Archive for the ‘Bookmarks’ Category

Random gun crankery bookmark.

Friday, August 18th, 2023

I wanted to quickly bookmark this article from the American Handgunner website, even though it is basically an advertisement for an upcoming Rock Island Auctions event.

It provides a useful introduction to a couple of this blog’s ongoing obsessions:

  • The Smith and Wesson Registered Magnum
  • Ed McGivern

There’s a strike, in case you haven’t heard…

Wednesday, July 19th, 2023

…so why not watch something vintage?

Someone on Hacker News posted this, and I thought I’d bookmark it here for the benefit of my readers:

The UCLA Library Film and Television Archive collection of the U.S. Steel Hour.

Premiering on ABC-TV in 1953 amid a crowded broadcast landscape of similar dramatic programs, U.S. Steel Hour distinguished itself as one of the most prestigious and longest-running anthologies of the “golden age of television” before cancellation by CBS in the spring of 1963. Produced by The Theatre Guild, the series was honored with 10 Emmy Award nominations and three wins over the course of its run, including being named “Best Dramatic Program” by the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1954.

You can watch “select episodes” online. Why would you want to? Well, those select episodes include:

  • “Queen of the Orange Bowl”, a rom-com featuring Anne Francis (who is always worth watching) and…Johnny Carson.
  • The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon“, the original adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon”, predating “Charly” but also starring Cliff Robertson.
  • “Scene of the Crime”, a “grim and claustrophobic crime drama with a noir twist”…starring Betty White.
  • The Thief“, featuring James Dean.
  • The Rack“. “…a previously decorated Army officer faces court martial for actions taken while under duress of extreme torture in a Korean P.O.W. camp.” Teleplay by Rod Serling, later mode into a feature film with Paul Newman and Anne Francis.

It isn’t like I don’t already have enough stuff to watch: I should be able to survive the end of the entertainment industry with ease. But this seems like the kind of thing some folks might enjoy.

Random gun crankery bookmark.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2022

Every once in a while, I’ll mention a Smith and Wesson and say it is a J-frame or a K-frame or some other letter-frame.

Generally, I try to provide some context, for the benefit of the non-Smith and Wesson fans who make up part of my audience. However, I am not always successful at that.

So, here: a nifty recent article from Frank Jardim in American Handgunner explaining the various S&W frame types and what they all mean.

I’ll add this to the “reference” section on the sidebar, too. Come to think of it…

No, no, don’t thank me: I run a full service blog here.

Mixed drink note.

Sunday, May 29th, 2022

I could have out this in an earlier entry, but, well, I forgot.

After dinner at Mala, Mike the Musicologist stopped off at Anvil Bar and Refuge for a drink. Because it was in the neighborhood, I’d heard about it but never been, and it was a weeknight so the crowd was more manageable.

One of the classic cocktails on their list – which I had not heard of before – was the Up to Date. This cocktail is credited to Hugo Ensslin – who I had also not heard of before – around 1917.

Mr. Ensslin was an interesting guy. In 1917 (or 1916 – sources differ) he published a book called Recipes for Mixed Drinks, which many people consider the last gasp of cocktail culture before Prohibition. Mr. Ensslin was a hotel bartender, and Mixed Drinks is mostly based on his hotel recipes, not on ones he got from other people. It is supposed to have been a big influence on people like Harry Craddock (of The Savoy Cocktail Book).

There was a reprint edition a few years back (WP review) that seems to still be in print. But there’s also a scanned version online.

It was a good cocktail. I liked the balance, and may try making one at home at some point.

Also: The Chanticleer Society, though they aren’t updating as much as I would like them to.

Also also: the Sazerac at the Rainbow Lodge is very good.

And while I am thinking of it…

Saturday, May 28th, 2022

…I wanted to bookmark this article: “What Ever Happened to Scandium Bike Frames?” which I ran across the other day.

I think it’s a pretty good explanation of why scandium is significant, and the basic metallurgy of the aluminum/scandium mix.

One thing that isn’t mentioned, except in a passing reference in the end-user chart: Scandium is also being used in firearms. Smith and Wesson in particular has built a number of guns using scandium frames, like the 1911 E-Series.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 364

Tuesday, March 30th, 2021

One of the reasons this past weekend was so busy is that I got up brutally early Saturday morning and drove out to the KR Training facility (KR Training, official firearms trainer for WCD) to attend a “Stop the Bleed” class taught by Levi Nathan.

I know there are many gun bloggers who feel like: if you carry a gun, you should carry a tourniquet, too. I haven’t been doing that because:

  • I didn’t have the training.
  • I have heard a lot of horror stories about low quality knockoff tourniquets made of Chinesium. I wanted to make sure I knew what suppliers were reliable, and how to tell a counterfeit tourniquet from a real one, before I started spending money on putting together an emergency kit (or what people in the biz call an IFAK).
  • I also wanted to know what I should – and should not – put in my emergency kit.

Summarizing: I got exactly what I wanted out of Mr. Nathan and the course, and I heartily endorse this event and/or product.

And even though this was at KR Training, this isn’t just a gun thing, for all my foreign readers. People hurt themselves badly and suffer life threatening bleeding in all kinds of ways: car accidents, construction accidents, kitchen accidents…

I also heartily endorse the idea of taking an official “Stop the Bleed” course from someone, anyone. You’ll get hands-on practice with stuff, and hands-on practice is good.

That being said, today’s videos are all StB related. Some of this is for my own personal bookmarks, and some of this is for the benefit of my loyal readers who want the knowledge, but may not yet be able to step out and take a StB course.

Remember: Have gloves. Wear gloves. Nitrile is recommended.

This is a compressed (slightly over 15 minutes) version of the “Stop the Bleed” presentation.

Here’s a longer version (a little over an hour) with demos.

Again, these are not substitutes for taking a for real actual course from someone who knows what they are doing. But I know a lot of people still don’t feel like it is safe to go out and mingle in public, so this is better than a poke in the neck with a sharp stick.

And from North American Rescue, makers of the Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T), here’s how to apply one:

NAR has a content rich YouTube channel. Here’s another video on the use of the emergency trauma dressing.

And from ITS Tactical, here’s a video on using the Israeli bandage:

Finally, by way of SkinnyMedic, “How to use your IFAK”.

Note that some of these channels talk about stuff other than trauma dressing, gauze (for packing) and the C-A-T: for example, chest seals.

The advice we got in class for using chest seals (and even more emphatically, chest decompression needles) was: don’t. Chest seals seem to show up in a lot of pre-packaged IFAKs, but as Mr. Nathan put it, this is not within your scope having taken just a “Stop the Bleed” course. This is the kind of thing that EMTs with higher level certifications do, not random hobos such as myself.

Also, if you get someone else’s blood on you: tell the responding medical people. We all know about HIPAA, right? Well, there’s a limited exception in the law: if you get someone’s blood on you, and it is documented, and it turns out that person has a blood-borne pathogen, you have a right to be informed of that as long as it is documented. You don’t have a right to know how and where they got it, just that they had it.

Now all I need to do is get my (stuff) together. I’m actually kind of surprised at how many of the companies selling IFAK pouches don’t make them in red. Condor is the only one I’ve found: 5.11 doesn’t, for sure.

The pouch should be the cheapest part of your kit, as long as it holds everything in place. But in a high stress emergency situation, I’m personally thinking “red = first aid”, and I want to be able to tell people “grab the red pouch”, not “grab the black pouch, no, the small black pouch, no, the other small black pouch, no, that’s the dark purple one, grab the black one…” Know what I mean, Vern?

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 351

Wednesday, March 17th, 2021

Today, some real history.

A while back, when Morlock Publishing’s Twitter feed was public, he retweeted a fascinating quote from someone’s book.

“The meteorite itself was so massive that it didn’t notice any atmosphere whatsoever,” said Rebolledo. “It was traveling 20 to 40 kilometers per second, 10 kilometers — probably 14 kilometers — wide, pushing the atmosphere and building such incredible pressure that the ocean in front of it just went away.”
These numbers are precise without usefully conveying the scale of the calamity. What they mean is that a rock larger than Mount Everest hit planet Earth traveling twenty times faster than a bullet. This is so fast that it would have traversed the distance from the cruising altitude of a 747 to the ground in 0.3 seconds. The asteroid itself was so large that, even at the moment of impact, the top of it might have still towered more than a mile above the cruising altitude of a 747. In its nearly instantaneous descent, it compressed the air below it so violently that it briefly became several times hotter than the surface of the sun.

That someone turned out to Peter Brannen, and his book is The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions (affiliate link).

Here’s a talk at Google from 2017. He does go off into climate change about 25 minutes in, so you could maybe punch out when you’ve had enough. I think his discussion of things like Chicxulub make this worth it. (I was actually not aware that there was a controversy over whether that killed the dinosaurs: I thought the science was settled.)

Bonus: since the Ides of March have just passed, how about an episode of “Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall Of An Empire” on Caesar?

Bonus #2: while I guess this is semi-thematically appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, I’m bookmarking this here because of my interest in crime, law, and prison breaks.

“Unlocking the Maze”, about the escape of 38 IRA prisoners from the maximum security Long Kesh prison on September 25, 1983. Again, I am not making a political statement here: I just find prison breaks fascinating.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 337

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021

So the governor reopened Texas:

Abbott announced a new executive order effective next Wednesday that will allow any business to open at 100% capacity if they choose to. Saying that statewide mandates are “no longer necessary,” he also announced the end of the mandatory mask mandate effective March 10.

Does this mean that we are out of jail? In my opinion, not yet.

  • This doesn’t take effect until next week.
  • I’m still a little concerned that we’ll see a surge after this goes into effect, and we will all end up back in solitary confinement.
  • I want to see how far I can take this: maybe up to 365 entries?
  • While the state has repealed the mask mandate, individual businesses can still require masks. Perhaps when I see more businesses dropping the mask requirement…
  • Finally, I’ll consider myself out of jail when I get my Chinese rabies shot. I’ve been trying: I actually spent an hour last night on the Austin Public Health website trying to book an appointment, with no luck. There was about a 10:1 ratio of people waiting online to actual appointments.

In the meantime, it’s been two weeks since our last round of random gun crankery, so why not take another spin at the wheel? Especially since this came up recently and is relevant to my interests: Jerry Miculek demonstrates his technique for speed reloading a revolver with moon clips.

Bonus #1: “Taking A Break From The B S Of Life” from Blackie Thomas.

“A lot of you probably started out with one of these Red Ryder BB guns too.” (raises hand) Still have it, too.

Bonus #2: I haven’t run across Target Suite previously, but I wanted to link this video of him discussing the Ruger Single Six he picked up at a pawn shop.

I own a Single Six with both the .22 LR and .22 Magnum cylinders, and I think it is a pure fun gun to shoot. I’m actively looking for a second one at a reasonable price for something I have in mind. I might have to start visiting more pawn shops.

Bonus #3: “Using a Sling”, from our friends at the Army Marksmanship Unit.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 261

Wednesday, December 16th, 2020

A handful of short and selfish videos today.

From the “Food Wishes” channel, a couple of things I’m bookmarking because I’d like to try them:

“Homemade Eggnog Recipe – How to Make Classic Christmas Eggnog”.

I just bought a bottle of 18 year old rum. But I’m lazy, so I may just purchase a good commercial eggnog (like the Promised Land Dairy one) and add rum to that.

Speaking of rum, “Hot Buttered Rum”.

Not food, just for grins: Mireille Mathieu sings “La Marseillaise” in 1989 at the foot of the Eiffel Tower for its centennial. And it has English subtitles. I am currently immersed in the French Revolution block of the “Revolutions” podcast, so this is relevant to my interests.

Last one: “No Regrets: The life and music of Edith Piaf”, a short (about 15 minutes) documentary from France 24 English.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 254

Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

Self-indulgent Wednesday!

“How to Order an M1 Garand from the Civilian Marksmanship Program”, by way of Black Flag Armory. Take advantage of this now: you never know what might happen in the future.

(As I understand it, the Texas State Rifle Association is a legit CMP affiliate.)

Bonus #1: Why would you want an M1 Garand? Because. “America’s Rifle”.

Bonus #2: Okay, I know everyone watches hickok45, but just for reference once you get your M1 from CMP: “How NOT to Load an M1 Garand!”.

Bonus #3: “How to load the M1 Garand the US Army way”.

Three is a magic number.

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020

I really enjoy Rachel By the Bay’s writing, but I specifically wanted to bookmark this: “My list of magic numbers for your turkey day enjoyment“.

A couple of personal additions (hey, if Rachel can add C-64 and VIC-20 magic numbers, I can add these):

POKE 65495,0: On the old Radio Shack Color Computer, this sped up the CPU. Specifically, according to the Intertubes: “POKE 65495,0 would cause the processor to run at double speed ( 1.795 MHz ) when accessing instructions in ROM and Normal Speed ( 0.895 MHz ) when accessing DRAM.” It also messed up the timing for tape input and output, so you had to disable it before saving or loading from tape. POKE 65494,0 would return the system to normal.

POKE 65497,0: This switched the processor fully to double speed for all memory access, including DRAM. It also disabled video: you basically just got snow on your monitor until you reset the system with POKE 65496,0.

Edited to add #1:

A spot in the middle of the ocean that shows up on a map and, once zoomed WAY out, shows Africa to the north and east of it is 0 degrees north, 0 degrees west, and it’s what happens when someone treats zero as null or vice-versa in a mapping/location system. See also: Null Island.

Worth keeping in mind. For OPSEC purposes, I set the EXIF location data in many of the photos I take (especially firearms photos around the house) to 0.000000 north and 0.000000 west.

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 232

Tuesday, November 17th, 2020

There’s a British gent named Guy Martin who has a YouTube channel. He used to race motorcycles, but more recently he’s become a television personality who seems to specialize in engineering and technical stuff.

I thought I’d do two videos today, one short, one longer. The short one: Mr. Martin goes to Japan and forges a sword with a master sword maker. As you know, Bob, I love hot metal and knives, so this is right in my wheelhouse.

The long: this is the first part of a series, “How Britain Worked”.

…getting stuck into six of the country’s biggest restoration projects, bringing some of the 19th century’s most impressive engineering achievements back to life.

This one covers “The Railway”. The other parts are available on his channel.