* Posts by Jacob Lipman

114 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Oct 2007

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American auto dealer offers free handguns

Jacob Lipman

@Kel-Tec

Shitty shitty shitty.

Wouldn't trust my life to a keltec handgun. It's a chunk of what appears to be injected plastic, with a few metallic parts. Small, uncomfortable, inaccurate and unreliable. It's like a Glock, only 1000 times crappier, but only half as cheap. Good idea, poor recommendation.

Scientists discover galaxy's youngest supernova

Jacob Lipman

@El Reg

"(We later had to look up the terms he was using to identify that he was, in fact, being racist rather than just plain crazy.)"

http://www.rsdb.org

Finally, a purpose for the Racial Slur Database!

The American way of bioterror - an A-Z of ricin crackpots

Jacob Lipman

@Robert Sneddon

You said:

"They have some odd "gotchas" in the US wrt guns -- silencers (and also "sound moderators") are scary, possibly because of their connotations as assassination weapons. It takes a Federal Firearms Licence (FFL, effectively a dealer's licence) to own them and it costs a chunk of money to buy and transfer ownership of such a silencer or a silenced weapon, like the DeLisle carbine. It is classed in the same way as fully-automatic weapons like machine guns."

You're a little off, but close. Anyone in the United States who can legally own a pistol can legally own any weapon covered by the NFA (National Firearms Act). This includes Machine Guns, Sound Suppressors (A.K.A. silencers), Short-Barrelled Rifles, Short-Barrelled Shotguns, and All Other Weapons (A.O.W. is basically anything that doesn't fall under any of those definitions, or Long Gun on Handgun).

One must be a licensed Class III dealer to sell these items. Owning them requires a lengthy background check and BATF approval, and a $200 transfer tax for all but the AOW, which carries a $5 transfer.

Machine Guns are no longer legal for civilians to purchase new, but are legal to possess so long as they were registered before the ban took effect in 1986. This means there is a finite supply of legal machine guns, and the entry-level full-auto costs about $4000, for something like a shitty MAC-10.

When it comes to detachable shoulder stocks and the like, one can legally fit them to a modern pistol, so long as one is willing to jump through some hoops. Typically one has to register the weapon as an SBR, which entails a $200 transfer tax and a pile of paperwork.

And regarding the Anonymous Coward's suggestion of jimsonweed, are you trying to kill someone, or simply make them hallucinate? It's a pretty mild neurotoxin, and takes quite a bit to kill.

How a pair of American spies created the Soviet Silicon Valley

Jacob Lipman

Argh.

Fascinating episode, probably the best yet. Gimme part 2!

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Jacob Lipman
Black Helicopters

Location, location...

"...and now we know what you look like. Good job we don't know where you live.. yet."

Well, if appearances are accurate and some of the Reg staff do indeed sleep under their desks, and supposing the telephone book is accurate, bang on some windows here:

67-69, Whitfield St, London, W1T 4HF

US airline pilot pops a cap in cockpit

Jacob Lipman
Stop

Bullet Types

Come now, American authorities can be fairly thick sometimes, but do give them some credit. They did think of the whole explosive decompression thing before authorizing pilots to carry handguns.

Air marshals and pilots undoubtedly carry rounds loaded with ceramic bullets. They'll do a fine job punching a hole in human flesh, and if they strike a rigid structure, like a metallic air frame, they'll shatter, resulting in minimal damage. The same sorts of rounds are sold for home defense in urban settings; ceramic bullets have been designed which will penetrate human beings, but not drywall.

Mobile snap murderer jailed for life

Jacob Lipman
Pirate

@fellow reg readers

"There was a BBC documentary on recently with that idiot politician (cant remember his name) as he went across the US learning about capital punishment over there, and whilst those yankees sounded really callous in their justification of it all, they really did have a good point - why should hardened violent types get off with living in a prison as a burden to the state, or being put to death in a peaceful way?"

While that sounds fantastically logical on the face of it, in reality the death penalty costs a great deal more than a life sentence in the United States. Between the money poured into law enforcement and prosecutorial investigations, the decade or so spent in prison exhausting the numerous appeals required by law, the related costs of the appeals themselves, and finally the cost of the execution and related paraphenalia, it costs a right shitload of money to have the state kill a man. In the state of Nebraska, more convicted murderers have died in prison awaiting execution than have actually been executed. That being said, the state's sole mode of execution (the electric chair) has been declared unconstitutional on grounds of cruelty; state senators have stonewalled the introduction of a new means of execution, meaning that a death sentence in this state is simply a much more expensive life sentence.

"Just like in Omaha NE, USA, where the shooter had some $250,000 spent on his mental care, and he still took an ak-47 and blew away a bunch of people. (Yes, I, too wonder WTF he was doing with a weapon like that in the house and available to an 18 yo kid -- I believe his daddy ought to be doing some hard time for that.)"

I certainly wouldn't blame the father. In the U.S., anyone 18 years of age or older can purchase a rifle or shotgun, and ammunition for it. This includes any kind of military-style semi-automatic weapon. The weapon in question was a Romanian-made AK-47 style weapon, probably a WASR-10. Such can be had at a pawn shop or sporting goods store for between $350 and $600. To effect such a purchase, one must fill out a single piece of paperwork provided by the BATF which asks one's name and a few personal detail, and ascertains that you are legally allowed to purchase the weapon in question (are you buying it for yourself or for another? Are you a user of or addicted to any illegal drugs? Are you an illegal immigrant?). The dealer must then perform a quick background check, which entails calling an FBI-run information center and providing your personal details. This typically takes about five minutes.

The purchase of a "long gun" firearm may be effected in most states with no waiting period and little hassle.

The point of all that is, had the little bastard not stolen his father's gun, he might readily have obtained one by himself. Even though it is illegal to purchase a gun if you've been committed to a mental institution in the past (which he had), information-sharing is shitty enough in the US that by simply lying on the paperwork, he likely could have purchased a weapon.

Sending his father to prison would do nobody any good whatsoever. It is notable that he selected a mall. In Nebraska, one can obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon in order to defend oneself. Yet there are certain places one cannot carry, even with the permit. This includes malls. It would seem to me that the city bears some portion of the responsibility; it seems logical that if a state does not allow you to defend yourself, it should be liable if you are killed violently.

Back on the topic of the article itself, it takes more than a single moment of irrational anger to invade a man's home and stab him eighty-some-odd times. Capital punishment is expensive and irreversible, but modern technology has certainly provided us with some interesting new torture devices. He would seem to be a good candidate to help the state discover the long-term neurological effects of repeated high-voltage shocks. Perhaps a new twist on the old idea of the stocks could be fun. The shock-stocks, maybe; allow the passing public to press the button atop the stocks, resulting in a paroxysm of agony for the imprisoned murderer. It would certainly provide a powerful deterrent...

The skull and crossbones, because it's a grim subject.

X Prize comes to earth

Jacob Lipman

@Michael C

"Note Hydrogen and methane are both distinctly left out."

Natural gas = methane. Distinctly included.

"Energy loss over the wire can be reduced to as little as 1% using superconducting"

While superconducting would be fantastic if it worked at environmental temperatures, thus far no such superconducting substance exists. Superconductance has thus far only been achieved by dumping large amounts of energy into keeping a material cooled to near absolute zero.

And, @Don Mitchell

"What ever happened to the turbine engine in cars? Aren't they much more efficient than piston engines?"

Gas turbine engines are typically less fuel efficient, but have a much greater power-to-weight ratio than piston engines. This makes them a good choice for aircraft, generally less so for land vehicles. I believe I read something a few months ago about Jay Leno being involved with the development of a biodiesel turbine engine powered sportscar. Could be nifty.

US man saved by bulletproof DVD

Jacob Lipman

@people arguing about UK TV laws

Irrelevant. This happened in South Carolina (conveniently located on the opposite side of the pond).

Something similar happened recently in my area (Nebraska, US), but with much worse results. A fellow was disassembling a Glock handgun at a local range, and neglected to clear the chamber first. As a result, the weapon discharged when he pulled the trigger (which must be done to disassemble the weapon), and a bullet fragment ricocheted off a counter and into another man's chest.

At the same range, I've been struck by chunks of copper jacket a few times, but never a whole bullet. They definitely lose the better part of their momentum when they bounce back; a piece of jacket roughly 2mmx3mm struck me in the throat once, and resulted in nothing more severe than a minor burn.

I see no reason to doubt the fire chief's story. A projectile is bound to stop eventually, as it loses momentum every time it strikes something or someone. He simply happened to be the last thing it struck, and it lacked the momentum to penetrate his DVD.

EFF and chums sue Feds over border laptop inspections

Jacob Lipman

@Stu

"He who would sacrifice liberty for security, deserves neither."

-Thomas Jefferson

From water wheels to the Google brain

Jacob Lipman

RE: Remind me again

You should start by grinding your teeth in frustration, I suppose. When you're done with that, get to coding a piece of voice-recognition software which can produce transcripts. And since you've managed that much, program it to have feelings so it can get depressed when you yell at it for misplacing punctuation.

DDR2 chip prices rebound

Jacob Lipman

RE: Prices

I would guess that's the price of the chip itself, and the added markup is the result of a snowball effect as it passes from hand to hand; first to a company that mounts the chip on a board and brands it, then to a distributor, then finally to a retail store. Add shipping/handling costs and a modest amount of profit to each movement of the chip, and 1500% total markup seems reasonable.

Dwarfs threaten Kepler and Newton

Jacob Lipman

Marmite...?

Or perhaps Cavorite? It worked well enough to bring the imagination of H.G. Wells to the moon; perhaps, then, its properties have been put to use for the greater good of galactic stability.

European Commission asks for new IP protection layer

Jacob Lipman
Stop

@Anonymous Coward

Your math is accurate, but your reasoning lacks. The 130m figure references the number of objects seized at EU borders, not the total number of objects illicitly traded. The $200bn figure references the estimated total value of the counterfeit trade, which presumably entails a large number of successful, undetected deliveries.

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