Exploring practical methods for preparing for the end times, including analysis of end time scripture and prophecy, current events, prepping and self-defense.
The map, taken from the article above, shows average IQ per state with blue representing 100 or higher (the more blue the higher the average IQ) and the yellow tinge indicating an average IQ of less than 100 with the more yellow representing a lower IQ.
Consistent with the map, the article indicates:
Exactly half of US states have an average IQ of 100 or above, with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont coming in the top four while North Dakota and Wyoming tied for the fifth spot.
Meanwhile, those ranked in the bottom five include New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Nevada, according to World Population Review.
What was happened 100 years ago to drop IQ? What's happening right now that is causing the average IQ to drop? Why are the WASP states the highest? Why are the border states and deep South the lowest? It's a mystery, but the article relates that "one expert speculated that a drop in reading and an increase in media entertainment, like YouTube, is at fault." The article also suggests "[smart] phones degrade our memory and recall because there is less need to store information with Google at our finger tips."
Philadelphia has the highest rate inasmuch as "[o]ne in 65 residents in Philly caught a sexually transmitted infection in 2022, according to an analysis of the latest CDC data."
"Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi, took second and third place, respectively, where the rate was about one in 67."
"New Orleans, Louisiana, and St Louis, Missouri, rounded out the top five cities for STD rates."
"Southern cities were disproportionately represented in the data, accounting for 17 out of the top 25 areas, which the researchers called 'disturbing.'" Well, it certainly isn't politically correct.
Moreover, like the cities mentioned above, the map in the article showing the top 50 cities shows a suspicious correspondence to areas with a high density of a certain demographic.
Conversely, "Provo, Utah, was the least rife with STDs, with about one in 300 residents being infected, which could be due to the area's largely Mormon population, causing people to often have fewer sexual partners." And this is a city that is home to a large university (BYU)--i.e., lots of college students.
For the .31 caliber he just used a round ball, but didn't give the weight. For the .36 caliber, he used an 84 grain round ball and a 130 grain conical bullet. For the .44 caliber, he used a 147 grain round ball and a 220 grain conical. With one exception, the loadings using the substitutes had higher velocities than the black powder loads--sometimes substantially higher. In fact, at the more powerful loadings, Hebert was able to get over 1,000 FPS with some of the .36 round ball loads using a substitute and over 800 FPS with the 130 grain conical bullet; and over 1,000 FPS with both the ball and conical bullet loads in the .44 when using the substitutes. The latter is particularly impressive considering it was with a 220 grain bullet. That is, respectively, comparable to factory loaded smokeless ammunition in .38 Special and betters factory loads in .44 Special.
Be sure to check out his article for the full information on the velocities for the difference charges used. But even the more mild charges still yielded respectable results.
Q: Do you think states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion after the ban?
Trump: I think they might do that.
Q: Prosecuting women for getting abortions after the ban… Are you comfortable with it?
Trump: The states are going to [decide]. It's irrelevant whether I'm comfortable or not.
This is just another example of Trump understanding the true nature of federalism and what the Supreme Court held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022): that abortion is a matter for the states to decide.
But that isn't where Callahan goes. Instead, she writes:
Yet clearly, Trump – a man never short of opinions – is comfortable with this idea.
This is horrifying for women everywhere. It is dystopian and, as so often said, the unimaginable stuff of 'The Handmaid's Tale': Women as property, as chattel and broodmares, nothing more.
Women need to reframe this argument. 'Abortion' is a damaging, deliberately brutish catch-all. What this is about, more correctly, is reproductive rights. It's about the self-determination of women.
In other words, she's fine with Trump being a dictator and ignoring the Supreme Court so long as it benefits her pet issue.
Moreover, despite her apparent fascination with being a broodmare, she notes a few paragraphs on that in states that have put it to referendum, voters have rejected strict bans on abortion. Which is exactly the point of the decision in Dobbs and Trump's comments: the voters in each state will ultimately decide the issue. And since women make up slightly more than half of the population, it will ultimately be women who decide the issue.
The Dems, however, reject the power of the people or federalism. Instead, Nancy Pelosi promises that "If Democrats Win, We Will Kill the Filibuster and Legalize Abortions Up to Birth Nationwide." Wow, I didn't realize that killing babies was so important to Democrats. Keep in mind, however, that people who would support killing babies will have no qualms about putting you and yours into death camps.
Probably close to 10 years ago now, I had the opportunity to attend a short presentation by a member of our church stake (sort of like a diocese) who had served in the CIA paramilitary arm back in the 1970s and early '80s. It was aimed at the youth in the stake--one of those presentations where they have people come in to talk about their jobs--but parents were encouraged to attend.
Obviously he couldn't provide much in the way of specifics, but he talked a little about how he wound up being inducted into paramilitary work for the CIA, a couple examples from their testing/training regimen, and, although he couldn't describe any particular mission, presented and acted out a fictional mission to rescue a man and his family seeking to escape from behind the Iron Curtain and what could be expected in such a mission, including wearing the type of clothing he would use on such a mission and an equipment belt with the type of equipment he would carry with him (the pistol was fake, however). He also mentioned that a lot of his work involved electronic and other intelligence gathering along the border with or inside East Germany.
After leaving the service, he became a psychologist and apparently had a successful practice in this area. Funny enough, years after he left the service, he discovered that his brother had also worked for the CIA at about the same time and doing similar work in Europe.
I bring this up because I recently came across an article at SOFREP.com and it reminded me of that presentation a long time ago. The article is entitled: "The Secret World of CIA’s Elite Paramilitary Operatives." The author, Guy D. McCardle, discusses the CIA's general mission, some of the major sections or divisions with the Agency, before moving on to discuss the Special Activities Center and the different branches within the SAC and generally the types of missions they would conduct. He intersperses this with an example of specific operations carried out by a respective branch for which we have public confirmation (limited as it might be): e.g., the rescue of Jessica Lynch from Iraqi forces in 2003; the formation and operation of Air America and the failed Bay of Pigs operation; the September 2012 battle in Benghazi that Hillary Clinton doesn't think is of any consequence; and others.
He also raises some interesting points or tidbits of information in different sections, e.g.:
Discussing the CIA's overall mission:
Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a domestic security service, the CIA has no law enforcement function and mainly focuses on overseas intelligence operations.
The agency is supposed to be strictly an offshore organization, prohibited from conducting operations on US soil but SOFREP has had credible sources from within JSOC and the NSA tell us that the agency routinely uses foreign business proxies to spy on US soil, essentially legally bypassing the restriction.
What do we mean by this?
Imagine a wealthy Indian hotel chain owner with properties within the US who is working as a CIA asset (what they call spies). This hotel owner is being paid millions of agency dollars to record audio and video footage from “guests of interest” (e.g., imagine a cheating spouse) and reports back these activities that could be used as leverage to gain information. But back to the mission…
Discussing the Air Branch:
More recently white unmarked, with plain FAA N registration numbers, Boeing jets could be seen shuttling around agency operatives in and out of Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots globally. Like most of the branches within SAC they typically contract out these services to a number of US companies as a layer of protection and deniability.
Discussing the Political Action Group:
Perhaps the most shadowy of the SAC’s components, the Political Action Group (PAG) wields influence far beyond the battlefield. Specializing in the arts of psychological warfare, economic sabotage, and covert political influence, the PAG works to sway political outcomes in favor of U.S. interests without direct military intervention.
By manipulating mainstream media and social media, financing opposition movements, or staging cyber-attacks, this group plays a crucial role in shaping the geopolitical landscape in a manner that is both subtle and profound.
It’s well known within the agency that companies like Meta, Apple, and Google have contracts with the CIA and are allowed special access to data.
Steve Jobs was a routine visitor to the CIA’s headquarters.
And in relating a bit about recruitment and training, the author states (underline added):
The pathway to becoming a CIA paramilitary operative is arduous, with candidates undergoing a rigorous selection process for each branch. Usually, candidates have served in a Special Operations unit for longer than four years and have seen combat. Typically, they are recommended by existing operators for the job, and like Air Branch, the bulk of billets are filled by trusted private military companies (formerly Blackwater, Ogara Group, and MVM to name a few) who feed them qualified candidates who work on programs as green-badged security contractors.
Green badgers are typically managed by senior paramilitary operators overseeing them who work directly for the CIA. These senior managers are called “blue badgers” by insiders, indicating the color of their agency security badge.
You might notice a common thread here: using private entities or persons in order to get around U.S. laws and Congressional oversight, including operations inside the United States.
This is a major theme in the recent article from Conservative Treehouse/The Last Refuge: "The Intel Agencies of Government Are Fully Weaponized". In that article, the author "explain[s] how the Intelligence Branch works: (1) to control every other branch of government; (2) how it functions as an entirely independent branch of government with no oversight; (3) how and why it was created to be independent from oversight; (4) what is the current mission of the IC Branch, and most importantly (5) who operates it." It is a lengthy article, but in line with the CIA article from SOFREP, it notes that "[t]he modern Fourth Branch of Government is only possible because of a Public-Private partnership with the intelligence apparatus. You do not have to take my word for it, the partnership is so brazen they have made public admissions."
The biggest names in Big Tech announced in June [2021] their partnership with the Five Eyes intelligence network, ultimately controlled by the NSA, to: (1) monitor all activity in their platforms; (2) identify extremist content; (3) look for expressions of Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE); and then, (4) put the content details into a database where the Five Eyes intelligence agencies (U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand) can access it.
Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft are all partnering with the intelligence apparatus. It might be difficult to fathom how openly they admit this, but they do. Look at this sentence in the press release (emphasis mine):
[…] “The Group will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.”
Think about that sentence structure very carefully. They are “adding to” the preexisting list…. admitting the group (aka Big Tech) already have access to the the intelligence-sharing database… and also admitting there is a preexisting list created by the Five Eyes consortium.
Obviously, who and what is defined as “extremist content” will be determined by the Big Tech insiders themselves. This provides a gateway, another plausible deniability aspect, to cover the Intelligence Branch from any oversight.
When the Intelligence Branch within government wants to conduct surveillance and monitor American citizens, they run up against problems due to the Constitution of the United States. They get around those legal limitations by sub-contracting the intelligence gathering, the actual data-mining, and allowing outside parties (contractors) to have access to the central database.
The government cannot conduct electronic searches (4th amendment issue) without a warrant; however, private individuals can search and report back as long as they have access. What is being admitted is exactly that preexisting partnership. The difference is that Big Tech will flag the content from within their platforms, and now a secondary database filled with the extracted information will be provided openly for the Intelligence Branch to exploit.
The volume of metadata captured by the NSA has always been a problem because of the filters needed to make the targeting useful. There is a lot of noise in collecting all data that makes the parts you really want to identify more difficult to capture. This new admission puts a new massive filtration system in the metadata that circumvents any privacy protections for individuals.
Previously, the Intelligence Branch worked around the constitutional and unlawful search issue by using resources that were not in the United States. A domestic U.S. agency, working on behalf of the U.S. government, cannot listen on your calls without a warrant. However, if the U.S. agency sub-contracts to say a Canadian group, or foreign ally, the privacy invasion is no longer legally restricted by U.S. law.
What was announced in June 2021 is an alarming admission of a prior relationship along with open intent to define their domestic political opposition as extremists.
July 26 (Reuters) – A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook (FB.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.
Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos – often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence – and other publications and links flagged by U.N. initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.
The firms, which include Twitter (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it. (read more)
The influence of the Intelligence Branch now reaches into our lives, our personal lives. In the decades before 9/11/01 the intelligence apparatus intersected with government, influenced government, and undoubtedly controlled many institutions with it. The legislative oversight function was weak and growing weaker, but it still existed and could have been used to keep the IC in check. However, after the events of 9/11/01, the short-sighted legislative reactions opened the door to allow the surveillance state to weaponize.
After the Patriot Act was triggered, not coincidentally only six weeks after 9/11, a slow and dangerous fuse was lit that ends with the intelligence apparatus being granted a massive amount of power. The problem with assembled power is always what happens when a Machiavellian network takes control over that power and begins the process to weaponize the tools for their own malicious benefit. That is exactly what the installation of Barack Obama was all about.
The Obama network took pre-assembled intelligence weapons we should never have allowed to be created, and turned those weapons into tools for his radical and fundamental change. The target was the essential fabric of our nation. Ultimately, this corrupt political process gave power to create the Fourth Branch of Government, the Intelligence Branch. From that perspective the fundamental change was successful.
Both articles are interesting, so be sure to check them out.
Joshua Dean, a quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, previously said he was fired in April 2023 for questioning standards at the supplier's plant in Wichita, Kansas.
Spirit manufactured the door plug on the Boeing jet which shockingly blew out midair on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Dean died in hospital on Tuesday after a sudden illness, his family said on social media.
Earlier this year, Dean spoke with NPR about his firing. 'I think they were sending out a message to anybody else. If you are too loud, we will silence you,' he said.
And did they?
Doctors found that Dean contracted MRSA and tested positive for influenza B, while a further scan found that he also suffered a stroke.
Generally when you see a list of "the top 4 (or 5) SHTF guns to own" it turns out to not be about specific firearms but categories of firearms. "You should own a modern sporting rifle, a handgun, a shotgun, and a .22 rifle (or a long range rifle)" seems to be a common list. In "My Four Reliable & Practical SHTF Guns You Need to Own," author Thomas Conroy hits these categories but actually gives specific firearms:
The Glock 19 pistol;
The PSA PA-15 Classic AR-15 5.56 M4 Carbine;
The Ruger 10/22 Takedown;
The Remington Model 700 in .308; and (despite the title only referencing four firearms),
The Mossberg 500 Persuader shotgun.
He also provides alternatives in a few of the categories.
You might not agree with his choices or have different recommendations for different situations (I know I do), but at least he gives specific recommendations instead of the vague "have a rifle, a shotgun, a pistol, ...." For a newby, this is far more useful than the vague categories because it at least gives a place to start or example of features that someone might want in a weapon.
Supporters of the new city say that the existing city-parish government is poorly run, with high crime rates and bad schools.
Opponents say the movement is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave' as it separates a wealthy area of the city from the majority Black city and school district.
We've all been told that black people built this nation and that whites all became wealthy off the labor of black people. Consequently, I'm sure that with all the evil white people gone, Baton Rouge can finally realize its destiny and greatness, becoming the likes of the fictional Wakanda.
While in police custody, Czech “was going in and out of consciousness,” documents said. He later told officers he is unhoused and was awake for “five days straight” because something was “possessing him,” according to the documents.
Although rare, these types of attacks happen from time-to-time. Do you have a plan on how to deal with a face-eater?
During an interview with a reporter from Yonkers Voice, Bowman said the U.S. is a “land of immigrants” and “asylum seekers” that has always opened its “doors to immigrants,” saying, “[I] fully support that,” in response to a question regarding the U.S. opening its doors to migrants from Gaza.
“Should the United States bring in people from Gaza?” the reporter asked Bowman.
“We are a land of migrants, and we are a land of asylum seekers — anyone escaping persecution and oppression and violence — the United States has always been an open home to those people,” Bowman answered:
So, whether they’re coming from Palestine, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, [or] Haiti, they’re coming here to contribute to our economy, which 99.9 percent of them are. We’ve always been a place to open our doors to immigrants coming here, so, yeah, [I] fully support that.
Contribute to our economy? That's a funny of way of describing living on welfare and jacking up crime. If he gets his way, we will see stuff like this:
Garland abandoned his “Christian Nationalist” and “White Supremacist” bogeymen to admit that gangs members and repeat offenders are driving the gun violence problem in America. And for the slow-witted trolls in comments, this isn’t the MAGA gang either.
Here is an excerpt from the transcript provided by the US Department of Justice:
We are using our prosecutorial and technological tools to identify the repeat offenders and gangs who are principally responsible for community violence.
The article also contains the video clip showing Garland's liberal faux pas. Garland will probably now be required to say a couple dozen "hail Satan's" to receive forgiveness from his fellow Leftists.
She can be seen biting the ducks' heads off and slurping them down before finally going after the mama duck.
She paid no attention to the bystanders behind the glass, who smacked and shouted in an attempt to distract her.
Although kids can be heard screaming in the video, they did not appear to be experiencing stress or horror.
It sort of reminds me of all the anguish over South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's admission that 20 years ago, she put down one of her dogs after it attacked and killed a family's chickens and bit Noem. Well, that is just a fact of life in farm country: a dog that attacks and kills livestock is put down. And most states require that vicious dogs be euthanized. Was she just supposed to pass the dog onto some unsuspecting family and have it bite a child or kill other animals?
One of the key problems I've found in the Boise area is finding an FFL that doesn't charge an arm and a leg for processing transfers of firearms purchased from an on-line seller. The dealer I used for many years closed up shop a couple years ago and in asking at the gun shops that I generally go to, they want $60 or more to process a transfer, sometimes with other restrictions. But although it's a bit out of my way, I happened into a gun shop called HawkTech Arms near the intersection of Eagle and Franklin Roads last week and learned that they only charge $25 for non-NFA transfers (and $50 for NFA items). That's a good deal and so I thought I would share.
The trial of Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly resulted in a mistrial last week after jurors could not decide if he was responsible for the death of an illegal alien on his property. Prosecutors had asserted that Kelly had shot the illegal despite the lack of any physical evidence linking Kelly to the man's death. According to KTAR News, "Prosecutors say they will not retry an Arizona rancher accused of murder near the US-Mexico border." From the article:
Prosecutors said Monday they will not retry an Arizona rancher whose trial in the fatal shooting of a Mexican man on his property ended last week with a deadlocked jury.
The jurors in the case against George Alan Kelly were unable to reach a unanimous decision on a verdict after more than two days of deliberation. Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial on April 22.
After the mistrial, the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office had the option to retry Kelly — or to drop the case. Fink dismissed the case as requested by prosecutors.
Double jeopardy does not attach to a mistrial (thus the reason they could have immediately retried the case). So prosecutors may have truly decided to drop the case, or they might try to find more evidence and recharge Kelly later. And there is always lurking in the background the possibility that the U.S. Attorney's Office might bring some type of federal charge against Mr. Kelly.
Article here. The guest article by Clay Spencer begins:
At the turn of the Eighteenth Century, America, as a nation, was in its infancy and still largely unexplored, though the Lewis and Clark Expedition would soon shed much light on what lay out there across the wide continent. Soon to follow were the mountain men who trapped beaver and deeply explored the mountainous Far West. Yet the vast interior, between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, was still sparsely inhabited and little known except by the Native American tribes who didn’t take kindly to uninvited white pioneers bent on stealing their lands. There also were other new inhabitants arriving who had a decidedly sinister air about them and were on the prowl, searching for loot and mayhem.
And, as he adds:
Because of the raw emptiness of the region, law enforcement was almost nonexistent and the dangers were constant from man and beast, only the foolish—and likely soon to be deceased—entered the frontier alone, without arms and the ability to use them.
He goes on to discuss some of the outlaws that inhabited a triangular area bordered by the Ohio River, the Mississippi River and the Natchez Trace. As Spencer relates (footnotes omitted):
A wealth of natural features and its isolation made the region attractive to lawbreakers, many of whom had fled the more settled Eastern Seaboard. There were numerous limestone caves useful for hideouts. Small islands dotted the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the latter had its own notorious cave described below. The Natchez Trace was a primitive, narrow dirt trail that bordered cypress swamps, dense canebrakes and forests, running more than 400 miles between Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. It was a particularly dangerous pathway for travelers and merchants, ripe for ambush while on their way back from selling goods and produce in Natchez and New Orleans. A few crude inns offering shelter and food dotted the Trace for sojourners, but outlaws also frequented them, searching for victims to rob and kill.
By the late Eighteenth Century, the quasi-triangular region of the two mighty rivers and the Trace was a virtually perfect hunting ground for deranged murderers, robbers and rapists to carry out their activities virtually unchecked. In some cases, though, when caught criminals were very harshly punished. Few citizens were bothered by such rough justice; indeed, most enjoyed the spectacles.
Much of his article focuses on two outlaws--Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe, thought to be either brothers or cousins--that robbed and murdered their way through the region. Spencer states:
No one knows precisely how many people the Harpes murdered. Estimates range from about 20 to 50 but even the higher number could be too conservative. Most of their killings occurred in remote areas and many of their victims’ remains were never found. A specialty of theirs (adopted by other highwaymen and pirates) was disemboweling their victims’ corpses and filling the cavities with rocks. Once completed, the Harpes would sink the bodies either in a swamp or a river. Sometimes though, the bloated, rotting remains floated to the top and were discovered by passersby. Of course, many cadavers never surfaced or were discovered. The victims’ families and friends never knew what had happened to them.
The article continues with more details of the Harpes and their eventual demise, so be sure to check it out. Below is also a video about the Harpes:
In its article, "America's forgotten 'doom loop' city, where $205m skyscrapers are selling for under $4m and the decaying downtown has become a ghost town," the Daily Mail reports on the collapse in value of commercial real estate in downtown St. Louis. For instance, "St Louis's largest office building - its 44-story AT&T tower - for example. In 2006 this prime real estate sold for $205 million," but recently sold for $3.5 million--a 98% drop in value. More generally, the article indicates that "[s]ince 2012 a collection of the region's largest office buildings have dropped nearly 24 percent in appraised value, according to a 2022 analysis by The St. Louis Business Journal."
Although the article indicates that the trend started with the closing of the downtown Macy's in 2013 due to the rise of online shopping, it is also clear that the lockdowns that came with the Covid pandemic is what really killed the downtown business district. Per the article:
But modern-day St. Louis was hit hard by the pandemic, with its population sinking to below 300,000 for the first time since the 1800s, according to the New York Times. This compares to nearly 400,000 people living in St. Louis back in 1990.
In fact, St. Louis has seen the worst recovery in foot traffic to its downtown area of all other major US cities since just before the pandemic broke out in 2019.
The University of Toronto's School of Cities released data in October 2023 comparing the number of visits to major North American cities during a four-month period in 2019 to the same timeframe in 2023.
St. Louis was ranked last out of 66 cities observed, while Las Vegas was the only city to actually increase its visits since 2019.
Of course, the loss of foot traffic leads to more businesses closing and, consequently, the downtown area becoming even more uninviting, leading to more businesses closing.
The police pursuit began after an SUV was reported to have been stolen out of Gainesville. Only hours after the theft, the car was detected by a license plate reader.
Police were soon on their tail and a Bradford County sheriff's deputy confirmed the SUV was stolen as they followed and called for backup.
Deputies verified there were several people inside the vehicle and attempted to pull it over.
The vehicle appeared to be slowing down but then the driver hit the gas and sped away with the car reaching speeds of 111mph.
Police patrol vehicles were unable to keep up with the car because a device in their car prevents them from accelerating too fast.
At that point, the Florida Highway Patrol were called and a trooper continued the chase.
The gist of the story is that a group called North Country Pride planned and paid for some murals to be painted on an old building in the town, ostensibly to combat urban blight. But the murals (there are three different ones shown in the article) have raised the ire of many locals including a local politician. And where the town had apparently gotten along fairly well before the murals despite political differences, the murals and resulting controversy has exposed fault lines within the community.
The first mural shown in the story is of a white iris, roots and all, with a rainbow halo sprouting around the flower. Plant roots, when used in art, generally represent the essence of life. A white iris traditionally represents purity. The rainbow represents the "diversity" of different groups in the LGBTQ community, although in the original LGBT flag the colors represented attributes; e.g., pink represented sexuality. Taken together, the purity sprouting up out of the source of life, but surrounded by the rainbow, appears to represent the grooming of children.
The second mural shown is of a dandelion, again root and all, growing up through a book, with two yellow blossoms and a seed ball in the middle. In the sky behind the plant are other seeds drifting in the sky. The dandelion, I understand, generally embodies themes of hope, strength, overcoming diversity, and transformation. Given the interplay of elements here, I believe that this mural is symbolic of the LGBTQ philosophies and culture essentially gaining hold despite a book (the Bible?) or perhaps through a book (literature and academia?) and spreading out into the world--in other words, a celebration of the successful propagandizing of the LGBTQ cult.
The third and final mural shown in the article is of two tree trunks, with intertwined branches, with a crescent moon in the center. The crescent moon has historically and across many cultures represented the feminine and various attributes associated with the feminine. Although only the branches are intertwined, not the trunks, intertwined trees have historically represented the coming together of two souls, such as through marriage. Given the prominence of the crescent moon, this mural seems to be specifically celebrating lesbians.
Just be aware that the members of the LGBTQ cult represent a fifth column that may very well turn on you and yours when the next civil war comes.
Starting May 10, people cannot use fireworks, exploding targets, steel ammunition, among other restrictions. Shooting at steel targets or burning explosive materials are also prohibited.
You can read the order here. The actual wording in the order prohibits "steel component ammunition". From other sources, this appears to include ammo using bullets with a steel core or bi-metal jackets. But it is so vague that it might include ammo using steel cases (although I don't know why it should since the concern is sparks causing a fire). In fact, considering that all primers manufactured today use steel, this order is vague enough that a dishonest U.S. attorney could interpret it as completely banning the shooting of anything but rimfire ammunition or muzzle loading firearms.
Greg Ellifritz had a recent post on this topic entitled "Bird Shot, Binder Clips, and Bullshit." He relates that about a week ago, he had taught a shotgun class. During the class, a student missed the target (which was only 15 feet away) and hit a binder clip being used to hold the target into place. Greg took a picture of the binder clip, which displayed only a handful of dimples where it had been struck by the birdshot. Not a single pellet actually penetrated the thin metal of the binder clip, a fact that Greg shared (along with the photograph) on Facebook with the observation "This is not what you should be trusting for your family’s safety." He comments and the photo were also distributed on X.
But apparently a lot of people took umbrage with his remark. Greg relates several of the comments he received that took him to task for comparing performance against a binder clip and performance against a human body. Some of the people who commented apparently believed that a human was as fragile (small?) as a bird and so bird shot would be equally effective against a human target. One comment appeared to acknowledge that small birdshot would not be effective but big bird shot (e.g., a turkey load) would work.
Greg goes on to note that he has a great deal of knowledge and practical experience with firearms and wounding, including both hunting and treating people or investigating crimes where people were shot with shotguns, so he knows a thing or two about the subject. Yet, he notes, "when I try to share that knowledge with the general public, I get shit upon from the anonymous population of uneducated internet trolls who gain self esteem from insulting other people." It is why, he adds, many experts just don't want to share their information on social media. Or, I would add, blogging. I've seen so many good firearms and self-defense blogs disappear or go inactive over the years....
But back to the topic of bird shot for home defense, there are plenty of information and news reports involving shotguns and shootings, together with ballistic tests on dozens of YouTube channels, that it shouldn't even be an issue anymore. Birdshot is, shall we say, sub-optimal for defense against a human attacker.
Probably one of the most famous accounts of someone being shot with birdshot was the 2006 incident where Vice President Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest while quale hunting on a ranch in Texas. I recognize that the distances were greater than a typical home-defense scenario--estimated as between 30 and 40 yards--but nevertheless it was a direct hit from Cheney's shotgun. Keep in mind the time line here: Whittington was shot in the afternoon of Saturday, February 11, 2006--probably around 4:30 pm. Per the Wikipedia article, "Secret Service agents and medical aides, who were traveling with Cheney, came to Whittington's assistance and treated his birdshot wounds to his right cheek, neck, and chest. An ambulance standing nearby for the Vice President took Whittington to close by Kingsville before he was flown by helicopter to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi."
"Whittington was reported to be in stable condition at Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital," the article relates, "and had been moved from intensive care to a 'step-down unit' on Monday." Surgeons had decided to leave 30 pellets in his body rather than retrieve them. Thereafter (footnotes omitted):
On February 14, 2006, at 6:30 a.m., Whittington suffered a minor heart attack and atrial fibrillation due to the shot pellets lodged in or near his heart, as well as a collapsed lung. He was immediately moved back to the intensive care unit. At about 9 a.m., Whittington underwent a cardiac catheterization test to detect blocked or leaky arteries. From the test, doctors found a single lead pellet.
Hospital officials said Whittington was alert and stable and that he did not experience chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack. Doctors reported signs of inflammation, and Whittington was treated with anti-inflammatory drugs.
Whittington was subsequently discharged from the hospital on February 17, 2006.
In short, Whittington--an elderly gentleman, rather than some street thug hopped up on drugs--was shot in the face, neck, and chest. There is no indication that he was immediately incapacitated. Certainly no one else involved--including the ranch owner or Cheney--seemed overly concerned following the shooting. Whittington was transferred to a hospital for surgery and, only 3 days after the incident, suffered a possible life-threatening issue. Six days after the incident, he was discharged from the hospital.
So his injury was not completely insignificant, but neither was it as serious as if he had been shot multiple times in the face, neck and chest with a .22 pistol.
People stop their attacks for a variety of reasons after they have been shot. Some stop because of pain. Others stop because of shock. Still others are physically incapacitated by blood loss or organ damage. We can’t rely on shock or pain to stop an attacker who is exceptionally motivated, mentally ill, drunk, or on drugs. We must achieve physical incapacitation. That happens either by hitting the brain or upper spinal cord (causing death or paralysis) or by doing enough damage to organs and blood vessels that the bad guy collapses from blood loss.
Birdshot doesn’t reliably penetrate deeply enough to hit those vital targets, especially if your target is wearing heavy clothing or behind a piece of cover.
I happened to be shooting at some plastic milk jugs filled with water the other day with a shotgun. It was just for fun (kids and the young at heart enjoy seeing the spray as a jug explodes), so I was just using the standard practice/field loads. At about 15 yards, I was hitting the jug, but only a few pellets were even able to penetrate [the plastic wall of the jug], so I had to move closer (about 4 or 5 yards). At closer ranges, I got a satisfactory reaction from the jugs, but noted that most, if not all, of the pellets were caught in the water jug. So, still very poor penetration.
But what about birdshot at short range? Won't it act like a big slug because the shot hasn't spread?
The answer is "no" because it still lacks penetration. See also "Does Birdshot Turn Into a Slug at Close Range?" by Home Defense Gun, which discusses the video, above, and delves into the issue more deeply. The author of the latter article observes:
It should come as no surprise that birdshot does not behave exactly like a slug because, you know, it’s not a slug. The video above illustrates the fact that it doesn’t behave anything like a slug. Not even close. Not in any way. Penetration is still a fraction of the required 12” for defensive purposes. We have covered in other videos why that 12” standard is so important, but the Cliff’s Notes version is that people don’t hold still in a gunfight. It will be fast, dark, and close and your attacker will be desperately trying to stay alive, just as you are. He will be moving quickly and his arms will be in front of him holding a weapon. Your shots may impact his limbs before hitting his torso and/or may strike his torso at an oblique angle. You may even have to shoot through light obstacles such as furniture or drywall. Birdshot will not penetrate deeply enough to reliably reach vital organs in these less than optimal circumstances.
Now, to be clear, no one has claimed that birdshot is not capable of killing. It is certainly dangerous, but it is not suitable for defense when other options are available. Not on a boat. Not with a goat. Not in a house. Okay, maybe with a mouse. But birdshot is totally unsuitable for defense against human beings under any circumstances. The smallest shot size that can reliably reach vital organs is #4 buck and that is only at close range and without barriers.
There is a basic issue of physics involved. Assuming the same powder charge and same weight of shot, the sum of the kinetic energy or momentum of all the pellets in a buckshot load and a bird-shot load will be the same, but when looking at the individual pellets, the kinetic-energy and momentum of an individual bird pellet is much less than a single pellet of the buckshot. Since momentum is going to be one of the critical factors for penetration against an animal or human target (remembering that it has to penetrate skin, soft tissue, muscle, and bone--all of varying densities, elasticity, and other mechanical characteristics), a single light weight pellet of bird-shot lacks the momentum to provide the necessary penetration. Huntington's example is even more egregious because he was comparing a light game load (such as you might use for dove, quail or shooting clays) which lacks even the powder charge (and, therefore, combined kinetic energy) of the express loads used for buckshot.
More:
VIDEO: "Navy SEAL test Ballistics through Walls | Tactical Rifleman" (32 min.). Some of the testing involves bird shot. What you should note is that birdshot most likely will still be able to penetrate an interior wall (negating the reason most people choose birdshot over something more effective). See also, "Birdshot For Home Defense: Too Much, Too Little Or Just Right?" from Gun Digest which tested penetration through interior walls (assuming you miss your target) and found that not only would it penetrate the wall but would penetrate 1.5 to 4 inches (depending on distance) into ballistic gelatin behind the wall. So, not enough to stop a violent adult male, but probably enough to seriously injure a small kid or kill a baby or toddler.
This is a very divisive topic, with passionate arguments on both sides. However, most experts will advise you not to use birdshot but instead use buckshot or slug rounds for defensive purposes. Birdshot is designed for birds, which have much less dense bone structure and less muscle mass than human threats. They also don’t wear heavy clothing. In nearly every case, informed defensive instructors will advise students to use buckshot or slugs instead.
Simply put, birdshot is for the birds. The pellets from our test round only penetrated just over 6 inches into the gel. According to the FBI testing protocol, this is nowhere close to penetration needed to reach the vital areas of a human being. Will getting shot with a round of birdshot hurt? Yes. Will it physically stop an attacker? Probably not.
I would also note that their test was using clear ballistic gel which is not as dense as the ballistic gel used by the FBI. So you can probably subtract an half inch or inch from the results.
The truth is birdshot is not a good performer against the human body. Can in incapacitate someone? Of course. So can a .22 Long Rifle, but that doesn’t make this round preferable to the proven defense calibers out there either. If you are worried about buckshot because of what it can do, then perhaps using a shotgun is not for you. I understand that many are intimidated by the recoil of buckshot and heavier loads and there is nothing wrong with admitting that. But what is not ok is using inferior loads to make up for it.
Birdshot is for hunting birds and small game. As demonstrated, to use it in an enclosed area like a home is actually more of a risk to anyone in the home with you. If you are worried about people in the next room, then that makes shot placement all the more important. More important than this is knowing the target and what is beyond it. That is one of the basic rules of firearms safety and it can’t go out the window for personal defense.
To sum up, despite a few to the contrary, the conclusion from the articles and videos I read or watched is that while birdshot might be effective at relatively short ranges, it is generally considered too unreliable in being able to penetrate to sufficient depth to destroy a vital organ, particularly if the shot first has to go through heavy clothing or an appendage or other barrier. On the other hand, despite this being a reason commonly listed for picking birdshot for home defense, it still has sufficient power to go through an interior wall and injure a person behind that wall. So my vote would be "nay" for using birdshot for home defense.
A first-of-its-kind lab demonstration shows how solar power transmission from space could work.
The demonstration, carried out by U.K.-based startup Space Solar, tested a special beaming device that can wirelessly transmit power 360 degrees around. That would be important for a potential future space-based power station, as its position toward the sun and Earth would change over the course of each day due to our planet's rotation.
The demonstrator is a key component of the CASSIOPeiA space-based solar power plant concept that is being developed by Space Solar. The company envisions that CASSIOPeiA could be in space within a decade, providing gigawatts of clean energy much more efficiently than solar plants on Earth.
Cool as this is, I would note that Tesla was demonstrating broadcast power 100 years ago.
A number of researchers have found evidence that the universe may be expanding more quickly in some areas compared to others, raising the tantalizing possibility that megastructures could be influencing the universe's growth in significant ways.
Sarkar and his colleagues, for instance, are suggesting that the universe is "lopsided" after studying over a million quasars, which are the active nuclei of galaxies where gas and dust are being gobbled up by a supermassive black hole.
The team found that one hemisphere actually hosted slightly more of these quasars, suggesting one area of the night sky was more massive than the other, undermining our conception of dark energy, a hypothetical form of energy used to explain why the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate.
"It would mean that two-thirds of the universe has just disappeared," Sarkar told The Guardian.
Other researchers have suggested that the cosmological constant, which has been used for decades as a way to denote the rate of the universe's expansion, actually varies across space, which would contradict the standard model of physics.
A controversial new paper suggests the universe is twice as old as current models suggest and that dark matter — the mysterious stuff believed by an overwhelming majority of physicists to make up much of the universe — doesn't actually exist.
It's generally believed that dark matter doesn't interact with light or the electromagnetic field in any way, but can exert gravitational force. It's a conundrum that's plagued astrophysicists for decades — it can't be directly observed, yet is believed to make up 26 percent of the universe.
University of Ottawa physics professor Rajendra Gupta, the sole author of a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, made headlines last year after suggesting the universe was 26.7 billion years old, twice as old as its generally accepted age.
In his latest paper, Gupta builds on his theory, challenging the need for dark matter.
"The study's findings confirm that our previous work about the age of the universe being 26.7 billion years has allowed us to discover that the Universe does not require dark matter to exist," said Gupta in a statement.
Needless to say, it's a controversial theory that directly flies in the face of stuff that's more or less universally agreed upon by experts.
Prevailing theories suggest the accelerating expansion of the universe is tied to a positive cosmological constant. This constant has often been used to explain the existence of dark energy, the dominant component of the universe, making up an estimated 68 percent of its total energy.
While dark matter makes up most of the mass of galaxies and determines how they're organized, dark energy drives the accelerated expansion of the universe.
But that's not how Gupta sees it. To back up his revised model, the professor borrowed from previous research of Swiss physicist Fritz Zwicky, who suggested in the late 1920s that red light emanating from distant celestial objects may be the result of energy being lost, a theory that became known as the "tired light" hypothesis.
By combining this theory with a new "covarying coupling constant," which, unlike the prevailing cosmological constant, suggests that the forces of nature decline over time, Gupta argues that dark matter doesn't have to be part of the equation at all.
"In standard cosmology, dark energy causes the accelerated expansion of the universe," Gupta explained. "However, it is due to the weakening forces of nature as it expands, not dark energy."
NASA has formally approved the robotic Dragonfly mission for full development, committing to a revolutionary project to explore Saturn's largest moon with a quadcopter drone.
Agency officials announced the outcome of Dragonfly's confirmation review last week. This review is a checkpoint in the lifetime of most NASA projects and marks the moment when the agency formally commits to the final design, construction, and launch of a space mission. The outcome of each mission's confirmation review typically establishes a budgetary and schedule commitment.
If all goes well, the craft will launch in July 2028. The article adds:
Dragonfly will explore Titan for around three years, flying tens of kilometers about once per month to measure the prebiotic chemistry of Titan's surface, study its soupy atmosphere, and search for biosignatures that could be indications of life. The mission will visit more than 30 locations within Titan's equatorial region, according to a presentation by Elizabeth Turtle, Dragonfly's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
"The Dragonfly mission is an incredible opportunity to explore an ocean world in a way that we have never done before,” Turtle said in a statement. “The team is dedicated and enthusiastic about accomplishing this unprecedented investigation of the complex carbon chemistry that exists on the surface of Titan and the innovative technology bringing this first-of-its-kind space mission to life."
The article notes that the cost of the mission is significantly higher than other missions to the gas giants and outer solar system. But to put this in perspective, the additional $60 billion that Congress decided to flush down the toilet by providing even more aid to Ukraine could has paid for 17 such NASA missions.
Of course, that wasn't the total price of our current wars: Congress' total "aid" bill was $95 billion including $17.18 billion for Israel to buy even more weapons for Israel's Reconquista, $9.2bn for humanitarian purposes in Gaza and the West bank (hey, even terrorists need super yachts), $60.84 billion for the Ukraine war (including $23 billion to replace U.S. weapons stocks already turned over to Ukraine), and $8.12 billion of defense aid and spending in the Asia Pacific region, including Taiwan. So, for the total cost of this latest spending spree, we could have funded 28 Dragonfly Missions--or repaired the vast majority of bridges in the U.S.--or many other, worthier things. Hell, it would have been better to have paid down our National Debt or never to have spent the money in the first place so we didn't incur additional National Debt.
But funding exploration or domestic infrastructure is a sign of a healthy, growing country; while spending the national treasure on useless wars is a sign of civilizational decay.
The real story here is not the solar sail, but the solar sail boom that holds the sail and provides rigidity: "Engineers have already demonstrated the principles [of solar sails] before, but NASA’s new project will specifically showcase a promising boom design constructed of flexible composite polymer materials reinforced with carbon fiber."
Although delivered in a toaster-sized package, ACS3 will take less than 30 minutes to unfurl into an 860-square-foot sheet of ultrathin plastic anchored by its four accompanying 23-foot-long booms. These poles, once deployed, function as sailboat booms, and will keep the sheet taut enough to capture solar energy.
But what makes the ACS3 booms so special is how they are stored. Any solar sail’s boom system will need to remain stiff enough through harsh temperature fluctuations, as well as durable enough to last through lengthy mission durations. Scaled-up solar sails, however, will be pretty massive—NASA is currently planning future designs as large as 5,400-square-feet, or roughly the size of a basketball court. These sails will need extremely long boom systems that won’t necessarily fit in a rocket’s cargo hold.
To solve for this, NASA rolled up its new composite material booms into a package roughly the size of an envelope. When ready, engineers will utilize an extraction system similar to a tape spool to uncoil the booms meant to minimize potential jamming. Once in place, they’ll anchor the microscopically thin solar sail as onboard cameras record the entire process.
There's more about the mission, so be sure to read the whole thing.
Ars Technica reports that "After 48 years, Zilog is killing the classic standalone Z80 microprocessor chip." This chip drove much of the early microcomputer (home computer) and home game console market. However, the article notes that "Zilog will continue to manufacture the eZ80 microcontroller family, which was introduced in 2001 as a faster version of the Z80 series and comes in different physical package configurations (pin layouts)."
As for the history of the Z80, the article relates:
The 8-bit Z80 microprocessor was designed in 1974 by Federico Faggin as a binary-compatible, improved version of the Intel 8080 with a higher clock speed, a built-in DRAM refresh controller, and an extended instruction set. It was extensively used in desktop computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, arcade video game machines, and embedded systems, and it became a cornerstone of several gaming consoles, like the Sega Master System.
During the mid-late 1970s, the Z80 became a popular CPU for S-100 bus machines, which were early personal computers with a 100-pin modular bus system that allowed swapping cards to build systems based on parts from various manufacturers. Digital Research targeted the Z80 as a key platform for its CP/M operating system, and the association between Z80 and CP/M stuck, powering dozens of small business computers until the mid-1980s, when IBM PC clones running Microsoft's MS-DOS became the new industry standard.
Interestingly, Microsoft's first hardware product, the Z80 SoftCard for the Apple II in 1980, added the famous Zilog CPU to the classic personal computer and allowed users to run CP/M on that machine. In 1982, Bill Gates claimed that SoftCard installations represented the largest single user base of CP/M machines.
Zilog will stop taking orders for the Z80 products after June 14, 2024.
Although there was a noticeable drop in the number of births during the pandemic, there was a slight bump following the pandemic, likely resulting from couples that had put off having children during the pandemic deciding to go ahead with having those children. But that bump seems to be over. The article relates:
'The 2023 numbers seem to indicate that bump is over and we're back to the trends we were in before,' said Nicholas Mark, a University of Wisconsin researcher who studies how social policy and other factors influence health and fertility.
Birth rates have long been falling for teenagers and younger women, but rising for women in their 30s and 40s - a reflection of women pursuing education and careers before trying to start families, experts said.
Mark called that development surprising and said 'there's some evidence that not just postponement is going on.'
CDC data shows in 2007 the total U.S. fertility rate was 2.12 births per woman, the 2023 rate of 1.62 shows a steady decline.
'People are making rather reasoned decisions about whether or not to have a child at all,' Karen Benjamin Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told The Wall Street Journal.
'More often than not, I think what they're deciding is 'Yes, I'd like to have children, but not yet.'
An analysis published in the prestigious Lancet journal, estimated the average birth rate in America is predicted to fall to 1.53 by 2050 and by 2100 reach 1.45.
The concern is that this figure is way below the replacement level of 2.1 children — the number each woman would need to have, on average, to replace both parents, and maintain the economic climate.
Some women are choosing to have children later in life and instead focus on their careers during their younger years.
As fertility is linked to age, this can lead to some women never having children or fewer than they might originally have planned.
Experts have previously warned that some are prioritizing careers over families, which they say has put the country on an irreversible path to economic decline.
Many millennials also say they do not want to have children.
Rising cost-of-living pressures, especially the price of childcare, is another factor that puts a dampener on couples having children or deciding to have multiple.
America's first over-the-counter birth control pill became available in March.
I would note that the U.S. still has higher birth rates than many of its competitors. Likely because the U.S. is, overall, more religious.
An irreverent discussion of top news stories including more cash for Ukraine, spoiled brats at Columbia, who is the bigger jackass--Biden or AOC--and a lot more. Also, here is a link to the article that I mentioned that explains why the money allotted for Ukraine is too little, too late, and won't get them the munitions they need because we can't produce them fast enough: "What $61 Billion for Ukraine Won’t Do" by Ted Snider at The American Conservative. Besides challenging the absurd contention that Russia will invade Europe if we don't stop him in Ukraine, Snider notes what the money for Ukraine will NOT do: "There are five things the aid package will not do for Ukraine. It will not provide enough money. It will not provide the badly needed weapons, nor deliver them on time. It will not provide the even more badly needed troops. And it will not provide victory." Be sure to read the whole thing.
Back in November the Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped sending readable data. Engineers knew the the craft was receiving commands and otherwise working as usual, but was just sending corrupted data. The fault was traced to a single microchip storing part of the craft's memory including software to code messages being sent back to work. A software patch was designed that would shift the functions to other parts of the craft's control system.
The patch was transmitted on April 18, 2024. Because Voyager 1 is approximately 15 billion miles distant, it takes 22.5 hours for a radio signal to traverse the distance. But on April 20, NASA received confirmation that the patch had worked. Over the next few weeks, additional patches will be sent to the craft allowing it to resume sending scientific data back to Earth.
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