Joe Kissel is back from summer vacation and blogging again at Interesting Thing of the Day. This is one of my favorite blogs, which I have been reading since...I don't remember when. One of the first blogs I ever started checking on a regular basis, anyway. Here's a sample of a recent post, Paris Catacombs:

Beyond that sign was another world--and one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. What at first appeared to be walls built of small stones were in fact huge, orderly piles of human bones. Tibias and femurs by the thousands were stacked neatly, interspersed with rows of skulls, which were sometimes arranged very artistically in a cross or other pattern. There were no intact skeletons; the goal of the arrangement had clearly been maximum compactness. I could only assume that the ribs, spines, and other bones filled in the spaces behind the walls of large leg bones. Most of the stacks of bones rose to a height of about 5 ft. (1.5m), and while some were just a couple of yards deep, there was at least one area where the bones stretched back for a good 20 yards (18m), as you could see from the narrow gap left on top. The tunnels of bones stretched on and on; many side passages were blocked with locked gates, but even the path designated for tourists was about a mile (1.5km) long.

The bones began accumulating in the catacombs in 1786, just as momentum for the Revolution was building in Paris. Real estate was scarce while the cemeteries were becoming severely overcrowded. The government decided to reclaim the large swaths of land used for cemeteries by relocating the remains of the departed citizens to the empty limestone quarries, whose tunnels were at that time on the outskirts of town. The process of disinterring the bones from the cemeteries, moving them solemnly into the quarries, and arranging them there took several decades. No attempt was made to identify or separate individual bodies, but each set of bones was marked with a plaque signifying the cemetery they came from and the year in which they were moved. By the time the relocation was finished in 1860, an estimated five to six million skeletons had been moved to the catacombs.

A firearm accessory which I recently purchased came with a brochure for United States Concealed Carry Association. According to their website, they are only about a year old (relatively new). Right at the top of their home page is everyone's favorite quote by Robert Heinlein, "An armed society is a polite society." There's a free weekly email report (membership not required), and their magazine costs $40 for 8 issues per year (but as with most subscriptions, there's a special offer to save money if you buy 3 years at once). Besides the magazine, members also get a quarterly email newsletter. They are also sponsoring a gun giveaway, the prize being a NAA Guardian in the caliber of your choice.

I had never heard of this organization before, but so far it looks pretty good, with their magazine focusing exclusively on concealed carry tactics and issues.

Each issue contains a profile of an individual person-on-the-street who has chosen to carry concealed, an article from the "woman's perspective," a gun review, gear review, and true stories of self defensive gun use, as well as other articles. The website has some sample articles available in pdf format. (I am having problems actually downloading them, which could be a problem on my end, so I can't comment on them right now. Maybe later).

Anyway, it looks like a interesting magazine and organization, and I thought I should mention it.

UPDATE: Here are some favorable comments I found at Packing.org. By the way, I think this is the first website I've ever visited that uses the .us domain. Not that it's significant. It's just that I knew this domain existed but I think this the first time I personally have ever seen it used.