by way of http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24611137-29277,00.html
we have this story
Police leave guns scattered on road
UP to 15 guns confiscated in an amnesty were strewn over a busy Geelong road after falling out of a Victorian police vehicle while being transported for destruction.
Two police officer were taking between 10 and 15 guns to the state forensic science lab in Melbourne for destruction as part of a gun amnesty.
A police spokeswoman said the car was travelling on Bacchus Marsh Road in the Geelong suburb of Corio, south-west of Melbourne shortly after 9am (AEDT) today.
"They were being transported in the back of the (Ford) Territory. For some reason which is unknown the lock has popped and the firearms have fallen out, approximately 10 to 15 assorted different firearms,'' the spokeswoman said.
"The members (police) have realised immediately and recovered the weapons off the road.
"They did a stocktake and all the guns have been accounted for, and they continued on their way to the state forensic science lab where they've done a second stocktake and again all the weapons have been accounted for, obviously.''
She could not confirm what type of guns were in the vehicle, but insisted the weapons were disabled.
"The vehicle was transporting the guns and they'd been deemed safe because they'd been handed in as part of the amnesty, they certainly were not loaded with any ammunition whatsoever,'' the spokeswoman said.
There was "no danger to the public'', she said.
Firstly, if it had been anyone other than cops who let firearms fall out of a truck they would have been charged. As "when transporting a firearm of any type, the licence holder must ensure that the firearm is not loaded, that it is in an appropriate locked and secured case and that the firearm is not visible."
Secondly, they did two stocktakes and still don't know how many firearms were being transported??? Surely there can't be any rational reason why they say "between 10 and 15" rather than just giving the actual number, can there?
Thirdly, these guns obviously aren't the "dangerous" type, you know, the ones that jump up and kill people all by themselves (or at least take over the minds of the people and make them kill).
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
What would YOU do?
Recently there have been a couple of comments (on other blogs) regarding the censorship issue in Australia along the lines of "Well they let their guns be taken away ...".
This post isn't directed at anyone specifically but this comment has been rattling around in my brain for a couple of days now so I thought I might give it some air time.
The initial gun "buy-back" (read "confiscation") happened in 1997 after the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy (and other multi-victim gun murders that year).
At the time I had only recently been introduced to firearms (shooting shotgun and rifles with my husband) and although I was angry that the "we have to do something" mantra took precedence over any rational thought I didn't seriously consider not complying.
Sure, we attended the rallies, signed the petitions etc etc but when "push came to shove" we handed our guns in.
At the time of Port Arthur, gun legislation varied dramatically across Australia. Western Australia (where I live) had very strict legislation, Queensland (on the other side of the country) had (AFAIK) none. Therefore, pretty much anyone who owned a firearm in WA had it registered already. It is much easier to prosecute those you know about then those you don't, unfortunately.
The alternative to not handing the guns in would have been prison.
It is possible that we will (in the next couple of years or so) see even more stringent legislation passed (since the 1997 legislation there has been other legislation restricting barrel length & magazine capacity - which I wasn't affected by so I'm not too clear on the details).
I am now asking myself, if additional legislation was passed which meant that I could no longer keep any of my guns what would I do?
Given that I have two young daughters, would I be willing to risk going to jail over keeping my guns? If I did not hand them in willingly I would be arrested, jailed and have the guns confiscated anyway. Not sure I would be willing to do that to my girls.
However, the idea of not having any guns due to government legislation frightens me.
Would I participate in an armed uprising to protect these rights? At this stage, I'm not sure I can answer that question.
What about you? How much does owing a gun mean to you?
This post isn't directed at anyone specifically but this comment has been rattling around in my brain for a couple of days now so I thought I might give it some air time.
The initial gun "buy-back" (read "confiscation") happened in 1997 after the 1996 Port Arthur tragedy (and other multi-victim gun murders that year).
At the time I had only recently been introduced to firearms (shooting shotgun and rifles with my husband) and although I was angry that the "we have to do something" mantra took precedence over any rational thought I didn't seriously consider not complying.
Sure, we attended the rallies, signed the petitions etc etc but when "push came to shove" we handed our guns in.
At the time of Port Arthur, gun legislation varied dramatically across Australia. Western Australia (where I live) had very strict legislation, Queensland (on the other side of the country) had (AFAIK) none. Therefore, pretty much anyone who owned a firearm in WA had it registered already. It is much easier to prosecute those you know about then those you don't, unfortunately.
The alternative to not handing the guns in would have been prison.
It is possible that we will (in the next couple of years or so) see even more stringent legislation passed (since the 1997 legislation there has been other legislation restricting barrel length & magazine capacity - which I wasn't affected by so I'm not too clear on the details).
I am now asking myself, if additional legislation was passed which meant that I could no longer keep any of my guns what would I do?
Given that I have two young daughters, would I be willing to risk going to jail over keeping my guns? If I did not hand them in willingly I would be arrested, jailed and have the guns confiscated anyway. Not sure I would be willing to do that to my girls.
However, the idea of not having any guns due to government legislation frightens me.
Would I participate in an armed uprising to protect these rights? At this stage, I'm not sure I can answer that question.
What about you? How much does owing a gun mean to you?
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Today's Range Report #5
Good day shooting today ... was a bit unenthusiastic about actually going (have to be there before 9am and I didn't get home from a quiz night until mid-night last night!). Anyway, I went ...
There were 5 stages today, 2 squads shooting - about 8 or 9 people in each squad. It was an ICOR (Revolver) shoot rather than courses designed for semi-autos but it was fun.
Unfortunatey I forgot to take my camera with me so sorry, no pics.
One of the stages had a disappearing target. To make it appear you had to shoot a popper (which I managed to miss :( .. not sure why, another stage had three poppers and a similar distance and I managed to get all of them on the first shot - which was good as that was a limited shot stage)... this stage was "unlimited" so I just shot the popper again (and got it).
The downside to this is that the stage was 11 shots - shooting twice at the popper meant I had to do a reload :( ... This is only the second time I have shot at a disappearing target - I managed to get three shots off at it - but only hit it once (and hit the "no shoot" which was in front of it (but lower) once too - not happy!
... In all the courses of fire I only dropped two shots - both hit the adjacent no shoots. The rest of my shots would have been "A's" (in most cases) with IPSC targets - but were A's & B's (and the odd C) with the Icor targets.
I still had problems with the gun jamming on most of the stages - not all though. Not sure why. Lost quite a bit of time trying to clear the jams.
I think some of the problem is due to me not pressing the mags in far enough ... bashing the end of the mag seems to solve the jamming problems in some cases. Other times I have to actually lock the slide open to be able to drop the mag - very time hungry.
Anyway, I had fun.
Next Saturday I have my PTer coming to watch. I'll try and remember to take my camera.
There were 5 stages today, 2 squads shooting - about 8 or 9 people in each squad. It was an ICOR (Revolver) shoot rather than courses designed for semi-autos but it was fun.
Unfortunatey I forgot to take my camera with me so sorry, no pics.
One of the stages had a disappearing target. To make it appear you had to shoot a popper (which I managed to miss :( .. not sure why, another stage had three poppers and a similar distance and I managed to get all of them on the first shot - which was good as that was a limited shot stage)... this stage was "unlimited" so I just shot the popper again (and got it).
The downside to this is that the stage was 11 shots - shooting twice at the popper meant I had to do a reload :( ... This is only the second time I have shot at a disappearing target - I managed to get three shots off at it - but only hit it once (and hit the "no shoot" which was in front of it (but lower) once too - not happy!
... In all the courses of fire I only dropped two shots - both hit the adjacent no shoots. The rest of my shots would have been "A's" (in most cases) with IPSC targets - but were A's & B's (and the odd C) with the Icor targets.
I still had problems with the gun jamming on most of the stages - not all though. Not sure why. Lost quite a bit of time trying to clear the jams.
I think some of the problem is due to me not pressing the mags in far enough ... bashing the end of the mag seems to solve the jamming problems in some cases. Other times I have to actually lock the slide open to be able to drop the mag - very time hungry.
Anyway, I had fun.
Next Saturday I have my PTer coming to watch. I'll try and remember to take my camera.
Mini Chicken Burgers
Just made some mini-chicken burgers with my girls for their lunches this week. I'm not sure they will actually last that long but it was a successful first attempt.
Recipe
Chopped chicken thighs
Grated carrot
1 Egg
Bread crumbs
Mixed salad herbs
Oil
Water
Sorry, can't give you measurements as it was done by eye (working around two kids).
Mince / process the chicken until fine - use some egg & water to help with this process. Mix through the grated carrot.
Take a small amount of the mixture and roll into a ball, roll in bread crumbs mixed with the salad herbs.
Fry with a touch of oil in a fry pan until golden brown.
Drain on a paper towel.
Here's some of the finished product:
The girls' verdict was "yummy" and "Can we make this all the time?"
Recipe
Chopped chicken thighs
Grated carrot
1 Egg
Bread crumbs
Mixed salad herbs
Oil
Water
Sorry, can't give you measurements as it was done by eye (working around two kids).
Mince / process the chicken until fine - use some egg & water to help with this process. Mix through the grated carrot.
Take a small amount of the mixture and roll into a ball, roll in bread crumbs mixed with the salad herbs.
Fry with a touch of oil in a fry pan until golden brown.
Drain on a paper towel.
Here's some of the finished product:
The girls' verdict was "yummy" and "Can we make this all the time?"
Friday, October 31, 2008
Things to Remember Next Time I Need to "Bring a Plate"
"Bringing a Plate" means that you need to turn up at whatever function with some finger-food for others to eat ... these will certainly stand out:
instructions from http://evilmadscientist.com/article.php/edibleeyes
(i've copied and pasted it without photos as i don't really think they're necessary - refer to the original site if you want to see the piccies).
To begin with, we need a food-grade rigid transparent dome that will form the outer visual shell of the googly eyes. Empty gelatin capsules like these slide apart easily and come with one such dome on each end.
You can get capsules like these in bulk at all kinds of "natural" and "health food" stores-- or even at many grocery stores in the section where dietary supplements are sold. There is of course a huge selection online-- you can even get them in different colors and flavors. Capsules come in range of sizes; we suggest starting with size 00 or so to get a good dome.
While the gelatin capsules have a dome on each end, they have a lot of space in between that we really don't need. The photo above illustrates how much of each end we want to keep: the domed part plus a few millimeters. As it turns out, you cannot use the scissors to actually cut it there-- it will crack or suffer permanent creases, making it useless for our application.
Instead, using fine-point scissors, make one continuous cut from the opening to remove the excess capsule material. This actually works very well and does not cause undue stress to the dome that we want to keep.
Next, we're going to need rolling pupils for our eyes, and these fit the bill perfectly. These are Wilton Jumbo Rainbow Nonpareils, one brand of *giant* round sprinkles a couple of millimeters across. Our big surprise: these actually taste pretty good-- they're flavored candy. The downside is that we only really want dark pupils, so there's some fishing around to find them in the assortment..
Suggested substitutes: other brands of round sprinkles and cake decors, as well as Nerds candy (look for the occasional round pieces). While you might be tempted to try using flat "confetti" sprinkles or similar types, we actually found them to be quite unsuitable-- they get stuck in all kinds of unexpected ways instead of rolling freely.
Next we need a solid substrate that serves as the back surface of the googly eyes-- the whites of the eyes. The substrate needs to be sturdy, so that it can support the rest of the eyes, light in color, and completely dry and free of oil. At the same time, it needs to be soft enough that we can press the gelatin capsules into it.
Our substrate of choice is (are?) Whoppers, although some other things will work as well. To use the Whoppers, first cut them in half with a chef's knife. Then, using a (virginal) half-capsule as a tool, press an indentation into the semirigid center of the Whopper.
Place one of the round "pupil" sprinkles in the cut-off capsule dome, and press it into the indentation made in the Whopper hemisphere. Press it in deeply enough-- several millimeters-- that it will not fall out, but not so deeply that it restricts the motion of the sprinkle pupil. Some care is required-- the substrate can shatter if you push too hard. Special worry about using this particular substrate: the outer, chocolate-like coating will begin to melt if you handle it too long.
Once the capsule dome and pupil are in place, test your new googly eyes, and make sure that the ball rolls freely in the dome. That's it! You've made edible googly eyes!
Applications
As one example, we present a simple recipe:
Flying Spaghetti Monster Treats, featuring edible working googly eyes.
The basic idea is that we make rice krispy treats, omitting the rice crispies and instead using some tasty dried noodles. Now, rice krispy treats without the rice is actually just marshmallows and butter-- an effective and edible glue that can be used for all kinds of purposes.
You can crib the butter/marshmallow proportions from the original source or from whatever box is handy-- no two of these seem to be exactly the same. Anyway, melt a bunch of marshmallows with a little butter to make the glue. To that, add some small pieces of precooked dry noodles. Spoon the resulting mess out onto parchment paper, and decorate as needed.
The "classic" choice for this sort of thing is to use chow mein noodles-- already used to make a few different kinds of no-bake cookies. Of course, considering our theme, it makes sense to instead use ramen noodles. Ramen noodles have beens successfully employed with sweets lately, and it seems like a fine idea. (Remember to omit the flavor packet.) We used another type of dry asian noodle, beautifully labeled "Excellent Flour Stick," for ours.
Mounting the googly eyes to the eyestalks presents a bit of a challenge, since the "rice krispy" glue does not set immediately, and the eyes kept falling down. Instead, dip the eyestalks in the glue and place them flat on a piece of parchment paper. Then, set the eyes flat on the eyestocks to cool and bond. Later these eyestalk can be added easily to the top of the noodly blobs.
The crowning detail of course is to add the meatballs-- in this case Cocoa Puffs. And we're done-- one hundred percent edible Flying Spaghetti Monster treats with working googly eyes.
instructions from http://evilmadscientist.com/article.php/edibleeyes
(i've copied and pasted it without photos as i don't really think they're necessary - refer to the original site if you want to see the piccies).
To begin with, we need a food-grade rigid transparent dome that will form the outer visual shell of the googly eyes. Empty gelatin capsules like these slide apart easily and come with one such dome on each end.
You can get capsules like these in bulk at all kinds of "natural" and "health food" stores-- or even at many grocery stores in the section where dietary supplements are sold. There is of course a huge selection online-- you can even get them in different colors and flavors. Capsules come in range of sizes; we suggest starting with size 00 or so to get a good dome.
While the gelatin capsules have a dome on each end, they have a lot of space in between that we really don't need. The photo above illustrates how much of each end we want to keep: the domed part plus a few millimeters. As it turns out, you cannot use the scissors to actually cut it there-- it will crack or suffer permanent creases, making it useless for our application.
Instead, using fine-point scissors, make one continuous cut from the opening to remove the excess capsule material. This actually works very well and does not cause undue stress to the dome that we want to keep.
Next, we're going to need rolling pupils for our eyes, and these fit the bill perfectly. These are Wilton Jumbo Rainbow Nonpareils, one brand of *giant* round sprinkles a couple of millimeters across. Our big surprise: these actually taste pretty good-- they're flavored candy. The downside is that we only really want dark pupils, so there's some fishing around to find them in the assortment..
Suggested substitutes: other brands of round sprinkles and cake decors, as well as Nerds candy (look for the occasional round pieces). While you might be tempted to try using flat "confetti" sprinkles or similar types, we actually found them to be quite unsuitable-- they get stuck in all kinds of unexpected ways instead of rolling freely.
Next we need a solid substrate that serves as the back surface of the googly eyes-- the whites of the eyes. The substrate needs to be sturdy, so that it can support the rest of the eyes, light in color, and completely dry and free of oil. At the same time, it needs to be soft enough that we can press the gelatin capsules into it.
Our substrate of choice is (are?) Whoppers, although some other things will work as well. To use the Whoppers, first cut them in half with a chef's knife. Then, using a (virginal) half-capsule as a tool, press an indentation into the semirigid center of the Whopper.
Place one of the round "pupil" sprinkles in the cut-off capsule dome, and press it into the indentation made in the Whopper hemisphere. Press it in deeply enough-- several millimeters-- that it will not fall out, but not so deeply that it restricts the motion of the sprinkle pupil. Some care is required-- the substrate can shatter if you push too hard. Special worry about using this particular substrate: the outer, chocolate-like coating will begin to melt if you handle it too long.
Once the capsule dome and pupil are in place, test your new googly eyes, and make sure that the ball rolls freely in the dome. That's it! You've made edible googly eyes!
Applications
As one example, we present a simple recipe:
Flying Spaghetti Monster Treats, featuring edible working googly eyes.
The basic idea is that we make rice krispy treats, omitting the rice crispies and instead using some tasty dried noodles. Now, rice krispy treats without the rice is actually just marshmallows and butter-- an effective and edible glue that can be used for all kinds of purposes.
You can crib the butter/marshmallow proportions from the original source or from whatever box is handy-- no two of these seem to be exactly the same. Anyway, melt a bunch of marshmallows with a little butter to make the glue. To that, add some small pieces of precooked dry noodles. Spoon the resulting mess out onto parchment paper, and decorate as needed.
The "classic" choice for this sort of thing is to use chow mein noodles-- already used to make a few different kinds of no-bake cookies. Of course, considering our theme, it makes sense to instead use ramen noodles. Ramen noodles have beens successfully employed with sweets lately, and it seems like a fine idea. (Remember to omit the flavor packet.) We used another type of dry asian noodle, beautifully labeled "Excellent Flour Stick," for ours.
Mounting the googly eyes to the eyestalks presents a bit of a challenge, since the "rice krispy" glue does not set immediately, and the eyes kept falling down. Instead, dip the eyestalks in the glue and place them flat on a piece of parchment paper. Then, set the eyes flat on the eyestocks to cool and bond. Later these eyestalk can be added easily to the top of the noodly blobs.
The crowning detail of course is to add the meatballs-- in this case Cocoa Puffs. And we're done-- one hundred percent edible Flying Spaghetti Monster treats with working googly eyes.
Right?!?
From a recent conversation in jigsaw's casa:
hubby: "Anything on TV tonight?"
me: "Something called 'How to Have Sex when you're Married'. Feel like watching it?"
hubby: "No, I think I'll go to bed instead."
RIGHT ?!?
hubby: "Anything on TV tonight?"
me: "Something called 'How to Have Sex when you're Married'. Feel like watching it?"
hubby: "No, I think I'll go to bed instead."
RIGHT ?!?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Internet Censorship
THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians.
When the idea was first mooted, there was the concept of an "opt out" option, where users could contact their ISP and say "no, thanks" to this filtering.
This option has now been REMOVED.
When the plan comes into effect sometime next year ALL internet access through Australian ISPs will be censored.
As far as I am concerned, this is a very dangerous path to start walking down.
The Senator in charge of this travesty is Stephen Conroy and, despite trials being planned for later this year, he doesn't know what content the mandatory filters will bar!!!
According to this article there will be two levels of filtering - one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material. So we're not just talking about porn here.
There was a comment against this article which listed email and contact addresses for Senator Conroy and various other people who support this initiative, however, I can not longer find that comment.
Here are contact details for Senator Conroy:
Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002
Phone:.....(03) 9650 1188
Fax: ......(03) 9650 3251
Email:.....minister@dbcde.gov.au
I urge you to contact him to express your opinion about this proposal. A proforma letter can be found at No Clean Feed.
Additional Links:
* Petition against internet censorship personal contact is best, but this is another option
* Somebody Think of the Children a blog about censorship and moral panic in Australia, with a particular focus on Internet censorship.
* No Clean Feed a website against internet censorship
* Letter from a mother definitely worth reading this view from a Christian mother
When the idea was first mooted, there was the concept of an "opt out" option, where users could contact their ISP and say "no, thanks" to this filtering.
This option has now been REMOVED.
When the plan comes into effect sometime next year ALL internet access through Australian ISPs will be censored.
As far as I am concerned, this is a very dangerous path to start walking down.
The Senator in charge of this travesty is Stephen Conroy and, despite trials being planned for later this year, he doesn't know what content the mandatory filters will bar!!!
According to this article there will be two levels of filtering - one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material. So we're not just talking about porn here.
There was a comment against this article which listed email and contact addresses for Senator Conroy and various other people who support this initiative, however, I can not longer find that comment.
Here are contact details for Senator Conroy:
Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002
Phone:.....(03) 9650 1188
Fax: ......(03) 9650 3251
Email:.....minister@dbcde.gov.au
I urge you to contact him to express your opinion about this proposal. A proforma letter can be found at No Clean Feed.
Additional Links:
* Petition against internet censorship personal contact is best, but this is another option
* Somebody Think of the Children a blog about censorship and moral panic in Australia, with a particular focus on Internet censorship.
* No Clean Feed a website against internet censorship
* Letter from a mother definitely worth reading this view from a Christian mother
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