…into what had me busy last week(end): The big list. Shooting the damned derringers was brutal. But you hafta be ready for the Zombie apocalypse.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Astronomy, Bad Astronomy, Ballistics, Cassini, Depression, Enceladus, Guns, Health, NASA, Phil Plait, RKBA, Saturn, Science, Space
Man, I still feel like someone beat me with a bag of nickels.
I wonder if this is just an effect of having subjected myself to a lot of blast shock over a four day period? Shooting a lot of the ‘real world’ guns (we test something on the order of 40 with all the different ammos available from the previous tests) wasn’t such a big deal. But some of them – particularly the Bond derringers in the larger calibers – were just brutal to shoot 20 – 30 times in a row. And the blast from the short barrels of the chop tests could knock your teeth loose.
Anyway, I ache everywhere. And I’ve been fighting a mild depression for the last couple of days. At first it was just masked by being tired (the tests were hard, and I got too little sleep). Also, I figured that the emotional energy it took to be in close proximity to several other people constantly over five days time was a component – don’t get me wrong, I like everyone involved in the testing a lot, but I am just not used to being with people that much. But I have now had some time to recover, and I should be past the worst of that.
So, a little post-project blues. Or maybe the blast shock, repeated several thousand times, has something to do with it. I dunno. I’ll write more tomorrow, in the meantime take a few minutes to enjoy these great images of the Saturn system from the Cassini spacecraft, courtesy of the Boston Globe’s Big Picture series.
Jim Downey
(Via Phil Plait.)
So, I was listening to NPR yesterday afternoon, and heard their ‘letters’ bit about the show on Monday (which I missed, due to being out shooting). They had evidently done a segment speculating what would happen were marijuana legalized, and were reading some of the letters that they got in response. Most were about what you would expect – thoughtful observations and critiques of the show. Then there was the last one:
Finally, one of the few letters we received against legalization. It comes from Rose Rosetree in Virginia. She emailed to tell us she reads auras, professionally. She writes: “From my perspective, pot is very dangerous. It is a slow poison that has very specific consequences for all long-term users, as well as individual and heart breaking consequences for each user.” Ms. Rosetree goes on to say: ” Until all NPR listeners can read auras, invaluable for all forms of holistic healing, as well as many other practical uses, with all respect, non-aura-readers will only perceive the surface problems with marijuana and other recreational drugs.”
Hmm. Methinks Ms. Rosetree has books to sell. Surprise, surprise.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
As I mentioned the other day, this last weekend was the next round of testing for the Bbti project. We finished up in good form yesterday, after completing the ‘chop tests’ of three new calibers (.327 Magnum, .41 Magnum, and 10mm) as well as revisiting many of the previously tested ammos with a bunch (like over 40) of new ‘real world’ guns. There are some very interesting results already evident in the raw data, some of which I will be discussing informally on my Bbti blog in the coming weeks until we get everything crunched and posted formally on the main Bbti website.
But not for a day or two. As I told a friend this morning: “My hands feel like they have been pounded with hammers for the last week.” Just doing this much typing is very painful.
So, until later . . .
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to Bbti Blog.)
. . . to let everyone know that my posting here is likely to be light & sporadic (hmm – sounds like a weather forecast) this week. We’re going to be starting the next round of ballistics testing on Thursday, and I have a lot of work to get done before that.
Cheers!
Jim Downey
Uh-oh:
Welcome to the Skylighter web site for people who make fireworks and other pyrotechnics. Skylighter offers a wide variety of novelty fireworks, sparklers, fireworks books, fireworks videos, pyrotechnic chemicals (potassium nitrate, potassium perchlorate, aluminum, sulfur, etc.), fireworks making tools, fireworks tubes (for rockets, mortars, fountains, salutes, shells, etc.), fireworks shell parts, end plugs, end disks, end caps, and other paper and plastic supplies for making fireworks and pyrotechnics to organizations and individuals in all 50 states. The entire Skylighter catalog is available on-line, including air and surface shipping costs for all U.S. areas. Sorry, but we do not ship outside the United States.
And the guy who runs it has a blog with *extensive* information about how to construct fireworks. Here’s a bit:
Even when they don’t “work well,” and CATO (blow up) on the launch pad, these rockets are impressive! There is a lot of power packed into that engine tube, so it pays to put a long piece of Visco fuse on them, and have everyone plenty far away from the launch area just in case.
Whistle Rocket Explosion on Launch Pad(Photo Courtesy Jerry Durand)
This is the third in a series of whistle-related articles. The first installment dealt with making whistle fuel and simple fireworks whistles. That same fuel will be used in these strobe rockets. The second article described the construction of basic whistle rockets. Many of those same techniques will be used now to make strobe rockets. So, it’s a good idea for you to familiarize yourself with those basic methods before forging ahead with this project.
Oh, baby.
Man, I’m drooling.
About 15 years ago I had the good fortune to attend several nights worth of amateur fireworks displays as part of the Pyrotechnics Guild International competitions. And I got a serious case of fireworks lust. Which is always easy for me, anyway, what with being born on July 4th and all. A few years prior to that, I’d had the chance to help set up and set off some very impressive stuff – up to 6″ shells – as part of some SCA activities.
Believe me, I could seriously get into this stuff. I put it off back then because I had my hands full with other things. And I do still, of course, but the temptation now is even stronger. Hey, I already have several pounds of black powder here because of my flintlock . . .
Oh baby.
Jim Downey
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Art, Ballistics, Guns, Press, Promotion, Publishing, RKBA
Well, things with the Ballistic by the inch site have slowed down since I wrote this:
OK, this is a little weird.
I’ve created a monster. Well, not just me, but it’s at least largely my writing. Not that even my own sister could tell that.
See, the Ballistics by the inch project has been really successful. Really successful. Like over-a-quarter-million-hits-in-the-two-weeks-since-we-launched-it successful. I won’t know the actual number for a couple of hours, but already yesterday it was past that mark.
That’s more than twice the number of hits I’ve had to the Communion of Dreams site in the entire two years since it launched.
But yesterday the number of hits to that site crossed 500,000. In basically three months. And we’ll probably see a new round of interest next month, when the article in Concealed Carry Magazine comes out.
Wild.
So far, this has stayed primarily within the ‘firearms enthusiast’ community, and it may well just remain there. That’d be OK – that was the audience for which we did it. But it could also make the jump into the mainstream fairly easily, and that would be very odd, not unlike (but from a completely different direction) to when my little Paint the Moon project got picked up by the mainstream press.
Hmm, I need to remember to update my Wikipedia entry…
Jim Downey
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Ballistics, Guns, Health, Humor, Migraine, Preparedness, RKBA, Sleep, Survival, Violence
I haven’t mentioned it here yet, but the other day one of the cats tried to kill me, and almost succeeded. Evil little bastard. As I told a friend:
Dance of Stupidity & Pain
My afternoon was filled with a whole lotta screaming and cursing. Well, OK, “filled” isn’t quite right, since it was mostly compressed into one 10-minute period. Which started with me putting down a can for the dog, then turning to try and avoid stepping/falling on the cat coming to investigate. Damned cat. I now have three rather nasty punctures deep into the back of the web of my right hand, along with a ugly bruised big left toe, and a swollen left knee. Oh, and lots of pain associated with all of those, plus the spike in my headache following the adrenaline dump of trying not to kill either myself or the cat.
Well, the headache went on to become a nice little migraine, and the knee is still extremely annoying. Nothing to see a doc about – this is the knee I’ve had surgery on twice, and I know exactly what is going on. I probably broke the last bone in the toe, but the only thing they do with those is to take it easy and tell you to let it heal – I’ve done it too many times to count. Anyway, the low-grade pain has interrupted my sleep the last couple of days, the headache persists, and I’m more than a little grumpy. This may have influenced my appreciation of the movie last night, but I don’t think so – it was dreadful enough in its own right.
But I just came across something to make me chuckle. In one of the gun discussion forums I check out, the topic of “why do you carry” came up. I’ve written about this before, of course, and have my own reasons. Here’s this, though:
Remember the average response time to a 911 call is over 4 minutes.
The average response time of a 357 magnum is 1400 FPS.
Heh. The guy’s numbers are even about right. Well, for the .357. Response times for 911 calls vary widely, but all are measured in multiples of minutes.
Jim Downey
I wrote this the other day:
See, some time back I decided that I needed to watch the 2001 movie remake Planet of the Apes. I’d been on a bit of a Tim Burton kick, and figured that I should see this, even though it had been widely panned and looked dreadful.
It was dreadful. I watched it last night. Muddled plot. Pointless special effects. Sub-par acting. Unrealistic and inconsistent sciency-stuff. Absurd set-up for a sequel which was never made. Technology just 30 years ahead (of when the movie was made) that supposedly would survive for over a thousand years after crashing from orbit. Ballistic ridiculousness. Biological impossibilities.
I could go on – even for bad SF, this was inexcusable. But, since the movie is not exactly current, and they wisely decided not to make a sequel, it’s not worth the effort. I just thought that I should report on my reaction to the thing.
Maybe some more later –
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 