Personal fabrication

This here is what I've been SAYIN'!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/90

Go watch the video and be filled with the future, kids. He's talking
about science fiction right in your garage. Personal fabrication of
pretty much any doodad, machine, toy, gizmo, material, gimcrack or any
damn thing you can think of. At your house. Which is damn cool, all by
itself.

But beyond that, what's cool is the unleashing of humanity from the
coils of ignorance and want. He talks about taking a $20,000 "Fablab"
to third world countries and watching 8 year olds latch on to the idea
and run with it. He's got a video of this little kid whipping up a
working circuit board in a day that he says his engineers couldn't have
done in less than a week. Twenty grand is cheaper than a new Buick, kids.

We are living in interesting times already. They are about to get a
hell of a lot more interesting.

The Phantom

Farewell Fidel!

Over at Small Dead Animals, Kate has posted something interesting. An internal memo from CNN regarding how Fidel Castro's "retirement" is to be handled. Kid gloves is not an unfair description. So I thought I'd provide some coverage of Fidel's leave taking from a uniquely gearhead perspective.

Friends and family have been to Cuba over the years. I haven't as a matter of both principal and penury. Formerly penury, lately principal.



They uniformly state that while the beaches and hotels are lovely and the staff friendly, if you wander off into town things go rather downhill. If you wander far enough a nice man in uniform with an AK47 tell you to please go back to your hotel.

Most cars are wonderful American 1950's customs, hand built and beautiful.



Which is great, until you think about it and realize those cars are still running from the 1950's, not rescued, restored by avid hobbyists and running again. Because relics of '50s American iron is all there is to drive.

I just happen to have a chunk of old American iron. 1947 Ford 2 1/2 ton COE.

My experience with it tells me that Cuba probably has the greatest masters of fixing cracks in cast iron in the entire world.

I've got two of those ancient Ford flat heads out in my driveway right now. Here's the first one being torn down. See all the crud on there? There's nasssty things hiding under it.
This is one of about 10 or so cracks I found in the block. This one is no big deal, but even by itself it would eventually lift the head gasket and get coolant in the oil pan. Probably one of the reasons they parked the old bastard in the first place. There's nine more like this one, some in the valve area, some headed for the cylinder walls. That's just on the top of the deck, I don't know what's in the lifter valley because we stopped cleaning when this lot showed up.

I found a guy in the next town over who had a flat head for sale, managed to score it off him for $50 bucks. Great score!

But, one problem. Flat head blocks are known for cracking. They pretty much always crack. If both blocks are like this I'm going to stick a late-model fuel injected Ford engine and transmission in my 1947 truck and be happy. Drive it on Sunday. Why? Because I can, of course! Hope mine turns out as nice as this one.

But what about the Cuban guy? His block is going to be as trashed as mine is.

The Cuban guy is going to fix all the myriad cracks with screws, by hand. He's going to get the resulting block back into service as quick as he can, Why? Because that truck is his only ride. Without it, he has no job. And no lunch. Those people who needed him to move something with his truck? They are all S.O.L., because its the only truck in town.Here's the Cuban guy's truck on the job. Note all is not well under the hood.Note that this truck has 8 lug wheels. Note that Cuban guy has only 4 wheel nuts. If you look real close you'll notice he only has 7 wheel studs. You want to carry a couple ton on that wheel? Me neither.

Why can't the Cuban guy buy wheel nuts? Or a new engine? Hell, why can't he buy a new truck? Oh, the American Embargo? Ok, why can't he buy a German truck? Japanese? Indian? Russian? Chinese?!!!

Fidel said. That's why.

Here's another Cuban truck.And here's a 1959 Buick. There's 11 people in that thing.
Viva Fidel. What took ya?

Another stupid idea returns from the dead.

We are, I kid you not, going to be subjected to yet another round of social Darwinism.  I'm going to barf.

The process of natural selection can act on human culture as well as on genes, a new study finds. Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the human genome.

The Stanford team studied reports of canoe designs from 11 Oceanic island cultures. They evaluated 96 functional features (such as how the hull was constructed or the way outriggers were attached) that could contribute to the seaworthiness of the canoes and thus have a bearing on fishing success or survival during migration or warfare.

They also evaluated 38 decorative or symbolic features (such as the types of carved or painted designs). They analyzed mathematically the rates of change for the two groups of canoe design traits from island group to island group. Statistical test results showed clearly that the functional canoe design elements changed more slowly over time, indicating that natural selection could be weeding out inferior new designs. This cultural analysis is similar to analyses of the human genome that have been successful in finding which genes are under selection.

There seems to be some subset of social "scientists" who just can't leave this alone.  No matter how many times the idea gets debunked, there they are back at it, trying to stick the round peg of human culture into the square hole of Natural Selection.  What makes them keep doing this?

Examples of cultural approaches that are putting humans at risk include "everything from the economic incentives, industrial technologies and growth mentality that cause climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, to the religious polarization and political ideologies that generate devastating conflict around the globe," Rogers said. "If the leadership necessary to undertake critically needed cultural evolution in these areas can't be found, our civilization may find itself weeded out by natural selection, just like a bad canoe design."

They're Lefties.  Members of a political ideology that generates devastating conflict around the globe.  They can't help themselves.  Must be genetic or something. 

Clearly these people have never built anything with their own hands.  If they had they would know that tools and materials determine how the work goes.  There's only so many ways you can lash an outrigger to a canoe that will not fall off in the waves.

Alternate explanation, isn't it possible that bad canoe designs are weeded out because Polynesian canoeists were smart enough to bite their finger and knew a piece of shit canoe when they saw one?

The Genetic Phantom

fun with molecules

Today's Kewl thing of the day is hydrogen bonds.  Some guys have a theory as to why wimpy hydrogen bonds can make spider silk proteins stronger than steel.

In a paper published in the Feb. 13 online issue of Nano Letters, Buehler and graduate student Sinan Keten describe how they used atomistic modeling to demonstrate that the clusters of three or four hydrogen bonds that bind together stacks of short beta strands in a structural protein rupture simultaneously rather than sequentially when placed under mechanical stress. This allows the protein to withstand more force than if its beta strands had only one or two bonds. Oddly enough, the small clusters also withstand more energy than longer beta strands with many hydrogen bonds.

“Using only one or two hydrogen bonds in building a protein provides no or very little mechanical resistance, because the bonds are very weak and break almost without provocation,” said Buehler, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “But using three or four bonds leads to a resistance that actually exceeds that of many metals. Using more than four bonds leads to a much-reduced resistance. The strength is maximized at three or four bonds.”

Put this together with the nanowire maker from yesterday, you've got some serious potential for a brand new generation of super strong materials.

How about ligament replacements for guys with knee ligament tears that are stronger than the original and less prone to immune response problems?  That'd be outstanding.  These days ACL/PCL tears are replaced with a piece of your own ligament stolen from some other place on your body.  I always thought that solution sucked.

The Ligamentous Phantom

Bulk nanoscale wire is now possible.

Materials science is one of my favorites.  They do the most fascinating things.  Today we have a group that has invented a way to make wire that is 100 nanometers thick and as long as you want.  Just to put this in perspective, Intel is currently producing its Core2 Duo chips on a 45 nanometer lithography process.

To use the new process, the researchers begin with a reservoir of ink connected to a glass micropipette that has an aperture as small as 100 nanometers. The micropipette is brought close to a substrate until a liquid meniscus forms between the two. As the micropipette is then smoothly pulled away, ink is drawn from the reservoir. Within the tiny meniscus, the solute nucleates and precipitates as the solvent quickly evaporates.

So far, the scientists have fabricated freestanding nanofibers approximately 25 nanometers in diameter and 20 microns long, and straight nanofibers approximately 100 nanometers in diameter and 16 millimeters long (limited only by the travel range of the device that moves the micropipette).

To draw longer nanowires, the researchers developed a precision spinning process that simultaneously draws and winds a nanofiber on a spool that is millimeters in diameter. Using this technique, Yu and his students wound a coil of microfiber. The microfiber was approximately 850 nanometers in diameter and 40 centimeters long.

To further demonstrate the versatility of the drawing process, for which the U. of I. has applied for a patent, the researchers drew nanofibers out of sugar, out of potassium hydroxide (a major industrial chemical) and out of densely packed quantum dots. While the nanofibers are currently fabricated from water-based inks, the process is readily extendable to inks made with volatile organic solvents, Yu said.

If the process can be scaled up to produce wire and thread in real quantity, as in by the mile, then we are going to see some really serious changes in materials pretty soon.  One of the ways to make composites stronger is to make the fibers thinner and longer.  Another way is to include fibers of different material to get different properties included in the cloth.  How about a rope that is spun from fibers only 800 nanometers across?  How about a fiber optic cable with like a billion threads in it?  That's some serious business.

The Thready Phantom

Recycling and why it sucks.

Every once in a while an article comes by that just perfectly encapsulates my thinking on a subject.  Here we have one of those perfect articles.

For a long time now I've quietly resisted recycling.  It seems to me that if I'm paying for garbage collection, then I should get garbage collection.  You know, where they come and take the garbage away.  Should anyone wish to sort through what I have paid hard money to have hauled off in the hopes of making a buck on it, they have my blessing.  But if I am going to be required to use my time and energy to pre-sort so that somebody else's job is easier, I expect to get paid for it.  Like, apply the profit from the sale of recyclable material to lower my garbage collection bill.  More fool am I!  They increase my taxes and reduce the service instead, Hamilton is going to go to one-bag-per-week collection rules.

Strangely, I find this irritating.

When I complain about the foul nature of government mandated recycling, people always tell me about Sweden.  Northern eco-paradise where everyone recycles and all is bliss and love.  Or not.

The way it has been presented to me, Sweden has succeeded with what most other governments at best dream about: creating an efficient and profitable national system for saving the environment through large-scale recycling. And the people are all in on it! Everybody's recycling.

The latter is actually true: everybody is recycling. But that is the result of government force, not a voluntary choice.

So, how's that working out for them?

Economically, Swedish recycling is a disaster. Imagine a whole population spending time and money cleaning their garbage and driving it around the neighborhood rather than working or investing in a productive market! According to the government's books, more money flows in than flows out; therefore recycling is profitable. But this ignores the costs of coercion.

The government bookkeepers also take advantage of the cost cuts they have been able to realize through centralizing the garbage collection system. These "cuts," however, are mostly cuts in service, whereas rates for consumers have been increased. A recent problem with the garbage-collection centers is that the containers aren't emptied very often (a typical example of government "savings") and thus remain full, which means that people's garbage piles up next to the overflowing containers while the government contractors sit idle: they are only paid to empty the containers on schedule, not to pick up the trash sitting next to these containers. The result? Disease and rats. Newspapers have been reporting on a "rat invasion" in Stockholm and in other Swedish cities in recent years.

If we consider the costs in monetary terms, in terms of wasted time, and in terms of increased emissions from automobiles, this is hardly environmentally friendly. Adding the annoyance and the increased risk for disease, Swedish recycling is at least as disastrous as any other government scheme.

Just about as expected, then.

So the next time some good hearted soul chides you about not sorting your glass from your plastics, tell them about the Great Swedish Rat Invasion.

The Phantom Recycling Denier.

Rodents of Unusual Size!

A Rodent of Unusual Size has been discovered in South America. No not
Chavez, this one's dead already.
>
> The fossilised skull of a rat the size of a car has been unearthed.
> The creature lived about four million years ago, weighed about a tonne
> and ate mostly soft vegetation. It was so big that it probably spent
> much of its life semi-submerged in water, like a hippo, to reduce the
> stresses caused by its size.
>
> Palaeontologists found the skull in rock deposits in Uruguay. It is
> believed to date back two to four million years to a time when giant
> wildlife was commonplace in South America.
>
And yes, they are calling it Mighty Mouse. What else?

You though this was going to be about DemocRats, didn't ya? ~:D

The Tricksy Phantom

They're driving too much! TAX THEM!

Yet another example of why Big Government is the enemy of life.  I added some emphasis in red to cut to the actual information part of the article.

A special commission is urging the government to raise federal gasoline taxes by as much as 40 cents per gallon over five years as part of a sweeping overhaul designed to ease traffic congestion and repair the nation's decaying bridges and roads.

The two-year study being released Tuesday by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, the first to recommend broad changes after the devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August, warns that urgent action is needed to avoid future disasters.

Under the recommendation, the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for unleaded gasoline would be increased annually for five years - by anywhere from 5 cents to 8 cents each year - and then indexed to inflation afterward to help fix the infrastructure, expand public transit and highways as well as broaden railway and rural access, according to persons with direct knowledge of the report, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the report is not yet public.

So just to belabor the point to death, the Big Government answer to deteriorating public infrastructure, which was built with tax money and was supposed to be maintained with tax money (but oddly seems not to have been), is to tax people to the point where they can't afford to drive anymore  and then use that NEW tax money to fix what was supposed to have been fixed with the old tax money but wasn't.  By a miracle the money will be spent to actually fix the road this time.  Maybe.

Some people on the commission appear to have a brain cell or two still firing.

The commission's chairwoman, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and two other members oppose gas tax increases and were issuing a dissenting opinion to the report calling instead for private-sector investment and tolls.

The Bush administration has said that raising taxes won't cut congestion and creates additional risks for congressional pork, such as Alaska's infamous multimillion dollar "Bridge to Nowhere," which has been scuttled.

That makes three people on the commission with a functioning cerebral cortex, they are all Republicans.  The rest are either DemocRats or wish they were.  Coincidence?

The tone of the article is designed to make these three Republicans seem obstructive and unreasonable, since they are being killjoy meanies who want to let bridges fall down to save a couple of bucks.  This explains why Reuters stock was reduced to SELL! yesterday.  The article was written by some doofus from the AP, but there's no difference between Reuters and AP.  May they join each other in the toilet of bankruptcy as soon as possible.  If you've got MSM stock, my condolences.

The Phantom Obstructionist

the Left is now, officially, a parody of itself.

The last few years it has been getting harder and harder to satirize the political Left.  You make up something completely idiotic, the wildest, dumbest thing you've ever thought of, and the sons of bitches will top it a week later in an official policy release.  That has got to be tough to do.  In order to keep up this trend of self-parody excellence, Moveon.org has just hired professional help.

The powerful liberal activist group has wooed Peter Koechley away from the satirical newspaper The Onion, where he was managing editor.

So now when you hear something about Moveon.org and you think it sounds like The Onion, you'll know why.

The Phantom Satirist.

Now here's a scary poll.

Wall to wall positive press coverage has its advantages it seems.

OTTAWA -- A new poll suggests Canadians would root en masse for whichever leading Democrat winds up facing the Republicans in this year's U.S. presidential election.

The Canadian Press/Harris Decima survey suggests Canadians so overwhelmingly favour the Democrats, it barely matters whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton win today's New Hampshire primary.

I've got ten bucks right here says not one of those polled in favor of DemocRats could name one single policy of Obama's, yet they -say- they love the guy.  Or Hillary, its ok either way.  Given the number of unflattering pictures of Hillary that started circulating this week that may change, as the masses of asses start to respond to the media hatchet job on Nurse Rached.

In the world of biology there's a name for this: regurgitation.  The puking back of what has been shoved in, completely un-digested.  And we wonder why this country is an over taxed, over regulated mess.


The Phantom

Dakar/Rat Patrol Memorial Rally and Turkey Shoot

The boys and girls over at Small Dead Animals have convinced me I need to field a team in this year's canceled Dakar Rally.

No Problem! Here's our chase vehicle and supply wagon.
As you can see from this New Year's Day pic, the race prep is almost complete!
Ok, well at least the motor is nearly ready!Perhaps "nearly ready" is slightly optimistic, but at least I got it to the machine shop yesterday. Pretty soon I'll have 88 smokin' horsepower to shoehorn into my wreck... er truck.

Moving right along, here's Team Phantom's invincible race vehicle!

No, that's not Photoshop, it really does say "The Phantom" on it. Yes, I do have a big head. And here it is today, as of 11AM this morning, race-ready and rarin' to go!
Anybody got a shovel?

The Phantom

Of course you realise this means war...

Gearheads of the world take note, Al Queer-da has moved from obscure head cutting swine to official pain in the ass with this latest move.  The bastards have caused the cancellation of the Dakar Rally!

Al-Qaida threats against the Dakar Rally and an attack in Mauritania forced organizers to cancel the annual race on Friday, the eve of the 5,760-mile trek across North African desert scrubland and savannah.

It was the first time the automobile, motorbike and truck rally has been called off in its 30-year history. In a statement, organizers blamed "threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations." the Dec. 24 killings of a French family and international tensions.

Yep, the sons of camel crap gunned down a whole family on Christmas Eve while they were having a picnic beside the road.  Also blew up a UN office in Algiers on Dec. 11th (they love numbers, eh?) and killed 37 people.

Patrice Clerc, who heads the company that organizes the rally, told The Associated Press the threats against the rally came from al- Qaida's North Africa wing. He said the French government warned explicitly that the race was threatened but did not share its intelligence.

"Yes, we perhaps bowed to terrorism but our company today does not have the right to run this risk for all those people who trust it," Clerc added. "We don't have the right to play games with safety."

This is true.  You boys grabbed your freakin' ankles for 'em.  Not a proud moment for Europe, France in particular.

On the one hand, it would be stupid to get killed over a car race.  On the other hand, guys get killed in car races all the time.  Nobody goes in the Dakar Rally thinking its going to be this nice, safe walk in the park.  The Gearhead Way would be to say thanks for nothing, government of France, get gun permits from Mauritania for every man, woman and grease monkey in the entire race entourage, and GO RACING.  Its the fucking Dakar, its supposed to be dangerous.  That's the whole point of it in the first place.  Gee, maybe the French PUSSY government could send some guys too!

I daresay the noble freedom fighters who bravely shot unarmed women and kids on Christmas Eve would bravely face 3,000 ARMED and pissed off racers and pit beasts, plus the army of Mauritania, plus maybe even some guys from the French Foreign Legion if Sarkozy actually has a pair.  Or not.  Either way, backing down from these assholes is not going to make the world a safer place. 

Fuck 'em!  Go racing.  If they stick their retarded heads up, shoot 'em off.

Crazy accident from kangaroo country.

Today's crazy accident comes to us from Down Under, courtesy the upside-down department of energy.  I knew there was a reason to clean up grinding dust, because it gets into everything, will discolour water based paints and dull wood working tools rather horribly.  But this is something I never thought of.

A safety coordinator at the Esso Oil Company plant in Longford, Australia, was using a belt grinder in his home workshop to smooth the edge of a hacksaw cut on a 2" length of 1.5" angle iron. He had been grinding for about 1.5 to 2 minutes when there was a loud "THUMP" accompanied by an approximately 2-foot diameter brilliant yellow orange fireball. The fireball lasted no more than 1 second and then completely extinguished itself. It completely enveloped the machine, his hands to half way up his forearms, and the front of his torso.

I'll spare you the gory details.  The guy got burnt a bit, needless to say.  Good thing he was wearing his glasses, eh?

Now, what on earth makes a belt grinder explode? 

Nothing on the bench was burning. A few streaks of white powder were deposited on the bench top and on a few items lying on the bench. The workshop was filled with dense white smoke with very little odor.

Hmm, white powder?  White Smoke?  The plot thickens!  One last piece of info is missing.

A few days before the event, the man's son had ground the heads off about twelve aluminum pop rivets.

Aluminum makes a belt grinder explode?  Yes it does my friends!  Aluminum dust plus grinding dust from steel makes thermite.  Add a bunch of heat from grinding sparks, and POOF goes your eyebrows.  The good news is that thermite is very difficult to get going.  This poor guy's loss of eyebrows was pretty fluky.  But if you grind a lot of steel and a lot of aluminum...

So all you hot rodder slobs like myself who work with steel AND aluminum, get busy with the vacuum cleaner.  The facial hair you save may be your own.

The "but am I paranoid enough?" Phantom

HRC, the gauntlet is cast! Right in their teeth too.

Mark Steyn has a new post up at his blog regarding his upcoming hearing before one of our Human Rights Commission tribunals , and may I say that the battle is surely joined.

Here's my bottom line: I don't accept that free-born Canadian citizens need the permission of the Canadian state to read my columns. What's offensive is not the accusations of Dr Elmasry and his pals, but the willingness of Canada's pseudo-courts to take them seriously. So I couldn't care less about the verdict - except insofar as an acquittal would be more likely to bolster the cause of those who think it's entirely reasonable for the state to serve as editor-in-chief of privately owned magazines. As David Warren put it, the punishment is not the verdict but the process.

That is the kind of talk I like to hear from targets of Liberal persecution.  Bring. It. On.
The ladies and gentlemen of the Canadian Conservative Party should be moving to forward this battle with all possible speed.  Go git 'em boys 'n girls!

The Phantom

Wind power done RIGHT!

Ahhh, now this is how you do wind power.

"To latch onto the powerful winds prevailing well above the surface, the kite attached to the high-tech steerage unit flies up to 300 meters high to tug the 10,000-tonne ship forward, supporting its diesel engines and cutting fuel consumption.  Under favorable wind conditions, the 160-square meter kite shaped like a paraglider is expected to reduce fuel costs by up to 20 percent or more ($1,600 per day)..."

Wind power that saves money, what a freakin' concept.  One problem, the damn kite costs $750,000 so they are going to have to have about 15 months of days under "sail" to break even.  MV Beluga might want to work on that part a bit.

Incidentally, the above two sentences are about all the useful information in the article.  MV Beluga attaches kites to freighters, and saves them 20% on gas.  The whole rest of the article is "carbon footprint" and  climate change bollocks.

I don't care.  My container gets across the ocean  20% cheaper, I save twenty bucks on a $100 item.  (Yes, I know its not that simple.  But ultimately, cost reductions end up in consumer pockets.)  Added bonus, less actual pollution gets spewed into the air.  You know, poisonous gases.  The kind nobody ever seems to talk about anymore, but have not gone away.  I don't want to smell fartfull sulfur dioxide any more than the next guy, so here's a way to cut it by 20% and make money, not lose it.  Awesome!

The Fartfull Phantom

Mechanical component to wound healing discovered.

Fun facts, sometimes when you get a cut and it scars up the scar keeps on scar-ing and end up making a fascial adhesion, sometimes leading to fibrosis.  New discovery announced today gives a little insight into the process.  The interesting thing is that a purely mechanical component to the pathway is mentioned.  Basically growth hormone is released for cell activity by pulling on the fibers being created.Fascinating article.  Read it!  ~:D

The Myofascial Phantom

Only in Canada you say? Pity.

Some things have happened this last week I thought you should be aware of.

First, the natives are restless in Caledonia.  Not the Six Nations idiots, I mean the people who live in Caledonia.  Seems that illegal smoke shops (as in more than one) have been springing up along Highway Six in the occupied Douglas Creek Estates confusion zone.  People in Caledonia don't like it because its illegal, blocks traffic and is an eyesore.  December 1st they had a  demonstration in front of one.  Not the first time residents have staged a demonstration, but it IS the first time 200 OPP cops didn't show up.  This time they sent eight (8).  Predictably, the noble Six Nations Protesters punched out fat, diabetic old Gary McHale who frankly looks about as dangerous as a fire hydrant. 

The other casualty happened when the OPP tackled and seriously injured a resident with a video camera.  You know, before he captured somebody doing something they shouldn't be, like Indians shoving and hitting the cops while the cops ignored them and faced the residents who were NOT shoving and/or hitting anyone.  But there's still video of Gary McHale getting attacked from behind though.  Walking away too.  That's not going to play well in court I bet, when the noble Six Nations Protesters try to get McHale charged with assault.  Love those camcorders.  OPP Chief Fantino was rumored to be blaming McHale for assaulting Clyde Powless's fist with his face, Gary says he's going to cooperate only with the RCMP, not the OPP.  Good luck with that, Gary.

Second, last week Toronto had its 80th murder.  That's getting near a new Hogtown record I think.  The record may be broken this year, I heard they found a 7/11 attendant stabbed to death this morning.  On the bright side, more victims were bludgeoned and/or hacked to death compared to 2005.  According to the mayor, "Fearless Leader" Dave Miller, that's a cause for celebration.

So things are not looking great in Ontario, "Yours To Duck and Cover", from a policing standpoint.  What then are the Great Minds in Queens Park doing about this?  Its a beauty, believe me.  Check it out:

The provincial gun regulator will begin inspecting the homes of older gun owners in Toronto to ensure they are storing their firearms safely, an initiative one sporting association said amounts to "harassing" seniors.  Ontario's Chief Firearms Office says it is responding to concerns raised by Toronto police, which have in the past been called to the homes of gun owners who had either died or been hospitalized and did not have their registered firearms securely stored.

Yep.  Going to go check up on Grandma and Grandpa, make sure them eeeevile shootin' irons ain't lying around where they could jump up and stab a convenience store clerk.  That's what Metro police are going to be doing for the next little while.  Can't be too careful about them old geezers, they're friggin' dangerous.


Thought you'd like to know, eh?

The Phantom

DemocRats: Party of the rich?!

Say what?!

In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats.

He also found that more than half of the wealthiest households were concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats hold both Senate seats.

The Democrat Party, best politicians money can buy!

The Phantom

Serious Chinese toy issue. Parents, listen up.

A toy made in China has been found to have a lot more wrong with it that
a little lead paint. Check this out.
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071107.wchinatoy1107/BNStory/International/home>

> Australia announced a nationwide ban on Wednesday on a Chinese-made
> toy which investigations showed contained a chemical which metabolizes
> into a "date rape" style drug when swallowed.
>
> The ban across Australia's six states and two territories came after
> three children became severely ill after they swallowed the toy beads
> called Bindeez.
>
> Toy importer Moose Enterprise issued a voluntary recall of Bindeez,
> named Australia's 2007 Toy of the Year, saying some batches of the
> beads did not match the approved formula.
>
This toy is being marketed in Canada and the US as Aquadots. Its on
kid's TV all the time. Here's the poop:
>
> Three Australian children suffered seizures and needed intensive
> hospital care in the past two weeks after eating the plastic beads,
> which scientists discovered contain a chemical that breaks down into a
> potentially fatal recreational drug.
>
> Ms. Burney said an investigation was under way into how the dangerous
> chemical 1,4-butanediol came to replace the safe chemical
> 1,5-pentanediol in the manufacturing process.
>
> "The issue of how a dangerous substance was used in these beads and
> not the non-toxic substance ... that is going to take us a few more
> days to uncover," she said.
>
I think now would be the time to */not/* buy toys that say "Made in
China" on them. A wee bit of lead paint, ok whatever, don't let the kid
eat the ALL the paint off the thing. But this here, this is a whole new
level of Chicoms not giving a shit.

Bottom line, if it's made in China there's a good chance its hinkey.
'Nuff said.

The Phantom (who ain't buying any more Chicom made toys, Mr. Walmart sir.)

A little good news on cancer for a change

Disclaimer first, this is an experimental drug showing good results in mice.  Not humans.

A new study of an estrogen-derived drug shows promise as a treatment for breast cancer and breast cancer metastases to bone.

The study, which was done in mice, appears on the cover of the November issue of Cancer Research.

[snippage]

In studies of other cancers, 2ME2 has been shown to induce cancer cells to self-destruct. Otherwise, tumor cells evade this process allowing them to continually divide and spread throughout the body.

Clinical trials of 2ME2 for breast cancer patients are in progress. These trials are based on an oral version of 2ME2 to treat primary tumors, but this method has limitations as the oral version of 2ME2 is poorly suited to getting into the blood system and reaching tumors. Researchers resolved this problem by delivering 2ME2 by injection and found it was much more effective.

[more snippage]

Researchers described 2ME2 as an “attractive candidate for controlling tumor growth, metastasis to bone and bone disorders,” such as osteolysis caused by the spread of breast cancer.

“This is potentially of very substantial importance because this agent has few of the unpleasant side effects of most chemotherapy drugs and targets both bone resorption and the cancerous tumor cells,” Turner said. “It really is the first agent that has been clearly demonstrated to do that.”

So there you go, some nice hopeful info for you to balance off the land slide of daily bullshit.  If the stuff is in drug trials in one form and it passes, it could end up on the market in the other form as well assuming no deal breaking side effects crop up.  Like extra nose syndrome!  When something shows good results like this they sometimes fast track the hell out of it.

The Bony Phantom