Professor Allison Hayward on Free Speech & Money

All you really need to know about the Wisconsin Right to Life case, delivered by a hot blonde, in the sun, by the beach.

She was only a couple years ahead of me in law school, and yet The Skeptic’s making the diplomas of all her fellow UCD grads look better every year. Campaign finance law isn’t going away anytime soon, and she’s got an increasingly visible presence in the field. Nice!

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense, Kewel! | Leave a comment

As American as Apple Pie

For breakfast.

pie-apple.jpg

It’s like having a bowl of fruit and toast without all the work.

Though I don’t know how all the sugar is going to interact with the Sam Adams from last night.

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

A Quick Note on July 5th

FYI: Do Not, I repeat, Do Not toss you used fireworks into your trash can for collection by your municipality’s trash collector.

The truck that picks up your trash will be compacting said items with enough PSI to juice you. This process wakes up all the “inert” particles inside your “used” fireworks and can very easily start a spontaneous combustion of the residue and the load inside the truck will begin to smoulder, leading to an onboard fire.

Which looks something like this

I can guarantee you that my employer will have at least one of these happen today, though because I’m not at work, I won’t be able to get pictures for you. Usually our drivers can dump the load before it gets that far gone, but that mess is something entirely more disgusting, having been dumped right on the pavement of a street or parking lot. We have a crew trained for specifically that clean-up process.

Your best bet is to burn the “used” fireworks in a barrel. Your next best bet would be to soak them thoroughly in a bucket of water for a couple days before throwing them out (you did have “Dud Buckets” out during your celebrations, right?).

Safety doesn’t end because you have to go to work then next day, folks.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Up and Away!


Up and Away!No, this wasn’t from July 4th. This was the Boomershoot 2007 anvil.

This anvil shoot, however, took place on July 4th. Now that’s my kind of museum!
Now I have a reason to go to Tennessee!

h/t: coalandice001

Posted in Boomershoot, Kewel! | Leave a comment

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July

I’ve got a couple projects to do today and then I’ll be going out to blow stuff up/see stuff get blown up.

You all be careful. Remember, if you blow off your fingers, it’ll be hard to type.

And now, our National Anthem

And

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Let Iran Get Its Hands on Our F-14s? NEVERRRR!!!!

Our Government feels so strongly about this that it’s paying somebody to shred F-14s so that “other countries” can’t obtain the spare parts for their own F-14 Tomcats.

Oh, wait:

Iran is the only country trying to keep Tomcats airworthy. The United States let Iran buy the F-14s in the 1970s when it was an ally, long before President Bush named it part of an “axis of evil.”

Emphasis mine. Read the whole thing here.

Update: Link fixed. 

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 2 Comments

Mo-Gem, DigiLight and Keychain

A bit unwieldy compared to modern “tactical” flashlights, but still pretty compact. I usually carry this in my right pocket.

Yes, that means I have two flashlights on my person. I live in earthquake country, okay? It’s important to me to have a backup flashlight. When the earthquake kills the power in your building, flashlights can be very useful to help you get OUT.

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | 1 Comment

Mo-Gem

The Mo-Gem turns your Maglite into a pocket defense stick. I’ve brought this well-worn item into many a California courthouse past the scanners and metal detectors, and only one (Asian) security guard has ever questioned it. “Is that a yawara?” he asked. “No, it’s a flashlight — see?” I said, turning it on and jingling the keys. He let me through.

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | 2 Comments

Mo-Gem Disassembled

That’s a AA Mini-Maglite at bottom, and the Mo-Gem attachment at top that replaces the Maglite tailcap. It’s even machined with a little recess for the spare bulb!

Alas, according to Massad Ayoob’s buddy Rick Devoid, the fellow who owns the molds for the Mo-Gem is languishing in prison. There certainly haven’t been any Mo-Gems for sale in Ayoob’s catalog for more than a decade.

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | Leave a comment

Hold the High Ground

The Global Warming Death Cult had better not wish for too much cooling of the planet, for that too may cause the sea levels to rise.

Well, not so much rise as cause the land to sink.

Heat from the Earth’s deep interior helps keep much of North America afloat by warming the continental crust and making it buoyant, scientists say.

If not for this effect, many American coastal cities would lie beneath the sea.

“We have shown for the first time that temperature differences within the Earth’s crust and upper mantle explain about half of the elevation of any given place in North America,” said study team member David Chapman of the University of Utah. Rock composition differences can explain the other half, he added.

Using previously published data of how rock density varies with depth in North America’s crust, the researchers created a hypothetical continental crust with a uniform thickness and composition.

“Once we’ve done that, we can see the thermal effect,” Chapman explained. The researchers could then calculate how much heat flow contributes to elevation in each of the 36 tectonic provinces, or “mini-plates,” of North America.

The findings are detailed in two studies published in the Journal of Geophysical-Solid Earth, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

The research shows that cities such as New York would drop over 1400 feet below the sea. Boston, over 1800 feet and LA would be under almost 3800 feet of water.

Let’s see here: We’d lose Schumer and Clinton, Kennedy and Kerry, and Feinstein and Boxer.

Seattle, on the other hand, would gain nearly 5500 feet of elevation, though I believe the ensuing cataclysm would pretty much level it.

I’m looking at Idaho in my not too distant future, so you know I’m rooting for some of that Global Cooling, baby.

Of course, it would all be Bush’s fault, but I don’t think his poll numbers would suffer much from their current standing.

Posted in The Left is Never Right | 1 Comment