Friday, David L. Katz, the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, suggests that “our fight against coronavirus” may end up being “worse than the disease.” By taking an “at war” approach to fighting COVID-19 — widespread shutdowns and isolation of the entire population — rather than a “surgical strike” approach focusing on the truly vulnerable, Katz argues, we have set ourselves on the path to “uncontained viral contagion and monumental collateral damage to our society and economy.” 

• "3 States' 'Stay at Home' Decrees Lock Down 75 Million Americans"--Newsmax. "Illinois and New York state joined California on Friday in ordering all residents to stay in their homes unless they have vital reasons to go out, restricting the movement of more than 70 million Americans in the most sweeping measures undertaken yet in the U.S. to contain the coronavirus."
• "An Interesting Economics Experiment"--Silicon Graybeard. He writes:

To be honest, the response to the Coronavirus scares me more than the virus does.  The only scary thing about the virus is that it reproduces.  Eventually, everyone gets it and gets over it (or not, whether the fatality rate is 1% or 3% or 0.2% is still hard to know); the essence is that it's still self-limiting in the long run.  Gradually, the population develops immunity to the virus and the toll lessens.  The reaction of sending everyone in the country a "four digit" check is terrifying.  It seems like Modern Monetary Theory springing to life and I've always been critical of these ideas.  They believe they can make up whatever amount of money they want out of thin air, and I say that devalues every dollar we have.  I've said a thousand times that printing money out of thin air is painting a target on the backs of the middle class and especially anyone living (or planning to live) on savings.

• "Remember The Flu Boat?"--The Silicon Graybeard. A look at the statistics from the Diamond Princess cruise ship infection:

• 83% (confidence interval of 82.7% – 83.9%) of the passengers never got the disease at all.  Said the other way, only 17% of the passengers were infected.

• The oldest portion of the passengers, over 80 years old, had a higher infection rate: 25%, but that's not even twice the rate of the general population.

• Wait - it gets better.  Slightly less than half the passengers (48.6% ± 2.0%) who would test positive for the disease did NOT get sick and showed NO symptoms.  They never knew they had it.

• The young (under 20) and old (over 50) disproportionally showed no symptoms after being infected

• The overall, age-adjusted death rate was 1.2% (7 cases total)

• "DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic"--Politico. They want a national policy allowing them to keep someone in custody if the federal district court is closed even if they are not able to take the person before a judge within 48 hours; and an extension of the statutes of limitations. 
• What do they have to hide? "Professors worried students will share lectures with 'right wing sites'"--Campus Reform. "Professors across the country are taking to social media to express their concern over being forced to deliver their course lectures online amid the coronavirus outbreak, sharing with each other tips on how to limit the number of people who are able to see what they're teaching students, and criticizing "right wing sites" and even Campus Reform, specifically."
• In other news: "East Africa Battles Locust Plague as World Confronts Coronavirus"--Breitbart. From the article:

      East Africa, which has so far been spared the worst of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, is facing its own life-threatening plague as hundreds of billions of locusts swarm, destroying crops and livelihoods.

      In what is being called the worst infestation for a quarter of a century, “extremely alarming” swarms of Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) have been forming in the Horn of Africa, ready to descend upon Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan, according to Locust Watch, part of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at the United Nations.

      Each locust eats its own body weight in food every day, and the swarms are breeding so fast that numbers could quadruple by June, according to estimates.

     “A typical desert locust swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer,” said the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). “Swarms migrate with the wind and can cover 62 to 93 miles in a day.”

• Sometimes old tricks are the best tricks: "NASA FIXES MARS LANDER BY TELLING IT TO HIT ITSELF WITH A SHOVEL"--Futurism. 

      NASA’s InSight lander, which is currently on the surface of Mars, has faced some unexpected problems during its mission to explore and study the planet.

      Namely, a digging probe that was built to burrow beneath the surface like a jackhammer got stuck because Mars’ soil is clumpier than scientists expected, Popular Science reports.

      After a few failed attempts to get it out, NASA had to get a bit creative. Ultimately, it freed the probe up by giving it a solid thwack with InSight’s shovel.

• "Researchers develop high-capacity EV battery materials that double driving range"--Phys.org. From the article:

Dr. Hun-Gi Jung and his research team at the Center for Energy Storage Research of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Lee Byung Gwon) have announced the development of silicon anode materials that can increase battery capacity four-fold in comparison to graphite anode materials and enable rapid charging to more than 80% capacity in only five minutes. When applied to batteries for electric vehicles, the new materials are expected to more than double their driving range.

The abstract of the paper published by the group, "Nano/Microstructured Silicon–Carbon Hybrid Composite Particles Fabricated with Corn Starch Biowaste as Anode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries" has more details.

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Vega rocket's new 3D-printed thrust chamber passes critical hot-fire test"--Space.com. 

      The M10 is not only cheaper to manufacture but is also billed as more environmentally friendly. It is restartable and uses smart pressure control, which will save on fuel. (Rocket propulsion tends to be one of the most expensive costs for space missions.)

      The big challenge in building the M10 via 3D printing, or additive layers, is trying to do product inspections, ESA said. "Non-destructive inspection such as tomography and ultrasound is used to detect defects, geometry distortions and potential obstructions within cooling channels," the agency added.

      The first development model of the M10 engine should undergo its first hot firing at the end of 2020. Ground qualification is scheduled for 2024, and then the engine will be put into launch vehicles starting in 2025.