Weekend Reading #78

Some longer or more involved reading:

• Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this week has a lot of interesting article. Some that for one reason or another struck my fancy were:
• A couple article about the recent Silver Rail Elementary active shooter incident, including a look at what the armed citizen did to stop the incident, some thoughts about using a vehicle as a weapon, and a look at Oregon law that would justify the armed citizen's response.
• An article about the Ruger Service Six and some modifications that the writer/gun smith is making to improve it's characteristics as a defensive revolver.
• A piece from Organic Prepper on how to read the streets--i.e., specific things to look for to better gauge a situation or local. 
• Lucky Gunner looks at sales data to examine changes in the most popular handgun and rifle cartridges. In the handgun category, unsurprisingly the 9mm is by far the dominant caliber being sold, while .40 S&W continues its decline. But frankly, 9mm was well on its way to becoming the dominant handgun cartridge in the 1990s before the Assault Weapons Ban intervened by limiting magazine capacity and, thereby, pushing people to the .40 S&W. Once the magazine limits disappeared, it was inevitable, in my mind, that the 9mm would once again reign supreme. The big upset is in the rifle calibers where in 2010 the .300 BLK and 6.5 Creedmoor were brand new, but now are both in the top 5. 
• An article going over the history of the Remington 870 shotgun as well as a list of some models to avoid and which to keep an eye on. 
• Mountain Man Medical's article of a recent shooting death at a hunting camp in the wilds of Idaho, the impact of long response time before medical help arrives, with some suggestions for a medical kit to keep at a camp--something more than the basic blow out kit you might carry on you. 
• And Empty Cases has an article discussing the "scout" part of Cooper's scout rifle concept, including what Cooper meant by "scout" and a couple of men that served as scouts and the templates for what Cooper was thinking about when he came up with the scout rifle.
• This week, Greg also posted another list of free Kindle books at Amazon with an emphasis on prepping, survival, self-defense, and travel, but also some more eclectic titles. Check it out.  
• And Greg has been extra busy because he also has an article entitled "What Do I Say After A Shooting?" 
• And John Wilder's latest: "Will We Win? Yes. Will It Be Horrible? Also Yes.  So, We Might As Well Enjoy It."  Some thoughts on the troubled times we live in, but also hope for a better future once we get through the bad times.
• "The Alternate View: Future Trajectories for Civilizations" by John G. Cramer, Analog. The author discusses a couple of recent papers with implications for the Fermi Paradox. He sums it up:

Th e [sic] bottom line of these two studies is that (1) the Fermi Paradox Great Silence may be in part the result of the short detection windows for unstable planetary civilizations, and (2) our present society (scenario S2) is fragile and subject to collapse, so we should be doing much more to stabilize and preserve it, and also to prepare for recovery after its collapse. 

• On a related note: "What if we’re alone? The philosophical paradox of a lifeless cosmos" by Shai Tubali, Big Think. The author writes:

Despite all our searching and knocking on cosmic doors, we may be utterly alone — effectively or actually — and for now, that’s the reality we inhabit. Futurist John Michael Godier observed that true solitude in the Universe can never be proven; we could discover alien life and know we’re not alone, but we’ll never confirm that we are, trapped as we are within the observable Universe’s shimmering bubble. What if, after centuries, our telescopes find no alien biospheres, no technosignatures, just an unbroken cosmic silence? As Arthur C. Clarke said, either we’re alone or we’re not, and both are terrifying. To make sense of this profound solitude, philosophy might just hold the key.

But, Tubali continues, it shouldn't be terrifying if we are alone because that just makes Earth and us just that much more special.