AP

I was watching Forgotten Weapons and Ian mentions that the development of the 40mm grenade launcher stemmed from looking to replace the bazooka for a lot of things.

While I thought that the reckless ritufull was the logical development of the bazooka and not the blooper...

It got me to looking for armor piercing ammo for 40x46mm.

The M433 High-Explosive Dual Purpose round will penetrate at least 2" of steel armor at 0° incidence.

That got me to look up the 40mm HEDP stats for GURPS in High Tech.

4d(10) cr ex.

1" of steel armor is DR 70 in GURPS, so 2" of armor is DR 140.

The average die rolls for 4d will give 14.  (10) divides the armor by ten.  So the average hit from 4d(10) exactly penetrates DR 140.

High tech mentions an improved HEDP round that penetrates approximately 3" and has 7d(10) cr ex damage.

Average die roll gives: 24.5.  That punches 210 DR with 3.5 making it through on average.

GURPS rates AP penetration on the average die rolls, not the max!

This is going to change a couple of stats in my T2K conversion.

Who Can Spot This One

Is it really so hard for film makers to get stuff like this right?

Considering that the entire shot was CGI, someone did this on purpose.

The angle of the sun in a following pan is near noon.

Never Stay Home

Always vote in every election you're allowed to vote in.

Never just stay home.

Your vote counts even if you're outnumbered.

The other side could have an attack of apathy and, despite being outnumbered, your vote could turn the election.

Vote, even if it's rigged and you stand no chance.

Don't let anyone dissuade you from doing your civic duty.  It will be their crime for stealing your vote, not yours for failing to do your duty.

Colt Pocket Hammerless Reassembly

 I've been there putting one back together after curiously taking it all the way apart.

Breaking Records

434 million guns in America.

79+ million normal capacity rifle magazines (that seems very low).

20 million modern sporting rifles (also seems very low).

Millions more transactions this year over last year, which was also a record setting year.

Gun-Grabbers, people aren't spending their money to meekly turn around and hand them into the local popo.

They're also not buying so many magazines that several vendors have put purchase limits on them to turn around and register them as NFA devices (and shell out $200).

By the way, in 2018 the estimate was 393 million guns.

The military and police? 5.5 million guns.

Um...

And we're on what might be the precipice of a civil war. 

Hey Gubmint, you might wanna tone down that rhetoric a mite.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Movements like the 1619 project, who pull dates from the aether without any knowledge of history might want to reconsider.

Dates such as 1619 and the territory which would, 169 years later, become The United States.

In 1619 there weren't any black slaves on the mainland outside of St Augustine, which was part of Spain and not any part of the English colonies or Anglo history they keep citing as their causus belli.

OK, let's roll back the clock to 1619.

No black people outside Spain.

Deal!

Oh, that's not what you meant?  Maybe you should brush up on history and get back to us.

You're going to find a couple of years rather insurmountable in your studies with regards to white guilt.

1865 in particular.

But let's roll it back even farther.

The United States don't even exist until 1788.  While The Constitution enshrines the practice of slavery, it also lays the groundwork for its eventual end in Article 5.

Slavery in The USA lasted a "mere" 77 years.  Opposition to slavery and abolitionism began before the ink was dry on the ratification.  A war was fought and the abolitionist side won, slavery was ended and the freedom of the former slaves was paid for in full, in blood.

Nothing more is owed to those people, all of whom are dead.

Anything before 1788 is the responsibility of England or Spain.  They didn't do anything to free the slaves of The Americas...

I am sure Spain will enjoy the same logic that they use to seize legitimate salvage of their wrecks thrown in their faces while the descendants of Spanish slaves claim their grievances.

But it's not something that the USA owes.

If you'd prefer, may I suggest a different name for your project?

The 1896 Project.

You can go after the people who enacted the Jim Crow laws and saw them upheld for almost as long as slavery was legal in the US.

They're called Democrats.

Bad Thumbs

Recent reconstructions of the Homo-Neanderthalensis hand shows that while they had an excellent grip for using a hammer, they would have been unable to use a pencil.

Playing around with my own Homo-Sapiens hands, I can see how this would impede development and use of several stone-age tools we most certainly did develop and use.

This will affect my nascent novel.

484

Did you know that the first recorded murder with a handgun in London remains unsolved?

Robert Pakington was murdered with what must have been a wheel-lock pistol on 13 November, 1536.

That was more than four hundred eighty four years ago.

I'm thinking it's at the bottom of the cold-case files at Scotland Yard.

Especially since it predates Scotland Yard...

Cat Stages

Cats come in degrees, or stages.

As we get farther from pampering...

Housecat.  Never leaves the house except through devious escape.

Wanderer.  The indoor-outdoor cat which spends most of its time with and inside a particular house.

Stray.  The inverse of the wanderer.  Spends most of its time outside, but visits a particular home often.

Feral.  No home.  100% outside and completely unapproachable by humans.

Historical Dramas Are My Bane

While watching "The Tudors" I keep looking things up.

Things like the armor shown during The Pilgrimage of Grace and Bigod's Rebellion being basically correct, the swords are all wrong.

The blades are consistent with much earlier patterns.  13th and 14th century according to Oakeshott.

16th century swords were trending towards rapiers.

Arming swords would have been the severely tapered XV or XVa.  Broadswords suitable for thrusting into the very well designed armor of the period.

There's a scene where an assassin shoots someone (Robert Pakington) with a pistol.  A wheel-lock.  Period correct, but that's a very well heeled assassin.  A wheel lock costs as much as a sword in 1536.

This is not to say that correct swords are not present, they're there; but not when someone is wearing armor.

Speaking of armor...

The Tudor period is firmly TL4 and, as I said, the armor shown is period correct for the most part.

Armor that is firmly entrenched in most people's imaginations as "medieval".

But medieval is TL3.

The plate armor most people think of as typical fantasy plate-mail is a TL more advanced than the time frame they're romantically thinking of.

I blame Renaissance artists.

Oranges

How can I tell there's something amiss about Globull Warmering?

Florida history.

First we have the miracle of Castillo de San Marcos.  It's widely painted and photographed.  Despite the "rise of sea levels" all of the paintings and photographs show pretty much the same water levels.  If I can't tell sea level apart from the tides, there's no measurable rise in the sea level.  More damning is you can see where high tide is or will be and it's the same, for centuries.

Second we have the famous Florida orange.

Citrus farming in Florida used to range all the way up to the Georgia border.  Now it doesn't begin until well south of Tampa.

What happened?

Frost.  Frost ruins citrus crops.  If it was getting warmer, old orange groves would be viable again.

Looking at the weather map and where the frost is expected tonight, no oranges to my immediate north.

I've Been Watching 'The Tudors'

I keep wanting to shout, "Don't go in there!" to the future wives of King Henry VIII.

And all the dumb mistakes his court makes which are depicted in the series.

It has reminded me of this series of vids:

Cheap Hole

I just noticed that I lack a Lorcin L-25 for my .25ACP collection.

This is despite having both Phoenix Arms and Raven Arms examples.

So, off to Gunbroker I go to see if there's one for sale where shipping would far exceed the purchase price.

Not a single gun!  Just a scattering of parts and magazines.

Are all of them finally in police evidence lockers by now?

Boom Headshot

We've previously discussed using .22 WMR on coyotes.

But how is it for adventuring, where the targets are fictitious people with ST (and HP) of 10 not 7.

3d-1 pi- is the damage for ball ammo.

3d-1(0.5) pi is the damage for hollow points.  Let's use these.

Because the maximum basic damage for this round is 17 points and DR is doubled against it, a mere 9 points of DR completely stops it unless it's flexible armor, and then only 1 point of crushing gets through. 

The hoary old PASGT vest's DR 5 against piercing attacks stops the average basic damage roll of 9 completely.  (This is a game, don't count on this in real life).

Let's just go down the list of hit locations.

Eye: -9 to hit. x4 damage.  8-64 (avg. 34) damage. 1 point of damage blinds the eye.  Two death rolls on average, dead right there on max damage.

Skull: -7 to hit.  DR2.  x4 damage.  0-52 (avg. 22) damage.  One death roll on average, four on max damage.

Face: -5 to hit.  1-16 (avg 8).  Not a happy place to get shot, but very survivable.

Leg: -2 to hit.   1-16 (avg 8).  5 or more points of damage cripples the limb.

Arm: -2 to hit.   1-16 (avg 8).  5 or more points of damage cripples the limb.

Torso: -0 to hit.   1-16 (avg 8).  Don't count on center mass for a one stop shot, the average hit doesn't even get a consciousness roll.

Groin: -3 to hit.   1-16 (avg 8).

Hand: -4 to hit.  1-16 (avg 8).  3 or more points of damage cripples the hand.

Foot: -4 to hit.  1-16 (avg 8).  3 or more points of damage cripples the foot.

Neck: -5 to hit.   1-16 (avg 8).

Vitals: -3 to hit.  x3 damage.  3-48 (avg 25).  One death roll on average, three on max damage.

Your best bang for the buck is aiming for the vitals.  At most ranges, the extra -3 isn't too onerously bad, and the triple damage is worth it.  Plus, if you miss by one, you still get a torso hit!  The downside to vitals is most people who wear armor wear it here.

The eye gives the most damage, but it changes a 10 yard shot into a 700 yard shot in terms of penalties.  Vitals only changes it to the equivalent of a 30 yard shot.

Broken Not Busted

The mere fact that we can still talk about the possibility that the presidential election has been massively defrauded sets us apart from places like Venezuela.

Freedom of speech is how this gets noticed and the fight begins.

Places like Venezuela didn't have a means to exchange information and to compare notes that showed something nefarious was afoot.

The system the founders put in place is still, awkwardly, trying to function despite all the barriers and hindrances trying to hobble it.

The fact that some of the big techs are suppressing the exchange of ideas says a great deal about how real and widespread the fraud must be.

Seriously, if there wasn't any fraud, they'd just let the cranks yell at clouds and ignore them.

Even the lowest information voter is noticing something is amiss.  They are particularly noticing when their tediously Pro-Trump friend suddenly stops posting to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

When they ask, "I got a time-out for posting this."  The lowest information voter reads "this" and thinks, "that's nothing, why would they ban him for that?"

And a dim appliance bulb of understanding flicks on.

This is working its way across the country.

The times might get a bit interesting as it progresses, but it's happening.

There Are Only Two Problems

Arecibo has self-demolished over-night.

That will save on demolition costs.

I think it should be rebuilt.  Expanded.  Made bigger, stronger, faster. (na na na nana)

There's just two gigantic problems with that.

First is getting the Democrats to actually support doing something which is just for science and not an alms to all of their various parasites.

Second is it's located in Puerto Rico.  A territory which routinely gives Chicago and DC runs for their money with regards to corruption.

The extra costs ensuring that everything is built correctly this time will be considerable.

I'm willing to see my tax money go to it, even if it starves the widows and orphans of good boys who were turning their lives around before being shot dead for doing nothing.

Why The Ancient Greeks Couldn't See Blue

 

It's not that they couldn't SEE blue, but they just hadn't developed a way to describe blue the same way we do today.

It's a neat little essay on the development of language, not perception.

10 Round Mags

Marv ordered a bunch of non-compact M&P 45 magazines for his 45C.

They fit, they work.

He also ordered some plastic spacers that slide over the mag body and bridge the gap between the bottom of the grip and baseplate of the magazine.

He's also added a thumb-safety and an Apex trigger kit.

How Do We Know Until We Try

I've noticed that there's a subset of dancing monkey which is particularly prone to political posturing and grandstanding.

Canadian Dancing Monkeys.

Living in Florida gives a new hatred of Canada every year when the migration begins and they don't bother to learn that The US has different laws and customs from Canada, and that Florida is far different from the northern states they're more familiar with.

So I'm touchy and sensitive to Canadians moving to the US, and taking jobs from starving American dancing monkeys.

But even worse, is their constant harping about the evils of America.

Hey, fucktard, why are you even here if we suck so bad?

I have a solution.

Seal the US-Canadian border to actors and snow-birds.

Seize the assets of any foreigner who expresses an opinion about American politics and plop them back in their homeland.

A related push could be centered around a return to the old studio system.

The studios practically owned the actors back then.

Before you cite the 13th Amendment, I'd like to remind you that dancing monkeys aren't really people.

Think about it.  We say "black people", "white people", "people of Jewish descent"... but we never say "actor people"...

And if they don't want to be slaves, they can fucking stay in Canada, eh?

I Really Must Leave Tabs Open

I can't remember where I was reading it, but there's a distinct possibility that it's not CO2 causing what warming we're experiencing (if any).

We have been very successful in reducing particulate pollution over the last 80 years.

Without this pollution in the atmosphere, the sunlight is now free to make it all the way down to the ground instead of providing some artificial shade.

If You Love Your Pets...

For fuck's sake, don't let them run around loose.

Because they're stupid and not able to look both ways before crossing the street.

Someone in my neighborhood is down a handsome gray cat because it ran under my wheels.

I feel really bad, but no collar, no apparent owner.

Too well fed to be a feral.  This was someone's indoor-outdoor cat.

It Is A Carry Gun And I Do Live In Florida

The Galco Miami Classic rig I bought for the M&P 9 fits the M&P 45C just fine.

The whole thing tips the scales at 3 lb. 14 oz.

The mass compares favorably to other gun-bra configurations.

I'm down to 25 shots though.

300 points, on average, slung downrange with hollowpoints.  Less than half what the M&P 9 can do, on average, but 5.4 ounces lighter.

Assuming every bullet hit center mass.

One Further Trick

 

My first .45 with an accessory rail.

Old vs New

My old Glock 21 is considerably larger than the 45C.

I, too, was shocked that a full size pistol would be bigger than a compact pistol.

The 45C comes in at very nearly the same dimensions as a Glock 19, including girth.

S&W achieves this girth by using a traditional metal body magazine instead of the thicker walled plastic Glock chose.

 Even compact Glocks in .45 ACP are the same width as my 21.

Not Really 8+1

Damn Marv and creating the wants for this.

Thanks to Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the Wu Ping Cough for making the price of the spare Beretta 1951 more than the purchase price of this gun.

Trigger pull is typical M&P, long take up, 7ish pounds of crispish break.

It came from the factory with night-sights, but they've faded as they all do in the past five years.

My Kustom Vette holster works with it!

Both Marv and my guns carry an LEO only sku, 309308 for him and 307508 for me.  Near as we can tell, the LEO sku gets you an extra magazine and no little envelope with spent casings.

Neither had a magazine safety.  Mine came with a thumb safety, his did not.  Mine came with night sights, his did not.  Mine was made on Veteran's Day 2015, his was made just this year on June 30th.

Getting the last round into an M&P 45C magazine is a challenge.

I used an UpLULA.

Getting that fully loaded magazine into the gun with a closed slide is a chore.

There's a lot of pressure on the bottom of the slide, I can't but think that will affect first round reliability if you carry it cocked and locked with 8+1.

I'm reminded of the Wilson Combat 8-round magazines for the 1911.  They were intended for normal 7+1 carry in a 1911, but with the +1 carried in the magazine until it was time to load the gun.

I'm OK with that, but I don't have a GURPS notation for such things beyond a lengthy note.

Update: Yes I do.  Make the shots 8(3) instead of 7+1(3).

It's disappointing, because this is the first modern gun I've owned that balked so hard on carrying the full capacity.

Marv confirms that his is much the same.

I am not sure how this confirmed and committed Colt and Glock fan came to own so many plastic Smith and Wessons.

Perhaps its because S&W knows it's in second or third place with sales and is trying to innovate to improve their standings, thus making guns I want to own.

Perhaps it's happenstance and more complicated.  I'm reasonably certain the M&P 9 Shield got bought instead of a P365 because Palmetto State Armory was selling them for $250.  Half the price of the 365, and it had the thumb safety I demand for my pocket carry.

The M&P 9 full size is because Marv and Harvey out voted me on our standard pistol.  I'd have gone Glock 17.

The M&P 45C... I got it because Marv got one.  He got his because the shop we were at didn't have the Glock 21SF he was interested in.

Isn't the world funny sometimes?

Fair Winds Mr Prowse

David Prowse, the body of Darth Vader, has stepped past the veil.

He's one of a very small troupe of dancing monkeys worthy of mention.

That's A Good Start

Almost half a billion guns in circulation in the US.

And several metric fuck-tonnes of ammo.

Small Brewery Sunday

Luckily, Tampa is (nearly literally) awash in small, micro and pico breweries.

Got to hit a couple today to show our appreciation and shore up their bottom lines after a spring of being closed by gubmint fiat.

Tracking

USPS has sometimes confounding tracking system.

Many times you can track your package in real time.

Sometimes you get a "shipped" notification when it's really the seller printing their label.

They've got several euphemisms for that.

But the surest way to tell that your package will arrive late is, "In transit, arriving on time."

Especially when the previous entry in the tracking system says it arrived someplace without a corresponding departure.

I'd despair, but it's something to post about.  I've been short on material since I stopped going to places that actively piss me off.

But I'm Not Hungry

In an effort to stave off the icy hands of Death...

I'm taking an whole pile of vitamins and dietary supplements.

D3 in particular because my body appears to have lost the trick of making the stuff.

There's two that the doc recommended for my joint pains that appear to have helped some.

I've been joking that it's a good thing I don't have to take them with food, because I'm full afterwards.

Timing Is Everything?

Lemme get this straight.

The mail-in voting law in PA is unconstitutional, the PA Supreme Court even admits it in its ruling, but they will let the law stand because the plaintiff filed too late?

They are letting an unconstitutional law stand after finding that it is, indeed, unconstitutional.

Rope.

Tree.

Justice.

Some assembly required.

I would be more incredulous about this, but I've watched how standing works for a long time with firearms cases.

You can't file a complaint until you've been injured by the unconstitutional law.

That means you have to wait until the law actually affects you.

What they're saying is the plaintiff didn't notice in time that they were affected.

OK.

So I'm just going to head on over to Africa and buy me some slaves.

Owning slaves is unconstitutional?

I just kept them from finding out until it was too late to file, so I get to keep them.

Yes, the PA Supreme Court's ruling IS that absurd.

Almost But Not Quite

 Magpul's Flat Dark Earth (tan) is not quite the same color as their Medium Coyote Tan.

If the difference matters to you, then the MCT will not do.

If having an M3 mag matters, then FDE will not do.

There doesn't appear to be a middle ground if either feature matters.

Some (many?) just shrug their shoulders and get what's cheaper (MCT at present).

I've settled on the MCT because I've gotten accustomed to AR magazines not being black thanks to my foliage green period.

The Lovely Harvey has insisted on some kind of tan since she put FDE furniture on Kevina.  She's not picky about the shade, so FDE MOE, MCT M3 or USGI EPM will do for her.

She doesn't know it yet, but she's standardized on the MCT M3 with windows as well!

When you leave the gun logistics to someone else, they do this to you.

A Moment Of Silence

 

I've been using this screwdriver as anything but a screwdriver for decades.

It finally gave up the ghost knocking the fuel pump flange back onto the father in law's truck.

My dad gave me this tool when he gave me my first set of basic hand tools.

They've slowly been replaced with newer/better as I've broken or lost the originals.

The little flat-blade from this set lives on my desk, making it the sole survivor.

Gas Giants

 Since they've almost aligned in the night sky, I took a pic!

Saturn in the upper left, Jupiter and the Galilean moons in the lower right.

Bigger Sunspots

 

Refined the focus.

Why I Made My .40 S&W House Rule

In the rules as written, ball 9mm does 2d+2 pi, .40 S&W does 2d+2 pi+ and .45 ACP does 2d pi+.

That gives average damages, to an unarmored torso, of 9, 13, and 10.

Hollow points average 12, 16 and 12.

The thing is, .40 S&W is not 25% better than 9mm or .45 ACP.  If it were, we wouldn't be seeing a shift in law enforcement away from .40 back to 9mm.

My house rule was to change the damage of .40 S&W from 2d+2 pi+ to 2d pi+.

I'm not the first person who noticed the disparity in damage with the rules as written.  Some people took the tack I've taken and changed the damage.  Others left it alone and justified the additional damage on the basis that .40 S&W is a TL8 round and 9mm and .45 are TL6.

To me the higher TL gives the smaller and lighter ammo rather than more damage.  More shots, same damage as .45, lighter magazines.

I came to this conclusion because, despite being TL8, .45 GAP has the exact same stats as TL6 .45 ACP.  It's lighter per shot and smaller; just like .40 S&W.

The good news is it has yet to come up in any game I've run.  There are only two fully statted .40 pistols in the entire rule set, the rest of them are mentioned in the weapon descriptions of 9mm guns.

The players tend to not buy guns from the descriptions and stick to the weapons tables.

Near Miss

South Tampa contains MacDill Air Force Base and an aerial refueling wing of KC-135s.

Yesterday while driving near the base I looked and saw the entire belly of a Stratotanker banked 90° right and pulling hard.  Chuffing vapor on the wings and everything.

Below and ahead of it was a Cessna.

The runway at Peter O. Knight airport is almost in line with the main runway at MacDill.

I speculate that air traffic control missed the Cessna heading to Peter O. Knight running VFR when they cleared the KC-135 for take-off and they spotted it on climb out from MacDill.

Just exactly the worst time to be doing hard maneuvering.

No crashes or collisions, so all's well that ends well.

Thanksgiving

The list of things I am thankful for is too long to even start breaking it down, but most important is friends.

I have been blessed with some of the best friends a person could hope for.

I Am Copyrighting This Right Now

"Trophy Wive's Driving School"

My idea!  Mine!  If you steal it, you will be hearing from my lawyer.

Here in Tampa there's a lot of pretty young women driving expensive cars which are higher than average performance.

Driving like they're in a Kia Soul.

I am proposing a driving school for the trophy wife so she can better utilize the performance of the car her husband has purchased so as to avoid: a) her being mutilated by an angry driver from road rage when she keeps letting gaps in traffic sufficient for a Rascal scooter go past and b) insurance rates climbing as she floors it and can't deal with the power he paid for.

This is a money maker and I am publishing it as a way to claim the idea.

1911 vs M&P 45C

So, we've decided to ignore how 9mm is the same as .45 ACP per round and that 9mm gets more shots down range with a smaller recoil number.

Is the plastic fantastic better than a real MAN'S gun like an M1911A1 made from steel?

First off, the M&P 45C is lighter.  2 lb. vs 2.8 lb.

Second it gets you an extra shot.  8+1 vs 7+1.

Third, each magazine is the same weight, so you get more shots for the same weight of spares.

The only downside to packing an M&P 45C v 1911 is the drop in damage.

The 1911 gets 2d pi+, the 45C gets 2d-1 pi+.

I compared those damages yesterday.

But...

The 1911 will average 12 points delivered per shot and 8 shots downrange for 96.

The 45C will average 10 points delivered per shot and 9 shots downrange for 90.

Where the 45C will pull ahead is the extra magazine you can tote for the same mass.

M&P 45C GURPS And You

It's become a matter of canon that there's little to no difference between 9mm, .40 and .45 thanks to advances in bullet technology.

9mm does 2d+2 pi in a full size gun, 2d+1 pi in a compact.

.40 S&W does the same except pi+ in the rules as written, but I've changed it to 2d pi+ in full sized guns and 2d-1 pi+ for compacts.  The rules as written failed the reality check.

.45 ACP does 2d pi+ in full size and 2d-1 pi+ compact barrel lengths.

I know I've done this math before...

Everything will be bump up to hollow point.

2d+2(0.5) pi+ does 4-14 raw points which become 4-19 points in an unarmored torso.  The average damage will be 12

2d+1(0.5) pi+ does 3-13 raw points which become 3-18 points.  Average will be 10.

2d(0.5) pi++ does 2-12 raw points which becomes 2-22 points.  Average 12.

2d-1(0.5) pi++ does 1-11 raw points which becomes 1-20 points.  Average 10.

Except.  The M&P 45C carries 8 shots.  Assuming you land all 8 in the torso, you average 80 points of damage.  With the 3 Recoil, you're probably not.

The M&P 9C carries 12 shots.  With 2 recoil, you're more likely to land more shots, and if you land all of them you average 120 points of damage.  It's also lighter and slightly smaller.

Auction Dick

Ever get someone bidding against you who makes minimum increment bids until they outbid you?

Know what drives them nuts?

Double the increment plus 3¢.

That this does to them is force them to make more than two increments to get past you again.

They're going to win, I'm not going to the MSRP on the item, and I think they are.

Mars And Moon

 

Too much cloud between here and there to see the Starlink launch, but straight up is clear.

Fuck You 2020!

 I was looking at the cutting block when it happened.

The bakelite-like plastic on my beloved JA Henkels 8" chef's knife spontaneously popped at the front rivet.

This vaulted it off the counter and onto the terrazzo floor of the kitchen, landing right on the point.

Dammit!

That knife had a lifetime's worth of life still in it.

Now...

Amazon will have a replacement here tomorrow.

Having good cutlery in the kitchen is not an option, it's a necessity.

And Why Can't It Be Fixed

Arecibo Radio Observatory will soon be demolished rather than repaired.

Why, you might ask?

Because the existing cables are showing signs of failure at far below their rated strengths.

They have not said why yet, but one suspects shoddy workmanship from back when it was first made.

If that's so, then it's only the insanely conservative specifications and planned in expansion that allowed to to stay standing for so long.

I am sad to see such an important instrument go.

I would gladly support rebuilding it.

Good News Everyone

We can stop blaming the Minneapolis Police for the death of George Floyd.

Dead Link -->Unbeknownst to us, he was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. <-- Dead Link

Dunno why ClickOrlando 404'd their story.

Unbeknownst to us, he was killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

What the actual fuck?

Yes, let's dilute the message about the Holocaust with this puerile pandering to the moment.

I'm slowly coming to the idea that Jews are actively courting the evil that sees them murdered periodically.  That they WANT to be wiped off the face of the Earth for some unfathomable reason.

It would certainly explain their love of gigantic, powerful governments and strict gun control.

"Why no, we didn't learn fuck-all last time."

"Hmmmm, the pro-gun, pro-liberty side of the political divide tends to be sympathetic to us because of the Holocaust, what can we do to alienate them?  OH! I know!  We'll memorialize a career criminal and junkie who came to the expected end of such folks, especially once you look at the blood toxicology."

Again, what the actual fuck?

If the museum is attempting to equate the Minneapolis police with the SA or SS and warning that cops shooting criminals who happen to be black is akin to Nazis murdering 13 million people...

They'd better stop supporting Socialists and big-powerful government.

Because Socialists with big powerful governments is how you get millions of people killed by their own government.

I Agree

Technomad mentions that JFK would like as not have kept going in Vietnam rather than pulling out, as has been suggested by some historians.

I agree.  JFK, despite his numerous flaws, was actually pretty dedicated to opposing Communism.

He'd have stayed in Vietnam, and remember that it was still a popular war at this point.

Being a likeable president and fighting the good fight means he would have likely gotten more leeway than LBJ got.

I think, being the hot head he could be, he'd have also been a lot more aggressive about prosecuting the war once he got started.

It might not have ended any differently, but it might have lacked the micromanaging aspects that LBJ brought to the table.

Bring Your A Game

You want to send me to a reeducation camp because of how I voted?

How do you know who I voted for?

What happened to secret ballots?

How do you know that all the stuff I post here and on Facebook isn't just a way to hide what a strident Biden supporter I am?

You don't and you can't.

But you talk about sending me away because of what I've said here and on Facebook.

I'm a student of history, I know what reeducation means.

The Katyn massacre was reeducation.

The Gulag Archipelago is about reeducation.

You wanna take me away to be reeducated, better bring your A-game, because I don't intend to go quiet-like.

The odds are in my favor for my side to win if you really make a go of it.

A Dark Day

Today, 57 years ago, Lindon Baines Johnson was sworn into office as President.

The reason the office was open remains completely unexamined.  A mystery that not a single person in history has bothered to look into.

Someone on the internet probably knows why Mr Kennedy was no longer bothering to punch in.

But who else would bother with such an obscure political fact?

Asbestos Doesn't Have Any Copper In It

Asbestos was used in brake pads because of its ability to resist heat.

But it's horrid for your health.

Copper replaced it because of its ability to resist heat...

Oh, look...

I become less and less convinced that there's any real harm being done because of the relentless and non-stop campaign to make owning a car economically unviable.

For decades I've watched the environmentalists war on anything which burns anything.

They're very creative about taking out small parts that are essential for the whole.

Save the planet, eat an environmentalist.

Why Are You Worried

I think the strongest indication that some sort of election fraud is happening is how freaked out Democrats are getting about every attempt to double check the ballots to make sure that they're valid.

Message Partially Recieved

Nearby to Casa de McThag is the City of New Port Richey.

They love them some fines.

Red-light cameras.

Speeding tickets, before a change to the state laws, used to make up a significant percentage of their revenue.

And, noise violations...

The downtown area the city is desperately trying to make a thing often got very loud with live music in the bars.

So they passed a series of noise ordinances with ever decreasing wiggle room and smaller loopholes.  All the while expanding where the citations could be issued.

Which brings us to this.

Ms Boneta has been making noise while protesting to her city government about the behavior of a city government and police department more than 2,000 miles removed.

Once again, "wasn't me, didn't do it!" is not a positive defense against the charge of racism.

So they've been demanding Justice™ from people who haven't done any of the things they are protesting about.

Do you think this will make the cops charged with enforcing the ordinances lenient or for them to be more hard-ass about shit?

If you chose the latter, you are correct, and they've been issuing fines.

I love the quote, "The protesters say the citations, and other actions by the New Port Richey Police Department, are meant to send a message: Go home."

Yes.  Exactly that.

But since they're lumping NPRPD in with other police departments who're being accused of racially motivated shootings; let's check and see how many minorities NPRPD has "murdered"...

On 06Nov20 (well after the protests started) they shot and killed an armed man making threats in a bar.  No mention of race, no protest about his death.  The lack of mention, protests and photo of the deceased is what we call an "indicator".  Also note that the deceased was not exactly a pillar of the community.

And... and... uh...  I'm not finding any others.

NPRPD sure seems to keep the guns holstered and not shoot anyone.

Better Than Expected

Got the fuel pump changed out on Bubba's Colorado.

It went perfectly!

I am certain that was because Marv and JT were on hand.

The elbow where the fuel exits the pump was severely corroded.  A common issue with Damnyankee trucks.

I have to say that the engineers put a lot more thought into "someone is going to have to work on this someday" than they did on The Precious. 

We did have a nervous moment when we first fired her up and the 5 gallons we'd put in didn't move the needle a bit.  Since a fuel level sender was part of the R&R, and 5 gallons is more than 1/4 tank...

So I drove it to the gas station and added five more gallons.  That moved the needle to 1/2 tank.

We found out the total tank capacity is 18 gallons.

I'll add some pics later.

End Of An Era

301 Hikotai has turned in their F-4EJ Kai.

They're going to be transitioning to F-35A.

It's weird to think that I was born when every Western air force flew some version of the F-4 and I'm going to see one where nobody does.

Just Greece, Iran, South Korea and Turkey are left.  And those days are very numbered in Greece and South Korea with the F-35 moving in.

Currency Conversion

The GURPS dollar, or G$ is actually a purchase price parity value to allow the expression of values across multiple tech levels and starting wealths.

A G$ isn't always a dollar.

In 1899 there are G$22 to a single gold-backed US dollar.  $4.86 gets you £1.00.

A double eagle coin is 0.9675 troy oz of gold with a face value of $20 where gold is $18.94 per troy oz.

Translate From English To English

Watching a British cooking show and I have to keep translating things.

The temperatures are all in Celsius.

The amounts are all in metric.

Cilantro is coriander.

Golden raisins are sultanas.

One Round

If you have the means and the world hasn't fully embraced rapid fire from a magazine...

GURPS: Magic has a spell called Cornucopia which supplies unlimited quantities of ammo... the catch is you have to pull each round out one at a time and they disappear after a minute or if handled by someone else before being fired.

Energy cost to enchant is 50 times the cost of the round in G$.

So a little pouch that makes .30-40 ammo is 40 energy to make which means G$400.

Pistol ammo is cheaper, .38 ammo for your M1894 is just 10 energy and just G$100!  .45 Colt is G$250.

Cornucopia's for handguns are going to be common.  The G$300 cornucopia for .44-40 is going to be highly prized by the Winchester armed Sioux brave.

The Indians use magic and know how to do enchanting, why don't the Sioux make their own?

A quirk of the spell is it being based on the value of the item.  .44-40 ammo is TL5 stuff and it costs G$0.60 per round in a TL5+ setting.  Indians are TL0 stone age savages.  The price of a round of .44-40 is doubled for each TL difference.  32 times in this case or G$19.20 per round.  That's 960 energy for an Indian to make a .44-40 cornucopia.  The good news is it's just G$8.25 per energy for TL0 societies who start with G$250.  The bad news is that's still G$7,920 or 31.68 times the starting wealth.

They do make cornucopias, an arrow is $G2 and that's 100 energy, G$825.  Steep, but bearable for a wealthy warrior.

I just realized what a forensics nightmare such rounds would be.  No bullet or cartridge case remains.  Maybe not even powder residue.

For the full explanation as to why 60 energy or less is G$10 per point and 61 or more energy is G$330 each, refer to GURPS: Magic p. 21.