A Lack of Swordsmen May Lead Saudis to Abolish Beheadings
Is this what progress looks like in Saudi Arabia? The kingdom is considering ending execution by beheading in favor of firing squads, reports the Egyptian English-language news website Ahram Online. A committee consisting of representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Justice and Health says there are shortages in government swordsmen and argue that a change to execution by firing squad would not violate Islamic law, the Saudi daily newspaper al-Youm writes. According to an official statement from the committee, “This solution seems practical, especially in light of shortages in official swordsmen or their belated arrival to execution yards in some incidents.”
Rabu, 13 Maret 2013
Some News Stories Just Require No Comment
This March 11, 2013 Time article:
A Lack of Swordsmen May Lead Saudis to Abolish Beheadings
Selasa, 12 Maret 2013
Some News Stories Are Too Much Fun
From the March 12, 2013 CBS Seattle:
and the line from Jaws:
Three elite Ukrainian commandos have gone AWOL.
The dolphins are highly trained, intelligent, and can strike anywhere.
Ukrainian media reported earlier this month that three military trained dolphins didn’t return to their base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The dolphins were reported to be out during a training exercise.
These particular dolphins are trained in the use of special knives and firearms to kill enemy divers. They are also adept in the use of explosives to sink enemy ships.They are Iraq War veterans, and are apparently out looking for mates. No word if they are armed. The comments, however, are a riot:
Run, Flipper, RUN!
Underwater arms dealers should be on the lookout for these 3
and the line from Jaws:
We're gonna need a bigger boat.
John Adams Describing What Is Going On Today
From John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, ed. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States (1851):
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.
When Solon's balance was destroyed by Aristides, and the preponderance given to the multitude, for which he was rewarded with the title of Just, when he ought to have been punished with the ostracism, the Athenians grew more and more democratic. I need not enumerate to you the foolish wars into which the people forced their wisest men and ablest generals against their own judgments, by which the state was finally ruined, and Philip and Alexander became their masters.
Obamacare Draft Health Insurance Application Form: 15 Pages Long
Here's a March 12, 2013 AP news story about a draft of the health insurance application form for those seeking Obamacare subsidized help:
I am reminded of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman's astute observation that when you asked college educated, middle class people to design a welfare system, they come up with something that puts college educated, middle class people to work administering it.
Nothing has changed.
Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes.
The government's draft application is now on the Internet.
It runs 15 pages for a three-person family. The online version has 21 steps, some with added questions.
At least three major federal agencies, including the IRS, will scrutinize your application.Keep in mind that most of the people who did not have health insurance, and for whom Obamacare was supposed to be a help, were not highly paid professionals. I would presume that many were high school graduates (if that) doing blue collar jobs. How many are going to be overwhelmed by this monstrosity? What are the chances that the government will start funding "health insurance assistance corporations" that will hire college graduates to help ordinary people figure out how to fill out the applications?
I am reminded of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman's astute observation that when you asked college educated, middle class people to design a welfare system, they come up with something that puts college educated, middle class people to work administering it.
Nothing has changed.
The Rapidly Expanding Supply of STL Files That Should Make Gun Control Advocates...
into advocates of a totalitarian society, with Internet censorship, licensing of machine tools, etc.
At GrabCad (registration required), there are STL files available for the AR-10 lower receiver, the MAC-10 receiver, and various other interesting objects. You can display them in a 3D viewer, and at first glance, they look right. There are a lot of CAM programs out there that will load these STL files and machine these parts on a CNC mill. By comparison, the rest of the parts required to complete these weapons are easy to machine on a vertical mill, with the single exception of the barrel (and those are readily available to purchase online, no serial numbers).
As CNC mill technology gets cheaper, and as 3D printers start to work with better plastics, gun control will go from a delusion to obvious fantasy.
UPDATE: For those going old school: blueprints for making a MAC-10 receiver. Obviously, the parts will need welding to put them together.
At GrabCad (registration required), there are STL files available for the AR-10 lower receiver, the MAC-10 receiver, and various other interesting objects. You can display them in a 3D viewer, and at first glance, they look right. There are a lot of CAM programs out there that will load these STL files and machine these parts on a CNC mill. By comparison, the rest of the parts required to complete these weapons are easy to machine on a vertical mill, with the single exception of the barrel (and those are readily available to purchase online, no serial numbers).
As CNC mill technology gets cheaper, and as 3D printers start to work with better plastics, gun control will go from a delusion to obvious fantasy.
UPDATE: For those going old school: blueprints for making a MAC-10 receiver. Obviously, the parts will need welding to put them together.
Machine Tool Lust
This Bridgeport CNC vertical mill is currently at $1025 on eBay -- and it appears to be in astonishingly good shape. Unfortunately, I don't have the space in the garage for it; it would take three phrase power to run it; I shudder to think what shipping something this heavy would cost. But what a bargain! I suspect that this cost $15,000 new.
UPDATE: Shipping charges would be $1575. That turns it from a steal deal into a bit too expensive to justify.
UPDATE: Shipping charges would be $1575. That turns it from a steal deal into a bit too expensive to justify.
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