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I got it my head that The Day The Unbearable Light Of Lex went out was next Friday.
It was last Friday.
Make up toast of Guinness (for strength) and Jameson (for courage) was done yesterday at dinner.
Sorry about that, Lex.
Then I totally missed 3-08 day!
So...
plus
Science, being well known for settling things for all time...
Wait.
Science keeps on marching on and making your reference materials obsolete.
The latest theory running through anthropology is that Cro-magnon, neanderthal, and denisovans is that they aren't separate species, but simply different populations of humans.
Dog breeds show as much difference as the different homo-sapiens species.
If they were simply different populations of humans, then the neanderthals being "wiped out" is explained by two populations merging via breeding.
It's a neat theory and completely off limits in 1973 in my oldest book on neanderthals.
I first read about the LAV-25 in a Popular Mechanics article on the Rapid Deployment Force.
Back then, the Army was still in on the project.
Because of that, GDW included it in Twilight: 2000.
It is, by far, the vehicle my players had most often. Vagaries of the dice, I guess.
So here's a video about it!
A friend of mine bought the $1,000 Lego Death Star.
He's got some physical impairments that would make building it a major effort.
So he asked me to.
I'm about half done.
Even if I quit right now, it's the biggest Lego I've ever put together.
And it will get bigger!
Today the government steals an hour from us in a vain attempt to "save daylight."
Shifting the sun an hour today doesn't really change the overall day all that much come summer, and by the solstice it really wouldn't matter.
We should just stay on standard time, I think.
I double dog dare you to do it!
Go on.
Go back to wherever you came from and deprive us of your presence here.
I wanna see if we can do without you so bad.
The Beast has a 19 gallon gas tank.
Gas going up about 50 cents a gallon thanks to bombing Iran means that it will cost me $9.50 more for a full tank from empty.
WORTH IT!
Especially since I know it's going to be a short lived increase.
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| Armor Coverage |
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| Hit Locations |
This is the GURPS 4e version and shows the hit locations from The Basic Set.
Low Tech changes the coverage for armor.
Skull (hit locations 3-4) remains the same.
Face (hit location 5) remains the same.
Legs (6-7 for right leg, 13-14 for left leg) change. You get Thighs (5-6), Knees (4), and Shins (1-3). For arm and leg hits, roll 1d and the result shows you where on the limb the blow strikes.
Arms (8 for right arm, 12 for left arm) change. You get Shoulders (6), Upper Arms (5), Elbows (4) and Forearms (1-3).
Torso (9-10) changes. First it becomes areas 9-11 then Chest takes over locations 9-10 and Abdomen takes over 11.
Groin (11) changes. Groin is covered by Abdomen, but is given it's own location because you can armor JUST the groin.
Hand (15) remains the same.
Feet (16) remain the same.
Neck (17-18) remains the same.
Vitals are covered by Chest, but can be armored separately.
If you look at Capt. Vulnerable, you will see that torso coverage includes the shoulders.
Lots of armor doesn't in real life. The M12 vest and the Ground Troops Variable Armor don't.
That means I need to remember to note "shoulders" when they have such coverage.
It's also striking how few flak vests have abdomen coverage.
PS: The illustration from 3e was clearer.
You'd think that a piece of gear designated M1969 or M69 would see its first issue not before 1969, wouldn't you?
Well, you'd be wrong in this case.
Armor, Body, Fragmentation Protective Vest with 3/4 Collar was first fielded in 1962 and gets continually tweaked until they finally settle on type classifying it as Body Armor, Fragmentation Protective, Vest with 3/4 Collar, M-69 in 1969.
First it had no stiffeners. Then stiffeners were added. Then they replaced the zipper (and pocket snaps) with velcro.
The stiffeners were added to keep the ballistic nylon innards from bunching up and leaving the upper part of the torso unprotected.
A great deal of noise is being made about the rate we're expending our fancy munitions in Iran.
One idea about its lavish employment early on is that by the time you've expended the last round, you could use dumb bombs from WW2 dive bombers because air supremacy had been irrevocably achieved.
In case that wasn't obvious, we found out that dive bombing is the most dangerous way to bomb with dumb bombs because of how predictable the bomber's flight path is.
It is also the most accurate means of employing dumb bombs, but the vulnerability is why we figured out stuff like CCRP and CCIP.
Besides, I'm not worried about our rate of consumption.
Shoot all you want, we'll make more.
I am also 95% certain that we're using "first in, first out" methodology and firing the oldest rounds first.
This gets forgotten when some pundits talk about us using or giving away munitions.
For example, Ukraine got a lot of Javelins that were going to expire and have to be either tossed or reworked extensively. We were going to have to buy new ones anyways...
Some munitions can be reworked affordably, some are cheaper to buy new and have a shoot-X of the old ones.
While I'm doing the Great GURPS Body Armor list...
I've noticed a trend in several nations and how body armor gets used.
First it becomes available, but not widely issued or used.
Then it becomes widely available, but neither issued or used.
Then it becomes widely issued, but left behind in the barracks.
Then it becomes accepted by the troops who nearly always wear it.
In the Korean war we had enough vests to equip all of our combat arms troops. Hardly any units issued any vests.
In Vietnam, there was plenty of body armor to go around, but only the Marines insisted the troops wear it. Most M69 vests sat under the bunk of the soldier they were issued to.
For the US, troop acceptance and near universal use of body armor starts with the PASGT gear.
The common phrasing of "hot and uncomfortable" disappearing from the description of the armor correlates well with troops wearing the armor more.
I was surprised to learn that the US Army developed and issued body armor for infantry in 1945.
Just in time to miss combat.
This was the Armor Vest, M12. It's aluminum plates mounted like ship sails in brigandine fashion in a canvas carrier. It was exported and Turkey used it in Korea.
The US also issued flak vests in Korea. The M1951, M1952 and M1952A vests were all issued, first to Marines then to Soldiers. These vests are very similar to one another in appearance but differ in construction and materials. The M1952A is the first US vest to have no rigid materials as protection.
The Marines and Army diverge for Vietnam. The Marines going with the M1955 vest and the Army the M69.
Making GURPS stats for these means I've also made stats for many other nation's vests because they got our vests as military assistance.
Notably Britain, who issued the M1952A and M69 to troops in Northern Ireland.
I'm a bit surprised that a book that I've owned for years has been more useful than the internet.
KurtP reminds us that the United States Navy has doubled its number of commissioned warships which have sunk an enemy ship in battle.
Two.
USS Constitution and USS Charlotte.
It would have been deliciously ironic if it were USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), oh well.
Charlotte is a 34 year old flight III Los Angeles class boat. Not bad.
The NAS accepted the reseating of the recalcitrant drive and rebuilt the RAID5.
I now have 4 drives and an NAS no longer running in degraded mode.
The bad news is that I was unaware of how long it had been running in degraded mode.
The web based app that lets you run it kinda sucks and makes it difficult to figure out what might be wrong because it gives constant "warnings" about things it would like you to do that you start ignoring because you've made a conscious decision to not do those things because the brand has a reputation for shitty security with those things enabled.
So you don't notice that you have a new warning that a drive has left the chat.
I believe that the drive "failed" because the cats keep triggering unscheduled power-offs by standing on the button for the UPS.
Eyes crossed.
If it fails again soon, we get our first upgrade in drive size. Then a slow progression of repeating that until all four 4tb drives are replaced with 6tb units.
Secretary Hegseth reports that this is the first torpedo sinking by a US warship since WW2.
He didn't need to tell ME that.
Also we're the second member of the Nuclear Submarine Sinks Enemy Warship club!
I am wondering at the video.
Did someone put a bug in the Captain's ear and say, "you know, since we haven't done this since WW2, we really SHOULD do it at periscope depth and make it old-school!"
181 years ago, Florida became a US state.
Here's to 177 years as part of the USA! (Too soon?)
Six state constitutions... The most recent dating from 1968.
While checking for updates on my NAS I noticed a "Warning" message.
The app had decided that one of the drives no longer exists and the RAID would be in degraded mode until I fixed it. There were no indications on the lights on the NAS box...
Well, the drive physically exists...
The app suggested shutting down and reseating the drive.
I did that.
During the shut-down I noticed that the "missing" drive's light was steady while the other three flickered.
The reboot took forever!
Now all four of the drive lights are flickering and the status light it alternating red/green.
The app indicates "WARNING"!
Great, why are you warning me?
The sub-app that gives that information, apparently, is greatly slowed by what was causing the warning.
The RAID is rebuilding and while it is, the status light will do the red/green thing.
It will also do this if I save too much data on it.
It's not very informative and it takes too many steps to get the the problem it's telling you about on the front page.
I'm familiar with the NIJ standards and developed GURPS stats for them.
NIJ is not the only standard, but thankfully Wikipedia had a list.
It's looking a lot like steel helmets.
The level of protection is pretty consistent and the weights are very similar.
Almost as if the technology + human limitations = almost the same thing.
Somewhere in Iran there's a shrinking group of people playing the nation-state version of musical chairs; last man standing gets to be the Supreme Leader.
Or they're all shouting, "NOT IT!"
It also reminds me of this:
"When you study history you realize people have been this stupid for thousands of years."
—Old Vaquero Saying
Taken from Bob Boze's site.
While I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, I don't indulge in them.
I also don't much tolerate the theorists either.
I will smile politely while they spew, occasionally grunting or nodding, but mostly I'm waiting for them to run down and talk to someone else for a while.
It has been so for me since I discovered Occam's Razor.
So, using the barometer of "the simplest explanation that fits all of the known facts is likely the truth."
The holocaust happened.
Lee Harvey Oswald, working alone, shot and killed president Kennedy.
The United States, in six separate missions, landed 12 men on the moon and returned them safely to earth.
The white cloud behind an airplane at high altitude is just the water vapor from the exhaust freezing.
All helicopters are black under the paint.
Every train full of armored vehicles is on a rail line that leads to or from a depot or training center.
Not every time US and Israeli interests align means that Israel controls Washington DC.
It's almost never "The Jews." Antisemitic conspiracy theories have their own section in many lists. I've covered USS Liberty before.
Near as I can tell, enthusiasts for such theories don't read history or pay much attention to politics.
Am I the only person who's a little disappointed that Jimmy Carter didn't live to see Iran toppled?
I am pleased to see that Obama did.
Why didn't POTUS tell Congress?
So they wouldn't tell Iran the exact moment it was going to start.
But, OK, Tom, the president needs Congress to approve of a war. What are you waiting for? Tehran to get nukes and make a parking lot out of NYC?
Iran has been pushing for this fight for nearly 40 years, where have you been on stopping it?
Go on, Tom, tell me you would have authorized these strikes if you'd been asked.
But we both know better, don't we?
You've a stated position that the US should do nothing militarily until Congress votes. Regardless of how timely that vote might be.
I read your bill.
The bill that failed.
Stop acting like it passed and was signed into law.
Tampa is the home of MacDill Air Force Base.
MacDill is the home of CENTCOM, which is the command that's responsible for the Middle East and, therefore, Iran.
I worry that, thanks to some idiots on the blue side of the aisle, we've let in cells of sappers and saboteurs who will attack the base and its surrounds.
Controlling the border is important.
Getting Mexico to stop being a sieve for every foreign national on the planet looking to get into America would be good too.
Israel and the US are attacking Iran as I type this.
Ain't really sure how I want to feel, but I do feel that we've owed them a couple since they attacked our embassy.
It'd be great if the Iranian people got rid of their theocracy and resumed being our friends.
Went shooting with The Lovely Harvey today.
We did rifles again and she's learning where to put the stock into her RoboShoulder® on her AR and her groups are about half what they were last time we took out her AR.
Huzzah!
I decided to bring Dottie to get the SPARC AR zeroed.
It seemed as if I'd done so at 25 yards, but it was massively high and left at 50 yards.
No problem, just dial the knobs a bit...
I then proceeded to send the group back and forth past the point of aim for another 20 rounds.
The adjustment on the SPARC is coarser than I thought and I was cranking the knobs too far.
The last ten rounds actually went where I wanted, but I was getting irritated and I vertically string when I'm irritated.
It's a known problem and I'm working on it. Most of the time, I'm successful.
My OG MX-991/U flashlight wasn't working right.
It sure appeared to be the switch, and that would mean it's dead.
There's no access to the guts of the switch to fix it because of rivets and waterproofing.
I was somewhat inconsolable about this, especially after electrical wizard Marv wasn't able to improve its functioning.
While expressing my sadness to FuzzyGeff, I decided that if it wasn't going to work, it was time to toss it.
Noticing that it had a replacement LED bulb in it, I decided to swap it out for an incandescent in one of the brand new examples I bought.
The new light now has a switch problem.
This, troubleshooters, is what we call an indicator.
So I put an incandescent bulb into the old light and, viola! It works fine.
So I try an LED bulb from a, different, physically broken example I've been saving for parts... Works fine.
Happy dance!
The LED module in the bulb on the OG light appears to have failed in a way that mimics a bad switch.
Being free of the shackles of USGI issue cleaning gear makes owning an AR so much more fun.
Break-Free CLP and paper towels just doesn't do the job efficiently.
Yes, I need both a solvent AND a lubricant, but...
Oh, and I really prefer a boresnake to a cleaning rod.
Ever since known Canadian Sean "Kromm" Punch ticked me off toeing the Party line of inclusion and fairy dust at SJG Forums, particularly about exonyms...
Then all the bitching about getting silver in Hockey...
"Syrupean."
This handily takes the place of "Snow Mexican."
Again, you can't go too far wrong saying, $35, 3 lb.; DR 4 for any 20th century steel helmet.
The Dutch M34 is a decent example. It's 2.8 lb. (2.2 to 3.3 lb. depending on the size, actually).
There's about five versions of almost the same steel with different means of sitting it on your noggin.
In GURPS terms... all the same!
The M34 ($35, 2.8 lb.; DR 4 skull) is an M23/27 ($30, 2.8 lb.; DR 4 skull) with different suspension and later versions have no crest.
The M38 KNIL is the tropical version of the M34 with a leather nape drape ($40, 3.4 lb.; DR 4 skull, DR 2* head and neck (rear)).
Romania bought the M34 as the md.39.
In 1953 The Dutch adopted the US M1 helmet with fiberglass liner as the M53.
I am not going to say, one way or the other, but the YouTube recommended channels that are covering the war in Ukraine are sure upbeat that the end is near for Russia and Putin.
Call me cynical, but I seem to remember this kind of upbeat messaging before.
But this time there's an interesting side thread from the guys who are keeping track of Russia's tank storage depots. They're getting pretty damn empty.
Production of new tanks, recovery and repair of damaged tanks and refurbishment of stored tanks isn't keeping up with losses, it seems.
And it isn't just tanks disappearing from these depots. Infantry combat vehicles and self propelled guns are being consumed as well.
It's a war of attrition and Russia seems to be suffering more attrition, or at least looks to be running out of stuff fast enough that they will run out before Ukraine does.
This will be really bad for Russia, they have more than one enemy across their vast borders who might just take advantage of their inability to defend them.
Or it's Ukrainian propaganda...
If you're rolling on the random hit location, the head is divided into two hit locations.
If you roll 3-4, that's the skull and you use the special rules for the damage.
If you roll a 5, that's the head and it's not much different from a hit to the body.
The front of area 5 is the face. The back is...
"Head (rear)"? "Back of the head"? "Head not face"?
I'd like a short way to say it for the helmet table because a lot of modern helmets protect the back of the head and the nape of the neck.
It kind of amuses me that, technically, I can buy head protection that doesn't protect the CPU.
When I was dithering about buying a retro set of handguards for Dottie, I had put them in the cart then closed the window.
This triggered Brownell's to start sending me emails asking if I was still interested in the item.
Obviously, I was because...
I'm still getting emails asking if I am still interested and to hurry because stock is getting low.
Glitch in their matrix.
You will not go far wrong saying that a 20th century steel helmet is about 3 lb and gives DR 4.
But...
I'm not sure how many more I need.
But I've found some interesting things. The British Helmet, Combat, General Service, Mk 6 is not made from Kevlar. It's made from ballistic nylon and barely gives better protection than an M1 steel pot from the same era. It's barely lighter, but a lot more comfortable.
There's no "comfort" stat in GURPS.
I am also finding that many GURPS books simply got the weights wrong. I noticed this when I weighed my Finnish M1916 helmet. Now that I'm actively checking, I'm finding lots of disparities.
But some of these books predate the internet. Nerds and geeks are weighing their militaria and putting their measurements online now!
Even so, I have averaged a couple weights because they come in several sizes...
You get a bonus 'u' in the title for armor because so many of my reference books are British!
I've got a little project going where I'm trying to make GURPS stats for armor from the early 20th century to today.
I decided to do this because of my "Steel Helmet" listing in my T2K conversion.
While the stats are, generally, the same between all steel helmets, they are not all the same.
Just like the only difference between 9mm pistols in GURPS is the number of shots and the weight.
Should be fun, and repetitive.
Probably going to limit to major versions and not sweat the minutia like the differences in the rim on M1 helmets.
I will also endeavor to use brigandine correctly and not let spell checker trick me into saying brigantine again.
A buddy of mine has, mostly, decided to get his first gun.
He's got a degenerative neurological disorder, so his grip strength can vary a lot.
So I suggested the S&W M&P 2.0 Shield EZ in 380.
It's got several features that are designed to make it easier to operate and load.
We found one in stock for $500 at the store that has one of those handgun "petting zoos" where you can rack the slide and pull the triggers on guns that have been defanged and are tethered to a display.
He felt that was a bit much, so I suggested the store I normally shoot at.
They had it for $450 and he almost dropped the money on the counter.
A major snag was the stupid waiting period. If he'd bought Tuesday, he'd have had to schlep back down here from Ocala on Saturday to get it.
This might be a blessing in disguise!
Marv has found several on Gunbroker for $400 buy it now and a few even lower.
The problem is shipping and the transfer fee. It's easy to add the money you saved right back onto the purchase.
PLUS! He's a first time buyer who's not familiar with how us long-time owners do things. Though, he's a wheeler-dealer with other things, he's prolly familiar enough with how it works in a different context that he wouldn't be totally confused by it.
The FFL closest to him wants $40. That means that shipping would have to beat $10 to be better than my local range. Or the price needs to be lower than $400...
I can see him shopping hard and bidding on the cheaper guns until he got lucky.
Today I learned that the M88 tank recovery vehicle is based on the M48, not off the M60 as I'd assumed.
It's an easy mistake to make, I think. Especially with the M88A1 that got a lot of stuff from the M60 series, like the M48A3 did.
Wikipedia makes the same error.
The PASGT vest is DR 10/5*. It's flexible armor where you get better protection against pi and cut. It's 9 lb.
The ISAPO adds a DR 25 ceramic plate to the front and back, making it DR 35. It's 25.5 lb. total.
The 6B3TM is DR 23/12* flexible armor that gives better protection against pi and cut. If you get get hit from the front or back, the titanium plates make it DR 40. It's 26.9 lb.
The 6B3TM-01 is an improved version has thinner rear plates, giving just DR 26. So DR 40 from the front, 26 from the rear and 23/12* from the sides. It's 18.1 lb.
The OTV (Interceptor) is a 12/5* flexible vest that you can add ceramic plates to. DR 35 with SAPI plates installed. 8.4 lb. by itself. 12.4 lb. with just the front plate, 16.4 lb, with front and back plates, 25.6 lb with front, back and side plates (but DR 35 all around!).
E-SAPI plates make the DR 47 with one level of hardened which drops the armor divisor one step, but there's no side plate. So 13.9 with just the front plate, 19.4 lb. with front and back and 28.6 lb. with E-SAPI front and back and SAPI sides. 17.9 lb, with E-SAPI in front and SAPI in back... Modular armor is tedious!
