http://www.findingzero.com/ One man's search for enlightement on the Internet en cjjackson@mindspring.com Copyright 2009 2009-09-28T21:53:35-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/A_Review_of_the_SIG_P245_Pistol/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/A_Review_of_the_SIG_P245_Pistol/#When:22:53:35Z I am a fan of SIG pistols. The first pistol I ever spent my hard-earned money on was a stainless SIG P226 in .357 Sig. Thousands of rounds later, it has been flawless and accurate and I still own it. If you had asked me three weeks ago to leave my house with and trust my life to one pistol, I would not have hesitated, it would have been my P239 in .40 S/W. The P239 has been in my bugout, SHTF bag [Flickr link to bag, contents] since I purchased the pistol three years ago. The P239 is compact and easy to conceal, always feeds, goes bang and extracts no matter what I feed it. And, with the right ammo (Double Tap 135gr JHP is my favorite and go-to) it is very, very accurate. Finally, like all Sig pistols, it is easy to disassemble, clean, lube and put back together. Of all the guns I own, I feel confident that I could take apart and reassemble any of my Sigs pistols blindfolded. I wish I could say that for my bull barrel Wilson and Nighthawk 1911s. About six weeks ago I bought a LNIB SIG P245 - loosing yet another bout with fiscal restraint to low impulse control. I didn't wander into my local gun store intent on buying anything, certainly not a P245. I had done some research on the P245 and handled a used one once or twice, but at that time I was in mid-1911-buying-rapture mode and felt that the P245 wasn't greatly different enough from my P239 or my P220 to warrant owning one. In the store, the empty pistol felt a bit nose heavy, a perception reinforced by the shortness of the grip. I also found the grips themselves to be a bit thick for my hand with a fair amount of palm swell. Firearms, Pistols 2009-09-28T22:53:35-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/Mouse_Guns_Hot_Weather_Concealed_Carry_and_Tactical_Underwear/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/Mouse_Guns_Hot_Weather_Concealed_Carry_and_Tactical_Underwear/#When:16:32:03Z The summers in Virginia are brutal. It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. Making the task of concealing a handgun that much more difficult. Most summers I find myself putting away my usual carry guns, (Kahr PM40, Nighthawk Talon IV or SIG P239)  in favor of smaller, more ‘pocketable’ pistols like my Seecamp .380 or Ruger LCP. Wearing a pistol wrapped in the the most ‘comfortable’ inside the waistband holsters (I’m partial to Milt Sparks leather) is like having a sweaty cheese grater next to your flesh. Generally, I am comfortable with the “mousegun compromise,“ recognizing the old adage that the gun you have with you is better than the one you have sitting at home on the night stand. It sounds good and it’s slightly comforting until you see the six-foot four inch specimen walking down the street and imagining that individual advancing at you with malice on his mind. Then I begin to think about what type of shot placement is going to be required - and how close I’m going to have to be with my mouse gun to make this guy wince. The inside the waistband carry problem in the summer is two-fold: in order to be comfortable, some sort of garment is required between the cheese and the grater. But, wearing another layer is hotter, compounding the problem. I have tried wearing a cotton t-shirt under a very light hawaiian shirt. This ‘solves’ the cheese grater problem but introduces the sweating profusely problem. Technology 2009-08-16T16:32:03-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/A_Review_of_the_Kahr_PM40/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/A_Review_of_the_Kahr_PM40/#When:19:48:59Z My Kahr PM40 has been unreliable with hollow point self-defense ammuntion; because of that I am sending the pistol to Cylinder and Slide for the “Concealed Carry Package” at a cost of nearly $1K before shipping. This is a considerable expense to insure that this stock $700 dollar pistol is completely and totally reliable using the ammunition of my choosing. I like the pistol that much. The Kahr’s DA trigger is smooth and the moderate pull length is just right for me: it’s not too long or too short and the trigger resets where I expect it to. The PM40 is completely accurate at normal self-defense ranges (<25 feet) and acceptably accurate at much greater distances. With Federals 165 grain Expanding Point Full Metal Jacket ammuntion - which my Kahr will feed reliably 100% of the time - the recoil is stout, but not completely unpleasant. It is not unusual for me to shoot 100 rounds through the PM40 at the range once or twice a month. The PM40 may be the perfect concealed carry hand gun - at least for me. I have two IWB and three pocket holsters (Pocket Concealment Systems, Tomahawk and Harpoon and a DeSantis Nemesis) for the Kahr. In my experience even the polymer framed PM40 is too heavy and the pocket holsters to bulky to be an every day carry combination. Firearms, Pistols 2009-03-11T19:48:59-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/hungry_planet_what_the_world_eats/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/hungry_planet_what_the_world_eats/#When:17:54:54Z I found this all very much by accident. A friend forwarded me an email that contained photographs of families with a week’s supply of groceries. She no doubt thought that i would find this book and ‘photographic essay‘ interesting from a photographic and creative point of view—and I do. But more interesting to me, is what these families eat over the period of a week and just how incredibly different their diets are. This family from the North Carolina seems to have spent half of their weekly budget on fast food. The photo features prominently their pizzas, soft drinks and snack foods and I suspect this isn’t too far from the ‘average’ American’s diet, where convenience and fast food are common. It also shows how much it costs to pay for the convenience of fast food.  Compare this to say the photo of the family from Ecuador and the contrasts are startling. It seems obvious that as a nation we are spending more money on food that is less healthy than the food our “third world” neighbors are eating. Are we deluding ourselves when we think that America is the greatest and most advanced country in the world? Look at the photos; you be the judge. Media, Photography 2008-05-14T17:54:54-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_american_life_american_limbo/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_american_life_american_limbo/#When:13:54:44Z This morning on my drive into the office, as has become my habit, I listened to “This American Life.“ This particular episode was “American Limbo” and tells the story of the Jarvis family from West Virginia. The story begins with the Jarvis family living off the land and off-the-grid in West Virginia on 140 acres of land. The parents are children of the sixties, minimalists and raising their children to be the same. The middle of the story occurs right across the peninsula from where I was living in West River, MD—at the same time the Jarvis family was living “on the hard” (as boat folk like to say) at Backyard Boats in Shadyside, MD. This family was literally rock-throwing distance from where my office was located at Parish Creek Marina. The candid actualities with the parents and children provide some amazing insight into how their family survived and the effect it had on all of them. This may be the best individual ‘act’ I have listened to on This American Life: Act One. The Family That Flees Together, Trees Together. The Jarvis family, a group of eight, goes on the run from the law — for seven years. They live on a boat, in a treehouse in a swamp. They escape capture time after time. And how do the kids turn out, living a life outside of society, as fugitives? Surprisingly great. (22 minutes) Culture, Media 2008-05-08T13:54:44-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_american_life/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_american_life/#When:15:37:47Z Last week on my morning walk and drives into and out of Washington, DC, I found myself unimpressed with what passes for radio anymore. I tried to listen to my old standby, sports radio on the WTEM and found local hack Steve Czaban engrossed in golf naval gazing and 80’s musical mash-ups—this just days before the NFL draft. I quickly switched to the Tony Kornheiser show. As long as you are entertained by his endless yammerings on American Idol or his grossly out of touch take on the world, politics, bloggers, the environment and life in general then it’s really good listening. Otherwise, Mr. Tony’s show jumped the shark ages ago. So, I turned off my radio, turned on my computer, fired up iTunes and found some real radio programming. I fully understand that I am way behind the curve on this. Something as good as “This American Life“ cannot possibly be a secret to most people. I downloaded and have listened to three of these shows and will probably never again listen to Kornheiser or Czaban. The first thing that struck me about these programs is the quality of the program; the subject matter is often quirky but always approachable, the style of storytelling is totally engaging and the production values are really excellent. In short, they are a pleasure to listen to. The “Image Makers” program on the Michigan State library system’s re-branding effort is absolutely hysterical, clever, educational and one of the best things I’ve listened to in a long, long time. Farewell, Steve, vio con dios Tony and AMF. Do yourself a favor and check out This American Life on iTunes. For the cost of your Starbucks morning fill up, you can get some interesting, thought-provoking listening material. I can’t recommend TAL enough! Culture, Media 2008-04-28T15:37:47-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_mornings_playlist/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/this_mornings_playlist/#When:13:24:00Z I am not a morning person. My usual start-up is a Dietcoke, followed shortly thereafter by a ‘redeye’ (regular coffee with a shot of expresso) from my local coffee shop. Maintenance levels are sustained by prodigious quantities of Dietcoke during the day.  On some mornings—like this morning I find that in addition to caffeine I need something more. I have a variety of playlists depending on the need. This is one I created for a road trip to Charlottesville, VA a while back. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t have eleven additional songs on this playlist, but the core of it is pretty good nonetheless. Media, Music 2008-04-25T13:24:00-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/todays_hot_links/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/todays_hot_links/#When:14:06:00Z What’s hot on the Internet today. Web Worker Daily and John Gruber at Daring Fireball talk mobile technology: Mobile Web Browsers Have No Where To Go But Up « Daring Fireball: The Unsatisfying State of Twitter Web Clients for the iPhone Expression Engine 2.0 due out this summer: EE Sneak Preview Video Last week I twittered about the Harry Potter Lexicon hub-bub. These two posts look at big picture publishing issues: Industry Questions Raised by “Potter” Encyclopedia Suit Tim O’Reilly: Amazon Has Publishers in its Sights Infosthetics, graphically examines the relationship of high-profile mukety-mucks to each other and Lost Remote talks about the growth of web-video: muckety interactive news graphs Web video views up 66% If you happen to be in or near the D of C, Go to National Geographic Explorer’s Hall, drink Italian beer, have a dangerous encounter and pass out worrying about climate change. Sounds like my kind of day. Italian Beer Renaissance Dangerous Encounters National Geographic Reports: the Challenge of Climate Change Last but not least: The folks in Jackson Hole wave goodbye to the Griz. We just don’t have that kind of connections to the wildlife here in DC, but then, it’s hard to get attached to rats. Photogenic grizzly family Blogging, Link Love 2008-04-17T14:06:00-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/a_nice_example_of_a_civil_demonstration/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/a_nice_example_of_a_civil_demonstration/#When:20:02:03Z While I am environmentally conscious and try to tread lightly upon the planet, I do not walk in lock step with Greenpeace. I find some of their methods extreme and in the long run I think those methods alienate as many people as the inspire. However, turning the Washington Monument into a glowing reminder of the monumental incompetentence, negligence and destructive impact that President Bush and his administration have had on the environment, is a wonderful bit of theater and a public service. Frankly, this may get me back on their donor list. (Via Gristmill) Environment, Media, News 2008-01-31T20:02:03-05:00 http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/twitter_on_a_t_shirt/ http://www.findingzero.com/index.php/site/twitter_on_a_t_shirt/#When:04:01:29Z The Shirt Project works on several different levels. Conceptually, the idea of ‘delivering’ news via t-shirt is clever and clearly an alternative way of thinking about current events. Using art to synopsize the ‘big ideas’ that make the story interesting and more available has to be challenging. But, the real coup de grâce idea-wise is that these shirts are available via subscription. Fucking Brilliant! Get your t-shirt, newspaper, RSS feeds and tweets delivered fresh to your doorstep. From the Shirt Project Website FAQ This project is an experiment in exploring the fringe of information dissemination. Our audience include the people who might not feel compelled to look at today’s paper, or read the top headlines online. The shabby t-shirt is uniquely suited for a project such as this—there is no other item that affords its physical size and relative low cost. We aim to inform the viewer, but we also realize that there are obvious limitations on the scope and depth of the information a t-shirt can effectively convey. We aren’t trying to replace the in-depth news article, we are interested in facilitating a texture of awareness that might incite a person to find out more. Advertising works to drive sales—we work to drive news readership. Culture, Media, Technology 2008-01-24T04:01:29-05:00