With Firearms, Safety Comes First (Part II)

Part II on the safety measures necessary while dealing with firearms is below. There can be many safety precautions since it is such a dangerous tool to have, but some most important ones are elaborated here for readers' benefit. Along with obeying laws, a Federal Firearms License holder must respect the society well being and should be courteous enough to play a significant and responsible role as a citizen.

Look Around

Once you know what your target is, you can then position yourself accordingly. While shooting, you should not only focus on your target, but also each and everything in your closest surroundings. If you have someone with you, he/she must be standing alongside you and not behind you. Shooting while standing in front of someone may cause harm and damage as a result of backfire.

Keep Unloaded

If you do not intend to use your gun immediately, or are handing it over to someone else, you should always unload it. Likewise while you receive a firearm from someone, make sure the magazine and chamber are empty. In some states, travelling with a loaded gun without a specific permit is illegal, even if it is just about travelling a tiny little distance.

Stick to Specific Ammunitions

Each and every piece of firearm is made compatible with one specific type of ammunition. Buying and loading improper ammunitions in your gun can be massively dangerous for user and the people and objects in the surroundings. It can also harm the firearm if you hand-load or over-load the magazine with inappropriate ammunitions.

Be Protected

You must protect your eyes and ears with glasses and headset. Extended use of guns can seriously damage hearing. If you experience ringing sound in your ear, it is a sign that the sound of fire is exceeding your ears' capacity. Likewise, eyes can also be affected by the ammunition brass or heat. It can be really harmful for eyes. Be alert at this point in time. Things like this should never happen in fact, there must be safety precautions all the time.

What If It Doesn't Fire

If you press the trigger and it doesn't fire, be sure there is a problem. You must recall whether you loaded the gun or not. If you are sure you did, then you need to act cautiously. It is mainly due to the use of improper and hand-loaded ammunitions. You must then remove the magazine and cartridge and place these safely, away from humans and valuables, unless and until an expert checks the firearm to trace the problem.

The Star Spangled Banner's Story

I was just researching the story of our national anthem and thought I would share my results with those who have forgotten the story.

Francis Scott Key was a lawyer in Baltimore when the colonies were engaged in a vicious conflict with the British. At that point in time, both sides of the conflict had an abundant amount of prisoners in their camps. The Americans went to the British and tried to negotiate the release of their prisoners who were being held in boats about a thousand yards off shore. They then sent Key out in a row boat to see if he could come up with a mutual exchange. The British then agreed that they would release the prisoners on a one-to-one basis.

Well, Francis Scott Key was jubilant with enthusiasm and went below into the cargo hold of a ship to tell the men that they were once again free men. He told the men that by evening they would be released from their shackles and could leave the filth they were living in. As Key returned top side he was met by the British Admiral who told him that the men's release would be honored, but it would be merely academic after that night. He then told Key that they have laid down an ultimatum. He said "Tonight your people will capitulate and lay down the colors of that flag that you think so much of, or we are going to remove Fort McHenry from the face of the earth." He then pointed Key towards the horizon where he saw hundreds of tiny dots and was told that it was the entire British war fleet. All of the British armament was being called upon to demolish Ft. McHenry. Key explained that Fort McHenry was not a military fort and was filled with women and children. The Admiral explained that if the flag that flew over the ramparts was lowered, the shelling would stop immediately. At that point in time the Americans would have surrendered to British.

At sunset the British war fleet unleashed. The dark skies were suddenly lit and the noise was defining. Below deck the soldiers asked Key to tell them what was happening, and what was the condition of the flag.

After many hours of shelling, the Admiral completely perplexed that the flag would not come down, said that all the attention from that point on would be focused on taking out the flag.

Sunrise came and the flagpole was bent but still standing with a tattered flag still flying. The reason the flag withstood the barrage was due to brave men holding up the flagpole to their death. As each brave soldier died, another took his place so the flag never dropped. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

A Rare-Earth Magnet Showdown: Neodymium Magnets Vs Samarium-Cobalt Magnets

Rare earth magnets are perhaps some of the world's most powerful magnets ever found. They are permanent magnets that are developed from rare earth elements. While their magnetic attraction is very strong, they are by nature very brittle and corrosive, requiring them to be coated or plated with nickel or a like substance that will strengthen the magnet against chipping and breakage. There are two main kinds of rare earth neodymium or samarium-cobalt. Both of these magnets are made of alloys that are neither rare nor precious today; however, when the periodic table was in the process of being developed, the same alloys were considered both rare and precious in the day. The magnets have retained the name since that time.

Samarium-cobalt were the first rare earth magnets ever to be invented. This occurred in the 1970s, and since then, they have been used in a limited variety of ways. Due to their expensive production costs, and widely varied properties, they are only used in certain applications. To start, the alloy has an extremely high Curie temperature point. However, it is the weaker of the two families as regards magnetic attraction. In addition, these magnets are very prone to breakage and chipping; yet they are highly resistant to oxidation. Because of these qualities, and because of the high cost involved with making them, these magnets are mainly used in situations in which strong magnetic fields are needed at high temperatures. Neodymium were developed nearly a decade later, when stronger were needed for many of today's machinery. The magnets are strong, and very compact. They offer the most magnetic field strength of any on earth. However, like their Samarium-cobalt counterparts, they are prone to splintering, chipping, breaking, and corrosion. Because of this, they are usually coated with either nickel plating or a copper-nickel combination to protect the actual. Sometimes, other metals, polymer, or a lacquer are used instead. easier to produce than the other rare earth, thus driving the cost of production down and making them cheaper than the samarium-cobalt. Neodymium are used in much of today's modern machinery, including cordless tools, fasteners, computer parts, and even magnetic building toys.

Rare earth magnets have helped to usher in a new era because of their amazing strength, their high resistance to temperature, and their wide variety of uses. The magnet you will need completely depends on what you will need the magnet for. Weaker in field strength, the samarium-cobalt magnets are highly valuable in situations that need magnets to endure high temperatures during use. Neodymium magnets, however, are much stronger and less expensive, giving them a wider range of uses for today's technology. Knowledge of both kinds of magnets will allow you to find the perfect magnet for your needs.

Learning The Way to Study - How The Process Works

There are literally millions of people around the world seeking a good way to study, to get better grades, to study for exams and for tips for study skills, My goal with this website is to provide you with a roadmap that leads you toward your destination.

What is Learning

Most of the world's greatest scholars agree that learning is an on-going process. They make it a point to learn something new every day-some continue the process throughout the day. Does this result in learning-overload? No it does not.

The human mind has what amounts to a nearly infinite capacity to store new materials every waking hour. Some minds are even very active during sleep, and the individual often awakens from a deep sleep with the answer he/she has been seeking.

Brain vs. Computer

Our psyche developed since birth to set specific pathways for the storage of information into the mind. Our minds are much like the database in the computer you are seeing this page. Your computer stores information by converting what you feed in, and it converts this information into bits and bites of electronic pulses.

The Brain is Like a Hard Drive

Neuroscientists tell us that the brain is much like a hard drive-but it has no moving parts. Certain areas of the brain serve as storage depots. We see, hear, smell or touch something, and the brain takes this sensory input and converts it into electrical impulses. Through unknown, undiscovered means, the brain moves these impulses to either our short-term memory or our long-term memory. As far as learning is concerned, which is dependent upon long-term storage, we have an expectation of being able at some future time to be able to find that memory and to use it.

Learning a New Process

Therefore, the way to study is the take a bit of information and write it to our mind's hard drive. But this involves learning a new process, it involves our creating a working "directory." A computer directory is described as a hierarchy of folders inside of other folders that make up the complete computer system. At the top of this hierarchy is the root directory, which contains all files organized by their location.

The computer, PC or MAC, creates a "registry" so that when we need to recover something from the computer's memory this registry finds it-hopefully. But registries tend to get screwed up as we add more and more information. To this end an entire industry has built up offering "Registry Cleaners."

And the human mind acts in a very similar fashion.

When Did the Learning Process Begin

Back in the early days of computing, the term "Garbage in-garbage out" was coined. This is even a truer statement today, due to the complexity and sophistication of today's machines. But it seems like computer science is far more advanced than human evolution. If we can believe the paleontologists, the first human like creatures, homo habilis, entered the fossil record over 2 million years ago. From that time forward, the human brain slowly grew in size and function.

How Smart Were Humans 500 Years Ago

So were humans less intelligent... say 500 years ago? Judge for yourself. Leonardo Da Vinci is considered a genius as a painter (Mona Lisa) but he once wrote, "For once you have tasted flight, your eyes will turn forever skyward, for it is there you have been and there you long to be." Di Vinci left numerous scientific sketches as part of his legacy. Did he simply dream up a glider and a kind of helicopter? Did he actually fly in one of those contraptions? The historical record doesn't say.