April 11, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Operating a bolt action rifle: working the bolt for speed and consistency"--Dave Anderson (3 min.)

"Bolt action Ultra Rapid Fire"--Gen Scinmore (1 min.)

Firearms/Prepping:

• "Scandinavian Bolt-Rifle Speed Shooting — Stangskyting"--Accurate Shooter. A version of the mad-minute drill. An explanation and video at the link.
• "Marksmanship – The ABC’s by Col Townsend Whelen"--Rifletalk. Col. Whelen was one of the top rifle shooters and trainers/educators in the mid-20th century. Worth the read.

• Related: "Book Review: The Hunting Rifle, by Townsend Whelen"--The Art of the Rifle.

• Related: "The Townsend Whelen Challenge"--The Art of the Rifle. The challenge: "An expert rifleman with few peers, Whelen could reportedly hit man-sized target at 200 yards using the bolt action, open-sighted M1903 Springfield.30/06 service rifle, scoring six hits in ten seconds flat, and could do it on command." Whelen, to my understanding, actually preferred the Model 1917 Enfield, which had a magazine capacity of 6, so I wonder if it was the 1917 rather than 1903.

• "Why a Dutch Oven Should Be Part of Your Survival Kit"--Preparedness Advice. (H/t Woodpile Report). The article explains why the Dutch Oven is so versatile, and lists the pots, utensils and tools necessary for a kit.
• "Iraqi Soldier Takes 7.62 Tracer to Face, Shrugs It Off"--Bearing Arms. The author comments:

       This is a good example of reason that good firearms trainers tell people to focus on the ocular cavity formed by the outside of the eyes and bottom of the nose if they must fire a headshot.

       If a 7.62x54R round—roughly analogous with the .30-’06—cannot reliably stop a human with a shot to the head outside of the ocular triangle, odds are that our much lower-powered handgun cartridges moving more than a thousand feet-per-second slower are even more likely to ricochet or deviate off of hard, curved bone.

• "Knife Targeting Priorities – Defanging More Than The Snake!"--Shooting Performance. From the article:

       In my opinion, the most brilliant tactic in the Filipino arts is based on a concept called “defanging the snake.” When an attacker armed with a weapon swings or thrusts at you, rather than blocking, parrying, or evading and then countering with a similar attack, you simply target his attacking limb. Done properly, it causes him to drop his weapon instantly—literally taking the “fang” (the weapon) from the “snake” (the arm wielding it). From an OODA-loop decision-making standpoint, this approach is dead simple. He sticks his arm out to attack and you attack it. Even though you are reacting to his action and therefore inherently slower, you can actually use the force of his strike to increase the force of yours by hitting or cutting into its motion with a mirror-image movement. If he throws a high forehand strike, you match it with a short, economical high forehand of your own, “letting” him hit himself or cut himself on your weapon.

       As a knife tactic, defanging the snake is extremely effective because it directly targets the structures that allow his hand to hold a weapon. In simple terms, muscles pull on tendons to move bones. To grip a weapon, the muscles of the forearm contract and pull on the flexor tendons, which pass through the inside of the wrist and attach to the fingers. By severing the tendons or the muscles that power them, this connection is broken and the hand can no longer close to grip anything. The fingers will instantly open and any object in the hand will be released—an immediate disarm and the perfect tactic for using a knife defensively.

       Physiologically, this concept applies to all muscle groups, tendons, and limbs. If you sever the tissues responsible for moving a limb, you destroy or at least severely inhibit that limb’s function. Sometimes called “biomechanical cutting,” this approach has been used by edged-weapon cultures around the world for centuries (although I cite the Filipino arts as my inspiration for it, this tactic is also found in many other Eastern and Western systems). ...

• "Auckland eruption scenario: 435,000 displaced"--New Zealand Herald. From the article:

       Scientists have imagined a two month-long volcanic eruption near Mangere Bridge, in which 435,000 residents would be forced from the area.

       The paper, focusing on what would happen to Auckland's transport network, found most physical damage to road and rail transportation would happen from the volcanic eruption itself, destroying anything within a 0.5 to 2.5km radius, but with little impact from earthquakes leading up to the eruption.

       In this scenario, Auckland Airport would not be directly affected by physical damage, but would have restricted access from evacuation zoning and airspace restrictions, forcing limited domestic and cargo flights to redirect to Whenuapai and Ardmore Aerodrome.

       After the eruption itself, the researchers say that the most important factors for keeping the transportation network open are cleaning bottleneck areas like bridges of tephra, ensuring electricity supply for the trains, airport and traffic signals, as well as ensuring continued fuel supply.

       The University of Canterbury, University of Auckland and GNS Science researchers behind the new study, published in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, said the most extensive service reduction across all transport networks would occur around six days before the eruption onset.

       This was largely because of the evacuation zones that would be implemented, disrupting crucial north-south ground links through Auckland.

       In the main scenario, ash was deposited on parts of the road and rail network in Auckland, which would likely cause some disruption for over a month.

Other Stuff:

• The beginning of gun confiscations in South Africa: "SAGA Warns Western Cape Police Service to Raid Gun Owners Homes"--Ammo Land. The article reports:

       South African Gunowners Association ( SAGA ) has been advised that South African Police Service ( SAPS ) in the Western Cape will be conducting an operation aimed at gunowners who have failed, for whatever reason, to timeously renew their licences in respect of specific guns.

       It appears that SAPS teams will be conducting ‘raids’ on targeted individuals mostly at their residences with a view to confiscating guns and ammunition.

       SAGA cannot at this stage speculate as to what SAPS intends to achieve by this action, nor what other steps may be taken by SAPS at the time of such visit.

The article has some advice for gun owners still using the older "green" licenses.

• Related: "South African President Jacob Zuma: Protesters racists"--BBC News. The protests are in response to Zuma recently firing South Africa's finance minister. It should be noted that Zuma is apparently motivated to respond to criticism from other black political parties that he is not being aggressive enough in land reforms and other projects to shift property and money from whites to blacks. Zuma is already moving ahead with so-called "agri-parks" which will ensure that at least 70% of farm land is owned by black South Africans. 

• Western civilization has been retreating for decades from Africa, and the continent is merely returning to its natural state. "African migrants sold in Libya 'slave markets', IOM says"--BBC News. The reporter writes:

       Victims told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to town squares or car parks to be sold.

       Migrants with skills like painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the head of the IOM in Libya told the BBC.

       Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 Nato-backed ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

• More information: "Migrants are being sold at open slave markets in Libya"--International Business Times. 

• A new Woodpile Report is up. Among all the other goodness it mentions and comments upon, see "The Authoritarian Impulse: Getting What We Really Don’t Want" by Fred Reed. 
• "Why fingerprint sensors are not as secure as you think: Researchers create 'MasterPrints' that can unlock ANY phone"--Daily Mail. Sort of like bumping locks, except electronic. Apparently, the "MasterPrints" are a composite print that combines features common to many different prints into a single fake finger print. 
• "Fears grow over mystery Russian compound in Nicaragua"--New Zealand Herald. Doesn't sound like much of a mystery from the article. The Russians have built a new compound that apparently is line of sight with the American embassy--probably for purposes of gathering signals intelligence (I presume that it is situated too far away for direct listening with microphones or laser devices).
• Diversity is our strength: "Gunman live streams on Facebook as he shoots at passing cars and cops in Los Angeles before being arrested by a SWAT team"--Daily Mail. From the tattoos he sports, Sean Vasquez, 20, was very likely affiliated with a gang.
• "Judge Richard Posner's unimpeachable honesty: Glenn Reynolds"--USA Today. The recent 7th Circuit decision extending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to sexual orientation has convinced Glenn Reynolds that all federal judges should be elected. If you read my post about this the other day, the 7th Circuit, for all intents and purposes, amended the Civil Rights Act (it certainly cannot have been the Congress's intent to include sexual orientation given that sodomy was, then, illegal in all states). Reynolds notes that one of the judges (Posner), in a concurring opinion, expressly admits that the decision is pure judicial legislation. Posner wrote: "I would prefer to see us acknowledge openly that today we, who are judges rather than members of Congress, are imposing on a half-century-old statute a meaning of ‘sex discrimination’ that the Congress that enacted it would not have accepted. . . . " Posner added: "We should not leave the impression that we are merely the obedient servants of the 88th Congress (1963– 1965), carrying out their wishes. We are not. We are taking advantage of what the last half century has taught." Congress should impeach the whole lot comprising the majority in that decision.
• "Japan's population to shrink by a THIRD within 50 years from 127 million to 88 million as long work hours and online porn are blamed for a drop in birth rate"--Daily Mail. 
• Rechecking the entrails, the omens have changed: "Michael Mann Adjusts the Climate 'Turning Point' Out to 2020"--Watts Up With That. It was only just last year that we were told we had passed the tipping point. And also in 2012, and 2008, and .... 
• "Shocking moment four thieves use stolen pickup truck to bust into a Florida gun store in daring raid that took less than 31 seconds"--Daily Mail. Could someone do that with your home or retreat?
• "PICTURED: The internal medicine specialist father-of-five who was beaten and dragged off an overbooked United flight as CEO pens 'tone deaf' email DEFENDING staff"--Daily Mail. United's CEO doubles down by blaming the doctor for what happened claiming he (the passenger) was belligerent. Except that he was only belligerent because he was being kicked off the flight to make room for United employees.