DaveRant

Physical exercise slows brain aging.

Even after the onset of senility or dementia, physical exercise like walking, climbing stair, lifting things has been found to improve memory and ability to plan and organize activities.

Some seniors may be in poor physical condition such that improvement seems unlikely, but improvement is always possible, often to surprising degrees. Little steps, little improvements add up to significant improvement, often quite quickly.

Researchers found that physical activities such as lifting things, ability to balance, taking a brisk walk or stairs instead of lifts improved the ability to plan, organize and remember things—which are cognitive functions known to deteriorate with dementia.

Success is enhanced by using numbers—count the numbers of steps, note how far the walk went, how many steps we climbed, how many times we lifted the can of beans, and watch those numbers increase.

Seniors should be encouraged to exercise regardless of their condition. Having someone to exercise with them helps them very much to exercise.

Info:     shpr.fyi/2mHu4m9

Just ten minutes of exercise helps brain power.

Just ten minutes of aerobic activity can boost brain power.

One group of test subjects sat and read a magazine, and another group did a ten minute ride on a stationary bicycle.

Then all were given a physical movement exercise that required eye movement and focusing.

Those who had exercised were more accurate in the task and had reaction times up to 14% faster than those who had sat reading.

Exercise increases blood and thus oxygen flow to the brain, as well as to all other organs.

Exercise programs on television use long, repeated exercise routines, but research has proven that even single short workouts also help significantly.

At least get up from your chair and walk around, better yet go out and walk briskly around the house, and your thinking will have improved when you sit back down. Likely you yourself will notice the improvement.

Info:     shpr.fyi/2B3mqHh

Kardia Mobile gives a real heart EKG instantly right where you are.

Kardia Mobile is a three-inch by inch-and-a-half thin pad with two conductive sensor pads that you use adjacent to (or stuck to the back of) your phone. You hit Record on your phone, put one or two fingers of left hand on one pad, of right hand on the other pad, and hold for 30 seconds. The sensor pad transfers the reading via sound to the phone’s microphone.

You will receive a response from AliveCor, “Normal” or otherwise. If not normal you can request a reading by a technician for $9, or from cardiologist for $19.

You can email the recording to your doctor. With Premium subscription you can save unlimited number of recordings for comparison.

Kardia Mobile is compatible with most Apple or Android devices.

Your first reading must be sent to Kardia/Alivecor. It is then read by a technician to verify the device is working correctly. You’ll get an answer back in a few minutes whether the device is working normally. You do this only once when first used.

These devices are primarily for people who have irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias.

Basic subscription allows user to take an EKG recording with instant analysis. You are not able to save recordings, but you can email the recording once completed. The Basic service is free with any Kardia Mobile purchase.

Premium subscription allows you take an EKG recording with instant analysis as well as the following:
• Unlimited storage and history so you can track your heart health over time to detect changes such as AF, that could lead to a stroke.
• EKG, heart rate and key modifiable risk factors for stroke (blood pressure, activity, weight) in a single app. Premium subscription is available for purchase from within the Kardia Mobile app for $9.99 per month.

Info:   shpr.fyi/2DAihgD

AliveCor ‘KardiaBand’ Medical Grade EKG Analyzer for Apple Watch Receives FDA Approval.

The KardiaBand wristband replaces the regular band of your 42mm Apple Watch. The wristband has a sensor pad; after telling the watch to Record, you press a finger from your non-wrist hand on the pad for 30 seconds.

The KardiaBand requires the Premium $10/mo. membership above, and provides the same storage and other features.

Info:    shpr.fyi/2DdI2GE

Google and Facebook rake in two-thirds of total world digital advertising revenue.

Digital advertising revenue in 2015 is estimated to have been a record $60 billion, with Google getting $30 billion and Facebook $8 billion.

The two got a third of total world revenue from advertising of all kinds.

They also took in about 90% of 2015’s increase in advertising revenue.

Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser said, “The digital-media industry has effectively become a dual monopoly in which Google and Facebook win almost everything, advertisers have to play by their rules, and other media companies ‘fight for the scraps.’”

This behavior is illegal. Where Oh Where is trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt?

Info:   shpr.fyi/2DALAzK

Landslide South of Yakima

The landslide of approximately 20 acres on Rattlesnake Ridge south of Union Gap south of Yakima along Interstate 82 is currently moving at a rate of apx. 18 inches per week in a southward direction. Some 40 GPS sensors have been placed on the slide, and the movement of each of these is constantly monitored. The movement is ongoing, and geologists and engineers monitoring it predict a more rapid slide, a “slip,” is likely to occur in late January or February. The type of movement expected is a mostly sideways slide composed of blocks of basalt sliding on a weaker sedimentary layer. The scientists suggest the landslide will probably move south and accumulate into a quarry. Rockfall west and south may fall on Thorpe County Rd. which has been closed since late December. There is smaller chance that the slide could reach I-82 and hit homes south of the quarry, or reach the Yakima River. Many residents have evacuated as a precaution. Other preparations are in place and ready for actions as needed.

Info:   shpr.fyi/2mi98C7

Apple asked to address cellphone addiction and resulting mental health issues

Several of Apple’s largest investors sent a letter to Apple on Saturday urging it to develop new software tools that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily and to study the impact of overuse on mental health.

The letter said, “There is a developing consensus around the world including Silicon Valley that the potential long-term consequences of new technologies need to be factored in at the outset, and no company can outsource that responsibility.”

Some have raised concerns about increased rates in teen depression and suicide and worry that phones are replacing old-fashioned human interaction. It is part of a broader re-evaluation of the effects on society of technology companies such as Google and Amazon.com Inc. and social-media companies like Facebook Inc. and Snap chat owner Snap Inc., which are facing questions about their reach into everyday life.

Info:    shpr.fyi/2EmCWUI

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal for Jan. 7, 2018

Facebook charged by investors and former executives with causing psychological addiction and harm to democracy.

When scientists started linking cigarettes to cancer, the tobacco industry silenced them—only acknowledging the extent of the truth decades later, under legal duress.

Imagine if, instead, they had given these researchers license to publish papers, or even taken the information to heart and crippled their own moneymaking machines for the good of their addicted users.

No one has accused Facebook FB 0.77% of causing cancer, but Mark Zuckerberg now stands at a similar crossroads.

In the face of pressure brought by a growing roster of Facebook investors and former executives, many of whom have publicly stated that Facebook is both psychologically addictive and harmful to democracy, the Facebook founder and chief executive has pledged to “fix” Facebook by doing several things, including “making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent.”

Info:   shpr.fyi/2EmCWUI

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal for Jan. 7, 2018

Smartphones Hijack Our Minds

Research suggests that as the brain grows dependent on phone technology, the intellect weakens.

In a 2015 Gallup survey, more than half of iPhone owners said that they couldn’t imagine life without the device.

We love our phones for good reasons. It’s hard to imagine another product that has provided so many useful functions in such a handy form. But while our phones offer convenience and diversion, they also breed anxiety. Their extraordinary usefulness gives them an unprecedented hold on our attention and vast influence over our thinking and behavior. So what happens to our minds when we allow a single tool such dominion over our perception and cognition?

Researchers recruited 520 undergraduate students at UCSD and gave them two standard tests of intellectual acuity. One test gauged “available cognitive capacity,” a measure of how fully a person’s mind can focus on a particular task. The second assessed “fluid intelligence,” a person’s ability to interpret and solve an unfamiliar problem. The only variable in the experiment was the location of the subjects’ smartphones. Some of the students were asked to place their phones in front of them on their desks; others were told to stow their phones in their pockets or handbags; still others were required to leave their phones in a different room. The results were striking. In both tests, the subjects whose phones were in view posted the worst scores, while those who left their phones in a different room did the best.

A second experiment conducted by the researchers produced similar results, while also revealing that the more heavily students relied on their phones in their everyday lives, the greater the cognitive penalty they suffered.

Info:   shpr.fyi/2CUTMwY

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal for Jan. 6, 2018.

LightPhone is credit card size, offers nothing but voice phone calls.

Light Phone is a game-changing gizmo, a second device—smaller and lighter than a real phone and, at roughly credit-card size, less conspicuous—designed to be used as little as possible.

You can’t check email, text, browse the internet or swipe left with it. It harbors no seductive apps, has no color LCD screen. Tethered to your existing phone and number, it’s for voice calls only. Once you’ve pocketed the barely noticeable device, you leave your smartphone at home (or maybe in your glove box).

Light Phone costs $125, uses your existing number, is simple to set up, and it feels great to walk around with a device that’s only 1.3 ounces—miraculously about a third of what an iPhone weighs. It helped a user feel more engaged all weekend. And when he needed it, the Light Phone’s call quality was surprisingly good.

Relying on it, even a little, however, comes with drawbacks if you haven’t planned ahead. Because it can’t send or receive messages, browse the web or offer map directions.

Light Phone can be pre-ordered now, will start shipping by the end of February.

https://www.thelightphone.com/ – thephone

Scary Chip Flaws Raise Spectre of Meltdown

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants have released updates for a pair of serious security flaws present in most modern computers, smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. Here’s a brief rundown on the threat and what you can do to protect your devices.

At issue are two different vulnerabilities, dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” that were independently discovered and reported by security researchers at Cyberus Technology, Google, and the Graz University of Technology. The details behind these bugs are extraordinarily technical, but a Web site established to help explain the vulnerabilities sums them up well enough:

“These hardware bugs allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. While programs are typically not permitted to read data from other programs, a malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents.”

“Meltdown and Spectre work on personal computers, mobile devices, and in the cloud. Depending on the cloud provider’s infrastructure, it might be possible to steal data from other customers.”

The Meltdown bug affects every Intel processor shipped since 1995, although researchers said the flaw could impact other chip makers. Spectre is a far more wide-ranging and troublesome flaw, impacting desktops, laptops, cloud servers and smartphones from a variety of vendors. However, according to Google researchers, Spectre also is considerably more difficult to exploit.

In short, if it has a computer chip in it, one or both of the flaws likely affect it. For now, there don’t appear to be any signs that attackers are exploiting either to steal data from users. But researchers warn that the weaknesses could be exploited via Javascript — meaning it might not be long before we see attacks that leverage the vulnerabilities being stitched into hacked or malicious Web sites.

Microsoft this week released emergency updates to address Meltdown and Spectre in its various Windows operating systems. But the software giant reports that the updates aren’t playing nice with many antivirus products; the fix apparently is causing the dreaded “blue screen of death” (BSOD) for some antivirus users. In response, Microsoft has asked antivirus vendors who have updated their products to avoid the BSOD crash issue to install a special key in the Windows registry. That way, Windows Update can tell whether it’s safe to download and install the patch.

But not all antivirus products have been able to do this yet, which means many Windows users likely will not be able to download this patch immediately. If you run Windows Update and it does not list a patch made available on Jan 3, 2018, it’s likely your antivirus software is not yet compatible with this patch.

Google has issued updates to address the vulnerabilities on devices powered by its Android operating system. Meanwhile, Apple has said that all iOS and Mac systems are vulnerable to Meltdown and Spectre, and that it has already released “mitigations” in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2 (but not yet macOS 10.12 Sierra used by the Shopper), and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. The Apple Watch is not impacted.

Excerpted from KrebsOnSecurity of Jan. 5, 2018

Editor Note: We have learned that some of our “Shopper For Your Information” shpr.fyi shortened-to-make-type-able links were not SSL authenticated, not https addresses, thus were rejected by properly-configured browsers. Sorry about that, and we believe all shpr.fyi links will now be SSL, will now be recognized as safe sites by all browsers.

Your Kids’ Toy Gifts Could Be Spying On You

Toys connected to the internet could be a target for crooks who may listen in on conversations or use them to steal a child’s personal information.

​ Any internet-connected toys with microphones, cameras or location tracking may put a child’s or the parents’ privacy or safety at risk. That could be a talking doll or a tablet designed for kids.

Info:     shpr.fyi/2CCvrJv

Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct has less than a year left.

The new tunnel under downtown will open mid-October 2018 — a few months early from previous estimates (or three years late from the original deadline).

Demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct could begin in early 2019.

The 8,300-ton 57-foot-diameter tunneling machine known as Bertha began tunneling beneath Seattle in July 2013. The machine completed its tunneling on April 4, 2017 and was fully dismantled and removed from the tunnel on Aug. 23, 2017.

Each direction of the tunnel will have two 11-foot travel lanes with an eight-foot safety shoulder and a two-foot shoulder. These lanes will ensure enough space for all vehicles and legal size trucks.

The 57-foot cutterhead was “gasketed” against the tunnel walls, allowing higher air pressure in front of it to prevent water from leaking in.

Replacing certain tools on the machine’s cutterhead required crews to work in the space between the cutterhead and the ground in front of the machine. Because the machine was underground and below the water table, it was necessary to stabilize the ground in front of the machine and pressurize this space. Crews stabilized the ground by injecting a type of clay, known as bentonite, into the front end of the machine. This created a seal that prevented water and soil from entering – and air from escaping – the work space.

Next, crews over-pressurized the space with compressed air, which pushed against the bentonite to counteract the ground and water pressure at the front end of the machine. This newly created “hyperbaric” work space had pressure levels higher than regular atmospheric pressure, similar to conditions found in an underwater dive. The graphic below illustrates the process.

When the $3.2 billion dollar Highway 99 tunnel opens under downtown Seattle, drivers will have to pay a toll to bypass downtown surface streets. Some studies suggest that drivers will likely avoid the tunnel toll and move to surrounding streets.

Tolls in the 9,270-ft SR 99 tunnel will be collected electronically, just like on all other toll roads in Washington by the GoodToGo system. Drivers will not need to slow down or stop at a toll booth.

A Good To Go! account and pass will be optional in the SR 99 tunnel. Just like other roads, drivers with a Good To Go! pass will pay the lowest toll rates.

If you already have a Good To Go! account, then you will not need to do anything else to use the SR 99 tunnel. Every kind of existing Good To Go! pass will work to pay a toll in the SR 99 tunnel.

Tolls will be based on time of day, similar to tolls on the SR 520 bridge.

Info:   shpr.fyi/2DO8GSf

Is your unlocking opening your phone an essential aid in your life or just a wasteful compulsive habit done for no purpose?

Finding that the average user unlocked their phone more than 10,000 times a year — or about 28 times a day — the researchers identified about 4,000 phone interactions a year as being “compulsive” (i.e., the owner had no particular act in mind when engaging).

Equally eye-opening was the finding that the highest decile of smartphone enthusiasts — or the top ten percent of users — opened their device 60-plus times every 24 hours.

Still, only a third of respondents earnestly believed they were addicted to checking their device.

“Our smart devices have become an essential part of modern life, and checking them regularly is second nature for most users,” says Greg Tatton-Brown, a spokesperson for Casumo, in a press release. “However, the instances of compulsive checking are much higher than we would have imagined, showing our phones are as much a habit as they are an aide to our busy lifestyles and an immediate source of entertainment, from wherever we are.”

Info:   shpr.fyi/2CumOmE

Nuclear Nations Snub Anti-proliferation Treaty

Almost all nuclear nations express disrespect for recent nuclear anti-proliferation treaty because it does not recognize nations’ need to protect themselves against the North Korean threat and other current dangers of nuclear proliferation.

Nearly all ambassadors of the world’s nuclear powers will not attend this year’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony which honours efforts to ban atomic weapons, the Nobel Institute said Thursday.

Russia and Israel will be the only exceptions, with their ambassadors due to attend.

Noting that the treaty comes “at a time of increased danger of nuclear proliferation”, the US embassy confirmed its lower level of participation.

“This treaty will not make the world more peaceful, will not result in the elimination of a single nuclear weapon, and will not enhance any state’s security,” it said in a statement to AFP.

Without mentioning North Korea by name, it stressed that “this treaty ignores the current security challenges that make nuclear deterrence necessary”, and reiterated Washington’s support of the 1968 global non-proliferation treaty.

Info:   shpr.fyi/2DLSeSH

Five Internet Security
New Year Resolutions
You CAN Keep
1. Password Password Password! Change your passwords, make them secure. One suggestion: One capital letter, one symbol, one lower case letter, one number, then repeat the last two of these characters three times, example: A$b1b1b1b1. An extremely secure password! Just FOUR characters to remember! Use the same 4 characters for many passwords.
But if you could, a simple further idea: For your different sites, change just the first letter, for ex-ample, to be the same as the first letter of the target website name, for Facebook perhaps: . F$b1b1b1b1.
2. Make sure devices used by young children are very secure. Know everything they do online.
Info: bit.ly/2lj1Ls6
3. Pay Attention to your tax refund. Criminals can apply for and receive your refund. They can even phony up numbers and file a phony tax return for you, to get an amazing fictitiously large return applied for in your name.
Info: bit.ly/2kfWlYn
4. Change the password on your Yahoo account if you have one. Info: bit.ly/2jWqp4F
5. Watch for phony credit card charges.
Info: bit.ly/2kBBvsW
Thank You for these to LifeLock!

Pew Research Findings
Since The Election
Following the election, these are the public’s top five priorities:
1. Terrorism
2. Economy
3. Education
4. Jobs
5. Health Care Costs
For three of every four Americans, the top priorities are terrorism and the economy.
Environment was only 11th most important, immigration was 15th, and climate change was 18th.
Most Americans (64%) have experienced an important leak of their personal important information.
Most Americans (51%) do not trust their social media sites to protect their data. Almost a majority (49%) does not trust the federal government to protect their data.
The large majority (86%) use only memorized passwords.
Many (39%) use a single same password for many of their online accounts.
On the positive side, most (52%) use two-step authentication for at least some of their accounts.
Info: bit.ly/2klvBOa

More Bees Being Killed
By Wing-Deforming Virus
Scientists calculate that 1.4 billion jobs and 75% of crops depend on pollinators, mainly bees.
The UN estimates that 40% of pollinators, bees and butterflies, are at risk of extinction.
A mysterious blight, as yet not understood, “colony collapse disorder,” has killed up to 90% of bees in some areas of North America and Europe.
Now a new virus, “wing-deforming” virus, has been found attacking the little workers, pre-venting them from surviving to foraging age, causing them to not remember where they’ve been, and reducing the lifespan of those who do forage.
If you or a neighbor is scared by bees swarming near you, don’t spray it with pesticide to kill it! Report it to a local beekeeper who will come and remove it, saving the bees and putting them to beneficial use. Or report it to your county agricultural extension agent.
Info: bit.ly/2kMY2oD

Screen Time-
Help Your Eyes!
“Computer Vision Syndrome” affects half to almost all of people who spend much time looking at computer screens.
And about two-thirds of adults spend most of their eight-hour days doing just that.
Computer screens add increased contrast, flicker, glare and combinations of colors, especially blue, which damage our eyes.
“Prevent Blindness” is the oldest U.S. organization working to help people and employers reduce dam-age to our eyes. They recommend these practices:
Visit an eye doctor for a dilated exam, to make sure you are seeing clearly, whether you need glasses or your glasses prescription changed.
Place computer screen 20 to 26 inches from your eyes and a little below eye level; down on a desk or table is often too low.
Use an adjustable chair, and ad-just your chair so that:
a) your legs are supported from the floor, not hanging from the edge of the chair.
b) your keyboard and mouse are at elbow height.
Really look at your screen- do you see reflections of ceiling lights or windows; re-arrange your setup to prevent these. Screens can be treated to reduce reflection. Reflections can reduce the image reaching your eyes by more than half, dou-bling eye strain.
Laptops are good for portable use, or for touch-and-go users who have many duties off the computer. But they are not good for full time long-constant-hours desk use. The displays are too low. Often the keyboards are too far forward and the trackpads are too small, especially for graphic work. A mouse is much better, easily attached to a laptop, and unattached when the laptop goes traveling.
Use the 20-20-20 rule: Break every 20 minutes for 20 seconds to look at objects 20 feet or more away.
Info: bit.ly/2kBlHFq

Trouble with Hubble
In astronomy, objects of the same power but at different distances reach us with different brightness. Farther-away objects are dimmer, no surprise.
Back in the early 1900’s, a group of women examining hundreds of thousands of glass photographic plate photographs of the sky at Harvard found a way to determine a ratio giving how much dimmer an object of the same power would be because of its greater distance. This ratio is called the Hubble Constant. Their discovery remains one of the greatest accomplishments in all of astronomy. Prior to this, distances to astronomical objects were completely unknown; everything out there was assumed to be part of, in the same space as our Milky Way Galaxy.
Since then, the Hubble Constant has been extremely important in determining the distance of objects away from us, the apparent size of the universe, how fast it is expanding and the huge amount of additional but unseen mass, “Dark Mat-ter,” that must exist to cause that rate of expansion.
The Hubble Constant was found to be… constant… over all bright-nesses and distances—– almost!
Measurements have always var-ied by small amounts, but these variances were thought to be just errors in the very difficult measurements. The measurements cen-tered on a value: H0 = 66.93±0.62 km/s/Mpc. The units are kilometers per second per mega-parsec.
(A parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure large distances to objects outside our Solar System. One parsec is the distance at which one astronomical unit (distance from Earth to Sun) subtends an angle of one arc second. A parsec is equal to about 3.26 light-years (31 trillion kilome-tres or 19 trillion miles) in length. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 1.3 parsecs (4.2 light-years) from the Sun. Most of the stars visible to the unaided eye in the nighttime sky are within 500 parsecs of the Sun. A mega-parsec or Mpc is a million parsecs.)
The different measurements al-ways fell within a variation of 3.8%. The 3.8% was said to be the “uncertainty” in the number; presumably we just hadn’t found ways yet to measure it more precisely.
Now in an international project called, peculiarly, HOLiCOW (an abbreviation), six telescopes: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Subaru Telescope, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the Gemini Ob-servatory, and the W. M. Keck Observatory have been combined to image several gravitationally-lensed quasars in pursuit of measuring the Hubble constant.
A quasar is a compact region (appearing as a point from long distance) surrounding a supermas-sive black hole. The region is extremely bright, emitting enormous amounts of electromagnetic energy as a result of mass from the core of a surrounding galaxy, under the influence of the black hole’s gravi-ty, falling onto the black hole’s accretion disk. They are looking at extremely bright objects that are very far away.
Gravitational lensing occurs when a bright object is exactly behind a nearer massive object- light from the distant object is bent around the nearer object like a lens or prism bends light. The bending can cause the distant bright object to appear as several images around the nearer object.

The Five Gravitational Lenses used by HOLiCOW. In the center of each is the near object, the nearer galaxy, typically 2 Mpc distant from us. The bright spots around it are the multiple gravitationally-lensed images of the more distant galaxy. Light arriving here along these different paths arrive at times separated by as much as 20 days, with some delayed more by more massive galaxies near their paths along their way.
Image by the National Astronomical Ob-servatory of Japan, the leader of the HOLiCOW Project.

Comparing the various images of the distant object and the amount by which the various light beams are bent and more especially slowed by the nearer mass, allows various measurements to be made about the two objects and the effect on the light.
HOLiCOW’s purpose is to more accurately measure the Hubble Constant.
The universe- shaking HOLiCOW results have just been released on Jan. 26, 2017.
Two of the extremely accurate measurements obtained, HOLiCOW’s of 71.9 km/s/Mpc, and another called HST of 73.24 km/s/Mpc, fall outside the uncertainly of 3.8% from the long-held value of 66.93±0.62 km/s/Mpc.
That these numbers fall outside the uncertainty in the previous, long-held and relied-upon number for the Hubble Constant is extremely serious. It challenges basic phys-ics including even Einstein’s theo-ries, and requires that fundamental physics must be revised in ways that are not now even imagined.
Info: bit.ly/2ljz7Xw

Column I wrote for this week’s Highway Shopper:

Science and
Digital Briefs

Oct. 28, 2015

By Shopper Editor Dave Bunting

Washingtonians
Buying More Firearms
Than Ever Before

For the first eight months of 2015, the number of the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was the second highest on record, at 7.7 million, 365,000 more than last year. This was well behind the 9.3 million tallied during the 2013 surge that followed President Obama’s push for gun control.

However, for the period June through August this year, more than 2.6 million NICS were made nationally, which is 100,000 more than for the same period during the 2013 surge. In the summer June through August period this year, Americans have bought more guns than ever before in that period.

The same is even more true for Washington State citizens. In the period June through September this year, Washington State citizens ordered 143,432 NICS checks, the most ever for that period. In the Obama-scare year 2013, during June through September, Washington citizens ordered 142,283 NICS checks.

This year we ordered even more checks, and no doubt bought even more firearms, after the multi-million dollar attack on our Second Amendment rights by the multi-billionaire Gang of Three who plastered Washington State metropolitan voter concentrations with mis-leading and confusing “astroturf” anti-Second-Amendment propaganda. One of their falsehoods was that Americans are now buying fewer firearms.

The number of NICS checks doesn’t exactly equal the number of firearms purchased, because by law the purchase of a firearm, if any, is prohibited from being reported with the NICS check, to make sure firearm registration can not occur. Some NICS checks may be done by citizens in preparation for a possible future firearm purchase. Also some states exempt persons from redundant checks for multiple firearm purchases within a specified period after a previous check.

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf

Info: bit.ly/nicschecks

Astroturf

Political Astroturf Definition for those of you who are as dense as I am:

“An artificially-manufactured political movement designed to give the appearance of grass roots activism. Campaigns & Elections magazine defined astroturf as a “grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them.” Unlike natural grassroots campaigns which are people-rich and money-poor, an astroturf campaign tends to be the opposiite, well-funded but with little actual support from voters.”

This is exactly how Bloomberg & Co. passed the awful anti-gun I-594 in Washington State that has always before been voted down by the majority of us. They used Bloomberg’s & Gates’ millions of dollars to overwhelm the voters with the propaganda that anti-gun I-594 was a “grassroots” movement. We need to watch out in future for these “political astroturf” propaganda schemes.

Gallup Poll Finds
More Americans
Fear Government

The Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution is there for a simple reason: Our Founding Fathers wisely understood that even a national government of supposedly limited powers could overstep its bounds and infringe upon the rights of the people. In the landmark Heller decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that the Founders considered the Second Amendment a failsafe that would provide the people with the means “to oppose an oppressive military force if the constitutional order broke down.” Whatever else can be said about the efficacy or integrity of the government these days, America is fortunate that its people still have ample means to seek peaceful redress of grievances. Yet a new poll shows that the Founders’ concerns about the overreaching tendencies of centralized power remain on the mind of many U.S. citizens. Gallup reported on Monday that the share of Americans saying that the federal government poses “an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens” has risen from 30 percent in 2003 to 49 percent today.

Info: bit.ly/fearfeds

Some Candidates’
Positions on the
Second Amendment

Ben Carson: AGAINST Gun Control: “I would never advocate anything to interfere with Second Amendment rights; however, We have to keep in mind that law-abiding American citizens absolutely should have gun rights.”

Mike Huckabee: AGAINST Gun Control: “My position on the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution is as clear for me as the position held by most journalists toward the 1st Amendment… [I’m] a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment right of Americans to own firearms for self-protection and as a matter of principle.”

Donald Trump: AGAINST Gun Control: “Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed.”

Jeb Bush: AGAINST Gun Control: He signed into law the Florida no-retreat bill, which says that a person need not retreat from an attack, may “stand his ground” and use deadly force if he reasonably believes he or another person is threatened by death or serious physical injury.

Ted Cruz: AGAINST Gun Control: Ted Cruz authored a brief on behalf of 31 states supporting the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. He argued against unreasonable and burdensome gun restrictions. He was honored by a 2008 resolution passed by the National Board of the NRA, thanking Ted for leading the States before the Supreme Court in the DC gun case, and noting that his “efforts made this victory for the American people possible.”

Marco Rubio: AGAINST Gun Control: “I believe law-abiding people have a fundamental constitutional right to bear arms. And I believe criminals and dangerous people should not have access to guns. There are laws that protect those two things–but many of these [additional] gun laws are ineffective. They don’t do those things. They infringe on the rights of law-abiding people and do nothing to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. And I’m troubled this debate is about guns. It should be about violence. Violence is the problem.”

Carly Fiorina: AGAINST Gun Control: “We have loads of laws, and most of the time, criminals are breaking those laws and we are curtailing citizens’ lawful rights to carry guns.”

Rand Paul: AGAINST Gun Control: “We are the party that adheres to the Constitution. We will not let the liberals tread on the Second Amendment! We will fight to defend the entire Bill of Rights. We will stand up against excessive government power wherever we see it. We cannot and will not allow any President to act as if he were a king. We will not let any President use executive orders to impinge on the Second Amendment.”

Bobby Jindal: AGAINST Gun Control: “In the face of an administration in Washington that wants to take away the rights of law-abiding gun owners, we are standing up for the Second Amendment and the Constitution of the United States.”

Hillary Clinton: FOR Gun Control: “I respect the Second Amendment. I respect the rights of lawful gun owners to own guns, to use their guns, but I also believe that most lawful gun owners whom I have spoken with for many years across our country also want to be sure that we keep those guns out of the wrong hands.”

Joe Biden: FOR Gun Control: “We believe that weapons of war have no place on our streets.”

Info: bit.ly/cands2damend