German MG 42

With adoption of the MG 34 machine gun the Wehrmacht had the weapon that was envisaged some 20 years before, and the MG 34 bears the distinction of being the first practical universal (or general purpose) machine gun. While the MG 34 was good and practical, it was certainly not ideal. German experts wanted their machine guns to fire faster, while being simpler and less costly. A high rate of fire was desirable both for AA applications and for surprise flanking fire against targets moving through the battlefield. As early as 1937 HWaA issued a request for the next new universal machine gun,and three companies received development contracts – Johannes Grossfuss AG, Stubgen AG and Rheinmetall-Borsig AG. In 1939 a commission selected the Grossfuss-made MG 39 prototype for further development. Designed by engineer Gruner (often wrongfully referred to as Grunow) and small arms designer Horn, new weapon, in accordance with HWaA request, had a stamped steel construction, combined with locked breech, short recoil action. Initial trials suggested that the Grossfuss MG needed further development, and in late 1941 a small batch (about 1500 pieces) of improved guns was manufactured for troop trials as the MG 39/41.
The new machine gun, while being made to lower standards of fit and finish, proved to be quite functional and reliable (a feature that the much more “refined” MG 34 lacked, especially in the mud and snow of the Russian front). Subsequently, it was officially adopted as the MG 42, and production commenced later the same year.
In general terms, the MG 42 was a great success. It fulfilled the roles of a light machine gun on a bipod, a medium machine gun (on a newly developed Lafette 42 tripod), and an anti-aircraft machine gun, mounted in single and twin installations, ground and vehicle-mounted. It was relatively inexpensive to make and required less raw materials than the MG 34, and it was simple to maintain and use. On the minus side, it had a somewhat excessive rate of fire, usually quoted as 1200 rounds per minute, although German WW2 era manuals listed it as 1500 rounds per minute (25 rounds per second). This rate of fire resulted in excessive consumption of ammunition and rapid overheating. While the extremely rapid barrel change procedure allowed for sustained fire, the resulting accuracy left something to be desired; excessive vibration from recoil, combined with a short sight radius, resulted in degraded long range accuracy compared with earlier MG 34 and, especially, the heavy MG 08 Maxim guns. Nonetheless the MG 42 was an impressive and fearsome weapon, known among Allied soldiers as “Hitler’s saw”, for the sound of the firing which resembled the sound of a giant mechanical saw.

my neighbors were screaming again today, so my sleep was cut short.  so what did i do?  well, since everyone finds otep so obnoxious [i do too sometimes, because i listened to them obsessively thru out very irate years], i turned the speakers towards the windows of the fuckers, & blasted otep as loud as it would go.  then they shut the fuck up.

the moral of the story is:  be nice to me, & i will be nice.  scream like a bitch when i am trying to sleep, then just be glad i don't pull out a fucking machine gun

A self-taught gunsmith who ran an illegal arms factory converting replica submachine guns into lethal weapons has been sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 11 years. At least eight people, including a teenager, Michael Dosunmu, were killed by weapons converted by Grant Wilkinson in a shed in Berkshire...

Wilkinson, 34, of no fixed abode, was convicted yesterday at Reading crown court of buying replica MAC-10 submachine guns and converting them to fire. Police said his operation was one of the largest they had ever discovered. They believe it produced 90 guns used in a fifth of shootings in the capital over two years.

The judge, Zoe Smith, passing sentence, said: "The scale of this criminal enterprise is unprecedented in this country. The roll call of deaths and injuries is horrific. Some 30 to 40 of these weapons are still unaccounted for, and regrettably but doubtlessly, the roll call of death and serious injury will continue to rise."

Wilkinson bought the replica guns claiming to be involved in making a James Bond film.

The Mac-10 even in factory condition is a piece of crap firearm. Lucky that more innocent bystanders weren't killed.

Interesting comparison to U.S. attitudes about crime like this. Some of you know of my misspent youth which included some time as gang member. The armorer for that gang was later convicted for illegally manufacturing machine guns. He received a 7-year sentence, out in 5.

Yeah, we still were friends. We grew up together.

From brockk

Click to enlarge (1280x856)

Task Force 2-69 Armor, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Benning Georgia: Flowers lie in the cartridge box of a 50-caliber machine gun during a patrol through central Baghdad. The flowers were given to soldiers by Iraqi citizens. Photo by: David Leeson/The Dallas Morning News

Sponsored by Esprit Libro

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

This film is a landmark for several reasons, one that is impressive is how it re-evaluated and examined the western genre. An important symbolic happening in the film is the machine gun attack on the mexican army. The machine gun itself symbolizes, in this movie, the death of the 'honourable' combat that is a staple in many classic westerns. One-on-One shoot outs are replaced by instant mass carnage caused by mechanical guns that seemingly remove the last vestages of honour war and combat contains (Earlier Westerns tend to argue that shooting someone in the back or by surprise is a dishonourable act). A Fistful of Dollars indicates the switch in Westerns from honourable isolated individuals fighting for causes to mass-carnage where individuals attempt to play both sides off each other for profit. This movie, and the symbol of the new machine gun, indicates a darker more disturbing attitude to the heritage of the Western film genre and the myth of the West.

I recently watched a DVD copy of THE MACHINE GIRL and after 97 minutes of wanton brutality, decapitation, out-of-this-world weapons and typical nice-girl-gets-wronged-and-seeks-revenge theme reminiscent of KILL BILL, I have to pass judgment one way or another.

But before I do that, first things first. The Machine Girl is about a pretty orphan schoolgirl named Ami whose little brother was killed by a bunch of high school thugs led by a scion of a wealthy Ninja-Yakuza family. She tries to avenge his death by hunting down those responsible.

The movie opens with Ami, in classic japanese serafuku uniform accosting a group of high school bullies who were picking on a boy. It turns out that this was the same group that bullied her brother to death. While the cheesy opening credits flashed with classic B-Movie flair, the bullies fell one after the other as Ami unloaded rounds upon rounds of bullets upon them. What follows is a series of flashbacks showing how his brother died and how her quest for revenge went wrong, leading to her capture and the dismemberment of her left arm in the hands of the cruel ninja-yakuza family. For some reason, however, she managed to escape and meet willing partners in revenge who also gave her an outsized machinegun glove tailor-made for her left arm which was cut just below the elbow. She resumes her quest and loses more friends and gains more enemies in the process. Several decapitations, copious amounts of spurting blood a la Kill Bill, a chainsaw, a flying guillotine and a drill bra later, she stands bloody and torn yet victorious - and still wearing her cute sailor moon uniform to boot.

The story is a bit of a cliche and the effects have "FAKE" written all over them. The movie does not make an effort to hide its surreal, anime influence with the characters behaving in a cartoony manner as silly enemy rituals and formations reminiscent of Bioman and Maskman abound. A lot of gory things bordered on the goofy as well especially when Ami's hand was turned into a giant tempura by one of the bullies' parents. This coming from a movie that is classified as Action/Horror. A good anime upbringing and a healthy dose of Fangoria or love for Clive Barker novels would definitely help one appreciate this movie even more.

The movie was released direct to video in the US but was shown in theaters last August 2 in Japan according to Wikipedia. I doubt it's going to be screened elsewhere with the sheer amount  of bodies cut in half, heads a-flying, and general splatter and gore presented every few minutes or so. For little pervs and schoolgirl fetishists out there however, there's precious little to expect as cute Ami did not give a lot of upskirts here. Shaider's sidekick Annie will give her a run for her knickers everytime.

For all its shortcomings and gory cheesiness, I'd be a lying bastard if I didn't say I enjoyed this movie. Kawaii!

What can you say about these machine gun shoots-especially the ones set to a rampage of electric music? Well, for starters, certain descriptions come to mind: they are  nap-wakers, boredom-stiflers, trigger finger itchers, depression-reducers, tension-breakers, headache inducers, ear-ringers, sap-oozers, nerve wreckers, spine-tinglers, shoulder-whackers, full metal jacket-wreckers, make-believe war-ringers, steel-fusilladers and metal ricoheters...er, among other things.

NOTE: Even though I was never a big gun guy (never went hunting) a few years ago some friends talked me into some skeet shooting at a military base firing range here in NJ. As long as you had registered guns you could shoot within the bern protected area. I went because every once in awhile I like to do something I don't normally do, just to expunge perhaps certain gnawing tappings up there in the atavistic R-complex. When we got there they--people from the base-- had set up an old tank or troop carrier; It had already been shot up but it was still in one piece. One look at that and we didn't bother with the clay pigeons, we went through blast after blast at the metal enemy. By the end of it though, even though I had been wearing ear protection, my ears were ringing.

Here's another recent post on the subject.

Haven’t we all experienced the sensation of wanting to rid the world of certain people because of some element that really irks us? I wonder where the whole moral dilemma of killing people came around. Other species on the planet that number around six billion really don’t have a huge problem with killing of a few for the greater good of us all. Take sardines for example, though that might be a bad example seeing that there might be more than six billion of them around. But I’ll use it anyway – if you’ve seen those documentaries on the Great Sardine Run that occurs up the KwaZulu Natal coast every year, you see the methods they use to stay alive which includes forming huge shoals. If a few get eaten from the peripheries of the shoal, it’s not too bad because altogether, a greater number survive. A similar technique is used by other animals – lay a few million eggs and hope that a few do survive through the advantage of numbers.

The differing element is the way our minds work. The emotional attachments and the analysis that happens up in our cranium are what make the difference. I doubt the sardines worry about the one’s that got eaten. We, on the other hand, would have a problem if someone we grew up with from the time we were in nappies, was eaten by a shark in a singular bite. Anyway, so this is really what holds us back from blasting the guy that cut us of in traffic to kingdom come. Using the whole technique I talked about a few days ago, it is up to pure choice – the guy would have cut you of for some reason that you don’t know that could be valid. Change your way of thinking rather and see it from a different angle. All good and easy but, well, where do you stop changing your own thinking and recognising that that person is really just a doos?

The Eskom annual results came out a while back and from a profit of R6 billion, it drop to a profit of about R600 million. That is a huge drop and one of the factors that influenced this was the increase in diesel use. From using 11 million litres of fuel last year, this year, 400 million litres was used. Couple with the massive increase in fuel cost, this was a recipe for financial disaster. Now, what were the reasons that so much fuel was used? The main reason was that there was no power and Eskom HAD to produce power somehow to keep the country alive. The load shedding that happened between February and April showed exactly what problems did occur when South Africa was not with enough power. Now with the base load, coal stations undergoing either planned or unplanned shutdown, the only option was to run the gas-fired turbines in the fleet. Now, IF it was known long in advance that these expensive devices would be needed, as a decision maker, you would have done some studies and found an optimal solution to make these run as cheaply as possible. But, this was NOT know long in advance, the reaction was not to do these optimisation studies that would take a few months but instead, get these suckers running in the way that you have at your disposal. In this case, these gas-turbines would be run with diesel fuel. The reason for this would be that in Eskom, there are current agreements with diesel suppliers to provide what is necessary and since you need power right now, you’d use this option as it would require the least red tape and it would be quick and easy to implement. The result would be a slightly higher bill for producing the power but at the end of the day, the country has power which was the primary aim.

However, there are other sources of ignitable gas that do exist. Things such as Natural Gas, gas from Underground Coal Gasification, Biomass and even Biofuels could have been used. All have certain pluses that come along with the technology but the bottom line is, these technologies weren’t available at such short notice. They haven’t been utilised before because the need did not arise. Or, if they have been utilised, the technologies would be undergoing or have undergone rigorous tests to determine the usefulness of it all. Moreover, since the gas fired stations are new, studies would have been done to figure out whether these options are viable. This is basic engineering practices – nothing fancy.

Now, to tie this up to the beginning of the story – if this is the case, it boggles the mind to have someone blaming the fuel bill on Eskom utilising diesel. It was proposed that instead of using diesel, Natural Gas should have been used. All good and well but, as I said before, the country was in a crisis. Diesel was readily available and Natural gas was not. Natural Gas would be the better option as it burns cleaner and is cheaper if it was available. But it was not. It’s like buying drinks in a club. You pay a premium price just to get drunk whereas with all the money you spent on getting yourself drunk, you could have gone to Makro and bought enough alcohol to get five people much more drunk than you were! However, you chose to drink the alcohol in the club because it was available at the time whereas at that time (which was some ungodly hour early in the morning) Makro would be closed and much further away that the bar that you are leaning against. You wanted to get drunk at that moment in time and the bar was the “only” option whereas if you wanted to get drunk sometime in the future, you would have bought from Makro. Just like the analogy, in this case, diesel was the option that had to be taken and the consequences of these had to be dealt with. Now, the part that got me thinking about the “Bring a Machine-Gun to Work Day” was that this was suggested during my Self Management course with a facilitator that has nothing to do with Eskom during a lecture that had nothing to do with power cuts. This is where it should to stop. It does not work when people try to indoctrinate beliefs into the wrong forum with the wrong people in order to show off how intelligent you are or degrade other people that were forced into making immediate decisions. It is fine having a lot of good ideas but what good does destructive behaviour serve?

Sacrificing such person would be in the greater good after all? It would have been rather cool wielding a machine-gun at that point in time! Lol. Mr. Kalashnikov would have been super proud of me! But anyway, the question then needs to be asked: Who determines what the greater good is and where does this greater good stop? But that’s another issue altogether!!!

On July 31, my Dad celebrated his 50th birthday. Since he is "the boss" around the workplace, my Mom decided to get all of his co-workers and employees in on Birthday Paintball Tournament. After all, who wouldn't want to skip work and shoot at their boss?
So we scheduled ourselves in at this paintball field way out on the east part of town called "Dragon Man's". Now, if you live in Colorado Springs and have never heard of Dragon Man, you're kind of dumb. He's an ex-military man who has one of the largest weapon and armored vehicle collections in the region.

We finally arrived at this place after driving about halfway to Kansas (just kidding, but seriously...) Pictured above is what the inside of his little business shack looks like. It was pretty awesome, seeing all of those weapons in one place. If there is ever a nuclear war, the first place I'm going to is the bank. The second place is Dragon Man's.

The only problem I had with this place was the target with Obama's name and caricature on it. I'm not sure if that constitutes a legal death threat, but it kind of offended me. Then again, who is going to burst in there and arrest the guy? He's got enough weapons and armor for Colorado to successfully secede from the Union. Typically redneck. But the guns were sweet!

Dragon Man's Website

The whole experience was awesome, with the exception of me getting shot in the head 5 times!

In July 2006 a Wisconsin gun owner lent an AR15 to a friend who took it to a local range to shoot. At one point the gun briefly went full auto and then jammed. Police officers who were on the range at the time observed this and decided that it was in effect a machine gun and the owner of the gun was charged for illegally transferring a machine gun. The case came to trial in January 2008 and the individual has now been convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Dobbs made the case seem pretty cut and dried that the gun owner, David Olofson, was badly served by the justice system and the early commentary from gun bloggers raised the fear that any shooter having a gun go full auto-due to a malfunction could be open to prosecution, some suggesting the extreme position that something as simple as a side-by-side shotgun doubling on you could be so interpreted by overzealous ATF agents and federal prosecutors. From the testimony of ATF agents at the trial there was reason to be nervous.

As with most situations like this where charges are laid, you know what gets reported but you always wonder what is lurking out of sight.

In this case all you really have to look at is the transcript of the trial and some opinions on some blog sites. You can read the transcript here and here.

The ATF and the federal prosecutor go to great lengths to discredit Olofson by noting that he had on his computer a manual on how do conversions from semi-auto to full auto on an AR15. Although when interviewed by the ATF agent and asked if he knew how to do the conversion to full-auto he said that he did but didn’t have the skills or equipment to actually do the work.

Q. Agent Keeku, when you interviewed Mr. Olofson back on, this
was in July of 2006?
A. Yes.
Q. He never tried to say that that gun wasn't his.
A. Correct.
Q. He fully acknowledged that that was his gun.
A. Yes.
Q. You said that he also told you that he had the knowledge to
transform a gun, a semi-automatic into an automatic, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. But that he didn't have the parts, tools, or machining
skills, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. So actually he might have had knowledge of some, in some
vague way, but he didn't have the skills to do it.
A. That is a statement that he made, yes.

But he was also badly hurt by the testimony of the friend who had borrowed the AR15 and on whom the rifle had fired the full-auto burst. He told the ATF agents that when told about the malfunction Olfson indicated that he knew it was a problem.

The other items of note in the transcripts is that Olofson bought the AR15 from an FFL dealer and the firearms expert testifying for the ATF confirmed that there had been no conversion work done on the rifle.

Q. Okay. And Mr. Olofson also -- he said that he had bought
that gun in 1989, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. And that he had bought it from a federal firearms licensee,
correct?
A. I'd have to review my notes.
Q. Would it refresh your recollection if I showed you the
summary of the interview of Mr. Olofson?
A. Yes.
Q. And actually let me rephrase my question. He said that he
buys guns from federal firearms licensees, correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And to be a federal firearms licensee, you must be complying
with federal laws as they relate to selling guns, correct?
A. Correct.

The main theme of the government’s case was that the rifle fired a multiple burst and therefore it was in full-auto mode and therefore was a machine gun.

Q. And I believe that on cross-examination you agreed with
Mr. Fahl that a firearm is a machine gun as long as the trigger
is engaged -- as long -- if it fires, as long as the trigger is
engaged or until the ammo runs out?
A. That's one portion of the machine gun definition, yes, sir.
Q. Well, would it also qualify as a machine gun if you pulled
the trigger once and it started to fire multiple rounds but
before you released the trigger and before the ammo had run out,
for example, the gun jammed? Would you still consider that
firearm to be a machine gun?
A. It could be.
Q. If you pull the trigger, let's say, and three to four rounds
are fired and --
A. (Interrupting) Oh, three to four rounds?
Q. Yes.
A. As long as it's more than one round fired automatically, it's a machine gun.

As well, Olofson was probably not well served by being judged by a jury. The cross-examinations became very technical and confusing with detailed questions and answers on the technical functioning of the rifle dwelling on hammer fall and M-16 parts. I can well imagine the jury members’ eyes glazing over as this phase of the trial droned on. In the end they most likely keyed in on the easily understood facts:

1. Olofson reportedly said that he knew that under certain conditions the rifle would fire a full-auto burst (and then j am)
2. He had information on his computer on how to convert an AR15 from semi-auto to full-auto mode.
3. The ATF agent repeatedly said that regardless of the reason, if a firearm goes full-auto it is a machine gun.

The prosecutor also aggressively went about discrediting the technical expert brought in by the defence and probably was effective in the eyes of the jury by pointing out that he had no formal training in the area of firearm work, although he was a trained machinist and was a firearm designer.

I was also curious as to why the Olofson opted not to testify on his own behalf.

It does seem that the government came down extraordinarily hard on Olofson and I have to wonder why. Whether the problem was a malfunction or not there did not appear to be any attempt by Olofson to attempt a full-auto conversion on the rifle. With that in mind, 30 months prison time seems excessive. Actually after reading the transcripts, any prison time seems over the top.

Regardless of the statement of the ATF agent about any gun that fires more than one round automatically being classified as a machine gun, I doubt that a side-by-side or over/under doubling would bring down the long arm of the law.

These things happen. I recall a .45 calibre 1911 Colt I once owned that had been worked over to turn it into a competition gun. I was practicing on the range when it went full-auto on me and emptied the clip. The last shot was almost vertical. By the ATF’s definition I was apparently in possession of a machine gun, although it never happened with that gun again.

Just another thing for gun owners to worry about.

]]> http://wallacereport.wordpress.com/?p=100 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:44:29 +0000 twistedlizard http://wallacereport.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/the-mcdonalds-drive-thru/

So I pull up to the McDonald's drive-thru this morning, and my blood pressure immediately spikes.  The drive-thru I go to separates into a left and right lane so two people can theoretically order at the same time.  (I say theoretical because I've never actually seen it happen.)  After the split, the lanes re-merge.  It works surprisingly well.  They've only messed up my order fifty times or so.

Anyway, when I pull up, there is this car blocking BOTH lanes.  The woman in the car looks like she is a space cadet--her eyes are all glazed over.  I don't think she understands what she's supposed to do.  Maybe it's her first day behind the wheel, but I doubt it.

Suddenly, I imagine I am James Bond, and I push the machine gun button on my dashboard.  At the front of my Astin Martin, the headlights fold down, exposing a set of finely crafted machine guns.  They begin to fire.

I'm awakened from my fantasy when I realize she has pulled forward.  I pull forward, too.

Then she stops again before reaching the ordering speaker, still blocking both lanes.  This is the last straw.  I've had to wait all of 10 seconds to speak to a McDonald's lackey, and this is just unacceptable.  I'm about to turn into Towanda from Fried Green Tomatoes and just ram my car into hers, over and over again.

I hope it isn't going to be one of those days.

The word MACHINE comes from the Latin machina, which derives from the Greek makhana, a Doric variant of mekhane (machine, engine, device).
It is still in use in modern Greek as mehane (μηχανή - machine).

.
From the same root: machinery, machiner, machination, machine-gun, machinist, mechanic, mechanical, mechanically, mechanician, mechanics, mechanism, mechanize, mecanization, mechanistic.
.
Η λέξη MACHINE προέρχεται από το λατινικό machina, το οποίο με τη σειρά του προέχεται από την ελληνική λέξη μηχανή.
.
makhana -->machina --> machine

Post 7.

In blogger: http://ewonago.blogspot.com/

The 21st Century is turning out to be as frenetic and savage as the one we recently left behind.  The lawyers of capital promised  the "end of history" made possible by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the bubbly growth of the 1990's. A capitalism unfettered by the class struggle would build the New Jerusalem that the workers' movement failed to do.

That Jerusalem is surrounded by a growing wall separating the dispossessed from their expropriators and manned with nests of machine guns is not a throw back to the bad old days, but the real capitalist promise of the future.  Two great artists of the 20th Century produced, among their finest pieces, works entitled "Machine Gun".  In a world of conflict the machine gun is both an element of oppression and an agent of liberation.  The past is not really the past, the present is only the present, the future is unwritten.

Jimi Hendrix doesn't really need any introduction.  What Coltrane was to the saxophone, Hendrix was to the electric guitar. He paints huge, glowing, pulsating pictures with his instrument.  Hendrix was an absolute artist and, very often, an astute showman at the same time. Machine Gun is the former paratrooper's take on Vietnam; you can hear the bombs falling.

I probably have a dozen versions of Machine Gun, each one is different.  My favorite is from the, much maligned, second set at Berkley, 1970.  This one is from the legendary Filmore East New Year's shows with Billy Cox on bass and the thundering, and recently deceased, Buddy Miles on drums.  It has a power that can't be explained, it can only felt.  It will make your teeth hurt.

Victor Serge was one of the very best writers of the 20th Century.  His Memoirs and Year One should be read by every student of the "wars and revolutions begun in 1914" which all revolutionaries must be.  His memoirs, novels, poetry, letters and histories span the hopes and tragedies from the opening of the century to its midnight; the second imperialist world war.  His prose is devoid of romanticism and can be terribly dark and yet filled with hope in situations you would not think hope was possible.

Serge was one of the few survivors of the the Stalinist cataclysm.  Accidents of history and the campaign of supporters saved him from the fate of an entire generation. He walked away from a Gulag.  His recollections of his GPU interrogation still stands out years after I first read it.

Serge's son, Vlady, went on to become a powerful artists himself, devoted in part to the memory of the fallen, and died in 2005.   The unfortunate break with Trotsky and the Fourth International, while not simply a misunderstanding, was undoubtedly helped along by Stalinist intrigues.  Serge's witness is a warning and his hope an affirmation. He died, penniless and exiled, in the back of a Mexico City taxi cab not far from where an agent of Stalin plunged an axe into the brain of The Old Man.

Machine Gun

At the gates of the homes, at the gates of the palaces – that we have conquered-
everywhere in the city
where the riot drags on cold, dull and strong,
everywhere at the doors of our homes
the machine-guns in the dark corners.

Dull, to bring death;
blind, low, at the base of the earth,
blind, cold, of steel, of iron,
with the metal of their hate
elemental,

with their steel teeth ready to bite,
their clockwork,
wheels, nuts, springs,
their short black mouths on the mounts
squat ...

Oh, the tragic machine, the thing of steel, of iron, inert, which mutilates seconds, at the fatal moment of battle,
which digests seconds – tac-tac-tac – the
seconds drop to the infinite – and lives
tumble to the great cold of the tombs,
The machine
which eats, tears, bursts, pierces, excavates
the flesh, becomes twisted in blood and nerves,
breaks the bones, makes the rails sing with the hollow of perforated chests,
makes the brain ooze with the breaking of great faces:
grey among blackened blood.
Low machine to kill, everywhere, in the town of dull riot,
lurking at the doors of our homes, watching for what wants to be born,
watching
for what lifts from human hearts and from the depths of the live earth,
for what rises from burning faith, from mad hope and from anger – from want and from light –
from enthusiasm and from prayer,
which goes up to flower – acts, cries – flames: the revolt ...

Low to cut down flight, the machine-gun in ambush: victory to the man of iron laws, victory to metal on flesh – and in the dream – the law of death.

And this machine, our hands and our brains built. O Father! Did we know what we made?

]]> http://bannerswordshield.wordpress.com/?p=330 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:45:09 +0000 Jon W http://bannerswordshield.org/2008/10/06/get-to-know-jonathan-browning/ I have seen a couple of sites which introduce people that might be lesser known to the community at large.  This first individual will have a familiar last name to most but you might be surprised to find out more.

This is Jonathan Browning.  Born in Tennessee he is famous to most of the outside world for his work as a gunsmith. The company that bears his son's name developed the Browning Automatic Rifle which was in use in World War II.

However what most may not know, is that Browning was a Mormon.  Converted during some conversations with the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo.  The former Justice of the Peace in Quincy Illinois was also familiar with another famous player in those days Abraham Lincoln.

Because of his conversion he was ostracized and left Quincy to join the Saints in Nauvoo.  Browning moved to Winter Quarters with the main community of Saints and was a captain of a group which crossed the plains in 1852.  He eventually settled in Ogden.  During his life he continually worked to perfect his craft and however he left the creation of weapons mostly up to his son.

Jonathan Moses Browning one of his polygamist children began the real work in creating weapons.  He helped develop automatic weapons and semi-automatic weapons, and is considered one of the founders of the modern assault rifle, and machine gun.

Today you can still visit his gun shop in Nauvoo.

References

Garr, Arnold, Cannon, Donald Q. and Cowan, Richard O. ed.  Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History. Salt Lake City: Deseret Books. 2000. 145

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/Johnathan_Browning

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/John_Browning

http://guns.wikia.com/wiki/BAR

The main difference is that the samples and origins of the songs are more hidden than before. On the first Portishead album you could hear the sample base for a track really clearly, which wasn't a bad thing. But on Third, the songs sound like the product of an actual band. The opening track "Silence" is a good example of this, with it's clattering drums and distorted guitar line. "Machine Gun" is maybe the biggest departure from Portishead's trademark sound, all harsh beats and juddering synth stabs. "Small" oscillates between a kind of 60's proggy rock and psychedelia but the effect is jarring.

A dark and somewhat muted atmosphere is prevelant throughout the album; "Hunter" and "Nylon Smile" have a woozy melody and muted drums. "Plastic" is pretty hard going, with Beth Gibbons vocals especially icy. "We Carry On" is especially mechanical and harsh sounding, until it fizzes into life with a echoing guitar riff. Sometimes, it's a little hard to see through the murk, but there are some comparatively lighter moments. The end of "The Rips" has a warm burbling synth line towards the end which rescues the song from bleakness. The ukelele and barbershop vibe of "We Carry On" is a little silly though.  Third isn't a bad album, but it's not engaging me right now. Previous Portishead albums were all growers too, but parts of Third feel unessicarily heavy and dirge like.

Portishead - Machine Gun:

The first one invloves Mr. T and a shark, apparently Mr. T is more of a badass than I previously thought, I will never ever doubt him again, he has replaced Chuck Norris in my book as the world baddest ass.

Next we have the ultimate image, possibly the best thing I have ever seen online, since it doesnt involve Mr. T, it must involve one Captain Picard and The Truffle Shuffle. Ready?



















Seriously, thats amazing. His flesh looks so delicious, how did they do that?


Also, enjoy the new logo.

Time Magazine described South Africa's next potential president, Jacob Zuma as an "unabashed populist who revels in traditional African polygamy-he has several wives-and whose massive rallies feature the Zulu anthem Bring Me My Machine Gun." South Africa's politics is in great contrast with the American flamboyant and "dig for sleaze" canvassing. Most of the American politicians would conceal any immoral impediment on their character.  However, not so in South Africa. It is indeed a jungle; Jacob Zuma displays all his wickedness and parades as king of the Jungle. One would think that this may put-off the majority of voters yet they seem not to be dismayed nor affected by immorality.  Below is a "short" timeline of some of his accolades.  

 June 2005

Sacked by President Thabo Mbeki as South Africa's deputy president after an outcry over Shaik's conviction.

October 2005

Charged with corruption.

Weeks later the HIV-positive daughter of a family friend accuses him of rape.

December 2005

Charged with rape.

February 2006

Mr Zuma goes on trial for rape. He denied the charges.

April 2006

Acquitted of rape.

But criticised in the press for his remarks about sex:

• that he knew she wanted to have sex with him because she was wearing a short traditional wrap-around
• that it was against his Zulu culture to turn down a woman
• and that he did not use a condom but took a shower to "protect" against HIV infection.

At the time, he was head of South Africa's Aids council.

May 2006

ANC votes to reinstate him in his party duties.

September 2006

His corruption trial is struck from the court list when the prosecution asks for yet another delay to gather evidence.

November 2007

The court of appeal opens the way for charges to be brought again when it rules that the seizure by police of incriminating documents from his home and office was legal.

December 2007

ANC elects him as party president ahead of Mr Mbeki in a bitter contest, making him favourite to become South Africa's next president after elections due in 2009.

Ten days later prosecutors bring new charges of corruption, racketeering and tax evasion

March 2008

Mr Zuma appeals at the Constitutional Court against the legality of the 2005 search and seizure raids of his home and the offices of his lawyer.

He also opposes the state's request for original documents from Mauritius, including a diary that allegedly holds evidence of key meetings between him and French arms company Thint.

June 2008

Mr Zuma files papers to have his prosecution declared invalid and unconstitutional.

He reveals that if the application fails he would bring a second application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

July 2008

The Constitutional Court rules in favour of the state, that the search and seizure raids of 2005 as well as proceedings instituted by the state to obtain 14 documents in Mauritius were legal.

As a result the prosecution is able to use all the documents.

4 August 2008

Mr Zuma appears at the Pietermaritzburg High Court before Judge Chris Nicholson where his legal team argues that prosecutors did not follow legal procedures in reviving corruption charges in December 2007. [1]

I can only see one benefit for South Africa having Zuma as President that will "hopefully" cause a great divide, separated the stupid from the wise. Thus preventing a one party government. South Africa recently celebrated ten years of democracy. Zuma for President will be as going back to the dark ages or even worse, become like Zimbabwe.

[1] Tuesday, 5 August 2008 13:28 (source BBC website)

http://brickarms.com/

Talk about awesome. Who would have thought that your minifigures could arm themselves with grenades, machine guns, and rocket launchers? I think that Lego needs to hire this guy to produce all of their accessories.

Yes, those are weapons from Halo... I just hope this guy doesn't get nailed for design copying (not sure if he got permission to use the designs or not). Whatever the case, they are totally awesome, and for a dollar each, can't be beat.

Wikipedia Link: Portishead

Here is the video for their song "Macine Gun" from their new album "Third":

On a side note, Universal Records...get with it, let people embed your videos. All it took was another click to get it anyway.