http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7414

This is really cool and stupid at the same time. The idea of a human powered hydrofoil is neat but when you watch the video of the guys riding them they look a little retarded. No doubt a good work out but there has to be a better way of harnessing the human body's power to drive this idea.

http://www.rapiddeploymentinc.com/default.asp

ETA: A longer more detail video here:
http://www.rapiddeploymentinc.com/videos.asp?clip=bag

Gun case to body armor in seconds. What a great idea for law enforcement. The officer escalates lethality while at the same time increase their defensive capabilities. Talk about a SHTF bag! This would be great for a police officer to keep in the trunk of his cruiser. Its capable of taking trauma plates so you could have rifle level protection. The LA police officers could have made good use of these during that North Hollywood Shootout back in 1997.

Well I did it, I bought my own Honda Element this weekend. The above picture is taken off of Honda's website, but my Element looks just like it minus some dirt, mines already a bit dirty and I forgot to take a picture of it before we went shooting sporting clays today. Well I ended up getting the red one; like you didn't see that in the picture. The Honda dealer had a red, EX, AWD, 5spd manual in stock and he gave me a cargo cover for free for taking the in stock red Element rather than having him get a blue one transfer in. The best part is the red was really my first choice (actually the orange was my first choice but it was not an option for the EX model), although color was not a big deal for me, the GFWTR was the impetus for the original request for the blue one. All in all I think I did pretty good. I managed to get it for about $500 over invoice and got a killer deal on Lo Jack thrown in. The real kicker is I got $350 trade in for the Cavalier, KBB estimate trading at $225 given the mileage and poor condition.

All in all I am really liking the Element. Lots of cargo room. The GFWTR, dad and I went and shot a round of sporting clays today and got all the guns and gear in the back with lots of room to spare and the three of us road very comfortably down to Grand Valley Hunting Ranch. The driveway into the sporting clays course is about 1/4 of mile of gravel driveway. Its pretty rutted and potholed from the winter freeze/thaw cycle. This was far from a serious test of the AWD but the Element did seem to handle the rough road well. It road a lot better than driving the old Cavalier down that same road the last time we were there.

The Element EX also comes with XM Satellite radio. Now I have not had to much chance to really dig into XM and the plethora of channels but I did find a good Reggae station I like, much to the GFWTR chagrin. There's also a bunch of various country and folk stations. I'm looking forward to the morning drive with no commercials.

Another thing that occurred to me while writing this entry it that as the coming summer weather is warming I don't have to sweat my way to work. I will have AC once again!

I will try to put up a picture of my Element after I get some red-neck want-a-be accessories for it. I'm still probably going to add aftermarket brush guard and nerf bars. We'll see what else I can find to make it more red neck and less yuppy.

So I am getting antsy for a new vehicle. The Cavalier has nearly 204,000 miles and it may go another 100,000 miles or may die on the way to work tomorrow. So today while the GFWTR and I were out running errands this afternoon we stop to look at the vehicle that is presently at the top of my list.

I have a feeling that those that know me personally will find this somewhat as a surprise but the vehicle we stop and looked at was not a pickup truck but a Honda Element. I would like a pickup truck but to be honest I don't need that much cargo room most of the time. The Element has a tremendous amount of interior cargo room and for 90% of what I haul it will be plenty of room. I love the flat rubber floor and the fact that the rear seats fold up out of the way or can be taken out completely. It could be perfect for hauling gear to USPSA shoots or sporting clay. With the large cargo area I could even throwing a deer carcass in the back and the rubber mats will not stain easily. Yet with the seats down I still have room for four adults and a modest amount of cargo.

Well the dealership was closing when we got there so we looked around at the various colors and versions and I am going to test drive an 5-speed manual AWD version Monday night. The AWD is not going to make the Element an off road vehicle like a Jeep but it should keep me from getting stuck easily crossing a field on the farm or going down a muddy gravel road, and the occasion heavy snow we get here in Ohio.

I have even looked into accessories and quickly found that after market parts exist so I can properly redneck it. ie Nerf bars, brush guard, and the like. I figure a good Browning firearms logo in the side window, an NRA sticker in the back window and a "fear a government that fears your gun" bumper sticker and I should confuse a lot of yuppies.

We'll see after the test drive. If your curious second on the list is Chevy's Colorado crew cab pickup.

First my man-purse entry: http://mcb-homis.livejournal.com/12057.html

Well I went ahead and bought the bag. It showed up last night and I promptly loaded all the stuff I normally carry in my Kelty into my new bag. It all fits with a little bit of extra room. Not nearly as much extra as my Kelty has but that was one point of getting it.

The holster feature does work OK but it’s slow and takes two hand right now. My left hand has to stabilize the bag while my right hand unzips the zipper and draws the weapon. I think as the bag looses some of its new stiffness and the zippers wear a little bit it will get to were I can do it one handed and quicker. The bag actually has a belt loop on the back side and with that around my belt I can do a one handed draw but the belt loop is not very convenient, and impossible to use if you have a jacket or un-tucked shirt on.

There are lots of pockets to organize your gear. Nearly all the large packet have smaller pocket on the inside walls. I also picked up some of their karabiner that are made to fit the 1 inch webbing on the outside for attaching more gear. The karabiner are pretty slick with a special slot that keeps them on the web even while open.

The ergonomics are good the bag stay on your hip and does not slide forward like a lot of should bags have a tendency to do. Over all I am pleased, will see how it breaks in.

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On another note with regards to my Gun Porn entry: http://mcb-homis.livejournal.com/13030.html

I cleaned the gun after taking those pictures and found two hairline fractures in the locking block. The locking block is the metal insert that goes into the polymer frame and is what takes all the forces of firing and cycling of the action. It connects the slide/barrel assembly to the frame. The block provides the rails that the slide translates on. It also is the ground end of the recoil spring, and the hard stop that arrest the reward travel of the slide It is also what holds the barrel and slide locked together until the bullet leaves the barrel and then is what pulls the barrel down unlocking is from the slide during the cycling of the action. As you can see the locking block is the core of the gun’s ‘operation system.’

A few pictures might be helpful.


This is the frame with the slide removed looking down on the frame. Left is muzzle end, right is grip end. The blue arrows point to the two cracks.


Here's a close up again the blue arrow point to the cracks.

You'd think I would be torqued-off about this but I knew a few months ago this was likely to happen. I am disappointed but not pissed. The part has a flaw, as most have already notice the cracks have propagated out of the relatively sharp corners. Apparently this problem never cropped up in the original version of the XD since it was chamber in 9x19mm and that never produce recoil impulses high enough to exploit the stress concentration created by the corners. It wasn’t until later version chamber in the 40S&W did this problem crop up in any numbers.

Since I new the problem was likely I already knew Springfield Armory has a good fix in place and since the XD's have a lifetime warranty they will fix it for free including reimbursing me for the shipping. Below is a picture of the apparent fix for the problem. It appears they simple drilled holes in the corners, thus relieving the stress concentration.



The only real crummy part was I had to take all the aftermarket parts off and put all the factory parts back on. Oh well it only took a half hour or so. I will probably not have it back in time for the next match but I figure not having if for one indoor match is better than missing two or more outdoor matches this summer. Not to mention I really do need more practice with my revolver.

We’ll see.