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I Hate My Wide Feet

Illustration by Sam Woolley

My feet are big. Not in a potentially good way, the way that might grab the interest of an NBA scout. Or in the way that might set a woman to wondering. No. My feet are wide.

I wear a size 11, width 4E. I can get away with a 2E, but it’s not ideal. According to this handy chart—for big and tall men, goddamnit—that means my foot is three-quarters of an inch wider than yours, a normal human male’s. My foot is an entire 15 percent wider across.

This is not enough to get me a job in the circus, but it is enough to ensure something that has probably never crossed normies’ minds: I cannot wear most shoes. Think of any hot sneaker, or sharp loafer, or even rain and snow boots. They do not make them in my width. (Nike has relatively recently released some sneakers that come in 4E, but please trust that they’re not the Nikes that you’d ever want to buy.) When I see the kids lining up for new releases, or basketball players shilling their signature models, I know that I am looking at a world of which I can never be a part. Coolness is forever paraded before me, and denied me.

There are a small number of companies that do make nearly all their shoes in extra widths. That list of companies is grim. I wear, and have worn since middle school, exclusively New Balances and Rockports. Who wears those shoes? Dads wear those shoes. I have been a footwear dad since I reached puberty.

The world is not made for me. I have never had dress shoes—which I must buy a half-size bigger just to be able to physically put on—that aren’t perpetual agony. I went bowling this week and I am a chafed, blistered mess. I couldn’t even have a proper punk phase because I couldn’t fit into combat boots.

I am sure there are solutions to my problems. I am sure there is an entire community out there of wide-footed men, who share their questions and provide answers and give each other the support denied them by an industry that’d pretend we don’t exist. I can’t join them, because that would make this my identity. And I do not want to be a Wide-Footed Man. I just want to be a man, who has many unique and humanizing qualities, one of which is my wide feet.

And so I suffer, quietly. You see me, and you don’t consider my plight. You cover your children’s eyes to shield them from the sight of my New Balance 515s. I’ll never be one of you.

I guess Asics makes extra-wide shoes too? No, I’d rather be dead.

via Gizmodo
I Hate My Wide Feet

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WikiLeaks just dropped the CIA’s secret how-to for infecting Windows

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The logo of the CIA’s Engineering Development Group (EDG), the home of the spy agency’s malware and espionage tool developers.

WikiLeaks has published what it says is another batch of secret hacking manuals belonging to the US Central Intelligence Agency, as part of its Vault7 series of leaks. The site is billing Vault7 as the largest publication of intelligence documents ever.

Friday’s installment includes 27 documents related to “Grasshopper,” the code name for a set of software tools used to build customized malware for Windows-based computers. The Grasshopper framework provides building blocks that can be combined in unique ways to suit the requirements of a given surveillance or intelligence operation. The documents are likely to be of interest to potential CIA targets looking for signatures and other signs indicating their Windows systems were hacked. The leak will also prove useful to competing malware developers who want to learn new techniques and best practices.

“Grasshopper is a software tool used to build custom installers for target computers running Microsoft Windows operating system,” one user guide explained. “An operator uses the Grasshopper builder to construct a custom installation executable.” The guide continued:

The operator configures an installation executable to install one or more payloads using a variety of techniques. Each payload installer is built from individually configured components that implement part of the installation procedure.

The operator may designate that installation is contingent on the evaluation of the target environment. Target conditions are described using a custom rule language. The operator may configure the tool to output a log file during execution for later exfiltration.

via Ars Technica
WikiLeaks just dropped the CIA’s secret how-to for infecting Windows

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Microsoft Translator turns your words into spoken Japanese

You may want to install Microsoft Translator if you’re going to Japan and your vocabulary is limited to "Konnichiwa," "Ohayou" and "Notice me senpai." The app can now turn your spoken words into Nihongo to help you get around the country. Translator can recognize a bevy of languages, but Japanese is only the 10th language its speech translation feature supports. That’s right — it now reads the resulting Japanese words or phrases out loud to make it possible to hold almost real-time conversations with native speakers. The other nine languages in the list are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The technology’s end-to-end speech translation capability works by using two neural-network based AIs. Its Automatic Speech Recognition AI detects your words, then its natural language processing technology gets rid of all the fillers like "um" and "uh." After the machine translation AI is done conjuring up a result, the app’s speech synthesizer reads it out loud on the fly.

Microsoft’s Translator app is available for Android, iOS and Amazon Fire devices, though that’s not the only way you can access the tech’s Japanese speech translation feature. It’s now live on the translation solution’s website, as well as on Skype’s real-time translation tool.

Source: Microsoft

via Engadget
Microsoft Translator turns your words into spoken Japanese

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The SERPA Sucks, And That’s Just All There Is To Say About It

Let me share with you a brutal truth that is going to hurt the feelings of a lot of people: the BlackHawk! SERPA holster is one of the worst holster designs currently manufactured.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) Field Training Directorate (FTD) launched an investigation of the design after “four incidents.” The resulting research discovered that the user’s trigger finger ended up proximal to the trigger on 25-percent of the draw strokes, and that 13-percent of attempted draw strokes began out of sequence. They concluded (PDF) that the basic design of the holster was likely to greatly increase the likelihood of an “inadvertent discharge,” and concluded that it should not be used in any of their training.

They are far from alone. The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service have banned SERPAs from use by officers, as have many sheriffs and police departments.

IDPA has banned them from competition.

Gunsite Academy recommends against SERPA use, and if you bring one, they’ll force you to disable the locking mechanism, while I’ve watched them do firsthand. Many other shooting schools, instructors, and ranges also require the locking mechanism to be disabled, including Kyle Defoor.

Larry Vickers bans them outright, as does EAG Tactical (unless you’re military and are forced to use it), John “Shrek” McPhee,  Travis Haley, and the late Todd Green, along with many more ranges and instructors.

The vast majority of these agencies and instructors ban the SERPA primarily banned it because of negligent discharge concerns, but that’s not the only significant issue.

There have also been multiple instances of the SERPA’s locking mechanism locking up when it encounters dirt, grit and mud, as we see here in video featuring Craig “Southnarc” Douglas and Paul Gomez.  They and a student who steps in to help end up destroying the holster, and were still unable to free the gun from the jammed locking mechanism. For the record, this was a Simunitions training gun; they would have chosen another avenue if it had been a real firearm with real bullets in the gun.

The fact that the the holster can be ripped free of its mount is yet another failure of the design, beyond the failures of a draw stroke that tends to contribute to negligent discharges, and the locking mechanism that can fail from encountering moderate levels of debris, leaving users unable to draw the gun. Put simply, the holsters are dangerous junk.

The officer from this department (below) notes that five of the seven SERPAs issued were shredded during routine retention training.

So I have a simple question for you: Why on earth would you bet your life on a poorly-made, poorly designed holster that has been banned by many law enforcement agencies, top tier instructors, shooting schools and ranges, when there are so many better options on the market?

 

Author’s Bio:
Bob Owens

Bob Owens
Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.

via Bearing Arms
The SERPA Sucks, And That’s Just All There Is To Say About It

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Employee Burnout Is a Problem with the Company, Not the Person

Employee burnout is a common phenomenon, but it is one that companies tend to treat as a talent management or personal issue rather than a broader organizational challenge.

That’s a mistake

, reads an article on HBR. From the article:

The psychological and physical problems of burned-out employees, which cost an estimated $125 billion to $190 billion a year in healthcare spending in the U.S., are just the most obvious impacts. The true cost to business can be far greater, thanks to low productivity across organizations, high turnover, and the loss of the most capable talent. […] When employees aren’t as productive as they could be, it’s usually the organization, not its employees, that is to blame. The same is true for employee burnout. When we looked inside companies with high burnout rates, we saw three common culprits: excessive collaboration, weak time management disciplines, and a tendency to overload the most capable with too much work. These forces not only rob employees of time to concentrate on completing complex tasks or for idea generation, they also crunch the downtime that is necessary for restoration.

via Slashdot
Employee Burnout Is a Problem with the Company, Not the Person

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This Stunning Drone Footage of South Africa Looks Like a Real Life Lion King

GIF

For the past couple of years, mediocre drone videos of dramatic landscapes have littered the internet. Like, we get it, drone pilots. Your camera flies and stuff looks pretty from the sky and the whole conceit is pretty trite at this point. And then I saw these four minutes of magic, filmed in South Africa.

The footage of the African savanna and all the beautiful creatures that live there should be in the new live-action Lion King movie. Disney movies are supposed to make you feel things, and despite a decade slumbering in cynical despair, my cold black heart swelled when I watched this video. Filmed on location by Roth Rind with a DJI Mavic Pro, the tour of South Africa takes you from precarious cliff sides to the majestic Kruger National Park, one of the world’s largest game reserves.

So even if you’ve grown wearing of pretty drone videos, watch this one. You might feel something, too.

via Gizmodo
This Stunning Drone Footage of South Africa Looks Like a Real Life Lion King

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Shredding a Volvo

Shredding a Volvo

Link

During a recent Top Gear bit, Matt LeBlanc turned his attention from cars and interviews to wanton destruction – pushing watermelons, a shed, and an entire Volvo through a Bunning Lowlander Widebody 380HD – a piece of machinery designed for spreading mulch.

via The Awesomer
Shredding a Volvo

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Uber’s open source data visualization tool now goes beyond maps

You may not be aware, but Uber offers an open source version of the data visualization framework it uses internally, called deck.gl. The tool was made available to anyone via open source license last November, and now it’s getting some key updates that should help make it more useful to external teams and individuals looking for interesting ways to take their data and turn it into compelling visual representations.

“The main idea behind this library is that it’s a WebGL-powered framework that is designed for exploring and visualizing data assets at scale,” explains Nicolas Garcia Belmonte, Uber’s head of data visualization, regarding why the tool exists to begin with. “There’s a lot of geospatial stuff that we do here, as well, as you can probably imagine from the core business, so we visualize a lot of data on maps.”

Uber has used the tool internally for various purposes, including visualizing the pick-up and drop-off experience, as a way to make material the insights it can gather from the considerable stock of data it gathers form its ride hailing business. Open sourcing the project, according to Belmonte, is a way to help others be able to quickly and easily visualize and explore their own data sets, including very large collections.

The updates to the framework available today make it possible to go beyond maps, to visual data sets from machine learning and other more abstract use cases, including network traffic and more. The team also focused on usability, making it easier than ever to work with for developers with better documentation, as well as new demonstration projects.

Another unique use for Uber’s data viz software – Minecraft visualization.

deck.gl is a rich, flexible tool that according to Belmonte and Uber, has no real peers in the open source community. I asked them whether Uber had ever considered making this a paid offering, even though it’s relatively distant from their core business, given its capabilities.

“Personally, I’m a very big advocate for open source, so I think that open source can help the business in many other ways, and those ways are immediately more valuable than someone paying for this software,” Belmonte said. “I would say this is more about trying to reach out to developers and seeing what they can come up with in creative ways.”

Already, Uber has provided examples of how it can be used to visualize the points collected from a 3D indoor scan in exacting detail, or how it can represent visually Partial Dependence Plots in machine learning applications.

via TechCrunch
Uber’s open source data visualization tool now goes beyond maps

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LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Laser Trainer Kit Offers Perfect Plinking Practice

Train like a super hero with reactive Laser Trainer Targets!

LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Kit
LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Kit
LaserLyte Logo
LaserLyte

COTTONWOOD, AZ —-(Ammoland.com)- LaserLyte, innovators in firearms laser technologies, introduces their most earth-shaking Laser Training Kit to date—the Rumble & Steel Kit. Shooters feel like super heroes when they start plinking LaserLyte’s two newest reactive Trainer Targets with the included Trigger Tyme® Laser Revolver.

Auto-resetting Rumble Tyme and Steel Tyme Trainer Targets react with every shot so you never need to leave the couch to keep shooting! When hit with a laser beam from the Trigger Tyme Revolver, the Rumble Tyme Target rumbles, rotates and radiates LED lights to celebrate; while the Steel Tyme Target brings the excitement of plinking steel targets to the comfort of home.

The included Trigger Tyme Laser Revolver mimics the size and feel of a real snub-nose Smith & Wesson® J-frame or Taurus® Model 85 revolver, giving shooters the most realistic dry-fire training experience with one of America’s favorite concealed carry firearms.

Immediate feedback of shot placement gives shooters of all ages and skills levels a fun and valuable training tool that can be safely used anytime, anywhere. Whether you shoot from the couch or draw from concealment, you’ll spend less time resetting the target and more time Laser Training!

LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Kit

LaserLyte TLB-RSK Package Specifications:

LaserLyte Rumble Tyme Laser Trainer Target:
– Activation: All LaserLyte Laser Trainers
– Batteries: 1 x 9V
– Battery Life: 6,000 Shots
– Material: High Impact ABS Polymer
– Weight: 6.40 ounces
– Diameter: 2.70 inches
– Height: 3.00 inches

LaserLyte Steel Tyme Laser Trainer Target:

– Activation: All LaserLyte Laser Trainers
– Batteries: 3 x AAA
– Battery Life: 6,000 Shots
– Material: High Impact ABS Polymer
– Weight: 5.60 ounces
– Height: 7.63 inches
– Width: 3.13 inches
– Depth: 1.25 inches

LaserLyte Trainer Trigger Tyme Revolver:

– Activation: Trigger activated
– Power Output: 650 NM, 5MW, Class IIIA
– Batteries: 3 x A76
– Battery Life: 50,000 shots
– Weight: 11 ounces
– Material: High-impact ABS polymer
– Length: 6.5 inches
– Width: 1.35 inches
– Height: 4.3 inches

– MSRP: $199.00 (entire kit) (less online)

About LaserLyte

LaserLyte®, the leader in laser technology for over 26 years. Our mission is to heighten the experience of shooting. Now LaserLyte offers a 3-year warranty for all products sold new, including products sold new up to three years ago. For additional information about LaserLyte, visit www.laserlyte.com. Keep up to date with LaserLyte on Facebook, Instagram and visit our YouTube page for all the LaserLyte action.

This post LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Laser Trainer Kit Offers Perfect Plinking Practice appeared first on AmmoLand.com Shooting Sports News .

via AmmoLand.com Shooting Sports News
LaserLyte Rumble & Steel Laser Trainer Kit Offers Perfect Plinking Practice

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Gallery: US Army “Visual Signals” manual gets first update in 30 years

  • Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attack.

  • Message acknowledged.

  • Air attack.

  • Take a knee.

  • Freeze.

  • Number signals.

  • Disperse

The first update in 30 years to the US Army “Visual Signals” (PDF) manual has just been issued. It’s filled with black-and-white sketches on how in-the-field soldiers can signal events to one another—from warning about a “nuclear hazard present” to “take a knee.” The military notes that, for the most part, the signals apply to “both men and women.”

Efficient combat operations depend on clear, accurate, and secure communication among ground units, Army aviation, and supporting Air Force elements. Control and coordination are achieved by the most rapid means of communication available between Soldiers and units. When electrical and/or digital means of communication are inadequate, or not available, a station-to-station system of visual communication is an alternate means for transmitting orders, information, or requests for aid or support.

The Army notes that the signals are not a panacea for when electronic communications run dry. For starters, they are “vulnerable to enemy interception,” and their effectiveness is “significantly reduced during periods of poor visibility, and when terrain restricts observation.”

  • Stop, look, listen, smell.

  • Out of action.

  • Cease firing.

  • Commence firing.

  • Move platoon leader to the front.

  • Danger area.

  • Radio telephone operator forward.

Listing image by Visual Signals/US Army

via Ars Technica
Gallery: US Army “Visual Signals” manual gets first update in 30 years