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The only two science fiction movies or TV shows I can think of that used realistic and plausible ships are 2001: A Space Odyessy and 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Neither is what I'd call an action film.
Am I the only one upset that we don't even have HAL, let alone manned vessels out to Jupiter?
Aue aue.
There's a few times when what quiets the...
Stuff.
Requires self medication in the form of alcohol.
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
I know what that means to me.
Does it mean that to you too?
Do people not understand when you try to explain?
Me too.
I know people who got locked in their school locker whom would beat the shit out of the current generation.
That does not speak well of the current generation.
An engine builder mentioned in the Facebook thread where I posted my oil pressure adventure that the numbers I measured were what they were looking for on a new engine with a standard pressure oil pump!
Huzzah!
Dianne "Turn 'Em All In" Feinstein is dead.
Good.
Pity it took so damn long.
I hope she suffered.
I hope the religious types are correct and there's a Hell for her suffering to continue, forever.
File under: "Stop liking things I don't like!"
Found a thread at the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Arfcom asking what the point of owning a Browning High Power was.
Other than I like it?
The only real "problem" with one compared to a more modern design is that it's heavy. But it's not THAT heavy. Same weight at a Beretta M9, and just 0.3 lb. heavier than a Glock 17.
People forget that extra mass helps with recoil.
Lots of people complaining about the feel of the grip. Can't agree with them here, mine fits like it was made for my hand. I think JMB and I have the same hands, I've seen this with his designs before.
The difference in capacity is mitigated by there being flush 15-round magazines for them (and cheaper and more available than the original 13-rounders too).
Hammer bite is real, and mine bites me. It's not that big a deal. Take. The. Pain.
Some stuff that didn't come up were the sights being products of their time. There's not a lot you can do about the with early through Mk.2 guns; unless you completely disregard future collectors and have the slide milled for dovetails.
Have you ever noticed that the venerable High Power is nearly the same size as a Glock 19 which everyone loves? Actually, it's smaller than a 19 because it's slimmer.
The trigger is kinda bad, but it's nothing you can't get used to and shoot good groups with.
The magazine disconnect is irritating, but it's easily removed and improves the trigger.
Would I carry one?
Qualified, "no." I bought one to have one and have never invested in any holsters. You are not unarmed with one and I've carried older designs.
Do I carry one?
No. I carry a souless plastic fantastic.
But that's not the point of owning a classic!
Life would be very dull if I pared things down to just what was needful.
Prolly only have about three guns here too.
The past week has been traumatic for a friend of Harvey's.
They got evicted from the house they'd been renting for the past 17 years.
The place they'd rented in a whirlwind turns out to not be owned by the person they paid and signed a lease with.
The cops, upon informing them of this, checked their ID and there was a bench warrant for her arrest!
If it weren't for bad luck, they'd have no luck at all?
Well...
Here's were I get to be judgemental.
For 15 of those 17 years it was her mother, not she or her husband, paying the bills because Mom inherited her husbands pension.
That pension did not transfer a second time.
For the past year, their landlord has been telling them they want out of the rental property game. The friend begged them for more time and got a year's reprieve.
For the past year and a half, it also appears that she was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and had not paid the rent for months.
SIGH.
So they were evicted with cause.
They also squandered that reprieve and weren't even looking for a new place. Having more time to shop might have allowed them to avoid getting defrauded by a fake landlord.
But the real kicker is what the arrest warrant was.
Writing bad checks.
In Florida, a bad check for more than $150 is a 3rd degree Felony.
When her husband asked about this when she called from jail, she thought it was much older than it was. That kind of says that she's floated checks before to me.
Yikes! That can be up to five years and $1,000 in fines.
Even worse, her husband discovered that their bank account is overdrawn by $70 more than his check. Not only did he not have the money to pay for bail, the paycheck he was expecting this afternoon is already gone.
Harvey gave them the $180 for the bondsman and she should be home by now...
A home they have no right to reside in. With no money to secure a different place.
Even when I was couch surfing, I don't think I'd gotten this far down the hole.
I am watching two sides of a fight where the fighters are not directly engaged in dialog.
They are talking about each other.
One side is taking screen shots to support their position.
The other is making claims without any substantiation.
It definitely skews which side I'm believing.
Not that my belief matters a bit.
The side showing screen shots is every bit as guilty of some of their accusations as the person they're slamming.
They're just demanding you be in lock step with their tune than the other guy.
And that shoves me back to neutrality.
Old metal guns have soul.
So far, I've not gotten an old gun that won't shoot as well as a new one.
But souless guns are more durable and lighter.
One of the best things about America is not having to choose one over the other for the collection.
You can own them all if you've got the money.
The Beast doesn't have an oil pressure gauge.
It has an oil pressure sender, but it doesn't send to any display in the car.
My handy scanner will show live data, but oil pressure is not among the streams.
My unhandy laptop based program, though, will show it!
I'm getting 25-27 psi at idle and 55-60 psi at 4,000 rpm with the coolant reading 200° F.
That's about perfect!
Since the sender is brand new, I figure this is as an accurate of a reading I will get from it.
SanFran mayor to require drug testing for eligibility for welfare benefits.
I remember the near universal condemnation of this idea when Florida implemented it. So long ago, I don't remember when.
2014! Thanks, Internet!
Oh, and it was ruled unconstitutional.
I have a plan that's totally constitutional and would work, which is why nobody will ever try it.
First, we dump the drug laws. It's not the State's job to save you from yourself. That job is impossibly big anyway.
Second, we end welfare. If there's nothing to abuse, then it's impossible to abuse it. Nothing about this point says we're making charity illegal. You want to "save" the homeless on your own dime, go for it.
Third, we unshackle the owners of property to do whatever they see fit to expel trespassers.
Fourth, we unshackle the citizenry with regards to their response to crime. The police were never supposed to have a monopoly here. This one is complicated and will require some nuance to get right. But I am aiming for justice rather than compliance with a list of rules.
It turns out I have several spare laptop batteries that fit the current laptop that I don't remember buying.
Several meaning, three.
Two registered 0% and one 5% when I installed them.
The first took about three hours to get to 99% and stalled there with a minute remaining for about an hour.
Second one took about two hours to get fully charged.
The one that started at 5% is currently charging and, so far, the time remaining is consistent with the estimate given minus elapsed time.
I am glad that I didn't count on them being charged up.
I think the last time I did was... Uh...
I don't remember when the last time I charged them was.
In my relationship with The Lovely Harvey, I am the one who keeps track of the significant dates.
Today is the anniversary of our first date.
She had not remembered.
Again.
We laugh every year about that.
We didn't go out for dinner, we grilled burgers.
After supper we drove to where we had dinner on that first date.
It's no longer there. It's been replaced with a Century 21 office.
Then we went to where the bar we went to after dinner.
It's no longer there. It's been replaced with a Taco Bell/KFC.
Then we went to the little park where we held hands.
It's still there!
Watched the sun set from the fishing pier.
The test procedure for the RR wheel speed sensor is simple and terrifying for Moxie.
1. Ignition OFF, disconnect the harness connector at the appropriate B5 wheel speed sensor. It may take up
to 2 minutes for all vehicle systems to power down.
2. Test for less than 5 ohms between the low reference circuit terminal 2 (white) and ground.
If 5 ohms or greater
1. Ignition OFF, disconnect the harness connector at the K17 electronic brake control module.
2. Test for less than 2 ohms in the low reference circuit (white) end to end.
If 2 ohms or greater, repair the open/high resistance in the circuit.
If less than 2 ohms, replace the K17 electronic brake control module.
If less than 5 ohms
3. Ignition ON.
4. Test for greater than 11 V between the signal circuit terminal 1 (#43 brn from EBCM blk from sensor) and ground.
If less than 11 V
1. Ignition OFF, disconnect the harness connector at the K17 electronic brake control module.
2. Test for infinite resistance between the signal circuit and ground.
If less than infinite resistance, repair the short to ground on the circuit.
If infinite resistance.
3. Test for less than 2 ohms in the signal circuit end to end.
If 2 ohms or greater, repair the open/high resistance in the circuit.
If less than 2 ohms, replace the K17 electronic brake control module.
If 11 V or greater
5. Install a 3 A fused jumper wire at the signal circuit terminal 1, ignition ON.
6. Verify the scan tool Wheel Speed Sensor parameter changes while rapidly tapping the fused jumper wire
to the low reference circuit terminal 2.
If the parameter does not change
1. Ignition OFF, disconnect the harness connector at the K17 electronic brake control module, ignition
ON.
2. Test for less than 1 V between the signal circuit and ground.
If 1 V or greater, repair the short to voltage on the circuit.
If less than 1 V
3. Replace the K17 electronic brake control module.
If the parameter changes
7. Test or replace the B5 wheel speed sensor.
Simple, because straight-forward.
Terrifying because the EBCM is upwards from $800 for a used unit on ebay.
So many science fiction settings have utterly miraculous drives.
And that's without even breaking physics and going faster than light.
Making a plausible and realistic ship means a dramatic drop in performance compared to so many settings.
It's frustrating in many ways.
One becomes used to breaking the laws of physics.
Part of the problem is I'm not used to the paradigm of the realistic drives and what's impressively fast and what's not.
Transhuman Space is a good primer to figure this out.
When you update the NAS, you need to reindex the thing so that the Roku can see the media files.
Terima kasih kerana berminat dengan blog saya.
Saya sangat menghargai, lebih, sepuluh ribu hits yang anda berikan pada halaman saya yang sederhana setiap hari.
Saya tidak tahu bahawa GURPS dan senjata api begitu popular di Singapura!
In addition to shedding employees, the rumors are also saying that KE Arms has stopped making the KP-15 lower and the last run was in 2021.
Clearly they made plenty, because they still have stock, but this is sounding familiar.
GWACS did a big run and sold lowers for a while after they'd stopped making new ones too.
For this one I am wondering if the idea of a monolithic polymer lower is just too much for people.
I know people who are still waiting for this whole plastic pistol thing to blow over.
And 5.56 is just a phase that will end once sensible people take over too.
Too revolutionary coupled with the bad blood that is being cultivated between disparate political factions... That could chill the heck out of sales.
The bummer part is it didn't have to be.
You want to sell to bible thumping conservatives AND Antifa?
Don't mention your politics at all and take money from anyone who can pass the background check.
Take sides? Expect the side you don't support to look elsewhere.
I remember when GURPS: Vehicles first came out, in 1993, and I was using it to make real vehicles to reality check the numbers.
With pen and paper because I didn't have a computer!
I knew a guy who was a submariner and I asked him how many megawatts the LA class's reactor put out.
He declined to say because it was, in his opinion, classified.
While I had a book that gave the shaft-horsepower, it didn't give me the reactor output.
Well, you can just check Wikipedia now.
The S6G makes between 150 and 165 MW.
Now I know.
It's only been bugging me for 30 years.
That 1947 Colt we was shootin' the other day?
The OG style mags that came with the gun ran great.
The 8-shot, stainless, Nighthawk brand mag...
Not so much.
The last round would fail to eject and the slide would munch the spent case about half the time.
I don't think that's acceptable for a $40 magazine.
There's a rumor floating around that KE Arms, maker of the KP-15 monolithic polymer lower, has shrunk from about 50 people to around three to five.
I wonder if it's because of the rhetoric that Russel Fagen was tossing around.
You can read here that I'm good with LGBT folks and hardly a transphobe. I get shit from the more conservative commenters about it too.
But if your sales director is out there saying shit that sure sounds like, "if you're not completely and totally fine with grooming kids to be trans, then fuck you we don't want your fucking business!"
Well, there's going to be some pushback and people will walk with their wallets.
I'm with them about fucking with the kids.
If you figure you're trans once the secondary sexual characteristics start coming in, then we need to start analyzing what's going on.
And if it's genuine, then let's get the proper accommodations going.
But it's not near as widespread as so many people think it is.
In many ways, the sudden upswing is a lot like Celiac Disease. No, you are not sensitive to gluten, and don't have Celiac's.
But the condition is in the media's mouth and lots of people are misinterpreting their "symptoms" and coming to the wrong conclusions.
Another issue is the apparent aligning with people who are threatening to murder anyone who doesn't toe their line about what, exactly, is a transsexual right.
I suspect I'd be on the death list because I'm insisting that we wait for puberty and then make sure it's one of the identifiable conditions before we start in with making changes we cannot reverse.
Yet, no problem with Erin... Or Tacticool Girlfriend, for that matter. They're grown-ups. Grown-ups get to make their own decisions.
And reap the rewards of consequences of those decisions.
The first cybertank is in prototype.
The question is: Will it follow Keith Laumer or Steve Jackson in its vision.
Thanks to glacial rebound, my home is sinking into the ocean.
At a rate of about 0.6mm per year.
I'd better start shopping for a house farther from the water soon.
The water will be up to the front yard in just 9,144 years!
Last time i mentioned it.
It would appear that Judge Benitez has ruled, again, that banning magazines by capacity is unconstitutional.
He had to rule again, because it got tossed back down because of Bruen.
Well.
Here we are.
Looks like a 10-day stay to let California make their near certain appeal to the ruling.
If I recall correctly, the path will then be a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit then an appeal to an en banc hearing of the 9th then to the US Supreme Court.
Again, I think...
It took about three years for that to wend its way up to USSC last time, I wonder if it will be quicker this time because it was a remand.
OR
California's gun grabbers will take the loss and limit the "damage" to just California, because a ruling from the 9th that agrees with Benitez's ruling means the whole 9th Circuit loses their magazine bans, meaning Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.
OR
They press this all the way to the Supremes again and... we add California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont's magazine bans to the burn barrel.
I think I need some popcorn!
Something of an update.
Sabers and... is still progressing.
I'm just so dang buried in world building that I'm not to the point of outlines or plotting, though I do have some good characters.
Trying to get Sioux culture right is vexing, because there's been some sanitizing over the years.
They've got some skeletons in their closets and some activists should really stop casting aspersions at the evol whyte mahn.
Slavery, misogyny and (possibly) cannibalism.
But no matter, my Sioux don't have to be the real, historical, Sioux any more than my 77th Cavalry is a real, historical, unit. (Hint, it's not)
But what hit home in my research is the American Indian is a TL0 culture.
They have access to TL5 technology, but they cannot make any of it.
The Googoo are also a TL0 culture without that access to high-tech.
I think the distinction I'm going to hang on the GooGoo is they're going to be, effectively, at TL0+1 society because they don't have a myth-parallel hanging over their heads forcing their society from changing thanks to ready access to magic.
Magic SHOULD change society markedly, but the myth-parallel keeps history on track without significant changes to the outcomes.
Like Kennedy still getting killed despite having an active missile-shield in place.
For the Sabers and... universe, the myth-parallel is intact until the mass emigration through the gates to Maka Tanka.
If your on-topic, non-offensive comment isn't getting posted and says, "this comment removed by a blog administrator," you forgot something.
Something that's in the sidebar.
Read the instructions.
It pains me to keep reminding people.
But just in case you're new here, I spell out my commenting policy over in the disclaimer.
Yesterday, at the range, a light bulb went on.
We were shooting at 7 yards on the 25 yard range.
There were several people with AR's shooting at the 10 yard line.
I see this a lot and didn't really make note of it.
What I noticed was that I never see these people on the 100 yard range.
Ever.
While I'll use the shorter ranges for zeroing, I always hit the longer range to confirm them. Most of the time I have to make adjustments to the zero too.
I feel the same way about never shooting a rifle past pistol ranges as I do about taking a ranged weapon into melee combat.
You're doing it wrong.
Even better, when your groups at 100 yards start shrinking, you really feel like you did something!
I will admit, though, there's a liberal application of glass between me and the target most of the time now. Getting old ain't for sissies.
The daughter of a friend is into guns in a big way.
She's just learning, but has the eager support of us all.
Especially her grandpa.
Sold her this fine, 1947 made, 1911 he's owned for... as long as anyone can remember.
It was nearly bound up from old, solidified lubricants.
So I gave it a detail strip.
It's been a while since I'd had a 1911 apart that far and I, of course, got the sear spring in all wrong.
I did that the very first time I detail stripped one in the Army too, and I had supervision for that!
I got it unfucked, but it's frustrating when you do that with both the sear and disconnect springs UNDER the parts they're supposed to be on top of.
I still don't know how I did it, but...
Proof I got it back together properly.
Got a letter from my house insurer saying they weren't going to renew our policy because we'd failed to respond.
"Respond to what?" I wondered.
It must have been among the dozens of "don't forget we're here for you" letters they spammed out right after Ian and Nicole.
Called my agent and it's they want us to get an inspection to make sure our roof will last another 5 years.
That will be awkward. We're still making repairs from Nicole because we can't find a contractor who will show up thanks to rampant new-construction in the area.
We've stabilized the front flashing that was damaged and were planning on putting up new wood as soon as it fails to hit 90 by noon.
I'm not too bad at carpentry.
John Lott speculated that Hunter Biden's defense to the gun charges will be that background checks are unconstitutional.
It'll strange to be rooting for a Biden to win.
There's a bit of confusion out there about the Galil and it's identical cousin the R4.
The ARM is the "basic" rifle with a bipod and a bayonet lug. The loaded 35 round magazine is 1.8 lb., the 50 rounder 2.3 lb.
That gives us an 18.1" barreled gun in 5.56 that weighs 11.3 lb. loaded with 35-rounds.
The AR is almost identical. The wire-cutting bipod and the folding carry handle are deleted, but the 18.1" barrel is retained.
This is a 10.4 lb. rifle loaded with 35-rounds. It's the "police and support" version.
The SAR is the short barreled version of the AR with no bayonet lug. Vehicle crews, staff and specialty troops get this one.
This is a 13.1" barreled rifle weighing 10 lb. with 35-rounds.
The Vektor made guns are:
The R4 is the same* as the ARM. The R5 is the same* as the SAR.
*- Yes, there are differences, but the basic configurations is what we're on about here.
Yes, the Galil is very heavy for what you get.
Now that I've done some wrenching on both my Australian Caprice and Canadian Equinoxes, I have to retract something I said earlier.
It is not NEW cars that are difficult to work on.
It was a 6th Generation Corvette that was hard to work on.
I am led to believe that the 7th Gen makes The Precious seem easy and the 8th Gen is figuratively sealed up to keep the home mechanic out.
The alternator/ac belt on the Equinox wasn't hard at all.
The belt that only ran the AC on The Precious took three times longer and involved a great deal of cussing.
The way the radiator had to come out still pisses me off.
I am coming to the idea that the Corvette engineers over thought things to the point that they created problems they didn't need to create without noticing.
Our local teachers are fomenting for more pay, again.
One of them posted what our county spends compared to neighboring counties, trying to show they deserve more.
My first thought was, "well then move to where they're paying more."
My second thought, though was under the heading of "per student spending."
My county spends $22,000 a year per student.
Classes are limited to 30 students per room.
$660,000 per classroom per year.
Teachers get $48,225 to $75,000 a year.
Assuming the top pay grade...
WHERE THE FUCK IS THE OTHER $585,000 GOING? I think we're getting ripped the fuck off here.
First, it shouldn't cost more than half a million bucks to educate 30 kids.
Especially since we're spending more than half a million per classroom and failing to educate them in stuff they're going to need when they're turned loose on the world.
Time to write the congress creatures again.
The Lovely Harvey sent me a picture of her dash with the battery light on.
Gee, wouldn't it be nice to have a voltage gauge?
She got it home just as the battery lost its last erg.
It's a good thing the water pump isn't driven by the serpentine belt, because it was MIA.
No apparent damage from its departure from the car, thankfully.
Putting the new belt on is awkward, but not overly difficult.
I have a bit of a leak at the crank seal I need to keep an eye on too.
With high-resolution medical imaging and 3D printing, there's no reason but cost to have a skull mug made from a scan of your own noggin.
Considering how often we're our own worst enemy, it'd still be drinking from the skill of an enemy!
Accelerating at 4g for a day gets to about 1% the speed of light.
That got me to wondering if I should be accounting for time dilation.
I found a table showing the X axis as a percentage of the speed of light labeled in tenths with 1.0 at the far right.
That had a sharp curve for the time dilation in the Y axis and 10x dilation at the upper right corner...
"Holy BLEEP!" I says.
Then I realized.
1.0 is 100%...
There's hardly any time dilation at 1% the speed of light.
According to that graph, even 90% the speed of light is around 2x dilation.
It's not near the issue science fiction led me to think it was with anything close to a plausibly realistic engine.
Unrealistic engines almost always come with a faster than light drive that takes the worries about relativity off the table.
Edit to add:
That graph I referenced should not be taken to mean that there's "only" 10x time dilation at the speed of light. That line is near vertical there and isn't quite at c. The closer you get to c, the more dilation you get, forever.
The two Size A engines on the Assault Scout appear to pull 4g for two days just by devouring one10cm diameter sphere of U238 apiece.
That's a total of 20kg of Uranium.
That's not much.
And it's JUST Uranium consumed from what I can fathom from the rules.
That description conforms to the fission fragment drive from Vehicles Expansion 1.
But those drives are not lightweight at all.
The engines in Star Frontiers are as realistic as the Epstien drives from The Expanse.
And The Expanse has fusion...
Star Frontiers has a near instantaneous FTL drive.
You spend three to fifteen seconds in "the void" once you've accelerated to 1% light speed.
Like so many other games, I don't think they did the math very well.
The assault scout's atomic engines can accelerate at 4g.
It only takes 21ish hours to get to 1% C... So basically two days to make a jump.
Ion drives accelerate at 1g. So, about a week.
Chemical drives also get 1g, but don't have enough fuel to get get to speed.
The system is not detailed very well.
I am considering doing some conversions to GURPS: Vehicles.
An interesting thing about Star Frontiers that didn't stick right away back in 9th Grade...
No fusion.
The atomic drives are explicitly fission using uranium or plutonium as fuel. No mention of reaction mass.
Ion and chemical drives are using hydrogen. Ion engines use the hydrogen as reaction mass, chemical drives also have oxygen tankage.
It will be interesting if I can recreate the game's performance numbers using hard-science assumptions.
The wee little engines on that assault scout hold enough fuel for three jumps. So I only need to figure out about a week's worth of thrust total... Wait... That's a LOT of reaction mass with an atomic engine.
Gonna be fun?
Update:
Using hard science numbers for the drives, I can't even get 1% of a G for the 42 hours needed to get to 1% C and back down to system speed for a jump.
It's the reaction mass.
The Assault Scout is supposed to be in the neighborhood of 9,000 cubic-feet. I can't pare that down hardly at all. Staying within the size constraints I can get 2 to 2.5 G for 15 minutes.
The equations, they be HARD.
The new Star Wars show has the bad guys using a thousand year old map to find the location of a person missing just a few years.
They need the old map to input data into their modern navigation computer.
It really felt like, "Boy! Hand me my Antikythera mechanism, I need to program the Garmin to get to the store!"
Here's Sol through a DIY solar filter! Very cropped.
Compared to my store-bought filter. I think I got a better focus with the store-bought one.
An 18.5" barreled Galil ARM and 35 rounds will do 49.56 points per lb. with ball ammo.
This compares with 30 rounds from a 14.5" AR with 57.14 points per lb.
An M16A4 with optics and light pulls 47.66 points per lb.! It's more likely to hit though.
The similarly configured Tantal will get 53.33 points per lb.
James River Armory makes a clone of the Galil made from South African R4 parts kits called the Gallant.
You get your choice of wood or plastic handguards and if you have a bayonet lug or not.
What you don't, normally, get is a bipod.
The Galil ARM came with a bipod. The AR and SAR did not.
The front sight that comes with is from an ARM, so it will accept a bipod.
The bipod on the Galil is singularly useless as these things go.
The length of the legs is predicated to allow the 50-round magazine to clear the ground.
If you're shooting level, you're WAY above the ground.
If you're hunkered down trying not to get your ass shot, the muzzle is aimed at Mars. This is sub-optimal.
What the bipod does really well, is pose the rifle for pictures really well!
That alone justifies getting a bipod for your ARM clone.
The same thing is true of the clamp-on bipod for the Tantal.
Both Atlantic Firearms and Classic Firearms have Gallants for sale for about $1,000±$50 for the bayonet lug and/or wooden handguards.
If you've got the scratch, you should get one. And a bipod for pictures.
My old T2K stuff calls the M3 Bradley the M3 Devers.
I remember that was the plan and the guys at 1/4 Cav kept correcting the guys from 1/16 Inf about their new tracks being Devers and not Bradley's.
Whelp, turns out the grunts won another one over the scouts.
The M3 is officially the M3 Bradley, not the M3 Devers.
I'd not bothered to recheck that in decades.
You start with this film.
You cut it into circles.
You put the circle between two UV filters.
You fail the first time when you forgot your fingers leave prints.
You fail the second time when you find that holding the thin and fragile film while cutting with scissors ruins the film.
You fail the third time when you realize that your Exact-O blade is dull.
You succeed the next three times for 2x 58mm and 1x 67mm filters!
Laying on the floor of the garage aiming at the LED tri-light.
I'll check them against the sun for artifacts tomorrow.
This film is incredibly fragile compared to the stuff I used before that makes an orange sun.
This stuff is supposed to give a white disk, but...
Sun with finger prints and damage from holding while cutting with scissors.
Fingers crossed the three that look good with the LED lamp look good with the sun.
22 years ago, this very moment, hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 was piloted by terrorists into the North tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
To this day I do not think we've gotten our pound of flesh back for this.
I can think of a couple three places to pop nukes should something like this ever happen again.
No, you did not "do it in a small town."
You did it in your normal habitat, a large, Democrat controlled, city.
Chicago is hardly a small town.
The Army has decided against the M1A2 SEPv4 and is going with the M1E3...
Just us T2K geeks bothered to learn the numbering system and it's been bugging me for years that the military doesn't bother with it.
Shit like the X-35A becoming the F-35A. Should have been F-24A.
The X and F number series aren't the same and shouldn't interchange like that.
B-21 should be B-3A.
But they're touting the use of E3 as a return to the old way of doing it.
And showing they STILL don't understand.
Post MacNamara A is accepted, E is experimental.
Pre-MacNamara A is main variation, E is sub-variation.
Using the post system the M1E3 would be developmental and when accepted and type classified, it changes to M1A3. Wanna bet they don't?
And it really should be XM1E3 if you really use the system properly, because it's a substantial revision.
The WW2 system would have the SEPv's rolled into E numbers. M1A2 SEPv1 would be M1A2E1, SEPv2 would be M1A2E2 and so on.
The drive to The Lego Store yesterday reminded me of something I've been watching for a while.
People will routinely drive 10 over on the 6-lane 45 limit road.
When the speed limit goes up to 55... they can't get past 50.
But will punch it to five over for the short 60 mph section.
Then keep going 60 when it drops back to 50 for a few miles and drop to 50 when it returns to 55.
I don't get it.
A long, long time ago, I can still remember...
We were on the top level of the Memorial Union parking ramp bullshitting after the end of a marathon gaming session.
For some reason, "How hard would it be to shoot the cross across the street?" came up.
I said it'd be easy.
Others disagreed.
A roving Karen with an ounce of authority told us we couldn't be loitering up there before we could really debate the question and it was forgotten until now.
It's a 50m shot.
So, yes. It is an easy shot with a rifle.
Moderately difficult with a pistol.
Scientist altered their paper to make sure it would be published.
That's not how science and scientific publications are supposed to work.
If you are altering your work to conform to the bias of the publication, you have compromised your principles and all of your work is now suspect.
That you'd have to make such a compromise means that peer reviewed publication is now a useless benchmark.
Quoting something from one of these publications has the same scientific merit as quoting my high school year-book.
I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution. https://t.co/6GfbOZLc7g
— David Hogg \uD83D\uDFE7 (@davidhogg111) September 9, 2023
Fucker is getting dangerously close to taking a red pill here.
Something that often bothers me is the institutional disregard for hot-rodders.
The pollution and emissions cost of a new car is a lot more than updating and upgrading an old one.
An upgraded and updated car will be far cleaner than its original form.
But...
There's no incentives to make these upgrades and updates.
If anything, there's barriers to modernizing old cars.
There should be incentives to encourage people to drop modern, cleaner, more efficient engines and drivetrains into old cars.
There is nothing.
Why?
Well, the obvious answer is the people pushing for fewer emissions don't really believe in what they are pushing.
Is it really cynical of me to think they're a bunch of lying cunts?
This was Harvey's second trip to the range with the "large" grip on her 2.0 Compact.
No malfunctions.
No pain.
Better grouping.
I think I will not mention it and let her keep going being happy.
The ubiquitous M113 had a name besides one-one-three?
Gavin?
After James M Gavin?
I did not hear that once in three years of service in an armor regiment and decades of T2K research and model building.
Now it's here and there on the internet.
I don't think it's real.
The small story is the new springs in the P220 have greatly improved the slide's movement and four magazines of 230gr .45 confirmed it is reliable for all time.
The real success is The Lovely Harvey finally busting the plateau and getting hits on the centerline!
It's an eye and glasses issue. If we stuff an earplug under the bridge of her glasses so she can use the reading portion of her bifocals without tilting her head all the way back... She shoots point of aim.
She ditched her glasses altogether for safety glasses and still shot center.
Her distance prescription makes everything worse.
We also played with the settings of my phone's camera:
I think she's got pretty good form.
She's also reporting no pain from shooting this time. That's also a first. It means that the slow process of her shoulder healing is moving along nicely.
I was reading a PJMedia article about how much your car spies on you and wondered if the reluctance of insurance companies to cover former police vehicles has anything to do with the lack of the gear used to spy on the car.
The Beast has no OnStar, for example.
Despite being irritatingly controlled by the BCM, there aren't really any systems on the thing that weren't in my 1991 Biscayne*.
This lack of nannyware might be something to think about.
I'll have to ask some friends with pre-electronics cars if they're having any trouble finding insurance. A '72 Chevelle sure as fuck won't have any of that crap on it.
*The Biscayne started as a Caprice Classic, but I stripped out so much of the luxury appointments that I jokingly said that I was making a Biscayne cop car out of it... the title stuck.
I just went car insurance shopping.
USAA is still the price to beat, despite the 33% increase from last period on top of the 43% increase from the period before.
$660 a month is what we were going to have to pay.
I nuked $160 of it (eliminating the increase) by changing from "stacked" to "unstacked" coverage for the uninsured motorist portion!
The insurance agent at AAA suggested that after we found out they won't write coverage for The Beast.
A different agent says that 8 of her 11 companies, likewise, will not write for The Beast.
Why?
"Modifications"
What modifications?
I have 12 different answers.
All of them clearly decided by people who don't know fuck-all about cars.
Among my favorites: The police modify the car to go faster.
No. No they do not. They like their warranty as much as the next guy.
The addition and removal of police equipment compromising the car in some way is phrased several different ways. With no procedure to prove that nothing was compromised.
This is especially galling, because I know a lot about the car.
They were imported as ready-built cop cars. Provision was made for adding police equipment without compromising the car's safety, performance or handling. Those same provisions allow for its safe removal as well.
I dunno if this is true for Ford or Dodge or other GM cars, but it is true of the Caprice PPV.
Plus, I still think that my massive brake upgrade should be worth some discount. I can stop with Corvettes, despite outmassing them by half a ton!
Now that we know that Liberty had a back-door code built into every electronic lock.
I wonder, now, if such codes have ever been used to plant evidence in a "locked" safe using clandestine means.
I'm more and more concerned that I'm not paranoid enough.
I've been reading other people commenting on Liberty Safe giving the FBI an access code to enter a suspect's gun-safe.
What makes this interesting is the numerous people who said that Liberty told them to call a locksmith to drill the safe when they forgot the combination they'd changed from the factory default.
Essentially, Liberty retained a combination to get into your safe they would not share with you or a locksmith. But will share with law enforcement.
Most people are incensed by the cooperation with law enforcement.
What gets me is the existence of that code. And Liberty telling customers that they needed to call a locksmith instead of giving them the code...
I'm guessing it's the same code for every lock they sell.
That sure compromises the security of your retail security cabinet, don't it?
Further reading tells me that Liberty is getting familiar with Jim Zumbo and Barbara Streisand.
This is because people are looking into what else Liberty gets up to and donating to Democrats appears to be something they do.
Good job!
The CMP has announced that the fourth round of M1911 sales is now open.
What's new is people who want a second one can submit a packet this time.
I am strong.
I can resist.
I note that most (perhaps all) congresscreatures accumulate wealth far in excess of their salaries.
I'm not going to begrudge them their graft.
But it seems that the graft is sufficient to replace their salaries and extensive benefits.
So lets cut their salary and benefits and make them live on the graft.
Listen to me.
"Make them" like it's going to be a burden to go without...
Astronomers have some compelling models which suggest a ninth tenth goddammit (fuck you Neil!) planet out there in the Kuiper Belt.
Aside: The current definition of "planet" that excludes Pluto exists primarily to keep the numbers down so that it can be taught simply to children. It also fails since Jupiter doesn't appear to have cleared its orbit as required (because it's got extensive collections of stuff in its Grecian and Trojan points).
The articles talking about it keep saying "earth-like".
Nothing out at 500 AU is "earth-like". <- Assuming the New York Post got the distance the scientists talked about correct. 500 AU is more Oort Cloud than Kuiper Belt...
1.5-3 times the size of Earth, itself, isn't very earth-like either.
The descriptor you're looking for is "rocky planet."
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars and Pluto are rocky planets.
I get the impression that all the inner planets are "earth-like" by the definition of The NY Post.
I'm in the process of changing primary doctors at the VA.
My current doc has not been very good.
Starting with when I put The Precious into a tree and culminating with her refusal to sign my handicapped parking permit, I decided that she wasn't doing a good job for me.
I have an appointment with the new doc next week, setting that appointment canceled two appointments with the old doc last month.
She called me personally today to talk about the parking permit.
Bitch, you are fired. Do you want an exit interview or something?
I tell you, after she failed to make the accident follow-up in a timely manner she's damn lucky that Harvey didn't go down there and blow her ear drums out dressing her down.
The call was odd, I think.
It felt like a call from someone who's been told by her supervisor that if she loses one more customer she's fired.
Knowing how close to a sinecure the VA doctor job is... That says something.
She was very focused on the parking permit and I kept telling her that it was just the final straw.
Like three loops of her offering to sign it now and me trying to explain what "last straw" means.
When I told her it started with her failure to get me a follow-up for the car accident, she asked, "when was your accident?"
So I replied, "see? You don't even know. You didn't even pull my file before calling to familiarize yourself with your patient. That's why we're done here."
The vid of Santa Fe No. 3751 and some of the Big Boy from Union Pacific No. X4014 reminded me that many of these steam locomotives are not as old as lots of people think they are.
Diesel didn't really take over until the 1960's. Diesel-Electric, to be precise.
No. 3751 was made in 1927 by Baldwin Locomotive Works.
No. X4014 was made in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company.
People have an image of steam being long gone by the time WW2 started.
The oldest engines running in the US are younger than the "Old West."
Hard to find one that's older than the 1920's that still hauls anything.
The older ones are narrow gauge.
Akon invites every black person in America to move to Senegal to become millionaires!
"No please, dont'." W. Wonka.
I'm a trillionaire in Zimbabwe...
Is a millionaire in Senegal better? Worse?
It'd be hilarious to watch this fall apart if a significant number of the black people who are the source of so much of our crime rate were to move there.
A win for America! We lose those criminals and we get to watch the disaster from afar.
If they'd signed it, there'd be a comment about how the Republicans need to fall in line and do what Trump tells them.
Did I mention that he's actively pissing those people off, so why should they fall in line?
I'm pretty sure I did.
I also mentioned that it's a team sport, and he's often stating that he's not on a team with his actions.
Notice the title of my post? "Ventura Effect"
After Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Former governor of Minnesota.
He wasn't a member of either party.
He didn't accomplish anything because he was damn good at rallying both sides to oppose him.
Sometimes just for spite.
Trump is about to achieve Grand Master in getting the side he needs to support him to oppose him out of spite because "fuck that guy."
He's not helping our cause in any meaningful way with his antics.
Nor are his supporters who're mistaken about where the pressure to change things is coming from.
Watching Donald shitting on Governor DeSantis has me thinking:
He should probably not be pissing off the people he has to have working with him if he's reelected.
Mr Trump is not a team player and doesn't understand two basic things about politics or how he was elected.
First is he thinks he's the leader of this movement. That's provably incorrect. He's the choice when the establishment Republicans were being rejected by the movement. He was handy at the time.
Second politics is most certainly a team sport, and the president needs congress to support their agenda to properly implement it. Executive orders only go so far.
He seems to be going out of his way to make sure that he's going to be opposed by Republican politicritters if he's reelected.
Not a good plan.
Don't get me wrong, he's far better than Hillary or Brandon would have been or have been.
If he's the candidate, I'll likely vote for him because he's got that "Not Joe Biden" box checked.
I'm not sure he's the candidate I want, though.
He's too damn good at pissing off everyone to the point nobody wants to work with him. See point number two.
That fucks us because there's a lot he wants to do that is great for us.
It's a totally different topic that the congresscreatures are perfectly willing to fuck all of us just to fuck over Trump for pissing them off by being the dick he is.
This is yet another place that shouldn't be a zero sum game, but it is.
While marveling about my past few cars getting high miles without effort...
And mentioning that it was unheard of that American cars could do that...
I forgot something.
There was once a time when if you had a BMW or Mercedes Benz, you could count on hundreds of thousands of miles trouble free if you just did basic routine maintenance.
Now, try to find a Beemer that doesn't rack up catastrophic repair bills once the warranty expires.
Go on, I'll wait.
Damn short list, ain't it?
BMW has over-complicated basic, routine, maintenance to the point where it's included in the purchase price and warranty. That complication means that you get ass-raped once that service plan expires with the warranty.
Of all the brands, they appear to have embraced the "elegant" solution of burying wear items under many layers of other assemblies to the point that it's simply not cost effective to repair them.
Gee, looks like it was the sun all along!
Living next to a main sequence variable means you have to deal with the variability of the thing.
It's something I've been saying for a long time.
Always remember that there's no "science" in Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change.
The IPCC, by the way, comes to us by the same organization that puts Saudi Arabia on a panel for women's rights and listens it Iran about LGBT rights.
Just sayin'.
Considering how much of the IPCC stuff benefits government at the expense of liberty...
That the government funded science supports more government should not be surprising.
That there are still scientists doing SCIENCE is.
There's a difference between:
We will not comply again.
AND
We will not comply, again.
The person who didn't notice the comma got a good head of steam going condemning the original poster before people pointed it out.
But, just in case you're in possession of a sheepskin from a midwest high school (like me)...
The first is saying that they complied once and won't be complying this time. The second is say they didn't comply the first time and would not comply the next time either.
I won't even condemn the a person in the first case.
There were a lot of unknowns at the time and most people don't know much about the topic.
I credit the internet for getting the knowledge out and raising mistrust of institutions who've been actively working against our interests for decades.
I really feel like we on the cusp of something.
Especially when Harvey's liberal co-workers are complaining about Brandon as loud as anyone on my side of the aisle. The only thing they got that they wanted from him is that Joe Biden is not, in fact, Donald Trump.
I can't even get mad at them for that. George W Bush was not Al "Ozone" Gore. George W Bush was not John Kerry. John McCain was not Barack Obama, nor was Mitten "I did Obamacare first" Romney. Donald Trump was not Hillary Clinton.
I get voting against someone rather than for someone. I've literally been doing it for decades.
Still, everyone who's a graduated of the Ivy League and jealously guarding the levers of power is missing that Donald is a symptom of unrest, not the cause.
They're also missing that what they're doing the the January 6th protesters is not deterring a repeat. It's informing them that, next time, bring guns and to not hesitate to shoot.
These are facts on the ground that need to be accounted for going forward that are being actively denied.
I can easily see if Biden gets reelected that the hotter heads will say, "well, that's it then..." then raising the black flag and start slitting throats in the most literal sense.
One reason I love modern cars is the ease with which they rack up the miles.
150k was unheard of not that long ago. Astonishing in a car that wasn't Japanese.
The Beast reminds me of the departed Flossie in lots of ways. It's like a giant, overpowered, Civic!
I admit that I've been doing a lot of parts replacement since I got it, but not major mechanical.
I am kind of proud that I did not buy an overpriced knickknack from two YouTubers to be entered to win something they were giving away.
While I will not win a Toyota or an FG.42... I would not have won if I'd spent the money.
VICTORY!
A small, local brewer, just up and died on us today.
Ed Schultz of Krazy Eddie's Garage will be sorely missed.
He reminded me a lot of my bro, Ray.
I cannot claim to have been his friend, but his departure is affecting people who are my friends.
It is a sad day.
The opening assist (don't call it a switchblade) on my beloved Kershaw Cyclone decided to stop working last night.
The mode of failure was the same as when Marvyn's decided to die, so I was worried.
Today I took it apart and gave it a thorough cleaning.
Had two frustrations putting it back together.
First, I couldn't remember how the assist spring went into the knife because it fell out while separating the halves and I didn't see where it'd come from.
Someone on YouTube had a video that solved that one.
Second, I dropped the smaller blade bushing into the field of debris at the foot of my work bench. UGH! I should really sweep up more than once a year.
So I vacuumed up the debris and took it out to the sawhorses and spread it out to find the little thing. Huzzah!
Once reassembled, the opening assist appears to be functioning correctly again.
Dunno for how long, but it's working for now.
I dread the day it quits for good, but it will still be a fine knife; it will just open conventionally.
I wonder if the cheeseburgers are living up to expectations for Jimmy Buffet.
I'm young enough that there was ALWAYS Jimmy Buffet and it seems strange that there is none now.
Replaced the swaybar end links on The Beast.
The first thing that hit me was that it was much easier than the same operation on The Precious (RIP). The Australians apparently considered the idea that someone would be working on it someday.
I took a road trip to meet a friend yesterday and the persistent vibration in the wheel since I first got the car from that same friend is nearly gone.
The ride was smooth and relaxing for the first time since I got her.
I think I still need front struts, but it's bearable now.
Next, there's been water in the rear driver's side footwell after a hard rain.
New window fuzzy seals installed!
I hope that fixes it. I especially hope the passenger side doesn't start leaking because that part is unobtanium.
I'm getting very close to getting the car fully fixed so I can start making mods instead of repairs!
