November 3, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"What is worth desoldering from old electronics?"--Great Scott (~ 6 min.)

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• TGIF: Another Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. As always, a great selection of useful articles, so check it out. And a thanks to Greg Ellifritz for including one of my posts.

        One of the articles that caught my attention was "Revolvers Kill! (May Be Even More Lethal Than Semi-Automatic Handguns)," which analyzed police records on fatal and non-fatal handgun assaults in Jersey City, NJ from 1992 through 1996, and found that persons shot with a revolver were more likely to die than those shot with semi-auto pistols. There are several possible explanations, probably working in tandem, that could explain the discrepancy. The most likely, I suspect, is that the most revolvers are in two calibers: .38 Special and .357 Magnum. Semi-autos are more likely to range from smaller, less effective calibers such as .22 or .25, up to .45 ACP, with 9 mm and .380 ACP very popular. However, I imagine that the odds of being shot with .357 Magnum from a revolver is greater than being shot with the ballistic equivalent from a semi-auto. 

          Another article dispels the myth of putting your keys between your fingers to use in self-defense, but does describe some alternate methods of using your keys for self-defense. Anyway, check out the whole thing.

• "10 Tips for Surviving a Terrorist Vehicle Attack"--Active Response Training. Using vehicles to mow down pedestrians is becoming increasingly common with terrorists, as witnessed by the most recent attack in Manhattan. Greg Ellifritz has put together a list and discussion of 10 tips to help you survive such an attack. As he notes, there are two basic goals with surviving such an attack: (1) being in a position to have a visual warning and/or physical barriers between you and a potential attacker, which comes down to walking so you are facing traffic (a good idea in any case) and walking where there are barriers or parked autos between you and traffic; and (2) surviving the aftermath--when the driver gets out and begins to shoot or stab victims or those coming to provide assistance to victims. Read the whole thing.

• Related: "NYC terror attack: Halloween horror would have been much worse without top notch NYPD"--Fox News. The author of this op-ed speculated that Sayfullo Saipov's intended target may have been "Greenwich Village Halloween parade, another beloved New York tradition that close to 1 million people typically attend. But the NYPD’s overwhelming security presence, and the numerous street closures adjacent to the parade, may have dashed his dreams of an even more memorable massacre." The author also notes the quick response by the NYPD which probably stopped Saipov from killing more people after he exited his vehicle. The article also is interesting in providing some information about NYPD's intelligence division. Many people don't know that the NYPD runs an intelligence agency that rivals that of some countries.

• Related: "Why Does Uzbekistan Export So Many Terrorists?"--The Atlantic. Sayfullo Saipov was from Uzbekistan; admitted to the United States not because he possessed any special skills or abilities that made him a net gain for the United States, but because of a federal law that seeks to broaden the "diversity" of immigrants. The author of this piece explains:

        The most striking thing about Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old Uzbek man who allegedly drove a pickup truck into a crowd in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people, was his big, black, bushy beard: He wouldn’t have been able to grow one in his native Uzbekistan. 

         A beard would be considered a sign of religious extremism in Uzbekistan, which has a long and notorious record of restricting the religious practices of its majority Muslim population. All clerics are government vetted; all madrassas are government controlled and infiltrated by undercover informants. Pilgrims to Mecca have to go through a rigorous government vetting process and are then accompanied on the journey by government minders. The communal marking of the end of each day of fasting during the month of Ramadan is banned, as is the celebration of Eid al Fitr, the feast marking the end of Ramadan. Until recently, children under 18 were banned from attending mosques. The authoritarian regime of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s post-Soviet ruler who died last year, outlawed Islamist political parties and imprisoned and tortured dozens of religious activists. The government keeps a “black list” of people it has decided are religious extremists. According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, “Those on the list are barred from obtaining various jobs and travel, and must report regularly for police interrogations.” Until the new president shortened the list in August, it contained some 18,000 names.

         The ostensible point of all these restrictions was to fight the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, a jihadist movement that emerged just after the collapse of the Soviet Union—Uzbekistan was, until 1991, a Soviet republic. The IMU wanted to impose Islamic law in Uzbekistan, and was quickly banned by the new Karimov government. IMU fighters scattered throughout the region—to Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and, after the U.S.-led invasion of  Afghanistan in 2001, to the tribal areas of Pakistan—from where they have launched multiple raids into Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In 2014, the IMU pledged its allegiance to ISIS.

         And yet the draconian measures implemented by the Karimov regime have not solved the problem of Islamist extremism in Uzbekistan. They have only pushed problem underground and, ultimately, abroad. ...

P.S. Keep Saipov's beard in mind when you read or hear claims that his wife was ignorant of his radicalism.

• Related: "Not so good for the economy"--Vox Popoli. The article notes that Saipov's immigration will cost the U.S. millions in loss of life and injury, prosecution and incarceration of the scum, and welfare for his wife and children. But even without out, Saipov was a net drag on the economy:

Perhaps it is too soon to look at the dollars and cents, but how was Mr. Saipov’s immigration supposed to benefit native-born Americans in the best case? The CIA says that Uzbekistan has a per-capita GDP of roughly $6,600 per person, #159 out of 230 countries (ranking). Mr. Saipov was 29 years old and worked as a truck/Uber driver, a job that is expected to disappear within his working lifetime. He had two children and a wife with no reported job. The U.S. has an average per-capita GDP of $57,400 per person per year. So Mr. Saipov would have had to earn $229,600 per year in order to make the U.S. wealthier on a per-capita basis. Maybe somehow existing Americans can become better off if the population grows, but the GDP per-person shrinks? A Mr. Saipov will truck their goods around at a low price. But how can that make them better off overall given our traffic gridlock and skyrocketing housing prices? 

Keep this in mind when people argue the economic benefits of open borders and its attendant immigration.

• "The Big 5 Weight Loss Myths"--Schafer's Self-Defense Corner. 
• "Standards: FBI Pistol Qualification Course"--Tactical Wire. The author explains the targets used, how they are scored, and the course of fire.
• "AR: Vertical Grips or Not?"--Kyle Lamb at Guns & Ammo. He notes some benefits to the vertical grip, such as driving the gun from target to target and providing a consistent indexing for your off-hand, providing better manipulation of the weapon while using a laser or light, firearms retention, and when using the firearm with non-standard firing positions (he has photographs illustrating different uses and .... well, you just have to see them because it would not be practicable to try and explain it in writing--a picture is worth a thousand words, and all that). 
• I was in a Cabella's the other day, and they were advertising R51 handguns for around $350 plus a $100 cash rebate from Remington (bring the end price down to $250). And I constantly get emails from various sellers advertising great deals on ARs and AR components. This is just a reminder that there are some great deals out there right now if you are looking at purchasing a firearm.

Other Stuff:

• Killing two birds with one stone: "Gaza Terror Tunnel Explosion — What We Know So Far"--Jewish Press. On October 30, the IDF blew up a suspected terror tunnel originating from Gaza and extending into Israeli controlled territory. The IDF limited its efforts to destroying the tunnel on the Israeli side of the fence, but it apparently set off secondary explosions on the Palestinian side, killing anywhere from 7 to 12 terrorists and wounding 11. 

• Update: "The Gaza Underground"--Gates of Vienna. Some more on the tunnel explosion, and the threat that such tunnels pose to towns near the border with Gaza.

• "Mexico: Don’t Go There!"--The Truth About Guns. I've linked to plenty of articles discussing the slow slide of large sections of Mexico into failed state status, and warned that the cartel fights are going to come across the border with the immigrants. And that is basically what this article and the accompanying comments indicate.
• Life is not a Disney movie: "Desperate hunt launched for American family of four who were robbed by pirates on a ferry in Brazil before disappearing"--Daily Mail. From the article:

        An American family-of-four are missing in the Amazon after the ferry they were traveling on was robbed by pirates, police have said.

        Adam Harris Hearteau, 39, wife Emily Faith, 37, and their daughters Colette, seven, and Sierra, three, were last seen on Sunday when several heavily armed men hijacked the boat they were using to travel down the Amazon River.

        Officers say the family's van has been found abandoned in the forest, but there is no sign of the couple or their children.  

• "Deadly airborne plague in Madagascar is now at 'crisis' point and the 'worst outbreak in 50 years' as cases rocket by almost 40% in just 5 DAYS and could hit a further 20,000 in weeks"--Daily Mail. The World Health Organization (WHO) now reports that there are 1,801 suspected cases, with 127 deaths. According to the article, there were 1,309 suspected cases as of last Thursday. Assuming the statistics are correct, that is a fatality rate of only 7%; much lower than Europe saw during its major plague outbreaks. While an additional 500 cases in one week may seem significant, it doesn't tell us whether the outbreak is spreading (in a geographical sense). For instance, in Britain during the the Black Plague, the plague zone would spread several miles in a single day, but the later London Plague of the 16th Century was fairly limited in its geographic spread, and its rate of spread at its height was only feet per day. So, while this outbreak is interesting and worth monitoring, it currently doesn't appear to be all that dangerous.
• Same problem, different era: "Slow flow of human immigration may have doomed Neanderthals"--Fox News. From the article:

        Neither species was assumed to have any inherent advantage, but there was one crucial difference: Unlike the Neanderthals, the modern humans were supplemented by reinforcements coming in from Africa. It wasn't a huge wave, but rather "a tiny, tiny trickle of small bands," Kolodny said.

        Still, that was enough to tip the balance against the Neanderthals. They generally went extinct when the simulation was run more than a million times under a variety of assumptions.

        If survival was a game of chance, "it was rigged by the fact that there's recurring migration," Kolodny said. "The game was doomed to end with the Neanderthals losing."

• Mayhem: "Two acid attacks on London delivery drivers 'may be linked'"--BBC. These aren't cases of lemon juice or vinegar in the eyes, but seriously caustic liquids; the article notes that one victim "has injuries to his throat, face, oesophagus and eyes and is in an induced coma." An unidentified "youth" has been arrested in connection to the crimes.
• "And this is why I avoid Hollywood"--Vox Popoli. Vox links to an article indicating that an unnamed studio was in crises mode when it was discovered that one of its directors was involved with several pornographic web sites, including one "so disgusting, perverted, and possibly illegal in the USA that the studio is scrambling to cut all ties and remove the director from everything, before the media uncovers this," and "so awful that the analysts refused to explore it - and only finally did so after a lawyer and ex-FBI man at the studio both agreed to monitor the investigation." Vox offers his ideas on the identity of the studio and the film maker that was being investigated.
• "Top investment fund manager for George Soros who was featured in Liar's Poker 'ran human trafficking enterprise in which he raped, electrocuted and imprisoned women in NYC sex dungeon', lawsuit claims"--Daily Mail. 
• Throwing Hillary under the bus: "Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC"--Donna Brazile at Politico. You might remember that Brazile was fired by CNN after it was revealed that she was leaking debate questions and town-hall questions to the Hillary campaign. In any event, in this article, she related how she was shocked ... shocked! ... to discover that the Democratic National Committee (i.e., the Democratic party) was beholden to the Clinton campaign for money, and was controlled by the Clinton campaign. Brazile is also quite critical of Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the DNC.
•  "How Trust Shapes Nations' Safety Rules"--The Atlantic. The author uses her experience learning how to navigate traffic in China while bicycling to segue into a more general discussion of evaluating risk and societal trust. One of the factors in China is that there is little societal trust when it comes to air quality and food safety, which devolves the responsibility on those issues to the individual. For instance, the author uses multiple air filters in her apartment to clean the air, and takes extra precautions in purchasing food. She writes:

         But the minute others start to fall down on the job of safety, we decide we need to take it on ourselves. And that is exhausting. By the end of my first year in China, I feel as if I am a one-person FDA. I buy all my food from a Costco-style grocer an hour away by bus that claims to use a hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) protocol for food safety, which in the United States is required for many food companies. It still isn’t easy. After a text-message feud with a delivery service I use to spare myself the bus ride to the store—over the absence of the bar-code tracking sticker that provides information on the origins of the eggs—I’m frustrated and surprised at myself. This is what it has come to. This is my life.

        I describe my experience bicycling, and filtering air, and buying food, to Lynette Shaw, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who studies how we decide what is valuable. She laughs. It sounds like a situation with low social capital, she says. What’s missing is trust.

The author notes that social capital is essentially "the idea that you and the members of your community are more or less on the same page—that you agree on the rules and that they matter." Also:

 “Collective life in the civic regions is eased by the expectation that others will probably follow the rules. Knowing that others will, you are more likely to go along, too, thus fulfilling their expectations,” Putnam writes. “The least civic regions are the most subject to the ancient plague of political corruption. They are the home of the Mafia and its regional variants.” It’s every man for himself (and those close to him) and against outsiders—you can’t trust the government to do what’s best, so you come up with your own ways around, more often than not based on a profound mistrust of others.

Western European societies--particularly those in the Anglo-sphere--are often described as high trust societies. Japan also falls within the group of high trust societies. The author of this piece is describing China as a fairly low trust society in many respects. The Middle-East, Africa, and Latin America have even lower levels of social capital. Yet this is what we are importing. Imagine how that will impact the West as the number of low social capital individuals approach majority status. With limited immigration, it is possible to, over time, to assimilate immigrants to the social rules and norms. However, between the high rates of immigration that we currently see coupled with both elites and minority groups disdaining the values that gave rise to our social capital, societal trust is going to dry up. And as it dries up, we can expect more social unrest, higher crime, and so forth.