Tutorial

Sometimes I come across articles or books in PDF or other electronic formats that I would like to share, but Blogger does not allow me to post them. However, I thought that perhaps some JPEGs of short articles might be doable. So, here is my experimental post attempting that. You should be able to click on each photo to get a larger picture. Let me know what you think in the comments:

"How to Stop Mass Shootings"

People like Piers Morgan love the pictures of blood and dead bodies so they can beat their drum of gun control or malign gun owners. Piers Morgan, for instance, likes to blame the NRA for mass shootings without ever bothering to explain the cause and effect. We might as well ascribe the recent Oregon shooting to the British government (the shooter was British), or atheist groups (the shooter was supposedly anti-religious).

What no one offers is an explanation of these mass shootings (other than the person was "mentally disturbed") or a solution on stopping or reducing their incidence. Except for Milo Yiannopoulos. Writing at Breitbart, Yiannopoulos suggests in his article "How to Stop Mass Shootings" that the mass shootings--at least those we are seeing in the United States--is a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family and traditional marriage, and its inevitable alienation of lower status males. Yiannopoulos observes:

In a sense, what happened yesterday was also a suicide. A spectacularly melodramatic suicide from a man in pain who wanted to hurt the world that had hurt him. Society has got to start treating boys better if it wants to avoid more of this in the future.

He further explains:

The breakdown of the nuclear family is a euphemistic phrase used to describe a more troubling picture: there are more absent fathers now and vanishingly few positive male role models for young men to admire and emulate. This is often fuelled, or at least endorsed, by wrongheaded progressives who want to tear down supposedly patriarchal institutions.

But it is those patriarchal institutions, if you like, that for centuries provided the sort of structure, order and role models that young men need.

Masculinity isn’t fragile, as a spiteful, sociopathic feminist Twitter hashtag recently claimed. But — and here’s where some man-hating feminists almost get it right — it is powerful, and exciting, and it does have a flip-side if not properly respected. At its best, male competitiveness is the driving force behind most of society’s progress. We would be nowhere without the patriarchy, from the internet and space travel to the road under your feet and the roof on your house. The same thing that drives mass shooters inspires courage, too.

That doesn’t mean masculinity is “toxic.” What’s toxic is society’s attitudes towards men. Masculinity only becomes “toxic” when it is beaten down and suppressed and when men are told that what and who they are is defective. It becomes toxic when young boys are drugged in school because they don’t conform to feminine standards of behaviour.

What’s worse is that the media ridicules, criticises, punishes and demonises masculinity, then uses the product of its own hatred to justify more man-hating, in a Kafkaesque cycle of progressive insanity that has only one, inevitable consequence: more innocent dead people.

Progressives don’t see the irony in going after “straight white men.” But they are hypocritical bigots, hounding people for gender, skin colour and sexuality and saying that essential male characteristics are wrong. Men must be allowed to compete. To fight. To shoot things. Today’s man-punishing, feminised culture is creating killers by suppressing these urges. We have to stop it.

The confusion and alienation that so many young men feel today drives some to drop out of society completely and to retreat into pornography and video games. But others — the less stable, less supported, less able to cope with their natures — become progressively more angry until they explode in rage and pain.

Unfortunately, it is not just the Left that is bashing men and masculinity.  Other writers--most especially Dalrock--have documented and discussed how mainstream Christian denominations have similarly swallowed the feminist pill, albeit sugar coated with a Christian sounding explanation. Even many in my own denomination suffer under similar delusions. But, as we are warned, in the last days even the very elect will be deceived by false doctrine and false prophets. (See Matt. 24:24).

In 1995, the LDS Church released "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," setting out succinctly the importance of the traditional family structure and gender roles. In it, "we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets." And so, 20 years later, we see it happening right before our eyes.

Quote of the Day: Ray Kurzweil on Becoming Like Gods

Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam

The different religions of the world have a surprising agreement on what God is. God is an unlimited amount of what: memory, intelligence, creativity and love — basically the highest things a neocortex does. What happens in evolution, entities like mammals and humans become more intelligent, more creative, more loving, and moving exponentially to become more God-like; never quite reaching God, but moving in that direction. So evolution is a spiritual process to bring us closer to God, and technological evolution is now running a million times faster than biological evolution and ultimately we will vastly ultimately trillions-fold expand our creativity and our sense of humor and our ability to love and will become more God-like.

--Ray Kurzweil

And yet carry our flaws forward as well? There would have to be some way to filter out the "good"--those that could responsibly handle the power--from the "bad." But the only filter I see from Kurzweil and other writers is that of "wealth," which seems to be a very poor filter.

"What Naked and Afraid Taught Me About Weight Loss"--Honor and Daring

I recently published a guest post from The Realist about some lessons learned from watching the Naked and Afraid television series. So it seemed a bit of serendipity that I came across this post by Michael Sebastian at the Honor and Daring blog entitled "What Naked and Afraid Taught Me About Weight Loss." Sebastian relates that the question for him had always been whether dieting or exercise was better for weight loss--a topic with no clear answer from the various articles on losing weight--but which was answered for him from one particular episode of Naked and Afraid. He noted that the contestants on the show lost significant amounts of weight ... with one exception: Cassie De Pecol. Sebastian writes that at the beginning of the challenge, both Cassie and her partner, Forrest Galante were slightly overweight, but he figured that they would lose that extra weight. He describes what happened, though:

Typically, both partners contribute about equally to the success or failure of the team. But Cassie was different. Rather than help her partner, she spent her days either sunning herself on the beach or sitting in the shelter that her partner had constructed. ...

This left Forrest to do all the heavy lifting. He did everything. ... [T]hey both ate very little. By the end of the competition, Forrest had lost a boatload of weight going from a slightly doughy couch potato to fighting fit.

Cassie, on the other hand, lost only a few pounds. Her butt was still a bit large. How on earth can you starve for 21 days and still not lose weight?

Inactivity, that’s how. Because she was just sitting around, Cassie burned next to no calories. It is a testament to how efficient our bodies are.

An interesting observation. Read the whole thing.

Gun Contest: Win A Henry Big Boy

You can enter the contest by going to The Firearm Blog, and looking for the story about the contest.

A Portable Solar Power System

One of the more interesting magazines to me is The Backwoodsman. Its emphasis is on topics concerned with primitive or rustic living, but also includes many handy "how-to" or DIY articles on various topics. The most recent issue (Sept/Oct. 2015) contains an article entitled: "Small Solar System: Cheap, Portable, and Readily Available" by Dave Storm. The author sets out his idea for putting together an inexpensive, portable solar charging system intended to recharge small electric devices, such as a cell phone or tablet computer, batteries, and so on. The primary components are the Brief Case Solar Charger (Harbor Freight parts no. 68750) and 3-in-1 Jump Starter and Power Supply (Harbor Freight parts no. 38391). Storm's recommendation is to use the solar charger to charge the battery in the power supply, which then can be used to recharge or operate other devices.

Storm also recommends a couple other devices to go with it that would be useful, such as as a rechargeable flashlight designed to charge from a car cigarette lighter, and a small inverter. He mentions specific models in his article, so give it a read if you track down a copy of the magazine.

Or, for about twice the price of the 3-in-1 Charger that Storm mentions, Harbor Freight also has a 5-in-1 Charger that includes the power inverter, with two 120 V A/C outlets and a USB port.

Not A Boy Scout Knot

I came across this rather unusual looking knot at Western Rifle Shooters Association. It might become quite popular someday ... for decorative reasons, of course.

The Singularity: The Next Arms Race

This past week I had the opportunity to peruse an article entitled "Two Singularities" by  Calum Chace at Singularity Weblog. The primary purpose of the article is to posit some issues that will need to be considered in regard to what he terms the "economic singularity"--the loss of jobs and concentration of wealth that will occur as we approach and reach the singularity. Of course, it helps to understand what is meant by the "singularity." Chace defines it as: "the moment when the first artificial general intelligence (AGI) becomes a superintelligence and introduces change to this planet on a scale and at a speed which un-augmented humans cannot comprehend.  The term was borrowed from maths and physics, and the central idea is that there is an event horizon beyond which the future becomes un-knowable." (Christians have our own version of the "singularity"--the point after which the future becomes un-knowable--and we call it "the Second Coming").

As noted, Chace goes on to discuss what happens to the luckless humans that are unemployable and not among the elite. He writes:

In which case, I think it [i.e., the term "singularity"] can reasonably be applied to another event which is likely to take place well before the technological singularity. This is the economic singularity. We are hearing a lot at the moment about AI automating jobs out of existence. There is widespread disagreement about whether this is happening already, whether it will happen in the future, and whether it is a good or a bad thing. For what it’s worth, my own view is that it’s not happening yet (or at least, not much), that it will happen in the coming three decades, and that it can be a very good thing indeed if we are prepared for it, and if we manage the transition successfully. 

A lot of people believe that a Universal Basic Income (UBI) will solve the problem of technological unemployment. ... 

But to my mind, UBI is not the real battle. ...

The real problem, it seems to me, is that we will need more than UBI. We will need an entirely new form of economy. I see great danger in a world in which most people rub along on state handouts while a minority – perhaps a small minority – not only own most of the wealth (that is pretty much true already) but are the only ones actively engaged in any kind of economic activity. Given the advances in all kinds of technology that we can expect in the coming decades, this minority would be under immense temptation to separate themselves off from the rest of us – not just economically, but cognitively and physically too. Yuval Harari, author of the brilliant Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, says that humanity may divide into two classes of people: rather brutally, he calls them the gods and the useless. [See the end of his TED talk http://snglrty.co/1XlhZ1r]

I don't think the risk is that "the gods" will wall themselves off from "the useless," to borrow the terms used by Harari, but that "the gods" will simply eliminate "the useless." If you think this unlikely, you haven't been paying attention to the goals of the environmental movement.

But Chace seemingly approaches this issue from the aspect that the "super-intelligence" will be the natural result of progress in an open market-place and/or an open scientific process, where every nation will potentially benefit equally. This, to me, is unlikely. A super-intelligence in the hands of one nation, corporation, or other group would instantly give that group a whole magnitude (or more) of an advantage over any other. There is no guarantee that a super-intelligence would be able to be sufficiently controllable to be useful, but the risk of a competitor developing such a super AI first--and being able to exploit it--is too great to ignore.

Obviously, I'm not the first to have thought of this issue, and I quickly found some additional articles addressing this issue. From an abstract of the book, Singularity Hypotheses: A Scientific and Philosophical Assessment comes a similar assessment to mine:

Chalmers notes that even if it is technically feasible for humanity to produce an intelligence explosion, we may not exercise that capacity because of “motivational defeaters,” choosing to restrict, slow, and manage the development of advanced AI technologies to reduce risk. On the other hand, since a lead in AI technology may translate into overwhelming military advantage, an arms race dynamic may give states incentives to pursue even very dangerous research in hopes of attaining a leading position.

The authors go on to observe:

... the military impact of an intelligence explosion would seem to lie primarily in the extreme acceleration in the development of new capabilities. A state might launch an AI Manhattan Project to gain a few months or years of sole access to advanced AI systems, and then initiate an intelligence explosion to greatly increase the rate of progress. Even if rivals remain only a few months behind chronologically, they may therefore be left many technological generations behind until their own intelligence explosions. It is much more probable that such a large gap would allow the leading power to safely disarm its nuclear-armed rivals than that any specific technological generation will provide a decisive advantage over the one immediately preceding it.

If states do take AI potential seriously, how likely is it that a government's “in-house” systems will reach the the point of an intelligence explosion months or years before competitors? Historically, there were substantial delays between the the first five nuclear powers tested bombs in 1945, 1949. 1952, 1960, and 1964. The Soviet Union's 1949 test benefited from extensive espionage and infiltration of the Manhattan Project, and Britain's 1952 test reflected formal joint participation in the Manhattan Project.

If the speedup in progress delivered by an intelligence explosion were large, such gaps would allow the leading power to solidify a monopoly on the technology and military power, at much lower cost in resources and loss of life than would have been required for the United States to maintain its nuclear monopoly of 1945-1949. To the extent that states distrust their rivals with such complete power, or wish to exploit itthemselves, there would be strong incentives to vigorously push forward AI research, and to ensure government control over systems capable of producing an intelligence explosion.

Zoltan Istvan, writing at Motherboard, similarly states: "[N]ations should do all they can to develop artificial intelligence, because whichever country produces an AI first will likely end up ruling the world indefinitely, since that AI will be able to control all other technologies and their development on the planet."

A Quick Run Around the Web--September 26, 2015

Firearms/Self-Defense:

• The video embedded above: "Which Caliber Can Bust Open a Lock?"
• "Making Gunpowder From Urine, Natural Materials"--The Firearms Blog.
• "Proof UK Gun Control is A Failure"--The Truth About Guns.
• "Should The Physically Handicapped Have Firearms?"--Bayou Renaissance Man.

Immigration/Invasion:

One year in the making.

• Remember my recent post discussing how many "spontaneous" events are staged or planned? The Associated Press reports: "Immigration group planned girl's pope encounter for a year." (See photo to the right).
• "Migrants: Video emerges of “migrants” throwing away food and water because it had a Christian cross on it and wasn’t halal"--The Liberal.
• "'Finland's no good': Disappointed migrants turn back"--AFP. Iraqi migrants change their mind about seeking asylum in Finland because it is too cold and too boring.
• "Rape and child abuse 'are rife in German refugee camps': Unsegregated conditions blamed as women are 'seen as fair game' in overcrowded migrant centres"--Daily Mail. It's part of their culture.
• "‘Camp of the Saints' Seen Mirrored in Pope's Message."--Breitbart.
• "Germany in a state of SIEGE: Merkel was cheered when she opened the floodgates to migrants. Now, with gangs of men roaming the streets and young German women being told to cover up, the mood's changing"--Daily Mail.
• The Social Pathologist writes:

However, given the human dignity that is conferred by Christ on all men, it does not mean that because every man is my brother in Christ he gets to live in my house, or gets a place in the lifeboat. Or that he has the right to enter my country. Furthermore, if he is a risk to the stabilty of my country or has duties at home he should be performing I have a duty in Charity not to let him in. Christianity compels me to love but it does not compel me to be stupid. ...

Other Stuff:

• "Was It Fixed? Army General Told Subordinates: 'A Woman Will Graduate Ranger School,' Sources Say"--People. The women received special training, and standards were reduced or waived for the women. Not surprising to me in the least.
• "California Lake Mysteriously Runs Dry Overnight, Killing Thousands Of Fish"--CBS Sacramento. It was a reservoir storing water for a hydro-power. Maybe PG&E needed the water to charge electric cars.
• "Nuclear TSUNAMI: ISIS wants to wipe hundreds of millions from face of the earth"--Sunday Express.
• The Church releases a statement in response to some of the hysteria over the Blood Moon:

The Church encourages our members to be spiritually and physically prepared for life's ups and downs. For many decades, Church leaders have counseled members that, where possible, they should gradually build a supply of food, water and financial resources to ensure they are self-reliant during disasters and the normal hardships that are part of life, including illness, injury or unemployment.

This teaching to be self-reliant has been accompanied by the counsel of Church leaders to avoid being caught up in extreme efforts to anticipate catastrophic events. 

The writings and speculations of individual Church members, some of which have gained currency recently, should be considered as personal accounts or positions that do not reflect Church doctrine.

The Realist: Thoughts on "Naked and Afraid"

Guest post by The Realist....

I've been watching Discovery's Naked and Afraid since it first started airing. This summer, Discovery aired a special Naked and Afraid XL series. Naked and Afraid is a show best watched in the background, while you are doing something else like reading news or answering email. The show emphasizes the drama over actual survival. But, even with all the drama, there are some lessons to be gleaned from the shows.

The basic premise of the show is to drop a man and a woman who have never met before (along with a production crew) in a remote wilderness environment with no clothing and one survival item each. (For the prurient who may be reading this, the show carefully blurs out certain body parts and there is no sexual activity.) The two cast members hike to a location where they will set up camp for most of the period of time. Then as the end of the 21 day survival ordeal approaches, the cast members travel (usually involving a water obstacle to traverse) to an "extraction" point where they are picked up.

Naked and Afraid XL takes a dozen "survivors" from prior Naked and Afraid episodes and drops them off in several small groups near each other in a wilderness area. Again, each cast member is allowed one survival item. The survival period is 40 days.

Typically, the the location chosen is a tropical/jungle location of some sort, although several locations have been semi-arid.

Cast members have the option of "tapping out" at any time if they feel they cannot make it to the end or they suffer a serious medical event.

After the first season, it was apparent that cast members would prepare ahead of time for the ordeal by walking barefoot to toughen up their feet, and eating high calorie foods (peanut butter mentioned frequently) to add extra fat to carry them through the 21 days.

The most common survival items chosen were a knife or small machete and a fire starting device (frequently a Blast Match). In the most recent season, a couple of times a cast member chose a metal pot in which to boil water and cook whatever meager food might be found.

Lessons gleaned from the shows

Fire. Fire is a life critical survival tool. Fire is important for a variety of reasons, including purifying water, providing warmth, cooking food, providing light at night, and usually keeping predators at bay.

The Blast Match works pretty well when dry tinder is properly prepared. Although, the flint bar will break if too much side pressure is applied, which happened in one episode.

Clothing. Obviously, clothing is important. The lack of shoes made walking difficult and unpleasant, and resulted in occasional injuries (e.g. infection caused by thorns breaking off under the skin). The lack of clothes resulted in sun burns, increased bug bites, and various other minor injuries. In a couple of episodes, the lack of clothing combined with unexpectedly cool weather resulted in cast members becoming very cold and at risk of hypothermia. When presented with the risk of hypothermia, a production crew medic would step in to measure body temperature.

Food. There was never enough food. Women would typically loose around 15 pounds and men would typically loose around 25 pounds during the 21 day ordeal. Some cast members were more skilled than others at being able to catch fish and/or reptiles for food. Catching warm blooded animals was rare. Insects were frequently consumed. And, lots of plant food was eaten when found. A secondary issue with food was the difficulty in obtaining protein. Protein is necessary to physical and mental health. I was surprised to learn how important protein is to brain function.

Animal flesh obtained for food should be cooked to kill worms and other parasites. In one episode where a lizard was caught, it had worms the size of night-crawlers inside it, and another animal caught that episode was full of tape worms. Snake meat must be cooked (but not overcooked) to be edible. Insects should be cooked because they can contain parasites.

The early effects of starvation were educational to observe. The effects came on much quicker and were more dramatic than I would have expected. First, physical energy reduced dramatically. Second, many people became quite irritable, with some exhibiting depression. Third, the starvation impaired other mental functions like problem solving.

Safe Drinking Water. Having enough safe drinking water was always a challenge. The first few days of the ordeal, cast members would become severely dehydrated as they searched for a water source and came up with some method of purifying water (usually boiling). Sometimes in desperation, a cast member would drink water that had not been purified. Sometimes they got lucky, sometimes they became gravely ill.

Scavenging. In a couple of episodes, cast members found abandoned containers which gave them the means to efficiently boil water for drinking. In one instance, a cast member found a small glass jar near the beginning of their trek, which later became a bearing block/socket for a bow drill for starting a fire. Even when seemingly in the middle of nowhere, watch for items lost or abandoned by others that may be useful.

Insects. Biting insects were a universal bane of the cast (and probably the production crew). In most episodes, cast members would be quickly covered in insect bite welts. Occasionally, the bites had more serious health consequences. Cast members would frequently cover their skin with a thin layer of mud in an effort to deter the insects.

Use all senses. Using all senses is important. In one of the Naked and Afraid XL episodes, a cast member smelled a large snake before she could see or hear it. This smell was identified based prior encounters with large snakes. In a couple of cases, the smell of a fire allowed someone from one group to detect and find the camp of another group.

Health. Medical issues can pop up unexpectedly. Besides waterborne illnesses and foot issues previously discussed, other injuries can occur. In one episode, a cast member became very ill from an allergic reaction to the sap of a tree they camped under. The other cast member was eventually able to find a natural antidote, that saved the ill cast member from having to tap-out. In another episode, a cast member injured themselves while chopping something with a knife. The cut on a finger went all the way to the bone. The production crew medic ended up suturing the cut without anesthetic - otherwise the cast member would have been evacuated (tapped out). Heat stress injuries, exacerbated by dehydration, were common. There were many other medical issues that popped up, requiring intervention of the production crew medic. Without the medic, or in a true emergency survival situation, those injuries could have been fatal.

Realistic assessment of skills. With a couple of exceptions, most cast members severely overestimated their wilderness prowess and survival skills. Maybe their skills were good for North America, but not other environments.

Team cooperation. Cooperation with team members was important. Where cast members got along with each other, worked together, and emotionally supported each other, their likelihood of success increased significantly over those who couldn't cooperate.

Mental attitude. The survival ordeal was as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge. Many cast members who tapped out gave up mentally. A positive can-do endure-to-the-end attitude was immensely important for success.

Summary 

A new season of Naked and Afraid starts in a few weeks. The show is primarily about drama under contrived circumstances - traveling naked into a wilderness environment. Don't watch it expecting learn anything about wilderness survival. On the other hand, if you want to watch how people react to starvation and dehydration, it has some educational value.