Gun handling

There's a trailer for some forthcoming Dr. Who available here. At around 0:36 one of the characters can be seen performing some negligent discharges for comedy effect, at which point another character insists that all those who are not Americans put their guns down immediately. The former character is British and the latter an American.

I infer from this that it is meant to reflect the view which some Americans now hold that we in the UK haven't a clue about how to handle firearms properly for the good reason that most of us have never handled one, let alone fired one one, as they are quite difficult to obtain legally. In fact, the revolver which is fired in this scene would have been illegal here for the past 15 years.

However, this is a time travel television programme and this exchange might well have taken place in the 19th century. If so, then it would be rather anachronistic to make the above assumption about British firearms knowledge; in the 19th century it was quite easy to arm oneself and many did, although violent crime was rather low. I would have expected a 19th century man to attribute poor handgun discipline to the fact it was being handled by a woman rather than a Briton (women not even being considered fit to vote). Of course, it could be that the scenes I saw will take place in some sort of "Westworld" theme park in our future, in which case the American's response would be in character. I'll have to wait to find out.

Pigou taxes

Mr. Worstall makes a good point here:

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/economics/i-may-have-to-rethink-my-support-for-pigou-taxes

Gun perception

Interesting. What the practical implications mentioned at the end of the article might be I do not know.

Gun vs. sword

This is quite an astonishing story.
Luckily the swordsman didn't seem to be particularly good, but a nutter with a large blade is still not something one should have to face, for without a gun for defence then getting killed is likely.

Useless self-defence accessory

Around a month ago I noticed a pepper spray equipped case for the iPhone, which is discussed elsewhere.  If that were not silly enough, an even sillier item has turned up. In addition to the objections raised on the CoM post (bulkiness of the device, vulnerability of the iPhone to damage) I should add that I am not convinced that brass knuckles* would be particularly effective weapons; the metal would assist in doing additional damage, but the uncomfortable position of the hand when holding then would not reduce the chance of injury to the puncher. Not that I've ever tried punching anyone with one, of course...

* Known to the French as an "American fist".

Odd street name

I am told that a new reader came to a library in Oxford today and filled out a registration form giving his address in "Crotch Crescent". The librarian though this dubious, but that street does indeed exist; in fact, I used to live quite near there, some years ago.

I wonder what became of this?

Letter shows Iron Lady's soft side

It seems a little odd to write to the prime minister to ask for advice in dealing with one's parents' divorce; it was nice of her to answer, though.

/etc/hosts

...is a very useful file. One feature it has is to be able to block advertisements from appearing in one's browser, by incorporating the information found here. This version also blocks various shock sites.

A Test Post

Other than the technical problems which LJ has been having recently, one thing that's dissuaded me from posting is that there's no good mobile client for LJ. However, if you're reading this it appears that I can cross post from blogger, for which a decent client is available. Will that encourage me too write more? I don't know, but it's worth a try.