December 19, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"The Buffer - Theory and when to Use What Buffer"--Chris Bartocci (h/t The Firearms Blog)

Firearms/Prepping:

• "New Cleaning Gear from Real Avid"--The Firearms Blog. The produces are the Gun Tool Max (a $60 multitool designed for firearm maintenance and cleaning), Carbon Boss AR15 (a $30 dollar took with various brushes, picks and scrapers intended specifically for the AR) and the Bore Boss (a line of cleaners similar to the Bore Snake, but priced at $10 each, and its own case to make storage more compact, easier, and cleaner than with similar system).
• "Rifle Sling – What The Pros Use"--Precision Rifle Blog. This post is almost two years old, but still relevant.

• Related: "How to use a Rifle Sling"--Lucky Gunner. 

• Related: "The Loop Sling"--Art of the Rifle.

• On a side note: the author of Art of the Rifle had at one time mentioned he was stopping production of slings, but he must have decided against it, because his on-line store--Riflecraft--is still up and apparently open for business.
• "Hardware store zip guns"--The Firearms Blog. A very simple zip gun using standard hardware fittings.
• "What is the Best Reloading Press? The Best Reloading Kit? Our Reviews and Recommendations"--Reloader Addict.

Other Stuff:

• "Christmas weather: White Christmas? No, A Christmas Day snow SUPERSTORM"--The Express. 

• Reminder: In March 2000, the British newspaper, The Independent, predicted that snowfalls were a thing of the past. 

• "'I don't feel safe anymore' Surge in Austrian gun sales since migrant crisis"--The Express. From the article:

     Gun stores have reported a quadruple growth in the sales of firearms, with some owners attributing the sales to a spike in violent crime.

     During an interview with NRATV, Jeffrey Pang, who works for Austria's oldest firearms store, linked the rise in the self-defence market to "the immigrant crisis in Europe".

     He said the surge in firearm sales coincided with reports of robberies, rapes and break-ins since the migrant crisis began.

• "Meth gangs of China play star role in Philippines drug crisis"--Reuters. The article reports:

     Known in the trade as “cooks” and “chemists,” meth production experts are flown into the Philippines from Greater China by drug syndicates to work at labs like the one at Mount Arayat. China isn’t only a source of meth expertise – it is also the biggest source of the meth and of the precursor chemicals used to produce the synthetic drug that are being smuggled into the Philippines, according to local drug enforcement officials.

     “It’s safe to say that the majority of the meth we have comes from China,” said PDEA spokesman Derrick Carreon.

China is also the primary source of precursors for the labs run by the Mexican cartels.

• "Companies Face Delays Getting Cash Out of China"--The Wall Street Journal. The article indicates that Chinese regulators have imposed tougher restrictions on the movement of capital out of the country in order to slow the yuan’s decline. Consequently, "[a]s of late November, firms that want to exchange yuan into dollars in China now need approval for any transaction greater than $5 million. They also face tighter limits on amounts they can transfer in and out of bank accounts in China to affiliates in other countries, in a practice known as 'cross-border sweeping.' " This is problematic to multinational companies that see further weakening of the yuan and want to get their money out of the China.

• Related: "Daiwa: Why China’s currency could get wobbly"--CNBC. Essentially, in order to maintain a fixed exchange rate between the yuan and the dollar, the Chinese central bank will need to buy and sell dollars (and, accordingly, contract or expand the amount of yuan in the Chinese money supply).

• "Surface Forces: China Kidnaps An American Droid"--Strategy Page. The article provides more details into the type of drone that was seized by China recently. The drones essentially are to replace surface research vessels by collecting and transmitting oceanographic data over a long period of time (they can operated up to a year between charges). According to the article, the Navy currently operates about 2,000 of these drones, valued at $150,000 each. The article also notes that, until this most recent incident, "most of the AUV incidents were accidents and curiosities, not diplomatic showdowns."
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "The real-life Avatar robot takes its first steps: Secretive 13 foot high South Korean 'war machine' walks by mimicking its human pilot"--Daily Mail. A photograph from the article is shown below: