Category: Things That Annoy Me…

A Short Rant On Facebook

I see at least a dozen or so people everyday complaining about Facebook censorship.

Folks, FarceBook is a technology platform built and maintained by a business. YOU are allowed access because YOU signed an agreement giving them use of YOUR data (your data is their most lucrative product) and giving them the right to censor anything they see fit. If you don’t like the way they run their business platform, YOU can vote with your feet and leave. Go to MeWe or Parler or any one of a number of alternate platforms. Zuckerberg and his crew only wield the amount of power they do only so long as YOU allow them to by using their platform.

Take care and God bless.

Fact Checking: It’s Fundamental

Journalists and scientists should be rigorous about fact checking themselves. If you want respect or to be taken seriously don’t make stupid statements that could easily be fact checked.

Here is one recent example (link):

Really?

A projectile from a sling as deadly and having the same stopping force as a .44 Magnum?

I seriously doubt that. But you see this is where fact checking comes into play. Rather than just discount this on face value let’s see what the facts say.

In the article itself the ballistic stats for a .44 Magnum are shared

Velocity: 1475 fps (450 meters/second)

Energy: 1,160 fps (1,570 joules)

One relevant piece of information for this equation is missing, the weight of the projectile. So, I can’t exactly fact check those specific numbers. What I can do is (gasp) a little research on my own. Something every journalist and scientist should do for themselves.

Hornady’s .44 Magnum XTP load gives the following information (link):

Projectile Weight: 240 Grains

Velocity: 1350 fps

Energy: 971 ft/lb

I verified these numbers using a third party ballistic app (link) and they are correct. This is a little less than the stats shared in the article so let’s look at a more powerful loading, the Heavy Magnum .44 +P+ from Buffalo Bore (link):

Projectile Weight: 340 Grains

Velocity: 1425 fps

Energy: 1533 ft/lb

Again, I verified the math myself using the ballistic app. So, the data in the article on the power (energy) of a .44 Magnum is within the realm of possibility, even if they don’t share all the relevant data.

So, how about these super powerful Roman slings? Other than claims of being as powerful as Dirty Harry’s round of choice they don’t take the trouble to share any of the math that lead to this conclusion. So, we will have to do a little legwork based on what they did share.

Note: I am sure they did this and didn’t just make something up, that would be unethical for scientists and journalists, right?

In the article is states that the projectiles could reach up to 100 mph and weighed around 30 grams. So, now we need to do some conversions so we can compare apples to apples.

100 mph = 147 fps (rounding up to give the “smart people” the benefit of the doubt)

30 grams = 463 grains (again rounding up)

Going back to our handy dandy ballistic app we plug these number in and calculate the energy.

Drumroll please!

22 ft/lbs

Now, I am too old to have been taught all the fancy, dancy new math, but back in the stone age 22 wasn’t anywhere close to 971 (on the low end), 1160 (provided in the article or 1533 (on the high end).

So, what cartridge would the slingshot compare to in power?

None…

Even the .22 Long Rifle clocks in around 1235 fps with a 40 grain projectile delivering 140 ft/lbs of energy which is over six times more powerful than the sling fired projectile. Even the lowly .25 ACP, the lowest powered cartridge I could come up with clocks in at 900 fps with a 35 grain projectile and 63 ft/lbs of energy. Still almost three times the energy of the sling powered projectile.

Hardly, a weapon that would “take the top of your head off.”

Two key takeaways here:

    • Always fact check what your data, especially if you are a scientist or journalist
    • Never bring a sling to a gunfight

Take care and God bless!

Oh please, please, please let’s give the Federal government more power!

We filed our taxes like good citizens just before the deadline last year. We are notified that the return should be processed soon and we can expect our refund in nine weeks…

The IRS put a hold on our account for suspected identity theft. I find out about that by calling into to see what the dealio is and why we haven’t received a refund in the nine weeks. So, I take time off work to go into the office back in September to prove we are who we say we are and that it was indeed our tax return. I was assured we would have our refund in 9 weeks.

After about ten weeks we receive a letter saying that we never filed a tax return last year and that we should file immediately or call if we believe there may have been an error. I call in and wait on hold for nearly an hour only to find out that they can’t help me because they are upgrading their systems and the upgrade won’t be finished until mid-January. I can call back then.

I call in today and after two hours on the phone found out that back in September instead of being cleared to be processed the return was flagged as identity theft and removed from processing.

Supposedly, everything is OK now and the return will be returned to the processing queue and we should have the refund in 9 weeks…

More good news, the return status can no longer be tracked online since that system has been updated to only reflect returns for this year. the only way to check status is to call and wait on hold for 2-4 hours…

Yes, please, let’s put more power into the hands of the Federal government!

(and yes, that was sarcasm)

Take care and God bless.

Things That Annoy Me (#003)

Hey girl wearing the “this is not my flag t-shirt” at Walmart and paying with an EBT card, you know you can leave the anytime you want, right? There is nothing forcing you to stay. No soldiers will shoot you if you try and leave the country.

If you don’t like the country that’s paying for your groceries you don’t have to stay. I hear Venezuela is nice this time of year.

Things That Annoy Me…Bicyclists (#002)

Hey Bicyclists!

I hear a ton of you whining about how car drivers don’t see you or respect your space on the road etc. As a motorcyclist, I totally get it.

HOWEVER…

If you want to ride on the main lanes instead of the bike path a few yards over YOU also need to follow the traffic laws. You can’t gripe about others not respecting the rules of the road if you are blowing stop signs and failing to signal before turning across another vehicle’s path.

If a car blows a stop sign/stop light or turns across my lane of traffic and I hit them about the only thing likely to be hurt will be the bodywork and insurance companies. If you do it it could cost you your life!

Three times this week (and I don’t drive much) I have had a bicyclist either blow through a stop sign or turn across my path of travel. In both instance I had to slam on the brakes to avoid sending them to the hospital or the morgue. In both cases they gave ME a dirty look as if I had done something wrong.

Follow the rules of the road or stay on the bike paths!

I am commanded to love my neighbor and do my best to follow that commandment. Which is one reason to call you out on this because the next person you do that to may not be paying as much attention as I was and you could end up as a hood ornament or a speed bump.

Take care and God bless.