Category Archives: Things I Like

Traveling with DIY Electronics

Some great advice on how to travel with homebrewed gear so you can get to your destination both with your gadgets and without a detour to Gitmo.

The History And Evolution Of The NRA: A Conversation With Robert Spitzer : NPR

Granted, this is NPR watering down the argument, but at least they are discussing the abnormal amount of power the NRA has, and it’s abuse of it.

Meanwhile, in a Mother Jones piece, discussion on how the NRA actively blocks studies on gun violence in this country.

A Model Train Collector’s One-Track Mind – CBS Sunday Morning – CBS News

Gabriel loves trains – heck, so do I – so this story about a man’s really, really cool train collection was fun for us to watch. Enjoy it yourself.

Arduino documentary is live! @Makezine.com blog

Some background info on the Arduino in documentary form. Some preface to the video here.

Weigel : The Joe Wilson “You Lie” AR-15 Lower Receiver

Given their outrage over the past few days, it appears that conservatives NEVER condone violence or would trafiic in, say, making gun components that would encourage the assassination of an American president. Much less a black President.

Oops!

What you see there is a replacement magazine receiver for a M-16/AR-15 produced in South Carolina by a company so energized by nitwit Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican of course, that they went out and made semi-automatic and automatic machine guns parts.

Why? Hell, I dunno. They might be assassination loving traitors. Or just idiots.

And yes, making a gun part that makes mention of an elected representative making false accusations against the President is nothing short of a call to arms.

More at Mother Jones, ThinkProgress, and a South Carolina weekly on this story barely getting noticed elsewhere.

Though kudos to Lawrence O’Donnell for staying on top of it.

How the AK-47 Rewrote the Rules of Modern Warfare

Here’s a cool article on the AK-47. It’s basically an ad for “Gun” by C.J. Chivers, which I’m on the waiting list for at the library. Now, by calling it an ad I am not trying to diminish it. Just consider the article a companion piece.

Here is a related NPR story.

The brave new world of 3D printing | Marketplace From American Public Media

The more I read about this, the more I want to get into it.

Give this story a listen.

I’m totally going to look up getting a printer once I get back on my feet.

Incidentally, I seem to have only posted half a dozen times since the move. I may be having some job search depression kicking in. I’ll try to be more active and social in the near future.