A friend of a friend told me that most helium is separated from petroleum products. It can be isolated from the atmosphere too, but the petroleum process is more plentiful and cost effective.
At the time it seemed to me that helium would promptly race to the surface and dissipate, probably even find a way to escape the Earth's atmosphere, in just a few million years after the Earth condensed. How would any of it still be hanging around, even deep in pockets of the Earth's crust?
A bit of nuclear physics we are learning this week. The mineral-helium question bubbled back up to the surface, pun intended.
As radionuclides decay, one of the decay products is the alpha particle. When it gets the chance, it rips two electrons from any other atoms nearby---it needs to slow down first, of course, because it is ejected from the decaying atom's nucleus--and in so doing it becomes the noble gas helium.
So geologist types: is most or all of the helium available now created from alpha particles emitted by other decayed mineral nuclides, and how much new helium is being created there? Or is it mostly residual helium created in the last nova that gave us the heavier elements, which we are drawing from a finite supply?
20051019
20051018
Wondering
Let's say I have a diesel-powered vehicle, and I work an agreement out with local fast-food places to take all of their waste vegetable oil and convert it to diesel fuel for my vehicle.
If I get a load of peanut oil from a Chinese restaurant, will the exhaust from burning that fuel put my peanut-allergic neighbor into shock?
If I get a load of peanut oil from a Chinese restaurant, will the exhaust from burning that fuel put my peanut-allergic neighbor into shock?
20051016
The Cabinet Man Goes to Gunsite...
...again.
Anyone that knows me well knows that I'm a Big Fan of Gunsite. Gunsite provides -- arguably -- the finest firearms training available to civilians in the USA and, quite possibly, the world. (For you non-silly-villians, don't worry. They train police and military folks as well.) I first went to Gunsite in 2003 for their Pistol 250 course. From day one, I was hooked. My instructor was none other than Louis Awerbuck of Yavapai Firearms Academy and SWAT Magazine fame. The Pistol 250 course was grueling and demanding. Balancing speed and accuracy was a constant and seemingly contradictory requirement. By the end of the 5th day, I was exhausted, humbled, and covered in BandAids. And I was delighted!! I was a better pistol shot. I mean a lot better. I cannot think of any other five consecutive days of my existance in which I learned and improved as much as I did then.
(Note to posers and wannabe's: Gunsite is neither cheap nor easy. If you just want to pad your resume or collect training certs, go elsewhere. Gunsite will eat alive those who aren't serious about learning...)
So, it had been a couple of years and I'd been working up a good Gunsite jones. So last spring, I enrolled in Carbine 223, Gunsite's introductory course to the AR-15. It does for the carbine what Pistol 250 does for, well, the pistol. They recommend Pistol 250 as a prerequisite and that's indeed a good idea. There are some basic assumptions made about the students' backgrounds and those without Pistol 250 will have some catching-up to do. Now, being the "I'll do it my way" kinda' guy that I am, I decided to take Carbine 223 with -- are you sitting down?? -- an AK-47. The course description mentioned 7.62x39 so what's an AK freak supposed to do?? Well, while I don't regret taking the AK, the course is indeed geared towards the AR-15. (Of the 20 students in my class, 18 ARs were being used, my AK and a Springfield Armory M1A SOCOM being the only exceptions.) The instructors weren't entirely familiar with AK but I give them credit for doing their best to incorporate it into the lessons.
Unlike Pistol 250, the Carbine 223 class started kinda' slow. The first day and a half were spent on the mandatory safety lectures, basic carbine operation, and 50/100/200/300 yard sight-in. Had someone had asked me what I thought of the course at lunch on the second day (Tuesday), they might have gotten rolled eyes. But the slow pace didn't last long. We moved to the square range and started the school drills: 1.5 second offhand head shot from 25 yards, 2-second offhand center-of-mass "double taps" from 50 yards, non-standard response drills (failure to stop, "2 to the body, 1 to the head", and carbine-to-pistol transitions), and 100-yard standing-to-kneel/squat/sit timed shots. Countless repeats of two shots from 200 yards in 15 seconds standing-to-prone were practiced. We shot moving targets. We shot obstacle courses that required different shooting positions to engage targets at varying -- and unknown -- ranges, including a shot from inside a dog house!! We shot on steel. We shot at night. We shot a walking course with metal targets out to 200 yards. We performed house clearing. I was starting to get tired. And loving it!!
On the last day (Friday), "final exams" were given: a full run of the school drills. I did OK but I thought I shot better on Thursday. (The exact same thing happened to me during Pistol 250...) However, I seemed to catch my second wind during the shoot-off. The course of fire for the shoot-off was pretty simple. There were two steel poppers to engage for each round: one at 100 yards, one at 200 yards. The 100-yard popper was shot first followed by the 200-yard popper. The 100-yard popper could be shot from any position but prone. The 200-yard popper could be shot from any position. The catch is that a position change must be made between targets -- even if you'd like to shoot both off-hand. Each shoot-off round started from standing, low-ready. (For each round, I shot the 100-yard target from the "Viet Cong squat" position and the 200-yard target from prone.) Two shooters shot at the same time on their own pair of targets. The first shooter to hit both of their poppers won the round. Each person in the class shot 6 rounds. I did really well, connecting 12 times for 12 shots. (That is, if I remember it correctly -- it goes very quickly!!) Unfortunately, I only won 4 of the 6 rounds. A Marine staff sergeant and an Oklahoma police officer each won 5 rounds and shot against each other in the final. The Marine prevailed. Semper Fi!!
I was awarded a Marksman grade, from the possible grades of Completion, Marksman, Marksman I, and Expert (in increasing order of Total Badassness). I kinda' feel like I shot better than Marksman but with all of the excellent performances from the police and military students (which comprised nearly half the class), it's quite possible that I did not shoot in the top 50%. I'll admit that when I had to choose between speed and marksmanship, I chose to make a good, solid hit. I wasn't the fastest guy out there and that probably didn't help my grade. (For the record, I wasn't the slowest shooter either...)
I won't say that I learned as much as I did in Pistol 250 but I still learned a lot. Mostly breath control and trigger control. Gunsite teaches the "empty lungs" method of breath control in their rifle classes which, as much as I tried, I never became comfortable with. I hated the asphyxiated sensation I got from it and it forced me to unnecessarily rush my shooting. Since it didn't seem to improve anything for me, I reverted to my old (bad?) "half-exhale" routine for the last two days. (Probably the only time that Gunsite advice didn't wear well with me.) I'll give the technique more opportunities when I head to range next time. The course's main instructor, Bobby Schneider, hammered home the "press to hold, release to reset" mantra for trigger control. Skeptical as I was, it worked as well for fast shooting as it did for slow fire. When I found my groups turning to patterns, it was usually because I'd starting
slapping the trigger again. Stick to the basics, practice the basics, and win with the basics.
As I mentioned earlier, the course is definitely geared towards the AR-15. Mechanical drills like tactical reloads and failure clearing are all based on the AR. I had to improvise a few of the steps since the AK uses a paddle-type mag release and doesn't have a bolt lock-back. I don't regret having taken the AK but, in hindsight, I'd probably take one of my ARs if I had to do it over again. That said, aside from awkward manipulation during the machanical drills, the AK performed admirably. Granted, I showed up with an upper-tier AK with a red dot sight and not, say, a cheapo WASR-10 and the dreadful stock AK sights. (Let's not forget that I was using the wonderful Cheetah ammunition as well, about which I can't stop raving...) My AK was consistently hitting center-of-mass at 200 yards, occasionally with better groups than the ARs. My 300-yard work was on par with the rest of the class. The only problem I had during the entire week was when my scope mount loosened Thursday afternoon. Other than that, I had zero malfs -- the rifle, mags, scope, and ammo performed flawlessly.
Various notes:
1) For all you gearheads, here's the kit I used:
Rifle: Bulgarian Arsenal SLR-101
Scope: Aimpoint CompML2
Mount: K-Var KV-04
Mags: a mix of Bulgarian waffle polymer and Romanian steel
Flashlight: Surefire G2 Nitrolon
Flashlight mount: Tac-Star Universal Barrel Mount
Cheek rest: D&E Scope-Eze (Brownell's P/N 946-102-003)
Pistol: Glock 22 in .40 S&W
Vest rig: all Blackhawk
Vest: Strike Omega MOLLE (37CL36)
Rifle mag pouch: Strike M4 Double (37CL03)
Pistol mag pouch: Strike Double (37CL09)
Holster: Omega VI (40QD02)
I "designed" the vest rig myself. I love Blackhawk gear but their off-the-shelf vests are very, shall we say, busy. I didn't want all those gee-gaws. Truth be told, I was ready to go with one of those OTS vests, but changed my mind at the last minute. Prior to my departure, I had been practicing with the vest I'd planned to use and found myself getting tangled-up in everything. This was further compounded by lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger-style upper-body strength: I just could not do a weak-side mag change. The SLR is not a light rifle and trying to keep it shouldered with my right hand during a mag change proved challenging and painful. I devised a rather quick strong-side mag change routine, much to the chagrin of the Gunsite instructors. I cobbled-together the vest that I took to Gunsite around that routine. The rifle mag pouch ended up on my right side and the pistol mag pouches on my left, about where they'd been for Pistol 250.
Tac gear specific to the AK is rare. (Untapped market, folks. Anyone paying attention??...) My sling was a Rube Goldberg concoction that consisted of a standard 48" AK sling (too short) lengthened by a steel motorcycle helmet lock cable and attached to the rifle by a minature carabiner. It looked disgustingly Amateur Hour but worked pretty damned well, noise discipline notwithstanding. I kept the AK mags (loaded one per pouch, as opposed to two for the AR) "bullets up" and pointed towards center. This made for the fastest speed loads but still required a good tug to get the bottom plates past the pouch's elastic retainer strap.
There's always a big debate concerning gloves. Fortunately, I practiced a few drills before I left with and without gloves. I could run the AK just fine with my (very thin) Uncle Mike's gloves. However, I couldn't get a good grip on my Glock with them. Hmmmmmm.... What to do, what to do?? Well, I wore one glove. On my left hand. And only so I wouldn't get burned by the AK's various exposed hot spots. Besides, wearing a glove on my right hand would have covered up all the BandAids, the official Gunsite badge of honor.
The equipment list for Carbine 223 lists elbow and knee pads. Rather than the "tactically-proper" Blackhawk stuff, I just brought some cheapo Rollerblade knee pads which worked just fine. I neglected to bring my elbow pads and, given the amount of dropping-to-prone that we did, I wish I had. The reason I didn't is that I've shot with the plastic-faced elbow pads before and the plastic slides around on more surfaces than you might think. And sliding around kinda' defeats the purpose of being prone. A smarter solution would be to bring some of the cloth elbow pads. Something like what a volleyball player might wear seems to be the best solution.
Other stuff I couldn't have done without:
MagLULA: great little toy, saved lots of pinched thumbs and split fingernails
Maxpedition RollyPoly "dump pouch": didn't have it the first day, bought it in the Gunsite pro shop. Good purchase.
CamelBak: 'nuff said. OK, that wasn't enough. My 10-year-old bladder froze overnight and I (like an idiot) tore the opening trying to brute force it. After saturating my backside in 40-degree weather, I bought a new bladder in the pro shop.
(BTW, I spent less than $70 in the pro shop, quite possibly a Gunsite record!! The pro shop is a dangerous place if you have a credit card. They stock only the best kit. Their prices are fair but good stuff ain't cheap!!)
I didn't spend money on a range bag. Instead, I used a rubber-bottomed, heavy-duty tool bag I picked up a few years back at Home Depot. I paid maybe $30 for it and it was perfect!! I saw no range bags that looked sufficiently durable for under $75. Mine held 400 rounds of 7.62x39, 100 rounds .40 S&W, ten 30-round AK mags and four Glock mags. There was even a little room left over.
But the best thing I brought to Gunsite was my ATV. Gunsite is a big place and we did a lot of jumping between ranges. I stayed at Gunsite's campground and having the ATV allowed me to keep the truck parked and still be mobile. I loaded-up the ATV Sunday night and pretty much left it loaded all week. I had room for my aforementioned "range bag" full of mags and ammo, my gear bag, my lunch cooler, two rifles, and all the BandAids I needed for the week. I highly recommend an ATV for people who have one and plan to drive to Paulden.
The basic rule for gear still stands: train like you fight. If you're a cop or a soldier, bring and wear as much of the gear you're issued as you can. The Marine that won the shoot-off wore his exact kit as if he were in the field. He was even given permission to bring his service weapon. Three-round burst is pretty cool!! That said, he did not wear his k-pot nor his body armor. We silly-villians are forced to guess what we might need. Do I need just enough to chase away an intruder or do I plan to hold off wave after wave of blood-thirsty zombies?? (Personally, I planned around the hope that any surviving zombies will retreat after I decimate the first wave...) Choose your gear accordingly.
2) Stay in the Gunsite campground.
The reasons go on and on. First, it's cheap and convenient. It's located on the "compound" and is only a few hundred yards from the classrooms. They have running water, bathrooms, showers, grills, fire pits, a microwave oven, a washer/dryer, an ice machine, and a pavillion with picnic tables. The campground fosters a "family" environment, with people from different classes getting together to discuss courses, instructors, and just about anything firearms related. While I was there, I met an alpaca rancher from Alaska, a Greek security guard, a truck-driving couple from Florida, and a Marine officer stationed in Hawaii. From these folks, I learned about karambit knives, weapon retention/take-away drills, how to completely disassemble a Glock, how an Aimpoint still works just fine with its front lense cap closed (if you shoot with both eyes open, that is), how to party with hookers in the Far East, and the broad scope of human generosity and shared meals. You just can't get that kind of interaction by sequestering yourself in a motel 45 minutes away.
3) Bring an AR
Yeah, I know. I was warned. But, hey, I needed to find out for myself. I plan to take the Carbine 556 course -- the advanced course -- next year and I'll take one of my ARs. (It's not like I'm totally pig-headed and, well, because I'll hafta'...) In the interim, I'll practice the AR-specific mechanical drills that I didn't get to do with the Kommie Karbine. There were a wide variety of ARs at the course and they all seemed to run pretty well. Most shooters had 30-round mags but those with 20-rounders didn't seem to be handicapped in any way. A few hardcores stuck with iron sights and the rest had either Aimpoints or EOTechs. I know of no optics failures. What I really, really, really want for my AR is a Trijicon TriPower. Trijicon teased the market with these things last year but they were ultimately vaporware. I guess a few were sold but Trijicon went back to the drawing board with them. They claim they'll be available in 2006 in their redesigned form. They got my hopes up once -- they better get their act together next time. There won't be a third foolin' of old TCM...
4) Be prepared
Start by getting into shape. This is a good rule in general but it applies double to Gunsite. I started lifting weights in the spring but had a big (working overtime related-) lull about a month before the class started. And it showed. The course is physically demanding and I know if I hadn't been even marginally prepared, I would have suffered for it. I did a lot of bicep and shoulder work which paid off nicely. However, one thing I didn't plan for was spending hours at a time with a heavy AK tac-slung across my chest. It took a toll on my lower back and a few (hundred) extra reps on the hyperextension machine might have prevented that. My current aerobic condition sucks (literally) but fortunately there weren't many opportunities to get short of breath. Learn how to apply BandAids with one hand.
One thing I was tempted to do that I don't recommend is getting the video of your course before you take your on-site course. "Why not, TCM??", you ask. Well, you'll watch the video and go thru the drills. And there's a good chance you'll think you're doing something right when you're really not. Then when you plant two feet on the range you need to un-learn your bad habits, which is significantly harder than learning them correctly to begin with. The videos are great but relegate them to "refresher" status.
Well, that's enough writing. I'm tired of typing and you're probably sick of reading. I'll depart with one comment. Get training. Most, if not all, of the readers here own guns, just as I do. When I took Pistol 250, I was shocked at how much I didn't know before I took the course. A person could have thousands of dollars worth of weapons but without training, they're worthless. Better to have $3000 worth of training and a $100 gun than a $3000 gun and $100 worth of training. Get quality training. The expensive guns can come later. Give Gunsite a try. It's neither cheap nor easy but it's worth it. Get some!!
TCM
Anyone that knows me well knows that I'm a Big Fan of Gunsite. Gunsite provides -- arguably -- the finest firearms training available to civilians in the USA and, quite possibly, the world. (For you non-silly-villians, don't worry. They train police and military folks as well.) I first went to Gunsite in 2003 for their Pistol 250 course. From day one, I was hooked. My instructor was none other than Louis Awerbuck of Yavapai Firearms Academy and SWAT Magazine fame. The Pistol 250 course was grueling and demanding. Balancing speed and accuracy was a constant and seemingly contradictory requirement. By the end of the 5th day, I was exhausted, humbled, and covered in BandAids. And I was delighted!! I was a better pistol shot. I mean a lot better. I cannot think of any other five consecutive days of my existance in which I learned and improved as much as I did then.
(Note to posers and wannabe's: Gunsite is neither cheap nor easy. If you just want to pad your resume or collect training certs, go elsewhere. Gunsite will eat alive those who aren't serious about learning...)
So, it had been a couple of years and I'd been working up a good Gunsite jones. So last spring, I enrolled in Carbine 223, Gunsite's introductory course to the AR-15. It does for the carbine what Pistol 250 does for, well, the pistol. They recommend Pistol 250 as a prerequisite and that's indeed a good idea. There are some basic assumptions made about the students' backgrounds and those without Pistol 250 will have some catching-up to do. Now, being the "I'll do it my way" kinda' guy that I am, I decided to take Carbine 223 with -- are you sitting down?? -- an AK-47. The course description mentioned 7.62x39 so what's an AK freak supposed to do?? Well, while I don't regret taking the AK, the course is indeed geared towards the AR-15. (Of the 20 students in my class, 18 ARs were being used, my AK and a Springfield Armory M1A SOCOM being the only exceptions.) The instructors weren't entirely familiar with AK but I give them credit for doing their best to incorporate it into the lessons.
Unlike Pistol 250, the Carbine 223 class started kinda' slow. The first day and a half were spent on the mandatory safety lectures, basic carbine operation, and 50/100/200/300 yard sight-in. Had someone had asked me what I thought of the course at lunch on the second day (Tuesday), they might have gotten rolled eyes. But the slow pace didn't last long. We moved to the square range and started the school drills: 1.5 second offhand head shot from 25 yards, 2-second offhand center-of-mass "double taps" from 50 yards, non-standard response drills (failure to stop, "2 to the body, 1 to the head", and carbine-to-pistol transitions), and 100-yard standing-to-kneel/squat/sit timed shots. Countless repeats of two shots from 200 yards in 15 seconds standing-to-prone were practiced. We shot moving targets. We shot obstacle courses that required different shooting positions to engage targets at varying -- and unknown -- ranges, including a shot from inside a dog house!! We shot on steel. We shot at night. We shot a walking course with metal targets out to 200 yards. We performed house clearing. I was starting to get tired. And loving it!!
On the last day (Friday), "final exams" were given: a full run of the school drills. I did OK but I thought I shot better on Thursday. (The exact same thing happened to me during Pistol 250...) However, I seemed to catch my second wind during the shoot-off. The course of fire for the shoot-off was pretty simple. There were two steel poppers to engage for each round: one at 100 yards, one at 200 yards. The 100-yard popper was shot first followed by the 200-yard popper. The 100-yard popper could be shot from any position but prone. The 200-yard popper could be shot from any position. The catch is that a position change must be made between targets -- even if you'd like to shoot both off-hand. Each shoot-off round started from standing, low-ready. (For each round, I shot the 100-yard target from the "Viet Cong squat" position and the 200-yard target from prone.) Two shooters shot at the same time on their own pair of targets. The first shooter to hit both of their poppers won the round. Each person in the class shot 6 rounds. I did really well, connecting 12 times for 12 shots. (That is, if I remember it correctly -- it goes very quickly!!) Unfortunately, I only won 4 of the 6 rounds. A Marine staff sergeant and an Oklahoma police officer each won 5 rounds and shot against each other in the final. The Marine prevailed. Semper Fi!!
I was awarded a Marksman grade, from the possible grades of Completion, Marksman, Marksman I, and Expert (in increasing order of Total Badassness). I kinda' feel like I shot better than Marksman but with all of the excellent performances from the police and military students (which comprised nearly half the class), it's quite possible that I did not shoot in the top 50%. I'll admit that when I had to choose between speed and marksmanship, I chose to make a good, solid hit. I wasn't the fastest guy out there and that probably didn't help my grade. (For the record, I wasn't the slowest shooter either...)
I won't say that I learned as much as I did in Pistol 250 but I still learned a lot. Mostly breath control and trigger control. Gunsite teaches the "empty lungs" method of breath control in their rifle classes which, as much as I tried, I never became comfortable with. I hated the asphyxiated sensation I got from it and it forced me to unnecessarily rush my shooting. Since it didn't seem to improve anything for me, I reverted to my old (bad?) "half-exhale" routine for the last two days. (Probably the only time that Gunsite advice didn't wear well with me.) I'll give the technique more opportunities when I head to range next time. The course's main instructor, Bobby Schneider, hammered home the "press to hold, release to reset" mantra for trigger control. Skeptical as I was, it worked as well for fast shooting as it did for slow fire. When I found my groups turning to patterns, it was usually because I'd starting
slapping the trigger again. Stick to the basics, practice the basics, and win with the basics.
As I mentioned earlier, the course is definitely geared towards the AR-15. Mechanical drills like tactical reloads and failure clearing are all based on the AR. I had to improvise a few of the steps since the AK uses a paddle-type mag release and doesn't have a bolt lock-back. I don't regret having taken the AK but, in hindsight, I'd probably take one of my ARs if I had to do it over again. That said, aside from awkward manipulation during the machanical drills, the AK performed admirably. Granted, I showed up with an upper-tier AK with a red dot sight and not, say, a cheapo WASR-10 and the dreadful stock AK sights. (Let's not forget that I was using the wonderful Cheetah ammunition as well, about which I can't stop raving...) My AK was consistently hitting center-of-mass at 200 yards, occasionally with better groups than the ARs. My 300-yard work was on par with the rest of the class. The only problem I had during the entire week was when my scope mount loosened Thursday afternoon. Other than that, I had zero malfs -- the rifle, mags, scope, and ammo performed flawlessly.
Various notes:
1) For all you gearheads, here's the kit I used:
Rifle: Bulgarian Arsenal SLR-101
Scope: Aimpoint CompML2
Mount: K-Var KV-04
Mags: a mix of Bulgarian waffle polymer and Romanian steel
Flashlight: Surefire G2 Nitrolon
Flashlight mount: Tac-Star Universal Barrel Mount
Cheek rest: D&E Scope-Eze (Brownell's P/N 946-102-003)
Pistol: Glock 22 in .40 S&W
Vest rig: all Blackhawk
Vest: Strike Omega MOLLE (37CL36)
Rifle mag pouch: Strike M4 Double (37CL03)
Pistol mag pouch: Strike Double (37CL09)
Holster: Omega VI (40QD02)
I "designed" the vest rig myself. I love Blackhawk gear but their off-the-shelf vests are very, shall we say, busy. I didn't want all those gee-gaws. Truth be told, I was ready to go with one of those OTS vests, but changed my mind at the last minute. Prior to my departure, I had been practicing with the vest I'd planned to use and found myself getting tangled-up in everything. This was further compounded by lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger-style upper-body strength: I just could not do a weak-side mag change. The SLR is not a light rifle and trying to keep it shouldered with my right hand during a mag change proved challenging and painful. I devised a rather quick strong-side mag change routine, much to the chagrin of the Gunsite instructors. I cobbled-together the vest that I took to Gunsite around that routine. The rifle mag pouch ended up on my right side and the pistol mag pouches on my left, about where they'd been for Pistol 250.
Tac gear specific to the AK is rare. (Untapped market, folks. Anyone paying attention??...) My sling was a Rube Goldberg concoction that consisted of a standard 48" AK sling (too short) lengthened by a steel motorcycle helmet lock cable and attached to the rifle by a minature carabiner. It looked disgustingly Amateur Hour but worked pretty damned well, noise discipline notwithstanding. I kept the AK mags (loaded one per pouch, as opposed to two for the AR) "bullets up" and pointed towards center. This made for the fastest speed loads but still required a good tug to get the bottom plates past the pouch's elastic retainer strap.
There's always a big debate concerning gloves. Fortunately, I practiced a few drills before I left with and without gloves. I could run the AK just fine with my (very thin) Uncle Mike's gloves. However, I couldn't get a good grip on my Glock with them. Hmmmmmm.... What to do, what to do?? Well, I wore one glove. On my left hand. And only so I wouldn't get burned by the AK's various exposed hot spots. Besides, wearing a glove on my right hand would have covered up all the BandAids, the official Gunsite badge of honor.
The equipment list for Carbine 223 lists elbow and knee pads. Rather than the "tactically-proper" Blackhawk stuff, I just brought some cheapo Rollerblade knee pads which worked just fine. I neglected to bring my elbow pads and, given the amount of dropping-to-prone that we did, I wish I had. The reason I didn't is that I've shot with the plastic-faced elbow pads before and the plastic slides around on more surfaces than you might think. And sliding around kinda' defeats the purpose of being prone. A smarter solution would be to bring some of the cloth elbow pads. Something like what a volleyball player might wear seems to be the best solution.
Other stuff I couldn't have done without:
MagLULA: great little toy, saved lots of pinched thumbs and split fingernails
Maxpedition RollyPoly "dump pouch": didn't have it the first day, bought it in the Gunsite pro shop. Good purchase.
CamelBak: 'nuff said. OK, that wasn't enough. My 10-year-old bladder froze overnight and I (like an idiot) tore the opening trying to brute force it. After saturating my backside in 40-degree weather, I bought a new bladder in the pro shop.
(BTW, I spent less than $70 in the pro shop, quite possibly a Gunsite record!! The pro shop is a dangerous place if you have a credit card. They stock only the best kit. Their prices are fair but good stuff ain't cheap!!)
I didn't spend money on a range bag. Instead, I used a rubber-bottomed, heavy-duty tool bag I picked up a few years back at Home Depot. I paid maybe $30 for it and it was perfect!! I saw no range bags that looked sufficiently durable for under $75. Mine held 400 rounds of 7.62x39, 100 rounds .40 S&W, ten 30-round AK mags and four Glock mags. There was even a little room left over.
But the best thing I brought to Gunsite was my ATV. Gunsite is a big place and we did a lot of jumping between ranges. I stayed at Gunsite's campground and having the ATV allowed me to keep the truck parked and still be mobile. I loaded-up the ATV Sunday night and pretty much left it loaded all week. I had room for my aforementioned "range bag" full of mags and ammo, my gear bag, my lunch cooler, two rifles, and all the BandAids I needed for the week. I highly recommend an ATV for people who have one and plan to drive to Paulden.
The basic rule for gear still stands: train like you fight. If you're a cop or a soldier, bring and wear as much of the gear you're issued as you can. The Marine that won the shoot-off wore his exact kit as if he were in the field. He was even given permission to bring his service weapon. Three-round burst is pretty cool!! That said, he did not wear his k-pot nor his body armor. We silly-villians are forced to guess what we might need. Do I need just enough to chase away an intruder or do I plan to hold off wave after wave of blood-thirsty zombies?? (Personally, I planned around the hope that any surviving zombies will retreat after I decimate the first wave...) Choose your gear accordingly.
2) Stay in the Gunsite campground.
The reasons go on and on. First, it's cheap and convenient. It's located on the "compound" and is only a few hundred yards from the classrooms. They have running water, bathrooms, showers, grills, fire pits, a microwave oven, a washer/dryer, an ice machine, and a pavillion with picnic tables. The campground fosters a "family" environment, with people from different classes getting together to discuss courses, instructors, and just about anything firearms related. While I was there, I met an alpaca rancher from Alaska, a Greek security guard, a truck-driving couple from Florida, and a Marine officer stationed in Hawaii. From these folks, I learned about karambit knives, weapon retention/take-away drills, how to completely disassemble a Glock, how an Aimpoint still works just fine with its front lense cap closed (if you shoot with both eyes open, that is), how to party with hookers in the Far East, and the broad scope of human generosity and shared meals. You just can't get that kind of interaction by sequestering yourself in a motel 45 minutes away.
3) Bring an AR
Yeah, I know. I was warned. But, hey, I needed to find out for myself. I plan to take the Carbine 556 course -- the advanced course -- next year and I'll take one of my ARs. (It's not like I'm totally pig-headed and, well, because I'll hafta'...) In the interim, I'll practice the AR-specific mechanical drills that I didn't get to do with the Kommie Karbine. There were a wide variety of ARs at the course and they all seemed to run pretty well. Most shooters had 30-round mags but those with 20-rounders didn't seem to be handicapped in any way. A few hardcores stuck with iron sights and the rest had either Aimpoints or EOTechs. I know of no optics failures. What I really, really, really want for my AR is a Trijicon TriPower. Trijicon teased the market with these things last year but they were ultimately vaporware. I guess a few were sold but Trijicon went back to the drawing board with them. They claim they'll be available in 2006 in their redesigned form. They got my hopes up once -- they better get their act together next time. There won't be a third foolin' of old TCM...
4) Be prepared
Start by getting into shape. This is a good rule in general but it applies double to Gunsite. I started lifting weights in the spring but had a big (working overtime related-) lull about a month before the class started. And it showed. The course is physically demanding and I know if I hadn't been even marginally prepared, I would have suffered for it. I did a lot of bicep and shoulder work which paid off nicely. However, one thing I didn't plan for was spending hours at a time with a heavy AK tac-slung across my chest. It took a toll on my lower back and a few (hundred) extra reps on the hyperextension machine might have prevented that. My current aerobic condition sucks (literally) but fortunately there weren't many opportunities to get short of breath. Learn how to apply BandAids with one hand.
One thing I was tempted to do that I don't recommend is getting the video of your course before you take your on-site course. "Why not, TCM??", you ask. Well, you'll watch the video and go thru the drills. And there's a good chance you'll think you're doing something right when you're really not. Then when you plant two feet on the range you need to un-learn your bad habits, which is significantly harder than learning them correctly to begin with. The videos are great but relegate them to "refresher" status.
Well, that's enough writing. I'm tired of typing and you're probably sick of reading. I'll depart with one comment. Get training. Most, if not all, of the readers here own guns, just as I do. When I took Pistol 250, I was shocked at how much I didn't know before I took the course. A person could have thousands of dollars worth of weapons but without training, they're worthless. Better to have $3000 worth of training and a $100 gun than a $3000 gun and $100 worth of training. Get quality training. The expensive guns can come later. Give Gunsite a try. It's neither cheap nor easy but it's worth it. Get some!!
TCM
20051009
We get some winter
A first taste of winter has brushed our fragile palate in Flyover Country. I took the first warning seriously last night, and today watched the skies and the thermometer as we unpacked boxes and such.
Just before dusk we were rewarded.
Barbaloot's mum was skeptical about our moving here from Colorado. As she read our local paper, she harrumphed: "Eighty percent of your county's roads are unpaved. Maybe that's why you don't have a State income tax in Wyoming."
Well, Grandma, a good number of those roads are called alleys, which by design remain unpaved in Flyover country. The rest are traveled only by pickup trucks, which do not care whether they cross pavement or dirt. And I'm quite happy to pocket the dollar difference.
But this evening as I stepped out to the sidewalk to take the photograph above, I felt the same comfort in a snowy evening that I've felt back East, watching big fat flakes tumble among pine boughs. It's what I imagine it must feel like in Switzerland or some of those World War II movies where the fighting has moved to the mountains in Germany.
I like the image and the feeling, and I share it with my few devoted readers. Though in this case it is no pine bough but a very big silver maple.
OK, now back to unpacking.
Just before dusk we were rewarded.
Barbaloot's mum was skeptical about our moving here from Colorado. As she read our local paper, she harrumphed: "Eighty percent of your county's roads are unpaved. Maybe that's why you don't have a State income tax in Wyoming."
Well, Grandma, a good number of those roads are called alleys, which by design remain unpaved in Flyover country. The rest are traveled only by pickup trucks, which do not care whether they cross pavement or dirt. And I'm quite happy to pocket the dollar difference.
But this evening as I stepped out to the sidewalk to take the photograph above, I felt the same comfort in a snowy evening that I've felt back East, watching big fat flakes tumble among pine boughs. It's what I imagine it must feel like in Switzerland or some of those World War II movies where the fighting has moved to the mountains in Germany.
I like the image and the feeling, and I share it with my few devoted readers. Though in this case it is no pine bough but a very big silver maple.
OK, now back to unpacking.
20050916
BOOOO-ya
I'm beginning to really enjoy Jim Cramer's Mad Money. His politics probably would disgust me but he gets naked capitalism.
Hey, big spender
Has the President considered that his approval ratings may be falling because of, rather than in spite of, his throwing money at Katrina relief?
20050910
Quote for the day
Most of the people in New Orleans were . . . able to help themselves, and help others, and to manage their burdens with dignity and compassion for one another. You don't see them on the news because they got out.
Feces Flinging Monkey. Emphasis in original.
20050909
"Patriot Day" is still taken
Remember Lexington and Concord, dear readers. That's Patriot's Day. And it's in April.
The anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon should bear no name. I don't even like the usage "Nine Eleven." Sirens should blow and all people should stop silently for one minute at the time of each aircraft impact. Nothing more.
The anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon should bear no name. I don't even like the usage "Nine Eleven." Sirens should blow and all people should stop silently for one minute at the time of each aircraft impact. Nothing more.
Katrina
I am in the disaster profession. It has been a growth industry since the Gulf War, but I wasn't fully committed to a career in it until my third layoff in as many years in the telecom industry. A cordial invitation from the President of the United States in October 01 helped things along. I have not received a similar invitation to respond to Katrina, but let's not rule that out.
The Cabinet Man just today forwarded to me a link to a National Geographic article that luridly predicted the effects of a hurricane like Katrina.
Oddly enough, only a few weeks ago I was studying a software toolset designed originally for predicting just such effects. Other government users developed an interest in that tool early on, and adapted it to the modeling of other phenomena that could be considered disasters, hence my involvement with it.
Our last day of class, the instructor showed us the original purpose of that toolset, the modeling of hurricane damage. We navigated to the National Weather Service site, pointed the toolset to a Katrina forecast---at a time when Katrina was still in the Atlantic---and let the toolset generate its prediction. National Geographic all over again.
Displaced persons would number in the six figures, it said, if it never exceeded Category 4, and took a course that made landfall in Mobile Bay, crossed Atlanta into the Carolinas, and recharged itself over the Tidewater. It listed the numbers of refugees, injured, and dead, township by township along the notional path. The pages, rows, and columns of this prediction gruesomely resolved to single digits. It chose the most capacious roads and bridges to evacuate them (or depending on your view of it, which ones to close with force).
Of course there are qualifications. Garbage in, garbage out. We had the best forecasts available but no forecast can equal 20-20 hindsight. There were any number of things that the toolset did not do, and it used some wacky algorithms to do what it did. A computer can only answer exactly the question posed to it, within the limits of the data it is told to assemble for that question. Stupid questions cost the same as shrewd ones.
Still it predicted massive personal and economic disruption from Katrina, from one forecast days in advance for a less powerful storm than Katrina eventually became. As the storm progressed, the model could have been rerun, hourly if desired, the better to position resources, mitigate vulnerabilities, or direct evacuation. No doubt my peers around the US were doing so, some idly to practice with the toolset, others to satisfy the morbid fascination that runs deep in my profession.
Others were running it with a purpose, bags under their eyes, and anxious politicos breathing down their necks.
Which brings me to these very elected officials and their appointees. On the basis of the foregoing alone, one could have only contempt for the local elected officials responsible for New Orleans. A two-hour walkthrough of this disaster model would have shown them the risks and the vulnerabilities. A weekend retreat run by a competent consultant would have given them a roadmap of what plans to assemble and how to start coordinating them.
Hundreds of licenses of this toolset are in operation among DoD, DoE, and DoJ users, and hundreds more in agencies of state governments. The governor of every state, save a handful, has at least one installed license, and trained operators, available to him or her with a phone call. That excepted handful are tooling up.
It is not plausible that the government of a city the size and importance of New Orleans would not have access to a notional hurricane effects model of the kind I was shown how to create in less than an hour.
It is inexcusable---it is politically answerable, if you will---for an elected official, having been shown a model this detailed yet this early and this accessible, to fail to position the resources under his or her control to mitigate the storm's effects. What did Mayor Nagin know, and when did he know it? Did Governor Blanco ever place that phone call?
Among the geek and pundit community there will be list after list of lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, and we will console each other as geeks and pundits do, by comparing them and hoping for the better. I add mine:
Perhaps this storm will remind people of what governments are for, what tasks we should give to a government versus to other institutions. A local government that cannot plan for a disaster, to preserve or recover public order after one, is a negligent government that deserves ouster. Do not allow public expense to build a convention center, nor a stadium, don't even build an airport with public funds, until your government can demonstrate that it can protect you and your property from reasonably anticipated disaster. Otherwise why institute that government in the first place? Who serves whom?
And for Chrissake, don't let that government interfere with your preparations for disaster, if it can't make its own.
Now I'm going back to blogging about praying mantises, the search for Ray Gricar, and the impending collapse of the entertainment industry. I might work in some steroids in professional sports. But I plan no more posts on Katrina.
The Cabinet Man just today forwarded to me a link to a National Geographic article that luridly predicted the effects of a hurricane like Katrina.
Oddly enough, only a few weeks ago I was studying a software toolset designed originally for predicting just such effects. Other government users developed an interest in that tool early on, and adapted it to the modeling of other phenomena that could be considered disasters, hence my involvement with it.
Our last day of class, the instructor showed us the original purpose of that toolset, the modeling of hurricane damage. We navigated to the National Weather Service site, pointed the toolset to a Katrina forecast---at a time when Katrina was still in the Atlantic---and let the toolset generate its prediction. National Geographic all over again.
Displaced persons would number in the six figures, it said, if it never exceeded Category 4, and took a course that made landfall in Mobile Bay, crossed Atlanta into the Carolinas, and recharged itself over the Tidewater. It listed the numbers of refugees, injured, and dead, township by township along the notional path. The pages, rows, and columns of this prediction gruesomely resolved to single digits. It chose the most capacious roads and bridges to evacuate them (or depending on your view of it, which ones to close with force).
Of course there are qualifications. Garbage in, garbage out. We had the best forecasts available but no forecast can equal 20-20 hindsight. There were any number of things that the toolset did not do, and it used some wacky algorithms to do what it did. A computer can only answer exactly the question posed to it, within the limits of the data it is told to assemble for that question. Stupid questions cost the same as shrewd ones.
Still it predicted massive personal and economic disruption from Katrina, from one forecast days in advance for a less powerful storm than Katrina eventually became. As the storm progressed, the model could have been rerun, hourly if desired, the better to position resources, mitigate vulnerabilities, or direct evacuation. No doubt my peers around the US were doing so, some idly to practice with the toolset, others to satisfy the morbid fascination that runs deep in my profession.
Others were running it with a purpose, bags under their eyes, and anxious politicos breathing down their necks.
Which brings me to these very elected officials and their appointees. On the basis of the foregoing alone, one could have only contempt for the local elected officials responsible for New Orleans. A two-hour walkthrough of this disaster model would have shown them the risks and the vulnerabilities. A weekend retreat run by a competent consultant would have given them a roadmap of what plans to assemble and how to start coordinating them.
Hundreds of licenses of this toolset are in operation among DoD, DoE, and DoJ users, and hundreds more in agencies of state governments. The governor of every state, save a handful, has at least one installed license, and trained operators, available to him or her with a phone call. That excepted handful are tooling up.
It is not plausible that the government of a city the size and importance of New Orleans would not have access to a notional hurricane effects model of the kind I was shown how to create in less than an hour.
It is inexcusable---it is politically answerable, if you will---for an elected official, having been shown a model this detailed yet this early and this accessible, to fail to position the resources under his or her control to mitigate the storm's effects. What did Mayor Nagin know, and when did he know it? Did Governor Blanco ever place that phone call?
Among the geek and pundit community there will be list after list of lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, and we will console each other as geeks and pundits do, by comparing them and hoping for the better. I add mine:
Perhaps this storm will remind people of what governments are for, what tasks we should give to a government versus to other institutions. A local government that cannot plan for a disaster, to preserve or recover public order after one, is a negligent government that deserves ouster. Do not allow public expense to build a convention center, nor a stadium, don't even build an airport with public funds, until your government can demonstrate that it can protect you and your property from reasonably anticipated disaster. Otherwise why institute that government in the first place? Who serves whom?
And for Chrissake, don't let that government interfere with your preparations for disaster, if it can't make its own.
Now I'm going back to blogging about praying mantises, the search for Ray Gricar, and the impending collapse of the entertainment industry. I might work in some steroids in professional sports. But I plan no more posts on Katrina.
Not gonna lose my pension over this
Should I be invited to respond to Katrina, I will consider myself duly briefed:
David Kopel at VC.
New Orleans' lawless superintendant of police, P. Edwin Compass, has declared, "No one is allowed to be armed. We're going to take all the guns."
The Compass order appears to be plainly illegal. Under section 1983 of the federal Civil Rights law, any government employee who assists in the illegal confiscation would appear to be personally liable to a civil lawsuit. Moreover, higher-ranking officials--such as the National Guard officers who have ordered their troops to participate in the confiscation--would seem to be proper subjects for impeachment or other removal from office (and attendant forfeiture of pensions), depending on the procedures of their particular state.
All police officers, National Guard troops, and U.S. Marshals take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws. It appears that carrying out an illegal order to confiscate lawfully-owned firearms from homes would be inconsistent with the oath, contrary to sworn duty, and perhaps a criminal act.
David Kopel at VC.
20050908
Insect Fear Films of the Nineteen-Fifties
Boy found this monster in our basement stairwell. He and Firstborn ran to me to tell me about it. I grabbed the camera.
He didn't have a laser on his forehead but he was ill-tempered.
Note to Blogger: I ain't at all happy that the photo uploader feature does not work in any of the 3 web browsers on my OSX 10.2.8 Mac. That would include Safari, Nutscrape 7, and IE 6. One way or another I was thwarted and had to sneaker-net the mantis image from the Mac to the notebook to get it uploaded.
20050907
I want a pair of these . . .
Bionic Boots. Into the Wish List with it.
By the way, these boots were the original inspiration for this weird idea for a combination of powered armor, and the preference for the kangaroo-slash-velociraptor form factor over an upright human one.
20050825
Life is full of difficult choices
Lesseee . . . watch Tucker Carlson debate the wisdom of continued US engagement in Iraq with Bianca Jagger, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force?
Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Too easy.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Too easy.
20050824
Gotta give them more credit
An undetermined cable news channel was playing in the barbershop today. As I sat down for my haircut, the Korean woman asked me how I wanted it cut, then asked whether I preferred a flat income tax or a sales tax to replace it. Of course I proposed the FairTax. "Oh, Neal Boortz is on TV talking about FairTax!" she replied.
Get this, now: this woman, obviously a returning soldier's bride some years ago, is still improving her English and putting it to work. It was hard to carry a conversation with her, considering her accent, and the noise of her clippers right behind my ears. She mentioned how people look for shelters against income taxation, farmers seek subsidies, and so forth.
Still, it was clear she understands how taxation affects motivation to earn, save, and spend, probably better than most members of Congress.
Get this, now: this woman, obviously a returning soldier's bride some years ago, is still improving her English and putting it to work. It was hard to carry a conversation with her, considering her accent, and the noise of her clippers right behind my ears. She mentioned how people look for shelters against income taxation, farmers seek subsidies, and so forth.
Still, it was clear she understands how taxation affects motivation to earn, save, and spend, probably better than most members of Congress.
20050823
Branching out
After realizing I had written some material that doesn't "fit" here or on the other blogs, I asked Bacchus if he'd host it over at his place. He graciously accepted.
More about sex toys. NSFW.
If you go read that, then go read my post where I appear to take sides with Cleanfilms, you'll see what you might think is a major reality disconnect.
It isn't.
More about sex toys. NSFW.
If you go read that, then go read my post where I appear to take sides with Cleanfilms, you'll see what you might think is a major reality disconnect.
It isn't.
20050822
Turntable turning tables
I went on a CD buying spree recently, and found a two-disc set of Fountains of Wayne material. Dutifully shoveling it into my player, I never got around to listening to it systematically---when it shuffles to the top, that's when I hear it, usually during afternoon sessions on the treadmill, when I'm not paying the best attention to it.
The song was halfway through when I realized it was their cover of Britney Spears's Baby One More Time. Likeable, clever.
Got me to thinking: another song I'd like to hear, that flat-out does not exist, is Shania Twain singing Led Zeppelin's Hot Dog. It wouldn't matter much to me whether she changed the lyrics so it would be a woman singing about being left by a man, rather than a woman abandoned by a woman; though the latter would be a hoot.
Maybe there's a term for this technique, of gender-changing the lyrics of a love song so the other sex can sing it without suggesting same-sex love? Who would know that term? David? Chaz?
And that reminds me also of a very sophisticated table-turning, where Bobby Vinton's Roses Are Red becomes Florraine Darlin's Long as the Rose is Red; definitely Chaz's territory, though to date myself, I used to have the 45's of both.
(Christina Aguilera's Will the Real Slim Shady Please Shut Up? does not count: it's satire.)
The song was halfway through when I realized it was their cover of Britney Spears's Baby One More Time. Likeable, clever.
Got me to thinking: another song I'd like to hear, that flat-out does not exist, is Shania Twain singing Led Zeppelin's Hot Dog. It wouldn't matter much to me whether she changed the lyrics so it would be a woman singing about being left by a man, rather than a woman abandoned by a woman; though the latter would be a hoot.
Maybe there's a term for this technique, of gender-changing the lyrics of a love song so the other sex can sing it without suggesting same-sex love? Who would know that term? David? Chaz?
And that reminds me also of a very sophisticated table-turning, where Bobby Vinton's Roses Are Red becomes Florraine Darlin's Long as the Rose is Red; definitely Chaz's territory, though to date myself, I used to have the 45's of both.
(Christina Aguilera's Will the Real Slim Shady Please Shut Up? does not count: it's satire.)
20050821
Another face I hoped to see again
She was great in Adventures of Pete and Pete.
I recognized her instantly in Buffy.
Glad to see that Michelle Trachtenberg has her own movie. I probably won't watch it, even though Kim Cattrall is in it too. But it's worth a mention.
Update: but please, Hollywood, don't make her up to be a perky-titted tart.
I recognized her instantly in Buffy.
Glad to see that Michelle Trachtenberg has her own movie. I probably won't watch it, even though Kim Cattrall is in it too. But it's worth a mention.
Update: but please, Hollywood, don't make her up to be a perky-titted tart.
Road trip
How to kill a Sunday in Albuquerque? I arbitrarily pointed the rental car to Cuba, figuring that would take me up into the hills, then I could cut east to Los Alamos.
That took me through Santa Fe National Forest, and right past this place:
That took me through Santa Fe National Forest, and right past this place:
20050819
Just how serious are they?
IP's post caught my eye, about Amazon's venture into marital appliances. "Heh," I guffawed to myself, "they'll go only so far. The Rubicon---the mark of the aesthete of that industry---is the bright red rubber ball gag. Lacking that, their line is no better than one of those philistine gas stations off I70 in Missouri. I bet I won't find one there."
Damn. Third time I've been wrong this month.
Some things I have to rethink, as evidenced by this intemperate and ill-considered thought of mine. Why would Amazon "rep in" only part of another outfit's online catalog? And if so, on what criterion would they choose which products to admit, which to exclude? Cheaper, faster, broader appeal to just bring the whole catalog in (Frolics in this case), which is Amazon's forté in the first place.
Damn. Third time I've been wrong this month.
Some things I have to rethink, as evidenced by this intemperate and ill-considered thought of mine. Why would Amazon "rep in" only part of another outfit's online catalog? And if so, on what criterion would they choose which products to admit, which to exclude? Cheaper, faster, broader appeal to just bring the whole catalog in (Frolics in this case), which is Amazon's forté in the first place.
20050818
New stuff up at the Senate campaign blog
Boy, I've neglected that one too. Sorry, Big Red, if you're still reading.
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