A look at some of the best 4x AA powered flashlights

AA batteries - they're abundant, widely available and chances are most of us have them at home. Sure, more advanced and better performing cells exist, but you can't find them at virtually every store like you can with AAs. With the availability of alkalines, rechargeable, and lithium AA cells you have many ways to power a flashlight during an emergency.     

In this guide we'll take a look at some of the best, most versatile and most powerful lights that run on 4 common AAs. Whether its a light for power outages, walking the dogs or exploring the wilderness...you can't go wrong with any of these flashlights!




Fenix LD41

In 2015 Fenix bumped the lumens to 960, making this one bright light. With a throw of 300 meters, this tactical minded light will handle the darkness with ease.



Sunwayman D40a

The D40a is modern light that won't let you down. With a plethora of options, it is both a functional and high tech tool.



Fenix E41

The E41 might be compact, but it makes a wide searchlight style beam with a 275 meter throw to back it up. The 1000 lumen burst mode turns night into day.



Thrunite TN4A

This offering from Thrunite boasts an amazing blend of brightness and efficiency. With very low, and very high output this is one useful light.

The Last Nirvana Song

Every now and then I get a bit of Nirvana nostalgia and fall in love again with one of my all time favorite bands. But, as we all know their career was short, explosive, bittersweet and tumultuous. It's hard to listen to them without the painful reminder that their time with us was woefully short and ended in tragedy.

There's no secret collection of completed studio quality songs. Unfortunately, there's really not much left in the Nirvana vault. Hardcore fans are still elated to occasionally find that a new live recording has surfaced, or a home demo has been found or an obscure 1980s track has been unearthed. However, as far as completed studio work, we've basically reached the end of the road.

Back when I was younger, one of my good friends was also a massive fan of the band. Wise beyond his years, he basically hit the nail on the head just a few years after Cobain died - "Once they run of out Nirvana recordings, they'll probably resort to releasing whatever recordings they can find. We'll probably get to hear Kurt brushing his teeth." he said. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but he's right. We've seen Kurt's journals, old demos of him messing around - lots of things that were likely never meant to see the light of day, essentially because the high quality songs have already been released. One could argue that there is value in those kind of recordings, insight into the creative process but regardless they came to fruition because that's virtually all there is left.

When we got word that there was basically one last studio recorded, full band Nirvana song, recorded January 30, 1994 just mere months before Kurt's death, it became a holy grail of sorts.

Though, it was never officially titled it came to be known as You Know You're Right.

I just happened to hear the song, for the first time in a few years and all the memories and emotions hit me like a freight train, again.

The song does have a pretty interesting back story, though. It is assumed to have been written in the latter half of 1993, as the band played a slightly different version of it live in October of 1993. On January 30, 1994 the band recorded it in Seattle during their final studio session. Cobain himself even demoed an acoustic solo version of it at some point around that time.

The 1994 studio version of the song remained locked away for years until talk of a release of the song began, and in turn a fierce legal battle ensued. Courtney Love felt the track would be best suited for a single disc "best of" album, whereas Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl wanted to release it on an "anthology" type boxed set.

The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2002, with the studio recorded You Know You're Right appearing on the 2002 best of release Nirvana. The boxed set went on as planned, despite being delayed a few years and was released in 2004 with the acoustic solo demo of the song.

Now here's where the real fun starts.

At the beginning of October 2002, the song was officially released as a single, with the full compilation due out at the end of that month. However, prior to this a rough mix of the track leaked on the internet.

Yes, the last proper Nirvana song, one that was the subject to years of legal wrangling, perhaps the most sought after track for the band at the time....just somehow ended up online in its entirety, outside of any official release. Fan sites began blowing up and even some radio stations picked it up and started playing the mp3 file on the air. Cease and desist orders began flying around, and as a legal battle ended, a new legal battle started.

Whoever leaked the song, it was a clear fuck you to Courtney Love. She may have won the battle, but she lost the war. Essentially every Nirvana fan on the planet with a computer heard the track well before it's official release. In 2002 I was following this pretty closely, if I recall correctly, a fan from Spain claimed to acquire an advance copy of Dave Grohl's Probot CD, which had the Nirvana song secretly at the end of it and subsequently the track was leaked and spread like wildfire.

In the end, it was almost like something Cobain himself would have done.

While lyrically it invokes a definite sense of despair and sadness, the song ended up being a poignant track to be remembered as their final work. You Know You're Right is pure Nirvana: loud guitars, pummeling drums and a powerful vocal delivery. None of them at the time knew they'd be recording their final song together, but what came of it was among their best.

A Tale of Two Zombies

May 26, 2012. Miami, Florida.

For reasons unknown, 31 year old Rudy Eugene removes his clothes while walking and begins viciously attacking a homeless man. Eugene begins eating the victim's face, destroying nearly 80% of it. A lone police officer arrives on the scene and begins to order Eugene to cease the attack. The officer was reportedly growled at in response. After not complying with orders, Rudy Eugene was shot dead. The homeless victim lived, despite having to undergo massive facial surgeries. Marijuana was the only drug found in the perpetrators system.

August 15, 2016. Tequesta, Florida.

19 year old FSU student Austin Harrouff inexplicably storms out of the restaurant he and his family were dining at, allegedly agitated at the slow service. He begins the several mile walk, likely towards his father's house, when he began to remove some of his clothes. Along the way, he encounters a husband and wife sitting outside their garage that night. Harrouff begins his bloody rampage: killing the wife, injuring a neighbor who tried to intervene, and killing the husband, who he crawled on top of an began eating his face and abdomen. Officers arrived and took the subject into custody where he was transferred to a local hospital. Harrouff allegedly tells police they won't find drugs in his system. Initial toxicology results show negative for cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines. 

We have two bizarre, yet similar attacks here. Both assailants inexplicably attack their victim(s) savagely, but we have two very different outcomes here. Rudy Eugene, a black man, refused to stop his attack. He was shot multiple times and died at the scene of the attack. Austin Harrouff, on the other hand was a young white male. He too refused to stop gnawing on his victim, yet lethal force was not used. Officers utilized a taser, a dog and then eventually it took several people to remove him from the victim.

At first glance, this contrast seems ripe for racial commentary. Black cannibal gets killed; white cannibal alleged perpetrator gets humanely treated and promptly taken to the nearest hospital.

Of course, media outlets like the NY Daily News and Washington post absolutely blasted Martin County police for apparently acting with such restraint or conversely for not immediately shooting him dead, exactly how Rudy Eugene was handled. Many pundits went on to say that Harrouff was essentially spared because he was white.

Yet again, our country shows no sign of stopping the great racial divide.

However, as similar as these cases seem, they couldn't be more different. Rudy Eugene was initially approached by a single officer. In fact, it was that lone office who handled the whole situation. He saw a helpless man being viciously attacked by an assailant who was not responding to his commands to stop. This policeman evaluated the situation, felt he could stop the attacker without harming himself or the victim...and that's what he did. Every single shot fired was on target, not a single stray bullet hit the victim, who went on to survive the ordeal.

When police arrived to the scene of Austin Harrouff's attack, the officers admit they first considered shooting him. However, the deciding factor was not because he was white, rather because he was literally face-to-face with his victim chewing him apart while laying on top of him. Officers had no idea if the male victim was still alive and did not want to risk hitting him with a stray bullet, or even striking Harrouff and having the bullet go through him and then hitting the victim.

Both instances are a tragedy, no matter how you look at it. But skin color had nothing to do with it.

However, the biggest tragedy here is the media infatuation of questioning why a black man had to be shot for brutally attacking someone, while ignoring the fact that his victim miraculously survived against all odds, despite extensive injuries. And then so much outrage is directed at the white kid for not getting shot, we basically forget to mourn the 2 senseless deaths and 1 injury that resulted.

In the end, maybe these senseless killers aren't the real zombies. Maybe we are.