Sunday, January 31, 2010

This Is the First Day of...the Next Week?


Am Officially Over SHOT 2010 and ready to throw myself into our "aggressive" 2010 filming schedule for DRTV and all the series. This week I'll be at GUNSITE for a few days filming for DRTV, including our new exclusive web series, TIPS FROM GUNSITE.

Shot a Wild Bunch cowboy match yesterday with the Pawnee Station club in Ft. Collins, my first with the Retro-Para GI Expert. Pawnee Station always runs a great match...it was my first with the new improved eyeball, which mostly worked okay until a shotgun stage where I shouldered the '97 on my left shoulder, promptly closed my left eye and proceeded to miss the poppers a bunch of time. Hmmmmmmm...gonna have to work on that a bit! I ran into GUNSITE aces Ed Stock and Chris Weare at SHOT...they think, and I tend to agree, I should suck it up and take the GUNSITE 250/350 class with Ed or Chris, where they and the other instructors can watch me closely and help me make midcourse corrections on the old dominant eye front, with a goal of getting back to both eyes open.. I'm going to try and carve out the time late winter/early spring. To eliminate as many variables as possible, I'll probably shoot a plain old boring 5-inch 1911 .45 with ball ammo.

I note that KBI/Charles Daly has gone out of business, effective last Friday. From KBI President Michael Kassnar:
I don't want to go into each and every detail as to why this has occurred, except to say that there have been a multitude of events over the past five years that have contributed to our current situation.
Kassnar does say the Charles Daly brand, whiich has included a huge range of imported firearms, will be resurfacing soon.

Since it's the start of the new week, I thought I'd live up to my "most depressing man in America" moniker by posting this link on EMPs. There's been a bunch of EMP stuff around recently, much of it centering not on the "nukes over Kansas" scenario but rather on the now overdue major solar storm:
An extremely large solar storm, though, could induce geomagnetic currents that would destroy a substantial fraction of the large transformers on the power grid (possibly over much of the world). If this happened, electric power loss due to a large solar storm would be out for a period of years. Unlike nuclear EMP, such a solar storm is an eventual inevitability.

The last solar storm that could have caused this level of damage happened in 1859, before the power grid was in place (although in 1921 a large solar storm, of briefer duration than the 1859 event, occurred which affected only a small area of the planet). The power grid has only been in place for a tiny fraction of one percent of human history, and a really large solar storm (of the size and duration of the 1859 event) has not happened in that time. There is a general assumption that any solar event that is similar to, or larger than, the 1859 solar superstorm will simply never happen again, although there is no justification for such an assumption -- in fact, we know that this assumption is false. There is a good possibility that such a solar storm will happen in this century. If it happens in the current situation without spares for our large transformers, a large part of the power grid (including 70 to 100 percent of the United States power grid) will be down for years.
Interestingly enough, last year I talked to some, ahem, government types part of whose job it is to access major threats to Home Sweet Home. They were amazingly forthright and open on many topics, right until I got up to EMPs. The room got real quiet. "We're not going to talk about that," said Government Type A. "Won't, or can't," I asked. "What's the difference?" A replied. I asked whether the scenario presented in the novel ONE SECOND AFTERnukes over Kansas — was viable. "What part of 'not talk about this' did you not understand, Mr. Bane?" Ah, well...remember, the Iranians have tested low-angle missile launches consistent with an EMP attack. Time to start working on the aluminum foil hat real seriously!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not hard to put together a "nukes over Kansas" idea when you see the recent launch tests off of barges and continued nuke development that seems to be unchecked by our wonderful words to the contrary.

Good thing you got a dial combo on the old gun safe last year in place of the electronic keypad that failed.

nj_larry said...

I only have to say...google either "exploding planet theory" or "supernova risk" (the former takes out the earth in a couple of minutes, the latter has any star within 50 light years bathing earth in radiation that fries everything). Now that is something to worry about !

As for the Persians, I suspect the West and Israeli's are funding the growing dissident movement. If we play our cards right, the regime will be toppled soon. Nobody wants a third war.

Tom said...

You probably know that solar activity seems to work on an 11-year cycle. This cycle is unusually calm for an unusually long time. I hope it's not "saving it up".

You can subscribe to a weekly space weather forecast at https://pss.swpc.noaa.gov/LoginWebForm.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fproductsubscriptionservice%2fMainMenuWebForm.aspx

It might help to know of potential storms -- you can at least unplug equipment. The forecast has been "no storms observed or expected" for the last 6 months that I've been subscribed.

Anonymous said...

Hell, why not worry about the Yellowstone caldera blowing?

Or an asteroid impact?

Or a major volcanic eruption that causes a global winter scenario?

Or a megasunami that destroys the east or west coast?

At some point ya gotta stop worrying.

Will said...

4:26 nonymouse,
The reason for concern is: what if you and/or your family survive one of these disaster scenarios? Some thought/preparation beforehand may make all the difference between a short, brutal existence and continued, albeit different, life for you and yours.
Hell, if enough people get sufficiently concerned about the infrastructure problems, maybe some of these potential disasters can be avoided!

Kansas Scout said...

EMP IS a big deal. Maybe scariest of all next to nuclear attack. The Iranians, according to Drudge, just announced a big blow to the west on Feb 11, the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. EMP attack?

gunman42782 said...

Hell, when I read EMP I thought about the gun from Springfield Armory. Had to look up what you where even talking about. Scary stuff.

Anonymous said...

If we were to suffer from a widespread electronic outage in 2011, and we were told it was from a solar storm, how would we know any different?

Rastus said...

Looks like we may be going to a solar minima (sp) sort of like the mini ice age several centuries ago. If we are truly entering that kind of solar activity phase then we may dodge the flare bullet for a while.

Not that I'm worried about things...just trying to be prepared so weather some of those things....to the anonymous poster. I'm sort of like Clint Smith when asked if he carried a gun because he was paranoid to which he replied something like, "Why would I be paranoid, I'm carrying a gun?" Likewise, why would I be worried, I am prepared.

Lots of Patiot missile batteries and Aegis cruisers dedicated to the Middle East right now. I'm not expecting anything really big, but my money is on Iran celebrating the 11th with a nuke test to gain their membership in the nuclear community.