March 4, 2017--A Quick Run Around the Web

"Inmate strangles Falkenburg prison guard with a towel"--Leslie Sanchez.

Although the inmate screws up the attack at the end, this actually demonstrates how to get the garrotte around someone's neck. I would point out that a towel may not be the best garrotte--British commandos, during WWII, used garrottes made of barbed wire. More information on the incident described above can be found at the Daily Mail.

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• Check out Greg Ellifritz's most recent Weekend Knowledge Dump. You may remember from last week the video of the officer that drew his handgun when threatened by a group of teens. I had noted my thought that he clenched his fist when he started to fall into the shrubbery and that is probably how he pulled the trigger on his handgun. Ellifritz has some comments regarding that incident, and suggests that it could have been a sympathetic reaction because of the officer using his other hand to grasp at the suspect. Ellifritz links to a 2012 article he had written about this phenomena: "Trigger Finger Positioning, Hand Clenches, and Accidental Discharges." He explains:

Many shooters hold their fingers this way [trigger finger alongside the trigger guard] when not firing.  They believe that since the finger is not on the trigger, an accidental discharge won’t occur.  In general, they are correct.  But most shooters don’t know that certain situations can cause an involuntary hand clenching.  The tightening of the hand causes a contraction of all of the fingers with a force up to 30 lbs. (the Glock trigger pull weight is around 6 lbs.) and cannot be consciously controlled.

He goes on to explain that:

The three most commonly identified causes of involuntary hand clenching have been extensively studied.  They are as follows:

1) Postural Imbalance.  When the shooter loses balance or trips, his hands will clench.

2) Startle Effect.  When the shooter is under stress and surprised, there will often be a hand clench.

3) Interlimb Interaction.  Under stress, when the non gun hand closes violently, the gun hand will clench,  spontaneously duplicating the actions of the non-gun hand.

He discusses the is much more detail, so be sure to read his whole article.

The obvious solution is to rest the finger higher, along the frame or bottom edge of the slide. He offers his two favorite options: First, "[t]he one I use and teach is to place the trigger finger as high as possible on the slide without disturbing the grip." Second is that taught by Massad Ayoob: "placing the finger fairly high on the frame with the trigger finger bent or curled.  The bent position causes the finger to curl onto the frame if the hands are clenched.  This position also gives the shooter a little more strength to resist a gun grab attempt."

Some firearms offer some natural indexing points to let you know if your finger is properly located. For instance, Ellifritz relates that "feeling the bottom edge of the ejector port let’s me know my finger is in the right place.  On Glock handguns, the slide lock lever makes a good indicator for the Ayoob position."

That is one of the features I thought particularly well thought out on Remington's R51 is that there were serrations just above and forward of the trigger (see photo above) to use as an index for resting your finger.

• "Spyderco Efficient Review"--Everyday Commentary. A detailed review of Spyderco's "Efficient" model of folding knife. It sounds like a no-nonsense knife that gives you what you need in a 3-inch folder at a reasonable price point--about $40. I prefer the thumb opening hole on Spyderco knives to almost any other system, so I have a certain bias toward their knives.
• "The Prepared Home: 50 Essential Items to Put in Your Ultimate Survival Medical Kit"--The Survival Place Blog. This list goes beyond a standard first-aid kit, but is intended to assist with treating other maladies (at least to the extent you can do so without having prescription medications), including traumatic injuries.
• "How To Properly Clean A Cut, Scrape, Or Wound To Prevent Infection"--More Than Just Surviving.
• "15 Things To Put In Your Dental Emergency Kit"--Urban Survival Site.
• "Self-Storage Facilities – The Ultimate Cache?"--Survival Weekly. The author is not suggesting that you rent a self-storage unit simply for purposes of a cache (although that may be your only option for long-term food storage if you live in an apartment), but that if you have such a unit anyway, you might as well use it to store extra food or other supplies.
• "The Prepper’s Do It Yourself Fishing Kit"--The Survivalist Blog.
• "Effects of snow on photovoltaic performance"--Appropedia.

Other Stuff:

• "Heating our homes kills 10,000 Americans per year"--Treehugger. Imagine how many would die each year if we didn't heat our homes.
• "How to Glue Anything to Anything Else"--Popular Mechanics. A quick and dirty guide to different glues and adhesives to use for different materials.
• "Scientists Think These Skulls May Be New Human Ancestor"--Smithsonian. From the article:

       The skulls, which are described in a new paper in the journal Science, were discovered in Lingjing, China in 2007 and 2014 and are between 100,000 and 130,000 years old. Researchers are calling them “a morphological mosaic” because of a collage of characteristics.

       They’ve got Neanderthals’ ear canals, eastern Eurasian humans’ low and flat brainpans, and similarities to early modern Old World humans, too.

       The skulls are distinctive enough that they seem to belong to an entirely different species—one that’s neither human nor Neanderthal, but that shares characteristics of both. One explanation is that they’re Denisovans, a recently discovered ancient human cousin thought to have interbred with both humans and Neanderthals. ... 

• Leftist hissy fit: "Outdoor Retailer is leaving Utah over public lands issues, a move Herbert calls ‘offensive’"--Salt Lake Tribune. The trade show is choosing a new location because Utahns are unhappy with Obama's designation of 3 million more acres of land as a national monument (it was another of his parting gifts). 
• "La Raza in WaPo: Trump Immigration Orders Like ‘Slave Trade’"--Breitbart. Yup. Building a border wall is just like going into a foreign country, capturing the natives, hauling them to another country and forcing them to work for nothing.
• The religion of peace still hard at work: "Egypt's Christians flee terror in north Sinai security void"--ABC News (warning: video starts automatically).