A Quick Run Around the Web -- November 20, 2015

Ebenezer Newman Downard, Winterlandschaft mit Fuchs und Hasen (1894)

Survival/Prepping Related Stories:

• Winter Storms Are Coming:

• "UK weather: Britain set for one of the coldest November weekends on record as temperatures plunge to -11C"--Mirror.
• "Winter Storm Bella to Bring First Snow of Season to Parts of the Midwest, Including Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee"--The Weather Channel. "In the much of the Upper Midwest, this means a likelihood for at least 6 inches of snow in 12 hours, or 8 inches of snow in 24 hours." If you drill deep into the story--almost to the very end--you will then see that such heavy November snowfall is actually quite rare, including that "Chicago hasn't seen a November with 6 inches or more of snow since 1978, much less 6 inches of snow in one November storm," and "Milwaukee hasn't seen a 6-inch-plus November snow total in 20 years. In terms of snowfall so early in the season, Milwaukee has only recorded four 2-day snowfall totals of greater than 6 inches before Nov. 22, dating back to the late 1800s."

• Related: "Record Crushing Fraud From NOAA And NASA Ahead Of Paris"--Real Science. Hey, their budgets depend on it.
• Related: "Prominent Scientists Declare Climate Claims Ahead of UN Summit ‘Irrational’ – ‘Based On Nonsense’ – ‘Leading us down a false path’"--Climate Depot. 

• "Lights Out: Has Ted Koppel Become a 'Rightwing' Survivalist?"--News Buster. Ted Koppel (or Nightline fame) authored a book called Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath. Apparently preppers aren't as "crazy" as the MSM has always made us out to be. Being one of the most respected journalists living, Koppel's book has been praised by many other well-known journalists and some former top government officials. (I haven't read the book, but looking through the table of contents, it appears to be mostly about the threat posed by EMP, and what some organizations have done to try and prepare for such a disaster).
• "Inside Europe's only 'prepper' shop: What survivalists are buying to protect themselves from the end of the world"--Mirror. "Lincoln Miles runs Preppers Shop on a farm in Bedfordshire. He stocks knives, jackets, bags, rations and - worryingly - crossbows." Heh. 

• Related: "The British people preparing for the end of the world"--BBC. Another story about the same shop.

• "3 Primitive Signals You Can Make to Get Yourself Rescued"--Outdoor Life. Rock cairns, charcoal arrows, and signal fires.
• "5 Ways of Treating Hypothermia That Are Actually Dangerous Myths"--Outdoor Life. A good read if you plan on being outdoors this winter.
• "What Would You Pack for the Zombie Apocalypse?"--Mother Jones. Photographs of the contents of various people's bug-out bags (BOBs). What is surprising to me is that only one of the kits included a spade or trawl. If nothing else, you may need to dig a hole to cover up your feces. (I would also note that most garden trawls are too fragile to be useful in a survival situation--they bend or break too easily).
• "Carry Guns: Semi-Automatic vs. Revolver"--by Joseph von Benedikt at The Daily Caller (apparently a re-post from Gun Digest). An article addressing the basics on the advantages and disadvantages to each.
• "The Bicycle In SHTF"--Arizona Weaponcraft. A subject dear to my heart.
• "Faux Strawberry Jam"--All Things Provident. A jam made using green tomatoes and Jello gelatin. 
• And Active Response Training's Weekend Knowledge Dump.

Juxtaposition This:

• "Kerry: Al Qaeda Is 'Neutralized'"--The Weekly Standard.
• "TERROR IN MALI: US Special Forces storm hotel and free six American hostages from Al-Qaeda gunmen but 18 other innocent people are killed before jihadists flee to the roof to make their last stand"--Daily Mail.

Other Stuff:

• "Student who posted ‘I’m going to shoot every black person I can on campus’ … is black"--The College Fix. Of course. There is so little actual racism, the SJWs have to make it up.
• "'The Manchester Pusher is real': Author claims there is a serial killer stalking city's canals"--Manchester Evening News. The killer is believed to have over 60 victims since 2004. More here and here.
• "Britain hit by massive cyber-attack as Islamic State hackers launch assault against Anonymous"--Mirror.
• "Satellite wars"--The Financial Times. Of course. It is the ultimate high-ground. All that the space treaties of the late 1960s and 1970s did was to ensure that the United States lost its technological lead in any such conflict.  
• "Van Meter remembers 1903 visit from winged monster"--The Des Moines Register. I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but I still love a good, spooky story. From the article:

THE STORY GOES LIKE THIS: Over a series of nights in the fall of 1903, several respected and prominent men of Van Meter reported a half human, half animal with enormous, smooth bat wings flying about. It let off a powerful stench and scared the daylights out of them because it moved at speeds never seen before. And it shot a blinding light from its horned head.

Shots were fired each time, first by implement dealer U.G. Griffith as it flew across building tops. The monster shrug­ged them off like a minor nuisance. The next night the town doctor and bank cashier Peter Dunn separately saw the creature and opened fire. Dunn even took a plaster cast of the “great three-toed tracks.”

The following night, O.V. White, reportedly a dead-eye with a gun, was awakened from his slumber in his quarters above the hardware store and shot at the creature that was perching atop a telephone pole. This awakened Sidney Gregg, who had been sleeping in his store nearby. Gregg said the monster hopped like a kangaroo. Even the local high school teacher saw it and deemed it some sort of antediluvian monster.

It seems there’s never a decent pitchfork-and-torch gathering these days, but back then towns­men were not averse to taking up arms and forming a posse. So to the northwest side of Van Meter they charged, near the old brickyard where J.L. Platt Jr. heard a noise down by the abandoned coal mine.

“Presently the noise opened up again, as though Satan and a regiment of imps were coming forth for battle,” according to an article in the Des Moines Daily News on Oct. 3, 1903.

The monster appeared, joined by a smaller version. In a brilliant light they sailed away, only to return in the morning where the men had gathered “to rid the earth of them” with their firepower heard far and wide.

“The reception they received would have sunk the Spanish fleet, but aside from unearthly noise and peculiar odor they did not seem to mind it, but slowly descended the shaft of the old mine.”

Never to be seen again.