.22 LR for SD?

Sure, it looks cool. But is it up to the task?

I'm not even going to lie, just like the author of this post discusses, I too have carried a little .22LR for self defense purposes back in the time period in which I had no real other choice for personal defense. I've since moved on to greener pastures and larger calibers, but I still have my little Walther P22 and enjoy shooting it just as much as the big boys.

But would I bet my life on it? Well... no. The truth is that unless you're using pretty high quality .22LR ammo, you can't expect 99.9999% reliability with a semi-auto .22LR pistol. Too much variance in the pressure to assure consistent slide action, and rim-fire ammo isn't any where near as reliable as center fire ammo. I'm not a gun guru, so I've only fired a couple thousand rounds of .45ACP and 9mm, but I've only hit one bad round out of all of those, and that one was an obvious error that the manufacturer made right by me. With .22LR, I probably hit two or three bad primers in a bulk box of 550 rounds. That's not what I would call awe-inspiring reliability.

Still; the gun you have is better than no gun, and I certainly can't argue against carrying one if it's all you have. But for pete's sake, move up the power scale! Even a .25ACP, though still tiny, is still more reliable.

Hurricane Sandy

I think it's pretty safe to assume at this point that there's been something of a failure to plan for the eventual landfall of a category 1 hurricane in New York for decades upon decades now. There's been data out there that suggests that such a landfall is somewhat rare on the human scale, about a 100 year event really, but is still frequent enough to need to be on the planning horizon for permanent settlements.

Hell, the dang Europeans build their dams to hold 10,000 year events at bay. Why do our city planners not take into account events that have a relatively low recurrence interval? Some of it has to do with budget priorities and shortfalls, I'm sure. Still, it's hard to discount good old fashioned ignorance and shortsightedness.

This article up on Popular Science does a pretty good job explaining a few odds and ends. The article itself is decidedly more optimistic about the proposed engineering projects than I would be, given how long it took just to get Ground Zero rebuilt into a memorial.

Survival Knife Considerations; Folding Knife

Before we get too far into this, let's start out by saying that this is, in a lot of ways, pretty much a theoretical exercise. This is because trying to pin down the perfect survival knife is damned near impossible because situations and the materials required change widely based on a variety of factors that probably are not subject to control on your (my dear readers) part. A machete works great in the jungle, but doesn't work so well for making breakfast with, etc.

So, let's talk about a selection of sharps. What you need is a bevy of tools with which to pick and choose from, your decision being based on the type of work you are expecting to run in to, the types of materials you expect to work with, and even the geography/climate of the area you may find yourself in. I think there are three general types of knives that need consideration for survival use; the pocket (folding) knife, the multi-tool, and the sheath knife. Today, we're going to talk about folding knives.

First, a note on steel choice.. Anything at or above 440C will suit most folks just fine, but buyer beware of 420 or anything simply labeled "stainless steel". Most likely the steel's performance in edge retention, rust resistance, and ease of sharpening will be somewhat underwhelming. On the extreme edge of poor performance, softer steels will bend and distort easily, while more brittle steels will break. Nothing quite like catching a shard of steel in your eyeball. (By the way, don't use your knife to pry something, dumbass. That's what screwdrivers or multi-tools are for.) I don't really have a preference here, I've used 440C, 1095, 154cm, and AUS-8, all with great success.

A good quality folding knife is an essential in my day to day life. I use mine all the time, for opening packages and mail, preparing food, making throw away tools and utensils, and for simply pointing out things that I don't want to block with my finger. A folding knife is also a line of defense against a would-be assailant, so your knife should reflect that potential duty as well. Try to keep the weight of your folding knife under 5 ounces, look for at least 2.5 inches in blade length, and non-slick gripping surface. Some folk don't like liner locks on knives for the potential of closing the blade on the finger, which I argue to be a training issue, but look into it some and make up your own mind. If you fall in the former camp, lock-back type knives are still around and have slightly better lock strength. Just expect to pay more. I carry a SOG Mini Aegis as my EDC folding knife, and I'd bet my life with it for self defense or survival in a heart-beat.

The champ!

So, why this particular knife out of all the potential knives out there? The answer is actual the sum total of characteristics that the knife possesses. Weight's a partial consideration; 2 oz is svelte by most folks' rubrics. The rubberized grip, solid jimping, and tip-up carry are really good points in there as well, as it's a pretty effective self defense knife. The blade length is a little short at 3 inches for that sort of work, but is otherwise a handy size for the tasks I've discussed. The blade profile, or trigonometry, is full flat grind, which makes sharpening and such easy. It has a pretty decent belly on the edge, which makes it a good slicer. The tip is decent, but not wicked, so for fine work it does alright. Finally, the steel in the blade is AUS-8. Not the top of the line in steel, perhaps, but it holds an edge well and does a good job resisting rust.

Bear in mind that my selection of this knife is personal, and based on priorities that I assigned for myself that may drastically alter your own selection. Perhaps having a clip point on the blade shape is more important, or you really prefer damascus steel over the more mundane steels, or you really want a big blade. Just go through the process of figuring out what points are most important to you in a folding knife, bearing in mind the tasks that you'll throw it up against, and you should come out with a reliable and trustworthy tool that will suit you well.

Me, I'm sticking with the Aegis.

So cool!

You can't see it, but I'm salivating like a happy tom cat.

God, this thing looks so damn cool! I can find all kinds of ways to justify something like this, but the best reason would be for the resupply of electrical power in the field. The real reason would be because it looks cool as hell and is an awesome premise!

I've been thinking about ways to resupply power in the field.. solar panels was the leading contender, but my main problem remains that I really don't like to carry things on my back unless they have at least two purposes. A solar panel is a single purpose item.. This thing is dual purpose. The BioLite camp stove handles that problem very well. Very cool.

Want.

An Ode to Smartphones

There might be some folks out there who don't have smart phones yet, and who fail to see any convincing argument as to why they should adapt to the new style of phones. Well, here's my list of reasons why they should, in a nutshell.

1.) Gadget consolidation. Consider the following: I think it's pretty typical for the average American to check email, make and receive phone calls, take pictures, listen to music, and to navigate from place to place with a GPS unit. If a person wanted to do any of those at any given time, they would need at least a netbook, a cell phone, a camera, an MP3 player, and a GPS unit in their car. Well, for much less than a third of the cost of buying all of those things, a person could buy a smartphone. It's just basic math. Plus, a smartphone is pretty convenient and easy to carry. I've lugged all of that stuff around at some point, so believe me when I say that a smartphone is much lighter.

2.) The Swiss army effect. Gadget consolidation covered this somewhat, but not completely. That is to say that a modern smartphone can do so much more than what I listed earlier. I can play games, watch videos, check the weather, set alarms, and manage my schedule all on my phone. Actually, I can do much more than that, but if I listed everything I'd be typing this for a while. Having a smartphone means having a lot of capabilities all at once.

3.) Economy. My big PC uses a lot of power, all to do some pretty basic stuff. I can do a lot of that on my smartphone. Web surfing, social media stuff, the likes of which don't require a huge screen, or massive amounts of power. Why turn on my PC when my phone will handle the same things, but much cheaper and more handily, and with damn near instant access? Let me put it another way; it probably costs something like half a cent to charge my phone over night, but something like four cents to run my PC for an hour. Might not sound like much, but I suspect that it adds up quick.

4.) Nerding out. Once upon a time, I programmed computers and designed web pages for my pocket change. I don't do that so much any more, so having a smartphone allows me to express some of my inner dork. I get to run custom roms, design my own interface, and make my phone run the way I want it to run. On that point alone I'd probably have a smartphone, just because I get to hack it a little. It's fun!

Oh, yeah, one more thing… I typed all of this on my phone. Not bad, eh? With a proper keyboard program, typing on a phone can be a much faster experience. Right now I'm using Keymonk, which is awesome!