Pin-Ups

It must've been via View from the Porch that I came across Pin-Ups for Vets.  There isn't much info on the lady running the charity, Gina Elise, but I do like those old-style pin-up photos.  Occasional Dillon model Cathy Rankin (featured in the Blue Press) also has her own similar calendar.  I rather prefer brunettes, myself.

Cooper CS4 Touring Tires

Well, the car needed new tires.  I'd let the rears get down to 1/32 tread, and with the weather the way it is, there's no avoiding getting new ones.  The dealer recommended Cooper CS4 tires.  I was skeptical because they're not what I would've considered a major brand.  Plus, they were asking an arm and a leg.  So I did a little reading, both on consumerreports.org and other review sites, and found out that the tires are actually made in the U.S.  Furthermore, the online prices for the tire discount stores for comparable products were actually more than what the dealer was asking: Tires Plus wanted over 6 benjamins for Bridgestone Turanzas, and those aren't as highly rated in CR as the CS4s.  Given that, I went with the CS4s.  Unfortunately that means I won't be getting myself a Christmas present this year...damn, I was hoping to get a Garand or an AK-47.

We'll see how they perform in this wonderful weather.  I'm gonna have to break out the snowblower (doesn't that sound like a term for a cokehead?) when I get home to clear out the driveway before I can pull into the garage!

WECSOG

The Wile E. Coyote School of Gunsmithin'.  Interesting how-to on building a FAL out of a parts kit.  Maybe after I build an AR-15 upper I'll try that one next.

Pietta Black Powder Revolvers

Lately I've taken notice of black powder revolvers made by Pietta in the Midway and Cabela's catalogs.  I've thought it'd be interesting to have a black powder gun, since you can fairly easily craft powder for them, and they're fairly inexpensive.  Plus, one can get .45 Long Colt conversion cylinders, although those cost almost as much as the revolver itself.  That presents an interesting concept: for less than $500 you can get a pistol that shoots metallic cartridges and is completely under the radar, i.e. no 4473 and no background check.  I'm surprised that the anti-gunners haven't blown up over this one.  Granted, the .45LC cylinders are only for cowboy loads, not smokeless powder, but still.

Low-tech Magazine

I posted this to my other blog (or should I say blag), but via the Woodpile Report I came across Low-tech Magazine and an article on historic electric cars.

My response to a Facebook comment on my post:

My beef isn't with car companies per se. It's with our mentality in general that says "oh this is new and glorious" when it's really older than grandma. And technology evolves quickly in some ways and unexpectedly slowly in others, usually determined by our focus as a society.

The rest of my response degenerated into a rant against unions, but I suppose I can't help from veering off when all the subjects are interrelated.

FFT Zero Padding

The fairly new guy in the RIL department (which I just was moved to) has a master's in signal processing.  Since I didn't have an even number of samples for the Fourier transform, I was using the DFT, but he claimed that zero padding to power-of-2 FFT lengths is legit.  Apparently it is.  However, there are bin shift concerns [ni.com] when doing so because the bin number and size are determined by the number of samples used.

HK. Because you suck. And we hate you.

Larry Correia is a funny guy.  Mention of the HK rant has crossed my screen before, but I'd never read the whole thing.  It's hilarious!  I say that as a guy who likes his HK91 clone.  I'd dearly love to get an MP5 submachinegun or even a G3, but I'm a civilian and I'm too poor.  I'd even like to get a real semi-auto 91, but for 3 grand, it's probably more practical to get an M1A and some training.  I'm also pissed off about their piston AR-15 that doesn't take standard lowers.  Ah, HK does have an Apple-like aura about them, except they're not as ergonomic.

As an aside, you can tell a real HK fanboy from a poseur because the former knows how to pronounce 'Koch' in English (it's 'Coke', as is Koch Industries).  I'm kind of a fanboy, but I'm also a realist.

Jicama

Last week a coworker told me about jicama (pronounced "hicama"), an edible root.  Funky.  If I can get ahold of some, it'd be interesting to try.  (And what's up with that scientific name, "Pachyrhizus erosus" ?! Sounds...cool.)