Chinese Torture

In You Face Amelica! Chinese Toy Company Makes Replica of Stealth Chopper Used in Bin Laden Raid

“   The U.S. operatives used explosives to destroy what was left of the damaged aircraft, which experts believe is a modified Black Hawk, to prevent it from falling into foreign hands. But the explosion was not enough to cover up all of its wreckage, leaving behind a tail that generated speculation over the helicopter’s actual design. “Were it not for the fact that one of them crash-landed and had to be destroyed, the world would probably not have realized that the U.S. possesses such stealthy helicopter variants," the product description read. ” Oh goody. Marc Miller

Speaking Bluntly

Blunt Cards Sampler

Tim

What about Princess Leia?

Dealing with perverts, government or otherwise

How to ZAP a Camera: Using Lasers to Temporarily Neutralize Camera Sensors

The downside of recent camera technology has been the creation of  the nuisance/quasi-illegal class of stalker.  Some operate with  shoe cams to surreptitiously scope your plumbing. Other perverts operate under the government umbrella.  This latter class use traffic cams to transfer wealth from you to them. To my knowledge neither operate with the victim's permission (has there been a municipality that first held a voter referendum?). Enough talk. It seems that when hit with a laser beam, cameras (any camera) will have its vision temporarily impaired.  Well, temporary unless you have one of those jim-dandy lasers that will bring down a ICBM - like the one we almost had until Obama stopped development.  Whoops.  Sidetracked.  This guy has done some serious investigation into this subject, and especially on the cheap.  Below, a few selections.  If you're interested in learning more you can go to How to ZAP a Camera: Using Lasers to Temporarily Neutralize Camera Sensors This cheap laser pointer emitted an oval-shaped beam (as is often the case) that was about 2mm by 4mm in diameter at very short distances, and expanded to over 5cm by 10cm at 100 meters (due to cheap collimating optics). In medium and bright light, it was difficult to see with an unaided eye. The obvious solution was to couple the laser to an optical scope and pre-calibrate them. Telescopes and binoculars generally do not have cross-hair reticules built in, but rifle scopes do. Rifle scopes are available at prices upwards of $2,000, but like handguns, most of the market appears targeted at lower-income customers, and cheap rifle scopes can be found for under $10. All rifle scopes have built-in reticules with some form of cross-hair or dot at the center, which are internally adjustable with set screws. The only problem is that, unlike telescopes, rifle scopes are made to be viewed with the eye several centimeters from the rear optics, since they are mounted in front of the operator's face. (This distance is specified as "eye relief," and is typically 2 - 5 inches but is never zero.) A simple prototype system was built with a $30 mail order 5mw red laser (635 nm wavelength, which appears much brighter than 670 or 690 nm red) and a $10 rifle scope with a 4X magnification (Tasco Rimfire, made for small game hunting). The laser and scope were secured together and the cross-hair adjusted to center on the laser beam at 100 meters. Through the rifle scope, the glint reflected from the lens was indeed apparent, particularly when the camera lens was zoomed in. It was easy to intermittently hit the lens but difficult to maintain aim by hand. A second prototype expanded in several directions. First, it is tripod-based, with a precision head allowing independent adjustment of its 3 axes (Bogen/Manfrotto "Junior Geared Head," complete system costs around $200). Then, a larger rifle scope was used for a bigger, brighter image (Tasco World Class 3-9x zoom, $70). Finally, the cheap laser pointer was replaced with a laser gun sight, which has the same Class IIIa power rating but much better optics, resulting in a more circular and collimated beam (Beamshot 1001 for $110). These gun sights also have adjustment screws to align the beam, durable metal cases, and many options of mounting hardware. So, for under $400, a rather serious camera zapper can be assembled. If either the camera, or target, is moving, then some form of aiming and dynamic tracking is required. One solution is to do it ourselves. A third prototype was built to be small and hand-held for near and medium range moving cameras The result was made with a Beamshot 1001 laser gun sight and a small monocular made for golf range finding (Tasco Golf Scope, $20), basically a small telescope with a grid-like reticule inside. Unlike a rifle scope, its eye relief distance is zero, which makes it comfortable to use hand-held. This new system could fit in a pocket and was very easy to use. It turns out that precise calibration was not necessary, since the beam is easily visible in the scope at near and medium range distances. If one wanted to scare away a news cameraperson, this system would be ideal. I know what some of you are saying.  "But Rodge, how do us girls protect ourselves from this guy?  Simple.   Insert this and go regimental. You're welcome.

Mmmmmm- Pig fat

Did a pork-coated bullet kill Bin Laden? Seems so    LOL— Military cartridges use pig fat lubricants.

I do see potential for a replay of history here. When the  Brits, in 1857 India, issued gunpowder cartridges that were believed to be greased with cow or pig fat, which insulted both Hindus and Muslims, rioting ensued among the Sepoy (Indian  regiments).  Let's hope that Muslims don't do the same here, as unusual as that would be.  Ahem. But, if they do, a workable solution may be found in that history. “ Vengeance was swift and harsh: suspected mutineers were tied to cannons and executed. Poof!

CHEATS

Ohio State’s Jim Tressel gets axed, but rotting wood remains in college athletics

“   How does MD basketball relate to Jim Tressel and Ohio State? Feinstein thinks the Bob Wade debacle is equilivant to what is going on at OSU and that they deserve a similar punishment. He also says 99% of people care about their teams winning, not about GPA and grades. [WaPost story via Testudotimes] ”

I don't know enough about Trestle's culpability here to comment. Instead I'm driven by the arbitrary way the NCAA seems to enforce rules.  Programs like Kentucky basketball, and lately, Connecticut's are immune.  It's like Democrats are running the NCAA too

He's Not So Smart

Today's Best Article Ever Written Stop It Already -- He's Not So Smart

I was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review and later had the honor of clerking for the Hon. Danny Julian Boggs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, one of the nation's most brilliant jurists, who later rose to become Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit.  To be selected as Chief Articles Editor, I had to research and write the Law Review Comment of a lifetime.  In time, it was published and deemed good enough that I was named law review chief articles editor.  In the years that followed, that Law Review Comment has been cited by federal courts in at least seven published judicial opinions, and in several other unpublished opinions.  It has been cited and quoted often in other people's legal scholarship. And that is "how it works."  To be a law review editor-in-chief, a Chief Articles Editor, a Chief Comments Editor of a law review, it is a sine qua non that you publish something fabulous, a real scholarly piece of work.  Many dozens of America's finest law students do exactly that every year.  Those articles later become part of a vast searchable electronic library of legal scholarship.   The thing is, I cannot find Barack Obama's great piece of work, the scholarship one would presume he researched, drafted, crafted, and honed, that earned him the presidency of the Harvard Law Review.  The name "Obama" is the kind of search term that should do the job.  But I cannot find any scholarship published by him that reveals the exceptional brilliance that paved the way to his achievement.  So there is no published scholarship that refutes the increasing sense so many of us share that we Americans elected a President who maybe is not so smart as the media's campaign hype suggested.  Perhaps even a rube.  Excerpted from "Stop It Already -- He's Not So Smart,"  By Dov Fischer toadold

Face Book People From High School

Types of Facebook Friends From High School

I'm not a Facebook person, but I do recognize all of them.  I'm none of these of course.

Killer Stats

Killer Stats

i rule

i

Okay, that's funny.  I love to tweak Apple cultists like everyone does.  Bur fair is fair. What's not funny *sigh* is how wretched Windows 7 is, and continues to become with every update.  For example, when I transfer pictures from my Canon A560 to the computer, I expect to be able to put them in whatever the hell directory I want.  It was a battle, because Mr. 7 wants to "organize" pictures in a some hierarchical system of its own design, and to hell with what I want. After a fashion I found a way to do it, but now I discover that the 7 pricks have lassoed and herded them back into the corral.  Obviously, then,  someone at Microsoft found out I was doing things the wrong way; cracked my knuckles with a ruler and corrected things.  I call that breaking and entering.  The reason for all this is obvious to, mostly, old timers.  The gene that makes programmers programmers is the same one that makes people control freaks.  It is their natural tendency to thrill at having dominion over people not as bright as they.  These ambitions are controlled in the carefully supervised programming environment.  Guess  what?  Yes, the inmates have escaped oversight, evidently, and are run amok.  If all this makes you think "my God, he's describing government," you're right.  The ambition to control other people attracts the same personality.  When you see a seventh grader campaigning like hell to be elected class president, after nominating himself, you are seeing a future programmer, a manipulator of people.  Here's an example of that culture, one that exists in Microsoft today.  Beginning with Windows 7, the time waster called Microsoft Hearts underwent an extraordinary metamorphosis.  The key move was retaining statistics from prior games.  The player is now allowed to win, say,  25% of the time with minimum cheating in the form of reneging.   At about the 40% win level however, it's total war.  By that I mean all pretense of playing by the rules is gone.  Every hand is programmed to  make it impossible for you to win.  Stacked deck and reneges galore.  If you still manage to get to the point where a win is possible, even probable, the game uses tactics tantamount to shooting you and declaring victory.  You will simply be trampled. I swear to Jesus, I just now had a moment of perfect clarity.  Microsoft is  running the Democrat party.