Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Range Report

flame-686.jpgThe remarkable thing about our weekly trip to the range for target practice is that there were no anomalies to report. Well, other than the knot heads who brought some 12 gauge steel shot shells into the range and were putting on a fireworks show downrange until the range master corrected the problem.

As for us, we had a lot of fun. Damsel’s Warthog performed flawlessly after the replacement parts were installed a couple of weeks ago. She sure loves that little gun, recalcitrant or not. I shot ten rounds through it and experienced the kick that it gives with the new springs. She will be keeping an eye on the wear on the internal parts so we can replace the springs and caps before needed.

Damsel also brought her Smith and Wesson 686. In the photo above, you can see the plume from the .38 special reloads we were shooting today.

The little S&W 908s 9mm pistol gave no problems, as usual. My two Glocks were, as always, a pleasure to shoot.

The end of the session is when we break out the long guns – Damsel’s 20 gauge youth model and our 12 gauge security gun – both Remington 870s. Shooting the shotguns made the finalé a grand thing, indeed.

What a great outing!

08 Mar 2009 by Firearms Shooting

Kepler Spacecraft Launch

kepler.jpgLast evening, we tuned into NASA TV to watch the launch of the Kepler Spacecraft. The countdown procedures went as originally anticipated and the launch was successful.

Kepler’s mission is to statically observe a patch of our galaxy consisting of roughly one hundred thousand stars. The instrumentation consists of a photometer which will monitor the emissions of the stars to try and detect extra-solar planets. The spacecraft can detect the slight dimming of a star as a planet passes in front of it.

Of course, the orbits of such planets would have to be at an angle where the transit would align with Kepler’s line of sight. I’m hoping that the NASA scientists factor the probability of alignment into their equation to determine the planetary count.

The image above (click to enlarge) is an artist’s rendering of what our galaxy might look as viewed from outside our Galaxy. Our sun is about 25,000 light years from the center of our galaxy. The cone illustrates the neighborhood of our galaxy that the Kepler Mission will search to find habitable planets. Credit: Jon Lomberg.

07 Mar 2009 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Yellow Gerberas

Our visit to the flower concession at the supermarket yielded a bouquet of these pretty yellow Gerbera daisies. They will occupy the centerpiece on the dining room table this week. Click image for wallpaper-sized photo.

Yellow Gerberas

06 Mar 2009 by Home & Garden

Putting a Trillion Dollars in Perspective

bill.jpg

A unique graphic approach to visualizing a trillion bucks can be seen here.

More amusing visualizations:

A stack of 100 dollar bills totaling a trillion dollars would stand 740 miles high.

A stack of one dollar bills totaling a trillion dollars would stand 74,000 miles high, or 30% of the distance to the Moon.

If you string a trillion $1 bills end-to-end, you would get a belt of bills about 90 million miles long. That would reach past Mars’s orbit in one direction and in the other direction, would almost reach the Sun.

Hat tip to National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg.

UPDATE: Thanks to Robb Allen for the link.

05 Mar 2009 by Money and Business Whacko Politics

Rush Limbaugh’s Talking Points

debate.jpgSo, for the last several weeks, it has been the plan of the Democrats to call out Rush Limbaugh as the ‘de facto’ head of the Republican party. Today, Limbaugh responded by inviting President Obama to come on his program “without staffers, without a teleprompter, without note cards — to debate me on the issues.”

Basically, Rush figures that Obama needs to clear the air with regard to the following talking points:

  • Let’s talk about free markets versus government control.
  • Let’s talk about nationalizing health care and raising taxes on small business.
  • Let’s talk about the New Deal versus Reaganomics.
  • Let’s talk about closing Guantanamo Bay.
  • Let’s talk about sending $900 million to Hamas.
  • Let’s talk about illegal immigration and the lawlessness on the borders.
  • Let’s talk about massive deficits and the destroying of opportunities of future generations.
  • Let’s talk about ACORN, community agitators, and the unions that represent the government employees which pour millions of dollars into your campaign, President Obama.
  • Let’s talk about your elimination of school choice for minority students in the District of Columbia.
  • Let’s talk about your efforts to further reduce domestic drilling and refining of oil.
  • Let’s talk about your stock market.

To which I would add,

Let’s talk about the true meaning of the Second Amendment and the right of the people to own and carry arms.

Of course, Obama and his ilk would never agree to talking about these things, since they are the cowards that Attorney General Eric Holder spoke of last week.

04 Mar 2009 by Second Amendment Whacko Politics

The Unspoken Workhorse

When we go to the range, we take a bunch of guns, and wind up blogging afterward about the Glocks, or the Warthog or the 870 shotguns. We seldom have anything to say about our Smith and Wesson 908 9mm semi auto pistols – mainly because they just keep on shooting and require little attention otherwise. We have had these since the summer of 2006. Damsel got hers first and I got mine (shown) a couple of weeks after that.

Honestly, they just keep on ticking. We have replaced the recoil springs and spring guides in each of them once. They’re probably due again but they seem to be just fine for now.

sw908.jpgSpecifications:

Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 8 Rounds +1
Barrel Length: 3-1/2″
Front Sight: White Dot
Rear Sight: Fixed 2-Dot
Grip: Straight Backstrap
Trigger: .305″ Combat
Hammer: .260″ Bobbed
External Safety: Single Side
Frame: Compact
Finish: Black
Overall length: 6-13/16″
Material: Aluminum Alloy / Carbon Steel
Weight Empty: 24 ounces

Click on the image for a larger view.

03 Mar 2009 by Firearms Shooting

The Las Vegas Boom

Landsat 5, one of several Landsat Earth-observing spacecraft has been operational for 25 years and counting. Originally intended for a three-year mission, this bird is still ticking. One of the more startling observations made by the Landsat program is a 25 year visual history of Las Vegas urban expansion.

vegas-boom.jpg

Images courtesy and © NASA/USGS. Click image for larger view.

A Desert City Blooms

In the 25 years that Landsat 5 has been in orbit, the desert city of Las Vegas has gone through a massive growth spurt. The outward expansion of the city is shown here with a series of false-color images. The dark purple grid of city streets and the green of irrigated vegetation grow out in every direction into the surrounding desert. These images were created using reflected light from the shortwave infrared, near-infrared, and green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (Landsat 5 TM bands 7,4,2).

Credit: NASA/USGS

McCarran FieldNotice the runways at Las Vegas McCarran Airport (Just below the center of the urban mass), barely visible in 1984, now clearly visible in 2009, as it has been surrounded by industrial growth.

02 Mar 2009 by Culture Rocket Science Technobabble

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