April 5, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Intellectual Prepping | Local Knowledge"--Suspicious Observers (2-1/2 minutes).

This video discusses some general prepping concepts, but especially focuses on the need to have knowledge concerning your local environment--flora and fauna for foraging or hunting, sources of water, what can grow and what cannot, etc. Because, as the author notes, you can only store so much food.

• "The USMC Is Finally Replacing the M40 Sniper Rifle"--The Firearm Blog. Although there have been variants and upgrades, the M40 has been in use by the Marine Corps since the Vietnam War. The M40 is based on the Remington 700 actions chambered in a .308/7.62 NATO. The new rifle is the Mk 13 sniper rifle, which is based on the Remington 700 long action, but chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum. The reason given is the longer range of the .300 Winchester Magnum over the .308.
• "Lyman Products New Tacstar Carbon Fiber AR Handguards"--The Truth About Guns. Just a press release from the Company, but it seems an interesting product. This is a lightweight (just 4 ounces, although it is not clear if that includes the mounting hardware) hand guard featuring M-LOK attachment points, and priced between $175 and $225 depending on the length. Currently, they are offering 10-inch, 12-inch, and 15-inch versions.
• "Hiluckey 10000mAh Solar Charger : weekly product review"--The Survivalist Blog. This charger runs for $20 to $25 dollars, and the author gave it good reviews. He tested it in Arizona, where he lives, and found that it could recharge from 25% to 100% in 4 to 6 hours depending on weather conditions.
• "Preparing for Not Collapsing"--Left Wing Survivalist. The author raises an important point: "The point being, things generally not collapsing is a more likely scenario, overall, than everything collapsing." Your preparations are to give you peace of mind, not be an additional burden. Also, you better prepare for retirement, because that is more likely than TEOTWAWKI.
• "Heating with Wood Q&A"--Surviving the Suburbs. While it may seem too late for this article, I would beg to disagree. Now is the time to start planning on wood for the next winter, especially if you intend on cutting your own wood. I agree with the author that a mix of hardwood and softwood is best. My experience is that some woods (cedar, some pines, and poplar) catch fire quickly and easily, but burn very rapidly. Hard woods (e.g., from fruit trees, oak, maple, etc.) produce the best bang for buck as far as wood output, but still can burn a long time. Pine and fur doesn't give as much heat, but also burn longer for thicker pieces of wood. The problem is that they don't always burn thoroughly. But by combining soft and hard wood, you can get a mix that will burn even the most stubborn soft woods. 
• "Skill Set: Custody"--Tactical Wire. The author explains:

         Unless it’s required for your job you do not try to detain a threat.  Attempting this puts you into a dangerous situation.  The longer you’re around a threat the greater the chances that something bad will happen.

         The threat is down.  This doesn’t mean they are out of the fight.  The body can take an enormous amount of punishment and still keep ticking.  When mind and spirit are willing, it’s amazing what an injured person can achieve.  There are numerous documented incidents where threats were down, playing opossum, waiting for an opportunity – when they will have the advantage - to get back into the fight.

         A downed threat must be watched constantly.  You can’t take your eyes off them, even for a moment.  Hard to do, even under the best conditions.  All they have to do is wait for you to become distracted for a fraction of a second; this is their window to begin another attack.  And this time they already know you’re ready and willing to engage them, so there won’t be any hesitation on their part.  Maybe they are out of the fight, but their friends are not happy with your actions.  It’s difficult to deal with one threat.  It’s exponentially harder to deal with multiple threats.

         Attempting to hold an uninjured threat is even more dangerous.  Physically they are one hundred percent capable of fighting.  Mentally? You have no idea what they’re thinking.  They are complying with your verbal commands, but this may be in order to lull you into a false sense of security.  And again, all they have to do is wait for the right time to attack.  Bad guys study, learn and practice these type skills, often more than the good guys.  Never underestimate the threat; don’t take any chances.

         What are your options?  You leave, tactically retreating to a safer location.  Or, you force them to leave, watching them carefully in case they change their mind.  Again, your job is not to take them into custody or hold them for law enforcement.  Leave or go to a safer location, contacting the authorities as soon as possible to provide them with a good description of the threat.

• "The Great 'Othering'"--Michael Bane Blog. The author explains that the demonizing of the NRA and gun owners is a psychological strategy that is intended to make it easier to commit atrocities against gun owners. He writes, for instance: 

When you see calls like "Death to the NRA," "All gun owners have blood on their hands," NRA members/gun owners should be "hauled into the streets and killed" -- all of which we have seen in the last few weeks -- what you are really seeing is bloody chum being tossed into the water in the hopes of summoning a Monster to do their bidding.

Read the whole thing.

• It looks like the wages of socialism may be catching up to the UK: "England Slides Closer To Communism: Malnourished Children Fill Pockets With Food"--SHTF Plan. Reports of school students being malnourished, and pocketing extra food to take home.
• For those readers interested in firearms history or trivia: "ABP M-01 Experimental Soviet Caseless Rifle"--The Firearm Blog. The Soviets couldn't get it to work, either.
• "Top 8 Disasters to Prepare For In 2018"--Mike's Gear Reviews. An infographic giving some basic information on various types of disasters--nuclear war, EMP attack, etc.--and some responses on your part. 
• The inevitable blow back in Saudi Arabia: "Hamza bin Laden Vows to 'Redistribute the Riches' of Saudi Arabia to Poor in Call for Uprising"--PJ Media. From the article:

        Hamza bin Laden went after the Saudi kingdom's relationship with America in a new video intended to incite Muslims to rise up against Middle Eastern rulers they see as too allied with the West.

       The video is the sixth episode in a series by the son of Osama bin Laden; Hamza said that in addition to trying to spur "our dear people in the Arabian Peninsula" to rise up "against the criminal tyrants and rulers of the country," al-Qaeda wants to incite people "to liberate the place of revelation from the Crusaders, and protect the Two Holy Mosques from the Safavids, and establish a complete and rightly guided Islamic system."

• "Experts warn NYC could come down like a house of cards if a 5.0 earthquake struck along the 125th Street fault line - and the Big Apple is OVERDUE one"--Daily Mail. Like Seattle, the primary danger is from older brick buildings. From the article: "If a 7.0 magnitude quake hit, more than 6,000 older unreinforced masonry buildings would almost certainly crumble in a huge disaster."
• "Israel scraps plan to send African migrants to West"--BBC News. The title of this article is misleading. The basic situation is that approximately 30,000 Africans are illegally in Israel. Israel had reached an agreement with the UN to keep about half of the illegal aliens, but send the rest on to Europe. After blow back from his party about keeping the illegals, Prime Minister Netanyahu repudiated the agreement. I'm sure that Europe will still take them.
• "Former U.S. Army Sniper, 2 Other Soldiers Accused of Becoming International Hitmen"--Yahoo News. From the article:

        Joseph Hunter, a onetime sergeant with a Special Forces background, Adam Samia and Carl David Stillwell have denied they planned the 2012 execution-style hit — a case that’s provided an inside glimpse into the secret fraternity of private mercenaries willing to kill in cold blood for cash.

       Prosecutors said the 52-year-old Hunter was working as a security chief for weapons and drug trafficker Paul Le Roux when he recruited Samia and Stillwell to travel from their homes in Roxboro, North Carolina, to the Philippines for what was called “ninja work.” Hunter provided firearms and silencers and told them Le Roux would pay them $35,000 a piece to get the job done, Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Egan said in federal court in Manhattan.

• "Why Female Mass Shooters—Like the One at YouTube—Are So Extraordinarily Rare"--Fortune. The article gives the impression that this applies across the board to any mass killings. However, the primary reason is that female murderers generally use less overt violence. They tend to kill by poisoning, withholding care, driving cars off cliffs or into lakes, and that type of thing. 
• "More Q Drops"--Anonymous Conservative. With Easter past us, Q has been very busy with new hints and comments. AC goes over some of the most recent, with some explanation as to what is being discussed.
• "PAGES 2K ‘Hockey Stick’ Graph Validation Exposed As ‘Corrupt’"--Principia Scientific. The author writes:

        Five years ago, the release of the PAGES 2k Consortium (2013) “global” temperature data set was accompanied by a great deal of fanfare.

        Advocates deemed the conglomeration of proxy temperature data from 7 land regions as scientific confirmation of the notorious hockey-stick-shaped temperature reconstruction popularized by Michael Mann and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, TAR) in the early 2000s.

* * *

        After corrections to the originally erroneous and corrupted PAGES 2K reconstruction, much of the entire 0-1,000 AD period turned out to be just as warm (if not warmer in some decades) as the 20th century. ...

* * *

       But if we look at the presented data from all 7 regions in PAGES 2k from another angle, a distinct pattern emerges that identifies the modern temperatures as the norm, and the mid-1300s to early 1900s cooling period as the exception.   The 20th century warmth is merely a return to the normal temperatures that characterized most of the Late Holocene.