Friday - January 02, 2009

Interesting article for the gun fans among us…

New technique lifts fingerprints from cleaned guns - gizmag.com

Wiping the gun clean has long been considered best practice for villains but may soon become a quaint custom as researchers have developed a way to ‘visualise fingerprints’ even after the print itself has been removed by measuring the corrosion of the surface by deposits from the fingerprints. The technique can enhance – after firing– a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small calibre metal cartridge case before it is fired. The technique promises the ability to reopen many cases and solve cold cases around the world because the “underlying print never disappears” according to the scientists.

The Forensic Research Centre at the University of Leicester (UK) develops new ways of taking evidence from a crime scene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_scene . Already world-leading in such areas as using X-Rays or electrically charging metal surfaces for fingerprint enhancement , they have now developed an entirely new way of detecting fingerprints – great fodder for Crime Scene Investigation fans … and one that could realistically result in thousands of cold cases being reopened around the world.

Forensic scientists at the University of Leicester, working with Northamptonshire Police, have announced a major breakthrough in crime detection which could lead to hundreds of cold cases being reopened.

Dr John Bond, Honorary Fellow at the University of Leicester and Scientific Support Manager at Northamptonshire Police said: “For the first time we can get prints from people who handled a cartridge before it was fired.”

“Wiping it down, washing it in hot soapy water makes no difference - and the heat of the shot helps the process we use.

“The procedure works by applying an electric charge to a metal - say a gun or bullet - which has been coated in a fine conducting powder, similar to that used in photocopiers.

“Even if the fingerprint has been washed off, it leaves a slight corrosion on the metal and this attracts the powder when the charge is applied, so showing up a residual fingerprint.

“The technique works on everything from bullet casings to machine guns. Even if heat vaporises normal clues, police will be able to prove who handled a particular gun.”

A bit more at the link. Stumbled across this as it was posted at FreeRepublic and wanted to share this interesting article with the BMEWS gun fans. 

Posted by Severa     on 01/02/2009 at 02:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Guns and Gun Control •  
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A TEN MILLION DOLLAR CAR FOUND COLLECTING DUST IN A LOCKED GARAGE. OH MAN! WHAT A CAR!

I have never been an auto mechanic or mechanically inclined.  But I have always been car crazy.  I love the older ones especially.  Like the 37 CORD.
I’m gonna stop here because if I start naming all the cars I am mad for, the list might get too long to read.

I once bought two cars at once because I couldn’t make my mind up between two different makes. I see em as mobile sculptures. Some are works of art too.
You may not agree but I think the 62, 63 and 64 T-Birds are classics. I had a 62 and a 64. Not at the same time though.  Hey, once upon a distant past I was young, single, not too smart about money and let me tell you, credit was sooooooooo eeeeeasssssssssssssy to get in So. Calif. and especially for cars.
Another time folks.
Would I do that again today if the wife’d let me?
YOU BETCHA!  CARS,CAMERAS,COMPUTERS!  Oh yeah ... BOOKS!  Tons of books.

The eccentric uncle who left a garage in his will… containing a $10 MILLION Bugatti supercar

By Chris Brooke
Last updated at 11:44 PM on 01st January 2009

When eccentric doctor and compulsive hoarder Harold Carr died at the age of 89, his relatives faced a daunting task to sort through his possessions.

His home was packed with piles of medical machinery, 1,500 beer steins, thousands of receipts and even a World War Two spy drone.

But all the effort became worth it when they opened the door of his garage - and struck gold.

Inside they found a 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, one of only 17 ever made.

The historic automobile with only 26,284 miles on the clock still has 99 per cent of its original parts.

It will be sold in Paris next month and is strongly tipped to surpass the £4.7million world record for a car at auction.

Auctioneers have put a reserve price of £3million on a two-seater described as one of the ‘ultimate road-going sports cars from the golden era of the 1930s’.

And despite the credit crunch it could fetch anything up to £6million.

Fifteen of the 17 Type 57S Atalantes still exist. This particular model was originally owned by Earl Howe, a leading figure in the early days of British motor sport.

It has a 3.3-litre, eightcylinder engine, four- speed manual gearbox, can reach 60mph in ten seconds and has a top speed of 130mph.

Dr Carr, an orthopaedic surgeon who served as an army doctor during World War Two and also became a keen flier, bought the vehicle in 1955 for £895 - the equivalent of £15,500 today.

He drove it for a few years before leaving it in the garage near his home at Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. The last tax disc expired in December 1960.

He never married and eight relatives are to share the proceeds of his estate.

A nephew, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: ‘We knew he had some cars, but we had no idea what they were.

‘It was a bit of local folklore that he had a Bugatti, but no one knew for sure. It’s worth so much because he hasn’t used it for 50 years. It was one of the original supercars.

‘When it was built it could reach 130mph at a time when other cars could only do 50mph. Of course we are delighted and we’re going to make sure the money is shared out among the family. It’s a wonderful thing to leave.’

He described his uncle as ‘a very eccentric old gent’, adding: ‘I suppose you could call him a mad doctor. People who saw him in the street thought he was a tramp. He would wear two pairs of trousers at the same time.

(BMEWS, GO TO THE LINK BELOW TO SEE ENLARGEMENT OF THIS FOR EASY READ. FASCINATING STUFF.)

‘All the children would laugh at him in the street when he tinkered with his cars because he wore a piece of rubber tube round his head to stop the oil getting in his hair. But he was always such a generous man.’

In his later years Dr Carr suffered from a form of obsessive compulsive disorder and hoarded everything in the house he refused to leave.

Files were piled 6ft high at his detached home, including even receipts for pencils bought in the 1950s.

‘Since he died, it has taken me 18 months to get where I am today,’ said the nephew.  ‘There was an awful lot to sort out with his house.’

A classic Aston Martin was found in another garage and sold for ‘tens of thousands’, but an E-type Jaguar was in such a poor state that it had to be scrapped.

Over the years Dr Carr resisted many offers to buy the Bugatti.

When his property was cleared dozens of notes from would-be buyers were found inside.

‘People must have known because he got letters from all over the country,’ his nephew said.

‘He got notes pushed through his door. People travelled from all over to try and convince him to sell the car.’

James Knight, international head of the Bonhams motoring department, said Dr Carr’s Bugatti was ‘one of the last great barn discoveries’.

He added: ‘I have known of this Bugatti for a number of years and, like a select group of others, hadn’t dared divulge its whereabouts to anyone. It offers a truly rewarding project to the new owner - who will join a select list of distinguished owners - to play such an integral part in bringing this wonderful motor car back to life.’

The current auction record of £4.7million was paid in 1987 in London for another Bugatti, a 1931 Royale.

BUGATTI

Posted by peiper     on 01/02/2009 at 11:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
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Icicle sculpture created by cars.  Nature at work and looking pretty.

I’m usually a bit earlier.  It’s almost 4pm here and it’s been a nice day if you weren’t cursing your puter software.  In this case my Kodak EasyShare.
Hmmm. All depends on what you mean by ... all together now ...  Easy Share huh?  And I have the new improved upgrade version.  Yeah.  When it locks up my computer, it’s stays locked longer then it did before.
Then I get that message that tells me the program isn’t responding.  Well Duh!  I know that.

Oh right the posting here. You don’t need to be bored with that other stuff.  That’s what Drew is for if I can find where he’s hiding. lol

Just thought this was different enough and nice enough to start my new year posting.  Not to worry though.  Things are still nasty out there and I’ll get to it all real soon.

This icicle sculpture might look magical but there is a natural explanation for it.

By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 12:56PM GMT 02 Jan 2009

It has been created by cars splashing through a puddle and shooting water on to the branches of a tree.

As the water ran off it created scores of icicles and has formed an ice sculpture.

The 10 foot-high icicles were created on the outskirts of Skelmersdale in Lancashire.

They are a beautiful reminder of just how cold the start to the year has been.

Temperatures dropped as low as 25F (-4C) in northern England on the night of New Year’s Eve, while they struggled to top 41F (5C) in parts on New Year’s Day.

The weather is set to remain cold for the next few days, according to the Met Office. Snow and sleet are forecast to fall across swathes of Britain on Sunday and Monday.

Much of the cold weather Britain has had in recent days is due to fronts which have originated in Russia, where temperatures have been bitterly cold.

In Oymyakon, in Siberia, temperatures plunged to -90F (-68C) at the beginning of December.

ICE

Posted by peiper     on 01/02/2009 at 10:39 AM   
Filed Under: • UK •  
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   Thursday - January 01, 2009

Better get some untaxed income…

Welcome to the Obama economy!

There’ll never be another Ron Moody!

Posted by Christopher     on 01/01/2009 at 08:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Humor •  
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Great minds thinking alike

Heck, this even reads like I wrote it. This one gets the Seal of Approval.

Go read. You will enjoy! Bloody Vikings.

Ok, had I written it, there would have been 11 entries, not 10. Just so I could include the venerable and still awesome to this day .45-70. It being the only 130 plus years old military round designed to eliminate enemies and their organic 4x4s (ie horses) out to about half a mile, that has been and still is chambered for rifles, carbines, machine guns, revolvers, single shot hunting pistols, and derringers. DERRINGERS! And there is just about nothing walking on earth that a factory-wimp-loaded .45-70 can’t drill a 3/4” diameter hole through, from one end to the other. For the 6 remaining critters that are exceptions to the “just about nothing” list, the .45-70 can be hand loaded to amazingly pachydermalethal levels. Almost all the .45-70s being made today are stubby little no-weight lever action cowboy guns. Combine the amazing inertia of a cartridge that throws a bullet roughly twice the weight of most other bullets with a flyweight little rifle, and you have recoil generator that is really a testosterone level field test kit. It doesn’t take a manly man to pull the trigger once, but it takes a manly man to pull that trigger for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th time. Not that there would ever really be need to do that in a hunting situation. 

Posted by Drew458     on 01/01/2009 at 02:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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Playing by the rules

I will be doing a bit more gun posting this year. Artsy gun porn when I find it, range reports when I can make them, updates on all the dumb laws and bills when I learn about them. It won’t be a daily thing, but I hope to drop at least one per week. We’ll see.

I’m going through the pistol permit application here in NJ right now, and it is both easier and harder than I figured. But once I get it, I have to figure out what to buy. I’ve decided to approach it as if I’ve never done this before, just for fun. I got the forms and filled them all out honestly. I already asked the state cop who did my paperwork all the naive questions. I found out he processes about 90 applications a year, which isn’t very many since his area covers about 9 small towns around here. He shares the duty with another officer, so my guess is less than 200 people a year go through this. I’m also guessing the population of all those little towns might total 10-15,000 people. But the permits don’t expire in NJ (though you do get only 90 days to buy something), so over the years the numbers add up.

When I finally did meet with him - it took almost a month to match our schedules - he said mine was his 3rd session that day. I put on my special I-live-under-a-rock face and asked the young fellow if he’s seen a surge in applications since early November? “Are you kidding? I’ve done more of these in the past 2 months than in the whole year before that. People think this new guy is going to outlaw all the guns. I don’t think it’s gonna happen ... well, not in his first term at least; he’s gonna be too busy with other stuff.” I said that I’d been thinking about it for some years, but that was my motivating factor as well.

So we’ll see how it goes. I’ve made my appointment for digital fingerprinting next week. After that it’s just a matter of waiting for the reports to come back from the FBI and the state background check folks. Then I have to figure out what to purchase. Right now I have to go pick up another little $2 money order, because I can get more than one pistol purchase card on this background check iteration. If I wait another week, or more, then I’ll have to pay another $18 for another background investigation. At least I can get a 90 day extension for free; buying 2 guns inside 90 days is a bit more cash than I can budget. Thinking the officer’s statement about the 2nd investigation through, I gather this means my fingerprints will be staying in the system. I’m not thrilled with that, even if they go in some other “non-criminal” file. Just so long as my face doesn’t appear in some CSI episode as they use their magic cop-puter to do a multi-point match on a set of fingerprints in 3 seconds against a database of 70 million records.

I’m sort of leaning towards a very small pistol right now. Something small and light and not too expensive. Perhaps that Bersa Thunder, or the little Ruger or Kel-tech .380s that are almost the same. If I buy a 2nd one, it will likely be a .22 for practice. Something for semi-serious target work. I have to do my research there; my knowledge of .22 pistols is about 25 years out of date. I gather a Colt Woodsman doesn’t cost $75 anymore ... hell, it ain’t even made anymore I think. So maybe a Ruger Mk I? Heck, they’re up to Mk III on that model. I’ve got to do some research! Good thing I’ve got 3-5 months to do that before the permit comes through [/sarcasm].

Posted by Drew458     on 01/01/2009 at 11:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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