2005/08/31

This is the saddest video out of Katrina I've seen.

A man in Biloxi told CNN affiliate WKRG-TV that he believed his wife was killed after she was ripped from his grasp when their home split in half.

"She told me, 'You can't hold me,' ... take care of the kids and the grandkids. ....

2005/08/30

So what city matches your personality?

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Your personality type is RCOEI
You are reserved, moderately calm, organized, egocentric, and intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.

The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Salt Lake City, Washington DC, Austin, Denver, Portland/Salem, Reno, Greensboro, Tucson, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Raleigh/Durham, Greenville/Spartanburg and these international countries/regions Czech Republic, Croatia, Russia, China, Romania, Brazil, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Israel, Poland, Taiwan, France, Caribbean, Guam, Mexico

What Places In The World Match Your Personality?
Powered by CityCulture.org


Hat tip to Ken for this one.

2005/08/29

If you pray, pray for those in the way of Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina flogged Louisiana's southeastern shore Monday morning with sustained winds in excess of 135 mph as it moved inland, the National Hurricane Center said.

New Orleans, braced for a catastrophic direct hit from the powerful Category 4 storm, hunkered nearly 10,000 people in its mammoth Superdome, but Ed Reams of CNN affiliate WDSU reported that the structure has begun leaking as the winds damaged the roof letting daylight and rainwater in the darkened arena.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall Monday between Grand Isle, Louisiana, and the mouth of the Mississippi River -- and the worst is yet to come, National Hurricane Center forecaster Richard Knabb told CNN.

Katrina jogged to the north in the night, early enough to push the massive storm just off what had been a direct line to New Orleans, moving its eastern eye wall instead toward Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, where CNN's Gary Tuchman found a boat washed onto a normally busy street.

"This is not the strongest part of the hurricane yet," Tuchman reported, battling the wind outside his truck. "This is the street where this boat is now. It's completely flooded. It's only going to get worse."

The counterclockwise spin of a hurricane makes the worst damage on its eastern edge, but CNN meteorologist Chad Myers cautioned that "there's not really an easy side of a Category 4 storm" on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The Hurricane Center said that a 113 mph wind gust was reported in Pascagoula, Mississippi. (Watch video report from Biloxi, Mississippi)

In Biloxi, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano reported that wind gusts topping 100 mph were starting to pull the roofs off of nearby buildings.


Probably the best place to learn how to help out those that become victims to a storm like this is The American Red Cross

2005/08/26

Misc. Friday Ramblings

Bitching and moaning...

Friday FIREPOWER!
  • Stopping Power.
    Accuracy can make up for power. The reverse is seldom true. The bullet must be delivered to the right place, and that is the blood bearing organs. Only loss of blood and actual damage can be counted upon. A bullet that makes a peripheral hit simply cannot be counted on, whatever the caliber.

  • Gun safety, son, gun safety.
    Son? He reproduced? Oh hell.

  • ...and it just went off...
    After he stuck a screwdriver in it?!?!?!?!

2005/08/24

Naked Woman Jumps Onto Car To Stop Thief

Police searched cornfields and brush areas in Mokuleia Monday morning after a man stole a car that was parked along Farrington Highway.

A woman, who was naked, jumped onto the hood of the car, trying to stop the thief, a man who was camping nearby, witnesses said.

"This girl was crying frantically, just screaming. She was yelling and my wife was all 'She's on the hood.' And, 'He's going to steal the car,'" camper Derrick Albiar said.

"Then he started to take off with her on the hood naked. Yeah, she had no clothes on," Albiar said.

Albiar and his wife watched in horror as the man drove erratically, trying to get the woman off the car.

'It wasn't a long distance, but from what I've seen, he dragged her pretty good," Albiar said.

After the naked woman fell off the hood and the car sped away, Albiar got into his car and chased the thief. While Albiar chased the driver, his wife helped the injured woman.

Albiar ended up in a cornfield on the backside of Crozier Drive. After his car stalled in the dirt, he chased the thief on foot.

A Honolulu Police Department helicopter searched overhead as teams searched on the ground. They were not able to find the thief, but the stolen car was recovered.

The woman who tried to stop the thief is a visitor from Washington state. She suffered scrapes and road rash. Paramedics treated the woman and took her to Wahiawa General Hospital for further care.


Stay on target, Stay on target, STAY ON TARGET....

2005/08/23

Police battle looters after beer train crashes

Hundreds of looters battled police all weekend at the site of a beer train wreck in violence that left one woman dead, South African police said on Monday as they kept a heavy guard on the remaining alcohol.

The train carrying 180,000 crates of beer from South African Breweries derailed on Friday night near Waterval Boven, 124 miles east of Johannesburg, Superintendent Izak van Zyl said.

By Saturday morning, police were battling up to 200 people from the nearby township trying to make off with crates of beer.

“It was a lot of trouble from one train crash,” Van Zyl said. “They were firing rubber bullets into the crowd. The issue was the beer.”

A 19-year-old woman in the crowd was killed when she fell under the wheels of a truck, he said.

Police handed the site over to railway security staff but were back again on Sunday morning, firing more rubber bullets as looters converged on the train. Officers raided nearby houses, recovered three out of 500 missing cases and arrested six people.

I'm surprised that they found three of the cases. Forget the gun, grab the beer.

2005/08/22

Whoa! I know orthodoxy.

"Just as Keanu Reeves fought against the powers of evil, a priest comes to help people fight against sin. There is a battle out there," explained Father Jonathan Meyer, associate director of youth and young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

He made the comments in an interview with Catholic News Service about a new vocations recruitment poster being distributed by his archdiocese.

The poster, which is modeled after an advertisement for the movie "The Matrix," is the brainchild of Father Meyer. It features a priest in full cassock -- and the requisite Roman collar -- holding a cross in one hand and a rosary in the other. And he is wearing sunglasses.

2005/08/19

Misc. Friday Ramblings...

More cowbell...

Obligatory Friday gun stuff!
Look, it is the ATF!


Of course, the ATF should be a convenience store, not a government agency.

2005/08/16

Viking ship built with 15 million ice cream sticks

A replica Viking ship made of 15 million ice cream sticks is to be launched in Amsterdam on Tuesday by a former Hollywood stuntman who hopes eventually to sail it across the Atlantic.

The 15-metre ship, which took Robert McDonald two years to build, is to be launched in Amsterdam harbour with a crew of around 25 in a bid to set a world record for the largest sailing ship made of ice cream sticks.

The Viking longship, equipped with oars and a mast, is built with sticks of birch-wood glued together painstakingly by McDonald and two volunteers in a Dutch workshop. It is to be put through its paces for around 90 minutes on Tuesday.

"It's a dream come true. It's truly worth all the hard work," McDonald said on Monday.

"I never want to look at glue again. I don't think I will be in a hurry to look at ice cream sticks again," said the 45-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida.

The ice cream sticks used to make the ship were provided by Unilever's ice cream maker OLA and by children who collected discarded sticks around the world.

McDonald, whose Sea Heart Foundation (www.seaheartship.com) helps provide leisure activities for children in hospitals, hopes to sail his Viking ship across the Atlantic next year.

"That's still the ultimate goal, to sail across the Atlantic in the Viking-style," McDonald said.

Christopher Columbus was acclaimed for centuries as the man who discovered America in 1492.

But in recent decades, more evidence has come to light showing that Icelander Leif Ericsson and the Vikings were the first Europeans to set foot on the American continent in the year 1,000.

Viking longboats let Norse warriors land, pillage and plunder large parts of Europe and sail off knowing that no other vessels could catch up.

I think there are some kitties that may have issue with this sailing.

2005/08/12

Misc. Friday Ramblings...

Now with 1000 years of power!

Obligatory Friday gun stuff!
From The High Road:

I figure I will chime in here since I have a vested interest in what happens with the program.

The XM-8 is dead. TACOM said thanks for playing but no thanks. It MAY be considered for the OICW program in the future. In other words, keep dreaming up cool stuff, when you get something we like, that works we will call you. As for the problems it had, overheating, melting plastic durring sustained fire (anyone who thinks that it is un-realistic to fire 6 mags in short order has not been overseas lately, and stopages. 50k rounds in a lab without failure is NOT 50k rounds in the hands of troops without failure). And the mag well did not fit the current issued mags, they were plastic mags like the G36 mags. Also, the rail system was not the same, H&K wanted to sell the Military a whole new set of "improved" (insert giggling here) mounts or adapter to convert our mounts to their rail system. Yeah, that was smart.

As for other calibers, why? Change the composition and weight of the round we are using. The are a great number of dead bad guys in Iraq and Afghanistan that were dispatched with the 77gr BHI ammo. They work quite well in both the M4A1 and M16A2. The new round slated to be issued to ARSOF units for the SCAR is the 77gr BHI round because of its preformance in combat. They are also looking at 80 and 100+gr rounds for general issue.

The 6.8 is DEAD. In initial testing it had a bad problem with case-head seperations in selectfire weapons. There are currently no requirements for TACOM or WARCOM to further develope these rounds. I dont know where the internet rumor that they would be adopted, or that these rounds were even remotely suitable for military weapons started, but they are not.

The SCAR is going to SOF units. At this time it is not clear if they will be mass fielded as just uppers with lowers to follow, or if they will be complete weapons.

For the new Army wide trails, they have been delayed to bring in the Marines who have expressed great interest in working with the Army on this project. Some of the initial applicants are known to be FN, Robinson for the XCR, H&K for the G-36 and Colt (poor bastards dont know when to quit either).

The M-249 has been a reliable weapon in the field with a bit of care. The new SOF MK-46 solves many of the M-249's short comings and has deleted that stupid mag well. There is also a 308 version that is also quite nice.

One final note. Most, nearly all of the combat related problems with the M series weapon in the latest conflict have been operator error. The common grunt that has these problems is either too stupid to read his PM magazine, too lazy to properly clean and maintain his weapon, or slept thru the classed given on how to care for his weapon in a desert environment. Taking Billy Joe from the southern part of the US and dropping him in the desert and using the same methods of lube and care is a great way to get him killed. I was responsible for maintaining over 700 rifles and pistols while in country. There were new fixes that came out like the extractor spring doughnut and new lube (neither of which made a huge difference but added confidence in the weapon system), but our guys cleaned them regularly, used proper lubrication (and amount of lube) and replaced springs and rings as needed. Not once did we get a report of a weapon failing someone in combat, and believe me if it happened I would have gotten all kinds of traffic about it.

The M4 is a fine weapon. Are there better ones out there and can an even better one be developed? You bet! But until then with the proper cleaning and care the weapon will not fail you in combat.

2005/08/11

Man dies after gaming 50 hours.

South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on Aug. 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

He finally reached level 50 in City of Heroes only to realize that his character was getting nerfed in the upcoming Issue 5 release. He died of a broken heart.

2005/08/10

OMG, I got blog spammed!

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2005/08/09

It's 2007. Will your VCR function?

The clock is ticking on a new Y2K-style techno scare in 2007 - thanks to Congress.
That's because legislators slipped a measure into the energy bill that President Bush is set to sign today extending daylight-saving time by four weeks - a change-up that machines already programmed for the annual hour jump may not be prepared to cope with.

Daylight-saving time would start three weeks earlier in the spring and last one week longer in the fall.

"Missiles won't be launching, but it's still going to cause a lot of hassle," said technology expert Lauren Weinstein, warning that the big risks will be to the technologically challenged who have come to rely on computers and electronic date books to help meet their appointments.

"Things advance to the point where you expect things to happen automatically and you expect it to be correct," he said.

The idea behind the bill is to save energy by giving people that extra hour of summer sun for another month.

But machines that work on the old system - falling back one hour on the last Sunday of October and leaping ahead on the first Sunday of April - cannot be reprogrammed as easily as politicians can rewrite a law. Congress last changed the system in 1987.

The biggest threat for most people is probably those missed appointments.

"It wouldn't be a society-wide catastrophe, but there would be a problem if nothing's done about it or we try to move too quickly," said Dave Thewlis, head of a group that promotes standards for calendar software.

And people who want their auto-programmed VCRs to record the right shows may have to pull out the instruction manual.

"It is unfortunately going to add a little bit of complexity to consumers," said Reid Sullivan at Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co.

Oh dear, people will actually have to RTFM instead of relying on the machines to do it themselves. Quick, someone call Skynet.

2005/08/08

Why ranges get shut down.

Police officials are considering design changes to a firing range after a stray bullet struck a home about a mile away.

A resident called Tipton County sheriff deputies the afternoon of July 12, reporting a bullet had just come through the wall of his home. Deputies quickly alerted several members of the Noblesville Police Department, who were conducting firearms training at the range.

"We're still not really sure what happened for the bullet to go that far away," Noblesville Police Chief Richard Russell said Thursday. "It was really puzzling."

Police are speculating a shooter lying in a prone position, aiming upward at a target, must have sent a bullet up and over the mound of tree-covered earth at the back of the range about 30 miles north of Indianapolis, Russell said.

"It must have went off at least at a 45-degree angle to get that far, kind of like an arch," he said.

Law enforcement officials from Noblesville and Tipton are looking at raising the height of the earth berm behind the targets and possibly thickening the berm.

The cost of the improvements has not been determined.

Russell and Tipton County Sheriff Craig Henderson said that until improvements are made on the county-owned property, it is unlikely officers will do any more shooting there.

It is an unfortunate truth that open-air ranges are being encroached upon by residential areas. Whereas before, if a bullet went stray, it would usually land in a wooded area, now it can land in a housing project. Many ranges are being shut down because they are becoming a nuisance to the surrounding residents. The ranges are on the losing side, because not many are willing to fight for their right to exist. Florida has state-run ranges, the closest to me is inside the Osceola National Forest. No encroachment there, at least for now.

2005/08/05

Misc. Friday Ramblings

Spanning the globe...

Obligatory Friday gun stuff!

2005/08/04

Internet acronyms for dummies

Confuse those new to the internet, pray to St. Fu for strength against the pirates.

2005/08/03

Oh hey, look who wants time off to clean out his system.

Bonds Says He Doesn't Expect to Play Now

Barry Bonds doesn't expect to play this season because of his injured right knee, putting the San Francisco slugger's quest for the career home run record on hold until at least 2006.

"I don't think you're going to see me out there this year," Bonds told MLB.com on Monday. "That's the reality of the situation. I'm improving. I'm happy with the progress. I'm working out hard on the exercise bike and the elliptical machine, but I'm just not there yet. The last thing I want is to get back on the field and be out again a week later."

Bonds said a recent MRI showed some fluid building up in the knee that has been operated on three times since Jan. 31. He said his doctors advised him to wait until next year to return to the Giants.

"He has not informed the Giants of that decision," assistant general manager Ned Colletti told The Associated Press.

*tin foil hat time*

Smart decision on his part. He will weather the heat from the front office and fans, but give himself time to get the system flushed. No one wants to take the 'roids spotlight off of Palmeiro.

2005/08/02

I don't know how these got in my system, officer.

Palmeiro Suspended for Steroids Violation
Five months after telling Congress he never used steroids, Palmeiro on Monday received a 10-day suspension from Major League Baseball after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

The players' association challenged the positive test in secret proceedings, and the penalty was held in abeyance until arbitrator Shyam Das decided Monday not to overturn it.

No longer able to deny using steroids, Palmeiro insisted he ingested a banned substance by accident.

"When I testified in front of Congress, I know that I was testifying under oath and I told the truth," the Baltimore Orioles' first baseman said during a telephone conference call. "Today I am telling the truth again that I did not do this intentionally or knowingly."

Palmeiro, 40, was adamant in his assertion that he accidentally ingested the drug, particularly because on March 17 he declared before a congressional committee, "I have never used steroids. Period."

Without being specific, the four-time All-Star left the impression that the banned substance was contained in a supplement that was not prescribed.


Ever here this and think it was an odd question: "Has anyone other than yourself packed or been in contact these bags? Have you left them unattended?"

I thought that was strange, because who leaves their bags or lets someone else pack for them. Now, think about what he's saying. I don't know how they got in my body, but someone else must have done it. Perhaps in the plain canister marked supplement. Perhaps they doped him in his sleep. Could it be in the water? Just think about what you come in contact with and injest every day. Do you know exactly what is going into your body?

2005/08/01

Hoc-a-lugie headache.

Opening up your door while driving isn't a good idea, especially on a busy highway.

Robbin Doolin, 31, of the Kansas City suburb of Grandview, learned that Friday morning when she leaned out her fast-moving car to spit.

She went tumbling out onto U.S. 71 in Kansas City, and to the amazement of other drivers, she hopped up and chased her car as it careened down an embankment toward a construction site.

Doolin was recovering Friday night at a hospital, where she was treated for injuries to her leg, arm and head.

"It's certainly not prudent to open your car door on a highway, especially when you're not wearing a seat belt," said Capt. Rich Lockhart, a police spokesman.

Lockhart said the woman was embarrassed about the accident.

Her explanation to officers: "I leaned out to spit and I leaned too far."

Because, you know, them new fangled devices called....what are they....wind-urs, yeh, wind-urs, they just might be able to let you spit without getting out.