Innovation

The phrase "jury rig" or jerry built, or jerry rig has several possible origins, the one I'm most familiar with derives from the waning days of WWII when the Germans, or "Jerries" had to improvise a lot of their equipment, and afterword, their whole economy.

Here's a site where improvised solutions, for better or worse, are celebrated. Duct tape, hose clamps, and what-have-you are quite popular.
Of course if this guy could learn to drink more pedestrian scotch, maybe he could afford a proper overflow tank for his radiator. OTOH, you have to keep your priorities straight. To ruin a good quote: Good Scotch will get you through times of leaky radiators better than a leaky radiator will get you through times of no Scotch.

Honduras Coup

Maybe a coup, maybe more like a summary impeachment. The WSJs O'Grady writes:

Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo [Chavez] himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela.

Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro, and Hillary Clinton. Now there is a set of names you would only normally want to see together as the guest of honor list for a mass hanging.

It's good to make clear that when it comes down to a choice between constitutional democracies and tinpot dictators, which side the Obama administration comes down on.

Update: Obama says the coup was illegal. The Honduran Supreme court, however, does not concur:

The Honduran Congress named an interim president, Roberto Micheletti, and the country's Supreme Court said it had ordered the army to remove Zelaya.

Interesting position he's taking on the topic of a president illegally attempting to extend his otherwise constitutionally limited term. Chavez is threatening military action. I wonder how that will play in D.C.?

Fireworks

The traditional forms of celebration of the founding of a country of free men having been largely forbidden by the government, it is left to us to figure out how to accomplish this with the available resources.
This is a model of a Dahlgren-style black powder cannon of the sort one might find in the late 1800s. This particular item has a bore of 3/4" which opens up several possibilities for loadings.
This is fired with a fuse, which allows for retreat to a safe distance when firing. The originals were fired with a quick match, which was similar in function, but faster. That much detail was more than I wanted to get in to.

The wedge under the barrel is the usual procedure for elevating the barrel. Presumably the operators would have worked out the ranges at different elevations, and marked them on the base plate under the wedge.

For general noise making, about 30g of 2 or 3f black powder under a wad made of 3/4" Ethafoam will certainly do the job, and with a minimal recoil. The bore being what it is, shot cups from a 12 ga will fit smoothly down the barrel, and at an extreme, a 1 oz 12 ga shotgun slug could be loaded in to it.

The gun weighs 13 lbs which is heavy for a 12 ga deer gun, but think about the expected recoil. I would not fire this with a heavy projectile without coming up with a way to anchor the gun to whatever platform it was shooting from, preferrably with some elasticity involved to avoid sudden impact. Cannon from this era were normally loaded with powder never greater than 10% of the projectile weight. For something untried, I would start at 5% or less, which works out to about 20 grains. Note also that the cannon wall thickness is approximately equal to the bore of the gun. This is a good starting point.

It's not really done yet. Before shooting any heavy loads, I intend to cut the top of the carriage, and add Iron straps to hold down the barrel, this should result in greater historical accuracy, and a much diminished likelihood of the wood splitting and the barrel flying back into someones vehicle. The wood is Maple. Use only hardwood.

WARNING! CAUTION! DISCLAIMER!

This gun was machined from a solid billet of good grade steel. Putting powder into a piece of pipe, no matter how good it looks, is a bad idea. Before you rush out and build a historically accurate replica of the guns used at Ft. Sumner, only to find you have built a historically accurate pipe bomb, consult with an engineer with some experience at calculating the required size and strength of large hydraulic cylinders.
If you don't know what the math is, or can't do it yourself, I would strongly suggest not doing this at all, or at least farm it out to someone who does, like Dixie Gun Works.

Happy 4th of July.

N. Korean Rocket

The Norks are planning to launch a Taepodong-2 rocket toward Hawaii on the 4th of July, this being the Norks symbolic version of the legendary Hawaiian good luck sign, normally consisting of an upraised middle finger. The normally expected range of the missile is 4000 miles, but recent tests suggest that 200 may be more like it. OTOH, they have recently made good progress with their nukes getting the output from 5 lb to 15 Kt in one step.

In response, President Obama sent out a diplomatic communique stating:

"Dear sawed-off poofter:

It is our firmly held belief that your jumped-up skyrocket couldn't hit the birth records center in Hilo if your winning the next election to dogcatcher over there depended on it. I have prepared 3 tankers of Alaskan crude, and a case of top-drawer Tennesee whiskey that says you can't.
Come on, show us what you got.

Respectfully yours
B.H.Obama
President of the United States"

If the rumors of the US sending an anti-missile cruiser to the Sea of Japan are true, you might want to pick the smaller numbers in the missile-range pool.

SAT Question

Found the link at Insty, passing it along to you here:

Smoot-Hawley is to Waxman-Markey as ...

I need a new label for this sort of thing. I think I'll call it "Black Humor".

Other peoples suggestions are in the comments, and some of them are great.

The Battle of First St. Albans is to the Battle of Bosworth.

Obviously.

And some, like the above, go clean over my head.

Chicago Rules

Back along about the time that Rep Conyers' wife was being investigated for taking bribes, Mr. Conyers announced that the House Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman, would be investigating voter irregularities involving ACORN.

His wife, a Detroit city councilwoman, just pled guilty to the charges. Now Mr. Conyers says he's dropping the ACORN investigation. I'm thinking that the threat of investigating ACORN didn't work to quash the investigation of his wife, but perhaps some kind of plea-bargain may have been reached in which dropping the investigation of ACORN will be traded for a slap on the wrist for his wife, who would otherwise be looking at 5 years in the joint.

The whole country is now Chicago. Get used to it.

Unemployment

There are many ways of calculating the unemployment rate, and different methods are used by different entities, Federal or State. Here is a document that defines the six different unemployment rates the Feds are currently promulgating.

   NOTE:  Marginally attached workers are persons who
currently are neither working nor looking for work but
indicate that they want and are available for a job
and have looked for work sometime in the recent past.
 Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally
attached,have given a job-market related reason for not
looking currently for a job.  Persons employed part time
for economic reasons are those who want and are available
for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-
time schedule.For more information, see "BLS introduces
new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the
October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.  Updated
population controls are introduced annually with the
release of January data.

The U-3 rate is the official unemployment rate, and is based on a phone survey of people all across the country.

  U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus                                                                                  
     all other marginally attached workers, as a                                                                                      
     percent of the civilian labor force plus all                                                                                     
     marginally attached workers.................10.6%

This is probably a more accurate measure of the current unemployment rate.

McCain Bows Out

The L.A.Times is reporting that John McCain is officially not going to run for president in 2012.

So this time, maybe they'll only be one Democrat on the ballot.

Quote of the Week

From Insty:

Of course, if Congress and the Administration knew they had to boost the economy or face hanging in a year they’d be cutting regulations and taxes like mad. That they aren’t doing so suggests that growth isn’t really their top priority.

Whatever logo the Tea Party eventually comes up with, I'm voting for one that includes a crossed pitchfork and torch, to start with. Including a noose might be just a bit over the top, but just a bit.

Maybe a teacup full of hot tar and a bag of feathers.

Insty cites Tigerhawk who has a chart up from a JP Morgan presentation suggesting how much annual real growth in GDP will be required to get the unemployment rate back down to 6% in the immediate future.

The last reported unemployment rate was 9.4%. It takes about 150,000 new jobs a month to make the rate hold even, no up, no decline. The curve looks to be increasing slightly faster than linearly, but we'll stick to linear. I predict 9.8% unemployment by the end of June, said figure will be released around the 7-10th of July.

As a friend of mine is fond of remarking: "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?"

Moi?

From The Argyle Sweater:
Whatever would give you such an Idea?
Now stand right here, and balance my beer on your head while I do this.

Gasoline and Vacuum Cleaners

Some Dude in Sheboygan set fire to his garage, and himself trying to remove gas from his boat with a vacuum cleaner.

A fellow at a company I used to work at did that in Iowa. Following, some other people in Iowa actually held an event commemorating the act. Outdoors, of course, and at the end of a long extension cord.

It seems the torpedo-shaped vacs will belch fire out the exhaust until the innards slag themselves, but the shop-vac types pop their tops with a satisfying boom, and if you put them out, the trick can be repeated several times.

Keep in mind this 4th of July, that the key phrase here is OUTDOORS with a LONG extension cord.

Fusion Power

It seems the boys at Polywell Fusion are moving forward at a nice pace.

Gun Fun

The results for last months postal match are up at Armes et tir Passion. This contest was a tribute to a pistol instructor whose trademark was shooting playing cards. Target #1 was the five of hearts. You get 2 shots at each heart from 10 yards. Here's mine:

You get 10 pts for hitting a heart, and one for hitting inside the card.

Having warmed up, you put on your long range glasses, and go for the ace of clubs:
You get 10 for hitting the trefoil club, five for hitting or getting inside the wreath, and one for hitting the card. This from 25 yards.

Class 1 rimfire iron sights:

James 108 points, winner !
Hearts = 73
Ace = 35
Ruger mark II 4"

Billll 90 points
Hearts 55
Ace 35
Ruger mark I 6" ghost ring

Paula 62 points
Hearts 36
Ace 26
Ruger mark II 6"

True blue Sam 47 points
hearts 26
Ace 21
22 super single six 5"1/2

James and Paula were my shooting buddies that day. James insists I assure everybody that he can't hit the ground but for gravity or exceptional good luck, and Paula is my Padewan student. Coming along nicely, too.

Making It Official

Back in the days of my wasted youth, we used to sometimes refer to marriage as "making official what's been going on for some time anyway". So here we are, courtesy of Drudge, ABC is officially married to the Obama administration, making official what they've been doing for the last year anyway. The link may not work for very long, but I'll try to keep it current.

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

This is the sort of thing usually reserved for declarations of war and the like rather than announcements that an additional 15-20% of the economy is about to be nationalized, in addition to most of the auto industry and banking system.

Come to think of it, maybe this is a declaration of war. Guess who the white house thinks the enemy is?

Common Sense

Here's a video, one of several this fellow makes, under the name of "Tom Paine", writer of the revolutionary papers titled Common Sense. I have to say I agree with a good deal of what he has to say, but some of those ideas simple don't make "common sense".

Direct election of the president would reduce the campaign to the Bos-Wash corridor, Miami, and L.A.. The rest of the country wouldn't count.

2 years of mandatory government service? We all saw how well conscripted armies did in the Viet-Nam war, with the unwilling providing about as much hindrance as help, and I get visions of Acorn being elevated to the status of Quasi-government agency for purposes of doing your service.
"Get out there and get every single voter in that graveyard onto a registration slip, and you're done until the elections come up."



And don't mail your congress people a bag of tea. Brew the tea and drink it yourself. Mail them the tab off the string, otherwise the DHS will be analyzing the bag for chemical warfare agents, and you'll be in jail for terrorism. While you're at it, write down some of your complaints about their voting record, behavior, spending habits, what-have-you, and drop the list in with the tea tab. You're dealing with fairly feeble minds here, and you need to get them specifically focused.

Good luck.