Group caters to rising number of well-armed women

<halloween costumes for women hairsprayp> The Well Armed Woman introduces women to target practice and instruction on firearm safety.

TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- If she's ever confronted in the darkness by a home invader or parking-lot prowler, Holly Young is determined: She does not want to be an easy target.

"I just choose to carry a firearm because I don't want to be a victim," said Young, founder of the Brevard County, Fla., chapter of a growing organization called The Well Armed Woman.

Riding a nationwide trend of rising female gun ownership, The Well Armed Woman introduces women to target practice and classroom instruction on firearm safety and personal self-defense techniques.

"It's amazing how it's starting to grow and the word's getting out, and the girls are just wonderful. It is a non-political group. We make sure that we stress that it's all about safety. We have a motto: equip, empower and educate women on firearms," said Young, who owns a 9mm pistol and .380-caliber handgun, among other weapons.

"It's so important for me to get these women safe. And it's a lot easier for women to learn from women. No offense to my husband - but I don't learn well from him. Men have their own way of thinking," she said.

"We support the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms - but women shouldn't be fooled into thinking that makes them safer. "

- Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America

According to Gallup poll data, the percentage of American women who own a firearm nearly doubled from 2005-11, rising from 13% to 23%. Last month, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported that 37% of new target shooters are female, though they comprise only 22% of the established target-shooting population.

Billed as a group "where the feminine and firearms meet," The Well Armed Woman was founded in February 2012 by Carrie Lightfoot, a Scottsdale, Ariz., pistol instructor who sells female-themed gun accessories. Fueled by explosive growth, the organization now boasts about 3,000 dues-paying members in 107 chapters across 37 states, along with more than 105,000 Facebook fans.

"I think women have been kind of laying in wait. Over this last generation, women have had to move into the role of self-protector - but there were barriers. The doors have opened," said Lightfoot.

The Well Armed Woman boasts nine chapters in Florida. Chapters had to impose membership caps in Yuma, Ariz.; Cherokee County, Ga.; Macon County, Ill.; and Wendell, N.C.

Florida has been a focal point in the USA's debate over the use of deadly force for self-defense. The George Zimmerman murder trial generated sensational headlines, and the Stand Your Ground debate still focuses on last year's conviction of Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville mother of three who received 20 years in prison after firing a warning shot during a dispute with her then-husband. A federal appeals court is now ordering a new trial for Alexander.

Next year, Satellite Beach, Fla., resident Michael David Dunn will probably stand trial in the shooting death of Jacksonville teenager Jordan Davis. Prosecutors say Dunn fatally shot Davis in a gas station parking lot during an argument over loud music, and Dunn is claiming self-defense.

"It is a non-political group. We make sure that we stress that it's all about safety. We have a motto: equip, empower and educate women on firearms. "

- Holly Young, founder of Brevard County, Fla., chapter of The Well Armed Woman

Young plans to invite an attorney and a police officer to address her chapter on consequences of firearm use. She also hopes to schedule a self-defense class to teach members how to escape from a chokehold, how to use a knife, and other tactics.

On the other side of the gun issue, a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was founded by Shannon Watts, an Indianapolis mother of five, the day after the Sandy Hook shootings in December. Her organization now boasts more than 100,000 members across the USA, and she said the gun industry's targeting of women is a marketing ploy to boost sales.

Watts cited a Violence Policy Centerreport released last week. This report cites studies that show two-thirds of female gun owners primarily bought their weapon seeking protection against crime - but females who live in a home with a gun were nearly three times as likely to be murdered than females with no gun at home.

Lindsey Garcia of the Brevard County (Fla.) Ladies Shooting Chapter of The Well Armed Woman shows some accurate target practice hits.(Photo: Tim Shortt, Florida Today)

"We support the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms - but women shouldn't be fooled into thinking that makes them safer," said Watts.

Barbara Rumpel, a Winter Park, Fla., real estate entrepreneur, says she got hooked on shooting while attending the 2010 Women's Wilderness Escape firearms camp at the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, N.M.

"I was never into women's groups until I started shooting with women. More and more women are getting into shooting, because A) they realize they have to be able to protect themselves, and B) because it's fun," said Rumpel.

"It's empowering. It really is cool to be able to pick up a skill and do things that you didn't think you could do - that you find out you can do very well," she said.

Neale also reports for Florida Today in Melbourne.

Source: Usatoday

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. For the Galaxy Note line of handsets from Samsung, they're hoping that the S-Pen is mighty enough to sway you into buying the new Galaxy Note 3. Thanks to a few little tweaks and changes, this is the first handset where a stylus actually makes sense.

What Is It?

The Galaxy Note 3 is a huge uppercut to the competition. It packs a huge hardware punch with a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, super-fast Category 4 LTE/4G capabilities, all hiding beneath a beautiful 5.7-inch Full-HD Super-AMOLED display. The battery is more juiced than ever with 3200mAh taking you from pillar to post, as well as a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera to shoot your life along the way.

All this power and beauty has been packed into a smaller footprint than ever, with the device measuring in at a svelte 8.3mm case, weighing just 168 grams.

What's Good?

The Note-line of handsets is starting to inform the design language for the rest of the Galaxy products Samsung makes. If you look at the Galaxy S4 for example, you'll see the same minimal bezel, oval-shaped home button, sensor placement and grille/pattern design found on the Galaxy Note II. This is great news, because the Galaxy Note 3 has a more premium feel than any Samsung handset that has come before it.

Cheap plastic covers have been replaced by a stitched leather back, bright accents, grooved edges and an S-Pen that feels textured like a beautiful watch might be. The changes to the S-Pen really go beyond just a new look, however.

Samsung has overhauled the S-Pen to take it from a novelty gadget into something you're probably going to use all the time now, In fact, the new Air Command feature paired with the S-Pen will turn the Samsung-branded stylus into something you need, rather than something you use in meetings to impress your boss.

The Air Command feature refers to a a radial menu that anchors in new apps designed to leverage the Note 3′s giant screen and handy power: Scrapbook for web clipping, Action Note for powerful handwriting tools, S-Finder for looking around your device, Screen Write for doodling on screenshots and Pen Window for putting hovering apps over any screen.

Air Command is fast, fluid and incredibly functional. Pen Window allows you to drop funky widgets on your existing multi-window layouts, bringing the power of three tasks at once onto the single, 5.7-inch screen. You don't notice any slow-down the more you throw at the device: it welcomes the challenge and excels.

Likewise with Scrapbook, Action Memo and S-Finder. These are three incredibly useful features that can only be accessed with the S-Pen. It's now something you need everyday.

Scrapbook is a fun little feature that lets you circle just about anything you can find on the Galaxy Note 3 from either the web or inside another app. Whatever you put in your selected area gets clipped, Evernote-style, into a centralised Scrapbook for you to access later.

Scrapbook also pulls out the contents of said webpages, for example, and embeds the content in a new page so you can watch that YouTube video or listen to that SoundCloud track inside the app without having to bounce out to your browser.

Action Memo is the natural evolution of the S-Note app that Galaxy Note users know and have come to love, only this time Samsung has done a great deal to make your handwriting meaningful and useful this time around. You can now create "Actions" from your handwriting, which uses optical character recognition-style software to encircle your text and turn it into something that other apps can use.

Got an address written down? Open it up in Maps with an Action to see where you need to go rather than writing it out again. Need to call that girl who left her number in your phone because you're the smoothest dude around picking up chicks with your Note 3? Just Action her number into your phone and ask her out to dinner. Sadly, the Note 3 can't help you with that unironed shirt hanging in your wardrobe you need to wear.

That OCR-style software comes in handy with the new global device search feature known as S-Finer, too. Not only can you now search for stuff on your handset better than ever before, S-Finder also looks at handwriting as well so that note you scribbled in a meeting won't be lost forever. You can also add filters for time-specific searches and even location specific searches. If you were in London recently for a meeting and took a few photos, too, you can look for those specifically by your geotag.

All these features turn the Galaxy Note 3 into a really different handset than we've ever seen before. The previous generations of Notes were just big Galaxy S handsets with a pen attached. This one is the first productivity partner you could actually see yourself living with everyday.

Tap your home button from the main screen and you'll find a clever HTC Blinkfeed-style feed that displays all your news and social content. When we first saw it, we thought that Blinkfeed and Flipboard had a baby on a Galaxy Note 3, but it's actually a clever repackaging of the Flipboard app built specifically for the new Godzilla handset. It's nice, but there's no real way to curate the feeds you want, and it's missing Facebook integration which is a bit of a shame.

Meanwhile, on the hardware side, the Galaxy Note 3 is also packed to the gills.

The power is turns this handset into an ego-bruiser, and the new most-powerful handset we've had through the labs. That didn't last long for the poor iPhone 5s, did it? The Note 3 is packing ,ore RAM than in any other Android handset - 3GB worth to be precise - and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor so powerful you might just hear it growl under the soft leather backing of the handset itself.

In our Geekbench 3 tests, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 scored 2875. To put that into perspective, the Galaxy note II was impressive when it came out at 1403*, as was the Nexus 4 at 1537*. Earlier, we dubbed the iPhone 5s the most powerful device on the market with a score of 2530, but that crown was quickly usurped by the Note 3, with its impressive total. It's worth pointing out that benchmarks aren't always all they seem when it comes to Samsung's top-tier handsets, but hopefully it wouldn't make that error in judgment again.

It's worth noting that Samsung only scored a few hundred above the iPhone 5s, which is still packing a 1.7GHz dual-core A7 processor and only 1GB of RAM. All that power on the Galaxy Note 3 saw off the iOS competition on the test bench, but it's amazing to see what can be squeezed out of a comparatively-small processor and meagre amounts of RAM compared to just throwing more system resources at the platform.

Also on hardware, the 13-megapixel shooter on the back of the Note 3 is hella-impressive in daylight, but still leaves a bit to be desired in low-light areas compared to the Lumia range and even the new iPhone 5s.

Click to enlarge

iPhone 5s

iPhone 5c

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Nokia Lumia 1020

Download the uncropped versions from Dropbox here.

Still, it's an impressive camera for most circumstances, and it's still packing a great deal of customisability on the software side thanks to the inclusion of the Galaxy Camera style Camera app. (It's worth noting these photos were all taken on their respective handset's "Auto" setting)

It's also worth mentioning that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is, for the foreseeable future, the only handset compatible with the Galaxy Gear smart watch. The Galaxy Gear is a clever little gadget that acts as a fancy remote to your Galaxy Note, all the while making you feel like Maxwell Smart.

It connects via Bluetooth and gives you access to some nifty remote features like the weather, a pedometer, Find My Phone proximity alarms, S-Voice compatibility and different clock faces.

The Gear runs an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, a 1.9-megapixel camera with autofocus, all concealed underneath a 1.63-inch SuperAMOLED (320×320 pixel) face.

It also packs a bunch of remote features for your smartphone, like pushing notifications to your wrist from various apps and allowing you to start, stop and skip music tracks from your watch.

The remote features also work in tandem with your phone, so for example, if you're looking at a notification on your wrist, you can tap it or even just pull your phone out of your pocket and it will take you straight to the information you were looking at on the big screen so you don't have to go digging for it again.

These are all clever features, but the real power comes from the calling, camera and app functionality.

The Gear also comes with a 1.9-megapixel camera mounted in the middle of the strap between the face and the buckle, designed for grabbing quick snaps when something happens that you don't have time to get your phone out for. It's a feature called Memographer, and feeds nicely into the Galaxy Note 3′s ideology of taking quick snaps and grabbing information fast for access later.

All of the faces, apps and other ahem...gear...is managed from an app on your Note 3.

We'll bring you our full review of the Galaxy Gear soon.

The beautiful screen on the Galaxy Note 3 trumps the massive panel on the old model, touting a 1080p panel (1080 x 1920, 386ppi). Just look at the difference between the two side-by-side.

Left: Galaxy Note II. Right: Galaxy Note 3

The phone also has a smaller bezel, less rounded edges and an all-round better design than its predecessor. It's a coming of age for the Note.

What's Bad?

The Note 3 is a fantastic handset, and probably the best thing to come out of Samsung Mobile in the history of ever, but no gadget is without fault.

We praised Sammy for ditching the scratchy, horrible plastic on the Note 3, but it's not all single-malt scotch and fine suits with the leather case: it still has that underlying feel of plastic, almost with a faux feeling to it.

The Note 3′s size bump from 5.5-inches to 5.7-inches is starting to push the planet-sized flagship into the "too big to hold" category. If the Note gets any larger we'll have to relegate it there, but it's worth noting that this phone isn't for the tiny-handed (read: your feeble yet fearless reviewer).

Samsung has actually changed the charging port on the Note 3 from USB 2.0 to the speedy USB 3.0 standard. That's actually a good thing, but what the hell am I meant to do with the 50 USB 2.0 cables I have on my desk now?!

The Worst Part

It was our least-favourite part of the Samsung Galaxy S4, and it seems to be one with no end. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is still running that goddamn Australia-specific version of Touchwiz where you can't change anything in the dock and you have to push a bunch of keys just to move stuff around on the homescreen. God. F**king. Dammit.

Exact your revenge by flashing it off as soon as possible if you're someone who likes Android because it's, ya know, customisable.

Should You Buy It?

Centre of your digital life straight out of the box and impressively powerful and impossibly pretty as far as Samsung is concerned.

This is the phone for devout Samsung users and productivity junkies alike.

*Scores adjusted for Geekbench 3 tests according to Primate Labs' multi-core test scores.

Source: Gizmodo

Week 4 of the college football season didn't offer up much in the way of big-time matchups. The only game featuring two ranked teams was No. 5 Stanford vs. No. 23 Arizona State. But the Cardinal took care of business with relative ease. The name of the day was blowout: Ohio State, Louisville, FSU, Miami, UCLA and Washington were among the schools winning big Saturday-real big.

What have you missed otherwise? For starters, Florida QB Jeff Driskel broke his right leg and will miss the rest of the season. Notre Dame held on to beat Michigan State, and Kenny Guiton set an Ohio State school record. Let's get to the action.

HAYES: Tyler Murphy conjures Tebow with what he brings to Gators

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...

Source: Sportingnews

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UFC 165 results recap: Brendan Schaub vs Matt Mitrione fight review and analysis

Former TUF buddies Brendan "Hybrid" Schaub and Matt "Meathead" Mitirone were fighting for their relevancy at UFC 165 last night. Schaub kept his dream alive with his first-ever submission inside the Octagon. Read our breakdown to find out how!

Although both Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione won their previous fights heading into last night's (Sat., Sept. 21, 2013) UFC 165 from Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, they hadn't exactly set the Heavyweight division on fire as of late.

Schaub beat Lavar Johnson in an uninspired bout at UFC 157, and Mitrione knocked out lower-tier opponent Phil de Fries at UFC On Fuel TV 9.

Both fighters also came under scrutiny for actions taken outside of a mixed martial arts (MMA) cage, with Schaub disgraced for his passive performance against Roberto Abreu at Metamoris 2 and Mitrione briefly suspended for his outspoken comments about transgender fighter Fallon Fox.

The pair needed a win to stay afloat in the competitive Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and it was Schaub who rose to the occasion to earn a statement win over his fellow The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 10 alum Mitrione. In the end, Schaub used his ground skills to silence his critics, at least for one night.

Let's break down the submission victory of "The Hybrid" from last night ( watch full fight video highlights here).

This bout was billed as a slugfest, and it easily could have been with the sheer size and strength of its two participants. Schaub and Mitrione are well known for possessing massive power. However, Mitrione never quite fulfilled his end of the bargain at UFC 165.

He started off early with some low kicks that appeared to land, but failed to damage Schaub significantly. Schaub fought back with an excellent flurry of punches to back "Meathead" up, and soon locked up a big double leg takedown. From there, Schaub's ground transitions looked seamless.

"Hybrid" locked up a tight D'arce choke that had Mitrione in serious trouble. The former Minnesota Viking signaled that he was still in the fight, but the truth was a different story.

Mitrione was left unconscious on the canvas as Schaub celebrated an impressive finish. It was the best way to win after he was highly maligned for refusing to engage Abreu at Metamoris. Schaub's brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu paid dividends against a lesser-talented grappler like Mitrione, who didn't really have time to show anything during the bout.

Schaub has now won two in a row after a two-fight skid and will look to play spoiler against a higher-ranked Heavyweight. Perhaps a rematch with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira could be in the cards should "Big Nog" get back to health. No.10-ranked Stipe Miocic probably deserves a better fight after defeating Roy Nelson at UFC 161, but most of the top Heavyweights are booked, so Schaub could come calling.

Mitrione will have to go back to the drawing board and work on his game. Having lost three out of four, he might not have too many chances with the UFC. After starting his career out undefeated (5-0), it looks like he's going to need to re-evaluate his game. He can always knock someone out with a big punch, but his overall game is pretty limited at this point, or so it seems.

It was Schaub's night in Toronto and he got the submission he's been looking for. Were you surprised that this bout didn't end with a knockout?

President Barack Obama maxed out his rhetorical horsepower Friday, telling employees at a Ford auto-plant that Republicans are willing "to send our economy into a tailspin."

His fast and furious invective came shortly after the GOP-led House voted to deny 2014 funding for Obama's primary legislative accomplishment, Obamacare.

Obama and allied Democrats have repeatedly threatened to kill any GOP budget plan that doesn't include funds for the government-directed Obamacare network, even though polls show the network is increasingly unpopular.

Republicans say they support government aid to Americans to help them buy health-insurance in a free market.

Obama defended his network, saying it is getting health-care services to millions of Americans, and he argued that the GOP wants to stop Americans getting health-care services.

He borrowed the "tailspin" attack line from a 2009 quote by Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Republicans "will send our economy into a tailspin, just like Speaker Boehner said. They want to threaten default just to make sure that tens of millions of Americans continue not to have health care. ... They're holding the whole country hostage," he told the workers at the Ford Kansas City Stamping Plant in Liberty, Mo.

"They're actually willing to plunge America into default if we can't defund the Affordable Care Act," which is the formal name for the Obamacare system, he said.

"They've tried to repeal or sabotage this - more than 40 times they've had these repeal votes. Every time they fail," said Obama.

In fact, Obama has signed seven bills changing unpopular portions of the Obamacare system.

The 2014 budget has to be approved by the House and Senate, and signed by the president, prior to Oct. 1, or much of government shuts down.

Many GOP leaders believe the president is willing to allow the shutdown, and to inflict much damage to the economy, in the hope that the public will blame the GOP, rather than Obama and his Democratic allies.

The president also slammed Republicans' offer to trade spending cuts for another increase to the nation's credit limit.

Similar 2011 negotiations trimmed federal spending and dropped the government's annual deficit. In his speech, Obama took credit for reduced deficits caused by prior credit-limit negotiations, without mentioning those talks.

The credit limit, also called the debt ceiling, has to be raised because Obama's government has maxed out its ability to borrow funds.

Since Obama's inauguration, he has borrowed $6 trillion, pushing taxpayers' debt above $11 trillion.

If Congress doesn't raise the debt-ceiling, "America becomes a deadbeat," he told the autoworkers.

"If the world sees America not paying its bills, then they will not buy debt, Treasury bills from the United States, or if they do, they'll do it at much higher interest rates. That means somebody wanting to buy an F-150 will have to pay much higher interest rates eventually, which means you will sell less cars," he declared.

Obama also repeated his refusal to negotiate a debt-ceiling compromise with the elected GOP majority in the House. "I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States," he declared.

"Tell Congress - pay our bills on time," he urged the autoworkers.

"You don't have to threaten to blow the whole thing up just because you don't get you way," he said.

Source: Dailycaller

Photo: BANG Showbiz - BANG Showbiz. All rights reserved.

William Shatner turns down space flight due to flying fear

William Shatner refused to go on Sir Richard Branson's space flight because he's scared of flying.

The 82-year-old actor - who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960s TV series of 'Star Trek' - turned down the chance to join the British business tycoon's Virgin Galactic program because he couldn't handle the fear of being up in the air.

Sir Richard is quoted by The Sun newspaper as saying: "He actually said he's frightened of airline travel -- which is slightly disillusioning. Captain Kirk is scared of flying."

The star was invited to take part in the space mission in 2011, but claims he was less than impressed when faced with the bill.

He explained: "He wanted me to go up and pay for it and I said, 'Hey, you pay me and I'll go. I'll risk my life for a large sum of money'. But he didn't pick me up on my offer."

The 63-year-old investor has just added British rock band Muse to the list of star-gazing celebrities joining him on the flight, but he insists regardless of how famous they are, they'll have to pay their own fares, which costs $200,000 per seat.

He said: "We have a policy that, however famous people are, they won't get upgrades or freebies.

"I think Muse can afford to pay their way. We'd love them to go into space and play."

Other confirmed famous passengers include 'Two and a Half Men' star Ashton Kutcher, mila Kunis, Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Brand.

The first ever two-hour flight in the planet's orbit will be boarded by Branson and his family and anyone who has paid a deposit guaranteeing them a place on it.

Passengers will travel 62 miles in altitude - the internationally recognized boundary of outer space - and will experience weightlessness and an incredible view of the curve of the Earth.

Source: Castanet

The great dodgers-Diamondbacks pool controversy entered its second day Friday. The short version: The D-backs are still steamed.

Arizona managing partner Ken Kendrick blasted the Dodgers for celebrating their NL West championship in the outfield swimming pool at Chase Field. Kendrick called out LA management for claiming there was misunderstanding about whether the players could be on the field after they retired to the clubhouse.

"We asked that they not return to the field from the clubhouse after their celebration so that we could clear the stands. We didn't want their fans hanging around long after the game," Kendrick told Fox Sports Arizona in a text message.

"That plan was discussed with their GM (Ned Colletti) at the beginning of the series, and he agreed. Only the Dodgers would blame us for their lack of class."

While Kendrick was taking his shots, the obligatory Twitter back-and-forth between partisans raged on.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the Dodgers "spoiled brats," among other unpleasant things. New Dodgers reliever Brian Wilson then jabbed at McCain for losing the 2008 presidential election to Barack Obama.

Senator McComplain knows a thing or two about coming in second and watching someone take a plunge in the pool (I mean poll) #POoLITICS

- Brian Wilson (@BrianWilson38) September 20, 2013

Good times.

Source: Sportingnews

The Topeka City Council this past Tuesday, by a 6-2 vote, passed an ordinance designed to discourage prejudice on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Before a packed house in the Topeka City Council chambers, 17 people spoke about the ordinance - sponsored by Councilman Chad Manspeaker - that would allow the Human Relations Commission to help protect those groups from prejudice through education.

Much of the discussion was emotional, passionate. That was especially true when several council members spoke of friends or loved ones who had been victimized by discrimation because of their sexual preference.

The following slideshow offers a sampling of some of the comments offered before passage of the ordinance.

Source: Cjonline