Wednesday, 24 July 2013

By on July 24th, 2013 in science kits

12:48 – When Danny delivered the mail yesterday, I asked him about some of the stuff I mentioned here yesterday. He said that as far as he knew anyone could get delivery to a curbside box, even if there was a CBU in the neighborhood. He thinks CBUs are insecure, curbside boxes somewhat more secure, and porch boxes most secure of all. Apparently there are frequent thefts from CBUs, probably because it’s not obvious that the thief has no business there. Theft from curbside boxes is less common, probably because the thief is in plain sight and it’s obvious to neighbors that he’s messing with a box he doesn’t own. Theft from porch boxes is still less common because the thief has to walk right up to the porch to steal the mail.

Other than Kastle-Meyer reagent, which we store refrigerated and add individually at ship time, we have plenty of inventory of the FK01A core forensic science kits, but we’re nearly out of stock on the FK01B and FK01C supplement kits. Time to build more of those. I’ll probably do only 15 or 20 of each, because at least half of the orders for forensic kits are for the core kit only.


25 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 24 July 2013"

  1. Lynn McGuire says:

    The USPS started requiring CBUs in new neighborhoods in the Houston metropolitan area around 1990. I feel that they are very secure except there appears to only be around 10 to 15 keys. My key actually opens two boxes in my 16 box CBU (plus two oversize boxes). I know this because the previous homeowner passed the CBU key to us but did not tell us the box number so I had to try them all. Our regular postperson has marked the names on all the boxes in the CBU.

    I think that they should retrofit all neighborhoods to CBUs in the interest of economy. I have had two of them fail on me now though. The first was run over by an idiot texting driver who then drove off. The second had the pedestal rot out and fell over.

  2. Miles_Teg says:

    All Hail His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge!

  3. OFD says:

    Yo, we done wid dat. Y’all bow down and crawl. We rebels. And anyway we have our very own Prophet and Messiah, Barack Hussein, many blessings be upon his name. For three more freaking years!

    On second thought, send one of the royals over here; the krauts have had three-hundred years to learn English so maybe one of them can fix our mess.

  4. SteveF says:

    I take it as yet another sign that there is something seriously defective in most people, that Americans will fawn over the doings of royalty. The Brit royals are the most obvious, but there’s also the fascination with poor li’l Anastasia Romanov and the sympathy for the fate of the last Chinese emperor (among those few who know the tale).

    I’m with Mark Twain: ditch all of the existing royalty and replace them with cats.

  5. OFD says:

    Some folks over here are so disgusted and fed up with our current form of government, such as it is, that they have expressed a willingness to give monarchy another chance. I’d rather have minarchy or anarchy than that.

    The last legitimate English monarch was Edward the Confessor, of the House of Wessex, and since then a long line of usurpers. The whole deal has become a colossal joke, except for those members of the nobility known as “The Tigers” and their minions who still actually rule yon scepter’d Isle despite the trappings of Queen and Parliament and Prime Minister.

    We have our own watered-down version of the Tigers here, by comparison nouveau riche, one such well-known family is the Rockefellers. The people I have in mind are in the highest reaches of the so-called One Percent and it is they who call the shots and they who have allowed the criminal gangsters running the country now to run it, as the latter have mostly successfully disguised themselves as moderate liberals, when in fact they are out-and-out hardcore Bolsheviks. The latter have now seized power here and the next three years will show us just how badly we underestimated them.

  6. brad says:

    I always thought the Kennedy family was the American royal family. Always all over the tabloids, and no matter what idiocies they committed, they were always forgiven. When I lived in Boston, I learned right quick that you never criticized the Kennedys. Maybe this has gotten better, now that the disgusting Ted Kennedy has passed on to his just reward?

  7. Miles_Teg says:

    I’m sure Verres, Pope Alexander VI and Stalin gave him a warm welcome.

  8. Miles_Teg says:

    Happy 93rd birthday Rosalind Franklin.

  9. Lynn McGuire says:

    Does Bob live in NC or SC? I thought SC for some reason.

  10. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Nope, I’m North Carolina.

  11. Lynn McGuire says:

    We were really hoping here in the Great State of Texas to get an open carry law in addition to our concealed carry law from the last legislature. The open carry law in Nevada is awesome!

  12. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    We’ve had open carry forever in NC. Of course, with all the restrictions on where you can actually carry, it’s about useless. What am I supposed to do if I want to go into the courthouse or federal building? Ask a bystander to hold my pistol until I get back?

    What I want is a law that says there are no restrictions whatsoever on anyone carrying any weapon anywhere anytime, openly or concealed. That and the one declaring an open season from January 1 through December 31 on politicians and bureaucrats, with no bag limit. Shooting politicians is, after all, just an alternative method of voting.

  13. OFD says:

    The season on “bureaucrats” as written thus far would be very wide-ranging; it would cover the jerks who make our lives miserable and restrict our liberty at the higher levels but also include the local postmistress here and the highway department superintendent.

    “Politicians” can stand as is.

    I’d add banksters and financial speculators.

  14. Lynn McGuire says:

    “The War After Armageddon” by Ralph Peters has a new USA President give a carte blanche presidential pardons on liberals being assassinated after several Islamic dirty bombs in the USA and Europe:
    http://www.amazon.com/The-After-Armageddon-Ralph-Peters/dp/0765363402/

  15. Ed says:

    I’ve had to use CBUs for 25+ years, never had a problem. Walking 100′ isn’t a big deal.

    I have seen one CBU rot out at the base and fall over, here in the high desert. It must be a huge replacement turnover and cost in more humid locations.

  16. Ray Thompson says:

    here in the high desert

    Whereabouts in the high desert? I lived in Barstow and Victorville for a few years. Some family still calls the area home but I have not been back in 20 years.

  17. Lynn McGuire says:

    One jury person calls George Zimmerman a murderer:
    http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-juror-murder/story?id=19770659

    ” When the jury of six women—five of them mothers—began deliberations, Maddy said she favored convicting Zimmerman of second degree murder, which could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. The jury was also allowed to consider manslaughter, a lesser charge.”

    “”I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end,” she said. ”

    I am very disturbed that people’s view of George Zimmerman’s guilt is based upon their race. Most of the whites that I have seen say that Zimmerman is innocent. Most of the blacks that I have seen say that Zimmerman is guilty of murder of that poor sweet young child.

    Wow. Here is an excellent article by a gun trainer, gun dealer and science fiction writer:
    http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/on-profiling-and-stand-your-ground/

    “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.”

    “Yes. We appreciate the leader of the free world chiming in on local crime issues, especially before any facts are known.”

    “Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

    “Were you in the habit of committing battery against people 35 years ago? “

  18. OFD says:

    My less-than-2-cents’ worth in chronological order:

    Dystopian/Apocalyptic fiction which has as its focus some final battleground in Israel does not float my boat, on several levels. And actually the last semi-realistic fiction I’ve read of this nature was “Lucifer’s Hammer” and maybe two or three others, “Malevil” comes to mind. We know neither the day nor the hour but I tend to think it is likely to be thousands or tens of thousands of years in the future. Succeeding generations since Late Antiquity have believed the last days would occur in their time, but so far, not so.

    OFD briefly visited the Barstow and San Berdoo area and stayed a few days visiting ex-military pals in Victorville, with a short excursion into the Mojave. It was weird, to someone from up here.

    That juror can go pound sand; her whole schtick is from the brainwashed Officially Aggrieved Minority POV; utter bullshit. Like the jurors at the O.J. joke of a trial.

    Damn, that was a long post by the scary Tony Soprano giant guy; I’m the same size he was in his 30s and do not bench-press anything but prefer to shoot it or blow it up rather than break a sweat. My Home Depot paint chip here classifies me as Late Visigoth Red. “…In fact, I’m so big that I’m used to going around people in places like that, simply to avoid making them nervous.”

    Yeah, I’ve done that gig for many years now; and still have groups of young guys cross the street ahead of me to avoid confronting me. I make a special point of trying not scare women, but I’ve also noticed that old folks are not nervous around me for some reason. They seem to like me.

  19. Lynn McGuire says:

    I was told by a woman recently that she profiles all men in all situations, especially parking lots.

  20. OFD says:

    Good for her; even tiny males can wreak havoc on other people. Sneaky bastards, too; they got tiny little hands and tiny little feet…etc.

  21. Lynn McGuire says:

    I was told by a woman recently that she profiles all men in all situations, especially parking lots.

    Good for her; even tiny males can wreak havoc on other people. Sneaky bastards, too; they got tiny little hands and tiny little feet…etc.

    Randy Newman, “Short People”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvgLkuEtkA

    Youtube is freaking awesome. I am totally surprised that it has not been sued out of existence.

  22. OFD says:

    Well, in general I’ve found that one must use a variety of little tricks to be able to download YouTube vids. Nothing too complex but still, they don’t ordinarily let us anymore. I do mine via a FF plug-in and if it’s downloadable, it works great. Nice little collection in my Real Player Plus library.

  23. Miles_Teg says:

    RBT wrote:

    “That and the one declaring an open season from January 1 through December 31 on politicians and bureaucrats, with no bag limit. Shooting politicians is, after all, just an alternative method of voting.”

    Nah, there should be a bag limit of 10 per day. Ya gotta learn to s-h-a-r-e. Other people want to get in on the action too.

  24. Miles_Teg says:

    Lynn wrote:

    “I was told by a woman recently that she profiles all men in all situations, especially parking lots.”

    People can profile all they want AFAIAC, just so long as they keep it to themselves. I profile people but try not to let distrust show, as I would be insulted if the situation was reversed.

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