Category Archives: Technology

15 Things You Should Never Say to a Legal Gun Owner

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Quote of the Day

  1. ‘Why do you need a gun?’
    Imagine asking someone, “Why do you need freedom of speech?” Owning a gun in the United States is a constitutional right, not a “need.” People have various reasons for owning firearms, from self-defense to hunting and sport shooting. Questioning the “need” implies you know better than they do when it comes to their personal choices or safety concerns. A tad condescending, don’t you think?
  2. ‘You must be paranoid.’
    Paranoia? Really? Owning a gun doesn’t mean someone is donning a tinfoil hat and waiting for the sky to fall. For many, it’s about personal safety, the safety of loved ones, or even the enjoyment of shooting as a sport. Labeling someone as paranoid for exercising a constitutional right is a bit of a stretch.
  3. ‘Guns are the problem.’
    Ah, the reductionist argument that blames an inanimate object for the complexities of human behavior and societal issues. Gun violence is a serious matter but boiling it down to “guns are the problem” ignores the multifaceted factors like mental health, socio-economic conditions, and more. It’s not as black and white as some would like to believe.
  4. ‘Gun-free zones work.’
    Cute idea, except for the pesky detail that many public shootings occur in designated gun-free zones. The concept ignores the fact that those bent on doing harm are not likely to be deterred by a sign on the door.
  5. ‘The Second Amendment is outdated.’
    The notion that any part of the Constitution is “outdated” opens a can of worms. Are other rights outdated too? The Second Amendment exists for multiple reasons, and its modern applicability is still a topic of fervent debate. Dismissing it as “outdated” is dismissive of that ongoing conversation.
  6. ‘You’re compensating for something.’
    Oh, the classic Freudian jab. This cliché suggests that owning a gun is a form of overcompensation for personal inadequacies. It’s a cheap shot (pun intended) that does nothing to further a constructive conversation about gun ownership or gun control.
  7. ‘You must be a Republican.’
    Ah, yes, because only Republicans appreciate constitutional rights? Gun ownership exists across the political spectrum, and assuming otherwise only serves to perpetuate divisions and stereotypes.
  8. ‘Only the police should have guns.’
    Entrusting an entire society’s safety solely to the police assumes an infallibility that no institution possesses. It also ignores the importance some place on personal freedom and self-defense.
  9. ‘It’s too easy to get a gun.’
    Before making this sweeping statement, perhaps consider the background checks, waiting periods, and federal and state laws that exist. “Easy” is a relative term and assumes that current laws aren’t stringent or effective.
  10. ‘Assault weapon bans work.’
    Defining “assault weapon” is notoriously tricky, and evidence on the effectiveness of bans is mixed. Saying they “work” is a one-size-fits-all statement that ignores the complexities of the issue.
  11. ‘Only criminals have guns.’
    If this were true, we’d have a country full of criminals. Millions of law-abiding Americans own guns for a variety of legitimate purposes. Conflating legal gun ownership with criminal activity is not just inaccurate; it’s disrespectful to a large part of the population.
  12. ‘You shouldn’t have a gun if you have kids.’
    This one assumes that gun owners are inherently irresponsible when it comes to storage and safety. Many gun owners who are parents take extra precautions to ensure their firearms are stored safely, away from their children. Just like you’d childproof your home for other hazards, the same goes for firearms.
  13. ‘You must be a gun nut.’
    For some reason, an interest in firearms gets stigmatized as an obsession or a sign of paranoia. Let’s remember that owning a gun doesn’t necessarily make someone a “gun nut” any more than owning a car makes someone a “car nut.” People own guns for various reasons: sport, hunting, and self-defense, among others. Labeling someone as a “gun nut” simply for owning a gun is a dismissive way to avoid more nuanced conversations about individual rights and responsibilities.
  14. ‘Guns kill people.’
    This is the “IT argument” that gets rolled out in every gun debate. While it’s true that firearms can be used to harm others, placing the blame solely on the inanimate object oversimplifies a complex issue. Most legal gun owners would point out that a gun, like a car or a knife, is a tool; it requires a human to operate it. They argue that the focus should be on responsible ownership and usage, rather than demonizing the object itself. This phrase can shut down meaningful dialogue about issues like gun safety, mental health, and responsible ownership.
  15. ‘You’re part of the problem.’
    The ol’ blame game—a classic! By declaring a legal gun owner as “part of the problem,” you’re not just tossing a Molotov cocktail into a nuanced debate; you’re also casually ignoring the fact that many gun owners are fervent advocates for responsible gun use and safety measures. Way to lump everyone together! This kind of accusatory tone isn’t just an over-simplification; it’s a conversation ender. If the goal is to alienate someone rather than discuss the complexities of gun ownership and societal issues, then bravo, mission accomplished!

Casey Lee
November 7, 2023
15 things you should never say to a legal gun owner

This set of statements was suggested to me by Microsoft Start (the default startup page with the Edge browser). I am rather impressed with it. It frequently suggests interesting articles about selecting a gun or a change in guns laws. I used to have Google News as my startup landing page. I never saw articles which portrayed gun owners as reasonable people or gun ownership as a civil right.

I suspect Microsoft created an algorithm to show me things I have expressed an interest in and just let it do it’s thing.

I suspect Google puts their thumb on the scales of what they believe is appropriate for people to read and think.

I have long considered Google to be evil. Nothing has changed to suggest I should change my mind.

Anti-Aging Vaccine Failure?

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This was almost a year ago. I wonder how it turned out:

Scientists will trial a new longevity drug in the UK next year that they say could increase the life expectancy of some people to up to 120 years of age.

Researchers are developing a treatment that could significantly increase a person’s healthy lifespan and, in turn, their longevity, by boosting their immune systems. This has been made possible after they found a way to slow down – and potentially even prevent – the natural ageing of T cells, a key part of our immune defences.

…

Professor Lanna has set up a London-based company called SentCell to develop the vaccine, which he says will be trialled in humans in 2023.

Asked roughly how long a person’s life could potentially be extended by this vaccine, if effective, he said “120 years”.

“[The trial] will happen in the UK next year and we expect the drug in the market as soon as possible. I cannot say more because it is confidential,” he said.

I can find lots of references in the 2018 to 2022 time frame, but nothing since then.

I asked Bing Chat for the results of the human trials and it responded with, “I’m sorry, but as of my last update in 2021, I don’t have the most recent information on the results of the human trials for the anti-aging treatment developed by Professor Alessio Lanna and his team at University College London.”

Their web site doesn’t have any information from 2023 either. I suspect things didn’t work out very well.

Plastic Stronger Than Steel

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This was nearly two years ago. Where can I get a plastic gun barrel for my .300 Win Mag?

Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.

Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.

“We don’t usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things,” he says. “It has very unusual properties and we’re very excited about that.”

See also Irreversible synthesis of an ultrastrong two-dimensional polymeric material | Nature.

Fallout Shelters

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I stumbled across some interesting facts on fallout shelters (emphasis added):

The former Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack. Currently, the deepest subway line in the world is situated in St Petersburg in Russia, with an average depth of 60 meters, while the deepest subway station is Arsenalna in Kyiv, at 105.5 meters.[14]

Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81%,[15] and Switzerland for 114%.

…

Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963).[24] Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12-megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.

Those Swiss! See also:

Build Your Own Underground Shelter

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Very cool!

Unlimited Thrust and Delta V

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Quote of the Day

Deploying Quantum Drive into orbit in a Rogue satellite on SpaceX Transporter 9 is a milestone for the future of space propulsion.

…

Quantum Drive’s capability allows Rogue to produce new satellite vehicles with unlimited Delta V.

…

There are many things that have held back space exploration, one of them of course is power and propulsion.

…

IVO’s quantum drive eliminates this propulsion problem by eliminating the fuel. By taking away the fuel, then you have essentially unlimited thrust.

Richard Mansell
IVO chief executive
November 18, 2023
SpaceX launches ‘zero fuel’ engine into space

Interesting. I like living in the future.

This will be very cool… If it actually works.

Consider me a little bit skeptical.

Living in the Future

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Artificial leaves can now directly make liquid fuels:

Powered only by sunlight, a new device converts carbon dioxide and water to liquid fuels that could be directly used in car engines.

The device, presented in the journal Nature Energy, is the latest evolution of an artificial leaf. Researchers have been working for years on such systems that mimic photosynthesis to sustainably produce fuels at low cost. Previous artificial leaves produced simple products like carbon monoxide and hydrogen. But the new one takes an important step forward by making energy-dense ethanol and propanol fuels.

They say that currently it is not very efficient. With photovoltaic cell being mature and with excellent efficiency the artificial leaves have a strong competitor. The advantage the leaves have is on the storage side of things.

The fuel releases CO2 when burned. But because the leaves originally pulled the carbon from the air, the fuel will be carbon neutral. Technically, it will not be a fossil fuel.

This will be interesting to watch.

I love living in the future.

Boomershoot Mortars

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I was looking for a blog post of mine referencing the bowling ball mortars which visited Boomershoot a few times. A day or two later Bing Chat sent me an alert on my cell phone with with a link to the following:

Boomershoot mortars are a type of homemade artillery that can launch projectiles such as bowling balls, paint cans, or even stuffed animals at high velocities and distances. They are often used by enthusiasts of the Boomershoot event, which is a long-range precision rifle shooting event with high explosive targets12

Some of the key features and uses of boomershoot mortars are:

I hope this helps you learn more about the fascinating world of boomershoot mortars. If you want to see some examples of boomershoot mortars in action, you can watch this video: BOWLING BALL MORTARS AT THE BOOMERSHOOT.

The narrative is not too far of from reality. But it certainly isn’t correct either.Some obvious inaccuracies are:

  • Mortars have never been used to hit our reactive targets.
  • I do not recall anything other than bowling balls being used for projectiles.
  • No projectiles have been launched further than about 400 yards. And that was at an angle across the range rather than directly downrange.
  • To the best of my knowledge no one as estimated the altitude of the projectiles and I am very skeptical any of them have been near 1000 feet.

Keep all this in mind when you use or read something generated by the new chat AIs.

New Stable Elements May Have Been Found

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Quote of the Day

Now a team at the University of Arizona in Tucson has made a mystifying and “exciting” discovery while analyzing an incredibly dense asteroid named 33 Polyhymnia. The asteroid — named after the Greek muse of sacred hymns — is so dense that researchers theorize that it may be made up of elements not contained on the periodic table.

…

In a study published in mid-September in The European Physical Journal Plus, researchers concluded that Polyhymnia has a measured density higher than those of any elements known to exist on Earth.

Eric Lagatta
October 19, 2023
Study: Asteroid known as Polyhymnia may contain ‘superheavy’ elements unknown to humans

It may be “interesting” trying to bring back samples. Imagine trying to use a stick to scrape a sample off the turret of a modern tank. That asteroid is going to be an alloy of some sort…

We live in interesting times.

Cyborg Rights

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Quote of the Day

Over the past half-century, the microprocessor’s capacity has doubled approximately every 18-24 months, and some experts predict that by 2030, machine intelligence could surpass human capabilities. The question then arises: When machines reach human-level intelligence, should they be granted protection and rights? Will they desire and perhaps even demand such rights?

Zoltan Istvan
October 19, 2023
Creating Sapient Technology and Cyborg Rights Should Happen Soon

Interesting questions. Just wait until artificial life forms are allowed to vote and they multiply at exponential rates. Things will get really interesting then.

Patent 4,412,299

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Due to a recently issued patent I now am the sole inventor on three different patents. For various personal reasons I am not very public about the details of two of them. However, the first one, 4,412,299, does not share those concerns.

The title is Phase Jitter Detector. This was an invention to help meet speech immunity requirements for a Touch-Tone receiver. What is “speech immunity?” It turns out that because the old analog phone lines used the same channel for voice and signaling (the Touch-Tone digits) background speech, music, and other sounds would sometimes simulate a Touch-Tone digit with sufficient accuracy to insert a false digit into your dialed number. This false digit would result in a wrong number.

The problem increased in severity as the dynamic range of the receiver increased. With some reasonable precautions the problem was kept under control with normal subscriber to central office communications. But in the late 1970s and 1980s companies were creating things which they wanted to be able to remotely control. Examples from that time are answering machines to private branch exchanges (remember “dial nine for an outside line?”) where you could call the “main number” and then dial “One for Parts, two for Service, three for Sales, etc.. The receivers used for subscriber-to-subscriber communications required nearly twice the dynamic range of subscriber to central office communication. With this requirement the speech immunity problems went way up.

You could design a receiver which would would avoid the speech hits but in doing so you reduced the noise immunity of the receiver. A small amount of noise would prevent the detection of valid Touch-Tone digits. In other words, there is a trade-off between speech immunity and noise immunity. In the subscriber-to-subscriber signaling case you needed far better than normal noise immunity while retaining whatever speech immunity you could.

This speech immunity versus noise problem inspired me to get my master’s degree in electrical engineering. The graph below is from my thesis:

image

IIRC, the minimum A-level for subscriber to C.O. signaling was about –28 dBm. For subscriber-to-subscriber signaling the minimum A-level was about –40 dBm. Using a standard test tape from AT&T and a receiver without any guarding against speech hits the number of speech hits nearly tripled for this lower signal strength acceptance level.

My invention enabled the accurate distinction between a true Touch-Tone signal and speech/music/etc. which imitated a Touch-Tone digit. The receiver utilizing this invention, TelTone’s M-937 Touch-Tone Receiver, was able to meet any published requirements for subscriber-to-subscriber receivers for both noise and speech immunity. To the best of my knowledge no other production receiver was ever able to make that claim.

Legal Issue in Cyber Security

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I’m deliberately changing the details to protect the guilty, but I’m nearly certain the essence of the situation are legally the same as what I describe below.

Suppose a cyber security professional (CSP) obtained the username and password credentials of a bad guy (BG) who had poor operational security. The BG didn’t intend to reveal the credentials but the CSP has them and knows the BG is in the process of obtaining credentials via deceptive means from the organization the CSP works for.

The CSP, by using the credentials of the BG, can rapidly mitigate damage done by the deceptively obtained corporate credentials.

While everyone on the CSP’s team sees this as morally justified, one team member (WB) throws a wet blanket on the CSP’s plan to use the BG’s credentials to get information the BG’s intended to keep private and use for ill gotten gains. WB claims that, legally, the BG credentials have been “stolen” and should the CSP use them to surreptitiously access the BG’s data the CSP would be committing a crime.

I’m almost certain this is a crime, if not the U.S. then some other countries which may or may not be involved. And, if the CSP were do this, I’m almost certain it would never be prosecuted. But committing felonies you think you are going to get away with doesn’t seem like a particularly good item to put on your resume or even admit to others.

What do you guys think of this?

The New Pill Found to Reverse the Aging Process

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So when will this be available over the counter?

According to the new research, the scientists conducted a Nobel-prize winning discovery reprogramming cells to a more youthful state. Over the course of three years, following thorough investigations involving mice and monkeys, the researchers pinpointed a specific combination of drugs capable of counteracting cellular aging and rejuvenating cells. The “six chemical cocktails” indicates potential to reverse the aging process in under a week.

I love living in the future.

Young Mammalian Blood Treatment

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Quote of the Day

In a bizarre experiment researchers from US and Russia connected the circulatory systems of young and old mice for a whole 12 weeks, slowing the older animals’ cellular aging and increasing their lifespan by as much as 10 percent.

The study expands on previous research showing there are components in young mammalian blood worth investigating for anti-aging health benefits.

Tessa Koumoundouros
August 8, 2023
Scientists Connected Old Mice to Young Mice, And It Rejuvenated Them

Doesn’t this mean there should be something to be found in the blood of the young that could possibly be synthesized and used as a treatment for the old?

I like living in the future.

Simulation “To Do” note

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Quote of the Day

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a giant cosmic question mark in space that has baffled scientists.

The team operating the telescope at the European Space Agency released an image on Wednesday that offered the most detailed look yet at two actively forming young stars located some 1470 light-years from Earth in the Vela Constellation.

The two dazzling stars, named Herbig-Haro 46/47, were seen surrounded by a disk of material that “feeds” them as they grow for millions of years.

But just below them, in the background of the stunning deep-space image, was an object that resembled a huge, red question mark suspended in the night sky.

It’s unclear what the strange object might be.

image

Chloe Whelan
August 8, 2023
Cosmic question mark discovered in deep-space by the James Webb Space Telescope

Meh. It is just the rendering of a “To Do” note in the simulation code.

You CAN Survive a Nuke Attack

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Quote of the Day

You CAN survive a nuke attack … but you MUST make an effort to learn what to do! By learning about potential threats, we are all better prepared to know how to react if something happens.

Janet Liebsch
February 27, 2022
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM NUCLEAR FALLOUT (TIPS ABOUT RADIATION, BUILDING AN EXPEDIENT SHELTER AND MORE)

The almost offhand post the other day about a Geiger counter had so many comments that I thought I would do a little more research on the topic.

The linked article above is pretty good stuff. It gives you the basics of the various types of threats such as initial blast and radiation, fallout radiation, and types of radiation (alpha, beta, gamma). Then it goes into types of shelters including how to make an expedient shelter.

If you are thinking of building an underground bunker then these have more detailed information:

The bottom line is:

To survive a nuclear blast, you would need to be at least 3 feet deep underground. Also, you need to be at least 36 inches of concrete or tightly-packed dirt to shield you from the blast radius.

There are other options to dirt and concrete, but in most cases those would be the cheapest.

To figure out the blast radius for the targets nearest to your bunker read Are You Living in a Nuclear Death Zone? Find Out with the U.S. Nuclear Target Map and use this nuke map.

The article also includes this image of the supposed Primary target locations for Soviet nuclear strikes during 1980s:

image

I am more than a bit skeptical because, while I can understand Boomershoot being a primary target, Boomershoot didn’t even exist until 1998.

SkyNet Smiles

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This is getting creepy:

Scientists Are Frighteningly Close to Achieving Synthetic Biological Intelligence

  • A group of researchers have already grown brain cells on silicon chips and then taught them to perform tasks.

  • This merging of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology opens a new realm of continual machine learning.

  • A $600,000 AUD Australian national intelligence grant continues to the research into the “cyborg computing chips.”

Lab-grown synthetic brain cells can already learn tasks. Now, the same team that brought us 800,000 Pong-playing brain cells living in a dish has received $600,000 AUD from Australia’s National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants Program to further push these lab-grown brain cells embedded onto silicon chips into the world of machine learning.

This entire project “merges the fields of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to create programmable biological computing platforms,” Adeel Razi, associate professor at Monash University’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, says in a news release. “This new technology capability in future may eventually surpass the performance of existing, purely silicon-based hardware.”

I feel like there is some sort of moral boundary being breached. But it is hard to articulate exactly what is wrong.

The Super Safety

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I love it when people drive trucks through the cracks of illegal gun laws:

Via Hoffman Tactical @HoffmanTactical.

Twitter is About To Go Away

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Via Elon Musk:

http://X.com now points to https://twitter.com/.

Interim X logo goes live later today.

Interesting.

Questions:

  • What should we call tweeting? (Also Musk)
  • Will I be able to update all my links to Twitter posts by just changing “twitter.com” to “x.com”.?
  • Does this mean the #TwitterFiles are now the #Xfiles ? (via Colt @coltholomew)

Unintended Consequences

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The first sentence of this article is totally bogus. So who knows what to make of the following quote:

Climate Collapse Could Happen Fast

James Hansen, one of the early voices on climate, says that measures to mitigate the crisis may now, ironically, be contributing to it. He published a working paper this spring suggesting that a reduction in sulfate aerosol particles—or the air pollution associated with burning coal and the global shipping industry—has contributed to warmer temperatures. That’s because these particles cause water droplets to multiply, which brightens clouds and reflects solar heat away from the planet’s surface. Though the paper has not been peer-reviewed, Hansen predicts that environmentally minded policies to reduce these pollutants will likely cause temperatures to rise by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.

Assuming it is true, I find it amusing that if we do have global warming problems we can blame it on the environmentalists and truthfully insist the cure is to crank up the coal fired power plants.

The problem is we are dealing with an incredible complex, non-linear, system with variables and values we not only don’t know about, but are unknowable, and interact with unknowable effects.