A Quick Run Around The Web (4/9/2020)

"Why 7.5" Is Excellent For Vehicle Work"--Tier 1 Citizen (15 min.)

• A Tale of Two .22s:

• "Glock 44 .22LR Success? First Rounds – Review"--Ammo Land. The author has a generally positive review of the Glock 44, but does note reports of cracked slides "apparently due to rounds igniting out of battery."

• "Wheelgun Wednesday: Ruger Wrangler Review"--The Firearm Blog. From the lede:

Though I was aware of the Ruger Wrangler as a budget .22 single action revolver, I did not pay much attention to it.  That all changed after Industry Day at the Range at SHOT 2020.  I was at one of Ruger’s multiple booths, wanting to check out some of their new wares.  I noticed the Wrangler was at one of the tables and thought I’d try out a few shots with their budget wheelgun.  Loading 6 in the cylinder, I aimed at a 25-yard “Evil Roy” silhouette and hit all six easily.  Moving on to the 50y target, I found all 6 landed easily as well.  There are not many handguns that I can do that with on the very first attempt.  I was hooked right away, and promptly fired 4 more cylinders of ammunition before moving on.

• The schadenfreude is strong with this one: "ONLY DICKS: While Gun Shops are Swarmed with Customers, Dick’s Furloughs 40,000 Employees"--The Truth About Guns. The gist of the article is that Dick's picked the wrong time to stop selling firearms.
• "How Many Magazines Should You Have?"--Shooting Illustrated. After answering the question with "all of them," the author moderates his opinion and writes:

        For your defensive pistol, the gun you carry everyday, I recommend a bare minimum of six magazines. Honestly, I debated saying 12, given the “two is one” principle (you’re going to lose one or two magazines, count on it; they break, don’t work as expected, etc. Something happens. Murphy will not be denied).

      Six allows you to have three available to rotate in the carry firearm and an additional three to have available for range practice (while you should be practicing with your carry ammo, it doesn’t need to be at the same frequency as your regular practice. At the least, shoot “the good stuff” when we change the clocks). Rotate each set if it makes you feel better, but there’s not much reason to (more on this in a bit).

     Six magazines—ideally 12—also gives plenty of capacity should you take a class or two (and you should; honestly, it’s a great way to test your gear, spot deficiencies in your shooting skills and just generally get better). The more magazines you can have loaded ahead of time the better—you’re paying for class time, not for magazine-loading practice. Also, if you practice at a public range where you pay by the hour, see above comment about not magazine-loading time—why spend time loading mags when you could be shooting?

I like that the author distinguishes between carry and practice magazines. I've stated before that the magazine you carry in your firearm for self-defense should not be the one that you are dumping on the ground or a concrete floor during a competition, practice, or training.

• "SURVIVAL PREPARING FOR..."--Guns Magazine. A discussion of what is needed in a "survival gun" that segues into a more general discussion of what surviving a world-changing disaster will entail. And, the author notes, it won't be survivors in gun battles with other survivors. By way of example:

       I knew a young couple who survived under harsher conditions than most today can envisage. By dint of hard work and saving, when they arrived at their 160-acre land claim they had a horse, wagon, cow, a few tools (including a .22 rifle) and clothes.

       It was October 1905. They were both 22 years old. There was nothing on the land but prairie and trees. They were “off the grid” since the grid didn’t exist, and wouldn’t for some decades. A harsh Saskatchewan winter was fast approaching. The wife was six months pregnant.

      There was an immigrant family on about every 160-acre parcel, from many different countries and speaking different languages. Every household had a gun. Most of the men had military training and experience, mandatory at the time in the European countries from which they had emigrated.

      So how did those pioneers survive and prosper? Well, they didn’t do it by shooting each other. Neighbors helped one another to build shelters, sod shacks at first, then modest frame houses. They got together and built a church, and then a school.

      They learned a common language, though the English was spoken with a dozen different accents. They celebrated together at weddings and mourned together at funerals. They traded skills they had for skills others had.

      The young man was a trained carpenter. When neighbors got together to build a house or a barn he knew what materials were needed, how to build a foundation square and straight. Everyone contributed one way or another. Those who didn’t know how to make rafters at least knew how to drive a nail—and if not, they carried lumber and nails for those who did.

      The young couple kept their growing family fed almost exclusively with produce they raised, fish caught in a nearby lake, and small game and birds taken with the little .22 rifle. They made bread from flour ground from wheat they had grown.

      Twenty years later they had acquired considerably more land, built a large barn and a big modern house, and were making a good living from grain and livestock. Not to mention the wife had given birth to nine children and buried two of them.

       The issue of what is the best survival gun is one that has long fascinated me. Not just because it is an interesting mental exercise but because it reveals a lot about a person's fears, priorities, and lifestyle. The latter became very clear to me years ago when I started reading a forum thread on the topic of "the best survival gun" if you could only have one gun. The answers and reasoning were so different that you would have thought that they were discussing completely different topics. And, in fact, they were.

      Some approached the topic from the point of view of someone lost in the wilderness wanting something small and lightweight that they could throw in their backpack, or under the seat of a truck or small plane. These people mostly focused on single shot .22 rifles and/or single barrel break action shotguns (generally .410 or 20 gauge), or combination guns that combined the two, that could be easily broken down and stowed away with some ammunition sealed against the weather.

      Others approached the subject from the point of view of needing a weapon for hunting, and therefore discussed a rifle, shotgun, or combination gun, and appropriate ammunition, that was most versatile for collecting the broadest range of game.

      Another viewpoint were those that figured that they would be needing to scavenge for ammunition. These people focused on multicaliber weapons (the quintessential example being the Thompson Contender system that uses interchangeable barrels), caliber conversion or adapter sleeves for rifles, or caliber adapters for shotguns.

      And, of course, some believed that fighting off the "zombie" hordes or other raiders would be important, and focused on defensive or combat weapons. In those cases, the debate was between 5.56, 7.62x39, or 7.62x51 (.308) and/or different platforms.

• "Rifle Sling Positions: Low and High Carry"--The Firearm Blog. How and when to use low or high carry positions with a rifle. The "sling" part is a misnomer because this discusses carrying the weapon in your hands irrespective of a sling.
• "Real-World Home Defense: When It Comes To Protecting Your Castle, Planning And Research Trumps Guns And Loads" by Robert Kolesar at Guns Magazine. An excerpt:

      Before looking at your arsenal, look at your home. Having a cool gun next to you at night isn’t much good if someone is able to quietly walk in on a sunny afternoon. You can’t build an impregnable fortress, but you can make your home difficult to penetrate. I like lots of lighting. One switch should bathe your home and yard in light.

     Doors should have good deadbolts; sliding glass doors need a piece of wood in the track to keep the door from opening if the lock is compromised from the outside. Keep your windows closed and locked at night when you’re asleep or not at home. If it’s hot, turn on the AC.

     I investigated dozens of entries that started with the suspect climbing in through an open window. Don’t stash keys around outside for access when you’ve misplaced yours. Leave your garage doors closed when you’re at home. This is basic stuff, but most people (including gun owners), ignore the easy fixes.

     Never leave a gun unsecured while you’re away. I’ve talked with a few homeowners who faced their own gun upon returning from shopping. Always carry your handgun with you and be mentally prepared to use it upon your return. Look at your home critically before you walk in. Homeowners surprising uninvited people inside their home is more common than you’d think.

The author of the foregoing article noted toward the end of his article that he doesn't carry while at home, and if he thought he needed to, he would move out of the neighborhood. While I understand that thinking, property crimes (including burglary theft) isn't limited to just the bad neighborhoods. As way of example, one of the most brutal killings in the last 10 years in the Boise, Idaho area was a home invasion in a semi-isolated McMansion in a high-end neighborhood. Accordingly, I tender for your review the following article: "Should You Carry Your Firearm While At Home? Here Are 4 Reasons Why We Say Yes"--Concealed Nation.

• Related: "Can You Defend Yourself from Something Unimaginable? More Self Defense Gun Stories"--Ammo Land. I have to say that my favorite of the bunch was the burglar that tried to flee from police, and fell 9 feet to the ground because the homeowner had removed the stairs from his back door to make repairs. Sort of a Willie E. Coyote moment, I imagine.

• "Review: Walther CCP M2 in .380 ACP"--American Rifleman. This is another handgun that is designed to mitigate recoil for those that are sensitive to a heavy recoil.

• Related: "Video: Federal Hydra-Shok In .380 ACP A True Stopper"--Gun Digest. Federal has updated their Hydra-Shok ammunition, and this video and attached article describe Federal showing off this new round. What is interesting is that the copper petals (for lack of a better term) appear to be crimped around the lead slug. 

• "Pepper Spray- How to Choose it and How to Use it"--Active Response Training. Among other points made by the author, he notes that of the three popular formulas for chemical sprays--CN (the original formula in Mace), CS (military tear gas), and OC (pepper spray)--OC is the best. This is because, he explains, "OC causes inflammation, which is not dependent on the body’s pain response," and "OC also takes effect much faster than the other chemicals." Pepper spray is also rated, and Ellifritz recommends 1 million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) as an absolute minimum. If that rating is not present, then look for “Total Capsaicinoids” which is expressed as a percentage. He notes that 1.3% is typical, but you need at least 0.5%. If neither rating is present, he says to not buy the product. In any event, the article goes on to look at selecting the appropriate sized container, his recommendations as to particular brands, spray patterns, tactics and some other miscellaneous tips. 
• "Fashion Fatale: The Assassination of Gianni Versace & The Taurus PT-100 & Beretta 92"--Guns America. For those of you interested in true crime accounts, this article takes a detailed look at the persons and the guns involved in the murder of Gianni Versace (a fashion designer) by Andrew Phillip Cunanan on July 15, 1997.
• "Update: Handgun or Pistol Against Bear Attack: 93 cases, 97% Effective"--Ammo Land. Dean Weingarten has been tracking down and compiling instances where people have used handguns to defend against bear attacks, whether that use was successful or not. He has updated his results over time as he learns of new incidents. As of late March 2020, he had found 93 cases, demonstrating a 97% effectiveness--even when using smaller or weaker handgun rounds such as .22 LR (although these typically resulted in the bear leaving, not necessarily being mortally wounded).

• Related: "Does Bear Spray Work?"--Wes Siler at Outdoor Magazine. Siler dug into the data of studies author by Tom Smith titled the “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska” and “Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska” and found that not only were comparing the studies like comparing apples and oranges, but the firearms study omitted a substantial set of data from Alaska’s own Defense of Life and Property (DLP) records. The basic issues Siler found was that the bear spray article included all uses of bear spray on brown bears, not just bear attacks (e.g., if a bear was just curious and got too close), whereas the firearms paper looked at bear attacks. Another flaw with Smith's studies was that "incidents in which users were unable to access their bear spray in time were excluded from samples, while users who experienced malfunctions with, or were otherwise unable to employ, their firearms were included[.]" When corrected for, Siler noted that bear spray was only effective 1/3 of the time versus 95% for firearms.  Another factor to consider is that the efficacy of bear spray may vary according to species. For instance, Siler noted that the foregoing studies only examined brown bears. He located a study that only looked at the use of bear spray on black bears, and found that "methods like chasing, rock throwing, or shooting black bears with nonlethal rubber shotgun slugs were as effective as, if not more effective than, pepper spray." So when you come across an article at Time Magazine or some other source touting a 90% effectiveness for bear spray while stating that firearms are nearly useless, you might want to take that opinion with a grain of salt. 

• You'll shoot your balls off! "Why I’m Not a Fan of Appendix Carry"--The Truth About Guns. The problem I have with authors like the one that wrote this piece is that they feel that they have to start out their argument with ad-hominem attacks against the people who choose to use appendix carry rather than simply set out a rational argument. There may be good reasons to not employ appendix carry, and there may be some good reasons why it works better as a concealment method for people notwithstanding the risks, but the ad hominem rhetoric just turns me off.
• "Mental Techniques For Shooting: Cognitive Rehearsal And Progressive Relaxation"--Shooting Sports USA. An excerpt:

       I'm going to talk about the general guidelines I have developed for my personal mental training program. Most of the techniques I use I learned from reading, experience or from Coach Ed Etzel at West Virginia University. I have taken these ideas, tried them out, and adopted the ones that work best for me. (Read about Coach Ed Etzel—Ed.) I use the same program for sports and at work; and when I was in college, I used it for taking tests. It's very valuable when you become aroused or full of anxiety and are uncomfortable with the feeling. When this happens, you can rely on your good old psychological routine.

      The first thing I'm going to mention is cognitive rehearsal. Before this competition, I spent a lot of time thinking about shooting. I didn't just show up on the firing line and decide I was going to shoot well. If you look at my scorecard, you will find these are the best scores I have ever shot. In fact, the best five scores I have ever shot have been in national competition. I spend a lot of my training time away from the range in cognitive rehearsal.

      To me, cognitive rehearsal basically means fantasizing. When you have free time or are lying in bed before you go to sleep, you can review and rehearse your shooting routine and visualize yourself shooting the perfect shot. When I shoot a shot, mentally or in reality, I follow a prescribed sequence or routine.

      Many people will say they have a mental problem with their shooting. There are so many things you can think about when you are shooting that you must sit down and decide what the best things to think about are. I can't tell you exactly what you should do since each individual is different, but I have found a routine that helps me to perform at a consistently higher level.

LOAD

PICTURE A PERFECT SHOT

RELAX AND SHOULDER THE RIFLE

HOLD

(develop a pattern if possible)

FIRE

      The first thing I do, after the ready command, is load the rifle. When the RO says, "Load," my bullet is near the chamber, and I immediately load the gun. That time is precious. You have 15 seconds to prepare, and that is the command for me to imagine in my mind a perfect sight picture. If I'm shooting a ram, I imagine what a perfect sight picture would be. It's very vivid in every detail. I'm talking about imagining the trees on the side, seeing the animal and feeling the presence of the people around me. I'm concentrating so hard on the picture of that perfect shot that you could probably shout in my ear and I wouldn't jump.

      This takes training. You can't start the day before a match and get to the point where this is going to help you. It takes a lot of time, effort and discipline. You have to think about that perfect sight picture and be able to bring it into your mind very easily.

     Seeing that perfect sight picture mentally not only helps you to remember what you're there for, but also helps you to execute the shot when you see that perfect picture in your sight. A lot of what I've read says that when you picture something in your mind, your subconscious can pick it up very quickly and your reaction time will be increased. When you see that perfect picture in your sights, you are going to shoot faster than you would if you were thinking about something else.

The author then goes on to discuss the progressive relaxation.  

"Tucker: Are some of our leaders and the media addicted to doom and gloom?"--Tucker Carlson (8 min.). The mathematical models of the pandemic's effects on the United States are wrong, grossly overstating what is actually happening on the ground.

• "Death Model Projection Drops from 2.2 Million to 60,000"--Rush Limbough. Noting that one of the most widely used models in the United States,  the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model reduced the projected U.S. deaths by 25% from 81,766 to 60,415 early Wednesday morning, which was the second downgrade over a 4 day period. Interestingly, according to other news sources I've seen, the IHME model incorporated social distancing into its projections, so it is not clear why the huge reductions. Negligence or malice?

• Related: "HOW HONEST IS THE COVID FATALITY COUNT?"--Powerline. Minnesota doctors have been told by the Minnesota Department of Health to relate all pneumonia deaths to COVID-19 if the patient was exposed to the disease, even though the patient was never tested, or never tested positive, for that disease.

• "This Is Strange: Total US Deaths in March 2020 are Actually Down 15% from Average of Prior Four Years"--Gateway Pundit. The author begins:

What is going on?  After shutting down the government and killing the greatest economy in the world due to deathly estimates from specialists on the coronavirus, the data is showing that this may be one great big mistake or hoax.

After looking at the data released by the CDC as to the number of deaths in March, the author concludes:

The US is experiencing 34,000 less deaths in 2020 than in the prior four years but we are concerned about a virus that to date as of March 31, 2020 that had a total of 4,000 US deaths?  What is really going on and who is responsible for the broken estimates and consistent messaging in the President’s ear to shut down the US economy?

However, like all government statistics, you need to be cautious about accepting initial numbers. Dr. Roy W. Spencer notes at his blog:

I am seeing an increasing number of people on social media pointing to the weekly CDC death statistics which show a unusually low number of total deaths for this time of year, when one would expect the number to be increasing from COVID-19. But what most people don’t realize is that this is an artifact of the late arrival of death certificate data as gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

So, like many government statistics, we will need to wait for the revised numbers.

• Related: "Covid19 yet to impact Europe’s overall mortality: Year-to-date statistics show excess mortality lower than previous years"--Off Guardian. 

        The statistics were gathered by the European Monitoring of Excess Mortality for Public Health Action (EuroMOMO), an international partnership of agencies from 24 European nations aiming to promote preparedness for public health emergencies.

      They track “excess mortality”, meaning the number of officially recorded deaths vs the average death rate.

• Democrats gotta be Democrats: "Democrats block $250 billion extra bailout cash for small businesses in Senate in bid to get cash for hospitals, state and local government as Mitch McConnell accuses Nancy Pelosi of 'holding Americans' paychecks hostage'"--Daily Mail. The money they are blocking is that intended to help businesses to stay open and pay their workers. But I can understand the Democrats' mindset: they want the economy to crash in order to prevent Trump from winning reelection. 

• Related: "Monkeys run riot as they reclaim the streets amid Covid-19 lockdown in India"--Daily Mail. 

• QOTD: "Public health experts are well and good in their place. Their place is not running the country."--Roger Kimball.
• "Daily coronavirus updates: Schools, nonessential businesses to stay closed in Connecticut through at least May 20; deaths, infections rising while new COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to slow"--Hartford Courant. 
• "Trump Says Would Like to Reopen US Economy With a ‘Big Bang’"--The Epoch Times. "At a White House news briefing, Trump said the Centers for Disease Control would release guidance later on Wednesday to ensure critical infrastructure workers can do their jobs after being exposed to the virus." And, in fact, the CDC did release a guidance saying essential workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 can return to work if they are showing no symptoms after the 14-day quarantine, but with restrictions such as taking their temperature to check for fever, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing. 

• Related: "U.S. economy should be able to reopen on 'rolling basis' - White House adviser Kudlow"--Reuters. 

• "Chinese company is charging American medical suppliers more than FOUR TIMES the normal price for necessary masks"--Daily Mail. Yet another reason to move manufacturing from China. You would think that the Chinese government would be concerned about driving manufacturing from their shores, but I just don't see any signs of it.
• "After the Hysteria Dies, What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Bethlehem To Be Born? The Answer Might Surprise You."--The Remodern Review.

     I believe what we are going through now-a wildly overblown reaction to a suspiciously timed outbreak- is because, after an uninterrupted winning streak for decades, the establishment is losing. This mother of all false flag operations is their desperate means of self-defense.

     False flag does not mean this is a hoax. There is a potentially deadly virus out there. Where the false flag comes in is the highly coordinated Deep State over-reaction from governments, the media, academia, and global corporations. Instead of practical measures appropriate to a risky form of the flu, the lockdown freakout inflicted on us seems designed to quash another pandemic which has been growing for years: the populist uprisings against the corrupt and incompetent Postmodern New World Order.

• Related: "Ezekiel Emanuel: U.S. Must Stay Locked Down For 12-18 Months Until There's A Vaccine"--Real Clear Politics. Emanuel is a bioethicist, not an epidemiologist. He is also a flaming liberal: brother of former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hollywood-based talent agent Ari Emanuel; his father was a Jewish terrorist, and his mother a social worker and (ironically given the current house arrest of most of the nation) a civil rights advocate. 

• Related: "Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’"--Bloomberg. And this op-ed is all for it. From the op-ed:

      Third, and this may be the most enduring effect, Newsom is sending a powerful message to both political parties. So far, the Republican Party’s war on democratic values, institutions and laws has been a largely one-sided affair, with the GOP assaulting and the Democratic Party defending. The lethal ruling this week by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Republican bloc, which required Wisconsin residents to vote in person during a pandemic that shut down polling stations, is a preview of the fall campaign. The GOP intends to restrict vote-by-mail and other legitimate enfranchisement to suppress turnout amid fear, uncertainty and disease.

       At some point this civil war by other means, with the goal of enshrining GOP minority rule, will provoke a Democratic counteroffensive. Newsom, leader of the nation’s largest state, is perhaps accelerating that response, shaking Democrats out of denial and putting Republicans on notice. California, an economic behemoth whose taxpayers account for 15% of individual contributions to the U.S. Treasury, is now toning up at muscle beach.

      What that means, of course, is left to the imagination. But not much is required to envision what might evolve.

      Newsom, a former lieutenant governor who won the top job in 2018, has used the “nation-state” phrase before. It’s a very odd thing to say. California, like its 49 smaller siblings, qualifies only as the second half. But it’s obviously no slip of the tongue. Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener, a leader in California’s cumbersome efforts to produce more housing, said soon after Newsom took office in 2019 that reorienting the state’s relationship to Washington is a necessity, not a choice.

     “The federal government is no longer a reliable partner in delivering health care, in supporting immigrants, supporting LGBT people, in protecting the environment, so we need to forge our own path,” Wiener said. “We can do everything in our power to protect our state, but we need a reliable federal partner. And right now we don’t have that.”

However, the author doesn't want to leave it to the imagination what California might do:

 John C. Calhoun, who used the theory of states’ rights to defend the institution of slavery, is not generally a philosophical lodestar for liberal Democrats such as Newsom. But if Republicans (or foreign friends) succeed in sabotaging democracy in November, Calhoun’s theory of nullification, which posited that states have the power to defy federal law, could be ripe for a comeback on the left coast. With the heirs of the Confederacy now reigning in Washington, turnabout might be very fair play.

• "Surgical mask, paper towel mask or cloth mask? Japanese professor tests which is most effective against Covid-19"--Asia One. The researcher used a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) the measure the number of 20 and 100 nanometers diameter particles that got through. The results showed that a standard surgical mask blocked 70% of the particles, a six-layer paper towel "mask" (three pieces folded in half) blocked about 80% of the particles (I wonder what brand, though), and a "makeshift mask made out of a handkerchief folded thrice" also blocked about 70% of the particles. Since the primary issue is reducing the viral dose, I would consider each of these to be worth the effort to use.
• "150 members of the Saudi royal family have coronavirus: report"--The Hill. From the article: "Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulziz al Saud, the governor of Riyadh and a nephew of King Salman, was confirmed to have tested positive by two doctors, according to the Times. Many of the thousands of princes in the family are believed to have brought back the virus after traveling to Europe, the newspaper reported, citing doctors and people close to the family."
• "As Backlash Grows, Legal Challenges to Lockdown Unlikely to Succeed, Say Experts"--The Epoch Times. An excerpt:

       Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, told The Epoch Times that “every power grab is always preceded by a declaration of a crisis. No one ever says, ‘I’m going to grab more power because I love power.’”

      The rules imposed by governors are in many cases “vague enough that they encourage arbitrary enforcement.” Policemen are being forced to make “arbitrary, subjective decisions” by these rules, he said.

     Levey wasn’t optimistic that legal challenges would strike down those rules. “Short term? No, they take a while to work their way through the courts, even if we are talking about preliminary injunctions. Judges are influenced by public opinion, and right now, people are afraid to stand up to the overreach.”

     “So much of the government reaction is based on panic that I almost don’t recognize the country I’m seeing,” Levey said.

• Diversity is our strength: "FBI Raid Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Plot to Destroy America"--Conservative Base. From the article:

      During the raid, FBI agents and forensic technicians uncovered frightening material that included blueprints for the Muslim takeover of the United States. ...

* * *

      “Phase One: Phase of the discreet and secret establishment of leadership.

      “Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene and exercising and utilizing various public activities (It greatly succeeded in implementing this stage). It also succeeded in achieving many of its important goals, such as infiltrating various sectors of the Government. Gaining religious institutions and embracing senior scholars. Gaining public support and sympathy. Establishing a shadow government (secret) within the Government.

      “Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media. Currently in progress.

       “Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach. It is aggressively implementing the above-mentioned approach. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero-hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.

       “Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation under which all parties and Islamic groups are united.”

      “While that is their general overall plan, the document that was seized in the raid reveals a chilling insight into their operations, mindset, planning, and vision of the Islamic movement rapidly taking over North America,” said a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

• "Days after Idaho’s earthquake, experts seek answers about historic, unexpected event"--Herald Mail Media. 

       “The first thing I heard was there was a (magnitude) 6.5 earthquake in the Stanley area, and my first assumption was it was the Sawtooth Fault,” said Thackray, who has been teaching geosciences at Idaho State University for more than 25 years.

      But in the days since the March 31 earthquake, Thackray has puzzled over whether his assumption was right. The earthquake, believed to be the second-strongest on record in Idaho, originated about 21 miles northwest of Stanley, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

      “It’s in an odd location for the Sawtooth Fault itself, being up in that corner where Highway 21 makes the big loop,” Thackray said.

      When he learned the earthquake was caused by a strike-slip fault — one in which tectonic plates move past one another horizontally — rather than a normal fault that causes vertical movement, he had even more questions.

     “When the first information came out about how (the earthquake) moved, it didn’t make sense for the Sawtooth Fault,” Thackray said. “That’s not to say the Sawtooth Fault wasn’t involved in some way, but that’s a detail that’s of great interest to geologists.” Where was epicenter of Idaho earthquake? Thackray said the geologic feature where the March 31 earthquake likely originated “appears to be a fault that cuts across the Sawtooth Fault west of Stanley.” The U.S. Geological Survey said it doesn’t appear there has been seismic activity in the immediate vicinity for more than 50 years.

• Al Gore most disappointed: "Data From NASA's Cassini May Explain Saturn's Atmospheric Mystery"--Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mystery is that Saturn's atmosphere is too warm for the distance it is from the Sun. Whence the heat? 

New analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft finds a viable explanation for what's keeping the upper layers of Saturn, and possibly the other gas giants, so hot: auroras at the planet's north and south poles. Electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, spark the auroras and heat the upper atmosphere. (As with Earth's northern lights, studying auroras tells scientists what's going on in the planet's atmosphere.)

Not only that, but, the article explains, "[t]he global wind system can distribute this energy, which is initially deposited near the poles toward the equatorial regions, heating them to twice the temperatures expected from the Sun's heating alone." (Underline added). This article was discussed the other day at Suspicious Observers, and the host pointed out that if this same heating was happening at Saturn, if most likely was happening to Earth from the same mechanism.

• "Climate Change and Social Unrest: A 6,000‐Year Chronicle From the Eastern Mediterranean"--Geophysical Research Papers. Key point: "We find that major social changes and plague outbreaks often occurred in tandem with cooler climate conditions, with anomalies ranging from −3 ± 0.4 °C to −1 ± 0.5 °C, coupled with changing precipitation patterns." (Underline added). Fun fact, the Black Death appeared as the world was cooling after the end of the Medieval Warming Period, and that cooling is believed to have helped not only drive the spread of the plague from marmots to humans, but also made populations more susceptible to the disease due to years of poor harvests and poor nutrition.
• Que the Twilight Zone music: "What are these mysterious objects filmed flying close to the moon?"--BoingBoing. They look like the tic-tac UFOs, only much, much bigger. 
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Could a Mach 5 SR-72 Spy Plane Already Be in the Sky?"--Real Clear Defense. From the article:

       The SR-72 program was mentioned by Orland Carvalho, the Executive Vice President of Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin during an aerospace exhibition in Fort Worth.

      “Although I can't go into specifics, let us just say the Skunk Works team in Palmdale, California, is doubling down on our commitment to speed.” He continued, saying "hypersonics is like stealth. It is a disruptive technology and will enable various platforms to operate at two to three times the speed of the Blackbird... Security classification guidance will only allow us to say the speed is greater than Mach 5.” ...

Supposedly the plane won't be in the air until the late 2020's.