Melissa Harris-Perry

The Interwebz are afire with the fallout from an ill-advised MSNBC ad featuring one Melissa Harris-Perry.

We have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we've always had kind of a private notion of children. "Your kid is yours, and totally your responsibility." We haven't had a very collective notion of "These are our children." So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the household's, then we start making better investments.

Personally, I find the big-government ideology behind that drivel to be offensive.

Shooting Mask

One of the learned gentlemen noted that he's taken to using a mask when shooting at the SMSC indoor range due to the lead residue from the primers.  He indicated that a 3M 7500 with filter 2097 P100 is most suitable for minimizing lead absorption, the latter being the chief reason that I no longer attend the indoor sessions.  Supposedly the 8233 N100 filters also cover lead exposure, but the lack of a tight seal around the mask makes this a less desirable solution.

Epigrams

Apparently many famous epigrams that are used in everyday English derive from the writings of one John Heywood.  To wit (from Wikipedia):

• What you have, hold.
• Haste maketh waste. (1546)
• Out of sight out of mind. (1542)
• When the sun shineth, make hay. (1546)
• Look ere ye leap. (1546)
• Two heads are better than one. (1546)
• Love me, love my dog. (1546)
• Beggars should be no choosers. (1546)
• All is well that ends well. (1546)
• The fat is in the fire. (1546)
• I know on which side my bread is buttered. (1546)
• One good turn asketh another. (1546)
• A penny for your thought. (1546)
• Rome was not built in one day. (1546)
• Better late than never. (1546)
• An ill wind that bloweth no man to good. (1546)
• The more the merrier. (1546)
• You cannot see the wood for the trees. (1546)
• This hitteth the nail on the head. (1546)
• No man ought to look a given horse in the mouth. (1546)
• Tread a woorme on the tayle and it must turne agayne. (1546)
• Many hands make light work. (1546)
• Wolde ye bothe eate your cake and haue your cake? (1562)
• When he should get aught, each finger is a thumb. (1546)

Some are phrased in outdated English, but it's amazing how these epigrams endure some 470 years later.

Cast Iron

I've read many different ways to season cast iron pans, but this method using flaxseed oil sounds the most promising.

Turns out that highly acidic ingredients like vinegar or tomato sauce will strip the seasoning off pans.  The author of the article above also mentions that boiling water is a no-no, but then recommends boiling water to loosen baked-on gunk.

Other Silver Shops

Via a liberty-minded individual, I'm now aware of another couple shops selling silver: Amagi Metals and Agorist.

At Amagi, the Freedom Girl, Unite or Die, Ron Paul, and Minuteman rounds look neat.  The Silver Bullet "rounds" are cute, but I'd rather have cast projectiles that I can actually handload!  And what's up with the 1 gram coins?!  31.1 to the troy ounce....

There's also the HnH Coins store; someone gave me one of their copper rounds at an Appleseed last September.  HnH's prices on pre-'65 silver aren't bad, either.

VNC over SSH

Apparently it's possible to use local port forwarding with SSH to secure a VNC connection.  I can't imagine it'd be very fast, though....

The Case for Silver Outpacing Gold

Interestingly enough, this article claims that the gold-silver ratio isn't out of line with changes in utilization and production.  With regard to the latter, the article claims that silver production has increased 25% in the past decade, whereas gold only increased 6%.  Another article is referenced, which claims the price of each metal relative to production cost indicates that silver only has a 10% premium, whereas gold has a 20% premium, therefore silver has more upside.

Practicing Suturing

Apparently, banana peels are good for practicing suturing.  Who knew?

ぼく、おいしいよ。

This is horrible: what sicko would make such a graphic?  But bacon is too tasty to resist....

Tcl Hacks

Some interesting Tcl hacks that redefine procedures: tracking procedure calls and guarding procedures so a warning shows up when a redefinition is attempted.  By the way, I still don't like Tcl.

MN RKBA Gear

Minnesota gun culture, represent!

Republicans and New Media

Article from JJ regarding how to save the GOP from obsolescence.

Weak Mayor System

From the liberal Post-Bulletin regarding the election for City Council President:

Rochester has what's known as a "weak mayor system," which means the city council president is the most powerful person in town. This person doesn't represent just one ward: He or she represents everyone in a city of more than 100,000. That's more constituents than a member of the Minnesota Senate has.

Great. I hope the most powerful person isn't the leftist dumbass who's running.

Shiba

My wife and I have wanted to get a Shiba-inu for a while.  Recently, a friend of my wife's recently got one, and since our kid likes dogs, the thought has crossed my mind.

Some breeders in the state: Spitfyre, Buffalo Ridge, Mar Brees.  There's also the adoption route with MSIR.

E-Book on Milling an AR-15 Forging

For those with the time and the talent, there's a free e-book on how to machine an AR-15 "0%" forging into a finished lower receiver.  Also on the site is an interesting label format for brass prep and loading.

Hot Shots

Tasty (store).  The playing cards will be good for SHTF.

RAV4 Stuff

覚え書き。全てトヨタ純正品。

Tow Hitch Receiver

Tow Hitch Wiring Harness

Rubber Floor Mats

Rubber Cargo Mat Tray

Cargo Tote

Machining AR-15 Lowers

Found an interesting forum post describing the advantages of machining from a forging as opposed to a billet.  45 min to machine a forging vs. over 2 hrs for a billet?

 Also, I found another place (Stillers Precision Firearms) that sells funky billet lowers for nearly $400.  If they have any in stock, that's about what regular lowers are going for these days....

DEW (ETF) Components

Someone told me that I should look into an ETF called DEW, as I have an interest in securities that pay a high dividend.  This is WisdomTree's global equity income fund.  The annualized yield is only 3.7%, with an expense ratio of 0.58%.  They list all the components of the fund, so theoretically one could pick out a few promising ones and mimic the fund with lower overhead.  It's good for mining a few ideas, anyway.

Barrel Lust

In this political environment, parts for "black rifles" are in short supply.  I've had a barrel backordered for a couple months; it was on order prior to Sandy Hook.

So AIM Surplus posted on Facebook that they have a Spike's Tactical Lothar-Walther barrel in stock.  Stainless steel, polygonal-rifled, 1 in 8" twist.  They only have the 16" model, but Spike's website has the 18" model in stock.  The price is the sticking point: $340 (16") or $355 (18") plus S&H.  Ouch!

I haven't seen any other AR-15 barrels with polygonal rifling, so this is way cool.  In stainless, you could probably shoot 100k rounds through the thing!

Bitcoin

Of course I'd heard of Bitcoin, but Joe B. at work pointed out that there were ASICs coming out that are supposed to crank the mining hash rate.  Butterfly Labs is one of the companies producing specialized machines.  (The FPGAs are more interesting since you could repurpose them later, but they have higher power consumption and lower hash rate.)

Seems pretty risky, though, since a bunch of ASICs will probably be coming online at the same time.  BFL's FAQ has an entry on this that seems to imply that one could break even in about 6 mo, but that calculation may lowball the impact of the additional computational power; then again, the exchange rate has also risen about 60% since that calculation.  In other words, it's a total crapshoot.  Another site has a profitability calculator.

There's also a mining hardware chart on the bitcoin wiki.  Some people build custom mining rigs using multiple graphics cards, but the hash rate doesn't even come close to the theoretical rate of the ASICs.  In that regard, investing in one of those might be more sound.  Or it could be better to have the lower rate now before the ASICs come online....

Power Switches

Sparkfun, an online hobby electronics store, is selling an AC power switch that can be controlled with TTL logic, as well as the Sharp optoisolated solid-state relay itself.

I kind of wanted to run a low-power server to make available lots of storage which I could switch off to save energy when not being used.  It could also be useful for security for preventing sensitive data from being accessed, should the server be exposed to the Internet.

Raspberry Pi seems like an ideal candidate for such a system.

Ice Fishing Safety

WMH at work sent me some YouTube links [1 2 3] on how to survive after falling through ice.

So Much Ignorance in One Article

One of my unfortunately liberal friends posted a link to an article making stupid anti-gun suggestions.  A retort:

It's hard to fit so much ignorance into one article! From the top:

- While I haven't fact-checked the statistic on deaths, these numbers typically include self-defense shootings and cops shooting bad guys, which I'd argue are good things. It'd also include suicides, which isn't good, but someone who really wants to kill himself will use the most efficient and available tool for the job.

- No license is needed for driving a motor vehicle on private property. (Permits are currently required to carry weapons in public.)

- My Minnesota license is good for concealed (and open) carry of pistols. It also allows for open carry of long guns. I'd get a license to carry a sawed-off shotgun if they made one (although it'd have to be an AOW since SBSes are illegal in MN).

- No title is needed for a transaction between private parties for use on private property. States use titling as a chance to rape the seller for sales tax on used property, which is unethical.

- Most states don't have smog testing. Besides, a malfunctioning pistol is primarily dangerous to the shooter (it could blow up in his face).

- The author confuses a magazine with ammunition to put in the magazine--7.62x39mm ammunition used to be found for under $0.20/rd (before the gun ban insanity), so a full 40-rd magazine would be $8. And taxing ammo is a stupid idea. Well, gas taxes go to roads, so ammo taxes could go to building more shooting ranges, right?

- Flammable materials most definitely can be shipped. Gasoline isn't economical relative to pumping stations due to the weight and hazmat charge, but you can order propane online and have the truck come to your house.

- All handguns are required by law to be shipped with a lock. Some newer models have integral locks. However, there's no law that says you have to lock a car door.

- A gun that shoots is functioning properly. A car that kills people in an accident is not functioning properly. The negligent discharges last Saturday were at gun shows, not at the rallies, where tens of thousands of people across the country carried loaded firearms without incident, me being one of them.

Wow, the author of that article is dumb. How about requiring licenses for publishing stuff, because otherwise you could spread ignorance too easily, which is damaging to readers' minds. Oh wait, that'd be prohibited by the 1st Amendment. Oh wait, all of the author's idiotic suggestions are prohibited by the 2nd Amendment.

It's exasperating having to deal with this crap. Why can't more people be logical?

Anti-Gun Madness

A WSJ article on the President's gun control remarks, a transcript of the speech, and the White House's press release via WaPo.

Reagan was for the AWB.  A deceptive poll claiming that most NRA members are for universal background checks (who was polled? how many were polled? what's the margin of error?).  Salon published a shitty article, as expected, last year on "gun owners vs. the NRA".

Medications have been linked to these crazy shootings.

Link Dump, 2013.01.09

These have been sitting in my reader for a bit....

Roberts's Real Long Game?
The Permanent Militarization of America
The Power of Negative Thinking

And more recently:
Ten gun bills on Congress's first day

Society of the Cincinnati

Apparently Cincinnati has roots leading back to the Revolutionary War via the Society of the Cincinnati.  How come all the neat parts of history are kept hidden from general public knowledge?  (I suppose it's because the general public doesn't care about history.)

Aeon Fawkes

Someone posted a link to this store on a PTR-91 forum.  They have some interesting stuff, like NBC gear.  The name sounds like a cross between Aeon Flux and Guy Fawkes....

Secession

For historical study.

Online Tools

GinzaMetrics' "lessons learned" for 2012 has a list of online tools that they use that's quite intriguing.  To wit:

• git / Github (repository & wikis, nothing else)
• WordPress (migrated from Jekyll in order to allow guest blogging / contributors)
• Dropbox
• Skype
• Google Apps
• DynDNS
• Stripe (payments)
• Tumblr (system status)
• HelloBar (system status)
• Wufoo (landing page management system)
• Trello (issue management)
• Google Doc
• Intercom (analytics)
• Mixpanel and KISSmetrics (analytics)
• Exceptional (bug reporting)

It's hard to keep up with all the stuff that's out there.