Gloom and Doom

 It's a popular meme in science fiction, dramatized by Arnold Schwartzenegger about the day that Skynet became self-aware.  Great movie and scary gloom and doom about computers are going to kill us all.

Now in an Orwellian twist, I see that the tech giants on the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are asking government to regulate them. That is the most bizarre thig I have ever heard.  Huge companies asking government to get involved in their business.

The huge fallacy here is that government is capable of intelligently regulating technology that so few of us understand.  My congressman, for example, is incapable of regulating himself.  He's an idiot. Come November, he will be out of work, but I don't hold out much hope for his replacement, at least in any technical field.  Congress is the last body I want to see regulating AI.

As for these tech giants, are they incapable of regulating themselves?  They need Big Brother to keep the genie locked in the bottle?

Lets note the timing.  We are less than two months away from the mid-term elections.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but both the subject matter and timing are suspicious.  This whole idea is so bizarre as to beg for conspiracy theories.  What is the real play?

Something is afoot and all we are seeing is the smokescreen.

New Frontier

 Talking with a friend last week, he told me that our local gun shop, Bulletproof Outfitters, had some old Colt revolvers on consignment.  I was intrigued.

I dropped in this morning and asked about Colt revolvers.  I found nothing that was suitable fr Cowboy Fast Draw, but they did have some interesting Colt New Frontier revolvers.  The New Frontier was introduced in 1961 to compete with the Ruger Blackhawk.  Basically, the New Frontier is the old SAA with adjustable sights.

The tag says .44 Mag, but the barrel is plainly marked 44 Spc.  It's a nice revolver, but I have mine.  Mine is a Lipsey's Blackhawk in .44 Special.  We call it the Poor Man's #5, in tribute to Elmer Keiths revolver.

They also had an over priced Ruger #1 in the rack, but I wasn't interested in .308 and didn't feel like dickering.

Trail Cam

 Brother in Law came over yesterday to eat lunch.  He shard a photo from his trail camera.  He has a small deer lease near Trout, LA and like many of us, has trail cameras set out to watch wildlife.  Trail cam resolution is what it is and he had a photo on it that needs opinions.

Some sort of cat.  Larger than your garden variety tabby, but bigger than the bobcats we normally see in the area.  Maybe a small panther.  I took the photo and ran it through the computer.  Came up with this image.

I'm voting bobcat, based on the stripes we see on the cats leg. I don't think it is a panther.  But I could be wrong.  However, based on what I know about local bobcat, that is a big-ass bobcat.

Wha say ye?

Trigger-monetry

 Someone asked recently about Cowboy Fast Draw shooting, what is the degree of angle that the muzzle has to fall in to hit the target.   We know several things and the rest of it is just basic trigonometry.

Width of the base (target) is 17.1875 inches

Distance to target is 180 inches (15 feet).

So, it's a matter of doing the trig, or using a suitable calculator.  By plugging in values, we learn that the apex angle of such a triangle is 5.47 degrees.

And now we know, mathematically.  The muzzle of the revolver has to be within an arc of 5.47 degrees to hit the target.

Contrails

 It was a mental game I'd play at the turn of the century.  My porch in Natchitoches Parish had a good view of the sky and I'd look at the contrails crossing the sky.  Southwest to est northeast?  Probably the Houston - Atlanta route.  Southeast to Northwest, probably New Orleans to Dallas.   It was just a mental game, wondering where all those people were going.

On the afternoon of 9/11 I went back to work, doing a night shift before a couple of days off.   Getting off work on Wednesday morning, I stopped by Wal Mart to buy an American flag, but they were sold out.   I headed home, ready for a nap, and when I got out of the truck, I looked up at the sky.  Nothing.  No contrails at all. The FAA had closed all the airspace on the United States.

Growing up in central Louisiana, there was always something in the sky.  Commercial air, military traffic, general aviation.  Even little crop dusters buzzing around. For the first time in my life I was looking at a sky without aviation.  It was decidedly odd, and quiet. 

Anniversary

 Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11,  The most successful terrorist attack on the US mainland.  Many living Americans don't remember it, simply because they had not been born yet.

Today is a good day to reflect and to remember the chaos.

Lest we forget.

Lovebug

 The lovebug is a pest that came up from Central  America.  From the wiki:

The lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast.[2] It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug. During and after mating, mature pairs remain together, even in flight, for up to several days.[3]

They neither sting nor bite, they simply aggravate other creatures. We are in an infestation right now, with probably a thousand mated pairs between the house and the shop.  When killed, their innards are acidic to the point that the acid from their innards will eat the paint off your car.  If you are driving down the highway and encounter a swarm, your windshield turns green and the wipers smear the slime.  Oh, they are nasty

I know that all of God's creatures have a purpose, but I can't figure out the lovebug.  We hates them, we does.

Distracted

 I've been distracted the last several days with piddling chores that kept me away from the blog. Noting major, just piddling distractions that crop up from time to time.

I'm sure by now you have heard of the 21 Air crash in Miami, when this freight company ran a Boeing 767 off the end or the runway after a botched landing.  Quite a mess, it looks like they put it in a parking lot, killed a bunch of folks and injured others.  Very tacky.

From what I'm seeing online, 21 Air needs to rethink their whole flying program. Matt Walsh, a guy not known for aviation safety content, giving the ism the what-for.  It's interesting to see him take them apart.

I don't blame Amazon.  They contract freight companies, and I'm sure that the contracts specify standard safety concerns. And, to be totally honest, I had never considered how my Amazon package gets to me.  Nor my UPS or FedEx package.  I don't know much about air safety, but I will hazard a guess that running a big Boeing into a car park and killing people is considered a disqualifier.

Juries

 Have y'all been paying attention to the trial going on?  The one where the woman murdered her three children and the jury is hung up?

I'm reminded of Mark Twain's observation in his work, Roughing It.

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago. In this age, when a gentleman of high social standing, intelligence and probity, swears that testimony given under solemn oath will outweigh, with him, street talk and newspaper reports based upon mere hearsay, he is worth a hundred jurymen who will swear to their own ignorance and stupidity, and justice would be far safer in his hands than in theirs. Why could not the jury law be so altered as to give men of brains and honesty and equal chance with fools and miscreants? Is it right to show the present favoritism to one class of men and inflict a disability on another, in a land whose boast is that all its citizens are free and equal? I am a candidate for the legislature. I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated-- every effort I make to save the country "misses fire." 

Not much has changed.

Stranded

 Reminiscing about 9/11.

My Dad was 67 years old, recently retired, and wanted to see the great American Southwest.  The Painted Desert, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon.   He and Mom planned a trip and decided that Los Vegas would serve nicely as a hub for this adventure.  They booked the trip and in early September 2001 got on a plane.

Early afternoon of 9/11 the phone rang.  It was my sister.  "Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas."

I considered that information briefly, weighed options, said "Okey", and hung up the phone.

She called back immediately.  "Did you hear me? Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas!  They got on the plane this mourning, but it didn't take off.  They are back at the hotel. Stranded in Vegas."

I softened my tone. "Sweetheart, do you hearer what you are saying? If I had to make a list of places to be stranded in, Vegas would be at the top. I'm sure that the Old Man has a clean, comfortable room with a TV and a cafe on the first floor."  I continued. "If they were stranded in Jasper, Texas I would get in the car and head west.   They are not, they are stranded in Los Vegas. They'll be fine."

Mom and Dad got home four or five days later. The only thing Dad was upset about was that they would not let him board the flight with his pocket knife. They took his little 3-blade stockman knife that he carried everywhere and he was mightily offended.