Raithe

And surprise, surprise... WInter is NOT coming... George R R Martin says the Winds of Winter may be delayed even further I wonder if he's decided to just troll all the audience who keep nagging at him to finish....

The Obituary that made strangers miss a man they never knew

Also, since we do tend to focus on American politics here... I did see "Very quietly today while we grieved, the House passed a bill to gut the Americans with Disability Act." Washington Post - House passes changed to Americans with Disabilities Act over activist objections

I need to catch up on my Agents of Shield. I've been stacking up episodes to watch since about 5 episodes into season 3... and just haven't had the time/mood to sit down and actually watch them.

Barnes and Noble - A Statistical Analysis of A Wheel of Time

**** You I like guns One veteran's blog on how they enjoy guns, enjoyed learning how to shoot, but were happy in the army where all those guns were locked away in the arms room at the end of the day and not carried around for "barracks defense" as standard practice.

A youtuber who claimed being vegan cured her cancer has died from cancer What somewhat boggles me is that the niece who used to make the video blogs with her... is still behind it and insisting that veganism, juicing, and faith in god will cure cancer.

The News and Observer : No, there haven’t been 18 school shootings so far in 2018. That number is flat wrong. An interesting point about how both sides of the argument skew the data. Read more here

Not meaning to take any cheap shots... But it is America. So probably both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMfStd3v330

NSFW - Language https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htGAdlkStv8

Don't piss off old people. The older we get, the less "Life In Prison" is a deterrent.

"We should arm every teacher!" "...Wait, you bastards won't even buy them enough pencils and printer ink... Now you got the budget for Glocks??"

Scientific American: 6 Things to Know About Mass Shootings in America A US criminologist breaks a few things down...

They started off with the standard Hollywood idea of the MP5 being the standard "special ops" gun, but after a season or two, they switched to the P90 as the standard weapon for SG teams. If I recall rightly, the P90 was originally designed for as a 'compact' long arm for vehicle crews and the like and didn't really have the space for a full blown assault rifle or the equivalent, it then evolved into a design for close urban combat which suits most counter-terrorist / special forces situations these days.

At least John Doe did get a full season of 21 episodes. Although it did end on a cliffhanger.

Re-watching the pilot episode of John Doe. A fairly intelligent adventure series from around 2002 that had a slowly developing story arc. A pre-Prison Break Dominic Purcell as an amnesiac who turned up in Seattle, who although he had absolutely no idea of who he was, he knew literally everything else thats factual knowledge. Has that weird mystery of the week that slowly built up backstory and connections as he struggled to figure out who he was and how he knew so much, while also trying to build human connections with the people he encountered. Damn, that's one I will always have a grudge over them cancelling. Up there with Threshold, Oddysey 5, Defying Gravity, and Journeyman.

Some Language... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rR9IaXH1M0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9UFyNy-rw4

I blame the founding fathers who wanted to ignore lower tax rates than you currently suffer under, and also wanted to grab land from the natives we had treaties with and wouldn't let those treasonous colonials steal from. Oh, and the French for supplying money and arms, just because they wanted to give us a diplomatic black eye.

From my viewpoint over here in merry olde England, it isn't so much about "yes, your gun didn't kill anyone", it's that it seems to damned easy for any idiot to get hold of them over there. I can point to many friends around the world and say "Yes, they are competent, intelligent people who can be responsible with a car, with a gun, what have you." But I can also point to a whole bunch more of people who are just idiots I wouldn't trust with a stapler, let alone some form of automatic weaponry. But if they are in the good ol US of A...