[geeks] Google Images Facial Recognition!

[Bill Bradford]

On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 06:45:44PM -0400, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> > No.  I refuse to be afraid of terrorists.
> > I will continue to loudly protest the continuing erosion of my rights as
> > an American and as a free, sovereign, and independent human being.
> > And if I see someone threatening harm to the people around me, I will do
> > my best to kill him.  If he wins, so be it; I'll have done my duty as a
> > member of the society in which I live, but if several other people make
> > the same decision as me in that same situation, the bastard won't stand
> > much of a chance.
> That.  Couldn't have put it better myself.

This seems to be a good point to illustrate what the wife and I have
been doing over the past couple of days. 

Her:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/sets/72157600297073502/

Me:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/sets/72157600297619095/

The neighbor that lives directly behind us told us why our front gate
(leading to the back yard) was wide open when Amy came home from lunch a
week ago Friday:

It was apparently left open by the hoodlums who had been confronted while
attempting to break into her house with a big screwdriver while having 
socks over their hands (to prevent fingerprints I guess).  When they were
confronted by yet another (who had a gun), they took off running and tried
to go over her backyard fence (which leads into our yard) [1].  They didn't
QUITE make it cleanly [2], and broke a good 2' off the top of the fence.  
Apparently they then ran out the front of our yard, going through the gate
and leaving it wide open.  When we came home to the open gate, we replaced
the padlock with a new one and also added some lockable steel cable as
well.

When the neighbor came to our door this past Thursday and we found out what
had happened, I informed Amy that she was going to learn how to handle a 
gun, "just in case".  I figured it's also a good time for me to get non-
rusty, as I've not shot a gun in about oh, 15 years or so (I grew up with
two police officers as parents).

Today, we both each went through the "Introductory Handgun Course" offered
by a local indoor shooting range, and had a ton of fun.  Tomorrow we'll be
going to the gun show downtown, and sometime in the next week will each be
purchasing a 9mm handgun, doing copious amounts of practice with them at
the local range, and eventually getting our Concealed Handgun Licenses.

Neither one of us intends to carry a firearm on a regular basis, but its
better to have the ability to do so legally if needed.  I'm a firm believer
in the Second Amendment, but I'm *not* a free-state0militia gun nut.  Just
a computer nerd gun nut. 8-) 

(I also plan to get my "Curio & Relic" FFL, and plan to eventually also 
own a SKS, build my own AR-15, and should probably add a Remington 870
shotgun to the mix as well)

Bill

[1] They came over the fence just to the top right of the bush in the back
of this picture: http://www.mrbill.net/newhouse/Mar2007/Back/IMG_0545.jpg

[2] Apparently left the contents of their pockets, including some change,
what looked to be a set of apartment keys, and a bit of blood as well.

-- 
Bill Bradford 
Houston, Texas