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A quick question. . .
A friend showed me a 410 shotgun. It seemed small and light enough to facilitate a comfortable introduction to moving target sports. I investigated further.
Apparently, in Europe, this size gun is known as a 36 gauge.
Now for the "odd" bit. . .
Many claim that shotgun gauges correspond to the number of lead spheres of a size that matches the bore that it takes to make a pound. When matching gun sizes to lead sphere weights, this seems correct.
But it takes 67 lead spheres .410 in diameter to weigh a pound.
So why do they say 36 gauge and not 67?
Cheers, PW.
P.S. By the way, Google seems less than useless in providing an answer. As far as they go is to say the guns are .410 here and 36 Gauge in Europe. They're 67 Gauge nowhere. But why isn't addressed. And it's the WHY that I'd like to know.
P.P.S. When I asked my husband, he speculated that European lead is heavier. (And I pretended to agree.)
do you think 12 people are going to say I stole goods or did I offer payment?
There's a good possibility that they'd view the transaction as a failure for the two sides to come to an agreement, and without an agreement, the implied contract between seller and buyer doesn't exist. Without the seller releasing the goods willingly, the buyer's taking possession would be considered theft.
In Contract Law, both Offer and Acceptance are necessary. The act of simply offering payment is insufficient.
Note: Taking the goods will give you possession, but it won't give you ownership.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. The big question that's confusing is this: "Are stores offering goods?" Most people think they are. But that's not always the case. Often, what they are doing is inviting offers from customers.
And to make matters even more unclear, consider advertising. In many cases an advertisement is considered an "Offer to Sell."
So here's a thorny issue consider: Is a price tag on an item in a store an "Advertisement" or an "Invitation to make an offer?" I don't know.
No wonder lawyers put so much effort studying contract law.
P.P.S. But I do know this. . .
Finding the answer by being escorted through our legal system will be profoundly expensive in both money and time.
Convenient or effective? One must choose their own balance point. Here's a choice that really tips the scales to one side of this equation.
Website
I didn't know these things exist.
Cheers, PW.
A brief discussion about buying a machine gun. . .
A lawyers perspective on Confession of Judgment.
Another uplifting piece from Fred Reed. . .
Fred Reed
Cheers, PW.
Fred Reed on Leong. . .
Fred Reed
Cheers, PW.
P.S. An excerpt. . .
My mother taught me to be considerate to women, or approximations. But in a minor vein -- a capillary, so to speak -- I will note that if it weren't for us old white men, vile though we be, and patriarchal, and probably cannibals, you and the sisterhood would be in grass huts, picking lice out of each other's hair.
Video explaining the dangers and capabilities of a potentially deadly weapon currently available to the public.
In the fifties, if you had a black or female doctor, you assumed they were smarter than their white male peers because it was harder for them to get through med school.
Today, whenever I encounter a white male doctor, I assume he must possess exceptional ability to have survived the "Affirmative Action Gauntlet" blocking entry to his profession.
Cheers, PW.
. . .It can be seen from at least 20 metres away. . .
For those who do not use the Metric system, 20 meters is roughly 65 feet!
Cheers, PW.
An easy to understand video outlining the challenges of the cave rescue. . .
I don't want to take sides with the issue of providing nets.
There's a way to keep both camps happy. Erect the nets, but use netting material of insufficient strength.
And if suitable netting cannot be located, simply place strong netting about an inch above the ground. (Should look OK when viewed from above.)
Cheers, PW.
Photo viewer. . .
Please help us out a bit. From your message, it's hard to tell if Photo Viewer has gone missing or if what you're experiencing is a side-effect of some other issue.
Locate a picture file in Windows Explorer and Right Click on it. Do you see the option to open the file using Photo Viewer?
Create a new Shortcut for Photo Viewer. Right click on an empty spot on your Desktop and select NEW. When your system opens a NEW box, select Shortcut
In the Location box, enter
C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoViewer.dll", ImageView_Fullscreen
Click Next and give it a name. (You likely don't want to use the default "RunDLL32")
See if either of these things work.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. The shortcut you create will open Photo Viewer but the program won't do much. To get it to do something useful, you must also specify a folder containing image files, for example. . .
C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoViewer.dll", ImageView_Fullscreen R:\
This shortcut string will open image files in R:\
A few people I've met at the range have guns featuring engraving, carving, and precious metal inlay work. But none have a gun like this!
Red Hen Story Gets Worse. . .
The Old Red Hen Restaurant, located in a sleepy little resort community in Ontario, Canada, has been targeted by people confusing it with the eatery in Virginia currently in the news for the "reception" given to the Sanders family.
Wrong Red Hen
Cheers, PW.
Worth a shot?
My husband's laptop and mine are both off-lease systems purchased at a fraction of their original cost. They're well made, robust, business oriented machines featuring Pro versions of Windows. As a bonus, they arrived free of the Crapware usually pre-loaded on consumer machines.
If I were to replace my computer, I wouldn't hesitate choosing another off-lease system.
Cheers, PW.
I have two Solid State disks, both Samsung 850 Pro. (They were leading edge when I bought them, but probably obsolete by now.) I have one in a desktop system and the other in a laptop.
In the laptop, Solid State disks consume less power; hence, generate less heat and extend time between battery charges. If (and it's an important "if," your system has a SATA 3 (or faster) disk interface, you'll see a noticeable speed increase. If your system has an older (slower) SATA 2, a speed increase will be there but you'll need a utility to measure it because it'll be so tiny you won't notice it.
As well, you'll need to configure your system to use AHCI, the newer protocol. Although Solid State drives will work with the older ATA, their full potential won't be reached.
I experimented with a Solid State drive on my "everyday" desktop system, an older machine that uses SATA 2 and ATA. The increase in speed, if any, was impossible to detect.
On my "Power" desktop, which has SATA 3 and is configured to use AHCI, the speed improvement from switching to a Solid State drive was substantial.
A few observations about Solid State drives. . .
In general, they have a huge advantage over magnetic disk drives when reading a large number of small files, especially when they're random. With huge files storing data continuously, magnetic disks avoid the time penalties from mechanical head movement and sector latency; hence, they "close the gap" between the Solid State performance and theirs. My guess is that most users use many small files more often than a few big ones.
When a Windows system boots, a huge number of small files are read. This plays into the Solid State drive's strong corner. It's while booting where you'll notice the biggest speed boost.
Solid State drives work well when they have plenty of unused capacity. The reason for this is that they write data into empty blocks. When empty blocks exist, the writes take place immediately. When they don't, empty blocks must be created. To do this, data must be moved to other locations first. So what happens as the disk fills is that more and more writes require the multi-step process of data movement, block erasing, and finally data writing. Addressing this issue, modern Operating Systems can consolidate partially filled blocks during idle periods, creating empty blocks in anticipation of upcoming write operations. (The need for this "Trim" operation is detected by Windows 10.)
You mentioned cost. I cannot comment on cost.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, PW.
Glad I wasn't standing nearby
I'm glad I wasn't sitting inside!
Cheers, PW.
My area was hit by a massive earthquake overnight!
A few days ago, temptation overpowered my willpower and I purchased a bag of potato chips. By the time I arrived home, I had second thoughts about them, so I put the bag into the pantry and as the day’s events unfolded, I forgot about them.
For some unexplained reason, thoughts of those chips popped into my mind yesterday, and I not only opened the bag, I ate one or two. Some people have difficulty stopping at such a tiny helping, but I manage. I also offered some to my husband. He likes them as much as I do.
After dinner, I decided to have another chip. When I pulled the bag out of the pantry, a noticeable number of chips were missing. I confronted my husband and demanded an explanation.
He said that although it looks like some chips are missing, that’s not the case at all. The change in appearance resulted from them settling to the bottom of the bag. This was likely a result of some minor Earth tremor shaking the whole house, chips included.
I accepted his explanation. To do this, I also had to overlook the twinkle in his eye when he talked. Sometimes it's just easier to go along.
But what I discovered when I reached for a chip or two this morning was shocking!
We must've been hit with a major earthquake overnight – a real "Earth Splitter," judging by how much my chips have "settled." Seeing what's left of them required a magnifying glass! I'm afraid to enter the cellar for fear the house will collapse. I cannot imagine the foundation withstanding such violent forces.
Can earthquakes hit with pin-point accuracy? My bag of chips was at the epicentre for sure, but there’s no sign of collateral damage.
And another phenomenon of Nature: Earthquakes never hit my chips as long as I keep them hidden. Maybe the Earthquake Gods are trying to communicate something. In the future, I'll endeavour to keep them appeased.
At the moment, there's no need to worry. I ate the remaining traces of chips so there's no longer anything to attract seismic activity to my house. (At least until after my next shopping trip.)
Cheers, PW.
This is an older video. It sheds light on some of the events we're witnessing currently. Even though it's 23 minutes long, it's worth watching.
It must be "Sicko Season!"
A Canadian writer for the CBC has threatened President Trump's four year old grand-daughter Chloe.
The guy issued an apology -- sorta. He says his words do not reflect the opinion of his employer. Stinks! It's like criminals who show remorse, but it's more for getting caught than what they did.
What kind of animal would wish this kid harm?
Cheers, PW.
Story
They should use bolt action rifles and revolvers. . .
I disagree.
They should use trebuchets. And toss Bleeding Heart Liberals for ammunition. Although these ancient war machines would be less effective against the invaders, the benefits from ridding ourselves of a few Liberals would offset their inefficiency.
Cheers, PW.
I track the day lengths using the U.S. Navy data.
In theory, the solstices and equinoxes "should" align with the observed sunrises and sunsets, but they don't.
They would if the Earth didn't have an atmosphere. Sunlight penetrating the air experiences a little bit of refraction; hence, the discrepancy.
Which leads me to wonder. . .
How does one determine sunrise and sunset times on other planets? Especially puzzling for me are the Gas Giants Jupiter and Saturn.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Thinking about this stuff makes another question pop into my head: "What do people who have real lives ponder?"
This brief video of an interview contains a number of statements participants on the No-Lib thread may find insteresting. . .
Although I've never smuggled anything across the border between Canada and the U.S.A., I've benefited from "cross border price comparison" on a few big ticket items.
My modus operandi is to present an advertisement for the item I want and to point out that considering the exchange rate and the hour's drive to the border, my equivalent price would be "This amount." More often than not, the merchant confronted by the choice: "Match Price" or "No Sale" capitulates.
Another consideration. . .
Warranty can be challenging. Many service facilities will not repair items purchased in another country.
A big issue is availability. Where I live, quite a few popular and effective pesticides are banned. They're available in the U.S. as well as other provinces. Why risk the penalties of international smuggling when the same item can be purchased in Quebec?
My husband once joked that one could tell where people's friends and relatives live by the weeds (or none) on their lawns.
Availability works both ways. After high-efficiency toilets became mandatory in the U.S., Canadian building centres did a booming business selling conventional privies to shoppers driving North.
And it's curious how European luxury car dealers in Canada require customers to agree to NOT export their new toy for a couple of years.
But my biggest frustration is the obstacles in buying simple little things using the Internet. For example, I wanted a new hinge for a laptop. They sell for $2 to $3. Shipping to Canada was $15! (I found one already in Canada for $5!)
Cheers, PW.
P.S. For years, diamonds were cheaper in Canada. Sadly, I don't buy many diamonds.
WOW! Had no idea Rolo made ice cream. . .
They don't. The fine print on the package says "Frozen Dairy Dessert."
To be ice-cream, the product must meet consumer regulation standards, and Rolo doesn't.
But to anyone eating the stuff, it sure seems like ice-cream.
Who ever lined up at a carnival or beach and ordered a "Frozen Dairy Dessert Cone" or sat at the counter in a diner and ordered a "Frozen Dairy Dessert Sundae?"
While I'm being persnickety about my words, I almost forgot that today is "Male Parent Day." I'd hate for that to go unnoticed.
Cheers, PW.
Not exactly a "Fathers' Day" video, but something I thought fathers would enjoy anyway. . .
Hiding ice-cream. . .
In our house, ice-cream tends to disappear quickly. But when I put it in a container marked "Frozen Broccoli" it remains there almost indefinitely. Even though I take this approach frequently, I can't recall ever writing about it.
Perhaps eating ice-cream harms memory.
Anyway, thank-you for reminding me about this. Currently, I have a package of ice-cream tucked behind some TV Dinners. Eventually, The Commander will want something easy for lunch and if he chooses one of those frozen meals, my secret will be revealed.
The Weather Guy says today will be hot. Can't think of a better way to "beat the heat" than lowering my ice-cream's risk of discovery. With luck, all of it won't fit into my disguised container -- and I'll need to eat what's left over.
Cheers, PW.
I really don't remember writing any stories about ice-cream, but I did write an account of The Commander's difficulty with our refrigerator's ice maker. . .
Refrigerator
And although I don't consider it a story, I did write about The Commander's attempt to skate on a field of ice that formed overnight after a flood.
Flood
I mentioned hitching a ride when road were icy. This was submitted to Excel's Coffee Shop in 2006.
Scam
Here, I'm having a bit of fun on the ice.
Sailing
Looking for my old stories this morning was a bit of an eye opener. I'm amazed at how may I had forgotten totally. Some, even after reading them, I cannot recall. For example, this one. . .
I became a tree!
Thank-you for your message. It motivated me to do something different today, and I enjoyed myself.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. I once recounted that during a visit to the zoo The Commander stood too close to a Lemur cage while eating an ice-cream bar. A lemur reached out and snatched it out of his hand in the blink of an eye. When Commander yelled at the lemur to give it back, the animal's indifference to his demands were legendary.
So far, I haven't been able to locate this story.
I saw a skunk while on my morning walk earlier this week. It looked to be a little bigger than most skunks I see, so I assumed it was new to our neighbourhood. The skunk I encounter regularly is a giant fellow -- my guess is about two feet long, not counting the tail.
These bigger than normal skunks sparked my curiosity, so I did some research to how big skunks get. Apparently they can get a little larger than my big one.
Earlier this year, as I was walking, I noticed a neighbour's garbage moving. This seemed odd, so I stopped and used my flashlight to investigate. It turned out to be the Big Fellow. And I was close enough to touch him with my foot.
I moved backwards as smoothly and quietly as I could. Avoiding sudden movement was a priority. I had no interest in becoming "Formally Introduced." I assumed I was safe when the distance between us reached ten feet.
I was wrong. I was also lucky. The safe distance from a skunk this size is fifteen feet.
Another thing about skunks. . .
When it's "Pitch Black" out, and I shine my flashlight at them, their eyes reflect the beam spectacularly. When they run away, eventually all I can see is a bright spot of light bouncing across lawns.
Pondering perfume. . .
When my nose detects them first, I wonder what caused them to spray. Obviously, some encounter made them feel threatened, but what? As far as I know, only feral cats roam our area. Although canids live in our township, I've never seen any in my neighbourhood.
But my speculation makes me smile.
We're supposed to pick up after our pets. But some people think that during the wee hours of the morning before dawn it's OK to let the pooch outside without accompaniment. I guess the theory is that if nobody's out (or up) to see their transgression, no harm done.
Maybe "Foo-Foo" and Mr. Skunk meet.
Cheers, PW.
In all honesty, I can't say I'm saddened by the Miss America spectacle's disappearance. But I do shed some tears over attempts to having Dwarf Tossing banned.
Dwarf Tossing
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
P.P.S. I'm not a dwarf, but I don't weight very much and would be easy to toss, and I think it would be kinda fun. I wonder if a tossing event where ordinary people volunteered to become projectiles would be permitted. (After all, Midget Wrestling is acceptable and those guys get thrown around quite a bit.)
Millennials in trouble. . .
This guy nails a big problem and suggests a solution. Apart from the seriousness of his underlying thesis, his 15 minute video is also entertaining.
Last Winter has been hard on our roads. It's the cycling between freezing and thawing that's responsible for the damage as water seeps into the cracks during the day, expands as it turns to ice overnight, and lifts the asphalt. Once dislodged, it gets pulverized by traffic and we're left with pot holes.
This week, crews have been busy repairing the damage. The work gets done in stages. First, they cut the pavement surrounding the area to repair so that the edges are solid. Next, they remove the debris. Finally, they deposit new asphalt, and compact it in place with a Road Roller. The whole repair takes a few days from beginning to completion.
While the work is underway, the crew places plastic traffic cones around the perimeter of what is essentially missing road. I wouldn't want to inadvertently drive into one of these temporary obstacles, and I'm sure others feel the same way. However, the crews may be going a bit overboard with this as they use far more cones than the minimum necessary. But I'd rather they use too many than too few.
By the way, the damage is in the centre of the road. The original paving was done in two lanes, and where they meet in the centre seems the most vulnerable to seasonal damage. As a result, the traffic cones are concentrated in the middle of the road.
As they complete repairs to an area, they move the cones to the side of the road, and frequently, at the edges of homeowners' lawns.
Every day, I walk for exercise. I prefer to do this before dawn. These days, that's somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00. Things are really quiet around here at this time of morning.
Because the Moon has been hiding behind clouds for the last few days, walking has been extra dark. The general darkness made the reflective coloured traffic cones stand out even more than they would normally. Walking along a "Straight Stretch" I could see the cones lining the road for maybe a half-mile. Temptation overwhelmed my good judgement.
I moved traffic cones back onto the road, but not in their original locations. I used them to block one lane. And I alternated which side of the road to block, creating a wonderful chicane. When I was through, the Zig-Zag route was somewhat entertaining for a car, yet still easy enough for a truck. I was delighted with my handiwork.
Later that morning, I needed to fetch a few groceries. All my cones were still in place, except for one that was knocked over. This was a surprise. I assumed the road crew would've retrieved their (now redundant) cones, but they hadn't.
When I returned home, I received yet another surprise. Someone had attended to my knocked over cone and placed it upright once again -- in the (whimsical) spot where I had left it!
My obstacle course remained intact until Friday. I assume the cones were removed sometime on Friday afternoon because they were gone when I walked this morning (Saturday.)
The road repairs are uncompleted. Perhaps the crew will return next week. If they do, they'll likely deposit more cones. Perhaps I'll get another chance to become "Traffic Artistic." And with a New Moon, I'll have even more darkness to conceal my vandalism.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. It feels good to confess one's Sins.
Baby boomers are refusing to leave the workforce
Maybe we should take a look at who's replacing the Baby Boomers. Are younger workers as attractive to employers as their older counterparts?
From the beginning of time, young people brought much more energy and creativity to their jobs; hence they were preferred. In recent years a sense of entitlement has tarnished their reputation, leading to older workers becoming more desirable.
I do not know how employer subsidized Health Care fits into the equation, but I'm sure it's a consideration too -- and probably health related absenteeism is as well.
Cheers, PW.
An amusing video showing how crossing the border between Canada and U.S.A. has changed.
“Affirmative action” means hiring people because they can’t do the job well. Near-synonyms are “diversity,” meaning groups that cannot do the job well, and “inclusiveness,” which means seeking people who you know cannot do the job well.
From Fred Reed's article about Affirmative Action impacting Education in Sciences among Western nations. . .
Fred Reed
Cheers, PW.
. . .The warrior's tale tells each generation that they stand on the wall against a hostile world. And that the wall is made not of stones, but of their virtues. . .
From an article about Warriors and why they must be remembered.
Warrior' Tale
Cheers, PW.