Interesting use for them

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Men have a source of potentially life-saving stem cells between their legs:

A team of American researchers has found a way to easily identify stem cells in the testicles of adult mice that can be coaxed to turn into brain cells, muscle cells, heart cells, blood cells and even blood vessels.

One day, they say, male patients may be able to turn to their own testicles as a source of stem cells to repair an ailing heart or kidney or to fix the brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

The procedure would involve removing a small piece of testicle – about the same amount used for a biopsy.

The first question that comes to my mind is, “Can you repair the damage you did to my testicle?” They don’t answer that question in the article. I presume the answer is yes, but I’d want to make sure before I authorized a major overhaul of my other body parts. I’d hate to have the rest of my body in full working order and then find they had scrapped out my testicles in the process.

I guess that’s one way to waste £200million

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From the U.K. we find (via Bruce):

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

[…]

We have estimated that CCTV cameras have cost the taxpayer in the region of £200million in the last 10 years but it’s not entirely clear if some of that money would not have been better spent on police officers.

Not entirely clear? What could be more clear? It appears that the rate of crime resolution is inversely proportional to the number of cameras present.

But they are apparently so accustom to Big Brother being there they are afraid to consider his absence. But don’t expect them to remove the cameras and spend the money on something better like more police and/or better enforcement. You should expect them to conclude they don’t have enough cameras and to increase proselytization. It’s just one of those things about human nature that is hard to accept.

Just So We’re All On The Same Page…

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…regarding the police chiefs out there (who, we are told, have come out against the Second Amendment): Every law enforcement officer is required to take an Oath, affirming said officer’s commitment to the Constitution of the United States.  Here is one example taken at random.  I’m sure you can find many others:

“I swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland and support the Constitution and laws thereof; and that I will, to the best of my skill and judgment diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, execute the office of police officer according to the Constitution and laws of this State.”

Notice the first clause– support for the U.S. Constitution.  Taking an Oath not only suggests or recommends, but it requires individual judgment and individual commitment to the U.S. Constitution when deciding to follow a particular order or enforce a particular law.  It requires, in this case, that the sworn individual understand the Constitutionality of an action before taking that action.  Why else take the damned Oath?

The Nuremburg defense doesn’t cut it here.

On the matter of law enforcement officers who have taken the Oath, and who then actively lobby against our Constitutionally protected civil liberties:  Words fail me at the moment, but I’m envisioning a physician who takes the Hippocratic Oath and sets out thereafter to murder his patients.

To you chiefs of police out there who are on the fence:  Be reminded that some of us actually take our civil liberties seriously.  Just sayin’.

Update 09/21/07:  Another reminder for our friends in law enforcement (and to law makers as well).  I use this example only because it is so well known, though there are plenty of other examples: In early 1942 there were a whole lot of German officers and government agents who were as cock-sure of themselves as anyone could be.  Their degree of swagger was quite an impressive sight to behold.  Only a few years later however, many of them were fugitives from justice, while others were swinging from ropes (things can change in short order, and being on the right side of Liberty is good insurance).  As Joe points out in comments, there is this little thingy we call 18 USC 242.  Not that it would be needed as the Constitution already spells out the law in plain English, but here we have teeth, out in front of the brain, as it were.

Quote of the day–Cam Edwards

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This is an anti-gun report bought and paid for by an anti-gun foundation, assembled by anti-gunners from the Joyce Foundation, Harvard, and the Violence Policy Center. I’ve seen more serious studies written by Carrot Top and Larry the Cable Guy.

[…]

They’re officially parodies of themselves.

Cam Edwards
September 19, 2007
What A Tangled Web They Weave
[Yup. See also what Uncle has to say about it.–Joe]

Another example of TSA’s uselessness

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Box Cutter Sails Through Airport Security

At least TSA put on a little bit of a show for their Security Theater. They make him pour out his coffee.

Funny

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Old “fake but accurate” Dan Rather is suing CBS:

The lawsuit, first reported by The New York Times, alleges that CBS violated Rather’s contract by giving him insufficient airtime on 60 Minutes after he was ousted from the anchor seat at the CBS Evening News in March of 2005. It also claims that the company commissioned a biased investigation into the Texas National Guard controversy, resulting in a flawed report that “seriously damaged his reputation.”

[…]

The suit says the public apology Rather offered to viewers and to Bush on his newscast on Sept. 20, 2004 was written by a CBS corporate publicist, and that he delivered it “despite his own personal feelings that no public apology from him was warranted.”

It’s amazing isn’t it? It was conclusively proven the memo he reported on was a fake but no apology was warranted. Had he been getting away with that sort of crap for so long that he thought it was acceptable? If so then how much damage did he do before he finally got caught? His betrayal of the public trust should have required of him something much more substantial than a public apology. It should have been an exceedingly stiff fine and perhaps some jail time.

Gun porn

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Son James and I watch DVDs of some Science Fiction TV series together nearly every Monday evening. Until we got all caught up with the releases we were watching four episodes of Stargate SG-1 each get together.

About three weeks ago Sean and I checked out a gun store that he had never been to and I had only been to once about 18 months ago. The wall looked like this:

James has been saying he needs to buy a gun. And right there, in plain sight, was a suppressed PS-90 TR (Triple Rail, semi-auto version of the P-90 used by SG-1 as they battle evil aliens from all over the galaxy). I tried to get James to buy it with his bonus money but he was too smart for that. It’s space-a-roma (I think that was the word Sean used) appeal is very high but neither James nor I have a use for one.

A good sign

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I’ve been corresponding with a 13 year-old kid that started out saying he wanted to make bombs but there was enough information that indicated he had no intention of hurting anyone or their property. He was just using the wrong word for his desired activities. Rather than ignore him or turn him in to the police in his area I politely declined to help and suggested he attend Boomershoot 2008 since he lives in Idaho. Tonight, after six emails from him in 36 hours, he asked:

Can you give me the URL for the website of pain full pics of pipe bomb retards?

I recently told a friend of mine i made small explosives for recreational uses, and he said “oh yeah i should come to your house and we can make a pipe bomb”

I told him he was being stupid and, before he made explosives needed to do his homework. I told him id try to find the page i saw and show him how dumb his idea really was.

Cool. Maybe he will make it to adulthood.

This (WARNING! Extremely graphic!) is the link.

And speaking of bombs–if you are a suicide bomber intent on taking out some of our boys in the sandbox with itchy fingers on their “.50 caliber sniper rifles” keep (more extremely graphic material!) this in mind.

Quote of the day–Ronald Reagan

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The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Ronald Reagan
[The difference I saw between working on government contracts as a “Senior Research Scientist II” at PNNL (I was once told I would be considered a “god” if I had a PhD) and working at Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer was like teaching high school Freshman versus earning my MSEE. But you don’t need to be an engineer to see the truth of Reagan’s statement. Just look an some of our government agencies, like the TSA. This is just part of the reason why government should be limited; they are too stupid to spend our money wisely.–Joe]

Place your bets

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IBM put 35 programmers on a free OpenOffice offering that will compete with Microsoft Office. I don’t know how many programmers Microsoft has working on Office but I know they take up most, if not all, of buildings 16, 17, and 18. Each of those buildings are large three-story buildings.

IBM versus Microsoft. Free versus expensive. 35 versus hundreds (include our son James).

Hmmmm…. place your bets with your broker. I put all my chips on Microsoft.

Unobscuring Kip Hawley

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TSA head Kip Hawley (http://www.kiphawleyisanidiot.com/) attempts to explain the reason for the three ounce limit on liquids and why the rule is reasonable. He is deliberately obscure in places:

“This is something we thought a lot about. There’s a whole classified section to the answer, but in the unclassified part we are limited to discussing, with 3-1-1, the major focus was first, to stop assembled bombs,” he said.

“The nature of liquid explosives is that they are very volatile, unlike military-grade explosives that react predictably. With homemade explosives, while the benefit is that they are made of easy-to-get ingredients, the downside is that you get widely different results for the same quote-unquote recipe.

“If you’re going to use these explosives in the aviation context, you have to be very precise in the mixing because, as we found in the testing, minor variations in formula have a very dramatic effect on whether or not the explosives are successful.

“So 3-1-1- eliminates the ability to assemble the ingredients in a laboratory, using expert people to provide a finished bomb for somebody to use on a suicide mission on an airplane,” he said.

On a plane, mixing up a bomb in a suitable container “isn’t like mixing a beverage,” he said, adding: “This stuff is very volatile; it is very obvious; you can smell it a long way away. It’s very corrosive.”

The volatile stuff he’s talking about would be the acetone used to make acetone peroxide. And yes acetone is very smelly. I have never made acetone peroxide and have no plans to. It’s called “Mother of Satan” for a reason.

The “very corrosive” stuff would be nitric and sulfuric acids used to make nitroglycerin; probably the most well known of all liquid explosives.

Yup. Mixing up either of those explosives without being noticed would be difficult on a plane. The acetone in particular is very noticeable. Finger polish remover is frequently acetone. So if someone starts working on removing their fingernail polish don’t be surprised if you see the flight crew getting a little excited about finding the source of the smell.

The problem with the whole explosives testing thing is that there are lots of things made out of stuff they don’t, and essentially can’t, test for that make the whole exercise just A Security Theater. That money would be far better spent on finding the bad guys before they ever got to the airport. But don’t expect Hawley to tell you that. It’s not his job to tell you his job is a sham. His job is to make you feel safer. Do you feel safe yet?

Quote of the day–Mac Johnson

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The Founding Fathers systematically democratized the powers of society through the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They democratized the power of law through the right to vote. They democratized the power of wealth through the right to private property (since repealed by environmentalists and courts). They democratized the power of ideas through the right to free speech (since repealed by McCain/Feingold). And they democratized the power of violence (or the capability to commit it) through the right to bear arms (since repealed by “gun control”).

The four great powers of man: law, money, thought and violence were thus divided among the people and not reserved exclusively to the connected, the rich, the approved, and the enlisted. That’s the basis of our Republic. That’s America. And that is, apparently, a total surprise to liberals. 

Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other ‘Rights’ May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007
[Liberals just got pwn’d in this very case. The D.C. lawyers messed up and the lawyers for the good guys just nailed their scrotums to the wall.–Joe]

A nice pointer from the Gun Guys

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For once I can actually thank the Gun Guys for doing something useful. They pointed me at this video. Nice. Thanks Gun Guys.

Of course they call it ridiculous. But hey, what do you expect from him?

I still have the sneaking suspicion this guy is working for our side and collecting money from the bad guys. Nice gig if you can get it and aren’t encumbered by little things like morals and principles.

Bumper stickers for gunnies

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Reader Rob pointed these out to me.

Setting aside the ones that appeal to my sick sense of humor and the one that would piss off my vegetarian daughter I think the pro-choice one is my favorite.

Quote of the day–Ginny Burdick

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It’s just ludicrous to allow guns in schools under any circumstances. There are regular common-sense gun owners who overwhelmingly want the local school board to at least be able to make their own decision on this at the local level. Most of the parents I talked to had no idea, and they were horrified when they found out it was possible to bring a gun to school. . . . Johnny’s parents don’t want his first-grade teachers packing heat.

Ginny Burdick
Oregon State Senator
D-Portland
September 11, 2007
Teacher demands to carry gun in school
[Oh really? ANY circumstances? How about when some nut case or (redundancy alert) religious fanatic is shooting up the school? Should the cops leave their guns at the station when they come out to put a stop to it? If no, then why shouldn’t the teachers put a stop to it even sooner? And how about this teacher who has a nut case ex-husband? If she is a teacher then she doesn’t deserve to be able to defend herself? And it’s particularly noteworthy that she appeals to “common-sense”–because there is no factual data to support her conclusions. If she lived in the deep south 40 years ago she would be appealing to the “common-sense” laws prohibiting blacks to use the same water fountain with whites. It’s typical that she claims she is an advocate for “gun safety legislation”. I’ll bet she has never taught or even attended a gun safety class yet wants to legislate on the issue. In conclusion, not everyone is a bigot or has mental problems like Ms. Burdick. Some people want teachers to be able to protect themselves and their students. That is the real “common-sense” which should be adhered to.–Joe]

The French are trying to grow a spine

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People need to start talking about it in the open and France is actually doing it. Good for them.

Cleaning out the bomb help email

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I sort of ran out of snark for these sort of things and they have just sat around in my Inbox “forever”. Some I would have turned over to law enforcement but it has been so rare that I have received even an acknowledgment of receipt from them that I got discouraged. If they don’t care then I guess I don’t much care either.

But maybe you will get some amusement out of them:

From: Pgleon@
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3:29 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: DA BOMB

hey joe i was wounderin how 2 make a bomb could u plz tell i at least wana blow a little hole in a wall or somin blow a hole in da floor i meen grass like a golf hole but a bit wider and deeper could u plz send me instruction but i avent got much 2 spend on it and i live in the uk. send this 2 gesty@ thx dude

From: Jordan
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 6:59 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: bomb

i was wondering if me and  a friend put black powder in a concled place with a wick would it explode and how big. Well anyways can you give us directions on a big bomb blow a few feet into the ground?
Jordan

From: yunus 
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 12:14 AM
To: JoeH
Subject:

hiii

c
i trying to some kind a loud bomb for a trick but i cant be there and so i
need also a timer but i have no idea so i hope you will help  me

whatting your answer
please

_________________________________________________________________
En etkili ve güvenilir PC Korumayi tercih edin, rahat edin!
http://www.msn.com.tr/security/

From: René
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 10:30 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Can u help mee?

I want to Build a Big Bomb with a big boom… It can be expensive but easy to get the stuff to it…..
Nothing else matters

From: SCOTT 
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 1:48 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: HOW TO EXPLOSIVES

Hello Mr. Huffman,
 
I would like some info on how to build a bomb, something with the power of about 2 sticks of dynamite. I might like to try and put a hole in a cement wall or something to that affect.
 
                                                    Thanks!
 
                                                           Scott

From: mark 
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 10:54 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: help me

Dear Joeh;
   I have an enemy in my neighborhood who’s always trying to get me arrested. She hates me and tries to hurt me in anyway she can. Well, I want to teach her a lesson once and for all. Help me build something that can be thrown through her window and severely hurt that bitch. Remember it can’t be to heavy because I have to be able to throw it.
                                                                    sincerely,
                                                             troubled housewife

From: ASHTRAYASHTRAY13
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:59 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: basic bomb

hi,
 
i was wondering how to make a small basic bomb with simple and easy available ingridients. i would be very grateful if you could possibly tell me ??
 
regards,
Ash

From: Mirjana 
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 5:29 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Homemade bomb

Can you tell me how to make a bomb that can make a hole in the ground (about 20 cm). Not too strong so i have to run like half a mile, and not that it explodes in 5 sec… I don’t have many materials avalible, just stuff that you can find in every home. I know how to make one bomb… but i need some weird acid so i can easily get hurt.
 
If you don’t reply me, thanks anyway…

From: louis
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 6:04 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: u are a faggot and u cant catch me bitch hahahahahaha!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

y dont u leave the 15 year old texan alone, dont u have something better 2
do! try and track me ass hole wow u have my e-mail big deal, i am 15 as well
and im guna make a bomb, throw it into a hotel swimmig pool

From: extinct02ws6
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 11:12 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Just Curious

 Hey. I was wondering how to build 2 types of bombs. the first, small, how to build a hand grenade. and second, larger, how to blow up a car. fused or timed. doesn’t really matter. thanks!
                                                                                                               tommy

From: Kayci
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 8:47 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Plan

Okay,so a friend and I need to build a series of explosive devices for a plan we have that will
probably take a few years to finalize. Anyway,we need to build 2 or 3 types of bomb:2 gas bombs,most likely propane,and some handy throwable explosives like grenades or pipe bombs. For the propane ones,we need complete instructions on engineering and remote
detonation. We want to take out a large building,roughly the size of a high school gymnasium. We want to injure many people in the proccess. We need the pipe bombs and grenades so we can fend off any resistance. We also might need a car bomb or two,for a good distraction. So,let me know what you got,I need the info soon.
Thanks,
KC

Blog maintenance

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I did some maintenance on my blog this morning. The live comment viewer is working now, or at least it was the last couple times I tried it. I can now edit posts and have the changes “stick” which they hadn’t been doing for the last couple weeks. Very annoying that last one. In order to edit a post I had to copy the .XML file for that day’s entry to my personal computer, using my “geek brain” edit the .XML post which was encoded within the day entry file, then copy the file back up to the blog server.

While I was messing around with it I thought I might as well update the blogroll to better reflect reality. There are other blogs I read fairly frequently but I only put blogs that I read every post nearly every day on my blogroll. I’m sort of a purist I guess. No offense to others that I read frequently but don’t have on the list. I just don’t have time for everyone that I would like to read and/or that link to me. If you link to me in a post I will read your post and I will monitor the comments to it for a while. And if you put me on your blogroll I will check you out for a few days but it’s going to be very rare that I am going to link to you just because you linked to me.

I know I messed up some RSS feeders as things were changing–at least mine was affected. Sorry about that.

Quote of the day–John Gilmore

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In most of Europe, phone companies don’t record the phone numbers when you call, and they don’t show up on your bill.  They only tick off the charges on a meter.  Now, I was told that this is partly because the Nazis used the call records that they used to have, to track and identify the opposition after taking over those countries in World War II.  They don’t keep those records any more.

John Gilmore
March 28,1991
A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
[Interesting perspective. I hadn’t really thought of it but phone records could be thought of as violating my Jews in the Attic Test.–Joe]

U.K. wakes up?

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Why didn’t they see it coming before realizing our sex lives are our own business?

But this suggestion from the government’s sisterhood also demonstrates the migration of individuals’ control over their lives to the state and beyond. As more power and decisions are passed to Europe – without our consent – so politicians have to find something to busy themselves with, and what better challenge than 60 million people who fornicate, drink to excess, smoke, eat too much salty and fatty food and harbour all sorts of antisocial and criminal intent?

This is a presumption of a historic scale and arrogance which is best seen in the systems set up under Tony Blair to scrutinise every movement, communication and transaction we make. But at least we now understand the extent of the takeover. According to a YouGov poll released with Liberty’s report ‘Overlooked: Surveillance and Personal Privacy in Britain’ last week, 60 per cent of us believe we live in a surveillance state and only one in five trusts the government to keep our personal details confidential. Unless controlled, a government of long standing is by nature leaky, incompetent and greedy for ever more power.

Although it is often true it is “better late than never” I just wonder that if in this case it is too late to avoid a disaster.

But at least they are seeing and saying the right things:

It is argued that we have the Data Protection Act and the information commissioner, but despite the latter’s agitation, nothing has stopped the 500,000 interceptions of private communication each year, the total surveillance of motorways, the building of the ID card data base, the creepy children’s database and expansion of the police DNA database.

The Canadian system hasn’t worked perfectly, especially since 9/11, but Canadians shudder at what is happening in the UK, at the abandon with which we allow government more and more control over our lives and our futures.

A revolution of thought needs to take place. The personal information of innocent people, their digital footprints, their movements, as well as the things consenting adults get up to must not be allowed to become the property of the state or the subject of regulation by a lot of po-faced, reformed dope-smokers who can think of little but the improvement of their fellow human beings.