October 19, 2007
More remarkable than the notion that someone would commit suicide by pointing a FLARE GUN in their mouth...is that Wonderduck and I IM'd each other this story nigh simultaneously.
We truely have a low opinion of each other.
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Mostly I'm studying for Exams. So I've watched precious little anything other than the inside of my textbooks and ODU's Blackboard site.
Fortunately Ubu has been watching crap so we don't have to.
It's not ALL crap of course but this season really has little to interest me.
Ubu does provide some important historical perspective to the new shows.
If WWII had been like this, Roosevelt would have looked like Professor X and have been crippled years ago by his quasi-enemy, Super Seiyjin Stalin; Hitler would have been the lunatic madman out to conquer/end/dominate/destroy the world, Mussolini would have been the jilted bishie lover of both Roosevelt and Stalin, Churchill would have been an angsty teenager, and Hirohito would have been a cute female high-schooler in a sailor outfit trying to end world militarism in time for this semester’s finals.
Which gives an idea of why Bridgebunnies.com should be checked out periodically
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07:22 PM
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October 15, 2007
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10:26 PM
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Waugh! Aieee!!
Light Posting ahead!
more...
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10:23 PM
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10:16 PM
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This is an interesting find!
A blog by the Commanding Officer of a UK Royal Navy frigate, HMS Sommerset.
HMS Sommerset is a British Type 23 Frigate, quite likely the best ASW platform ever designed, they nevertheless have sufficient versatility to be very useful vessels in a variety of situations.
The blog includes pictures of weapons firing and an interesting look (subject to the official secrets act of course) into the life aboard one of Her Majestey's vessels.
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08:43 PM
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Eaglespeak has found an obscure piece of US Naval History that is as impressive as it is inspiring.
In 1942, Corregidor, the USS Quail, a small minesweeper had fought a hard, short war against overwhelming odds. Laying and sweeping mines and providing fire support with her 3 inch guns in a battlespace owned by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the ship was finally out of fuel ammunition and so damaged from artillery fire that the decision was made to scuttle her.
With the Philippines overrun all hope seemed lost. But Commander Morill of the Quail was not about to give up. He intended to sail to Australia ~1800 miles away in the small boats from Quail. Only 18 of his shipmates agreed to come on what must have seemed a fools errand. But 29 days later those that did landed in Australia!
These men did not have GPS, Loran, or Inertial navigation. On a 36 foot motor launch they'd have had the CO's sextant, their watches and a compass. Yet they made it through nearly 2000 NM of enemy controlled sea!
The book is long out of print but it is available at the Joint Forces Staff College, Fort Eustis and William and Mary libraries. I'm going to definitely borrow this after exams.
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07:31 PM
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12:21 AM
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October 14, 2007
Don has two extended pieces up on his blog.
Go swing baby!
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05:07 AM
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This is an extreme example, but I encountered, both firsthand and with varying degrees of separation, similarly bizarre stories over the past 15 years.
I must say though that this story really is a perfect storm of crazy.
In my (admittedly limited experience) fandom in particular seems rife with this sort of thing.
The victims blog.
The Monster:
via Colleen Doran who has a good discussion in the comments.
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04:52 AM
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No, I won't explain,....go read the whole thing.
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03:47 AM
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Anchoress...
Israelly Cool...
Bookworm Room....
Counter Column...
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03:11 AM
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October 13, 2007
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11:38 PM
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It should come as a suprise to no one....but most of the Burmese monks seem to be.... gone.
There were a lot of them just 2 weeks ago.
More here.
UPDATE: Oh...
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09:37 PM
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DATELINE VATICAN CITY:
The order of the Knights Templar has been absolved of heresey!
It now appears that most of the acusations against the Knights Templar were part of an elaborate scam perpetrated by a French King (Phillip the Fair) who owed them money (and later went on to persecute French Jews).
Fortunately the Vatican has gotten to the bottom of this scandal and cleared their names (of that charge at least).
It only took them....700 years.
(Via Instapundit, who points out that it does put the Duke Rape Case in perspective)
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08:49 PM
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Via a thread on Anthony Williams site comes this interesting web-page devoted to the CJB MS, a Personal Defense Weapon concept built around a new 6.5 mm cartridge.
This round, the 6.5 CJB, is not in the league of the well regarded 6.5mm Grendel....it is a necked down 9mm parabellum that fires a discarding sabot round. The round, less sabot, is 4mm in caliber which does not tend to impress...especially given the issues that have been reported with the 5.56 NATO round.
The penetrator however, is made of tungsten and is quite long, giving very good sectional density. It also travels very fast (2723fps from a 7.9 inch barrel!)
More on this weapon here at Security Arms where it is mentioned that the new round generates around the same level of firing impulse as an average 9mm round making the barrels swap option practical. (this display actually has a 9mm barrel mounted on the weapon! ) For some years this site had been all I'd been able to find about the CJB MS.
This weapon reportedly has better penetrating power than the 5.7mm FN and 4.6mm H&K. It is also CLAIMED to have an effective range of 400 yards (if so, this is a truly impressive round to be fired from a 9mm sized weapon).
Ballistic gelatin pics are halfway down this page and they do look impressive, though there is little data on, say, the MV or barrel length of the weapons that fired the respective rounds. I imagine this round will better than the 5.7 but might still have some stopping power issues. Nevertheless, the ease of modifying 9mm weapons to fire it and the ability to fire common as dirt 9mm ammo in the CBJ MS with a simple barrel swap* would seem to male this a really interesting military weapon with a lot of potential.
I wonder if "spoon-tip" ammo is Geneva legal?
The gun can accept a 100 round drum which seems unrelated to any of the high-cap mags on the market today. It will be interesting to see if it is reliable.It is very compact when mounted but the feed extension is likely to make storage in an ammo pouch awkward. Still, 100 rounds is good to have for suppression.
Keeping in mind that my tactical experience consists of crawling through a mock freighter twice....er....and hundreds of hours of playing first person shooters, I'd say make the foregrip collapsible so it could be holstered. This would be very close to what the Army and Marines need in a PDW. It could be carried by second line troops on the hip, keeping both hands free for their primary duties. This also makes it less likely that their gun will be in the hummer when they need it.
With its collapsible stock and the addition of a collapsible foregrip it would seem to me to be easier to aim and use than a pistol. As stated most 9mm pistols can be converted to fire this round so you have a common ammo for better logistics. The UZI style magazine in grip takes advantage of the "hand finds hand" principal for quick reloading and makes the weapon shorter too. I like the self cleaning action of the sabot, that's cute!
One final note. A splash of cold water seems in order given the very boosterish nature of the above linked website. This weapon and the round in particular, does seem to have considerable potential, but it is not a wonder weapon. All weapons are compromises and 4mm projectiles, even very long ones, should serve to give one pause at a time that 5.56 rounds are generating doubt. This weapon may well fill a crucial niche and it is certainly very interesting. At the same time it is important to remember how overhyped the 5.7 FN was.
Still, I think it bears testing at the very least.
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06:48 PM
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October 07, 2007
The Coast Guard's new Long Range Interceptor on sea trials.
They will be operated as daughter craft from larger Coast Guard Cutters.
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05:47 PM
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Lost Hutch....
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05:36 PM
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There is certainly a sense that despite everything, we may finally be on the cusp of restarting the adventure that was so foolishly allowed to end after the above picture was taken by the Apollo 17 landing party.
We often hear about parallels between Space and the American Frontier, but we aren't the only pioneering culture with aspirations to space. This Aussie article looks at the similarities that may come out between the colonization of their continent and the settlement of the heavens. (HT: Clarke Lindsey)
Finally, the new Carnival of Space is up!
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05:18 PM
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more...
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