A Quick Run Around The Web--November 21, 2015

"Red Rose With Black Background"--Wikimedia Photo of the Day

Self-Defense/Firearms:

• Breach Bang Clear has put out a series of articles with input from various self defense experts on surviving a terrorist incident, such as in Paris. The title of the series is "Perspectives: Wishful Thinking & Playing Dead Is Not a Plan"--Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
• "NRA Tests Armatix Smart Gun, Finds It To Be Pretty Dumb"--Blur Brain. Basically, the weapon can be used normally until synced to a special watch. Once synced, it takes two hands to enter the codes to deactivate the security (three if you wear the watch on the opposite wrist of your shooting hand) because you have to enter the code on the watch while depressing the grip safety on the weapon. Releasing the grip safety for any reason will require you to re-enter the security code. The double-action trigger pull is an estimated 25-lbs! It was unreliable, with frequent jams. And it has a kill switch that can be remotely activated. 
• "My Glock Shoots Left (?)"--Modern Service Weapons. 
• "Universal Wristlock Escape"--Rory Miller.

Interestingly, completely untrained people, especially if a little drunk, tend to do the same thing when placed in a wristlock. It doesn't matter which wristlock- whether you take out yaw, pitch or roll or any two of the three or all of them, the escape still works fine.

It works better than any technique I have yet seen from a trained martial artist. It is simple.

They reach out with the other hand, say, "Ow!" and pull the trapped hand to their chest. It works beautifully. Give it a try. And don't forget the 'ow'- consider it a primitive but pure kiai.

Decline of Civilization:

• "New Superbug Prompts Warnings of 'Post-Antibiotic Era'"--Newser. "Researchers have discovered bacteria in China that can defeat even the 'antibiotic of last resort,' reports the BBC, which describes the development as the possible start of an 'antibiotic apocalypse.' MCR-1, the mutated gene that resists colistin, the antibiotic used when others fail, appears to already be widespread among livestock in China and is beginning to appear in an alarming number of human infections, the New Scientist reports."
• "Puerto Rico Faces "Public Unrest" As Cash Crunch May Leave Government Workers Unpaid"--Zero Hedge. Since it would be government workers, wouldn't that be "government unrest"?
• "The Deep State: The Unelected Shadow Government Is Here to Stay"--The Rutherford Institute. The great secret combinations.
• "Failure of Intelligence: How Liberals Cause ISIS Terror Attacks"--a video by Bill Whittle. I watched this last night, and it makes the important point that France has known that these attacks have been coming for years, ever since Muslim youths rioted, burning cars and buildings all over Paris, the authorities rewarded them with more money and no consequences. The result was that as the "moderates" see the radicals succeeding, and the authorities retreating, the "moderates" are naturally going to follow the strong horse--the radicals. Watch it--it is worth the 8 or 10 minutes of your time.

• Related: "Belgium on terror lockdown: Brussels metro closed and people warned to avoid public areas after 'serious and imminent threat' alert over Paris-style ISIS attack"--Daily Mail.

• "Fighting Terrorism With Tourniquets"--The Atlantic. The main thrust of this article is that knowledge of wound care, including use of tourniquets, could have saved many lives at the Bataclan theater.There is a lot of stupid in this article, but also some important points to take away. 

First: "One hundred and forty minutes. That’s the amount of time between when gunmen at the Bataclan theater began rounding up survivor-hostages after their initial killing spree, and when police began their successful assault on the theater. All told, it was over 160 minutes from the first shots to when the first responders were able to reach those inside the venue: more than two and a half hours."   

Second: "A 2012 study found that almost a quarter of deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were 'potentially survivable,' and 90 percent of deaths overall occurred before the casualty could be treated at a medical center. Numbers like those, including a statistic that 90 percent of those with potentially survivable wounds died specifically from 'uncontrolled blood loss,' have recently led both the military and civilian groups to focus on techniques that can be performed quickly with minimal training by non-medical personnel, in the hope that future deaths might be avoided." 

Of course, just as the author rejects the idea of armed civilians, so too do some of the medical authorities quoted in the article laugh off the idea of civilians with adequate training to treat bleeding wounds. We know that the author and the contrarian medical authorities are wrong. Everyone in my 9th Grade health class was required to learn and be certified in CPR. Every boy-scout is required to learn first aid. Most everyone in civilized countries can read and write and do arithmetic. You can't honestly tell me that learning how to use a firearm is more difficult than any of the above.

• "The Most Important Question About ISIS That Nobody Is Asking"--Zero Hedge. At least, that the media and Congress are not asking. The question being the name(s) of the commodity trader(s) and/or trading house(s) buying black market oil from ISIS. The author notes that the identity must be well known to the intelligence services. Similar to how British business/financial interests stonewalled any investigation into De Beers supplying diamonds to the Nazis in World War II.

• Related: "U.S. Pilots Confirm: Obama Admin Blocks 75 Percent of Islamic State Strikes"--Washington Free Beacon. The reason generally given is to avoid killing civilians--the same reasons for not striking ISIS' oil production and shipment equipment. President Goldmansach's indeed. Is there an Obama Foundation out there that we don't know about?

• Speaking of De Beers ... "World May Run Out of Diamonds as De Beers Seeks New Deposits"--Sputnik (citing a Wall Street Journal article). "Analysts from McKinsey & Co., a top multinational consulting firm, project that diamond production will reduce after 2017 unless new discoveries are made, according to the newspaper." At the same time, the article notes declining demand for diamonds the last few years (no doubt because of the overall economic slowdown--killing the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs does reduce the output of Golden Eggs). This probably explains the recent number of ads I've seen touting "chocolate" diamonds; basically diamonds that would have been considered garbage in the past. As noted at Wikipedia: "Brown diamonds are the most common color variety of natural diamonds. The brown color once made them less attractive as gemstones because of the reduced glimmer, and most are used for industrial purposes[.]" I would note that the issue is not that the world is running out of diamonds, but rather that the diamond fields controlled by De Beers are running out of diamonds. Although there are rich fields in the U.S., De Beers has been able to block their development in one way or another. 
• "The Great Fall Of China Started At Least 4 Years Ago"--The Automatic Earth. The author argues that China's economy started collapsing at least 4 years ago, just before prices in commodities began to fall.

Other Stuff:

• "Armed robbers steal 17 paintings including works by Rubens and Tintoretto in £10million art heist"--Daily Mail.