Monthly Archives: December 2012

Link – DIY face armour

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Unfortunately, body armour is not cheap. Then again, no matter how expensive it is, it is almost certainly a bargain compared to the medical costs of not wearing it when you wind up needing it. I have no idea what a sucking chest wound costs, dollarwise, these days but I bet it’s more than $800.

Some folks, from time to time, try to figure out ways to DIY it and save a few bucks. While I admire this sort of thrift and ingenuity, I’m not sure that wearable armour is something you want to MacGyver any more than youd be willing to trust your life to a homemade parachute. Armouring non-wearable items is a different story..you wanna bulletproof your front door, thats a lot easier.

Here’s a fella that decided to retrofit a hockey mask with some eBay kevlar and scrap metal. And…he tests it out at the range.

 

TL;DR = 9mm FMJ penetrated, but lesser stuff didnt. Also, big-n-slow .45 ACP also failed. Of course, anyone who wore something like this and had it stop a bullet would still be looking at having their jaw wired together, an amazing odyssey of dental surgery, and perhaps the installation of a bionic nose.

Still, I think there’s room for this sort of experimentation. I mean, I’ve seen worse ideas floating around…like the guy that figured if the military uses aluminum armour in vehicles, maybe if he stuffed his door panels with crushed beer cans theyd stop bullets. :::facepalm:::

As I recall, Mythbusters coated a car in phonebooks to make impromptu bulletproofing and it actually worked until they brought out the heavy hitters. Of course, handling and suspension took a bit of a beating. Butm if you can buy rolls of kevlar cheap enough off the internet to laminate yourself some bolt-on panels…hey, maybe it’ll work.

I’m just really, really glad I managed to get my lvl IV plates before the collateral damage from any new gun laws flows into the realm of body armour.

Starship Troopers quote

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

From the scene shortly after a child-killer is executed by hanging:

That night I tried to figure out how such things could be kept from happening. Of course, they hardly ever do nowadays—but even once is ‘way too many. I never did reach an answer that satisfied me. This Dillinger — he looked like anybody else, and his behavior and record couldn’t have been too odd or he would never have reached Camp Currie in the first place. I suppose he was one of those pathological personalities you read about—no way to spot them.

Well, if there was no way to keep it from happening once, there was only one sure way to keep it from happening twice. Which we had used.

If Dillinger had understood what he was doing (which seemed incredible) then he got what was coming to him. .. except that it seemed a shame that he hadn’t suffered as much as had little Barbara Anne — he practically hadn’t suffered at all.

But suppose, as seemed more likely, that he was so crazy that he had never been aware that he was doing anything wrong? What then?

Well, we shoot mad dogs, don’t we?

Yes, but being crazy that way is a sickness—

I couldn’t see but two possibilities. Either he couldn’t be made well in which case he was better dead for his own sake and for the safety of others—or he could be treated and made sane. In which case (it seemed to me) if he ever became sane enough for civilized society. .. and thought over what he had done while he was “sick”—what could be left for him but suicide? How could he live with himself?

And suppose he escaped before he was cured and did the same thing again? And maybe again? How do you explain that to bereaved parents? In view of his record?

I couldn’t see but one answer.

…..

I wondered how Colonel Dubois would have classed Dillinger. Was he a juvenile criminal who merited pity even though you had to get rid of him? Or was he an adult delinquent who deserved nothing but contempt?

I didn’t know, I would never know. The one thing I was sure of was that he would never again kill any little girls.

That suited me. I went to sleep.

 

:shrug::: Crazy people do crazy things because…they’re crazy. When someone commits a heinous crime all the hand-wringing in the world about why and how are pointless – they do it because they’re insane. It’s really that simple. You cannot prevent someone from doing it, but you can prevent them from doing it twice.

Heinlein gets a rough rap about Starship Troopers but, much like Ayn Rand’s stuff, if you can get through it you certainly do wind up doing some thoughtful examinations about the philosophies within. Might not agree with them, but at least you think about things in ways you hadn’t before…that, to me, is the sign of good literature.

 

Mayan Friday, Festivus gifting

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

If you didn’t get the memo, Friday is the end of the world. At least, this is according to the fractured records of a dead civilization that was so technically advanced that they could predict the distant future but couldn’t keep their civilization going. (Although Im sure some will say that they were so advanced, the reason we see no record of them is because they dimensionally-shifted or otherwise beamed away to a better plane of existence.)

Folks, I’ve said it before – unless you have your hand on The Big Red Button ™, no one knows when it’s gonna happen. Unless you’re the guy causing it to happen, no one knows.

But..here’s where the problem comes in. Less balanced individuals will jump to the fore because of their superstitious/religious beliefs and figure that since the world is ending Friday why not go out with some style? Next thing you know there’s cars whipping through shopping malls a’la Blues Brothers, folks settling old scores, and just the garden variety whackjobs who figure now is great time to see how much gasoline you can fit into a day care center. So, while it may not be the end of the world in the classic sense, there might be a certain level of self-fulfilling prophecy going on. Moral of the story: stay away from large crowds and places where nutjobs are known to hang out. So..no WalMart this week.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Some Festivus gifting has occurred. I received a book on aquaponics off of my Amazon Wish List with a note urging me to review it so the sender can know if the book is worth adding to their library, and a thoughtful reader in a very cold climate sent me a nice picture of their Christmas and a few bucks to boot.  Thanks, guys..I hope you have an enjoyable holiday as well.

If you’re of the mind to spread a little holiday cheer, or just want to feed my unquenchable thirst for gear, my contact info is on the ‘About‘ page along with a link to the WIsh List. Additionally, there’s a little clickable button at the top right of the screen for those little things Amazon doesn’t sell…like 00 Buck and Pmags.

Sign of the times – Email from one of my vendors

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

One of my vendors for guns emailed this little gem to their customer list today:

Subject: shipping

There were over 2,300 internet orders that came through over the weekend. I would not guarantee any order getting to a customer by Christmas except for true air packages.

Yeah….there just might have been just a bit of an uptick in sales.

Article – Did paranoid, gun-crazed mother trigger son’s school killing spree? Friends sa

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

 

The mother of the loner who massacred 26 pupils and staff at a US primary school may have played a major part in his catastrophic mental breakdown, it emerged last night.

Friends and family portrayed Adam Lanza’s mother Nancy as a paranoid ‘survivalist’ who believed the world was on the verge of violent, economic collapse.

She is reported to have been struggling to hold herself together and had been stockpiling food, water and guns in the large home she shared with her 20-year-old son in Connecticut.

Mrs Lanza, 52, was a ‘prepper’ – so called because they are preparing for a breakdown in civilised society – who apparently became obsessed with guns and taught Adam and his older brother, Ryan, how to shoot, even taking them to local ranges.

That backfired horrifically on Friday when Adam Lanza began his killing spree by shooting his mother dead in bed.

 

Oy. This is not gonna go well.

Some of those behaviors that were ‘strange’ or ‘suspicious’? They’re SOP around here. We never let people who aren’t close friends into the house. We don’t let people know where we live. We stockpile all sortsa goodies. And yet…we haven’t shot up a school.

You watch….the survivalist/preparedness community, such as it is, is going to go from being regarded as that odd-but-harmless-cousin you shake your head about, to being regarded as a ticking timebomb.

For giggles, I went to a local gun shop Friday just to see if the panic buying had hit. Yup…mags were moving briskly and there were several people filling out the forms to pick up their new AKs. Ammo was walking out the door too.

I’m not going to say it’s a conspiracy, but lets look at this broadly: Obama gets re-elected, Fast N Furious spotlight those evil black guns, throw in a couple mass shootings, toss in some end-of-the-world drama, get out the usual pot-stirrers like Schumer, and you’ve got a recipe for something ungood coming down the pike shortly regarding your firearms. Magazine ban? Certainly thats the easiest thing to do since it doesn’t fly in the face of any Second Amendment issues. Bring back the AW ban? Maybe.

Regardless, I’m hoping this hits the end of the news cycle in about a week and we get back to our regular doom-n-gloom, but this story may have legs and wind up being the casus belli that this administration has been needing in order to ‘do something’ about the ‘easy access’ to ‘military style weapons that have no place on our streets’.

Candle Lanterns

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

I am not a fan of open flame devices for most indoor applications. I have  kerosene heaters that I keep for backup heating and kerosene lanterns for backup lighting, but I also use them very carefully and with a plethora of fire-extinguishing materials on-hand. As Washington said, fire “is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Meaning, it’s quite useful but it comes with some big risks.

I am not a fan of candles for indoor use at all. They provide minimal lighting and a disproportionate amount of risk for that meager illumination. They are certainly better than nothing, but I’d rather spend the $10 for a cheap LED light and a fistful of batteries.

The exception to my disdain for these sorts of things is the candle lantern. The candle is encased in a protective housing that affords a measure of security that, while not eliminating the risks, reduces them a small amount. Tip over a candle lantern and you probably won’t set the house on fire.

What I really like about candle lanterns, however, is their use for vehicle emergency kits. In the enclosed space of a vehicle, a candle lantern will provide a good amount of light and, more importantly, a small amount of heat. (Plus, on a lizard-brain level, controlled fire has a calming soothing effect…it’s hard to be miserable around a campfire.) Obviously there is a carbon monoxide issue but keeping the window open just a crack oughtta take care of that. (I suppose if youre really hardcore you might carry a battery CO detector in your car kit for when you use something like this.)

The candle lanterns I have for the vehicle are these guys: UCO Original Candle Lantern Value Pack. Because I’m an evil yuppy survivalist, I purchased a few extras for it…the reflectors and a padded carry case. Throw in a handful of extra candles, a couple packets of matches, and you’re off to the races. Surprisingly, when used with the reflectors there is a fair amount of light thrown…not enough to ever replace even the most lamest LED light, but you could certainly navigate through a darkened structure. However, as I said, I got these for use in case we ever got stuck in the snow somewhere. Hang it from the rear-view mirror and let it warm the place up and give us some light to be seen by. Although I don’t need them for household use, I have a few spares in storage that could be drafted for indoor use if necessary but, as I said, I don’t care for the risks involved…thats why I have so many LED lights and batteries.

There are some knockoffs out there but I’ve been using the UCO-branded candles and lanterns and like them very much. I count them as a tertiary-level (or deeper) level of backup lighting but in some cases they might be just the ticket. Anyway, I bring them to your attention in case you hadn’t already been aware of them.

Article – Greek Hospitals Suffer In Ailing Economy

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

https://www.commanderzero.com/The economic crisis in Greece is strangling the country’s hospitals, where budgets have been slashed by more than half. As a result, nearly all doctors in both public and private hospitals have seen their pay cut, delayed or even frozen.

“On top of that, we lack basic supplies to do our jobs,” says Vangelis Papamichalis, a neurologist at the Regional Hospital of Serres in northern Greece and a member of the doctors union here. “We run out of surgical gloves, syringes, vials for blood samples and needles to sew stitches, among other things.”

Last week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said these shortages will contribute to hospital-acquired infection rates in Greece, which are already among the worst in Europe.

Savvy world-travellers will often, when visiting Third World countries, bring along their own syringes and similar materials in case they need medical attention. https://www.commanderzero.com/The idea being that in most Third World countries customary medical practices we are used to, such as sterilization and not re-using needles, may be absent. So…you bring your own.

This is another reason why it might be smart to stock up on more advanced medical items for your future needs. While you may not have any idea how to use a hemostat, suture, scissors and blade, there will be someone around who does…and who will need clean, sterile, professional instruments. In a First World country like ours, we take it for granted that we can walk into virtually any hospital and find clean, sterile materials. Globally, this is the exception, not the norm. All it takes is a hospital’s vendors refusing to take credit, and a hospital not getting the cash it needs from patients, to exhaust the hospitals supply closets.

Greece was, arguably, somewhere in the range of being a First World country…certainly not a country you think of where hospitals run short of medical equipment. But, that equipment and supplies has to get paid for somehow. And without money, either from funding or patient billing, no one is just going to fork over expensive gear without expecting payment.

Next year we are supposed to have millions more people suddenly ‘have access’ to medical care. Suddenly and drastically increase the demand on a system without a corresponding increase in that systems capacity and you get….an overloaded and failing system. If you thought it sucked to stand around in a hospital waiting for something you’re really gonna hate whats coming.

I’m not saying you need to build a surgical theater in your basement, but I have, in the past, gotten medical treatment in non-medical environments. You know how it is..you need some stitches, a vaccination, something examined, and you happen to have a neighbor or acquaintance who is a doctor or nurse. Sit down on their couch, they swab your arm, jab a few needles, and youre on your way. Those folks, Crom love ‘em, are gonna be worth their weight in gold over the next few years. It’ll be nice to have the gear available to let them do what needs doing.

 

S&W tells me its the end of the world

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Have a customer who ordered up a S&W M&P pistol from S&W a month or so back and it hasn’t shown up yet. He asked me to light a fire under ‘em. I emailed their LE rep and this is the exact reply I got:

No ETA, sorry bud.  Its the end of the world and all that right around the corner so we are backordered.

Nice. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Personally, if it’s the end of the world I would think the autopistols of choice will be Rugers and Glocks. The Ruger will edge out the Glock for durability, but the Glock will win the trophy hands-down for parts support.

Regardless, this is really a bad time to be trying to buy a particular gun. Oh, theres guns available, to be sure….but you may not get exactly what you want. Or, if you do, be prepared to part with some major cash.

ETA: Factor in the mass shooting in Connecticut today and it look’s like AR shipping times are gonna be pushed back another several weeks and lets not even think about what the magazine market is going to look like. Now that the election is over this might be the casus belli that The Usual Suspects need to enact their ‘sensible’ citizen gun control.

Reviewing your book

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

With the advent of self-publishing through Kindle/Amazon more and more people are taking a stab at writing their own fiction. I think this is awesome and it’s great that folks are exercising their minds, getting out their opinions and ideas, and that they can reap benefits from it. However, having said that, it’s kinda my policy not to review books (or stories) that are sent to me, or that I am directed to, by the author/distributor/publisher.

The reason is really pretty simple. I don’t want the drama. If someone emails me and says “Hey, I read your blog and thought you might like this book I wrote. Here’s a coupon code for a free copy from Amazon! It’d be great if you’d post about it!” and I take them up on it, read their stuff, and don’t like it….what happens? I post that I didn’t like it and then I get into an unwanted email exchange with the person demanding to know why I didnt like it, why am I sabotaging their writing career, I’m obviously of no talent and simply jealous, etc, etc, etc.  Like I said, drama. Don’t need it, don’t want it.

So..I highly encourage you to explore your talents as a writer of ..well..whatever you want. And if you want to send me a free copy of your work to read, that’s great. But if you want me to review it, I’m afraid I’ll have to take a pass.

Is this something that happens frequently enough that I felt I needed to post about it? Well, it didn’t used to be but then again it didn’t used to be that people could do the self-publishing thing either. I probably get four or five of these sorts of requests a year and I usually just ignore them hoping the person will take the hint and there won’t be any hard feelings..but I may as well put it out in the open just in case someone was thinking about asking me to review their work for them.

It’s nothing personal guys, but asking me to review your literary masterpieces is like a fat chick asking you “Do you think I look fat?”. There’s no way you can give an honest opinion without someone getting hurt.

SO, please..go create! Give voice to your preparedness muse! Write the next Great American (Preparedness) Novel…and feel free to send me a copy, but please don’t ask me to review it.