The U.S. is getting more involved militarily and, possibly, through mercenary companies, in Africa as it appears we are entering a period of resource competition with China. Time to dig out my old copy of the novel, The Dogs of War.
VIDEO: "The Africa Situation is Getting Crazy"
Cappy Army (30 min.)
This video shows, using steel targets sized similar to the vitals of a deer, that with a 100 yard zero, you are wasting half of the vital zone. That is, if holding on the center of the vital zone, the strikes at 100 yards or less are basically the middle of the vital zone, and beyond 100 yards or less they fall below the midline until by 200 yards (using his 6.5 Creedmoor) it was hitting at the very bottom of the vital zone. Conversely, with a 200 yard zero--again aiming at the midline of the vital zone--the shots out to 200 yards were above the midline but still in the vital zone, and they you still had additional room beyond 200 yards where it was still striking in the vital zone. Obviously there will be some variance between this and other calibers and rifles, but the principle generally holds true.
VIDEO: "Why a 100-Yard Zero Wastes Half Your Vital Zone"
The Break (21 min.)
Some links that may be of interest:
Tucson criminal defense attorney Louis Fidel said there are circumstances under which a person can display or use a firearm to prevent certain crimes, but shoplifting isn’t one of them.
“It really depends on the details, but there is a statute that authorizes people to display or use a firearm to prevent certain crimes,” Fidel told KOLD News 13. “Shoplifting is not one of those crimes.”
Fidel warned that pointing a firearm during the confrontation could potentially result in an aggravated-assault charge involving a deadly weapon.
The article mentions that no arrests have been made and the Tucson police are still investigating the incident. The police aren't going to care about the shoplifter but they will care about an aggravated assault with a firearm, so undoubtedly the one they are going to try and nab is the elderly woman.
The fixed barrel on the 92 offers inherent accuracy and makes it a smooth cycling, soft shooter. The magazine design is one of the best ever conceived. It takes to a suppressor well. The 92’s reputation was earned serving law enforcement and the military. The pistol is customizable and in a constant state of evolution, adapting to the new shooter needs. The Beretta 92 is and always will be relevant as long as there is a need for a proven, reliable, performance driven pistol.
Even though they are larger and heavier than what you might want for everyday carry, they make excellent handguns for home defense--the "night stand gun" or something similar.
If you can’t account for everyone, your job will become far more difficult. Clearing a structure, even one you know as well as you know your own home, is extremely dangerous. But if a loved one is unaccounted for, you won’t have any choice but to make your way to them as quickly and safely as possible. Unfortunately, quickly and safely don’t always go hand in hand.
Adopted by the French Army in 1873, the Chamelot-Delvigne revolver was France's first standard-issue double-action military revolver. It represented a significant step forward from earlier percussion and pinfire handguns and reflected France's position as one of the world's leading firearms innovators during the 19th century.
Over the last 40 years I have no idea how many words I’ve written on figuring the correct hold when shooting uphill or downhill. The concept is simple, and I’m sure we all know it: Uphill or down, the effect is the same, and as distance and angle increase, the strike will be higher in relation to your level-ground zero.
[snip]
There is something else you need to consider as well, and it may be more important. Finding a steady position for uphill/downhill shots is much harder than on level ground.
The author notes that he normally shoots off a pack, but at steeper angles a bipod helps. He discusses this in more detail.
Choosing to carry is not just buying a gun. It is building a system. That is where a lot of women get stuck.
For years, women were treated like an afterthought: shrink the gun, paint it pink, and call it "for women." That advice is lazy.
After working with new students, I hear the same question all the time: "I bought a gun... now what?" My answer is usually: now we figure out the setup.
What works for your body, clothing, and lifestyle? What can you carry consistently? The best setup is not the one that looks good on paper. It is the one you can actually use.
She covers holster selection, how body shape and lifestyle impact your carry setup, making your wardrobe part of your carry system, carry position, and training.
Using a 22 as a practice or training rifle provides two big benefits. First, the mild little cartridge that’s propelled by just a pinch of flakey gunpowder has minimal recoil. When we discuss recoil in the context of improving your shooting, we don’t mean it as a measure of how hard it kicks — because it doesn’t. We are talking about sight picture disruption and, while the .22 LR does produce some, it’s very little. The lack of that distraction can help you focus on improving fundamental skills like trigger control, but also gives you valuable practice staying in the scope and spotting impacts — something that will benefit you both in competition and hunting.
The second big benefit is that the round’s affordability allows lots of real shooting practice, and actual shooting gives you downrange feedback that dry firing can’t. Quality, and I mean quality, .22 LR ammo is pretty expensive, but still cheaper than most centerfire stuff. My rifle shoots affordable ammo, like CCI Standard Velocity, well enough for practice.
If you can carry the extra weight, I’d also recommend a "training" or "fitness" metal plate (it doesn’t necessarily need to have a ballistic rating) to save your chest the pain of blunt trauma after being shot, and to keep you in the fight since backface deformation (how deformed the side of armor closest to your skin becomes after being struck by a bullet) allows for potentially lethal injuries. ...
For instance, I recently watched a video put out by a large gun rights group where the presenter showed off the contents of his “get home bag.” The purpose of this bag, he said, was to help him get back home no matter what might happen.
In the bag, he had a half-dozen AR-15 magazines, three smoke grenades and a tactical tomahawk. That’s it. No way of procuring water, nothing to create a shelter, just a bunch extra mags for his truck gun, some smoke grenades for concealment and evasion…and a tomahawk.
Clearly he had scripted out a scenario in his head where the only dangers he’d face on the way back home would be man-made and not something more mundane like inclement weather.
Quick Answer: For a basic survival calculation using a 2:1 ratio by dry weight, plan on about 0.8 pound of dry white rice and 0.4 pound of dry beans per person per day. Together, they provide roughly 2,000 calories.
The author provides a table showing the amount per day, for a 30 day period, and for a year for a single person when assuming that this is to provide 100% of your 2,000 calories diet. But there is also an interactive calculator where you can calculate the amounts for more people, for different lengths of time, and the percentage of the diet (e.g., perhaps you anticipate only using the beans and rice for half of your caloric intake).
A bowline can be tied in cord, line, or string of any diameter, though it was designed for use with thicker ropes. It’s a loop knot, and the beauty of it is that it can be tied in seconds. It won’t slip under heavy strain when tied correctly. Even after it’s subjected to high tension, it can easily be undone. The bowline also allows you to create a loop of any size, which makes its applications practically innumerable.
You may need it to quickly secure your boat to a dock piling or stump when cleats aren’t available. You can use it in a pinch to drag an ATV stuck in the mud out with your truck. You may need it to help pull a buddy out of a ravine after a bad fall. Sound extreme? Of course it does, but the point is that the simple ability to create a loop in a length of rope that you can trust to bear a heavy load is something every outdoorsman should know. With fewer than 10 minutes of practice, you’ll be able to tie a bowline with your eyes closed.
Some longer or more involved reading:
THE GOAL IS NOT TO SAVE LIVES, OR TO STOP THE KILLING, OR GET ANYONE TO SAFETY. THOSE THINGS MAY HAPPEN SUBSEQUENT TO YOUR MISSION SUCCESS, BUT THEY ARE NOT YOUR MISSION.
THERE IS ONLY ONE MISSION - LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
EVERY PIECE OF GEAR YOU CARRY, EVERY TRAINING SESSION YOU EXECUTE, AND EVERY STEP AND ACTION YOU TAKE AT THAT EVENT MUST BE ORIENTED TO ACCOMPLISH THAT MISSION - LOCATE, IDENTIFY, AND TERMINATE THE SHOOTER.
But Suarez also is quite blunt that it is not something for the average concealed carrier. From another quote Jon includes:
So rather than the underachiever’s “three rounds at three yards in three seconds”, we train for an event like this. Facing an active shooter or terrorist. We carry fighting weapons, not convenient mini-pistols. We train for accuracy, not to beat a timer’s beep. And we train at extended distances as well as standard distances. And time and again, these practices have been shown to be the deciding factor in events like this.
On the other hand, you are more likely to be killed by lightening than be the victim of an active shooter; but, based on data from a 1987 report, you have an 83% chance of being the victim of a violent crime during your lifetime (it is slightly higher if you are a man, and slightly lower if a woman). So while Suarez may poo-poo those who don't carry combat pistols on a daily basis, the "convenient mini-pistols" are sufficient for the vast majority of self-defense situations most people will find themselves in; and, more importantly, the "convenient mini-pistols" will actually be carried while the heavy and/or bulky combat pistol will often be left at home. Unfortunately, it is difficult to collect information about civilians stopping active shooters which John Lott discusses in his paper, "Do Armed Civilians Stop Active Shooters More Effectively Than Uniformed Police?" let alone the weapons used. I agree that a combat pistol would be better than a pocket pistol or sub-compact pistol once you are using it, but the question for concealed carry is what is the largest will you be able and willing to carry on a regular basis. The better solution might be to learn how to use the "convenient mini-pistol" for longer shots. There is no reason why you shouldn't be practicing shots out to 25 yards with a handgun, or even longer if your range allows for it. Fortunately, unlike the situation even a decade ago, most of the small handguns produced today can be fitted with decent sights.
A correct grip, surprise trigger break, and correct follow-through will allow you to achieve precision.
Once you are able to shoot a tight group, all bullets through the same hole at 3 yards or all bullet holes touching at 5 yards, you have demonstrated precision. Now you are ready to move your sight to achieve accuracy, which means your point-of-impact matches your point-of-aim.
Move your sights to move your point of impact to match your point-of-aim. Fixed iron rear sights in a beaver tail can be pushed left or right with a sight pusher. Fixed iron front sights can be ground down if the point-of-impact is low or replaced with a taller front sight if the point-of-impact is high.
Correct zero is essential for confidence. Confidence is the difference between taking the shot, and not to taking the shot because you're not sure you will hit your target, or because you fear that you will hit the hostage.
Cool calm confidence is achieved with training, practice, and a properly zeroed pistol.
If you are using an adjustable sight on your pistol, it's too fragile for combat. Self-defense is combat. Yes, I know it works in the pristine conditions of your training and practice. But that is not combat. All kinds of strange things happen in combat. Murphy's Law is in full force in combat.
"The Marine Corps uses red dot optics."
Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean it is best practice. Remember, the Army used Blackhawk SERPA holsters, which was an act of criminal stupidity. Institutions, no matter how reputable, do not necessarily follow best practices. Rather, they suffer from institutional inertia, bureaucracy (not meritocracy), and lowest bidder contracting.
Striker fired pistols are the norm for much of the CCW and LE worlds now. But I know that they also reduce your margin of error considerably. They are great when you are at your best, but a liability when you are not. Like the man said, “shit happens”. I think it happens more easily with a striker fired pistol.
I had a very successful doctor student. This guy was not quite Elon Musk, but I would not be surprised if they had met at some point. He always had a very nice tuned high end pistol in class. But it was always a double action weapon. It was initially a Sig P226 of some sort, and later an HK P30 series. All with marvelous DA triggers and optics and everything you could ask for. All the others, myself included, were using Glocks. I asked him once why he chose that system. He told me that he had been an ER Doctor for years and he had handled a plethora of self inflicted gunshot injuries. And that these ranged from a neophyte that had little skill, to high level sport shooters, to legitimate police operators. All of them without exception, involved striker fired pistols.
I've argued for years that the double action trigger acts as an additional safety on a handgun, so I do feel somewhat vindicated reading this.
"Safety Tip: If you are a concealed carry holder who engages an active threat inside a public business, your immediate post-shooting protocol is critical for your survival. When police officers flood through the doors on an active shooter dispatch, they are looking for anyone holding a gun. Keep your hands empty, raise them high with fingers spread, and clearly identify yourself as the reporting citizen who stopped the attacker."
On Monday, Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul released the first text chain from what we hope are a series of communications recovered from Fauci’s government-issued iPhone, which HHS finally handed over on August 5 in response to Johnson’s request. His phone is said to hold more than 34,000 texts and 522 voicemails. Quite suspiciously, it only contains three saved contacts, which probably means that it was tampered with. I do hope that government officials can secure the data that was possibly deleted.
The senators released something of a bombshell that discusses January 2021 communications between Fauci, then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, and future Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. This was just days after former President Biden’s inauguration. The subject is pregnant women and the mRNA injections. In it, Fauci writes that the supposedly “safe and effective” shot “theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
One week later, Fauci went in front of cameras and said the vaccines had “no red flags” regarding pregnant women. He later said that there was “no indication whatsoever” of increased adverse events in pregnant women. By September, Walensky and her comrades in the Biden Government Health bureaucracy were strongly recommending vaccination before or during pregnancy.
For liberals, "helping" someone is just an excuse to make money. The New York Post reports: "Hospitals, doctors got rich through shady gender-care billing tactics — and taking advantage of kids: damning report." From the lede: "US hospitals and clinics have billed out nearly $120 million in gender-related medical treatments to minors since 2019, putting thousands of children on an expensive and irreversible treadmill requiring lifelong upkeep — with the blessing of doctors and lefty politicians."
HHS points to “financial incentives” as one potential explanation for the explosion in gender-related care for minors — as hospitals sought a way to juice profits in pediatric departments, which typically bring in lower margins than other specialties.
“Gender clinics changed that calculus by introducing a novel source of revenue: they promised a new stream of continuous revenue for pediatrics, endocrinology, and surgical specialties by taking physiologically healthy young people — who otherwise would not need to seek medical attention, and rendering them dependent for life on the medical system.”
The report cited watchdog analyses that have found hospitals and clinics have billed almost $120 million in gender care treatments since 2019 — involving 5,500 surgical procedures and 8,500 courses of hormones or blockers.
HHS accuses health care providers of willfully misusing diagnostic codes — diagnosing patients with endocrine disorder or precocious puberty — to get insurance to foot the bill or to protect a patient’s privacy.
From The Truth About Guns: "DOJ Lets the Stay Expire — Silencer Shop’s NFA Injunction Takes Effect." From the article:
At 12:01 a.m. Central on August 13, the seven-day stay on Judge James Wesley Hendrix’s ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF ran out — and the Department of Justice let it. No emergency motion to the Fifth Circuit. No request to extend the pause. Nothing.
For the first time in more than 90 years, a federally licensed dealer legally transferred a suppressor to a private buyer with no tax stamp, no Form 4, and no entry in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Gun Owners of America, Silencer Shop, and two buyers; YouTuber turned congressional candidate Brandon “The AK Guy” Herrera and Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell closed the deal minutes after the stay lapsed.
GOA called them the first unregistered suppressor purchases from Silencer Shop in the NFA era, and argued both men were covered twice over: as GOA members and as Silencer Shop customers.
The article warns, however: "This is where readers need to slow down before doing anything stupid. The injunction is broad, but it is not nationwide amnesty."
There are more details in the article, so be sure to read the whole thing. The Mr. Guns 'n' Gear channel also goes into more detail:
VIDEO: "Breaking: The Biggest 2nd Amendment Win Ever - What You Need To Know"
Mrgunsngear Channel (26 min.)
You may have seen images or video of a jelly-fish like UAP recorded flying over a military facility in Iraq in 2017 (if not, here is a link to a video on YouTube that has the footage). There is now being circulated a photograph taken NASA's Curiosity rover on August 20, 2023, that shows a jelly-fish like object seemingly hovering or walking over the Martian surface. "Fueling speculation that NASA’s rover had captured something moving across Mars, images taken of the same area less than a minute earlier showed no sign of the mysterious figure," the article relates, but the key photo was the last taken in that direction for that day.
 |
| An enlarged portion of the original image. |
The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport will be installing Muslim foot washing stations inside its terminal bathrooms. "The washing stations will provide a dedicated space in the public airport bathrooms for Muslims to wash their feet before prayer, an Islamic tradition known as Wadu," with the excuse given that it will keep Muslims from washing their feet in the bathroom sinks. It won't, and it seems suspiciously like a violation of the separation of church and state. Airports can install chapels or "meditation rooms" where they can be used by people of any religion (or none at all) for prayer or introspection, but not to promote a particular religion. In this case, though, there is no question but that the washing stations are to accommodate a religious practice specific to Muslims.
From the New York Post: "Abandoned California mall transformed into post-apocalyptic Las Vegas set for ‘Fallout’." The article relates that "[i]nstead of filming in the real Las Vegas, [Production designer Howard] Cummings used the long-abandoned Valley Plaza Mall, which opened in 1951 and has been dormant for over a decade, and turned it into the small screen New Vegas."
The mall’s old Regal Theater building was rebranded as the Gomorrah Hotel and Casino, with the 27-foot Lucky 38 sign standing next to it, which was built by his team on set.
“Most people think this is all CG and they just did a greenscreen,” Cummings said, insisting that these were all real practical sets, aside from digital Vegas backdrops.
The prewar flashback scenes were filmed first, before the nuclear blast that turned Goggins’ Howard into The Ghoul, before Cummings and his team went back and “trashed” that set.
“All the palm trees look good at the beginning, and then they’re all dead. The brand-new cars [were] rusted and destroyed,”
Cummings also shot the Freeside district of New Vegas in an Old West town in Santa Clarita, California, the same location where another show he worked on was shot, HBO’s “Westworld.”
The production designer and his team had to re-face the buildings to match them to the buildings from the game, though there was some digital work as well.
However, the Valley Plaza Mall is slated for demolition, so it won't be showing up in any subsequent seasons of the show.
The College Fix states that "Fauci’s ‘pay-to-play scheme’ both ‘unlawful’ and ‘unethical,’ Rutgers expert says."
New documents released by Senator Rand Paul detail Fauci’s “side hustle,” which include winning millions of dollars in cash prizes. Fauci would solicit his allies who also received federal funding from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases to nominate him for prizes.
Some of the solicitations occurred during the nationwide COVID lockdowns that were created at the prompting of Fauci.
He also instructed federal staffers to work for him to find prizes and manage the application process, including one that netted him $900,000.
No wonder he needed a blanket pardon.
The Associated Press addresses the question of "After an earthquake, how long can trapped people survive?" As with most questions in life, the answer is "it depends." The article explains that "[t]rapped victims are more likely to survive if they are in a debris-free pocket that prevents major injury while they await rescue, like under a sturdy desk...." Beyond that, survival depends on having food, water, and air. And this advice:
The best practices for survival during an earthquake depend on where you are in the world. Building codes in regions with active fault lines are often designed to withstand earthquakes, but that doesn’t hold true everywhere.
In many countries, including the United States, the best practices are to drop, seek cover and hang on unless you are close to a building exit. Seek shelter under a heavy table or near sturdy furniture that may yield a survivable pocket if the roof collapses. Cover your face with cloth or a mask to protect from dust and debris.
If you are trapped in the rubble after an earthquake, save your energy and don’t overexert. Ration food and water, listen for rescue calls and search for something near you to make noise. If you have a phone with you, conserve its battery and try for help in short spurts each day.
As for time, the article notes that most survivors are rescued within 24 hours, but notes that in 2011, two people in Japan were found alive after being trapped for 9 days; and a survivor of a 2010 earthquake in Haiti was pulled from the rubble after 15 days.
Those of you old enough to remember when Obama came on the scene probably remember how he quickly went from a complete unknown outside of Chicago to the head of the Democratic party ticket as though he had been chosen for the role. I'm seeing pundits make similar predictions about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Certainly she seems to be modifying her rhetoric to make her more palatable to the national electorate. Scott Pinsker has some thoughts about this in his piece, "The Cunning Genius of AOC’s ‘Woke’ Reboot." He warns:
Tread carefully, Republicans: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is still America’s most dangerous Democrat — and still the odds-on favorite to win her party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
And if she captures the nomination, there’s (roughly) a 50%-50% shot she’ll win the White House. Don’t underestimate her: She’s media-savvy, camera-friendly, photogenic, and her PR instincts are as sharp as Sardinian swords.
And his example of this is her recent comments attempting to downplay "wokeness":
Consider how deftly she just rebooted the “woke” narrative.
Because woke is a joke in 2026: Woke is cringe, woke is dead, woke is done.
Other than the fringiest of the fringe, nobody takes it seriously anymore. ...
[snip]
The excesses of wokeism are legion. A lesser politician would’ve tried to relitigate this or recalibrate that.
But AOC knew better.
Instead of polishing a turd and pretending it’s chocolate, she acknowledged overreaching, killed the old narrative, and set the stage for the “new and improved” version 2.0.
Remarkably, she did it in a single sentence.
Pinsker goes on to note that by this, AOC "signaled a willingness to learn, grow, adapt, and change," which will be critical on a national stage because she will come across as an open-minded pragmatist because of her ability to grow and change.
Dace Potas also poo-poos AOC's retreat from "Woke 1.0" in an op-ed at USA Today. He concludes:
The existence of "Woke 1" implies that a "Woke 2" is already in the works. From what I can tell, it isn't all that different in substance, just strategy and rhetoric. Progressive candidates will keep being haunted by Woke 1.0 for as long as they run for office, unless they explain – explicitly – why this time is different. Otherwise, voters will see right through it.
And he explains:
To anyone paying attention at the time, woke was a lot more than “a derogatory euphemism for civil rights & justice,” as AOC put it back in 2021, when she wanted those positions taken seriously.
Among the excesses of Woke 1.0 was a movement aimed at defunding or abolishing the police, gender reassignment surgery for minors, the insistence that men can menstruate, justification of rioting, racial discrimination in hiring and much, much more.
Not every progressive held each of these positions, but as a collective, they were fine letting them enter the political mainstream. By her own admission, AOC described Woke 1.0 as an attempt to shift the Overton window, the range of ideas considered acceptable in mainstream political debate.
“During this time, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the Overton window,” AOC said. “We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns, and I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place, and I actually think that the discussions that were had in that time were quite fruitful.”
But it was more than that. Progressives pushed corporate America into diversity, equity and inclusion mandates that indoctrinated employees and built a cancel culture that met dissent with job losses and charges of bigotry.
Even progressives who didn't believe the most extreme positions were incentivized to promote them, since it made their own positions sound reasonable by comparison. Instead of "abolish the police," mainstream Democrats arrived at "defund." Instead of "abolish borders," many arrived at "abolish ICE."
In any event, the pivot from "Woke 1.0" is all show. To the extent there is a "Woke 2.0" it will be far worse than anything we have seen so far; just as Obama's idea of "racial healing" was to stoke racial hatred against whites. Over at the Battleswarm Blog, Lawrence Person points out:
There was no “Woke 1.0,” just a continuous racialist, anti-Western Civilization, anti-rational, anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-capitalist, anti-Republican movement whose roots stretch back into the Comintern, Gramsci and the Frankfurt School, carried forward into the Port Huron Statement, the Weather Underground, the campus radicals of the 1960s and their long march through academia and other western institutions, special campus victimhood identity politics carve-out departments for blacks, Hispanics, radical feminists and “Queer Theory,” into the political correctness of the 1980s that blossomed into the poisonous flowers of social justice, radical transsexism, Palestinian- and Islamo-felia and anti-Israel animus that has turned into full-blown antisemitism, and a radical fringe in the Democrat Party that metastasized to its core under Obama and President Autopen. AOC’s Democratic Socialists of America and their fellow-travelers were all on-board with their lunacy every step of the way.
[snip]
And throughout it all, the SJW/DSA types were onboard with all of it, every step of the way. There was no “woke 1.0,” there was only the same madness taking on new forms.
You didn’t regret it then and you don’t regret it now, you only regret getting caught. ...
[snip]
You don’t regret any of the pain you inflicted on normies, you only regret not getting to inflict more of it. You still view yourself as the natural anointed rulers of those benighted rubes in JesusLand.
Like other socialists before them, the DSA and its adherents truly believe "[e]verything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State". And they intend on controlling the State. Stalin blamed the Kulaks for the ills of society; Hitler blamed the Jews; and the modern Leftists blame white people. We've seen this play before and we know how it ends.
The New York Post, in its article, "AI assistant goes rogue, hacks Australian gym website in stunning breach: report," relates that "[a] rogue AI assistant hacked an Australian gym’s website after a local man asked for help booking a workout class[.]"
An Australian man identified as Andrew asked his OpenClaw AI assistant – an open-source software whose AI agents can perform real-world tasks — to book him a spot in a morning class, Australian outlet ABC reported.
Instead of just following instructions, the assistant, which relied on Anthropic’s Claude as its underlying model, bypassed the gym website’s safeguards to book the man in classes months in advance – beyond what the gym usually made possible, according to the outlet.
The hack escalated after the man asked the AI assistant if it could help him get off the waitlist for a workout class schedule for later that same week. The assistant immediately found a flaw in the website’s code and exploited it to cancel another gym-goer’s reservation.
Imagine what AI will be able to do in a year or two.
At the time of the American Revolution, American and British accents were nearly identical. What changed is that in the 1800s, the British--particularly the upper class and, later, the aspiring middle-class--deliberately chose to speak in a way that dropped pronouncing the "r" in order to sound more sophisticated.
VIDEO: "Why Americans Don't Sound British Anymore (Here's Exactly When That Changed)"
Airlearn Language Show (15 min.)
I assume that most of you probably read Anonymous Conservative's morning newsletter--it is listed in my list of links to the side of the web version of the blog. But there were a few things that in particular jumped out to me from today's post:
According to The Firearm Blog, CMP Chairman and CEO Jerry "O'Keefe announced in an interview with Shooting Sports USA that the CMP will sell M14s for under $2,000. How far under that price, and whether there will be multiple grades at different price points, was not announced. But the price point being similar to commercial versions is certainly welcome news!"
From the New York Post: "New rocket tech could significantly reduce travel time to Mars, NASA claims: ‘Next giant leap’." The article discusses NASA's nuclear-electric powered lithium ion thrusters. The article relates:
NASA Marshall said on Monday the agency recently completed testing of a lithium-fed electromagnetic thruster, reaching more than five times the power of existing electric propulsion systems.
Paired with a nuclear power source, the new tech could significantly shorten the time it takes to reach the Red Planet, potentially cutting months off the journey.
[snip]
The electromagnetic thruster running on lithium metal vapour was tested at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United States.
During the test, the team achieved power levels of up to 120 kilowatts, over 25 times the power of the thrusters on Psyche, which is currently operating the highest-power electric thrusters of any NASA spacecraft.
In the vacuum of space, the force Psyche’s thrusters provide over time accelerates the spacecraft to 124,000 mph.
This would reduce a one-way trip to Mars to only 3 months.
The author of this video gives his or her thoughts on the types of people that may come to your door after a societal collapse, as well as a rough timeline of when events will occur. My personal belief is that the local government will show up at some point and forcibly search the homes of anyone they think has supplies and take them; and your neighbors (or one of them) will rat you out.
VIDEO: "Never Answer a Knock Like This After the Collapse"
Fallout Raccoon (24 min.)
The New York Post reports that "Civil war breaks out in rich, white California town as activists from crime-plagued neighboring city demand it’s ‘canceled’." The article recounts:
A bitter battle has erupted over one of California’s wealthiest enclaves, with activists from neighboring Oakland calling for the predominantly white city of Piedmont to be “canceled.”
Oakland resident Jesse Rosemoore is behind the provocative “Cancel Piedmont” campaign targeting the 1.7-square-mile city of roughly 11,000 people that is surrounded by Oakland but maintains its own schools, police, parks and tax base, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
[snip]
The professional transit planner now regards the campaign as a way to tackle the sharp racial and economic divide between Piedmont and the rest of the city.
[snip]
The median price of homes in Piedmont is almost $2.6 million, which is more than three-and-a-half times that of Oakland’s.
Census data cited by the outlet shows Piedmont is roughly 70% white and around 1% black, while about one in five Oakland residents is black.
"Gun sales spike in Twin Falls after In-N-Out shooting; store owners stress training"--KIVI TV. From the lede:
Gun sales surged in Twin Falls the day after a mass shooting at a local In-N-Out restaurant, with at least one gun store reporting one of its busiest sales days in years. Local firearms dealers say the spike in purchases is a reminder that owning a gun and knowing how to use it are two very different things.
The rest of the article is basically an advert for a Twin Falls gun store and its training services.
In his latest Civil War 2.0 Weather Report, John Wilder addresses the urban versus rural divide. In the Chinese Communist Revolution, he notes, the Communists won because they controlled the countryside--and they won rural support from the peasants through offering up "free" land taken from the wealthy landowners. In Russia, the Communists held the cities, but nevertheless enjoyed an advantage in terms of armaments, control of the rail network, and a large pool of young men.
Wilder believes that in the modern United States, with so little of the food stored in cities, rural areas will have a distinct advantage over urban areas.
Today’s cities have about three days of food in them in the stores, and three days in the individual homes. So, inside a week, people would get hungry. Not starve, but get hungry unless they got sea and air lifts of food inbound. Given the levels of self-control of certain segments of the population, well, how long before cites go full Alferd Packer? Since they’d be surrounded by millions of residents with more weapons and ammo than all the militaries of the world, combined, they could be easily contained.
He also believes that the higher diversity in urban centers will work against them. "Why would Somalians fight for Minneapolis or Minnesota?" he asks. That's a good question. But there are those on the Left working on that issue. For instance, Hasan Piker, an "influencer" and left-wing political commentator recently stated: "We want more immigrants to come into your countries and then they're gonna f**k your sisters and then your daughters. We're here to destroy the White Race, Bitch." In other words, the standard Islamic motivations. And they can promise to throw open the borders and invite in more invaders, while offering up other people's land and property as rewards--already talking points among the DSA.
And these ideas appear to be becoming more main stream. For instance, I was reading a news article earlier today on a Hispanic teen killed while "playing" with a handgun at a friend's house. Someone had commented about the "other 'them' again" and received the following response: "just remember as each day goes by you are becoming more and more extinct". That has been the Leftist plan all along: the genocide and extinction of whites. People need to wake up to this before it is too late.
Some articles:
Some links that may be of interest:
Sell hunted deer on foot for many years, very successfully, and attacked the brush-busting question as scientifically as possible. He set up tests where he fired at targets behind bushes and measured bullet deflection afterwards.
[snip]
Sell blasted away with a very wide range of cartridges, trying to determine the optimum bullet weight and shape, as well as velocity. His findings: A velocity between 2,200 and 2,500 fps deflected the least, and was also less likely to have the bullet blow up when hitting a branch or twig. He found that a bullet weight of 150 grains or heavier also made a big difference. He did not note any significant difference between different bullet shapes, and also did not note any difference resulting from bullet diameter—6.5x55 and .270 performed well, along with cartridges using .30-caliber and even .35-caliber bullets. He did, however, note a test where 500-grain .45-70 bullets performed inconsistently in his test, with two bullets “screaming off into the forest” when fired at a target through brush, and then the next two bullets showing no deflection at all.
Funnily enough, Sell noted that high-velocity, high-performance cartridges fared poorly in his brush-busting experiments. Conversely, the .30-30 performed very well in his test, particularly when loaded with a 170-grain bullet. ...
I cast the bullets for my handloads, usually from an MP-Molds 6-cavity aluminum mold. I started with a brass 2- cavity hollow point (HP) mold, soon progressing to a 4-banger after being so impressed by the quality. When Mihac Previc, owner of MP Molds, offered an aluminum 6-cavity mold, I quickly jumped on board. The molds are a direct copy of Elmer Keith’s Hensley & Gibbs 503. Bullets cast from it usually run 15 grains heavier than Elmer’s other design, the Lyman 429421.
I’d venture to say my 6-banger has birthed a thousand-plus pounds of lead over the years. My slugs are then powder coated with a polymer coating and baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. These PC coated projectiles are then seated over a charge of Alliant Unique powder in a Starline Brass cartridge case.
Since this isn’t YouTube, I will divulge the powder charge of 7.5 grains of Unique, but most diehards know this. The load is nostalgically referred to as the “Skeeter Load” from the millions of Skeeter fans who know a good thing when they see it. Loved for its balance of power, bullet diameter and acceptable recoiling characteristics, Skeeter Skelton’s popularity and warm writing style did more to promote this load and cartridge than anything. This charge weight provides a fuel-efficient 933 loads per pound of precious Unique powder.
At some point in the 1970s, Jeff Cooper created what is often called the Color Code.
When he originally thought it up, and as he taught it, his purpose was to describe a shooter’s “…capacity…to cross the psychological barrier that inhibits [the] ability to take deadly action,” i.e., his or her mental preparation to press the trigger on a live target.
However, the Color Code was subsequently reinterpreted (misinterpreted) from describing a psychological commitment to using force to describing a level of situational awareness.
When you walk into any space, you’re building a quick picture of the environment before you commit to a position in it. This doesn’t require a full tactical assessment. It requires about ten seconds of actual attention before you sit down.
Exits first. Where are the ways out? The front door is obvious. What’s less obvious is the kitchen exit, the emergency door at the back, the hallway that connects to a side entrance. You don’t need to memorize all of them. You need to know that they exist and roughly where they are.
Sight lines next. Where can you sit and see the entrance? Seeing who comes through the door before they see you, or before they can close the distance on you, is a meaningful advantage in almost any situation. It costs you nothing to position for it.
Then the room itself. Who is in it? How many people, where are they seated, is anyone paying unusual attention to entrances or exits? This doesn’t mean treating every stranger as a threat. It means taking a picture of the baseline so that anything that changes later registers as a change.
There is a lot more, including where to sit.
Firearm springs wear out because they are repeatedly cycled. Recoil springs, which travel through nearly their full range of motion with every shot, have one of the highest duty cycles in a firearm and are rightly considered routine maintenance items. Magazine springs, by comparison, typically see far fewer complete compression cycles over their lifetime. That’s why a well-made magazine spring can remain fully loaded for decades with little effect, while a recoil spring in a heavily used pistol may legitimately need replacement after several thousand rounds.
While some of the newer offerings of Loctite offer some oil and solvent resistance, I find that thoroughly degreasing all the threads to be bonded using a strong solvent is an absolute must. My favored method is removing all the screws I needed to coat at once and dipping them in my small steel bench ramekin full of MEK. I let them sit for a few minutes, then remove and blow dry with compressed air. I strongly advise the use of rubber gloves and that this be done in a well-ventilated area. This stuff is super gnarly and will for sure give you face cancer.
For the most effective bond, the adhesive must coat the complete length of the thread engagement area. Loctite is a thixotropic formula, which means it is thick and viscous under static conditions, and as it spreads along a surface under capillary action, it becomes thinner and will seem almost self-guiding. You’ll find a modest drop on a section of threads will find its way around the circumference and “creep” up and down the helix. When threaded in, this action compounds and the adhesive will work its way up and down the length of the threads quite easily.
For large parts, applying to both faces provides the most adequate adhesive application as well as for blind-hole assemblies such as cap screws — threadlocker should be applied to both the bolt and the mating threads. If applied only to the screw going into a blind hole, air pressure tends to force the liquid threadlocker out of the hole as the bolt is torqued down. The anaerobic process hardens in minutes at room temperature and fully cures within 24 hours.
When determining the amount to use, it’s important to remember that less is more, and dipping the screw to the head will not make it “more better.” The space between threads allowed by tolerances is actually quite a bit smaller than you think, and the location that the adhesive is applied is much more important than the amount. If you’re trying to determine which level of adhesion fits your specific needs, start on the low end and work your way up gradually and try experimenting a bit if you have the time and resources.
The article also discusses tips on removing screws or bolts secured with Loctite, so read the whole thing.
With factory sights and a rest, five five-shot groups at 25 yards averaged 2.65 inches. The groups were plagued with flyers. One four-shot group was 7/8 of an inch. The pistol could shoot better than the aging eyes of the shooter. The pistol shot about 3 1/2 inches high at 25 yards.
The Viridian optic was mounted. Five five-shot groups were fired from a rest while sighting in the PR57. At 25 yards, the average group, center to center, was 2.01 inches. Five five-shot groups, fired at 100 yards, averaged 7.6 inches from a rest. There was considerable vertical stringing, which was attributed to an unsatisfactory rest. 23 of the 25 shots fit into a 5 x 8-inch box at 100 yards. The shots were fired deliberately, about a minute per shot.
The NPL25 has a sliding plate that can adapt to the rail slot on a wide range of guns. There’s a sprung button on the left side of the light that moves that toothed bar up, releasing the plate. You then slide it to the position you need and release the button to lock it in place. Easy peasy with no plates to hold onto and (inevitably) lose in about 36 hours.
On a pistol like the FN (above) that has a standard Pic rail, you can a few options as to placement of the sliding plate. On a gun like the G19 (below) with just one slot, it’s easy to adjust and mount it right where you need it. NITECORE ships the NPL25 with a small “Picatinny rail adapter” piece that screws into the two holes you see above, but I mounted the light without a problem without the adapter.
And some other articles discussing important skills for prepping:
I’ve owned a Berkey system for years, and recently I replaced my aging filter elements with the new Phoenix Gravity New Millennium Edition™ filter elements. If you’re a Berkey owner wondering what your replacement options are, here’s why I made the switch and why I think every household should have a plan for safe drinking water.
This is incredible. I always wondered how family liaison officers from RICU or the CRS reliably got the families of victims murdered by political or racial terrorists to provide such anodyne, don't look back in anger public statements. I figured in most cases it would be concern trolling, with legal threats held in reserve.
This lays the technique bare, using interviews conducted both with victim's families and former police officers. Liaison officers serve as anesthetic patches that get slapped on the open wounds of the migration war. They apply therapeutic techniques to calm and reassure the families, establishing dependent relationships and using the trust they build to guide them away from saying anything inflammatory when the time comes to speak to the public. If families become noncompliant in this respect, they're threatened with causing a mistrial should they speak too openly about their feelings.
That isn't all RICU does, of course. ‘Communications’ includes a huge propaganda arm, which uses every tool at its disposal, including battalions of fake social media profiles. You have to wonder how much of the culture war of the last decade or more was pure hallucination.
Time has gotten away from me this week, so this will be brief:
The New York Post has an article with photos and an embedded video showing more of the shooting. The video is from security cameras at the In-N-Out store, so it shows more of what happened inside the restaurant and in the drive-thru lane. It includes footage showing the off-duty Idaho State Police officer with a small handgun helping herd employees out of danger and moving through the kitchen area of the restaurant, apparently toward the drive-thru window where he engaged the gunman.
The New York Post is reporting that a teen in Thailand killed his grandparents and then went to the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Bangkok where he killed 6 more people, plus himself. Fifteen people were injured. It appears that the teen used a semi-auto pistol, which is strange because in Thailand you have to be at least 20 years old to obtain a permit to possess a firearm; and you have to undergo a thorough background check in order to get a permit. It is also illegal to carry in public without a permit with heightened penalties for carrying at certain locations such as schools.
The Post goes on to relate:
It is the second school shooting in Thailand this year after a teacher died and a student was injured in the south of the country in February.
[snip]
Gun ownership and gun violence are not uncommon in Thailand, which has seen a series of deadly shootings in the past six years, with children among the victims.
Thailand’s worst mass killing by a single perpetrator in its recent history took place in 2022, when a former policeman ran amok in a three-hour gun-and-knife attack in the northeast that killed 36 people including 22 children stabbed as they slept at a daycare center.
A gunman killed five people including security guards and a vendor at a Bangkok market in July 2025 before turning the gun on himself, while a teacher died in the southern city of Hat Yai in February this year when a shooter opened fire at a school where she worked.
In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people in a shooting rampage in Nakhon Ratchasima.
And in 2023, a 14-year-old used a modified handgun to kill two people and wound five others at a luxury Bangkok shopping center.
After the 2023 shooting, Anutin, who was then serving as interior minister, ordered a raft of gun control measures, including a short-term ban on new licenses, import restrictions, and banning of people under 20 years from shooting ranges.
Longer-term measures also included a medical certificate assessing the mental health and psychological condition of gun owners as well as a specified validity period for some gun licenses.
And, of course, the knee-jerk response from politicians is to impose even more gun laws. The thing here is that gun laws will not stop someone intent on killing others--they will obtain firearms through other means (avoiding the permitting process) or select a different means of killing (which is why we see more knife/machete attacks and vehicular attacks in Europe). Rather, all the laws do is disarm the victims.
From Matt Margolis at PJ Media: "Bombshell Declassified FBI Document Blows Up Everything We Ever Heard About Russiagate." From the lede:
For years, Democrats and their media allies swore up and down that the FBI's investigation of Donald Trump was a serious national security investigation, launched only because of grave concerns about Russian collusion. Newly declassified FBI records tell a different story. It turns out that the bureau formally opened its full counterintelligence investigation into Trump back in 2017, and used his firing of FBI Director James Comey as the justification.
The president exercised his constitutional authority to fire an FBI director, and the FBI responded by opening a counterintelligence investigation into him.
From TechXplore: "Prototype glasses can turn infrared into color vision." Chinese researches claim to have produced a light weight (23-gram or 0.8-ounce) pair of glasses that allow a person to see into the infrared spectrum.
The prototype device uses microscopic particles called mercury telluride colloidal quantum dots. When infrared light strikes them, they absorb it and convert it into electrical charges.
These charges flow into an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), a type of light-emitting display that contains a red and a cyan color zone. Low-energy, or weaker, infrared signals carry enough charge to light up the red zone, while higher-energy infrared signals generate enough charge to activate both zones.
"We redefine infrared vision by transcending the monochrome paradigm, translating infrared spectral and intensity signatures into discernible color variations rather than mere brightness changes," wrote the study authors in their paper.
Prototype glasses
The scientists built a lightweight, 23-gram (0.8-ounce) prototype pair of glasses and tested it by shining infrared light through different shapes and moving objects. The results showed that the device projected sharp, color-coded images of these objects while still letting normal light pass through. This means a user can see the regular world and the infrared world at the same time. The team also measured electrical responses in human eyes, showing that the converted light triggered normal responses in the retina.
Although the technology is still at the prototype stage, the researchers believe their innovation could have applications far beyond infrared vision.
"By surpassing the evolutionary boundaries of biological photoreception, this technology paves the way for next-generation visual prosthetics and human-integrated sensory expansion."
More: "Infrared glasses could push the boundaries of human eyesight"--Popular Science.
Peter Turchin's theory of elite overproduction being behind revolutions shows up in another article. In his Breitbart piece, "Peter Schweizer: One Third of Democrats Now Call Themselves Socialists," Sage San Martin writes:
Besides being overwhelmingly white, the DSA’s voters are “largely Millennials who don’t remember history and did not grow up during the Cold War,” he says. “They grew up with prosperity, and they have no understanding of the failings of socialism, whether it’s the Soviet variety, the Cuban variety, the Venezuelan variety, or the Angolan variety,” Schweizer says.
Schweizer also mentions the theory of “elite overproduction,” which an academic first theorized in the 2010s. “When revolutions take place, they are generally led by people who think they belong in the elite. So, they get the training, they get the education, and they have the family background. And then, when they try to get into the elite, they realize that they’re not going to make it and they get angry,” Schweizer says.
“So, they blame the American system. They blame capitalism, and they take their anger out politically on the system, rather than maybe engage in some self-reflection and realize that they’re all not all that they think they are,” he adds.
Interesting times.
The Crime Prevention Research Center reports: "New Survey on the Rate that People Carry Concealed Handguns: Percent of Americans Carrying Continues to Increase from 24.3% in December 2024 to 29.8% in May 2026 to 30.9% in July 2026." Note that this is not a general population survey, but a survey of likely voters.
In the survey, 15.7% carry all/most of the time, with another 15.2% carrying sometimes/rarely. The percent who carry all or most the time increased from 13.0% in December 2024 to 13.2% in May 2026 to 15.7% in July 2026. But total percent who care increased from 24.3% in December 2024 to 29.8% in May 2026 to 30.9% in July 2026.
Or, from the other side of the coin, the number of people that never carry a concealed handgun decline from 73.0% in December 2024 to 66.6% in July 2026.
The U.S. is getting more involved militarily and, possibly, through mercenary companies, in Africa as it appears we are entering a period of...
