The Hippie Survivalist - Bingo!

*There used to be an underground comic in the local free weekly.  It was called Red Meat.  For all I know Red Meat is still around, but I haven't seen it in years.  It was gruesomely irreverent and I adored it.  And one of the best things about it was the way in which each week's comic had a title.  The titles meant nothing in and of themselves, but they were grotesquely poetic.  Which has nothing to do with anything, really, except that it's my way of saying that the "Bingo!" at the top of this page is merely poetic and has no special meaning.  Same most weeks.

*Yep.

*Finally bought some chainmail-making supplies, and yes, making chainmail is my kind of thing.  It's a bit OCD, it is best done in short-ish increments of an hour or less, the results are tangible, and the finished product is really cool.  Below is the first swatch of fabric I made, using the European 4-in-1 weave (instructions HERE), which is simple and can be done in batches.  This took me about an hour.

Below is the result of today's work - another hour, maybe less.  I doubled the size of the original piece of fabric.  What am I making?  You'll have to hold your horses - Daddy ain't ready to give away all his secrets just yet.  Stay tuned.

Just had a thought.  Someone needs to re-design chainmail for the modern era.  What if instead of just using rings, you could use pieces that had more mass, like modified washers.  Like, someone could design a system that used engineering and modern parts production to produce scalemail that was way, way stronger than chainmail, but easier to build.  It could even be bullet-resistant.  Whatevs.

*Oh Lord, work can be a bitch sometimes.  Stress is the killer.  Took the day off and ran errands around town and then did chores around the house.  Eating an early dinner of organic hamburgers and fries and salad, and I ain't complaining.

*Someone should design a new weapon for robotic platforms.  This gatling-style firearm would have a robotic means of reloading standard 30-round M16 magazines.  The magazines would encircle the 6-foot barrel cluster in a round or helix storage rack.  When a magazine was emptied, the empty magazine would pop back up into its slot in the rack, the rack would rotate slightly, and the next (full) magazine would pop down into the weapon.  And so on.

You ask - why use magazines when such a weapon could use belts or some such other shim sham?  Hey buddy, there's always a different use for every different design.  Maybe this design would be more economical overall, and more efficient in some scenarios, because it would use standard .223 rounds and M16 magazines.  Maybe it would allow the weapon to fire 30-round bursts incrementally, conserving ammo yet delivering a punch.  Like, it could be a pulse weapon.  And, maybe the 6-foot barrels would dramatically increase the velocity of the .223 round.  And, maybe it's a bad idea, who am I to say.  But I thought of it because I see standard magazine-fed weapons mounted on robots on YOUTUBE and ONE magazine seems kind of limited to me.

*Cool new Bell helmet.  REALLY cool new Bell helmet.  Costs $250.  Fuck.  I'm trying to save money by spending less, so I guess I can't buy it.

*There are a bunch of pistol carbine kits on the market.  Like, they consist of a stock that you insert your pistol into.  The stock includes things like a red dot sight and/or a folding stock and a charging handle and a forward pistol grip.  These bad boys basically turn your stock pistol into a Personal Defense Weapon (PDW).  These buggers are not legal to buy or own in California...of course.  And it appears that in at least some cases they legally turn your pistol into a carbine/rifle even in pro-gun states, which is a no-no, because a pistol is legally a pistol and a rifle is legally a rifle.  BUT, a man can wish.  Damn, can he wish.  He can wish til his wisher is sore.

Most of these puppies are made for Glocks and Sigs.  Some of them are stupid-ugly.  RONI makes a nice-looking one and they sell versions that work with many different pistol makes and models.

Below we have a nice one - I can't believe it but I no longer know what brand it is! I lost track of where I found it online.  But it shows you what the basic stock looks like with and without the addition of the pistol.  Obviously the rails allow for all sorts of awesome gimmickry.  This one looks to be machined from aluminum, but some of them are made of polymer or a combo of both.

 

If I ran the circus, I'd legally own one of these puppies with a red-dot sight, sliding wire stock, full-auto capacity, extended mags, an 8-inch barrel and a forward grip.  In 9mm, I suppose.  Sigh.  Let's face it, this kind of weapon would be an awesome addition to any vehicle cab in a high-crime or post-SHTF environment.  Need to go get smokes at 7-11 at 2:00 AM?  Don't EVEN worry about it.

The little bugger below wins Style Points, IMHO.  Is it also made by RONI?  Not sure.  The website says it is called an IWI MegaGun Jericho (made by Israel Weapon Industries for the Jericho pistol), but the jpeg is called RONI.  I guess it doesn't matter to me, because I'll never own one.  But, I LIKE-like.  Damn.  DAMN.

*If you know me well, you know I LOVE low-tech.  Why?  Cuz it usually doesn't require an outside energy source, and because SIMPLE DON'T BREAK.  Check out Low-Tech Magazine HERE and No Tech Magazine HERE. These "magazines" don't publish much, but what they do publish is solid.

*That's it.  Stay alive.

*No, wait.  I lied.  One more thing: Wild dogs have been killing people in Mexico City.