April 30, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"How to store water for emergencies (containers and places to put them)"

City Prepping (10 min.)

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• Must read: "Another Reminder to Keep Our Shelter-In-Place Preps and Bug-Out Kits Accessible At All Times"--Security and Self-Reliance. Too often we focus on natural disaster such as storms, floods, earthquakes, and forget other disasters. In this case, industrial fires which might spread toxic fumes. In one such instance which the author experienced, families close to the fire were told to evacuate, while those somewhat farther away were told to shelter in place. He has tips for being ready for either event. 
• "Southord PXS-14 USA-Made 14 Piece Lock Pick Set Review"--More Than Just Surviving.   
• "6.5 Grendel vs 308 – The Part Everyone Misses"--Abe's Gun Cave. From the article:

       Because Animals are tough, but they aren’t that tough.  Humans are even more fragile.  Put a Quality bullet through the heart and lungs and the animal will die.

        I have a whole article on terminal performance, but I can sum it up pretty easily.  The bullet needs enough mass and velocity to reach the “boiler room” (heart/lungs) AND cause cavitation.  (the actual source of a damaging Temporary Cavity)

        Anything beyond that doesn’t help, and can hurt.  Truthfully, I think the 6.5 Grendel has three big advantages compared to the .308: Lighter weight, lower recoil and less expensive ammo.

       Lighter weight means less fatigue when it’s time to shoot.

       Lower recoil means more attention to shot placement.

       Most importantly, less expensive ammo means more practice and thus better shot placement.

       You can buy 6.5 Grendel Ammo for as little as $0.28/round. (which is $5.60 for a box of 20)

       That’s cheap.

• Related: "Why the .308 Sucks – And the Military Knew It"--Abe's Gun Cave.

• "The 6.X Calibers for the AR-15 Get New Loads from Federal’s American Eagle Line of Ammunition"--The Firearms Blog. Federal has announced the expansion of their American Eagle Varmint & Predator lineup into 6.8 SPC and 6.5 Grendel.
• ".277 Wolverine Cartridge is now in the Public Domain"--The Firearms Blog. The different between this and other 6.x mm cartridges for the AR platform is that the .277 uses a shortened standard 5.56 casing, so it uses the standard magazines (and capacities) and standard bolt-head. It uses 80 to 110 grain projectiles, or even heavier if you want to go subsonic (and use a silencer). It is supposed to be comparable to the 6.8 SPC in supersonic loadings, and almost as good as .300 Blackout in subsonic loads. (Here is some handloading information in a PDF). 
• "Budget Carry Gun Review: The Bersa Thunder"--Lucky Gunner. The article indicates that it is available in .380, .32, and .22, although he only reviews the .380 and .22 LR versions. 
• "Can Iron Sights Be BAMF? Scalarworks Makes a Compelling Case"--The Truth About Guns. If you have a flat-top AR and want to run iron sights as your primary sights, these look pretty sturdy and pretty cool.
• Bad timing: "New From Taurus: The T4SA AR-15"--The Truth About Guns. Nice looking rifle available in various barrel lengths, but with a price tag of $1,200. Too much in the current market, particularly from a brand with a poor reputation for quality control.
• "Nashville Gunfighter Takes Out THREE Armed Robbers Single-Handedly"--Bearing Arms. Probably a competition shooter. The three armed robbers came through an unlocked back door, firing their weapons (sort of like setting off a shot timer) and were all hit by a single armed citizen inside the store. Score: Criminals: 0; Citizen: 3 (with one dead, one in critical conditions, and one not in critical condition but still hospitalized).
• "Five dead and nearly 50 people hospitalized after tornado hits East Texas and leaves trail of overturned vehicles, mangled trees and damaged homes"--Daily Mail. 
• "From The Begining: Communications Monitoring"--Sparks 31. Some issues to keep in mind if you plan on having grid-down radio communications. The author promises future posts on each of the points.
• Salt: "Don’t Forget to Include this Essential Ingredient in Your Food Storage"--Apartment Prepper. 
• All About Food Storage notes: "The Southwest Utah Public Health Department has compiled a Family Emergency Preparedness Guide. It is a concise, easy-to read resource that includes information on preparing for and coping with a wide range of emergencies or disasters, including a pandemic. The booklet also includes great lists for preparing 72-hour kits." Although the address has changed from when the foregoing article was published, you can download a copy of the guide here (PDF).

Other Stuff:

• Your probably heard about the Brazilian general strike on Friday. 35 million people reportedly did not shot up for work, and riots broke out in some areas that had to be put down by armed police. The strike caused many major manufacturers to suspend operations. What is interesting to me are the various reasons given for the strike, with some articles suggesting that the driving force was anger with corruption and seeming immunity of elites in the government; while other articles linked the strike and protests to controversial government austerity measures including changes to labor laws (relaxing restrictions on outsourcing and temporary contracts) and reforms to pension laws which currently allow most people to retire with full benefits at age 50. If you follow r/K theory, the strike could be seen as r's revolting over the constriction of resources.
• "Immigration and Disease"--Vox Popoli. Vox Day takes note of a measles outbreak among children of the Somali refugee population in Minnesota. Why aren't they being vaccinated upon arrival? 
• "AP Reveals New Superbug Fungus Is South American"--Anonymous Conservative. A new deadly "superbug" fungus infection is beginning to show up in New York and New Jersey hospitals. Although it was first diagnosed in Japan (there are large expatriate populations of Japanese in various South American nations), research shows that it is from South America. "A study presented at a CDC conference this week detailed how researchers traveled to South America to help investigate an outbreak in three Colombian cities. They found the fungus on surfaces in hospital rooms and on the skin of nurses and patients – even after patients were treated with antifungal medications."
• "'The North Korean crisis is the worst I've ever seen': Pacific's top Navy officer says America must assume Kim Jong Un WILL nuke America if given the chance"--Daily Mail. In other words, he is saying that North Korea possess an existential threat to America.
• r/K: "The Rationing Society"--Sultan Knish. Greenfield writes:

There are two types of societies, production societies and rationing societies. The production society is concerned with taking more territory, exploiting that territory to the best of its ability and then discovering new techniques for producing even more. The rationing society is concerned with consolidating control over all existing resources and rationing them out to the people.

He goes on to explain:

       Socialist or capitalist monopolies lead to rationing societies where production is restrained and innovation is discouraged. The difference between the two is that a capitalist monopoly can be overcome. A socialist monopoly however is insurmountable because it carries with it the full weight of the authorities and the ideology that is inculcated into every man, woman and child in the country.

       We have become a rationing society. Our industries and our people are literally starving in the midst of plenty. Farmers are kept from farming, factories are kept from producing and businessmen are kept from creating new companies and jobs. This is done in the name of a variety of moral arguments, ranging from caring for the less fortunate to saving the planet. But rhetoric is only the lubricant of power. The real goal of power is always power. Consolidating production allows for total control through the moral argument of rationing, whether through resource redistribution or cap and trade.

       The politicians of a rationing society may blather on endlessly about increasing production, but it's so much noise, whether it's a Soviet Five Year Plan or an Obama State of the Union Address. When they talk about innovation and production, what they mean is the planned production and innovation that they have decided should happen on their schedule. And that never works.

       You can ration production, but that's just another word for poverty. You can't ration innovation, which is why the aggressive attempts to put low mileage cars on the road have failed. As the Soviet Union discovered, you can have rationing or innovation, but you can't have both at the same time. The total control exerted by a monolithic entity, whether governmental or commercial, does not mix well with innovation.

• Mexico is afraid, very afraid: "Mexico Assembles Team for All-Out Legal Assault on Border Wall"--CNS News. The article reports that Mexico is prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars challenging the proposed border wall in U.S. courts. The court challenges will probably focus on challenges based on environmental treaties or discrimination. However, the real concern is money: 

Any attempt by the U.S. to tax remittances sent home by Mexicans in the U.S. would threaten negotiations on any other matters, [Mexico's Foreign Secretary Luis] Videgaray said.

“Remittances are not only a flow of foreign exchange from the macroeconomic point of view, but as we all know it is a fundamental support for many families, particularly low-income families,” he said, adding that a tax on the payments would be a “breaking point in any dialogue on other issues.”

In other words, Mexico feels entitled to foist its poor upon the United States.

• "Cassini's First Grand Finale Images Are Stunning—But What Are We Really Looking At?"--Gizmodo. A look at some of the first photographs from the Cassini probe as it passes within the orbit of Saturn's rings, and an explanation of what they show.
• "Microbes Have Been Found Growing 'Out of Nowhere' After a Volcanic Eruption"--Science Alert. A new deep sea volcanic vent was quickly populated by a new species of bacteria: a completely new genus and species of the order Thiotrichales. Researches have not been able to get it to grow in the lab.
• "The Place of Christianity in History: A View from Without"--Fred Reed. Christianity not only inspired great architecture and art, but gave rise to the advanced science, mathematics, and engineering responsible for the prosperity of the modern world. He also has a couple slams on Islam (which has rejected intellectualism and scientific inquiry) and Judaism (which he contends is more identity than religion, and, he contends, the root of Marxism).
• "Great ancient civilizations in amazonia? ridiculous!"--Science Frontiers. Citing a 1990 paper published in Science, the author notes the then steadily increasing evidence of advanced cultures along the Amazon, and, in particular, a site on an island at the mouth of the Amazon. 

      One intriguing site in Amazonia is the island of Marajo, 15,000 square miles in area, located at the mouth of the Amazon. Here are found some 400 huge dirt mounds, including one with a surface area of 50 acres and a volume of a million cubic yards. Radiocarbon dates suggest that Marajo had been occupied for over a thousand years.

       Nearby, on the Tapajos River in Brazil, A. Roosevelt found elaborate pottery, finely carved jade, and a culture going back perhaps 7,000 years.