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Thursday, April 20, 2017

April 20, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Source: "Revealed: How your bad breath, low sex drive and headaches could be a sign of a vitamin deficiency (and what to eat to combat them)"--Daily Mail.
Firearms/Prepping:
  • Everything old is new again: "SOCOM Looks to Ditch 7.62 NATO For Better Long Range Performance"--Bearing Arms.  According to the article, "[t]hey’re looking at rounds such as the .260 Remington and 6.5 Creedmoor in an AR-10 sized battle rifle, and the Army Marksmanship Unit has been running an 'AR-12,' (a AR-type rifle between the AR-15 and AR-10 in size) in the experimental .264 USA." A hundred years ago, there were actually quite a few nations that either had or experimented with 6.5 mm cartridges, including the Swiss, the Japanese, and the Italians. (The U.S. Navy went with a 6 mm cartridge--the 6 mm Lee--but the metallurgy and bullet designs were not up to it).
  • "Cartridge of the Century: The .38 Smith & Wesson Special" (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Lucky Gunner. The first article looks at the history of the .38 Special through the early 1980's, from development to its peak when it dominated the handgun market in the United States. The second part takes it from the 1980's to the present, as the revolver was supplanted and replaced by auto-loaders for both law enforcement and civilians, but how the cartridge has found a home in small carry revolvers for backup or concealed carry.
  • "Man Traps and Other Security Measures for Your Homestead"--Survival Sullivan. Although it discusses some passive measures, this article is primarily an overview of traps for a survival retreat. I say overview, because it describes different traps, but not how to make them or their trigger mechanisms. A couple things to keep in mind: traps are indiscriminate, able to harm both friend and foe; and you can't legally do something by trap that you can't do in person. The latter is particularly important as to self-defense and the issue of whether an attacker represents an imminent threat. An intruder setting off a trap set in a remote cabin a hundred miles from your location obviously doesn't present an imminent threat to you.
  • "Use Plastic Baggies to Stop Grip Components From Rattling"--The Firearms Blog. I mounted a rear sight from Tech Sights on my SKS (see here). It used a special tool for adjusting windage, which shipped in a small zip-lock type bag. The same firearm sported a Tapco pistol grip with a small storage compartment. I just stuffed my sight in there (in its bag) and haven't noticed any issues with rattling. The plastic on such bags are generally thicker than a standard sandwich baggy, and so are particularly good.
  • "How To Zero Your AR15"--Ammo Land. This is an article from a few years ago, but it is always good to review the basics. This article discusses the basics of exterior ballistics and goes on to discuss the impact of various "zeros" at different distances. Of course, if you don't have a bullet drop compensator (BDC) or can't gauge the distance, the best zero is one that will get you (mostly) on target at the usable ranges. Thus, the 50 yard zero for the 5.56 will generally work: it is, of course, right on at 50 yards, arcs to about 2.1 inches at 150 yards, and is only 4.2 inches low at 300 yards. Of course, this varies with the barrel length and load, so you will need to check it with what you use.
  • Related: "Maximum Hangtime: Getting the Most Out of your AR15 Zero"--The New Rifleman. This article covers the same topic, but goes into more detail based on a "zero" using the maximum point blank range (MPBR) of the rifle. Basically, fine tuning the "zero" over a "vanilla" 50-yard zero. The author gives you the number of inches high you should be hitting at 100 yards to get the MPBR of different loads (he uses 55 grain and 77 grain to give a high and low) out of different length barrel systems. 
            A number of state and governors groups participated in the two-day attack simulation, which included states as far south as Virginia and as far north as Massachusetts. The region is one of the most densely populated in the nation, with many of the states sharing an interconnected energy system.
             One of the key findings was not particularly reassuring. "The public will face a great deal of uncertainty following a significant cyber incident that causes physical damage (such as a long-term power outage or petroleum disruption), creating a considerable challenge for public information and expectation management, particularly around restoration times," the report read.
      Translating to regular English, the government agencies have no methods for communicating recovery efforts to the public.
      • "Army picks Heckler & Koch sniper rifle to replace M110"--Army Times. According to the article, the Army is replacing the M110 (an AR-10 style rifle produced by Knights Armament) with the G-28 produced by HK.  Bearing Arms has an article on the topic, which speculates that this is a back-door by the Army to test out a new "battle rifle." However, just casually reading over the differences between the systems, I can see why the Army might want to make the shift: the M110 has a fixed M16A2 type stock, whereas the G-28 uses a collapsible stock with an adjustable cheek riser; and the G-28 uses a 16.5-inch barrel versus the 20-inch barrel of the M110, which makes it easier for getting into or out of vehicles or buildings. It may just be my poor eyesight, but the flash hider on the G-28 looks suspiciously like the one developed for the FAL.
      • "What would happen if that massive asteroid zipping by actually hit us? Study reveals exactly how millions would die"--Daily Mail. Interestingly, according to the models, "[l]and-based impacts were, on average, an order of magnitude more dangerous than asteroids that landed in oceans."

      Other Stuff:
               Racked by food shortages and political unrest, Venezuela swelled with what organizers are calling the "mother of all protests" on Wednesday. Demonstrators have taken to the streets in the capital, Caracas, and other major cities across the country to rally against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, who assumed office precisely five years ago.
                 Throughout the day, those rallies often devolved into clashes between demonstrators and security forces — chaotic, violent scenes rent by tear gas, tossed rocks and even two reported deaths.
                   The dismissals capped a five-year legal fight, longer than it took to discover, prosecute and punish Dookhan, who worked at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston. She admitted to tampering with evidence, forging test results and lying about it. The former lab tech served three years in prison before being released last year.
                     Why Dookhan did it remains somewhat of a mystery. Investigators and former colleagues have said the Trinidadian immigrant seemed driven by a compulsion to overachieve, even if it meant making things up or cutting corners. She became the lab's most prolific analyst, a record that impressed her supervisors but also worried her co-workers — a concern that went overlooked, investigators found.
              • More evidence for r/K theory: "Antifa Protestor Moldylocks Has A Porn Career"--Anonymous Conservative. This is the woman who gained her 15 minutes of fame because she was hit in the head during the recent Berkeley protest fight. As AC observes, however: 
              She appeared to wear “sap” gloves with lead powder in the knuckles to the protest. She reportedly has a criminal history for theft, which is indicative of an expectation of free resources. And she gained her infamy be being punched by a guy while trying to hit a Trump supporter in the head with a bottle.
              However, I think AC is correct that the Anti-Fa fascists did not expect anyone on the right to fight back. Now that has occurred, the left will escalate the violence, just as they did in the 1960s and 1970s, perhaps moving on to using firearms or bombs. 
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