Category: Weapons
Follies of the Mad Men #83
White Sands National Monument
Do they still let you sand-ski in the park? Or are you only allowed to look at weapons of mass destruction?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sat Oct 03, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (4)
Category: Landmarks, Monuments, Sightseeing, North America, Natural Wonders, Weapons
Category: Landmarks, Monuments, Sightseeing, North America, Natural Wonders, Weapons
Missile Dick Chicks Documentary
Visit here for more info.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Jun 01, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (1)
Category: Humor, Parody, Pranks, War, Weapons, Performance Art, Documentaries
Category: Humor, Parody, Pranks, War, Weapons, Performance Art, Documentaries
Midwest Crime Round Up
Out of Work Teachers Sell Meth; South Bend, Ind: Twin sisters and out of work school teachers, Maria and Michelle Stancati, have plead guilty to dealing methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school. Indy StarEx-Public Defender Busted in Child Sex Internet Sting; Marion County, Ind: Ryan W. Snyder, former Marion County Public Defender, was caught in an internet sex sting in February 2008. He has been sentenced to two years in prison. Indy Star
Three Arrested in BB Gun Home Invasion; Wauwatosa, Wisc: Three high school students were arrested in a home invasion after demanding $1,200 at gunpoint. The suspect with the weapon brandished what looked like a handgun, but was really a BB gun. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Teen Declines Sex for Money, Utilities Shut Off; Chicago, Ill: A West Side teen was solicited for sex for money by her landlord. When she turned him down, he shut off the gas and electric. He now faces charges for interfering with a public utility. Chicago Breaking News
Driver Painting Nails Kills Motorcyclist; Lake Zurich, Ill: According the
Posted By: chris_cantwell | Date: Wed May 06, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (5)
Category: Addictions, Crime, Death, Drugs, Law, Weapons
Category: Addictions, Crime, Death, Drugs, Law, Weapons
World’s Largest-Ever Model Rocket Launch
Okay, "model rockets" are about a foot long, right? This thing is something the North Korean military aspires toward!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Apr 30, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (23)
Category: Explosives, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, World Records, Weapons
Category: Explosives, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, World Records, Weapons
Alice Redux
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Apr 14, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (15)
Category: Animals, Death, Literature, Books, Fantasy, Parody, Weapons
Category: Animals, Death, Literature, Books, Fantasy, Parody, Weapons
Bollywood-Style Arms Video
Thanks to Josh Klein for submitting this video, which has been described as a "catastrophic collision of Bollywood and the arms industry." Produced by an Israeli arms company to drum up business in India, it features actors in Bollywood costume dancing around surface-to-air missiles.But dammit, I now have the idiotic jingle from the video looping endlessly in my head: Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga, Dinga Dinga Dee...
Please make it stop!
Albert Bacon Pratt’s Helmet Gun
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The weapon described has many advantages. The gun is automatically aimed unconsciously and incidentally to the turning of the head of the marksman in the direction of the target. In self-protection, one immediately, instinctively turns the head in the direction of attack to see the enemy, or, in hunting, toward any sound made by nearby game. Thus the gun is automatically directed toward the mark in the course of the first instinctive movement. With the gun thus aimed, the only further operation necessary to fire the same is to blow through the tube and thereby expand the bulb and operate the trigger. This is accomplished entirely from the head of the marksman, leaving his hands and feet free further to defend himself or for other purposes as desired. Under some circumstances the gun can be fired not only without the use of the hands and feet, but also without the use of the eyes of the marksman. For example, in hunting at night if an animal made a sound in underbrush, the head of the marksman would be instinctively turned in the direction of the sound and then the gun would be fired, without the use of the eyes of the marksman.
Pratt then points out that his invention is useful not only in combat, but also in the kitchen:
The crown section of the helmet when detached from the base of the helmet may be inverted and used as a cooking utensil, the elongated hood projecting therefrom for protecting the barrel of the gun serving as the handle therefor.
Pratt claimed he had solved the problem of recoil:
The "blow-back" causes the breech-bolt to retreat and automatically cock the hammer, but the strong spring back of the breech-bolt forces the same so quickly forward again following the recoil, that the two movements naturalize one another so promptly that no discomfort to the wearer results from the recoil.
But I suspect he didn't have all the bugs ironed out, which must be why such a useful invention never caught on.
Duck and Cover
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Feb 13, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (10)
Category: Education, Government, War, Weapons, Documentaries
Category: Education, Government, War, Weapons, Documentaries
The Camisards
Well, not all the time.
Consider the French Protestant dissenters known as the Camisards.
I learned about this historical incident from reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey. (You can find the entire text of the book here.) Stevenson traveled through the region once ruled by the Camisards, and evoked the romance of their rebellion.
There, a hundred and eighty years ago, was the chivalrous Roland, "Count and Lord Roland, generalissimo of the Protestants in France," grave, silent, imperious, pock-marked ex-dragoon, whom a lady followed in his wanderings out of love. There was Cavalier, a baker's apprentice with a genius for war, elected brigadier of Camisards at seventeen, to die at fifty-five the English governor of Jersey. There again was Castanet, a partisan in a voluminous peruke and with a taste for divinity. Strange generals who moved apart to take counsel with the God of Hosts, and fled or offered battle, set sentinels or slept in an unguarded camp, as the Spirit whispered to their hearts! And to follow these and other leaders was the rank file of prophets and disciples, bold, patient, hardy to run upon the mountains, cheering their rough life with psalms, eager to fight, eager to pray, listening devoutly to the oracles of brainsick children, and mystically putting a grain of wheat among the pewter balls with which they charged their muskets.
Pretty weird, huh? And right in Europe, not all that long ago.
The last sentence from Stevenson is particularly intriguing, since it conjures up comparisons to the Mai-Mai rebels in the Congo today, who believe that certain magical charms protect them against bullets; that their own bullets are invulnerable to counter charms; and that ritual cannibalism of their enemies is still a grand idea.
Once Europe had its own Mai-Mai's. Perhaps someday Africa will be rid of theirs.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Thu Jan 22, 2009 | Permalink |
Comments (24)
Category: Cannibalism, Death, Frauds, Cons and Scams, History, Historical Figure, Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand, Paranormal, Religion, War, Weapons, Foreign Customs, Africa, Europe, Eighteenth Century
Category: Cannibalism, Death, Frauds, Cons and Scams, History, Historical Figure, Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand, Paranormal, Religion, War, Weapons, Foreign Customs, Africa, Europe, Eighteenth Century
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Horror, Injuries, War, Weapons