benchmade vs. cold steel

i know that Jacob likes cold steel more and i like benchmade more so both of us are probably bio-st so he did his opinnion and this is my opinion.


variety of blade steels benchmade: 13    cold steel:10 aprox.

blade sharpness benchmade: they have slightly less or the same sharpness as cold steel but they last longer

hardest blade benchmade: 64 HRC cold steel: 62 HRC

variety of kinds of blades benchmade: has folding knives, fixed blades, pens and multi tools  cold steel: folding knives, fixed blades, swords, machetes, tomahawks and spears.

strongest handle materiel benchmade: G10: An extremely durable makeup of layers of fiberglass soaked in resin, then highly compressed and baked. Impervious to moisture or liquid and physically stable under climate change. Most commonly black, but is available in various colors too......CARBON FIBER: A contemporary, premium composite of thin strands of carbon tightly woven into various weave patterns, then set in resin, which is most commonly clear but can be color tinted. It offers great looks and is exceptionally strong for its minimal weight.      cold steel: super aluminum (which is close to the strenght as titanium,) and G10

lock strength:  benchmade:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=verXb0gZoM8#t=71       (it handled 615 pounds and broke because of the blade not the lock)                                                                               cold steel:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQbmb5CRJzU (it held 600 but so did the benchmade

variety of size benchmade: 1"-11" cold steel: 2"- 12"

information benchmade: they have a lot more info about their knives and it is easy to get to (benchmade had a lot more information than shown on my post i just couldnt find the same info about cold steel to compare)   cold steel: i couldnt find their info about their knives so i had to ask Jake and use Google to find its information.

overall quality from 1 to 10 (1 being horrible 10 being unbreakable) cold steel: 4-8 bench-made :6-9

price range benchmade: $105-$2,000 (not including multi tools which are about $35)  cold steel: $10-$360 (approx)

other's opinions: i know a person who is in the army who has owned a benchmade all through out his time in the army and it still works. my uncle has had a bechmade for 10 years and it still works perfectly. i asked a knife seller on his opinion whether cold steel is better or benchmade the guy said benchmade is much much much better.

conclusion: cold steel is close to the quality of benchmade but there price range is less.... benchmade's range is so big mainly because of there specialty knives which have titanium, gold, ivory and Damascus steel. benchmade's normal price is 120-400. when cold steels is 40-100. cold steels 100 dollor knive would be just about as the same as benchmade's 120 BUT benchmade is still better. so i would recomend getting the better knive for slightly more because if the price is so close and the quality is close why not get the better one? oh and i forgot to mention the cool things that happen when you buy a benchmade."We will gladly re-sharpen your Benchmade knife to a factory razor sharp edge (service does not apply to any serrated portion of the blade). If you prefer us to sharpen your blade, or if you may have neglected to maintain your edge for a while, simply ship your knife to us. We'll not only sharpen it, but we will also inspect the knife for any warranted repairs and "tune" the knife for optimum performance." cool right?  so my opinion is if you are looking for a tool then go to benchmade but if you are looking for a much larger knife for a weapon then get a cold steel.

another opinion
http://www.knivesillustrated.com/benchmade-and-cold-steel-knives-are-put-to-the-test-results/

Happiness Is A Choice

Psychologytoday.com presents an article on how to reset your "Happiness set point" They propose that there is a set point at which your happiness will always return. As psychology today explains it,

"The set-point theory of happiness suggests that our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits ingrained in us early in life and as a result remains relatively constant throughout our lives. Our level of happiness may change transiently in response to life events, but then almost always returns to its baseline level as we habituate to those events and their consequences over time."
Our life circumstances do effect us and our happiness as well as our happiness set point. 

"On the other hand, other research suggests a few events—chief among them the unexpected death of a child and repeated bouts of unemployment—seem to reduce our ability to be happy permanently. Yet some studies also suggest that we can also fix our happiness set point permanently higher—by helping others." I would like to particularly bring notice to the phrase "We can fix our happiness set point permanently higher, by helping others. We all know that helping others makes us happier in the moment, but this suggests that it also helps in the long run. 

          Psychology today has researched a number of studies to prove this. They also go into greater detail as to why this sets our happiness point higher. (link below) 

         I strongly believe that we can set out happiness point higher, and that it is our choice to do so. I love the idea that we can raise and lower our "set point" but that it is still there. We decide our own happiness, and we determine our destiny, and how it and other things affects us. 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201304/how-reset-your-happiness-set-point

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/scientific-proof-that-you_n_4384433.html

Our freedom is in jeopardy

I was impressed with the reading this week and copied some quotes from Ron Paul's farewell address. So anything i quotation marks are from his farewell speech unless it says otherwise. It is strange how many liberties we've lost and don't even notice. A few he points out in his own words are: "Citizens are guilty until proven innocent in the unconstitutional administrative courts," "Why do so many in the government and the federal officials believe that creating money out of thin air creates wealth," "and Why do so many accept the deeply flawed principle that government bureaucrats and politicians can protect us from ourselves without totally destroying the principle of liberty?" It's amazing whats going on a few interesting and true quotes he had are:
"If the people are unhappy with the government performance it must be recognized that government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom."
along with that he said "Benjamin Franklin claimed “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”  John Adams concurred:  “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
"Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.  It is the tool for telling the people how to live, what to eat and drink, what to read and how to spend their money."
"The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax code has 72,000 pages, and expands every year.  When will the people start shouting, “enough is enough,” and demand Congress cease and desist."
"Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust in government and not enough in themselves."
"The Constitution established four federal crimes.  Today the experts can’t even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the books—they number into the thousands…. I don’t understand the complacency of the Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession with passing more Federal laws."

But he says there is hope. we can change this but the government can't do anything, like he said "government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom." we need to change but our freedoms can be recovered. some things he said about recovering it are:
"The #1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow."
"The Constitution or more laws per se, have no value if the people’s attitudes aren’t changed."
"The same moral standards that individuals are required to follow should apply to all government officials.  They cannot be exempt."
with that again "government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom."
"Expect the rapidly expanding homeschooling movement to play a significant role in the revolutionary reforms needed to build a free society with Constitutional protections. We cannot expect a Federal government controlled school system to provide the intellectual ammunition to combat the dangerous growth of government that threatens our liberties."
"To achieve liberty and peace, two powerful human emotions have to be overcome.  Number one is “envy” which leads to hate and class warfare.  Number two is “intolerance” which leads to bigoted and judgmental policies.  These emotions must be replaced with a much better understanding of love, compassion, tolerance and free market economics. Freedom, when understood, brings people together. When tried, freedom is popular."

We need to change how we as a country think and act to be more moral and responsible. If we so our country a has hope and can survive. We can't change others in the country but what we can is change ourselves, as Ron Paul said. "The #1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow." This should be our number one goal and hopefully it will work, because it is our only chance.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

Our current reading assignment, "The Structure of Power in American Society" (by C. Wright Mills), described the power elite in the USA as a cooperative triumvirate of the political directorate (executive branch), corporation executives, and high military, using "increased secrecy behind which great decisions are made without benefit of public or even Congressional debate."

We can see the power elite in action in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

Often referred to as NAFTA or WTO on steroids, it "would establishing a free trade zone that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile, encompass 800 million people—about a third of world trade and nearly 40 percent of the global economy. While the text of the treaty has been largely negotiated behind closed doors, more than 600 corporate advisers reportedly have access to the measure, including employees of Halliburton and Monsanto."

The US Constitution gives International Treaties precedence over other US laws, and to pass this treaty, Obama is seeking "Fast Track Authority", the same procedure used to push NAFTA and WTO through congress.

"Fast Track allowed the executive branch to unilaterally select partner countries for “trade” pacts, decide the agreements’ contents, and then negotiate and sign the agreements — all before Congress had a vote on the matter. Normal congressional committee processes were forbidden, meaning that the executive branch was empowered to write lengthy legislation on its own with no review or amendments. These executive-authored bills altered wide swaths of U.S. law unrelated to trade – food safety, immigration visas, energy policy, medicine patents and more – to conform our domestic policies to each agreement’s requirements. And, remarkably, Fast Track let the executive branch control Congress’ voting schedule. Unlike any other legislation, both the House and Senate were required to vote on a Fast Tracked trade agreement within 90 days of the White House submitting it. No floor amendments were allowed and debate was limited."

All we know about TPP currently comes from chapters exposed by Wikileaks. Only 5 of 29 chapters actually deal with trade issues. The chapter on intellectual property would put into place much of the SOPA law which was vigorously opposed by the internet community. The environmental chapter would role back limits on pollution, logging and fishing.

Mills was right. This is how the power elite operate.

(For less reading, you can also listen to this Democracy Now story about TPP.)

acrobatic spider

Called the flic-flac spider after the gymnastics term for a back handspring, the new species Cebrennus rechenbergi lives in the Erg Chebbi sand desert in Morocco and uses its legs to create a rolling motion when provoked, according to researchers from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt.

"Like a gymnast, it propels itself off the ground, followed by a series of rapid flic-flac movements of its legs," a news release from the institute reads. "This gives the spider great flexibility — uphill, downhill or on level ground, Cebrennus rechenbergi can move along with ease."

While flipping, the spider can move twice as fast as it does while walking, researchers said. However, they also found that if the spider continues flipping for too long, it could result in its untimely death.

Courtesy of Peter Jäger

The spider was first observed by Ingo Rechenberg, a bionics expert who looks to nature for inspiration for his work. When he discovered the flic-flac spider's unique movements on an expedition to Morocco, he passed it on to spider expert Peter Jäger for classification.

Jäger determined the Cebrennus rechenbergi was a new species and named the spider after Rechenberg, who has created a robot model that copies the spider's movement. Rechenberg said the robot could be used in agriculture, on the ocean floor or on Mars.

The flic-flac spider is distinct from other spiders, like the golden rolling spider in Namibia that passively rolls down sand dunes using gravity, researchers said. Jäger was also able to differentiate the flic-flac spider from its close relative in Tunisia, the Cebrennus villosus, by examining the spider's sex organs.

The spider is nocturnal and lives in a tube-like home it makes in the sand to protect itself from the sun and potential predators, researchers said.

i at first didn't beleave it until i saw this video

     GO TO THIS! IT IS A VIDEO OF IT. super super super cool

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGDfA6c7WHM

i thought this was an interesting find. and reminds me of how many creatures god has created that we don't know about.