Survival Arts

The Surefire G2 Nitrolon high-output flashlight

This last weekend, I bought a Surefire G2 Nitrolon high-output flashlight at a Reno gun show, about $35. It's a very good alternative to the more expensive, earlier metal version, the Surefire 6P. For those of my friends who are getting into defensive pistolcraft for the first time - and who have budget constraints - I recommend this lightweight version.

Allowed myself to accept another social network invitation

Some friends of a friend started a geographically-oriented business review site, Yelp.com, with an apparent emphasis on restaurant reviews (but an ontology supporting very many more categories.)

I've joined on her recommendation, and have been surprised to discover just how useful it's been already: I've found some nearby places I'd never considered before, and am now using to drive some of my purchases at local specialty shops.

Now, whether Yelp is another Next Big Thing remains to be seen. It's a closed system, with no apparent provision for RSS syndication of the content we the users add to the review base, and relatedly, no leveraging of microformat standards such as hReview, a serious issue (thanks to Mike Linksvayer for pointing me to this recently.)

Yelp seems to have purchased a GIS-oriented business database, and coded some Google Maps integration into their interface. Rather nice, but entirely US-oriented, with no indication they're ready to scale into the English-speaking markets of Tokyo (big expat and traveller population) and other locales.

Speaking of which, I just tried inviting a good friend, an American living in Panama who could be a productive member of the Yelp community, and he sent me back this, reprinted with his permission:

'Hi Russell,

These morons ask for a zip code and won't accept my sign-up without one. I see this sort of shit all the time. When are US geeks going to get a clue the the US is not the world and that not everyone who has internet also has a "zip" code? So Thanks, but no thanks. I won't sign up with jingoistic idiots. Please feel free to pass along my exact words, if it pleases you.

Regards,
Sandy'

Wow. Well, he does have a point. I see this as one of those "We weren't planning to be so successful" scaling issues. Can't count the number of times I've seen this. I think the Yelpers really should have generalized their GIS integration to allow world-wide registration, from the very beginning. I have lots of friends in Europe, Asia, and South America who won't be able to join due to this and related issues. Maybe agitating in the Yelp forums about this might help; I've noticed they do tend to pay attention to issues of interface (e.g. marking businesses as closed or moved) so they may listen. Of course, they may be planning some kind of world-market rollout, but it would help if they advertised that somewhere prominent.

In the meantime, I'm going to use the hell out of it until and unless it ceases to be interesting. It's a much more convenient place for me to bulk-load all those pictures of food and storefronts I take in my travels, more so than the Movable Type blogging interface I'm using here, and since most of my reviews are locale-specific, it's probably a better place for my rants and raves about local businesses (and ones I visit in other cities.)

Testing hReview Creator, thanks to Mike Linksvayer

Just minutes after I'd complained in my latest blog posting about the lack of taxonomies for doing business reviews, Mike Linksvayer leaves a comment to the contrary:

In-blog reviews, no hacking required beyond copy and paste.

In the fullness of time these will be aggregated by someone for viewing in the context of similar reviews. On the other hand, reviews posted at review sites may be similarly aggregated.

Billion Monkeys & a start at restaurant reviews

Yesterday, I visited Ramen Rama in Cupertino, California, with my longtime friend Suzu. Here's another of what Brian Micklethwait refers to as a "Billion Monkeys" moment:

Some other tech industry friends of Suzu have started a company called Yelp, whose product is a business reviews website, where Suzu and I have reviewed the ramen shop. I've not populated this blog with restaurant review entries to my satisfaction, since the blog format is not granular enough (without hacking) to support a taxonomy for star ratings and such, so I'm going to experiment with posting my reviews on Yelp and pointing to them from here. Putting my own reviews in the context of others' should add value to the opinions.

"Radar Scope sees through walls"

I had an offer to get some free stick time in a friend's friend's luxury (pressurized cabin, an aisle between the seats, etc.) airplane for a trip he and the other guy were making to CES in Las Vegas, but I'm getting ready for school on Monday, so I declined. I'm taking in some of the show's highlights by way of reportage, and just saw this on one of the gadget/gimmick blogs:

"Radar Scope sees through walls"

Fascinating, and a bit terrifying at the same time. It's a handheld device for detecting people on the other side of a (presumably radiolucent) wall. The display device looks milspec/ruggedized, and the printed matter pitches to military application, but I'm quite sure they're being pitched to police departments too. I wonder, what are the relevant U.S. laws with respect to using this device in warrantless searches? I believe SCOTUS has already ruled that "standoff" search techniques are not covered under the 4th Amendment.

Just returned from a 4-day tactical shotgun course

I'm rested now and recovered from last weekend's attendance at the 4-day tactical shotgun course at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Las Vegas, Nevada. I surprised myself by making Distinguished Graduate, so I'm now qualified to come back to attend the 4 Day Advanced Tactical Shotgun course. On the second day of training, Greg Carroll snapped this pic of me after the two of us had done our respective runs through the outdoor canyon "clean the hostage takers out" simulator exercise:

The (visible) firearm is my Benelli M1 Super 90, with a nylon tactical sling and a GG&G M3 Tactical Illuminator mounting rail in the 2 o'clock position on the foreend, not the 10 o'clock position GG&G recommends on their website (experience in a previous course having shown me that, as a right-handed longgunner, the 10 o'clock position allows the light to bump on.)

I'd last done a tactical shotgun course about 4 years ago, and so I was quite interested to see how training doctrine had changed in respect of that weapon at Front Sight. The men in the evolution I attended - those 13 in the class who were there for the full 4 days - were all at least previous attendees at another weapon systems class (e.g. defensive handgun, practical rifle) so the class was run at a slightly accelerated pace befitting the audience. Attendees were about evenly divided between cops, active duty military (a Marine heading back to Iraq soon) and private citizens, all of whom were treated exactly the same by the instructional staff, the excellent Chuck Burnett and John Pierson.

One difference I noticed was the much heavier emphasis on incorporating movement, keeping the fight dynamic, and training that way to the limited extent allowed in the "square range environment." I was particularly pleased that, after the Monday (4th day) afternoon skills test, and the "load and go" indoor tactical simulator, I was allowed to do several rounds of 2-man team shooting on the move, with my new friend David L. Loads of fun, and I was pleased to find that a walking skill I'd been cultivating the last few years, walking fast with very short tank-tread heel/toe action to keep the hips and shoulders on level planes, allowed me to get good hits moving both forward and backward, without muzzle bob.

I'm at a level of membership at Front Sight that allows me to take any firearms course free for the rest of my life, much like some golf club memberships. So, I get to take these courses again and again, which allows me not only to revisit, revive, and refine my skills, but also to work out equipment issues. I've discovered I really don't like the Lyman TacStar SideSaddle mounted on the left side of the receiver: it catches on my clothing, when loaded it dampens recoil (and hence reliability) on this recoil-operated weapon, and with the standard provided cross-receiver screw, was coming loose even though I'd installed it properly and Lock-Tited it. I guess a couple of thousand rounds will do that to the Lock-Tite. That, and I'm leery of over-tightening that screw for fear of impeding bolt travel. Oh, and there's the issue of potentially "egging out" the screw holes on the aluminum receiver. My friend David assures me that, should I care to keep the SideSaddle, I can send the weapon to a gunsmith who specializes in Class 3 firearms with aluminum receivers, experienced in setting up weapons to resist receiver failure, but I'm going to switch to keeping my slug rounds on a belt carrier anyway.

Nor am I going to solve the "problem" of having extra ammo by changing out the tube magazine from a 5 to an 8 round capacity. This is my home invasion repellant device... if I can't solve The Problem with what's available in that weapon, then I'm in a very serious situation indeed. I'm more and more preferring lighter, more maneuverable weapons the more I train, with as few bells and whistles as I can get away with. I've heard more than one long arms instructor over the years comment on how students will arrive at a course with their all-singing, all-dancing Space Gun rigs, everything mounted everywhere, only to find themselves quickly shedding equipment after the first day... especially when training in the 105 F degree desert heat. Heh.

Recommendation: check out Estate Cartridge's low-recoil 12-gauge 9-pellet 00 SWAT loads. I've used this buckshot at a previous shotgun course, and had made the decision to attend this most recent course with too little lead time to order more of the same for this class. So, I had a mere few dozen of them to use at various times during this course, instead using a mix of Winchester and Federal buckshot for most exercises. No comparison. At half the price of Federal, the Estate-branded cartridges gave outstandingly tight and nicely distributed (e.g. no annular "donuts of death") patterns, turning heads on the firing line and eliciting a number of "what are you shooting, man?" enquiries.

I had the pleasure of remaking the acquaintance of at least one old friend, who was taking a course on an adjacent range. Additionally, I was happy to have a couple of libertarian friends, longtime (but previously untrained) gunowners, take the full 4 Day Defensive Handgun course on the same weekend. Both men, Alan and Chris, came away from the experience very much more competent than when they arrived.

"I want to send you money" for Accelerando...

...the digital (PDF) version I'm reading now, but Charlie Stross tells his readers not to do so. I will, however, be buying several copies from Amazon as gifts to friends. Damn it's good!

Kudos to Apple Support

I bought a 40GB iPod about 8 months ago, and have worked that thing like a prom date, using it in my car, at the gym, at school (both for listening & for recording lectures) and simply for walking around. A couple of days ago, I was greeted with the "sad iPod" icon which indicated the unit's hard drive had failed. Though I'd bought the unit at a discount at the campus bookstore, I called the local Apple Store and told them my situation. I was told to come in, they'd have a replacement waiting for me, no charge, covered under the unit's 1-year standard warranty.

This isn't the first time I've dealt with Apple when I've had an issue with their equipment and/or operating system. I bought an AppleCare contract with my new dual G5 a few months ago, and have found that my calls are answered promptly, and the technicians will hang onto the phone doggedly until any problems are run to ground. At least in my own case - I can't speak for others - I'd rate Apple as having a superb culture of customer service all around.

I love my Treo 650, but...

I needed to my online investment bank's customer service center, which was given on its website in the form of "800-555-CALL", one of those supposedly helpful mnemonic phone numbers with letters corresponding to digits. Well, my Treo 650 smartphone has a QWERTY keyboard with a digit keypad superimposed on the left side of the board, no 3-letter-to-single-digit DTMF tonepad overlay. I had to dig an old phone out of my "sell on eBay" box to puzzle out my bank's phone number, since they didn't provide a digits-only version of that number.

Excellent resource on historical Japanese armor

My Bujinkan teacher Dale Seago mentioned this a few days ago:

Some VERY good pages on Japanese armor which give a clearer understanding of why armored fighting methods are the way they are; also sections on historic Japanese clothing & accessories, the design and layout of Japanese estates during the Heian period, etc.

For those with a bent toward Humphreyesque "cultural detective work", there's an essay on "Rape as the First Act of Romance in Heian Japan" which makes it pretty clear that the feudal Japanese viewed some things quite differently from the way we do in our society today... (Whaddaya mean I should wait 'til the 3rd date?!?)

Quote of the Day

Walking past a newsstand near my office yesterday, I saw the banner headline "Tube Bosses Buy Parts on eBay". The accompanying story told us, in faintly mocking tones, how engineers working on the London Underground system have resorted to using the online auction firm because the parts they need are so old that they cannot get the pieces they need from regular stock.

Now it may at first appear a terrible thing that our metro systems are so old that the folk running them have to resort to an online auction set up by those vulgar American geeks from their Silicon Valley offices to get the stuff they need. But (drums roll!) I have a certain admiration for the Tube staff who had the entrepreneurial savvy to make use of the amazingly successful eBay platform. If the power of the internet can make my journey to work a bit smoother, I ain't complaining.

Johnathan Pearce

Cosmetic Neurology?

Here's a term I'd not expected to hear: "cosmetic neurology" (via John Venlet).

Useful boogie board modification for freedive spearfishing

I bought a used speargun and scuba regulator assembly at a very good bargain price from a really cool Korean guy who's an incredibly experienced freediver and spear fisherman. Here's a nifty little device he cooked up for managing gear, "diver down" flag, and temporary stowage of fish (as well as for paddling out to kelp forest, of course):

Quote of the Day

If you only encrypt important things, even without decrypting the message the simple fact it's encrypted means its important. This is information that you have given freely to whomever it is that is watching: "Pay Attention, This One Is Important."

I cannot stop the buggers from knowing everything about me if they decide I'm a target. But I can throw chaff. Encrypt everything.

As PGP's developer Phil Zimmerman said, "PGP is for small secrets."

Curt Howland

Oregon Freeze Dry's Mountain House eggs still good after all these years

Just a few minutes ago, I tore open a pouch of Oregon Freeze Dry's Mountain House brand "Freeze Dried ~ Precooked Scrambled Eggs with Real Bacon" I'd purchased over 5 years, to see how they taste. Quite palatable, though the "Real Bacon," even with 8 minutes of steeping in boiling water, still tastes like bacon bits. Of course, 5 years is actually a rather short time to store this type of food. I expect a package of the same food to taste the same 5 or 10 years hence.

The mundane things we don't appreciate

A few days ago, I finished reading Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are," a breezy exposition on the origins of things most people take for granted, usually considered not worth wondering about. In a similar vein, and coincidentally well-timed, Curt Howland forwarded me yesterday a pointer to an essay lauding one artifact in particular, "In Praise of the Oh-So-Dependable Cardboard Box," by Russell Roberts.

I'm reminded of an essay I read in the summer of 1990, a copy of which was given me by its author, Phil Salin, at a house party in Palo Alto, before leaving for my 1st work assignment in Europe. The essay, "The Ecology of Decisions, or 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Kitchens,'" opened my eyes to what Petroski often refers to as the "artifactual intelligence" encoded in the seemingly mundane, the things we don't consider.

Phil's work, by the way, is maintained on the web by friends who deeply care about him: he succumbed to stomach cancer sometime around 1993, and is presently in cryostasis at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. I didn't have the chance to personally thank Phil for his strong influence on my thinking, but I hope to have that chance someday.

Saferoom... or coffin?

Saw this commented on by someone on a mailing list I frequent: the "Quantum Sleeper: the safest rest you've ever had." It's one of the strangest things I've seen in recent times, a bed cum saferoom, very coffinlike. I'm not sure I like it... why not keep a shotgun by the bed instead?

"Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun" by Eric Raymond

An excellent essay by Eric Raymond, "Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun: What Bearing Weapons Teaches About the Good Life." (Thanks to Steve Pegram.)

To believe one is incompetent to bear arms is... to live in corroding and almost always needless fear of the self — in fact, to affirm oneself a moral coward. A state further from the dignity of a free man would be rather hard to imagine. It is as a way of exorcising this demon, of reclaiming for ourselves the dignity and courage and ethical self-confidence of free (wo)men that the bearing of personal arms, is, ultimately, most important.

This is the final ethical lesson of bearing arms: that right choices are possible, and the ordinary judgement of ordinary (wo)men is sufficient to make them.

It's largely about usability

My friend Anton complains about the lack of comments on his blog:

In two months and a bit since opening comments, this blog received just eight, of which half were mere applause; and Blogger makes handling comments a bit of a nuisance. So I've turned commenting back off; and incorporated the four substantive comments as addenda to the original posts, which is what I do anyway when someone bothers to write to me.

It's because Blogger makes handling comments a pain in the ass that most of us don't bother, Anton, and nobody I know will submit comments by a separate channel (email in another software client) for possible posting at your convenience later. That's not how users expect the mechanism of a blog to work. You can continue to bitch about what other people will or won't do, complaining publicly about it, or you can take the actions necessary to actually induce people to leave comments: set yourself up using a genuine blogging system.

"New Jersey Mulls Cosmetic Surgery Tax"

I never hear good news emanating from that cesspit of a state, New Jersey. Apparently, they're proposing yet another outrageous law, in this case the first tax on a medical procedure in American history:

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Wayne R. Bryant and Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, imposes a 6 percent tax on certain cosmetic medical procedures that are directed at improving the patient's appearance and that do not promote the proper function of the body or prevent or treat illness or disease.

Interesting Army report on soldier experiences with weapons and gear

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve Pegram passed along a detailed and fascinating online version of a military report generated last summer, "SOLDIER WEAPONS ASSESSMENT TEAM REPORT 6-03". Much of the report is rather dry, given the nature of such a document, but scattered throughout are a great many little observational gems such as this:

...soldiers rank reliability and durability as key weapon characteristics and are not willing to trade them for anything – to include weight. Similarly, soldiers do not consider the weapon as part of their load, but rather as an enabler. They are willing to carry the weight if the weapon or device increases his lethality. This is best illustrated by soldiers purchasing their own magnified optics and the strong desire to carry an additional sidearm or shotgun for defensive and offensive purposes. Lethality is more important to the soldier than any other consideration or factor.

Here's empirical verification of the usefulness of white lights in combat, a point which I've had driven home by anecdotes from trainers at every school I've attended:

Several soldiers were observed with flashlights taped to their weapons and some using the Weapon Flashlight Mount. But all soldiers described using the tactical light for temporary target incapacitation.

Progress toward growing replacement teeth from stem cells

The New Scientist reported yesterday that experimental progress in growing replacement teeth in situ has been made... yet another reason to pressure the federal government into repealing all its vile, stupid laws against stem cell research.

BATF forcing rocket amateurs out of the field

This is nasty and upsetting news from Steve Pegram: "Rocket Hobbyists Dropping Hobby" due to hamfisted, jackbooted regulation by the goons of the BATF. Just when we're seeing the spirit of innovation in rocketry and space travel rekindled, the government is working to snuff that spirit. This crap needs to be fought... which seems to be happening by default, since many rocket hobbyists have chosen to ignore F-Troop anyway.

Bushmaster AR-10 semiclone accepts FN-FAL magazines

Brian Smith informs us that Bushmaster now markets an AR-10 semiclone that accepts FN-FAL magazines (both inch and metric). This is fairly interesting to me, since I've been mulling over picking up a carbine in .308 caliber since I encountered the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 in a gun store a few weeks ago.

Yet more: tour bus to space?

This is getting even more interesting: Eric Pavao sends along yet another piece (Popular Science) on the SpaceShipOne flight, this one intimating that Burt Rutan has a lot more up his sleeve:

After winning the X-Prize, Rutan will quickly move on to other challenges. During press conferences leading up to Monday's flights, he dropped hints about "going to orbit sooner than you think," an apparent allusion to the Tier 3 orbital space-vehicle program that he is reportedly involved in. The SpaceShipOne program is known as Tier 1, and Tier 2 would probably be a tour-bus-like version of the same concept, a vehicle capable of carrying up to 10 passengers on suborbital space flights. Under his contract with Allen, Rutan is required to deliver data on how much such a vehicle would cost to build and fly. Mojave Aerospace--a new company jointly owned by Allen and Rutan and disclosed this week--will own the rights to SpaceShipOne technology and would oversee future franchising and commercialization efforts for the system. Details will remain secret, said the cagey Rutan, "until we're ready to push something out of the door."

Carbon 15 rifles now sold by Bushmaster

I'm sure this is old news now, but I just found out that the ultralightweight carbon-fiber Carbon 15 rifle is now a Bushmaster offering. I've had the opportunity to handle one of these 4-pound carbines in training, and found it rather pleasant. I'd be interested in knowing how rugged they actually are.

Maybe twitch games *do* help some new shooters

Today's the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. I'm reminded that a couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends of mine and I went shooting at a rifle range in northern California, taking a number of weapons including an M1 Garand rifle which probably saw action in WWII. Here, my friend Andy Chen, a brand new shooter (and 18 y/o college classmate), fires my other friend's Garand:

This was Andy's first time out shooting... and on steel reactive targets set out at 100 meters - after having been briefed on safety and weapon operation - he kept up with us two trained, experienced shooters, at least on the sandbag rests. He's spent his high school years reading military history, and knows an incredible amount of factual data on weapons history. He's also used to playing first-person shooter games - in which I've never been interested, thinking them useless for training - causing me to start to re-think my opinions of twitch games.

An older gentleman at an adjacent shooting stall took some time to discuss the Garand with Andy, pointing out that he had ordered his own Garand (which he was also shooting) from the U.S. federal government's Civilian Marksmanship Program, which I've heard about over the years, though I'd bought my own past two Garands from commercial sources.

I'm encouraging Andy to join a local CMP-affiliated club and shoot a match this summer, so that he can be eligible to buy at least a "rack grade" rifle for as low as $350... shipped Fedex directly to his door (yes, they do that)! I don't see Garands selling at gun shows for less than around $800 nowadays. Here's a very detailed and interesting account, with photos, of the experiences of two CMP participants in the purchase and shooting of their own CMP Garands.

It's especially worth noting, for California residents, that a Garand is "Kalifornia legal", making it an excellent rifle to keep locked in the trunk of one's car... just in case. Also note that a number of companies (such as Smith Enterprises) do "tanker conversions" to shorten the overall length, and one can convert the weapon to .308 caliber.

1st private manned space flight happens June 21st!

Eric Pavao passes on this fantastic news: SpaceShipOne will be making its first historic flight from Mojave in less than 3 weeks:

Mojave, CA: A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's atmosphere.

Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create a manned space program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's atmosphere. SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, it will demonstrate that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise. This event could be the breakthrough that will enable space access for future generations.

Imagine PBS and NPR with police powers

I remember the odious BBC television licensing fee from my days in London long ago, but had thought the fee had been repealed. Not so, reports UK-resident Australian Monica White:

For those of you who don’t live in the UK, you may be interested in the phenomenon that is the TV License – I was truly surprised by it a year ago. Essentially, if you have a TV or receiving equipment, you are obliged to pay the government £121 per year to view the BBC channels.

Don’t watch the BBC? I’m afraid that TV Licensing doesn’t believe you. EVERYONE who owns an operational set must watch the BBC. They're compelled to. There’s something in the water.

TV Licensing ‘Enquiry Officers’ also seem to get a hoot out of slapping £1000 fines onto anyone within spitting distance.

Quote of the Day

I imagine respirocytes as minuscule objects consisting of roughly 18 billion atoms arranged in small balls about a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. Each respirocyte is a tiny pressurized gas tank equipped with small pumps. Respirocytes are nanobots that move with the blood. In the body's periphery, they release oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. In the lungs, they do the opposite, recharging themselves with oxygen. The exchange of gases is regulated by minute sensors. Though the respirocytes are modeled on red blood corpuscles, they transport oxygen two hundred times more efficiently than the natural item. A small syringe-full of respirocytes could carry as much oxygen as your entire bloodstream.

Robert A. Freitas Jr
28 July 2000

Micropur MP1 Purification Tablets

My friend Steve Pegram passed this on to me a few days ago with the comment "First I've heard of these. Handy, if they work as advertised." I agree.

"The Only EPA Registered Purification Tablets on the Market - effective against Cryptosporidium, Giardia, bacteria, and viruses."

The only disinfection system effective against viruses, bacteria, cryptosporidium, and Giardia
Fresh tasting water - no unpleasant taste
Easy to use tablets
The same proven technology that is used in municipal water supplies
Lightweight and compact - ideal for traveling, lightweight backpacking, and emergency use
Purification Method: Chlorine Dioxide Tablets

Output: 1 tablet treats 1 quart (1 liter) of water

Capacity: 30 tablets

Kronos Optimal Health Centre: "Worth every penny"

An old friend of mine, whose judgment I strongly respect, recently stated that the services he received at Kronos Optimal Health Centre were "...worth every penny!" Eventually, I plan to avail myself of those services too.

Having a wonderful time, wish you were here

I crashed late last night, and woke early this morning, and am ready to do it all again today: the Foresight SAG continues.

The Quigley-Sportsmobile 4WD Vehicle

In the last 2 days, I've seen two of these incredibly interesting van conversions on the streets near home: the Quigley-Sportsmobile 4WD Vehicle. I would much rather have one of these than a Hummer H2.

Quote of the Day

Do you really think that innovation will come to a grinding halt without the FBI confiscating computers and spying on P2P networks? Please.

This whole DMCA bs isn't about protecting intellectual property. It's about the recording, movie, and software industries believing that for the time being it's more cost effective to manipulate legislation than to cut prices enough that consumers will opt for paid distribution channels.

Here's a hint-- how many people do you know who pirate books via photocopy? That's right, not many. Why? Because most books (certain textbooks and tech manuals being the exception) are priced such that it is simply not worth the effort to stand there and photocopy them. Technologies change. Media corporations that can't/won't keep up will go out of business and good riddance.

Alex Bokov

Foresight Senior Associates Gathering 14-16 May 2004, Palo Alto CA

I'll be attending all 3 days of the 14-16 May 2004 Foresight Senior Associates Gathering in Palo Alto, California. I very highly recommend this event to anyone interested in molecular nanotechnology. If you're not intimately familiar with nanotechnology, but want to learn, I enthusiastically recommend the 8-hour "Fundamentals of Nanotechnology" tutorial session on Friday: I'll be attending myself to dust off and deepen my own understanding.

K. Eric Drexler's personal nanotechnology website up

Mark Miller informs me via Orkut that K. Eric Drexler now has a personal nanotechnology website, e-drexler.com.

Remember that scene from "Real Genius"?

I took this shot two hours ago. These are the digital and tape audio recorders of a number of students in our chemistry lecture section:

Look familiar? Anyone else remember that running sight gag from the 1985 Val Kilmer flick "Real Genius"? As one writer describes the scene (yay Google, saved a bit of typing on my part):

Do you remember the scene in the movie "Real Genius" that showed students at the beginning of a university semester sitting in a large lecture room listening to the professor? As the semester wore on, one-by-one each student left a tape recorder on their seat. The scene ended with the professor's recorder pontificating to a room full of other recorders.

I found a screenshot of that scene, which looks amazingly like our chem lecture hall, down to the same phenolic resin desktop:

Whoa. Life converges on art. Fortunately, ours is a very dynamic professor... most of the students are simply trying to capture his superb lectures for replay later. As a matter of fact, on most days the professor records his own lectures with studio-quality equipment for posting on his personal website. If only more of the good ones did that, we'd have more "Feynman Lectures on Physics" preserved for posterity.

Darik's Boot and Nuke

Charlie Acker recommends DBAN ("Darik's Boot and Nuke") as a way to render a computer's hard drive tabula rasa.

Quote of the Day

Anyone ought to be able to sell any kind of gun they choose, anywhere they want. Anyone who chooses to, young, old, male, female, black, white, or green, or any shade between, ought to be able to walk into any store selling guns, pick one out, purchase it with the appropriate ammunition, load it, put in their pocket and walk out, no questions asked.

To the extent that idea frightens you, the anti-gun terrorists have won.

Reginald Firehammer

"The system is in dynamic slinkylibrium"

I've discovered that a standard metal Slinky is not only a great tutoring tool for explaining concepts of physics such as both transverse and longitudinal wave motion, harmonics, and spring constants, but also for concepts of chemistry, namely chemical equilibrium. For those of you familiar with LeChatelier's Principle and reaction coordinate diagrams, do this: hold the ends of a metal Slinky in your hands at the same level. The activation energy for some fundamental step is represented by the high PE peak of the curve at the top. Reactants are in your left hand, products in your right. With you hands even, the enthalpy of reaction (delta H) is 0, and the Slinky oscillates around top dead center, representing an equally product-or-reactant favored reaction step. Drop your right hand, increasing negative enthalpy of reaction, and the Slinky drops quickly into the product side. Drop the left hand instead, increasing positive enthalpy of reaction, and the reaction moves toward reactants. Very cool: it's fun to watch the light of understanding in the eyes of your audience.

Another blow to the "cryonics is expensive" meme

Yesterday I received a notification from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation telling me that my $250 dues paid on my suspension membership in tax year 2003 are up to 90% deductible, given their 501(c)3 status. Nice surprise!

Great observation on long range shooting by Dirk Koenig

I mentioned a few days ago that Sciscoop's Ricky Roberson had written on interesting piece reflecting on my earlier report of a day at the range with an Armalite AR-50. He asked some very general, open-ended questions about the motivational psychology of shooters. I just now noticed that a couple of days ago, someone named Dirk Koenig posted a long and spot-on followup comment, "An interest in Long-Range Shooting", with which I completely agree. An excerpt:

Ultimately, you're attempting to apply scientific repeatability to an endeavor which relies on human sensory input (or a small weather station) to determine nearly all of the factors, none of which are necessarily constant from shot to shot. (or from muzzle to target, for that matter) This is to say nothing of the skill of the shooter, which has to improve alongside the equipment which can get the bullet to a target farther and farther away and where being half a millimeter off in aim will cause a miss at 400 meters, provided all your estimates about wind direction and speed were right in the first place.

In reviewing all this, it doesn't sound like a lot of fun. But, like the sound of a golf ball draining into the hole after travelling 20 feet on the green, there are few sounds that warm a long-range shooters heart more than the muted CLANK of a round hitting a steel target that's a long way off...

A long overdue pointer to a SciScoop thread about this blog

A little over a week ago I was sitting in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, checking my email, when I discovered that Ricky Roberson (whom I'd misattributed earlier as "Ricky James") of SciScoop had written a rather lengthy post on his site entitled "The Toy That's Not For Christmas" expressing his fascination with my ownership of an Armalite AR-50 single-shot .50BMG. I'd mentioned my discovery of his blog a few days before, and he was apparently returning the favor, in spades.

Ricky expresses his apparently sincere and heartfelt belief that if guns are going to exist, then he'd rather be in the group who has access to guns:

...I do unfortunately see the need to kill humans upon occasion - preferably a selected few key enemies instead of massive indiscriminate "shock and awe." An Armalite AR-50 is the best tool out there as far as I'm concerned for accomplishing this grisly task, and if this fearsome rifle is going to exist, I want to be in the group of people who have access to this technology instead of belonging to the group that doesn't.

While I essentially agree with this sentiment, I should point out a few things. First, I don't think the AR-50 is the best tool for that "grisly task". There are better tools for sniper and countersniper work nowadays, e.g. the 300 Winchester Magnum, or the 300 Lapua. Both these and related types are in increasingly common use nowadays by people whose paid jobs require their use as tools. A 700 grain .50 caliber bullet, for long range antipersonnel work, is fast becoming an outmoded approach. The guns are heavy, the ammo bulky, and the ballistics, while impressive, aren't nearly as optimal as the new breed of .30 caliber wonderguns (two of which I just mentioned).

I should also point out that I never got into my main reason for owning such a piece in the first place: it's fun. Period. Besides, I have no need to justify the ownership of any legally acquired property to anyone for any reason. That having been said, I do find this blog followup comment posted by "Anonymous Hero" (funny, the slashdot convention for someone who won't sign his name is the more accurate "Anonymous Coward") a bit annoying:

no extreme is ever good.
having grown up in rural areas where hunting was second nature i'm confortable with firearms.
i also understand that those from more urban areas are not.

i must admitt being less concerned with those people that were going to go out and blast bambi, than those who have no interest in hunting, but seem drawn to fire arms that have no practicle (sic) use in a civilian world...

...there is a place for everything.
be careful with that AR-50, i'd hate to have to read about it on someone elses site.

I'm not sure if this guy is engaging in a classic bit of psychological projection, but:

• I do go out on occasion and "blast bambi"; I love hunting. I use calibers appropriate to the game I'm chasing.
  
• I do not need to justify my ownership of any weapon, regardless of his standard, tired canard about "practical use in the civilian world."
  
• No crime has ever been committed on American soil with a weapon chambered in .50BMG. Period.
  
• Your snide implication that I would aggress against another human is beyond contempt.
  

Ricky generously offers me space on his forum:

And Russell, here's YOUR chance to cut and paste the essence of what your site is about to a few thousand new readers. Just what IS at the root of our anthropological and psychological fascination with violence in general and firearms in particular? Does our current progress in science and technology offer a way to divest ourselves of this in the 21st Century? In a way that is Good? Should we want to?

I really do wish I had the time to talk on these things at great length, but I don't: I'm studying to be a nanotechnologist, and school just re-started for me yesterday. I am, however, sincerely grateful for the offer, and recognize that SciScoop would be a wonderful venue for such discussion, particularly given my personal interests in ethology, anthropology, sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology.

Ricky ends his article thus:

On this topic, gotta end with a link on Bowling for Columbine, of course. Bye, bye, Christmas. Back to reality.

Ricky, you seem like a really nice guy, but if you believe anything Michael Moore says in that "documentary", which has been repeatedly demonstrated to contain lies - lies that Moore has been called on - then I strongly recommend you open your mind and check out MOOREWATCH.com: Watching Michael Moore's Every Move. You're a demonstrably intelligent and benevolent guy, so I'd be surprised if after some research you don't see what I see in him: a black-hearted charlatan.

The Valentine One radar & laser detector: don't drive through bandit country without it

This was snapped a few days ago on the way up through northern California on the way to Oregon. In the background is the beautiful, 14,162 foot, potentially deadly volcano people around here call "Mt. Shasta". I have some of these shots from the way out to Oregon, and some taken under snowy conditions on the way back to California, taken yesterday on New Year's Eve... maybe I'll post them sometime, entitled "Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Shasta" under the artist name "The Cowboy Hokusai". Or maybe not.

In the lower right hand corner, in the foreground, is my trusty Valentine One radar and laser detector. Excepting a year I spent in Japan, I've used this thing in three different vehicles - and numerous rental cars - for five years, and am incredibly happy with it. I spent about $450 for it and its accessories, but I'm sure I've saved several times that price in speeding tickets I didn't receive.

ZipLip secure email services

On a recommendation of Michael Reed of Portland, I've decided to test the web-based email service ZipLip as an alternative to Hushmail, which I've found unsatisfactory over the last year due to scaling-related performance issues. According to ZipLip:

We are the fastest-growing secure email provider on the Web and strive each day to provide the best possible services for our users. With secure email, secure net storage, and secure file delivery, our goal is to provide the most comprehensive services for protecting your security, privacy, and email rights.

Have any of readers had experience with ZipLip? Your opinions are most welcome; please post them here.

SciScoop: Exploring Tomorrow

It's great to get feedback on one's blog postings, especially when it results in the personal discovery of a great resource. Blog commenter Ricky James runs the compendious and incredibly interesting SciScoop: Exploring Tomorrow, which I strongly recommend telling all your friends about. So much to explore!

Technical Video Rental

A member of one of my mailing lists de-lurked today to introduce himself. He runs an incredibly cool and useful website, "Technical Video Rental", which advertises a carefully selected library of tapes, DVDs, and books for the independent-operator machinist. This should be of particular interest to those in the Free Arms Project.

The Free Arms Project

The Free Arms Project just opened today for business, spun off the smith2004-discuss Yahoo Groups mailing list:

"The Free Arms Project is committed to the development of a patentless, Open Source, Open Engineering personal defense weapon."

It'll be interesting to see where we take this. The Weapon Shops of Isher?

Sober Up and Die, or Mom's Prison Wine, by John Sebastian

The following long article was submitted to me a few days ago by John Sebastian, a member of the Smith2004 discussion list. He had originally written it up as a response to someone joking about homebrew, a discussion which was itself spun off a thread about the benefits of resveratrol, a constituent of some red wines.

Here follows the version John mailed me for publication here, which I have editted only for grammar and spelling, not content. Enjoy at your own risk! By the way, it seems that there's not much in the way of actual cost savings in this technique, given the reported cost of the grape juice concentrate alone. "Two-Buck Chuck" is a perfectly adequate "10 dollar wine with a 2 dollar price tag", for those who have access to a Trader Joe's, but John's technique should still appeal to the Basement Chemist in some of us.

- Russell, editor

Sober Up and Die
or
Mom's Prison Wine
or
How to Make a Simple Cheap Wine that is Untaxed (Well, Mostly)

By John Sebastian

Yeah, yeah, I know: "loving spoonfuls" and all that. What makes it worse is that I'm often told that I'm a dead ringer for Jerry Garcia. No, I'm not that "the John Sebastian", I am this "the John Sebastian".

Well, it was the damn driver's license, it was also the cost, and - oh yeah - it was also the sulfates and other crap. Come to think of it, it was also just plain stubborn independence. It was also my wedding.

Huh?

Okay I'll make myself clear, or I'll try.

You see, I live in Tennessee, so every time I purchased beer or wine I had to show my ID. For a while I got away with showing my PADI Divers Card, but eventually all they would take was the old ball-and-chain driver's license. Call me sensitive, but at age forty-seven, I sort of figured it's my business whether I purchase beer and wine.

Eventually after tiring of trying to give civics lessons to the clerks at the grocery stores, I started brewing beer - Sebastian's All Malt - but that is another story. This story is about how to make a dirt cheap wine that is as tasty as anything you could want, indeed, a wine that you don't have to humble yourself by producing the state's slave ID to purchase, and a wine that is largely untaxed... thus even tastier.

Then there is all the added crap in commercial wines: mostly sulfates, and who knows whatever other crap some idiot somewhere decided has to go into commercial wines; I think it's to make it travel better or somesuch. In short, storebought wine gives me a headache, leaves a bad aftertaste, and upsets my stomach... well I said I'm sensitive. So I'd just about stopped buying wine from the store.

And the cost! Jeeze and bullwilliker! Tax upon tax upon tax. It's worse in the Deep South. Why, I knew a fellow once who drank so much beer that he was able to retire on the price difference by moving from Alabama to Indiana. It's basically the same here in Tennessee, where every bluenosed preacher with the ear of a legislator is also just as likely to be your neighborhood bootlegger. Not only does the state drive you to drink, but the rat-assed bastards thrive off your glorious inebriation. Disgusting.

Then there was my wedding. Well, just what does my wedding have to do with anything? It has to do with my mom. You'll remember I'd been brewing beer for quite some time. On the event of my wedding to the gracious, lovely, young, vibrant, and intelligent Aubrey, it was my determination to provide Sebastian All Malt for the hundred and fifty or so guests... no mean feat.

So, I'm on the phone with my mom doing some of the necessities for the blessed nuptials. I mention making the beer, and mom - not to be outdone - decides to provide her homemade wine.

Well, both the wine and the beer were really big hits, so I asked mom how she made her wine. That which follows below is basically her recipe without the sugar. It's not all that different from how prisoners in jail make wine, hence "Mom's Prison Wine".

But why "Sober up and Die"? Because red wine is good for you. Really good. It's magic: it has resveratrol [Editor's note: this is only true for certain red wines made from particular grapes grown under specific conditions.]. But that is really another story.

OK John! Enough. How do you make Mom's Prison Wine?

I was hoping someone would ask...

Obtain four cans of frozen concentrate for each gallon of finished wine. Make sure it's marked "100% grape concentrate"; don't buy the fructose syrup with fake grape-like stuff in it. I use generic concentrate. My cost for the concentrate to make about five gallons of finished wine is around U.S. $25.

This can be made in a one gallon glass or in food grade plastic jugs. I make mine in a five gallon glass carboy, but any food grade container that can be sealed will work fine. One 5 gallon unused p