31 May 2023

Fail

Something that finally connected about the Iowa turret explosion.

Everyone in the barbette died.

Despite all the things in place that were supposed to isolate an explosion to JUST the compartment it happened in, everyone in the barbette died.

The gun room failed to contain the blast from the powder.

The powder trunk failed to prevent the blast from traveling down to the powder handling area.

Those compartments are billed as being able to contain exactly what happened to Iowa in the single gun room where the explosion originated.

Mississippi had had similar explosions, and efforts were made to make later classes less susceptable to total party kills like this.

To no avail, apparently.

Watching Star Wars With Harvey

We just got done with Tales of the Jedi and Obi Wan and have started in on Andor.

It's sparking ideas for Traveller.

Most especially a character who's filthy rich, but doesn't appear to have even a centicredit to his name.

I've played a genuinely dead-broke character before, but never someone faking poverty.

From Both Ends

This years anal probe will include an extra-long probe that will check my esophagus as well.

Or two separate probes, one from each end.

I hope they wash it after having it up my rear...

I made the mistake of admitting that, sometimes, I have trouble swallowing my multi-vitamin.

Also learned today:

Once you're on a cane, you are marked "fall risk" forever.

30 May 2023

Happy Moment

I discovered that JT owns a Hypertech HP Tuner MVPI2.

We confirmed that his software can shut off the DOD on my car, saving a ton of money if I decide to remain sane on my cam selection.

Several people claim that the LS3 cam can be used without changing the tune because it's very similar to the one that comes with the car.

That puts the DOD delete within some judicious saving's reach!

Second he's got a scanner that can read the PID for oil pressure.

35psi at idle with the engine at running temp.  That's excellent!  That's better than the engine in The Precious had.

29 May 2023

Access

Took a pic when it was all apart, Terrapod asked about how hard it was to access.


The last bolt by #7 cylinder was awkward, but not too bad.

For The Fallen

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

Today is not about sales. It is not about summer starting. It is not about grandma.

It's is about those who served and have passed beyond the vale.

I want them all back.

To:

Bernie Canniff (Korea, in a car club together).
Jason Kruzic (a fellow gamer from high school.  He came to an odd end.)
Carol LeFon aka Neptunus Lex (patiently explained both real world and flight sim military aviation to this tanker).
Davy McGuire (COB USS Whale, originally a friend of my Dad's, later me).
Fred Gabow (we served together, his wife hired someone to murder him).
Ian Gates (Comrade in arms to Willard).
Jerry Pournelle (you do read, don't you? Willing to be wrong and listened to my correction!).
Kevin O'Brian aka Hognose (our beloved Weaponsman).
Rabbi (Uncle Ben, another friend of Dad who got me a ride in an F-14A).
Rich Sickels (brother of my Father in law).
Robert Smith (uncle by marriage to Mom's sister).
Standing Bear aka William Dawkins (WW2 and Korea, who taught me gaming).


The world is better that you were in it and worse that you have left.

28 May 2023

Tick Tick Tick Tick

 Had a ticking from somewhere under the hood of The Beast.

Marv thought he heard an exhaust leak from the manifold.

So I ordered parts!

JT came over today to hand-hold socialize with me because I ain't never spun a wrench on no LS motor!

He brought his special-scope stethoscope to make sure it wasn't the manifold to cat-convertor seal.

Confirmed!  #7 was leaking.



The torque values on these single-use bolts is shockingly low.  One pass at 11 ft-lb and a second at 15 ft-lb.

The key her is single-use.  I know from the Sarasota Sheriff's Office's records they did a cam and lifters at 90k and they might have reused these bolts.  The leaking cylinder was nearly finger tight! 

I used new ones.

While I was in there, I replaced the valve cover gasket on that side which was showing signs of seeping.

The tick is gone!  The odd glonk noise at 1200 rpm in 4 cylinder mode at light load is gone too.

All for less than $50 because I have tools and friends who can still hear directionally.

Test drive went well, the driver's information center shows a small increase in mpg and it's MUCH smoother.

Moving The Border

Our next door neighbor has a child much like The Boy.

She recently had an elopement episode and decided to upgrade her fencing.

That included putting a fence between the houses instead of ending the fence at the back of the house.

We'd talked about doing something similar, but there's sewer and water in there we didn't wanna deal with finding accidentally.

The contractors our neighbor hired found the lines and that meant we got to know where they were for free!

So we moved our gate from the back edge of the house to the front edge.

It ended up being not too hard, but that sun was brutal yesterday and the breeze was absent between the houses.

Next week?

Putting a gate in on the OTHER side of the house because we can't get our mower past the air conditioner.

No Inconsistency

I just got done reading someone trying to move the goalposts in an argument about grooming children.

The Leftist brought up the fact that there have been several scandals about priests and reverends grooming kids; therefore The Right is OK with grooming.

Put down the dialectical materials, kid.

The scandal of the church doing grooming was more about their attempt to hide the grooming than the crime of grooming itself.

And there is no inconsistency with condemning LGBT grooming and clerical grooming because it was, and is, being condemned for being the crime it is.

The Right has always condemned grooming, no matter whom, and tenaciously kept at it until some punishment gets meted out.

About the worst you can say about them here is they were slow to acknowledge the crimes had happened because of denial that a trusted cleric could have done such a thing while being quick to believe a drag queen did.

But you might find the speed of belief now is from feeling guilty about not acting faster the first time.

26 May 2023

Harvey's On Fire

Went shooting today!

She doesn't want to jinx it by telling me what she changed until she's done it two sessions in a row, but we're very happy with this group at 7 yards!

I dug out my .38 Super Gov't Model and shot some at 15 yards just to stretch.

That's definitely the limits of my eyesight and a handgun.

I also found out that 124gr JHP +P from Cor-Bon doesn't feed 100% in the Colt.  It was free, so what the heck?

I Already Have The Books

As I do more playing around converting AD&D critters to GURPS 4e I am intensely aware of Wizards of the Coast's epic fail which they are compounding by saying there will be a 20% price increase soon.

As an old grognard, I have everything I need to play AD&D, AD&D 2e, GURPS 3eR, GURPS 4e, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, Traveller, 2300AD, Twilight: 2000, Champions 4e, Warhammer FRP 1e...  Etc.

WOTC, I don't need to ever spend another penny with you to play.

I was never your ideal customer, to be honest, nearly every fantasy world I DM'd was of my own creation and I didn't purchase the ready-made settings.

So if I'm running my own setting, I don't even need your rules to play it because I don't have to worry about my world being compatible with your rules.

I've converted all of those games to GURPS at least once.

I need to break the news to Steve Jackson Games about this too.  Not sure if they noticed that I stopped spending money there when they did their rant about Roe v Wade being killed off.  I'm not even pro-life!

But I don't want politics with my diversions from reality.

So I can play any of the above games without spending another cent with the companies who publish(ed) them.

I'll spend more providing the players with blank character sheets.

That's a long-winded way of saying, "Assholes, you need us (and our money) WAY more than we need you." 

Update: All of the above doesn't even account for a lot of people will just download a pirated version of the rules.  Drive-Thru RPG is great for purchasing many of the old games that are out of print, but there's fuck-all keeping someone from handing out free copies to their players once they've paid for the first set.

FuzzyGeff and I dropping cash on digital copies of Warhammer FRP 1e to start the conversion process to GURPS 4e for Technomad makes us the exception not the rule.  We're making this conversion for someone else who wants to use it without an intent to play ourselves.  Our incentives to pay for the out-of-print rules were low and we still did.  Someone who wanted to play this would have more incentive to steal.

Add in some shithead liberal politics and...  Raise the Jolly Roger, lads!

We Like Our Wind Farms Like We Like Our Undocumented Immigrants

Out of sight and in some other state.

It amuses me that the want to eliminate reliable means of power generation, but aren't willing to have the unreliable plants put where they can see them.

It occurs to me that we could just build a nuke plant some place and TELL the greenies the power is coming from wind or solar.

They're idiots, they'd never know.

We could even make a "device" that lights up a green LED when plugged into a wall socket to show that they're getting "certified" green energy.

DON'T STEAL MY IDEA!  I think I can retire on this!

I am further amused that there are vast wind farms in the midwest that are owned and operated by the company I pay every month for my electricity.  Wind farms that don't supply the local grid at all, they transmit it down here.

25 May 2023

A Waste On So Many Levels


The Clinton legacy keeps on giving.  Link in case the embedd is broke.

Surplus should be made available to any citizen who wants it rather than being destroyed.

I'm even OK with charging the citizens a nominal fee to get it; though the citizens have already paid for it.

But destroying it...

It's being bad custodians of the taxpayer's money.

Lug that shit back to supply at the very least is what we should be doing.

24 May 2023

You Have To Read Them

Florida is racist and homophobic now!

Wait.

No it isn't.

Read the laws.  Yes, I know it's in a not-quite-but-still-related-to-English language that's hard to follow, but worth the time.

What these laws are doing is restoring rights to the parents, where they naturally resided.

They are eliminating teaching that would be considered inappropriate if the same biases were applied to cis-white men.

That's a handy test of appropriateness.

Reverse the race/gender/sex/sexual orientation of any given position and if it becomes racist/sexist/homophobic when it's white/male/straight: then it's bigotry and should not be taught by government employees; let alone by government employees over the objections of voting taxpayers.

Getting bigotry out of the schools is a goal I support, and I mean ALL bigotry.

Just because you're a minority, does not mean you cannot be a bigot.

Especially since it's dangerous to point out your bigotry.  Speaking truth to power is always dangerous, especially when the powerful are bigots against the person so speaking.

The real objection to Florida's laws is it removes power from a small, self-selected, group of bigots and returns it to its rightful masters: The People.

Why Didn't He Go To Canada

 Jimmah refuses to die or leave the news cycle.

I keep hearing about Canada's youth in Asia euthanasia program and can't help but think that a former US president availing himself of the service would sent a positive message for other Democrats to travel North.

Lead by example Jimmah!  Chuck, Dianne and Nancy need you to show them the way!

Non-Indicator

I think that, after dumping thousands of them in Afghanistan, the presence of US-made military vehicles in Russia is not indicative of US support.

At this point I'm doubting that the Ukranians had anything to do with it.

Putin is busy pissing off a lot of internal threats too.

22 May 2023

The True Spirit

NHRA used to stand for National Hot Rod Association.

It's become No Hot Rods Allowed.

Why?

Safety.

It looks bad if you let people die when the duct tape peels off and the car crumples into a ball and the baling wire traps the driver in the fire.

A hot rod organization, in the true spirit of hot rodding, would require a dangerous improvisation or the car wouldn't pass tech.

And people would get hurt in such numbers you'd think race weekend was an ambulance convention.

I've been to car shows and seen a lot of these original cars.

Some things are ingenious, others are terrifying.

Then there's the terrifyingly ingenious...

But then, hot rodding was founded by people who'd just come back from WW2 and found that normal life just wasn't cutting it after getting shot at...

Might Be Interesting

The Democrats are siccing the NAACP on DeSantis.

My governor really scares the shit out of them, don't he?

I think we might just be finding out the real meaning of minority if the nation decides to ignore Klan with a Tan here.

21 May 2023

Wiring Rev 2



I am reminded that I once did this drafting shit for a living.

It was fun to see the scales fall away.

Let's Keep The Guns

Soviet Union 1922-91

20,000,000

Nazi Germany 1933-45

10,500,000

Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1948-present

2,000,000

People's Republic of West Taiwan 1949-present

65,000,000

Warsaw Pact Nations (Combined) 1955-91

1,000,000

Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1975-present

1,000,000

Cambodia 1975-79

3,000,000

Afghanistan 1978-92

5,000,000

Plus various Communist governments in Africa and South America mid 1960's - present.

7,150,000

114,650,000 people dead from being disarmed by their government and having a different opinion from that government.

1.16 million people per year for the past 99 years.

Compared to 18,252 homicides per year from guns; I think we're better off with keeping the guns.

All Without Any Federal Restrictions

The Bath School Massacre killed 44 people, mostly children, and injured 58 more, also mostly children.

In 1927.

Wikipedia mentions he'd bought a gun, but it doesn't appear he shot anyone.

However, with no Federal gun laws to deal with he could have used a machine gun he'd ordered by mail to murder all those people.

The term "assault weapon" had not even been coined.

But he used bombs.

Even though it was never easier in American history to get a gun that'd have worked.

He.  Used.  Bombs.

I know the above is disjointed and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

That's because I'm trying to use the anti-gunner template to make the post and that always gets incoherent.

20 May 2023

Appreciation

Grampa's old rat slayer is apparently valuable now.


It's a '39 made Remington 341 in .22.  Short, Long, Long Rifle?  No matter, just changes the number of shots in the tube.

I remember these things being cheap, nearly throw-away, priced.

Even without the sentimental value, I'd keep it because:

It still shoots really well.  Better than Harvey's much newer 10/22 even.

It baffles me that it's gone from being a tomato spike to a $300 rifle in the brief time I've owned it.

Gasket

I have a small exhaust leak at the driver's side manifold.

I am sure it's costing me some mileage because that bank is showing lean at the O2 sensor, and the noise is irritating.

Gaskets are ordered!  Mahle multi-layer steel for those scoring at home.

The first part I've ordered for the car that didn't have the "Uncommon Australian Car" tax on it.

Oddly these are the same parts The Precious would have used and don't have a Vette tax on them.

Perhaps it's because every LS motor uses this same gasket, including trucks.

It's odd that I'm getting excited about working on the car when everything that broke on The Precious gave a feeling of dread and anger.

The Beast is just different for me.

I think, ultimately, that I was never really a Corvette person.  I like having a back seat.  I like having a cargo compartment that you can't see into.

I miss being able pick what gear I'm in directly, but my poor left knee appreciates the slushbox in stop-and-go traffic.

Asking The Important Questions

2015's documentary "Love the Beast" shows the crash of Eric Bana's Ford Falcon XB in 2007.

He indicated that he'd be fixing it.

I want to know if he's succeeded!

It's been 16 years, for crying out loud.

Ask and ye shall receive!

Looks like he's returned it to being a street car.

The vid is from 2019.

About 413 horses at the rear wheels if you don't speak metric.

Philosophy Conflict

If I farm out a job on my hot-rod that I've otherwise done myself, have I betrayed my philosophy?

The why matters.

If it's because you cannot be bothered to do something because it's tedious, I think yes.

If it's because some other tedious task took too long and Power Tour starts tomorrow, then I think no.

If it's something you can't do and could never reasonably afford to learn how to do, then I think no.  Hardly any rodders can do body work or paint.

I might be a little off base about my condemnation of Mr Smith from the Haggerty article, but Haggerty's is a great place to find people who don't wrench and own hot-rods.

He's a mechanic in a shop that does hot rods and restorations.  Working in a place like that requires skills and time is money.  Farming a job out when the cost of doing it yourself is more than a specialist charges is good business.

As a businessman, he's lost something about being a hot rodder.

There's a reason the "did it myself" is put on a pedestal.

Because too many people have paid for it and assumed the mantle of "hot rodder".

Time is money for a shop and having another shop do that cable means they save some time.  Mostly because a shop doesn't have to down tools and stop working to arrange for the cable place to make the cable and sit around doing nothing until it gets back.

A shop lets that model A sit there while other paid work is getting done.

If you want to see a great example of this in inaction, binge some Car-Wizard videos and pay attention to the cars laying fallow in the background.

A shop gets to keep going while the farming-out occurs.

Depending on if you even have a local place to do that cable could mean the job is stopped for a week or more while you wait for shipping.

But even that ignores the central tenet: Hot Rodding is a hobby.

Hobby's are not meant to save time, and they certainly don't save money.

Putting a '96 Impala SS driveline into a '91 Caprice Classic was a lot more work and about as expensive as buying a different car.  But I did it.  With some help from my fellow hot-rodders, it was all did it myself.  I am proud of that, and even more proud that what I did is still running with its new owner.

At Caprice / Impala events he still gets asked how hard it was or how he solved a known issue with the swap.  He doesn't know.  I do.

I guess it comes down to pride and how much of it you can swallow to get to the goal.  I found that I like doing the work as much as having the car, so it's a no-brainer for me to blow the opportunity costs and do it myself.

Sometimes the path is the destination.

18 May 2023

Not A Hot Rodder

Reading this article reminded me of something.

If you are not spinning your own wrenches, you are NOT a hot rodder.

You may own a hot-rod, it might even be an impressive hot-rod, but you are not a hot-rodder if you paid someone to do it for you.

I am baffled at the article where the author agonizes about rewiring the starter circuit.

He's right, you can't just wander down to Autozone and pick up the part for a Model A.  Or a 2008 Corvette.

For the 'Vette, you need to get the factory part from someone who stocks the cables.

For the Model A, get familiar with Summit Racing and Jeg's.

It's not hard to do!

It's how I rewired the battery on my old '79 Camaro.

In a pinch you CAN go to Advanced Auto and get everything you need.

The Hagerty's writer acts like if you can't just buy it complete then a professional MUST do it.

He's not a Hot Rodder, and it shows.

Fuck You NYFSC

About half the hotel space in New York Fucking (spit) City is being used by illegal immigrants?

Awwwwww.

Too bad, so sad.

You fuckers advocated for not controlling the border and used your disproportionate influence at the federal level to keep the borders open.

It is apt that the border states are drowning you in the problem.

I see you're unhappy that the problem is no longer contained to red states on the border.

Well have some sauce, goose.  The gander is full.

Venting

The cats are in full protest at being contained in carriers, instead of the entire back porch, while the house airs out.

We're being extra cautious because permethrin is extra toxic for kitties.

The maker says that as long as things are dry, it's safe, so we're giving it a good long airing out.

Three hours instead of the recommended two.

La La La La Bomba

Got roach bombs round 1 spraying right now.

This round is a pesticide that I haven't used before; permethrin.

The other two brands use a different chemical and the fuckers are slowed by it, but not stopped.

Those other two brands are also the cans I most often saw at the house where I think we sourced those rat fuck hexapods.

I believe they grossly underestimated the amount of bombs they needed to saturate their place and, thus, created a resistant strain.

The traps we placed on Tuesday have already had a very noticeable, positive, effect on their visibility!

Eyes crossed that this works while I sweat on the back porch with the cats clawing to be let back in.  They have to suffer as I suffer...

Water Levels

One change in water levels that we can definitely pin on global warming...

Real global warming, not the shit the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change pushes.

The Great Lakes are seeing significant changes in the shoreline and depths in some areas.

And it's because it's warmer now than back when...

A back when that had a mile of ice on top of it.

That ice was heavy enough to deform the Earth's crust and made a dent.

The ice is gone, but the dent is taking longer to pop back out.

But it IS popping back out, and changing the shorelines of the Great Lakes.

The amount of water is the same, it's just the container is tilting.

Yet...  I've read Greenie Screeds that make Jack Chick seem to be a D&D scholar by comparison that blame recent human activities for the change in the shorelines.

The Left can't Science.

It Makes Sense

 Once you realize the goal is to reduce us to starving in the dark it all clicks into place.

You wanna reduce carbon emissions?  Nukes and hydro.

I frequently worry that the greenies are going to succeed and manage to significantly reduce carbon in the atmosphere and we're going to discover they aren't greenies, but brownies and we're going to see a global catastrophe from all the plants dying from the lack.

No plants, nothing for us to breath and CO2 buildup goes runaway...

OR

The CO2 in the air was all that was staving off the ice-age we're overdue for...

One thing I think really got rammed home hard about The Left during COVID was their utter inability to meme and understand science.  Wait, that's two things.

They were wrong about the spread and development of corona viruses.

They are wrong about the biological nature of sex. (Don't preen here Righties, you're fucking up how to handle psychological maladies like you're being paid handsomely to be this wrong).

They're wrong about how you sustain agriculture that scales past garden.

And they're wrong about climate change.

How do we know?

Because science includes observation.

I've got a couple hundred years of sea level observation in the form of Castillo de San Marcos.

If your sea level change cannot be told apart from the tides, then there's no issue.  We know for damn sure it's bit warmer today than in the early 1700's when the oldest known painting of the fort was made.  A painting that shows the same waterline relative to the fort as today.

I also observed that the temperatures that got everyone in such a tizzy also coincided with the most active sun we'd ever recorded.  Observations with regard to increased temperature were recorded on Mars and Jupiter in a similar time frame.

Sure sounds like it's the sun and not the SUV.

But The Left can't science.

17 May 2023

Like A Rutting Caveman

Someone asked for a wiring diagram for my fog lights.

I realized that it'd just be faster to put it to paper than to deal with AutoCAD.

Stone knives and bearskins for the win.

Suck It Bitches

 Target says that rampant shoplifting has cost them $1.2 billion in profits.

How's that anti-gun, pro-liberal, defund the po-po advocacy working out for you there?

This is what you chose when you decided that you just HAD to get involved in politics that had nothing to do with being a department store.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading people warning you about the endgame you were lobbying for too.

I wonder if they're ready for a red-pill yet.

Traps Set

Got roach motels positioned all around the kitchen.

Got three different kinds of bombs ready.

Harvey and The Boy go to state Special Olympics on Thursday, so I will be bombing every couple hours for three days!

I even have a different kind of trap coming today.

If this doesn't work, I'm calling Truly Nolen.

Area Effect

"Most human problems can be solved by an appropriate charge of high explosives." - Blaster

"Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?" - J. Cobb

There have been a couple of times where having something which dropped an area effect have been useful in gaming.

One time it came up in GURPS was when dealing with Standing Bear's True Companions.

Their main magic defense was to bounce all damage back to its source.

The reason you wanted to snuff a True Companion was to get hands on their swords.  They did a massive amount of damage and rarely missed.

I was running an alt-history Roman equipped with TL7 technology.

Turns out their damage bounce would send it back in the direction it came from and a rifle grenade aimed at the hex next to them would bounce it back at the center of the explosion.  Pity their magic didn't affect the depleted necronium fragmentation jacket...

When I was making GURPS stats for a displacer beast, FuzzyGeff mentioned that a hand grenade is the way to deal with one, or any area effect spell.

It hit me that the character has to know what a displacer beast is before they know that.

Considering the rarity of such critters, it's likely that most people have never heard of one, let alone encountered one.  And, since they are pretty damned mean, most encounters will result in becoming Purina Displacer Beast Chow.


16 May 2023

That Fantasy Series

A while ago I wondered about a fantasy series I remember buying, but never reading.

The books are long gone, but I think I finally found out what series it was.

"The Iron Tower" trilogy by Dennis McKiernan.

Roaches

Not talking about figurative roaches either.

Six-legged cockroaches.

I know from hence they came, and I am absolutely fucking rancid about it.

I'll really have a rage on if calling an exterminator costs what I suspect it will cost on top of all the other bullshit lately.

Interrogation

The Feds sent someone to question me yesterday.

Shockingly, it wasn't about anything I've said or done.

I KNOW!

Nothing I've bought or own.

I KNOW!

Just being a character reference for a friend getting his security clearance.

I made my Will roll and managed to restrict my answers to the truth.

Happy to help.

Fusion Gun Vs Tree

A while back I posted about a Traveller Imperial Marine vs a fantasy setting psi.

We'd ruled that four feet of oak would do nothing to save the psi from a fusion gun.

I thought I'd check!

Wood is good for DR 2 per inch in 3e (which this example was originally from) and DR 1 per inch in 4e.

Four feet is 48 inches so DR 96 or DR 48 depending on edition.

The stats I have on the sheet say "6dx3(3)".  That's good to punch 189 DR, on average.  So 31 penetrates and does damage to the hapless psi.  Her HT wasn't great so that was two death rolls that she failed.

The modern translation of the FGMP-14 does even more damage, but the first translation did 6dx5(2) burn ex.

That penetrates 210 DR, on average, and there's less DR to deal with, so 81 penetrates and that's all she wrote for the psi because 54 was auto-death.

The corrected gun does 6dx12(2) burn ex.  504 is the average pen.  228 punch that tree and she gets a free cremation.

15 May 2023

Epitome Of False Advertising

I had a peach Nehi today.

Peach Nehi doesn't taste like peaches.

It doesn't taste like knees.

It doesn't make you high.

It is totally addictive.

14 May 2023

Rain Dance

Did the hot-rodder rain dance this evening.

Washed the car.  Harvey's too!

Traveller: 2000

Micheal in the comments wondered about an M48 attacking a Type S.

The likely weapon in a scout's turret will be a 250MJ laser.

In beam mode it does 5dx20(2) burn with one shot a minute.  In pulse mode, two shots a minute reduces that damage to 6dx11(2) burn, four shots a minute does 5dx10(2) burn and seven shots a minute will do 5dx7(2) burn.

Beam mode will punch 700 DR.  This just barely doesn't penetrate the front turret armor of the M48's DR 716.  The pulse modes aren't useful for attacking the frontal armor of a tank, but are still useful against ships.  The 7 shots per minute rate of fire still penetrates 245 DR and gets 23 points of burning damage through the hull of a Type S; 73 through the thinner DR 100 skin of most merchant ships.

Seeing as it's burn damage, there should be something about it starting to melt the armor though.  I can't find the rule, if it's there.

The Type S has DR 200.

The M48's 90mm gun will punch 882 DR with an M332 APHC round, doing 341 points inside the Sulieman.  M431 HEAT will get 85 points inside with an incendiary effect.

All of this is well and good if the Type S is sitting on the apron and the local low-tech army is trying to keep it from taking off.

The scout ship can stand off well outside the tank's range.  The 1/2 damage range for that 250MJ laser is 17,000 miles!  The max range of the tank gun is 6,800 yards.

The smart captain will start shooting as soon as they can see the tanks.

FUCK!

Remember when I talked about fixing a leak back in April?

$1,300 fixed that shit.

Well the water company, despite saying they'd help us out with the bill...

Took a whopping $25 off the total and we're on the hook for $500 worth of water.  And $150 of sewer.

Normal bills are about $100 total.

Motherfucker Cocksucker!

It's no wonder I can't get any money saved to do the DOD/AFM delete or even sportier exhaust saved up.

I have to unass the least loved guns at bargain prices to just keep ahead of the bleeding.

The Holes Are Deep

You make GURPS stats for an M60, you end up making stats for the M48.

That leads to the M47, then the M46 then the M26...

I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT!

Interestingly, there's still versions of the older Pattons in service!  Mostly armored recovery vehicles, but still.

Also interesting is the French putting a 105 into their M47s.

That L7 gun gets adopted by so many NATO nations, it's not even funny.

13 May 2023

Not Even Culturally Egyptian

Cleopatra wasn't "culturally black".

The Ptolemys weren't even culturally Egyptian.

They were a ruling family left behind Alexander's conquest of Egypt.

A Macedonian (Greek) conquest that replaced the existing rulers with Greeks.  And those rulers weren't even Egyptian!  They were Persian.

These Greeks went on to inbreed with each other for about a thousand years.

That makes Cleopatra something other than black, kids.

Key to the puzzle is not a single description characterizes her as a Nubian.

That is how both the Greeks and the Romans would have described a black woman.

Yet...

Corporations Need A Darwin Defense

If someone is too stupid to know that a beverage made with boiling water, or a foodstuff that's prepared in boiling oil is hot and will burn you; they deserve to be burned.

It is not McDonald's fault for not explaining hot food.  It's the grossly negligent parents.

We've got to get past this bullshit or there won't be any businesses left.

12 May 2023

Speaking Of Jibs

Governor DeSantis has a chat with John Stossel about digital currency.

As someone who wants less central control and more privacy and freedom, The Fed controlling a digital, mandatory, currency scares the shit out of me.

Such a currency definitely fails the Jews in the Attic Test.

Zero Sum Game

A core tenet for selling socialism to people who cannot do math is the idea that capitalism is a zero sum game.

For someone to gain, another must lose.

That's true, except for reality.

There's even a pre-historic example of both sides gaining.

Tribe A did not have access to the materials to make spears.  Tribe B did not have the materials to make baskets.

Tribe A needs spears.  Tribe B needs baskets.

How to solve the problem?

Apparently, they traded baskets for spears.

We know this happened because we looked at the materials they left behind.

Who lost in this?

Tribe A gets something they cannot make for themselves in exchange for something they can.

So does Tribe B.

Everyone is up in this trade.

I think that socialists are confusing mutually beneficial trade and opportunity cost.

Once Tribe A trades its basket for a spear, they can no longer use that basket.  Treating this as a loss ignores that Tribe A needs spears!

Of note, the armed tribe, Tribe B, did not simply conquer Tribe A.

I Like The Cut Of His Jib

'If the Court were to exclude 18-to-20-year-olds from the Second Amendment's protection, it would impose limitations on the Second Amendment that do not exist with other constitutional guarantees,'

--U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne

Fraser v BATFE 

It's got a long way to go, but it appears we're winning the opening salvo and Bruen is paying dividends.

Capitalism

I keep reading how capitalists are exploiting the workers.

This is, apparently, because the worker's labor, alone, adds value to the product.

Like most of the best lies, this has a kernel of truth.

Iron ore underground isn't worth much until someone does the labor to dig it up.

The dug ore is worth more if someone does the labor to smelt iron.

Still more if someone does the labor to make the iron into steel.

Still more if someone does the labor to turn that steel into a part.

Still more if someone does the labor to add that part to an assembly.

And still more if someone does the labor of selling that assembly to a customer.

Without any labor, that iron ore sits underground and the owner of the land and mineral rights gets nothing.

But is he exploiting the worker by having him dig up the ore?  Yes.  He's making productive use of the worker.

At no point in the process of going from ore to product is any worker doing it for free.  They will be paid regardless of the price of iron ore.  Regardless of the price of steel.  Regardless of the cost of fabrication.  Regardless of the cost of assembly.  Regardless of the price of sale.

I have to repeat: Jobs are a side effect of a successful business.

Fledgling and unsuccessful businesses don't have workers to exploit.  In the first case, the owners are eating all the costs and often not being paid anything at all.

New businesses devour money and most fail before hiring the first employee.

But then they hire that first employee because there's more to do than the owners can manage on their own.

If there are zero sales, does that employee get paid?

Yes, they do.

Does the owner?

No, they do not.

So, let's return to ore.

The owner of the land has paid for it.  So they're out that money unless they do something with the land.  If they bought it because they thought there was ore under it, then they start digging.

One person can't dig much, so they spend more money to buy or rent equipment and hire people to operate it.

This spending is also called "investing."

Not once have I seen any glorious worker's paradise advocate suggest that the workers or the equipment dealer return the money they were paid should it turn out there's no ore under the land.

Who exploited whom here?

Investment is a risk.  Smart, or lucky, investments lead to getting the owner more money than they spent.

But notice the workers get paid regardless?  No risk.

So, workers, you don't wanna be exploited?  Share the risk.  Work for nothing in exchange for a share of the profits.  Oh, there might not be any...

Wait, workers, you cannot do that.  It's illegal.  Workers have to be paid a minimum wage.

Ooops.  I doubt it was employers who demanded that, so this petard is yours; workers.

11 May 2023

Hearing Pretection

One "nice" thing about wearing earplugs to get to sleep is I've already got my hearing protection in case of a break in.

The down side is I will likely sleep right through the break in and hear Harvey repelling boarders first.

Don's NOT Pro-Gun

He's not pro-gun.  Not at all.

He did a lot of good, but the bad is very bad.

I would prefer to vote for someone else.

Someone Tell Her

Being a lich is a curse!

I reiterate!  Someone keep me out of public before I feel the need to complete the arcane rituals and spells of become the cursed undead.

10 May 2023

Trivia

Did you know that .30-06 lasted in "front-line" service a lot longer than most people think?

The M37 machine gun is a coaxial MG developed from the M1919.  It retains the caliber.

It's adopted in 1955 and hangs on until replaced by the, inferior, M73.  Nominally in 1959, but the poor performance of the M73, M73A1 and M219 meant it was kept on until the early '70's.

That means that several M48 tank units took .30-06 to war in Vietnam.

That's interesting to me.

It also lines up with why the M2 ball Marv bought has Lake City '68 head stamps.

Frustrated Doctor

Got a letter from my primary with the results of my coronary CAT scan.

You calcium score was 0 (CERO!!!)

Which means - No identifiable disease - (no atherosclerotic plaque).

I maintain my record of being suspiciously healthy for someone of my lifestyle.

I still need to lose some weight, but that's more because I'm sick of being fat than sick from being fat.

Aesop comments:



Censorship

Are you being censored because the state refuses to purchase your book and place it in a lending library?

Are you being censored if they purchase your book, put it in a lending library, but limit whom can borrow it based on their age?

No.

You are being censored if you are forbidden to write or publish your book.

You are being censored if you are threatened with punishment for writing what you want.

Going out on a limb here, does this describe liberal or conservative writings more?

I'm far more likely to have what I've written taken down than someone advocating child molestation.

And I'm not even writing about doing something that's illegal!

If Only

If only these allegations would lead to charges, or even their power structure being damaged.

It appears to be provable this time too.

But I predict it will become a gigantic nothing burger because the people who CAN do something are so deeply implicated in the process of this that they cannot afford to do anything, lest they lose their place at the trough.

It Does Not Mean Fake

I realized that I get bristly about some topics of mental health because I'm a sufferer of something that's invisible.

Misophonia is obscure enough that it's not even in the DSM.  Yet.

They've really only started to study it.

Does that make it fake?

Am I faking it?

Nope.

It's happening, I'm experiencing it.

I fervently want to be able to sit someplace and have someone eat nearby and not be upset by it.

Don't assume that just because something is psychological that someone is faking it.

Don't assume that what they do to cope with the problem is intended to slight or insult you.

Have some fucking compassion, because they have to live with it every damn day.

You just have to deal with it in passing.

Try to understand it.

That said, I'll stand right there with you and go after the people whom ARE faking it to get attention.

Those assholes make it harder for people with real problems to get the help they need.

Especially, they prevent people doing research from exploring new areas and finding treatments.

09 May 2023

Core Values

Trying to find the belt composition for American fighters in WW2 led to something I did not expect.

.50 BMG M2 ball is steel core ammo.

M2 AP and M8 API have the same hardened steel core.

The mix our tank was issued in The Cold War was 3 ball, 1 AP and 1 API-T.

The most common WW2 vintage ammo can is stenciled for 105 rounds of M8 API linked.

Considering they all have the same repackaged lot number, I suspect a stencil is commonly available and this makes it seem like this marking is more common when people repaint one for sale.

You Don't See One Of These For Sale Very Often

Finnish M27/rv.

That link will expire before long, so if it doesn't work, it's because you're looking at this post a long time from now! 

Starting bid was $3,295.  I'll update the final price when (if?) it sells.

This is the rarest of rare Finnish Mosin-Nagants.  Something like 300 left in the entire world!

Gun Jeebus did a vid:




08 May 2023

That Was Easy

The Beast had the 6N5 rear window switches disabled RPO code.

I wanted those switches to work, so I hit the forums.

A lack of pictures had me looking in the wrong spot for the plug everyone agreed was there.

It's there, and I finally found pictures!

There's a flap in the carpet/rubber mat behind the floor air vent under the front passenger seat.

You lift that flap and you have an empty connector and a connected connector.

Move the blue wire from one connector to the other and et voila!  The window switches on the back doors can now control the windows!

There's a switch in the driver's window switch panel that disables those switches to keep kids from throwing cell phones out the windows.

Note To Self

High Tech mentions on page 169:

"Explosive-energy projectiles are also considered incendiary attacks (p. B433)."

That means that HEAT rounds have an inc modifier after penetration.

I'd remembered it, but couldn't remember where I'd read it.

I'm hoping that putting it here will help me remember it later! 

GURPSification

Getting the proper DR for an armored vehicle requires some... creative judgement.

Distilling the armor thickness to a single facing is a gross oversimplification.

It's necessary, I think, for two main reasons.

First, detailing the armor completely is cumbersome.

Second, sometimes you will not find sufficient detail to make it completely accurate for some vehicles while also finding insane detail on other vehicles.

It's a compromise for playablity.

Just like the penetration being varied by dice roll instead of doing the math for range/velocity.

Something Obvious

There's a long running myth that fighters bounced ricocheted .50 BMG off roads and through the belly armor of Nazi tanks.

Let's test with GURPS!

.50 BMG does 6dx2 pi+.  .50 BMG AP does 8d+1(2) pi.  API does 8d+1(2) pi inc.

Penetration from an average roll are 42 DR and 58 DR respectively.

That's also penetration at 0°.

UPDATE: I simply cannot find my reference for the belt composition used by the fighters.  So I have removed mention of what combinations were used.

The most common Nazi tank when Mustangs are strafing targets of opportunity is the Pzkw IV, with belly DR of 40.  Panthers and Tigers have thicker skins underneath too!

Just barely penetrates if it was a straight shot.

But a ricochet would be at an angle that doubles the DR and even a max roll of 72 isn't punching the, now, 80 DR of the belly.  API with a max roll will get 9 up through a Panzer IV's belly, but now we have to consider that it's lost a lot of velocity from the ricochet and the hit on the road likely triggered the incendiary charge before it hits the bottom of the tank.

I'm going to say Myth Busted.

Especially since our Armor Lord and Savior The Cheiftan covered this very topic and it falls under "other lies told by fighter pilots."

M103 Heavy Tank

The M103 is kind of like a supersized M48.

Surprisingly, the protection isn't that much better.  The hull sides are MUCH thinner!

Hull: 630/196/105/70/96; Turret: 893/657/141/105

The 120mm M58 cannon is the main reason it's bigger and heavier.

Firing 120x881mmR, it's impressive.  And limited by tech of the day.  The excessive length of the round requires two loaders.  One loads the projectile, the other loads the cartridge case.  Five rounds a minute is considered a well coordinated crew.  Contrast this to an M1A1 (or newer) using a single loader and getting 10 to 12 shots a minute.

The two anti-armor rounds are the M358 APBC and M469 HEAT.

M358 does 6dx20(2) pi++ and can penetrate 882 DR.  Here kitty, kitty, kitty.  Just barely enough to get into a T-54 turret though.

M469 does a little better with 6dx5(10) cr ex with a linked 6dx5 cr ex.  This will penetrate DR 1,050 getting 17 points into a T-54 turret.  That doesn't sound like much, but it'll break things.

For Comparison's Sake

GURPS: World War II has stats for WW2 vehicles, surprisingly enough.

Since I've been mentioning the performance of Cold War stuff, and many people are more familiar with WW2 shit...

It's Front/Sides/Back/Top/Bottom (if needed)

Sherman M4A1 Hull: 300/150/150/75/50; Turret: 300/200/200/100

Gun Motor Carriage M10 Hull: 255/85/85/55/50; Turret: 275/100/100/0

Panzer IV Ausf H Hull: 315/120S/80/40/40; Turret: 200/120S/120S/40

Panther Ausf G Hull: 540/190S/160/60/120; Turret: 600/260/260/60

Tiger Ausf E Hull: 400/420/320/100/100; Turret: 425/310/310/100

Königstiger Ausf B Hull: 850/310/310/155/100; Turret: 700/310/310/170

T-34/76 1940 Hull: 350/250/175/75/75; Turret: 350/250/175/80

Guns!

M4A1 Sherman's M3 75mm firing the M61 APCBC or just AP does 6dx7(2) pi++ and linked 4d+2 cr ex.  That's good for a whopping 294 DR.

The "long 75mm" 76mm M7 cannon firing M62 APCBC delivers 6dx10(2) pi++ and a linked 4d+2 cr ex.  This was considered HOT ammo and it only punches 420 DR with average rolls.

The 7.5cm KwK40 L48 on the Pzkw IV-H firing a PzGr 40 APCR or APHC does 6dx12(2) pi++ that will penetrate DR 504 with most dice.

A KwK42 7.5cm on a Panther G lobbing a PzGr 40/42 does 6dx15(2) pi++.  That's good for punching holes in DR 630.

Tiger E's KwK36 8.8cm gun gets the most penetration with the PzGr 40 which is an APCR round doing 6dx14(2) pi++.  That'll punch 588 DR on average.

The heavier Tiger II's KwK43 8.8cm gun shooting a PzGr 40/43 round gets 6dx18(2) pi++ to routinely stab through 756 DR.

The pride of the Soviets 76mm L-11 gun firing BR-350SP APBC does a mere 6dx6(2) pi++ for an average penetration of 252 DR.  And people were bagging on the M3 in the Sherman!

Update: The D-5T 85mm gun from the T-34/85 firing a BR-365K APHE round will do 6dx10(2) pi++ with a linked 5d-1 cr ex.  That will penetrate 420 DR on average.

As a reminder, the 90mm gunned M48A3 has Hull: 606/314/96/113/87; Turret 716/314/281/129; Cupola: 386/386/386/193.

The M41 gun firing M332 APHC does 6dx21(2) pi++ for 882 DR penetration.  Even the mighty King Tiger is punched.  The Patton is somewhat vulnerable to the King Tiger's gun, but it's even more mobile than the Sherman that maneuvered around it to get rear shots.

07 May 2023

90mm M41 vs T-54

Gunner AP tank!

M82 armor piercing does 6dx12(2) pi++.

That will punch DR 504 on average.

The frontal armor on a T-54 turret is DR 881.

SPANG, zip.

M332 armor piercing hard core does 6x21(2) pi++.

That punches 882 DR on average.  1 point makes it in!

Thunk!

T142E3 high explosive squash head does 6dx18(0.5) pi++ with a linked 6dx5 cr ex.

On average the round penetrates DR 189 and the explosion, being in contact does the maximum of 180; combined they don't penetrate.  BUT!  That 180 does 18 points of damage against DR 9; meaning that 9 points of damage is dealt to everything inside the turret as a scab of armor is spalled off and starts bouncing around.

M431 high-explosive anti-tank does 5dx5(10) cr ex with a linked 6dx2 cr ex.

That will punch 875 DR on average, just barely not penetrating the front turret armor.

Against the hull glacis, things go better with the lower DR 551.

M82 AP still doesn't penetrate.

M332 APBC gets 165 in.  This is bad for the T-54!

T142E3 will get 18 vs 6 and have 12 points of damage bouncing around.

M431 deals 32 penetration.

Shooting the other direction...

Front turret armor on an M48A2 is 716 DR and the hull glacis is 606.

BR-412 armor piercing explosive does 6dx14(2) pi++ with a linked 6d+2 [3d] cr ex.

It will punch an average of 588 points of DR... failing to penetrate the M48's front.

BR-412B armor piercing high explosive does 6dx20(2) pi++ with a linked 6d+2 [3d] cr ex.

It will reliably punch DR 840.

62 penetrates the turret, 117 penetrates the hull.  Then the explosion goes off... inside.  BAD.

3BK-5 HEAT does 6dx5(10) cr ex.

That penetrates 1,050 DR!

33 penetrates the turret and 44 the hull.

These tanks are pretty equally matched.

Where the M48A2 wins is better gun stabilization, superior ranging and fire control.  It will hit more often than the T-54 and likely will do it from farther away.

Rationalized

Michael asked about the little details being trivia and if it started to matter in the real world.

The M48A3, in addition to being a massive upgrade from a gasoline to diesel power plant was also a rationalization of the various versions of the thing.

Despite there being differences you could see, after an A3 conversion they all have the same sights, fire control, ammunition stowage, engine, track, controls...

Vehicles upgraded from the A1 standard had more return rollers, but they are the same roller as the A2, so no parts interchange problems.

Same same for vehicles upgraded to A5 standards.

Caveat: All of that applies to just the US versions of this.  Korea's M48A5 is a different conversion than ours.  They kept the cupola and .50 and added skirts.  But, I think, they used the same optics, engine and fire control upgrade we used...  The M68 gun upgrade is a kit, and we sold kits to anyone still using the M48.

The A5 upgrade package also gives a lot of commonality with the M60A1 RISE and M60A3.  Many nations used both the M48 and M60, so streamlining the parts chain is a significant savings.

M48 Patton

Doing the research for the GURPS stats finally answered a question I'd had since I've been building models of them.

The M48A1 and M48A2 are, visually, distinguished by the number of track-return rollers.

The A1 has five per side, the A2 has three.

There's more than one turret too.

The A2C gets the one with the bigger hatches.

Then comes the A3.  It gets a different engine deck because of the new diesel engine, but I've seen them with both turrets and with both 5 and 3 return rollers!

This is because the M48A3 is both a new model and an upgrade program!  Conversions from older models retain their original hulls, turrets and cupolas with the new engine and many internal improvements.

The M48A5 had the same deal with visual variations except they all have the M48A2C turret with the larger loader's hatch.  It's not so obvious because the cupola is replaced with a hatch and an M60 on a pedestal.

06 May 2023

Comedy Gold

The ATF Director didn't shower himself in glory here.


If you don't find yourself thinking, "just answer the fucking question without dissembling!" you should rewind and watch again...

A Complete List

The following is a complete list of the kings and queens of England/Great Britian/United Kingdom whom have attended presidential inaugurations in the United States.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

So when Jolly Ol' is getting butt hurt that Joe "Mumbles" Biden skipped the coronation...  Y'all don't show up for our events.

I want to remind England of events 247 years ago when we made an abrupt decision to begin ignoring the person wearing that crown.

That alone would be a policy point of the McThag administration.

We like you guys, we're even friends, but how this nation was founded means we can't celebrate when a new monarch is seated.

Kill 'Em All

Being pedo can land your ass in Old Sparky.

DeSantis signed HB 1297 into law which imposes the death penalty on pedophiles who “commit sexual battery against children under the age of 12."

Democrats are expected to take legal action in an effort to overturn the laws, however.

This is my shocked face that Democrats would be opposed to pederasts being killed for being the subhuman scum that they are.

05 May 2023

Hole In Paper

Widener's was kind enough to let me pick out some ammo to review and this is part one of that! 


 

Federal Premium Law Enforcement Tactical HST 124gr (P9HST1).  At the time you could buy single boxes of 50 rounds, there's just the 1,000 round bulk pack available right this second.

In my M&P 9 2.0 Compact is shoots to the same point of aim as the 115gr FMJ practice ammo I've been shooting.

The astigmatism makes the front slight look a little tilted and I shoot a little left when I have dry eye.

Look at those sharp holes!  This load isn't +P pressure, but it definitely has more thump than the PMC Bronze we shoot most often.  The muzzle flash was making a nice ring around the front of the slide and ejection was energetic.

The Lovely Harvey commented that it kicked just a bit more and I caught her in full recoil.

 She found that it hit the same point of aim as the 115gr stuff too. 


 

That's handy because you can use the cheaper ammo to practice and reserve the hot stuff for when it matters.

Surprisingly my little Shield Plus shot a better group than the compact sized M&P!

Here you can see what muzzle blast and flip there is in a subcompact:

 

 

The disappointing group was from my P320.  And even that wasn't TOO disappointing.  Palm sized instead of fist sized.  And the picture didn't get taken!  Damn phone.

It functioned flawlessly in both M&P compacts, the Shield Plus and P320.

Harvey's compact has been notoriously finicky about what hollow-points it will eat and to find another brand that it likes is a bonus!

I would buy more of this ammo for daily use.

04 May 2023

You Should Watch It For Yourself

There's been a lot of flipping out from the usual people about Kayla Denker's video with an AR.

A video that got her butt fired from the Forest Service.

It's got a lot less to do with her being trans than the Biden administration not liking guns.

It's not hard to find, but I won't give a link to the places I found it.

The "advocating violence" is almost literally a "fuck around and find out" message to people who would physically attack transgender folks.

If you've never articulated you'd do violence on someone in response to their violence, then go ahead and condemn her "advocacy".

For the rest of us gun owners, she's stating something we're staunchly supporting.

"Don't start none, won't be none."

I dunno about y'all, but I support the idea that if someone tries to kill you, you should kill them right back.

Regardless of color, creed, sex, gender, hairstyle, body fat index, being a Chevy person...

She's not advocating initiating the violence, like Antifa and Bureau of Land Management Black Lives Matter.

And if someone initiates violence against you, shoot them right back regardless of their color, creed, sex, gender, hairstyle, body fat index, being a Ford person...

Maybe It Was The Radiation

It's possible that I was grumpy from driving an hour to Bay Pines VA Hospital to get a three minute CAT scan to see if I have too much calcium built up in the arteries on my heart.

Oh, and an hour drive back too.

Too much walking at Bay Pines because they made the parking lot pretty rather than functional.

There used to be shuttle carts that prowled the grounds to give rides from the boonies to the buildings, but I didn't see any this trip.

Terminally Wired

Got the little metal bits that will allow me to attach the new speaker wires to the plug that goes in the radio.

I even figured out how to work my crimping tool!

Now I just need a speaker to attach the other ends to.

And the motivation to disassemble the entire dash to mount the thing.

Incremental Improvements

Working on the older tanks means making stats for the older guns.

It's interesting to see that the best AP round for the 90mm M41 isn't a lot better than the same style round for the 105mm M68.

The 90mm HVAP-T M332A1 (an armor piercing composite rigid round) penetrates 321mm RHA at near the muzzle.

Early 105mm APDS M392A2 penetrates a mere 350mm.

Both would rely on high-explosive anti-tank rounds to penetrate Soviet armor.

Also interesting is the construction of the APCR round.  There's a tungsten core inside a lighter "windscreen".  It looks a lot like a sabot round that keeps the sabot the entire trip to the target.

03 May 2023

I Can't Even

A slow accumulation of little things has led to a "well just fuck it!" attitude today.

It culminates with not being able to find a parking place within a block of the place I wanted to go tonight.

That's shattered my joie de vivre for the moment.

So I'm going to watch some vids, read some books and get centered.

Sometimes you have to look at the effort you're putting into having fun and deciding if it's still fun after all that work.

Then wait for it come easier to try again.

BLAH!

02 May 2023

Found It

Willard mentioned a scene from Miami Vice.

I totally misremembered the episode it was in.

So I set out to find it.

It's in the very first one!

It's when Phil Collins is blaring out "In the Air Tonight" just before the last act.

Now I can relax!

GM Don't Stop Being You

I looked up how to take the window regulator out of the left-rear door.

After you get the door panel off and the water barrier out of the way...

You loosen the two bolts holding the glass to the regulator with the glass all the way up.

There's two handy holes in the inner door's sheet metal to access them.

Then you tape or otherwise secure the glass all the way up.

Then you lower the regulator to about halfway down.

Unplug the motor and remove the three screws holding it in place.

Now maneuver it out the big hole in the door.

Who's noticed the flaw here?

Is it just me, or if I could move the regulator at will, why would I need to remove it in the first place?

There are no instructions for getting that thing out with it locked in any given position.

Because mine will go down, I'm not screwed, but...

Missing The Point

The entire point of copyrights and patents is to encourage invention and creativity.  To give a temporary monopoly on their inventions and creations so that they may profit from such efforts.  This is supposed to inspire others to become inventive and creative.

Not to enrich people long after the inventor and creator are dead.

Ed Sheeran is presently the defendant brought by the heirs of Ed Townsend over the song "Let's Get It On".

Mr Townsend is dead.  He's been dead for 20 years.  Copyright served him well and he was a successful performer.

But what have his heirs and assigns created?

What they are managing to do is to cause people to hesitate before creating.

The effect of the present state of copyright is doing the exact opposite of the reason to have such laws in the first place.

Judging by the court performance of Mr Sheeran, he's shown that the plaintiff doesn't have a case.

I says that, not only, do they NOT have a case; they shouldn't have any right to Mr Townsend's work.  They created nothing.

So they are trying to profit from a second person's creative endeavor.

It's a grift.

Rare Footage

Don Johnson's character in Miami Vice is seen with BOTH Bren Ten magazines.

This is proof that they did make more than one magazine.



01 May 2023

Troubleshooting

The driver's side rear window doesn't like rolling back up on The Beast.

A common problem is the wires breaking in the rubber pass-through accordion dealie on the door.

Today, I tested that.

All the wires from the plug in the car to the switch and the motor have excellent continuity.

Both the power wires have 12v at the body plug.

I'm guessing it's the motor or regulator, which are the same replace the entire assembly if one goes bad.

Color Coordination

The Australian radio I put in The Beast has provisions for a fifth speaker.

The car did not come with one, so there's no wiring for it.

Easily remedied!

I have the proper terminals ordered and on the way...

But what wire should I use?

The pinout for the Australian car says to use light blue for the (-) speaker lead and orange for the (+) lead.

Both should be 24 AWG.

While I think they're 20 gauge, I have wire that's close to the correct color.

I think I have plenty to reach the center speaker grill from the plug once I get these wires terminated.

That Word You Keep Using

Satanists who don't worship Satan converge on Boston to promote Communism.

By the words of your own spokesperson, you're not actually Satanists.

To be a Satanist means acknowledging the existence of God, because Satan doesn't exist without Him.

If you're an atheist, then there's no God, ergo no Satan.

No Satan... no Satanism.

Pardon me, but is this your petard?

But, since they're commies, fuck the lot of them.

PS: If you really want to impress me with your anti-religion convictions, rip up a Koran.  It constantly amuses me how attention seeking atheists always go after the people with a "turn the other cheek" dogma.

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY

Today is May 1.

Or "Fuck Communism and Everyone Who Thinks It's A Good Idea" Day.

Being the age I am and with the experiences I have, I've seen what Communism does first hand and it's a shitty way to run things for 99.9% of the people who are afflicted with it.

By the way, 99.9% of the people who did the work to bring this affliction to fruition on their nations do not, in any way, benefit from it either.

Just ask Leon Trotsky.

New Readers!

I know I have fresh, eager, new readers...

Because there's a rash of unsigned comments.

There's instructions in the comment area to read, do so.

Once you follow those instructions you will find what you wrote in the comments and not, "This comment has been removed by a blog administrator."

The most common failure is not signing your comment when you're being all anonymous.

Body of your comment.

-The Fictitious Moniker You Wish To Use (you can even lie!)

It's not that hard.  Lots of people have figured it out and do it regularly.