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Need A Gun?

Go get ten of them in an hour just like this guy did:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7297745&page=

Only in America.

"Legally". No questions asked. Ridiculous. But hey, it's our "right" to bear arms as Americans...right? It seems to me it's being treated more like a privilege than a right. What if that guy was a criminal? Mentally insane?

People argue all the time that, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." Ok, true statement. But, there's no doubt that a gun lets the average person become deadly easier than any other method. So sure, the actual gun didn't pull it's own trigger and kill someone. But there's no denying it made it much easier for them to kill that same someone.

Also, I would argue that guns make it easier to kill because there is a disconnect between the shooter and the victim. The shooter never has to come into physical contact with the victim, which gives them less of a reason to think twice about pulling the trigger. There's nothing personal about pulling a trigger standing 25 feet away from someone.

Let's just imagine for a minute a world without guns. How often do you think we would see mass, random killings like we've seen too often in the news? I would think just about never. I mean think about it; if these shooters had to actually confront and physically fight people, there is practically no way that they could kill ten people before being stopped. Ok, yeah, maybe people would start making homemade bombs. Bombs are even less personal than shooting someone. But considering it's much harder, not to mention more dangerous, to make a bomb than it is to shoot a gun, I would argue those two reasons would deter most people from even trying.

Another thing...background checks are NOT an invasion of privacy. When you are being given a deadly weapon, a background check is a very reasonable request. Remember, owning a gun is a right, not a privilege.

The way I look at it, if you're legit, you've got nothing to be worried about anyways. So what's the big deal? The only people scared of background checks are hiding something. (I know, that's a pretty bold statement.)

If you want a gun, fine. But these "trade shows" where you don't have to get a background check, or even produce an I.D., need to be shut down. If you're not a criminal, and you're not mentally crazy, go right ahead; go to a legitimate store and buy a gun legally.

March Madness 2009

MSU made a good run, but unfortunatly, UNC are the champs. The winner has been decided in both the "real" and "fun" brackets that I oganized.

It was a fairly close race that went down to the wire, where Emily eventually emerged as the champ...in both groups! So congrats Emily! And as promised, she has already received two thundering high fives from me...one for each group!

Aero Chocolate

I saw this on thecoolhunter.net, which is a site that"hunts" for all things "cool". Anyways, this a commercial for Aero Chocolate which is sold in Europe apparently. I bet the guy that made this commercial had a lot of fun going to "work" that day! Check it out:

http://skatefairy.com/Nestle_Aero_Evans_Directors_Cut_H264.mov

The U.S. Is Doomed...Because This Guy Says So

This guy is funny. Really. He made me laugh out loud. According to him, 

"...President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the U.S. will split into six rump-states* before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order."

He also goes on to say,

"There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010"

Right. This wouldn't even be news except this guy, amazingly, is the dean at the Foreign Ministy's school for future diplomats! Haha. I love how he doesn't site any kind of facts to support his claims except for newspapers, magazines, and other open source information. Also, on page two of the article, it's funny how other instructors are questioning his thought process. One instructor even asked if his predictions didn't more accurately describe Russia's state of despair, haha. Too funny! At least some of the instructors there seem to have two cents worth of an education. Here's the link:

Russian "Scholar" Says U.S. Will Collapse Next Year

*You guys are probably smarter than I, but I had to look it up. According to Wikipedia, a "rump state" is the remnant of a once-larger government, left with limited powers or authority after a disaster, invasion or military occupation. Basically, what already happened to Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. 

U2: No Line On The Horizon

U2 released a new album yesterday. It's called, No Line On The Horizon. My first impressions...it's decent. I really liked their last album, so it's going to be hard for them to top that. But all in all, I like it.

I'm an iTunes user, but I noticed that on Amazon.com the album is selling for only $3.99, where iTunes is charging $9.99. However, the iTunes version gets you one extra "B-sides" song and a "digital booklet". So, if you don't care about that stuff, Amazon is giving you one heck of a deal! You can't beat $4 for an entire album!

FYI - If you go the Amazon route, they also have a free downloader that will automatically import your purchased music into iTunes for you. It's pretty slick.

Finally, Someone Not Greedy

Here's a pretty cool story. Some guy sold part of his family owned bank for $60 million dollars, then turned around and gave every penny to his employees. If only the rest of the financial world operated with even a fraction of the character of this guy, the U.S. probably wouldn't be in such a financial mess right now.

Here's the link:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/PersonOfWeek/story?id=6973727&page=1

Paul Harvey (1918 - 2009)

A couple of days ago was a sad day in news and entertainment; radio broadcaster Paul Harvey had died. Growing up I always liked The Rest of the Story; though, it's been years since I've heard a broadcast.

I remember during my senior year of high school, my friend Nick Thompson and I used to go to Arby's for lunch almost every day. And every time we would have the employees change the radio station to 98.5 so we could enjoy our roast beef sandwiches, curley fries, and The Rest of the Story. Those were some good days.

Grand Canyon National Park Turns 90

On this day in 1919 President Woodrow Wilson signed Senate Bill 390, which officially created Grand Canyon National Park.

If you want to read up on some G.C.N.P. history, you can go HERE.

Funny enough, I still haven't been there (ever) after living in Arizona for more than two years.

1234567890

I meant to post this when it happened, but oh well...

So two Friday's ago...Friday the 13th...was a grand day in the dork universe.

Some background info first:

Unix time was created to keep time in Unix based computer operating systems (it's used for other time keeping as well). It is calculated using seconds, and it was created on January 1, 1970.

So...that brings us to February 13, 2009 23:31:30 (UTC) time - which was 6:31 pm and 30 seconds Eastern Time. For that one second, Unix time was equal to 1234567890. Which means we were 1,234,567,890 seconds into Unix time. (Now, it wasn't exactly 1234567890 seconds. There's such a thing as "leap seconds" and some other factors that I don't fully understand, which actually change what the exact time is. The day and time of February 13, 2009 does not include all of these variables. It only counted seconds as common people talk about time, ya know?)

Anyways...apparently there were fabulous dork parties around the world. Now, to increase my dork IQ, I figured out when my 1234567890 seconds birthday would be. With all times being
Eastern Standard Time (EST), and assuming I was born at 1:30 am , I will be 1234567890 seconds old on November 9, 2020 at 1:01:30 am. Yay! I can't wait! Just remember when all of you youngins' out there turn 39, that a little more than a month later you will be 1234567890 seconds old too!

Just for kicks, on June 4, 2013 at 3:16:40 am, I will be a nice, round, 1 billion seconds old. Now if only I would have figured out how to make a penny a second; I would have a cool $10 million when I turn 1 billion seconds old, haha.

If you feel like figuring out your dork birthday(s) too, just let me know. I have a spreadsheet that will do the math for you :)