Bring me the Head of Saddam Hussein
"Ben Turnbull is fascinated by the global dominance of American culture, and his works unsettling effects result from re-presenting the toys of our innocent youth in symbolic forms that reveal the shocking truths about war, death and guns in the world?s most powerful country." "Above all they take a satirical look at the lengths that the country?s political elites go to in order to control and manipulate the way we think, from our first days of play to the last time we cast our vote. Turnbull is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: 'Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with'." via Eleven Fine Art I'll never look at Captain America quite the same way again.
REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP FROM DR CLEMENT OKON
Arms dealers affiliated with 22 companies, including one with a former Joint Chief of Staff on its board of directors, have been indicted for soliciting kickbacks on multimillion dollar deals to supply munitions to representatives of a fictitious African government. The 16 indictments unsealed today represent the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Let's go shooting, and then we can go shopping!
Everything is Terrible presents A Woman's Guide To Firearms, a mildly patronizing introduction to gun lust for the fairer sex.
Strict Liability
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty". Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday ? after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year. There's already some predictable outrage. English legal bogger Jack of Kent has a slightly more nuanced view: If the facts are indeed as reported, the CPS should not have prosecuted Mr Clarke. The CPS should only prosecute when it is the public interest to do so. (And one should always be skeptical of newspaper reports of any court case). But on the narrow point as to whether that possessing a shotgun - and taking that shotgun through the streets (even if to a police station) - should be unlawful, then I think it should be.
_____ Blue
Coke is Corn. (Among other things.) (Previously.)
Lab coats and safety goggles at the gun show...
Playing Half-Life with a real gun? The magic of drywall, accelerometers, and geeks. (SLYT.) Courtesy of the good people at Waterloo Labs.
Guns and Poses?? Welcome to the Jungle....
The Second Amendment of the Constitution of United States of America gives us all the right to bear arms. It means that as Americans we can keep fire arms without governmental infringement. A few days ago many Americans chose to exercise this right at political Town Hall meetings on health care reform throughout the United States. Some are defending these actions. Others are not. The NRA is remaining quiet.
Women of the highest caliber
Give women guns! Forget chocolate and flowers. Women want guns. There is a history of women with guns. Women with guns will soon be mainstream.
10 KICK-ASS MOVIE PREACHERS
In the name of the Smith and Wesson and Glock.
Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church
As soon as you start saying that it?s not something that Christians do, well, guns are just the foil. The issue now is the Gospel. So in a sense, it does become a crusade. Now the Gospel is at stake. Of the 40 states with right-to-carry laws, 20 allow guns in churches. The National Rifle Association says its membership is up 30 percent since November. And several states have recently passed laws allowing gun owners to carry firearms in more places ? bars, restaurants, cars and parks. ?We have a very active agenda in all 50 states,? said Chris W. Cox, legislative director of the N.R.A., widely considered the country?s most powerful lobby. ?We have right-to-carry laws in over 40 states; 20 years ago, it was in just six.? Public attitudes also seem to be turning more sympathetic to gun owners.
Wait... No Pirate Vs. Ninja?!
Haven't you always secretly wondered what would happen if a ninja accidentally stumbled into, say, Bill and Ted's time traveling Phone Booth and ended up somewhere around 7th century BC, only to come face-to-face with a feisty Spartan? Have you not pondered what would happen if you locked up an Apache with a Gladiator inside some sort of 21st century battle dome? Are you frustrated because you feel like there's nobody doing proper scientific studies to see what would happen when you pit two historically violent warriors that could have never actually met in real life? Worry no more people - I present to you Spike TV's newest offering - Deadliest Warrior! The show basically goes like this; you take two crazy fighters who, previous to the show, have only been pitted against one another in heated debates between young men in line for the midnight showing of the newest X-Men movie (or really awesome drunk people). The show's 'Host, Simulation Consultant, and Blogger', Max Geiger brings in experts representing each warrior. The experts bring in weapons that are historically accurate which are then tested on a variety of dummies that are stuffed with SCIENCE! The data from said SCIENCE! all goes into a computer simulation based on an unreleased commercial game engine by these guys. Not just the SCIENCE!, which is actually pretty cool (ballistics gel, pig carcasses, high speed photography), but also, as Max aptly put it: "The simulation's inputs include real world scientific data gathered by one of my co-hosts, Geoff Desmoulin, who is getting his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Our number crunching is balanced out by Dr. Armand Dorian, an ER doctor who keeps our work firmly grounded in the actual trauma our tests cause." The reviews are in! Variety seems to feel it might be possibly the stupidest show ever, appealing only to the lowest common denominator! Newsarama was a little nicer, pointing out that there are some people on the show trying to make it as scientific as it can possibly be, while also having a great time. Either way, do you care? Don't you want to watch a Viking fight a Samurai? Or a Pirate against a Knight? You can apparently only watch the latest episode on the website, here. Also, looking forward on the Wikipedia, it does look like the show might slip-slide from whatever tenuous grasp they have on ideas for fights as they start doing shows about William Wallace versus Shaka Zulu or finally, the IRA versus the Taliban. I have only one thought. How could they have NOT had a Pirate versus Ninja episode? FAIL!
Twang!
Like crossbows? Like assault rifles? Got some spare AR-15 parts lying around begging to be crossbowed up? Then the PSE TAC 15 crossbow upper is for you! (video). Or how about this Swiss crossbow that can be cocked in 3 seconds? Alternatively build your own, or even build a repeating crossbow!
No end in sight
It's shocking enough that 90 people have been killed in mass shootings in the US in the past 2 years. But it's even more shocking that 44 of those deaths have occurred within the month since March 10, 2009, when Michael McClendon touched off a firestorm of violence that ended with the deaths of 10 people in rural Alabama. This has been a month of grave infamy in the United States. Since the McClendon incident: Lovell Mixton kills 4 Oakland police officers during a traffic stop on March 21 (this event is not without its controversies). Mixton was killed by a SWAT team. Eight days later in Santa Clara, CA, on March 29, Yahoo! engineer Devan Kalathat opened fire on his two children and three other family members before turning the gun on himself. His wife survived with injuries. The same day, across the country in Carthage, NC, embittered husband Robert Stewart created a bloodbath at his estranged wife's place of business, a nursing home, slaying 8 people before being fatally shot by a police officer. Surely everyone has heard of the April 3 tragedy in Binghamton, NY, in which 13 people were brutally murdered by gunfire after suspect Jiverly Wong blocked the back door of the American Civic Association with a car, then entered the building with guns blazing. The suspect is believed to be among the dead, the victim of an apparent suicide. Just a day later, 23-year old Richard Poplawski ambushed 3 Pittsburgh, PA police officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call to his home, killing them all. Two other officers were wounded during the firefight, in which over 100 rounds were exchanged. The suspect, who was worried about an impending "Obama gun ban", was captured by SWAT teams and remains in custody, the only shooter on the timeline to have survived the horrific tragedies they created. --- As a vicious wave of horrific gun violence sweeps the nation, a shocked populace wonders if this explosion of violence is the result of the global economic malaise-- but why, then, is this a uniquely American phenomenon? Perhaps it's because we have 5% of the world's population, but 35-50% of its citizen-owned firearms.
Shoot Different
Shoot Different. Or, if you prefer, iSnipe.
"10 millimeter explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round, why? "
UnNerfed - the Nerf dart blaster overclocked to 500 rounds per minute.
Military-Grade Moe-Anthropomorphism
Military equipment drawn as anime girls. Probably SFW, but good luck explaining it to the boss. Wikipedia explains.
Boy, you're going to bring home some meat this summer!
Squirrel: It's what's for dinner.
"I don't kill them because they're bad people. I kill them because I hate them."
The Punisher MAX #60 hits comics stores this week, marking the end of Garth Ennis's run on the series. His earlier Punisher work on the series put the character back on track after some disastrous wrong turns, but it was the Marvel MAX series that striped the Vietnam vet turned vigilante's war on crime of all extraneous elements and turned it into something dark and brutal. The evocative covers of Tim Bradstreet (also leaving the series) matched the interior darkness, with Ennis toning down his humor to let the Frank Castle become a monomaniacal psychopath in a corrupt world. Adversaries included the resourceful and violent Barracuda, a kind of anti-Punisher based on the song Stagger Lee. It's not over for the Punisher - screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz and artist Laurence Campbell are taking over the series, and Ennis will be returning to the character with a miniseries in the lighter tone of his Marvel Knights work or The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe.
Robert A. Talbot's Wooden Guns
Robert A. Talbot makes guns out of wood.
Il Diabolico Vendicatore!
In the wake of The Scarlet Pimpernel, countless figures have flamboyantly stalked the night. Among them were the scofflaw Arsene Lupin and his more violent contemporary, Fantomas. So influential was the latter that imitators soon arose, plying their merciless wiles on others. Among them were Fu Manchu, the nefarious Dr. Mabuse, the hooded Diabolik, and Matt Wagoner's Grendel. Not even Donald Duck was immune from the seductive lure of crime. In the late 1960s, Italian comic creators Elisa Penna, Guido Martina, and Giovan Battista Carpi were commissioned by the Walt Disney Company to produce overseas versions of Mickey Mouse's adventures. In seeking ideas for new storylines, the trio conceived of an ode to the Fantomas legend; in their tale, the bumbling, short-tempered Donald Duck was transformed into the sinister, cooly-scheming Paperinik. From his secret lair, Donald's twisted alter ego sowed the seeds of distrust upon his Uncle $crooge and cousin Gladstone, as a humiliating punishment for perceived slights. The comic quickly developed a cult following, as PK (or Phantom Duck), displayed a more anarchic side to the more progressively staid actions of the Disney menagerie. Alas, in a fate which similarly affected Diabolik, Paperinik was considered too anti-social a character, and was subsequently softened. Instead of using others as pawns for their disposal, both figures instead were recast as protectors of the innocent. It was in this incarnation that Donald would be remembered as a webbed parody of Batman. With Disney's success in licensing the duck as a mascot for the University of Oregon, as well as a brand of orange juice, the last thing the corporate giant wanted was for their windfall to be associated with roughhousing, or even cold-blooded murder.
The Internet Movie Firearms Database
If you've ever wondered which guns were used in a movie, which movies a gun has appeared in, or even which guns an actor has ever used, then the Internet Movie Firearms Database (probably) has you covered. I found the site while trying to find which airsoft guns to buy for a potential Halloween costume. After a few fruitless Google searches it occurred to me: somewhere a bunch of gun nerds must have done this already. Ahh, the internet. One tip: when browsing by movie title, titles that start with "The" are under T rather than the first letter of the second word. Sadly, the coverage for most Bond movies is sorely and unexpectedly lacking.
Unmasking the perp
There's something about Mary. Sarasota, Florida, resident Mary McFate was a prominent gun control activist, active in anti-gun groups around the country. Mary Lou Sapone was a freelance spy with an NRA connection. They are the same person.
Rocket pistol
The gyrojet pistol (video) - a handgun firing 13mm rocket ammunition, was an attempt to revolutionise gun design in the 1960s. Around a thousand were produced, and some may have seen use in Vietnam. Rifle and carbine versions were also produced. Design problems meant that it never seriously competed conventional firearms, but there is a modern attempt to revive the concept.
Heller v. D.C. Decided
Heller v. District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court's first actual interpretation of the Second Amendment, has just come down. In a 5-4 decision, the Justices ruled D.C.'s comprehensive handgun ban to be unconstitutional. Antonin Scalia writes for the majority.
CRACKED and Loaded
I apologize in advance for linking to Cracked.com, internet leader in lame lists, but this 3-minute video sketch works for me: The Real Reason Guns Are Dangerous. Two "doods" take opposite stands about a found gun, while the sketch's writer makes them both look foolish. Hang in through the multiple-twist ending that makes it a web video bit that I didn't regret watching (so rare for me, I had to MetaFilter it). More a WC (wry chuckle) than a LOL.