Tanks for the Memories...

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist the title...

So, last weekend I met up with OldNFO at the Americans In Wartime Museum open house. He introduced me to Prof. Hale and his lovely bride, and the five of us (TheBoy came along as well) wandered around looking at all the goodies...

CAUTION: PICTURE INTENSIVE POST FOLLOWS...

---

Like these Jeeps:

---

Or these armored vehicles:

---

Some miscellaneous vehicles:

(the dune buggy was TheBoy's favorite)

There were soldier-based displays:

---

This awesome Lego display (this was TheBoy's favorite):

---

A sweet sidecar hack:

---

And this:

That's a recovered NYFD truck from Ground Zero. Puts things in perspective, and made me glad I was around a bunch of machine guns...

---

A fun time was had by all, even TheBoy.

That is all.

Yes, I Need One Of These...

I am such a geek...

I *HOWLED* at this:

Then again, I'm such a geek I thought "What if it was during Pon Farr? Huh???". I do need this shirt, though. If for no other reason than to threaten my children with wearing it out in public...

Yeah. Definitely a geek.

That is all.

A Pop-Up I'd Consider...

Why oh why is this not available in the states?

UEV 490 Conqueror Australia’s Versatile Off Road Camping Trailer

An off road camping trailer can be used for just about any adventure you can think of.

It’s the perfect vehicle add-on to conquer the terrain around you.

It’s a breed between an off-road teardrop trailer and a pop-up camper.

Check this out:



We owned a popup trailer for many years, finally upgrading to a 25' travel trailer right around the time MArooned was started. Popups are great starter camping units, but come with a number of downsides. First, it's hard to store anything long-term. You can't access the interior easily, so anything that's inside the camper is going to stay there. Secondly, over time the canvas tears, sags, gets wet, and otherwise just doesn't lend itself to standing up to the elements. What it does have going for it is simplicity: it's easy to tow, maneuver, and store for the winter.

The travel trailer was a definite step up. One of the most gratifying moments in our trailer came the first year, when we hit a three day stretch of serious rain while camping. Previous outings in the popup would most likely have ended the second day - two little kids in a tiny (10' floor) popup in the rain is a recipe for disaster. The travel trailer handled foul weather perfectly - it never leaked, we could watch movies or play games in bad weather, and if we decided to button it up and go see a movie for the afternoon we didn't have to worry about sleeping on soggy mattresses that night.

But it had downsides, too. The size was difficult to get used to maneuvering - and this is a 26' trailer, not one of the monstrous 35' bunkhouses. Every winter it had to be winterized to keep the pipes from freezing and covered to keep snow from building up or water getting in to freeze. It also requires a full-size vehicle to tow - the Earthf**ker handled it great, but it also has a 8,000 pound towing capacity and a 390 HP V8.

This trailer looks interesting, though. I don't know that I'd want to try to get all four of us into it, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun for two people. There's plenty of awnings if you wanted to spend a week somewhere, and lots of interior storage that can be accessed all the time for keeping gear at the ready.

Or, we might just stick with staying in hotels for the "big" vacations and sleeping in tents when we want to go camping...

That is all.

Yet ANOTHER Upside to Living in VA...

I'm about half an hour from here:

Udvar-Hazy Center

So, my wife's sister came for a visit this past weekend, and since Udvar-Hazy is only about a half-hour away (and free, other than parking), we decided to head there for the morning. Her daughter is 7 and a fan of things that fly, so it was was a natural fit. Me, I was all-too-eager to head back to the center, having been there twice before, once with a good friend in 2002, once with my family and OldNFO (which, if you can swing it, totally ROCKS. NFO gives a good tour...)

Anyhoo, onto the pics!

My favorite plane, the SR-71 Blackbird

Off to the wild [gray] yonder

Shot of the floor - pretty packed!

Ongoing restoration project; not sure what it was.

Space Shuttle Discovery. You don't realize how beat up these things get...

This is the blistering technology used to put man in space...

This was really cool. The plaque reads: "To mark man's first landing on the moon the boomerang, the first aerodynamic shape conceived by man."

Way too cool.

Gossamer Albatross. First human-powered aircraft.

Danger zone!

Yeah, it was a good weekend...

That is all.

Too Cool For School...

Actually, this was at a school. Scribbler was kind enough to send in a few shots from an interesting sight on his campus the other day...

Ecto1

 

Time-Traveling Delorean

Very cool stuff - thanks Scribbler!

That is all.

Something Neat

Brad_in_MA sends this along. Kinda neat...



Shalom and prosper.

That is all.

I Know That Dude!

Linoge was kind enough to send along this link. He spotted the Dragon Leatherworks banner in an episode of NCIS:

(picture courtesy of Linoge and his screencap skillz)

There's some other cool stuff in the works. I am sworn to secrecy for now, but as events warrant, stay tuned and Dennis or I (or Linoge, as the case may be) will let you know.

I love it when good things happen to good people!

That is all.

Say WHAT?

#1 Blogdaughter sends in this story, which is not only very cool and promising, but could actually help, well, pretty much everyone in our tribe...

Researchers discover potential cure for noise-induced hearing loss

Noise-induced hearing loss has the potential to be reversed, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School.

Hearing loss affects close to 50 million people in the United States and prolonged exposure to very loud noises is one of the most common forms of auditory loss. Currently, there are no known treatments to restore noise-related hearing loss, which is caused by the destruction of sensory hair cells in the cochlea - the auditory component of the inner ear.

Hmmm. Let's see. I shoot. Check. Ride a motorcycle. Check. Perform acts of lawn maintenance involving gasoline-powered equipment. Check. Yeah, I'm pretty much hitting the trifecta of hearing loss - about the only thing I could do worse would be to take up playing the drums. I kinda like the idea that before I lose my hearing entirely there may be a treatment for deafness.

Imagine that. Imagine that we could find a cure for deafness. How flippin' sweet would that be? Parents that have never heard their children's voices could finally hear "But I didn't DO anything!" 150 times a day (can you tell TheBoy is in *that* stage?). The implications are pretty neat, too - if they can restore hearing, what else can they restore?

And of course, I am intrigued about the possibility of actual, science-based hair cell regeneration...

That is all.

Something Really Cool...

One of my fellow editors here at Shooting Illustrated is about as big a sci-fi buff as your humble host, and he's also a might fair amateur gunsmith. He took it upon himself to create a working version of an iconic movie prop, and he details his adventure here:

Building a Live-Ammo-Firing Han Solo Blaster

Go read the whole article. It's well-worth the few minutes to read about this labor of love. And the gun's pretty darn neat, too:

Yeah. Han Solo's blaster brought to life. Pretty darn cool.

Now if I can convince him to make Captain Mal's sidearm...

That is all.

Reading Material...

So, look what arrived in the mail yesterday?

Yes, that's the first installment in what I hope will be a long and successful franchise from someone I'm proud to call my friend. Marko was kind enough to send along the first two books, signed of course:

So I have signed copies of most of my friends' books: Kathy Jackson, Ambulance Driver, Larry Correia, and others. Marko's new books are added to the list, and I have two excellent novels to read just as we finish unpacking. Life is good.

BTW, if you haven't already, you really should go buy both books. Two or three copies each, really. Plus the Kindle, Nook, and eBook versions too. Marko is single-handedly keeping upper Cryogenica gun stores in business, and I hear he's the reason that .22LR is in such short supply...

I hear there are some characters I might recognize in these novels, too. Can't wait to sit down and read through them. I'm a throwback; I just can't get into electronic books. I like the feel of paper under my fingers; I like using a bookmark to measure my progress. It's not the same thing swiping my finger across my iPad.

Thanks again, Marko!

That is all.

Awesomeness At SHOT...

This was too good not to share. This, folks, is how you do marketing...

That is the "Tactical Velociraptor" at the booth of Blue Force Gear. What a great idea, and a wonderful piece of marketing. It does exactly what good marketing should do - it gets people talking about your booth, and motivates them to go to the booth, all without schwag that has to be replenished and/or rationed out.

For more SHOT Show coverage, check out  Shooting Illustrated's Facebook page (/end shameless plug)...

That is all.

Holy Fast Origami, Batman!

Now this, this is someone with WAY too much time on their hands...

Guys Makes Lamborghini Aventador For Just 500 Dollars

Taras Lesko from Seattle has built a mind-blowing replica of the Lamborghini Aventador solely out of printing paper and cardboard. However, he is not new to such ingenious builds.
...
In its building process, he cut 720 pages into 1250 shapes. After that he took a two years break. Only very recently, he has made Lamborghini Aventador sports car from paper and cardboard which looks amazingly real.

This really is pretty neat:

A life-size Lamborghini for under a grand? Not a bad deal at all, except it's a little hard to use it to pick up Hollywood starlets if you're doing the Fred Flinstone deal to get it moving, that is...

The maintenance on this one, though, is a lot less than the real thing - just don't leave it out in the rain!

That is all.