Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Jan 21, 1855: Gun designer John Browning is born
John Moses Browning, sometimes referred to as the "father of modern firearms," is born in Ogden, Utah.
Many of the guns manufactured by companies whose names evoke the history of the American West-Winchester, Colt, Remington, and Savage-were actually based on John Browning's designs.
The son of a talented gunsmith, John Browning began experimenting with his own gun designs as a young man. When he was 24 years old, he received his first patent, for a rifle that Winchester manufactured as its Single Shot Model 1885. Impressed by the young man's inventiveness, Winchester asked Browning if he could design a lever-action-repeating shotgun. Browning could and did, but his efforts convinced him that a pump-action mechanism would work better, and he patented his first pump model shotgun in 1888.
Fundamentally, all of Browning's manually-operated repeating rifle and shotgun designs were aimed at improving one thing: the speed and reliability with which gun users could fire multiple rounds-whether shooting at game birds or other people. Lever and pump actions allowed the operator to fire a round, operate the lever or pump to quickly eject the spent shell, insert a new cartridge, and then fire again in seconds.
By the late 1880s, Browning had perfected the manual repeating weapon; to make guns that fired any faster, he would somehow have to eliminate the need for slow human beings to actually work the mechanisms. But what force could replace that of the operator moving a lever or pump? Browning discovered the answer during a local shooting competition when he noticed that reeds between a man firing and his target were violently blown aside by gases escaping from the gun muzzle. He decided to try using the force of that escaping gas to automatically work the repeating mechanism.
Browning began experimenting with his idea in 1889. Three years later, he received a patent for the first crude fully automatic weapon that captured the gases at the muzzle and used them to power a mechanism that automatically reloaded the next bullet. In subsequent years, Browning refined his automatic weapon design. When U.S. soldiers went to Europe during WWI, many of them carried Browning Automatic Rifles, as well as Browning's deadly machine guns.
During a career spanning more than five decades, Browning's guns went from being the classic weapons of the American West to deadly tools of world war carnage. Amazingly, since Browning's death in 1926, there have been no further fundamental changes in the modern firearm industry.
The son of a talented gunsmith, John Browning began experimenting with his own gun designs as a young man. When he was 24 years old, he received his first patent, for a rifle that Winchester manufactured as its Single Shot Model 1885. Impressed by the young man's inventiveness, Winchester asked Browning if he could design a lever-action-repeating shotgun. Browning could and did, but his efforts convinced him that a pump-action mechanism would work better, and he patented his first pump model shotgun in 1888.
Fundamentally, all of Browning's manually-operated repeating rifle and shotgun designs were aimed at improving one thing: the speed and reliability with which gun users could fire multiple rounds-whether shooting at game birds or other people. Lever and pump actions allowed the operator to fire a round, operate the lever or pump to quickly eject the spent shell, insert a new cartridge, and then fire again in seconds.
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| Browning Workshop |
By the late 1880s, Browning had perfected the manual repeating weapon; to make guns that fired any faster, he would somehow have to eliminate the need for slow human beings to actually work the mechanisms. But what force could replace that of the operator moving a lever or pump? Browning discovered the answer during a local shooting competition when he noticed that reeds between a man firing and his target were violently blown aside by gases escaping from the gun muzzle. He decided to try using the force of that escaping gas to automatically work the repeating mechanism.
Browning began experimenting with his idea in 1889. Three years later, he received a patent for the first crude fully automatic weapon that captured the gases at the muzzle and used them to power a mechanism that automatically reloaded the next bullet. In subsequent years, Browning refined his automatic weapon design. When U.S. soldiers went to Europe during WWI, many of them carried Browning Automatic Rifles, as well as Browning's deadly machine guns.
During a career spanning more than five decades, Browning's guns went from being the classic weapons of the American West to deadly tools of world war carnage. Amazingly, since Browning's death in 1926, there have been no further fundamental changes in the modern firearm industry.
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| Click to Super Biggify |
Monday, January 20, 2014
Girls With Guns
Charlize Theron - Gun Profiteer
Anderson Cooper hosted the evening and gave the night's biggest donation: His auction bid of $1.4 million won a sculpture to be made by artist Jeff Koons from Penn's 65 discarded firearms.
Sixty-five discarded firearms, you say? What necessitated such a gun dump, you ask?
Apparently the idea to get rid of all of his guns was that of his new girlfriend, South African actress Charlize Theron.
"A strong woman who happens to be from South Africa" convinced Penn to unload his weapons, Penn said at the gala, according to E! Online.
Obama Pulls Race Card To Cover For His Dismal Job Performance..
President Barack Obama said that racial tensions may have softened his popularity among white voters within the last two years, according to a story posted on the New Yorker magazine’s website today.
“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president,” Obama said in the article by David Remnick, appearing in the magazine’s Jan. 27 edition.
“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president,” Obama said in his most direct comments on how race has affected his political standing since he’s been in office.
Obama’s second term has been marked by controversies including a partial government shutdown in October, revelations that the National Security Agency has gathered personal mobile phone data and the troubled rollout of health-insurance expansion.
Obama’s approval rating among all voters is 39 percent and his disapproval rating is 53 percent, according to a Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 14-16. In the 2012 presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney won 59 percent of the white vote, compared with Obama’s 39 percent, according to exit polling by a consortium of major news outlets. Obama won 43 percent of the white vote in 2008 against 55 percent for opponent John McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona.
Obamacare Blamed
“Poll after poll makes it very clear that
Wendy Davis: Democrat Presidential Material
Wendy Davis is the perfect Democrat Nominee for the 2016 Presidential race. Just like our current president, Wendy Davis lied about her past, changed details wherever convenient and obfuscated details to get ahead. She is a perfect Democrat. A liar, a cheat, willing to say anything to get elected. She is a dream candidate for Democrats.
Read the details HERE
Large School of Fish Frozen in Place near the Coast of Norway
This winter’s been a rough one so far. There are so many pictures online of frozen cities and towns. The season has been bad for Canada and the US, due to the much discussed polar vortex. The UK is said to be facing the worst winter in decades.The extreme temperatures have been keeping people indoors, but not all creatures have a place to take shelter from the cold. Like this large school of fish that froze solid on the coast of Lovund – a small island off of Norway. It isn’t clear what the fish were doing so close to the coast but the incredible photos of them frozen as they swam in their usual patterns have been doing the rounds online for the past couple of days.
A theory from Havforsknings Instituttet (a marine research institute) suggests that the fish might have been chased by a predator. They might have grouped together near the coast for refuge, when a sharp eastern wind of minus 7.8 degrees Celsius hit the region and froze the entire bay area.
According to Aril Slotte, head of pelagic fish at the institute, it is not uncommon for herring to be chased ashore by predators. “We know that whales scare herrings at various locations in Troms (in Northern Norway), so it is not inconceivable that this could happen with small saithe and other fish being pushed up against the land,” he said.Although these pictures of the of frozen fish are spectacular, I suppose it was a painful death for these creatures. Ingolf Kristiansen, one of the people who were at the scene, said: “I’ve never seen anything like it. It has not happened before here as far as I know.” He was on a Sunday trip on the island, along with his dog. Some of the pictures show the Miniature Schnauzer standing over the frozen water, perplexed at all the fish beneath his paws.
This isn’t the first case of frozen animals in Norwegian waters. A few days ago, a large moose was found submerged in a frozen lake; only his antlers were visible. The animal became an attraction of sorts for the local population. It is believed that he was trying to cross the lake when the ice broke, and the poor moose fell in, freezing to death. Must have been an extremely painful way to go.
Kristiansen pointed that although the dead fish are easy prey now, birds can’t really get to their free meals unless the ice thaws out.
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