LockMarts Area Defense Anti Munitions laser being tested against a tethered rocket, from a range of about a mile:
[youtube 3pO2A5oJyX0]
ADAM, unlike many laser or gun systems, does not appear to be that big of a system… a box 12 feet long, 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall for the weapon and power system on a relatively small trailer. Radar is elsewhere, and probably fairly sizable.
[youtube gJ0l4Hcks7c]
Which provides information, including plans, on how to build things such as 9mm submachine guns out of standard steel tubing. Seems that the British feller (yes, BRITISH) who ran the site up and died here a few years back, but other people are keeping the site up.
Take it for what it’s worth: there are posts written there (such as this) that describe the experiences of Brits who did no more than simply download the instructions from this site. If they are to be believed, apparently the British police see downloading a PDF file from a publicly accessible website as sufficient cause to raid your home. So, FYI.
Also: you can buy the guys book from Amazon (the reviews are positive):
And there’s also this:
And this:
And this:
The point being: guns are not exactly rocket surgery. Couple these sort of home-workshop guns with rapid prototyping, and pretty soon some pretty quality sub-guns will be just a few hours work away.
Disclaimer; all the books say that they are for academic study only. Don’t you dare actually make a gun. That would be naughty.
Guy busts into movie theater, starts shooting people. How to deal with the situation? Easy: shoot him.
As previously mentioned, the Strategic Air & Space Museums Avro Vulcan bomber is outside temporarily. Apart from some fading paint it seems to overall be in fairly good shape.
Aircraft like this should be stored indoors… and displayed outdoors. When I make my billions (aaaaaannnnny day now), my aircraft museum will feature wondrously restored shiny planes kept within storm and earthquake proof hangars… that on good sunny days can roll well back and expose the planes to the sky.
Independent verification of the claim would seem to be called for, but if this story is accurate, it’s important:
In short: an armed citizen claims that when the mall shooters gun jam, he drew down on him. He did not pull the trigger since he saw people behind the shooter (y’know, know the backstop). But the shooter saw *him,* and the next shot was the shooter capping himself.
Again… if true.
And if true… expect to see no more media discussion of this than the local press. Doesn’t fit the narrative.
So, here we go again. A couple of nutjobs shoot a bunch of people and the political vultures come out:
New York Red. Jerrold Nadler (D:umbass) suggests that Obama should use this fantastic opportunity, brought on by a kid who *stole* guns in a state with some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the US, in order to further the civilian disarmament cause.
Of the many things I find curious about the two most recent mass shootings: at least from what I’ve seen so far, the media hasn’t been touting them as Tea Partiers, Right Wingers or other related Republican-related members, as they did with prior mass shooters. Is this because they learned their lesson? Or is it because the election season is over, and the next set of elections are too far away for the media to waste even more of their credibility in an effort to sway the electorate with fraudulent claims of political partisanship on the part of clearly apolitical whackos?
UPDATE: But Wait! There’s More!
So on the one side we have leftist politicians who want to use this tragedy to cram more Government into our lives; and on the the other side we have rightist commentators who want to use this tragedy to cram more God into our schools.
Feh.
The things you find when you’re not looking for ’em. For instance, a Martin Marietta Small ICBM, a.k.a. “Midgetman.” Designed to be transported, erected and launched by large trucks, the Midgetman would carry only a single warhead. But by being so readily transportable, it could be scattered around the Western US and would be very difficult to effectively target. The end of the Soviet Union led to the end of the SICBM program in 1992.
This example is not exactly on display… it’s sitting out back of the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, in a non-obvious parking lot, clustered with turbojets, an Avro Vulcan and a somewhat beat-up H-Bomb.
From the Senator Donne E Trotter Biography:
Senator Trotter ushered in Illinois’ first comprehensive law banning assault weapons.
From the Donne Trotter Wikipedia page:
Senator Trotter is an vocal advocate of gun control laws having cosponsored 31 bills on the issue.
Trotter on a 1995 effort in Illinois to introduce the right to carry concealed firearms:
There’s a lot of individuals out here who do look at this as an opportunity to be that vigilante, to be that support person to the police officer who isn’t there, which is one of the things we addressed just yesterday when we voted for– for — in arming and also in empowering part-time police officers. What you’re doing here just basically creating part-time police officers who have not gone through the extensive training, who have not had the psychological evaluations, who will be getting out there who feel now that they’re–they are stronger, they are badder, they are tougher because they have this nine-shooter on their hip.
And from todays news:
He had a .25 caliber Beretta and ammo in his carryon. Did he have a good excuse for this? Yes. *He* needed the gun for protection, and simply forgot it was there. Why did he need the protection? Because he works as a security guard for Allpoints Security and Detective Inc. You know… a “part-time police officer.” He’s currently earning 84 grand a year in his role as part-time state senator.
You will, I’m sure, be shocked and amazed to read that this corrupt Illinois politician is a Democrat. But then there’s also this from 2000:
“Barack is viewed in part to be the white man in blackface in our community,” says Donne Trotter, who detests Obama. “You just have to look at his supporters. Who pushed him to get where he is so fast? It’s these individuals in Hyde Park, who don’t always have the best interests of the community in mind.” … On the way there, he was asked whether he and his wife would move to Washington if he wins, as Obama would do.
“Aw, heck no!” he exploded. “That’d be suicide. You serving these people. How you gonna know what they need?”
So I have a few doubts about Eric Holder riding to Trotters rescue.
Silent footage of an A-bomb test with the added bonus of troops nearby. So unlike most a-bomb films, here you get figures in the frame that help to humanize just what’s going on. The end result is about a minute and a half of pure amazement, from about the 3:00 to about the 4:40 marks as soldiers in trenches watch the mushroom cloud grow… and then walk *towards* it.
[youtube 9_vDro76t58]
Some information is starting to emerge about the Lockheed “Cuda” missile previously discussed. “The Aviationist” has a brief article describing this as a radar guided hit-to-kill missile with no warhead… it destroys the target by actually whacking into it. While this is just dandy for taking out warheads, missiles and perhaps even fighters, it would seem minimally useful for taking out large aircraft such as transports of bombers. Sure, having something twice the size of a man ram into your plane at Mach 2 is sure going to mess up the paint job and you might need some Bondo to patch up the hole, it probably wouldn’t be as effective as a few pounds of C-4 and a bunch of nails.
The illustration shows a missile laid out much like the Harpoon anti-ship missile, but clearly meant for higher speed. The most interest aspect of the design is the cylindrical region near the nose, covered with a multitude of dots. What is this? My guess would be that this might be a large number of small solid rocket divert motors designed to help pitch the missile hard over in order to nail incoming jinking missiles head-on.