Baltar: "All we need is strength! Strength that comes from within!"
Head 6: "And guns..."
Baltar: "And guns! More guns! Bigger guns! Better guns! And when we have those, we will win!"
Except that it wasn't built to go in harm's way, it was built as a proof-of-concept test vessel. Personally, I suspect his theory about the Navy losing interest due to prestige/promotion opportunities was quite possibly accurate. It's very hard to imagine the Navy ditching the traditional surface fleet configuration in favor of ugly, stealthy missile boats with tiny crews.
This building is very obviously the product of Cylon technology. Compare it to pictures of Cylon Basestars, and the resemblance is undeniable.
It all makes sense now...Gaeta is the 7th Cylon, and this is just an example of his architectural ideas in action-"lots of stairways!" All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again...
Well thank you for the disclaimer, seeing as virtually everything you posted is incorrect.
In the United States, various items fall under the National Firearms Act, and are considered to be NFA items subject to registration by the ATF. These include suppressors, machineguns, destructive devices, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and Any Other Weapons (pen guns and small shotguns, mostly). "Class III" is an incorrect term, actually referring to the type of license that's held by the dealer selling the items. There is no such thing as an individual "Class III license" to buy and own NFA items-you simply must pay $200 every time an NFA item changes hands. Armor-piercing ammunition is regulated seperately, and high-capacity magazines aren't regulated at all on a federal level.
As far as purchasing goes, the process basically involves filling out a couple of federal forms, submitting a $200 check to the ATF, and waiting a month or two for approval to come back. In some areas police chiefs will sign off on NFA items, but most people simply elect to form a corporation or living trust, and buy them in the name of the legal entity (thus avoiding the need for a law enforcement signoff). Silencers/suppressors (despite what the pedantic say, the terms are interchangeable) generally run from about $300 up to $1000, with a very few specialized rifle suppressors running past $2000. Overall, the process is fairly simple to complete, and anyone with a clean background who lives in a state that allows silencers can purchase one pretty easily.
Presently, there are tens upon tens of thousands of legally owned silencers in the United States, owned and enjoyed by firearms enthusiasts and sportsmen across the country.
It's only unsettling to those who are uneducated in the subject. Anyone with a passing knowledge of nuclear weapons can tell you why this is completely irrelevant from a security perspective. And anyone who pays real attention can tell you what you should really be worrying about.
Unfortunately, the percentage of Americans who have even that passing familiarity with nuclear weapons is probably no greater than 2 or 3 percent. Which means 97-98% of the population is going to react out of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in anything related to the matter.
The catch is, this is something much more useful to civilian/recreational shooters than law enforcement or military. Despite what some training programs may focus on, for the most part LE snipers are engaging at no more than one or two hundred yards. And I just don't see a serious military use for an iPod.
But on the civilian side, we've got a product that's potentially quite useful..except that it comes pre-loaded with utterly useless profiles. There's a tiny, vanishingly small number of SR-25s in private hands, and precisely zero KAC PDWs. And the SR16 with a 14.5" bbl is an SBR, which again means virtually no one owns one. KAC would be much better off if they included profiles of the more popular.223/.308/.300WM/.338LM/.50BMG loading and barrel lengths.
The article didn't mention the availability of the mounting hardware. It attaches an iPod Touch mounted in an Otterbox protective case to a side-mounted picatinny rail. That seems much more handy in combat situations than digging an iPod out of one's pocket. This is what makes it not just another ballistics app for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Mounting it on the rifle could be a big deal in certain situations, and lots of rifles can be fitted with picatinny rails on the side.
While I have a lot of respect for KAC, I'm not so sure that a rail-mounted iPod is such a great idea. Even though the user seeks to protect their rifle from damage, in reality stuff gets beat to shit. iPods, while admirably sturdy, just aren't ruggedized for that kind of environment, even in an Otterbox. I Am Not A Long Distance Shooter, but for ballistic applications it's pretty hard to beat something simple like this:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/leupold-retractable-ballistic-chart.html
The idea that someone is going to be mounting and dismounting an iPod from a number of different rifles is rather unlikely, and giving it ballistic data for the KAC PDW is simply ludicrous-it's a very short range defense weapon, not even remotely close to being a precision rig.
You just don't get it though. It's not about weapons, it's about inequality. No amount of martial arts training is going to allow a crippled elderly individual to fight off a 20-year-old criminal bent on robbery and murder. Nor will the best martial arts fighter in the world stand a chance against a gang of half a dozen attackers.
Not everyone lives in Hong Kong or Shangri-La. The rest of us have to consider the very real fact that there are plenty of people out there who want to do others harm.
On the other hand, I had to get a wire transfer of a decently large sum from overseas a few years back, and it was quite an interesting conversation at the bank. "That sounds an awful lot like one of those scam things" "No. No it's not." "Are you sure it's-" "Yes I'm sure, thank you, just give me the damn information please."
Overall, it's probably more useful for observation than for actually extending the shooter's range. The limiting factors as they stand now tend to be based around the immutable laws of exterior ballistics. Having an optic capable of resolving a target at 3000 yards is of no use if your platform, on its very best day, is only capable of semi-consistent hits at 1500 yards. The time delay isn't quite as terrible as some might think (unlike Halo, in real life it can take several seconds for your bullet to make it downrange to the target, so if the target is mobile you're probably screwed), but definitely not an advantage either.
You know, you can repeat that quote a thousand times a day on a thousand forums, and it still won't make one iota of difference. The majority simply don't give a shit, or else fail to understand why Franklin's advice is so important. Their responses always begin with something like "Yes, but THIS violation is completely necessary and doesn't really matter." They don't understand the concept, and never will.
Which is great, but ultimately irrelevant. NASA's budget could be 20 million dollars, and when push comes to shove and politicians start facing serious public heat, the space program is going to be one of the first targets. Not for the sake of actual savings, but for the fact that it's a highly visible target, that a large percentage of voters simply don't care about. Politicians will climb over each other to shout first and loudest how NASA spending should be cut-if only to prevent their own pork projects from showing up on the chopping block.
Simple. Discovery contracts with a security contractor (read: mercenary outfit) for defensive and offensive operations against hostile and potentially hostile corporate targets. Said companies attempt to take action against Discovery, and Discovery rolls the IFVs out. Of course, then the question becomes whether Visa and MasterCard have invested in their own private security...
I'm a young, bearded, semi-scruffy-looking white male (and usually I don't exactly wear a look of extreme happiness at going through airport security). Out of dozens of flights, I've yet to get singled out to be searched even [i]once[/i], and nor have any of my family members. Go figure.
If you carried multiple weapons every day, you'd understand that it's easy to forget they're there. Have you ever picked up your wallet or keys without even remembering doing so? When you get into a routine, one doesn't always notice the normal actions...particularly if you're in an emergency situation and under stress, as the gp's friend was.
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Baltar: "All we need is strength! Strength that comes from within!"
Head 6: "And guns..."
Baltar: "And guns! More guns! Bigger guns! Better guns! And when we have those, we will win!"
Except that it wasn't built to go in harm's way, it was built as a proof-of-concept test vessel. Personally, I suspect his theory about the Navy losing interest due to prestige/promotion opportunities was quite possibly accurate. It's very hard to imagine the Navy ditching the traditional surface fleet configuration in favor of ugly, stealthy missile boats with tiny crews.
Maybe that's why ammunition is getting so expensive these days...?
This building is very obviously the product of Cylon technology. Compare it to pictures of Cylon Basestars, and the resemblance is undeniable.
It all makes sense now...Gaeta is the 7th Cylon, and this is just an example of his architectural ideas in action-"lots of stairways!" All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again...
And, most importantly, they are far, far, far harder to fight and kill than a person is.
The Clockwork Atom Bomb, by Dominic Green.
http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/stories/downloads/green.pdf
There are things conceivable out there that make thermonuclear weapons look like nice pleasant fireworks.
Well thank you for the disclaimer, seeing as virtually everything you posted is incorrect.
In the United States, various items fall under the National Firearms Act, and are considered to be NFA items subject to registration by the ATF. These include suppressors, machineguns, destructive devices, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and Any Other Weapons (pen guns and small shotguns, mostly). "Class III" is an incorrect term, actually referring to the type of license that's held by the dealer selling the items. There is no such thing as an individual "Class III license" to buy and own NFA items-you simply must pay $200 every time an NFA item changes hands. Armor-piercing ammunition is regulated seperately, and high-capacity magazines aren't regulated at all on a federal level.
As far as purchasing goes, the process basically involves filling out a couple of federal forms, submitting a $200 check to the ATF, and waiting a month or two for approval to come back. In some areas police chiefs will sign off on NFA items, but most people simply elect to form a corporation or living trust, and buy them in the name of the legal entity (thus avoiding the need for a law enforcement signoff). Silencers/suppressors (despite what the pedantic say, the terms are interchangeable) generally run from about $300 up to $1000, with a very few specialized rifle suppressors running past $2000. Overall, the process is fairly simple to complete, and anyone with a clean background who lives in a state that allows silencers can purchase one pretty easily.
Presently, there are tens upon tens of thousands of legally owned silencers in the United States, owned and enjoyed by firearms enthusiasts and sportsmen across the country.
It's only unsettling to those who are uneducated in the subject. Anyone with a passing knowledge of nuclear weapons can tell you why this is completely irrelevant from a security perspective. And anyone who pays real attention can tell you what you should really be worrying about.
Unfortunately, the percentage of Americans who have even that passing familiarity with nuclear weapons is probably no greater than 2 or 3 percent. Which means 97-98% of the population is going to react out of fear, uncertainty, and doubt in anything related to the matter.
The catch is, this is something much more useful to civilian/recreational shooters than law enforcement or military. Despite what some training programs may focus on, for the most part LE snipers are engaging at no more than one or two hundred yards. And I just don't see a serious military use for an iPod.
.223/.308/.300WM/.338LM/.50BMG loading and barrel lengths.
But on the civilian side, we've got a product that's potentially quite useful..except that it comes pre-loaded with utterly useless profiles. There's a tiny, vanishingly small number of SR-25s in private hands, and precisely zero KAC PDWs. And the SR16 with a 14.5" bbl is an SBR, which again means virtually no one owns one. KAC would be much better off if they included profiles of the more popular
Wrong. You make the mistake of assuming there's only one enemy out there. Usually it's best to assume there's more than one, y'know...
The article didn't mention the availability of the mounting hardware. It attaches an iPod Touch mounted in an Otterbox protective case to a side-mounted picatinny rail. That seems much more handy in combat situations than digging an iPod out of one's pocket. This is what makes it not just another ballistics app for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Mounting it on the rifle could be a big deal in certain situations, and lots of rifles can be fitted with picatinny rails on the side.
While I have a lot of respect for KAC, I'm not so sure that a rail-mounted iPod is such a great idea. Even though the user seeks to protect their rifle from damage, in reality stuff gets beat to shit. iPods, while admirably sturdy, just aren't ruggedized for that kind of environment, even in an Otterbox. I Am Not A Long Distance Shooter, but for ballistic applications it's pretty hard to beat something simple like this: http://www.opticsplanet.net/leupold-retractable-ballistic-chart.html The idea that someone is going to be mounting and dismounting an iPod from a number of different rifles is rather unlikely, and giving it ballistic data for the KAC PDW is simply ludicrous-it's a very short range defense weapon, not even remotely close to being a precision rig.
Seriously, how can you ever go wrong with thermite?
At least it was "peace and love" in the middle of nowhere, with a distinct lack of Stinger surface-to-air missiles.
Or we could just selectively breed humans for a shorter lifespan.
It's called Africa, unfortunately.
You just don't get it though. It's not about weapons, it's about inequality. No amount of martial arts training is going to allow a crippled elderly individual to fight off a 20-year-old criminal bent on robbery and murder. Nor will the best martial arts fighter in the world stand a chance against a gang of half a dozen attackers.
Not everyone lives in Hong Kong or Shangri-La. The rest of us have to consider the very real fact that there are plenty of people out there who want to do others harm.
On the other hand, I had to get a wire transfer of a decently large sum from overseas a few years back, and it was quite an interesting conversation at the bank. "That sounds an awful lot like one of those scam things" "No. No it's not." "Are you sure it's-" "Yes I'm sure, thank you, just give me the damn information please."
It brings a whole new meaning to the term "Google bombing", doesn't it?
Overall, it's probably more useful for observation than for actually extending the shooter's range. The limiting factors as they stand now tend to be based around the immutable laws of exterior ballistics. Having an optic capable of resolving a target at 3000 yards is of no use if your platform, on its very best day, is only capable of semi-consistent hits at 1500 yards. The time delay isn't quite as terrible as some might think (unlike Halo, in real life it can take several seconds for your bullet to make it downrange to the target, so if the target is mobile you're probably screwed), but definitely not an advantage either.
You know, you can repeat that quote a thousand times a day on a thousand forums, and it still won't make one iota of difference. The majority simply don't give a shit, or else fail to understand why Franklin's advice is so important. Their responses always begin with something like "Yes, but THIS violation is completely necessary and doesn't really matter." They don't understand the concept, and never will.
Which is great, but ultimately irrelevant. NASA's budget could be 20 million dollars, and when push comes to shove and politicians start facing serious public heat, the space program is going to be one of the first targets. Not for the sake of actual savings, but for the fact that it's a highly visible target, that a large percentage of voters simply don't care about. Politicians will climb over each other to shout first and loudest how NASA spending should be cut-if only to prevent their own pork projects from showing up on the chopping block.
Simple. Discovery contracts with a security contractor (read: mercenary outfit) for defensive and offensive operations against hostile and potentially hostile corporate targets. Said companies attempt to take action against Discovery, and Discovery rolls the IFVs out. Of course, then the question becomes whether Visa and MasterCard have invested in their own private security...
You obviously never played MTG when you were younger, did you?
I'm a young, bearded, semi-scruffy-looking white male (and usually I don't exactly wear a look of extreme happiness at going through airport security). Out of dozens of flights, I've yet to get singled out to be searched even [i]once[/i], and nor have any of my family members. Go figure.
If you carried multiple weapons every day, you'd understand that it's easy to forget they're there. Have you ever picked up your wallet or keys without even remembering doing so? When you get into a routine, one doesn't always notice the normal actions...particularly if you're in an emergency situation and under stress, as the gp's friend was.
Small quantities of distributed metal...like a disassembled weapon, for instance?
Somehow I'm not sure I'd call that an improvement in technology if it's true.