There is one thing they left out:
There are reasonable means to mitigate all of these.
This is not going to be 100% but I’m all for a layered approach to all types of security. This looks like a reasonable layer for school security.
Every Friday afternoon, she asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student who they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.
And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, she takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her, and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else?
Who can’t think of anyone to request?
Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?
Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down—right away—who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.
This was nearly two years ago. Where can I get a plastic gun barrel for my .300 Win Mag?
Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.
The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.
Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.
“We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things,” he says. “It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.”
See also Irreversible synthesis of an ultrastrong two-dimensional polymeric material | Nature.
I stumbled across some interesting facts on fallout shelters (emphasis added):
The former Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack. Currently, the deepest subway line in the world is situated in St Petersburg in Russia, with an average depth of 60 meters, while the deepest subway station is Arsenalna in Kyiv, at 105.5 meters.[14]
Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81%,[15] and Switzerland for 114%.
…
Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963).[24] Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12-megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.
Those Swiss! See also:
I do not know what it means to be a liberal Jew in America anymore. I don’t know what it means to be against gun violence or against people who have guns or just against having playdates at houses with people who own guns — not when those people are all around me, when those are my people.
Amy Klein
November 22, 2023
Opinion: Taking a trip to the firing range was something I’d never do before October 7
Dear Ms. Klein,
I understand it is tough having your worldview so dramatically ripped apart. It is going to take some time to process everything. But what you are now getting a glimpse of is what we gun owners call “reality”.
I realize you live on the opposite side of the continent from me, but should you ever decide to visit my part of the country (Seattle area and/or North Central Idaho) I would be glad to give you a day or even a weekend of free lessons, free use of my firearms and free ammo,
For your learning comfort I can provide you access to private indoor (Five Star Rated) and outdoor ranges using silenced firearms.
Welcome to reality.
In related news: Gun Ownership Hits Record High Among American Voters: Poll.
Things are really jumping in the firearms legal world. These are just a few of the things happening in the last few days:
When I think back to when I first got involved in the gun owner rights activism in the mid 1990s… there were seldom more than one or two gun cases per year which made the news. Now it probably averages about one per week.
We live in interesting times.
In related news from yesterday, my company gave all employees some money to donate to charitable causes. I gave all of mine to the FPC. I also donate a lot of money to SAF who also does good work in the courts.
A zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America’s already lax regulations on firearms.
Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA.
Peter Stone
November 17, 2023
As the NRA fades, a more zealous US pro-gun group rises as a lobbying power
Good to know.
I don’t think lobbying is the best place to spend the money. The courts are where most of the productive action is at the moment. But developing the infrastructure and skills for lobbying probably is a good thing.
This is a society infected by socialism and what we need to achieve is to remove socialism from people’s minds.
…
Politicians are sociopaths who want to make us believe that we are mentally invalid in every sense because we cannot live without them.
…
If the country were divided between those who produce on one side and the other side, the f*cking politicians, the syndicalists, this whole bunch of parasites, they would sink and die.
Javier Milei
President Elect of Argentina
2023
Via Tommy Robinson @TRobinsonNewEra
This is a presidential candidate I could vote for with enthusiasm.
Argentina will be an interesting place to watch for the next few years. This is assuming he doesn’t get assassinated
Yes, because I value human life more than shitposting or having a fucking gun to substitue for a miniscule penis
YD @JustAnotherYD
Tweeted on October 30, 2023
It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!
When you have no facts, logic, philosophy, or SCOTUS decisions on your side you go with your best material…childish insults.
If we are discussing volcanic eruptions causing damage to human life and property no discussion would be complete without mentioning Mount Vesuvius and what it did to Pompeii.
Barb and I were there less that a month ago on October 28th. It is a rather solemn place.
Speaking of volcanos…
In September of 2022 Barb and I visited the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Ten days ago, on November 9th, it was closed due to an impending volcanic eruptions. It will remain closed until at least November 30th. And if it gets damaged by the eruption who knows how long until it opens, if ever. I’m glad we got to visit before the eruption.
It is a major tourist attraction. Barb and I probably spent an hour soaking and swimming in the water. It was nice with stunning views, but it didn’t take too long before we got bored. Of course it probably would be more interesting if you were staying there and enjoying the restaurants, all the spa amenities, and the Norther Lights were visible.
I didn’t take any pictures from the swimsuit area but here are a few from the area near the parking lot:
As I previously said Barb and I went on a long vacation to see some things before they are gone. Little did I know Mount Etna would erupt shortly after we visited. We were there on October 27th. It erupted just 16 days later on November 12th.
The view and scenery was nice, walking into a crater was interesting, but the wind was blowing really hard. I estimated it was between 50 and 60 MPH. We had to really lean into the wind and wear protective clothing. The wind was blowing hard enough to put rocks into our shoes.
Very cool!
Built The Most Secret Underground Tunnel Shelter. pic.twitter.com/SqeutuhAei
— Learn Something (@cooltechtipz) November 18, 2023
About 300 million people in the United States would be put at risk of death from exposure to radioactive fallout in the four days following a nuclear attack, according to a new report that models the possible effects of such a grim event. If the US is attacked with nuclear weapons , an adversary would most likely concentrate all fire on the country’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch facilities (silos). Any retaliatory attack from the US would come from these silos, located in Colorado , Montana , Nebraska , North Dakota , and Wyoming – and taking them out would be an enemy’s first priority.
Kevin OReilly
November 16, 2023
Report: Nuclear war in US would wipe out 90 percent of the population
The quote is deceptive and the article title is a lie. The quote can be interpreted to mean it is likely or even certain to kill 300 million people in the U.S.. If you read it carefully you will realize this is a worst case scenario for each area of the country. In reality the worst case would be for a much smaller area:
Using weather patterns recorded through 2021, scientists simulated the aftereffects of an 800-kiloton warhead hitting every one of the 450 silos at once to cripple the US arsenal. First, they mapped how wind patterns would have carried the fallout on each day of 2021.
For the map above, they recorded the worst possible outcome for each location. In this scenario, three million people living in communities around the silos would risk receiving eight grays (Gy) of radiation in the four days following the attack, resulting in certain death – one Gy is enough to cause radiation sickness.
The information above is for radioactive fallout. This is most severe from ground bursts. Nuking population centers and military bases would probably be done via air bursts which produce far less fallout while incinerating and a shock wave destroying almost everything within miles.
Still, a rule of thumb to keep in mind is that three feet of dirt will reduce the radiation by a factor of 1,000.
I want my underground bunker in Idaho.
Repeal or rule unconstitutional the Gun-Free Zone Act of 1990:
Deploying Quantum Drive into orbit in a Rogue satellite on SpaceX Transporter 9 is a milestone for the future of space propulsion.
…
Quantum Drive’s capability allows Rogue to produce new satellite vehicles with unlimited Delta V.
…
There are many things that have held back space exploration, one of them of course is power and propulsion.
…
IVO’s quantum drive eliminates this propulsion problem by eliminating the fuel. By taking away the fuel, then you have essentially unlimited thrust.
Richard Mansell
IVO chief executive
November 18, 2023
SpaceX launches ‘zero fuel’ engine into space
Interesting. I like living in the future.
This will be very cool… If it actually works.
Consider me a little bit skeptical.
A District Court ruled in 2021 that the government was 60% responsible for the massacre after shooter Devin Kelley, who was discharged from the Air Force after a felony conviction, wasn’t entered into the national database that would have prevented him from buying a gun. A judge said the government also owed victims $230 million in damages.
But in court documents filed this week, the Department of Justice pushed back on paying damages and denied that they were primarily responsible for the shooting — a move that gun control advocates say not only harms victims and their families, but is also a backwards step for the Biden administration’s own stance on gun control policy.
NPR
January 14, 2023
DOJ appeal in Texas mass shooting case pleases NRA and puzzles gun control advocates
The issue is the DOJ is claiming the government failure to put the perp into the NICS database does not make them liable for the massacre. This can be interpreted to mean they know background checks do not make the public safer. Hence, background checks are either intended for something other than public safety (such as creating a backdoor registration of guns) and/or a waste of public resources.
There are basically 5 scenarios in which civilians drastically lose their liberties, lives, and fortunes:
- Communist Revolution
- Civil War broadly defined: regime change/guerilla campaigns/insurgency/ complete loss of order
- Foreign Invasion
- domestic outward invasion/war
- economic sanctions/blockade (externally or internally imposed).
And as we’ve seen recently… there’s a 6th condition:
- Disease outbreak and public health totalitarianism (i.e. Soft Communist Revolution)
Anyone one of these 5 (6) conditions can be caused by or cause economic collapses, and there are numerous examples of all of them resulting in things such as: mass starvation, breakdown in healthcare, concentration camp style detainment of populations, ethnic cleansing, mass enslavement, government by terror, conscription, press gangs, banditry, confiscation of wealth.
…
Of these 5 however, the worst is number 1: Communist Revolution. And for that reason we’re going to assume that’s what you’re dealing with.
Not just because I hate communists which, yes, but because inherent in every communist revolution are the other 5.
Kulak
August 21, 2023
Realistic Prepper Advice
Prepare appropriately.
On Monday I reached an important milestone with my underground bunker in Idaho.
The last of the major dirt movement was completed:
No, I won’t be answering any questions online.
