Consolation prize

Posted on by

This is very, very cool:

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner plans to spend $100 million over the next few years to begin developing the technology needed to build a giant laser array to propel swarms of postage stamp-size spacecraft off on 20-year-long interstellar flights to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the sun, the internet investor announced Tuesday.

The tiny 1-gram nanocraft, or “StarChips,” would be equipped with small, ultra-thin light sails and accelerated, one at a time, to 20 percent the speed of light by a powerful half-mile-wide array of ground-based lasers, boosting them to a cruise velocity of some 37,200 miles per second in a few minutes.

From that point on, the tiny spacecraft would sail on their own across the immense 4.3-light-year — 25-trillion-mile — gulf, flying through the Alpha Centauri system about 20 years after launch. Each surviving “spacecraft on a chip” would snap pictures and beam the data back to Earth using tiny on-board lasers, the faint signals arriving four years later.

The G-forces are very high and that would make scaling it up to be a manned starship a huge challenge:

The collimated beam hitting the sail of a nanocraft would accelerate it to cruise velocity in about two minutes, he said, briefly subjecting the craft to 60,000 times the force of Earth’s gravity

When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 I expected I would be alive to see colonies on the moon and perhaps even visit the moon myself. That seems very unlikely at this point. But it’s plausible that I will be alive to see the pictures taken from within a million miles from Alpha Centauri. That’s something I didn’t imagine and is a certain amount of consolation.

Quote of the day—Carry Sword in France

Posted on by

Because-as society evolves, governments can no longer deal effectively with violence ever-present in our streets. Because-all citizens should have the right to defend itself, to ensure its security when the forces of order are absent or impotent. We French of all backgrounds, faiths and political tendencies united in this petition are asking the legitimate right to carry a firearm.

Carry Sword in France.
We ask the government to order the establishment of a decree authorizing all citizens to be entitled to carry a firearm in France
[I’m not sure about the organization, the date, and the translation in general, but the sentiment is fairly clear.

As Paul Koning said, “If that petition succeeds, the French will have a concealed carry system about as friendly as that of California. I suppose it’s a start.”

H/T to Andrew Benghazi.—Joe]

1990 interview of Donald Trump

Posted on by

I found this 1990 interview of Donald Trump fascinating. He wasn’t trying to get votes at the time and perhaps it gives us better insight into his, if he has any, basic principles.

Attention coin collectors!

Posted on by

I don’t collect coins but maybe someone else would be interested in this. It’s definitely not something you are going to be finding in the change you get at the grocery store:

Million_Dollar_Coin_MountiesThe coins were minted by the world renowned Royal Canadian Mint, which operates world-class refineries, as well as minting Canadian bullion coin products including the popular Canadian Maple Leaf gold and silver bullion coins (0.9999 pure or 24 karat).

Coin Specifications

  • Face Value: $1,000,000
  • Composition: 99999 fine gold
  • Weight (troy oz): 3,215
  • Weight (kg): 100
  • Coins in Existence Worldwide: 5
  • Coins Currently for Sale Worldwide: 1

Quote of the day—Leftside Annie‏@LeftsideAnnie

Posted on by

@BrowningMachine Even more ironic that one who substitutes an instrument of killing for their tiny penis projects that onto me. #justsaying

Leftside Annie‏@LeftsideAnnie
Tweeted on October 20, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a Tweet from Linoge.

It’s very telling we have the facts and SCOTUS decisions on our side and the best they can muster is childish insults.—Joe]

Steel challenge match results

Posted on by

I attended the Steel Challenge match at the Renton and Fish and Game Club today. I’m moderately satisfied.  I was first in Iron Sighted Pistol (ISP). But there were only three of us in that division. I came in 5th out of 13 in Rim Fire Pistol Iron (RFPI) sighted. I had two jams with the rim fire pistol. I called mulligan with one of them and got to shoot that string over. I was 12 seconds down from the next higher scoring shooter. The four shooters above me are all in the super squad of junior shooters who won nationals last year so I don’t feel bad getting beat by them. They are out of my league.

Compared to last month my ISP time went from 91.41 seconds to 78.37 seconds. I was shooting the reduced power Blue Bullets which almost for certain accounted for some of the improvement.

Comparing my RFPI time to last month I went from 64.47 seconds to 66.19 seconds. This difference is in the noise because we were shooting different courses of fire. These differences will easily account for the differences in time.

Steve, from work, showed up and watched the first stage we shot. He also took some great pictures of me. My favorite is this one:

1039-017

Although there is one picture with brass in the air and another with the gun in recoil that are also pretty cool.

The results:

Combined
Final Name SCSA Class Division Time Stage 1 Go Fast Stage 2 New Steel Stage 3 Focus Stage 4 In And Out
1 Miner, Bradley Jr U RFPI 40.83 8.53 9.76 10.79 11.75
2 Sailer, Christian A86982 U RFPI 41.16 7.35 10.47 12.61 10.73
3 Hong, Robert U RFRO 44.44 7.58 13.87 10.80 12.19
4 White, Alex U RFPI 46.12 10.02 11.22 12.92 11.96
5 Mon Wai, Damon U RFRI 48.91 9.37 13.10 13.17 13.27
6 Alvarez, Cel A15861 U RFPO 49.22 9.23 13.91 13.82 12.26
7 Sailer, Christian A86982 U PROD 50.33 9.86 13.87 13.32 13.28
8 Komatsu, Jeff U RFRO 51.74 12.86 15.58 11.90 11.40
9 Larson, Addison U RFPI 54.09 7.85 15.28 14.94 16.02
10 Kanter, Jeffrey U RFPO 54.54 10.19 16.58 12.13 15.64
11 dong, james U RFRO 58.24 9.93 15.20 17.30 15.81
12 dong, james U OPN 60.48 10.72 16.95 16.73 16.08
13 Meisner, Matthew U RFRO 61.61 9.65 17.06 14.26 20.64
14 Rich, Troy U RFRO 64.13 11.28 16.51 15.28 21.06
15 Huffman, Joseph U RFPI 66.19 10.32 16.85 18.88 20.14
16 Cheesman, Enrique U OPN 66.55 11.42 18.03 15.82 21.28
17 Miner, Bradley Jr U PROD 66.78 13.07 20.11 18.24 15.36
18 Eyi, John U OPN 66.86 12.02 16.11 17.00 21.73
19 Tsang, Keith a71578 U OPN 70.04 15.05 17.92 19.40 17.67
20 Firth, Sam U RFPO 71.30 16.42 17.60 18.27 19.01
21 Mortell, Jeffery U RFPI 74.48 11.58 20.27 19.88 22.75
22 Waak, Jim U RFRO 75.49 10.74 17.81 22.25 24.69
23 Meboe, Greg U PROD 76.31 13.24 19.65 19.82 23.60
24 Meboe, Oscar U RFRO 76.31 11.16 25.78 18.49 20.88
25 Bakken, Lance U RFPI 77.55 15.10 21.03 20.69 20.73
26 Huffman, Joseph U ISP 78.37 13.40 21.12 21.44 22.41
27 Bakken, Lance U RFPO 78.45 13.99 19.71 23.39 21.36
28 Meboe, Joey U RFPI 79.00 10.10 25.02 22.17 21.71
29 Mon Wai, Damon U PROD 79.90 12.52 20.59 24.23 22.56
30 Rich, Troy U RFPO 80.16 16.13 22.42 20.51 21.10
31 Jackson, Duane U RFPI 84.23 12.77 20.00 24.55 26.91
32 Mortell, Jeffery U PROD 87.48 15.57 22.29 25.53 24.09
33 Lai, Daniel TY44166 U OSR 87.70 15.82 20.52 25.63 25.73
34 Lai, Daniel TY44166 U OPN 88.52 15.28 22.24 22.12 28.88
35 Miner, Bradley Sr U ISP 89.35 17.47 25.88 24.22 21.78
36 Komatsu, Jeff U PROD 89.82 16.36 25.68 23.57 24.21
37 Pacczosa, Dan A492542 U PROD 90.23 12.91 20.89 24.74 31.69
38 White, Eric U PROD 94.78 13.64 24.01 29.42 27.71
39 Gile, Conner U RFPI 95.31 10.21 24.97 25.83 34.30
40 Hong, Robert U PROD 98.11 14.55 29.67 27.56 26.33
41 Meboe, Isabelle U RFPI 99.67 11.04 25.66 33.40 29.57
42 Jackson, Duane U ISR 100.72 13.84 26.49 29.15 31.24
43 Kanter, Jeffrey U ISP 101.33 13.62 25.38 28.09 34.24
44 Wood, Sabrina U RFPI 158.27 17.46 42.64 46.29 51.88
45 Whitlock, John U PROD 162.33 23.83 42.29 47.12 49.09
46 Arthur, Alan U PROD 168.60 22.39 58.19 48.84 39.18
47 Gray, Jeff U PROD 179.84 32.85 62.02 38.86 46.11
48 Wood, Sabrina U RFPI – – – – –

As a counter to the claim that old, fat, racist, white guys dominate the gun ownership ranks I found it interesting that of the seven guys on our squad only two were white guys. There were four people of Asian descent, and one Hispanic.

Quote of the day—Alan Korwin

Posted on by

The left can’t pass any common-sense gun legislation because they aren’t proposing any.

Alan Korwin
March 21, 2016
KORWIN: Moderate Judges, Armed Teachers And Guns Are Germs – Three Myths We Just Busted
[Korwin has a way with words that dramatically clarifies the issue.—Joe]

Taking sides

Posted on by

While I understand that losing your wife and two young daughters can really mess up your mind, that doesn’t mean the media should be putting pushing his ideas without any balance:

I find that pretty revolting to think … that younger children can walk onto a firing range,” Mikac said.

He warned against allowing children to see guns as something fun.

“I just think it’s crazy.”

This makes it crystal clear the media has taken sides.

Suicide and guns

Posted on by

Washington State just passed a law regarding suicide by gun. As I started read the first article on the topic I was highly skeptical:

My husband died by suicide. Here’s what happened during my awkward call with the NRA.

It wasn’t the hardest phone call I’ve ever made, but it was certainly awkward. I was cold-calling the National Rifle Association. Because the NRA is well-known for offering gun safety training, I wanted to know whether the organization had ideas on how to reduce the number of firearm suicides.

…

But I learned a couple of surprising things from that call and the many follow-up meetings with a local NRA lobbyist and the executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation.

First, they were not just willing to talk but also willing to listen.

The details of the law are here. The voting is telling:

Passed by the House March 8, 2016  Yeas 94  Nays 2

Passed by the Senate March 1, 2016  Yeas 47  Nays 0

Basically the law requires a task force, in part, to:

(a) Develop and prepare to disseminate online trainings on suicide awareness and prevention for firearms dealers and their employees and firearm range owners and their employees;
(b) In consultation with the department of fish and wildlife, review the firearm safety pamphlet produced by the department of fish and wildlife under RCW 9.41.310 and, by January 1, 2017, recommend changes to the pamphlet to incorporate information on suicide awareness and prevention;
(c) Develop suicide awareness and prevention messages for posters and brochures that are tailored to be effective for firearms owners for distribution to firearms dealers and firearm ranges;
(d) Develop suicide awareness and prevention messages for posters and brochures for distribution to pharmacies;
(e) In consultation with the department of fish and wildlife, develop strategies for creating and disseminating suicide awareness and prevention information for hunting safety classes, including messages to parents that can be shared during online registration, in either follow up electronic mail communications, or in writing, or both;

Yes. It addresses pharmacies as well as firearms owners, dealers, and ranges. It looks like it has the potential to be a good program that truly tries to address the problem of suicide in a fair handed manner and not just something to demonize gun ownership. Others think so as well:

A couple of years ago, Stuber began reaching out to firearms retailers and asking them if they worried about the possibility of selling a gun to someone who might be suicidal. Virtually every employee she spoke with, she said, answered yes. With some trepidation, Stuber called the National Rifle Association and Gottlieb’s group to enlist their help in reducing firearm suicides. To her surprise, they were willing to talk, and also listen.

“There’s real hurt,” she said. “Everybody showed up at the table willing to share their pain. This is an issue that impacts all of us.”

Forefront, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation met with groups including the Seattle Police Department and the Department of Fish and Wildlife over about six months to draft the language for the initiative. Rep. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, the bill’s main sponsor, was instrumental in getting the legislation passed, Stuber said.

About 20 other states have taken steps to bring together suicide prevention advocates and gun owners, Stuber said, but none of those efforts are as broad as the Washington bill. Gottlieb thinks the initiative could become a successful model that can be replicated in other states.

“Lots of us in the firearms rights community have been concerned that a significant percentage of suicides involve lethal force,” he said. “If there’s a way to lower those numbers, it’s in gun owners’ interest to do that. To me, this is a no-brainer, but it took someone like Jenn to put it together.”

Barb’s first day of class

Posted on by

Today and tomorrow Barb is attending Insights General Defensive Handgun class. I’ve been teaching her how to shoot and she does well with basic shooting. She just got her holster on Thursday so I have not taught her much about the draw and only the basics of defensive shooting. But I think she is more than adequately prepared for the class:

Prerequisites:

CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT or documentation of good character AND BRING THOSE DOCUMENTS WITH YOU TO CLASS. You must be totally familiar and comfortable with your handgun. If you have never shot before or wonder how your gun works we recommend our Handgun Safety and Marksmanship class or our Basic Handgun Safety and Responsibility class.

 

Required Equipment:

Reliable, functional semi-automatic handgun; Belt holster (rigid) with sturdy belt; pants with belt loops; 600 rounds of brass-cased, FMJ ammunition (minimum); minimum of 2 magazines and a magazine pouch; Concealment clothing; Hearing and eye protection.

I think she may be a little bit nervous. She didn’t sleep particularly well last night and said she was thinking about the class a lot. But the clincher was that as she was just going out the door she noticed she was wearing her holster upside down.

Quote of the day—Sean Barney

Posted on by

We will ban military-style assault weapons and large capacity ammunition clips.

Sean Barney
Delaware candidate for U.S. Congress (D)
April 7, 2016
Barney hopes to make gun control an issue
See his complete position on ADDRESSING GUN VIOLENCE.
[He also wants to eliminate the default proceed if the FBI doesn’t complete the NICS check within three days. This would enable people in Washington D.C. to halt all gun sales in the entire country by simply sending NICS employees home. Imagine a government shutdown for a few days or weeks. Imagine budget cutting. Imagine “technical problems” in doing the background checks.

And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

What it’s like to be a porn star

Posted on by

Interesting infographic here on what it’s like to be a porn star.

See also my blog post of my interview of a porn star.

Posted in Sex

Quote of the day—Richard Feldman

Posted on by

Someone ought to present both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with the joint “Salesmen Award of the Decade.”

They have collectively achieved what advertisers could only dream about. Their ill-informed, uninformed and intentionally misinformed, anti-gun rhetoric is a caustic shot directly across our bow. If it’s political jihad that they want to wage on this, the most quintessential of all American domestic issues, then it’s political jihad they shall receive.

Richard Feldman
March 23, 2016
Richard Feldman: Obama’s Gun Issue Misfires on Hillary
[In related news:

Political jihad over guns in November? Only if Hillary isn’t in shackles by then.—Joe]

Hypotheses to test

Posted on by

It’s not a scientific study by any means, but this article from the New York Times could be used to generate a good hypothesis worthy of being tested:

“Our cities are facing a huge problem, maybe the largest since World War II,” Mr. Goldstein said. “How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror? That is the real question we’re facing.”

Friends who teach the equivalent of high school seniors in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek told him that “90 percent of their students, 17, 18 years old, called them heroes,” he said.

Mr. Goldstein, 38, grew up in Schaerbeek, the child of Jewish refugees from Nazism. Now a councilman from Schaerbeek, he is also chief of staff for the minister-president of the Brussels Capital Region.

I could see the hypothesis worthy of test being something like:

  • Most Muslims in Europe are peaceful and tolerant
  • Those who commit terrorism and violence do not represent Islam in Europe

I could also see the politically correct crowd insisting that it is racist and Islamophobic to even test such a hypothesis while simultaneously insisting the quote above is proof Jews are racists.

My take on things is that there is a huge problem in Europe that to a greater or lesser degree extends over the entire globe and there are no good solutions. There are only painful remedies and pragmatic tradeoffs which will challenge our principles to their core.

Quote of the day—Hillary Clinton

Posted on by

That he would place gun manufacturers’ rights and immunity from liability against the parents of the children killed at Sandy Hook is just unimaginable to me.

Hillary Clinton
April 6, 2016
Clinton Hits Sanders on Gun Control, Sharpens Attacks
[Why not the car manufacturer that the killer drove to the school? Or the clothing manufacturer? And I’m shocked she didn’t mention the ammunition manufacturer.

It’s unimaginable to me how someone could believe that the manufacturer of a product should be liable for its deliberate, criminal, misuse. But then I suspect real issue is that Clinton “thinks” in terms of politics rather than factual or logical terms. She knows that her claim will gain her favor with certain voters and that is all that matters to her.

It’s easy for us to think she is talking crazy talk and has crap for brains. But she is a practiced, deceptive, predator who has lived a lifetime benefiting from saying things that are unsupported by facts or logic. She will continue her path of deception and destruction until she is stopped. I prefer she ends up in shackles before she is nominated but I’ll settle for an defeat at the polls in November.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jan Koum

Posted on by

I think this is politicians, in some ways, using these terrible acts to advance their agendas. If the White House thinks that Twitter can solve their ISIS problem, they’ve got (a lot of problems).

Jan Koum
April 4, 2016
Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People
[Yes. And the same is true of gun control, a lot of banking laws, tax law, and probably 1000 or more other things. WhatsApp is just exploiting a small chink in the armor.

Government back doors to communications violates The Jews in the Attic Test. WhatsApp intent is to keep communication private. This is no small task. I’m certain it is private from your local police force, snoopy neighbors, and most employers. But if a billion people use it that is a very juicy target for nation states. Such a high value target will justify an enormous expenditure of resources to break it. I expect it is only a matter of time before it is broken. But that doesn’t mean that it will stay broken or that gaining access to each conversation isn’t very expensive and cost prohibitive except in extremely important situations.

That said, I have WhatsApp installed on my phone.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jim Wallace

Posted on by

What we pay as gun owners in Mass. is twice as high as any state in the region. With all the talk about Massachusetts leading the nation, they collect millions of dollars from us and don’t spend a single penny on firearms education. The system is designed to register and watch the good guys, but not designed to watch the bad guys.

Jim Wallace
March 18, 2016
Executive director of the Gun Owners Action League in Massachusetts
Gun Owners Weigh In: The debate over gun control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Rounds in the last month

Posted on by

I loaded 1462 rounds in March. All of them were .40 S&W.

Here are the numbers:

223.log: 2027 rounds.
3006.log: 467 rounds.
300WIN.log: 1351 rounds.
40SW.log: 45712 rounds.
9MM.log: 21695 rounds.
Total: 71252 rounds.

The total for the year is 5196. For all of 2015 I reloaded 9531. I’m on track to reload about four times as many in 2016 as I did in 2015. I expect, at a minimum, I will exceed 80,000 rounds for my lifetime total.

Reason #1777 why my girlfriend is awesome

Posted on by

Barb sent me a text message today telling me she needed some help. She figured out where to store an item but it was too heavy and awkward for her to put it in the dead body storage area.

Yes. She discovered one of my pieces of furniture has a spot where you could easily store a dead body and didn’t miss a beat in recognizing it for what it was good for then found an alternative use for it since we don’t currently have any dead bodies without a storage location.

Isn’t that awesome?!

I suggested, and utilized, an alternate location to store the item so the dead body spot will be readily available for future use.

Boomershoot 2016 prep

Posted on by

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning at the Boomershoot site. The ground was a little wet in places but with just a couple days of sun it will be in fine shape. The daffodils Barb and transplanted almost three years ago look better than they did last year. Maybe I will transplant a few more sometime this summer. I would love to have the entire front of the shooting line berm covered in daffodils for Boomershoot each year.

IMG_5351WP_20160402_12_53_47_ProIMG_5349

I tested three different Wi-Fi antennas (you can see one of them which appears to be poking up out of my car in the picture above). I wasn’t happy with the one I had last year and I have replaced it. It gives coverage over a much greater area and gives faster download/upload rates as well. The only part of the shooting line without coverage with my cell phone are a few positions on the west end of the shooting line. If those people really want coverage I can put something up pretty quickly on the day of the event.

WP_20160403_10_32_53_Pro

I put the target boxes on the shelves, cleaned off the target assembly tables, swept the floor, filled up the generator with gasoline, started it up (it started on the first pull!), filled up the spare gas cans, filled up the water barrel, and did a final inventory of all the target materials. I started to make some sample targets and found the ethylene glycol dispenser had a serious leak. Better now than we are trying to start full production! Barb picked up a replacement today.

I took the new rubber bands for holding the targets on the stakes to the Boomershoot Taj Mahal and cleaned up the scraps of foam insulation left over from when it was applied last summer.

WP_20160402_16_27_28_ProBefore.

WP_20160402_16_45_12_ProAfter.

On Sunday I made a ghetto ice chest out of a cardboard box and some 1.5” thick foam boards I had laying around:

WP_20160403_09_49_38_Pro

That is for transportation and temporary storage of the dry ice we use to keep the targets cool between manufacture and use. They degrade and become inactive after a few days at normal temperatures. This process is slowed down at lower temperatures.

I think everything is ready for Boomershoot until the day before the event when we start pounding target stakes.

There is still time to sign up.