So week 13 is over. March is (just about) over. And that means that the first quarter of 2012 is over.

The good news: we still love blogging about this stuff, and are enjoying the conversations that are starting up. That will only grow with time.

The bad news: this wasn’t supposed to be work or take time, and oddly enough, it is and it does. Oh, well. So let’s take a look back at what we took a look at, shall we?

  • Almost 6 million rifles later… Sturm, Ruger and Company is still going strong (indeed, it’s a stock-market darling right now), and its 10/22 rifle, introduced in 1964, remains popular. A great kid’s first gun, if the kid is large enough (the pull — the distance from the trigger to the buttplate — might be too small for some youngesters). Of course, many parents and mentors still want to go with the traditional single-shot first rifle. Nothing wrong with enforcing a stately pace on youthful beginners.
  • U.S. Coast Guard out of Counterterror? They will be if the new boss has his way. But it might be for the best, for the Coast Guard, its usual clients, and the counterterror war. They’ll still be available for their most important CT function, spotting anything that just doesn’t look right in the ports and waterways that they know best.
  • There’s a new tool for history buffs…. ChronoZoom is a new way to visualize history in context. It’s got great potential, but that depends on how it develops. It appears that the developers’ intent is for it to be community edited.
  • The Victory Two Rifles Won… was the battle of Pleven in 1878. Although technically, the Turkish forces’ clever use of a long-range single-shot and a short-range rapid-fire repeater for each man didn’t win the battle, they let the Turks save time and avoid complete defeat.
  • Tom von Kaenel and the Sea2Sea 2012 Challenge… is raising money for American and British veterans’ causes. Help out if you can.
  • Handlowali Polską? Trans.: “Did they sell out Poland?” Well, yeah, they did. You Poles should be used to it by now. It’s now our country’s turn to apologize for our President for a change.
  • Ohio Ordnance Works was the Wednesday Weapons Website of the Week (aka W4). If you want a semi-auto M1918A3 BAR, they’re your answer. Explore the website to see some of the other cool things they sell and do. (Need an MP44 rewatted, they’re your huckleberry).
  • Kid shoots herself jumping on a mattress, that some idiot left a gun in. Now You Know Why Mom Said, “Don’t Jump on the Mattress.” Mom: don’t bring home goons who leave guns in your kids’ beds. Honest, at some time you have to ease up the self-actualization and take responsibility for your progeny. It’s not like the guy is going to.
  • A seafood-restaurant employee fights off a violent burglar with any weapon that comes to hand. If he’d really been thinking, he’d have skipped the 911 call and just fed the second-story man to the lobsters.
  • This was the threat: Remington (and Freedom Group) out of New York? The reality is, the bill that had them looking for the exits failed in committee… they’re staying put, for now.
  • SF Inside Joke: Adolf and the CONOP. This is one of those jokes that isn’t really all that funny, but what are you gonna do? So you laugh.
  • Saturday Matinee 013: Battle: Los Angeles. One real plus about the movie, not mentioned in the review: seeing the People’s Republic of Santa Monica get wrecked by space aliens.
  • That Was the Week that Was: 2012 Week 13… brings us full circle back here. Nice place to be.

Statistics: 19 posts, roughly 12,300 words, 8 comments on this week’s posts. (To date: 131 substantive comments, about 4,000 spams).  Currently, most spam comments are coming from Brazil for some reason.

This entry was posted in Administrivia on by Hognose.

About Hognose

Former Special Forces 11B2S, later 18B, weapons man. (Also served in intelligence and operations jobs in SF).