steem

Thursday, January 31, 2019

EGM 2 (August 1996)





EGM 2 (August 1996)

Believe it or not, there was a time that not only were there multiple successful video game magazines on the market, but in at least one case, one issue a month wasn't enough. Electronic Gaming Monthly was probably the most successful video game magazine and they were in fact so successful that for several years they published EGM^2 as well. The August 1996 issue includes: Departments
  • Insert Coin
  • Press Start
  • Interface: Letters
  • Previews
  • Tricks of the Trade
  • Strategies
  • Advertising Index
Tricks
  • Iron Storm - In this great trick take control of opposing forces or play a multi-player game in Campaign Mode!
  • Toshinden 2 - Play as the hidden characters (Sho, Uranus, Master and Vermilion) on the U.S. version!
  • Ultimate MK3 - Fight as Human Smoke (who carries most of the same moves as Scorpion) on the Saturn!
  • WWF: Wrestlemania - Gamers will be able to kick the computer's butt easily with this awesome cheat!
  • Toy Story - An invincibility and level select code will be granted if you follow the procedure correctly!
Cover Story
  • The Plumber Hits the Nintendo 64 With Some Attitude! - Everybody's favorite plumber is back in action, and this time around he's kickin' Bowser's butt! With its diverse levels, awesome 3-D effects, secrets and intense action, Mario 64 will leave gamers completely satisfied. In this issue, we give you a sample of what everyone will be craving, but make sure to stay tuned to EGM2 for updates.
Strategies
  • RPGs, RPGs and More RPGs! - What do Dragon Force, Shining Wisdom and Legend of Oasis all have in common? Besides all being RPGs, this issue highlights each game with blowout strategies! Dragon Force pits you against other conquerors to see who can get the most land for their kingdoms. However, in Shining Wisdom, your adventure begins when you see a strange character walk into the shire near the castle. In Legend of Oasis, battle against enemies while trying to figure out puzzles. While all three have different story lines, all are awesome. Check out each RPG's strategy guide!


  • Gamers Can Learn the Moves and Combos for the PS' Version of Tekken 2! - So you wanna impress your friends when playing the PS version of Tekken 2, but you don't quite know all the moves. Don't sweat it, because in this issue, there are six pages totally packed with all the characters' moves and combos. Do you wanna pull off Jun's Arm Lock, Law's Crescent Kick or Michelle's G-Clef combo? This guide has them all plus more. Also, to let you in on a secret...this is only the first section of a two-part guide! Your friends will be wowed once you study up on these cool moves for Tekken 2!


  • EGM2 Has a Lot of Soul in this Issue - Soul Edge V II - Fans of the original Soul Edge (as well as other fighting game fans) will be thrilled with Soul Edge V II. There have been numerous improvements that gamers will enjoy. For example, in this game there are air-floating combos, new backgrounds, 10 playable characters and a new Time Attack Mode where you face all the characters in a certain order and you are ranked in 15 categories like Attack/Guard. There's a whole lotta soul shakin' goin' on in this issue!
...and more!

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

New State Regulations Force a California Charity for the Homeless to Close Shop


 

For the past four years, Deliverance San Diego has been delivering hot meals to the city’s homeless population every Friday, averaging 200 donated meals on any given evening. Now, due to new guidelines passed by the State Legislature of California, the non-profit is ceasing operations and will dissolve by the end of the month.

Through their existing model, hot meals were prepared in volunteer homes and distributed on the streets.

“Volunteers from various churches gather at 17th and Commercial downtown to load four food wagons with chili, soup, cornbread, water, and other snacks,” the group’s web site explains. "We offer prayer and spiritual support, but one of the easiest things we do is get someone’s name and remember it.”
Through the new requirements, set forth by the San Diego Department of Environmental Health, Deliverance would need to use licensed, state-approved kitchens, implement hand-washing stations, and meet a variety of other requirements.

With a yearly budget of less than $7,000, according to the non-profit’s treasurer, Deliverance determined it can no longer sustain operations without extensive and expensive organizational changes. “We’re on a shoestring budget,” explains volunteer Gary Marttila, “so working out all those logistics became too big of an obstacle to overcome.”

ABC 10 News in San Diego tells more of their story:

As the San Diego Union-Tribune explains, several of the law’s backers have expressed surprise at the closure of Deliverance. According to Heather Buonomo, a program coordinator with the Department of Environmental Health, some sort of workaround may have been available or achievable. “We’re happy to work with them to find a solution that works for their charitable organization,” she said. According to Monique Limón, one of the bill’s authors, “The law would encourage more charities to provide food for the needy while also creating a level of oversight to ensure they follow proper health guidelines.”

Yet it’s unclear what exactly would or could have been done if Deliverance had tried to negotiate with the state and find “a solution that works.” And the fact that it didn’t even try or think it could try says something about the pressure that these policies put on small and vulnerable charities and institutions who don’t feel they have political sway.

Likewise, one can make any number of arguments about food safety, as Limón does, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which more burdens, more requirements, and tighter regulations will somehow “encourage more charities to provide food for the needy.”
The reality is that the state’s dream of regulated soup and sandwiches is taking precedence over the bottom-up activity of neighbors who are passionate about loving their neighbors. Is that really an acceptable trade-off, particularly in an area that so desperately needs an intimate and personalized approach?

“We’ve sought to provide comfort to those who are going through an incredibly difficult time,” says Deliverance’s press release on the closure. “In many situations, they are without a home due to no fault of their own. This action by the state creates significant barriers to those organizations like ours who simply want to show God’s love through a hot meal and some conversation.”

Given the good—and thus far, safe—work of organizations like Deliverance, such regulations represent a prime example of the “unseen costs” of government action.

In some cases, well-intended government policies lead to trade imbalances or economic surpluses or corporate cronyism or community inequities—all of which yield their own forms of social corrosion. But in cases such as these, we see the ill effects of these policies on charitable activity, resulting in real and tangible barriers to human love and relationship.

Is it really worth it?

This article was reprinted with permission from the Acton Institute.



Joseph Sunde
Joseph Sunde is an associate editor and writer for the Acton Institute. His work has appeared in venues such as The Federalist, First Things, Intellectual Takeout, The City, The Christian Post, The Stream, Patheos, LifeSiteNews, Charisma News, The Green Room, Juicy Ecumenism, Ethika Politika, Made to Flourish, and the Center for Faith and Work. Joseph resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife and four children.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.



Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (37)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

No dates or labels on these but they are probably from the early 1960s or late 1950s. There are pictures of a mountain stream and waterfalls and a fallen tree on a foot bridge.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.









https://supload.com/H1L8M2ZdQ

Hardcore Computist – Issue Number 3






Hardcore Computist – Issue Number 3

Hardcore Computist was a long running magazine dedicated to the Apple II. It was relatively technical in content and was especially known for publishing details for circumventing disk based copy protection. Issue Number 3 includes:
  • Follow-Up
    • No More Bugs: The Sequel - A few glitches and some suggestions for improvement were incorporated into this article, which clarifies how to use SoftKey's checksums.
  • Reader's Softkey and Copy Exchange
    • Backing Up Visiplot/Visitrend
    • Copy Tip for Sneakers
    • Copying Wizardry with Locksmith
  • Softkey
    • Bag of Tricks
  • Advanced Applications
    • Hidden Locations Revealed
  • Softkey
    • More on Multiplan
  • Parameters
    • More Parms for Copy II Plus
  • Advanced Playing Techniques
    • Choplifter
  • Adventure Tips
    • Cranston Manor and Strange Odyssey
  • Special Feature
    • Map Maker
  • Departments
    • Note to Subscribers
    • Letters
    • Advertising Index
  • Program Index
    • Make Tables
    • Editor
    • Display Map (Hex Dump)
    • Editor.C
    • Display Map.S
    • Clear
    • Clear.Obj (Hex Dump)
  • Checksum Index
    • Start Checksoft
    • Checkbin
    • Make Tables
    • Editor
    • Display Map
    • Editor.C
    • Clear.Obj
...and more!


Monday, January 28, 2019

Yohko 7 - Devil Hunter Yohko




Tucker Carlson’s Critique of Market Capitalism Suffers from a Flawed Premise




Much attention has been given to a cable show monologue from Tucker Carlson. There, Carlson argued that “market capitalism is a tool, like a staple gun or a toaster.” Implied is the idea that markets are simply meant for human use, something to be picked up but that can also be put aside, ignored, or directed.

Since the monologue went viral, many critiques have been leveled, as well as defenses made. One such defense by Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance declares the “market is not a Platonic deity, floating in the sky and imposing goodness and prosperity from on high.” In support of his critique, Vance cites various threats to our “social fabric” giving the opioid epidemic special attention. He concludes, referencing drug companies and other corporations, that “these entities are doing what the market demands, and in some ways, it’s hard to blame them. But shouldn’t our laws and policy make life harder for them?”

But if we think of markets as a mere tool, we mistakenly believe we can discard them when convenient or fruitfully direct it toward our preferred ends. The “just a tool” mindset is prone to mistaken beliefs that making it harder is enough for good social outcomes. The tool metaphor suggests that the changes in job markets, culture, family structure, or even addiction are the manifestations of undisciplined free markets which can be corrected by“the man of system."
Tucker and Vance appear to defend an old concept, that markets, like a tool, can be employed as deliberately or as purposefully as a toaster, staple gun, or hammer, as the metaphor implies, to repair perceived harms. Yet this assumption misses key realities about the nature of markets, which makes them more than a tool.

First, markets are expressions of human cooperation. They are a medium of human interaction that allows individuals and groups to coordinate—at times over long distances and even temporally—efforts and resources. In this sense, it is important to understand that even if labeled a tool, markets are a description of human interactions and processes that emerge to coordinate within the context of scarcity and constraints.

The primary, but not exclusive, mechanism to coordinate human economic activity is price. As F.A. Hayek explains, the marvel of the price system signals the value of resources by tapping into vast networks of human knowledge. The price system acts as an information surrogate revealing the “particular circumstances of time and place.”

This insight has been foolishly tested, most notably in communist regimes, which abolished prices and instead chose to stumble in the dark without this expression of human coordination. Rationing and poverty became the norm; increasing vulnerability to—and even creating—famines that claimed the lives of millions.

This may not have been the greatest atrocity of these totalitarian regimes, but it was a dominant feature, and the consequences were disastrous. In socialist regimes, the absent price leaves no signal for production or distribution. Resources and capital are misallocated, directed according to the needs of the government, or what central planners perceive to be the best use of those resources without the wisdom of markets and market participants.

The United States has forayed into this planning fallacy in the past, though on a smaller scale. The Great Depression was a time of economic experimentation, including policies meant to influence prices. This attitude of market control led to perverse programs, which, during a time of hunger and economic distress, would expend resources in nonsensical ways, such as President Franklin Roosevelt randomly designating the price of gold or paying farmers to not farm—a policy that persisted in some form into the current century.

More recently, gasoline shortages in the late 1970s were at least partiallycaused by price controls. Since price was removed from the work of rationing and encouraging a growth in supply, the government had to step in with its own rationing scheme. Additionally, the cost of gasoline appeared in the form of time consumption as people desperate for gas waited in long lines at the pump. We have run this experiment many times of varying scales only to find attempts to control human coordination negatively impacted prosperity.

One need not support a totalitarian regime to commit this error, only bear the mindset that markets are simply tools to be used to construct policy and society rather than expressions of individuals responding to their respective incentives and constraints to realize their preferences. This hints at a broader truth: free markets and prices are a key part of the social fabric.

As Ludwig von Mises wrote:
The pricing process is a social process. It is consummated by an interaction of all members of society. All collaborate and cooperate, each in the particular role he has chosen for himself in the framework of the division of labor.
Attempts to manipulate markets toward particular policy goals often threaten the social fabric as they target a fundamentally social process.

Not every free market arrangement is coordinated via the pricing mechanism. Economists such as Ronald Coase and Elenor Olstrom described alternate arrangements for coordinating efforts between individuals, such as firms or complex systems of self-governance, which often arise to solve problems where price has not materialized.

Most important, though, is that these are part of the emergent order of free-market systems to serve members of society, subject to the churn of the market process. Allowing that process to take place avoids capture by the political system and strengthening social ties.
Second, when decisions are not made by free markets, then political markets take control. Distribution of resources then becomes a question of the political process. Here, the currency is rarely as transparent as the price mechanism. The currency of the political economy is often money, but it is also votes, political favors, rents, power, and special legal treatment. The incentives shift from serving others through mutual exchange and coordinating resources and talents to maintaining political power and subjecting resources to political ends. Political markets are the natural outcome of turning free, or capitalist, markets over to the political process.

This observation is clear: that markets are more than just a tool, but in some regards a reality of human behavior. Leaving a market where price and choice govern substitutes it for other forms of human coordination, each with their own currency. The political system seeks to maintain the status quo, entrenching incumbent market and political actors.

Markets aren’t perfect, and we should not expect every outcome to meet such an ideal. People lose work, are injured or die, or fall into addiction. None of these are to be lightly dismissed, but the long-term trend is that each of these can be addressed through the market process. In the free market, we find the ability to deal with downsides as we see fit, in coordination with others through voluntary transactions made through mediums of human exchange. Alternatively, government action is often less responsive and monopolizes solutions to complex sociological problems.

Giving government the monopoly on dealing with the downsides of choice hinders coordination in the market to ease the burdens on individuals, families, and societies from those very problems. It impedes the process of creative destruction and cooperation.
This reveals a third reality of free markets that makes them more than tools. Markets lay out incentives for people to solve each other’s problems, constantly innovating, seeking to reduce transaction costs, and providing better outputs via the process of creative destruction. What we see often when governments interfere in market processes are the unintended and often worse consequences that spring forth from intervention. Interference in the free market is usually more costly than the perceived benefits.

The costs and consequences of the political market are many. Redirecting resources reveals opportunity costs. Preventing people from their preferences raises the cost of enforcing laws and regulations against those preferences. People look to substitutes when prices rise, often turning to unsafe or even dangerous alternatives. The law of unintended consequences runs rampant in the world of economic intervention, and all of these costs must be accounted for when attempting to remove people from their preferences.

Observing market behavior, in its entirety, allows for a comparative evaluation between free markets and their alternatives, the record is rather clear: free markets produce the greatest amount of prosperity, choice, and set of incentives.

Perhaps we can treat the free market as a tool, as Carlson claims; much like a hand, foot, or eye can all be called tools. Yet, they are also more than just tools, as are markets. Embracing free markets allows us to pile “idea on idea,” as Deirdre McCloskey has written, and permit “market-tested betterment” to increase prosperity, as it has done.

Markets are inescapable realities, part of social processes, and we stand able to choose which market process we employ—free markets or centralized political markets.

Source: Tucker Carlson’s Critique of Market Capitalism Suffers from a Flawed Premise - Foundation for Economic Education



Friday, January 25, 2019

The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS)



The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS)

The World Ends with You is an action RPG by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS. This game was released in April 2008 and was influenced by the developer's previous game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as well as by the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo where the game takes place and the youth culture of that area. This game is certainly unique though it probably isn't for everybody.



Unlike most RPGs, this one is not set in a fantasy world or in some sci-fi future. It is set in the modern day. However, there are certainly fantasy elements in that the game takes place largely on an alternate plane of reality. The plot is a little difficult to describe but it involves battling the dead or what they become anyway. The control system is as unique as the plot though this isn't always for the best. Combat uses both screens of the DS and includes performing touchscreen based actions, voice commands and other actions. However, the touchscreen isn't quite precise enough to make this a smooth experience. However, relatively minor control issues aside, this game got mostly positive reviews and is certainly one of the more unique RPGs out there. It's worth giving it a try just for that reason.



If you don't have a DS you can also play the relatively recently released The World Ends with You: Final Remix for the Nintendo Switch. It is an enhanced port of the original and was released just last year in 2018. Previously there were also mobile releases for both iOS (2012) and Android (2014). These newer releases have been reworked to work on a single screen as opposed to the dual screens of the DS. Otherwise you'll have to track down the original DS version as I don't think the experience will translate very well to an emulator.


Commodore 64 Ransomware





Commodore 64 Ransomware

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (36)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.


Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.


This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

No dates or labels on these but they are pictures of flowers and other landscape that were taken in the Western U.S. They are probably from the early 1960s.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.









https://supload.com/r14XW6xOX

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Electronic Gaming Monthly (March 2008)





Electronic Gaming Monthly (March 2008)

It's hard for me to even consider this issue of EGM "retro" but it is over a decade old now. The March 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly includes: Letters
  • Disgruntled fish-petters speak out
Press Start
  • Overachievers - Find out why worthless virtual accolades mean so much to so many...
  • Foreign Object
  • Preview: FaceBreaker - EA's zany new pugilism offering is more Rocky IV than Raging Bull
  • Funny Business - Developers recount the shenanigans that go on behind the scenes
  • Take This Job - This month: The dude who get today's hottest tunes into your videogames
  • Preview: Soulcalibur IV - Incongruous guest characters from a galaxy far, far away infiltrate the action
  • Preview: Ninja Gaiden - Ryu Hyabusa leaps back into the fray on Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS
  • Preview: Bully: Scholarship Edition - School's back in session on both Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii
  • Small Wonders - Five tiny titles proving that mobile gaming doesn't have to suck
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Prep yourself for the most anticipated prequel since The Phantom Menace
  • Rumor Mill - Dead Rising's undead mob plots its revenge from an unlikely place
Reviews
  • Reviews
  • Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen of Mirrors
  • FIFA Street 3
  • Devil May Cry 4
  • Turok
  • The Club
  • Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
  • Wipeout Pulse
  • Patapon
  • Reviews Wrap-Up
Game Over
  • EGM's Sixth Annual Tobias Bruckner Memorial Awards - Noted humorist Seanbaby presides over this year's crop of crap
  • Retro: Matters of Import - Long-forgotten gems from abroad get a second shot at success on the Virtual Console
  • Seek and Enjoy: Space Chase - EGM's loving tribute to Highlights for Children blasts into orbit
  • Hsu & Chen
...and more!


There’s No “Lost” Economic Growth During Government Shutdowns



According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, the federal government spent $3.9 trillion in 2017. In Argentina, total federal spending in 2017 was $161 billion.

The above statistical disparity rates mention in consideration of all the hand-wringing related to the partial federal government shutdown in the U.S. Supposedly, an elongated one would slam the brakes on the U.S. economic expansion. No less than J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon observed this week that a prolonged shuttering of one quarter of the federal government could “reduce growth to zero.”

Dimon would be wise to relax. So would others convinced that government spending is a substantial driver of U.S. economic vitality. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Implicit in what’s wholly false is that Argentina’s economy is a fraction of the U.S.’s simply because its politicians are quite a bit more parsimonious than are the members of Congress. Such a view isn’t serious, but it’s a reminder of just how much statistics can obscure reality.

Simply put, Argentina’s federal spending is a fraction of U.S. federal spending precisely because its economic output is a fraction of what takes place stateside. Just the same, federal spending in the U.S. dwarfs that of other countries precisely because the U.S. economy is quite a bit larger than other countries' economies.

Governments only have money to spend insofar as the private sector in countries produces wealth for them to spend. Congress was able to spend $4.1 trillion (according to CBO data) in 2018 because American output is many multiples of $4.1 trillion.

Governments can’t stimulate economic growth with spending; rather, their spending is only possible because of economic growth. Applied to the partial shutdown of the federal government, what limits government spending logically cannot limit economic growth. Figure that if there were a permanent cessation of a quarter of federal activity, the result would be trillions worth of extra resources for private actors to put to work.

Readers might think about the above for a moment. When our federal government spends, it means that Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Donald Trump are playing a substantial role in the allocation of trillions worth of wealth first created in the private sector. On the other hand, when fewer dollars flow to Washington, it happily means that people like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and Travis Kalanick have more in the way of resources to experiment with. Yet defenders of the big government status quo persist.
In a client report written last week, Regions Bank chief economist Richard Moody lamented that the partial shutdown would disrupt the “flow of economic data” at a “most inopportune time given increased uncertainty about over the course of the U.S. economy.” Moody unwittingly makes the case for a more permanent shutdown.

Lest he forgets, arguably the most scrutinized of all economic statistics produced by the federal government is the one that measures the rate of unemployment in the U.S. Yet too often unsaid here is how totally unnecessary the report is. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employs 2,500 people at a cost of $640 million annually to produce its monthly unemployment report. Each month, meanwhile, the private company ADP releases a report two days ahead of the BLS's that nearly mimics the BLS's, all at no expense to the taxpayer. There is a market demand for reliable employment data, and the market is providing it. What works for unemployment can logically work for any other statistic that economists claim to be necessary for them to do their jobs. If it’s necessary, private actors can do it without burdening every American with the cost.
The point of all this is that true believers in limited government would be wise to not let this partial government shutdown go to waste. Instead, proponents of a shrunken federal footprint should seriously address whether or not many people in a country populated by over 300 million have actually noticed a difference in their lives in the past few weeks.

Indeed, arguably the most vivid lesson of the shutdown is being overlooked. Eight-hundred thousand furloughed federal employees, and what, exactly, is the noticeable harm? The media trumpet the federal employees’ missed paychecks and niche difficulties faced by the citizenry (economists and financial types lacking economic data, for instance), but what goes unreported is that for 95 percent of the population, life goes on essentially unaffected in any material way. What better evidence that our government spending is mostly waste and make-work?

So while alarmists will continue to promote false notions about the “lost” economic growth that will result from the political class wasting fewer dollars, reality will continue to intrude on what’s not serious as most get on with their lives properly indifferent to what at least temporarily limits the activities of one quarter of our federal behemoth.

Which brings up a challenge that is also an opportunity. What hasn’t affected voters after three weeks will similarly not affect them after three years. If Republicans really want to prove how unnecessary our $4 trillion federal government is, they should keep it shut down through 2021. The economy will boom in the interim thanks to a shrunken federal burden, and a long-term point will have been made about the good of shrinking Leviathan to all of our betterment.

This article was reprinted from RealClearMarkets. 

Source: There's No “Lost” Economic Growth During Government Shutdowns - Foundation for Economic Education


Monday, January 21, 2019

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (35)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/ Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions. There are no dates or labels on this set but they are likely from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Check out the car in the third image. Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.
https://supload.com/H1LbC8ldQ

MacAddict (September 1996)




MacAddict (September 1996)

MacAddict was a magazine for Macintosh computers that was roughly equivalent to something like Maximum PC (called "boot" at the time) for the PC. I was not a big fan of Macintosh computers at the time but I appreciate Power PC based Macs as retro machines today. MacAddict eventually became MacLife which is not as good as far as I can tell. The premiere issue of MacAddict from September 1996 includes: Highlights
  • Just What the Doctor Ordered - What has Apple's new CEO done for you lately? MacAddict's been keeping score. Here are 35 good deeds for which we can thank Dr. Gilbert Amelio.
  • Internet Visionary - Meet Larry Tesler, the man charged with plotting Apple's Internet strategy. What will he do to make the Internet easier for you to use?
  • OpenDoc Rocks - We take you on a visual step-by-step tour of OpenDoc. Find out how it works and why it makes working with your Mac an almost-new experience.
  • Brave New Browsers - Believe it or not, Netscape Navigator isn't the only browser in town. Should you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, NSCA Mosaic or Cyberdog instead?
  • Stand By Your Mac - Don't let Windows users give you grief. Fight back with these 25 reasons why the Mac is still a better machine.
How To
  • Fake a Photo - How to create a photo that tells those little white lies.
  • Organize a Web Page - Lesson one in our "How You Too Can Become a Webmaster" series: Laying the foundations for the perfect home page.
  • Build a Home Network - Want to share files? A printer? A modem? Here's how.
Every Month
  • Editor's Note - Welcome to MacAddict.
  • Letters - What did you say? Are you talking to us?
  • Get Info - News, trends, trivia and answers to those nagging questions.
  • Cravings - We pick the products that are designed to make you drool.
  • Reviews - Power Computing clones, Bryce 2, Bad Mojo, the best and worst CD productions and kids' software reviewed by real kids.
  • Ask Us - It's better than calling the Apple support line. We offer counsel for all of your Macintosh Conundrums.
  • PowerPlay - Our in-depth game section takes you behind the lines of Spycraft, the espionage game. Teasers about the summer's newest games, too!
  • Shut Down - The bulletin board of the random and the bizarre.
...and more!

Friday, January 18, 2019

Media Fail Marvelously in Mocking Rand Paul for Surgery in Canada, “Land Of Universal Health Care”



Senator Rand Paul is no stranger to public criticism. As one of the few principled members of Congress and an heir to his father’s legacy of anti-authoritarianism, he has grown accustomed to falling under public scrutiny for standing up for his beliefs. But this week he isn’t being condemned for his foreign policy views or his stance on criminal justice reform. Instead, the progressives have chastised the senator from Kentucky for going outside of the United States for medical treatment.

When Paul was attacked by his neighbor while doing yard work in 2017, he was left with six broken ribs, a bruised lung, and a hernia, which has since been left unresolved. Needing surgery and being well-versed in the atrocity that is our overpriced and overregulated American health care system, Paul decided to join the 150,000 to 320,000 Americans who travel abroad each year in search of lower costs and high-quality health care. But since the medical facility in question happens to be in Canada, Paul has suddenly found himself a target of those accusing him of utilizing the same socialist system he so fervently decries.
It wasn’t long after Senator Paul announced his intention to travel to Canada for surgery that the accusations began to make their rounds on social media. Democratic Coalition tweeted, “Oh, the irony: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, one of the fiercest political critics of socialized medicine, will travel to Canada later this month to get hernia surgery.” Likewise, Talking Points Memo also took a jab at Paul when it tweeted, "Rand Paul, enemy of socialized medicine, will go to Canada for surgery.”

The media also had a field day attacking Senator Paul. Deceiving headlines intended to mislead the public read, “Rand Paul Heading To Canada, Land Of Universal Health Care, For Surgery” and “Sen. Rand Paul Is Having Surgery in Canada, Where Healthcare Is Publicly Funded.” But there is just one major problem with these tweets and headlines: They inaccurately assert that because the senator is traveling to Canada for surgery, he must be utilizing the country’s infamous socialized medical program. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Had any of these overzealous Twitter users bothered to do some research, they would have quickly discovered that contrary to their claims, Senator Paul was not being a hypocrite at all. In fact, staying true to his beliefs, the senator plans to go abroad next week to make use of a top-notch private medical facility that offers competitive rates to patients.

The Shouldice Hernia Hospital is a private facility in Thornhill, Ontario, that prides itself on being “the global leader in non-mesh hernia repair.” It also offers competitive pricing for those paying out of pocket, which is a huge plus for the uninsured. And since it is private, the facility also has more control over its pricing structure, giving it more autonomy to work with health care consumers.

Paul, who has likened socialized medicine to slavery and who himself is an ophthalmologist, has always been an advocate for private solutions to our health care woes. And while many would like to condemn this decision to go to Canada as hypocrisy, it is actually right on brand for the senator.

Kelsey Cooper, a spokesperson for Paul, defended his decision and wrote in an email to the Courier Journal, which broke the story,
This is more fake news on a story that has been terribly reported from day one—this is a private, world-renowned hospital separate from any system and people come from around the world to pay cash for their services.
While the media and talking heads continue to waste their breath gossiping about Paul’s personal medical decisions, the senator is demonstrating what a truly free market health care system could look like.

In an interview with Wave 3 News in Washington, DC, Paul commented on his decision, saying:
I looked for a place that did primarily that type of surgery. A place that actually accepts Americans who pay cash. It's a private hospital. The funny thing is, people had an agenda that wanted to attack me said, "Oh, you're going to choose socialized medicine." I'm actually choosing capitalistic medicine because they only take cash from foreigners.
He continued:
We have some centers like this. Oklahoma has a center like this but doesn't specialize in the surgery I need. I chose (Shouldice) because they are good at it and actually the price is right.
Once it was made widely known that Paul would not be partaking in Canada’s socialized medicine, the critics switched to condemning the senator for going outside of the US for treatment, as if doing so was somehow anti-American in nature. And while many are using this instance as a means of shaming Rand Paul, his actions offer a great teaching moment for the country.

It’s a mistake to view health care as some sort of phenomenon unrelated and immune to the market process. Health care is a commodity just like any other consumer good. And when choice in medical treatment is limited, health care consumers suffer greatly.

Keeping health care options confined only to one’s own country of origin is an outdated concept. Medical tourism is a booming industry that gives patients more control over their health care by giving them the opportunity to go wherever the best possible care is available at the lowest costs. This has resulted in a boom for countries like India and Costo Rica.

As I have previously written:
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, medical tourism is when someone chooses to travel outside their country of origin, usually to less-developed countries, in search of affordable, quality medical care. And it also happens to be one of the fastest growing global industries. In 2016, this burgeoning sector was valued at $100 billion and is expected to experience 25 percent year-by-year growth by the year 2025. And in an era of soaring medical costs, it is saving health care consumers thousands of dollars and providing them with the care they so desperately need.
The thought of traveling abroad for health care might scare a fair number of Americans. After all, we tend to think our own medical system as more advanced than others. But the truth is that excessive government regulation has actually stifled medical innovation and caused the cost of treatment to skyrocket. And while American politicians argue about how to best fix this problem, other countries have been innovating and relaxing regulations in order to offer competitive care to medical tourists.

In India, for example:
[T]he critically acclaimed Narayana Hrudayalaya heart hospital offers cardiac surgeries from $5,000- $7,000. The same surgery in the US would cost a patient upwards of $50,000. And as far as other medical procedures are concerned, in Costa Rica, a knee replacement surgery can cost a patient around $23,000. However, the same surgery, obtained in the US can cost anywhere from $35,000-$60,000.
The dramatically lower costs have encouraged some US employers to encourage their employees to seek treatment outside the country rather than use their insurance policies to see an American doctor. For employees who need knee replacement surgery, Hickory Springs Manufacturing began offering a choice: pay $3,000 dollars out of pocket and have the procedure performed in the United States, or opt to take an all-expenses-paid vacation to Costa Rica for the surgery instead. And on top of the free trip, you will also receive a $2,500 bonus check. Since switching to this model, the company has saved more than $10 million on health care costs.

The free market is not constrained to the political borders of one’s own country. And in order to have a robust health care market full of choice, consumers need to be able to go wherever the best care is available. Senator Rand Paul’s decision to go to Canada for surgery should not be condemned; rather, it should inspire the rest of the country to take a look at all the medical options available to us.

Source: Media Fail Marvelously in Mocking Rand Paul for Surgery in Canada, "Land Of Universal Health Care" - Foundation for Economic Education



Way of the Warrior (3DO)





Way of the Warrior (3DO)

Way of the Warrior is a fighting game for the 3DO that was released in 1994. The digitized characters and violent finishing moves make it reminiscent of the Mortal Kombat series in a lot of ways. The graphics are quite good for the time but the game play is more difficult that average, particularly when it comes to performing special moves.
Way of the Warrior was developed by Naughty Dog who were nearly bankrupt at the time. According to the Wikipedia article on this game, filming was done from an apartment, friends were used as character models and things like Happy Meal toys were used to create costumes. While the game was only moderately successful...it sold reasonably well but on a platform that didn't...it did well enough to save the company who went on to develop much more well known games like the Crash Bandicoot series.
While praised for its graphics, Way of the Warrior received mixed reviews, mostly because of its difficulty and what some considered to be poor controls. However, if you are a fighting game fan and a 3DO owner, this is a worthwhile addition to your collection. I'm not sure how well this game can be emulated but that's your only other option if you want to play it as it has not had any sequels or re-releases that I am aware of and it was exclusive to the 3DO.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Conflict: Denied Ops




Conflict: Denied Ops

I'll be honest here and say that I am completely unfamiliar with the conflict series of games. Apparently it was popular enough to spawn and least five games in the series as this was the fifth. However, this game also comes from an era where I had mostly stopped paying attention to new releases. I had and still have a PS3 but in the many years I have owned it, it has only ever been used to play blu-ray movies, Netflix and Amazon Prime. It was also used briefly to run Linux before Sony took that capability away. At the time I bought my PS3 it was about the same price as a stand-alone blu-ray player (or close enough).

But I digress... Conflict: Denied Ops is a fairly generic 1st person shooter that was available on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows and was released in 2008. It's really about as generic as a 1st person shooter can be and the reviews reflect that. Reviews were extremely...average...overall. The story involves a fictional war in Venezuela. There are two characters that a single player can switch between or two players can play co-op. Weapons are rather limited as you can only use the particular weapons favorted by your character and enemy weapons cannot be picked up.

The good news is that this game can be had dirt cheap in whichever form you want it in. While more than a decade old now, PS3s and Xbox 360s are everywhere and I suspect you could get the Windows version to run without too much trouble though I haven't tried it. The question is, is it really worth it?

This ad is from the March 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.


yohko6 - Devil Hunter Yohko




Why “Taxing the Rich” Always Ends Up Landing on the Middle Class Instead



As Democrats take control of the US House, taxing the rich inevitably becomes a focus. Progressive candidates wasted no time in denouncing the recent round of tax cuts in their campaigns as a giveaway to the rich. Although this rhetoric often polls well among some key demographics, in practice, taxation isn’t so simple. A quick history lesson can teach us that targeting the rich can backfire and substantially harm the middle class.
An excellent case study for this can be found in the luxury tax from the 1990budget deal. The motivation behind the tax was to bilk the rich to reduce the national deficit with targeted taxes. On the surface, this seemed pretty straightforward—tax the excess of the rich to raise money and spare the middle class. In theory, the well-meaning politicians thought that rich people would just simply pay more for their fancy toys.

Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences is real, for the rich responded by buying less. The most pronounced effects of this luxury tax were felt throughout the American yacht industry. The additional 10 percent tax on yachts caused American boat builders to shutter operations and cut jobs as the rich either skipped out on yachts or bought them cheaper from overseas. The tax did not raise money for public programs; instead, it actually created a revenue loss as a result of the associated job loss.

In the 1950s, when top marginal rates were 91 percent, research shows that a majority of the wealthy successfully avoided the tax and that decades of cutting high marginal rates induced growth.

This particular case isn’t unique. The wealthy aren’t just money bags sitting around waiting to be tapped. In the 1950s, when top marginal rates were 91 percent, research shows that a majority of the wealthy successfully avoided the taxand that decades of cutting high marginal rates induced growth.

American socialists have sold their faithful adherents on a vision of an altruistic state-led future paid for by the rich. In doing so, they heavily overestimate the ability of the wealthy to shoulder dramatic increases in the tax burden and heavily discount the abilities of the wealthy to avoid such taxes.
But even if the rich were dumb enough not to hide their wealth and income through various mixtures of shell corporations, non-profits, and offshore accounts, there’s a simple math problem many forget: the top 1 percent couldn’t possibly fund the utopian visions of the left.

Hidden within these plans for saving the earth is a mandatory scheme to transfer massive amounts of wealth from the American middle class to central planners.

In reality, the cost to save Social Security, fund universal healthcarepay down the national debt, and launch a Green New Deal will be borne by wealthy, middle class, and poor Americans. Hidden within these plans for saving the earth and implementing the massive welfare state is a mandatory scheme to transfer massive amounts of wealth from the American middle class to central planners.

Rampant progressive ideologues desperately want to implement their dreams of redesigning America in the image of the highly romanticized Nordic nations. With unhinged dreams of grandeur, they honestly believe nothing could go wrong, all while building policy oblivious to the law of unintended consequences.

Feel free to dream, but don’t expect the rich to shoulder the entire cost. It doesn’t work that way in Norway, Sweden, or Venezuela. And it won’t work that way in the USA.

This article was reprinted from Intellectual Takeout.

Source: Why "Taxing the Rich" Always Ends Up Landing on the Middle Class Instead - Foundation for Economic Education


Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Competition Karate (Commodore 64)



Competition Karate (Commodore 64)

Not only are there new games being created for older platforms like the Commodore 64 all the time, but older obscure games are also constantly being rediscovered. Competition Karate is a case in point. Competition Karate is a relatively obscure game that was written in BASIC and released in 1984. It was recently re-released with a few bug fixes and enhancements.



Though relatively primitive for a Commodore 64 game, it isn't terrible especially given that it was written in BASIC. There are better fighting games out there of course but this one offers surprising complexity for a BASIC game. It allows the creation of your own fighters with unique statistics and multi-match tournament simulation.



Obviously this isn't a game you are likely ever to find as an official re-release but it can be downloaded for your Commodore 64 or emulator from here. It's worth checking out even if only for the novelty factor.


Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (34)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/ Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions. This set consists of some macro photos of flowers and other plant life from the late 1950s. Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

Processed in March 1958
Processed in March 1958
https://supload.com/ry1IPLlOX

Home Computer Magazine – Volume 4, Number 5


Home Computer Magazine – Volume 4, Number 5

Home Computer Magazine started life as 99er which exclusively covered the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. That machine was discontinued and to stay alive 99er expanded coverage to also include IBM, Commodore and Apple machines, for some reason keeping coverage exclusive to those brands. The name also changed to Home Computer Magazine though it wouldn't last very long. Volume 4, Number 5 of Home Computer Magazine includes: Features

  • Quiz Construction Set - We provide the tools, you make it and take it.
  • Personal Load Calculator - Find out where your interest lies.
  • Jumping Ahead With Game Programming - Learn the techniques from the inside out.
  • Sketch-64 - Let the joystick become your Commodore graphics link.
  • Simon Sez - New string-related commands from our learned friend.
  • Razzle Dazzle - See how character manipulation enlivens TI graphics.
  • Division Tutor - Long division meets the home computer.
  • Putting The Puzzle All Together: Apple IIc Programming Considerations - Secrets of programming the newest Apple.
  • Bird Brain - Fly fishing takes on a new meaning.
  • Slither - This slimy snake silently slithers and sneaks.
  • LOGO Clones: TI Graphics in a Turtle-Shell - Duplicate turtles do their thing.
  • Build a LOGO Adventure - Part 1 of a series on creating interactive fiction.

Product Reviews
  • Race Across the Page: A Review of the Evelyn Wood Dynamic Reader - Speed reading taught in a new medium.
  • 99/4A Auto Spell Check - Proofread your spelling the easy way.
  • PCjr ColorPaint - A mouse of many colors.
  • Graphics Magic At Your Fingertips: A Review of Super Sketch - Sketch what you will on this new tablet.
  • New Keys For Junior: A Review of Three Keyboards for the PCjr - No more chicklets with this Good 'n' Plenty assortment.
  • The Cricket!: A Sound Synthesizer And More For The Apple - More than just chirp, it sings!
  • Sailing - Seafaring adventures in the Bermuda Triangle.
  • Midnite Mason - Ghostly doings in a haunted building.
  • King's Quest - Help Sir Grahame find the treasure.

Departments
  • Welcome to HCM
  • Inside/Outside HCM
  • On Screen
  • Letters to the Editor
  • HCM One Liners
  • HCM Review Criteria
  • Group Grapevine
  • Industry Watch
  • HCM Product News
  • Program Typing Guide
  • Program Listing Contents
  • DeBugs on Display
  • Home Computer Tech Notes
    • Apple
    • Commodore
    • IBM
    • TI

...and more!


Monday, January 14, 2019

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (33)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.
I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.
Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.
This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

All the photos in the set were unlabeled. It looks like some pictures of an old manor on an English countryside or something along with what looks like a picture of an individual standing outside an airport (check out those old taxis). Some were processed in 1964 and I suspect all of them are from the early 1960s.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.


Processed in July 1964


Processed in April 1964




Processed in April 1964


https://supload.com/Hk4woxgOQ

Friday, January 11, 2019

yohko05 - Devil Hunter Yohko



https://file.army/i/eZzkYv

Are AR-15 Rifles a Public Safety Threat? Here's What the Data Say



From Parkland, Florida, to San Bernardino, California, the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and its variants have seemingly become the weapons of choice for mass shooters in the United States.

Many people simply cannot believe that regular civilians should be able to legally own so-called “weapons of war,” which they believe should only be in the hands of the military.

According to Pew Research, for example, 81 percent of Democrats and even 50 percent of Republicans believe the federal government should ban “assault-style rifles” like the AR-15. Given the massive amount of carnage AR-15s and similar rifles have caused, it makes sense that the civilian population simply cannot be trusted to own such weapons, right?

Perhaps, but is it really true that the AR-15, a popular firearm owned by millions of Americans, is a unique threat to public safety, so dangerous that it deserves to be banned or even confiscated by the federal government?

It cannot be emphasized enough that any homicide is a tragedy, but in order to get a sense of how dangerous to public safety “assault-style” rifles are, it’s useful to compare their usage in homicide to other methods.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) are the two authoritative sources for homicide statistics in the United States.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the CDC reports “produce more accurate homicide trends at the national level” because they capture less under-reporting than the FBI statistics.

However, the homicide data recorded by the CDC includes all homicides committed by civilians regardless of criminal intent. The FBI data instead focuses on intentional homicides (i.e murder) known to law enforcement and excludes non-negligent homicide (i.e manslaughter.)

According to the BJS, the FBI data is “better suited for understanding the circumstances surrounding homicide incidents.” This is especially true given that the FBI, but not the CDC, records the type of firearm used in a given homicide. For the purposes of this analysis, the data from the FBI will be used.

There are two further limitations of FBI data worth noting.

Firstly, the FBI reports do not look at “assault-style” rifles specifically, but rather, murders involving all types of rifles, whether they are committed with an AR-15 or a hunting rifle.

Secondly, each year there are a few thousand homicide cases where the type of firearm used goes unreported to the FBI. This means that some murders listed under “unknown firearm” may, in fact, be rifle murders.

To account for this under-reporting, we will extrapolate from rifles’ share of firearm murders where the type of weapon is known in order to estimate the number of “unknown” firearms that were in actuality rifle homicides.
If we take the time to look at the raw data provided by the FBI, we find that all rifles, not just “assault-style rifles,” constitute on average 340 homicides per year from 2007 through 2017 (see Figure 1.). When we adjust these numbers to take under-reporting into account, that number rises to an average of 439 per year.

Figure 2 compares rifle homicides to homicides with other non-firearm weapons. Believe it or not, between 2007 and 2017, nearly 1,700 people were murdered with a knife or sharp object per year. That’s almost four times the number of people murdered by an assailant with any sort of rifle.

Figure 1. The Relative and Absolute Frequency of Rifle Homicides 2007-2017

 

Figure 2. Homicides per year by weapon 2007 – 2017



In any given year, for every person murdered with a rifle, there are 15 murdered with handguns, 1.7 with hands or fists, and 1.2 with blunt instruments. In fact, homicides with any sort of rifle represent a mere 3.2 percent of all homicides on average over the past decade.

Given that the FBI statistics pertain to all rifles, the homicide frequency of “assault-style” rifles like the AR-15 is necessarily lesser still, as such firearms compose a fraction of all the rifles used in crime.

According to a New York Times analysis, since 2007, at least “173 people have been killed in mass shootings in the United States involving AR-15s.”

That’s 173 over a span of a decade, with an average of 17 homicides per year. To put this in perspective, consider that at this rate it would take almost one-hundred years of mass shootings with AR-15s to produce the same number of homicide victims that knives and sharp objects produce in one year.

With an average of 13,657 homicides per year during the 2007-2017 timeframe, about one-tenth of one percent of homicides were produced by mass shootings involving AR-15s.
Mass shootings involving rifles like the AR-15 can produce dozens of victims at one time, and combined with extensive media coverage of these events, many people have been led to believe that such rifles pose a significant threat to public safety.

However, such shootings are extremely rare, and a look at the FBI data informs us that homicide with these types of rifles represents an extremely small fraction of overall homicide violence. Banning or confiscating such firearms from the civilian population would likely produce little to no reduction in violent crime rates in America.

Source: Are AR-15 Rifles a Public Safety Threat? Here's What the Data Say - Foundation for Economic Education