I saw this somewhat amusing story today:
ALEXANDRIA, La. – An Alexandria man was recovering after accidentally shooting himself while showing his girlfriend how to handle a pistol on Saturday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.
Police said the 21-year-old man told investigators he forgot he had just reloaded the gun, and squeezed the trigger while putting the gun into the driver’s door panel. The bullet went through his inner left thigh.
Police said the man repeatedly told investigators he was ex-military and knows how to handle a gun, and was very embarrassed by the incident.
Umm, yeah. It just seems to me that “the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant” isn’t the most appropriate place to demonstrate how to handle a pistol. But then, that would require common sense, which — admittedly — we men tend to lose when there’s an attractive woman in the vicinity.
Tags: gun ignorance, oops
People have called my motorcycle a “killer donorcycle”, but can’t imagine getting seriously hurt on a scooter. Here’s a news flash: A scooter IS a motorcycle. Sure, it’s slower, cuter, and has an automatic transmission with no clutch, but it is a motorcycle. That means that the scooterist has all the same safety considerations and faces all of the same risks that a motorcyclist must contend with. The state of California recognizes this fact by requiring a motorcycle endorsement to ride a scooter. Unfortunately, most scooterists, around here at least, only get their learner’s permit to be somewhat legal, then wobble off wearing nothing more substantial than a helmet — and that’s only because of the helmet law. This is bad.
If you purchase that Vespa or Metropolitan, I would ask that you do the following:
- Get training. Check out the Motorcycle Safety Foundation to find a class near you.
- Wear your gear. Helmet, gloves, riding jacket, riding pants, boots. Not like this person.
- Have fun! I harp on safety to everyone I can not to be a killjoy, but because many motorcycle injuries are preventable. Nothing spoils the ride more than a trip to the ER!
Tags: motorcycle, safety, scooter
I stopped by the local BMW dealer to take a look at the new 1 Series yesterday. (Yes, I fit! I don’t think I can bring myself to pay $35k for one though.) I was also curious about any certified pre-owned E46s on the lot (since that’s about the only BMW I’d actually buy at this point in time).
So, I asked the salesman, “What E46s do you have on the lot?”
He asked, “What are you looking for, a 335i?”
The 335i is an E90, dumbass, not an E46. Now, I don’t expect most of the snobs and yuppies who buy BMWs to know the difference between an E46 and an E90, but some of us actually care about driving rather than posing, and we know the difference between the two. Is it too much to ask for the dealer to know the difference?
In pursuit of my Team Fortress glitching, I’ve added a PCI slot cooler to my computer — the Antec VCool. In general, a PCI slot cooler mounts into one or two PCI slots (the VCool occupies two), and either draws air into the case or exhausts hot air out of the case. The VCool, positioned directly below the video card, draws cool air into the computer and blows it directly onto the video card. So far, I’ve measured about a 10°C drop in video card temperatures under both idle and load.
With the extra cooling, will the X800XT behave? We shall see.
Tags: cooling, hardware, TF2 glitch
Well, I replaced my old router with a Linksys WRT54GL. I immediately flashed it with Tomato, and it’s running quite nicely. Hopefully this router will last for more than 2 years.
Ben Stein on science:
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
Crouch: That’s right.
Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
Crouch: Good word, good word.
Kind of ironic that Ben Stein played Kevin’s science teacher in The Wonder Years.
Now, Rev. Wright says that criticism is an attack on the “black church”. From all the vile spewage we’ve seen from him, I’d say that criticism is roundly deserved. Being black doesn’t excuse stupid, racist garbage.
But then, what do I know? I’m just an Typical White Person.
Tags: 2008 election, obama, Politics, racism, stupidity
A test of Wordpress 2.5’s new Gallery functionality, using my favorite subject as of late: Team Fortress 2 rendering glitches!
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- Scout at warp speed
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- Glitching of furniture in a spawnroom.
Sigh.
Tags: bug, TF2 glitch, wordpress
Stuff gets broken.
Trying to upload my latest and greatest TF2 glitch pics results in an “HTTP error”:
OK so far…
Bummer, denied! Thank you so much, asshole.
By the way, I had to upload these screenshots by hand with an FTP client.
Update: It looks like the problem was with the Bad Behavior plugin. Upgrading it to the latest version was a snap, and good exercise for 2.5’s automatic plugin upgrade functionality. See this article for more.
That’s how one of Instapundit’s readers wryly describes last weekend’s violence in Chicago. Since guns are illegal in that city, nothing bad could ever happen there. Of course, as Rachel says: Strangely, even when things are illegal, people still do them.
Tags: crime, gun ignorance, link