Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Tony G]

So let's see, we're talking about a scenario where criminals get the jump on you enough to take your primary gun. Having then lost surprise, you are then going to be able to be so clever as to stealthily produce this, and fire it, without the assailants shooting you first?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Most gun owners tend to view themselves as action movie stars

[Optimus Prime]

Situational awareness & exhaustive professional training breeds the confidence necessary to survive many potential life-threatening situations.

Conversely, there are the drama-queen types, hapless, helpless comfortable playing the victim, you know the “Brokeback Mountain” that ultimately wait for the coroner to arrive. I guess it boils down to which camp are you in?

[Tony G]

And as usual, the extremes occupy half a percent of the real world situations. If you have SA, armed or not, a criminal is not likely to attack. They are looking for the easy prey with their heads down. BTW, I'm talking about on foot. That would change on a vessel off shore.

[entropy]

Liney... I don't recall any.

[Optimus Prime]

And as usual, the extremes occupy half a percent of the real world situations. If you have SA, armed or not, a criminal is not likely to attack. They are looking for the easy prey with their heads down. BTW, I'm talking about on foot. That would change on a vessel off shore.

Tony, honestly think about your day. Any, ATM, convenience store, gas station and parking lot, you are at risk more often than you think.

Drug addiction is at epidemic levels, these people can be hardly considered rational but keep rolling the dice.

"Buckaroos" like DSL need not worry.

[hack]

Drug addiction is at epidemic levels, these people can be hardly considered rational but keep rolling the dice.

I too am appalled by the behavior of our nation's banking sector, but I don't think shooting powder-nose bankers is really the solution. Maybe try not bailing them out next time.

[Tony G]

Tony, honestly think about your day. Any, ATM, convenience store, gas station and parking lot, you are at risk more often than you think.

And this is where maintaining SA is important with or w/o a weapon. Armed off duty cops have been robbed when they lost SA. The piece is no guarantee. Keeping your head up is far more of a deterrent than a concealed weapon.

[Dr. Strangelove]

More people are killed every year by their own guns than by complete strangers at an ATM or a burglar in their home. Maybe if you're using an ATM in South Central LA on a predictable, routine basis you're putting yourself at greater risk, but the notion that you are in mortal peril every minute of your life is happily pushed by the gun industry.

If a gun makes you feel safer, go for it. Just don't ignore that there are dangers to having a weapon in your home as well.

In the 1990s, a team headed by Arthur Kellermann of Emory University looked at all injuries involving guns kept in the home in Memphis, Seattle and Galveston, Tex. They found that these weapons were fired far more often in accidents, criminal assaults, homicides or suicide attempts than in self-defense. For every instance in which a gun in the home was shot in self-defense, there were seven criminal assaults or homicides, four accidental shootings, and 11 attempted or successful suicides.

The cost-benefit balance of having a gun in the home is especially negative for women, according to a 2011 review by David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Far from making women safer, a gun in the home is “a particularly strong risk factor” for female homicides and the intimidation of women.


In domestic violence situations, the risk of homicide for women increased eightfold when the abuser had access to firearms, according to a study published in The American Journal of Public Health in 2003. Further, there was “no clear evidence” that victims’ access to a gun reduced their risk of being killed. Another 2003 study, by Douglas Wiebe of the University of Pennsylvania, found that females living with a gun in the home were 2.7 times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun at home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/dangerous-gun-myths.html?hp&_r=1&

[lineygoblue]

As long as the Second Amendment exists, I'll support our rights to bear arms. The founding fathers believed that a well-armed citizenry was a good idea, so that future tyrants would have to think twice before taking away our liberty. I doubt that hunting was ever in the conversation. Hunting was a way of life, and the fathers probably thought we'd have sense to know that hunting with a firearm was a given.

Of course, they probably thought we'd have more sense about a lot of things, but that's for another forum.

[-Deborah-]

Is there an explanation for the icons (2nd column from the left) when you open the forums page. There is an explanation, with pictures, for the first column at the bottom of the page, but not for the second column. For instance, there is a green arrow next to several of the threads. I may have missed the explanation in the FAQ section.

When someone starts a new thread, they have the option of selecting an icon to accompany the thread...to get attention or express an emotion. The green arrows you see were selected by the initiator of the thread for whatever reason.

You can also choose an icon for your reply to threads. I selected the light bulb for this reply.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Not new but I just read about it this morning. Aereo.

Based in NYC, but expanding to major cities nation wide this year, it is technology that allows individual users to capture over the air (OTA) signals with a very small antenna about the size of a silver dollar.

IMO, its not a whole lot different than mounting an antenna on your roof or installing it in the attic of your house and bringing that signal down to an inexpensive OTA signal converter that plugs into your TV. The difference with Aereo is size of the antenna, obviously, as well as that it has the capacity to connect wirelessly to your TV (via Apple TV or Roku) AND, can stream video via your internet or 3G/4G connection to your mobile devices (iPhone or iPad).

Anyway, that's not what I'm asking for input on here. Aereo does not capture and retransmit traditional cable content (ESPN, BTN, CNN, CNBC, etc.) It only does OTA based broadcasts. But, its coming. Only a matter of time and even though the cable industry is already mounting legal challenges, as the broadcast networks did (and failed) to keep Aereo from being a retransmission vehicle for cable content, Aereo is rolling out its product with the serious intent to be able to grab cable signals and retransmit these via the internet in the very near future. So, what impact does this sort of thing have on CFB and realignment. Isn't this realignment crappola based on multi-billion dollar broadcast rights packages, cable viewership, butts in front of TV sets, getting big markets and all of that?

What happens to the billions that FOX cable, ESPN, BTN are counting on when these cable based entities are undercut if I can pull out my iPad and stream the Michigan ND football game (albeit with a few seconds time delay built in) for the 8 bucks a month or 80 bucks a year (the current price and i am sure it will increase if they win the battle to retransmit cable signals) I'll pay to subscribe to Aereo to get that game?

[Tony G]

How does Aereo retransmit the cable signals if it only gathers OTA signals?

[Jeff Buchanan]

My understanding is that both OTA and Cable Broadcast signals, at some point, are up-transmitted to geostationary satellites and then down transmitted from the sat for mass distribution to multiple collection facilities in digital formats. All you need is a mechanism to capture these signals and retransmit them in the format you choose (e.g., cable, OTA, Aereo).

Right now, OTA signals are free signals according to the FCC. Cable signals have some legal protection by federal Law but the protection only occurs at the ground based distribution point where they are encrypted by the cable companies that are distributing to the end point users by cable.

The crux of the legal challenge from companies like Aereo is that all radio signals that are carrying the kind of data that contains information in the public domain (like a TV broadcast) should be accessible to any entity that wants to capture it. So far, Network Broadcasters have not prevailed in court in their attempts to restrict access to these airwaves. That's why you can still mount an antenna and collect the network broadcast signals and display them on your TV for free. It remains to be seen if the data signals coming down from the cable broadcasters via sat are in the public domain or not. Aereo thinks they are in the same realm as internet data and should be accessible to anyone who wants to receive them and so far the courts have been sympathetic to their argument and unsympathetic to challenges from the Cable guys to limit access.

[Tony G]

Aereo would need a sat antenna & receiver/decoder to be single user capable instead of its small radio aerial. Now as soon as Aereo rebroadcasts a cable signal OTA for profit they cross the line and are wide open to the lawsuit.