2005/04/29

And now for some more gun pr0n!

ACE has a great little writeup on the Alliant Airburst Weapon System. Basically, they split off the grenade launcher from the doomed XM29, allowing an upgrade from 20mm to 25mm.

Read more at ATK's website.

2005/04/28

Misc. Friday Ramblings.

Lord I was born a rambling man....

Pop Quiz Hot Shot
Thanks to Keneda for the link to this one.



Your Taste in Music:


80's Alternative: Highest Influence
90's Rock: Highest Influence
Classic Rock: Highest Influence
Progressive Rock: Highest Influence
90's Alternative: High Influence
Hair Bands: High Influence
Heavy Metal: High Influence
80's Pop: Medium Influence
80's Rock: Medium Influence
Adult Alternative: Medium Influence
Gangsta Rap: Medium Influence
Old School Hip Hop: Medium Influence
80's R&B: Low Influence
90's Hip Hop: Low Influence
90's Pop: Low Influence
Alternative Rock: Low Influence
Dance: Low Influence
Punk: Low Influence
Ska: Low Influence


Obligatory Friday gun pr0n!




Florida, home of the OK Corral.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a new anti-crime law on Tuesday that allows people to kill in self-defense without first trying to flee.

Supporters say the law is a logical extension of common law that allows homeowners who fear for their lives to use deadly force to defend themselves from an intruder in their homes.

The new law expands that doctrine to include people in public places who feel threatened and could be subject to death or great bodily harm.

"To suggest that you can't defend yourself against a rapist, who's trying to drag you into an alley, or against a carjacker who's trying to drag you out of your car is nonsense," said Marion Hammer, a former president of the National Rifle Association.

"The ability to protect yourself, your children or your spouse, is important, no matter where you are."

Critics of the new law, called the "Stand Your Ground" bill, have few objections to allowing people to protect themselves in their homes but say the bill will create a "Wild West" mentality in public, where residents may shoot first and ask questions later.

"There are going to be a lot of repercussions," said Rep. Eleanor Sobel, a Democrat. "You could have someone reaching into their pocket and if the person felt threatened he could shoot."

Like many states, Florida courts have ruled that homeowners have a right to defend themselves in their homes. Florida courts have expanded the doctrine to include employees in their workplace and drivers who are attacked in their automobiles.

Outside the home, however, courts have ruled that most victims must at least attempt to escape before using deadly force, a provision gun advocates say puts victims at greater risk. The new law removes that requirement if a person has a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm.

"All this bill will do is sell more guns and possibly turn Florida into the OK Corral," Rep. Irv Slosberg, a Democrat, said during recent debate on the bill.

Yay, I dare anyone to reach into their pockets now. *BLAM*.

Seriously, all this bill did, as I explained previously, was to provide a legal protective coverage to those exercising their right of self-defense. A smart lawyer could have found a way to convict someone because they didn't have the time to find all avenues of escape. Now, you don't have to know that you should have used the sewer grating under the cardboard box in the dimly lit alley. Remember, forceable felonies only.

2005/04/27

Headlines...

thanks to Rez for the following:

2005/04/26

Vehicles have the right of way (in the air)

A skydiving cinematographer was killed after his legs were severed in a midair collision with the airplane he had jumped from, authorities said.

Albert "Gus" Wing III had already deployed his parachute Saturday when he struck the left wing of the DHC-6 Twin Otter propeller plane at about 600 feet, a witness on the ground told police.

Both of Wing's legs were severed at the knees, but he managed to maneuver his parachute and land near the DeLand Airport, about 40 miles north of Orlando, DeLand Police Cmdr. Randel Henderson said.

He was airlifted to a hospital, where he later died, Henderson said.

Fourteen other skydivers were in the air at the time of the accident, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said. The plane landed safely.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.

Mike Johnston, general manager of Skydive DeLand, said the accident was not common.

"There are about 15 million jumps every year," Johnston told The Daytona Beach News-Journal. "I only know of one other case where a sky diver was struck by an airplane."

Authorities said they were not certain whether Wing had been filming at the time of the accident and no camera was found.

Wing owned a production company, Flying Wings Production, according to the Web site of the company that organized Saturday's jump, Skydive DeLand.

Irony is a cruel mistress. Wing lost his legs to a wing.

2005/04/25

Robbing Paul to pay for Peter.

An Indian who became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery, a newspaper reported Monday.

Twenty-nine-year-old rubber tapper Kuttiyamma, born with both male and female genitals, had been in love with the relative, Laura, 25, for 15 years before having surgery to become a man and change her name to Binu, the Hindustan Times reported.

But Laura became engaged to another man and Binu is suing her for breach of trust after spending 50,000 rupees ($1,150) on the sex change in southern Kerala state.

"She had agreed to marry me after the surgery," the paper quoted Binu saying in the petition. "I took loans to pay the hospital bills."

Laura's fiance has since backed out of the wedding after hearing of Binu. The paper did not say how Laura and Kuttiyamma/Binu are related.

Nothing is worse that than wrath of a woman scorned...er, man scorned...er, you get the idea. Even if the plumbing works, he's set. He gets rubber straight from the source. Although, for some reason, I think that banjo music is appropriate for a woman, now a man, in love with his relative since age 10. Had to be kinda freaky playing doctor, eh?

2005/04/21

Misc. Friday Ramblings

So I got to ramble on...
  • When breaking into a house, make sure the kickboxer isn't home.
    Tong Po....Tong Po....Tong Po....Tong Po....

  • Seven good reasons to play golf.
    Don't forget the 19th hole.

  • Police Dogs.
    Look out for the second one, he's sneaky.

  • Attorney moonlights as a porn star.
    Being a dick by day, showing it off at night.

  • Great-Great-Grandmother Shoots Robber.
    I want to say one more for the good guys, but she shot more after he dropped the gun and was fleeing. She was in the wrong after the first shot, so time will tell if charges are ever pressed against her.

  • 'Mad Max' Fan Convoy Ends in Arrests.
    Some people need to think just a little bit more clearly about riding down the road with weaponry on your cars. If you're going out like that, make sure that they are real.

  • Random Thoughts:
    Can you cry under water?

    How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

    If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

    Since bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?

    Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. . but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to?

    Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

    Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

    What disease did cured ham actually have?

    How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

    Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

    If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

    If you drink Pepsi at work in the Coke factory, will they fire you?

    Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

    Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

    How come we choose from just two people for President and fifty for Miss America?

    Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

    If a 911 operator has a heart attack, whom does he/she call?

    Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural?

    Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet soup?


    Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out!"

    Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

    Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

    When your photo is taken for your driver's license, why do they tell you to smile? If you are stopped by the police and asked for your license, are you going to be smiling?

    If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

    Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?

    If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?

    Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?

    Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!

    What do you call male ballerinas?

    Can blind people see their dreams? Do they dream?

    If Wyle E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

    If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

    If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

    Is Disney World the only people trap operated by a mouse?

    Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

    Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Obligatory Friday gun pr0n!
The lastest edition of ShotGun News contains a great article on Guncrafter Industries' .50 GI. They fit a 300 grain bullet into basically the same 1911 frame without an increase in power against the shooter. 25yd benchrest groupings around 2 inches. Not bad at all.

Because cops don't shoot cars...

Fed up with his troublesome car, a Florida man fired five rounds from a semi-automatic pistol into the hood of the 1994 Chrysler LeBaron.

"I'm putting my car out of its misery," 64-year-old John McGivney said after the incident outside an apartment building in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, according to a police report that listed the car as "deceased."

McGivney surrendered to police, was jailed on a firearms charge on Friday and released on bond a day later. He told them the car had been giving him trouble for years.

"I think every guy in the universe has wanted to do it," the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Wednesday quoted McGivney as saying. "It was worth every damn minute in that jail."

Reminds me of the Richard Pryor standup routine. He was arrested for shooting his wife's car with a .357 magnum to keep her from leaving. His quote "Cops don't shoot cars, cops shoot nig-ars". For more great Pryor standup, I suggest finding the 9-disc set "And It's Deep Too"

2005/04/20

So we have a new Pope...

"He could be a wedge rather than a unifier for the church," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of the Jesuit weekly magazine America.

...

Evelyn Strauch, a 54-year-old housewife from Ratzinger's home state of Bavaria, buried her head in her hands and wept.

"This can't be true," she said. "I had hoped so much that we would get a good pope who would do something for women. ... This is so terrible."

...

In his memoirs, the policeman's son wrote of being enrolled in Hitler's Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

In 1943, he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit in Munich as a helper, a common fate for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. He wrote that he escaped recruitment in the dreaded Nazi SS because he said he was a priest in training.

...

Then, just before the cardinals entered the conclave Monday morning, he made clear where he stands ideologically, using words that John Paul would surely have endorsed. He warned about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects and ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.

Benedict has denounced rock music, dismissed anyone who had tried to find "feminist" meanings in the Bible, and last year told American bishops it was appropriate to deny Communion to those who support abortion and euthanasia.


And some of the first things I hear is that he was a Nazi supporter, then it was just Hitler's youth with wehrmacht service, then it was deserting his wehrmacht unit and becoming a POW. Not to mention the fact that he is conservative, and opposes such things as reform to allow abortion, women priests, priests to marry, etc. Okay people, guess what, get over it. He's the new pope, and he's got his conviction to carry out.

Should your religion sway and blow around like so much wheat in a field, or should it be a moral rock, a solid foundation against which the tides of humanity crash against?

IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH YOUR RELIGION, FIND ONE THAT YOU ARE HAPPY WITH OR JUST DISAGREE AND MOVE ON!

2005/04/18

Jacuzzi overboard!

A freak seven-story wave that slammed into a cruise ship sent furniture sailing through the air, knocked Jacuzzis overboard and forced some passengers to sleep in hallways in life jackets.

The Norwegian Dawn docked in the Charleston harbor for repairs after running into the rough weather Saturday while returning to New York from the Bahamas. The 965-foot vessel departed early Sunday after a Coast Guard inspection and was expected in New York at midday Monday.

"The ship was hit by a freak wave that caused two windows to break in two different cabins," Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement. It said 62 cabins flooded and four passengers had cuts and bruises. The wave reached as high as deck 10 on the ship, company spokeswoman Susan Robison said Sunday.

James Fraley, who was taking a honeymoon cruise with his wife, said they called their loved ones as the wave pounded the boat because they thought the ship was going down.

"It was pure hell. We're talking 47-foot waves hitting the 10th floor, knocking Jacuzzis on the 12th floor overboard — people sleeping in hallways in life jackets," Fraley told WCBD-TV in Charleston. "Just pure pandemonium."

"I rented a car and drove nine hours," said Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., who kissed his driveway when he got home. "No more time on the Titanic for me."

According to the Dawn's deck layout, deck 10 is almost over the ship. Remeber the Poseidon Adventure anyone?

2005/04/15

Misc. Friday Ramblings

Friday. A day for fries.

Obligatory Friday gun pr0n!
The Taurus 2005 catalog has finally been posted. Check out the 1911s and the .38 supers.

2005/04/14

Don't drop the soap, drop the chapstick.

Steven Jacobs, a physician's assistant in Brooklyn, N.Y., dropped his tube of lip balm at work last Wednesday — and bent over to pick it up just as a bullet flew through his office window, reports the New York Post.

Police and witnesses said Jacobs, 35, was working at the Ditmas Park Rehab/Care Center just before 3 p.m. when two men started arguing on the street outside.

One guy pulled out a BB gun — which prompted the other to yank out a real handgun and get off several shots.

One bullet hit the first man in the jaw. Another ricocheted and went right into Jacobs' office window just as he reached for the ChapStick.

"I thought there was car backfiring in the parking lot," said Jacobs, a former Israeli policeman. "The second shot told me I needed to stay down."

Jacobs was hit above the eye by flying glass, but the cut was not serious, and he said his injuries could have been much worse.

"There's a hole in the window over there, and seconds before, I was standing up there," he said. "I was very fortunate. God was with me, no question. If God wanted me dead, I would be dead."

The man shot outside went to the hospital, while the shooter got away.

After Jacobs' close call made the newspapers, he got a call from Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, makers of ChapStick.

"Wyeth wants to make sure that he has ChapStick available forever," spokeswoman Heather Scherman told the Post.

Jacobs was soon to receive a case of 100 ChapSticks, the beginning of a free lifetime supply.

"I'm very happy," said Jacobs. "I use it all the time."

I think Jacobs was a very lucky man indeed. Although the article doesn't say that he would have been hit by the stray bullet, it does imply that. What I have to ask is WTF is up with the guy pulling a BB gun on someone in New York. I mean, sure, NYC has strict gun control policy, so one might think pulling a BB gun some form of power projection. Wrong assumption in this case.

2005/04/13

Tequila will kill anything, so don't worry.

La Nopalera loosely translated means "the cactus patch". The translation seems oddly fitting, because when it came to a recent health inspection for this San Marco restaurant, things got a bit prickly.

La Nopalera racked up 38 violations, 19 of which were critical.

An inspector found raw meat stored over cooked food, a dirty cutting board, and evidence of infestation in the kitchen. The state inspector issued an emergency order and the store was immediately shut down.

When inspectors returned a day later, they found that La Nopalera had cleaned up, but not by much. On that re-inspection La Nopalera still racked up 21 total violations, 7 of them critical.

Again, just one day later, the inspector found raw meat over cooked food, a critical violation. And that dirty cutting board still hadn't been replaced with a clean one.
However, one improvement was noted. The inspector did not see any evidence of infestation and allowed La Nopalera to re-open.

La Nopalera manager Jose Ramirez told the Troubleshooters he's working on fixing those problems. He allowed the Troubleshooters into his kitchen, and according to the cameras, it looked as though the raw food problem had been fixed.

However, during the tour, a sauce pot was spotted just sitting on the floor. And the dirty cutting board was still out and still in use.

*sigh* La Nop is a tradition spanning back a few years with a core group of folks here at work. It is close, fast, and the food is very good. No one that I know of has gotten sick from eating there. However, the food has gotten a bit better of late.

2005/04/12

Your Karma got busted. ha ha!

Driving home yesterday, I had an interesting incident occur. Let's paint a picture here. Driving north on a four lane road named Park Street. It passes in front of the Prime Osbourne convention center. There are two major intersection with traffic signals. The first one is at Water Street. Here is where things get interesting. The right lane of Park Street continues straight, the left lane becomes a dedicated left hand turn lane for the second intersection, Bay Street. Many times, people in the left lane decide going through the Water Street intersection to get over into the straight lane before the Bay Street intersection. The have about 100 feet to do it in, though.

I was in the right lane going straight. A silver celica was in the left lane, apparently wanting to go straight. So, Mr. Celica decides to do a no-look lane change, to which I get his attention by laying on horn and brakes in that order. He's spooked, but was nice enough to give me a wave. At his current speed, this puts him at the y street intersection traffic signal, which is red to us. He bolts through the intersection, locking on brakes to avoid nailing a car going west. The car behind the one that almost got hit was one of JSO's finest. Citation ensues as I happily continue motoring by, once the traffic signal turns green.

2005/04/11

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...

We're not any less annoyed by spam. We're just more accepting of it. So says a study released Sunday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Fifty-three percent of adult e-mail users in the United States now say they trust e-mail less because of spam, down from 62 percent a year ago and about the same as a June 2003 Pew survey.

Pew also found that 22 percent of e-mail users say they are spending less time on e-mail because of spam, down from 29 percent last year. In 2003, it was 25 percent.

"This shows some level of tolerance that people are manifesting," said Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow at Pew and the study's author. "Maybe it's their getting used to it. Maybe it's like other annoying things in life — air pollution, traffic — they are just learning to live with it."

Pornographic spam is on the decline, replaced by fraudulent "phishing" scams aimed at stealing bank passwords and other sensitive information, the study finds.

There was little change in what people do to reduce spam.

About the same percentage avoid giving out e-mail addresses or set up special addresses when they believe they might attract spam. In fact, a lower percentage avoid posting e-mail addresses on Web sites, where spammers often collect addresses for their mailings.

However, there was a slight increase in the percentage of e-mail users who set up hard-to-guess addresses — such as "joe342d3x" — to make it more difficult for dictionary attacks, in which spammers try to send junk to any address they could think of by trying various combinations of words found in the dictionary.

Maybe it is because there are much better spam filters available out there on email clients then before. I know that using Comcast, there has been a drastic reduction of spam emails once they got their filters going good. Once in a great while, something will get through. If it does, just add it to the spam filter engine, and viola!

Bloody Vikings.

2005/04/08

Misc. Friday Ramblings

Because it's Friday, that's why.

Obligatory Friday gun pr0n!
The box of truth.
Having some time for study of this fascinating sport, I built the "Box O' Truth". The purpose of the Box is to test the penetration of various rounds.

People often say, "I think...". "I suppose...", "I bet...", when discussing facts like penetration of ammunition.

There is only one way to know how much a certain round penetrates. You must shoot it into a medium and see for a fact.

Don't piss off the guy with the .45-70 Gov't.

2005/04/07

Welcome to Dodge City, Florida. Shyeh, right.

A bill expanding the rights of citizens to shoot or stab someone who threatens them with violence in public will likely become law Oct. 1.

Floridians will soon have the right to shoot or stab someone in a violent confrontation with fewer possibilities of being prosecuted, under a proposed law passed Tuesday by the Legislature. Gov. Jeb Bush has pledged his support.

The proposal to expand and clarify the ''castle doctrine'' -- named after the philosophy that ''a man's home is his castle'' -- cleared its final hurdle in the Florida House with 94 votes. The 20 dissenters were all Democrats from urban areas.

Democrats primarily objected to language that will remove from current law the duty of citizens to retreat in confrontations in public settings.

The duty to retreat traditionally has not applied to a person facing a home invader.

Republicans also dismissed Democrats repeated predictions of ushering in a new ''Wild West'' or gunfights at the OK Corral. Throughout the 1980s, South Florida Democrats repeatedly evoked the gunslinger imagery during debates about the state's concealed-weapons law. Last year, they also predicted doom when the Republican-controlled Legislature banned police from compiling computerized gun-owner lists, usually culled from pawn shops.

Baxley said the law is designed to give law-abiding citizens more rights.

''A very important provision of this bill is the right to meet force with force,'' Baxley said. ``I'm sorry, but if I'm attacked, I shouldn't have a duty to retreat. That's a good way to get shot in the back.''

Baxley pointed out that most law enforcement lobbying groups support the legislation, as did the Senate, which voted for the bill unanimously.

Citing the law enforcement agencies and the drop in the overall crime rate in Florida, Gov. Bush said Tuesday that he'll sign the legislation into law. It would go into effect Oct. 1.

When the state's concealed weapons law went into effect in 1987, there were cries about the "wild west" and "blood running in the streets". Hasn't happened. Some studies show that there is a direct correlation between concealed weapon law enactment and the drop of violent crimes. Also, this isn't a "shoot anyone because they piss you off law". Currently, the only way deadly force is authorized by a civilian is in the case of a forcible felony. That doesn't change. Excerpt below from Florida State law.
776.012 Use of force in defense of person.--A person is justified in the use of force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against such other's imminent use of unlawful force. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

What happened before, if you were about to be assaulted, raped, murdered, or saw the commission of such, you had to run (except at home or in your conveyance, ie. your castle) in all cases unless escape is completely cut off. Fight or flight, you had to choose flight. Now, you can choose fight. But as my CCW instructor said, it isn't the legal challenge you have to worry about as much as the civil one.

What has quite a few people baffled is how many Democrats are supporting this. It passed the Senate unopposed. It passed the House by a landslide majority. Maybe they are becoming a bit more friendly to those hands that feed them now.

2005/04/06

My God! It's full of stars.

Sometimes you can look at something that makes you think you are all alone. Other times, you can look at something and think you are just an insignificant spec in the universe. The link above is to a picture representative of one of those latter times.

2005/04/05

One shot, one freed person.

Don't know the story behind it, but the video is pretty much self-explanatory.

2005/04/04

Been on vacation; things happen in threes.

Okay, been gone on vacation (working at the house type) for a week. However, that doesn't mean that fate takes a vacation, and things still happen in threes.
  1. Most importantly, the Pope passed away.
  2. Secondly, Terri Schaivo has passed as well. Finally, she can stop being a pawn in their game.
  3. Finally, Mitch Hedberg passed away. Who is Mitch Hedberg? Well, if you listen to streaming comedy at work, like I do, you'd be familiar with it.