The great eye of Saturn's moon Mimas (MY-muss), a 130-kilometer-wide (80-mile) impact crater called Herschel, stares out from the battered moon in this raw image taken by the Cassini spacecraft during a flyby on Aug. 2.
The Herschel crater is the moon's most prominent feature, and the impact that formed it probably nearly destroyed Mimas. Cassini flew by Mimas at 62,700 kilometers (38,800 miles) above the moon's surface, bringing it closer to the little moon than ever before.
And we can't trust these folks. How do I know?And there's more, be sure to read the whole thing.
Their President is Ray Schoenke, who seems clean at first glance... but in 1996 his firm donated $1000 to the campaign of Torricelli (D-NJ). New Jersey is a gun control paradise and Torricelli has voted consistently in favor of gun control. Ray himself ran for the Democratic nomination for governor of Maryland.
Their executive director is Bob Ricker, infamous traitor to the gun industry. He used to lobby for us, before he decided that the role of Brutus was better suited to his temperment. He's provided testimony in prominent firearms-liability lawsuits -- testimony against the gun industry.
Their president is John E Rosenthal, who has worked with the 'gun violence prevention efforts' of Boston, Massachussetts. He co-founded the gun-control group 'Stop Handgun Violence', and suggests that the gun laws of Massachusetts should be the model for the country. He's spent a great deal of money on anti-gun advertising, including a national billboard campaign in collaboration with Handgun Control president Michael Barnes.
Between sips of bottled water, fruit juice, tea and soft drinks, they take drags on plastic hoses attached to elaborate water pipes filled with fruit-flavored tobacco, engaging in an Arabic custom that originated more than 500 years ago: spending a leisurely evening with friends over a shisha, also known as hookah.A harmless enough pastime, I am sure. But fruit-flavored tobacco? Ye gads. I had enough of that in times past with a pipe. As Bill the Cat was often wont to say: Ack! Just give me a briar and something with lots of good American Perique. And since there is no direct link to this section of this article, I'll copy it here:
In contrast, perhaps the most strongly-flavoured of all tobaccos is the Perique, from Saint James Parish, Louisiana. When the Acadians made their way into this region in 1776, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco with a distinctive flavour. A farmer called Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into the Perique in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation.Info from http://tobacco.biography.ms/
The tobacco plants are manually kept suckerless, and pruned to exactly 12 leaves, through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches (600 to 750 mm) tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn. Once the leaves have partially dried, but while still supple (usually less than 2 weeks in the barn), any remaining dirt is removed and the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into "torquettes" of approximately 1 pound (450 g) and packed into hickory whiskey barrels. The tobacco is then kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves. Approximately once a month, the pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is "worked" by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the Perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of the Perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.
Considered the truffle of pipe tobaccos, the Perique is used as a component of many blended pipe tobaccos, but is too strong to be smoked pure. At one time, the freshly moist Perique was also chewed, but none is now sold for this purpose. Less than 16 acres (65,000 m²) of this crop remain in cultivation, most by a single farmer called Percy Martin, in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For reasons unknown, the particular flavour and character of the Perique can only be acquired on a small triangle of Saint James Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles (5 by 16 km). Although at its peak, Saint James Parish was producing around 20 tons of the Perique a year, output is now only a few barrelsful.
While traditionally a pipe tobacco (and still available from some specialist tobacconists), the Perique may now also be found in the Perique cigarettes of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., in an approximately 1 part to 5 blend with lighter tobaccos. A similar tobacco, based on pressure-fermented Kentucky tobacco is available by the name Acadian Green River Perique.
Police officials are considering design changes to a firing range after a stray bullet struck a home about a mile away.And who was doing the shooting at this time?
Deputies quickly alerted several members of the Noblesville Police Department, who were conducting firearms training at the range.Meanwhile, I suppose they are looking for a new range with more than a mile of vacant land behind it.
[...]
Police are speculating a shooter lying in a prone position, aiming upward at a target, must have sent a bullet up and over the mound of tree-covered earth at the back of the range about 30 miles north of Indianapolis, Russell said.
"It must have went off at least at a 45-degree angle to get that far, kind of like an arch," he said.
[...]
Russell and Tipton County Sheriff Craig Henderson said that until improvements are made on the county-owned property, it is unlikely officers will do any more shooting there.
Part Three is where the trap is really sprung. Because this part instructs the U.S. Attorney General to 'conduct a study to determine whether a uniform standard for the testing of projectiles against Body Armor is feasible.'JFPO also gives us a reminder of a reality check on the U.S. government's sloppy firearms testing procedures.
NOTE WELL: The tests to determine whether or not ammo is 'armor piercing' are NOT to be conducted against armor plate, such as that used on military combat vehicles. The tests are to be conducted against body armor. And as anyone knowledgeable about firearms knows, VIRTUALLY ALL RIFLE AMMO WILL PENETRATE BODY ARMOR. So will some pistol ammo.
We asked firearms maker Len Savage if the warning we received was well-taken or whether this was simply a misinterpretation of the proposed law. Here's Len's reply:'Yes. This gives the A.G. the power to say what is and is not 'armor piercing.' There is no language for what type of test is to be conducted (other than ballistic vests). If the test were on 1 inch 'rolled homogeneous armor plate' then there would be no problem. If the test is a level I 'vest' material, then EVERYTHING including .22 longs, are going to be illegal ammo.Just as "Saturday-Night specials," "military-style assault weapons," "cop-killer bullets," and "sporting purposes" have all been used as deceptive, emotionally loaded key words to justify regulations and outright bans, it now appears that the designation "armor-piercing ammunition" is likely to be mis-applied in an attempt to deprive Americans of their rights.
'The bill would effectively give the power to decide to ONE person. NO vote, NO appeal, NO rights. (Just like the current mess with [the sloppy, no-standards testing practices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms].)
'I figured it was a matter of time before they got around to figuring out: Control the ammo and you control the guns. Of course there would be born a 'black market' for ammo, very close to the black market for marijuana, in size, scope, and risks. Next will be the sentencing recommendations for possession, and distributing (dealing). Components will be viewed as constructive intent of illegal manufacturing of 'terrorist material.'
'This is a dangerous path for America. I am forced to ask myself: Why the continued attack and obvious methodical disarming of American Citizens? There is only one answer: control and power.
We should all be asking some serious questions about the real impact S. 397 will have on our freedoms if it becomes law. One important question is: Why are our "leaders" so desperate that they would attempt to slip such a potentially draconian provision into a supposedly pro-gun bill?
A bear bit a sleeping camper and tried to drag him away from a shelter along the Appalachian Trail at High Point State Park last month, state officials said Monday. The bear was killed Friday after becoming ensnared in a trap at the same campsite, officials said.Duluth, Minnesota:
The male camper, whose name has not been released, was sleeping with a group around 6:30 a.m. on July 13 at the Mashipacong Shelter when the bear bit him on the leg and attempted to drag both him and his sleeping bag, said Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
A 50-year-old Holyoke woman said she punched a black bear in the nose as it attacked her, but the bear didn't flinch.Southport, CT, Newport, NH and Prescott, AZ:
"It was totally ineffective," Mary Munn said of her attempts to fend off the bear during Friday's attack. The ordeal lasted less than a minute, but in that time the bear bit her in several places, as Munn's dog tried to distract the 150 to 200 pound animal.
As Geri walked quickly back to the bedroom, the bear followed her eight feet down the hallway.
"I felt him," Geri said. "I just turned around and started walking away really fast, and I got down the hallway, opened the door and closed it and said, 'Bob, there's a bear in the house.' I just fell apart, I was so scared."
Billy Bob Thornton and 'Napoleon Dynamite' star Jon Heder are teaming up in comedy remake 'School for Scoundrels,' Variety reports.Sweet!
The film, a redo of the 1960 laugher, centres on a down-on-his-luck meter reader (Heder) who enrolls in a confidence class so he can win the love of his dream girl.
He gets more than he bargained for when the teacher of the class (Thornton) has his eye on the same woman.
The movie is being directed by Todd Philips and written by Scot Armstrong, who previously worked together on 'Old School,' 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'Road Trip.'
'School for Scoundrels' is scheduled to begin an October shoot in New York and Los Angeles for a spring 2006 release.
When Patrick Haab was arrested in April for holding seven undocumented immigrants at gunpoint at an Arizona rest stop, the Army reservist described himself as an Iraq war veteran and used that status to generate financial support and sympathy from around the country.Deceptive, yes. But one fact remains: he performed a justified citizen's arrest of 7 people who had crossed into this country illegally. He may have lied about himself, but the arrest was just, in my opinion, and in this instance, he did nothing wrong.
But military records obtained Tuesday by The Arizona Republic show that Haab never served in Iraq and indicate that he was on the verge of being removed from the military because he was paranoid, threatened to kill himself and pulled a knife in an altercation with fellow soldiers.
In February 2004, Haab was removed from his unit in Kuwait, the records show, after he reportedly told a commanding officer during an Arabic cultural awareness class that he 'just wants to kill all of the camel jockeys,' including a Muslim soldier in his own unit.
As a result of that incident and an apparent suicide attempt moments later, Haab was transferred back to the United States for a mental health evaluation at Fort Bragg and Walter Reed Medical Center, records state.
The records are in stark contrast to the picture Haab painted of himself at the time of his arrest: a dedicated and meritorious soldier who just wanted to return to duty.
Therapism is a worldview that valorizes openness and emotional self-absorption; it assumes that vulnerability, rather than strength, characterizes the American psyche, and that a diffident, anguished, and emotionally apprehensive public requires a vast array of therapists, self-esteem educators, grief counselors, workshoppers, healers, and traumatologists to lead it through the trials of everyday life....
In fact, there is no evidence that large segments of the population are in psychological free fall. On the contrary, researchers who follow the protocols of social science find most Americans-young and old-faring quite well. If they're crashing and burning, they don't seem to know it. This has proven true even in the wake of terrible disasters.
In October 2001 Sharon Kahn, a senior psychologist at Coney Island Hospital, manned the phones at a televised call-in show sponsored by PBS and called Reach Out to Heal. Experts described the symptoms of traumatic stress, and viewers were urged to phone in with questions and to get referrals for help....
Kahn took calls all evening. She referred a grand total of two people for therapy. The vast bulk of the calls were queries about the resumption of regularly scheduled programming.
In New York City on September 11 there was a strong, spontaneous show of collective resolve and organization. Near Ground Zero, members of one tenant association helped direct the streams of people running from the World Trade Center; they formed an "urgent needs" team to check on homebound residents; they acted as volunteer cashiers in stores when paid employees could not get to the area. The calm and orderly behavior of workers evacuating the World Trade Center towers themselves surely kept the death and injury tolls from rising. In the largest waterborne evacuation in our history, half a million people left lower Manhattan. Barges, sailboats, and ferries, with no instructions, put into the port as the towers burned. "If you're out in the water in a pleasure craft and you see those buildings on fire," the Rutgers sociologist Lee Clarke said to The New York Times, "in a strictly rational sense, you should head to New Jersey. Instead people went into potential danger and rescued strangers."Another long and interesting article from RedNova. I post this because to me, this is another aspect of the Cult of Victimhood which plagues us, trying to tell us that we are better being victims than defending ourselves and/or picking ourselves up and recovering when something bad happens. These are the "we're sorry for everything" people who seem to think that the more victimized you are, the more highly evolved you are. Or something.
According to the sociologist Henry Quarantelli, a pioneer in the field of disaster research, such constructive responses are typical. "Mythical beliefs to the contrary," he writes, "disaster victims do not panic, they are not passive, they do not become caught up in [selfish and] antisocial behavior, and they are not behaviorally traumatized." Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, laments the predominance of the "pathological model." So often, she says, officials and mental health planners neglect the positive human elements that crisis elicits, such as "reasoned caution, resourcefulness, adaptability, resiliency, hopefulness, and humanitarianism."
There's a new Cthulhu Mythos comic out called "Return to Arkham". It's set in 1933, and includes beautiful, moody black & white art depicting H.P. Lovecraft's town of Arkham. In support of Lovecraft's belief in stories developed by Divers Hands, this comic has been released with a Creative Commons license, allowing anyone to create and release their own versions of the comic.The comic can be found at Lovecraft Country.
How is her daughter doing?A Canadian emergency room nurse is being credited with saving her 4-year-old daughter's life this week after a cougar attacked the child.
Monique Bazille used a cooler holding four cans of beer to fight the big cat during the attack on Vancouver Island, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported.
On the first try, she hit the cougar on its shoulder, but it refused to release Hayley.
'It wasn't leaving,' the mother told reporters. 'It snarled and growled at me. It stood its ground. But I stood mine.'
'I said: 'You get off of her.' And I was screaming and I went to kick him.'
Eventually, the cougar, its mouth red with her daughter's blood, released the girl and went back into the bush.
She said her daughter, being treated at a Vancouver hospital, is independent and angry. Said Bazille, 'She says she'd like to take the kitty to the deep end of the pool and drown it.'
Call it an interest in hunting, sport or a push for protection. Whatever the reason, Bucks County has been the second-highest seller of handguns in the state for the last three years.The gun dealer saying that everyone should have training before they are allowed to buy a gun makes me a little uneasy, but I can see his point. He didn't say anything about licensing, just training. So many people these days get all their gun knowledge from TV and movies, that when they do make the decision to buy a gun, they probably do need some real training.
'There are more and more people - and I've noticed younger people - that are getting interested in weapons,' firearms specialist Michele James said, '... as scary as it may seem.'
Bucks County outsold 66 other counties - including Philadelphia - to claim the second-highest rank in the state during the past three years. Only Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, had more handgun sales, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.
James, who works in the Bucks County Sheriff's Office, said she believes changes in society, like the threat of terrorism, are making people consider buying and carrying handguns.
'I really do believe society is the reason gun sales are up,' James said. 'Probably, about 40 percent of people [in Bucks] have licenses to carry ... and I can almost guarantee that about 70 percent of people have a gun in their home.'
But they aren't using them to commit crimes in Bucks, according to District Attorney Diane Gibbons.
The DA said she doesn't see a correlation with gun sales here and crime.
Tradition has it that the cartridge that was to become the .50 BMG we know today, was initiated at the personal request of General John (Blackjack) Pershing. This request for a heavy machine gun cartridge came in light of American experiences with the large-caliber weapons employed by the European nations during WW1. The request, in April 1918, for a weapon with an effective range of 6,000 meters and a muzzle velocity of 2600 fps was contracted to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The proposed cartridge was to have both machine gun and anti-tank capabilities.
Later that same month, Winchester began the fabrication of test cartridges to obtain ballistic data. Initially they used 16-gauge, brass shotshells, necked down to accept commercial 500-grain lead 45-70 projectiles. Propellant charges used varied from 120-150 grains, developing 2485 to 2944 fps muzzle velocity, and generated a (probably wildly overestimated) breech pressure of 90,000 psi!! (Compare that to the pressures developed in the current cartridges on the chart above.)
In late 1918, work on the cartridge was transferred from Winchester to Frankford Arsenal, where it remained (almost exclusively) until well into WW2. Design work on the weapon itself was performed by John Browning and Colt.
During the ensuing years of development, the cartridge case design went through a series of metamorphoses. Case lengths from 4.08 inches to 3.80 inches were tried. Rimmed, semi-rimmed, and rimless case designs were considered. Both the 13mm German anti-tank round and a scaled-up 30-06 cartridge design were copied, with the latter finally winning approval. Projectile weights from 800 to 508 grains were tested. And cartridge overall lengths from 5.51 to 5.00 inches were explored. (Compare with the stats listed in the chart above.)
Eventually, advances in tank armor outpaced that of anti-tank rifles, so the .50 BMG became, exclusively, a heavy machine gun caliber cartridge. The first machine gun was standardized as the M1921 and, in 1924, the Caliber .50 Browning Machine Gun Cartridge was adopted in the form pretty much as we know it still today.
PREVENTING AN RDD ATTACK
To construct an RDD, a terrorist group must obtain radioactive materials, use those materials to fabricate a weapon, deliver the weapon to the attack site, and detonate the device. Each of these steps suggests intercessionary measures that can be used to help prevent an attack.
Obtaining radioactive materials requires access to the materials; radioactive sources must be either purchased or stolen. Legal purchase in the United States requires possession of a radioactive materials license, and vendors are not allowed to sell radioactive materials except to properly licensed customers. Terrorist groups could accomplish this via subterfuge (e.g., copying or altering a legitimate radioactive materials license or applying for a license under false pretenses). A terrorist group can also take advantage of existing bulletin boards on which radioactive sources are advertised, often 'free to a good home' by organizations that no longer use them. To transfer a radioactive source legally, it is sufficient to have a copy on-hand of the radioactive materials license of the recipient, which can be supplied by the receiving organization. This leaves open the possibility that a terrorist group could falsify these records to obtain an unwanted radioactive source. To preclude this possibility, regulatory bodies should consider requiring licensing documents be obtained only from a regulatory authority with licensing jurisdiction over the source recipient rather than counting on the integrity of the source recipient.
The most straightforward deterrent to stealing radioactive sources is to increase security via better locking systems, the presence of security guards, alarm systems to indicate a source's theft, and so forth. It is also important to note that radioactive materials licenses are considered public documents and are available for scrutiny by the public. This means that a terrorist organization may be able to obtain copies of licensing documents and use these to identify likely targets for theft. Accordingly, we may wish to remove these documents from public scrutiny.
Radioactive materials obtained overseas must be moved into the United States in order to be used against us. This means that containers with large radioactive sources must either emit high levels of radiation or they must contain large amounts of lead. Developing suitable detection instruments may help address this problem. That being said, current radiation detectors are difficult for untrained personnel to use; it may be necessary to develop a new family of radiation detectors that will help avoid some of the errors that have occurred in the recent past.
Finally, radioactive materials must be transported from the point of entry to the location of fabrication or use. Establishing a network of sensitive radiation sensors around likely target cities can help to detect any but the best-shielded radioactive sources, possibly permitting interdiction prior to use. Aerial surveys may help in this matter, too, depending on the number of available aircraft, detector sensitivity, and the size of the city.
Fabricating an RDD, as noted earlier, can lead to exposure to dangerously high levels of radiation. This, plus the need to avoid detection, may necessitate the use of remote manipulators and/or large amounts of lead shielding. Accordingly, it may be desirable to require lead vendors to report sales of large amounts of lead, remote manipulators, and other such paraphernalia. Although this will not prevent RDD construction, it may at least make it more difficult, more dangerous, or more amenable to detection.
American Lance Armstrong suffered defeat in London's Court of Appeal Friday, just five days after his record seventh victory in the Tour de France.But, and get this:
Three judges ruled that the Sunday Times newspaper was entitled to argue that it could print a story containing allegations that Armstrong had taken performance-enhancing drugs. The cyclist has denied taking banned drugs.
The judges agreed with the paper that it was entitled to argue such a story was privileged on the basis it was in the public interest and the newspaper had a duty to publish it.
The Court also ruled that when the case comes to court the paper can argue a number of points which it says justified publication of the story.
Last July, a Paris appeals court turned down Armstrong's request that the book should include his denial of the allegations.Isn't that nice? The losers can print all the libelous accusation they want, but they don't have to print the winner's side. That's balance for you. They seem to be ignoring the fact that Mr. Armstrong has been the subject of laboratory tests since his early 20's, which initially established his phenomenal circulatory system which pumps a much higher than usual volume of oxygen through his system, although it was not all that efficient at converting the oxygen to energy. Further tests showed that through the years, due to his hard work and determination, as his physical fitness improved, his oxygen efficiency also improved.
