The Lies They Tell Us: Famine and the 1985 Live Aid Concert

If you were alive in 1985 and paying attention to the main stream media's reporting of the Ethiopian famine, or were subjected to later history lessons of the same, you probably never heard the full backstory of the famine or where the money went afterward. No Pasaran delves into this topic in a piece entitled: "Live Aid 1985: What Nobody Tells You About the African Famine that Led to the Most-Watched Concert in History." 

    Although the immediate cause of the famine was a drought, it should surprise no one that the reason Ethiopia suffered more than its neighbors was because of its government. Specifically, "in September 1974, a Marxist-Leninist military junta called the Derg overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie. By 1977, Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam had killed his rivals inside the junta and taken sole control." Mariam "built a Soviet-style state. He nationalized all rural land in 1975 and imposed grain quotas that peasants had to deliver to the state at prices below the cost of production." Consequently, when the drought struck, there was no surplus from earlier years, and the people starved. 

 This is the mechanism Stalin had used to engineer famine in Ukraine in 1932. The state destroys the production incentive, then extracts grain by force. When drought arrived in northern Ethiopia in 1983, there was no surplus and no buffer. Forced collectivization had already destroyed the country's food reserves years before the rain stopped.   

In short: "The famine that produced the most-watched concert in history was caused by forced collectivization, forced grain seizures, and a deliberate policy of using hunger as a weapon against civilians. Four decades later, that half of the story still does not appear in most accounts of Live Aid."

    But it gets even worse. The money raised by Live Aid was used to fund Mariam's military and, therefore, financed his killing between 50,000 and 100,000 of the Ethiopian people. 

    Yet another example of liberals being more concerned about their public image than actually helping people. 

Fauci Was With Intelligence

 Legal Insurrection goes over the latest batch of declassified files from the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard: "Declassified Files Ignite New Scrutiny of Fauci, COVID Origins, and Alleged Intelligence Suppression." The high level summary:

    Gabbard’s release of information related to biological research funded by the U.S. government continued this Friday, after she declassified a cache of documents outlining Dr. Anthony Fauci’s involvement in the COVID-19 response, including records indicating that federal officials shielded him from a whistleblower complaint alleging he misled Congress about “gain-of-function” work after publicly advancing a natural-origin theory for a pandemic that ultimately claimed millions of lives.

    The documents and whistleblower testimony appear to show that Fauci influenced intelligence assessments on COVID-19 origins, denied such involvement under oath in 2024, and benefited from close ties to the intelligence community that limited scrutiny. They further claim a pattern of retaliation against dissenting intelligence officials and suppression of alternative viewpoints regarding the virus’s origins.

RPG Saturday: The Arcanum

 

    The battered book from above is titled The Arcanum, first published in 1984, which was supposed to be the first volume of a three part series called The Atlantean Trilogy. The other volumes were The Lexicon and The Bestiary. The three were intended to be a complete fantasy role playing game system and setting; and to serve as supplements for other games (i.e., D&D since it was, like today, the overwhelmingly most popular RPG of the time). 

    The Arcanum was the rule book for the Trilogy, containing rules on character creation and the game mechanics, including combat; and detailed rules for magic (including spell lists) and alchemy. The Lexicon was described as "the complete atlas of the antediluvian age" containing "detailed maps of the legendary continents, countries, and cities of the Atlantian World, plus information on trade routes, the history of Atlantis' First and Second Ages, and much more ...".  And The Bestiary, as the name indicates, was "a compendium of the fantastic beings and creatures of the Atlantean age."

    I probably purchased The Arcanum book in 1984, because there were some problems with the editing which were quickly corrected in a second edition released in 1985. Some of the issues were inconsistencies between rules in different parts of the text and references to skills that apparently never made it into the final product. Nevertheless, the issues were not insurmountable. I never purchased (or even came across copies) of the other two books until much later.  

    My interest in the book was originally for use as a supplement, particularly the rules on alchemy (of which D&D had virtually none) and the expanded list of character classes (of which D&D only had a handful). I had thoughts of trying to use the rules, but I don't believe I actually had an opportunity to do so while still in high school. It was only years later, after I was married, that I was able to get a group together and give it a shot and it worked fairly well. I still did not have the other two books, so I used my own setting and borrowed monsters from D&D.

 

    Eventually, I found a PDF of The Bestiary from 1986 which I printed up and crudely bound (see the photo above) but have never come across a copy of The Lexicon. 

    My oldest son at one time expressed an interest in The Arcanum, and in trying to track down a copy, discovered that the author had published a 30th Anniversary edition of the game, incorporating the rules from The Arcanum and the contents of The Bestiary into a single volume published in 2019. There was a third edition that apparently was published in 1996 by a different game company. 

 

    According to the author's forward, this 30th Edition uses the rules from the second and third editions. But the rights to the artwork and the setting (i.e., The Lexicon) are owned by another company and so, necessarily, not included.  However, much of the layout has been rethought and other edits made to correct errors and make the book more usable. 

     But there have been other changes I've spotted. For instance, the first edition has 8 character races/species, while the 30th Anniversary book has 10. However, one of the races from the first edition--Druas--is missing from the 30th Anniversary book, while it adds gnomes, halflings, and selkies. 

     The first edition illustrated the various races and professions, but had little in way of illustrations beyond that. Most of the illustrations were simple pen and ink drawings, but there were a few larger pieces that appeared to be charcoal and pencil. 

    This 30th Anniversary edition has many more illustrations, also pen and ink, but the style is very different. For instance, below are the illustrations for elves from both books, the first edition on top and the 30th Anniversary edition below:

 

 

And as between the 1986 version of The Bestiary (the top illustration) and the 30th Anniversary Edition (the bottom) looking at the illustrations of undead skeleton warriors as an example:

 

Unfortunately, not all of the creatures or beasts are illustrated in either edition.

    The rules for these games are definitely old school, but differ from other games from the 1980s like AD&D or  Basic D&D. Although this game uses similar attributes (strength, speed, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, will, charisma, and perception) with the same basic range of 3 to 18 for a starting character, and professions which are largely analogous to the character "class" system in D&D, it is also a skill based rule system. Although D&D was limited to just a handful of character classes (i.e., professions or callings), The Arcanum had 27 total professions, all of which were compatible with or easily transferred to D&D. 

    Professions are also categorized as to whether the characters in those careers are "untrained fighters", "skilled fighters", or "highly trained fighters". This is important both for gaining hit points and because "skilled" and "highly trained" characters gain "to hit" and "damage" bonuses as they reach certain levels in their Professions.

    Character creation in the first edition follows these steps: (i) selecting a character race; (ii) selecting a professions; (iii) selecting a background (which gives certain skills and, potentially, other benefits); and (iv) determining attributes. What skills a character has is a matter of his background and his career. As a character advances in a career (that is, achieves higher levels) he or she will obtain additional skills. Professions may also special abilities. 

    It appears that character creation is similar in the 30th Anniversary Edition. 

    Because this game system uses skills, much of the rules are found in the skill descriptions. For example, the skill "Evade Pursuit" describes the skill as "the ability to confound pursuers by moving with speed and stealth, leaving false trails, etc." And it gives rules for the chance of success (rolled with a percentile dice) and modifiers if he or she is being pursued by someone skilled in tracking. Of course, that is a basic skill rules. Some of the skills have tables or much more detailed rules to determine whether the character is successful. And others grant certain abilities, such as the skill "weapon training" or "weapon" allows a untrained character to use a weapon without the non-proficiency penalty, but grants no other special rules or options.

     Combat is fairly straightforward. Players roll a 1d20 and their role plus (or minus) applicable modifiers equals or exceeds 11, they hit their target. If a character has a non-proficiency penalty, the sum of their roll and modifiers is divided by two before determining a success. Characters can also employ special tactics such as making an "unarmed attack", seek a "specific hit" (i.e., a special attack allowing special effect or dealing double damage) but with their odds of a successful hit halved; or defensive tactics such as dodging or parrying a blow, taking evasive action, etc. Cover makes it more difficult to hit someone with a missile weapon, and there are other modifiers depending on the character's attributes or due to situational factors (e.g., it truly is easier to hit something as large as a barn door). 

    Unlike D&D where armor makes it more difficult to strike a target, this game uses armor to subtract from damage. Of course, the amount of damage that can be dealt depends on the weapon. For instance, a dagger might only deal 1d6 of damage while a long sword will cause 1d10 of damage. 

    I don't generally like playing magic users, but this is a fantasy role playing game after all and, so, there are various spell casting professions such as magicians, shamans, witches, sorcerers, etc. Besides, in combat, with the right spells, a magic user essentially acts like a support weapon, able to deal heavy damage but only for a limited number of rounds. 

    Unlike D&D, where a magic user must relearn spells each time he wants to case one--the act of casting a spell erases it from memory--this game does not have a similar limitation. Rather, the character is limited to casting a certain number of spells per day based on his level, or else resort to using a magic item or casting from a scroll. 

   In addition to, or as a supplement to, the magic system, the game also has detailed rules on alchemy, which actually covers everything from making herbal remedies to poisons to potions. There are also rules covering the manufacture of magical devices or magical/alchemical processes. 

    So the basic question is whether this game would be worthwhile playing today. It is "old school" in a real sense that there is no universal resolution system. Many skills and checks are determined by rolling a percentile die, while combat uses 1d20 with a target number of 11+, and there are many tables that have to be consulted for other matters. That said, it is no harder to use than the first edition AD&D, and offers more options for players. I think if someone were looking for an old school style of play and a game to go with it, this game would work well. 

    The options make it easy to customize for a particular setting as well. For instance, if you wanted something like Middle-Earth or classic D&D, you could limit characters to being humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings, and go with that. If you want something different, ditch the elves, dwarves, and halflings and use the other races included; or just limit the characters to humans. The variety of professions also allow you to have a balanced party such as D&D encourages for general adventuring. But if you wanted a campaign focused on rogues, you could have a party of various rogue type characters (charlatan, rogue, spy, pirate); or an outdoor type party could be made made up of a beastmaster, hunter, and druid. Similar theme, but different enough abilities that the characters are not just copies of one another.  

    The 30th Anniversary Edition is still available from LuLu for $39.99 which is pretty good for a complete game. 

VIDEOS: The World Of The Ice Age And The Younger Dryas

The world we live in is very different from the one that existed just 15,000 years ago. The first video below brings together a lot of disparate information and presents it as a whole concerning what Earth was like just before the end of the last Ice Age--lower sea levels exposing huge areas of land in Europe and South-East Asia and north of Australia that is, today, underwater. A green Sahara covered with grasslands, lakes, and a network of rivers. A dryer Amazon that was more open scrub land rather than impenetrable jungle. CO2 levels so low that many of the crops we use for food would not prosper. 

Of course the Ice Age came to an end, but just as the Earth was warming, the Younger Dryas happened, throwing the northern hemisphere back into a deep Ice Age for 1,000 years before just as abruptly ending. The second video discusses some theories as to what caused the Younger Dryas including the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH), although he leaves out one of the most important bits of evidence: the Carolina Bays and similar structures stretching westward into the heartland of America which record a wide swath of secondary impacts, likely from debris thrown out by the Younger Dryas Impact Event. Antonio Zamora has a YouTube channel devoted to studying the Carolina Bays and the YDIH which I recommend if you have further interest in the topic. Here is the link to an older video from Zamora covering the primary hypothesis that the Carolina Bays are evidence of an impact event. 

 VIDEO: "The Ice Age World You Don't See"
Curtis Holland | Reviewing the Record (21 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "The Younger Dryas: The Last Great Mystery Before Modern History"
Curtis Holland | Reviewing the Record (21 min.)

Interesting. Plague Outbreak 5,500 Years Ago

Ars Technica reports that "Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago." The article relates that "[p]lague swept through groups of hunter-gatherers in southeastern Siberia 5,500 years ago, leaving dozens dead in its wake—with DNA from Yersinia pestis bacteria still trapped inside their teeth." A few points:

• The reason this is significant is because the previously belief was that the plague only became deadly to humans after humans had settled in communities living in close association with rats or other animals that were hosts to the fleas carrying the Y. pestis bacterium. But this outbreak was among hunter gatherers. Thus, not only was close and long term contact not needed to produce a plague deadly to humans, but something that was as deadly as later plagues had already arisen much earlier than believed possible.
• The article indicates that the plague DNA was extracted from "plague victims at four ancient cemeteries in the area around Russia’s Lake Baikal." This is significant because it seems to be part of the large marmot based plague reservoir. Lake Baikal is in Russia, just north of central Mongolia. The 14th Century plague was traced back to the Lake Issyk Kul, which is in modern day eastern Kyrgyzstan. Not exceptionally close, but both part of the natural range of marmots in Central Asia (see the map below).
• Finally, the article indicates that "Bubonic plague spreads through flea bites, but pneumonic plague is a respiratory disease, which spreads in a similar way to the flu or COVID-19, and that seems to be how this early version would have passed from person to person." This is also what made the 14th Century Black Death so deadly and allowed it spread so quickly. It didn't need or use fleas once it became pneumonic. 

Perhaps this particular outbreak was largely contained simply because there were not the extensive trade routes and number of people as in the 14th Century, but it would be interesting to know how far the plague spread from this 5,500 B.C. event. My suspicions are that if we were to ever see another plague outbreak comparable to the Black Death, it will also originate in this Central Asian marmot reservoir.

Lake Baikal is the largest lake just above Mongolia in this map, while Lake Issyk Kul is the only lake you can see in Kyrgyzstan in this map. (Source)

VIDEO: Water Kit For A Team Or Family

Prepared Airman shows that he uses in the field to supply water for a team. It should also work for a family that enjoys backpacking, camping in unimproved campgrounds without potable water, or even for a group that is bugging out. You will notice that despite the filters used for providing the group with water, he also uses a Grayl Geopress for personal use. The thing about the Geopress, though, is that it can quickly process water--much faster than other personal systems--so if you had to you could use it to supply water to a group over a short period of time. The limitation is the filter life, which is why you might want to go with some other filters for a large group or for an extended period of time. (See this video testing various water filters).

 VIDEO: "The Water Kit That Keeps a Team Alive: My Water Kit for the Field"
PreparedAirman (13 min.)

Weekend Reading #61

Some longer and more involved reading for the weekend:

• First up is Jon Low's most recent Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter.  I'll start with this always good reminder of  John Farnam's rules of self-defense:  
  • Don’t go to stupid places.  
  • Don’t associate with stupid people.  
  • Don’t do stupid things.  
  • Have a “normal” appearance.  
  • Be in bed by 10:00 PM (your own bed).  
  • Don’t fail the attitude test.  
   Some other topics of interest:
• John writes:

     Autonomic Nervous System responses are not just to recoil and report, they are also in anticipation of recoil and report.  That's why we, disciples of Jeff Cooper, teach the surprise trigger break.  The surprise break defeats all autonomic nervous system responses (jerk, flinch, freeze, push, etc.) by not allowing the brain to know exactly when the recoil and report will occur.  

    Any ANS responses occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.  

     If you intentionally, consciously, make your pistol fire, you will induce ANS responses.  The trick / secret / technique is to:  

1.  Take the slack out of the trigger.  

2.  Smoothly increase pressure on the trigger.  Do not fire the pistol.  Just increase pressure by repeating your mantra, "Keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing, . . . "  [Thanks to Kaery Dudenhofer.  A lot of research and experimentation went into developing this mantra.]

3.  Eventually, the pistol will fire.  But, because you did not intentionally fire the pistol, there will be no ANS responses to disturb your shot.  The responses will occur after the bullet has exited the muzzle.  
So, the bullets will go where you aimed them (if your pistol is zeroed).  

     "This sounds like magic to me."  

     Yes, any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic to the ignorant.  The human is God's masterpiece of creation, extremely advanced technology, far beyond the comprehension of man.  

     When students achieve the surprise break, they shoot one hole groups at 3 yards (some as far as 5 yards).  This direct feedback causes an epiphany.  It's not like riding a bicycle.  Once learned, it can be forgotten.  But it's easier to achieve the next time, because you know what you're searching for.  

     "This is a long complex process.  I won't have time to recite a mantra in combat."  

     With dedicated practice, the process will compress in time and become very fast.  

     Of course, the surprise break is only a small part of the shot process, which is only a small part of the tactical exercise, which is only a small part of the scenario.  Real scenarios are surprising.  No command to "Load and make ready".  No checking to see if you're "Ready?"  No authority ordering you to use lethal force.  You must take responsibility.    

•  Just as there are different schools of martial arts, there are different schools of shooting techniques. Jon has this to say about it:

     At dinner, after Farnam's Rifle class, a gentleman said that he had taken a lot of firearms training classes and that he had found most of the stuff that was taught in the U.S. by competent instructors is the same.  Only about 10% is different.  And that the differences were not significant.  So I asked him who he had taken classes from.  And his list included a lot of names and schools that I'm sure you would be familiar with.  

     I suggested to him that all of the instructors he had mentioned were disciples of Jeff Cooper (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), and if he would take classes from others, he would find more diversity of philosophy and techniques.  I know it is inconvenient to travel to foreign countries for training, but even within the U.S. there are Israeli schools (e.g. Pacific West Academy or if you ask around at any Jewish Community Center you can get referrals, often incorporating Krav Maga), South African / Rhodesian schools (I am not listing examples, because I have not received permission yet.), and European (German, often in association with a weaponized version of Schutzhund dog training, using the dog as a self-defense weapon) schools that I have found to be very different from the American schools.  [Louis Awerbuck was South African, but he was a disciple of Jeff Cooper.  So, I do not include him in the South African school.]   

•  Next up is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump, also with links and commentary on self-defense and firearms related articles. A few links that caught by attention:
• "Carrying a Gun While Camping and Hiking: Practical Guide" by Jacob Paulsen is a very detailed article on carry guns for camping and hiking, looking at the selection of a weapon, securing the weapon, touching up gun laws and whether the castle doctrine might apply to your tent or camper (it depends), bears, where/how to carry when using a backpack, medical and communications, and more.
• "Comparing Revolver and Autopistol Reliability" from the Revolver Guy. Short take: "autopistols tend to be more resistant to abuse, while revolvers tend to be more resistant to neglect." 
• On a related note: "Is the Revolver the Ultimate Survival Gun? by Brad Miller. Discussing some advantages that a revolver has over a semi-auto in wilderness survival or bugging out situations.
• And, again, related: "Some thoughts on torture tests" from Primer Peak. The author believes most torture tests are clickbait with no real value, concluding: "Outside of checking for premature parts breakage or excessive wear with high round counts, most torture tests should be left behind."
• "How to protect your home from rioting mobs using fire as a weapon" from Last Minute Survival. Houses in the U.S. are particularly vulnerable to this attack because the vast majority of homes use wood framing and wood or vinyl siding. His first and probably most important piece of advice is simply clean up the things that are flammable: don't leave out bags of trash, tires, or canisters of fuel (e.g. that half can of gasoline for the lawnmower). 
• And an article on how to test if you 1911's safety's work. Just some quick, simple tests to make sure the active and passive safeties are working.  

•  "When a quote is not (exactly) a quote: General Motors"--Library of Congress. Actually not a long read, but a good example of how famous quotes can subtly change, generally to make them more pithier. The example here is Congressional testimony from General Motors President Charles E. Wilson after he had been nominated for Secretary of Defense:

Senator Hendrickson. Well now, I am interested to know whether if a situation did arise where you had to make a decision which was extremely adverse to the interests of your stock and General Motors Corp. or any of these other companies, or extremely adverse to the company, in the interests of the United States Government, could you make that decision?

Mr. Wilson. Yes, sir; I could. I cannot conceive of one because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country. Our contribution to the Nation is quite considerable.” 

Wilson's comments were quickly altered (by the New York Times, of course) to “what is good for General Motors is good for the country, and what is good for the country is good for General Motors.” Which then became the more commonly known version today: "What’s good for General Motors is good for America." 

• "The Hunt for Judah P. Benjamin, the Spy Chief of the Confederacy" by Jay Solomon and Jane Singer at Tablet Magazine. The article summary: "Suspected of orchestrating the Lincoln assassination, the South’s most prominent Jew escaped to London to start a new life as a high-powered lawyer. The U.S. government secretly tried to bring him home to face justice." A short excerpt:

    Benjamin, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederate leadership fled south after Richmond’s collapse and were temporarily based in Charlotte, North Carolina, when news arrived of Lincoln’s death. No concrete evidence has emerged in the historical record that conclusively proves Benjamin or Davis had any knowledge of Booth’s murderous plans. But as the newly victorious North sought vengeance after four years of fratricidal war, Benjamin, for one, knew he’d be a suspect due to his ties, through the Confederate Secret Service, to the actor-turned-assassin.

    Union detectives investigating Lincoln’s death quickly reconstructed Booth’s travels to Montreal and the contacts he’d made there with Benjamin’s agents. But even more damaging to the Confederate diplomat, they also found in Booth’s hotel room a Confederate cipher key that exactly matched one they found in Benjamin’s abandoned Richmond office. This evidence was presented at the trial of the Lincoln conspirators in Washington.

    “On the 6th of April, I went into the office of Mr. Benjamin, the rebel Secretary of State. On the shelf, among Mr. Benjamin’s books and other things, I found this cipher key,” testified Charles Dana, the North’s assistant secretary of war. “I saw it was a key to the official rebel cipher.”

    Benjamin’s spy network also tied him to Booth in other damaging and seemingly direct ways. While serving in Richmond, Benjamin used as his personal courier a Maryland-based rebel, John Surratt Jr., to ferry his messages to Washington and agents further north. It was the same man who served as Booth’s accomplice in concocting the kidnapping plot of Lincoln. Surratt’s mother, Mary, hosted the actor at her Washington boarding house in the weeks before the attack.

    Surratt would later speak of meeting Benjamin at Richmond’s Spotswood Hotel, and receiving money from him, just days before the capital fell and the attack on Lincoln commenced. Surratt denied ever telling Benjamin of Booth’s activities. But the Confederate leader’s intelligence, and expansive control of his Secret Service, raises questions about the truthfulness of Surratt’s statement. Mary Surratt was eventually hanged for her role in supporting Booth. John Surratt escaped the U.S. by using Benjamin’s overseas spy networks to get to Europe.

    Benjamin, meanwhile, commenced after the assassination of Lincoln to launch one of the greatest escapes in American history—especially for a bookish, pudgy attorney with no military service. He peeled off from Jefferson Davis’ entourage in the town of Washington, Georgia, on May 3, 1865, and proceeded to make his way down the Gulf Coast of Florida. He disguised himself as a bearded, and disheveled, French trader, named M.M. Bonfals, according to press accounts from the time. “Goggles on … a hat well over his face,” Benjamin was nearly unrecognizable.

    He bumped along in a wagon on long, rutted roads and passed by the detritus of the war, including burnt-out buildings and scorched fields. He made it to a sugar plantation owned by a Confederate sympathizer in what’s now Bradenton, Florida. He hid for a month from Union patrols in the plantation house’s second story. He eventually found a Confederate spy ship to ferry him to the Bahamas. But he nearly drowned in subsequent attempts to reach Cuba, dogged by waterspouts and unseaworthy sloops. It took him weeks to reach Havana and the steamships that crossed the Atlantic.

    The Union government’s obsession with capturing Benjamin, however, only grew as the trial of the Lincoln conspirators commenced in May 1865. Newly sworn in President Andrew Johnson, a rabid antisemite, told the Northern press: “There was no rebel, whose hanging seemed so imperatively demanded by public justice, as Judah P. Benjamin.”

    The Confederate spy chief finally reached Southampton, England on August 30, 1865, more than four months after Richmond’s fall. He would immediately tap into the Confederate networks in England and France that he was so central in creating and deploying. He had allies across the sea.

Fears of the "Big One"

From the Daily Mail: "Big One fears erupt as San Andreas fault reaches highest stress level in 1,000 years." From the lede:

    Fears of the 'Big One' - an earthquake so big it devastates all of California - have risen to new heights after a disturbing discovery under America's most dangerous fault line.

    Researchers from the US and Switzerland revealed that the San Andreas Fault has reached its highest levels of stress in 1,000 years - adding that it has been more than 160 years since the giant crack in the Earth's crust had a major release of energy.

    The San Andreas is an 800-mile-long fault line which runs under most of California, passing by Los Angeles in the south and San Francisco in the north and connecting to several other major faults, most notably the San Jacinto Fault near Los Angeles. 

The City of Los Angeles has a pretty good preparedness guide available in PDF here. The California Earthquake Authority also has a website with preparedness advice. And one of the better post-disaster novels I've read is The Walk by Lee Goldberg (Amazon link) which follows Marty Slack, a TV network executive, as he survives "the Big One" and treks across Los Angeles from a film shoot in downtown Los Angeles, where he was when the quake struck, to his home in the San Fernando Valley. It's not long (190 pages) and makes a good read IMHO. 

VIDEO: Lead Round Nose Bullets For Self-Defense

With how poorly standard pressure .38 Special hollow points generally perform out of a snub-nosed revolver, you might be wondering how inexpensive lead round nose works. This video tests that out, as well as some .32 S&W Long. 

VIDEO: "Is Lead Round Nose Any Good for Defense in a Snub? Sellier & Bellot .38 Special VS .32 Long Gel Test" - Gun Sam Revolver Ballistics (20 minutes).

Handloading for the .223/5.56

    In response to a comment the other day about the Mini-14, I noted that many years ago I had worked up a load that worked quite well in a Mini-14 I owned, which was a 50-grain Speer soft point over 27 grains of Accurate 2230. That load worked well for me and my particular rifle, but it may not be appropriate for your weapon, so use that recipe at your own risk.

    The reason that I selected 2230 powder over other powders was that it was specifically developed as a 5.56 NATO propellant. (See "Propellant Profiles - Accurate 2230" at Handloader Magazine for more detailed information on the background of the powder). Of course, it being the early 1990s, I didn't have that article available, but found that out from some other source, probably an article in one of my father's gun magazines. It may not be the best powder for the application, but it worked for me and so I continue to use it.

    I've moved on since then and my loadings in recent years have been heavier bullets to use with an AR style rifle, including bulk 62 grain Green Tip pulled bullets that I had purchased from RMR Bullets. Since I like the 2230 powder, I just used the manufacturer's loading data for the Green Tip ammo (you can download a PDF of their reloading data here). For .223, the load for the 62 grain M855 is 21.4 grains of 2230. They have a separate section of loads for the 5.56mm; and when using the M855 bullets, the powder weight is listed as 22.8 grains of 2230, reflecting the higher pressures for 5.56. Of course, you may need to adjust the powder load to get the best performance out of your firearm. 

    And a few articles on the subject:

• "Reloading for the AR-15 (223/5.56)"--Ultimate Reloader. 
• "Handloading The .223 Rem."--Shooting Illustrated. 
• "Reloading the .223 Rem.: Great .223 Handloads for Bolt and Gas Guns"--Shooting Times.