Category: Side Notes

A Case Against a Gold Backed Economy

I was reading Bruce Schneier’s block and came across an interesting story…

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Swiss-banks-have-no-space-left-for-gold!-19698-3-1.html

Swiss banks are running out of space to put their gold. This is a larger issue than many would give it credit for since gold does take a lot of space and if you have a large quantity of it in one area you need to really secure it. I’m not talking just putting more guards around it but you need to fully secure it since criminals will be trying to steal that treasure trove of precious metals.

It’s an interesting thing to consider especially for those who want us to return to a gold based economy. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know enough about economics to determine if backing our money with gold is a good idea. I will say it seems smart to back your money with something of value though. And if you set each denomination of money to be valued a specific denomination of gold it would prevent stupidity like a government printing up $1 trillion to give away to people who helped cause a major economic recession. I’m just saying.

Source: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/swiss_security.html

Getting Rusty

I went shooting this weekend and must say I’m getting rusty with the shotgun. A friend and I did some rifle, pistol, and shotgun work. For shotgun work we shot clays, or more specifically he shot them while I failed at it. I haven’t shot clays since probably high school and it really showed. I can’t even blame the gun since my friend was using it to.

For pistol I was doing good until he introduced me to my new nemesis the shot timer. This was a huge eye opener for me though. I always knew adding stress to a situation would make me a much worse shot but I didn’t realize how much worse. Either way I’m ordering a shot timer now so I can practice with some added stress.

For rifle shooting I was testing loads in the M14 SOCOM 16. I’m trying to find a load that I can use as a defensive round. Needless to say I loaded up 50 rounds of various powder loads with 155 grain bullets. They were nicer to shoot than my 168 grain bullets and they looked good on the chronograph to boot. Not to mention most of the shooting was done from a standing position and I was hitting the paper well (it was at 100 yards with iron sights).

So yeah I’m rather disappointed in myself but hey it’s a good reason to practice more.

Musical Side Note, Alestorm’s New Album Released

OK this has nothing to do with my usual topics but I love this band so I thought I’d drop note that Alestorm’s new album titled Black Sails at Midnight is out. For those landlubbers who don’t know Alestorm is a pirate metal band.

I’d link to their website but it’s on myspace.com which isn’t getting any links for me. Instead I present to you the Amazon MP3 store (don’t worry it’s not a referral link, I ain’t making shit off of this) link to the album so you can preview it.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sails-At-Midnight/dp/B0026ZZG4W/ref=dm_ap_alb4

So go forth me mateys.