Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2020 i SkillSet

Everyone has been there—you are in a hurry for some quick grub after a long day of trying to scare protesters off your lawn. As you push aside the week-old bologna and the leftover sushi that is starting to smell funky, you realize you have some things in the pantry that you might be able to whip together to make into something edible. I have spent much time experimenting with these sorts of “found-food” recipes myself, and I have curated a collection of them that are so quick and easy that even Hesher hopped up on jenkem could manage to make them taste great and look sophisticated, even on a Styrofoam plate. In the first installment of this column, we will delve into the world of ramen noodles in all…

Your overseas vacation is interrupted when masked men pull you from your vehicle and hold you for ransom. The downtown area where you work is suddenly under attack by foreign invaders. A natural disaster takes out the power grid and local mobs begin their own “purge” of the populace as they hunt for food and weapons. You and your family become hostages when a home invasion goes awry … When the unexpected happens, we can become victims of our circumstances or we can become the product of our own decisions. In a military context, the purpose of the “escape and evasion” skillset is to “emerge from a hostile area to an area under friendly control.” For those of you who would rather have a plan than be a victim, here…

Most of the time, an employer will never actually go the full distance to test adequately for substance abuse, so it is a good thing for you that the workforce leadership in the corporate setting is often lazy! Most will simply supply you with a piss cup with drug identifier readings on it. Have no fear; this is an easy one to beat, especially if after it is handed it to you, you are asked to head to the nearest restroom to take a leak. Privacy makes this a “shoe in the door” for an opportunity to contaminate the urine. If you know this is the kind of test you will be facing, you can easily add a certain substance into the cup, the smallest amount of which can fit…

Bizarre flukes. Impossible fortuity. Haphazard kismet. What are the chances? Most of us, at some point or another, have experienced unusual coincidences so startling they compel us to wonder about the cosmic connectedness of everything. Do these strange occurrences hold some deeper meaning for our lives, or are they simply chance events–luck–all explainable via statistics and probability? History, with its billions of people and their countless stories, has surely seen its share of highly improbable occurrences, but it is still always surprising when some of those stories result in especially inexplicable “coin-ki-dinks.” Examples abound: Two of the Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died hours apart on the same day, July 4, 1826, which just happened to be the 50th anniversary of our nation’s independence. Violet Jessop survived…

“EVERY TIME I THINK MAYBE I’M HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, I END UP IN A PLACE I NEVER EVEN KNEW COULD FEEL THIS BAD.” –Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy America is infatuated with outlaw motorcycle clubs. From the seminal Easy Rider to Charlie Sheen’s awful Beyond the Law to Stone Cold, starring ex-Seattle Seahawk Brian Bosworth, bikers and motorcycle clubs have had an outsized bearing on pop culture. The stylized media myths of an unshakeable biker family and of freedom and rebellion essentially created the modern-day American pirate. I had not seen the FX biker show Sons of Anarchy prior to my final Afghanistan deployment. From Bagram to Kunduz, it was hard to miss, with rip-off “SOA” T-shirts sold in the most unlikely places. A TV show about a…

When most of us hear the word “Voodoo,” our minds immediately picture an old Haitian witch sewing together a burlap doll in an incense-filled hut down in the bayous of Louisiana. Well, that stereotype is pretty much spot on … so, good job. The word Voodoo means “spirit of God.” It is said that Voodoo began in ancient Africa, and there are three main types still practiced today: West African, Louisianan and Haitian Voodoo. Over 50 million people worldwide practice Voodoo, and part of their belief system entails connecting with “Loas,” special spirits that interact with mortals. If you believe in Voodoo, you believe that Loas affect aspects of your day-to-day life that include money, happiness, love and revenge. Voodoo dolls can be used for many purposes, most of which…

TURTLES AFTER DARK In the original Jurassic Park from 1993, the sound department had to go a little wild. It turns out that to produce the sound effects for the menacing velociraptors, the sound engineers actually recorded tortoises having sex. The best part of this story is that somewhere deep in Hollywood, a production assistant has this on his résumé. YOU ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST New York resident Ashrita Furman actually holds the world record for holding the most world records. This Brooklyn native holds more than 600 Guinness World Records, ranging from the fastest mile on a pogo stick in Antarctica to performing the most forward rolls in the 12-mile stretch of Paul Revere’s ride in Massachusetts. 85 % Percentage of things you stress…

In our last issue, we discussed what to expect during your first night in jail. Jail is a harsh reality that some might have to face, so it is always best to be prepared. We ended that article with the possibility of you making bail, but what if that doesn’t happen? Don’t worry kid, just like that 6-foot-2-inch 300-pound monster who is waiting for you in the showers, we have your back. Once it has been determined that you won’t be going home immediately after your initial appearance, you will be housed in a jail based on your security classification. This is determined by the severity of your crime and your previous criminal history. The classification scale generally goes from minimum to maximum security. To put it in a crime-based…

Cold-blooded murder was all in a day’s work for the members of New York’s highly organized crime group known as Murder, Inc. In the 1930s and 1940s on the streets of Brooklyn, this group of hired killers acted as the elimination squad for the Italian American Mafia, the Jewish mob and other organized crime syndicates throughout the area. Originally headed by Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and then by his successor, Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia, the most feared mob boss at that time, Murder, Inc. fulfilled over a thousand contract killings, turning the streets of Brooklyn red with blood. Like many other jobs, this group’s members were paid a regular salary plus their fee and benefits, including monetary distributions to their families and backups from their “bosses.” But unlike other jobs,…

The year is 2038, and it has been 10 years since a nuclear terror attack leveled Manhattan, shaking America’s foundations. In the panic that ensued, the president authorized a new program of advanced satellite video surveillance. The program led to surprisingly few arrests related to terrorism, but arrests and incarcerations related to other crimes rose dramatically. There was now no end to the government’s gaze and no shortage of artificial intelligence algorithms to cull through countless hours of raw footage in search of suspicious behavior. When they realized that this surveillance program hadn’t insulated us completely from the possibility of an attack, they signed laws prohibiting language “critical of the American way of life and of the United States’ right to secure its interests internationally.” With a moderate tweak to…

Amid a sweaty and seemingly barbaric crowd, the only sound on the stage is the single hit of a cymbal that draws everyone’s attention. The signal from the drummer means only one thing: War is coming. The singer grabs his mic and yells “Open it up!” and just like that, you’re fighting for your life. Fists and kicks fly, moving to the rhythm of the music in a whirlwind of aggression and fury. If you stop swinging, it could mean your end. How’s that for a movie trailer? Mosh pits might seem juvenile and pointless to the “uninitiated”— or so I have been told—but they serve a purpose, which we’ll get to momentarily. Those who don’t listen to metal usually write it off as angry and talentless. Quite frankly, it’s…

Uld concrete that has been deteriorated by decades of jungle humidity has a unique sound when something solid hits it. And when it’s your skull hitting that concrete, the sound stays with you forever because you felt it too—the thought of this sound still causes sickness in my stomach to this day. When I realized my Vietnamese captors hadn’t shot me after I reacted to the command given to fire, I started laughing as my interrogators got me back up from the floor and pulled the blindfold. My laughter was for two reasons: One, things were going to be better, as this was clearly one last attempt at psychological torture. The command to fire in English wasn’t meant for the guy with the AK47 who pulled the trigger on an…

Until your last breath, every moment here is a test. Whether or not you are able to adapt to change and persevere is the age-old question, one that seems to have a million different answers. Regardless, there is a common theme among all of them. If your head is in the correct “space,” you literally have limitless potential because you have made yourself unbreakable. If you look around your environment right now, you are almost guaranteed to find people who are broken. I am not speaking about physical abnormalities, but instead defects in how they mentally process life. We all know at least one. The person who hates her job yet stays in it. The person who hates how he looks yet fails to change his lifestyle. The people who…

In 1982, Hollywood introduced the world to Green Beret Vietnam veteran and “winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor and survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines” John Rambo. Little did anyone know then that the character would survive for over three decades and through five movies in a franchise that would come to be known around the world. Rambo became Sylvester Stallone’s defining role as an action hero, and countless numbers of us took to the woods as kids to “play Rambo.” As Rambo: Last Blood wraps up its distribution in cinemas and fans wonder if this will be the last time we see Rambo on the silver screen, we wanted to go back to the earlier Rambo movies (since we’re a little older now) to test some of…

1 FULL-AUTO MAC-10 ($8,700) That’s right! If you are a fan of 90s gangster rap, then you know of the infamous MAC-10. This firearm was directly named in the 1994 assault weapons ban, so you know it’s legit! Chambered in either 9mm or .45 caliber, this ghetto blaster will make you the envy of all your hood-rat friends. We found this beauty at Arizona Firearms in Gilbert, Arizona, and with this incredible price, we doubt it will still be there when you read this! 2 CALIFORNIA DRINKING STRAW ($65) Want to become public enemy number #1 in California? Yes? Then get caught drinking your smackin’-cock-a-latte out of a plastic straw. Luckily, our friends at John Grey Knives have an eco-friendly solution! This “straw” is constructed from ultra-stiff, hollow carbon fiber…

Let’s face it, we currently live in a world where guns rule supreme. In this edition of Fight Club, we ask if we inject a gun into the fray, is it still a fair fight? Our answer is a solid Yup! An extra-grande YUUUUPP! if you are just molly-whopping your local foo-foo barista on the side of the head for violently lashing out at you for your “toxic masculinity.” That’s right kids, you can use a gun in a fight without actually “gun fighting.” Our scenario begins when you are ferociously attacked by a Crappuccino-slinging soy boy who just got promoted to assistant sergeant-at-arms at his local Antifa club. Guess the sight of your Grunt Style shirt really set him off, and instead of letting you exercise your First Amendment…

All too often, fellow vets start thinking, “The world owes me for my service.” The harsh reality is that no one owes you anything. The draft ended way before most of our readers were born, and the last time I checked, the U.S. military is an all-volunteer fighting force. Of course, it is nice to know that we are appreciated for the sacrifices we have made, but we weren’t bred and trained to ask for compliments. We are leaders, and this country needs our leadership. This is why we sought out Vincent “Rocco” Vargas to be our cover feature for this issue of Skillset. After numerous combat tours as an Army Ranger, Rocco left active duty to begin his quest for that “thing” that would make him whole. This is…

We have all fallen for it—you see an ad or video, read a headline, hear a sound bite or a rant, and you suddenly have a new opinion on a particular topic. Propaganda is often considered to be simply a negative tool of governments, but this is not entirely accurate. The term “propaganda” may be defined as “a concerted effort to influence a target population toward a particular belief or action.” You might be thinking that the above definition sounds like marketing, and you would be partially right. Marketing is designed to emotionally stimulate you to buy something, while propaganda is used to emotionally stimulate you to believe something. If marketing is a sheep, propaganda can be seen as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Propaganda has been and is used…

Jonathan Hancock grew up in a military family as the hell-raising son of a Navy submarine officer. Naturally, he joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school in 2001. Four days after he graduated from boot camp, September 11 unfolded. In 2004, Jon deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, affectionately nicknamed the “Magnificent Bastards.” While media coverage at the time focused on places like Fallujah, 2/4 in Ramadi suffered the highest casualty rate of the Iraq war. One in four Marines were wounded or killed. According to Jon, “Not one guy came home from Ramadi unchanged, unscathed or unscarred.” Despite the horrific casualties his unit endured, Jon stoically carried on, completing eight deployments in eight years and moving into human intelligence after Ramadi, which allowed…