The Geneva convention isn't ignored when we shoot.50 BMG round at some combatants we are not targeting them as you can't shoot.50 cal or greater rounds at personal, but instead targeting equipment on them as those rounds are only suppose to be anti material. Problem is we are just bad shots.
I would say if you took a broad sample of the US population it probably would seem that way. If you looked at more rural areas then probably no. It seems that a lot of parents shelter their children too much especially in the more affluent areas. My sisters kid is like this with my sister being afraid that her daughter would get hurt by everything. I can only imagine what my sister had to say when she found out that her daughter learned how to shoot real guns when she went up to my stepmother's parents' cabin with my dad, stepmother, my oldest, and myself a few weekends ago and shot the.410 shotgun of my fathers (it was his mothers) and my SKS (much easier to handle than my 12 gauge or M91/30). It was especially funny when my oldest son was yelling at her when she was carrying the.410 and didn't have it pointed in a safe direction even though it was unloaded, it made me quite proud. My wife isn't pleased that my oldest son (almost 4 now) knows about guns, can use simple tools like a hammer and saw on his own, or has seen me butchering some animal. I think it is just how risk adverse we have become as a society. As another poster mentioned it is the insane fear of a lawsuit. The think so many parents forget is that kids will do stupid dangerous stuff and no matter how safe you try to make they will find a way to hurt themselves. Last summer I saw a group of younger kids all padded up on their bikes for safety, problem was they got a 4'x8' piece of plywood and leaned it up against the back of a car and were using that as a ramp so there is still hope.
I did as well and in addition to the set of standard tools mine had some wood lathes and over in the metal/auto shop they had MIG and TIG welders, a metal lathe, a bender, metal shear, cylinder borer/honer, 3 axis milling machine, etc. Granted it use to be a rural school but was a suburban one when I went there, but I already knew how to use most of that equipment before I ever set foot in a shop class. I think the only exception was the cylinder boring/honer machine but that was easy to pick up.
I think it depends on the parent pack leaders (I think that is the correct term as it has been a while) as when I was in it years ago we actually did do the cool stuff. Granted when camping we did have to do the un-fun stuff like cooking and cleaning up after meals, setting up camp and breaking camp. When I made it to boy scouts and was a few years in the younger kids, my family moved so the boy scout troop I was in was getting younger scouts from different packs, completely lacked any scout skills. It was rather sad to see 12 year old former cub scouts now boy scouts who had no idea how to build a fire, set up a tent, use a pocket knife, were terrified of a a firearm, didn't know how to cook anything more complex than boiled hot dogs, etc. From what I can tell is I was fairly close to the bubble wrap generation but made it in just before as it seems the parents of the kids that followed were of every kid gets a trophy mind set and their kid could do no wrong. I taught a number of skills (I was a certified instructor) and a number of times got yelled at by a parent because I failed their child when they were trying to get some skill. The parents thought this was horrible that their kid failed something even though they couldn't build a fire using an entire box of matches let alone using a single match like I would show them how to do. They wouldn't shave down some dry wood into shavings and small sticks, use birch bark, or some manilla rope finely shredded but instead would grab a bunch of leaves and set big sticks on them and try to start it that way.
Well this weekend I got a visit from the local police (my dickhead neighbor called the cops on me again) because I was supposedly endangering my oldest child (almost 4 now). The grievous offense was that he was out there with me and I was running the chain saw and using a wedge and sledge hammer to cut up and split some trees from around the neighborhood that had fell and turn them into fire wood. My oldest wanted to use the chain saw so with a lot of my help he learned but still can't operate it on his own, but does know how to use the bow saw. It is also funny to see him try and use my 20lbs sledge as he might as well be holding just the head as he is so choked up on it, but he really wants to try and help. He also understand firearms and what they are capable of doing as he has see me take care of the rabbits in the garden with the air rifle and is learning how to handle it correctly. When he gets bigger and is actually capable of holding it correctly I will be teaching him how to shoot with it and then moving up to a real firearm once he has mastered the air rifle.
I will have to check that out. I have an older machine that sits powered off but I would have no problem re-purposing it for this. I have a static IP on a business class line at home that sits unused most of the time. I didn't know there were cheaper devices than the big Symmetricom devices. Also how weather proof is that puck as the location of the computer I would attach it to would allow it to be put up on a south facing roof for better signal reception.
That sounds like what I tell one of my buddies who can't find a job. Except that I tell him you need to make finding a job a job. He is out of state and want to work as a cartographer but doesn't want to get involved with any mapping project, join a professional organization, try to make contacts in the field, or spend the time spamming out resumes and cover letters targeted towards each potential employer. He has a degree in it but didn't make use of the school's job placement resources before he graduated or during the 6 months after graduation. Now he has sporadic work with one of those companies that does inventory counts for stores and spends his free time doing everything but finding a job. I tell him to go and apply with some energy companies as they are in need of people who can make maps and know how to use a GIS system, which he does, but he won't apply. On the other hand is my cousin who just got back from being deployed with the Minnesota National Guard and is going to finally be starting college and has already taken some of the necessary steps to finding a job when he graduates. He is 18 (went into the Guard when he was 17) and was going to start college but ended up getting deployed just after graduating high school. He has a few different ideas of what he wants to do so I introduced him to some of my friends that work in the fields he is thinking of going into.
Interestingly that is exactly how I have gotten almost every professional position I have had. Only my previous position was not gotten in that manner. Granted the last time I job hunted was almost 6 years ago so things may have changed but the automated filter was in existence then and HR drones were asking for retarded requirements as far back as I have been in the job market (10+ years java experience in 1999). For jobs that I was really interested in I would also send a paper resume and cover letter to the department manager which is how I got my current position. Most of the chaff is handled by the automated system anyway but when the cost of submitting an electronic form is basically 0 (it only cost a fraction of a second of my time) and the chance of getting that position is some value greater than 0 it makes perfect sense to submit it as a job seeker.
I would assume that he is referring to the older style single or double edge safety razor, not the newer style plastic cartridge ones. Although I have brought my straight razors through in my carry on on a few occasions and they never found that which are much larger and much easier to wield than the replaceable razor from a safety razor.
Old fashioned metal detectors would make sure the rednecks don't "forget" to check their firearms before boarding.
If only that were the case but it seems they are incompetent at using that basic technology. I have forgotten about ammo in my coat pocket from when I went hunting and sent it through the x-ray machine for carry on luggage and they never found it. This happened twice, the first time was with about a dozen 12 gauge 3 inch magnum goose loads, and the other time was with an almost full box of 7.62x54r rifle ammunition. I have forgotten about my pocket knives in my pants pocket which I have been putting in there every day for about 20 years and have brought then through airport security. I have inadvertently brought my straight edge razors in my carry on luggage which also went through the carry on x-ray machine. Yet if I bring my old film 35mm SLR camera through and have the bag open it is 20 questions wipe for explosives, and dig through it. Granted the lenses and camera have metal bodies, I have the bulb cable, a high end flash, various filters, motor drive, and several containers of very slow color and B&W film.
On the whole I liked CS Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia are not dated and his Space Trilogy is a worthy Science Fiction/Fantasy book even though we have a much better understanding of those planets than we did when they were written. I didn't really care for "That Hideous Strength" the first time I read it as it was difficult to follow and seemed almost like it didn't belong with the other two.
For both Science-fiction and Fantasy I would recommend C. S. Lewis. You have the Chronicles of Narnia for fantasy but read them in the order: The Magician's Nephew The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe A Horse and His Boy Prince Caspian The Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Last Battle.
I would also recommend his Space Trilogy but stay away from the final book until he is older as I remember the first time I read it was rather difficult to follow what was going on in That Hideous Strength. I also remember reading and enjoying the The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin when I wasn't much older. For fantasy works I would recommend reading the stories in A Thousand and One Nights, it isn't that difficult and does expose him to some "Classic" literature, although some of those stories would be rather dark and might not be appropriate for an 8 year old. You also can't really go wrong with a modern translation of Beowulf as it is an easy read (once you get past the names) and Tolkien's works, but those have already been mentioned.
The imagery is beneficial but the.shp files are of much more use and various localities give them away for free. For the twin cities area in Minnesota there is Metro GIS and for the whole state there is the DNR Data Deli and the MN DOT GIS sites. Not to mention the various stuff available from the fed the like TIGER or any of the stuff from the USGS, not to mention the National Atlas, National Map, or any number of other sources of info available.
Also don't let him know that you can map out unofficial trails (deer trails mostly) through the woods that could possibly be used by smugglers to get stuff in and out of the US. Not to mention that people can record the locations of gasometers, water towers, gas line markers, water pumps, telephone relay stations, refineries, etc. I probably do spend too much time on OSM mapping out stuff in my town and other areas that I go to.
An American version of the device was designed to be used with the Davy Crockett recoiless rifle and the complete round weighed in at around 76 lbs (34.5 kg) with the nuclear device coming in at 51 lbs (23 kg) and having a yield between 10 and 20 tons of TNT. They had a maximum range of about 4 km (launcher dependent) and as such were meant to be used as a weapon of last resort as you would more than likely be in the fallout zone unless the weather was really in your favor. They had poor accuracy and a very small yield so the most damage that they did was in the form of radiation poisoning as they quite close to being a dirty bomb as they are very close to the smallest possible fission device that can be created. There was also various nuclear artillery shells developed by the US that were also weapons of last resort because of the fallout zone. The smallest of these was the W48 155mm howitzer shell with larger ones being 203mm and 280mm. As a side note you can see a display (not sure if disarmed real ones or just mockups) of some of these at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas just a couple of blocks off the strip. It is actually a branch of the Smithsonian Museum and they have a lot of really neat stuff on the atomic age all related to the bomb. The traveling or special exhibit I saw, Russian cold war propaganda, was well worth the extra admission and I would imagine the current ones would be as well.
For a truly perverse experience it needs to be a Lego Turing machine to emulate an Apple ][ running LOGO to control the Lego Turing machine. I some how feel I have now stumbled upon some weird edge case of the halting problem related to my childhood and that I need to go dig out my computational theory book.
Nice to know I am not the only one who tries to put the screws to the credit card companies. My daily driver I bought with my credit card, $10,000 vehicle put on a card with a $25,000 limit, and then paid it off the next month. Everything for the household gets run through my credit card, gas, groceries, utilities, the mortgage, etc, even places that don't normally accept plastic will take those stupid checks the credit card company sends in the mail. Yes I could just pay cash but then I still pay the same amount as everyone else but don't get the cash back. I learned how to abuse the system when I first got that card when in college and would pay my tuition in installments (offered as an option by the school) on the card and then pay it off the next month.
I use to be able to but gone are the days of my youth. Now that is usually plenty for my wife and myself, or dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day for just myself. I might be able to down the entire steak by my self if all I had was the steak, but some variety on the plate is nice, add in baked potato and some sauteed squash, carrots, sweet yellow onions, and bell peppers and you have a damn good meal.
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The Geneva convention isn't ignored when we shoot .50 BMG round at some combatants we are not targeting them as you can't shoot .50 cal or greater rounds at personal, but instead targeting equipment on them as those rounds are only suppose to be anti material. Problem is we are just bad shots.
You sound like one of my co workers, did you ever shoot your old mail box off the post and across the street?
I would say if you took a broad sample of the US population it probably would seem that way. If you looked at more rural areas then probably no. It seems that a lot of parents shelter their children too much especially in the more affluent areas. My sisters kid is like this with my sister being afraid that her daughter would get hurt by everything. I can only imagine what my sister had to say when she found out that her daughter learned how to shoot real guns when she went up to my stepmother's parents' cabin with my dad, stepmother, my oldest, and myself a few weekends ago and shot the .410 shotgun of my fathers (it was his mothers) and my SKS (much easier to handle than my 12 gauge or M91/30). It was especially funny when my oldest son was yelling at her when she was carrying the .410 and didn't have it pointed in a safe direction even though it was unloaded, it made me quite proud. My wife isn't pleased that my oldest son (almost 4 now) knows about guns, can use simple tools like a hammer and saw on his own, or has seen me butchering some animal. I think it is just how risk adverse we have become as a society. As another poster mentioned it is the insane fear of a lawsuit. The think so many parents forget is that kids will do stupid dangerous stuff and no matter how safe you try to make they will find a way to hurt themselves. Last summer I saw a group of younger kids all padded up on their bikes for safety, problem was they got a 4'x8' piece of plywood and leaned it up against the back of a car and were using that as a ramp so there is still hope.
I did as well and in addition to the set of standard tools mine had some wood lathes and over in the metal/auto shop they had MIG and TIG welders, a metal lathe, a bender, metal shear, cylinder borer/honer, 3 axis milling machine, etc. Granted it use to be a rural school but was a suburban one when I went there, but I already knew how to use most of that equipment before I ever set foot in a shop class. I think the only exception was the cylinder boring/honer machine but that was easy to pick up.
I think it depends on the parent pack leaders (I think that is the correct term as it has been a while) as when I was in it years ago we actually did do the cool stuff. Granted when camping we did have to do the un-fun stuff like cooking and cleaning up after meals, setting up camp and breaking camp. When I made it to boy scouts and was a few years in the younger kids, my family moved so the boy scout troop I was in was getting younger scouts from different packs, completely lacked any scout skills. It was rather sad to see 12 year old former cub scouts now boy scouts who had no idea how to build a fire, set up a tent, use a pocket knife, were terrified of a a firearm, didn't know how to cook anything more complex than boiled hot dogs, etc. From what I can tell is I was fairly close to the bubble wrap generation but made it in just before as it seems the parents of the kids that followed were of every kid gets a trophy mind set and their kid could do no wrong. I taught a number of skills (I was a certified instructor) and a number of times got yelled at by a parent because I failed their child when they were trying to get some skill. The parents thought this was horrible that their kid failed something even though they couldn't build a fire using an entire box of matches let alone using a single match like I would show them how to do. They wouldn't shave down some dry wood into shavings and small sticks, use birch bark, or some manilla rope finely shredded but instead would grab a bunch of leaves and set big sticks on them and try to start it that way.
Kids do stupid shit, that is why.
Well this weekend I got a visit from the local police (my dickhead neighbor called the cops on me again) because I was supposedly endangering my oldest child (almost 4 now). The grievous offense was that he was out there with me and I was running the chain saw and using a wedge and sledge hammer to cut up and split some trees from around the neighborhood that had fell and turn them into fire wood. My oldest wanted to use the chain saw so with a lot of my help he learned but still can't operate it on his own, but does know how to use the bow saw. It is also funny to see him try and use my 20lbs sledge as he might as well be holding just the head as he is so choked up on it, but he really wants to try and help. He also understand firearms and what they are capable of doing as he has see me take care of the rabbits in the garden with the air rifle and is learning how to handle it correctly. When he gets bigger and is actually capable of holding it correctly I will be teaching him how to shoot with it and then moving up to a real firearm once he has mastered the air rifle.
I will have to check that out. I have an older machine that sits powered off but I would have no problem re-purposing it for this. I have a static IP on a business class line at home that sits unused most of the time. I didn't know there were cheaper devices than the big Symmetricom devices. Also how weather proof is that puck as the location of the computer I would attach it to would allow it to be put up on a south facing roof for better signal reception.
That sounds like what I tell one of my buddies who can't find a job. Except that I tell him you need to make finding a job a job. He is out of state and want to work as a cartographer but doesn't want to get involved with any mapping project, join a professional organization, try to make contacts in the field, or spend the time spamming out resumes and cover letters targeted towards each potential employer. He has a degree in it but didn't make use of the school's job placement resources before he graduated or during the 6 months after graduation. Now he has sporadic work with one of those companies that does inventory counts for stores and spends his free time doing everything but finding a job. I tell him to go and apply with some energy companies as they are in need of people who can make maps and know how to use a GIS system, which he does, but he won't apply. On the other hand is my cousin who just got back from being deployed with the Minnesota National Guard and is going to finally be starting college and has already taken some of the necessary steps to finding a job when he graduates. He is 18 (went into the Guard when he was 17) and was going to start college but ended up getting deployed just after graduating high school. He has a few different ideas of what he wants to do so I introduced him to some of my friends that work in the fields he is thinking of going into.
Interestingly that is exactly how I have gotten almost every professional position I have had. Only my previous position was not gotten in that manner. Granted the last time I job hunted was almost 6 years ago so things may have changed but the automated filter was in existence then and HR drones were asking for retarded requirements as far back as I have been in the job market (10+ years java experience in 1999). For jobs that I was really interested in I would also send a paper resume and cover letter to the department manager which is how I got my current position. Most of the chaff is handled by the automated system anyway but when the cost of submitting an electronic form is basically 0 (it only cost a fraction of a second of my time) and the chance of getting that position is some value greater than 0 it makes perfect sense to submit it as a job seeker.
I would assume that he is referring to the older style single or double edge safety razor, not the newer style plastic cartridge ones. Although I have brought my straight razors through in my carry on on a few occasions and they never found that which are much larger and much easier to wield than the replaceable razor from a safety razor.
Old fashioned metal detectors would make sure the rednecks don't "forget" to check their firearms before boarding.
If only that were the case but it seems they are incompetent at using that basic technology. I have forgotten about ammo in my coat pocket from when I went hunting and sent it through the x-ray machine for carry on luggage and they never found it. This happened twice, the first time was with about a dozen 12 gauge 3 inch magnum goose loads, and the other time was with an almost full box of 7.62x54r rifle ammunition. I have forgotten about my pocket knives in my pants pocket which I have been putting in there every day for about 20 years and have brought then through airport security. I have inadvertently brought my straight edge razors in my carry on luggage which also went through the carry on x-ray machine. Yet if I bring my old film 35mm SLR camera through and have the bag open it is 20 questions wipe for explosives, and dig through it. Granted the lenses and camera have metal bodies, I have the bulb cable, a high end flash, various filters, motor drive, and several containers of very slow color and B&W film.
On the whole I liked CS Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia are not dated and his Space Trilogy is a worthy Science Fiction/Fantasy book even though we have a much better understanding of those planets than we did when they were written. I didn't really care for "That Hideous Strength" the first time I read it as it was difficult to follow and seemed almost like it didn't belong with the other two.
I had forgot about A Wrinkle in time. I would also suggest A Tunnel Through Time as I enjoyed that one as well.
For both Science-fiction and Fantasy I would recommend C. S. Lewis. You have the Chronicles of Narnia for fantasy but read them in the order:
The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
A Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle.
I would also recommend his Space Trilogy but stay away from the final book until he is older as I remember the first time I read it was rather difficult to follow what was going on in That Hideous Strength. I also remember reading and enjoying the The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin when I wasn't much older. For fantasy works I would recommend reading the stories in A Thousand and One Nights, it isn't that difficult and does expose him to some "Classic" literature, although some of those stories would be rather dark and might not be appropriate for an 8 year old. You also can't really go wrong with a modern translation of Beowulf as it is an easy read (once you get past the names) and Tolkien's works, but those have already been mentioned.
The imagery is beneficial but the .shp files are of much more use and various localities give them away for free. For the twin cities area in Minnesota there is Metro GIS and for the whole state there is the DNR Data Deli and the MN DOT GIS sites. Not to mention the various stuff available from the fed the like TIGER or any of the stuff from the USGS, not to mention the National Atlas, National Map, or any number of other sources of info available.
At least your honest.
Also don't let him know that you can map out unofficial trails (deer trails mostly) through the woods that could possibly be used by smugglers to get stuff in and out of the US. Not to mention that people can record the locations of gasometers, water towers, gas line markers, water pumps, telephone relay stations, refineries, etc. I probably do spend too much time on OSM mapping out stuff in my town and other areas that I go to.
An American version of the device was designed to be used with the Davy Crockett recoiless rifle and the complete round weighed in at around 76 lbs (34.5 kg) with the nuclear device coming in at 51 lbs (23 kg) and having a yield between 10 and 20 tons of TNT. They had a maximum range of about 4 km (launcher dependent) and as such were meant to be used as a weapon of last resort as you would more than likely be in the fallout zone unless the weather was really in your favor. They had poor accuracy and a very small yield so the most damage that they did was in the form of radiation poisoning as they quite close to being a dirty bomb as they are very close to the smallest possible fission device that can be created. There was also various nuclear artillery shells developed by the US that were also weapons of last resort because of the fallout zone. The smallest of these was the W48 155mm howitzer shell with larger ones being 203mm and 280mm. As a side note you can see a display (not sure if disarmed real ones or just mockups) of some of these at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas just a couple of blocks off the strip. It is actually a branch of the Smithsonian Museum and they have a lot of really neat stuff on the atomic age all related to the bomb. The traveling or special exhibit I saw, Russian cold war propaganda, was well worth the extra admission and I would imagine the current ones would be as well.
For a truly perverse experience it needs to be a Lego Turing machine to emulate an Apple ][ running LOGO to control the Lego Turing machine. I some how feel I have now stumbled upon some weird edge case of the halting problem related to my childhood and that I need to go dig out my computational theory book.
Well what about those round one post Lego dots. That might be doable.
Nice to know I am not the only one who tries to put the screws to the credit card companies. My daily driver I bought with my credit card, $10,000 vehicle put on a card with a $25,000 limit, and then paid it off the next month. Everything for the household gets run through my credit card, gas, groceries, utilities, the mortgage, etc, even places that don't normally accept plastic will take those stupid checks the credit card company sends in the mail. Yes I could just pay cash but then I still pay the same amount as everyone else but don't get the cash back. I learned how to abuse the system when I first got that card when in college and would pay my tuition in installments (offered as an option by the school) on the card and then pay it off the next month.
I use to be able to but gone are the days of my youth. Now that is usually plenty for my wife and myself, or dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day for just myself. I might be able to down the entire steak by my self if all I had was the steak, but some variety on the plate is nice, add in baked potato and some sauteed squash, carrots, sweet yellow onions, and bell peppers and you have a damn good meal.
Of all the days to not have mod points.
I believe that the correct term is 4K not 4000p projectors