Post-Weekend Reading

What with Christmas and rush project at work, I wasn't able to get to this earlier. But both Greg Ellifritz and Jon Low posted links to various articles and commentary.

    First up is the latest Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg at Active Response Training. A few articles that caught my attention:

• Concealed Carry And Your Family has recommendations/reminders about the importance of preventing unauthorized access to your firearms (although, based on my experience and reading of accounts of accidental shootings over the years, this tends to be more of a problem with visitors than your own children) and the importance of discretion--not only discrete carry but members of your family (or friends) saying anything about you carrying.
• An article on whether you "need" a sub-second draw. The author, Travis Pike, acknowledges it would be useful, but Greg's comments suggest that it might not be worth the effort versus other skills and types of practice.
• An article by Doug Casey on "Some Thoughts on Phyles, Islam, and Warfare". Phyles is a classical Greek term for tribe or clan so, as you might guess, the article is about people organizing into groups, albeit based around ideology instead of kinship. It is something we hear a lot about in the prepping community--you need to form or join a "tribe". But other groups are also forming their "tribes" and future conflicts might be based around these "tribes". We've already seen that here in the U.S. with criminal gangs and cartels and groups like the Weather Underground, BLM and Antifa. 
• An article on carrying non-metallic blades and spikes in nonpermissive environments.
• Restrictions on purchasing veterinary antibiotics.
• Pocket carry tips.
• ... and more.

    Jon Low also published a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter on Christmas Eve. Some links he mentions:

• "Mastering Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Responsible Concealed Carry" by Mitch Goerdt. Basically, don't carry if you can't control your emotions.
• A link to a video from Tucker Carlson about Kyle Rittenhouse, including a monologue and an interview with Rittenhouse.
• A "Critical Mass" video where Massad Ayoob discusses the pros and cons to a manual safety.
• "How To Start A CCW Training Regimen" by Richard A. Mann. He recommends practicing and mastering the basics, keeping a range book to track your progress, start a training program, taking advantage of dry fire, and more.
• Jon writes:

     I took the Vehicle Tactics course from Joe Shelton, Tyler Van Zant, and Bob Allen 

at Royal Range in Nashville, TN last night.  Some of the things I learned: 

  

     Bullets will go through side windows and door panels easily without deflection.   

 

     Much more difficult to penetrate front and rear windshields, and deflection is expected. When firing into the car through the front windshield with a horizontal trajectory, expect the bullet to deflect down if it penetrates.  It might glance off and not 

penetrate. When firing out of the car through the front windshield with horizontal trajectory, expect the bullet to deflect up, if it penetrates.  It might not.   

 

     Head rests generally have steel plates in them that pistol bullets will not penetrate.  

He has a lot more tips from the class, so be sure to check it out. 

• Another bit of information I found interesting:

  From the continuing education at Allied Universal Security Services.  

     On September 11th of 2021, 90% of the people in the World Trade Center evacuated safely.  [This should be considered a significant success.]  

     Work place homicides:  

85% Criminal (outsider, stranger) 

 7% Worker on worker (both parties employed at venue) 

 5% Domestic (domestic dispute that spilled over into the work place) 

 3% Customer / client 

[So security should primarily be facing outward with the goal of preventing the bad persons from entering.]  

• And for the science nerds, check out the video from Sabine Hossenfelder on an alternative to quantum gravity (and links to a couple articles on the topic). Essentially a rejection of attempts (such as string theory) to explain gravity using a quantum theory. 
• Jon writes:

    Oh, so you were sweeping and found a bug (and an interesting one at that).  Best not to dig it out of the wall and kill it.  Don't want the enemy to know that you know about it.  Might want to feed it (false info)?  But then the enemy  will figure out that you know about it.  Let's just turn it off, gently.  

     It's wintertime and cold.  Thermal stress will break the microscopic wires in the IC chips.  Get a "Presto Heat Dish + Tilt" from Costco for under $100.  This is not a space heater.  It will not warm the air in the room.  It is a heating element with a parabolic reflector.  It heats things up.  

     The wires will crack in about 30 thermal cycles.  So you can get this done in a month.  When you come into work, turn the heater on the bug.  When you go home at the end of the day, make sure to turn the air conditioning off.  

     Just a suggestion.  Let your imagination run wild.  

• And a lot, lot, more....