To Women, Size Matters

Get your mind out of the gutter! I am talking about the size of a man's bank account. From the Daily Mail, an article with the headline: "I ask men to show me their bank balance on the first date because I only want to go out with wealthy guys - I need to know if I'm wasting my time." The woman in question is Sofia Franklyn, from New York, who has hit "the wall" (i.e., she is 30) and realizing that she has reached the point in life where she needs to stop the meaningless rounds of sex and settle down. But in an example of hypergamy that is so stereotypical it almost reads like it was written by Roosh V. or Vox Day, she admits that she "only wants to date a wealthy guy that has money" and not waste time with those having more meager bank accounts. From the article:

    In the full episode, shared to YouTube, Leo clarified if Sofia was asking for their log-in details, to which she said 'yeah' and pulled up a screenshot of the bank account amount of one man she was interested in. 

    'I don't think it's weird to ask for that kind of information on a first date,' she added.

    The influencer stressed she wants to know the bank account details 'especially if they're under 5ft 10"'. 

LOL! If you're not above average, you have to pay more for the privilege of being in her presence. And, she adds:

    'I do that and, if they don't show me, I'll still go on like a second, third date but I need to know at a certain point. A lot of people think that's just crazy of me to do, I don't think it's that crazy.

    'Also, I'm 30 - I'm not really trying to just date and f**k around.'

There are images of her in the article and I have to say that from what they show, she is overvaluing herself. 

    She isn't the only gold digger mentioned in the article. It also discusses the views of a "dating coach":

    For Ella Freimann, 24, a dating coach from New York, being with someone who isn't generous with his wallet is not an option - but she insisted it's not because she's 'money hungry.'

    Instead, the 24-year-old explained that [she] believes potential suitors should always cover the entire check because she has high standards and 'knows what she brings to the table.'

    'By splitting the bill, I'm agreeing to form a connection with a man who doesn't know his role in a relationship and expects me to be 50 per cent of the man he's not,' she added.

    'I've learned that men who split the bill don't value the time and effort a woman puts into herself to look her best for that man. 

    '50/50 men don't understand that the woman's investment was made prior to the date.'

    Ella explained that it's less about the money and more about quantifying the effort that a man is willing to put in. 

    The dating coach added that by not contributing to the check, she feels like she is 'keeping her dignity intact' and 'avoiding bad experiences' with the man in the future. 

Of course, men who are just as shallow in what they wanted from a woman would be deemed "pigs" or "misogynist" or some other insulting term. 

Article: "Best Portable Toilets for Camping"

One subject that I suspect a lot of preppers overlook or ignore is sanitation in the even of a grid down event. I mean, how exciting is it to talk about toilets when you could be discussing defensive rifles or the best bushcraft knife, or how to keep the marauding hordes from overrunning your survival retreat? An article that I came across recently on this topic is "Best Portable Toilets for Camping" from the Alpha Survivalist blog. These obviously aren't intended as long term solutions, but might work for a short term emergency, whether it be something wrong with just your house or a larger problem with your communities sewer system.

Bombs and Bants Live! Ep 100 (Streamed 8/30/2023)

This episode of the Bombs & Bants podcast ran longer than most because it was our 100th episode extravaganza. Besides discussing some favorite things or events from producing the podcast, we each presented our own top 10 lists of 80s sitcoms, comedy movies, and horror movies, respectively.

VIDEO: "Bombs and Bants Live! Ep 100" (1 hr 13 min.)

21st Century Headlines: "Accidental shooting at baseball game after woman hides gun in her 'fat folds'…."

The article, quoting the initial AP story about the incident, relates: "A shooting that wounded two women at Friday night’s Chicago White Sox-Oakland Athletics game most likely involved a gun that went off inside Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago’s interim police superintendent said Monday." But now more facts have come out:

It turns out that the shooting was accidental. A woman had hidden the gun in her fat folds and snuck it by security, which didn’t detect with a hand-held wand. Later, it unintentionally discharged. 

The author also adds: "Reports indicate that security failed to detect the weapon with hand-held metal detectors and couldn’t conduct a thorough search due to privacy concerns." 

Trigger (Finger) Warning

 Last week, in response to reports of an IRS agent being shot dead in a training accident, Rich Grassi published a piece at The Tactical Wire on how all the basic gun safety rules flow from the first and greatest rule: "All guns are always loaded". Thus:

    Rule 1 [is] in effect. If there’s any doubt, there can be no doubt. Any firearms activity defaults to “it was loaded.”

    Rules 2-4 (and, to stretch a point, Rule 5) arise from Rule 1. We mind the muzzle, avoiding covering anyone and most things, because all guns are always loaded.

    We keep the index finger at high register (straight or bent), avoiding the trigger and trigger guard, because all guns are always loaded.

    We don’t seek targets through a magnified optic and don’t shine weapon-mounted lights around when searching because of Rule 2 (and Rule 4: positive visual identification of the target) both of which stem from Rule 1.

    Because all guns are always loaded, we attend to the muzzle – don’t cover anything you don’t want to destroy – and keep your finger (and other snag hazards) away from the trigger. ...

He posted a follow up a couple days ago to respond to a comment from retired LEO who noted that it was common for officers to point their loaded handguns at potentially dangerous suspects: "His statement had to do with gunpointing potentially dangerous violators. For example, if you get a robbery in progress call and arrive to find someone hurriedly leaving the case address with gun-in-hand, the ‘old’ police response was to draw, aim in and order the perp to halt." He notes that the officer in question had retired in 1993 and so was probably trained in the 1960s. But if you watch videos of police responding to calls, it is generally the case that if the pistol comes out of the holster, it is immediately trained on the suspect, not kept in a ready position.

    In any event, Grassi addresses the question of whether "gunpointing" offers any significant advantage in terms of speed. 

    Does gunpointing someone provide a time advantage over having the muzzle averted?

    What does a suspect think if they see someone at low ready with a stern disposition and with a commanding voice … do they think he’s unprepared to shoot?

    Let’s take each issue in turn. As Jeff Hall noted in a piece he did for PoliceOne in 2009, when the officer says “it’s faster,” the response is:

    Not so. I’ve tested instructors from Florida to Alaska and have found that it takes .48 to .52 seconds, either from the ready or on threat and “indexed”, to get a center mass hit on a known target, using an electronic timer. Ron Avery is the director of the Practical Shooting Academy (and Firearms Columnist for PoliceOne) and a world-class IPSC shooter and trainer. Ron’s research showed about .40 seconds. Ron does not feel that running around with guns in folk’s faces is a good tactic, either.

    Consider that I take .18-.26 to press a shot on the Vickers Demand Drill (aimed in, finger on trigger, slack out; cut the beep of the timer in half with the gunshot). That’s a trigger control drill not a street tactic. If it takes me around .50 to make the hit from guard, can the offender tell it’s ¼ second slower?

As to the question of whether a criminal will take you more seriously if you are pointing the weapon at him, Grassi writes:

    In my experience, hardened felons hardly bat an eye at gun muzzles pointed at them. A percentage have been shot before, some multiple times. It’s another day at the office for them. Let’s say it’s someone who’s at wit’s end, not a career criminal but someone who’s contemplating self-destruction. Their response is often “Go ahead, shoot me. I have nothing to live for.”

    Now what? With the gun instead at ready, as you are moving to an obstacle – cover or concealment – while using cogent verbal skills, you’re literally better able to communicate – and to see the offender.

And he goes over the downsides, including as briefly noted above, you can't see the criminal as well if your view is partially obscured by the firearm you have pointed at him or her. Or perhaps you are pointing the firearm at the wrong person. And there are the legal consequences:

If the gun is aimed in on a person – without any intention to immediately service that target – and the gun gets fired, regardless of how – what legal position are you in? While you may be justified in an intentional shooting, “There’s no such thing as a justifiable accident.” Justifiability, Ayoob notes, is a defense reserved for the intentional act.

 In short, then, "Gunpoint provides only two very minor advantages – along with huge downside risks. Don’t do it."

A Primer On Firearms Magazines

I came across an article at Blue Collar Prepping entitled "Prepper's Armory: Magazines, Part 1." It is covers the basic types of magazines (single stack vs. double stack, single-feed vs. double feed--with illustrations) and some information on maintenance. If you are experienced with firearms, you probably already know the information presented in the article, but those that are new to firearms will find the article useful. 

Gamma Seal Lids

The Modern Survival Blog has a good article on using the Gamma Seal Lids and using them with your food storage. If you are familiar with these lids, they are a screw down lid that is intended to be used with the standard 5-gallon* food storage buckets in lieu of the standard lid (which are notoriously difficult to remove). What you get with a Gamma Seal Lid is an adapter that fits over the lip of the bucket and then the lid which screws down into the adapter and seals the bucket. 

    The advantage to such lids, as discussed in the MSB article, is that they provide easy access to the contents of a bucket if you will be opening and closing the bucket. For instance, my wife and I keep a bucket with a Gamma Seal Lid for the rice, flour, sugar, pancake mix, and a couple other items that we access fairly often for cooking. We can then refill that bucket with new product or from our long term storage when it runs low. Provided you don't overtighten the lids, they are easy to unscrew and maintain most of the width of the bucket so you have plenty of room for a measuring cup, scoop, or bowl.

    While you could use these lids for all your long term storage, the expense makes that impractical: it looks like Amazon is selling them about $13 per lid. You can buy an aluminum pail opener (for taking off the standard food bucket lid) for about half of that and a standard plastic opener for like $4 bucks. 

    Anyway, the MSB article has a lot more information and tips including installation, maintenance and lubrication of the seal, and other uses so read the whole thing.  

Video: "Broken Compass" RPG Review

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you probably have seen me bring up table top roleplaying games (RPGs) before, although rarely since they typically don't tie into the subject of this blog. That said, there are several post-apocalypse RPGs out there, some more realistic than others. And I reviewed one of the more realistic ones, Aftermath!, many years ago. 

    The aforementioned Aftermath! game was published during a period when there was a concerted effort to make such games "realistically" model the real world with the attendant complexity that brought to the rules. Aftermath!, for instance, would probably work well if made into a computer based game (it includes a multi-page flow chart on individual combat) but can get bogged down when playing around a table with paper, pencil, and dice. But if you wanted to "wargame" out a survival scenario, this would probably be a game to consider.

    I have since moved to playing "lighter" fare that have more simple rules systems. And not satisfied with either the setting or rule set for Dungeons & Dragons--the 800 lbs gorilla in the room when discussing RPGs--I watch videos reviewing lessor known game systems and have even picked up a few. I particularly like reviews that explain a bit how to play the game since the game mechanics are often what tips my decision to purchase or not.

    An RPG that I purchased a few weeks ago is called Broken Compass. It is supposed to be a rules-lite system intended to emulate modern adventure stories such as Indiana Jones or the 1990s Mummy movies. And although I had bought the game before watching the video below, I found the explanation of the rules to be useful in learning how to run the game. (Summers are busy, so I haven't done anything with it yet). But the reason I'm sharing it is because I also found the review to be entertainingly done as the reviewer both acts out a role intermixed with explanations of how the rules would work or be applied.

VIDEO: "Broken Compass RPG Review"

DungeonDoor (18 min.)

Tucker Predicts Hot War To Rig Election

Tucker Carlson predicts that instead of a repeat of Covid to rig the 2024 election, the elites will instead rely on a hot war with Russia to assume war powers in order to rig the election.

VIDEO: "Tucker's frightful prediction."

Anything Goes (4 min.)

Watching the Collapse of Civilization: UK Tells Subjects To Not Heat Their Homes At Night

I just saw this link on Instapundit: "Millions Of Brits Told Not To Heat Homes At Night As Part Of 'Net Zero' Climate Goals"--Zero Hedge. An excerpt:

    Britain's Climate Change Committee (CCC) has urged millions of Britons to not heat their homes in the evening to help the government hit its net zero target.

    No, they aren't urging elites to ditch their private jets for commercial, or not to burn 1,000 of fuel taking the yacht out for a jaunt. Chris Stark, head of the CCC, wants ordinary citizens to turn off their electric heaters (heat pumps) at night as part of a wider drive to deliver "emissions savings," which includes a shift away from gas boilers - which Chris, a hypocrite, still has.

    Contained in a document on "behavior change," the CCC recommended that Britons instead "pre-heat" their houses in the afternoons when electricity use is lower, and would theoretically save families money.

This steady decline in quality of life isn't about saving the environment. This is a sign of a civilization collapsing and the environmentalism is just a cover to distract the peasants from the reality of the decline and why it is happening. 

Modern Ruins: St. Marie, Montana

As the producer of this video explains, St. Marie is a modern ghost town that serviced the Glasgow Air Force Base in Montana until the base was closed in 1976. At its peak, this town had 7,000 residents. The video indicates that there are now only about 300 residents which mostly live around the core of the town. (There is a research facility that still uses the air field--presumably the employees still live in the town). Consequently, there are hundreds of homes, a grocery store, two schools, a church, and a hospital that are all abandoned. Because most everyone would have left about the same time, there isn't the signs of more gradual decay that you see in other cities or town that have seen slow population declines. 

    The producer does not enter any of the buildings but he does go up and down the abandoned streets and you get a good look at the decrepit state of many of the buildings. H go up to a few buildings (some homes, the church, and a school) to peer through open doors or windows inside. Not surprisingly, the wood sided residences have faired the worst, while the commercial construction has done much better. The streets were a mix--some have survived quite well while others are broken up and quite overgrown. There was not anywhere near as much vegetation as I expected, but I think it is because of the harsh climate: other than some areas shielded by buildings or landscape, the only vegetation is short grass that is probably common to that area of Montana.  It is a good look at what a town might look like years after an apocalypse. 

VIDEO: "St. Marie Montana - A Thrilling Ghost Town!"

Chris Attrell (14 min.)

VIDEO: "A Hole Where You'll Freeze to Death | Geography of Extreme Microclimates"

The video discusses why certain mountain depressions, frost hollows, and sinks can be much colder than the slopes and peaks around them. Something to think about when picking a site for a campsite or homestead.

VIDEO: "A Hole Where You'll Freeze to Death | Geography of Extreme Microclimates"

Casual Earth (9 min.)

You Don't Have To Sell Me ...

"Trump has the 'moral compass' of an 'ax murderer': Former Georgia GOP Lieutenant Governor tears into ex-president and begs Republicans NOT to choose him as the 2024 nominee" screams the Daily Mail headline. The RINO is Georgia's former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.

Body Positivity Is Only For Black Woman

"Kirk Douglas - A Whale of a Tale" (2 min.)

A black female author, to borrow from the old Disney song, has a whale of a tale or two to tell us lads in her article, "Body positivity is for women, not lazy white guys with dad bods." The author begins:

In a world that is constantly telling us to be thinner, it can be hard to love our bodies just the way they are. But what if we stopped seeing our so-called flaws as imperfections and started viewing them as unique features that make us who we are?

Taken in moderation, it sounds good: we can't all look like supermodels or world-class athletes, after all. But feeling good about yourself, the author continues, cannot be countenanced when it comes to white people--especially white men. The author explains:

If you’re a white guy thinking you should “just embrace” your belly fat and jump on the dad bod positivity bandwagon, this article is for you. You need to understand that you are not the target audience for body positivity. This isn’t about you guys; it’s about us women.

But not just any women.

... The body positivity movement was created by women — specifically Black women — as a brilliantly sassy yet empathetic response to the unrealistic standards of beauty imposed on us by Western culture. It wasn’t designed for privileged white males who already conform to their own traditional ideas of masculinity (duh); it was meant for those of us who often feel invisible and unworthy because we don’t fit into patriarchy’s white supremacist definition of beauty.

 And:

Body positivity is for women — led by Black women — to celebrate our diverse shapes and sizes, and to finally feel like we belong in a world that has always told us we don’t. Body positivity is for women who have been systemically oppressed and told their entire lives that they’re not good enough. Body positivity is for women who have been taught to hate themselves because they don’t look like Barbie — not for dudes who can already pass as Ken.

 She includes a photograph of Alex Jones posing topless as an example of white men stealing body positivity, so I assume she is also talking about Jones as someone "who can already pass as Ken." 

Texas Disbands Immigration Intelligence Taskforce For Doing It's Job

The Daily Mail is reporting that the Texas National Guard has disbanded the intelligence wing of a taskforce set up to combat illegal immigration after the members were caught actually attempting to do their job. From the article:

    The Texas National Guard has reportedly disbanded its intelligence wing after members used a popular messaging app to spy on migrants, according to an investigation by Military Times and the Texas Tribune.

    A Texas Military Department investigation reportedly uncovered the misdeeds - and found at least four officers working on Gov. Abbott's taskforce infiltrated migrants' WhatsApp logs and shared their findings with federal agents.

    Wary Homeland Security officials, however, ultimately rejected their efforts, investigators reportedly found - on the basis that the two-year-old task force was not an intelligence agency. 

The members of the task force didn't follow the rules of Government Club. The first rule of Government Club is that you never, ever, work to fix the problem because, if there is no problem, there is no job.

    The article adds: "The alleged spying, if true, would violate laws that bar state-run agencies from collecting intelligence themselves, and could leave egg on the face of the mastermind behind the operation - the state's outspoken governor." I'm sure that the law was intended to protect citizens, not aliens planning on illegally crossing the border.

Lucky Gunner: "Rifles vs. Pistols: The Basics of Terminal Ballistics"

 A good video discussing the mechanisms of wounding as well as a comparing pistol and rifle ammunition.

VIDEO: "Rifles vs. Pistols: The Basics of Terminal Ballistics"

Lucky Gunner Ammo (12 min.)

More Global Warming Arrested In Greece

 After my post earlier today about arsonist immigrants being caught in Greece, I saw that Instapundit had linked to this article from Legal Insurrection: "Authorities Arrest 79 Suspected Arsonists for Igniting Wildfires in Greece." The article begins:

    As disaster response crews, cadaver dogs, and coroners continue to dig through the incinerated rubble of Western Maui, attention is now turning to the massive wildfires burning in Greece that have already claimed 20 lives.

    The fact that 79 suspected arsonists have been arrested in connection to these wildfires will make it difficult to explain this away as “climate change.”

Some of those killed by the wild fires were immigrants, and it would not surprise me if some of the fires were the result of illegal aliens letting cooking fires get out of hand. But the article also goes on to describe a peculiarity of Greek law which makes setting forest fires profitable for land developers:

    Does Greece’s problematic historical development contribute to this particular type of disaster? The short answer is yes, it does. The explanation for how areas of Greece burst into flame each year is not simply a question of poor ecological management, building standards, fire prevention and firefighting capabilities. This explanation rests with the law and its enforcement.

    In Greece, there is a lot of unused land classed as agricultural or forest. Greece has a complex, antiquated and incomplete legal land title system, where efforts to create a land registry (or cadastre) have been ongoing since the early 2000s and are still not even close to completion. Add in the pervasive corruption of land registry offices, forestry commissions and relevant state administration, and what you get is an opportunity for real estate development.

    In western Europe, it is generally not possible to build without first obtaining appropriate permits. Those who try to do so without permission are frequently discovered, stopped, fined, and even forced to alter or demolish what they’ve built. The severe legal and financial implications of building illegally makes this only a very limited problem.

    In Greece, however, you could clear up a bit of brushland or cut down a section of forest, put down the foundation for a building, connect utilities by bribing local officials, and then wait for the amnesty for illegal buildings that tends to come around periodically, usually close to a general election. ...

Mass Shootings Only Happen In America: Haiti Edition

"Haiti: Gang Opens Fire on Christians Protesting Lawless Violence"--Breitbart. From the article:

    A Haitian gang opened fire on a church protest in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, killing at least seven people. Video showed bodies lying in the streets, plus several people who appeared to have been taken hostage by the gangsters.

    “This shooting is symptomatic of the state’s inability to protect its citizens,” said Gedeon Jean, executive director of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH), a Haiti-based activist group.

    Jean said the death toll could be considerably higher than the seven reported so far. Some local media sources reported at least ten fatalities from the shooting.

    The attack occurred when about a hundred people marched through an area on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince called Canaan. The community was founded by refugees from the powerful earthquake in 2010, which leveled countless buildings and killed about 220,000 people. Canaan began as a squatter’s camp, but today it is considered a reasonably functional suburb of Port-au-Prince, or perhaps even a city in its own right – the “accidental city,” as NASA dubbed it while measuring its growth with satellite photos.

    Like much of Haiti, Canaan was claimed as turf by a violent gang after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise unleashed chaos in 2021. The group that rules Canaan is known as 5 Segonn, or the “Five Seconds Gang.” 

Fortunately, Haiti has very strict gun control laws so the criminals can't get guns. Fun fact: did you know that Haiti is the oldest black run republic in the world? 

And Some Diversity In Action In The UK

Breitbart reports: "Eight Stabbed, Police Assaulted and 275 Arrested at London’s Multicultural Notting Hill Carnival." The article explains:

    London’s annual multicultural Notting Hill Carnival was once again marred by violence, with eight men suffering stab wounds and hundreds of people arrested for various offences including assaults on police officers, sexual assaults, and possession of drugs and weapons.

    The two-day Afro-Caribbean Notting Hill Carnival, which has been a staple of the summer in the Central London district since the 1960s, saw 275 people arrested and eight men stabbed this year, including a 29-year-old who was left critically injured after being attacked Monday evening on Warfield Road.

    Another 19-year-old man was left in serious but stable condition after being stabbed in Ladbroke Grove at around 10 pm. A further six, aged 18, 19, 20, 25, 28, and 40 also fell victim to stabbings, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the Metropolitan Police said.

    A total of 275 people were arrested for various offences throughout the two-day Carnival, including sexual assaults, and for possession of drugs and weapons. Police officers were also subjected to violence, with the Met reporting that officers were sexually assaulted and one officer was hospitalised after being bitten.

    Footage from the event appeared to show a gang of youths dressed in black and wearing face coverings rampaging through the streets with one brandishing a machete as police gave chase.

Kamala Harris: Epidemic of Hate

 Per the Daily Mail, "Kamala Harris says the U.S. is in an 'epidemic of hate' after gunman with swastikas on his gun shot and killed three at Florida Dollar General store." From the lede:

    Kamala Harris said Americans need to admit the country's 'epidemic of hate' after the latest allegedly racially-motivated mass shooting left three black people dead in Jacksonville, Florida.

    America's first black vice president called Friday's shooting a 'hate crime' and 'act of domestic violent extremism' in a statement released overnight Sunday to Monday.

    The 21-year-old white shooter used a rifle with hand-drawn swastikas, as well as a pistol, to gun down three black people at a Dollar General before turning his firearms on himself. The Sheriff's Office says the shooter, Ryan Christopher Palmete, sent to police, media and his parents before the attack a manifesto detailing his racial hatred.

Indeed, there are plenty of examples of hate and acts of domestic violent extremism in just the last few days:

• "Tailei Qi's rambling social media posts calling out bullies and 'tattletale' girls as he's arrested over University of North Carolina shooting that left a faculty member dead"--Daily Mail. This is yet another case of an over-achieving Asian national who was having a hard time in his academic program and decided the solution was to shoot the professor and others.
• From the New York Post: "Migrant smugglers ‘becoming desperate,’ wearing body armor and shooting at border agents: officials." The Biden Administration's violence against the rest of the nation.
• And more domestic terrorism sponsored by the Biden Administration:
• "Illegal Alien, Freed into U.S. from Southern Border, Charged with Killing 11-Year-Old Aiden Clark"--Breitbart.
• "Illegal Alien, Freed into U.S. by Biden’s HHS, Denied Bail for Allegedly Raping and Murdering 11-Year-Old Girl"--Breitbart. Despite the similar headlines, different illegal alien and different victim. 
• "Report: Illegal Alien Accused of Fracturing Cop’s Skull Entered U.S. Through Biden’s Parole Loophole"--Breitbart.
• "REPORT: ISIS-Connected ‘Contractor’ Smuggled Uzbek Migrants Across Border into U.S."--Breitbart.
• "Teenage girl, 16, is stabbed to death during fight over sweet and sour sauce outside a McDonalds in Washington DC: Suspect, also 16, acted in self-defense, lawyer claims"--Daily Mail. Black teens doing what they do best: causing chaos. And it was no self-defense. The girl got hit by another girl and retaliated with the knife. 
• Speaking of black teens and chaos: "WATCH: Mass Youth Brawls Hit California Malls"--Breitbart. The article indicates that "Two massive brawls were reported on Sunday at malls in California, including one at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance in L.A., and one at the Bay Street Mall in Emeryville, near Oakland."
• And some more black-on-black violence: "Alabama 18-year-old Jakayla Ashanti Williams is charged with killing her newborn baby boy by throwing his body into a dumpster because 'it cost too much money'"--Daily Mail. 
• Also from the Daily Mail: "Father fatally stabs his wife and their two young kids, 1, and 3, before killing himself inside swanky Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan." The article relates that "Edison Lopez, 41, is believed to have stabbed his wife Alexandra Witek, 40, and their two sons, three and one, to death on the fourth floor of an apartment building where he was the superintendent." At least New York's gun control laws worked as intended.

Greece Experiencing The Blessings Of Diversity

As you may know, Greece has been suffering a series of devastating wild fires which are, of course, being blamed on global warming. Well, some of that global warming was recently arrested after they were caught trying to start another fire. From Greek City Times: "Fires in Greece: 13 Pakistani and Syrian migrants charged with attempted arson in Evros." The article indicates that the "migrants" were seen by an Albanian businessman who immediately took steps to stop them and detain them for police. The businessman related:

    "The place I was at is 200 meters from my business. Several improvised incendiary structures were found in the area. In the previous days, the suburbs and settlements of Alexandroupolis had been evacuated, as well as the University General Hospital. Naturally, all the residents had lost sleep and were on the alert for the fire to find us during the night.

    "At the specific point between Alexandroupoli and S. Chile, behind a supermarket chain, I spotted a group of 13 people who were around an object and were trying to set it on fire while holding a balloon that smelled of gasoline, and they also brought a knife with them.

    "I immediately called two of my fellow citizens who were at the scene, and we asked them to throw the knives and the objects they were holding in their hands. We prevented them from creating an active fire source within the urban fabric.

    "Then it would have to be ensured that they wouldn't escape and attack us until the police arrived. I immediately called 100, and in ten minutes, a police patrol car came and picked them up.

Of course, it being Europe, the businessman and the two that helped him were arrested and charged with felonies for detaining the arsonists with "Greece's Supreme Court prosecutor accus[ing] the vigilantes of 'inciting others to racist pogroms'." Apparently native Greeks were not happy to find out that their foreign invaders had been setting fires so, supposedly, there have been attacks on immigrants, and even the border police have been turning some away.

Disney+ Cancelling Two Streaming Shows Unseen

Speaking of the Disney Grooming Institute, the Daily Mail reports that Disney will not be releasing two of its upcoming Disney+ streaming series even though filming has been completed. The article states that "that live-action shows The Spiderwick Chronicles and Nautilus will not be part of the company's content in a move to cut costs." 

The former was to be a six-part reboot the popular children's film of the same name - already an adaptation of a book series - and the latter was a prequal to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

There are also rumors floating around that the Disney+ Ahsoka Star Wars series may not be renewed for a second season or may even be cancelled. This is because the series first two episodes only garnered 1.2 million views over the first 6 days of their release. In the past, Disney has reported numbers based on the first four days, so it is believed that it was changed to 6 days just so they could get the numbers up over 1 million. This series is supposed to be based on the Thrawn Trilogy of books but with the main characters all female, including the female Ahsoka character taking the place of Luke Skywalker. The reviews are mostly dismal. I tried watching it but gave up after about 20 minutes. Terrible acting, terrible writing, terrible pacing, and terrible characters. 

    In any event, Disney, caught off-guard by Bud Light's implosion, is racing ahead to show it can do much worse.

Blue Beetle A Flop At Box Office

Since I just did my own review of the Blue Beetle movie the other day, I thought I would share this article from Breitbart: "Nolte: Woke ‘Blue Beetle’ Flops at Home and Abroad." The article indicates that the move probably cost around $200 million to produce and market, meaning that it would need to earn $400 million to break even, but "[a]fter two weekends in release, The First *yawn* Hispanic Superhero Movie has grossed a measly $46 million domestic and only an additional $35 million overseas. With a pathetic $82 million worldwide gross, Blue Beetle isn’t coming close to breaking even." 

    The article also mentions some numbers from other movies still currently in theaters, adding: "The Disney Grooming Institute’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Kathleen Kennedy has No Talent remains doornail dead with just $379 million worldwide, which doesn’t even cover its production and advertising budget." Heh.

The Realist: Zombie Apocalypse Movie Theater

 It's been a while, but I have a new guest post from The Realist. He writes:

Disclaimer: All products mentioned in this article were purchased by myself. I did not receive free samples, evaluation models, or other compensation from any manufacturer or retailer. I have no formal relationship with any manufacturer or retailer mentioned in this article - I have only been an arms-length customer. All brand names and product names used in this review are the trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice. If you have legal questions regarding some topic discussed in this article, contact a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. Further, this article reflects my unique circumstances and subjective opinions with regard to performance and other characteristics of the products discussed. Your mileage may vary.

Post apocalyptic movie theater inside an abandoned

building. (Bing AI Image Creator https://www.bing.com/images/create/)

    "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Even under the most adverse conditions, people occasionally need a break, a mental escape, from the daily grind. Books and games certainly provide a break. But, humans also need social interaction with others outside their family or close group of friends. In the past, these social activities would have included dances or community theatrical performances. More recently, social activities can include "movie night" where viewing a movie is the central component of a larger social event.

    In any kind of apocalyptic scenario, people are also going to want some activity that restores some level of prior normalcy, even if only for a short period of time. I have seen several post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows where a scene or sub-plot in the story involved people coming together as a group to watch a movie.

    Before last Christmas, I started noticing lots of offerings on Amazon for inexpensive video projectors, with some being priced under fifty dollars. I ended up spending seventy dollars for one with reasonable lower-end specifications and a lot of good reviews. That projector performed very well considering what I paid for it. That projector purchase became the seed for the idea of a "zombie apocalypse movie theater" (ZAMT).

    The ZAMT could be part of a no-kidding post apocalyptic social activity, or it could be the focus of a less dramatic "illegal" gathering for friends during the next round of COVID lockdowns.

    I wanted my ZAMT to be semi-portable, something that could be set up just about anywhere - indoors or outdoors - and run off an independent portable power source.

    The ZAMT requires more than just a video projector. It also requires some kind of sound system because the tiny speakers built into the projector may not even be powerful enough for a small room. It requires some kind of projector screen, which can be a white painted wall, a white sheet or table cloth, or a purpose-built screen. It requires an independent power source - don't plan on the local utility company providing power to the nearest wall outlet during the zombie apocalypse. And, it requires a variety of accessories including a platform or tripod for the projector along with the various cables necessary to connect the various components together.

Video Projector

    There is no such thing as an ideal projector. Projector selection has to be based on many factors including your budget, power consumption, video input options, native resolution, and light output.

    Like many things, when shopping for a video projector, you generally get what you pay for. There is a lot of exaggeration when it comes to the specifications of various video projectors, so very careful reading of descriptions is necessary. An omission of a critical specification should be taken as an indication that the specification may not be very good - definitely a buyer-beware situation.

    Most video projector descriptions will say "supports 1080P" when in fact that native resolution may be much lower. All "supports 1080P" means is that the projector will accept a 1080P video source and down-convert it to whatever the native resolution of the projector happens to be. You want to pay attention to the native resolution specification.

    Similarly, projector brightness is overstated, with many manufacturers providing a lumen output value for the projector's light source - the projector "bulb" - and not a measure of the light output that ultimately hits the projector screen. Some manufacturers provide a more honest "ANSI lumen" number - a measure of the light that hits the screen - that is, not surprisingly, much less than the light source lumen number. Projector brightness will determine how big the projected image can be and still have acceptable brightness.

    Most consumer projectors use one of two methods of producing the image. The most common, and cheaper, is a transmissive color LCD in the light path - analogous to a slide in a slide projector or the film in a movie projector. The other more expensive method utilizes Texas Instruments DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. There are a variety of illumination technologies used in DLP projectors, with some being more energy efficient than others.

    Most projectors also include what is called "keystone correction", which can be used to correct the trapezoidal distortion caused by projecting off-axis onto the screen surface. The very low end projectors omit keystone correction. Most projectors at least have vertical keystone correction. The higher end projectors will have both horizontal and vertical keystone correction, with some projectors even having automatic keystone correction capabilities.

    Another projector specification to be aware of is the "throw ratio". Short throw or ultra short throw projectors must be placed closer than normal to the projector screen, and are really intended for home theater applications with a permanently installed wrinkle-free projector screen. A portable projector screen will seldom be completely wrinkle free.

    Also consider the video inputs the projector can accept. Many projectors accept a variety of video inputs including composite video, HDMI, VGA (from a computer), and wireless (WiFi and/or Bluetooth) streaming. Some projectors only have an HDMI input port. Most projectors also have a USB port to read a USB flash drive, and a slot for a micro-SD card.

    Most projectors have built-in speakers, some of which sound better than others. Some manufacturers put more effort into the audio amplifiers and speakers built into their projectors, incorporating powerful audio amplifiers and reasonably sized speakers, while other manufacturers seem to treat the built-in audio amplifiers and speakers as an afterthought. I made sure the projectors I purchased had an audio output jack, so I could send the audio to an external sound system.

    Another issue not really discussed with video projectors is that many do not have a sealed light engine to keep dust off the LCD. Most transmissive LCD projectors blow air across the LCD to keep it from burning up. Dust particles can stick to the LCD, resulting in black spots in the projected image. Some of these projectors have a small access door that can be opened to clean the dust off the LCD. A few transmissive LCD projectors advertise the fact that they have a sealed light engine. While dust particles may not be a major issue in a modern well-maintained home, dust getting on the LCD will likely be a problem in more austere environments.

    Below are three video projector examples. The crazy cheap projector was an impulse purchase just to see what I would get for $20. The $70 projector, as my first projector, was a "dipping my toe in the water" purchase just to gain experience with a video projector. The $340 DLP projector purchase reflects my effort to get a higher performance video projector.

    Crazy Cheap Projector (various brands, model YG300): This projector was purchased from a Chinese e-commerce site for $20. YG300 projectors are sold under various brand names on Amazon for $35 to $50. Yes it works (actually, the first one I received didn't work, so it was replaced). While its specifications say it supports 1080P, it is really 240P (native resolution of 320 x 240 pixels). It uses a transmissive LCD. It has a claimed brightness of 400 lumens, but I measured only 16.6 ANSI lumen output. It consumes 21 watts. It lacks keystone correction, and produces a very dim visibly pixelated image. It only handles a 4:3 aspect ratio properly, with "wide screen" aspect ratios being badly squished horizontally. The sound from its built-in speaker is weak and distorted. I would not recommend this projector, not even as a "better than nothing" option.

    AuKing M8-F Projector: This projector, my first, was $70 from Amazon. Again it says it supports 1080P, but it is really 480P projector with a native resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. (For reference, DVDs are 480P (640 x 480).) It uses a transmissive LCD. It has an advertised light output of 7500 lumens, but I measured an output of 96 ANSI lumens. It consumes 50 watts. It has vertical keystone correction. In a darkened room, with the video projected on an 80-inch diagonal area, it is bright enough to enjoyably watch. The sound from its built-in speakers is adequate for a small room, so an external amplifier and speaker system would be beneficial.

AAXA P7+ Projector with accessories in a Harbor Freight

hard protective case.

    AAXA P7+ Projector: This projector was a $340 Amazon purchase. It is a DLP projector. It "supports" 4K resolution, but is a 1080P projector with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This projector has a claimed maximum "550 LED Lumens" (whatever that is). I measured 388 lumens in its brightest "boost" mode, 332 lumens in its normal mode, and 166 lumens in its "eco" mode. It consumes 34.5 watts in boost mode, 27.7 watts in normal mode, and 16.2 watts in eco mode. It has a built-in battery which is claimed to operate the projector for 2.5 hours in eco mode (I have not tested this). It has vertical keystone correction and handles different aspect ratios properly.

    The AAXA projector has built-in speakers and a fairly powerful amplifier, which is loud enough for a normal-sized residential room. I still plan on using it with an external amplifier and speakers.

    About the only downside to this AAXA projector is that it lacks an A/V input. But, composite video to HDMI converters are fairly inexpensive and work reasonably well.

Improvised projector screen. (Source

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportmacgyver/comments/c97f5e/no_projector_screen_no_problem_use_my_cow/)

Projector Screen

    You need a flat white or off-white surface to project against. Most of the inexpensive portable screens you see sold on Amazon utilize a translucent stretchy fabric, so much of the light passes through the screen and is not reflected back toward the audience. Translucent screens might be a benefit if you want to do a rear projection setup (some projectors will allow you to flip the image to facilitate rear projection).

    I have yet to come up with what I consider a suitable projector screen solution for the ZAMT. I have experimented with a couple different cloth solutions (bleached canvas, thick white tablecloth), purchased several commercial screen material samples for testing, and tested different types of white paint. I have also looked at various portable projector screen offerings on Amazon, but the moderately priced screens are all fairly fragile, and may not be sufficiently durable to survive repeated setup and take down.

    I did purchase a pop-up projector screen that looks like it should be fairly durable, but is only 80-inches diagonal (16:9 aspect ratio) - really too small for the ZAMT - just so I have something should the zombie apocalypse come sooner rather than later. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R97CQDX)

Modified Nintendo Gameboy Advance with four feature-length

movie cartridges. Not shown is the special cable that plugs into the GBA to

provide composite video output.

Media Player

    The media player is your video source. This can be a DVD or Blu-ray disc player, a DVR of some sort, a computer, or some some other video player. I have used a Blu-ray player and a modified Nintendo Game Boy Advance (GBA) that outputs composite video as my video sources. I have also played movies from a USB flash drive plugged into the projector.

    The Blu-ray player I am using is a basic model. It attaches to the projector with an HDMI cable, and consumes only two or three watts when operating.

    I modified a Nintendo GBA (model AGB-001) using a commercial kit that allows the game console to output composite video. Most people install this kit so they can play their favorite GBA games on a TV. What many people do not know is that for a couple years in the early 2000s, Nintendo released a series of 35 cartridges containing full-motion animated content. Most were children's cartoons, but three cartridges were feature length animated movies, and one cartridge was a double-feature containing two of the feature-length movies. While the video quality is poor due to compression artifacts and low frame rates, the movies are still enjoyable to watch. (The GBA has a 240 x 160 pixel 2.9-inch diagonal color display. Those cartridges were never intended to be shown on a larger screen.) The GBA runs on two AA cells.

Sound system composed of two bookshelf speakers, class-D

amplifier and its power supply, and audio cables.

Audio System

    As mentioned above, the built-in speakers in many projectors are fairly weak, necessitating an external sound system of some sort. Initially, I hooked up some computer speakers, which provided plenty of volume for the room where I was testing the projector. Computer speakers would be adequate for a family room or living room, but not for a larger room or outdoors.

    I looked at various sound system options, including "sound bars" and PA speaker systems. After a lot of research, I settled on a moderately priced 50-watt-per-channel class-D stereo amplifier and a pair of bookshelf speakers. Class-D audio amplifiers are very efficient compared to other amplifier types. Class-D amplifiers are also inexpensive and very compact. With the volume on the amplifier turned up to a painfully loud level, the amplifier was drawing 33 watts.

    To get the most out of the sound system, the speakers need to be off the floor or ground. When sitting on the floor or ground, much of the sound will be absorbed by the floor or ground, or audience members sitting near the speakers. Many PA speaker systems come with stands to get the speakers off the ground. There are speaker stands designed to support bookshelf speakers, but it occurred to me that I could just as easily use a couple wood stools I already own.

Independent Power Source

    You will notice that I have been providing power consumption numbers for each component of the ZAMT. Since I plan to use an independent power source, establishing a power budget is necessary.

    I plan to run the ZAMT using a "power station" (a portable package integrating batteries and inverters, such as a Jackery) that can be recharged using a portable solar panel. A generator would be overkill and noisy. Plus, a generator would use gasoline that could be used for other purposes.

Tripod or Platform

    While you can just set the projector on a table, having other options for supporting the projector adds setup flexibility to the ZAMT. Many projectors have a 1/4"-20 threaded insert in the bottom of the projector so they can be mounted on a camera tripod. There are also tripod projector stands that appear to be a traditional tripod with a flat plate on top that the projector can sit on. A TV tray might also be practical, but the TV trays I have encountered were always wobbly and flimsy.

    Whatever method is used to support the projector, it needs to be stable enough to not be toppled by the three cables typically attached to the projector: a power cord, an HDMI or composite video cable, and an audio cable to an external audio system.

Other Equipment Considerations

    Don't forget robust containers to carry and protect your equipment. The cardboard boxes most projectors come in will not provide long term protection. I have purchased carrying cases for my projectors (except the $20 projector), with the AAXA DLP projector being stored in a Harbor Freight hard protective case (a Pelican case clone). The sound system can be adequately protected and transported in an old milk crate.

    As mentioned above, if the projector does not have an A/V input, get a composite-to-HDMI converter. These converters are inexpensive, starting at around ten dollars on Amazon. They typically run on five volts, which can usually be obtained from the USB port on the projector.

    There are also HDMI adapters for cell phones and tablets, if you want to use one of those devices as one of your media players. For example, Apple sells a lightning to HDMI adapter for the iPhone (https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD826AM/A/lightning-digital-av-adapter). I don't have experience with Andorid devices, but I see that similar adapters are available from many sources.

    Also factor in redundancy. Get extra audio cables and/or the means to make and repair your own cables. Get spare A/C power supplies for those components that cannot operate off 12 Volts DC. Most of the projectors and media players come with a remote control, and while basic functions can be accessed without a remote control, many features are only accessible when using the remote control. So, get a spare remote control if practical. And, don't forget spare batteries for those remote controls.

    For redundant components, make sure you test them. It would be better to discover you have a new faulty cable now, than discover that the cable is faulty when it cannot be conveniently replaced.

Copyright Issues

    Most consumer motion picture media (Blu-ray discs, DVDs, video cassettes, and even GBA video cartridges) are usually licensed only for home use. Using consumer motion picture media for any kind of public performance violates that license, and is a copyright violation. Home use is limited to "a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances." (17 U.S.C. § 101 (2020)) Anything more, such as showing the motion picture at a church social event or a neighborhood party, is considered a public performance of that motion picture.

    A motion picture public performance can be lawful if a public performance license is first obtained from the copyright owner or its designated agent. (See the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (www.mplc.org) for more details on obtaining a license.)

    There are some movies that are in the public domain, and as such could be shown in a "public performance" without obtaining a license. However, the analysis as to which movies are in the public domain is a complex topic outside the scope of this discussion. For example, the 1975 post-apocalyptic movie "A Boy and His Dog", the heartwarming story of the unbreakable bond between a young man and his canine friend, is claimed by several reputable sources to be in the public domain. But, my own research suggests otherwise. In contrast, the 1968 cult classic "Night of the Living Dead" is in the public domain due to the inadvertent omission of a copyright notice in the movie as required at that time by copyright law.

    As a practical matter, in a without-rule-of-law (WROL) zombie apocalypse environment, there may be nobody remaining to grant motion picture public performance licenses.

Security

    In a zombie apocalypse WROL environment, if you can't defend your equipment from others, is it really yours?

    When lawlessness prevails, measures must be taken to protect yourself, your equipment, and your audience. For that matter, in the current environment you may need to consider protective measures in some locales. Protective measures are situation specific and outside the scope of this discussion. Do not neglect planning for protective measures.

Conclusion

    Even before a zombie apocalypse, there are many circumstances where a semi-portable movie theater that can operate "off grid" would be desirable. Those circumstances are limited only by your imagination.

    The ZAMT started off as a thought experiment. I subsequently assembled the various components and verified that they could work together as described. If my use case had been a home theater, a personal backyard/camping theater, or a portable theater business, I would have made different equipment choices.

    The equipment described above is just a snapshot of my current equipment configuration. I expect that equipment mix to continue to evolve.

-------------

Resources:

    This YouTuber provides good reviews of video projectors. He uses uses test equipment to objectively measure performance characteristics of the projectors being reviewed. His focus is the home theater, but he also reviews portable video projectors.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-51DG-VULPpwjbD2A9U0ekk4g6D1Hhnb

    This article explains why projector lumen output matters, and provides recommended lumen output ranges for various environments. I personally think their recommendations, based on my own observations with my equipment being used in a dark room, are a little high. But, their recommendations provide a starting point in analyzing needs.
https://www.projectorscreen.com/blog/How-Many-Lumens-Do-I-Need-For-A-Projector

Diversity Is A Strength: "Cartels Operating in America's Forests"

A federal agent describes how the drug cartels now operating in California forests are better trained and better armed than ever before. 

VIDEO: "Cartels Operating in America's Forests (with John Nores) - Change Agents with Andy Stumpf"--IRONCLAD (54 min.)

Movie Review: Blue Beetle

My kids wanted to go see a move this weekend for National Cinema Day (so they were offering tickets for $4 per ticket). Blue Beetle seemed the least objectionable of those films offered, and it had been given a so-so review by the Critical Drinker, so off we went spending a small fortune for popcorn and sodas. Based on the offerings, these were all movies that had been or were doing poorly in the theaters and the theaters were probably doing this to recoup some of their money.

    In any event, Blue Beetle is a mashup of the 1980s television show, The Greatest American Hero and the Iron Man franchise with a bit of Green Lantern and Ant Man on the side. It was aimed at a Hispanic/Latino audience and quite heavy on the pro-illegal alien propaganda which appeared to be quite popular with much of the audience (although the theater was only about 1/3 full). The basic moral of the story is that white people had their chance and now it is time for Hispanics to take what is rightfully theirs (even if it was created by white guys) due to their working hard in sneaking across the border and taking crappy jobs for the last couple of decades.

    The basic plot is that the main character, Jaime Reyes, returns home having just graduated from college with a useless degree to find that his father has had a heart attack, lost the family business, and the family is broke and on the verge of losing their home. Being a Hispanic family, there are three generations living in the home, but apparently only the main character's father actually held a job. As we learn as the move progresses, Reyes' parents and grandmother are illegal aliens (making Reyes and his sister anchor babies), and the grandmother apparently was some sort of communist revolutionary/terrorist. While Reyes, himself, is reluctant to kill anyone (and it becomes a plot twist between him and the AI that controls the Scarab), the rest of his family don't share that aversion. I assume it must be their communist background.

    The story takes place in a city (Palmera City) which apparently is the DC's Universe's version of Miami. The neighborhood in which Reyes' family lives is being bought up by the evil Kord Industries to be developed into high-end condos. Kord, under the direction of a strong female leader named Victoria Kord, is also attempting to build an army of Iron Man type suits using a mixture of Earth technology and a bit of alien technology (the Scarab from which the move derives its title). It's not clear why they need the Scarab because the prototype suit seems to work well enough without it, but whatever.

    So with Kord trying to take his family's home, Reyes (and his sister), of course, get jobs as janitors/caretakers at Victoria Kord's mansion. Reyes sister decides she has to take a dump in one of the bathrooms in the main mansion instead of using the facilities reserved for the hired help, gets caught, and so the two are fired. But it provides an opportunity for Reyes to meet a young, Latina-looking Jenny Kord (the rightful heir to Kord Industries), who has just learned of Victoria's evil ways. This will prove important because the next day, Jenny steels the Scarab and, in desperation after a security alert is issued, hands it off to Reyes for him to sneak out of the Kord Headquarters. (How he is able to leave the headquarters during a security lockdown without being searched is never explained or shown). 

    Reyes and his family, against strict instructions, play around with the Scarab which decides it likes Reyes and immediately decides to form a symbiotic relationship with him and takes up residency in his spine and brain stem. What follows is some highjinx as Reyes tries to learn how to control his Iron Man like "suit" which can apparently create whatever weapon he can imagine. He also gets into a fight with Victoria's bodyguard, Ignacio Carapax, who has a prototype super suit that appears to be almost the equal of the alien suit used by Reyes. Reyes has an opportunity to kill Carapax but doesn't because, he proclaims, it is wrong to kill people. 

    Reyes and Jenny then head to her father's old mansion and his secret Blue Beetle bat cave ... er, beetle bunker. In a nod to Ant Man, we learn that Jenny's father had originally found the Scarab decades earlier, developed a lot of high tech gadgets and weapons and apparently been the original Blue Beetle before mysteriously disappearing. 

    In the interim, wanting her Scarab back, the evil white woman Victoria decides to track down and capture Reyes and his family. Reyes is not there, but Kord's SWAT team captures the family. Reyes rescues them, but not before his father dies of a heart attack. Of course, Reyes is captured and hauled off to a secret base purchased by Kord Industries from the Cuban dictator Batista before Castro's glorious revolution.

    But as the saying goes, when you fight one Latino you are fighting the whole family. The Reyes family unites, grabs up a bunch of deadly high tech weapons developed by Jenny's peace-loving, anti-military father, and storm the island stronghold. There they proceed to shoot, crush, blow up, and otherwise kill dozens of Kord guards because killing is wrong ... unless it involves white guys. Reyes has  a vision of his dead father and learns that his destiny is to become the blue beetle. He gives in and fully merges with the Scarab and is then able to break free, but not before the software from the Scarab is downloaded into the super suits being developed by Kord.

    Finally, there is a big boss battle between Reyes and Carapax (now in an even more powerful suit curtesy of the software upgrade), but after Carapax is defeated, he realizes that he is only evil because of the American Yankee imperialists attacked the peaceful Sandinista village where he lived as a child, killing his mother. So Carapax turns on Victoria Kord, dragging her off before activating a self-destruct mechanism. 

    The end of the movie reminds me of the end of the book of Job. Jenny shows up to announce that Kord is no longer going to be buying up the property, will pay to fix the Reyes' house, and gives Reyes' uncle a new car to replace the one shot to pieces in the adventure. 

    Then Reyes and Jenny kiss and fly off to presumably make more Jaimes and Jennies. Because this film is aimed at Hispanics, it features a real family (i.e., all related, not some made up "family" consisting of close friends and associates) that was loving, not dysfunctional, and even openly religious (although there are limits even to that: Reyes' father tells him that the "universe"--not "God"--has a plan for him). There were also no openly homosexual characters. 

    So, to sum up, there was nothing tremendously new or inventive here, although it does stand out for not preaching LGBTQ. It had decent special effects and some good action scenes.

    Besides the glaring plot holes and lack of any real story (but what do you expect from a super-hero movie), there were three things I disliked about the film: first, the heavy "anti-imperialist" propaganda; second, the "we deserve your civilization because we successfully sneaked across the border" messaging; and, third, the way they made the Hispanic characters look stupid and foolish all through the film. The only character for which you have any respect is Reyes' father because he is the only one that behaves like an adult. 

Why "Carry The Biggest Gun You Can Conceal" Isn't Necessarily Good Advice

Common advice for concealed carry is to "carry the largest gun you can reasonably conceal" but which is almost always accompanied by the advice that if you can't carry a full size handgun or a compact version of the same (like the Glock 19) you need to learn to dress around the gun. I, and others like the suited shootist, have gone over why "dressing around the gun" isn't always possible. I have also complained in the past about too much civilian carry advice coming from former law enforcement officers whose jobs didn't bring negative consequences if co-workers or a member of the public knew they were carrying. I've always preferred advice from people that have to take concealed carry seriously like those involved in executive protection or undercover work (law enforcement or intelligence), or civilians with relevant concealed carry experience.

    In the video below from Armed and Styled, the host discusses why she disagrees with the "carry the largest gun you can reasonably conceal" and instead recommends using the smallest gun they can comfortably shoot. She also explains why bigger isn't better specifically as to appendix carry because of the limited amount of real estate you have available.

VIDEO: "I Disagree | Big Gun vs. Little Gun"

Armed and Styled (5 min.)

A Couple Videos From Townsends

I came across a couple videos from Jon Townsend that I thought would be of interest. Townsend's YouTube channel is mostly about cooking and life in the 18th Century and, for that reason, has a lot of relevance to preppers and bushcrafters. Townsend has also partnered with Dan Wowak of of Coalcracker Bushcraft on several videos to discuss "primitive" bushcraft as practiced by frontiersmen and trappers of the 18th Century. 

    The first video of Townsend's that I came across this weekend and which caught my interest was on "The Working Man's Breakfast" where he describes the typical breakfast of the 18th Century, particularly for the common person: essentially what we'd today describe as oatmeal or grits, although going under various names such as pottage or porridge, but sometimes bread and cheese, and often with a pint of beer or broth or milk to go with it. Something to think about when planning long term food storage.

VIDEO: "The Working Man's Breakfast"--Townsends (9 min.)

    The second video is nearly an hour long, but it is a video with Wowak going over various bushcraft techniques applicable to the 18th or early 19th centuries: setting up a tarp for shelter, making short lengths of cordage, lighting a fire and making charcloth, some ways of cooking over a fire, bedding down at night (including how to properly wrap up in a wool blanket), making grease from rendered animal fat and beeswax to keep tools from rusting, treating leather and wood, etc.

VIDEO: "7 Bushcraft Skills For The Frontier - Jon Townsend and Dan Wowak"--

Townsends (59 min.)

Yes, The PDW Is Still Relevant

    This post is inspired by a recent article John Farnam at AmmoLand where he asks “Is the PDW (Personal Defensive Weapon) Still Relevant?”   Farnam mostly focuses on the FN P-90 and why it hasn’t been widely adopted before moving on to an argument that the handgun can serve the traditional role of a PDW if the military allowed it to be carried as millions of police and private citizens carry their handguns. He does include some discussion of why PDWs are needed (smaller weight and size, the latter particularly important in our heavily mechanized forces, and discusses the adoption of the M1 Carbine in WWII.

    PDW or personal defense weapon is a term referring to weapons intended to be carried and used by troops not serving in combat roles or that due to other reasons could not carry full size rifles, but who still needed effective combat weapons. Traditionally these personnel included troops manning artillery or other support weapons, drivers, medics, radio men, and even those with command roles, as well as others providing logistical support at or near the front line. 

    Although the PDW designation is fairly recent, such weapons have been around for a long time. In fact, the various hangers and swords carried by non-infantry troops prior to the advent of modern firearms filled much the same role. 

    Arguably the first PDWs of the modern era were handguns. Originally a Calvary weapon, as revolvers became smaller they were increasingly carried by line officers in addition to or as an adjunct to an officer’s sword. By WWI, handguns were being regularly issued to officers and support personnel. But even during that great conflict it was recognized that something more was needed, which is why we saw a proliferation of pistols being produced that would accept stocks and, in many cases, offered full automatic fire.

     At the same time, the combatants recognized the need for more firepower when assaulting trenches and other field fortifications. Consequently several of the belligerents developed and started issuing sub machine guns.

     By WWII, although the sub machine gun started out as an assault weapon, it was also widely issued to support and rear echelon troops to serve as a PDW. If the US had not already developed its M1 Carbine (which by the end of the war was transitioning to a select fire assault rifle), the US probably would have made greater use of sub machine guns. It is important to note that after the M1 Carbine was adopted, many combat troops began clamoring for it because of its smaller size and weight and increased magazine capacity, particularly in settings where the size and weight of the Garand posed a disadvantage and the range and power wasn’t always needed: e.g., urban and jungle warfare. Keep note of this because we will see something similar happen two more times.

     The military hates the added logistics of multiple individual weapons and ammunition, particularly since, as all right thinking generals know, wars are won with bombs and missiles. Thus, following WWII, the military (and, in particular, the Army) decided to chase after that rarest of unicorns: the one infantry arm that could do everything. This was the M14 and it was not just to replace the M1 Garand as the principle infantry weapon, but also replace the M1 Carbine, the submachine gun, and the automatic rifle. (At the same time, the Army was also pursuing the general purpose machine gun that was to replace the light and medium machine guns). I'm sure that it irked them to no end that the M14 couldn't also replace the handgun. But the Army had achieved the impossible: it had produced an infantry rifle that could do everything one could want in an individual weapon.

    That is until reality struck and the country found itself embroiled in a war in South East Asia. Early on in the war, you saw a resurgent popularity of the lowly .30 carbine (albeit in a select fire version called the M2 or the night vision equipped M3) and various submachine guns. But the M16 also made its appearance, and suddenly the troops were clamoring for the smaller, lighter, M16 which could do most everything they needed it to do in the jungle and urban combat that was prevalent in that war. I would argue that because of its light weight and low recoil, the M16 and M16A1 was effectively able to serve as a PDW. 

    But Vietnam ended, the military forgot many of its hard-learned lessons, and so the military once again set about trying to develop a rifle that could do everything. By that time, even our NATO allies had learned that a .308 "assault rifle" was impractical (which is why they all continued to field submachine guns in addition to the FAL or G3 or equivalents). 

    But the light weight M16A1 and its very effective 55-grain bullet was suddenly not good enough. Bullet weight was increased to 62 grains. The NATO allies each went their own way as far as a rifle platform, but the U.S. decided to add a heavy barrel and rifleman's sight and upgraded furniture. The result was the significantly heavier M16A2. I would argue that the A2 was heavy enough that it no longer could also serve as a PDW. But that issue was ignored until the U.S. started finding itself embroiled in yet other wars: this time in the Middle-East. 

    Then, just as happened in WII and Vietnam, the regular troops discovered the M4 Carbine (which, just like the M16 in Vietnam was intended as a weapon for special forces), which was lighter, shorter, and handier than the M16A2 (or A3 or A4) and started clamoring for it. Again, the troops wanted a PDW type weapon. 

    Of course, over time, more and more stuff started getting hung off the weapon, special variants were issued, and the overall weight started creeping up so ultimately troops were carrying weapons that weighed more than their grandfather's M1 Garand. Encouraged by this, the military has once again decided that it can develop another infantry weapon that can do it all: the M5 ... er ... M7. Essentially the M14 all over again except with optics and a silencer.  But, here is the interesting part, the M-4 will be retained for non-combat and support troops--i.e., it will serve as a PDW. And my prediction? Even after the M7 is issued, the M4 will continue to see use even among combat troops who will value its lighter weight and lower recoil and higher magazine capacity. 

    So does the PDW have any relevancy? Maybe not in the form of a P90 or a tricked out submachine gun. But in short barreled 5.56 weapons, the answer is a definite yes.    

Weekend Reading and Viewing

 Greg Ellifritz has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. First I want to thank him to a link to my post on "Government Gun Training" which he raises in relation to a video of a female police officer who was completely overwhelmed by a suspect armed with a hammer. There are two main points that struck me in the video. First, irrespective of sex, how many of us are really prepared to quickly and decisively act when attacked? It is a psychological matter. Some of it is shock at what is happening ("I can't believe this happening") and some is attempting to process what is happening ("What do I do?"). Second, is the physicality of the attack. I'm not trying to put down women, but the reality is that most women--even if they have training--are not physically capable of going toe-to-toe with a fit, adult male. Worse, women are often short-changed in training because they get treated with kids' gloves because they (women generally) don't like getting hit at full speed and power. This can also an issue with many men: in our sedentary world where fighting is verboten, many men are in poor physical shape and have never taken (or given) a punch.

    Moving on, some other articles and videos to which he links that caught my attention:

• Greg links to an article from Recoil magazine on "Practical Paranoia and Preventable Death" that discusses the less exciting, but more common ways, that we can die: things like falls, drowning, burns, etc. As another of his links points out, there is a real danger that we have spent too much time and money on equipment and training not optimized for solving likely problems. While the latter article is concerned with firearms training and self-defense, there is the broader issue of self-protection. If you have a safe full of guns, but no fire extinguisher or first aid kit in your home, you might want to reconsider your priorities.
• Greg includes a couple articles from Mass Ayoob. One ("The Way Of The Weasel") is on the use of surreptitious draw techniques for readying a firearm before actually having to draw it. The other ("Adapting To Change") discusses some changes Ayoob has made over the years as old age (particularly, arthritis) catches up on him.
• Another article on concealed carry and using a public bathroom. 
• An article from Guns & Ammo on using a cap and ball revolver for self-defense. This might be a viable alternative in some jurisdictions that make it difficult to own a modern firearm. As the author points out, this is not a magic end-run around state laws on firearms (he gives a couple examples). His recommendation? "[A] .44 caliber Ruger Old Army revolver is the absolute best choice." This is Ruger's updated version of the Remington New Model Army Revolver (aka Remington Model 1858). Unfortunately, Ruger discontinued the model, but there are other manufacturers the produce copies of the Remington New Army revolver. The author also goes into caliber and energy and recommends using a black powder revolver of at least .44 caliber.
• And an article on "Why I am not a 'Gun-Guy'." This isn't a criticism of people who like guns, but the attitude that the person (training, drive or motivation, tactics, etc.) is more important than the weapon when it comes to self-defense or combat. I wonder, though, if the author is taking it to extremes. The author considers a "gun guy" to be "a man or woman who is a very serious student of the gun. Someone who is a subject matter expert from the butt-stock to the muzzle." And then gives some examples of very technical things that he expects a "gun guy" would know. With that background, he says that he cannot be a "gun guy":

[Because] I’m not a scientist; I’m a Warrior. If you will recall from a previous article, a Warrior is a combatant in a violent struggle of opposing wills. As such, my objective is to keep myself and my loved ones safe. In order to do that, I will prepare myself and my environment to impose my will on anyone or anything that attempts to harm me or those in my charge. I will escalate or deescalate force with or without a firearm. The firearm is simply a tool I use to impose my will. Much akin to the way a carpenter may view the use of his hammer. The hammer is one of the tools he uses to frame a house. He isn’t in love with the hammer; it’s just one of many tools he or she should be proficient in.

The two are not mutually exclusive. To draw an example from the hunting world, Ron Spomer is both a hunter and a gun guy. In fact, there is a certain amount of knowledge of the tools that are required. To draw from the author's example of a carpenter, you probably wouldn't be much of a carpenter if you showed up to frame a house with a ball-peen hammer in hand and a bag full of roofing nails. 

• In a similar vein, Greg offers a video from the Suited Shootist entitled "I Wish I Knew This Sooner" which discusses the dangers of focusing so much on certain shooting skills (the Suited Shootist uses speed of draw and split times as examples) while ignoring other defensive skills (using empty handed techniques or verbal skills as an example); or spending so much time on learning defensive or combat skills that they forget to live their lives.
• And, for revolver shooters, a look at the "Safariland Speedloader Comp III, Triple Speedloader Holder, and Speed Strips." Greg recommends the Comp III and indicates that it is what he uses when carrying a revolver. I haven't used the Comp III, but I have used the Comp II which is a more concealable option that still is a push to release design (as opposed to twisting a knob). I say more concealable, but the Comp II is still intended for duty use, while the Comp III is intended for competition. I would note that Safariland pretty much only offers its speedloaders for .38/.357 caliber rounds, so if you want some for a larger (or smaller) caliber, you are probably out of luck. 

A lot more there, so be sure to read the whole thing.