The site is a history and technical education, plus a great collection of visuals all in one.



For my part, I provide photos of old cameras for use by other designers:


PS: Has anyone stuffed a digital point and shoot into a classic camera casing (say a Kodak Brownie) to make a functional "antique camera"?

The camera depicted actually has a single-element meniscus lens, not a doublet

You can look up the photographer's nose through the viewfinder. Maybe that accounted for some of the smiles seen in vintage snapshots.

Way back when, in 1992, I was at an Economics Conference at St.Olaf College in Northfield, MN. My lousy Canon T-60 was in repair back then, so I was out in about in beautiful environment without a camera. One of the locals found by my father lend me a camera. I remember it was a Pentax SF1 with 35-70mm lens, an expensive item to lend to a stranger's teenage kid.

The gentleman who did that was Bill Cupp. I met him and his wonderful wife Penny several times since then, always enjoying their company. During WW2, Bill was a B17 gunner and had to bail out over Belgium. He walked to France, got captured, spent months on the road on foot under German convoy and finally managed to get home. They stayed in touch with my parents after I moved to Nashville. For some reason, they came to mind yesterday. By morning, I remembered their last name and looked them up.

Had a nice conversation. Cupps are 84 but age isn't slowing them down. They are on TV quite a bit. I found one interview with them on the web (advance to about 23:00 marker). Bill is a wonderful story-teller, though rather too modest when it comes to his own parts of the stories.

I then discovered that Bill wrote a book about flying bombing missions and evading German army on the ground. I looked it up on Amazon and AbeBooks and could find only used copies for somewhere between $45 and $200 asking price! I mentioned that they must be out of print and prized by collectors. Penny said that the book is out of print but they still have quite a few copies on hand.  I ordered one from them.

I recommend Bill's  book to anyone who has an interest in WW2. It is available directly from the author, signed, for $27.50 (shipping included).  You can order by email or by mailing a check and your address to

Bill Cupp
626 Zanmiller Dr
Northfield, MN 55057-1207

Email is cuppbp AT charter DOT net

If you enjoy the book, please post a review of it and recommend it to others.

From time to time, i point out companies whose products or services I recommend. This time, I'll recommend one based mostly on who runs it. TennesseePoliceSupply.com is run by Shawn Temple. In the picture below, he is on the right.

He's best known for being a father to two of my models:



and



He is also Gremlin's "uncle". Shawn and his wife helped me out tremendously when Gremlin's eye was infected.

Finally, many of the RKBA posters I've done had the benefit of his armorer support.

That's why I suggest supporting his store. I try to make my purchases through him now and have been happy with the results.

Remember Heather, the model I feature from time to time? Looks like she'll be in Playboy this year.

Weapons, warfare and Industrial Idiocy

Good writing and illustrations. Wonder if Tam knows the gentleman.

Many people know who Britney Spice-Hilton is, but how many know the inventors of such basics as the magnetron,
vaccination or radio? Or, for that matter, how many people know their most local elected creature? It is easy to rant against the well-known federal or state level creatures, but the locals are much more susceptible to counteraction.any

Here's an idea: imagine a country where previous year's tax payments form the basis for the voting "power". Person paying X amount gets a vote, person who paid 20x gets 20 votes. Would that serve to cut down on rent-seeking? What do you think the consequences, good or bad, would be?

In my opinion, Ron Paul would do less harm to my personal interests or to my country than any other current candidate. He could be the best president since Calvin Coolidge. What separates him from the others is his liberalism, his respect for personal self-determination. All other presidential candidates are promising to manage our lives for us in some way or another, to do things to us for our own good. Ron Paul has stayed consistent with his principles though the campaigning. I don't agree with him on everything, but he has most important points covered.

Please feel free to use these images to promote his candidacy. I'll make more as I figure out ways to condense details of the issues into concise formats.

















You may copy these to your server or link from mine. All files are GIFs and under 5KB in size.