Doofus Of The Day #248

Today's doofus is from Oregon.

An Albany, Ore., man was cleaning out a deceased relative's home in Eastern Oregon when he discovered what he thought was a bomb, police said. So he put it in his vehicle and drove it back to Albany, where he delivered it Friday to his hometown police station.

The Albany Police Department closed its station lobby, called the state bomb squad, notified the Linn County sheriff's office next door and blocked the station parking lot off with cones. Police did not evacuate. The bomb squad arrived, decided it was indeed a bomb and took it away to destroy it.

Albany police Capt. Eric Carter said that while he was glad the man involved police, anyone making a similar discovery should simply call local law enforcement. As he put it, "Putting explosive devices in your car and driving any distance is not advisable."

No s***, Sherlock!

I'd have liked to have been a fly on the wall of that police station when they first saw it, though . . .



Peter

Some magnificent photography!

The volcano of Krakatoa in Indonesia, which erupted in such devastating fashion back in 1883, killing an estimated 35,000 people around the world, is doing it again. The Daily Mail reports:

The ticking time-bomb can be seen spewing ash into the Indonesian sky between Java and Sumatra where it lies on the Sunda Strait.

Lava can also be seen trickling down the side of the new slopes that have quickly grown to a towering 360 metres. It now measures half of the size of the original mound that ended so many lives.




Marco said: 'These volcanos repeat explosions like that of 1883 many times during their life. The common opinion is that Krakatoa will become again really dangerous when it reaches the size it had been in 1883. It was two-times taller than now.'

Simmering Anak Krakatoa - translated as 'Child of Krakatoa' - is the offspring of the original giant cone which snuffed out over 36,000 lives in a single super-eruption over 100 years ago.

In an ongoing saga Anak Krakatoa is a new volcano that is emerging from the remains of the former giant beast which blew itself apart.




The colossal 19th century disaster is so renowned it has featured in movies and is regarded by many as the most famous on earth.

The explosion was so devastating it equalled 13,000 times the power of Little Boy - the American A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.

There's more at the link, including some absolutely spectacular photographs (in much larger versions than those on this blog). It's well worth your time to click over there to look at them. For all its danger, the volcano is strangely beautiful.

Peter

US Special Forces air support - back to basics?

I'm intrigued by a program currently under way in the US Special Forces, examining whether a simple propeller-driven strike aircraft, such as were used in World War II and Korea (and, to a lesser extent, in Vietnam) might be a viable option for certain operational environments. Defense Tech reports:

In a move that harkens back to the days of recycled World War II torpedo bombers sheep-dipped as close air support planes, the Navy intends to field a limited number of turbo-prop attack planes outfitted with the most modern surveillance, tracking and weapons systems to help special ops forces keep track of bad guys and, in a pinch, put warheads on foreheads.

Call it an A-1 Skyraider on steroids – a “Back to the Future”-resurrection of a kind of plane last seen pounding enemy positions with rockets, guns and bombs over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1960s.

Code named “Imminent Fury,” the classified, year-long program has so far produced one fully-outfitted plane and is set to field four more to directly support SEALs and other operators on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

According to a source close to the program who declined to be named, the Navy has leased an EMB-314 Super Tucano for the job. Made by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, it is now being tested on desert ranges in California and the service’s top test facility at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. The Navy loaded it up with sensors and weapons systems that “would make an F-16 pilot blush,” the source said.




With top end electro-optical and infrared sensors, laser and GPS-guided bombs, rockets, twin .50 cal. machine guns, encrypted radios – and even the capability to tie in UAV surveillance feeds – the Super Tucano outfitted for the SEALs is a ground-pounder’s angel from above.

There's more at the link, and also here and here.

Strategy Page describes the EMB-314 Super Tucano as follows:

The Super Tucano is a five ton, single engine, single seat aircraft. It is basically a prop driven trainer that can be equipped for combat missions. The aircraft can carry up to 1.5 tons of weapons, including 12.7mm machine-guns, bombs and missiles. The aircraft cruises at about 500 kilometers an hour and can stay in the air for about 6.5 hours per sortie.




Colombia is already using Super Tucanos for counter-insurgency work, which is where American SOCOM operators saw it up close. They liked what they saw, and persuaded SOCOM to lease one and try it out. For some older SOCOM operators, the Brazilian aircraft is yet another attempt to revive the legendary Vietnam era A-1 Skyraider. This was the most popular ground support aircraft during the 1960s. Developed at the end of World War II, the A-1 was an 11 ton, single seat, propeller driven aircraft that carried 3.5 tons of bombs and four 20mm autocannon. Cruising speed was 475 kilometers an hour, and the average sortie was about four hours. Ever since World War II, ground troops have been agitating for another A-1. The A-10 came close, but did not have the persistence (long time over the combat area) of the A-1.




The Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano costs $9 million each, and come in one or two seat versions. SOCOM wants the two seater, with guy in the back running sensors. The bubble canopy provides excellent visibility. This, coupled with its slow speed (versus jets), makes it an excellent ground attack aircraft. The SOCOM aircraft could be equipped to fire Hellfire missiles and drop smart bombs. SOCOM wants to lease four Super Tucanos as soon as possible.

Again, there's more at the link.

I was interested to see the role of the EMB-314 spelt out in an official Navy Irregular Warfare Office briefing earlier this year. The slide below is taken from that briefing, and is self-explanatory. (Click it for a larger view.)




In environments where ground-to-air missile defenses are relatively scarce, or primitive when they exist at all, and where massed anti-aircraft fire is unlikely, such aircraft are likely to prove very useful indeed. I'll be interested to see how the 'jet jockeys' of the USAF and USN will react to the intrusion of such low-tech, non-stealthy solutions onto their 'turf'. Considering that at present and predicted prices, one can buy more than a dozen EMB-314's for the price of a single F-35, I think economics alone will force them to accept it!

Peter

Saving money in these hard times

I'm sure there are many of us who are tightening our belts, economically speaking, and trying to spend less in these difficult times.

One way to save a whole lot of money is to look at refurbished equipment, rather than brand-new. I've done this for years, and on average find that I spend less than half the price of new equipment to buy something just as good. After all, a factory-refurbished item has been through the manufacturer's test procedures twice, not just once. It's more likely to be trouble-free than a new item!

Case in point: a camera I've just bought. I gave my old point-and-shoot to a friend who needed it more than I did at that time, and I needed to replace it. I wanted something extremely simple and very compact, that I could carry anywhere, and that wouldn't cause financial heartburn if it got lost or damaged. I narrowed down my search until I decided that the Nikon Coolpix L15 was what I wanted.




I started to compare prices. New, it's in the $230-$250 range (for example, on Amazon): but refurbished, it's available with precisely the same accessories for $69.95 from retailers such as Adorama, B&H Photo, etc. That's three-tenths of the price of a new unit on Amazon! Putting it another way, I can buy three refurbished units, and still save money, compared to buying one new one! The refurbished unit only has a ninety-day warranty, but an extended two-year warranty from Nikon USA costs a mere $12.95, if you want that peace of mind.

Electronics is a particularly viable field for such shopping, with everything from computers to cameras available in refurbished form. There are other areas too. Just a thought - if you want to save money, have a look at what's available in refurbished form. You might be surprised.

Peter

Let's expand this idea!

I note that New York City is providing free tickets to the homeless to return to their places of origin - provided they promise never to come back. It's not heartless: they make sure that there's a family member or friend to accommodate them, and that they won't be dumped on the streets once they get there.

If this works so well that NYC is willing to invest its dollars in it, how about expanding it to deal with our illegal immigration problem? If illegals volunteer to return to their homelands, and undertake never to return (and we have some way of detecting them if they do - fingerprints, an electronically-readable implanted chip, something like that), why not pay for their tickets? Heck, we could even give them a little spending money! It'll still be a whole lot cheaper than using law enforcement personnel and facilities, and our court system, to accomplish the same result.

This bears further examination, methinks.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #247

Today's Doofus is from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Jerome Blanchett took a loaded handgun into the Holiday Inn-Harrisburg East on Friday, passing dozens of unmarked police cars in the parking lot and a sign at the hotel's entrance welcoming 300 officers to the Pennsylvania Narcotic Officers' Association conference, police said.

Nevertheless, the 19-year-old Harrisburg man went into the men's room and waited to rob the next person who walked through the door, police said.

Unfortunately for Blanchett, that person was John Comparetto, a retired New York City Police Department lieutenant.

"He chose to rob a cop in a place where there were 300 cops," Comparetto said afterward. "He's not very bright."

Comparetto said he walked into the bathroom about 8:15 a.m. and noticed a man in baggy blue jeans and a dark coat washing his hands. Comparetto went into the stall, and when he walked out three minutes later, he was staring down the barrel of a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, he said.

Blanchett demanded money, and Comparetto handed over $138, police said. Blanchett took Comparetto's cell phone, told him to drop his pants and threatened to kill him if he tried to follow him, police said.

Seconds after Blanchett left the bathroom, Comparetto pulled a handgun from his ankle holster and went after his attacker, he said. Their guns drawn, he and other officers took Blanchett into custody as he was trying to get into a taxi outside the Swatara Twp. hotel.

"He's yelling, 'Don't shoot me,' and I said, 'If you move your hands, I'll kill you,'" Comparetto said. "He was almost crying."

There's more at the link, and more here.

To cap it all, from the second link above:

Blanchett, 19, ... was charged with robbery, making terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, simple assault, carrying a firearm without a license and illegally possessing a firearm.

When asked for comment, Blanchett said, "I'm smooth," as he was being led from [the] court.

Smooth??? Just how dumb can a crook get?





Peter

The newest Witch of the West

A few weeks ago I mentioned that the Wookey Hole Caves in England were advertising for a new witch.

Auditions were held yesterday. According to the Daily Mail:

And the Hex Factor winner is... Carla Calamity.




The former estate agent (real name Carole Bohanan) was yesterday named the new 'resident witch' of Wookey Hole Caves near Wells in Somerset.

She beat 300 other finalists who queued for hours to take part in X Factor-style auditions. In total, 3,000 men and women applied for the job.




Armed with broomsticks, they had 60 seconds to wow the caves' managers and the outgoing witch. Carla said after her win: 'Going from an estate agent to this is a natural progression I suppose. You need a bit of magic and witchery to sell houses.'

The job comes with a salary of £50,000 pro rata based on work during school holidays and at weekends. Carla Calamity will teach visitors about witchcraft and magic.

In busy times, she will have to leave her rented Shepton Mallet home and sleep in the caves.

There's more at the link, including many more photographs. Looks like a good time was had by all!

Peter

Wish I was in London to see this!

The Science Museum in London, England is holding a special exhibition entitled 'Cosmos And Culture: How Astronomy Has Changed Our World'. It's an in-depth look at the last four hundred years of astronomy, and what we've learned during that time.

Some of the exhibits are absolutely fascinating. For example, here's one of the first maps of the Moon, drawn by Thomas Harriot, who used an early model of telescope to produce it, four hundred years ago.




Here's a replica (copied from the original in an Italian museum) of one of Galileo's telescopes, with which he first studied the heavens and came to support Copernicus' heliocentric theory of planetary orbits.




And speaking of Copernicus, here's a page from his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, in which he posited that the planets revolved around the Sun, rather than the Earth, as had previously been believed.




And here's the telescope of Sir William Herschel, who used it in his garden to discover what he at first thought was a comet, but which turned out to be the planet Uranus.




Fascinating stuff! I wish I could be there to attend the exhibition. I hope those of my readers who are able to do so will post comments here, to let us know how they found it.

Peter

Things doctors learn from their patients

Via Ken of the group blog Popehat, we learn of an interesting thread on the Student Doctor Network entitled 'Things I Learn From My Patients'. A few examples:

• Tonight I learned yet another helpful life lesson from one of my patients. If you're on the street corner selling coke and you see the cops coming to bust you don't eat all your coke. Having been taught this valuable lesson I will now know better than to do this and wind up going to the ER in handcuffs, seizing uncontrollably, aspirating my vomit and doing all of this with a white powder moustache looking like and ad for "Got Coke?"
• Always pay your drug dealer! Bad things happen when you don't pay.
• Never, ever leave flashlights, shampoo bottles, beer bottles or any long, circular object on the floor because someday you will fall on it and it will somehow, work its way up your rectum.
• Always wait until finishing your woodwork with the skillsaw prior to using your meth.
• Don't road surf on the top of a moving stickshift car driven by your younger sibling with a learner's permit.
• Latex paint, despite being thick and creamy, does not coat your stomach and provide the same relief as pepto bismol.
• No matter how tough you are, don't cross the street when you are drunk because the moving vehicle always wins.
• No matter how badly constipated you are, a vodka enema is not a good idea.
• Whether the person hits the train or the train hits the person, it's bound to be bad for the person.
• When attempting a self-circumcision do not use dry ice to numb the area... and when the dry ice sticks to the... a.... area, do not attempt to remove the ice with boiling water.
  
  

Those are just from the first page of the thread - and it's currently 51 pages long! Go read the whole thing, and have a good laugh.



Peter

The Gun Fairy smiled on me today!

Oh, boy, Tamara's going to be so jealous when she hears about this . . . she collects, shoots and writes about old Smith & Wesson revolvers, you see.

I dropped into my local gunshop today for a friendly cup of coffee (and promptly got invited to lunch - jambalaya, salad and garlic bread. Ooohhh, the food in Louisiana . . . it definitely helps to compensate for the heat and humidity!) Anyway, he had a .44 Special revolver, model undetermined, and asked if I wanted to see it. When he brought it out, I did a double-take, and with bated breath, asked the price. He named a figure, and my hand probably broke the sound barrier on its way to my pocket to get out my wallet!

What I came home with was a pre-World-War-II (1939 production) Smith & Wesson Hand Ejector, also known as the 'Triple Lock'. This one's an example of the Third Model. Tamara's given a good description of the Hand Ejectors on her weapons blog, so if you don't know much about them, you can read her article for more information. Suffice it to say that a Hand Ejector, any model, in really nice condition, is one of the Holy Grails sought for by US arms collectors - and I have one sitting on my desk as I write this. (Click the pictures below for a larger view.)




The grips aren't original - these ones look like target grips from the 1960's or 1970's. Apart from that, however, the gun's in superb condition. It appears to have been re-blued at some point, but the work was very well done, with the rollmarked letters still crisp and readable. In a way, I'm sorry it was re-blued, as that instantly chops 50%-60% off the value of the gun: but since I got it for a remarkably low price anyway, I can't complain! I'm already getting e-mails from friends, offering three times what I paid for it.




It also has the relatively scarce 5" barrel (most were 4" or 6½"), which makes it a bit more sought-after.

I'm going to enjoy shooting this gun - something I can do with a clear conscience. If it were in original condition, its 'collectability' would probably render it too valuable to be shot! I daresay I'll part with it after that, as I have other things I need, and I have friends out there who'll give it a loving home. Still, I'm thoroughly enjoying having a piece of classic Americana and shooting history on my desk. Luck like this doesn't come every day!

It's my birthday soon, so I think I'll regard this as my birthday present to myself.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #246

Today's two Doofi come from Swansea, Wales, UK.

After stealing about $1,154 in liquor, two burglars decided to celebrate and got so drunk they fell asleep instead of escaping, police in Swansea, Wales, said.

Burglars Keith Cullen and Paul Wiggins stacked up the stolen booze outside the store and then went in to have a drink. Police found them asleep in the store the next morning, The Sun newspaper reported.

A Swansea prosecutor said closed circuit television recorded the entire theft of the Kuehne Nagle Drinks Logistics depot.

Police said Cullen turned up for his hearing at Swansea magistrates' court so drunk he was prohibited from entering the building.

There's more at the link.

Note to burglars: it's best to consume the fruits of your theft after you've left the scene!



Peter

So much for modern education!

It's now affecting some businesses in Wisconsin, it seems.

A sign pointing southbound travelers onto Business Highway 51 in Rothschild and Schofield bears an incorrect spelling for every word except “exit.”

David Vieth, director of the bureau of highway operations for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said the mistake was made by Decker Supply Company of Madison, which printed the sign.




“How do I politely say it shows some incompetence on someone’s part?” said Rothschild Village President Neal Torney.

There's more at the link.

You know, it's all very well for Mr. Vieth to complain that the fault lies with the sign-making company . . . but why did his department then proceed to put up the sign? Surely someone must have thought that it would be better to get it right first?

*Sigh*

Peter

Now that's a new low in labor relations!

I'm stunned to read of the results of a talk given by the CEO of a Chinese steel firm to the workers at a plant his company was about to take over.

Chinese officials have scrapped plans to part-privatise a state-owned steel plant after rioting workers killed one its managers.

An emergency notice announcing the end of the deal was made after thousands of steelworkers clashed with police on Friday.

The protest was sparked by plans for Beijing's Jianlong Group to take a majority stake in the Tonghua Iron and Steel Group.

Workers beat Jianlong executive Chen Guojun to death outside the plant in Tonghua city, Jilin province, after he announced that only 5,000 out of 30,000 workers would be retained after the merger.

. . .

The protest forced the steel plant to shut down for 12 hours on Friday, but operations have been back to normal since Saturday, Zhao said.

The China Daily newspaper said crowds dispersed after the announcement about the end of the deal was made.

Jianlong had a stake in Tonghua since 2005 but suffered losses after steel prices dropped and jettisoned the company, the paper said.

It said Jianlong revived the takeover plan after steel prices rebounded, making the business profitable again.

Both Xinhua and China Daily reported that workers also blocked ambulances, police and government workers who had tried to rescue Chen.

There's more at the link.

I've heard of labor unrest, but this lends a whole new meaning to the term 'strike'! Not surprisingly, the take-over plans have been rescinded. No word on any arrests as yet.





Peter

Iowahawk does it again!

The ever-brilliant Iowahawk weighs in on the Gates controversy with a side-splitting commentary, written from the point of view of - as he puts it - a 'Harvard faculty asshole'.

An excerpt to whet your appetite:

Our table exchanged knowing glances, for we knew immediately that Skip was only the latest victim of a system that singles out the Harvard faculty asshole for stigmatization and unequal justice. It is a system that all of us knew too well, and provided an opportunity for an open conversation about our shared experiences as Harvard faculty assholes in America while waiting for Sergio to bring the dessert cart.

One after one came the cascade of stark stories: the rolled eyes of our department secretaries. The Spanish language mockery of our office janitors. The foul gestures of drunken strap-hanging Red Sox lumpenproles aboard the MBTA. The frequent police stops on the highway to Cape Ann and Martha's Vineyard for "Volvoing While Asshole." And then there are the insulting media stereotypes, where we are routinely caricatured as pompous, effete, self-important, irrelevant elitists. All, I might add, by a motley collection of lowbrow inferiors, few of whom have ever published in a peer-reviewed journal. Let alone edit one.

Sometimes it even comes at the hand of self-styled "peers" from D-list state ampersand institutions. One colleague recounted the tale of his restroom confrontation with a Texas A&M professor at a national academic conference last year. After relieving themselves at adjacent urinals, my colleague noticed the oaf leaving hastily for the plenary session and decided to gently point out his hygienic forgetfulness. "A Harvard man washes his hands after urinating," he said. "And an Aggie don't piss all over his hands, asshole," came the reply.

A female colleague from the English department recalled a recent incident along the Charles River jogging path during her regular morning run. A confused passer-by rudely interrupted her progress and requested directions, as if my colleague were some sort of lowly campus guide or untenured adjunct. "Where does this street go to?" she demanded. Naturally, my colleague took the opportunity to correct her, noting that "at Harvard we do not end our sentences in prepositions."

"Okay, Where does this street go to, asshole?" barked the interloper. Needless to say, my colleague's daily morning runs have since been replaced with tear-filled visits to the Faculty Asshole Self Esteem Counseling Center.

There's much more at the link. Wonderful, laugh-out-loud reading. Highly recommended.

Peter

Afghanistan

I've been thinking about the situation in Afghanistan for some months, and watching US policy there with growing concern. The current 'mini-surge', adding almost 20,000 to the forces already in that country, is not a bad idea: but it's a bandage on a festering wound. Unless the underlying infection is dealt with, the wound can still kill, regardless of the bandage.

The US appears to think that it can achieve, if not a military victory, at least a military dominance in Afghanistan, with or without the co-operation of the Taliban and local tribes. I have news for those who think this way. Britain tried to achieve precisely that for something like one and a half centuries . . . and failed miserably, sacrificing tens of thousands of her troops and administrative personnel in the process. After independence, both the Afghan and Pakistani governments tried to achieve the same result . . . with equally miserable results. To this day, the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan (bordering Afghanistan) is a hotbed of tribalism and fundamentalism. The Taliban are merely the latest in a long line of fundamentalist movements and individuals to arise in the area. They won't be the last.

Kabul cantonment, 1839 (image courtesy of Wikipedia. Click to enlarge.)

For an excellent overview of the history of the area, I highly recommend Charles Miller's book 'Khyber! British India's North West Frontier: The Story of an Imperial Migraine'. It's long out of print, but used copies are freely (and cheaply) available. I submit that any US soldier deploying to the region needs to read this book before leaving, and probably should take it along to refresh their memories at appropriate times. There are many other good (indeed, excellent) books on the subject, but none as easy to read or as comprehensive in a short overview as this one, IMHO. Recommended.

The book includes this quotation from Mountstuart Elphinstone, who visited Afghanistan in 1809:

If a single traveller, endeavours to make his way through (the Khyber Pass) the noise of his horses feet sounds up the long narrow valleys, and soon brings the Khyberees in troops from the hills and ravines. If they expect a caravan, they assemble in hundreds and sit patiently, with their matchlocks in their hands, watching its approach. Such are their habits of rapine that they can never be entirely restrained from plundering passengers. On the whole, they are the greatest robbers amongst the Afghauns.

Afghan tribesmen in the Khyber Pass. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Click to enlarge.)

Judging by the fate of so many convoys of military supplies over the past few years, little has changed in the passes leading into Afghanistan! Incessant colonial and post-colonial wars, skirmishes, engagements and patrols could not dominate the area. At best they could achieve a temporary, grudging 'solution' by force of arms: but within a few years, the situation would return to normal. It's been that way since time began in that part of the world. It's going to stay that way.




There are some who are shocked by suggestions that the West should be talking to the Taliban, trying to negotiate a solution. I'm afraid there's no real alternative. We're not going to win in Afghanistan, because a clear-cut military victory isn't possible. Sooner or later, negotiations are going to have to happen. Unless we grasp that reality, and learn from history, and do something about it, we're going to go on losing our servicemen and -women to no good purpose. Some of our allies already understand that, British commentators in particular: but then, they've got all that history at their fingertips. They understand the Taliban better than we do.

Rudyard Kipling, the quintessential soldiers' poet, understood this as well. His famous poem Arithmetic On The Frontier says it all.

A great and glorious thing it is
To learn, for seven years or so,
The Lord knows what of that and this,
Ere reckoned fit to face the foe —
The flying bullet down the Pass,
That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass."

Three hundred pounds per annum spent
On making brain and body meeter
For all the murderous intent
Comprised in "villanous saltpetre!"
And after — ask the Yusufzaies
What comes of all our 'ologies.

A scrimmage in a Border Station —
A canter down some dark defile —
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail —
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!

No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formulae the text-books know,
Will turn the bullet from your coat,
Or ward the tulwar's downward blow
Strike hard who cares — shoot straight who can —
The odds are on the cheaper man.

One sword-knot stolen from the camp
Will pay for all the school expenses
Of any Kurrum Valley scamp
Who knows no word of moods and tenses,
But, being blessed with perfect sight,
Picks off our messmates left and right.

With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem,
The troop-ships bring us one by one,
At vast expense of time and steam,
To slay Afridis where they run.
The "captives of our bow and spear"
Are cheap — alas! as we are dear.

US troops are now echoing those words, reckoning in dollars and cents rather than pounds, shillings and pence. The arithmetic hasn't changed - nor have the results.

It's time for a new approach.

Peter

How not to launch a yacht

I gather the yacht was being unloaded from a cargo vessel. Wonder what the insurers thought when they saw this?

Oooops . . .

Peter

Monster Hunter International

I've blogged before about the novel Monster Hunter International, written by my online buddy, Larry Correia. I had the pleasure, this afternoon, of walking into our local Books-a-Million store and finding it on the shelves, published now by Baen Books (Larry initially self-published it). Of course, I bought a copy, and took it home to re-read.




It's as enjoyable on this, my sixth or seventh reading, as it was the first time (I was one of those who helped Larry with his proof-reading during the writing process). It really is an extraordinary first novel. I find it difficult to compare Larry's style to other novelists. He's a bit like Jim Butcher in some ways; akin to David Drake (particularly in his action sequences) in others; and not unlike John Ringo in parts - but he's not like any of them overall. His style is his own, quirky, interesting, humorous, and very readable.

It helps, of course, that Larry knows firearms inside-out and back-to-front. Weapons enthusiasts will find a wealth of detail in his work, all accurately portrayed and true to life. No vaporware here, no descriptions of 'revolvers with safety-catches' or 'automatic revolvers'. The technical detail is excellent.

If you haven't read Monster Hunter International yet, you're in for a treat. It's available at a bargain price from Baen. You'll find it at Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Amazon and other online and bricks-and-mortar retailers. Go read. You'll enjoy it. I promise.

(Larry's blog includes a sample chapter from MHI.)

I'm very pleased that comments from Lawdog's and my reviews of MHI were selected by Baen Books to put on the front and back covers respectively. Also, one of the minor characters is modeled on me. Those who know me, and have read the book, will recognize who I'm talking about. I'll have to bribe Larry to build up his role in the sequel - and certainly to avoid killing him off!



Peter

End-of-life care - the English dilemma

Earlier today I posted some remarks about the proposed US State medical health system with regard to the elderly. Today, an article in the Daily Mail points out that in England, precisely the same implications have already come to pass, with pressure to allow assisted suicide mounting and care options declining. A few extracts:

... the law is there to protect the vulnerable. And the awful possibility now looming is that we may make those who desperately need such protection more likely instead to be exploited or manipulated.

They may come under pressure to end their lives by relatives who are either unscrupulous or simply unable themselves to cope with the pain and distress of seeing their loved ones suffer.

In such a situation, very sick people may well want to end their lives; but crucially, with better care and support they may discover a purpose in continuing to live.

That is what happened to motor neurone disease sufferer Sarah Ezekiel, the central figure in a charity appeal that is controversially deemed too harrowing to be transmitted on TV.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of showing the advertisement, the point is that Ms Ezekiel changed her mind about wanting to die.

Even though her disease is so far advanced that she has no capacity for movement and can now communicate only through a computer, she has movingly observed that whereas once she wanted to be 'put down' like an animal, better care helped her out of this depression and to realise that she could have a productive life that would give her enjoyment and satisfaction.

This is not to minimise the impact of this awful disease. But people's feelings about their predicament do change.

. . .

It is the assumption that such people cannot be helped that is so shocking about the attitude taken by the Royal College of Nursing, where 49 per cent of those who voted were in favour of assisted suicide compared with 40 per cent who were opposed.

This suggests that something has gone very badly awry with the ethical foundations of nursing, with the majority of nurses apparently now putting individual 'rights' above the overriding duty to care for the vulnerable and help them cope with their lives.

That's why Lord Falconer was also terribly wrong. While compassion dictates that any prosecutions should be rare, the law prohibiting assisted suicide is an important signal that it is wrong. It is a line in the sand that prevents us crossing into a culture of death-dealing.

We should also stop talking about 'helping someone to die'. People don't go to Dignitas to die but to be killed. And killing can never be a therapeutic act.

This distinction has been muddled ever since the Tony Bland case in 1993 legitimised the withdrawal of feeding and hydration tubes from patients in a persistent vegetative state.

The slippery language has itself helped erode protection for the very ill. Baroness Campbell, a Commissioner of the Equality And Human Rights Commission, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease that means she is immobile without help.

When she fell victim to a serious chest infection and lost consciousness, her doctors decided it would be kinder not to resuscitate her and 'allow her to die'. It was only because her husband told them very firmly that she didn't want to die that her life was saved.

Speaking powerfully against Lord Falconer's amendment, Lady Campbell warned: 'Those of us who know what it's like to live with a terminal condition are fearful the tide has already turned against us.'

Assisted dying, she said, was 'to abandon hope and ignore the majority of disabled and terminally ill people'.

It would also send us down a slippery slope, which could lead all the way from assisted suicide to euthanasia by lethal injection, from helping the terminally ill to end their lives to killing people suffering from Alzheimer's or depression.

The law is there for a purpose. It marks a boundary against intentional killing that we cannot cross without the most fateful consequences. To do so would brutalise our entire approach to the vulnerable and the physically imperfect, and to life itself.

Arguably we have already crossed that boundary - and, as public pressure mounts, are sleepwalking relentlessly into barbarism.

There's more at the link. It's worth reading, and thinking of the same thing happening over here. Think it won't? Think it can't? Guess again . . .

Peter

New balloon world record

The annual Lorraine Mondial Air Ballons rally in Chambley-Bussieres, France, is described as the largest gathering of hot-air balloons in the world. It attracted no less than 326 balloons in a mass take-off today, to establish a new world record for the most balloons to do so at one time. Thanks to Eugenie L. for e-mailing these pictures to me (click them for a larger view), and also the link to the video.








The video below was taken by one of the participants from the basket of their balloon at the start of the mass lift-off. This is a high-definition video, so it may be a little slower than usual to load, but the picture quality's worth it.

Beautiful! I'd have loved to have been there, to see it in person.

Peter

Now that's an extreme sportsman!

Thanks to Charl M. du T. for e-mailing me a link to an article in the Missoulian newspaper, plus links to photographs and a video clip.

Back in April, US canoeist Tyler Bradt set a new world record by kayaking over the 186-foot Palouse Falls in Washington state.

Palouse Falls, WA (picture courtesy of Wikipedia)

It took him almost four seconds to fall from the lip to the base of the falls, and a further seven or eight seconds to fight his way through the roiling water at the base and emerge into clear water beyond.




Here's a short video clip of his preparations, and making the run. I recommend watching it in full screen mode, to get some feel for the scale of the challenge.

Congratulations to Mr. Bradt - and no, I don't think I'll try that myself! You can hear an extended interview with him here.

Peter