Oh Sweet Innocent AI

Oh, you sweet, innocent, thing.

I don't need you to tell me why the press isn't saying they're sorry.

It's because they are proud of what they've done. 

I Coulda Told Him That Would Happen

Apparently, allegedly, the Trump administration tried to get some small arms to the people of Iran so they could more effectively rebel against the theocracy.

Also, apparently and allegedly, they used Kurds as intermediaries to move the guns.

Apparently and allegedly, these same Kurds kept the guns for themselves.

Um.

Duh.

They've no reason to believe that the people of Iran, once the theocracy is deposed,  will be any different than the Ottomans about letting them have an independent existence.

But I can see them trying to secede once the theocracy is weak enough. 

Slow Your Roll

Harvey found me sloth themed dice!

They're absolutely the cutest!

Mixed Feelings

First off, she's lying, they are not banning classic cars with this bill.  Bad way to start.

What they are changing is the issuance and usage of cars with the special classic car license plate.

Near as I can tell, if you register your hot-rod normal like, you are not constrained by the new rules.

At the moment you pay $13.50 for a rear plate or, optionally, $15.50 for front and rear plates; plus $150 for sales tax and $25 one-time registration.  It's always been the law that you can't use it for "general transportation purposes."  So $178.50 and your car is registered forever in Minnesota.

General transportation purposes is not actually defined.

The proposed bill really defines, and limits, what you can do with your special, lifetime, registered car.

I am not that shocked that they went very restricted.

But you takes the tax break, you takes what restrictions come with it.

This is not going to destroy the hobby and most people who actually qualify for the plate as it was originally intended have the money to register and insure their cars with normal plates and can drive as much as they like, anywhere they like.

Betcha that there's a lot of shitboxes that are 2006 and older that have a "Collector's Vehicle, collector plate" who are doing it to avoid the 10% of original MSRP plus 1.575% of current value.

For reference a '69 Chevelle's MSRP is in the $2,600 ballpark.  Current value is VERY subjective, so let's say $50k because that's what Autotempest says.  So $1,047.50 a year to register your '69 Chevelle in Minnesota.  That's steep.

A 2006 Toyota Corolla ran $14,725 sticker price and is worth $6,500 today.  $1,574.88 a year.

See the incentive to call your shitbox a collector car?

The Rat Rod people have also made it difficult to make a, "is this a collector car?" decision on condition.

Club memberships don't really help either, there's scads of Ricer clubs that will include that Corolla.

Considering that I paid $250 total for three cars in Florida, I can see that the real problem isn't the definition of "Hot Rod" but a rapacious and greedy Democrat controlled government.

You Have A Right To _Say_ It Not *DO* It

I have said before that you have every right to be a hateful racist.  You have no right to act on your hate.

I prefer bigots to be open and honest about it so that I can avoid them better.

Them being open and honest about it also means that when they act on their hate, it becomes a sentence enhancer.

Case in point.

Calling someone a filthy Jew is being very rude and obnoxious; but it's probably protected speech.

Assaulting someone after calling them a filthy Jew is a hate crime.

And, yes, you don't have to actually touch someone to commit assault!

Once you've articulated an actionable threat that appears to be imminent, you're assaulting.

And you're lucky if your chosen victim is armed and declines to shoot you.

It's noteworthy that this happened in Florida and the actual victim is home, safe, with their family and the (alleged) perpetrator is behind bars without bail. 

We're The Ones Who Got Ozymandius Motherfucker

 

https://x.com/Arrogance_0024/status/2040700125882859864

I am shocked that a Frenchman can't understand it.

French gives us the ultimate explanation in one short sentence, "Tous pour un et un pour tous!"

Heinlein explained it in Starship Troopers.

"Are a thousand unreleased prisoners sufficient reason to start or resume a war? Bear in mind that millions of innocent people may die, almost certainly will die, if war is started or resumed."

I didn't hesitate. "Yes, sir! More than enough reason."

"'More than enough.' Very well, is one prisoner unreleased by the enemy, enough reason to start or resume a war?"

I hesitated. I knew the M.I. answer -- but I didn't think that was the one he wanted. He said sharply, "Come, come, Mister! We have an upper limit of one thousand; I invited you to consider a lower limit of one. But you can't pay a promissory note which reads 'somewhere between one and one thousand pounds' -- and starting a war is much more serious than paying a trifle of money. Wouldn't it be criminal to endanger a country -- two countries, in fact -- to save one man? Especially as he may not deserve it? Or may die in the meantime? Thousands of people get killed every day in accidents ... so why hesitate over one man? Answer! Answer yes, or answer no -- you're holding up the class."

He got my goat. I gave him the cap trooper's answer. "Yes, sir!"

"'Yes' what?"

"It doesn't matter if it's a thousand -- or just one, sir. You fight."

"Aha! The number of prisoners is irrelevant. Good. Now prove your answer."

I was stuck. I knew it was the right answer. But I didn't know why. He kept hounding me. "Speak up, Mr. Rico. This is an exact science. You have made a mathematical statement; you must give proof. Someone may claim that you have asserted, by analogy, that one potato is worth the same price, no more, no less, as a thousand potatoes. No?"

"No, sir!"

"Why not? Prove it."

"Men are not potatoes." 

I still say our policy about ANY American, ANYWHERE, is that it should be safer to eat white arsenic than to harm our citizens. 

Does This Mean Veterans Too?

My service connected disability gets me a gate pass to go to the commissary on post.

Does Hegseth's lifting of the gun free zone apply to everyone allowed on post or just active duty?

I haven't seen it clearly stated one way or the other (or I'm missing where it was). 

Even if I am still barred from carry on post, it's a great step forward. 

Mostly Elbow Grease

Due to our drought conditions, we're restricted from washing the cars except on one designated day of the week based on the last number of our address.

That means Friday here.

All three cars needed a wash, Moxie the worst.

Harvey and I knocked it out and waxed today.

Like gun cleaning products, car care products have improved dramatically since I first got into this.

Harvey was able to wax both Alice and Moxie in direct sunlight because Garage One GT makes a spray-on/wipe-off wax you can use that way.

It looks spectacular! 

Anyone Wanna Give Me $10k?

David Freiburger is selling a car for a friend:

Bone stock!

Slant-6, 3-speed push-button automatic.

No heat, no AC, AM radio.

She's a keeper!

Photobombed

 

Marv tried to take a nice picture of this bald eagle, but NASA decided to shoot off some fireworks in the background.

He's secured legal representation.

Pretty Decent

Got cheap beer from one brewery and free beer from another.

Didn't have to use my AK.

Gotta admit: it's a good Friday.

I Noticed Something They Have In Common

Several youtubers and podcasters who cover entertainment have been mentioning that Hollywood is increasingly concerned that all the jobs are disappearing and that LA will start looking like Detroit soon.

Let's just look at the similarities!

Democrat run mayor's office.

Pivotal industry in an environment that's increasingly hostile to it.

Pivotal industry dominated by many unions, driving production to places where such domination is much reduced or eliminated.

Welcome to your own goal territory, Hollywood!

The automakers never really solved for the union problem, and it's following them even to right-to-work states.

Democrat run mayor's offices are much harder nuts to crack because by the time things are REALLY wrong, all the people who'd vote against them (and their businesses) are long relocated.

Worse for them is the increasing push-back from places that emigrants from self-blighted places are getting from their new homes.

"Don't California My Texas," and, "Don't New York My Florida," are popular slogans.

I think it's fair to say the model of Democrats and Unions is that of locusts.

Itchy Itchy

I just did a 24 hour heart monitor.

The tape holding the little sensor pads on was dreadfully itchy.

I sure hope they got a good reading, because I don't wanna do a repeat.

PS: It's precautionary, not because they think there's something amiss.

What Else Would You Call It?

Viagra is a recreational pharmaceutical.

Change my mind.

One Point Nine

The M157 optic has been, unofficially, described as "just shy of two pounds."

That's a great deal lighter than 2.2 kg!

That is well within the 1.16 to 2.26 lb. I'd found previously.

So I'm calling it 1.9 lb. for GURPS purposes.

M7 "Rifle": 9.8 lb. loaded with a 20 round magazine.  9.9 lb. loaded with a 25 round magazine.
Suppressor: 1.5 lb.
M157 Optic: 1.9 lb.

13.2 lb. or 13.3 lb. all up!

XM8 Carbine: 8.9 lb. loaded with a 25 round magazine.
Suppressor: 1.3 lb.
M157 Optic: 1.9 lb.

12.1 lb. all up.

Since it looks like troop feedback is leading to using the Magpul PMAG-25 LR/SR, I've given the higher cap mag weight for the M7 too.

This means the basic load of spare ammo is 9 lb. and 22.3 lb. for the M7 and 21.1 lb. for the XM8.

Still 6.4 lb. heavier than a suppressed M4A1+ with suppressor and 35 rounds short with the M7.  5.9 lb. heavier with the XM8.

That's not horrid.

Now they need to fix the reliability issues with the optic.

And accuracy issues with the M7.

And the eye-watering price of the 6.8x51mm ammo.

Increase While Decreasing

Smith and Wesson is, apparently, giving away some 3rd Gen pistols.

If you click this cunningly crafted link, and enter yourself into the sweepstakes, I get 15 additional entries and, thus, increase my chance of winning slightly. 

Giving me more entries than you reduces your chance of winning, but you're here to help, right? 

PS: It could be an April Fools prank, but they already have my contact information from doing a warranty return, so... 

Cautious Optimism

Moxie is back!

She's perky compared to how she drove before.

The problem appears to have been the VVT solenoids.

OEM solenoids die in a way that shorts them to ground and that sets off the code associated with them.

Aftermarket solenoids mostly die the same way, but occasionally will fail mechanically so the computer will think they are working and notice it's getting out of range information from other sensors.

They don't fail all the way, so you get a long time of spurious and intermittent fails.

That's our story and we're sticking to it!

The shop put 20 miles into a test drive.  I just did 10 running around.

Related:  All three cars have new wiper blades.  My house is also out of equity from buying them...

Left Hand Is Unaware Of What The Right Hand Is Doing

Peddle sent me a text telling me that the driver was on the way to pick up Noxious.

"Odd," I thought, "We dropped her off at the towing company yesterday."

Moments later, they texted me that our driver, Steve, was at the location of our car.

Ah!  Steve just clocked in, because Noxious is at his workplace.

Moments later, they texted me that our car had been picked up by Steve.

We're thinking these transmissions are entirely automated in nature and are required to be sent regardless of how silly circumstances have made them. 

Silly Purchase

There's a company, 2nd Amendment Bourbon, that packages their whisky in faux gun cases.

We succumbed to the marketing gimmick.

We've seen three different colored cases, hunter orange, OD green and S&W blue.  We'd just come back from shooting our S&W's so...

 The little metal shot glass is patterned like a revolver cylinder!

 The stopper is embossed with the S&W logo, should you wish to display the bottle outside the case.

But, how is it?

Oh my!  It's good!  I think I have a new favorite bourbon.

Connector Difference

 

Zev connector on top, standard Glock connector on the bottom.

The Zev has just a bit more angle to make the trigger bar drop more easily.

Speaking Of Air Forces

One of the constant concerns that our allies have had about the F-35 was the online maintenance portion of the plane.

They point out that it's a vulnerability should someone hack in and be malicious.

Lockmart doesn't even need to hack in to disable who knows how much on the thing should we decide that we're upset with them...

Lemme Make Sure I Got This

Europe, including many NATO nations, is denying use of their airspace and the bases we've been using in their territory.

While this is their right, I don't think they've thought this through.

I mentioned before that if no oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, we're not really affected if we decline to sell our petroleum on the world market.

We're even less affected if we pull our Navy back to our side of the pond and prevent oil from leaving the Americas for parts ungrateful.

Free copies of "The Little Red Hen" available to European leaders on request.

Something they really haven't considered is: "What if WE close the strait?"

What are they gonna do about that?

Send their navies?  Send their air forces?

They sure aren't sending their armies, they need our airlift to do that.

Moxie Repairs

While we feared the fuel pump or the fuel pressure control module, it looks like it might be chewed wiring from a rodent's nest and bad cam timing solenoids.

The mechanic is reasonably confident this will take care of it.

Eyes crossed.

The sad thing is I'd replaced the solenoids six years and 13k miles ago.  Mutter mutter mutter.

At least this time we'll have a warranty!

Big Triggering

Marv did much the same experiment with his Ex-LEO Glock 21 Gen 3 Slim-Frame.

Stock it ran 7 lb. 8 oz. dirty and gritty.  7 lb. 14 oz. all cleaned up and polished.

Since the safety trigger stands proud of the real trigger, he found it irksome at this weight.

So he ordered the Zev connector and NY1 trigger spring before I did.  His talking about it is why I wanted to experiment here.

With the NY1 spring and Zev connector he gets a FIRM 8 lb. 2 oz. pull, exacerbating the trigger safety problem.

Going back to the stock spring drops the pull to 5 lb. 14 oz.  This is where he's decided to land.

Like I mentioned before, the best trigger pull is personal and it's cool we can personalize our guns.

My Glock 21 Gen 2 is a crisp 5.5 lb. with the standard connector and standard spring.

Replacing the connector with the Zev using the standard spring gets a scary light 4.7 lb.

Using the standard connector with the NY1 spring gets a gritty 9.6 lb.

Replacing the connector with the Zev and using the NY1 spring gets a gritty 8.1 lb. pull.

Triggering

I ordered an NY1 trigger spring and a Zev Technologies pro-connector.

My Glock 17 Gen 2 is a crisp 6.5 lb. with the standard connector and standard spring.

Replacing the connector with the Zev using the standard spring gets a crisp 5.5 lb.

Using the standard connector with the NY1 spring gets an erratic 8 to 11 lb. pull averaging at 9 lb.

Replacing the connector with the Zev and using the NY1 spring gets an interesting 8 lb. pull.  It builds to that break and is very consistent.

What I don't care for with the NY1 trigger is it binding up on disassembly and needing the trigger pulled again to free it.  It's like the worst of Glock and M&P on take-apart.

I also don't care for the little bit of trigger rebound after the sear breaks.

I was happy with the stock trigger, so I've reinstalled it and I'm marking this as an experiment.

I might see if I get completely different results from my Glock 21.

Or not...

Mission Complete

Peddle, the national car buyer, gave me the number of the tow place.

The reason they didn't come last night was their driver quit on them.

That sucks.

They were, however, willing to let me drive Noxious to them.  So I did.

They cut a check, I signed over the title, and we're done!

But there was a surprise in our visit...

The back office of the auto-shop is a gun shop!

I noticed by the Luger hanging on the back wall and the owner and I started talking about Lugers.

He's got a 1914 artillery model with all the magazines, holster and stock...  Paging Mr Fleetwood on the "I can't fucking afford that discourtesy phone!"

The Fire Hose

Traveller is a gigantic universe using just the published materials, let alone the shared stuff that GM's did on their own.

Traveller also has more than one published timeline, depending on the publisher.

OG GDW goes into Megatraveller and a new long night.

GURPS: Traveller and Mongoose reject the event that leads to that dark night.

"Long night?  NEW long night?  What are you on about, Thag?"

If you know Traveller history then you know that The Long Night is the collapse of the 2nd Imperium before the rise of the 3rd Imperium.  It's 1,500 years long.

In the generic Traveller campaign, it's 1,100 years ago.

I know all this because I've been playing since before this was established.

A problem for a new player is their character is FROM the Imperium.  They grew up there, they took history classes in school, they were raised with the cultural norms of the Empire.

How do they learn this?

Well, technically, they can learn the same way I did.  Open the books and read up on it!

Just the GURPS books are a stack more than a foot tall.

I read it in little bites from 1980 or so to present.

It's a big ask to expect the player to read all that.

So, how does one get a person from TL8 USA to make a character from TL11 3rd Imperium?

I figured out a cheat.

Have them make a character from a TL8 world that joined the Imperial military.

The Imperium pretty much HAS to have a training program to bootstrap people from low-tech backwaters to productive members of the military; otherwise only the high-population, industrial and technologically developed worlds will be carrying the entire load of defending the place.

The military isn't so much interested in their recruits learning Imperial culture, as they are to get them effective at their MOS.

So our prospective character has Cultural Familiarity in their home TL8 culture and their branch of service and they get to learn Imperial culture on the fly as the game proceeds!

An entire party of these waifs works because there are a lot of undeveloped worlds.

I suddenly see how the Traveller's Aid Society came into being!

Still Here

Apparently, the national company that's buying Noxious hires a handy, local, towing company to come seal the deal.

Also, apparently, they don't bother to check to see if that local towing company will be open during the promised pickup time.

So I sat here waiting between 3 and 8 pm for them when they closed at 5.

I'm betting they didn't even know they were supposed to come get the car.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Worth Your Time

 

Angus McThag And The Mystery Of The Missing Title

The reason we couldn't find the title for Noxious was we never had it.

We bought Noxious from a local car dealer and they filed the purchase as "release of lien" instead of "paid in full" and the system expects the lein holder to then request a title for the purchaser.

Because the car was paid for in full, the fine folks at the dealer didn't realize they'd checked the wrong box and our title has been electronically held for the past 8 years.

So, instead of $76 or so for a replacement title, I paid just under $13 for a first title.  Plus I took it home the same day.

Even more fun!

If you use one of the third party title services you pay between $150 and $180 depending how you want it shipped and wait one to three weeks for it.  Regardless of whether it's an initial title or a replacement.

Glad I spent the 45 minutes at the motor vehicle office today.

Unhandy

I forgot to mention that when comparing the definitions from a paper dictionary to an online dictionary on your blog:

You're going to be doing some typing because the copy paste function from paper to blog is so non-functional it is nigh nonexistent.  Wait.  It's ACTUALLY nonexistent.

No.  Going back to nigh...

I used a high resolution optical scanner to transfer the words to an advance neural net processor to transcribe the words digitally.

In a sense, I used the oldest computer I own to copy paste. 

One Little Problem

When you sell a car, you tend to need a title.

We found the titles for Moxie, The Beast, and the bill of sale for Technomad's Bluesmobile II.

No title for Noxious.

Well, poop.

A fun filled time at the DMV tomorrow!

A (Good) Sign

When the aftermarket starts making more parts for your car, it's a good sign.

Pedders has offered a coil-over conversion for the 2011-2013 Caprice PPV for a few years now.  Years before 2011 because it's the same kit as the 2008-2009 Pontiac G8.

Recently they've begun selling MacPherson struts for use with the conventional springs.

They're a lot more expensive than the OEM Monroe's were, but they're making them at all.

The Monroe's are all bought up and out of production.

KYB still makes struts for the car, but only sells them in Australia.  In fact, you have your choice of several brands in Oz...  Almost as if the car was from Australia and there's a lot more of them on the road down-under. 

Swappin'

Noxious had relatively new tires on her.

Moxie's were definitely in need of being replaced on the front, and all four TPMS sensors were dead.

So Marv and I swapped the wheels and tires from Moxie to Noxious and now Moxie has working TPMS again!

The battery for my sensor activator was mostly dead and the spare had the same expiration date, but I got lucky and got them programmed.  Every car has a sweet spot for this tool and it's against the sidewall near the stem on these sensors.

We're going to swap anything that's better on Noxious to Moxie this weekend and the off to the "we buy any car!" place.

Urf Ower

Tonight, from 8:30 to 9:30 PM local time you are supposed to shut off everything to show your support for...

Living like a rutting caveman or something.

Bollocks to that!

I'm putting a space heater to blow on my air conditioner's thermostat with all the lights on and all four cars idling in the driveway. 

Duke Power sent me a thank-you card last year for my efforts! 

Shooty

Decided to try my luck at 10 yards instead of the customary 7.

With the S&W M&P 9 2.0 Compact, a double tap at each of the red circles, alternating as fast as I can.  I'm better from the last time I tried this and didn't post the picture I took.  Not a lot better, but most of the rounds are in the circles now.

With the Browning Hi-Power, mag dump at the throat circle.  Even though it bites, I love my HP!

Harvey did recoil therapy and her groups are doing well.

Marv tested his new G21.3 and it's a shooter.  He's gonna tinker with the trigger some.  Almost 8 lb. is a bit too heavy even though it's crisp.  I think I like the slim frame better than the chonky frame of my G21.2; not that I plan on replacing it.

It's Personal

The best trigger is the one you like and you shoot well.

That might not be the same trigger as the person standing next to you.

A light trigger will disturb your aim less.  This is why some high-end rifles have set-triggers.  This is why Savage made the Accutrigger® and just about everyone else followed suit.

The problem with a light trigger is it's easier to make the gun go off when you don't want it to.

This is why set triggers are usually very heavy until you pull the set (which is really just partially pulling the trigger to the very edge of the sear).

This is why the Accutrigger® has a Glock-like trigger block in the middle of the trigger.

This is why SIG did a, voluntary, recall and upgrade to the P320; because the trigger (not the trigger pull) was heavy enough to have enough inertia to set the gun off if it fell just right.  A lighter trigger and improved firing pin block cured THAT source of unintended discharge.

So, go heavier?

Go too heavy and your disturbing your aim pulling against the sear.  Accuracy suffers and you stop shooting the gun.

Most people have a sweet spot between too heavy and too light and it's a preference thing about how much.

The pistols I shoot best break in the mid 6-pound range, or less.

But the weight of the trigger pull isn't everything and when you've got your adrenaline going, you're not really going to notice.  Do a 2-gun match and you'll see what I'm talking about.  The people with the light target triggers often miss more because they're pulling way harder than they did on a square range.  Until they get used to the experience, of course.

Other factors:

How long is the take-up?  Does it even HAVE a take-up?

How gritty is the trigger?

Does it break at the same place every time?

Does it break at the same pull every time?

Is the break crisp or mushy?

I like a smooth take-up and a crisp break, though I don't think I know anyone who likes a mushy break.

With take-up, grit, creep, and mush... you can still have an atrocious, but light, trigger.

Without them, you can have an outstanding, but heavy, trigger.

The smooth, crisp, but heavy, trigger will tend to shoot better for most people.

Connected

Top to bottom: Glock 17 Gen 2, Glock 21 Gen 2, Glock P80 (Gen 3 guts).

All the unmarked "5.5 lb." connector.

The 17.2 has a 6 lb. 8 oz. pull, the 21.2 has a 3 lb. 12 oz. pull, the P80 has a 6 lb. 13 oz. pull.

Go figure.

Found It At Tam's

She was running a Zev Technologies connector with an NY1 trigger spring.

Worse But Better

Marv took to polishing the parts on his new Glock and got the trigger pull from 7.5 lb. to 8 lb.!

But it's BETTER.

No more creepy, gritty take up and the break is crisp and in the same place every time.

I think Tam wrote a whole thing about a heavier, but crisp trigger being preferable to a light one; but I can't find it.  My search-foo is failed.