Tomato / Tomahto

I'd often heard the tomato / tomahto thing, but didn't know where exactly it was from.  Apparently the song is from a 1937 film, Shall We Dance, and is titled, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off".

Charity Evaluation

It's that time of year again, and many people are hashing out charitable donations prior to the end of the year.  To that end, so-called "charity watchdog" sites can be helpful in ascertaining where to spend one's philanthropic capital.

• Charity Watch - The former American Institute of Philanthropy's charity watchdog rates fewer charities, and is more apt to skewer someone's sacred cow.  They only have 550 or so charities rated, and require a $40/yr donation to see the actual analyses.  However, there does seem to be a difference in the quality of the ratings relative to CN and BBB.
• Charity Navigator - The claim is that they rate 5500+ charities, but are less stringent than Charity Watch and have suspended adding new charities to their list.
• Better Business Bureau - The BBB is even less strict on their criteria than Charity Navigator and require a fee (somewhere in the order of $15k) for "accreditation".
• GuideStar - Has the most comprehensive database of the review sites listed here, albeit limited coverage of each one.  Definitely a useful resource for organizations not listed by other watchdogs.  I read that over 640k charities are cataloged.
• Give Well - A minor review organization focused on international charities.  While they appear to be quite liberal, at least they have a page chronicling their past mistakes, which seems to be a good-faith effort in accountability.
• Charities Review Council - A Minnesota-based charity review site.

Another site, GiveSpot, has some interesting vectors as well.

What I really want is a list of gun-friendly and anti-gun charities so I can be sure to steer my money away from the latter and toward the former.  Amusingly, the NRA rates well on multiple sites, whereas the Brady Campaign and VPC don't rate so well.  And I wish organizations like 2AF were more transparent: while I am absolutely for the cause, one wants to make most effective use of one's resources.

Diamond Gusset Jeans

Recently I read that Levi's supports anti-gun organizations and has such a policy.  Ah well, 501s fit like shit if you have testicles (I've tried them on multiple times and they always crunch my kiwis).  I used to wear their carpenter jeans because the fit was better in the crotch and have extra pockets.  However, their quality control went to hell and I had a number of them wear out in the back pocket--and I put my wallet in my front pocket.  Now I rather like Vertx tactical pants, except they're owned by Berkshire Hathaway....

Anyway, one forum thread had a link to Diamond Gusset, which has a gusseted crotch and apparently isn't anti-gun.  Looks to be worth trying.  Motorcycle riders might appreciate their jeans with kevlar to prevent road rash.

A bit of editorializing: anti-gun people are one of three things: ignorant, stupid, or evil, and none of those characteristics are good.

"The Scot who shaped Japan"

The Japan Times had an article in the print edition last weekend about a Scotsman, Thomas Blake Glover, who had an inordinate influence on post-Meiji Japan.  The centennial anniversary of his death is today (2011.12.16).

Ammo Oracle

Looking for info on 5.56x45mm ammo?  The Arfcom Ammo Oracle is the source for debunking stupid myths and educating the typical "heard it from a buddy" disinformation-passing gunowner.  (This is mirrored as a single file on various sites [1].)

What's really horrid is the pricing on M193 ammo: it's significantly lower than what I'd consider cheap nowadays: 18 cents per round circa 2002 versus 28 cents and change in 2011 (for new production).  If only my 401(k) had done that well.

SHTF School

Via RNS I came across this interesting site describing the realities of a real SHTF scenario.  Allegedly (well, unless you know the guy in person, he could be some bored teen making it up) the guy's from the Balkans and survived the meltdown there in the '90s.  Might be worth perusing for ideas; it'd be nice if someone trustworthy could confirm the validity of Selco's story.  Like Reagan said, "Trust, but verify."

Anyway, the post of interest was regarding gold/silver when SHTF.  His point was that nobody'd take such things because people were scrambling for food and needed useful items, not inert metals.  Further, having such items would make you a target.  He makes the interesting suggestion of buying cheap gold jewelry for wampum, and when making trades play it off as being that you're down to bartering the family jewels, i.e. there ain't any more left where that comes from.

I'd counter that if you have a core of self-sufficient people with a diverse skill-set, who don't really need food/water, the money is a way of keeping the non-essentials on an even basis.  It's hard to predict, so it may be wise to hedge one's bets.

misc.survivalism

There's a misc.survivalism newsgroup that lives on post-Usenet.  USA Emergency Supply appears to have cribbed some of their info on food storage from the FAQ.

HK Builds 2

Looks like HKParts is selling a flat bending jig for HK-pattern rifles.  It'd be pretty neat to put an HK91 clone together, but I'd have to learn how to TIG/MIG weld first.  A hydraulic press is necessary for affixing the trunnion to the barrel, and for some jigs, forming the flat.  So one needs either a well-equipped shop, a friend with said shop, or a build party in the vicinity.

I also came across a pictorial guide to bending a flat and building a CETME.  Way cool.

The jig shown in a link on my earlier build post was cooler than either of the above, though.

Sugatsune

While browsing the Rockler site to see what they have, I noticed a section "Sugatsune special order".  Japanese name, special order: must be good stuff, right?  Apparently it is indeed made in Japan.  The prices are higher than stuff made in China, but one pays for quality.

Shooting Glasses

Thus far I've come across three types of shooting glasses that accommodate prescription (Rx) inserts.

1. Radians StrikeForce and StrikeForce II (8600 & 8650), which use the RX-85 inserts
2. Revision Bullet Ant, Desert Locust, and Sawfly, which use the Rx carrier
3. ESS Profile NVG and Advancer V-12, which have an available Rx carrier

Radians is the cheap solution, but the Rx insert sits such that the top of the insert is slightly above the outer lenses, which is pretty uncool.  Revision or ESS are much more expensive, but appear to be much more rugged.

Charisma Man

Charisma Man is an amusing, if not chauvinistic, comic about a Canadian dork who goes to Japan and manages to get girls—except when his arch-nemesis Western Woman shows up and ruins the effect of his "special charisma".

Some people have commented that the perception of Japanese woman going ga-ga for Caucasian men is racist.  However, I've seen it in action enough that I consider it a fair assessment.  I've found it completely annoying when a girl is hanging off the arm of a total dweeb, way out of her league, who wouldn't be able to get a girl back home, which is probably what drove the authors to write the comic.

I would make the point, too, that some Caucasian women, particularly American women, have gotten too big for their britches, e.g. excessively liberated, and they could use a dose of reality.  Perhaps if enough eligible bachelors find mates elsewhere, Western Woman will have a change of tune.

Japanese women's discretion has improved in recent years due to the popularity of American TV shows in Japan; at least they have a cultural frame of reference, however exaggerated.

Full-Auto Battery-Launching Airgun

This is bad-ass.  This would be a cool project, except I'm more interested in launching smaller, more practical projectiles!

NSNs

I've seen NSNs on listings of military surplus (both used and new-old stock) for a while, and determined that only the items that actually had a NSN shown were the genuine article and not repro.  There's a site ArmyProperty.com that has a lookup of NSNs to goods, which is pretty handy.

As far as gas/water cans go, olive-drab.com has some detail on how they went from metal to plastic.

The "War" on "Terror"

Excellent.

There is no War on Terror. If there was, the whole nation would be told to take up arms. Everybody would be armed, even on aircraft. Inexpensive AK47s would be stored in every closet, much like arms are stored in homes all over Switzerland because the Swiss government has nothing to fear from its populace. There is only a war against our freedom in the name of a created threat that doesn't exist. We have been duped into surrendering our liberty in the false name of security by a government that sends us out into the "War On Terror" unarmed because we cannot be trusted with guns. The most basic of all rights is the right of self defense against criminal attacks. A great equalizer between the weak and the strong, guns in the hands of women could reduce assaults upon them by stronger male attackers by 80%. How can it be said that women have equal rights if they cannot carry, yet Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush all hide behind guns for their protection because they're much more important than our wives, sisters and daughters? Again, the only 'war' is on our freedoms.  (Jack Duggan, "The Bear That's There")

CCW AAR & Lessons Learned

One gunblog had a link to an after-action report on Arfcom of a shootout between a concealed-carry type and a bad guy.  There are two lessons to be learned from this: 1) Carry a weapon without a grip safety, as you might not be able to operate it with your hand(s) shot, and 2) Either carry a weapon without a manual safety, or leave it off, since the bad guy might hear you switching off the lever.  #1 kind of disqualifies 1911s and XDs from being a good CCW gun.  Maybe they're ok for competition, but there are features that compromise their usefulness.

Build Your Own First Aid Kit

Yet another prepper site, BePrepared.com.  The build your own first aid kit page is a neat idea; too bad they're low on interesting items like NPA/OPA and coagulant.

Mall Ninjas

Apparently the term came from forum posts on GlockTalk and later HK91 from a seriously delusional individual.  They're archived on LonelyMachines, as they should be because they're truly legend.

Load Calculation

In lieu of a real structural engineering calculation, from various reading online, here's how I gather it's done.  In my application, I need to calculate the minimum number of jack/trimmer studs to support a 24 ft roof truss span with a 2 ft overhang to get a clear opening of 6 ft.  The load factors are the dead load of the roof weight itself and the projected roof snow load.  Live load is irrelevant since the snow load will exceed the live load requirements.  One concern is that I don't know what kind of wood was used in the construction of the house, so I need to determine that as well as the relative strength with respect to the wood specified in the tables.

The Southern Pine Council has some nice resources to calculate spans and such, of course using southern pine for framing.  The Headers and Beams document contains information to calculate the header needed for a given span, as well as the allowable roof load given a header and number of trimmers.  The latter is what I was looking for, and the illustration for the load calculation is quite helpful.  (This is the ref207.pdf file, numbered page 27, which is 29 of 36 in the PDF.)

eHow has an article on the calculation of roof snow load based on ground snow load and the pitch and area of the roof.  The article makes reference to a Cornell University snow load calculator, but doesn't provide a link.  A search turned up a course page with a calculator.  (Perhaps I should buy the textbook, Structural Elements for Architects and Builders, by Jonathan Ochshorn.)

The other concern is wind load, since we get a lot of wind on the hill.  The IRC has something to say about that, which I have yet to research.

Of course I'd feel more comfortable having a professional do the calculation; the conundrum being, am I neglecting my due diligence if I don't?

Sleeping Bags

So I was looking at the sleeping bags that FDG carries, as I've been considering what I ought to add to my prep kit.  There's the military ECW gear that costs some serious coin.  FDG has Wiggy's bags.  I was intrigued because supposedly the military uses them in some applications, but there're some forum posts that totally trash their performance.  Recommended in place of Wiggy's were Western Mountaineering or Kifaru.  Finding good gear without buying a bunch of not-so-good gear is difficult.

Apparently the buzzword in insulation is "continuous (filament) fiber", which doesn't require baffles or attachment to the bag shell.

Silhouette

Interesting device to "print" out cut stencils.  The wife might find this useful, so it could be a neat Christmas present for her, albeit a bit of a spendy one.

Seven Steps

I've heard repeated mention of the "seven step" method to sales.  At length, I finally looked it up, but there appear to be varying definitions.  From one in particular that's most straightforward, the steps are:

1. Greeting
2. Establishing a relationship with the customer
3. Qualifying their needs
4. Presentation, demonstration, and information
5. Transforming interest to desire
6. Overcoming objections
7. Closing the sale

Now I know I'm a lousy salesman, but those steps could be useful for "selling" other things like Appleseed.

Shooting Jackets

Fred's is now out of the XL shooting jackets, and apparently the manufacturer has gone belly-up.  A search turned up a few other choices, such as Creedmore Sports and Champion's Choice.  CMP also sells one, but it's blue.  Military Logistics has cloth jackets for reasonably cheap; the details are scarce and the country of origin isn't indicated.

OTs-38 Silent Revolver

I thought the Nagant M1895 revolver was the only one capable of using a sound suppressor.  Apparently there's also the OTs-38, which has an integral suppressor.  It fires through the bottom cylinder, like the Mateba and Rhino.  The cartridge is 7.62x42, and appears (from the photo) similar in shape to the 7.62x38R cartridge except longer and without a rim.  I'd love to get my hands on one of these guns!

PPPoE

When putting an integrated DSL modem into bridge mode (RFC 1483), one loses the capability to access the web configuration of the modem, because the router doesn't pass LAN packets out onto its WAN port.  The usual option is to take down the Net connection by unplugging the modem from the router's WAN port and plugging it into a LAN port.  Apparently there are a few other options, but none of them are really satisfactory in that they either cause additional latency (through use of a switch between the modem and the router) or route instability (via wacky topology).  If using a Linux-based router, there appears to be a way to force the system to pass the reserved address out on the WAN port:

#!/bin/sh

#IP Address of the modem, must be a different network from your local LAN.
#If you use 192.168.x.x for LAN then use 10.0.0.x for modem, etc (basically, pick a free IANA reserved range)
#Obviously you need to configure the actual DSL modem to use the address you select in MODEM_IP.
MODEM_IP="10.0.0.1"

#IP address that will be bound to vlan1, usually safe to just increment MODEM_IP by 1.
VLAN_IP="10.0.0.2"

#Setup network interface and firewall rules.
ifconfig vlan1 $VLAN_IP netmask 255.255.255.0
iptables -A forwarding_rule -d $MODEM_IP -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -d $MODEM_IP -j MASQUERADE

Saiga Conversion

It's possible to modify a Saiga rifle to an AK-47esque pistol-grip configuration.  Apparently a different modification is necessary to make the rifle compatible with standard AK-47 magazines.

Thoughts on Building a Vault

This turned up in my framing search, which I thought was amusing.  Arfcom has the most out-there posts.

Framing Code

I've been looking for guidelines on framing of a 6' rough opening.  A couple contractors I've talked with seem to think it's ok to widen a 5' 10" rough opening by either removing one trimmer/jack stud 2x4 on either side, and replacing it with a 1x4 board.  According to the International Residential Code (IRC 2009), for a ground snow load of 50 psf, which is specified by Minnesota State Building Code, regardless of the building width, at least two jack studs are required for each end.

The free online IRC isn't searchable, so the code finder from This Old House is useful.

This is problematic.  Perhaps I should consult a structural engineer regarding the engineering margin.

Tree Headstones

While looking for more information on Occupy Wall Street's origins, I ended up at AdBusters' site.  There was an issue with a cover of a guy shoving two guns through the side of his face and out his mouth, so I clicked on it, and there was an article entitled "The Holy Shit", so of course I had to see what that was about.  The article itself is an idealistic piece, but the interesting tidbit was the concept of a tree headstone.  That is, when you die, you're buried in a biodegradable coffin a couple feet below the surface with a tree planted over the coffin.  The tree would then grow from the decomposition of the body and so a bit of the essence of the deceased would continue to exist.

I didn't particularly like the idea of being cremated or being preserved, so this might be how I'll ask to go.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died today.  I liked his company's products, and although I didn't care for his politics, his philosophy, as quoted in the press, is something that I can appreciate.  On television:

When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.

On work:

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

On death:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Eastern White Pine

So my silver maple decided to break in a strong wind, and I'm considering replacing it with an Eastern White Pine.  Apparently the needles have more vitamin C than lemons?!  Anyway, prices for larger-than-seedling trees on one site are $140 for an 8 ft, or $220 for a 10 ft.  Not too bad.  I have a feeling that the expense will be in removing the old tree and stump and planting the new tree.

5.56 Propellants

While searching for information on WC867 and WC872, an article came up regarding a Vietnam-era controversy regarding propellants for the 5.56x45mm cartridge in the U.S. military.  Sounds like a sordid mess, but it's good history to know.

Ammunition Manufacturing Business

In case anyone's thinking about starting an ammunition manufacturing business, I found a useful bit of info on THR regarding the requirements:

You will need
to comply with local zoning for a firearms and manufacturing business
Type 06 FFL $30 for 3 years
ITAR registration* for $2250 per year

*ITAR is the International Trade in Arms Regulations and is the US State Department's jurisdiction (ie the ATF can't and doesn't enforce it directly). Basically in a nutshell everything firearms related including ammunition and components is a "defensive article" and the manufacturers must be register and pay that stupid fee. I have found an exception and will share it, but will not hold anyone's hand during the process or offer any additional advice beyond what's posted here.

If you are a manufacturer of "whatever" and intend on solely selling it to
Domestic civilains
Domestic dealers or distributors or wholesalers
Domestic civilian law enforcement agencies (ie cops)

you can submit a Commodity Jurisdiction Request to the US State Department requesting determination of whether your products are "defensive articles" having a military application. This must be a letter from scratch (no form letter is provided or "out there") detailing what you make, whom you sell to, and whom the end user is. You will need to submit drawings, blueprints, techinical documents, etc. If they determine you are not manufacturing for any military or paramilitary force, they will not make you pay ITAR.

That's it for the licensing BS.

Now the business aspect.

Marketing is fun and a PITA all at the same time. Buy the book "Guerrilla Marketing" and read it cover to cover. Not the gospel but gives a different perspective than "buy a magazine ad and wait for the phone to ring" mentality of marketing. The book explains it all but here's my perspective:

Marketing isn't about getting a sale. It's about setting up a client relationship. The last thing you want is a customer. A customer comes in, buys some ****, and leaves. That's not good. You want a client. You want long term, loyal, repeat business. Marketing is showing them your product/service, informing them of the value, and showing how you will be there to support them after the sale.

OK, now insurance. If you think you can form a fancy corporation and be protected you are dead wrong and I just saved you millions of dollars. GET LIABILITY INSURANCE!!! It's a couple thousand dollars a year (as in less than $200 per month) for a basic $1 million policy. If $2,000 a year is too much, STOP. You are not cut out for this business. Operating without liability insurance is simply retarded for any business. That's settled. Get insured or go flip burgers.

Equipment. Have to go blue here. Dillon is your brand. Learn it, love it, live it. For the type of loading you are doing, you will need volume but not primer pocket swaging. Get at least one Dillon 650 press with case feeder for each press. Get one set up for small primer and large primer. Then change out the other stuff for caliber changes. This will give you 800-1000 rounds per hour production. That's a good start. If you can't load at least 500,000 rounds annually, it will be a hard living, even as a part time retirement income source.

Then there's the FET or Federal Excise Tax (I don't care if it helps wildlife crap, it's retarded and a burden to my business and you end up paying the tax anyway because me and every other manufacturer rolls it into the cost of the ammunition). Tax is 11% on the sale price of ammunition you load. Exceptions are
Local (non-federal) law enforcement agencies
Department of Defense including the Coast Guard
Reloading customer brass

Hit up www.ttb.gov for more info. Basically if you buy brass, load it, and sell it as ammo, FET is due. If you sell to law enforcement other than federal or DOD, no tax due. If you reload customer brass and you ship it as ammo (no substituting your brass for their brass or replacing worn brass with your brass to make even count), no tax due. Tax on ammunition is 11%.

That's about it. The rest is on your own just like I learned the hard way. Give 'em hell!

The excise tax kind of impacts profit, and the ITAR registration and insurance definitely eliminates anyone thinking of a small-time operation.

Berkey Filter Problems

Apparently the Big Berkey black filters had manufacturing problems from the end of 2010 to mid-2011, as noted on APN and SB.  That sucks for people who thought they'd buy the Berkey system and put it away for SHTF: right when they need it, it might be unusable!

I'm glad I tried mine, which I got in April before the price hike, because one of the filters busted.  However, I have the additional problem that I have several units that I gave to family members for put-away purposes, so I need to go through the hassle of having them check.  Or perhaps I should just supply a tube of silicone caulk, although somehow I doubt that's food safe....

Cases for .50s

I saw an ad in VHP magazine for SKB's new .50-cal case, model ATA 50, so I had to look up the price.  Ouch.  $450 is a lot of money for a large piece of plastic.  Pelican's large case, model 1770, is similarly priced.  For that much, the Americase Aluma-Trans aluminum-shell case, model AT-50CalW, seems like a better buy.

PBF

The Perry Bible Fellowship has to be the most disturbing webcomic I've yet to come across.  Given that statement, it's probably a good thing that it isn't posted regularly.

Brass Case Weight

The approximate weights of fired cartridge brass, from a post on THR:

• 9mm, 59.46gr/ea, 117.7cases/#, 8.5#/1000
• 38spl, 68.06gr/ea, 102.8cases/#, 9.7#/1000
• 40s&w, 70.1gr/ea, 99.9cases/#, 10#/1000
• .357mag, 78.3gr/ea, 89.4cases/#, 11.2#/1000
• .45acp, 89.58gr/ea, 78.1cases/#, 12.8#/1000
• .223, 95.28gr/ea , 73.5cases/#, 13.6#/1000
• .44mag, 114.38gr/ea, 61.2cases/#, 16.3#/1000
• 50bmg, 865.26gr/ea, 8.1cases/#, 123.5#/1000

All weights are uncleaned fired cases with the primer remaining.

Obama's Halo

A while back, I saw seen an index photo of a bunch of press shots of Obama with a halo.  I haven't been able to find the same picture recently, but I did find a page showing a bunch of the original images.  No media bias, none whatsoever.

Have they forgotten that Obama said himself that he'd be a one-term president if he didn't turn the economy around in three years?  We'll see, eh?

Practice Rifle Grenades

Searching for some practice rifle grenades for an M4 (even though they usually have the M203 launcher), I found a forum post on Arfcom that linked to a set on Numrich.  Unfortunately they're out of stock at the moment, but it'd definitely be neat to play with, given enough room to shoot them (a few hundred yards, at least).

The description from the poster:

Current military issue. Used by the IDF for training purposes on M16 and Galil .223 rifles. Fully-inert 14" grenades are patterned after the IMI BT/AT-44 dual-purpose rifle grenade. New set is packaged in the original wooden crate, dated 1-98, includes 6 grenade assemblies and the following repair parts: 40 plastic fins, 32 body tubes, 12 outer sleeves, 30 spacer rings, 24 locking nuts, 2 nut wrenches, 1 key wrench, 20 M16 ladder sights and 30 Galil ladder sights in 35/60/85 meter graduations (197 pieces total). Weight, 27 lbs.

Copycat KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce

Might be worth trying:

Secret Recipe #1 for KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce:

This copycat recipe is supposed to be a close version of the original Masterpiece BBQ sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 3 Tbls. molasses
• 3 Tbls. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. paprika
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium high heat, bring all ingredients to a boil. Be sure to stir constantly.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook for about 45-60 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Secret recipe #2: Copycat recipe for KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce:

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I like that it has Agave Nectar which I use all the time now in place of sugar.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 3 teaspoons molasses
• 3 teaspoons turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 tablespoon paprika
• 1/8 tablespoon garlic powder

Made Right Here

Another link from VftP, "Made Right Here". Hmm, he's got the right idea....

Top 100 SF/Fantasy Titles?

Found on VftP, a list of the top 100 SF/fantasy books, apparently from an NPR poll. Ought to be able to glean some new items for my reading list....

Beam Deflection

Needing to reinforce the structure of my garage attic to support increased load, I'm trying to figure out what kind of member it needs to be and how big to support the relatively long span with minimal deflection. Since the span needs to be about 20 feet, I'm thinking it has to be a box beam, since that would allow for the use of shorter lumber in its construction.

Wikipedia has an entry for deflection so that this can be calculated, but I need to figure out the modulus of elasticity (E) and the area moment of inertia (I). I'd better do some more studying.

For regular joists, I found a calculator for maximum span as well.

The Secret History of Guns

Great article in The Atlantic on the history of firearms regulation in the United States.  Interesting how the 1968 Gun Control Act was fomented by the racist desire to prevent black people from possessing weapons as much as it was in reaction to the assassinations of MLK and JFK.

This bit is inspiring:

In February of 1967, Oakland police officers stopped a car carrying Newton, Seale, and several other Panthers with rifles and handguns. When one officer asked to see one of the guns, Newton refused. “I don’t have to give you anything but my identification, name, and address,” he insisted. This, too, he had learned in law school.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” an officer responded.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?,” Newton replied indignantly. He told the officer that he and his friends had a legal right to have their firearms.

Newton got out of the car, still holding his rifle.

“What are you going to do with that gun?” asked one of the stunned policemen.

“What are you going to do with your gun?,” Newton replied.

By this time, the scene had drawn a crowd of onlookers. An officer told the bystanders to move on, but Newton shouted at them to stay. California law, he yelled, gave civilians a right to observe a police officer making an arrest, so long as they didn’t interfere. Newton played it up for the crowd. In a loud voice, he told the police officers, “If you try to shoot at me or if you try to take this gun, I’m going to shoot back at you, swine.” Although normally a black man with Newton’s attitude would quickly find himself handcuffed in the back of a police car, enough people had gathered on the street to discourage the officers from doing anything rash. Because they hadn’t committed any crime, the Panthers were allowed to go on their way.

The people who’d witnessed the scene were dumbstruck. Not even Bobby Seale could believe it. Right then, he said, he knew that Newton was the “baddest motherfucker in the world.” Newton’s message was clear: “The gun is where it’s at and about and in.” After the February incident, the Panthers began a regular practice of policing the police. Thanks to an army of new recruits inspired to join up when they heard about Newton’s bravado, groups of armed Panthers would drive around following police cars. When the police stopped a black person, the Panthers would stand off to the side and shout out legal advice.

However, Newton's entry in Wikipedia describes him as being a self-professed criminal. Still, I have a lot more respect for The Black Panthers now!

"An Interracial Fix for Black Marriage"

WSJ featured an article—by a black man, one Ralph Richard Banks—on the difficulties black women face in finding a spouse, and proposed that rather than looking within their race exclusively to consider marrying outside their race to broaden the base of eligible males in the near-term, but to ease the difficulties of finding in-race mates in the long-term.

From the article:

If many black women remain unmarried because they think they have too few options, some black men stay single because they think they have so many. The same numbers imbalance that makes life difficult for black women may be a source of power for black men. Why cash in, they reason, when it is so easy to continue to play?

...which perhaps describes the situation of a guy I know.

Others prefer black men because they don't think a relationship with a non-black man would work. They worry about rejection by a would-be spouse's family or the awkwardness of having to explain oneself to a non-black partner.

As one 31-year-old schoolteacher in D.C. told me, "It's easy to date a black man because he knows about my hair. He knows I don't wash it every day. He knows I'm going to put the scarf on [to keep it in place at night]." Discussions about hair may seem trivial, but for many black women, just the thought of having the "hair talk" makes them tired. It's emblematic of so much else they'd have to teach.

Interracial relationships aren't easy, since the downside is certain things you can't take for granted. But the plus side is that you can avoid the miscommunications that result from taking for granted things that weren't safe to assume.

By opening themselves to relationships with men of other races, black women would also lessen the power disparity that depresses the African-American marriage rate. As more black women expanded their options, black women as a group would have more leverage with black men. Even black women who remained unwilling to love across the color line would benefit from other black women's willingness to do so.

Interesting thesis, one that I as a "minority", if not a vested one, think valid.

Find Me a Dream

Perhaps it's just coincidence, but in the short story Find Me a Dream in Kurt Vonnegut's short story anthology Bagombo Snuff Box, one of the main characters is the widow of a famous trumpet player.  The implication was that he's a real figure, but is never named.

While browsing Betty Grable's entry on Wikipedia, I noticed that she was married to a trumpeter, and that the scant other details fit, that they had two daughters and that alcohol and infidelity plagued their marriage.  Of course Harry James lived, yet it's interesting to think that perhaps Vonnegut intended the widow character to be Betty Grable.

One of those weird things that results from reading Wikipedia late at night.

Helen Gurley Brown

Somehow as I was reading an WSJ article, at the bottom a link to a 2009 article from The Atlantic on Helen Gurley Brown popped up.  The headline intrigued me, but more importantly, WTF, how did they know I'm a pervert? ;-)  I've no time to read it at the moment; however, an article on the pre-eminent post-Steinheim feminist ought to be interesting.  Know thy enemy.  Or could she be considered friendly?

Survival Food

From the ever-useful Sipsey St. is a link to a manual on how to make survival foods such as hardtack and pemmican.  There's also a link to a page describing the blend of rice, kidney beans, barley, lentils, split green peas, and chickpeas that has all the nutrition a person needs, thus making a cheap year's supply of food.

Regrets

A page that's been sitting in my reader for a while: The top 5 regrets people have on their deathbed.  Makes one think....

"Serf's Up!"

A link to the online novel "When Autumn Leaves Fall" that FreedomV sent me.

Caloric Requirements

To figure out how much food one needs for emergency preparedness purposes, energy needs calculators can be useful.  Two I found online: About.com and BCM.

Edit [2013.11.26]: The BCM calculators moved; links for children and adults.

Range/Dryer Power Cords

It's a long story, but I found occasion to need to change the power cord from a 3-prong plug (NEMA 10) to a 4-prong plug (NEMA 14).  There's a useful howto online that clearly describes the process.  Following these instructions, the switchout went off without a hitch.  The GE-made 40A cord cost $20 + tax at Home Depot, though!

Replacement Parts

While checking out the reviews for the B&D WM225 on Amazon, one groused about the lack of replacement part availability, and a couple people replied with links to stores that sell such parts: eReplacementParts and Grainger.

Reloading Benches

Over at "Steve's Pages" there're plans for a fixed reloading bench by NRMA that looks pretty slick.  Then I found a better copy of the plans.

On the theme of Workmate reloading benches, there's this one (although it's not really a Workmate).  The problem I've seen with many Workmate benches is that they want to remove the vise, which makes the bench single-function.  Another one (about halfway down) clamps a piece of plywood with an attached 2x4 into the vice; I have my doubts about the stability of that one!

Toward the bottom of this thread there's a cute box with a press mounted to it.

Innovative Technologies

While searching for Workmate-based reloading bench designs, I came across a link to the "Innovative Technologies website for shooters", which has a few reloading tools for sale, such as a digital headspace gauge and a belted magnum collet resizing die, as well as some interesting tips on reloading.

Shutters

Ever since seeing the security shutters that shops in Japan use, I've been interested in security shutters for windows at my house.  One of the roofing companies I checked out had photos on their web site of a window with real shutters, not the lame vestigal ones used on most houses these days.  That prompted me to see what I could find, and a search turned up a site with a bunch of links to various manufacturers.

Living in the upper Midwest, obviously I'm not going to have issues with hurricanes, but the functionality is similar.  One manufacturer's site that I checked, QMI, had pretty much what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, no prices are listed.

This sort of thing would be good to have for SHTF scenarios, at least for one's first floor windows.  They won't stop bullets, but it'd at least protect one of the weaker access points in the home, buying time to repel the invaders.

Link Dump

The time has come for another link dump so I can close some tabs in Firefox....

Blowout kit - Interesting praxis from 762rifleman
There's a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says - From Wired
U.S. Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression - Uplifting news...
War Belt - By ATS, because it just sounds cool

MRE Info

Last weekend I'd decided to try an MRE, one of a partial case that I'd bought at the gun show in January.  I didn't know how old they were or how they'd been stored, so I wanted to see if I had usable rations or if I needed to pitch them.  Anyway, the package said that commercial resale is unlawful (not purchase, though!) so I wanted to find out what the deal was.  And so I found a site that documents the legality of procuring military MREs.  There's other useful info as well, such as how to decode date codes.

The Ready Store sells civilian MREs as well.

Gun Deals Club

While searching for specs on Golden Tiger ammo, a link to Bill St. Clair's ammo dealers page came up.  That had a link to the Gun Deals ammo page, which appears to be like a Hot Deals Club for gun stuff.

Orson Welles' Tesla Short

A friend pointed me to an interesting YouTube video of a dramatization of the decision to use A/C power for Niagara Falls.  Orson Welles plays J.P. Morgan, although I don't think that he controlled the decision to us the A/C system.

Guerena

More on the Guerena raid (previous link):

Here's the report from the county attorney describing the incident and saying that it was justified.  Dirty sons of bitches.  Hey, their names are all in the report.  Hmm....

SWAT Team Mania: The War Against the American Citizen

Adversity

"Scorn poverty: no one is as poor as he was at birth. Scorn pain: either it will go away or you will. Scorn death: either it finishes you or it transforms you." (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

I saw the middle sentence somewhere and tracked down the quote.  Good stuff, and there's more on that site.

The Framers of the Constitution and Technological Progress

Codrea has a thought-provoking article that debunks the argument that the authors of the Bill of Rights couldn't have anticipated the technological progress that brought us machineguns and the like.  (I've always liked the counterargument that if that's the case, then the First Amendment protections on freedom of speech only apply to quill pens on parchment or old-school printing presses a la Gutenberg.)  Pepperbox revolvers (multi-shot revolvers in those days), volley guns (also multi-shot guns), and Puckle guns (a Gatling-gun type contraption, aka a hand-crank machinegun)?  Plenty of multi-shot and, indeed, rapid-fire technology existed.  Those anti-gunners are full of shit!

Survival Lit

An article over at Alpha Rubicon lists a bunch of books one ought to have on hand.  Perhaps they're worth checking out.

Dare to Prepare

There was a link to this book on Sipsey St a couple weeks ago.  I haven't decided whether to get it or not; I need a more in-depth assessment first.

Mil-Spec Monkey

I think I'd come across MSM on the Net before the Magpul chikara-patch debacle on Facebook.  Still, it needs to be bookmarked, so here it is: Mil-Spec Monkey, the blog (of sorts) and the store.  The reviews are interesting, and I identify with the praise of Vertx tactical pants.

M14 Mags

So I'd bought M14 mags from CDNN marked "W", supposedly mil-spec.  Well, I did some searching to find out more about them, as I should've done before.  It turns out that the real thing were manufactured by Westinghouse Electric back in the day, and these probably aren't the genuine article (info).

James Wesley, Rawles wrote an article on M14 mags just after the 2008 election.  His prediction on prices was off, but the info looks useful.

Rifle Company has a flowchart or three on how to identify the nature of M14 mags.

Lastly, 44mag.com has Check-Mate Industries mags on slight discount in quantities of 10, which is good to know.

Joel Rosenberg

I found out via Codrea's blog that Joel Rosenberg has passed away.  He fought long and hard for carry rights in Minnesota—I used his textbook to get my license.  The gun culture has lost one of its most ardent citizens today.  Rest in peace, Joel Rosenberg.

Earth Star Voyager

I'd forgotten about this Disney made-for-TV movie that I saw as a kid, called Earth Star Voyager.  The premise is that in the future, Earthlings have irreparably damaged their ecosystem and are searching for another planet to colonize.  Obviously this isn't the typical Disney subject matter.  I'd buy it on DVD, but it hasn't ever been released.  I'll have to look for a bootleg copy.  Incidentally, I think Star Trek: The Next Generation ripped off the idea for the Borg from ESV: the cyborg Shell that keeps talking about "Assembly", and whose organic components are controlled by his robotic ones, is like the Borg and "assimilation".

Thaddeus Kosciuszko

I only became aware of Kosciuszko via kmk, but this "advice to youth" is insightful as to the means for right living:

To do honor to your family and yourself and at my recommendation, you must reread what follows every day so that it will be engraved on your memory on which your well being will depend.

Rise at four in the summer and six in the winter. Your first thoughts must be directed towards the Supreme Being; worship Him for a few minutes. Set yourself to work with reflection and intelligence, either at your prescribed duty carried out in the most scrupulous manner, or perfect yourself in some science in which you should have true mastery. Avoid lying under any circumstances in your life, but always be frank and loyal and always tell the truth. Never be idle but be sober and frugal even hard on yourself while indulgent to others. Do not be vain nor an egotist. Before speaking or answering on something, reflect and consider well in order not to lose your point and say something stupid. Never fail to give due recognition under any circumstances to the person who is in charge of your well being. Anticipate his desires and his wishes. Pay close attention with proper humility. Look for an opportunity to be useful. As you are a foreigner in the country, redouble your concern and efforts to gain trust and preference over the natives legitimately by your merit and superior knowledge. If a secret is entrusted in you, keep it religiously; in all your actions you must be upright, sincere and open; no dissimulation in your speech, do not argue but seek the truth calmly and with modesty, be polite and considerate to everyone, agreeable and obliging in society, humane and helpful to the unfortunate according to your means. Read instructive books to embellish your mind and improve your spirit. Do not degrade yourself by making bad acquaintances, but rather those with high principles and reputation thus your conduct should be such that the whole world approves it and that wherever you may be it will be considered irreproachable.

I don't know if I can get up that early, though....

Cut Shells

Found this one on Sipsey St. and bookmarked it on YT, but forgot to add it here: "The lost art of 'cut shells'"...wisdom indeed!

CZ 52

Some links on accessories for the CZ 52 that I found on a forum post:
Harrington Products - replacement firing pins, rollers, and extractors
Buymilsurp - has a section for CZ 52 parts, including all small hardware and armorer's kits
Gun Parts Warehouse - has a section for CZ 52 parts, including a slide catch with external release

Also, I found a couple unflattering forum posts that discuss the relative strength of the CZ 52 versus the TT-33, on Gunboards and THR.

Another Reason to Avoid Leather Holsters

...They can deform and catch on the trigger of a DAO pistol, as evidenced by one man's experience. Of course, as we all know, an "accidental discharge" is properly termed a negligent discharge.

Injustice Everywhere

In the vein of Codrea's "Only Ones" category except more broad, there's the site Injustice Everywhere.  There's a lot of police misconduct nationwide....

Configurable Apartment

I may need to take inspiration out of this guy's design.

USB Stick PC

The Raspberry Pi USB Stick PC beats the hell out of a OLPC!  Sign me up.

Bad Shit

This is some bad shit.  Apparently a guy needs body armor when going after thugs breaking into his house. From the commentary:

Line up those psychopath SWAT bastards and give them "something".

If someone's at my door and claims to be the cops, they'd best give me time to call 911 to confirm. Otherwise they're going to get shot when they break down my door, because I don't know if they're the police or just some ballsy scumbags yelling "police!" And of course, the no-knock variety of warrant is just an excuse for the police to murder someone: if the house belongs to a gun owner, damn right he's going to shoot at whoever kicked down his door.

The homeowner who was murdered probably realized when they kicked in the door that they were SWAT and didn't shoot, but he was pointing a gun at him so they lit him up.

Why don't cops with a search warrant just knock on the door like a civilized person would? I mean, seriously, WTF! Jackbooted thugs, indeed!

Damn, I'd better go buy me some body armor.

Update 1: Tamara K.'s take on this:

The only people skulking in my bushes and forcing my locks in the middle of the night should be soon-to-be-shot bad guys, not cops with Clouseau-like map-reading skills; I shouldn't need a scorecard to tell the masked players apart.

Then there's one anonymous comment from VftP:

It's after 5pm, you're face is blacked out, you're armed, you're kicking in my door; you're dead. If you have a badge and you enter that way...you're still dead. We'll sort all that badge shit out at the morgue.

Did Col. Cooper say this?—'cause it's awesome: "It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view."

Update 2: There's helmet-cam video from the outside, with interesting analysis from an ex-military, ex-police blogger.

BDU Sizes

Today's Sipsey St. praxis has a chart indicating equivalents for BDU sizes.

Wiki Economics

Of interest:
Britain's Three-Day Week
Keynes' Bancor proposal...
...which lost out to the Bretton Woods system

Reverse-Ogive

Talk about a weird bullet profile.

Crypto Edu

I can't even remember where I got this from...but it's an educational link on crypto.

Log Books

This is kind of a link dump because it's been in my reader for a while and I need to cut down on tabs.

I have a Moleskine notebook that I got for recording data for one rifle in particular, and wasn't sure what I should log in it.  In my search for info, one useful forum thread popped up on PAFOA.

From the OP:

The data log for a given shooting session would include altitude, temperature, air density, date, time, wind speed and direction, the ammunition specs, number of rounds fired for the barrel used, point of aim, point of impact, range, group sizes, round count, scope elevation needed, windage adjustments, departure angle, light direction, etc.

Additional comments:

If you are reloading I would keep track of your load data, and so you can see how it performs differently at different temperatures and pressures, etc. You mentioend keeping track of air density, but you might also want to keep track of barometric pressure, they are actually slightly different, but both do increase and decrease in a similar fashion. I would also keep track of my throat length in the chamber in the log book (just whenever you measure it, not every page), so you can adjust the seating depth of your loads, etc as you need to. I know alot of shooters like to keep track of how they "feel" as well; like if they're tired, nervous, stressed, had too much caffeine, need a cigarette, etc, cold, etc.

He also noted cold-bore data should be logged if making that first shot is an objective.

AXTS Lower

Via the Defense Review blog, I found this bad-ass fully ambidextrous lower receiver from AXTS Weapons Systems.  The pattern above the mag-well goes well with those PMAGs....  The downside is that this lower only comes fully assembled.  The A-DAC-F is their stripped lower alternative, but it's not built the same.

Diatomeceous Earth

Funky.  It's interesting that this can be mixed with food to be preserved as an insecticide.

7.62x25 Stuff

Found a company selling gas-operated 7.62x25mm AR-15 uppers for $800.  Interesting that they're shooting corrosive ammo through it.

Also found a ballistic test of a 7.62x25mm round against a Type 2 Kevlar vest in front of a block of ballistic gelatin.  The bullet won.

RTAmerica Video

Featuring clips of Vanderboegh and Codrea, from the latter's GRE column.

I wish that the first guy interviewed had a better definition for tyranny, like the "where the people fear the government" one.

Minnesota Appleseed

On the Appleseed forums, there's a Minnesota-specific area, which has a list of Minnesota riflemen and after-action reports for shoots.  There's an AAR for the April 2011 Rochester shoot.

Also, there's an instructor selling Tech-SIGHTS on the forums.

Past history: AARs for the April 2010 shoot in Rochester and June 2010 shoot in LaCrosse.

4/20 Link Dump

I need to restart Firefox again, so here we go.

The Battle of Athens TN - What to do when there are election hijinks.

Making desiccant packs for long-term firearm storage - Doc on Scribd

The history of FOPA - Salient since McClure died this year.

Paper Jade

Somehow I came across a site called Paper Jade selling washi for origami.  They have aizome paper, which I'm interested in.

Battle Mug

I was checking out Magpul's Facebook page and noticed a comment about a "Battle Mug". My interest piqued, I did a search and found the item. The rails are sweet, but...it's $279!! WTF?! Also, it's aluminum and the coating isn't described.  Hero Gear looks like an interesting shop.

American Eagles

Searching for more info on American Eagles, I came across the US Mint's page that describes the requirements for becoming an "Authorized Purchaser" to order bullion directly from the mint.

The United States Mint charges a modest premium above the current market price of platinum, gold, and silver to cover minting, distribution and marketing costs.

• For the Silver Eagle, we charge the United States Mint's Authorized Purchasers the price of silver plus $2.00 per coin premium. Minimum ordering requirement is 25,000 coins.
• For the Gold Eagles, we charge 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounce coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.
• For the Platinum Eagles, we charge 4%, 6%, 10% and 15% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounces coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.

Ow.  25k coins times spot + $2 (currently about $42) is a lot more than I can afford....  At least I have a link to point people to whenever the overhead of bullion comes up.

Corrosive Ammo

On SurvivalBlog there's a post indicating which U.S. surplus ammo lots have corrosive primers.  There's also a link to an article on how to clean after shooting corrosive, which I need to know since I just bought some, as well as how to test to see if a given cartridge is corrosive.

M855 vs. M995

I was looking for information on M855: I'd read that it has a steel core penetrator in the bullet, but it usually isn't called armor-piercing.  So I found a page that describes the difference between M855 and the AP round, M995.  It turns out that M855 has a SC, but it's not considered AP.  The AP round has a tungsten carbide core inside the jacket.  Bad-ass!

C Products LLC

Aw shit.  C Products is going through a "transition"--apparently they've been sold.  Except there's a lot of hijinks going on as far as where standing orders are, and who's responsible for what.  LCJ Wholesale is apparently the new retail outfit.  At this point it's not clear who the buyer of the MFG operation is.  A thread on Arfcom has remarks from the old staff Larry (the owner?) and Chad (director of sales?).

This explains why CDNN doesn't really list C Products mags anymore.

Latin Proverbs

One of the LSI guys had in his sig for internal mail, "Clamo, clamatis, omnes clamamus pro glace lactis."  I didn't know what it meant, but knowing the individual, I figured it had to be humorous, so I looked it up.  Apparently it's Latin for, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream."  Brilliant.

I found on a forum a bunch of other useless phrases translated into Latin which is good for a laugh.

Flares, etc. @ Sipsey

Just now noticed on Sipsey St. a praxis post regarding flares and other pyrotechnics.  Since I was looking at getting a flare gun, it seems like good background information.

USGI Web Gear

Sipsey Street has a post (actually, two) on USGI web gear that's quite informative and has several useful vectors.

Incidentally, "praxis" is application of theory, a term often used to preface Sipsey Street informational posts.

Ruger 10/22 Peep Sights

While searching for Tech-SIGHTS reviews, I found an article on 10/22 peep sights from someone who prefers an alternative:

So the recipe for my favorite final setup is as follows:

• Williams FP-AG-TK Receiver Sight (sold with adj. knobs now)
• Lyman Globe Sights: #17ATC @ .852″ height,”
• Williams Aperture 3/8″ Diameter with .050 aperture
• Weaver T0-9 top mount base ( one piece tip-off base )

Of course, this combination costs way more than the Tech-SIGHTS. I'd like to see what NDS comes up with for the Ruger receiver.

哀戦士

I haven't seen Gundam, but Ai-Senshi is a great song.  The few English translations I've seen online suck, so I'll have to give it a go one of these days.

The original lyrics:

哀戦士

作詞：井荻麟／作曲：井上大輔／編曲：井上大輔／
歌：井上大輔

哀　ふるえる哀
それは　別れ唄
ひろう骨も　燃えつきて
ぬれる肌も　土にかえる
荒野をはしる　死神の列
黒くゆがんで　真赤に燃える

哀　生命（いのち）の哀
血の色は大地にすてて
新たな　時をひらくか
生き残る　哀　戦士たち
荒野をはしる　死神の列
黒くゆがんで　真赤に燃える

死にゆく男たちは
守るべき女たちに
死にゆく女たちは
愛する男たちへ

何を賭けるのか　何を残すのか
I pray, pray to bring near the New Day

哀　かなしみの哀
いまは　残るだけ
名を知らぬ　戦士を討ち
生きのびて　血へど吐く
疾風（はやて）のごとき　死神の列
あらがう術（すべ）は　わが手にはない

死にゆく男たちは
守るべき女たちに
死にゆく女たちは
愛する男たちへ

戦う男たちは
故郷（ふるさと）の女たちに
戦う女たちは
信じる男たちに

何を賭けるのか　何を残すのか
I pray, pray to bring near the New Day

Theme song for a revolution?

Political Ideology

From Kevin, the five worldviews, according to Michael Lind via Salon.com.

Contrast that with the list of political ideologies on Wikipedia. Of course a worldview isn't the same thing, but the two are intricately related.

The categories that Lind postulates are gross caricatures of each faction, e.g. "libertarian isolationism"—which is really just don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong. I suppose the point was to get everyone up in arms, but at least he gets it right that the world views of Bush, Clinton, and Obama are one and the same, which he terms "neoliberal globalism".

Still, it's abundantly clear that we "can't all just get along"—there will always be conflict where humans deal with one another.

This article is from over a month ago, but here it's languished in my reader. The article itself was crappy, since it's from Time magazine's left-biased crew, but there was one comment that I liked, reposted below for the two salient links.

Yih-Chau Chang
Reading through this Time Magazine article, it appears that Alex Altman has heavily quoted many noted gun control advocates but left the gun rights side of this debate largely underrepresented. Perhaps presenting a more balanced approach to the issue of gun rights/gun control would serve Time magazine's readership more effectively.

If additional gun control laws could somehow manage to curb the violent crime rate in society, then we would have seen dramatic reductions in violent crime in Washington DC, Chicago, or England, just to name off a few real-life examples. However, instead of the reductions in violent crime that were expected, the violent crime rates in all of these areas have increased dramatically after their handgun bans were put in place. It wasn't until the US Supreme Court struck down the unconstitutional handgun ban laws in DC and Chicago that the violent crime rates have started to come back down. The results were so dramatic in Washington DC that the violent crime rate dropped 36% in just two years after the US Supreme Court's Heller decision in 2008.

I am certain that everyone has the same interest in preserving public safety during these very difficult economic times. Let's take a proven method of reducing violent crime--common, law-abiding citizens being armed in a public setting, and allow this practice to help keep criminals at bay. For a look at the phenomenon of an armed general populace and its effect on violent crime from the academics, take a look at this video.

http://www.responsiblecitizensofcalifornia.org/video/john-lott-more-guns-less-crime-2

For independent confirmation of Dr. John R. Lott, Jr.'s findings, one has to look no further than the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

The Mauser-Kates Study, "Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International Evidence", was academically peer reviewed and then published on Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (pp. 649-694).

http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7212&context=expresso

Hopefully, this information sheds some light on the facts regarding the emotionally charged topic of gun control during a time of national tragedy and helps to foster a calm and level-headed discussion moving forward.

The last link is pretty good.

NYT Article on Appleseed

The anti-gun bias drips off the page.  I did get something out of the article, though: I didn't know Fred's real name (Jack Dailey).

NoDakSpud 10/22 Sights

In a previous post regarding Liberty Training Rifles for Appleseed, I mentioned Tech-SIGHTS.  On an Appleseed forum post, a dealer mentions that they're made in Taiwan.  Then I found on Arfcom that NoDak Spud makes a similar product with a rail, which is made in the U.S., but currently only for their 10/22 receiver.

Nuclear Brouhaha

Nuclear community snubbed reactor safety message—this doesn't surprise me at all.  But Sorensen patented his reactor design, so there was probably some vested monetary interest....

SL-1—Troy posted this link on FB.  I hadn't heard of it, but it was apparently the only fatal reactor incident in the U.S.

FBI Records

How to see what the Feds have on you:

Individuals may obtain a copy of their criminal record by writing to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Include a letter stating why you are making the request, a set of fingerprints and a money order (no checks) for $18. Mail to: FBI, Criminal Justice Information Services Div., 1000 Custer Hollow Rd., Clarksburg, WV 26306. Telephone: (304) 625-3878. Web: www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/fprequest.htm

Individuals who do not have a criminal record can make a request under the Freedom of Information Act to determine if the FBI has compiled information about them. The request must be in writing and should include a complete name, address, date and place of birth and notarized signature. It should be sent to FBI, Freedom of Information Privacy Section, at the same address and telephone number as the previous paragraph.

I also didn't realize that the rap in "rap sheet" is an FBI acronym for "record of arrests and prosecution".  Huh.

How to Win Political Arguments

I haven't watched this video yet, but it sounds interesting.  Also from AJE.

Gun Manuals Online

Link courtesy of AJE: gun manuals online in PDF, and there are a lot of them!

Tonoharu

MRG sent me this link to a cartoonist, Lars Martinson, who uses ex-pat life in Japan as a basis for his material.  He's a Minnesotan, so he's something of a kindred spirit.

Also, linked from his page was the site for the Japan America Society of Minnesota, which I didn't know existed.

Articles about WD's Acquisition of HGST

I was still at work in Japan when the note came out. That definitely was a shocker.  Of course it hasn't been finalized yet, but there isn't much that would stop it, eh.

Merger to Create PC Drive Giant [WSJ]
日立がHDD事業を米Western Digitalへ売却、43億ドル相当の現金と株式で [Cloud Watch]

Viviti? With the IPO we were going to be Viviti? Come on guys, surely you could've come up with a better name than that!

Japanese Whisky

A coworker had requested that I bring back some Japanese whisky, and since I didn't really know of good varieties, I referred to the Google oracle.  (Once I'd tried some Nikka Black or somesuch and didn't care for it.  However, that's before my tastes in alcohol became more refined.)  An article that popped up noted that in 2008, Nikka Yoichi of the 20-yr-old variety took first place in Whisky Magazine's world competition for single malt, and Suntory Hibiki was the best blended whisky.

I bet that pissed off the Scots, getting owned by Japanese whisky on both awards in one year.

The Oracle's Picks

WSJ ran an article on Warren Buffet's latest investment advice from the shareholder's meeting.

Previously I wanted to buy a share or two of the class B stock so I could go to the event in Omaha.  Then I found out in 2008 that Buffet is a Democrat.  And also after the B stock split, I sort of lost interest.

Anyway, his favorites: KO (thinking the dividend will double), SNY (cheap relative to what BH paid previously), KFT (depressed due to the takeover of Cadbury), JNJ (cheap stock, fair dividend), WMT (not interested in China-Mart, though), BRK.B (currently 1.3x book versus the 1.6 historical average), and WFC (not interested since they're anti-gun).

湘南三線のど自慢大会

グリソがリンクを送ってくれたので貼っておく。

Opfor

Means "opposing force(s)"--turned up in a reading of a description of the counter-protests against the dolts at MoveOn.  A new word for me.

Big Berkey

As part of my emergency preparedness setup, I was looking at getting a water filter, specifically the Big Berkey.  While many of the reviews on Amazon and elsewhere are positive, I read one that claimed the test results were faked.  Indeed, I found two different versions [1, 2] of a test report that raised my suspicions.

Regardless, if the filter works as well as Brita, as is claimed in other reviews, then it'd be worth getting since given the claimed 3000-gal element life for $50 is much cheaper than Brita.  Another thing that bugs me is that there's no description of the difference between the older Super Sterasyl elements and the newer Black Berkey elements.

Anyway, one guy made his own filter unit using the Black Berkey elements and a couple 5-gal buckets.  Now that's ingenuity!

Iron Law of Bureaucracy

In reading a comment regarding the NRA on a gun blog, I became aware of an concise statement by author Jerry Pournelle regarding how bureaucracies end up:

"Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."

That perfectly describes why the NRA is so ineffective. I'm a member because of their useful functions (like education). However, I no longer support the PVF or ILA, because in many instances they back the wrong candidates. I'd rather pick the candidates I support. So these days I think of my NRA membership as if it were a magazine subscription to American Rifleman, with a few gun club-like benefits on the side.

On the other hand, the Gun Owners of America (GOA) is an excellent force to protect gun rights: no compromise, as it should be.  Donation dollars that would've otherwise gone to the NRA will be going there.  The Jews for the Preservation for Firearms Ownership (JPFO) organization is similarly excellent.  (Rest in peace, Aaron Zelman.)

Patches

While trying to find out the origins of the Nyberg Battle Flag, I found that in the past Sipsey Street has collaborated to offer IIIer patches.  The seller is Raven's Wood Enterprises.  Another store is apparently selling IIIer gear as well.

I'd always thought patches were more expensive, so I looked online for patch manufacturers.  One that came up high in the search ranking was Butler Patches.  In small quantities they're not very cheap at all, but at 50-100 the price comes down considerably.  Another place, Custom Patches, offers a digital prototyping, which would be helpful before placing an order of 100!

Incidentally, I couldn't find info on how the Nyberg flag was conceived, only that a Gayle Nyberg out of NM is credited with it.  Also, Mr. Vanderboegh states that he doesn't mind if people create IIIer merchandise.

Howa M1500

So after reading Kopel's article on gun control in Japan, I developed a renewed interest in the Howa rifles I've seen advertised.  My Browning shotgun has a Miroku barrel, and their stuff in Japan is crazy-expensive.  Some people don't dig Japanese-manufactured parts, but the Japanese have probably forgotten more about metallurgy than the West ever knew.  That's hyperbole of course; still, Japan knows steel manufacture.

Anyway, Legacy Sports imports the Howa M1500 rifle.  The 24-inch "heavy barrel" model is considered a sniper rifle.  Unfortunately it doesn't take a box magazine.  Weatherby, who uses the M1500 action in their Vanguard rifle, issued a press release in 2008 saying that they were to release an upgrade kit.

One interesting bit of info is Howa's recommended barrel break-in procedure.  The proper method always seems to be debated amongst gun people, but my chief concern is from a metallurgical perspective, and they ought to know!  Interestingly enough, they recommend cleaning with Windex, rather than powder solvent.  Observing the copper fouling is interesting as well.

Davidson's has an M1500 with 24" stainless heavy barrel in a laminated stock for $768.  The addition of a scope base, rings, and a good scope will certainly drive up the total cost.

There's a site online dedicated to the M1500 as well.

Kopel on Gun Control in Japan

The Wikipedia gun culture article linked to an online version of Mr. Kopel's research into Japanese gun control.  It appears to be well researched.  I do need to check a few of the details regarding ownership of guns in Japan, but unlike other pro-gun reviews of gun control in Japan, Mr. Kopel's article is plausibly correct.

Another interesting link in the gun culture article was to a paper published in the Harvard Law Review titled "The .22 Caliber Rorschach Test" by Erik Luna. It looks quite interesting.

Hughes Amendment

David Codrea has a GRE article on the Hughes Amendment to the FOPA of 1986.  In it, he links to a YouTube video of the Congressional session where the vote was taken.  A transcript is available, but it's unknown if it's official.

My commentary on the War on Guns blog post:

My reading of Heller's reply: He says that many have discussed the possibility of repealing the Hughes amendment, and that he will vote to protect the Second Amendment, which implies that he would support legislation to strike down the machinegun ban. However, Heller doesn't say he will push such a bill himself. It's interesting that he mentions the amendment was passed under questionable circumstances, however.

With regard to the YouTube video on the vote, my interpretation is that the 6:25 recorded vote is on "the motion for the committee to rise", which I believe is to close discussion on amendments. This fails, and Hughes asks for five minutes to explain the bill. Then, despite the motion failing, Rangel calls for a vote on the Hughes amendment at 8:16. Only a voice vote is recorded. In the background you can hear someone telling Hughes, "let it go, let it go, let it go, you got it!" Obviously not even Hughes realized what the hell was going on. At 8:43 someone asks for the ayes and nays, i.e. for a recorded vote, and Rangel just smiles at him and proceeds. Subsequently, there's a vote on the Volkmer substitute as amended: the voice vote fails at 9:10, but the recorded vote passes at 9:45.

A transcript of the session (unknown if it's considered official) can be found here:
http://www.iwilldefendtheconstitution.com/Congressional_Transcript.pdf
Based on the transcript, some footage was omitted, such as the diatribe by Weiss after the recorded vote on the motion to rise but before the vote on the Hughes amendment.

::G

It's crazy that it took 25 years for the video footage to come to light.

黒木メイサ

今朝俺は風邪気味だったんで仕事を休んだ。で、テレビジャパンを流していたらトーク番組で女優がインタビューされていて黒木メイサという人で、嫁によると銃が大好きな女性だと言う。でもエアソフトガンしか撃ったことなくて本物を撃ちたくてしようがないらしい。嫁が嵐のトーク番組で知ったそうだ。こっちに誘ってあげようかな。女性と銃の組み合わせは最高だぞ！

Big-Bore Airguns

Found this one via Codrea's blog: "Quackenbush Air Guns".  Unfortunately the guy isn't taking orders at the moment.  A .50-cal bullet at 800 fps from an air rifle?  For under a grand?  Sign me up!  Oh wait, there's an 8+ month wait.  Well, there's gotta be other manufacturers out there...?

Liberty Training Rifle

The recommended rifle for an Appleseed shoot is the so-called "Liberty Training Rifle", described both on the Appleseed forums and the blog.

The suggested sights are "Tech-SIGHTS" (dunno what's up with the capitalization).  The set for the 10/22 replace the front dovetail sight and screw into the factory scope rail holes in the receiver.  I've heard that the sights are made in China, though, which would be highly unfortunate.  The other two open sight options I've seen are Eagle Zephyr and Williams FireSights; the former appears to be no longer made, and the latter is poorly reviewed.  Apparently one of the first appearances of the Tech-SIGHTS was on the forums on The High Road.

Vortex and Primary Arms Red Dots

AIM Surplus just posted the Vortex SPARC scope in their Facebook updates.  I'd never heard of it so I'd checked the manufacturer's page.  A little searching on the forums seemed to have mixed reviews, but the negative ones weren't by people who've actually used the device--just people who prefer Aimpoint's or Trijicon's offerings.  People who actually own the sight seem to like it.  One post referenced a Primary Arms red dot, saying that if you're not going to go with the gold standard you might as well go with the el cheapo solution.

American Precious Metals Exchange

I found APMEX when looking for alternate sources for gold/silver.  They have some backdated coins and accept credit cards.  They're located in OKC.

Implements of Fire

Joel at work sent me a link to AK47, an Italian design shop that does mostly patio fire implements.  Pretty funky stuff.

Ads

...that I got in the mail.

• Coleman's Military Surplus (milsurp in mostly small quantities)
• United Country Real Estate (looking for land?)
• Excalibur Dehydrator (made in the U.S. apparently)
• LED Ropelights (coupon code GET10)
• Bradley's Military Surplus (mostly military-style stuff rather than surplus)
• Sierra Trading Post (outdoor wear)
• Gourmet Mushrooms (grow your own)
• Minelab (metal detectors)
• Mantis (tiller/cultivator)

Kit

From the always useful Sipsey Street, there's a link to a description of a bug-out bag called a "speed bag", which links back to a Sipsey piece on first aid kits.

Gotta have quikclot or similar for temporary patching of gunshot wounds....

Contrarian Stocks

WSJ had an article a couple weeks back about how often the stocks that Wall Street likes at the start of the year aren't the ones that turn out at the end of the year to have performed well during the year.  The list:

The ones they like:

• Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Apple
• Agilent Technologies
• Compuware
• Halliburton
• Express Sprints
• EQT
• Celgene
• Google
• R.R. Donnelly & Sons

The ones they didn't like:

• AIG
• Apartment Investment & Management
• Brown-Forman
• Diamond Offshore Drilling
• Ameren
• Eli Lilly
• Nicor
• Berkshire Hathaway
• Cincinnati Financial
• Sears Holdings

Might be worth a look—if it's not too late.

DuPont Analysis

Via a Motley Fool article, I read about the DuPont identity, a formula that describes the elements of return on equity (ROE):

ROE = ( net profit / sales ) x ( sales / assets ) x ( assets / equity )

Put another way, the rate of return to stockholders is the profit margin times asset turnover times leverage, which makes intuitive sense.

Mosin-Nagant

Some informational links regarding the Mosin-Nagant M91/30:

• FAQ at 7.62x54r.net
• Disassembly instructions at 7.62x54r.net
• Manual from Century International Arms
• Info at world.guns.ru
• Lots of info at SurplusRifle.com