John Moses Browning entry on Wikipedia... sub atomic weasel launcher?!!

[torpid]

Ok, who here would like to correct JMB's wiki entry from this?:

John Moses Browning (January 21, 1855 – November 26, 1926), born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed myriad varieties of weapons, cartridges, and gun mechanics, many of which are used in the U.S. military and elsewhere to this day. He Also developed modern day weasel breeding techniques that are now used to develop the russian army. This was because he felt bad about shooting a weasel when he was a kid with a 100 calibur lever action sub atomic weasel launcher. He is arguably one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms and is credited with 128 gun patents — his first (for a single shot rifle) was granted October 7, 1879.

One significant contribution is the pistol slide design, found on nearly every modern automatic handgun, developed in the 1890s and introduced on Colt and Fabrique Nationale (FN) pistols such as the M1911. He also developed the first gas-operated automatic machine gun, the Colt-Browning Model 1895 — a system that would surpass recoil - actuated in popularity. Other successful designs include the Browning .50 caliber machine gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and a ground-breaking semi-automatic shotgun, the Browning Auto-5. Moses first developed his automatic rifle models when he had a rat infestation in his double wide. with his first prototype he blew a hole 5 feet wide in the wall.

Or did I just not know the true story of Mr. Browning?

 

[RNB65]

I just looked at the Wikipedia entry and what you have listed in your post isn't there. Where did you get it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Browning

UPDATE: I checked the history records in Wiki. Someone vandalized the JMB entry and add the nefarious weasel story, but it was quickly corrected. Note that I did find the weasel story quite entertaining and would love to be credited with inventing the sub atomic weasel launcher.

 

[Fosbery]

Wikipedia can be edited and contributed to by anyone. This leaves it open to 'Wiki vandalism'. It happens now and again. There are moderators there, just like on THR, who's job it is to clean it up. This is likely what has happened.

 

[SomeKid]

Moses first developed his automatic rifle models when he had a rat infestation in his double wide.

Somehow, I think the weasel entry was not the real vandalism.

 

[scout26]

I needed a good laugh today. I bet JMB woudl find it funny also.

A tip o' the hat to the "vandal".

 

[carterbeauford]

You can bet if JMB has invented a subatomic weasel launcher, it'd be the baddest one ever made and we'd still be using it today.

Reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gQCqxgzoGs

 

[Caimlas]

the weasel and double-wide comments were likely done by the same person, given the style of commentary.

Hey, it may have been vandalism, but I thought it was damn funny. I guess that lib and I share the same sense of humor.

Time to go add something to Al Gore's page saying he had an abortion at age 17...

 

[Eleven Mike]

What makes you think the vandal is a liberal?

 

[Zero_DgZ]

I don't know, what kind of clue is it that he can't spell "caliber?"

Caliber = Measurement of bore size.

Calibur = Sword from a trio of lousy fighting games.

 

[Caimlas]

What makes you think the vandal is a liberal?

the reasons given, plus saying that he lives in a double-wide aren't enough of a clue? "he's part of the gun culture, he must have been a redneck!"

 

[tellner]

It was obviously edited by one of the real Big Guns who haunts Wiki:

Small caliber, immense bore

 

[Eleven Mike]

Misspelling for comic effect? Why would a liberal make up silly, unbelievable stories for JMB's Wiki entry? Now, a Glock fan; maybe.

saying that he lives in a double-wide aren't enough of a clue? "he's part of the gun culture, he must have been a redneck!"

Peel back the tin-foil. It was funny.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

The stupid vandalism is just annoying "eRiKs a fAg LOL!!!", the subtle malicious vandalism (tampering with dates, reducing material accuracy in subtle ways) is worst.

Tossing random funny stuff isn't so bad, though I wouldn't do it myself.

Somebody slipped a comment into the M16-series article, indicating that the one of the upgrades to the M16A1 included "condom storage". That was vaguely amusing, in that it was subtle enough to make you wonder for a sec.

-MV

 

[DigitalWarrior]

In the Article on "Protection Racket", I added a see also IRS http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Protection_racket&oldid=48795953

It was removed (unfairly i think) six minutes later. Oddly enough, "Government was added and remains after several revues of the article.

 

[plexreticle]

I cringe at some of the stuff people write on Wikipedia about guns. Not the vandals but the self proclaimed experts.

 

[tellner]

Lord, save me from my friends?

 

[4v50 Gary]

Geez, don't people know better...

Consistency is the key to good accuracy. Sub-atomic weasel launchers have too many variables (specifically, the weight and density of individual weasels) to be accurate with any degree of consistency. A figure no less than Einstein mentioned it in a footnote in his theory of relatively.

 

[default]

On a similar subject, this is pretty funny. On the whole, while not ultimately at the level of www.world.guns.ru (what is?), Wikipedia's base of firearms articles and entries is fairly solid, and obviously shows a lof of work by some dedicated writers and editors. The user-edited nature of the site results in some pros and cons - more errors corrected more quickly by people with a specific interest in a subject, as opposed to more traditional encyclopedias, where errors can go unaddressed for decades. Fun to surf, and great for a quick briefing on a subject, but never to be used as "proof" or "evidence", merely a starting point.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Sub-atomic weasel launcher

So - Is this a device for launching very small weasels or a very small device that launches regular-sized weasels?

And is it SA, DA, SA/DA or DAO?

 

[yhtomit]

Wikipedia: better and worse than you'd think

I find it fun to review my Wikipedia contributions list once in a while, because you can tell from it what was going on in the day or week that I was working on it. I've contributed a lot of small fixes (grammar / spelling / idiom) on some of the gun-related stories, and depending on what I'm studying, randomly interested in that week via the news or other sources, or looking up for research on upcoming travel, etc, the list reflects it. There's a long string of edits to articles about ammunition; a lot of gunnies seem to enjoy the "police-talk" style, where every person is "the individual," every car is a "particular vehicle," and every voice is a passive voice

There really is occasional vandalism, some of it corrected quickly, and some of it (in less visited articles) hangs out for a while without comment -- but it's better there than in the more "serious" (or controversial) articles; the system works surprisingly well to clean up actual malice. But look at some of the legal entries, and you can see lawyer-talk that's just as bad as police-talk; idiom and tone are not always easy to improve, but when I can, I get a kick out of it.

Anyone want to improve my entry for "sinkbox"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkbox

Cheers,

timothy

 

[MatthewVanitas]

Whoa, my addition to the Glock article has withstood the test of time. I was actually hoping that someone could clear up the GCA68 details, but all someone did was just hotlink it.

Glock 25 or 28 pistols are not available to the general public in the United States, as they do not meet the standards required for the importation of pistols under the Gun Control Act of 1968. This failure is not due to any inherent defect in the model, but due to the fact that a small pistol chambered for the .380 ACP cartridge does not meet the "sporting purposes" criteria by which imported pistols are judged. However, the Glock 25 and 28 pistols are relatively popular in nations where handguns in "military" calibers (.45 ACP, 9mm Parabellum) may not be purchased by the general public.

I just thought this was worth adding below the chart of available models, since someone had already added an addendum about (un)availability of the Glock 18.

-MV

 

[hso]

I guess that lib and I share the same sense of humor.

All reality is subjective, but every now and then we get a clear view of somone elses personal filter.

 

[Rembrandt]

"He Also developed modern day weasel breeding techniques that are now used to develop the russian army."


.....??? Russian army comes from using weasel breeding techniques?....on second thought, I don't want to know.....

 

[carebear]

The real problem with the sub-atomic weasel launcher is that there's never more than a 50-50 chance it's loaded, even after you open the action to check.

 

[Apple a Day]

The real problem with the sub-atomic weasel launcher is that there's never more than a 50-50 chance it's loaded, even after you open the action to check.

Shroedinger's Weasel meets the First Rule of Gun Safety: just don't touch it and it's loaded. Curiosity killed the weasel. The problem is that if you chrony the weasel for its muzzle velocity you can't say anything about it's mass in grains.
I've seen a picture; It's kind of like a Noisy Cricket... just tube-shaped.