"Do the ravens still circle the mountaintop?"

The herdsman, or a mysterious voice, replies, "Yes, they still circle the mountaintop."

"Then begone! My time has not yet come."

"No group on earth has more leisure time than hunters and gatherers, who spend it primarily on games, conversation and relaxing." - Frank Hole and Kent Flannery

http://www.orionfoundation.org/sustain.htm

If you haven't seen it yet, WGP is uping the ante for woodsball players.

It's called the SP-8 Tactical Marker and is their marker to bridge the divide between recreational and tournament players.

I think it's just nice to see more tactically-inspired markers for those of us from the A-Team generation who have money to spend and are tired of markers that look like a back-up weapon from some SF B-movie.

Alas, I am still holding my breath on a really-good M-41A Pulse Rifle marker.

The Talking John Lennon Action Figure

Beatles/John Lennon fans from around the world are celebrating the wonderfully tasteful news that there will be a new action figure to challenge the tradition hierarchy of G.I. Joe-He-Man-Japanese Misc. Trend. This new action figure, known as the "New York Years" Lennon will speak certain "John Lennon" phrases.

Though there is no official word on what plastic John will be saying, Mr. Smith Goes to War, our team sniper and resident cynic, has submitted a few choice phrases he thinks are sure to be included:

1. "We'll give peace a chance here for the night"
2. "John Lennon Reporting for duty sir!"
3. "Take the Rickenbacher and get some strings Fast!"
4. "This is the beatles. Send Reinforcements!"
5. "Cover Me. I'll get that danelectro!"
6. "All Yokos. Commence Firing!"
7. "Ringo, Get that stretcher up here!"
8. "Mick Jagger, Hit the dirt!"

I am not making this up.

Anomalies Report: War Watch - Iran

Iran, West head for confrontation

By repeatedly calling for Israel's destruction and slamming the door on a nuclear compromise, Iran's hurtling president has put Tehran on a collision course with the West, diplomats and analysts warned, AFP reports.

In his latest anti-Israeli assault, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth" and said the Jewish state should be moved as far away as Alaska -- views that one European envoy posted in Tehran described as "way beyond political incorrectness".

"At first, we were tempted to put it down to inexperience or a simple gaffe," he said of the firebrand president's string of outbursts, which began in October with a call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash5.htm

Theory 1: President Ahmadinejad, furious about the West's involvement in Iran's nuclear program, is blowing off steam at Israel, long the scorn of most Arabic Middle Eastern (AME) nations.

Theory 2: President Ahmadinejad is attempting to provoke war with Israel and thus get the military support of any AME nations who are chomping at the bit to get into a shooting war with their long-time rival. This will help provide regional support for Iran prior to any US-led strike on their nuclear capabilities.

Theory 3: The Iranian president is attempting to provoke war with the US, getting us to attack while US public opinion is swayed against further military action in the Middle East. Any action would get the immediate condemnation of the American people and almost definitely ensure that the next US president would much less interested in getting American assets involved in this theatre.

This is depending of course on how Iran handles the strikes that are almost assuredly coming down the line. If Iran uses any kind of nukes, all bets are off.

None of this is good. My vote is for Theory 2.

In the future, everything will be made of corn.
- Citizen Cain

By now, everyone has probably heard of biodisel, but did you know that you can also burn dried corn kernels to heat your home? Add another item to the wonderful list of things you can do with corn.

Americans burning corn to cut heating costs

As US heating costs spiral to all-time highs, American homeowners are turning to burning corn in special stoves to reduce their energy bills. Sales of corn-burning stoves have tripled this year and distributors across the country have been sold out for weeks.

"We are actually taking deposits for products for next fall - it's all you can do," said Ed Hiscox, owner of furnace retailer Hiscox Sales and Service in Valparaiso, Indiana, in the middle of the US corn belt.

"We have customers from very high-end homes to people who are not really in any financial condition at all. It doesn't seem to make a difference - everyone has problems with gas prices."

Once relegated to farmhouses and cabins, corn-burning and more common wood-burning stoves began growing in popularity four years ago among environmentally-minded consumers interested in cheaper and renewable energy sources.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/09/
051209141924.flu6l9pn.html

I just finished reading The Illuminatus Triology by Robert Anton Wilson. It's a wild, wild book that was written in the mid-seventies, probably under the influence of heavy drugs. The whole premise, if you can ever possibly sum it up in a sentence, is that there isn't one secret society trying to control the world, but there are actually several at odds with each other. The author ties together real events, made-up events, Cthulu Mythos, sex, drugs, and politics to get the story moving. My first 250 or so pages into the book, I thought that it would be the best book I've ever read if it could keep up the pace.

Now that I have finished it - it'll take me months to figure out what just happened.

Hail Discordia!

I know where I am going when the poo hits the fan . . .

Are you a sitting duck for bird flu?

Will Stewart is bracing for a disaster: a flu pandemic that scientists and public health experts say in a worst-case scenario could cause worldwide calamity, kill millions of people and disrupt the global economy.

An engineer who lives on a farm in Loudoun County, Va., outside Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children, Stewart is stockpiling food, water, medicine and even guns to defend his family in the event of civil unrest . . .

He says he has a "varmint gun" at the farm and plans to buy one or two more weapons because, like Woodson, he believes that if employees are too sick to go to work, grocery shelves will empty quickly, and there could be panic.

"I believe there's going to be different classes of marauding people," he says. "There will be gangs just looting, five or eight people in a gang. Depending on how long this lasts, there could be marauders who are former military. So there will be four male adults in this house who know how to use firearms."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-06-bird-flu-prepare_x.htm


And kids, that is why I have my wrist crossbow and football pads ready to go. - http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/pads.htm

From a friend new to the sport, the inevitiable paintball sniper question -

I have been playing paintball with my son and his friends- and after about 3-4 games over the last 6 months, things are escalating- time to go semi-auto. One of the boys has a Spyder Victor II, seems like a decent marker at a good price, but I was wondering what you might suggest.

I had a thought- what about making a custom gun? Is that an option? You know, like people build their own computers form parts.

For myself, I really enjoy the strategy of the sport- I like hiding out and letting people get close enough where I have a good chance of hitting them on the first or second shot (actually, this is sometimes the only chance I have when I go up against some of the boys with semi's already). So I have been reading and I like the idea of a more accurate, longer range type marker. I was reading about Tippmans and they sounded pretty good. Is it possible to get a beginner Tippman and get a longer barrel for more accuracy? How long a barrel would you suggest? I have seen them up to 20 inches.

Good to hear from you. We need to get your guys to come play with us - we'd have a blast.

I know all about the arms race - it happens. :) So you're in the market for a semi-auto? For the kind of play you are doing, every couple of months or so, a Spider is totally fine entry-level marker. I had one back in the day and played with it for years. I am a big fan on Tippmann and usually recommend their stuff - hands down. If you are getting a starter set, you can get a Tippmann 98 Custom for a really good price at Academy or a local paintball shop. You can find used ones on eBay, but unless you are wanting to work on it, it's worth the extra $$ to get one new.

As far as custom guns go, yes, you can make one, but your add-on options are limited and you'll still have to buy the base marker. A lot of the pro guns are semi-custom, i.e. you buy the body of the marker, add the barrel you want, new bolts, etc. If you really want to build your own (short of buying your own milling machine and going crazy on a billet of aluminum) you'd still have to pay the price of buying the base parts.

So without saying the word directly, it sounds like you are heading towards the mystical idea of a paintball sniper marker. Due to the ballistics of a round ball/unrifled barrel, there isn't a whole lot of mad accuracy you can squeeze out of a marker. Having said that, if you did start off with a Tippmann 98 Custom, upgraded to a Flatline barrel (so good that Autocockers have a mod for them), kept your barrel clean as a whistle, worked on your woodcraft (sneaking, etc), and practiced with it - you'd probably get as close as you can with a production marker.

The longer barrel works for and against you. The longest you can go is probably 16" before the length of the barrel causes a friction drag and ends up hurting your accuracy more than helping it.

Now that was a mouthful.

Propane powered paintball?

Not only is it great alliteration, but it is also true. Tippmann has come up with a new paintball gun that runs off of the regular propane containers you get at the Sporting Goods store. Apparently it's safe, but I am sure that at least one player is going to try to use a lighter to recreate a scene from Aliens. Game over, man!

http://www.tippmann.com/product_guide/
markerDetails.aspx?categoryid=4

Tactical Paintball Action

If you had any doubt that the "Transformer" generation is now involved in gov'n projects:

US Air Force unveils hand-held laser gun

The US Air Force has unveiled its first hand-held laser weapon that gives security forces a non-lethal option for controlling crowds and protecting areas like checkpoints, according to service officials.

While only in prototype form and years away from fielding, the weapon, known as the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHaSR) system, holds great promise, they said.
The PHaSR is about the same size and weight of a fully loaded M60 machine gun - around 9 kg - but shoots a low-power beam of laser light instead of bullets. The light it generates is capable of temporarily impairing an individual's vision, much like the disorienting glare one sees when looking into the sun, said the officials.

http://www.janes.com/security/
law_enforcement/news/jdw/jdw051125_2_n.shtml

There are no pictures posted, but I wonder if you'll be able to set it to "stun" ?

"Imagine," Tyler said, "stalking elk past department store windows and stinking racks of beautiful rotting dresses and tuxedos on hangers; you'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life, and you'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. Jack and the beanstalk, you'll climb up through the dripping forest canopy and the air will be so clean you'll see tiny figures pounding corn and laying strips of venison to dry in the empty car pool lane of an abandoned superhighway stretching eight-lanes-wide and August-hot for a thousand miles."

Fight Club, Chapter 16