The writeup of the accident is here.

So, why do I bring up a San Francisco Bay area fire? If you look closely at the pictures you will see that the bridge material actually flowed onto the underlying bridges. In other words, the steel structure of the bridge itself became so soft that it melted. Take a look at the pictures from within the link to see what I mean.

Why is this important? Because for a few years I’ve been hearing from prisonplanet.com and other sites as they go on and on about how “The Twin Towers were detonated on purpose” and “no way a jet fuel fire can melt steel”. Oh, really? Well, then how did a gasoline tanker fire do it?

In a way I would admire their zeal if they didn’t resort to ad hominem attacks on those who bothered to point out that they didn’t know what they were talking about. I’m sure their intentions are good – well, some of them, anyway – but their efforts are misplaced.

Now, if you want to make the argument that the government didn’t have any problem capitalizing on the World Trade Center attacks in order to push their own agenda… well, I’m not sure I’d argue with you about that.

Internet Access CAPTCHAs

Crack open a cold one and celebrate!

My son – actually, both of my sons – are big Lego fans. If it is Lego, they like it.

The older one has internet privileges for part of the day and he likes to upload his creations to mocpages.com (My Own Creation) and to another site called Brickshelf. You can find his Mocpages stuff here and his Brickshelf site here

But things were a little different for him on April 1st.

For most of the day he saw the following notation whenever he tried to go bionicle.com, brickshelf.com or mocpages.com (click on image for bigger version):

Then, at 3pm, we called him downstairs so we could “look at his latest creations.” He went to brickshelf.com and saw this:

To be honest, we didn’t get a big reaction; he just stood there in mute silence, boggling at the screen until we started laughing. Then he knew something was up.

I won’t get away with that next year; I’ll have to think of something else to do besides Stupid DNS Tricks.

As expected, the VT shootings have caused the usual suspects to start agitating for more gun control.

One Op-Ed piece on salon.com even advocates eliminating the 2nd amendment – well, at least this one will admit what his goal is. Most of them want the same thing, but prefer to weasel-word it as “sensible legislation” and other similar phrases.

Of course, there is that little matter that simply removing the 2nd amendment protection does not actually abrogate the right to bear arms; rights are inherent, not granted by the government. The 2nd amendment to the US Constitution explicitly prevents the government from infringing, but it does not grant the right. If you don’t see the difference then please enroll in a constitutional law class before debating this subject with anyone.

Add to this the political spectrum – every time the democrats have passed a major gun control law they have lost control of at least one branch of government. In the last case it was two – the House of Representatives and the US Senate – and later on they lost the presidency.

This, coupled with the fact that many of the freshmen dems are pro-gun, means that gun control is a dead issue, or (at the very least) an electrified 3rd rail that only the most entrenched congresscritter dare touch.

As a footnote, I am so tired of hearing “Only in America” and “America’s Gun Culture” – as though these things never happen elsewhere. The problem is not guns – it is crazy people with guns. You could solve it like Australia – banning almost all weapons but suffering a 45% increase in armed robberies – but there are a whole lot of us who will not stand idly by and let ourselves and our families be disarmed “for the public good.”

That being said, here is a post on how it doesn’t only happen in the USA.

P.S.: Besides, if you aren’t armed how will you survive the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse

UPDATE:

Beware, don’t get hit by the wildly flailing, jerking knees:

Yale bans all weapons on stage – including swords – citing VT shootings.

(no, this isn’t a joke – well, it’s not intended to be funny)

Note to Yale staff: I don’t think Mr. Cho attended any of your plays.