Will chain mail make a comeback?

 blather, Hmm..., I'm from the government, Meh., politics, science, ಠ_ಠ  6 Responses »
Jan 232013
 

It has been a long time since mail was a common item of dress. However, I think if I had to go to New York in the future, I’d look into getting some mail, perhaps incorporated into a long coat. Why? Well, it’d be heavy, and would thus make for a decent workout. Plus, it’d be handy if someone tried to stab me. But most importantly: to annoy the New York police state.

NYPD Commissioner says department will begin testing  a new high-tech device that scans for concealed weapons

The NYPD is procuring some nice expensive scanners that can apparently “see” concealed weapons. The description in the article is a bit fuzzy… it claims that “people and inanimate objects” emit terahertz radiation, which concealed guns would block, and would thus be visible to the scanner. But regardless of how it works, a metal mesh – such as a mail jacket – would seem likely to well and truly mess with the scanning system. Not to mention metal detectors, of course.

It’s irritating enough to be under a microscope at an airport, which at least has the excuse of being private property. But out on the street? Bah. Seems a 4th Amendment issue.

I’m not alone in this, either…

Anti-Drone Camouflage: What to Wear in Total Surveillance

Fight the machine.

 Posted by at 5:50 pm

I *guess* this is a happy ending… I guess…

 AARRRGH, bachelow chow, Gah.  No Responses »
Jan 232013
 

Neighbor’s son rescues man from apartment fire

Read the first sentence and tell me just how happy a story this really is.

Via, unsurprisingly, Fark, where we get relevant comments such as:

That shiat is like the first few minutes of Up.

and

There’s an old guy that hangs out at the bar I frequent….one day a couple of years ago, he comes up and asked me to sign his birthday card….that he bought for himself for his 75th b-day…felt kinda bad for the guy..so, I signed it, and bought him a beer and then played Happy Birthday on the jukebox for him, at which time, he promptly starts crying and won’t stop thanking me and shaking my hand….then I just felt horrible for the old guy, realizing that his only “friends” were those of us he see’s at the bar once or twice a week.


 Posted by at 3:56 pm

Meanwhile, in Utah…

 blather, news, politics, Utah, weapons  2 Responses »
Jan 232013
 

While New York and Massachusetts and the like are falling all over themselves to strip their subjects of more and more rights, in Utah we’re seeing this:

Proposal: No permit needed to carry concealed weapon in Utah

——–

Utah bill would do away with need for concealed-gun permit

In short, this would make Utah a “Constitutional Carry” state, like Vermont. While this is undeniably the more Constitutionally proper approach, it does have some practical concerns. Primary, at least to me, is that a Utahn might grow up under Constitutional Carry, and then make the mistake of leaving the state. Even though many states recognize the Utah concealed carry permit, if you don’t *have* a permit, suddenly you’d be in legal trouble.

Also: CCW permit holders have a statistically significant lower crime rate than non-permit holders. Even the virulently hoplophobic “Violence Policy Center” supports this fact. (There approximately 8,590,000 CCW holders in the US; the VPC claims 499 “Total people killed by concealed carry killers,” from May 2007 to the present. This works out to very roughly 84 people killed by CCW’ers per year, out of a population of 8.5 million… a killing rate of 0.98 per 100,000 per year. The US as a whole has a murder rate of 4.8 per 100,000; event the vaunted Brits come in at 1.2). But if Utah goes to a Constitutional carry, then those stats go out the window; every gangbanger with a gat will now be counted as a “legal concealed carry” type by the political hoplophobes.

—-

Fun fact: Chicago has a population of 2.7 million, of whom essentially none are legal CCW holders. In 2012, Chicagoans killed more people than the three-times larger population of CCW’ers killed in nearly six years. This means that your average CCW’er is 18 times less likely to shoot you for no good reason than the average Chicagoan.

 Posted by at 12:21 pm

Funniest Invented Outrage You’ll See Today

 Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., humor, news, politics  No Responses »
Jan 232013
 

So the French military is fighting in Mali. A helicopter comes in to pick up some soldiers; the soldiers – not unreasonably – raise their scarves to cover their faces to protect from the dust. One of the soldiers has a scarf with a skull pattern on it. “GASP! Shock! I feel I may swoon!”

The Silly Outrage Over A Soldier Wearing A ”Call Of Duty” Mask

 Posted by at 10:44 am

Oh boy! Mayhem!

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Hmm..., news, nukes, politics, ಠ_ಠ  2 Responses »
Jan 232013
 

First China warns of war with Japan, now India warns of tossing nukes back and forth with Pakistan. Hmm. Perhaps that whole “how will the environment *possibly* survive the teeming billions of India and China attaining vastly greater living standards” problem may be resolved soon. Or maybe it’s just the usual saber-rattling for political effect.

India warns of nuclear threat to Kashmir

OFFICIALS in India-controlled Kashmir are warning people to build bomb-proof basements, store enough food and water for two weeks and be prepared for a possible nuclear war.

An all-out nuclear war between the Indians and the Pakis would be a firecracker compared to old-school USA-USSR global thermonuclear war, but it would still raise hell outside of their borders. You’d have all the radioactive crap chucked into the atmosphere, a bunch of which would probably come down on China. Then there’d be all the smoke which would reduce insolation and lower global temperature, competing with all the new CO2 trying to raise it (I’d guess the cooling effect would win). Then there’d be the billion or so Indian/Paki refugees trying to get somewhere else (maybe 100, 200 million make it to the EU – *that* would be fun to watch); then there’d be their neighbors and downwinders freaking out. Then there’d be not-immediately-related wars popping off… I’d bet the Middle East would burst into flames overnight. Then there’d be the global economic collapse. And the worry about, in the confusion, did anybody misplace a nuke? Not to mention the possibility that a nuke might get shot in the wrong direction or overshoot (I could see Afghanistan catching an errant nuke; Iran, less likely unless the Pakis launch one 180-degress off-axis). The Chinese catch a nuke or their systems get fried by an EMP, and someone decides to pull the trigger on Russia, Taiwan or Japan.

[youtube OoUdgBWLJxA]

A Pan-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere Internal Nuclear War would make for some dandy sunsets. Just keep the nukings to yourselves, ok, fellas? The US has enough trouble right now without getting sucked into another dreary world war.

 Posted by at 1:05 am

Anybody have AutoCAD?

 blather, drawings, Gah.  10 Responses »
Jan 222013
 

I use an ancient edition of AutoCAD 2000 for my 2D drafting needs (such as all the illustrations for “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion”). But I’m running up against the clock… ACAD2K won’t even *try* to load on Windows 7. And apart from one elderly laptop, everything I have now is Windows 7. So, when that one laptop finally goes *sput,* I’ll be SOL.

Sadly, more recent versions of AutoCAD cost four grand or more, more than an order of magnitude more than I can even dream about spending. I procured a copy of “TurboCAD Designer 2D,” only to find out after I got it that it does *not* support importing raster images (BMPs, GIFs, etc), a function I *need* to have in order to trace diagrams and the like. So it’s useless to me (plus it’s enough unlike ACAD that it’s a pain to use… no text inputting of commands! bah!). Rhino is so-so for 2D drafting, but it only supports importing very small raster images… too small to maintain detail.

So… does anyone have a copy of some version of AutoCAD that will work on Windows 7 you’d be willing to sell me at a reasonable price? And is that even possible, now that, I think, AutoCAD is one of those “licensed” programs that will only work on certain authorized computers?

 Posted by at 8:12 pm

Dolphin

 awesomeness, critters, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 222013
 

Here’s a heck of a thing. A recent video of some divers at night off Hawaii observing manta rays, when a bottlenose dolphin swims up to them. it had a fishing hook in its left pectoral fin, and a bunch of fishing line wrapped around that fin and into its mouth reducing range of motion. It swam directly up to one of the divers who proceeded to remove the fishing line with a multi-tool. The dolphin tolerated the procedure, then swam away.

It’s always unwise to anthropomorphize non-human critters, but this sure does look like the dolphin came to humans for help. Luckily for the dolphin, it found the right humans.

[youtube CCXx2bNk6UA]

 Posted by at 12:39 am

Death Panels

 blather, Forward!, I'm from the government, news, politics  No Responses »
Jan 212013
 

From the Japan Times:

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso caused a stir Monday in talks on social security reforms when he said the medical system should be changed so that the many terminal patients now using “government money” for expensive treatment “can quickly pass away.”

This was a personal statement, not a government position (apparently), but unpleasant as it sounds, it seems pretty much inevitable… and more or less sensible. If you are being kept alive on someone else’s money, and the money runs out, it’s not at all clear to me that there are really many options.

A market-driven system where patients pay for their own treatment would lead to competing companies trying to produce increasingly inexpensive and powerful treatments, in order to get your money. With a single-payer system, there’s little drive to innovate for improvement, and none at all to reduce cost in techniques and technologies. So cost must be saved by simply rationing care and pulling plugs.

 Posted by at 11:57 pm

I’m A Stupid Cat

 awesomeness, cats, humor, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 212013
 

The lyrics in this song are not even *close* to being safe for work, but that doesn’t stop it from being not only hilarious, but spot-on accurate. If you haven’t known a cat that this song could have been written for, you haven’t known too many cats. It’s a dead-nuts accurate representation of Buttons and the late lamented Fluffy.

[youtube qpl5mOAXNl4]

 Posted by at 5:24 pm
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