Allais Loop

A glitch in cubic interpolation. Sometimes the most novel results are the least expected.

Allais Loop  (01:03)

After the Blackout

I'm uncertain how effective the Wikipedia blackout truly was. Most people who've mentioned it to me saw it as a massive inconvenience and little more. That's a shame, because a some lessons are being lost there.

1. SOPA is a bad bill, and one with potentially dire consequences for the entire internet.


2. At least one major pillar of the online community was willing to step up to protest it.


3. Most people don't care and would rather not be bothered. They had to endure 24 hours being deprived of a resource for which they pay nothing, and for which there are alternatives.

I hope just a small fraction of those folks will actually follow up and research the bill. If even some people choose to get active about it, all the better.

Speaking of which, those of us in Georgia really need to reconsider our choices in representation. Both Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss are cosponsors of the Senate version. Both men also voted for S. 1867. Remember that one? Chambliss has until 2014, and Isakson until 2016, but I won't be forgetting this.

Phil Gingrey is supporting the House version, and he is up for reelection this year. I'll vote for a Democrat who respects his constituents before I will a Republican who sells them out.

It's the Economy, Stupid

The FBI reports that there were 500,000 NICS checks performed for gun purchases in the week before Christmas. That's a record, beating even the whole post-election rush. There were 129,166 checks this Black Friday, beating the previous record of 98,000 in 2008.

The media, few of whom are in touch with the gun culture, are postulating all sorts of reasons for the boom, but they're missing the real factors. I submit that this year's record numbers are more due to increased interest in the hobby and confidence in the economy than they are to paranoia, crime, or politics.

In 2009, panic buying was the order of the day. They were coming for our guns! Get 'em before the ban! Society was on the verge of collapse. People were buying guns just to buy guns. I worried that few, if any, would actually get training or take up shooting as a pastime.

I'm relieved to say I was wrong.

The character of this year's rush was completely different: happier, calmer, more informed, and more inquisitive. A much larger percentage of buyers are repeat purchasers, and they're getting guns with the enjoyment of shooting in mind. Enrollment in training courses has risen exponentially. Folks aren't yelling about politics anymore. Rather, they're getting advice on being better shooters.

What a breath of fresh air! Now, can we just get past the whole zombie thing, please?

(Incidentally, that figure is only the number of individual checks, not the actual number of firearms transferred. Multiple firearms in the same transaction only get one check. Additionally, purchasers in many states can bypass the check if they have a carry permit, so we can likely assume the real number is 30-50% higher.)

Winning, Duh.

H.R. 2055, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, has passed the Senate and is on its way to the President's desk. The NRA managed the inclusion of three pro-2nd Amendment provisions in the final draft.

The first is quite self-explanatory, and very encouraging.

None of the funds available to the Department of Defense may be used to demilitarize or dispose of M-1 Carbines, M-1 Garand rifles, M-14 rifles, .22 caliber rifles, .30 caliber rifles, or M-1911 pistols, or to demilitarize or destroy small arms ammunition or ammunition components that are not otherwise prohibited from commercial sale under Federal law, unless the small arms ammunition or ammunition components are certified by the Secretary of the Army or designee as unserviceable or unsafe for further use. [p. 23]

The second provision is in Section 503 of Title V, and it puts the kabosh on the use of any funds from the National Institute of Health to promote gun control:

The prohibitions in subsections (a) and (b) shall include any activity to advocate or promote any proposed, pending or future Federal, State or local tax increase, or any proposed, pending, or future requirement or restriction on any legal consumer product, including its sale or marketing, including but not limited to the advocacy or promotion of gun control.  [p. 325]

The same language appears in Section 218 of Division F [p. 300], which seems to have the President a bit miffed.  According to a statement he released today,

Additional provisions in this bill, including section 8013 of Division A and section 218 of Division F, purport to restrict the use of funds to advance certain legislative positions. I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient.

Of course he can still make his recommendations, but he can't use government money to do the legwork for him.

Stubborn Facts and Pliable Statistics

Two years after the election, gun sales are still going through the roof.

Two years after the boom in sales, violent crime is still dropping.

As I've pointed out before, correlation does not equal causation. We can't attribute the drop in crime to an increase in gun sales. What we can show, however, is that a vast increase in civilian gun ownership does not lead to more crime.

In other news, Eric Holder's trotting out the race card:

This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.

"Nature of the relationship?" Like being the Attorney General of the United States? Or maybe it's due to the fact that he's so incompetent he can't keep rogue elements in line, can't orchestrate a decent coverup, and doesn't have the political acumen to throw anyone under the bus, even if it means saving his own lying skin.

Or maybe it's just that wretched walrus mustache.

They Said It Couldn't Happen

But it did. Blaine Tyler was openly carrying his handgun in a Richmond gas station when a teenage sociopath grabbed it. Unarmed, Tyler gave chase and was fatally shot with his own gun. To make things worse, his assailant went on to kill a second person hours later.

Tyler was deliberately targeted for his weapon, something people keep telling me never happens. Well, here we have it. Perhaps better situational awareness, equipment, or training might have helped, but at the end of the day, he would not have been targeted if his weapon wasn't plainly visible.

Having the weapon exposed adds a significant element of risk back into an equation meant to mitigate risk in the first place.

Sharp Edges and Frayed Nerves

The Supreme Court has refused [pdf] to hear United States v. Masciandaro. That leaves Woollard v. Sheridan, which still has decent odds of making it to the calendar.

There's been some scuttlebutt that the Court would rather hear a "pure" case in which the petitioner isn't someone appealing a criminal conviction. Both the Heller and McDonald cases fit this bill, as they were brought by law-abiding citizens appealing unjust laws. In such cases, the Court can address a constitutional issue directly, without having other logistical issues getting in the way. Woollard is a compelling case that gives them that opportunity.

In happier news, that's the CZ P-01 with a Ka-Bar pistol bayonet at the top. Sure, CZ made one a few years back, but this one is lighter, and it has a really good blade. I don't know why the world needs more of these, but hey: it looks cool.

I still haven't figured out a holster solution for it.

Perishable Skills

I finally got to shoot the P210 on Saturday, and Earl here volunteered to take a few rounds for the sake of experimentation. The group is a mix of 147gr Hydra-Shok, 9BPLE, and 127gr +P+ Ranger. It was shot at a measly 20' since I haven't had a chance to shoot for nearly six months, and my skills have atrophied a bit.

The gun doesn't seem to care much about bullet shape or weight, and it's very consistent. Given its heritage, I expected it to prefer hotter European ball for target purposes. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't the case. It fed the mild Atlanta Arms 115gr loading quite well, the only issue being that the slide failed to lock back after the final round.

Skyrim

As much as I'm enjoying this game, there's one thing that keeps poking in to that whole "suspension of disbelief" thing for me.

The entire cast talks like Motörhead roadies.

No, really. Half the characters speak in an accent just like this, and the native people are called the Nords. One of the towns is named Hrothgar, after the Danish king of the Scylding line. Whiterun is ruled by a Jarl, and one of the mead halls is called Jorrvaskur, which basically means "spunky pony."

It quickly becomes obvious that Skyrim is little more than a thinly-veiled piece of anti-Scandinavian propaganda and defamation.

Brütal Legend was offensive enough, but this just crosses the line. Thanks for the hate crime, Bethesda. Our attorneys will be in contact shortly.

Sig Sauer P210 Legend

Swiss production of the SIG P210 ended quite awhile ago, but J.P. Sauer & Sohn of Eckernförde have since picked up the rights to produce the pistol. In the transition, there have been some changes, not the least of which is the fact that Sig Sauer will be importing them into the United States.

While the new model isn't cheap, it's certainly more affordable than Swiss specimens on the secondary market. As far as I can tell, it's just as well made, if not better in some respects.

Circling the Wagons

Eric Holder testified before Congress today for the second time regarding the Fast & Furious disaster. Here's the condensed version:

• He's not apologizing to the family of Bryan Terry


• The best way to keep illegal guns from flowing southward into Mexico is to further restrict the guns the government bought to ship southward to Mexico.


• It's all the fault of the Bush administration.


• He didn't know anything about it. His staff kept him in the dark.

The allegations of impropriety began to circulate in April of 2010.  Terry died in December, and despite the widely distributed and reported allegations, Holder claimed in May of 2011 that he'd only heard them a few weeks prior.  He revised that estimate to "probably (...) a couple of months" today.

If that's the way he's running his office, Holder is, at the very least, wildly incompetent.

He's calling an operation that provided weapons used in over 200 Mexican homicides a "failed response," and he swears he's taking measures to stop future lapses in judgement, but he's taking no responsibility. Best guess? Lanny Breuer and Dennis Burke get thrown to the wolves, then pardoned January 19th, 2013.

But Is It Art?

Scott Rickard is a mathematics professor at Dublin College. He also has a keen interest in music, which makes sense, as the two fields have some common points of interaction.

Repetition is a common trait to all music. I'm not just talking about Philip Glass and his tedious 2-hour arpeggio exercises; recurring patterns, no matter how tenuous, can be found in even the most complex music. It's hardwired into our brains somewhere. 

As an experiment, Rickard endeavored to write a piece of music "devoid of any pattern," one in which there's no repetition whatsoever. He's not the first to try this. Schoenberg and others have resorted to questionable mathematical and arbitrary systems to avoid conscious choice in the past, but nowadays, we've got technology on our side. Oh, what a bleak and horrible future we live in!

Does it work? Yes. Is it music? Technically, yes.



So...art? As Zappa once said, that's for the critics to decide. Frankly, I can't tell much difference between his random work and the supposedly organized drivel (epic lyric win at 04:04) of "modern" music I was force-fed in my academic days.

What's odd is that I'm somewhat fascinated by it. In a way, Rickard's piece is a challenge. The more I listen to it, the more I think I can catch a pattern somewhere, but I can never find it a second time. If I do, does that mean he failed, or that my subconscious mind is simply projecting meaning where there is none?

Jeez, dude, thanks for screwing with my head. As conceptual art, it wins.