MacGyver

Don’t let M4 scare you. A Spyderco tri-angle sharp maker will sharpen everything you’ll ever need to sharpen - and do it well. If you want a little bit of an upgrade that will really let you take your edge to any level of finish you desire, a KME Precision set will let you do that without risking screwing up a nice knife. I have some really nice stones - but use the two above for pretty much everything in my life but axes and chainsaw blades.

Since 2014 - public access to the Death Master File has been limited. But, like was mentioned above - a trip down to your local SSA office is certainly the first step on the path to getting it addressed. Hopefully it was someone miskeying your SSN when you applied for a card. You could probably check for yourself by trying to pull your credit report at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action.

In Korea, they allowed balloons and trains in addition to airplanes. I’d like to see one of those planes.

Despite being an air-to-air kill, the pilot will not get a balloon sticker to put on the side of his plane.

As reported in several outlets - it looks like one of the officers seen snapping pictures did in fact share it with others via text including a “female acquaintance.” From The Commercial Appeal: Of course her phone will be subject to discovery. If those texts shows prior history and that he was targeting Nichols to get revenge on her that will be devastating to the defense. If I was the prosecutor, I’d absolutely argue taking his charges to first degree murder.

The monitoring company should generally call the home owner regardless of the “grace period” on setting off the alarm. They should also be able to tell what sensor was tripped setting off the alarm. Personally, I’d turn it off - if unsure of the source wait for a call and see what was triggered - If still unsure wait for the police to show up - then investigate alongside them. That’s what you pay them for.

One of the officers was seen snapping a picture with his phone in the video. If that picture is in fact on his ex’s phone who worked at FedEx alongside Nichols - we’ll see that as evidence as they upgrade the charge.

Defense is certainly a defined benefit of a union membership. There’s also certainly an exception for cases that have fraud or intent - but in practice they’re still going to mount a defense.

They’re funded by the police union.

We used to have a training officer on here. He told me something one time that’s stuck with me for a lot of years. He said that on any given force there is about 10% of the population that will always do the right thing regardless of personal cost. These officers are rare - and we want more of them. On any given force there is a smaller percentage - about 5% that will do the wrong thing and abuse their power any time they can get away with it. They’re a poison and we clearly want fewer of them. Neither of those groups are actually the problem though. It’s the other 85%. What’s their behavior like? They’re going to mimic whoever they happen to be with. If they happen to be with one of the “bad apples” they’re more likely than not going to go along and maybe join in. That’s where the phrase “bad apples” gets its meaning. Put a bad apple in a barrel full of good apples and the gas it gives off will quickly spoil the rest. Same for officers. We can’t just focus on the bad ones and pretend like that’s good enough. Because if they’ve been there long enough - they’ve literally spoiled the whole department. incidentally we have data on this. In any given organization of 100 people it takes two people to ruin the whole culture. That toxicity is never fun - but it’s one thing when it’s Brenda in accounting. Your job sucks and maybe you should polish up your resume. But when it’s a police department it’s literally a life or death problem.

Good. And, notice how quickly they’re trying to separate themselves from all of this. I’m glad they’re disbanding it - but that doesn’t excuse it. And, there needs to be a thorough inquiry into the training, tactics, and decision making process before this can be resolved. If you don’t learn from it - you’re going to repeat it.

For sure. Part of having nice things is having the will to have nice things - and then doing the work it takes to get there

A lot of chatter seems to be continuing in the press about his relationship to the some of the officers. If there is shown to be a prior there - then the charges should absolutely be upgraded to 1st degree murder as there would have been clear intent. I see a lot of people in law enforcement up to and including their chief (who stood up this unit) trying to distance themselves from this incident. But this is exactly the system we’ve built. Put yourself in an incoming chief’s shoes. How do you reform this? Even if you were to burn it down and start from scratch? We clearly need law enforcement - so don’t take this as an abolitionist comment - but I’m not sure we can get where we need to go as communities and a nation with the tools we’ve got.

There’s some irony that their very sky camera will send them to prison. They’re clearly aware of their cams. Some of the audio of them getting their story straight is illustrative. And maybe that’s the key takeaway. If this young man hadn’t died - we wouldn’t be seeing any of this. These officers aren’t offended or ashamed of what they’ve done - it’s a normal day for them.

It’s awful. I’d encourage people to use some discretion in even watching it. It’s hard to imagine them not being convicted of murder.

I'm thinking of the retired - mid-70's guy at church on Sunday - who's really not a shooter but has bought the marketing of this thing through and through. Sort of a "those shotgun rounds will turn a home invader into a bowl of jelly in my front entry hall" kind of person. I think that person is watching their 401K right now and buying the standard model. I'll let you know though - I have a decent number of this exact demographic in my social circles.

Huh. I expect there is a specific demographic that this will really appeal to. That said, it's a demographic that's probably unlikely to spend twice as much on a shiny one as they would on the standard model.

Neat!

That’s a great deal. To whoever picks this up - Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 is one of the best games I’ve ever played.

It's usually a little easier to sharpen. S30V holds a better edge on paper - but it also deforms and chips easier - so most users will get a better, longer serviceable edge out of CruWear. CruWear is not quite as stainless as S30V - but with a coated blade and modern, non-abusive use cases - I doubt you'd ever notice the difference. Truth is they're both great blade steels. S30V was groundbreaking in the first generation of powdered steels. CruWear is a lot of folk's dream steel.

Agreed.

The aftermarket scale market is strong for most Spydercos. That sprint run will sell out quick for people wanting CruWear. The one you’ve got in S30V is more than adequate for just about any job you’d throw at it.

Hey @GlockSpock - just making sure you don’t miss this cru-wear yojimbo 2 sprint run. https://www.dlttrading.com/spyderco-yojimbo-2-purple-g-10-black-cru-wear-blade

I'm interested in shooting this pistol - and it's great to see RIA doing some innovation as opposed to just rolling with their 1911 tooling. Full disclosure though - I think they may have stolen my design. They've basically built a pistol that shares the same profile of the guns that I regularly cut out of construction paper in kindergarten.

I’ve had a Spyderco in that LC200V steel for a decade. It’s my standard saltwater knife and has spent no less than 100 days fully submerged in the saltwater. I run it under the faucet at the end of the day and oil It once a year or so. That blade has gutted hundreds of fish. The blade is as good as it was new. That steel may as well be magic.