Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2021 i SkillSet

“Hey! Yo, Tommy! Ga head an’ gimme a wiz-wit and a wooder.” “What? Youse turning into a Cowboys fan or sumtin’? Have a Yuengling with it, ya douchebag!” Sound like Chinese to anyone? Well, it’s not. It’s the local dialect of the birthplace of one of the finest foods around. Philly’s invention of the cheesesteak in the ’30s (more specifically, by Pat Olivieri, of Pat’s King of Steaks lore) will go down as an all-time classic in America’s Culinary Hall of Fame. Thousands upon thousands of places around the world have copied and adapted the original, and for good reason—it’s a masterpiece. How could you go wrong with thinly sliced steak topped with cheese and an array of toppings on a soft roll? The answer: You can’t, dum-dum. It’s perfection…

Younger generations of moviegoers are familiar with the Alien franchise, but watching Predators fight Xenomorph aliens with lasers, knives and explosives is a far cry from the original creeping horror film that spawned another 30 years of movies. Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic was so well done that even the spaceship’s housecat made viewers jump. Granted, the rules for getting a movie produced in the 1970s and 1980s were slightly different than they are today, but the rules of filmmaking are not. And that is where Alien truly shines. Alien is not only one of the best sci-fi horror movies ever made, it may well be one of the best movies of all time—at least according James Biddle, senior lecturer at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism &…

As humans, we all eventually die. Luckily, most of us go our whole lives without ever facing true danger—only to meet a lackluster end. Not all are so fortunate, however, and these people are put into desperate situations that force them to walk that fine line between life and death. Some manage to live, and some do not. Call it fate, luck or divine intervention, but survival in these circumstances often boils down to mental toughness and an overwhelming will to live through great peril. Regardless of why some people survive against great odds, human history is full of miraculous tales of extreme survival borne from true grit. Some of the stories below may sound as if they were created in Hollywood (and some did, in fact, end up there),…

A hollow reed, used to enable breathing underwater, makes its way silently across a moat. Then, a grappling hook is tossed over a wall, allowing a shadow to enter the castle unnoticed. A sleeping guard at his post is dragged into darkness, and a blade cuts his throat. Next, using hand claws, the shadow scales the wall and enters the rafters above his victim’s bedchamber. A cotton thread saturated with poison is lowered from the ceiling, and a single drop seals the victim’s fate. To escape, the ninja must cross the compound’s nightingale floor. A momentary lapse in focus causes the dreaded chirp of the floorboards, which alerts all within earshot of the ninja’s presence. As the guards give chase, they are greeted with a barrage of shuriken. Many are…

THERE’S GOLD IN THEM THERE JEANS! While most prospectors sift through shallow pans as they wade through cold streambeds looking for gold, there is a new type of mining that will bring you a much larger profit. Many people are now exploring old silver mines in search of vintage denim jeans left by former miners. Yes, it’s the new craze, and it’s making a profit. Any pair of 1800s denim, regardless of condition, can fetch between $20,000 to $30,000. In 2015, it was reported that a California man dug up the denim Holy Grail: a pair of Levi’s from 1873 (the first year they were manufactured), which drew an immediate offer of $100,000. MOUNTAIN DEW? MORE LIKE MOUNTAIN DON’T! A Wisconsin man tried to sue PepsiCo for $75,000 by claiming…

1 TAURUS .45/.410 JUDGE, 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY ENGRAVED REVOLVER (MSRP $599.99) Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a pistol-sized shotgun? Welcome to the world of the “Judge.” Capable of chambering both .410 2.5-inch shotshell and .45 Colt ammunition, this amazing combo gun is ideal for short distances—where most gunfights occur—or longer distances with the .45 Colt ammo. This beauty has custom rosewood grips, with custom engraving along the entire hand cannon. 2 THE KNUCKLES (MSRP $200; GLGKNIFEWORKS.COM) Who wants to get smashed? This handcrafted “dental tool” is made in the foothills of New Hampshire and is completely nonmetallic. It’s made with 1/2-inch thick G10 and has angled file work for a pineapple-grenade finish on the business end. “Bad Daze” has an overall length of 4.25 inches, with a 2.75-inch width.…

Lately, when checking the hourglass of my life, I have noticed that there is a lot more sand on the bottom than there is on the top. This has spun me into a slight panic mode because even though I’ve done a lot of cool things in my 47 years, there are boxes I need to check off before my time is up, and “building my own knife” is definitely on that list. On a routine visit to Skillset HQ, Scorpion 6 Knives owner, Shane Magnussen, mentioned, “I’ve been holding onto a couple blocks of steel for you and Ben (our assistant editor at Skillset). When are you all coming down to build your own knives?” I wish you could have seen our faces. It was as if Christmas had…

After unregulated hunting and the sale of game animals in the 19th century nearly drove many of the continent’s great species to extinction, President Teddy Roosevelt and other forward-thinking sportsmen created what is known today as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. The model, which has become the gold standard for wildlife management the world over, is based on a set of seven core tenets that work together to ensure the survival and proliferation of game animals. They are: 1. Wildlife is a public trust. You can own the land deer live on but never the animals themselves. Game animals are to be managed as a public resource. 2. Sale of wild game is prohibited. While you can buy nonnative wild animals, you cannot trade in native game species,…

Look, we get it—nobody likes to pay taxes. But on the flip side, nobody likes getting invaded by communist China either. So, let’s take a peek behind the Pentagon curtain and see what Uncle Sam is really doing with our hard-earned dollars. Now, as a preface, we’re not considering the cost of military programs. We’re considering the cost of single units of a particular military technology. For instance, the cost of the F-35 program will total about $1.5 trillion, making it the most expensive military hardware program of all time, but the cost of a single F-35 is around $100 million, leaving it well short of cracking our list. Because of the size and complexity of naval vessels, all but one of the most-expensive pieces of U.S. military equipment are…

There are many different things in this world that people look to for entertainment, motivation and inspiration. However, very few of those things end up as collectables that can be used as investments or currency. A classic comic book, though, checks all those boxes. Throughout the years, we have seen the comic book market go from hot to not to back on top, often with an obnoxious nudge from Hollywood. It is also worth noting that one era in particular almost destroyed the entire comic book industry. I am talking about the ’90s comic book explosion that took place before the birth of the internet and Skillset magazine. It was a dark, dark time in the world, indeed. It all started when hot artists from Marvel Comics felt they were…

It takes a special breed of person to work security at a bar. One must be able to outthink all the drunken douchebags who make a bouncer’s job necessary in the first place. And since beer muscles and bravery go hand in hand, a bouncer will inevitably (and quite regularly) have to “redirect” that one special guy who needs to be taught a lesson when words fail to achieve the desired result—that’s right … Road House style! When working at a nightclub, you must be able to go from “serious to f’ing serious” in a split second. You have to be able to switch from a “pretty-hot door dude” who is making afterwork plans with all the drunk chicks to Patrick Swayze in the blink of an eye. (But not…

If you have spent the last 20 minutes gawking at our Apocalyptic Overland vehicle, then there is one person we need to thank. None of this would have been possible without the amazing CG artist Timo Albert. Timo is a freedom-loving patriot from Estonia who was introduced to us by Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory. Once we started communicating with him, it was obvious that he was going to be part of the Skillset Family for a long time. Not only has he created amazing art for 5FDP, he has done high-end work for musicians like G-Unit, 50 Cent, Eminem and Young Buck. If that wasn’t enough street cred, he also co-created Apple’s 2020 Mac Game of the Year, Disco Elysium. When he’s not collecting awards in the entertainment…

Narcissists are everywhere today. Oh, you know them well—they are the loud know-it-alls. They claim that they are the experts in everything, think they are smarter than everyone else, act as if they are the brightest in the room, are typically the loudest, and strive always to be the center of attention. They especially like to put others down at work, home, the bar, family functions and really, everywhere they can. They are blowhards, legends in their own minds, and they think they are fundamentally superior to everyone else. Most times you can’t even get a word in, and over time, you just want to avoid them. Well, let’s just call them what they are: epic jerks. They brag about their achievements, focus on their appearance, boast about their “amazing”…

In September of 2011, the Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force in Ogden, Utah, received information of a possible marijuana grow operation nearby. Police Sgt. Hutchinson and fellow members of the unit conducted a knock-and-talk at that location. They knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. Walking around to the carport, they spotted a separate entrance. There, they continued to knock to no avail. They checked out a window that looked into the basement and saw the marijuana grow room, complete with lights, fertilizer and small plants. The narcotics team later returned to that location five times, attempting to conduct a knock-and-talk. Each time they were able to see the operation, but no one ever answered the door. On January 4, 2012, Sgt. Nate “Hutch” Hutchinson was advised…