"Change We Can Believe In"

Not sure where the tag line comes from, but it certainly is. Moreso than Obama, anyway.

So I found this YouTube-like pr0n site called "SpankWire" and they have a bunch of free pr0n. I think I know a few people who would appreciate this....

Going through some folders I found a Jade Hsu vid, and the site came up when I googled it. She's gotten to be pretty trashy looking, though, and never exhibited much personality. Chinese Hawaiian Jandi Lin is much more spirited, and the tattoo on her back is pretty cool.

Plus, I discovered Allie Sin, aka Naughty Nati.  Her tattoos are less than impressive, but she's got a hot body and those eyes are absolutely piercing.

Kneeling Chairs

Was thinking a kneeling chair might be good for temporary use of the iMac on the console in the living room, except it looks like the decent ones are spendy. To wit:

Varier Variable balans [store]
HÅG Balans [store] (doesn't appear to be on HÅG's website)
Over the top: Varier Gravity balans chair [store] (only $2k!)

Saw some reference in searches that indicate the kneeling chair design (balans) is Norwegian, but I have yet to confirm.

Comment on Int'l Marriage

My remarks on an article:

I bet you don't have many friends from other countries, eh? Indeed, most people don't care about issues that don't affect them. Even so, America's origins are in its immigrants -- the opinion you're espousing is quite un-American.

As long as the institution of marriage exists, the U.S. has legal responsibility to handle diplomatic cases involving cross-border custody. Now if we got rid of marriage, then I might agree with your position. Even as a small-government advocate, diplomatic issues are one of the few legitimate roles of the Federal government.

I would be interested to see the divorce statistics for marriages where both parties are from the same culture versus where one or both parties are foreign-born. My guess is that they aren't that different.

There were several problems with the guy who tried to steal back his kids: 1) he was married in Japan, and never divorced there, 2) he became a naturalized Japanese citizen, thereby losing his U.S. citizenship, 3) his kids were born in Japan, and 4) he cheated on his wife before divorcing her in the U.S. and marrying his mistress. Not exactly an open-and-shut case in his favor.

Immigration Comments

Navarette is a dillweed in general, but he knows how to get a rise out of the reader.

Useyerhead: I agree that it sucks that Spanish gets special treatment. I would require English for all legal doings, but suppose that signage is at the discretion of the locality -- their tax dollars.

In my case, I'm a native English speaker, but speak Japanese with my wife. Since I'm not white, I know that some people are probably put off when we're out and not talking in English. She can understand English well enough, so it's not an issue. Not having most people know what we're talking about is way useful =)

Incidentally, in the more metropolitan areas of Japan, most signs also have English (sometimes Chinese and Korean also). Of course, we occupied them, so that's not so strange.

YBR: I'm mixed as well, although not as resentful of being treated differently. People think what they're going to think. How you're perceived in the long term is up to you. On the other hand, I do have a CCW just in case: "minorities" in particular benefit from being armed.

My Snowblower

Despite the earlier models I posted, I ended up getting a Troy-Bilt Storm 2620 over at Lowes. I put it to use on Sunday morning and cleared the 4-foot wall of snow blocking half of the front of my driveway as a learning exercise, then cleared the curb, sidewalks, and half the neighbor's driveway (theirs is in the shop right now). Having a gas-hogging monster snowblower is actually fun!

Propolis

We're running low on propolis, so I've been looking for some online. I've read that the Brazilian kind is best, which is what my mother-in-law gave us, so we're looking to stick with that. The brand is Apiario Silvestre (apparently apiario refers to a bee farm), which is available via ExpoBrazil. Unfortunately, they charge quite a bit for shipping. Alibaba.com has a list of propolis manufacturers, and Silvestre has a listing. Interestingly enough, on Alibaba they claim to have a 45% concentration, whereas on ExpoBrazil they list 30%.

There's another advertised brand of Brazilian, alcohol-free (not that I have anything against alcohol, but the Silvestre is as well) propolis by Uniflora. They have concentration in 45%, 55%, and 60 "Brix", which apparently also means percent by weight.

Not Without A Fight

Via one of the pro-firearm blogs I subscribe to, I found out about a 2A-themed amateur documentary called Not Without A Fight, which interviews various people from the gun culture. Looks interesting, although I'm not sure I want to $15.97 without seeing it first.

MBP Accessories

So I'm already looking for accessories for my new MacBook Pro even though I'm still waiting for it to acclimate to room temperature. (Booting up a frozen computer is a Very Bad Idea, and this was on a truck for most of the day in sub-zero weather.)

Current candidates:

• moshi ClearGuard - ultra-thin (0.1mm) urethane keyboard protector (even though the MBP manual says to not cover the keyboard...), $23 on Amazon through myGearStore [good blog review]
• RadTech ScreenSavrz - cover that sits between the keyboard and screen to keep the latter clean; ShaggyMac's product is a close second (color is a concern), but both are made in the USA and cost $15
• RadTech Sleevz - form-fitting sleeve, helpful when going through airport checkpoints (only been asked to remove my Powerbook from the sleeve once out of dozens of flights)
• (Also have a Portectorz for the PB, but they don't make one for the MBP yet.)
• Monoprice Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter - to output the display to an HDTV (which I don't have yet...); this $38 one has audio capability via USB whereas the $14 one only supports MDP audio, which the MBP does not

Don't forget to check Retail Me Not for coupon codes: RadTech has one FAMILY09 that's 10% off $30+ and 15% off $70+.

iPhone Tethering

Found a site that allows the enabling of tethering with iPhones. Cool.

Well, I do want an iPhone, there's just the matter of $400 (two phones) plus $100/mo for 24 months (with company discount but without taxes and fees)....

Prohibition Commentary

Just had a discussion with the co-op in the lab about the "war on drugs", then I hit this article on CNN.

Agreed that the "war on drugs" is the same as the Prohibition. The problem with legalizing drug use is that what are all those law enforcement officers going to do afterward? Several months after the 21st Amendment repealed the Prohibition, Congress passed the National Firearms Act, giving the long arm of the law another, similarly injust, malum prohibitum to crack down on.

The populus still seems to be torn on the morality of the drug issue. A number of people support the legalization of marijuana, but they have yet to reach the kind of critical mass that is necessary to sway the lawmakers. Part of the issue is how hard the crackdown is for drug-related violations of the law: People who would be inclined to conduct civil disobedience might think twice about an infraction that could land them serious time and a felony record. No, the government is seriously out of control in forcing citizens to play by their rules.

Netwealth-e Int'l

So I met the owner of this online business, Netwealth-e International, over at Ikea a few weeks back. I finally checked out his website, but still don't have a good idea of what they do. Weird, I would've thought it should be clear from the pitch, I mean if one wants to line up capital as well as talent.

Snowblowers

After the blizzard, I decided that I need a snowblower. (Apparently the semantic distinction between "snow blower" and "snow thrower" is that the former is a 2-stage (with an auger and an impeller) and the latter is a 1-stage. So says Wikipedia. But I prefer a single word rather than a phrase.)

I'm only interested in the 2-stage variety given the insanity that is Minnesota winter. Fishing around on Amazon, I found a Murray 24" 205cc 4-cycle with electric start. Apparently Murray doesn't have product pages on their website.

Chad has an Ariens, although he didn't say which model. (A version with a Tecumseh engine, without headlights, he said, but most of them seem to have Briggs & Stratton engines.)

Honda has a medium-duty 2-stage, the HS520AS, but I question the 12" vertical clearance of the housing.

$800 ain't nothing to sneeze at, so I'm going to be looking at as many different models as I can.

Mark's Mobo

Mark's desktop's motherboard is an ECS 848P-A. Whatever use that info is.

Tank Suppressor

This is hilarious.

NRA & Firearms Freedom Act

Posted commentary on this article.

I too was disgusted by the NRA's lack of support for the Firearms Freedoms Act laws in several states. Just like their unfulfilled promise to work to repeal the Hughes Amendment of the FOPA (banning civ ownership of machineguns manufactured post-1986), they talk like they're for preserving rights, but fall far short. I sent the NRA a letter to that effect, but I suppose my remarks will be ignored.

Granted, the Montana law was intended to force a showdown regarding the enforceability of intra-state jurisdiction of the ATF. They didn't intend to make use of the law until a ruling was solidified at the SCOTUS level. The NRA is right that actually ignoring the un-Constitutional 1968 GCA is dangerous (the ATF will kick down your door and shoot you), but the wording was highly unsatisfactory.

Support the NRA since the gun-rights winds are judged by their membership. Then really support the Gun Owners of America. The GOA is by far the best pro-gun rights group out there.

Monoprice

I just heard about Monoprice via comments in a /. post. They seem to have some good prices on cabling, etc., that always gets sold at a markup via retail outlets, and even by Newegg.

Not So Good

/. had a post on how Sprint released GPS data to law enforcement via automated system 8 million times in a year. The linked blog post has a quote from Eric Schmidt that is quite disturbing.

"The reason we keep [search engine data] for any length of time is one, we actually need it to make our algorithms better, but more importantly, there is a legitimate case of the government, or particularly the police function or so forth, wanting, with a Federal subpoena and so forth being able to get access to that information."
-- Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, All Things Considered, NPR interview between 5:40 and 6:40, October 2, 2009.

So much for "don't be evil"—that sounds pretty fucking evil to me. Government tends toward evil, and pandering to them is also evil. That explains why they kissed the Chinese government's ass with regard to censoring political dissidents.

Apple may not be very different, but at least they make no pretense of being "good". There's nothing like someone raping you and telling you that it's for your own good.

My comments posted to the blog anonymously:

I have a problem with financial disincentives: where the money comes from. Law enforcement is paid for via taxes, so not only are we paying a higher bill to the phone company (TPC) on the front-end for the infrastructure, we're also funding federal, state, and local governments to pay for wiretaps, etc., on the back-end. Business is business for TPC, but the "law" is being used to strong-arm the consumer into paying for the privilege of being spied upon.

A Righteous Gun Law

Require registration of non-gun owners and require them to pay a fine? Sweet!

マルカイ

テレビジャパンのCMで知った、日本商品のオンラインショップマルカイ。値段は安くないけど、手に入れたければ買い道はある。

Caroline McCarthy

After reading an article by Caroline McCarthy that was above the typical c|net blog-type posts, I felt the need to google her for profile pictures bigger than the c|net bio thumbnail. Yeah, I e-stalked her for five minutes, haha.

Magazine.org has a bigger version of the bio thumbnail
ValleyWag, circa June 2008
Daily Style Phile, circa October 2008

McCarthy's also on Twitter, as one might expect.

Is it just me, or is she fairly stacked? Well, um, I read her for the articles.

xkcd

This is so, so sick: Movie Narrative Charts
Very timely: iPhone or Droid

GoodGuide

Hmm, maybe my idea is a bit late. GoodGuide is getting close....

Alternatives to Ikea

On a whim I searched for alternatives to Ikea and found a page that had some suggestions: 2modern, CB2 (apparently affiliated with Crate & Barrel), and Design Public. 2modern seems to be on par price-wise with Room and Board, and for that matter, Design Public is too. Not really alternatives....

The poster also noted Green Your Decor for eco-friendly furnishings.

I also found another expensive alternative: Design Within Reach. Seems like there are no cost-effective alternatives to Ikea, hence their appeal. When one can outfit an entire dining room for the price of just the table at Room and Board, it's just ridiculous. Well, this isn't going to be our final house, so why buy custom furniture for it, and some of Ikea's stuff isn't made in China, so I can at least not have that hanging over my head.

Go

Not the game, but the Google programming language. Taokodr posted a link on FB pointing to the Go site. Looks interesting. Wish I had time to learn new languages. One really needs a reason to spend the time.

Swedish Mauser

Information on the brass disk on the stock of a m/96:

The one screw disc is divided into 3 sections, each of which is marked in such a way as to reveal some information about that particular rifle. The smallest "slice" of the brass disc bears the numbers 1, 2, and 3 with a triangular punch mark over one of the numbers. This indicates the condition of the bore. No punch mark is perfect. 1 means a very few dark areas in the corners of the lands and grooves. 2 indicates rust in the corners of the lands and grooves and possible light rust in the grooves. 3 indicates spots of light rust throughout the grooves, but no sharp edges; this is still acceptable. A rifle scoring lower than 3 was rebarreled. My rifle is a 3, but any rifle passed by the Swedish armorers will shoot very well, as the inspectors were quite picky. The bore of my rifle looks good to the naked eye.

The next slice of the little brass disc indicates the elevation aiming error when shooting the standard m/41 Swedish service load, which used a 140 grain boat-tail spitzer bullet at a MV of around 800 m/s. There are three Swedish words in this sector of the disc. "Torped" indicates the 140 grain BT spitzer bullet (there was an earlier 156 grain RN bullet), "Overslag" means over, followed by a space and then "Str." Str is the abbreviation for streck, a unit of angle, and there are 6300 streck to a circle. Streck were used in a manner similar to the way North American shooters use minutes of angle. If there is a number in the blank space between Overslag and Str. it indicates the amount the rifle shoots over in terms of streck. 1 streck equals approximately 1/10 meter at 100 meters. So a 1 in the space on the disc indicates that rifle would shoot 10 cm (or a little less than 4") above the point of aim at 100 meters. The space is blank on my rifle's disc, indicating that it shoots to point of aim.

The largest slice of the disc has an outer and an inner arc of numbers. The outer arc bears numbers "6.51" followed by the numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (my rifle has a punch mark over the "2"). The inner arc bears the numbers "6.46" followed by 7,8,9,0 (no punch mark over a number in the inner arc on my rifle). It is my understanding that these numbers reveal the nominal bore (6.46mm) and groove (6.51mm) diameters of a new barrel. The punch mark(s) reveals the actual diameter of the particular barrel (and thus, presumably, any wear). Thus, my barrel has a groove diameter of 6.52mm. Apparently the bore diameter of my barrel measured right at 6.46mm.

If the groove diameter measures between 6.51mm and 6.53mm all was well. If the groove diameter measured 6.54mm-6.55mm the rifle was used only for training. If the groove diameter exceeded 6.56mm the rifle was rebarreled. The Swedes are very meticulous people!

That's good to know!

Another collector site has a picture of the disk.

Military Gun Supply has an m/96 for $300 in "very good" condition.

Medical

The wife was asking about whether or not we should have the kid get the H1N1 vaccine. Personally I don't like flu shots because I got the flu from one the last time I did. However, since the wife and kid are going to PAIIR now and are additionally exposed potential sources of infection, it may be a wise idea.

CNN had posted a couple things regarding the H1N1 vaccine, basically cribbed from the CDC [1 2].

There was also a decent piece regarding how to avoid having mistaken operations performed on you in the hospital.

S.G. told me about thiomersal/thimerosol in multi-dose vaccines. I'd heard of the alleged relationship between vaccines and autism, but not the mechanism. Maybe there's no correlation, but why the hell should I take a chance with my kid?

Pelican Products

Was looking at getting a Pelican flashlight with bore sight adapter from the NRA Store, but found it for cheaper from a distributor, Pelican Products, who also has a much better price on shipping. It's one thing to support an organization, and another for them to rape you on S&H, heavy emphasis on the 'H'. The MityLite 1950 would make a good Christmas present for gun folk, who like flashlights and never seem to have a bore light handy.

Animal Rights Idiots

While searching for close-ups of an NRA-published print, I came across some schmuck's blog post about some NRA brochure that was supposedly leaked. So I left a pointed comment, linked here for posterity.

I absolutely believe that the PETA terrorists who threatened the families of scientists who use animals in lab experiments should be snuffed out. What's more important, people or lesser creatures? So they're for baby-murder and against killing lab rats, what kind of fucked up logic is that?! And it was funny and sad how PETA issued a statement when Obama killed a fly on camera. I mean, what the fuck?! By now Obama must be starting to see all the looney tunes who voted for him crawling out of the woodwork.

Animal rights? Shit, they can have rights when they get together and draft themselves a fuckin' constitutional government.

Ok, so the above was somewhat facetious—I don't favor killing things unnecessarily, pro-gun though I may be. (If it's not a pest and you shoot it, eat it.) But still, PETA and their ilk are a bunch of psychopaths who don't have anything better to do with their lives.

鬼のパンツ

最近嫁が子供の世話をする時にそれに合う唄を歌うことにしている。おむつをかえることは、「鬼のパンツ」である。しかし、その歌詞にないところを加えたか、「トラの毛皮で　できている」ってゆー代わりに、「鬼の母さんが縫ってくれた」にしている。

いったい　なぜ　みんな鬼のパンツを履きたがるのだろうか。

Girls w/ Guns Pix

There are a few girls with guns pix on ReyTrajano.com, found via a calguns link.