April 2009 – Page 16 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Speeding Up Silhouette Matches

One of the time consuming things in running silhouette matches is having to make the line safe, go down, and reset all the animals.Â Resettable targets would be ideal, but not many people make them, and some brands have issues with the animals popping back up on you.

I went down to club this morning to check out some targets we’re considering using for our air rifle and air pistol silhouette matches.Â They are made by a guy up in Binghamton, New York.Â His company is called Noteworthy Targets, and make these 1/10th scale NRA Air Gun Silhouette targets that reset.Â We shot at them all morning with a hard hitting .22 caliber air pistol, a high powered .117 air rifle, and my .177 air pistol.Â They worked pretty well.Â The demo model brought down for us were air rifle targets, and my .177 couldn’t knock the rifle rams over at the regulation 18 yards, but if we get lighter air pistol ones made, that shouldn’t be a problem.Â The great thing is, when they go down, they stay down.Â They are also fully adjustable, so you can adjust how heavy you set them.Â Today we had them set pretty heavy.Â The animals also screw on to the shaft, which is nice in case you need to take them off for repair.

He makes a lot of other steel targets if you want to get into shooting at steel.Â It’s a lot of fun, if the range you shoot at allows it.

The Horror

Folks, this is New Jersey at is very very best:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyAzwREVBZs[/youtube]

Wither YouTube?

This analyst doesn’t seem to think that YouTube’s business model is sustainable:

So what does this mean? It seems safe to assume that YouTubeâ€™s traffic will continue to grow, with no clear ceiling in sight. Since the majority of Googleâ€™s costs for the service are pure variable costs of bandwidth and storage, and since theyâ€™ve already reached the point at which no greater economies of scale remain, the costs of the business will continue to grow on a linear basis. Unfortunately, far more user-generated content than professional content makes its way onto the site, which means that while costs grow linearly, non-monetizable content is growing geometrically as compared against the monetizable content that YouTube really wants and needs to survive. This means less and less of YouTubeâ€™s library will be revenue-contributing, while the costs of delivering that library will continue to grow.

What are Google’s options?

Google could take a lesson from its neighbor, Hulu, and focus only on proprietary content with existing consumer loyalty and real monetization prospects. With its massive audience, this is a viable option, and a direction in which YouTube has already taken some baby steps. Axing user-generated content would seem to be anathema given the siteâ€™s roots, but it may be the surest way of putting the business into the black.

Alternatively, YouTube could implement a subscription structure for the site, either monetizing certain members-only content, or requiring users to create a paid account in order to contribute content. With so many marketers looking at YouTube as part of their viral strategy, this too could be a viable option.

I’ll be honest, I would pay for YouTube if they went to a subscription model provided the price wasn’t outrageous.Â I would pay 40 or 50 dollars for a year’s subscription if it allowed me to embed video on my blog for all to see.Â It’s a shame it doesn’t appear that the business model works, becuase YouTube is damned useful.

Sheriff to Residents: Cowboy Up!

A Sheriff in Mason County in Washington State is encouraging local residents to arm themselves in response to budget cuts in the department.

“I won’t say vigilante days, but weâ€™re back to days when there wasn’t very much law around,” Bob Clark said. “We live in a very remote area and it’s a constant worry.”

Sheldon was quoted in a local newspaper as calling people on Seattleâ€™s Queen Anne and Capitol Hill “wimps.” He has since backed off that statement.

Sounds like my kind of Sheriff.

UPDATE: Ooops… :g/Sheriff/s//County\ Commissioner/g

For those of you not Unix geeks, replace Sheriff with County Commissioner.Â That’s what happens when I skim through an article.

Home Improvement: The Slacker Edition

In the last week, we’ve had two days worth of work.Â Unfortunately, weather and holidays cut the rest short.Â We resume on Monday.

But, I do have to say, the two days have seen major progress – like beams!Â Day 1:

It seems like not much work for the hours they were here, but I’m assuming that propping it up properly can be a pain.

One of the photos, you’ll note, is of dirt on the patio.Â This may end up being a lingering problem.Â See, our old patio had no rise from the ground at all.Â That means every time it rained, mud would cake onto the patio.Â It’s actually a real pain to clean off since you can never quite get all of it if it’s dry, and you risk getting mud on yourself if you use water and walk through it to clean it.Â It would appear it’s back, though much less so than previously.

There are a couple possible factors in this unexpected problem (the concrete guy said this one would fix the problem of it being too low), and only one can be fixed by us.Â One possible source is the walkway that connects to the patio from the side of the house.Â It is also too low and lets mud just run freely down it with a little stream of water.Â The other potential factor is the neighbor’s yard.Â After seeing all of our work, they had a giant tree removed by our same tree guy the day they were prepping our backyard.Â Because there’s a slight hill, every time they’ve done work in their backyard, we get extra mud.Â So, we can eventually pull out the walkway at some point, but we’ll likely end up with the lingering extra mud problem for a while.

On Day 2, the extra supports were completely removed:

And, perhaps more importantly, the half of the roof that was cut short to accommodate a tree that never should have been there in the first place is being extended out to match the other side.Â Yay!

I also spoke with the contractor today about the roof.Â He was going to try and find matching shingles, but we asked him to go ahead and price out getting shingles for the entire patio roof and the cost of having him do the whole thing rather than an odd patch.Â It’s a reasonably small area, so it shouldn’t be too much more.Â Even better, it doesn’t obligate us to do the entire roof right now since you can’t see the shingles to the rest of the house from the back.Â So we can put off the main roof replacement for another year or more without worrying about matching shingles again.

Reality Check for Lefty Bloggers

This is more about the post I ran yesterday about Lefty blogs looking to rake in the dough from the causes they support.Â Advertising Age has some commentary about it that I think is spot on:

All that said, realistically speaking, no one believes that political blogs on either side of the aisle are anything more than water-carriers for their favorite parties or candidates. They’re not journalists — and don’t pretend to be. And they do provide a useful service: They keep the grass-roots watered and fertilized. Especially on the left, the big-name bloggers have grown and cultivated communities that, jokes about Lamont aside, can have a multiplier effect and provide buzz — and cash.

This is someone who understands new media, and what role blogs play in political advocacy.Â Read the whole thing.Â It’s insightful.Â This is also an area where the right wing model of organization by think tank is horribly disorganized and behind.Â This could have grave consequences for the right moving forward.

Despite the fact that NRA seems to be developing relationships with bloggers along this model, I also worry that they have not been keeping up with the left, when you really look at some of the things they are doing with online organizing.Â It’s astounding.Â If we don’t grab the best ideas, and use them ourselves, we could be out in the political wilderness for a long time.

US Conference of Mayors Demands Brady Agenda

They are calling for it now:

Yet Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, president of the mayors’ conference, says there is little time to spare. He says his group wants the assault weapons ban reinstated and federal legislation to limit gun purchases.

“Typically, when these things happen in our cities, statements are made, and then the issue goes away,” he says. “It doesn’t go away for us. We need help.”

It won’t go away for you until you have the courage to remove dangerous people from society, rather than trying unsuccessfully to remove dangerous objects.Â We can’t all live in a padded cell.Â The really interesting bit of this article, though, is the graphic:

So we know these things a) are not new, and b) tend to spike with bad economic times.Â All things considering, it’s pretty clear gun laws don’t have much of an effect.

Bloomberg to Run Anti-Gun Ads in Virginia

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is paying for ads to run in Virginia urging a ban on private sales.

New York’s mayor and relatives of Virginia Tech massacre victims are releasing a new television ad next week urging the state to close a gun show loophole.

The second anniversary of the shooting is next Thursday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will join victims’ relatives in Arlington on Monday to release the ad.

Two quick things:

The Virginia Tech shooter did not buy his guns at a gun show or through a private sale.Â This ad serves no purpose other than to use the victims to advance a political agenda.
The timing was picked for no other reason than public relations grandstanding considering the Virginia General Assembly went out of session in February.Â In fact, they met for the last time this week just to review vetoes and actually overrode two vetoes of pro-gun legislation.

Drop the Pie!

Pennsylvania health authorities are busy fighting a massive threat to public health: Lenten fish-fry dinners:

On the first Friday of Lent, an elderly female parishioner of St. Cecilia Catholic Church began unwrapping pies at the church. That’s when the trouble started.

A state inspector, there for an annual checkup on the church’s kitchen, spied the desserts. After it was determined that the pies were home-baked, the inspector decreed they couldn’t be sold.

“Everyone was devastated,” says Josie Reed, a 69-year-old former teacher known for her pumpkin and berry pies.

Sold for $1 a slice, homemade pies have always been part of the Lenten fish-fry dinners at St. Cecilia’s, located in this tiny city near Pittsburgh. Similar dinners are held in church basements and other venues across the country this time of year.

Look at them!Â Bloody Catholics filling the bloody world up with bloody pies they can’t bloody sell! Clearly these marauders are going to kill us all if it weren’t for the fine people at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

This is apparently what caused the recent bills that are meant to exempt non-profits from these insane requirements.

How to Pass Gun Control: A Liberal’s Plan

This screed suggesting the “new” idea to enact gun control is laughable.

The solution is obvious, create an alternate organization that supports gun ownership but in a responsible manner. I would call the new organization the “American Rifle Organization” (ARA) or something similar. (sic)

They would have progressive gun ownership rules like the following:

1. Support for single action rifles, shotguns and Revolver Handguns only.
2. Licensed and certified gun ownership.
3. Separation between public, police and military style weapons. It would be illegal for the public to purchase or own police and military style weapons.
4. No public ownership of automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

Apparently no one told the Air America hosts that someone is already trying it, and it’s not working.