This past week I received a snail mail from my best friend and cohort in sci-fi/fantasy/folklore nerdism.  Hadn't heard from him in a long while, since he's been without a computer or internet access for some time.


Not only did he send a letter, but also a massive tome entitled The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla.  A pleasant surprise.  I've always thought I should have something about Tesla in my library.  I only hope the technical stuff isn't too far above my head.  Sure, I graduated from electronics tech school as the valedictorian with a 4.0, but that doesn't mean I'm up to Tesla's level.

So how did I end up a meter reader if I have an associate's degree in electronics engineering?  I spent pretty much all of the 90s putting the education to good use.  In the very same month that I made my last education loan payment, I was laid off.  I took it as a sign.  I was already completely burned out on working a bench job for several years, and I think I was going a little nutty being cooped up in a radio-proof cage for all that time.  I decided it was time to take a turn toward the kind of life most of my male ancestors lived (who I know of), and started looking for something that would keep me outside and improve my physical conditioning.  So here I am.

My father worked for the highway department pretty much all of his life.  His father and my great-grandfather were pretty much jacks-of-all-trades, doing what they had to to provide for their families.  On the other side, my other great-grandfather was a carpenter.  In fact, carpentering has been prominent on both sides of my family, but I seem to have not much talent in that area.

Anyhow, here's hoping he gets his email set up soon, and if you're reading this, I will try to write a letter back pretty soon.

Media Mythbusters comments on AP’s Bogus Ammo Shortage Story:

Reality, however, shows that the assumptions made and biases held by the Associated Press reporters may have led the story to having been built on an entirely faulty premise.

To understand the ammunition shortage being experienced by some police agencies today, we shouldn’t look at September 11, 2001, but instead, begin with February 28, 1997.

It was on that day in North Hollywood, California that Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu, two-heavily armed and armored bank robbers, engaged in a 44-minute shootout with an out-gunned Los Angeles Police Department. The two suspects fired more than 1,300 rounds of ammunition, and each was shot multiple times with police handguns. the 9mm police pistol bullets bounced off their homemade body armor. Phillips eventually died after being shot 11 times; Matasareanu died after being hit 29 times.

In the aftermath of the shootout, the LAPD, followed by police departments large and small nationwide, began to feel that rank-and-file patrol officers should be armed with semi-automatic or fully-automatic assault rifles or submachine guns in addition to their traditional sidearms, anticipating an up-tick of heavily armed and armored subjects. The trend has failed to materialize more than a decade later.

As with most trends in law enforcement, the trend towards the militarization of police patrol officers to a level once reserved for SWAT/ERT teams was slow, though one that gathered momentum rapidly after September 11, 2001.

Today, it is this increased and on-going militarization of police forces and the associated training requirements that have caused the ammunition shortages experienced by some police departments, and the lack of ammunition is not related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in any meaningful way.

The Associated Press report is not supported beyond anecdotal evidence by real, objective facts.

Lots more details at the link.

In a nutshell, the ammo shortage is not because of international conflicts.  It is because of the increased militarization of domestic police forces.

I didn't mention it at the time, because I didn't do a whole lot of anything related to blogging this week, but this past Tuesday, August 21, was H.P. Lovecraft's 117th birthday (or it would be, were he still alive).

"[Games] are, in their superior forms, simply by-products of excess intellectuality, which I haven't the honour to possess. In their inferior forms they are of course simply avenues of escape for persons with too poorly proportioned and correlated a perspective to distinguish betwixt the frivolous and the relevant ... " - H.P. Lovecraft to James F. Morton, February 3, 1932

The Escapist has a good article about Lovecraft's influence on modern gaming, from the text-based and now quaint The Lurking Horror to the recently-released Call of Cthulhu:  Dark Corners of the Earth.

Lovecraft has sparked the imaginations of countless horror enthusiasts since his death. The time you spent dreading the shadows on the wall after reading "The Call of Cthulhu" shouldn't embarrass you. You were affected, changed, by the words of a writer who knew that the shadows were more than they seemed. That night, touched by his words, you saw that there were things you didn't know and were shaken.  In a way, your love of gaming today may be because of a writer from
Providence. After all, the fun part of gaming is the mastery of the unknown, the conquering of the darkness; the stock and trade of Howard Philips Lovecraft.

Spread ant poison, overlayed it with one pass of flea and tick killer just for kicks, strategically placed a few ant traps, mowed the grass, sweated like a politically incorrect term.  Now the kids can play on their swing set again.

I need to buy more fire ant poison.  I usually use Amdro but any recommendations will be welcomed.  A couple of passes around the house twice a year keeps them at bay, but I'm behind schedule this year because of all the rain.

I'm done for the day, except for probably having to take some OTC allergy dope after mowing the grass.