Fuel from seawater?

A couple of years ago the US Naval Research Laboratory announced that it was working on a method to break down seawater into carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases, then catalytically convert them into liquid petroleum fuels.  It was hoped to develop a system that could eventually be used by US Navy vessels to derive their own fuel from the seawater in which they moved.

It looks like their research has borne fruit.  Yahoo News reports:

The US Navy believes it has finally worked out the solution to a problem that has intrigued scientists for decades: how to take seawater and use it as fuel.

The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is being hailed as "a game-changer" because it would significantly shorten the supply chain, a weak link that makes any force easier to attack.

. . .

The predicted cost of jet fuel using the technology is in the range of three to six dollars per gallon, say experts at the US Naval Research Laboratory, who have already flown a model airplane with fuel produced from seawater.

Dr Heather Willauer, an research chemist who has spent nearly a decade on the project, can hardly hide her enthusiasm.

"For the first time we've been able to develop a technology to get CO2 and hydrogen from seawater simultaneously, that's a big breakthrough," she said, adding that the fuel "doesn't look or smell very different."

Now that they have demonstrated it can work, the next step is to produce it in industrial quantities.

There's more at the link, and in a news release from USNRL.

This is obviously still some years - perhaps a decade or more - away from fleet-wide introduction;  but it offers the possibility of virtual energy independence for conventionally-powered ships.  They'll no longer have to rendezvous with tankers to refuel at sea, or return to harbor for the same purpose (although they'll still need to resupply with food, munitions, spares and other essentials).  I've no doubt navies all over the world are watching developments intently - and some of them are doubtless already trying to figure out how to copy (or just plain steal) the new technology.

Peter

In Memoriam: John Shirley-Quirk

The well-known bass/baritone singer, John Shirley-Quirk, died yesterday at the age of 83.  The Telegraph wrote of him:

If his voice was not the largest to grace the opera stage, his power of interpretation and his unique insight into the thoughts of the composer made him indispensable to the likes of Britten, who needed a dependable singer with the ability to turn his concepts into a credible stage performance.

Yet Shirley-Quirk could be modest to a fault about his own career. “Recitals have come of their own accord. So have oratorio performances,” he mused of his packed schedule. Indeed, generations of provincial concert-goers discovered their Christmas oratorios and Easter Masses through the intonation of Shirley-Quirk and colleagues such as Janet Baker, Heather Harper and Philip Langridge.

Wherever he went Shirley-Quirk was a distinctive, larger-than-life figure, who could hold an audience with the beauty of his intonation and clarity of tone. “A singer needs to be three-dimensional, not simply a walking voice,” was one of his favourite maxims, and one he invariably applied to himself.

There's more at the link.

He was never as well-known as the great 'stars' of opera, but I loved his performances, and treasure a few recordings of them in my library.  In particular, his performance in a 1960's recording of Handel's 'Messiah' has remained a perennial favorite of mine.  It was digitized and re-released on double CD in the 1990's, and I listen to it in full at least once every year.  If you don't have your own copy of 'Messiah', I highly recommend this version as both affordable and very approachable.

His beautiful singing voice was a part of my life for many years.  During the bad times in South Africa, it helped to keep me sane.  If you'd like to hear him for yourself, there are several video clips on YouTube featuring him.  Here's one:  the aria "Ich habe genug, ich habe den Heiland" ("I have enough, I have the Savior") by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Thanks for the music, Mr. Shirley-Quirk, and for the memories.  May you rest in peace.

Peter

The ugliest buildings in the world

The Telegraph has a photo essay titled 'The world's 30 ugliest buildings'.  I'm not sure that some of them aren't actually attractive, in a strange - or at least 'different' - sort of way, but there are certainly some eyesores among them!  Here are a few examples.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture and observation tower at the London 2012 Olympic Park

The Mirador Building in Madrid, Spain

Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia

The National Library in Pristina, Kosovo

There are many more at the link.  Worthwhile viewing, if only to ask yourself what on earth the architects and designers were smoking!




Peter

"Why are handguns so difficult to shoot accurately?"

Following my post yesterday about gun show goodies, a reader e-mailed to ask "Why are handguns so difficult to shoot accurately?"  She says she's a novice, and is very frustrated because although her boyfriend is very good with a handgun, she can't measure up to him.  His attempts to teach her are apparently not well received.  (Cue thousands of experienced shooters, both male and female, rolling their eyes as they read those words!)  I thought the question was generally applicable enough to deserve a lengthy answer:  so here it is.

In the first place, the basic problem is the stability of the firing platform.  When you're shooting a firearm, you're the platform.  You may brace yourself and/or your gun against the ground, or a tree, or anything else that comes to hand:  but basically it's your body and your arms and hands that provide the fundamental platform from which accuracy is built.  Unfortunately, that's not a very stable platform!  We're made of bone and flesh, the latter sometimes all too abundant (yeah, me too!), and we're more or less limber and able to arrange (contort?) our limbs into positions that will provide the necessary support.

This is doubly true in the case of a handgun.  With a rifle, you have at least three points of contact with it:  your shoulder against the stock, your trigger hand on the 'wrist' of the stock and the trigger, and your support hand on the forearm.  With a handgun, you have one hand on the grip, and (for accurate defensive shooting, at least) your support hand around and adding strength to the shooting hand - effectively two points of contact at most.  Think of it in terms of a three-legged stool.  With all three legs in place, the stool is stable and safe to sit upon.  With one leg removed, it'll wobble and be very unsteady, relying on your legs to keep your body weight centered above the stool's remaining legs.  Get your balance wrong, and it'll collapse under you.  Shooting a rifle is like the three-legged stool:  an inherently more stable position.  Shooting a handgun is more like a two-legged stool - a lot less stable.  (The analogy isn't exact, but no analogy ever is.  This one helps to illustrate the problem.)

The basic instability of a handgun shooting position also magnifies other errors.  There's a very well-known chart showing how your actions and trigger technique cause errors in bullet strikes on target.  Here's one version of the chart, courtesy of the Army Marksmanship Unit, which produced it (thereby putting it in the public domain) and the Encyclopedia of Bullseye Pistol, which hosts this copy.  (Read the whole page at that link - it contains valuable information.)

The chart above is for a right-handed shooter;  Pointman's Galleries has a version for both right- and left-handed shooters, which is very useful.  If you don't understand the terms used in the chart, don't worry - an experienced shooter can explain them to you.  Suffice it to say that all shooters have made many (if not all) of those mistakes, and all of us are at risk of falling into those errors again unless we concentrate on what we're doing and try to avoid them.

The more stable your body position, the more support you give to the firearm, the more steady your firing platform will be and the more control you'll have over your weapon.  Shooting stances such as Weaver and Isosceles, as well as more specialized stances, were developed to enhance platform stability and weapon control.  (By the way, ignore all the so-called 'experts' who try to claim that their 'modified Weaver' or 'modified Isosceles' stance is better than the original.  Here's the blunt truth:  there are almost as many variations on the Weaver and Isosceles stances as there are individuals using them!  We all have different body shapes, heights, weights, athletic abilities, etc.  As a result, it's highly unlikely that any two of us will assume absolutely identical shooting stances.  Mother Nature saw to that a long time ago!)

As for having a spouse or partner teach you how to shoot . . . that's a very difficult question.  Why do so few people learn to drive with or from their partner?  Mostly it's because the interaction between them is of a very different nature to the basic instructor-student paradigm.  I know Miss D. finds it very difficult, and sometimes very frustrating, when I try to teach her something.  As a result, I largely don't try too hard!  We're getting better at it, but it's a long, slow process.  I'd rather ask good friends, whose knowledge and skills I trust, to help her instead.  I've suggested to my reader that she might want to consider that approach.

I won't go into any more detail in a simple blog article like this.  As any experienced shooter will tell you, you simply can't become a good shooter from theory alone.  You need to be on the firing line with the help of a trusted, competent instructor.  However, you can learn a lot of theory from reading about the subject.  Here are three resources for further information.  There are many more out there, but these will get you started on the right foot.

Cornered Cat

(An excellent overview of defensive firearm basics)

Firearms 101

(A simple online preparatory firearm education course)

The Encyclopedia of Bullseye Pistol

(Emphasis on slow-fire marksmanship and accuracy)

Finally, don't believe those who tell you that you need to focus solely on defensive shooting, ignoring all the other handgun sports.  I've learned a great deal from different shooting disciplines, much of which carries over to others.  (For example, defensive shotgun use is oriented very differently to normal sporting use of that weapon;  but a competent sporting clays competitor will find his training and experience carry over into defensive shooting, enabling him to learn a lot faster and be a lot more competent than a novice.)  I mostly concentrate on defensive shooting, but I'm about to 'go back to basics' and return to bullseye pistol drills for a while, because I've noticed my accuracy is slipping.  There's nothing like forcing yourself to slow down, focus on the front sight, concentrate on breathing and trigger control, and try to shoot one-inch groups at 25 yards, one-handed and unsupported, to remind you what accuracy's all about!  It's even more challenging when your eyes are getting old and losing focus, as mine are.  I still swear in Zulu when I get really frustrated, so I suspect Miss D. will be hearing a lot more Zulu shortly . . .

I hope this introduction to the field helps those who need it.  I'm sure knowledgeable readers will add more information in Comments.

Peter

3D printed houses for only $5,000???

I'm amazed to read that a Chinese company is producing simple cement prefabricated homes by what's claimed to be a 3D printing method, for the equivalent of less than $5,000 apiece.  They may not look like much to eyes used to American suburban homes, but to many in poorer countries they'll be paradise compared to a mud hut or tin-and-cardboard shack.

The company claims the technology can be scaled to produce multi-level homes in less than a day.

You can read more about it here.  If this can be made to work economically on a large scale, it might revolutionize housing construction throughout the world.  For that matter, it might do the same to typical US frame-and-siding construction techniques.  I'd love to be able to put up a small but comfortable home for less than a tenth of modern construction costs - and if it's made of concrete, I'm willing to bet it'll be more resistant to hurricanes and tornadoes than what we're living in right now!

Peter

Quote of the day

From the inimitable Tam:

I swear, when it comes to raw milk co-ops and home schooling organizations, the government is like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Robocop, but with matters of actual external security it's suddenly the love child of Inspector Clouseau and Colonel Klink.

Peter

Some really hairy landings and takeoffs

Here are some of the hairiest crosswind landings and takeoffs I've ever seen, filmed at Birmingham airport in England during the past winter.  Note how the wings flex under the aerodynamic pressure. I recommend watching the video in full-screen mode.

I'm glad I wasn't aboard any of those planes . . .




Peter

Gun show goodies

In my post about .22LR ammunition on Saturday, I mentioned that I'd picked up a couple of thousand rounds at our local gun show that morning, in part exchange for a revolver.  I went back to the gun show yesterday, armed (you should pardon the expression) with my 'gun money', to see what else I could find.  (My 'gun money' is separate from our household accounts.  It's funds accumulated from selling guns, accessories, ammo, etc., which I plow back into my shooting activities.  I can spend some of 'our' money on gun stuff too, of course - both of us have a 'fun fund' allowance when necessary - but I prefer to keep the accounts separate most of the time.)

I was looking in particular for .22LR pistols and revolvers for use in training disabled shooters.  I try to keep at least half a dozen on hand at any one time.  That's sometimes difficult, because I'm always coming across people who (on a disability income) simply can't afford to buy their own guns.  I must have given away somewhere between two and three dozen firearms over the past decade or so.  I'm glad to be able to help - it's one way I can 'give back' to my community - but it means I have to replenish my training battery every so often.

I got lucky.  An older gentleman was wandering around with a blue Beretta gun box containing a U22 Neos identical to this one:

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, doesn't it?  I'd heard good reports about the Neos from reviewers and other shooters, so I was interested.  The slide felt gritty when operated, and the gun clearly hadn't been properly cleaned for a long time;  but the seller was asking a reasonable price (about 70% of retail).  I walked away with it.  After a thorough cleaning last night, with the help of our housemate (who enjoys cleaning guns much more than I do!), it's now very slick and smooth in operation, and I'm looking forward to trying it out at the range this week.

I noticed a few things at once.

1. The sights are adequate, but clearly meant for slow fire - the fat front sight almost completely fills the gap in the rear sight, making 'snap' or fast sight alignment very difficult.  That's fine for target practice, but not so good for practical pistol training.  I think I'll either have to file away some material from the sides of the front sight, or widen the rear sight aperture slightly, to allow faster acquisition of a sight picture.
2. The scope rail running along the top of the gun is an excellent feature.  I'll try installing a red dot sight to see how it performs.
3. The trigger is on the heavy side (I'd estimate 10-12 pounds), but crisp.  I think it'll be a good 'training trigger', requiring one to keep one's aim very steady while one takes up the pressure.  For that reason I won't attempt to adjust it, but I might detail-strip it and apply a little Slipstream oil or grease (my favorite lubricant for most firearms - that stuff is magic!) to its operating surfaces.  That should lighten the weight of pull somewhat.
4. The grip at first feels a bit small for large hands like mine, but after a few minutes spent snapping the gun up and into position it begins to feel as natural as breathing.  Allied with its loaded weight of just over 36 ounces and its slightly nose-heavy 6" barrel, I think this is going to be a very controllable and easy-to-shoot pistol, with negligible recoil.  I daresay it'll do very well for novice shooters.  On the other hand, it is a little heavy compared to some of its competitors.  Shooters with limited arm and/or upper body strength and/or mobility may find it difficult to use for extended periods.
5. It's clearly too large and heavy for easy concealed carry - it's more for range use and in circumstances where concealment is not necessary.
6. Disassembly and reassembly is very different from any other pistol I've encountered, with a ratchet screw holding the barrel and sight rail to the frame.  However, once one reads the manual it's a very simple procedure to follow, and certainly much easier than some of its competitors.  I'm intrigued by the details of the design.

Even at retail prices, the Neos is cost-effective when compared to competitors like the Ruger Mark III, Browning Buck Mark, Smith & Wesson Model 22A or the more concealable Ruger SR22 (my recommended concealed-carry .22LR pistol for those who can't manage heavier recoil) and Walther P22.  If its performance at the range lives up to its reputation, I'll be very pleased to add it to my training battery.

That wasn't the only good deal of the day.  I've been trying to find a smaller .45 ACP pistol for a disabled shooter who has the upper body strength to handle it.  I ran into a man selling a Kahr CW45.

He claimed it was 'new in the box'.  However, upon examination it had clearly been fired more than a little - the interior of the slide and barrel were pretty dirty, and the imprint of a cartridge case head was visible in the residue on the breech face.  I pointed this out to the seller, who appeared surprised;  he claimed to have bought it from a man who told him it was NIB, but since even a cursory examination could disprove that, I think he was trying his luck.  It was in a Kahr pistol box, the older plastic variety, but I knew that wasn't the box in which it had originally been sold - Kahr stopped using them some years before this model was launched.  However, it did have a second magazine with it, where the CW45 is usually sold with only one magazine.

The seller wanted more for the gun than its normal 'street' retail price.  I pointed out the discrepancy, but he wasn't prepared to move much at all;  so I walked away.  However, I had a feeling that he wouldn't find many other takers at his asking price, so after an hour of wandering around (during which I picked up the Beretta Neos mentioned above), I stopped at his location once more before leaving, and repeated my lower offer.  He hesitated, hummed and hawed, but eventually he took it - so I walked out with two guns, in exchange for the two I sold yesterday.

We cleaned the Kahr as well last night, finding it not too badly gummed up.  To my surprise, once the crud had been cleaned off them, the sights proved to be aftermarket Trijicon night sights (with tritium inserts for better visibility in darkness).  They added $80 to the value of the pistol, but neither the seller nor I had noticed them at the gun show, dulled as they were with gunshot residue.  The pistol is also equipped with rubber decal grips, making it softer and easier to hold.  I reckon I bought over $500 worth of pistol and accessories for about two-thirds of their combined 'street' value.  I'm not complaining . . .

(I think compact .45 ACP pistols like the CW45 aren't suitable for most disabled shooters - or even many 'normally-abled' shooters! - because their recoil is harder to control than that of a lighter, less powerful round.  However, they've been given a new lease on life by restrictive magazine capacity laws in New York state, where my disabled shooter friend lives.  [Such draconian regulations may spread to other jurisdictions unfriendly to gun-owners - see, for example, recent developments in New Jersey, Colorado, Maryland and Connecticut, all of which may further tighten their restrictions.]  I'm very much in favor of higher-capacity pistols in view of the threat from criminal flash mobs and other developments.  However, when the law drastically limits magazine capacity I think one's best served by carrying the most effective round possible, so as to make the most of the fewer rounds available.  One must simply learn to manage and control the recoil.  Under those circumstances, a compact .45 ACP pistol becomes a much more attractive proposition - particularly in a state like New Jersey, where only law enforcement officers may possess or use expanding [i.e. hollow-point] bullets.  If one's restricted to solid [i.e. ball] ammunition, all other things being equal, the biggest ball usually wins!)

So, all in all, a very successful gun show for me.  I sold two guns, bought two others more suitable to my and others' needs, and gained over 2,000 rounds of .22LR ammunition, all for a net cash expenditure of a mere $20.  Not a bad weekend's work, if I do say so myself.

Peter

Sarah Hoyt goes indy!

One of Miss D.'s and my favorite authors, Sarah Hoyt, has been published for years by mainstream publishers, including the biggest outlet for military sci-fi and fantasy in today's market, Baen Books. She's still going to be published by them, but she's also putting her toe into the author-published market to see how the water feels.

Her first entirely self-published novel, 'Witchfinder', has just come out on Amazon.  I don't want to give away too much, but in brief, it's set in a world where magic is a path between other lands, other universes.  A hereditary office, that of Witchfinder, has been used to rescue those with magical powers from nations where those powers were not welcome (to put it mildly).

Twenty years before, the office of Witchfinder was abolished and its functions prohibited.  However, the son of the last Witchfinder can't let matters rest at that.  There are still those in need of rescue, and he can't stand to leave them to die.  The book deals with his internal (and external) conflict between duty to King and duty to those he serves, obedience to the laws of man versus obedience to the higher law of compassion and a common humanity.

I had the privilege of reading a pre-release copy of 'Witchfinder'.  I'm not normally a fan of magical fantasy - with the exception of Tolkien, who's the master of the field, and a few select others - but this book held my attention from the start.  I love the way Sarah's interwoven romance, danger, a carefully constructed social and magical environment that's internally consistent and very believable, and the normal good and bad examples of human nature.  You can read the first few chapters for free at the book's page on Amazon, to see if you like it as much as I do.

I highly recommend 'Witchfinder'.  I'll be watching for more in the series.

Peter

Around The Blogs is postponed for a week

I'm afraid I've been too busy over the past few days to put together my weekly compilation of 'Around The Blogs' links.  Sorry about that.  I'll do a bumper one for next weekend.

Peter

By popular demand . . .

After I put up the car chase from "The Seven-Ups" a couple of days ago, a number of readers wrote to claim that the chase from "Ronin" was better.  I'm not so sure.  After all, it's far less believable than the earlier one - for example, just look at the way both cars mount the kerb early in the chase.  If you tried that for real, in those same cars, you'd be looking at busted CV joints and bits and pieces of bodywork bouncing down the pavement.  No way!

However, I'll admit that if you're willing to suspend disbelief, it's enjoyable and very tense.  Judge for yourself.  It's worth watching it in full-screen mode.

Personally, I prefer older car chase scenes like those in "Bullitt" or "The Seven-Ups" - I just find them more believable.  However, for gee-whiz hi-tech editing tricks, stuff like "Ronin" isn't bad at all.  (Yeah, I'm an old fart.  Deal with it.)

Peter

.22LR ammunition: thoughts and lessons learned

Readers will recall that a couple of months ago I issued an appeal for anyone with contacts in the ammunition supply field to help me locate enough .22LR ammo for disabled students who participate in classes I help organize in various centers.

Several of you came through with generous donations of ammo totaling over 4,000 rounds, ranging from a 555-round brick to 1,500 rounds from a very generous individual.  I'm profoundly grateful to you all.  It's all gone out now to various centers, where it'll be put to good use by mid-year.  I've managed to buy another 4,000 rounds from various sources - mostly by driving to Wal-Mart or Academy Sports first thing in the morning and lining up with other hopefuls, trying to buy .22LR bulk packs as they're put on the shelves.  Usually I came away empty-handed, but occasionally I struck it lucky - often enough to persevere, anyway.

Today I obtained the final 2,000 rounds I needed for this year's classes.  I went to a local gun show with two handguns, and sold them both.  One was a revolver that an ammo dealer (manning a small two-table booth along with his wife) really, really wanted.  He didn't have enough cash, but he did have a dozen 550-round bulk packs of Federal .22LR on his table (shown below), priced lower than anyone else at the show at 10c per round.

We dickered and argued around, and I ended up with some cash and four bulk packs of ammo in exchange for the revolver.  He said he'd resell the gun in due course, but from the way he was fondling it (and the resigned expression on his wife's face) I suspect he'll hang on to it for at least a while and enjoy it himself.  It's a very nice revolver, so I won't be surprised if he ends up keeping it.

So, after two months' hard work and with your very gratefully received assistance, I've finally managed to put together 10,000 rounds of .22LR ammo.  I suspect it won't be nearly so easy in future, because I've learned a number of valuable lessons over that period.  Readers may recall that in April last year I wrote about the insane prices being asked for .22LR ammo.  Things are a little better, but there are clouds on the horizon.  Consider the following points.

1. Automated ammunition search engines (e.g. AmmoSeek, Gunbot, Ammo-Can [the latter purporting to track which Wal-Mart stores have stock of ammo, but has proved in my experience to be wildly inaccurate], etc.) are showing the average price per round for .22LR to be consistently at 10c-20c for the cheapest rounds - sometimes much higher.
2. Local stores are charging higher prices across the board.  Academy Sports used to sell .22LR at affordable (i.e. pre-shortage) prices, but lately (at least in local stores) they're offering only 50-round boxes at a cost per round of 9-12c.  Wal-Mart is hovering at about 10c per round for bulk packs (when they have .22LR at all, which isn't often - at my local branch, they seem to get in a [small] shipment about once every seven to ten days).  Small gun shops are at or above these levels - a local one is currently offering 525-round bulk packs of Remington Golden Bullet .22LR at $54.45 including tax, which is the lowest I've seen them in some time.
3. I've attended several gun shows, and asked friends to report on ammo prices at shows in their locations.  It seems that the 10c-20c per round average price holds good there as well.  In fact, ammo with a reputation for quality and performance (e.g. CCI Mini-Mag, Federal Auto Match, etc.) appears to be consistently priced at or above the high end of that scale.  At the local gun show this morning, the only dealer with Mini-Mags (the 36gr. hollow-point version) was asking $23.95 for a 100-round pack, while CCI Stingers in a 50-round box were available for a mere $16.95.  (The old-stock Stinger boxes in my ammo locker are marked from $2.99 to $4.99!!!)  He didn't appear to have many takers.  (I'll have to conserve my limited supplies of Stingers and Velocitors very carefully indeed, as I've no idea when I'll be able to afford to replace them.)
4. Propellant for reloaders is in desperately short supply, with little or nothing available for the most popular powders.  There are an awful lot of rumors going around, none of which I've been able to confirm "from the horse's mouth", so to speak.  A lot of folks are speculating that the fire at Winchester's Illinois plant in February, plus an explosion at a Belgian plant in March, will affect both reloaders and US ammo manufacturers, but I've not yet seen or heard anything to verify that.  However, I'm pretty sure that powder (and primers) are in short supply simply because ammo manufacturers are buying as much as they can get.  As a result, I presume component manufacturers are concentrating on making what the manufacturers want (and for which they're prepared to pay high prices at present), thereby making reloaders' lives more difficult.
5. It looks like ammo supply may be tightening up again across the board.  Wal-Mart relaxed its earlier restrictions some months ago:  customers could now buy as much as they wanted of any cartridge except .22LR, where they were restricted to three boxes per customer per day.  However, earlier this week at all our local Wal-Marts customers were once again restricted to one box of ammo per day, irrespective of caliber.  Shop assistants informed me that the policy came down from Head Office, and isn't only a local restriction.  I don't think Wal-Mart would have imposed that limit if they weren't experiencing or expecting supply shortages.  Local gun shops also report growing difficulties in sourcing larger quantities of ammunition in any caliber or cartridge.  (Part of this may be because several manufacturers are expanding and/or relocating their production facilities.  The relocation process incurs delays in production until all the machinery is set up again.)
6. Manufacturers appear to be producing ammo as fast as they can to meet the demand, and in many calibers (but not, unfortunately, .22LR) it appears to be more freely available than in the recent past.  However, in rimfire they simply can't keep up.  Part of that is the lack of specialized equipment to make it. The relentless demand is doubtless driving capital investment in new machinery (see, for example, Remington's expanded facility in Arkansas, which will begin production this summer).  However, the truth is (as one gun store clerk was reported to have said), "We are not experiencing a gun or ammo shortage. We are experiencing a customer surplus."
   

Perhaps the best summation of the .22LR ammo situation was provided by user MeagerHair on the Ruger Forum in January last year.

Estimated Annual Production 2.5 Billion Rounds (Wikipedia)

That is Approx 13,700 bricks of 500 per day.

Sounds like a lot? About 1,800 Walmarts sell Ammo, that is less than 8 bricks per day per Walmart.

Without substantial capital equipment say they can flex up 20%. That is still less than 10 bricks per day. If you went for adding capacity say 50% to 12 bricks per Walmart per day, if you started now it would take you 18 months minimum to get new lines in production.

It is better not to do the math.

I guess that's as true today as it was just over a year ago.  If you need .22LR, I'm afraid you're going to have to pay a lot more for it than you did in years past.  I daresay the days of rimfire being low-cost plinking fodder are probably over - and I'm going to have to find a cheaper way to train disabled shooters.  BB and Airsoft handguns, here we come . . .

*Sigh*

Peter

One of the best movie car chases

I was reminded of the famous car chase in 'The Seven-Ups' recently, and looked on YouTube to see if it had been uploaded.  Sure enough, it had:  so here it is - one of the most 'adrenaline-rush' car chases ever filmed.  It's worth watching it in full-screen mode, if the resolution on your monitor is good enough.

According to Wikipedia:

As in Bullitt and The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni again utilized stunt coordinator and driver Bill Hickman (who also has a small role in the film) to help create the chase sequence for this film. Filmed in and around Upper Manhattan, New York City, the sequence was edited by Gerald B. Greenberg (credited as Jerry Greenberg), who also has an associate producer credit on this film and who won an Academy Award for his editing work on The French Connection.

The chase sequence is located near the middle of the film; in it, Hickman's car is being chased by Scheider. The chase itself borrows heavily from the Bullitt chase, with the two cars bouncing down the gradients of uptown New York (like the cars on San Francisco's steep hills in the earlier film) with Hickman's 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville sedan pursued by Scheider's 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint coupe. While Scheider did some of his own driving, most of it was done by Hollywood stunt man Jerry Summers.

Location shooting for the chase scene was done in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on the George Washington Bridge, and on New Jersey's Palisades Interstate Parkway and New York's Taconic State Parkway.

In the accompanying behind-the-scenes featurette of the 2006 DVD release of the film, Hickman can be seen co-ordinating the chase from the street where we see a stuntman in a parked car opens his door as Hickman's vehicle takes it off its hinges. The end of the chase was Hickman's 'homage' to the death of Jayne Mansfield, where Scheider's car (driven by Summers) smashes into the back of a parked tractor-trailer, peeling off the car's roof.

Memorable stuff.  At the time of writing, the full movie is available on YouTube.

Peter

Mesmerizing watches indeed . . .

An article in the Telegraph's Luxury section caught my eye recently.  It dealt with Jaquet Droz watches from Switzerland, among the most prestigious brands in the business.  The article points out:

The combination of a fascinating pre-history and a relatively clear recent past ... [has allowed] a distinctly non-standard approach to traditional watch complications and a priority for decoration over watchmaking technicalities, even in the most sophisticated models. By reinventing the automata of the 18th century that made the original Jaquet Droz so famous, the current incarnation of the company has acquired a unique set of skills and a very distinctive creative vision.

There's more at the link.

Intrigued, I went to the company's Web site to learn more.  Talk about a feast for the eyes!  Here are just a few examples of their work.

THE POCKET WATCH PAILLONNÉE:  Blue Grand Feu paillonné-enameled dial. Red gold case. Hand-winding mechanical movement.

THE RATTRAPANTE:  Black Grand Feu enameled dial. 18-carat red gold case. Self-winding mechanical movement, chronograph column wheel.

THE BIRD REPEATER:  Engraved and hand-painted mother-of-pearl, black onyx dial. Hand-engraved and hand-painted birds. 18-carat red gold case.

Lovely things, aren't they?  I've no idea what they cost, but I'm absolutely sure I can't afford one!

Peter

A new "Simon's Cat"!

Enjoy!

Since Miss D. and myself are now firmly owned by a four five six seven eight nine-pound bundle of fur and purr, we can attest that this is very true to life . . .




Peter

A skydiver meets a meteorite in mid-air

An amazing story comes out of Norway, where a skydiver making an otherwise routine jump filmed a meteorite that narrowly missed him in mid-air.  A Norwegian report states:

One summer day in 2012, Anders Helstrup and several other members of Oslo Parachute Club jumped from a small plane that had taken off from Østre Æra Airport in Hedmark.

Helstrup, wearing a wing suit and with two cameras fixed to his helmet, released his parachute. On the way down he realised something was happening.

“I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn’t register what was happening,” Helstrup explained to NRK.no.

Immediately after landing, he looked through the film from the jump, which clearly showed that something did happen.

Something that looks like a stone hurtles past Helstrup – clearing him by only a few metres.

. . .

Eventually Helstrup contacted the Natural History Museum in Oslo.

“The film caused a sensation in the meteorite community. They seemed convinced that this was a meteorite, perhaps I was the one who was the most sceptical.”

Now Helstrup suddenly had a whole flock of meteorite enthusiasts following him. They analysed and triangulated and narrowed down the search area.

In the summer of 2012 Helstrup and his helpers had begun searching an area of one and a half square kilometres. Today, the area has been limited to 100 times a hundred meters, but that’s big enough – especially when you’re not really sure what a meteorite looks like.

. . .

“It can’t be anything else. The shape is typical of meteorites – a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded,” said geologist Hans Amundsen.

He explained that the meteorite had been part of a larger stone that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometres above Helstrup.

. . .

“It has never happened before that a meteorite has been filmed during dark flight; this is the first time in world history,” said Amundsen.

There's more at the link.

Here's a shortened version of the video shot by Mr. Helstrup, including edited close-ups of the meteorite.  You'll find a longer video at the report linked above.

That's a fascinating encounter, filmed purely by chance.  Now, if the meteorite had actually hit him . . .

Peter

Happy birthday to Doris Day

I don't know how many of my readers remember the musical movies of the 1950's and 1960's.  I was too young to appreciate them, of course, but I grew up listening to my parents as they played the LP records of their music, and sang along to them.  One of my father's favorite singers from the musicals was Doris Day.

He particularly enjoyed 'The Pajama Game', and would play that record at the drop of a hat.  I can recall chanting along with him, "Seven and a half cents doesn't buy a heck of a lot, seven and a half cents doesn't mean a thing . . . "  I was too young to understand what it meant, but it was a fun song.

As I've grown older, I've learned to appreciate Ms. Day's vocal talents for myself.  According to the Telegraph, she was an accomplished jazz singer.

Singing had not been Day's original dream. When she was 13 she was a passenger in a car accident that broke both her legs and ended her hopes of a dance career. "I couldn't walk for almost three years," Day recalled. "That was the greatest thing that happened. Instead of dancing, I sang. They carried me three times a week up a stairway to my music teacher."

She spent hours listening to big band music on the radio and was inspired by the singing of Ella Fitzgerald, saying: "There was a quality to Ella's voice that fascinated me, and I'd sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words."

While she was still a teenager she impressed jazz band leader Barney Rapp with her version of Day After Day, a song by Richard Himber & His Rhythmic Pyramids Orchestra. Rapp told her that von Kappelhoff was a name too unwieldy for concert marquees and suggested she changed her name to Day, in honour of the song she loved.

Her career was off and running and after a spell with the celebrated jazz band of Bob Crosby, she began singing with Brown's troupe, eventually marrying the band's trombonist Al Jordan, the first of four husbands. "She was every bandleader's dream," said Brown, "a vocalist who had natural talent, a keen regard for the lyrics and an attractive appearance." It was a 1945 song called Sentimental Journey, co-written by Brown, that made her name when it became a sort of unofficial anthem for weary troops as they returned home from fighting in Europe.

It was another jazz standard, Embraceable You, that triggered her career in movies. Her rendition at a Hollywood party prompted Jule Styne to arrange a screen test, which led to her first film, Romance on the High Seas (1948). She was a good actress (Oscar-nominated as Best Actress for Pillow Talk in 1959) but her singing in films was a key factor in her Hollywood success.

. . .

Her singing career has been acknowledged – three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, plus the first Legend Award ever presented by the Society of Singers – and she made a successful comeback at the age of 87.

There's more at the link.

Ms. Day is ninety years old today.  Thanks for many wonderful memories, Ma'am, and may your birthday be happy and filled with music.

Peter

Chainsaw safety information

A couple of days ago I wrote about the dangers of chainsaws.  Since then I've been looking for training and educational materials about the subject, and found quite a lot.  I've added it as a footnote to the original article, so if you're interested in learning more, please click over there to find links to the sources.

Peter

A belated April Fool chuckle for shooters

I know it's four days after April Fools Day, but this contribution by SilencerCo made me laugh.  It riffs on Gandalf in the 'Lord Of The Rings' movies.  I particularly liked their description:

Whether you are a Diviner of Decibel or a Sorcerer of Sound, the Wizard Staff was created for you. From acromantula hunting to divination, the Wizard Staff will ensure soundless success.

The Wizard Staff has a unique CTA baffle stack consisting of 44 polished Mithril baffles designed for an infinite dB reduction of sound. The 36 inches of soundless magic is easily disassembled by even the most novice necromancer to provide full user serviceability. The ageless construction of rare and exotic materials makes the Wizard Staff indestructible. The eternal warranty ensures the Wizard Staff will last as long as any immortal being wielding this impressive firearm silencer.

Here's the video.

Clever!

Peter

A new lawnmower world speed record

Back in 2010 I wrote about the latest world speed record set by a lawnmower.  That's been comprehensively broken by a new machine from Honda, dubbed the Mean Mower, prepared in co-operation with the BBC's Top Gear television program.  The BBC reported about it last year:

The Japanese carmaker has upgraded one of its mowers by replacing its engine with one normally used in motorcycles.

A steering rack sourced from a Morris Minor car has been fitted to offer greater control, the mower's seat has been lowered, the wheels and tyres have been substituted with those of a quad bike, and the metal part of the chassis that normally holds the blades has been replaced with a glass fibre equivalent to make it lighter.

The alterations have forced the engineers to rethink how the machine cuts grass.

The original model featured metal blades, but they had to be removed as the engineers found it too complicated to connect them to the new engine.

Instead the machine now houses two electric motors with lengths of brake cable attached to them. These will spin round at about 4,000 rotations per minute to cut lawns down to size.

There's more at the link.

The Mean Mower has just broken the record, setting a scorching time of 116.57 mph.  It'll take a lot to beat that!  Here's a video report of the attempt.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

Congratulations to all concerned - but I'd love to know how much grass it would cut at that speed.  I suspect any cutting will have to take place at much lower velocities!

Peter

Has it become impossible to work your way through college?

That's what the Atlantic claims in an article yesterday.

In 1979, when the minimum wage was $2.90, a hard-working student with a minimum-wage job could earn enough in one day (8.44 hours) to pay for one academic credit hour. If a standard course load for one semester consisted of maybe 12 credit hours, the semester's tuition could be covered by just over two weeks of full-time minimum wage work—or a month of part-time work. A summer spent scooping ice cream or flipping burgers could pay for an MSU education.

The cost of an MSU credit hour has multiplied since 1979. So has the federal minimum wage. But today, it takes 60 hours of minimum-wage work to pay off a single credit hour, which was priced at $428.75 for the fall semester.

Olson, who's doing his graduate work at MSU, crunched the numbers further to create this graph:

His conclusion: "It's impossible to work your way through college nowadays."

According to the graph, the price of an MSU education began exceeding what could reasonably be earned with part-time, minimum-wage work around 1993. That's when a single MSU credit hour became worth more than 20 hours of wages. Imagine a 15-week semester with a course load of 12 credit hours. If each credit hour required 20 hours of minimum wage work, a student would have to work 16 hours a week to pay for school.

That's doable. But today the same student would have to work 48 hours a week at that minimum wage job to pay for his classes.

There's more at the link.

48 hours of work, on top of a normal academic workload - let alone time to eat, wash and sleep?  No way!

The inimitable Karl Denninger has some blunt observations about this reality.

The reason the price [of a degree] went up 600% is the availability of [student] loans.

. . .

The result of this paradigm and the unholy alliance between banks, Wall Street, Washington DC and the colleges themselves is that the marginal utility of college degrees for many, perhaps even the majority of students, is now negative.

Remember that the school, the lender, Wall Street and Washington DC do not care about individual outcomes.  They could give a damn about whether college is a good deal for you.

That is what happens when anything becomes financialized; the only metric that matters is the aggregate outcome for the financial chef; that is, his goal is to strip all but one penny of the benefit on average from the participants and keep it.

The closer he gets to that goal the more money he makes.  He does not care about your outcome, only that in aggregate the pool of "buyers" keep just enough that the next group will come in the door.

. . .

The colleges are not only aware of this they are willing participants in that they have their own finance offices that will help you arrange for your own fiscal destruction and, if they (or you) can talk your parents into it, theirs as well.

Again, more at the link.

More food for thought for anyone considering a college or university education, or who has kids that are about to enter upon such an education.  I'd honestly recommend that for most students, they'd be better served to do what I did:  get a job, start earning a living right away, and study for their basic degree through distance and/or online education (which typically costs much less than full-time study).  I completed my first degree, a Bachelor of Arts, through correspondence study at the University of South Africa.  Thanks to the vagaries of civil conflict, military service, and a whole bunch of extraneous factors, it took me a decade to complete it;  but I did so without having to go into debt, and by the time I finished it I'd learned a great deal about self-motivation and the discipline of studying.  My next three University qualifications were much easier as a result - and all of them were obtained through part-time and/or distance education.  I never went into debt for any of them.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Peter

The Louisville flash mob: another incident

Last weekend I wrote about the growing danger of criminal 'flash mobs', highlighting a recent incident in Louisville, Kentucky, where some 200 youths went on the rampage.  Courtesy of an e-mail, I learned today about one of the incidents they sparked.  Here's an excerpt from the news report.

"Right before we got to the stoplight, we noticed about 50 to 100 teens coming to the middle of the street. It was a one-way street so we couldn't go any further. All of a sudden, one of them throws a garbage can on our car," she explained.

Loeffle says after that, the situation quickly escalated. Her boyfriend, Ron Carter, was in the driver's seat and stopped the car to see what was going on.

They say when he got out, the teens moved in on him.

"Then all of a sudden, I'm getting attacked," Carter said.  "At that point,  I jump in the driver's seat and heard them throwing rocks at my car. The rocks were hitting the kids inside the car."

. . .

The mother says she couldn't speed away because they were surrounded by the group of teens and she didn't want to run them over.

That's when one of them attacked her.

"The boy comes out of nowhere, punches me in the eye, knocks me out," she said.

She says the next moments were a blur, but somehow, Loeffler, Carter and all five kids made their way to Bader's Food Mart and were able to get to safety until police got there.

There's more at the link, plus a video report.

If you had been in that car, what would you have done?  Would you have been prepared to drive over those blocking your path?  Are you habitually armed, so that you would have been able to defend yourself if necessary?

You need to think about those things now, because if you ever find yourself in such a situation, it'll be too late to make up your mind or prepare for trouble.

Peter

When lawyers conspire to defraud

There are some pretty amazing developments going on in a New York courtroom between Chevron and a group of very high-powered lawyers.  Briefly, they can be summarized as follows.

1. A group of lawyers, mostly from the USA but including some locals and activists from Europe, sued Chevron in Ecuador as long ago as 1993 over alleged pollution of the environment in and around the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador.  They were aided in this after 2006 by the populist and environmentalist agenda of new President Rafael Correa.
2. In 2011 an Ecuadorian court assessed damages of some $9 billion against Chevron.  Since then lawyers have taken the judgment before courts in a number of other nations, seeking to have its provisions enforced there and allow them to confiscate Chevron's assets in those countries in payment of the ruling.  Chevron has fought and is fighting all such attempts.
3. Last month, in a New York court, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed with Chevron that the Ecuadorian ruling was fatally flawed.  He ruled that it was the product of 'egregious fraud' and was therefore 'unenforceable'.  His comments amounted to a searing indictment of the US lawyers concerned.  Here's an excerpt.

This case is extraordinary. The facts are many and sometimes complex. They include things that normally come only out of Hollywood — coded emails among [lead plantiffs' attorney Steven] Donziger and his colleagues describing their private interactions with and machinations directed at judges and a court appointed expert, their payments to a supposedly neutral expert out of a secret account, a lawyer who invited a film crew to innumerable private strategy meetings and even to ex parte meetings with judges, an Ecuadorian judge who claims to have written the multibillion dollar decision but who was so inexperienced and uncomfortable with civil cases that he had someone else (a former judge who had been removed from the bench) draft some civil decisions for him, an 18-year old typist who supposedly did Internet research in American, English, and French law for the same judge, who knew only Spanish, and much more.

It seems pretty clear from the evidence presented that the US lawyers and some international accomplices conspired to obtain the judgment against Chevron, in the expectation that the company would agree to settle for a substantial sum of money (certainly hundreds of millions, probably billions) rather than fight the case any further.  They would have siphoned off a large proportion of any settlement, of course.  Instead, to their dismay, Chevron fought back.

The decision also vindicates Chevron’s scorched-earth litigation tactics, which included a pledge by a Chevron executive to “fight this until Hell freezes over—and then we’ll fight it out on the ice.”

Nor have matters ended there.  The lawyers are still pursuing Chevron in courts in other countries, so Chevron appears to have decided to go on the offensive.

Chevron Corp., fresh from winning a judge’s ruling prohibiting attorney Steven Donziger from collecting on a  $9.5 billion environmental verdict against it in Ecuador, has won permission to sue the influential Washington law firm Patton Boggs for its role in the litigation.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, in a ruling issued today, allowed Chevron to proceed with a counterclaim against Patton Boggs that it originally filed last May. In his two-page order, Kaplan dismissed Patton Boggs’ arguments that Chevron waited too long or that his court lacks so-called diversity jurisdiction because some of the defendant lawyers live outside the country.

. . .

In its counterclaim, Chevron accuses Patton Boggs of actively working to mislead courts and the public by, among other things, hiding the fact that Donziger’s consultants had written large parts of the report supporting the multibillion-dollar damage award. Patton Boggs made filings in U.S. and Ecuadorean courts that “mischaracterized” the relationship between the plaintiffs and the expert, who they were paying, Chevron says.

The suit also says Patton Boggs helped defraud Burford Group, a London litigation-finance outfit with close ties to some Patton Boggs partners, by inducing it to invest $5 million in the litigation without telling it it knew the plaintiff lawyers in Ecuador were concerned they could all “go to jail” because of their contacts with the court expert.

Chevron has pursued a scorched-earth campaign against Donziger and his allies, sparing no expense as it fights the verdict in Ecuador in U.S. and foreign courts as well as through international treaties.

. . .

If Kaplan’s ruling from earlier this month stands, Donziger won’t be able to collect a dime even if international collection efforts are successful. Chevron is also pursuing another financial backer, online poker magnate (and Harvard Law classmate of Donziger) Russell DeLeon, with lawsuits in Gibraltar.

There's more at the link.

As Kevin Williamson observed in the National Review:

I suppose it is chauvinistic of me to say, but the corruption of institutions in Ecuador does not surprise me that much — while the corruption on the U.S. end of the case is truly shocking. If this ends in anything less than prison time for the worst of the malefactors, justice will not have been served.

I'll be watching developments with great interest.  Kudos to Chevron for refusing to knuckle under to what appears to have been international blackmail on a gigantic scale.  I hope they 'go the distance' in dealing with the culprits - and I hope the culprits do a great deal of hard time as a result.

Peter

Another Church scandal . . . and another failure of an 'organization man'

I was disgusted to read this news from the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta apologized Monday for building a $2.2 million mansion for himself, a decision criticized by local Catholics who cited the example of austerity set by the new pope.

. . .

The archbishop said that he made a mistake while designing a home with large meeting spaces and rooms for receptions and gatherings.

"What we didn't stop to consider, and that oversight rests with me and me alone, was that the world and the Church have changed," Gregory said.

He demolished the one-story home on Mitchell's property, which was donated to the church, and replaced it with a Tudor-style mansion. In January, a group of local Catholics met with the archbishop and asked that he sell the large home and return to his old residence. They cited the example of Pope Francis, who turned down living quarters in a Vatican palace and drives a simple car.

There's more at the link.

Salient points:

1. The building was purchased using money specifically donated to the Archdiocese for "general religious and charitable purposes".  I can't see the building of an opulent mansion as either religious or charitable - can you, readers?
2. The Archbishop apparently didn't even think - until it was too late - about the impression his decision would make on the flock he's supposed to tend.  He simply regarded this as a worthwhile expenditure from his point of view, and that of the institutional Church.  There's no evidence he even considered whether the money might be better spent on more urgent pastoral needs.
3. After his flock found out about the expenditure and complained, he's apologized - but he hasn't resigned, or (as far as we know) even offered to resign.  He's retained the reins of power.  In other words, his apology appears to be more a matter of "I'm sorry I got caught" than "I'm sorry I did this".  If he was serious, he'd have resigned his position after such a colossal failure of leadership.

This is yet another example of an 'organization man' making decisions from the perspective of perpetuating the organization's power, influence and status.  It's precisely the same problem that pervaded - and still pervades - the Catholic Church in dealing with the clergy sex abuse scandal, about which I've already written extensively (see the list of articles in the sidebar).

Insensitivity, bullheaded self-interest and an utter incomprehension of the way the world works.  These are the hallmarks of most of the current leadership of the Catholic church (with a few - all too few - honorable exceptions).  When will they ever learn?  Is it even possible for them to learn?  Have they become so spiritually and mentally ossified by their years locked within an 'institution mentality' that they no longer care - unless forced to do so - about how the rest of the world sees and responds to them?

The Catholic faithful deserve far better than this.  Tragically, most of them aren't getting it.

Peter

A graphic illustration of the dangers of chainsaws

Take a look at the X-ray image below.

Yes, that shows a chainsaw embedded in a man's body, with the chain dragged through his flesh.  Amazingly, he survived!  You can read all about it here.

Chainsaws are extremely useful tools - indispensable for many tasks - but they're also deadly dangerous, particularly to those who don't know what they're doing with them.  If you have one but haven't had instruction from someone who knows and understands the dangers, may I strongly recommend that you seek such training as soon as possible?  I've seen a number of people very badly hurt (some to such an extent that they were permanently crippled) when they tried to use chainsaws (even small ones) to clear away debris after a hurricane.  The injury shown above was caused to a professional, who did understand the dangers, but nevertheless had his saw 'kick back' at him.  It can happen to anyone using these tools.

Please, folks, be careful out there.  I seriously recommend printing out a copy of that X-ray image, laminating it, and securing it to your chainsaw handle.  It'll be a reminder to you every time you pick it up of what might happen if you're not careful.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  I found the US Forest Service training materials for chain- and crosscut saw operation online.  They include manuals for students and instructors and PowerPoint presentations on how to safely use these tools.  If you can't get to one of the many chainsaw safety courses offered nationwide, those documents are a good place to learn the basics of chainsaw safety.  There are also many videos on YouTube that will help.

More about food price inflation

Last week I mentioned in passing that 'US spot foodstuff prices have so far risen 19% in 2014'.  In his latest Woodpile Report, Ol' Remus has more on what's happening to food costs in the USA.

Given the drought in California and southwestern states, the PED viral infection killing off piglets by the millions, the diversion of corn into fuel extender duty, the smallest cattle herd in more than sixty years, the decline in the bee population, et alia; it all adds up to a sound bet: food prices will continue to rise.

Since the first of the year pork is up 45%, corn and wheat are up 14%, coffee is up 42%, and cheese is up 21%. All grain-fed livestock, chicken included, are up and so are eggs and dairy products. Vegetables are taking out all time highs. Even the determinedly inattentive have to notice the weekly increase in their grocery bill. It's easy to miss while shopping, granted, the rise in prices is well disguised, commonly like this:

1. Smaller quantity but in the same size package and same price as before
2. Smaller quantity yet, in a smaller package, at same price
3. Same small quantity and package, but of lower quality, at same price
4. Same small quantity and package, same low quality, but higher price
5. Even smaller quantity and package, same or lower quality and same price
6. Repeat 4 and 5

Coffee is a one example. The standard three-pound can become a more or less two-pound can in small steps. Quality is being lowered by replacing Arabica with Robusta—the swill of coffeedom, but cheap and hardy. Less quantity is the only way out for some items, those where quality isn't a useful variable. The twelve-ounce package of bacon for example, which is gradually replacing the standard one-pound package. Perhaps there'll come a day when it's sold by the strip.

There's more at the link (scroll down to the section headed 'Food Prices').  Food for thought indeed, as are some concrete examples of shrinking food quantities and/or containers provided last week by Planck's Constant.

However, since our political and administrative lords and masters have decided, in their all-too-finite wisdom, that food prices should not be included in the calculation of the inflation rate, you may rest assured that all those whose primary income is calculated on the basis of the 'official' rate of inflation (e.g. Social Security, inflation-linked pensions or annuities, etc.) will not receive any increase in their stipend(s) as a result of higher food prices.  They'll have a choice:  pay other bills and starve, or eat and be sued for non-payment of those other bills.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #762

Today's award goes to the video editing team for CBS's '60 Minutes' program.

The battery-powered Tesla Model S is one of the world’s fastest and quietest luxury cars, but you might not know the latter if you watched the "60 Minutes" interview with Tesla founder Elon Musk that first aired on Sunday.

Now CBS says it regrets the "error" that led to that impression.

Following an introductory segment by Scott Pelley, whose wife owns a Model S, there is a series of shots provided by Tesla of a Model S driving down a road accompanied by the out-of-sync sounds of an internal combustion engine and the shifting of a transmission.

The Model S has neither of these things.

Instead, it is propelled by a single electric motor that emits little more than a quiet whirring noise, which can also be heard under some, but not all, of the images. The revving engine noise is also used with several shots of a stationary car’s interior, which was filmed in a studio setting.

Later in the report, footage of a Model S travelling through Norway’s Lærdal Tunnel again features the sounds of an engine in the background. The footage, also from Tesla, is presented on the company’s YouTube page with completely different audio that’s more in line with the actual sound of the car.

There's more at the link.

That's just great - grafting motor noises onto footage of a silent car!  Whoever thought that one up needs to be reassigned to YouTube, to do penance by getting rid of the ghastly music soundtracks people insist on adding to otherwise perfectly good videos.

Peter

A new favorite April Fool gag!

Until now my favorite April Fool gag had been the BBC's film of gathering in the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland, first broadcast in 1957.  In case you haven't seen it before, here it is.  (You can see a 'making of' vignette here.)

It's now been joined at the top of the heap by this year's April Fool contribution from the King's College Choir in Cambridge.  If you, like me, enjoy classical choral music, this is an absolute hoot!

Congratulations to all concerned.




Peter