Tell that to the guys in Vietnam who used the M16...the M16A1 was only marginally better, since they changed the gunpowder around the same time. There were reports of dead soldiers with a cleaning rod in one hand, M16 in the other, killed during a firefight. I'll take my chances with my dumb pistol, it has 110+years of not failing.

I read elsewhere that in that 3 months humans updated [altered] the information in the ShotSpotter system to include changing the location of the microphone and changing the determination of the sound to match the time the crime occurred. Seems they forgot to wipe the red light camera that showed him running a red light some distance away as he was driving the passenger to the hospital.

Americans and ABA are idiots. I am an expat in Europe, the chip cards are SO much easier; tap for small stuff, insert for bigger stuff. Most larger stores have Pin card only lanes which always move faster.

Coin collectors have been talking about this for years both the penny & nickel cost more than their value to mint. Another issue is the dollar coin (yes they exist.) The cost of dollar coins is a lot cheaper and will last much longer than a paper (actually cloth) dollar, but the company that supplies the US Mint with the "rag" (the companies term for the cloth) for paper money has bought and paid for enough congresspeople to insure that the coins are stored away and dollar bills are in circulation. There are warehouses full of dollar coins, you can get them at the bank but expect to wait as they retrieve them from the vault. All of this has been researched and reported to the Mint by their advisory committees, but Congress is getting paid too well to actually change anything. In addition to the copper and nickel lobbies, the coin operators lobby is also against it as they would need to alter the machines to not accept nickels or to accept a different weight coin plus be forced to accept dollar coins, as most machines will not take anything other than nickel, dime, quarter & bills.

Until the moment comes that you have to fire that weapon and you have to use your non-dominant hand, or you can't reach your "smart" gun but your significant other, child, best friend, kind neighbor or the cop who cannot reach his weapon can reach your "smart" gun. Let's hope that when you throw it at whatever the threat is it does what you wanted the bullet to do, neutralize the target or provide an escape route. I have been trained to shoot with both hands, and when my father passed away unexpectedly I had no problem taking any of his weapons to the range; but I doubt these "smart" weapons will accept multiple fingerprints.

I knew there was another reason I moved the Netherlands other than all the other reasons, they still understand the concept of privacy & more practically they will not be in power forever and exempt from the tyranny of the government overreach er I mean "freedom"....

Had a friend who was a mid-level manager for a large healthcare company. After every job interview, he called his assistant in. His only question to her was: "How were you treated?" The interviewee's attitude and actions toward her were probably as important as the actual interview. She was not just a coffee fetcher, who reminded her boss of his schedule and bought gifts for his wife, she was the feminine half of a successful team. When my friend was downsized she immediately submitted her retirement packet and as he understood made everyone's life miserable until they fast tracked her paperwork. The couples still vacation together.

I'm really not surprised. I watched this live (I live in Europe) with a terrible translator for CNN (Note to CNN: Fire him, I could use Google translate faster...) The last speaker was more worried about lunch than he was with the agreement....something like: it is very important that we all go to lunch we must go to lunch we will pass out the agreement while we are eating lunch but we must adjourn right now for lunch....some of that could have been the translator, but it was obvious that a meal break was more important than the agreement. Also listening to the other speakers, the French delegate actually said that we could stop global warning today by signing the agreement...another somehow worked "think of the children" into his remarks...I believe Mother Nature is going to do whatever the hell she wants with this planet, we are strictly riders here, one might as well stop the tides.

Until about a decade or so ago. PETA was on the FBI list of terrorist organizations. Then suddenly washed up actors and musicians started pouring money into the organization and "Presto" they are now seen as this animal rights champions....no. The ASPCA is an animal rights organization, not PETA. They are and will remain a terrorist organization, since they have to threaten anyone to get folks to listen to them. I'm certain good folks see Sarah Mclachlan on late night tv and donate thinking they are helping to save animals....

My soon to be ex-employer (leaving by choice) did the old-fashioned way, they simply offshored as much as of our work as they could. When I started here 5 years ago the org chart was straightforward with SVP for different aspects of our business or locations and more or less straight lines down. Recently they released a revised org chart. So much of our business has been offshored to India that on the org chart is a note, please see other chart for India. There is more of our business in India than in the US. I think all that is in North America is HQ (of course, along with their pet projects) the call center (in Mexico) and the businesses that will not allow off-shoring of certain aspects of their business (including one company I do work for with that is heavily regulated by the government on their IP [defense related]).

Prior to 9/11 I carried my Leatherman Tool with me when flying all the time. since then, my Gerber Multi-Tool (along with the rest of my EMT holster) goes in checked luggage, I really don't to go through the hassle of replacing it if by some chance the new guy is working the scanner and tries to impress the boss...

I would greatly enjoy former employers calling me to consult with them..
"Sure just remove that device"
"Are you sure?"
"Yup"
"Everything just went dead!"
"Hmm things have changed since I left...good luck with that." -click-
"Your honor, I had no idea, the system changed since I was employed there...."

I worked in the CATV industry, and we hired a non-technical manager for our installation dept. After a couple of months of getting a feel for her job, this former banking manager requested to be put into the next new hire class for installers. The Training manager offered to train her one on one and she refused. So she graduated like every other installer and "encouraged" the few staffers who weren't former technicians who couldn't physically work in the field anymore to at least take the class, to understand what the techs did. They also had the field guys spend a day with a CSR (I learned quickly why my headset didn't have a microphone) and we would get CSRs who would get to ride along with us. It was nice to see what "the other side" did plus gave us appreciation for what we did. I always enjoyed getting CSRs in terrible weather.....

Reminds me of freshmen year of high school. There was an unscheduled fire drill, so being good students we filed out of school in an orderly fashion as the fire dept. was coming in the front doors. It seems an AP chemistry experiment got out of control, so the fire dept and haz-mat squad got called. Once it was determined that the experiment was under control we were allowed back in school. It made for a "guess what happened at school today" story. Now I guess the news crews would show up and scare the hell out of the parents with the obigitory "my baby is in there" sound bite (note: we were all on the football field), the school would need to send e-mails/texts/ letters to the parents explaining in detail what happened, fire the teacher, and charge the student with trying to blow up the school.....