Novogauntlet

ATF seizes airsoft guns

2010-03-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

The ATF now has the audacity to begin confiscating airsoft guns that are shipped to the country.
Because according to their genius Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons. He even has the audacity to say"With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,". This is the most idiotic claim ever. Airsoft guns fire soft plastic pellets via air. They do not use firing pins , so cannot be modified to fire live ammo. Airsoft gun's chambers could not fit a live cartridge because IT IS CHAMBERED TO FIT PLASTIC PELLETS! Instead of wasting our tax dollars confiscating toy guns why doesn't OUR beloved government get its act together and hunt these Jihadist extremists instead of screwing with law abiding citizens. The dastardly ATF confiscated an entire shipment of airsoft of a shop owner on the West coast. Some say that this was done by the government to begin cracking down on our gun culture and kids that start out learning marksmanship skills will eventually graduate to live firearms. Perhaps it bothers the government that people play wargames with them and learn and develop tactics. It is ironic that this is occurring in conjunction with the closure of gun shows around the country. On a lighter side, when this ATF agent went on TV holding the confiscated toy gun, he could not figure out on how to correctly rock the external magazine into the toy gun. I just wonder where this insanity will stop.

http://www.koinlocal6.com/content/news/topstories/story/ATF-seizes-30-toy-guns-infuriating-local-business/vUVs2QUCAUuZWeRrqgIQaA.cspx

The Planetary Skin Institute

2010-02-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today, I learned of a creepy new project that is sponsored by NASA and Cisco, the planetary skin institute. This project is designed to monitor, measure and manage environments that range from rural to urban. In other words this project enables governments the ability to accurately track carbon levels throughout the world via interconnecting sensors that monitor people and machines . This whole project was created on false premise of global warming. This is scary because it gives these carbon fanatics that are proposing carbon taxes the tools they need to implement their agenda. I am ashamed at both NASA and Cisco for giving these lobbyist the capabilities to achieve their fanatical goals.

http://www.planetaryskin.org/home

Paranormal activity movie

2009-10-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening I saw the movie, Paranormal activity with friends. The movie was like a cross breed between Syfi channel's Ghost hunters and the movie the Entity. The movie ,which is based on a true story is about a couple , who were plagued by the presence of a negative entity (a demon), who had been pestering the woman since childhood and had followed her to her and her boyfriends new house. The boyfriend had a firewire enabled camcorder that was constantly running to document the activities of the entity. The movie itself did not use the actual footage, but there was an acknowledgment to the families and to a Californian police department, so the movie was inspired by the footage that was actually caught. The occurrences and actions become more intense as the movie progressed and the boyfriend aquiring a Ouija board provoked the beast.Despite consulting a paranormal specialist, who only specialized in human based entities, who was freaked out by the house recommended a demonologist , who they were never able to get in contact with. The movie remained eerie to the end when the woman became possessed and killed her boyfriend. After the movie I came to a few realizations. There have been actually several cases of similar incidents and some of the better known ones have occurred in California. This made me think of the faces of death documentaries , which among other things showed footage of police raiding makeshift Satanic temples in California and the horrors that were discovered. This begs the question is there a correlation between cultists and paranormal events?

This correlation has been addressed in fantasy games such as Warhammer 40k, which pits the Imperium of man against numerous races of aliens and demons as well as fallen men who have offered their fealty to the dark gods. In one story , the battle of Vogen, cultists plan a revolt against the imperial government and populace on the planet of Vogen and summon demons and the help of Chaos space marines to help in their revolution. At first imperial loyalists are severely outnumbered but imperial reinforcements with inclusion of the imperial guard ( genetically unmodified human soliders who kind of resemble starship troopers) and superhuman genetically altered space marines (the futurustic equivalent of knights) arrive and begin to cleanse the world of the cultist scum , which in turn cause the demonic entities to faze out of this plane of reality back into the warp. In other words, it was argued that their power became weak when none one was devoted to them. While this is just fantasy, it does make a good point, are these negative entities empowered by cultists who devote themselves to the forces of darkness?

This brings up another point, where is fine line of acceptability in the first amendment for religion? I have brought this point up in the past for conversation with friends. Some of my friends who are semi-christian/neo-pagan reason that just as long as the religion does not compromise the safety of the citizens it would be acceptable. One thing is for sure, even free societies needs defined limits , especially when all religions are basically put on the same pedestal of validity in the eyes of the U.S. government.

This movie also made me realize that there are still a ton of things that we have still learn about our planet and the universe for that matter and life and death itself. Denying that unusual events occur around us will not make them stop.

H.B. 45 and SB2099

2009-08-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

I went on my reenactment group's forum today and discovered a disturbing message about proposed bills H.B. 45 and SB-2099. At first I thought it was just more anti-gun legislation that was proposed for the state of Illinois (most of the group members live in Illinois and thus are constantly keeping an eye out for fanatical legislation. Thank God I live in Indiana). However, I noticed this time it referred to the Federal Senate. It appears that this administration's cronies are at it again. H.B. 45 if passed will require citizens, who exercise their second amendment rights to have a license regardless of the type of firearm that is owned. SB02-99 would require citizens to declare their firearms on our tax forms for next year and may require fingerprints and a $50
tax per firearm. History has shown that big governments( USSR , Nazi Germany, etc) that impose strict gun control usually commit horrendous acts soon after, I wonder what this regime is up to?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-45&tab=summary

Happy Midsummer Eve

2009-06-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

Tommorow is a holiday that pre-dates Chrisitanity itself; Midsummer, the celebration of the summer solstice. From Ireland to the Ukraine and Scandanavia to Greece as well as here in the New world people will celebrate this holiday with drinking(of course) and bon fires. In some countries people attempt to jump over these bon fires. Perhaps one day it will gain more popularity locally.

College students and rising levels of Depression

2009-05-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across an article from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_college_poll_depression that depression is setting in on college students throughout the country. The article blamed the bad economy ,grades, school work, money and relationships for this escalation. According to the article at some Universities this has lead to higher suicide rates and other harmful activities.

I have to refute some of these causes because some are given with the territory. College students will always have school work and grades to deal with and a little bit of stress and concern over these will motivate students to do better. I admit it does get somewhat stressful at the end of the semester when all remaining school work and finals come due but its nothing a little time management and a divide and conquer mentality cannot handle. After you kill off the remaining assignments and finals one by one all that is left to do is wait for the results.

Relationships

I agree that trying to create or maintain relationships with significant others can be depressing/demoralizing ,but again this is nothing new and comes with the territory. I have heard numerous students and faculty admit that women on campus can be crappy, its just a fact of life. I remember after one demoralizing failure my junior year, besides gaining the ability to legally consume my favorite beverage which hails from my European heritage and access to 21 + gentlemen's clubs(which both helped considerably minimize the sting of failure) I over the next few months with the aid of movies such as Conan the Barbarian, 300, The enemy below, and the PC game Rome Total war was able to realize full blown defiance was a great way to counteract any crappiness that anyone or situation including the wonderful women on campus could muster at me. If women on campus were going to be crappy then the hell with them I will pursue women off campus.

Money

I have been working since I started college, while the off campus job is not as good as the jobs I have had on campus, it provides a means to save a little and supply oneself with the capital to finance recreational activities and hobbies. Working low wage jobs are better than not working at all. Sucking up any extra hours and possible overtime could get one a fatter paycheck.

The crappy economy

This is the only one that effects us all. Many who have graduated have not landed jobs that pertain to their majors due to our wonderful economy . I bumped into someone from high school who said everyone he knows who graduated is sitting at home doing nothing. I admit this could be somewhat depressing but instead of doing nothing one could turn misfortune into opportunity by going to graduate school, which I did anyways with the helpful advice of a Mentor at the University.

As stated earlier lower paying jobs are better than none and they could provide one with the capital to engage in recreational activities and hobbies. Between going to graduate school, working, and partaking in recreational activities and hobbies(all avenues in themselves to shout one's defiance at the bad economy and any other problems) , one could easily keep their mind off the rigors of the economy and other problems. There is no need to get depressed, just get defiant!

Dinosaurs and Birds

2009-03-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last night on the Science channel there was a segment on Genetics and Dinosaurs. There have been fossils discovered that when broken, contain soft tissue that is well preserved as well as on a cellular level. Researchers are now trying to extract DNA from these soft tissues to map out the Gnome of these extinct organisms.

The next half of the segment went into detail on how similar birds are to Orthopods (predatory dinosaurs such as raptors). What is really surprising is the Genes of that of birds are strikingly similar to that of dinosaurs and it has been discovered that birds genes turn off their dinosaur traits as the embryos develop. One set of researchers discovered that chicken embryos contain 8 to 13 vertebrae in the tail bone but as the embryo develops it shrinks to a few. Knowing this , some researchers have modified the genes of some chicken eggs early in development via adding proteins and certain viruses to prevent the embryos genes from shortening its initially long tail bone. Because of these modifications the embryos grew with a longer tail. Researchers in different areas of the country have done the similar experiments with other features of birds during develop such as finding the genes that remove the teeth that embryos initially have and modifying those genes, genes that give birds feathers instead of scales, and the genes that give birds wings instead of arms. This reverse engineering of bird genes will eventually give rise to protodinosaurs. As Jack Horner pointed out an Emu is already the size of raptor , these genetic modifications could help it turn into one.

I think this is really cool, genetic engineering like this with the continued advancement of genetic technologies could give researchers the ability to produce other extinct animals by reverse engineering the genes of animals that are related to the extinct creatures. Imagine the possibilities.

Ed Deming's The New Economics

2009-03-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

During my spring break, I read Edward Deming's book, The New Economics, which contained numerous innovations for Government , Industry, and Education. Edward Deming was a quality specialist, who is known for his revolutionary quality innovations that were embraced by Japan after WW2. The U.S. disregarded his teachings until the 1980s when industry in the country faced quality issues.

There were several concepts that I found interesting. Deming suggested that all companies/organizations view all of their departments and processes as components of a system
He stressed the importance of component is to help the entire system, so it is acceptable for certain components to be operating at a loss if it helps the overall system accomplish its aim. This was of particular interest because most organizations view their IT departments as cost centers but should view IT as a component that is essential for the organization to meet its aims.

Deming stressed the importance of cooperation vs competition including internally within an organization as well as companies within the same industry. From cooperation comes standardization.

Deming stressed the importance of theory, which is the base for knowledge. Theory allows for revision and prediction and allows one to use knowledge to make sense of information that is received.

Deming, E.(1994). The New Economics For Industry, Government, Education. MIT press.

Cambridge.

Change, but at what cost?

2008-11-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

Today I found one of the Social Justice Club's literature sheets, normally I toss out their sheets because they are usually tainted with communistic ideology. However, what came to interest was that they were criticizing some of the statements that were made by Obama. According to their literature sheet, he has stated that he wants to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan and initiate mandatory national service. While we could use more troops in Afghanistan, starting a draft is not the way to do it, and this also begs the question of who will be drafted, males or both males and females? After Obama won the election, the Russians began deploying short range missiles next to our Czech and Polish NATO allies. I just wonder how he will address this problem, because the Russians are not intimidated by him? Universal healthcare is expensive and taxing citizens that make over 200K a year would not be enough to cover this venture, I just wonder how much more my taxes will go up? I also hope that these changes that he speaks of do not furthur impede on our constitutional rights. What good is change if it strips you of your rights? We will have to wait and see.

Media: Does it shape or reflect reality?

2008-10-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last semester when I was completing my minor in communications, two of my communication classes brought up an interesting topic ; does the media shape or reflect reality. At first, I thought it was a what came first chicken or the egg situation where it was nearly impossible to say it could happen one way or the other. However, as I watch the news coverage of the presidential campaigns, I have have realized that the media has lost its objectivity and instead of reflecting what happens in the campaigns and the debates, they openly try to shape reality to make their favorite candidate seem favorable despite what anyone else or his records have to say. Even worse, some networks such as MSNBC have reached the point where they are dealing in absolutes; if you are not for our candidate then you must be a racist. Choosing candidates by these emotional appeals is no way to choose candidates.

Fiscal responsibility

2008-10-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Since the housing issue has made its way to the debates, I thought that the is topic would be worth discussing. People are demanding that the government bail them out of their housing loans because they cannot make their payments. My question is why? Obviously these people bought houses that they had no business buying in the first place and now they want my tax dollars to cover their greedy ambitions. People need to learn fiscal responsibility and buy housing they could actually afford and take out reasonable loans. I agree that the prices of housing is ridiculous (we have the dual income family to thank for that), but people must realize that most of us are not destined to live in million houses, its just a fact of life. I once heard a story about a couple who made 90k a year between the two of them and they complained they could not buy a million dollar home. Talk about a news flash! What is really bugging me is that certain candidates are promising people to not only reduce the interest rates on their monthly payments, but to somehow lower the principal as well. Yes, lets encourage people to buy housing that is beyond an amount they afford, no wonder we are in this predicament! This is one of the most backwards government proposals I have ever heard. Lets reward the irresponsible and screw over the responsible by making the responsible pay for their mistakes. They made their beds, now they should deal with it. I have no allusions of grandeur , when I am ready to get my own place, I will probably not have the luxury of having a dual income , so I will buy a used home in the 200k price range. It would be good enough as a stater home, would not take as long to pay off, and would be affordable(one must also save for retirement and other miscellaneous expenses).

VP candidate gets Hacked

2008-09-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

Vice President nominee, Sarah Palin's yahoo e-mail was hacked last week . The FBI used forensics techniques to trace the Hacker's IP address to David Kernell's(the Son of the Democrat Tennessee State Representative, Mike Kernell) computer at his apartment, who was using an Internet anonymity service. The FBI searched the log files of the service and found Kernell visiting Yahoo's mail service, resetting Palin's password via a brute force attack ,and announcing results of the break-in on a Web site where the hacking was first revealed.

I found this article most approporiate for the research I am conducting on discovering the identities of attackers who intrude into computer networks. This article does raise a few quetions, such as how does one discover the identity of an attacker, who uses an anonymity service and will this be treated as a digital Watergate?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26838582

The flood

2008-09-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

Throughout the weekend, Northwest Indiana has been bombarded with rainstorm after rainstorm.On Friday night, the section of Calumet Ave. that lies in front of the restaurant that I manage during the third shift became saturated with about 6 to 8 inches of water. When I returned Saturday evening, the water had mostly dissipated, despite the constant rainfall. When I left the restaurant Sunday Morning around 7 , the status of the road was similar to what it was during the evening, however hell broke loose after I had returned home to get some rest. When I woke up, I heard about the Little calumet overflowing and later on found that all Northward local roads from Calumet Ave. to Cline Ave. had been closed.
My family and I went initally to the Kenndey Ave.bridgehead in hopes of finding it still open (we thought their was a possiblity that Purdue Calumet would still be open tomorrow and my father was looking for a way to get to Mittal Steel), since the Kennedy Ave. bridge was constructed to be higher off the Little Calumet than other local bridgeheads. To our surprise, Kennedy Ave. was also blocked off . We decided to see why it was blocked off and parked at a local bowling alley, when we walked to the bridgehead we saw several mounds of dirt placed directly in the middle of the road and alongside a recently constructed cement wall that protects a local subdivision from the Little Calumet. When we reached the bridgehead, I saw why the road was blocked. The water level was nearly equal to that of the bottom of the bridge and even stranger yet, the Little Calumet was flowing in the opposite direction.
After returning home, we walked over towards the Calumet Ave. bridgehead and noticed several ambulances heading toward the bridgehead. As we walked closer to the bridgehead, I noticed National Guard vehicles that were coming and going from the site, there were several towed boats parked on the side of Calumet Ave with State police stationed inside of them, several news trucks ,and I noticed the eerie glistering of the street and parking lots nearby. We continued to walk towards the bridgehead until we could go no further due to the saturation of sidewalk and street by the flood. As I looked into the parking lot of the strip mall where Target lies, one could see the unfortunate cars that were not recovered in time and were nearly engulfed completely by the flood, only their upper section could be seen.After a couple of ambulances and school buses left the Bridgehead area( carrying patients from the Hammond clinic to higher ground and to safety), the flood began to advance again engulfing the area I stood. My family and I fell back to avoid the flood water and continued to watch it advance Southward. After I had reached higher ground, I pondered what fate lies for the restaurant I work at ,which was even closer to the bridgehead than the spot I was at.

Rome vs Carthage: Battle of Cannae

2008-09-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

While channel surfing the other day, I stumbled upon a documentary about Hannibal on History International. It covered the battle of Lake Trasismene, which I have heard of before in part to my Rome Total war game, where Hannibal pushed the Roman army into Lake Trasismene and the only way for the defeated Romans to fall back was to swim the lake. But, it also introduced a battle that I was not familiar with, Cannae, where more than 50,000 sons of Rome lost their lives fighting Carthage and its allies of Gallic and Iberian mercenaries. Hannibal used a crescent shape formation which drew the Roman army in and let the Carthaginians outflank the Roman legions by the sides and rear, which lead to the utter destruction of the Roman legions that fought there . Rome lost more soldiers in one day than America lost in the entire Vietnam war. This defeat also caused Southern Italy to break away its allegiance with Rome and support Hannibal, as well as provoke the Macedonians, who also sided with Hannibal. Despite this tragic loss, Rome later triumphed defeating all those who sides with Hannibal and eventually razed the Carthaginian capitol. " Revenge is a dish best served cold".

The West vs Russia : A new Cold War?

2008-08-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

After invading the sovereignty of Georgia and maintaining a troop presence even after the cease fire , Russia's puppet president, Medvedev had the audacity to announce the break away regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Even though most of the International community including the United States view this move as illegal, Medvedev believes the move was justifiable and does not care if the whole situation escalates into another Cold War.

It seems that Putin and his puppet Medvedev have taken it upon themselves to return Russia back into a Soviet power and is testing the reaction of the West, which has an ever growing amount of Eastern European(former Soviet) countries entering into its organizations such as NATO and the EU. So far minimal action has been taken against Russia and this will only encourage the Russians to become bolder and take an active role in other regions that border it.

It is vital for pro-Western countries that share a border with Russia to build up its defenses and acquire the proper weapons to stop or severely damage the Russian war machine. NATO countries seem unwilling to directly commit war fighters, but could sell newer members surplus weaponry, especially weaponry with tank killing capabilities or train our Eastern European allies on how to fight Ivan . Russia sells weapons to our enemies, why can't we sell weapons to our friends?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=5668342&page=2

http://abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=5656010&page=2