While her friends are busy watching movies, posting on social media and chatting about boys and fashion, 16-year-old Tierra Brandt hits the gym for her third workout of the day. On break from school for the holidays, the fresh-faced, ponytailed high school sophomore starts the morning with a cardio session,
The suicide car bomb was covered in steel plating and painted white to blend in with other traffic. It appeared from a side street 100 meters ahead and raced straight for the armored bulldozer clearing a path toward ISIS positions. I had three simultaneous thoughts as a war reporter: I
On Aug. 5th, 2012, a domestic terrorist in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, began a reign of terror on peaceful worshippers inside the local Sikh temple. The crazed man had already killed six people beforehand. He was currently hunting for more people to harm, as Lt. Brian Murphy, a 21-year veteran of
SS: What age did you decide to join the Army, and what was your motivation behind wanting to serve your country? JL: I joined for a bunch of reasons: patriotism, the GI Bill, to kick in doors, etc. But the main reason I joined is that I never quite shook
Continuing our collector series, we head west to the sleepy town of Simi Valley. This small suburb of Los Angeles is the home of Skatelab, a 30,000-square-foot facility that houses a massive skatepark and the world’s largest skateboard museum. We’ve heard a lot of success stories about quitting cigarettes, but
Sound aggressive? It should. Being on either side of a knife in a violent encounter is likely one of the scariest things most of us could ever encounter. This article is about using a knife in self-defense, but first, let’s talk about what makes a knife so dangerous: Deadly Force Beyond the weapon, itself, a
It was mid-week, and Ben and I were knee deep into planning the issue you hold in your hands. I could see something was bothering him as I listed out the candidates for our next “Riding Shotgun” section. “How about the Alpha Landspeeder?” I said. “Too Popular Mechanics,” Ben replied immediately without
It’s time to make a confession. I have never personally owned a manual-transmission car. For a guy in his mid-40s, that’s damn near heresy. That’s not to say I don’t know HOW to drive a stick, I’ve just never had a car with a manual transmission in my name. My
I am in a poor and forgotten neighborhood in eastern Tijuana. I negotiate my way through a small walkway littered with garbage and flanked by houses made out of plywood, tarps and whatever else was on hand. Illegal electrical wire connections (locally called “diablitos”) are sprouting from every electrical pole,
