Yesterday went to the gun range with Bill and shot a few more guns. Shot the Sig 229, but didn’t like the non-factory grips that were installed. Besides that, very nice handgun. Also fired a 1911 from Springfield Armory which while having a few misfeeds due to being a rental, well, kicked ass otherwise.

But I might have to look into one of Dr. Grordborts Infallible Aether Oscillators because the pricing is about right, and they’re taking pre-orders soon. Something like the GOLIATHON 83 Infinity Beam Projector.

The advantage with this trusty wave discharger is heft. In the unlikely (but statistically probable) event of its malfunction, it doubles as a wonderful cudgel.

Limited edition, only 500 will be made… of course they also will be selling the MANMELTER 3600ZX.

Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health

A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

Details are unimportant.  Pepsi drinkers are more likely to turn into flesh eating zombie mutants.  We need many more pitchforks and torches to take care of this new threat!!!

Global pirate attacks in 2006 dip to lowest in 8 years, says maritime watchdog

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Global pirate attacks in 2006 fell for the third year in a row to the lowest level in eight years, raising hopes that the war against armed robbery at sea can be won, an international maritime watchdog said Monday.Last year, there were 239 attacks on ships, down from 276 in 2005 and 329 in 2004 thanks to precautionary measures by ship crew in hotspot areas and increased patrols by law enforcement agencies and navies, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report.

So that’s the news… I do believe it all started when US Warships started patrolling the areas.

CNET News.com lets us know that the Democrats are planning on taxing your email, internet purchases, and anything else they can get their damn hands on.

With an Internet tax moratorium scheduled to expire in November, Congress this week will take up the issue of an extension during a couple of high-profile hearings. But with a Democratic majority this time around, what’s the likelihood Congress will go along once again?

More on this slashdot post…

I know, not much posting going on… but we have guests out, so we’ve been doing the touristy thing the last week.  More updates starting tomorrow!

As the number of Pirates drop, temperatures have increased dramatically. Maybe all the Global Warming isn’t caused by Al Gore and his compatriots jet setting across the world on private jaunts…

Supposedly scientists are neutral politically, only after the truth, etc.  So you’d expect a scientific magazine to be accurate, now wouldn’t you?

New Scientist unfortunately is now spinning the truth.  What’s wrong with this opening paragraph?

Plans to vaccinate young girls against the sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer have been blocked in several US states by conservative groups, who say that doing so would encourage promiscuity.

Thats right boys and girls. They forgot a very important word.  The word of the day is MANDATORY.  As in the government stepping in and forcing you to take the vaccine.

Reading the entire story makes it sound like the mean evil conservatives have stopped this vaccine going out to anyone, and that little girls are dying left and right, now doesn’t it?

No, the vaccine is available to anyone who wants it.  And its one thing to require mandatory vaccines for diseases like whooping cough and other highly contagious spread by air or light contact illnesses.  But the bias exhibited by this so called “news article” is just unbelievable.

At least to me.

Take the quiz at Pew Internet & American Life Project

My results are pretty much on target…

Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Lackluster Veterans typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic.Lackluster Veterans make up 8% of the American public.

Basic Description
Lackluster Veterans have the necessary gadgets for the information age, such as a broadband connection, cell phone, and a digital camera. But the wealth of information and communication technology possessed by Lackluster Veterans does not translate into particularly high levels of satisfaction about gadgets’ impacts on their lives. Although they seem to value internet connectivity, that is less true for cell phones.

Defining Characteristics
Lackluster Veterans do not link ICTs to better personal productivity, their ability to work with others in their community, or keeping up with family and friends. All in all, Lackluster Veterans seem content with surfing the Web or emailing others, but they do not show great inclination to stretch their technology habits to self-expression or mobile media. Very few like the extra-availability that comes with having always on broadband access or cell phones.

Who They Are
This group has a median age of 40 and has a lot of online experience, as the typical Lackluster Veteran has been online for about 10 years. Most of them are men “ 65% “ and they are well educated and comfortably financially. Some 41% are parents of a child under the age of 18.

If you are a man considering getting married, this is a must read!

Via the BBC

A 20-year-old student’s car was wrecked by a train after she followed her sat nav system onto a railway track.

Ok, ok… it’s not like she drove into a train that was already there, but still, its funny.

Where do you like to have sex?

A guy walks into a bar, notices a very large jar on the counter, and sees it’s filled to the brim with $10 bills. He guesses there must be a few thousand dollars in it.
He approaches the bartender and asks, “What’s with the jar?”
“Well, you pay $10 and if you pass three tests, you get all the money and the keys to a brand new Corvette Z06.”
The man certainly isn’t going to pass this up. “What are the three tests?”
“Pay first, those are the rules,” says the bartender.
So the man gives him the $10 and the bartender drops it into the jar.
“OK,” the bartender says, “Here’s what you need to do: First - you have to drink that entire litre of pepper tequila, the whole thing, all at once and you can’t make a face while doing it.”
“Second, there’s a pit bull chained-up out back with a sore tooth. You have to remove the tooth with your bare hands.”
“Third - there’s a 90-year old woman upstairs who has never had an orgasm. You’ve gotta make things right for her.”
The man is stunned. “I know I paid my $10, but I’m not an idiot! I won’t do it! You have to be nuts to drink a gallon of pepper tequila, and then do those other things…”
“Your call,” says the bartender, “but your money stays where it is.”
As time goes on and the man has a few drinks, then a few more, he asks, “Where ez zat tequila?”
He grabs the litre with both hands and downs it with a big slurp.
Tears stream down both cheeks, but he doesn’t make a face. Next, he staggers out back where the pit bull is chained up and soon the people inside the bar hear a huge, noisy, scuffle going on outside.
They hear the pit bull barking, the guy screaming, the pit bull yelping and then… silence.
Just when they think the man surely must be dead, he staggers back into the bar, with his shirt ripped and large bloody scratches all over his body.
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(a friend of mine sent this to me today.. had to share, enjoy!)

The year is 1907, one hundred years ago……

Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Every American citizen needs to read this!

Illegal. I think this word must have lost its meaning to many folks.

Those who are running around defending illegals. They think they are defending immigration. It is not immigration we have an issue with, it is the ILLEGAL aspect.

Gun Control, (thank you chad for that wonderful link to Penn & Teller)…. this is another great case in point. Gun Control will not stop death, the deaths are not caused by people defending themselves. The murders are caused by criminals. I think perhaps we need to clarify illegal & criminal for those morons who seem to be confused by these terms.

I commented on the Penn & Teller posting that it has been proven gun control areas are a welcome mat for criminals. It is a free for all for them, and i am sure they would thank you if they had the courtesy.. and you were still alive once they were done. The recent Virginia Tech shooting, has been stated to be the worst shooting in America.. hey folks that is a Gun Control Area. Do you feel safe?
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Fascists like Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.  According to CNN.com

“When I tell people that you can be on a terrorist watch list and still be allowed to buy as many guns as you want, they are shocked,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports Lautenberg’s bill.

OK, so let me see: the Democrats who fuss and whine ABOUT the terrorist watch lists, who say they aren’t accurate, that the label people as guilty for being just having the wrong name or skin color, blah blah blah.

But suddenly, when it comes to taking away rights that the Dems don’t approve of, they’re all for using these terrorist watch lists to strip constitutionally protected rights without a trial and conviction.

I have been using computers since 1980 in fifth grade.  And I have always knew they were a waste of time unless you were learning ABOUT computers.  All those school districts wasted so much of yours and my money thinking laptops are the way to learn the kids about stuff.

New York Times

The students at Liverpool High have used their school-issued laptops to exchange answers on tests, download pornography and hack into local businesses. When the school tightened its network security, a 10th grader not only found a way around it but also posted step-by-step instructions on the Web for others to follow (which they did).

Scores of the leased laptops break down each month, and every other morning, when the entire school has study hall, the network inevitably freezes because of the sheer number of students roaming the Internet instead of getting help from teachers.

So the Liverpool Central School District, just outside Syracuse, has decided to phase out laptops starting this fall, joining a handful of other schools around the country that adopted one-to-one computing programs and are now abandoning them as educationally empty and worse.

You don’t need a doctorate in education to know how to organize teaching kids.

• Anyone who has the mantra that all kids need to go to college needs to be thwacked.
• Segregate the kids into several tracks.  Those who are smart enough to go to college and would benefit from it, those who should get a technical education including post-secondary schools, those that should learn trades via apprenticeship, and remedial.  Please note that as abilities and skill sets change, students can move from one track to another.
• Get people from the community that can teach.  Lots of large employers have plans in place where highly skilled employees can go teach at schools.  These are the ones you want teaching the technical and trade students.  Not career teachers with degrees in teaching who have never worked in the real world.

Parasites on the government dole (such as professors in college education departments) make you think that education is to help people find and explore themselves, etc.  Which is why so many people think they must send all kids to college, and that a degree in 18th century literature is useful because it taught “critical thinking.”

Sorry, I’m done laughing now.  If they teach “critical thinking” why do so many people who have these useless degrees drive while using cell phones?

Anyways, that is for college, I’m talking secondary schooling here.  A society pays for a student’s schooling.  Not because society wants a student to find themselves, thats what the peace corps is for.  But society expects a return on its investment.  And that is a net contributor to society when schooling is completed.  And that means that each student should be able to find a job that they are best at so that they can repay society.  This means that some students who have the aptitude for mechanical, construction, or other trades need to be taught that.  Students who are great at fixing computers should be taught fixing computers.

But mostly, educators need to be taught.  They need to break free of the biases that make them believe vo-tech education is a place to put troublemakers.  And instead treat it as a destination for those who are good at things like fixing their cars, building their houses, and other jobs.  Because a good electrician will make more money than a teacher.

The Register talks about saying smeg off to the Middle East…

Australian boffins from the University of Queensland have teamed up with beer outfit Foster’s to power up a “battery” by brewing waste, Associated Press reports.

Wait a sec, wasn’t using beer for power done before in Australia?