December 20, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"My Favorite Tarp Setup (No Cordage Used)"

Survival Lilly 

Prepping/Firearms:

• "Flint and Steel: What Causes the Sparks?"--SurvivalTopics.com. Basically, it is the oxidization with air (rusting) which gives off heat. Striking the iron with flint will shave off lots of tiny bits of iron that immediately oxidize, thus creating the spark.
• "The 1990’s Called, They Want Their Holster Back"--Breach Bang Clear. Why the drop leg holster sucks.
• "North American Rescue’s Compact Chest Seals"--Kit Up! According to the article, "[t]he HyFin Vent Compact Chest Seals are designed with 3-vented channels that allow air to escape the chest cavity during exhalation but prevent airflow from entering through the injury site during inhalation." They are sold in a twin-pack, but designed so you can open just one pack at a time. The cost, for a twin-pack, is $12.
• "Choosing and Storing Bulk Salt"--Security and Self-Reliance. Salt is one of the most important items to store. We need salt for good health, especially for proper neurological function; a lack of salt can be deadly. In addition to being used for flavoring, salt is important for preserving food, whether it be the brine used for pickling or packing an item in salt. This article discusses the different types of salt, whether they have any additives or other materials, and storage tips.
• "How to select, use a shot timer"--The Gun Writer. Improvement generally requires some way to measure our current abilities in order to identify deficiencies and measure improvement. Targets do that as to accuracy and consistency of the placement of our shots. A shot timer, however, allows us to measure speed: from the basic time to react to a starting beep, or when using a "par" setting, being able to shoot within a given time period.

• Related: "Shot Timers – The Time Of Your Life"--Shooting Illustrated. Another article discussing the uses of shot timers, but also giving a brief review of popular models currently on the market.

• "Lighten Up With Leverage: Trigger Pull Too Heavy? It May Be Trigger Finger Placement Is The Culprit"--Massad Ayoob at Guns Magazine. After discussing the possible legal implications of lightening your trigger for your self-defense weapon, Ayoob discusses how reach and placement of your finger can affect perceived trigger weight.
• "Primitive Weapons: 'The Lasso in combat'"--Neo-Survivalist. Apparently a lot of societies have used lasso's in hand-to-hand combat, or to pull down horse mounted fighters.
• "Survival Shelters: 15 Best Designs and How to Build Them"--Outdoor Life. Self-explanatory, I think.
• "How To Make a Tarp Shelter – 15 Designs"--Prepper's Will.

Other Stuff:

• "'Germany is at war': Berlin on alert for new terror attack as police hunt armed ISIS gunman who killed 12 people in lorry massacre - after security services admit they got the WRONG man"--Daily Mail. Police are now claiming that the Pakistani originally arrested was not involved in the attack (although he supposedly was the masked man who fled the scene), and the actual suspect is still at large. Reports are also indicating that the perpetrator killed the truck driver and hijacked the truck.  
• "'THEY ARE MERKEL'S DEAD!' German far-right blames Angela Merkel’s open-door migrant policy for Berlin truck attack"--The Sun. 
• "As yuan weakens, Chinese households rush to open foreign currency accounts"--Channel News Asia. It is not just multinationals trying to get their money out of China.
• "Looting leaves stores in ruins in Venezuela's Ciudad Bolivar"--Fox News. From the article:

Dozens of businesses were destroyed or ransacked. Streets are full of trash, rubble and burned motorcycles from the protests and looting that wracked the riverside city in Venezuela's interior.

Austerio Gonzalez is president of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He estimates that about 80 percent of stores that sell food in the city were ransacked.

Riots and protests broke out in Ciudad Bolivar and elsewhere over President Nicolas Maduro's sudden decision to scrap the country's most widely used currency note.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been deployed to the city's streets. But many stores remained closed Monday for fears of more looting.

Although not mentioned in the Fox News article, other news sources have indicated that Chinese-run shops were particularly targeted. A sign of out-grouping, I would say.

• "Three Maryland students are hospitalized after incredibly violent 'racially motivated' fight is caught on video breaking out in high school cafeteria"--Daily Mail. The fight reportedly began when a group of black youths attacked a group of Hispanics youths.
• Remember, it is weather if temperatures are lower than normal, but climate change if the temperatures are higher: "The climate change deniers map of America: Researchers find those who don't believe in global warming are likely to live in a cold area"--Daily Mail. More specifically, people that live in areas that have experienced record cold temperatures less likely to believe in global warming. Of course, warming is not very global if there are areas that are getting colder. I wonder if they will ever bother to see how many "deniers" are aware of the outright fraud perpetrated to support the theory of man-made global warming.
• Speaking of global warming: "A very unlikely white Christmas! Villagers stunned as snow falls in the Sahara for the first time in 37 YEARS"--Daily Mail. Some nice photos of desert sand dunes lightly dusted with snow.
• You didn't think he was just going to quietly disappear into the night, did you? "Obama Plans to Rule America Outside the White House"--Sultan Knish. An explanation of how Obama is planning on using his uber-community organizing organization, Organizing for Action. 
• OPEC's Christmas gift to the U.S.: "US Extends Oil Rig Streak to Seven Weeks"--American Interest. The author explains:

... this was always going to be the Achilles heel of any OPEC decision to reduce its collective production. Shale operations are much smaller than conventional fields, and are therefore more responsive to price pressures—there are less up-front capital costs to justify the continued operation of unprofitable fields, or to delay the re-opening of operations in areas that become profitable once again. That’s why we saw American oil production drop more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from June of this past year to October of this year. But that’s also why we’ve seen America’s total oil output increase 300,000 bpd over the past month and a half.

Based on the money it poured into Hillary's coffers, Saudi Arabia was betting big that she would win the presidency. 

• There is a new Woodpile Report up for your reading pleasure. Of particular note is Ol' Remus's comparison of various news reports of the same incident, showing how the MSM engages in fake news. Ol' Remus writes:

     The Associated Press news service, as policy, does not specify the race of a perp unless he's white. When there is no description at all we're supposed to believe none is available, which has become something of a wink-wink in itself. Recently the AP used an inventive dodge, "police did not release a detailed description". How precious. Now even their coverups have a coverup.

     Here are the particulars.

     "Boy, 3, out shopping with grandma dies in road rage shooting" says this Associated Press news report  from Little Rock, Arkansas. It continues, "Police said they were looking for an older black Chevrolet Impala. Police did not release a detailed description of the man who was driving it." The last sentence seemed devious even for the AP, so I checked a source known for being more straightforward and complete, the UK's online Daily Mail.

     The Daily Mail report was , "Arkansas boy, 3, is shot dead in sickening road-rage attack 'because his grandma wasn't driving fast enough'", by Associated Press and James Wilkinson for dailymail.com. Here are the key sentences: "The other driver honked his horn, and King-Macon honked back, the police report said. 'A black male then exited [the Impala] and fired one shot', the report said."

      Now we know the police report included a cursory description at the least. Notice the Daily Mail's account was based on the AP story but was much more informative, including photos of principals and something of a description of the perp. CNN, ABC, Fox16-local and NBC also used the AP story but included, or added, a description in their on-line reports. Some used the policeese "B/M", ABC said, "a tall black man".

      Fox News US online also used the AP story but took the coverup even further, "no description of the suspected shooter has been released," which is a lie. Or if you prefer, fake news. Even Huffington Post included the "tall black man" description. Nor did the Fox News Report on television that night include anything specific about the shooter.

     Bottom line, the AP release for the US was the least honest, the US online tevee news sites except Fox were marginally better, the AP release in the UK as augmented by Daily Mail staff was the most honest and informative. People distrust, if not despise, the mainstream media in the US for many reasons. This is one of them.

While the reporting from Europe concerning the United States is generally better at providing a description of the perpetrator in most cases, it isn't true in all cases. And as to Europe, we run into many of the same shenanigans, where the most we might hear is that an attack was by a "youth gang" or an "Asian" when the perp was a Muslim gang member or refugee.