A Quick Run Around the Web--January 29, 2016

• The video above is a short piece on the collapse of the Teton Dam in Idaho in June 1976. Here is a short article entitled "Breaking Point: Teton Dam Disaster in Idaho" published in the LDS publication, The New Era. Although very young at the time, I still retain memories of the aftermath of the flooding. Although the cause may not be as spectacular, similarly destructive floods happen all over the world. Other disasters strike with monotonous regularity. The value of storing up clean water, food, fuel for cooking and heating, and other supplies is well established. Even if you can only store enough for a week or two, that is of a huge benefit to you, and less of a strain on those attempting to aid others. Although the people's whose homes were destroyed in the Teton Dam flood did not get to use their supplies, they were fed and provided for from the food storage of others, as well as those kept in LDS storehouses. So, even if you do not need the food or water, someone else might.

Firearms/Prepping:

• Don't forget this week's Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. One link in particular that I wanted to point out was an article from Suarez International with some advice on sighting in your handgun.
• "The Poor Man’s SAW: Using A SlideFire Stock For More Than Fun"--The Firearms Blog. "They found that the combination of a trigger with a short reset (in this case a KE Arms unit), a bipod (to provide the constant forward pull), and a heavy barrel gave them a rifle that fired rapidly when shooting prone or sitting."
• "Do You Need to Engrave Your Form 1’ed SBR?"--The Truth About Guns. Short answer: yes, when you sell it, even if it has been switched back to a non-NFA item.
• "SHOT Show 2016, Part I"--Field & Stream. David E. Petzal complains that there is too much "tactical" and not enough hunting stuff at Shot Show. He says the show "has now become so heavily militarized that you have to look fairly hard for something designed to kill animals instead of people." He also was disappointed with the lack of booth-babes, although he was impressed with the attack dog demonstrations. Another of his gripes:

The posters, displays, and photos for anything relating to big-game hunting showed people whose expressions looked like they were getting a prostate exam from the former Secretary of State. Everyone was getting rained or snowed on, wallowing in mud, crawling over boulders, and generally looking like Hugh Glass after the grizzly got through with him. I have no idea what this is supposed to convey. Maybe that hunting is the way to redemption through suffering? If so, allow me to plagiarize mildly from the Army with my own motto:

“Hunt big game. Embrace the Suck.”

I've seen some negative comments about his post, with some suggesting that he was borderline anti-Second Amendment. I read it differently. To me, it reminded me of but a few years ago when there were many complaints from the "tactical" community about the Zombie craze. The reality is that when we go to a store or gun show, we want to see things related to what we like. For instance, I don't do much with shotguns, so I can walk by a whole table of shotguns with nary a glance. But if I went to a gun show and it was 90% shotguns and related items, I, too, would be irritated. 

Moreover, I think that Petzal is subconsciously recognizing a different trend: the growing number of people becoming involved in the shooting sports for reasons other than hunting.

• "Long-term storage food packaging and preppers"--Packaging World. The author sees prepping as an expanding, and lucrative, market that should capture the attention of grocery retailers. After discussing how long-term food storage is primarily an issue of packaging, he concludes:

The growth of long-term storage foods just might repeat the example set by health foods. There was a time in the not distant past when health foods were mainly retailed in, well, health-food stores. Increased consumer demand for such products did not go unnoticed by traditional grocery stores; and today, health-food sections are commonplace. A similar mainstreaming is possible for long-term storage foods, especially given the consolidation driving the grocery industry. One consequence of consolidation is larger stores, with shelf-space and display areas that need to be occupied by new, high-margin sections.

• "From escape routes to living in the wild: The SECRET world of Britain's DOOMSDAY preppers"--The Express. The article states that there are an estimated 5,000 preppers in the UK. I suspect there are a lot more, even if, as Skean Dhude surmises, they don't call or think of themselves as "preppers." Anyway, an interesting peek at prepping in another area of the world from where I live.
• "The Philly Urban Prepper: How not to be a victim in a mass shooting"--The Examiner. The bulk of the article are tips or thoughts on surviving a mass shooting. The introduction is a more general discussion on prepping/survivalism.
• "Disaster Preparedness Tokyo"--An online book (PDF format) in English to help prepare for a major earthquake in Tokyo (h/t Surviving in Argentina).
• "Russia's iconic AK-47 to be made in USA"--Fox News. The article is about Kalashnikov USA. Old news to those that follow developments in the gun world. Also, a nice reminder to those seeking to ban the import of "assault weapons," that it will have little impact on the U.S. market.
• "Suomi M31 receiver thread repair sections"--The Redneck Engineer. For those of you building a Suomi, or interested in doing so, the author plans on making another batch of these for sale.

Other Stuff

• "Why Police Shot the Oregon Occupier LaVoy Finicum"--The Atlantic. The situation could have ended much worse for the occupiers. The FBI has had assault teams and helicopters standing by, if needed, to take the location by force. 

• Related: "Militants Say Negotiations With FBI Stall At Malheur Refuge"--Oregon Public Broadcasting.
• Related: "FBI video of the shooting of LaVoy Finicum..."--SNAFU.

The FBI released this video to quell those rumors [that Finicum had been shot while attempting to surrender].  I find that curious.  The reason?  Have you ever seen a video released before the investigation into the police shooting has been completed?  I haven't.  Not from the authorities at least (you might see a bystander video).

So that tells us something rather dramatic in my opinion.  The FBI is monitoring social networks and responding to key words and tailoring their response to deal with public reaction.  American Mercenary's human terrain theory is being used by American Law Enforcement.  That is chilling.

• "Is a secret sniper killing off Isil's high command in Libya?"--The Telegraph. "Mystery gunman credited with shooting three of the terror group's leaders in their new 'Caliphate' in Colonel Gaddafi's home city of Sirte."
• "Muslim migrants not as stupid and simple as politically-correct Europeans seem to believe"--Bookworm Room. The author writes:

These refugees didn’t come out of the jungle. They came out of countries that, despite sharia law, have access to modern amenities. They’re not as primitive as all those condescending Europeans think.

Here’s what I think is going on: The refugees are acting as they are, not because they see themselves as charity cases, but because they see themselves as conquerors. They know perfectly well that one doesn’t defecate in a pool in which people (especially children) are swimming. They’re doing it because they are performing the literal equivalent of the expression “I don’t give a shit about you.” They know you’re not supposed to rape women . . . that is, unless those women are the products of conquest, in which case raping them is one of Mohamed’s commandments.

It’s almost funny seeing Europeans trying politely to teach their conquerors how not to treat those whom they have conquered. I wonder how long it will take before the Europeans figure out that they’re no longer in the driver’s seat. And then I wonder whether they’ll be able or willing to mount a counter-strike, or whether the twelve-hundred year-long Islamic jihad against Europe will finally have succeeded.

• Related: "Just how old do you think these migrant 'children' are? Alarming pictures of refugees - including 'the fastest 14-year-old in Sweden' - that shed light on a growing scandal amid Europe's asylum crisis"--Daily Mail. The 15 year old that stabbed a Swedish aid worker earlier this week--he is now believed to be 19 years old. And the story has other examples of "children" in their late teens or early twenties that have lied about their age to obtain asylum and preferential treatment. 
• Related: "Maoris, Moors and Migrants: A history lesson for civilized humans facing an Ork invasion"--Matthew Bracken at Gates of Vienna. "Europe is now at the point in The Alienork Way when everybody agrees that the three 'nephews' of Amok are a serious problem, and it looks like at least thirty more armed male Orks are on the way. With each fresh arrival of refugee 'reinforcements,' local defensive measures will require even greater levels of violence to be successful. The difficult decision to forcibly eject the invaders is continually delayed. The 'peaceful islanders,' today being played by the Europeans, keep putting off the inevitable, as thousands and thousands of male Orks arrive every day from the failed states comprising Orkistan."

• "'Hundreds' of rapes 'hidden' by Danish police"--The Local. "Denmark recorded an average of 395 rape cases every year up to 2014. But an investigation by the Ministry of Justice has revealed the actual number to be closer to 1,100 annually, Metroxpress reported on Thursday."
• "Zika Emerges – A Model Of What Could Come"--Anonymous Conservative. Somewhat mirroring earlier comments I had made concerning an STD form of Ebola, the author postulates:

Once it hits the gays, it can adapt quickly within AIDS infected, weakened human hosts, and begin to gain the tools it needs to overcome the immune defenses of healthy human hosts more effectively. That would probably begin with a few gay guys complaining of a chronic flu that hung around and wouldn’t go away, and end with bodies beginning to pile up around Miami from the new killer mosquito-borne virus. How it would look on exiting the gay population could be much different from how it entered.

If this had been a virus that was slightly more communicable, and hit when our populations had a significant proportion poorly nourished, and under the stress of the apocalypse, it could easily gain the fuel it needs to become another pandemic killer.

• Related(?)--"American Airlines flight from Rio to Miami makes 'emergency landing' in Brasilia: Second flight grounded in days after 'passengers and crew pass out'"--Daily Mail. "It comes just days after an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles was forced to return to London Heathrow after around 15 people on board fell ill."

• "Bank of Japan surprises with negative interest rate"--USA Today. "Tokyo's central bank hopes that by imposing a 0.1% fee on selected current account deposits — effectively a negative interest rate — commercial banks will be encouraged to make more loans and so stimulate economic growth."
• "China's 'zombie factories': Grim pictures show the once-bustling steel plants completely abandoned as economic miracle slows"--Daily Mail.
• "Laid-off IT workers muzzled as H-1B debate heats up"--Computer World. The story addresses how, as part of severance packages, professionals and workers being laid off by many companies are required to sign non-disparagement clauses, which they believe prohibits them from speaking out about what these companies are doing.
• "Trump Taking Evangelicals"--Anonymous Conservative. The author notes that Trump has gained the support of Evangelical Christians--a group who does not share Trump's ideology. He explains that this means: 

I think evangelicals have reached a point that their hatred of the machine is overwhelming all other issues for them in their amygdalae. If they were to vote purely on religious issues and socially conservative issues like marriage, Cruz would probably win. Even if you were to vote purely to oppose liberal ideologues, Cruz would probably edge out Trump, based on how liberals hate Cruz’s positions. But the evangelicals seem to be abandoning concern about their core issues, out of a hatred and disgust with the corrupt machine – a hatred which actually transcends ideology.

• "Preparing for the Next Big War"--War on the Rocks. Key bit: "Today, virtually no one serving below the rank of colonel or enlisted senior chief has ever served in a military facing a powerful peer competitor, nor have they faced a realistic prospect of fighting a global war to protect the nation’s most vital interests and perhaps even its survival."
• "We might be living in a dead Milky Way galaxy and just don't know it yet"--Business Insider. How galaxies die (stop producing new stars) and whether the Milky Way is dying (slowing in its production of new stars).
• "The truth really IS out there: CIA releases thousands of declassified 'X-files' on aliens, flying saucers and other unexplained phenomena"--Daily Mail.