Monday Links
Well, this week will be a grab bag of links.
Reason first, starting with a couple of COVID retrospectives.
Do face masks work? A look at the evidence. The only time I wear a mask these days is if I’m actively sick and I’m forced to go out into public. I keep a few disposable N95’s in my various bags.
How many Americans died from COVID-19? As the article states, these numbers are going to be contested for decades. The range for the 1918 Spanish Flu is between 17 million and 100 million.
Standard piece on ending daylight savings time. Based on what happened in the 70’s, I lean more to staying on DST, but I’d be happy with just staying on one. For some reason, this time change has Ward Manor more discombobulated than normal.
Union makes outrageous claims when DHS reneges on union contract for TSA. I’m not a fan of how unions work these days – particularly government unions. I’m not a member of the union at the day job, but I’m still bound by the contract they negotiated. Then there’s the part of me that says it’s one thing to let a contract lapse and another to just break a contract. On the gripping hand, there’s something to be said about doing what you can to get out of a bad deal.
Georgia passed an anti-doxxing bill that was written poorly. Broadly written laws leaves a lot of room for abuse.
Cornell is disciplining students and student groups for disrupting a speaking event. And not just slaps on the wrists either.
Take a couple hundred bucks out of an ATM? The feds want to know about it. Especially if you’re too close to Mexico. No, this won’t be abused. History is so replete with examples of the feds upholding the highest standards of following the spirit of their laws.
I have a trio tech stories.
A Bloomberg article on Apple planning to bring live translate to its AirPods. I have some interest in this. I wonder if it would do it for anime I’m listening to on my AirPods?
From The Verge, Apple has agreed to support a new message encryption protocol that will make it interoperable with Android. No news if that means the green bubble / blue bubble divide will continue.
From CNN, iRobot’s future is in doubt. Thanks EU from blocking the sale to Amazon in order to “protect consumers.” Hopefully the robots in Ward Manor won’t be affected too much if iRobot goes under. Well, at least Eufy’s tend to go on sale pretty frequently.
A couple of gun stories.
Fox News article on Arkansas public school students being required to take a gun safety course. With the ubiquitous nature of guns in America, every child should know at least the four rules with some heavy doses of Eddie the Eagle thrown in at the beginning. It’s like swimming. You may never plan on taking your child anywhere near a pool, lake, river, or ocean, but there’s enough of those around that it’s best if kids know how.
From Shooting Illustrated, Tam has a piece on why you may need different carry pistols for different situations. It was one of the reasons I like having a compact M&P and a full-size one.
A couple of local stories.
The Rays backed out of a stadium deal. Now local leaders and sports fans are wondering how to keep the team in the area. I still hold that if the Rays want a stadium, make them pay for it.
An article on the endangered nature of Florida’s orange groves. It’s a story we’ve been seeing a lot lately around Ward Manor. The children of old family farms don’t want to take over the business and the demand for land has driven up prices that makes selling a good way to make the family fortune. This is before you throw in the greening epidemic.
Finishing up with a couple of lighter science stories.
Via The Brother, we have an article on how different languages hear and say animal sounds.
March Anime Recommendations
A rare rom com involving adults instead of students.
Speaking of rom-coms involving students. This one has an interesting premise and done well.
Another rom-com where the stepchildren used to date – and may still have feelings for each other. And a bit of ecchi.
It feels odd recommending one that’s not technically anime and over ten years old, but damn RWBY is good.
Monday Links – Clearing the Backlog
After two weeks of no Monday Links, I had quite a stack of links. I’m posting the ones that weren’t time sensitive.
Let’s clear the Reason links first.
Chicago taxpayers shelled out more than $100 million to settle police misconduct suits.
A thinkpiece advocating a flat tax. I’m all for a flat tax. Particularly if means special interests can’t fiddle with the tax code.
Why is the internet celebrating a murderer?
The FTC wants to make social media more fair. Proving once again that the right doesn’t want to stop the power grabs of the left. They want to use that power for themselves.
The Supreme Court heard a case of Mexico suing American gun makers. Of course it’s the gun makers fault that Mexico is a mess. Not their own corruption or culture.
Jay Bhattacharya’s Confirmation Hearing Proves the Lockdown Skeptics Won. This was one of Trump’s appointees I was glad to see.
Apple is taking the UK to court over the demand for a backdoor. Personally, there’s part of me that thinks Apple should take the same stance Randy Barrett took with California. If the UK makes unreasonable demands from Apple, then Apple should withdraw all of its products and services from the UK.
How to recover from debanking.
I have a few articles from Gizmodo.
Uber for Armed Guards. Personally, I’m fine with a service that can deliver armed security. Particularly if it does the same as Uber and brings down prices so more people have access if they have to travel to places where they can’t bring their own tools.
A man credited with saving over two million lives has passed away at age 88. Not all heroes wear capes.
NASA tests a new quiet supersonic engine. All the speed without the property damage.
More stories.
From The Free Press, What Does It Mean To Be A Man?
From SNN, there was a heck of a road takeover down on Alligator Alley involving exotic sportscars.
From Beebom, Microsoft now has an ad-supported version of Office, but didn’t tell anyone.
From Fox Business, Moody’s reports that top ten percent of earners are responsible for almost half of the consumer spending.
From AthlonOutdoors, Massad Ayoob discusses when it is time to talk with the prosecutor after a self-defense incident. When Mas talks, I listen.
From American Cop, an article on searching with a weapon-mounted light. In particular, using reflected light so you don’t point the weapon at something you don’t want shot. Good advice. (H/t Tam)
For our light item, a new phonetic alphabet. Someone’s been listening to Barenaked Ladies too much. (h/t The Brother)
Ward Manor Happenings
Travel Happenings – Because I was an idiot and opened my mouth a couple of months ago, I ended up facilitating a two-day meeting for my counterparts from across the nation. However, since this meeting was going to be held at an office in Tampa, The Wife and I decided it would be better to get a hotel for a couple of nights. One, that avoided the hour long commute both ways and it would give me the freedom to socialize with my peers outside of working hours. Yeah, let’s just say things did not go according to plan.
I thought I was booking one of the newer hotels near the office. How many times would you expect to have two hotels of the same chain next door to each other? If you guessed that Derek did not get the new hotel and instead booked the run-down hotel of the same chain next door, you guessed correctly. It wasn’t the worst hotel we’ve stayed at, but you could see the bottom of the list. It was bad enough that we changed our plans and checked out a day early.
The meeting went well, but there were overriding concerns. Please see Monday’s post. I also didn’t socialize much after working hours because my counterparts all seem to be raging extroverted night owls who think nothing of staying out late. The Wife and I are very much early-to-bed-early-to-rise folks.
Still, the meeting was an overall success, and I did enjoy chatting with my counterparts. It was also somewhat gratifying when one of my counterparts who I respect specifically pointed myself out as one of the most knowledgeable about our program.
The cats were less than pleased with all of the travel in a short amount of time.
Yarn Happenings – As I’m sure most of you are aware, the craft store Joann’s is going out of business. On a lark, I brought up their website on my laptop Sunday morning. This ended up with a significant yarn purchase. At Ward Manor, yarn is a non-perishable consumable. It won’t go bad, and The Wife and MIL have plenty of use for it.
Gadget Happenings – Upon the urging of The Wife, we picked up this intriguing charger for AA batteries from Olight. I was reluctant because of cost, location, and it only handled AA batteries. Well, it’s kinda neat. I like when it drops the charged batteries down. Kind of reminds me of a pachinko machine.
EDC Post 2025
Another in my series of seeing how things change year over year. I tend to carry a lot of stuff. Here are my previous posts:
2018 post.
2019 post.
2020 post.
2021 post.
2022 post.
2023 post.
2024 post.
The big switch out from last year was I made my bag more TSA-friendly. I’ve been walking into more “secured” places without the opportunity to pull out the bits and bobs that security tends to frown upon. I also unpacked the gym bags as we are now doing our treadmill work at the house.
Just Around The House
This is the EDC I will carry most days that I don’t go outside the house, or at least, outside the neighborhood.
Phone
I’m using an iPhone 12. I have the 128 GB model. I used to need to have all teh space, but since I work from home, I can manage more under Wi-Fi and need less space. My case is one of those that allow me to use MagSafe chagers and has a small wallet that attaches to the back of the phone.
Earbuds
I’ve switched back to my Apple AirPods Pro. I particularly like Apple’s “transparent” mode which allows more of the outside sound through. I’ve experimented with a few other earbuds, but I keep coming back to my Airpods.
Pocketknife
I carry a Leatherman Skeletool for just around the house. Much to The Wife’s chagrin, I’ve found I need a knife or one of the myriad of little tools far too often.
Flashlight
For walking around the house, I have my Streamlight ProTac 2L-X. It’s good for quickly looking in shadowed and/or darkened areas. Like under the bed. It’s also surprisingly good at finding where one of the cat’s decided to mark its territory.
Pepper Spray
I’ve carry some POM pepper spray around the house on a retractable lanyard. I can’t carry around the house, and this is good for when I have to step out of the house to walk to the mailbox.
Watch
I’m using a 45mm Series 9 Apple Watch. I had to upgrade when the old watch couldn’t hold a charge for more than a few hours. I was looking at one of their big Ultra’s, but those were twice the cost and require their own cellular plan.
Going Out Of The House – On Person
Additional stuff when I’m going out.
Wallet
I use a Saddleback Large Leather Wallet.
Keys
My brother picked me up a Lifelong Ring 300 key ring system. I mainly use the main big ring and have all of my keys on the wire key rings. In addition to my keys, I have:
Kingston 32GB Flash Drive
Because you never know when someone has a file they want to give you
Gerber Artifact
I’m not sure if Gerber is still selling these, but their Shard would be a good substitute
Surefire Sidekick
Of course, I have to have another flashlight. It doesn’t get used as much as it did when I was commuting in the dark early morning, but it’s still come in handy a couple of times.
Pocketknife
If I’m out of the house, the Leatherman gets switched out for a CRKT Lanny. The Wife bought me this as a gift, and it’s a nifty little pocketknife.
Flashlight
For going out of the house, I carry a Streamlight ProTac 750 lumen flashlight. It’s too big to really be a pocket flashlight, so I carry it in one of my IWB spare magazine holders.
Pepper Spray
I carry a small POM pepper spray for when I need something between strong words and deadly force.
Sidearm
Unless I’m going to someplace I’m not legally allowed to carry, I generally have my Smith and Wesson M&P9 M2.0 equipped with a Streamlight TLR-1. I keep it and the spare magazine loaded with 124-grain Speer Gold Dots (since that’s what the local cops use). These days, I’m using my Raven Concealment OWB holster and a Blade-Tech OWB dual mag holder.
Going Out – The Bag
I carry a 5.11 LV10 Sling Pack for all the other essential bits and bobs I want available.
Electronics Support
Spare cables
Usually a USB-C to lightning, a USB-C to USB-C, and USB-A to Mini-USB, and USB-A to AppleWatch charger. I may have a couple of others.
A spare pair of Apple EarPods
In case my Airpods are not available.
Anker MagCharger Battery
I like this because I can charge my phone just by slapping this on the back. Or I can run a cable if I need to give someone else’s phone a boost.
Anker’s slim USB-C wall-plug
This will recharge my phone or battery pretty fast. Plus, it’s slim and tiny.
Anker four-port plug
For when I need to do multiple devices. Plus it’s a backup for my slim plug.
First Aid Stuff
The “Boo-Boo” First Aid Kit – Coleman Mini First Aid Kit
This little kit handles minor emergencies, and I like the tin as a container. It generally has band-aids, disinfecting wipes, and small antibiotics.
The “Oh-Shit” First Aid Kit – ResQue 1st Trauma Kit
It’s a small kit that has QuikClot, gauze, tape, bits and bobs, and a spare tourniquet. I’ve supplemented with scissors and tweezers and additional bandages.
Tourniquet Right the Fuck Now – Phlster Flatpack with CAT Tourniquet
I picked the CAT because that’s what I was trained to use.
Spare Meds
I generally keep small bottles of ibuprofen, tylenol, and Pepcid AC. Because that’s generally what I need to deal with the aches and pains of going outside.
N-95 Mask
In case of sickness primarily.
###Tools
Mini Tape Measure
I think mine is actually from Tractor Supply, but running around with The Wife necessitates having a tape measure when she finds stuff for the house.
Reusable twist ties
Streamlight Polytac X Flashlight
Yes, I have another flashlight. Don’t judge. I like this one because it has a rechargeable battery, but will also run on a couple of CR123’s.
###Odds and Ends
Amazon Microfiber Cloth
These are really handy for cleaning my eyeglasses and my electronics’ screens.
Hand Sanitizer
I prefer the small little bottles from Bath and Bodyworks.
Post-It Notes
Because you never know when you’ll need to write something down or leave a note for someone. I like the vibrant colors in case I need my note to draw attention.
Zebra Metal Ball Point Pens
I’ve been keeping a couple of these in the bag. These tend to get through security better than dedicated tactical pens.
Travel Pack Tissues
Because allergies. And occasional cleaning.
Emergency cash
No, I’m not going to say how much