Unobtanium

Captain Nemo, eat your heart out. 

Hmmm. A private luxury submarine, capable of 4-week journeys. Selling for "only" AUS$3B (So $1.98B U.S.).

Figuring a nominal speed of "greater than 40 knots". No worries about sea sickness. Laughs at storms. Winter at the polar ice cap; summer at the Great Barrier Reef; Tahiti, the Caribbean, Mallorca, and the French Riviera in season. Fresh lobster and crab nightly. Parties and dancing on the stern casing topside on calm nights.

1) Hell of a way to avoid paparazzi.

2) Coolest bug out ride ever for the apocalypse.

3) And of course, no one would ever use this to smuggle drugs, terrorists, arms, or people past the coast guards of 150 nations. Nosiree. Never happen. {OTOH, drop off a few dope loads "as a favor", and the loan note is paid off.} And of course, no one would get one of these and turn pirate. That'd be cheating. (Bonus points if you get Johnny Depp or Geoffrey Rush to dress up and play pretend captain. "...and really bad eggs...")

4) First sighting in the wild, even as CGI: Bond villain. Guaran-damn-teed.

Mongo like. But it still isn't going to be under my Christmas tree.

Maybe if I get 39 friends together, and we go shares. So then only about US$49.5M each.

If anyone gets one to review, give a holler.

Off To The Fun Show

 

In their ceaseless efforts to expand the intrusive reach of their one-party tyranny and use the U.S. and state constitutions as ass-wipe, the banana republic government of Califrutopia banned gun sales on state property, effectively killing several gun shows in CA on land controlled by the state.

This included the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Which not only pissed off the citizenry, that city (who'd happily take the land over from the state in a heartbeat), and hundreds of vendors. It also got the state sued in court. Successfully, as it turned out.

Califrutopia lost. (Huzzah!) The state's chances at the Ninth Circus aren't looking any too good in light of Bruen, and several other decisions, but pending their inevitable foolish appeals, the shows cancelled since last year are now back.

I'm off to validate my existence, undergird capitalism, and strike a blow for liberty.

Not so much for actual guns (still incurring a 10-day wait hereabouts, and I'm not short any of those already), but for all the other associated (and the totally non-related) accessories, geegaws, and what-not at the show.

And to flip a giant middle finger at the fucktards in Sacramento. Again.

Back later.

Of Course

 

After looking in vain on the 'net for an actual Wrist Rocket, just like the ones me and Baby Brother had back in the day, after searching high and low for months and years, I finally snagged one on eBay when everything else failed me.

And it's in great shape, and could've been the one that sat on my dresser for years growing up, before someone threw it out when I left for college (mumble grumble).

{And, True Fact, Mom played the dreaded "You'll shoot your eye out!" card for years to deny us anything like a ferocious Daisy Red Ryder, but didn't bat an eye at purchasing us both Wrist Rockets, which diligent use proved the pair of us ten times the neighborhood petty terrorists of which she had no clue*, but which she was certain were far less dangerous because "every kid" in her Depression-era neighborhood had possessed an inner-tube powered slingshot in Mayberry when she was a child.}

This is the model than which no other lesser model will suffice, because all the other lame-ass attempts since the Wham-O classic, from the same people who brought America the Frisbee and the Hula-hoop, have been naught but 24K shite and half-assery crapola non pareil. (I'm looking at all you second-rate imitators who screwed that pooch, over and over again.)

So "Yay for me!", I finally got my hands on the genuine article.

And now, I find this:

SR-7

My vintage model cost me less than that, but I'ma buy 4-10 of the new ones, because

1) nobody else for decades had the balls to do it right;

2) nothing works as well as the original type, which it seems these folks followed to the letter, and besides being fun, it's actually one of the most practical survival items you could tote;

3) if I don't buy ridiculous numbers of them now, the sonsofbitches will go belly up before I do, and it'll be another 50 years before there's another correct one, and I ain't gonna live to be that old.

4) Free shipping for 4 or more.

*(The statute of limitations having expired, the details of which will be blogfodder in days to come. Watch this space.)

Relax

h/t WRSA

Don't worry.
Unlike every invention in human history since rocks and pointed sticks, small hobbyist-level drones will not be weaponized.

No one will ever use the fliegenden flammenwerfer to start brush fires, set oil terminals or LNG facilities on fire, or burn down the houses of opposition leaders at night when they're sleeping in them, let alone use them at protests either for or against the government.

Never, ever, ever.

And no one will ever make one and use it on, say, homeless mega-encampments.
Or from merchant ships, against Somali pirate motherships.
Or on groups of illegal aliens crossing the border.
Or on gang bangers selling crack on the corner.
Because that would be double-plus ungood.

The "experts" have proclaimed this as unpossible.

Sleep tight, America.





Personally, I want two dozen of them.
For...contingencies.

Napalm for the common man.
That's the Second Amendment, chickadees.

Picture a few of these zooming down on the redcoats at Concord Bridge, or the BATFE cattle car at Waco, and tell me I'm mistaken.

Toys For Boys

Kickass leather flight jacket not included.

Back in the day, pilots were issued escape and evasion maps, printed on silk, so they could be sewn inside a flight jacket, and allow someone shot down to carry the necessary guide in hand, or hidden inside one's clothes.

If you lost your old one, never had one, or just want the option, there's a company called Silk Maps, and the fine folks there will be happy to rectify that lack, for any place in the world, for $50. Any location, you zoom the scale, the measurements will be imperial or metric at your choice, and you can do it in topo, street map, or satellite view.





















Recreate the memento you never had of some faraway conflict. Make a map in advance for a trip, and make it a souvenir of an adventure. Or exactly as intended, make yourself a just-in-case map to get out of Dodge, come the zombie apocalypse.

Note these are new made, not retro, nor period accurate for anything but right now. But you can add them to appropriate attire (see flight jacket above), or assemble a collection of them and sew them into anything.

They're 2' square and 100% silk, so you can also use it as a scarf, handkerchief, bandana, or assemble enough to make an entire garment. You're paying for them.

I thought the fact that someone decided these things were worth creating new was notably genius, and the maps are actually quite useful, so I thought you might appreciate them too.
This is how a two-hour wander around the interwebs turns into a useful blog post.

Paycheck - Pillow - Toys

Not literally, but there's a big Fun Show this weekend, and I'll be hunting for anything I've "just gotta have".
And I'm working all weekend.
And somewhere in there, I should probably sleep so I don't crash on the road or kill people at work.
Which they frown on thereabouts.

Posting will therefore be light, unless insomnia takes a hand.

Y'all have a pleasant weekend, and we'll see how it goes.

Gear Tip: Your Friend Velcro

A decade and more out of the .mil, and finding out to my chagrin that running around pulling security on the southern border for what became several years would require me to gear up and ruck up in an epic grunt flashback, one of the new iterations of weapon carriage I tried was the drop-leg holster.

Ignoring completely the Tactically Cool Tactical Operator Operating Tactically and CDI (Chicks Dig It) factors, there were practical considerations, in that it's much easier to get it down below chest and vest gear rigs and body armor (and yes, with cartels dumping entire magazines into the faces of downed Border Patrol agents nearby, you can damn betcha we wore all that, even for mending fences, when only 10 yards from Mexico), and easier to deal with jumping into and out of vehicles day and night, and still being able to reach and draw the weapon, should it become necessary.

But, like with spawn-of-satan single point slings (don't get me started), the bane of the existence of drop-legs is that sooner or later (sooner if you run, even briefly) they inevitably end up smacking your weapon(s) right into your junk. By malign design.

Ow.

And I've tried them nearly all, so don't bother suggesting Brand X or Tacticool Overpriced Widget Maker Y in comments. They all do it, because anatomy.

This is because no matter if you tighten them to tourniquet levels of adjustment, your leg is a cylinder, and things will go where they will go, usually at the worst time, and in the most uncomfortable way.

The same is true even for unsecured belt holsters. Heavy things gravitate to your middle when you move, because they can. Where they'll gore your junk, eventually. Even if you're Indiana Jones.

My solution was simple: I switched back either to a Bianchi GI issue holster and belt carry, clipped in place nigh-immovably, or used either the old- or new-school versions of GI shoulder holster, and the pistol is where I left it, no matter what I do.

But some people haven't learned their gear yet (which is the bigger take-away lesson, IMHO), and I've seen a couple of folks, even those on duty, and in courses still trying/using the drop-leg. Some of them because of agency policy. With the same painful short-comings. So for those who're still enamored of them, this tip.

Most larger Wal-Marts, and sewing-type craft stores, sell the two items you need: a wide swath of Velcro strap, and Shoe-Goo. Glue a 3-4" long section (or two side-by-side if they're narrow) of the widest hook piece you can obtain (If you find 3"x4" or 4"x6" pieces now because Internet, even better) to the back of your holster. Leave the loop attached, and press it into place at least overnight with bricks, books, weight plates, etc., after stuffing it to its normal dimension with either the (safe) weapon in place, or newspapers/rags stuffed in to approximate the normal profile.

Do the same thing in reverse: Shoe-Goo the loop section (make sure you get this right, or you'll have two Velcro pieces that won't lock together) to the trouser leg(s) you're likely to be wearing when SHTF, in the corresponding location where you want the pistol to stay on the side of your leg, versus digging into your wedding tackle.
Again, press into place, and weight it down with heavy items, and let it set overnight, if not for a full day.

The ambitious can use C-clamps and boards in either or both cases instead of weights.

Then when you wear drop-leg with trousers, it gets stuck where you want it, and stays where you put it, in perpetuity. FTR, I have sewn entire garments and repaired shoes with Shoe-Goo, and in every case, the Shoe-Goo outlasts the garments/shoe you repair with it.

If you do this, the prospects for you someday having children, and not screaming like a girl at an inopportune moment, will respectively increase/decrease, to your great relief.

Medical Gear Tip

Alone, AFAIK, among makers of tactical gear, Condor makes a spiffy pouch, above.

For them, it's their MA-40 H2O pouch, intended for a water bottle.

What it really is, is a great catch-all for a lot of things. The front pocket more than doubles the utility.
With a liter bottle plus a survival kit in the pouch, it's a pretty good get home kit anywhere, anytime. Swap the survival kit for jerky and powerbars, and it's a 1/2-1 day ration carrier. It'll also hold a Katadyn Cadillac-level Pocket water filter, and you could put a lot of purification tabs in the accessory pouch. The uses are limited only by your imagination and experimentation, and the physics of what can be crammed into it.

Today I want to pass along a great medical use, for those who can take advantage of it.

As it happens, the main compartment is the perfect size to hold 500 or 1000ml bags of IV fluid. It protects them in transit, while making them easy to access quickly, and you can, as I have done, strap three to six on one or both sides of a range bag first aid kit, and have the means for fluid therapy/resuscitation for a number of casualties.

What makes it even handier is that the side pouch will hold a full IV start kit, a full set of IV admin tubing, and an assortment of IV catheters, such that you could pack it all in a ziplok baggie, and in a pinch, pass out a fluid bag and start kit to multiple people simultaneously.

They didn't build it for this, but for me, seeing it, the use is a no-brainer.
If you can take advantage of it, you should.

As always, remember, gear is only one step.
It takes Gear + Training to equal Preparedness.

About Damned Time

h/t the Feral Irishman

Mongo like. Mongo want.
Hell, I'll sell a kidney to get one of these if I have to.
180MPH, 180 mi. range. Screw a sports car.

I could've spent the last year commuting to work in 20 minutes instead of 3 hours' driving.

Somebody tell Bill Whittle about this thing.
And it's a damned shame it didn't fly before Hognose passed away.

Kudos to the Germans who made it, and more importantly, made it work, and best wishes on their future success. I can't wait to see it enter actual production and distribution.
Ferrari and Lambo would be fools for not calling these guys for a partnership, if Ford and GM can't figure it out.

So, that's part of what I was promised growing up.
SpaceX seems to working on another part.

Now...where's my jetpack and laser pistol, you futurist engineering bitchez?

Tips and Tricks Of The Trade: Prepper Resource For Gear

Having shared this info/idea in a post comment I dropped over on the DTG blog, realized I hadn't shared this one here. Doh. And free Saturday post for me.

Some/many/most of you may have, do have, or will have, various and sundry kits.
Loaded, of course, with various sundries.

A couple of common themes with those are
How do I consolidate all the fussy bits of Kit X? and
How do I keep said fussy bits from falling out and leaving a breadcrumb trail of gear?

The answer, gentle readers, is found at The Container Store (80 brick and mortar US locations, and online for everyone).

Their tubs, tubes, tins, and other bits and bobs are some of the most fantastic collection and selection of problem-solvers available, some of them for problems you didn't know you needed to solve.

For one example: the Double-sided pill box (US$1.99@)

It can be used (Duh!) as a double-sided pill box. For personal meds, or your IFAK pill kit.
But it also works slicker than snot for making an O Sh*t! Kit, keeping the most frequently broken/lost pins, springs and little parts for the AR-15 series of rifle ready to hand.
Or as a mini FAK in itself.
Or for a survival fishing kit.
Or a mini survival kit.
Or a sewing kit.
Or a fire-starting kit.
And on and on.

If it rattles, pack the extra space with cleaning patches, Q-tips, toilet paper (for the obvious, or as tinder), thread/fishing line/dental floss wound onto index cards in plastic bags*, etc. If it ain't so full it's silent, you aren't trying hard enough.

This one is 2 3/8" x 4" x 1 1/8", so whatever you put into it, it fits in just about any pocket.

Then there are these: round food keepers (4 0z., US$1.26@)

That'd be the little empty one at the bottom of the pic.
Why?
Because medical tape rolls get grungy, dried out, and die left exposed to air.
But a standard 1" wide roll of tape fits inside this mini-Tupperware style tub, which keeps it factory fresh, clean, and not sticking to everything else in the kit. Brilliant.
(Bonus: you can find a smaller sealing tub to fit inside the tape roll central spindle, and fill it with sunscreen, Neosporin, etc.)
You can also dip 100% cotton balls into melted petroleum jelly, let cool, wrap in two flat pieces of aluminum foil, and then squash each one flat, and stack a bunch in this tub, and have a ready stack of combination firestarters/kindling/candles stored so it stays ready to light, unmolested, and without oozing Vaseline onto the rest of your kit.

I've used various containers they sell, to resurrect and restock gutted mil-surplus aircraft first aid pouches, with water-/crush-proof item boxes. I've found tubes suitable to keep IV catheter needles from stabbing me in the back while packed into field kits. And still other items just to hold my salt, pepper, and steak rub, as designed.

If one of their retail establishments isn't someplace you've visited, but you could, go.
Take money. Lots of money. They only have another 50,000 or so items to pack, store, carry, or consolidate all the crap you own, and some of them are genius.

If not, go online and browse, but remember to come up for air.
If you can't find something there you need, you're hopeless.
If you have an idea for something you need, and you can't find something close there, you haven't looked hard enough.




*(You should already have known about the little 1"x2", 2"x3", 3"x5", and 4"x6" wide Ziploc-style baggies for holding/consolidating/waterproofing all sorts of things, found at WallyWorld/Michael's Crafts/etc., right? Right??)

BBQ, .mil style

 



Some people think grenades are better.
Not.
In order:
1) The flamethrower projects flame, which burns over there, not back at you, and keeps burning if it hits anything or anyone flammable.
While a grenade might miss a firing slit (and then bounce back towards you), missing with a few ounces of gasoline isn't a problem, because you can move the stream around until you hit the sweet spot, and the screaming inside the bunker confirms proper weapons placement. Let's see some Smartypants do that with a grenade.
2) The gasoline is almost always at 14.7psi, except when you're about to fire, when you pressure up. The nitrogen propellant tank is the pressurized one. That's the one that does the work.
If somebody throws a WP grenade on your ass, it's a problem, but at that point, whether or not you were carrying four gallons of gasoline is largely moot. The only real drawbacks are signature, weight, and limited capacity before it's empty. The plusses are that anything within range you can see is going to die a horrible flaming death.
3)A grenade goes "whump" once, and showers a few bits of shrapnel. A flamethrower shoots flaming death into bunker slits from 40 yards away, and keeps burning the ass of whomever you splooged, long after the accelerant dies out. And they helpfully scream like little girls the entire time, and flail about, giving you additional morale kills on your intended enemies, and occasionally the 'splodey things on their body like ammo and grenades provide additional secondary explosions and casualties as they cook off! Yay, ingenuity!
4) It was a de facto antitank weapon in urban combat, because you could take out multiple AFVs with the backpack equivalent of a Molotov Cocktail Launcher. I would love to see what one would do to an M1 Abrams or M2/M3 Bradley, let alone an MRAP, just for research purposes. I think it would open some eyes and shut a few mouths.
5) It's exactly the weapon we should use for firing squads for terrorists captured in wars like Iraq and A-stan.

Note the video @ 1:19

Nota bene that cultural mores are such that despite issuing hundreds to thousands of them, no one from WWII or Korea ever says "I was a flamethrower operator." NO ONE. As Col. Kurtz observed, we teach young men to drop fire on their enemies, but we won't let them write "Fuck" on their airplanes. No one wants their relatives and friends to know that their job was to fry enemy soldiers and watch them dance around on fire. It upsets people at their breakfast.

The jackassical M202A1 flame rocket launcher was an abortion of a weapon to replace the M2, another legacy of the NacNamara DoD Idiot Trust of Really Dumb Ideas. The rockets leaked, thus insuring that if you ever fired it, 70/30 you would go up in the same blast, every time, if the pyrophyric agent didn't spontaneously combust the operator and anyone nearby before use upon contact with air. The best use of that system would have been to deliver them, intact, to the enemy, in hopes they would be deployed.

It's criminal that a bunch of non-combat jackasses and multi-star pussies have relegated hella-effective weapons like Claymores, Bouncing Betties, Toe Poppers, and M2 flamethrowers to the scrap heap, but that combat troops have to wear reflective belts to go jogging. I'm surprised they haven't added a module to the M-4 that lets anyone forward of the muzzle know that a loud device is about to be employed, and to please cover their ears, just before firing ignition, and make BUD/S trainees wear arm floaties before pool training. If anyone is still active, do they still do (sanitized for your protection) jody calls when running, or do TPTB just hold a formation group hug afterwards, and award participation trophies? Buncha fucking pussies...