Not Quite Re-Inacting

You might be able to tell from the photos that I collect militaria associated with the firearms I also accumulate.

The research is fun, but I also grok more fully the firearm when I can associate it with the gear that's supposed to accompany it.

It's why I have ALICE web gear and PASGT armor.

It's why I have my 1951/62 'Nam gear.

It's why I've started on Spanish-American War stuff.  Though I'm prolly not going to go so far as getting an actual M1892 or 1896 Carbine, I've been gathering an impression of a Rough Rider.

Living near Tampa will do that to a person.

But there's anachronisms that creep in.

The 1894 belt has a saber chape.  I don't think anyone, at least not the enlisted, in the First US Volunteer Cavalry carried their sabers.  It's not clear if they were even issued.

But I think that swords are cool and I want to get a saber hanger and saber to attach to my chape.

The saber hanger is an interesting piece of kit in and of itself.  The design dates back J.E.B Stuart and the shape of the clip and color of the leather are the only differentiation between models going from the 1859 patent (#25,684) until 1904.

I am also surprised at how many original Ames model 1840 (heavy) and 1860 (light) cavalry sabers are out there.  Some in shockingly good condition.  Reproductions vary from garbage to fighting quality.

Some of this is spurred by the world snippet that's been partially revealed by my gaming muse.

All the Ghost Dancing Indians disappeared, virtually over night, the campaign setting has found them in a geographically identical parallel Earth where Neanderthal Man was never supplanted and megafauna still exists.  Magic is well known.

I've long been known to buy the same stuff a character of mine has, just out of fun.  I'm thinking a mage-sergeant attached to a cavalry troop who's going through the gate...

I wonder where I can get custom colored stripes.  Purple would be the branch color of magery, with the branch color of the assigned unit as the border.  Purple with gold for cavalry, purple with blue for infantry, purple with red for artillery and so on.

How Long To A Trend

Florida's cases are no longer doubling every three days.

They are doubling every four for the past two...  That sounds odd to say that way.

The local media has shifted from the doubling rate to the sheer number increase from yesterday.

They're still in freak out mode.

Nine or ten days ago it stopped doubling every other day.

This is good news.

It just doesn't seem like it yet.

Windows

I think I finally thought of a reasonable use for windows in the magazines!

It's to tell how much ammo is in the pouches of the dead guys.

It's not for tracking YOUR ammo, it's for when you're policing up magazines after the battle and expecting more fighting before resupply.

As far as I know, this has never been listed as a reason to have such windows in the side of the magazine.

They're also good for when your wife asks, "does this magazine have bullets in it?"

Compostition

I did a fair amount of research to get my 'Nam issue web gear period correct to my 'Nam era M16A1 recreation.

But how to show it off?

This shows the web gear well, but it's entirely too posed.

This is a more natural "just dump your gear over there" kind of pose, but you can't see much detail of the web gear.

First world problems, am I right?

How Can I Be So Callous

I expressed no concern at the idea that celebrities were being affected by Wu Ping Cough and some were even dying from it.

I was asked, "what would you do if they all died and there were no more TV shows or movies?"

My reply was flippant and we all laughed.

But I just realized just how much of my movie library is cast by corpses.

Children born during the production of many of these films are in danger of dying of old age today.

I guess if it came down to it, I'd be OK with what I already have.

But I also don't expect there to be a vacuum in entertainers for very long.

Another Blip

The infection and death numbers did not double these last three days.

Sometime tomorrow will be four days to double the number of infections.

If this marks a trend, that's great!

If it's just a blip, carry on.

Alarmingly Reassuring

Doing a better job of doing the math that says what I've been saying about it being way more widespread than the number of confirmed infections.

Wow That's Low

There's a survey of scientists that's been run weekly.

They guesstimated that only 12% of infections had actually been reported.

If that's holding...

4,950 infected, 50,528 tested, 60 dead.  CFR 1.21%

Is really:

41,250 infected, 60 dead.  Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) 0.15%

That's something to be optimistic about.

Of course the scientists give varying answers and a very wide range to what percentage of total infections had been recorded.  At least it can't be worse than the number actually found positive from testing people with symptoms.

The real challenge for Florida is keeping people from the third-world (New Orleans and New York City) the fuck out.

Lots of Floridians have, for decades, been perfectly willing to murder New Yorkers for how they behaved living here for four months of the year.  Now it's not just dealing with someone being clueless and rude...

Improvise Adapt Overcome

What happens when the tasting room and the pizza place next door to it change to carry-out only?

Set up in the parking lot!  Sit six feet from each other...

Then set your camera up on a tripod with the timer running!

Also fired off a shot at the moon.

Millennial's Discover They're Useless

Under quarantine millennial feminist realizes shes a useless sack of shit.

Time's Up!

The five day waiting period from that flood of new gun owners has expired and they've all had time to get their purchases home.

There wasn't even enough blood in the streets to see, let alone stain my shoes.

Absent was the popcorn like sound of gunfire as thousands (tens of thousands?) of inexperienced new gunowners fired off negligent discharge after negligent discharge.

There was no influx of emergency room patients suffering from gunshot wounds.

It's like the gun control people lie.

I know!  I, too, was shocked.

Testing

Florida, at present, is not testing anyone who isn't showing symptoms.

Just under 10% of those showing flu like symptoms are showing up positive for Wu Ping Cough.

We're managing to increase the number of tests at about the same rate the disease is spreading?

That doesn't taste right.

I think it's showing the same thing Diamond Princess was showing, most people aren't going to get it and most with it don't show symptoms while spreading it around.

Eventually, they're going to get around to testing everyone who wants tested regardless of symptoms and I think we're going to see a massive surge in positives that will drop the CFR through the deck.

Or it might not, there's a lot of old people with health problems in the state.

This Is A Bit Less Sunny

That's an impressive spike in reported illnesses.

SIGH.

Off By An Order Of Magnitude

Only 10% of cases have been tested?

Not surprised.

But it's, in an odd way, good news.

If there's ten times as many cases, then the case fatality rate is 1/10 too.

That brings it in line with everyday, normal flu and we can get back to our lives and unfuck the economy.

Conduct Unbecoming

Mr Giddings has graced the comments here before.

I'm too hot headed to deliver the kind of rebuttal that Mr Harrell dishes out.

It's long, very long, but the payoff is totally worth it if Mr Giddings has shit on you.

Living In The Future

It just hit me that ripping off 16 frames to get one so-so picture of a bat in flight is something that most people wouldn't have done back in the days of film.

First off, it's half a roll of film.

Second, only the pros had the motor drive to fire rapid fire like that.

Me?  It's only electrons and there's over 11k exposures on that 128gb card.

The battery will die long before I run out of storage.

That's kinda nifty.

It All Makes Sense Now

It's as good an explanation as any I've read.

Time To Relax

I even managed to get some Earth-shine.

The M50 and the EF-S don't communicate auto-focus well at or near infinity.

I also discovered that my camera has a full-auto switch.

I ripped off 16 exposures to get this, sort of, OK pic of one of the local bats flittering around.  Program mode and auto-ISO with manual focusing.

Almost As If They Were Waiting On More Data

More and more scientists who actually deal with things like viruses and epidemics are coming forward and sounding more like my hopeful ass than Gloom and Doom Greek Poet and the panic mongers who're repeating him like he knows what he's talking about.

For example, Stanford biophysicist and Nobel laureate Michael Levitt said this week, “The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be.”
Last week, Levitt emphasized: “[Y]ou need to think of corona like a severe flu. It is four to eight times as strong as a common flu, and yet, most people will remain healthy and humanity will survive.”

 -- Oxford Epidemiologist: Here’s Why That Doomsday Model Is Likely Way Off

And this:

The Oxford research suggests the pandemic is in a later stage than previously thought and estimates the virus has already infected at least millions of people worldwide. In the United Kingdom, which the study focuses on, half the population would have already been infected. If accurate, that would mean transmission began around mid-January and the vast majority of cases presented mild or no symptoms. 

-- New Oxford study suggests millions of people may have already built up coronavirus immunity

We're Wondering

Marvyn has had a dry cough for a few weeks (months?) now.

It started before the scare and it's been irritating him.

Last night we were hanging out on the back porch and wondering if he's managed to catch a mild case of it.

The cough is his only symptom.

We're old enough, now, to know how our bodies react to the familiar seasonal diseases.

He's saying that he's not feeling all the other things that normally come with a cough and a cold or flu.

Now I'm starting to wonder if what appeared to be an exceptionally bad allergy season isn't a case too.

If my wild speculation that it's been here since December, then having a case shouldn't be surprising.

We're not panicking, we're curious.

We're also not going to waste a test package without more definite symptoms until said packages become more freely available.

With Little Else To Do

Watching Babylon Berlin.

It's quite good, but I need to pay a lot of attention to it in order to follow it.

It's in German, so I am reading most of it.

Interestingly it's also dusting off some synapses laid dormant.

When I left Stuttgart and the Army, I had a working knowledge of German.

About 15% of the dialog I am not reading.  I'll be curious to see if I'm reading it at all in a few episodes.

Safety Third

Stolen from Erin's Facebook page.

Mike – I just re-watched your Safety Third special on DVD. Genius. Couldn’t help but wonder your current take, since you and 7 million of your neighbors in the Bay Area have been ordered to “shelter in place.” What do you think? Is it unreasonable to wonder if this is all a giant overreaction?
Greg Marsh

Hi Greg –
It’s true. I’ve been sent to my room for the next three weeks. And yes, I do have some thoughts on the length of my sequestration, and the role of safety in the age of coronavirus.
For the uninitiated, I coined the expression “Safety Third” back in 2008, during an episode of Dirty Jobs. It was a smart-ass way for me to challenge the ubiquity of those Safety First banners, and debunk the popular notion that safety was always the most important thing on the job site.
After years of Safety First indoctrination, and a front row seat to it's unintended consequences, “Safety Third,” became a slightly subversive way for my crew and I to remind each other that our safety was in fact, our responsibility, and that no amount of compliance could ever keep us out of danger. Safety, I argued, was not a value to be “ranked,” but rather, a state of mind to be maintained. Thus, “Safety Third” became an hour-long special that stirred up a great deal of conversation around personal responsibility, risk equilibrium, and the unintended consequences of ranking Safety above everything else.
Which of course, is precisely what our leaders are doing right now.
Today, in the name of safety, the United States of America has been shut down. Which brings me to your question – are we overreacting?
I honestly don’t know. I’m not an expert, and I’m in no rush to be labelled a “virus denier.” But I am concerned that the medicine we’re prescribing might turn out to be more deadly than the virus we’re trying to kill – especially if we don’t know the criteria by which we can re-emerge from our bunkers. And I’m not alone.
Here’s a rather remarkable article I saw this morning, by a medical professor at Stanford named John Ioannidis. http://bit.ly/2QvjsWv
I think it’s vital to read and consider every word. It’s a measured, data-driven analysis of what we’re doing based on the actual evidence at hand. As the headline reads, Dr. Ioannidis believes we are making monumentally impactful decisions without reliable data. Measures this draconian, he argues, demand a lot more evidence than what we’ve seen so far.
Is he right? Beats me. But he is a very respectable doctor at a very respectable institution with some very respectable credentials.
Here too, is another article offers some context from the situation in Italy, which most of the headlines do not. http://bit.ly/2Qtva40
Apparently, 99% of those who died over there, suffered from a myriad of pre-existing conditions. Are we looking at similar numbers over here? Are 99% of those who die from this virus already sick? How many here would have succumbed if this were just a really bad flu season, and how would their deaths be reported on the news?
Again, I don’t know. But I do know that recessions and depressions can impact a country in ways no less catastrophic than a pandemic. And we are most assuredly headed for both, if we continue to operate from a “Safety First” state of mind. Because “Safety First” is never a long-term solution.
For instance, after 9/11, we grounded all the planes for a while, because we needed some time to understand what the hell was going on. And, because we were terrified by an enemy we didn’t understand. But soon, we grew weary of being scared. We introduced new protocols to eliminate as much of the risk as we could and got back to the business of living.
Back in 1939, when London was being bombarded every single day, Britons were understandably terrified. They spent their days and nights in air raid shelters, hoping and praying the German bombs didn’t fall on them. Then, after a few weeks of unrelenting terror, they too, got bored with being scared. They reopened the shops. They reopened the schools. Even as the bombs fell on them, Britons adjusted to a new set of circumstances, and got back to the business of living. Why? Because safety was no longer first.
But this too, is part of the problem. We are being bombarded everyday with facts and information with extreme urgency but no context. Imagine for a moment, if the millions of automobile accidents in America were reported on with the same frenzied, up-to-the minute drama as each new virus infection? Imagine if all 40,000 annual automotive fatalities from those accidents, were announced in the same fashion as every virus fatality. Would any of us ever drive again?
To repeat, I don’t know if we’re overacting, but the manner in which the information is being disseminated suggests the situation is already catastrophic. Is it? According to Dr. Ioannidis, we’re treating a virus that MIGHT have devastating consequences, in a way that will GUARANTEE devastating consequences.
Personally, as an avowed non-expert with a large Facebook following, I do think a temporary shutdown makes sense, while we gather more information and answer some pressing questions. Who exactly does this affect? How exactly is it passed? Can you develop an immunity? Does it mutate and if so, how often? And of course, it's worth repeating that the lockdown wont work unless everyone participates, which is easier to do in Wuhan than it is during Spring Break in this country. Consequently, people are arguing over which is worse - hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, or another Great Depression. Unfortunately, I think that misses the point. I think the worst-case scenario, is both.
Consider this from Dr. Michael Osterholm, who’s quickly becoming one of the most respected voices in this space.
“This is not going to be like a blizzard,” he said, “this is a “coronavirus winter. It will last for months and months. A lot of people have made a decision to cancel events, large meetings, schools, etc., but what they haven't thought about is what it means if they make the decision to do this now. Tens of thousands of healthcare workers have kids in school. What will that do to their ability to care for the sick? Who will watch their kids?”
Remember, this is the man whose been telling us for years exactly what’s coming. And he’s been right at every turn. But he’s also telling us that shutting down the whole country for long periods of time is not the answer.
“How exactly, do you unring that bell?" he wonders. "If you put these closures into place now, with no criteria, how do you in August, September, or whatever, say OK, we're no longer going to do this anymore? If you didn't quarantine with criteria, what’s your criteria for getting back to normal?”
As I wrote the other day, it feels to me like America is going through the five stages of grief at varying speeds. Some of us are still in denial, some are angry, some are bargaining, some are depressed, some have accepted some version of the reality in which we currently find ourselves, and all of us are trying to keep up with the latest information which is bombarding us from all sides. The evidence is obviously sparse, but it would be a mistake in my view, to not treat this thing very, very seriously. If our hospitals become overrun with virus victims, the rest of the population will have no healthcare system at all. But, it’s equally dangerous to think that a long-term shutdown is the answer.
I don’t say this lightly. I have two elderly parents solidly in the “at risk” group, and believe me, I want to do all I can to protect them. But I also know that Safety First is no way to live indefinitely. We are at base, a Safety Third nation. We can’t remain in the air raid shelter indefinitely – if we do, they’ll be no country left, when we finally emerge.
Anyway Greg, your question is not at all unreasonable.
I just wish I had a better answer.
Mike

Recovery

Despite various forces trying to keep us panicked and alarmed, and thus needing rescue.

The grocery store has many things in stock it lacked just two days ago.

I was able to get hamburger, for example.

The stores were putting limits on some high demand items, like flats of bottled water and paper goods.

The store manager indicated that those limits would be imposed from now until this lifts to prevent the panic clean-outs from becoming cyclical.  She also said that there was no returns allowed on those same items.

Feel Good Story Of The Year

God bless America!

Not every heroine wears a cape.  Some wear almost nothing at all.

Subtitle: Calm The Fuck Down

The Elephant and the Cat

h/t Irish

I am coming of a mind to grab a tinfoil hat and wonder if this was hyped by the Chinese to make us panic and stab our economy in the guts.

Especially so since our supposed "free" press has parroted whatever Beijing has told them to say; and was obvious about it when Xi Jinping got upset that everyone was using the traditional naming system for a new disease.

Counterpoint to the linked article: We panicked because we didn't have much data to go on when it hit our shores.

Why would we panic?  Because the data we got was unreliable.  China outright lied to us.  Italy was unable to tell the truth because of systemic failures of its reporting system.

Then there was "our" own press.  Eager to make the president look bad at any cost, they screamed 'FIRE' in our crowded theater.

Self proclaimed experts chimed in and fanned the embers until people reacted as if there was a fire.

Quote Of The Random Interval

While statistics are useful in arriving at informed decisions concerning immediate and future actions; what has happened in the case of CORVID-19 is that all of the current actions being taken, as well as all future actions, are based upon future projections based almost exclusively on worst case fantasies. Most of which are not supported by the history of similar diseases.

We do not burn down our houses if a small termite infestation is detected. We do not nuke our cities if a riot breaks out. We do not execute people for stealing a loaf of bread. So, what we have here is an outbreak of a novel disease, which closely akin to various strains of influenza, which appeared on the scene approximately 3 months ago. During this time, we have a about 700 deaths from COVID, 1/30th the number of deaths from seasonal flu in 2019-2020. Yet, we have not shut down the nation and our economy over annual flu deaths, even when the death rate is 2-3 times what it is today. So, one has to go beyond the numbers and look at WHY our leaders are doing what they are doing, in this case. It is obviously not based upon saving lives, or we would have seen the same actions in several similar outbreaks in the past as well as the annual death rate from influenza. So, it seems that a reset might be in order, including the revocation of restrictions which destroy businesses and the the economy, while we gather actual figures illustrating exactly what we are dealing with.

Mac45 in the comments here.

I Have Experience Here

A decent amount of my time as a draughtsman was in water treatment.

Waste water treatment.

If you don't have TP and cannot wipe, or must wipe with something else...

Don't flush it.

You're most likely to clog your own sewer line and incur the expense of a plumber to fix it for you.

If you get lucky and your shredded shirt makes it to the lift-station or sewer plant: you have just fucked your neighborhood and/or community.

If you don't have TP, take a shower.

Yes, it's kinda gross, but it's not as bad as you're imagining and you get cleaned and don't fuck up the infrastructure.

It'd be better if you used a bidet from a water consumption perspective, but you didn't think ahead for TP, so I know you didn't think ahead on a bidet.

Diversion

Steve Jackson Games has a pre-order for what looks to be an entertaining and simple dice game.

Gelatinous.

I've pre-ordered.

If it sucks, I get a passel of d6...

I Don't Have The Math

There was once a time when I could have calculated this...

763 infected (9,338 tested) on the 21st and 1,412 (15,547 tested) today.

The number of detected cases doubled and the number of tests administered went up by 50%.

This is reminding me of something from stats and it's tickling the back of my memory, but not revealing itself.

There's 21.5 million people in Florida.  0.072312% of the population has been tested.

0.00657% of the population has been found to have the Wu Ping Cough.

0.00008% of the population has died.

Yet... we're locked down.

In the 24 days we've been panicking about this, 18 people have died from it in Florida.  Current CFR in Florida is 1.27%.  It was 1.38% yesterday.  1.29% on Sunday.  1.57% on Saturday.  1.95% on Friday.  2.08% on Thursday.  2.44% on Wednesday.  3.24% a week ago.

THAT'S GOOD NEWS THAT'S BEING REPORTED BUT NOT EMPHASIZED!

As we get more people tested and more cases located the CFR keeps falling.  Although predictions about the future are especially hard, I think we're going to see that trend continue.

And the reason for it is that it was already out because China actively lied about it, suppressed information about it and we had two months of unfettered travel from the point of origin to the US and our tourist spots during a major Chinese holiday which brings them in droves.

I predict that we actually have about 3,655,000 cases with 2,924,000 not showing symptoms and the rest saying, "this must just be the flu" out of denial or hope because their symptoms don't seem that bad.

For the record, CFR for my back of the envelope estimate is 0.00049%.  Trivial.

Where'd I get my number?  Population of Florida times 17% which is the percentage who seem to get it in uncontrolled spaces.

We had three months for it to spread before anyone noticed and did anything.

So it's everywhere.

If it's everywhere, then the death rate isn't anything to be frightened of.

The devastation brought on us by shuttering so much business will be far worse and already is.

ILI Oh My

With approximately 14,000 people traveling from mainland China per day before the travel ban kicked in, and the Wu Ping Cough being active starting in December 2019...

Our current lock down and bad-lawmaking opportunity is closing the barn door after the horses have escaped and been slaughtered for dog food.

When you also grab the CDC's numbers for influenza like illnesses; a strong case can be made that it's been here since late December and we're on the down-slope side.

Downslope with a bit of a recent uptick.  I also noticed that uptick corresponds to a cold snap up north (could be nothing though).

There's nothing to make me think that it hasn't been out there for three months longer than we were Doing Something® and that it's been not very severe in the face of it.

What we've been seeing is a massive uptick in changing "It's like the flu, but it's not the flu" into "It's this new one from China."

It might be cynical of me, but could the reason for the panic be that the most affected are also the most votingest demographic?

UPDATE: Another explanation for the recent uptick is this is the number of reported influenza like illnesses.  With people in full follow-the-herd-off-the-cliff panic, they're heading for the doctor instead of just curling up with Nyquil and Netflix.

Analog Kindle

Willard accidentally ordered two copies of Ian McCollum's new book.

After deciding that while he could hold one in each hand, he could not read two at the same time.

Thus he has bequeathed his second copy to me!

It's pretty cool and it looks excellent from a brief thumbing through.

What About 10 Yards?

Beans, in comments, mentions that 10 yards is more suitable for 16 and 20 gauge.

Does moving from 75 to 30 feet change things enough in GURPS you'd consider leaving the 12ga in the safe?

Givens: DX 10, 2 points into Guns/TL8 (Shotgun) = skill of 11.

Acc 3.

Firing 2 shots.

12ga RoF of 18 so +4 to hit.
16ga RoF of 24 so +4 to hit.
20ga RoF of 36 so +5 to hit.

10 yards gives -4 to hit.

After aiming we get an 14 to hit with 12ga and 16ga and 15 to hit with 20ga.

On average, the 12 and 16 will score 5 hits each and 20 will land 6 hits.

5 hits of 1d+1 pi from a 12ga gives 10-35 damage, average of 22.5.
5 hits of 1d+1(0.5) pi- from a 16ga gives 2-15 damage, average of 8.75.
6 hits of 1d(0.5) pi- from a 20ga gives 0-15 damage, average of 7.5.

7 points of damage is nothing to sneeze at, but it's not a one stop shot on the average 10 HP mook.
This is also illustrative of why round lead balls fell out of favor.  Bullet shaped bullets have more mass for the same diameter.  Not so easy to get them pointed in the right direction in a shotgun though...

I should also emphasize that shotguns are kind of broken in GURPS, especially as the shot size gets smaller.  Everything but 12ga 00 buck is calculated from some other stat.

1d-5(0.2) pi- is the least possible amount of damage a pellet can do, and that starts as soon as you hit small shot.

Blip Counterpoint

The Great State of Florida.

Home of Florida-Man.

1,007 active cases of Wu Ping Cough.

13 deaths.

That means the CFR is presently running 1.3%.

Out of a population of 21.5 million people (not counting our snowbirds and tourists) a whopping 11,270 people have been tested.

The "what we don't know" is still looming large in the room.

But I am on the side that thinks that, thanks to Chinese lies, it's really been spreading since early December.

That would mean that way more people than 1,007 have been exposed and either caught it, or not, and very few have shown enough symptoms to bother to get checked.

We're not out of the woods, by any means, but I am thinking that shutting down the state might have been a massive overreaction.

The kind of massive overreaction that our "friends' Aesop and Peter both prayed hard for.

I hope that Dante was right.

Is 20ga A Good Choice?

In GURPS!?!

Shotgun damage in GURPS is based on what a 00 buckshot pellet can do.

This is 1d+1 pi from a 12ga 2-3/4" shell.  Everything gets adjusted from this exemplar.

9 pellets of 1d+1 pi is also very effective especially since a pump shotgun can fire two per turn.

There's a problem for smaller gauges.

Genuine buckshot doesn't tier into neat layers and thus doesn't pattern well at all.

16ga 2-3/4", for example, the largest shot is #1 Buck.  GURPS doesn't consider this to be "buck" but "bird".  Thus it gets a (0.5) armor divisor and a pi- size modifier.

You do get 12 pellets at 1d+1(0.5) pi-, but that's not really making up for the lost damage against 12ga.

For 20ga the biggest sphere of lead is #2 Buck in 3".  You get 18 pellets doing 1d (0.5) pi- for your effort.

Express in more "concrete" terms.

A single pellet of 00 buck will do 2-7 points, averaging 4.5 to the body of an unarmored target.
#1 buck does 0-3 and averages 1.75.
#2 does 0-2 and averages 1.25.

If we assume our DX 10, average shotgunner has put 2 points into their Guns/TL8 (Shotgun) then they have a skill of 11.

Acc is typically 3.

Firing 2 shots from their pump shotgun...

12ga is lobbing a RoF of 18 so +4 to hit.
16ga is throwing RoF of 24 so +4 to hit.
20ga is slinging RoF 36 for a +5 to hit.

25 yards seems a fair range for all of them, and that's -7 to hit.

After aiming we get an 11 to hit with 12ga and 16ga and 12 to hit with 20ga.

On average, the 12 and 16 will score 2 hits each and 20 will land 3 hits.

On average the 12 will score 9 damage, 16 and 20 will score 3.  That (0.5) armor divisor sucking 1 hit off each pellet is a "killer" here then dividing what penetrates by two because of small piercing...

Smaller gauges suck in GURPS.

Of note:  #10 bird (GURPS Smallshot) tungsten pellets doing 1d-5(0.2) pi- and hitting with as few as three is auto-death for turkeys.  Turkey's and other small critters must have practically no hit-points.

Transition Complete

Got magazine pouches for my "advanced" body armor; aka AR500 Testudo gen2.

Moved most of the tacticool stuff from the 5-11 Tactical Purse to the plate carrier as well.

Ready for zombies or for a 2-gun armor division.

Playing around I discovered that the M4 style stock is far better than the fiberlite style while wearing the plate carrier.  I like the looks of it less, but can't deny it works better.

Also: the sun came out and kinda ruined some of my pics, I might retake them when the shadow of the garage falls on my little table.

Update:

39.2 lb. with water in the canteen. 

Two Day Blip

The rate of increase in tested and reported cases has gone from doubling every two days to doubling every three!

It's not much, but it's positive news.

I don't think it's possible to overstate that this also coincides with a massive increase in testing.

We're not just checking people who're obviously very sick.  We've started to test people who've come forward thinking they're sick.

These are good signs and I'm as shocked as anyone to discover that I'm an optimist.

Tree Frog

Someone was interested in the insects stirred up by our having a fire.

Too Soon To Celebrate

But I will mention it anyways.

The number of infections in Florida had been doubling every two days.

Yesterday that appeared to slow slightly and if it continues, it's down to doubling every three days.

The reason this is very positive is the amount of testing has increased a great deal.

Increased testing and a slowing of the rate of increase is excellent news.

Fingers crossed that it's not a blip but a trend.

Not Necessarily Comparable

Let's all wet our pants about how bad this has been in Italy.

Done?

Stop for a second and ask why it's so much worse in Italy than Korea?

Why is it so much worse in Italy than on Diamond Princess?

What about what makes Italy so much worse is also present in The United States?

If you don't have the answer to all three things then you don't really know how bad it will be here.

Do I think some parts of the US are going to get as bad as Italy?

I think California is.  They were severely strained before this and didn't need the extra load on the system.

I don't think Florida is going to get that bad for most of the state, but God's Waiting Room down in Broward/Miami-Dade has nearly all the cases.  The demographics are very similar to Diamond Princess.

Hope for Diamond Princess.

Actually, I think we're going to do much better than Diamond Princess because we're less on top of each other for the most part.

There's a lot of people in the media yelling 'FIRE!' into the crowded theater, and a couple of bloggers who just fucking jerking themselves off that this is the end times and BY GOD! they were right!  This time, for sure, they promise.

Not that it matters, if they were the experts at this they claim they are, we'd all have died of ebola already.

Note that we have not died of any calamity they've predicted was an absolute certainty.

Cull them from your reading list until this is over and you should probably stop bothering with the folks who're linking to them as well.

They don't mean you well and are happier than a pig in shit to be spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Further Panic

The hot commodity at the gun shops today were 9mm handguns and 20ga shotguns.

Lots and lots of first time buyers filling out their very first 4473 and learning about the state's waiting period.

Ammo is, of course, getting scarce again.

Return To Panic

The second wave of panic buying has moved through my area.

I think because this is many folk's payday.

SIGH

We've decided to support a couple of the local eateries with delivery orders because we want them to be there when this is over.

Not Data But How To Interpret It

TLDR: There are too many variables which are unknown at this time to determine the case fatality rate of COVID-19.

Zoom

While I haven't had the AR500 Tetsudo out to play yet.

The rest of it is my go-bag and what's been to two carbine classes.

I rag on such classes being mandatory and considering them to be the only way to learn the material.

I think of these classes like the Navy thinks of TOPGUN.  They're not training A pilot to be a master dogfighter.  They're creating a teacher who goes back to the fleet and their squadron to pass the information on.

Yes, thinking of it that way breaks the gun-dojo secret arts model.

Such classes are great fun, and if you can convince someone else to pay for them, they're even more enjoyable.  I am not sure I really learned much, but I got to practice.  Practice is never wasted.

I certainly learned that I am definitely low-speed, high-drag thanks to the gimpy leg.  Oddly this made me do better than some because I naturally don't move as fast.  I think it made me more careful about the shooting part to make up for the moving part being much slower.

Friend who paid asked to be anonymous, place we went had given him a "friend" discount so, likewise, didn't want us bragging about that.

Not that you've ever heard of them.  Just another veteran making a buck from stuff they learned as a grunt.

But that's not what hit me.

I take good care of my guns.  Even so, Kaylee is showing honest wear.  Little nicks and scratches.  Finish being worn off the high spots.  Small accumulations of range crud that were somehow missed in the last clean-up.

She'd prolly look worse if I had not changed the furniture and barrel several times.

It's also interesting to me that after all those swaps...  The USGI M4 stuff is what turned out to be the most comfortable.

Cases Doubling

While I sit here, at home, with my loving family...

In between wondering if that rafter can take my weight because we LOVE each other SO much... j/k

Not one news outlet is even allowing for increased testing is the reason for the increasing numbers of cases than an actual increase in cases.

We're transitioning, as kits become available, from testing the deathly ill only to testing anyone with severe symptoms, to testing anyone with mild symptoms, to testing anyone who asks to testing everyone.

In Florida we're someplace between testing mild symptoms and volunteering to be tested.

It's scarcity of the kits so far that's causing them to be rationed.

When manufacture of kits hits high gear, I expect a massive spike in the number of infected and a sudden, "wow, hardly anyone who's caught this has actually gotten sick, let alone died from it," realization.

I Think I Have A New Hero

Aesop has been out being Aesop.

Someone else pays attention to him and replied to Bustedknuckles

Which Aesop? The one that when everyone else was saying, “This doesn’t look good, guys” was calling everyone a bunch of chicken littles, except not as nice? Or the one that’s running around like Kermit the Frog with his head on fire?
Seriously, back when the rest of us were going only on what was (or wasn’t) coming out of Com China, and were extrapolating that the ChiComs were taking it in the short and curlies, and that bad things were possibly coming (like most all flus) from China to the rest of the world and that we need to secure our preps and our shores from diseased Joe Chinamen and people traveling from China and that quarantining, like what President Trump enacted, needed to be enacted, Mr. Aesop of the magic medical background was calling us a bunch of worry-worts.
Then he went all into panic mode, at the time the rest of us were going… hmmm, not seeing the spread into the real world like what we’ve seen and extrapolated from what ChiCom has allowed to get out.
South Korea? Handled it, handled it quite well. Japan? Same. Hong Kong? Same same. Macao? Same same same.
Italy, where a bunch of Joe Chinamen from Wuhan suddenly flew to before ChiCom shut down? F. u. u. u. u. u. c. k. e. d.
But… One of the Flu Cruise quarantine ships, in a closed environment, with tons of old people (because, really that’s who takes cruises) only has shown, in possibly the most perfect of flu environments, a fatality of 0.5% or less.
At the time that we, the US of A, are curb stomping stupidity, tossing money at vendors like a groom at a strip club, now using manufacturing parameters for making bullets and beans during wartime on manufacturing medical stuffs.
Aesop? Yeah, nah.
Seriously. If you live in a democratic poop-pile and are an old person trapped in a nursing home, yeah, you have a chance of contracting and dying of Corona-Chan just as you would, maybe even less than you would, as you have of contracting and dying of seasonal flu.
Chill. Take reasonable precautions. Enjoy the death of Globalism one cough and one death at a time.
We’ll economically take it in the shorts for 3-6 months, and then come roaring back gangbusters as wuhan recovery takes over.
Seriously. Chill. Wait. Enjoy. Watch all the sheeple, enjoy the blatting of the dems, and relax.

--The Other Other Andrew

Aesop's a massive dick about just about everything and a half decent troll.

He also has a large number of people who read his site and have bought into it.

Relisted

Magpul has restored the PMAG-30 AK/AKM Gen M3 to its website!

I'm not sure the steel inserts are worth the extra scratch, but I am happy that it remains in production.

Measuring Social Distance

Stay one Mosin-Nagant kiv/91 with bayonet away from others at all times.

FUD Isn't Just Refering To A Particular Kind Of Gunowner

Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.

It's a thing.

There's more actual data that escapes China, to their great personal risk, because Xi appears to be a great admirer of the Clinton method of silencing opponents.

There's actual data coming from South Korea.

There's actual data from the controlled experiment of the Diamond Princess.

You know what?

They all pretty much agree that hardly anyone is going to catch this.

Like 80 to 90 percent don't catch it.

Then there's the 80 to 90 percent who catch it and don't show any symptoms at all.

Then, of the 10-20 who catch it and show symptoms...  80 to 90 percent don't need professional care at all; let alone begin to strain ICU's.

The bad news, if you DO need the ICU there's a moderately large number who're going to be dying despite best efforts.  Like 3%.  That doesn't seem high, but it's huge for today's modern medicine.

That might be why people who work in healthcare are so entirely Debby Downer about this.

It doesn't explain why they seem to want everything to go off the rails so fervently though.

Compatible

There's been some mention of "why I'm no longer a Libertarian".

Miguel has an epic rant about John Stossel and price gouging.

Stossel is provably correct that gouging is precisely how a free market works and how it signals demands against supply.

The core of Miguel's rant is that it's unseemly to take advantage of people when they're most vulnerable.

I agree.

He made mention of the Cajun Navy who took their little boats out and saved lots of people in the floods and how admirable that was and how there were libertarians saying, "they should have charged them for the rescues."

I have news for the Libertarians: Charity is not incompatible with Libertarianism!

Nor does being a Libertarian mandate you have to be a prick about things (though you'd never know it from talking to some of them.)

The thing about gouging...  There's a technical term for it.

Arbitrage.

Which is better:  No generators at any price or a few at extortionate pricing?

Which is better: No incentive to help past your generosity or a strong financial incentive?

The core of the price signaling argument that Stossel was making, and might have needed more explanation for the layman, is if you let people gouge; it encourages more people to bring in items from a market where they're cheap and available to one where they're unavailable and now expensive.

Remember, the risk of traveling to a place where such generosity is merited is non-zero.

Arbitrage.

It might be unseemly to do it, but it might also do more good than harm in the longer run.

Allowing gouging might also penetrate a common psychological blindspot.  There's people who don't prep because reasons.  A substantial number of them, however, would prep if they had an example where it was 10x as expensive after the shortage than before; but wouldn't if they knew shortage was maintained because of anti-gouging.

Yes, that attitude is stupid; but people tend to be.

G&D Continued

One of them is in the comments at several blogs.

He's dismissing the positive data because it doesn't support his forgone conclusion of worst case being what will happen, for sure this time.

While he appears to have a lot of readers and supporters, and he puts on the appearance of sound methodology...

He's managed to accurately predict the outcome of exactly zero epidemics so far.

Remember folks, when claiming you're using science to make predictions your hypothesis MUST be in full agreement with all available data.

If your hypothesis is not falsifiable, then it's invalid.

If your hypothesis ignores any relevant data, then it's invalid.

If someone is pushing an invalid hypothesis, then ignore them.

Odds are their bias is infecting other areas too and you probably shouldn't trust those ideas either.

Hmmm...  Come to think of it, this particular case failed to identify cause and effect with regards to open carry being banned in a few cases.

Update:

I notice that he comments at opinion places, like here, and is very confrontational.  He's completely absent from science blogs dealing in facts and data and have scientists debating the merits of the claims.

Almost as if he knows he can bully less accredited people into submission by making claims as to his employment as an "expert" rather than by the merit of his argument.

What's Your Blood Type

Fox News posted this.

Your blood type could be a risk factor?

The numbers in the article show that having A makes you more likely to catch it and more likely to die if you do.

O is less likely to catch it and less likely to die from it once caught.

Small sample size disclaimer, of course.

What this doesn't say, which people will read anyway, is having Type A is a death sentence and having Type O is immunity.

Doom And Gloom Patrol

If a site you're reading never has anything good to say...

You're prolly wasting your time with them.

They're biased to see the world at its worst and will do everything they can to make you join them in their despair.

Don't.

There's being prepared for the worst and acknowledging it can happen.

Then there's dismissing any positive news out of a desperate hope that they get to be RIGHT!®™© this time (for sure).  They're cheering on the bad news as hard as they can.

Serious

The Lovely Harvey, seeing that Kaylee is out and Mollie Bean put away, "Shit just got serious."

Kaylee is the SHTF EOTWAWKI carbine.  Fresh batts in the Aimpoint.

Tactical purse and body armor nearby.

Seals cut on box of Zombie ammo.

Metal

I participated in buying gun stuff I don't need because...

Well because wanna.

I bought me a couple of the Magpul PMAG-30 AK/AKM Gen M3 mags.

You can have any color you want, as long as it's black.

They are a tight fit in both the AK's I have here.

The only difference from a PMAG-30 AK/AKM MOE is the color of the follower and, in this case, the color of the body.  Oh and the Gen M3 has metal locking surfaces.

Again, I have not found anyone complaining about either Magpul AK mag except for damaging the feed lips by dropping them.  Normally it's simple to find out what's wrong with something because everyone complains.  I have not found anyone who's broken off the locking tab of the all-plastic MOE version.

The Gen M3 is more expensive and slightly heavier than the MOE.  $25 vs $14 and 7.4 oz vs 6.6 oz.

Additionally, the black really changes the look over our DIY "bakelite" orange.

Something To Be Optimistic About

Am I the only one who noticed that all of the movers and shakers of the gun control world are all in the highest risk age group for Wuhan Flu?

See?  Every cloud has a silver lining.

A Bit Of Chest Thumping

Over on my real-name facebook account...

A buddy posted that if you don't own a firearm, you are just buying groceries for someone who does.

I counter that if you do own a firearm and have no will for violence, you've just bought a gun for someone who has.

If you're unwilling to pull the trigger when someone pulls a knife, you've brought nothing to a knife fight.

This thing called will is really the core of what the pro-gun side has been saying for decades.  It requires a person to take an action to work.

Firearms are neither talisman or deodand.

They're simply tools.

Fatality Rate Of COVID-19

You only know the CFR of a disease once you know the total number of infections against deaths.

Since COVID-19 presents as a mild case of "the flu" for 80% of the confirmed cases, it's very likely that a much higher percent of the infected aren't seeking any kind of professional treatment at all.

That will mean they will not be counted in the total number of infections and that will make the disease appear to be more lethal than it is.

This is also why it's difficult to compare it to The Spanish Flu, MERS, SARS, Swine Flu and Asian Flu.  For all of those, nearly everyone who caught it got sick enough that calling a doctor seemed prudent; thus a more accurate count of the number of infected is made.

It's still way too soon to see how deadly this disease was.

Dare To Win

I skim history.

That means that I know a lot more than most people, who never bother with it at all.

That also means I don't know hardly a thing compared to people who really study history.

So it will be left to that second group to tell me if I'm completely wrong...

It occurs to me that watching Western Civ fail to even slow its decline in the face of just about any confrontation from outside Western Civ that the critical factor is brutality.

Being all civilized about it is an incentive to our fellow Westerners and is perceived as weakness to other cultures.

Perceived weakness is an invitation to further confrontations.

Now, I mentioned I skim history.  I know that Western Civ is just as capable of brutality as any other culture.  It's just we appear to have given it up for an extended Lent.

I wonder which will happen first if our cultural conflicts become undeniably existential: Our opponents become civilized and play by our rule set or we rediscover brutality.

I'm betting on the latter and I'm hedging with "too late".

That Blows

I installed a PCV catch-can last month on The Precious.

It's been on about 2,000 miles so I went to check how much oil had accumulated.

Not much, but some.  Five tablespoons worth?  I didn't have anything to measure it with.

I dumped it back into the engine.

I need to cajole JT into helping me with the SeaFoam intake cleaning and get the crud from all this blow-by removed.

Coffin Mag

Marv found a great deal on an ATI Schmeisser S-60 magazine.

As the name might imply, it's a 60-round magazine.

A 60-round AR magazine.

Fully loaded with S&B 55gr FMJ it tips the scales at 2 lb. 3 oz.  Empty it's 9.5 oz.

Compare that to a loaded PMAG-40 (69gr SMK) at 1 lb. 7.3 oz. or a PMAG-30 (M855) at 1 lb. 1.8 oz.

Two of the Schmeissers have 120 rounds and are 4 lb. 6 oz.
Three of the PMAG-40's have 120 rounds and are 4 lb. 5.9 oz.
Four of the PMAG-30's have 120 rounds and are 4 lb. 7.2 oz.

It's just a teeny bit longer than a PMAG-40:

It's a LOT wider...

He's fired exactly zero rounds through it, so we have no idea how reliable it's going to be.  Stay tuned!

Cleaned Out

The Lovely Harvey reports that the civilized restraint I was seeing yesterday at the stores has evaporated and the panicking herd has decided to buy anything still there.

We're a day behind Alachuastan in cleaning out the stores.  Opposite timing from hurricane panics, those usually run south to north.

I'm half tempted to see if the gun shops have been slammed as well.

It's Official

No new gun control for Florida this session.

All of the bills I listed earlier are showing "withdrawn from consideration".

Happy Dance!

Command Decision

I think that if I come down with Wuhan Corona Virus Novel 19, and get serious sick...

I'm going for the palliative care option.

The Lovely Harvey and The Boy stand to be in good stead should I drop dead.

It's purely a financial decision.

Considering all the things that should have killed me, but for dumb luck, I've been living on bonus time for decades.

I will welcome The Reaper as a friend.  He's been generous with his absence and I see no need to fight Him should He show up with the bill.

Counted

For the first time in my life I got to fill out the census form!

My mother didn't even let me see what they looked like for my first two.

I was transient and didn't even hear about it showing up where I lived for the third.

The next two The Lovely Harvey filled out without me even looking at them.

Not this time!

All 9,000 people living here have been documented!

All members of the Native American Fuchowyee Tribe.

I Just Noticed Something

I think Magpul quietly discontinued the AK PMAG Gen M3 with the metal reinforcements.

They no longer appear on Magpul's web site.

They're on slight discount at Midway and Brownell's and out of stock at a couple other places.

The AK PMAG MOE is still on Magpul's site.

Something I am having a lot of trouble finding is someone with an actual failed AK-MOE magazine.

I've found several people who've cracked a feed lip from deliberately dropping a loaded one on its mouth.  They never mention if it stopped working.  The AR PMAG had this too for a while, and while there were lots of cracked lips, the mags kept running.

I sure can find people dismissing the lack of metal in the AK MOE.

Magpul made a whole new design to mollify them, and apparently didn't sell enough to keep it in production.

Perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough, but it's usually easy to find out if something is utter garbage.

No Ruling

If the second amendment is about hunting, where are all of the Supreme Court rulings striking down unconstitutional restrictions on hunting?

The only mention of hunting I can find from SCOTUS is a case that wasn't about firearms at all, but Indian treaties.

Got Used To That Damn Fast

I'm adjusting my new Mills belt to my tubby belly and I go to see if I can wear my Peacemaker too.

Yup!

No picture because... ashamed of the tubby.

I took off the Mills belt and left the gun belt on and just did my normal stuff in the house.

Took some more pictures.  Measured for new chain on the swing set.

Got ready to go out front to take pictures of the vultures and had a record needle scratch moment...

I was still wearing the SAA.

I had been for a couple hours.

"Wow, I got comfortable with open carrying this thing awfully darn fast!" I thought to myself.

I'd have been perfectly legal open carrying on my own property.  In fact, I was open carrying in my back yard measuring the swing set and taking pictures.  Privacy fences rock!

But out front...  I'd no point to make with the neighbors; no need to cause any alarm.

It was, however very nice.  I wish it were an option that was more available to me.

Someday...

Someday.

Second Party

The neighbors barbequed  over the weekend.

Today is one company's trash day.  Tomorrow is the other's.

I think my neighbor forgot which day.

The local vulture population appreciates this oversight.

Almost Ready To Head Up Kettle Hill

My M1894 Mills patent cavalry pattern cartridge belt arrived today!

I need a new hat and a saber.

...and a horse.  And saddle, and uniform and...

The 1894 Mills belt holds 100 rounds of .30-40 and 12 rounds of .38 Long Colt in double loops.

1 lb. 4.5 oz. empty; 6 lb. 4.1 oz. loaded with all the .30-40 I own.

I don't have an M1892 revolver or any .38 Long Colt ammunition for the pistol loops but, as shown in the picture, lots of volunteer cavalry brought their own sidearms.

Some .38 Special in the pistol loops just for photographic purposes.  No way I could stretch them to .45 Colt, which probably came up in the Philippines.

The infantry pattern of this belt lacks the pistol ammo loops and...

This little loop to hang your M1860 light cavalry saber from.  If issued, I am fairly certain that few, if any, were actually taken to Cuba by the volunteers.  They didn't take their horses either.

The buckle is a wonder of expedient simplicity:

Science Is Not Static

Not that the IPCC was ever about science.

I've long said the important part of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was Intergovernmental and not Climate Change.

Looks like there's some serious science against the IPCC recommendations.

I've long said that the solutions offered by the IPCC favored government, most especially more government control over everyone's daily life, and did nothing to change global warming.

It's long been obvious that the IPCC recommendations favored some nations at the expense of others.  To the point that California could stop all carbon emissions and still see increasing amounts in their air because China is completely unaffected.

Taking this position has cost me a couple of friendships.  I wonder if Anglave bothers to stop by any more.  Probably not.

Considering that, over and over, we're seeing that climate is governed by orbital mechanics and solar activity than by anything man can do.



Watch that video carefully.  How many times have you heard that the reason The Sahara was a desert was because people ruined it?

Maybe, just maybe, the worm is turning and people are waking up.

I sure hope so.

It's Like We're Our Own Nation Or Something

‘The EU Disapproves’: Brussels Angry Trump Acted on Coronavirus Without Their Permission

First off, we don't need your permission to do things.

Actually, that's the whole thing.

I'm kind of happy to watch the nation-state model, a proven model, return.

I am not surprised that they think we need their permission, we've been conceding to their demands for a long time.

PS:

This sort of thing is also a point of friction here in Florida when people from up north retire here.  They firmly believe that the laws they grew up with are still in effect here.

It's doubly bad when we get people from other nations retiring here, or snow-birding.  Canadians, in particular, don't seem to grasp that the US doesn't have the same laws and that each state has far more latitude in making law than their provinces.

Arrows

This book:

Finally stopped being a rare collectible and started being an old book!

$26 shipped instead of hundreds.

It's important to me because it has an entry for the Yugoslavian M60 anti-personnel rifle-grenade.

Willard has talked about these things and encountering them in Rhodesia.  Nice to have a reference source for them.

GURPS stats are coming, you know they are...

Long Delayed Photo Shoot

Willard dropped this rifle off for me to take pictures of just about the same time I broke my PowerShot S5 IS.

I'm two cameras past that now...

I guess it's time to actually take the pictures.

It's, literally, covered in little proof marks.

 

Of note: no lend-lease British proofs on it anywhere.

Prep

When I first moved to Florida the entire idea of "hurricane" just hadn't penetrated my skull.

The first time I was confronted with one that might hit was a bit daunting and we were poor as dirt.

We were literally living check to check with not a penny to spare.

Thus, no prep.

Our neighbor across the street, however, was laying in carloads of food and water.

He, being a friendly sort of neighbor, came over to say 'hi' and asked if we were stocked up.

"Don't need to be," I said, "you bought plenty."

"Why would I share?" he asked, knowing there MUST be a punchline coming.

"Because your wife won't allow a gun in the house.  If you cover us for food, I'll keep the looters off ya."

"Deal!" he says!

I was reminded by this by our local Bernie Bro dropping off his second pick-up load of supplies today.

I am further reminded when I see the renters kitty-corner from him eyeing the unloading.

I know that the Bernie Bro doesn't want me to help, because using a gun to protect mere property is "wrong".

But if the renters become looters, game-on!

Mitigated

The mitigator limitation applied to a disadvantage reduces the point value.

The classic example is bad sight and glasses.

While you're wearing your glasses, your bad sight is mitigated.

A [-25] disad becomes [-10] because you don't have bad sight unless you lose your glasses.

Ultra-Tech and Magic bring to mind other mitigations.

Blindness is a [-50] disad.

The high technology solution would be artificial eyes.  I'm envisioning (pun!) something that needs to be popped out at night and put on a charger to get the mitigation.  Cyberpunk style cyber-eyes are body-powered and count as buying off the disad, not mitigating it.

Wizard eye would be a magic mitigator for blindness.

Oh to have a group to play with.  I have character ideas.

Explain Why Bottled Watter For The Quarantine

I'm watching people freak out over COVID-19 and see them hoarding bottled water.

Are you really expecting the taps to stop working?

Even Wuhan didn't lose power or water during this and they have the worst hit of anywhere.

And they wonder why we call them sheeple.

Wow

For all of the doom and gloom, you'd think that gun control was inexorable and inevitable.

Of all the bills I mentioned here, only one appears, maybe, to be getting the governor's signature.  It's in the started really bad but got neutral as it was amended category.

HB 311 was looking at passing the house when it was "temporarily postponed, on second reading" on 06Mar20.  It's companion, SB 728, was transmitted to the house the same day as passed.  It's now on the special order calendar.

There's a lot of vital business in between this bill and passage, so it could just die on the vine.

The other started really bad but got neutral as it was amended bill: CS/HB 183 has been on the calendar since 07Feb20, but the Senate version SB 1524 has sat, un-looked at since 14Jan20.

Jan 14 was filing day, apparently, because just about every gun control (and one pro-gun) bill just says "Last action: 1/14/2020 (chamber) Introduced (tracking number)".

The "idiocy" of legally open carrying to protest in to the infringed right did not result in SB 634 making it into committee or in the house generating a companion bill.  I was promised that this would be passed!  I guess the idiots aren't as dumb as some people think they are.

The only good bill this session, HB 273, is getting the same consideration as all the horrid ones.  Languishing, ignored, since 14Jan20.

There Goes The Gun Vote

Campaign Manager: "Joe, while you're in Detroit talking to the UAW supporters, stay off gun-control."

Joe Biden: "Hold my beer!"

Mumbles Sniffyourhair manages to alienate both gun owners AND the union rank and file in one expletive filled gaffe.

Keep being you, Joe!

In GURPS Pi = 3

Reminds me of this:



Broadsword is an all encompassing category in GURPS.

Cavalry sabers are broadswords.

Fencing sabers aren't.

No rules distinction is made between a French 1830, US 1840 "heavy" and US 1860 "light" sabers; they are all cavalry sabers on page 66 of Low Tech.

Full Moon Revisted

With this camera and lens combination, you MUST use manual focus to get a sharp image and you MUST get the moon centered well enough to use two steps of "zoom" on the manual focus display.

It will look fine in the wide view, but blurry when you go narrower.

Tonight was a roaring success!

Canon EOS M50 EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II at 250mm, f/5.6, 1/320", ISO 100

Same image cropped.

For the moon, I think smallest ISO, smallest f/ number, play with the shutter until you see what you want on the screen.

I am pleased with this, way more pleased than yesterday's effort.