James emails to point out a very good article on how the bombs for Operation Midnight Hammer were designed. This bit was particularly interesting:
“In the beginning of its development, we had so many PhDs working on the MOP program, doing modeling and simulation, that we were quietly and in a secret way, the biggest users of supercomputer-hours within the United States of America,” he said.
Recommended.
17 years is a long time. Not just for a blog, but in a lifetime.
In 2008, my youngest was at Parris Island becoming a Marine.
All my children were adults and healthy.
My parents were about to retire and were still doing well.
I was shooting enough that I had started reloading. That didn't save me any money but it did allow more time at the range.
I had started a martial art and had no idea if I was going to be able or willing to get very far.
I was working in I.T. , still mid-career.
I blogged about all these things, as well as about politics, the economy, world events, and anything that caught my attention. {SQUIRREL!!!}
Borepatch and I had our first contact within a month, a comment I left telling him to flee Massachusetts at the end of a long rant of a post he had made.
We joined our blogs along the way.
Now it's 2025. There have a lot of changes and losses along the way. But here we stand.
I grew up in a great time in a great country and I have had an amazing journey. And I still have hope.
Thanks to all of you have been our readers and commenters over the years.
Dwight (your go-to guy for obituaries) posts on the passing of Lalo Schifrin. Dwight lists the astonishing themes that he composed (spoiler alert: you have heard many of these). Most famous was Mission: Impossible theme; this song was one of the five Grammys he won:
He also composed the score for The Four Musketeers, which was great fun.
I encourage you to click through to Dwight's post for the list of his compositions which is simply astounding.
17 years ago I put up my first post here. Around the same time, ASM826 - my brother from another mother - put up his first post on his blog, Random Acts Of Patriotism.
17 years later, we are still here. I almost hung up my blogging shoes but realized that the world needed Dad Jokes. Err, or something.
And ASM826 is still here, too. And a lonely place it would be, too, without him. We both need to do more firearms related posts. Range Reports, that sort of stuff. I shall endeavour to improve my output here.
It's weird that in another year, this blog would be old enough to vote.
I guess we will eventually know what damage the Iranian nuclear program suffered. I expect we will have to wait a while.
While we await the verdict of History, skepticism seems prudent for all "news" and Internet bloviating.
History is a set of lies we agree to tell each other.
- Bernard Le Bouyer de Frontenelle
Today is the day with the longest period of daylight (in the Northern Hemisphere; in the Southern it's the longest night).
Here in the Sunshine State we're not far enough north to really see much difference. Today's daylight will last 13-ish hours which isn't too noticeable. The reverse is true in Winter, when the daylight only lasts 11-ish hours.
But in Maine where I grew up (pretty close to 45 degrees North latitude) it will be 15:30 hours of light. Mom always hated winter because with only 9 hours or so of daylight it got dark around 4:00 in the afternoon.
But could be worse: Oslo (in the absolute south of Norway) will have almost 19 hours of daylight today. Maybe this is why Scandinavian films are so depressing - winter gives them only 5 hours of daylight.
So enjoy the sun (assuming you don't live in the Antipodes). And be thankful you don't live near Stonehenge. The freaks come out in force today.
Image re-enacted from the Wik
But eventually the sun will go down today (OK, not if you're in Fairbanks). Take us away, Kenny ...
Congratulations to the Florida Panthers - and particularly to Panther Center Sam Reinhart who tied a Stanley Cup record with four goals last night. The Stanley Cup now returns to its rightful home in the Sunshine State.
So on Saturday there was a "No Kings" protest at the local library. The Queen Of The World said that they posted pix on Facebook, so there were there in the morning.
But I went by there on my way to the supermarket at 11:00 AM and there was NOBODY there. Nada. Zip.
That's some righteous protest, right there. [rolls eyes]
Country Music has all sorts of songs that connect with every day situations, so it's no surprise that there's a great selection for Father's Day.
This one brings back memories of #2 Son and his best friend, fishing for harbor pollock using scallops as bait. The Queen Of The World remembers her Dad entering her in a fishing tournament and taking her. She won, but I expect he thought he did, too.
The little girl in Trace's video is his daughter.
And The Queen Of The World suggested this one, which is perfect for the day. She's not just a pretty face, but wicked smart, too. If this video doesn't make you smile than we just can't be friends anymore.
The girls in Jackson's video are his daughters. Like they say, three chords and the truth.
Happy Father's Day, y'all.
Don't play in the street at the protests tomorrow. Remember the first rule of winning a gunfight: don't be there. Don't go to stupid places with stupid people doing stupid things.
It's hard to tell what's going to happen here in Western Florida tomorrow. Hopefully things will be more or less orderly. But remember what the Citrus County Sheriff said:
"And if you come to Citrus County to start trouble, I am an equal opportunity arrestor,"
Heh. Got to love Florida sheriffs.
This is my shocked face. I mean who would have seen that coming?
But the cameras are insecure by default, which means that they are insecure forever:
Security researchers managed to access the live feeds of 40,000 internet-connected cameras worldwide and they may have only scratched the surface of what's possible....
Aside from the potential national security implications, cameras were also accessed in hotels, gyms, construction sites, retail premises, and residential areas, which the researchers said could prove useful for petty criminals.
...
"It should be obvious to everyone that leaving a camera exposed on the internet is a bad idea, and yet thousands of them are still accessible," said Bitsight in a report.
Gee, ya think?
There are two problems, both related:
So if you get any of these God forsaken things, look online on how to secure them before you install them. You can get most manuals in PDF - although I expect a lot of them won't go deep into the issue. For example, I can't find a single Youtube video on how to set up a Ring doorbell securely.
Also expect to may more for devices with better security, assuming you can find any.
There's some good ideas on IoT security here. I have posted in the past about having a separate WiFi network that is firewalled off from your home WiFi.
Because nothing says "Father's Day" quite like street barricades and burning cars ...
Big Country points out a nation-wide planned day of fire that's coming this weekend. Check out your locale for places you might want to avoid. After all, the first rule of gunfighting is to not go stupid places with stupid people.
It will be really interesting to see what happens. It looks like the polling on this - illegal aliens waving Mexican flags in front of burning cars - it absolutely terrible for the Democrats. If there are any adults left in that party you'd think they would clamp down on this. This will likely result in lots of blue area police departments being unleashed on the rioters.
And the next time some mouth-breathing gun banner asks you why you need a 30 round magazine, tell them that the Rooftop Koreans had not just 30 round magazines, but (legal) full auto. The LA Riot was in 1992, only six years after the super-sketchy Hughes Amendment, approved by voice vote rather than roll call.
I know that some of you are former Secret Squirrel types, and a bunch more were (shall we say) Secret Squirrel adjacent. I just stumbled across a fairly new podcast called The Rest Is Classified. Really fun, and one of the guys is 100% Secret Squirrel. Former Company man, in fact.
You can get it on your favorite podcast site, or listen on Youtube. I thought that the series on Edward Snowden was very well done.
If this kind of thing was your background (heck, or just an interest) then I recommend this very highly indeed.
Tagged Burn Before Reading because that's kind of hilarious. I crack me up sometimes ...
Except it's not about drones, it's about what NATO is up to:
I see throughout X this morning that an enemy has attacked Russian air bases all over Russia with drones launched from concealed launchers that had been free to roam around the country. If you think about it for just a little bit you understand that there was massive collusion on the parts of the various frontier NATO states that permitted drone operators to fly their drones over the frontiers into Russia where they could be collected, armed and concealed in trucks for a long ride to their launch/distribution point.
The thing is though that just as Churchill was content to let Coventry burn despite knowing of the attack in advance, so too is a KGB man willing to sacrifice a few obsolete weapons to gather incontrovertible truth that NATO is carrying out direct attacks on Russia.
What's weird is that I thought that we just had a chance to vote against thermonuclear war in the last election. That seemed like one of Trump's platform planks. I guess I was just overly optimistic.
Big Country is doing a series of Lee-Enfield restorations which are well worth your time if you (like me) love old Mil-Surp bolties.
By accident I ran across one of Ian McCollum's Forgotten Weapons vids about how the British Army did a mod of the SMLE to make it a semi-automatic rifle. It's cool in a "hey, this really works!" kind of way. Total kludge, but really cool.
