...the almost quarter of a million people, right around 230,000 of them, who lost their lives 10 years ago today. That was during an unprecedented show of Nature's unrelenting force, on December 26, 2004. Early that morning, less than an hour into the new day, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake ripped up the floor of the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian Ocean Tsunami that swept through south Asian countries whose shorelines ran along the Indian Ocean.
It was devastation, caused by a single natural event in the course of hours, like we have not seen at any other time in our lifetimes. The event also caused one of the largest, if not the largest, outpourings of charity for a single disaster - some claim the total was approximately $10 billion US dollars while others claim it was as high as $14 billion dollars.
Let us hope we do not witness another similar disaster - not ever. Keep those who were lost and they who lost loved ones in your thoughts and or prayers today.
All the best,
Glenn B
I feel compelled to share the laughs I had while watching the below video. So, for the second time today, I am lifting something off of another blogger's blog. I found this firearms training video over at Keads' blog Another Day.....Another..... and let me tell you it could become a classic video to train you what not to do. With all due respect to his credentials, I think the guy in the video is a million miles off the mark or he made that video in jest. He seems so serious about it though that I am hard pressed to think he is kidding and that it was a jest (and it is explained here that it apparently was meant to be a real training video).
Seriously folks, if you want to live, find another way to handle getting caught in - what did he call it: "...some weirdo crossfire or something like that..."! I have never seen anything, that I can recall, as laughable as that nor as absolutely wrong as that relative to firearms and tactical training.
For the newbies to shooting here are some things this 'operator' did that were absolutely ridiculous:
He tells you if you are in your vehicle and get shot at from the front or side, to get out. Why not just stay in the front and get into his contorted pose on the floor hanging out the right front door? Why get out and then turn his back to the shooters?
He is supposedly getting shot at and does not draw his weapon to return fire as he retreats toward the rear. Why not retreat while firing?
Also, why not just drive away or run the bastards over? Ok, in his defense, we will assume the vehicle is dead. So what next?
He gets back in, the rear of the cab, then crawls to the far side of the vehicle and uses a vehicle door as what - cover, concealment and wobbly support while he shoots, one handed, at an assailant in front of the truck from an angle that even Superman would find difficult to maintain!
He effectively wedges himself into a spot that is not easy to get out of as will soon be seen in what he does in his next move. For some reason, maybe an odd one to him but not t me, I think that getting behind the truck so I was in line with one of the tires (or both front and back tires on one side) would provide much better cover with any round needing to go through the whole length of the truck or at least two sides of a tire to hit me rather than the bottom of the vehicle door . I must be missing some advantage, that his superior knowledge holds is hidden only in the murky depths of his mind, about that type of shooting position.
Then there is his drop the gun, flop out onto the ground macho-man style exiting of the vehicle, while abandoning any cover and or concealment that was behind the door only to bring himself into the prone position on the ground completely out in the open where he grabs the gun and starts shooting again. Whom is he trying to kid! In what movie or kids cartoon did he see a move like that?Again, I must be missing something because I just don't get it but then I am sometimes slow to fully comprehend the finer aspects of such obviously vastly superior ridiculous methods as compared to my more mundane but oft taught tactics.
Anyway, it sure gave me a good belly laugh especially when he said: "As you can see, it wasn't that bad". Yes sir - it was definitely that bad and that bad was much worse than he had thought because it was terrible! I am still laughing.
All laughter aside, it concerned me greatly to think that there may be some unknowledgeable folks who, in seeking firearms training, ran across that thinking it an intelligent and reliable way to defend yourself. In my opinion, based upon my experience, it definitely is not that at all and would more likely get you killed than save your life. Sure, it actually may work for you once in real life but only if you are the very lucky type and probably only if it also makes your adversaries fall on the floor laughing in disbelief at your antics.
As I said above, if you want to live, then find another way to do it . One last thing, make sure that includes finding someone else to train you if only because he forgot to tell you to make sure that the child safety locks on the rear doors are not engaged! How could he have missed that tip!
A hat tip to Keads for posting that on his blog.
All the best,
Glenn B
Was just surfing my blog-roll and felt it imperative that I steal someone else's thunder by pretty much copying what he had posted on his blog and reposting it here. What I stole lifted were these two links to nice animations of a 1911 in action. The first is basically a cutaway view so you see the internal parts as they operate. The second, and much more interesting GIF, is an interactive animation in that you can view a working 1911 as it normally would appear but that one has a twist. The twist is that you can also view the working 1911 as a cutaway in whole or in part (you select which parts to view as a cutaway and there are two different cutaway modes) and to twist it further you can hide parts to be able to see parts that other would not have been seen in their entirety in the cutaway mode. You can play with that one awhile, changing the view numerous ways, to learn about how the 1911 functions. I am not a gunsmith and cannot attest that each and every moving part is shown (from the left side of the pistol) but my guess is that they are there.
http://animagraffs.com/how-a-handgun-works-1911-45/
http://www.m1911.org/loader.swf
A hat tip to New Jovian Thunderbolt for posting these informative links.
All the best,
Glenn B
