1d pi- And All Night To Work

The Walther Model 2 in .25 ACP might be one of the deadliest handguns ever made.

Vasily Blokhin murdered a lot of Polish prisoners with one.

Muzzle range to the back of the skull.

I'd say max damage to the brain.  So 6 delivered, -2 for skull DR, 4 penetrates, x4 for hit location... 16.

That's not enough to kill someone with one shot!

There's no rules for it, but the base of the skull might be one of those bypass the skull DR locations like hitting the eyes are.  I'd allow it.

That'd up the damage delivered to 6 and the location would make it 24 which IS enough to kill the average person with one shot.

The 16 will do it too, with the bleeding rules they will be making death rolls in four minutes.  Not like the NKVD is doing first aid before they toss them into the truck.

This kinda GURPS. 

Just Exactly How Complicated Do I Want It?

GURPS has several, parallel, rank and status systems.

Downton Abbey gives something of an example.

The Earl of Grantham has Social Status 5.

His valet has Social Status, at most, 2.  But the earl's valet will outrank a viscount's, so we need to assign social ranks to the household staff as well!

I think in this particular case, given Mr Bates checkered past, he likely has Social Status 1 or even 0.  But he will still outrank a Social Status 2 valet of a Social Status 4 Viscount.

Isn't high society fun?

The level of detail starts adding up fast.

Does Downton Abbey come with the title of Earl of Grantham or is it the property of Robert Crawley?  If it belongs to the title, does he need the level of wealth to match owning it, since he does control it?

Then there's political power.  Does an earl in 1916 still have powers to mete out justice?

What are his duties.  Is fealty still in effect like it was in 900?

Figuring out all the details can get very complex and expensive.

It's conceivable that, because of the need for rank and status, that Mr Bates is a higher point character than his social superior and employer.

I use Downton Abbey as an example because it's accessible.  I first started noticing the separation of titles and power when looking at the Germans and how the Junker could have titles, but no wealth or land and how people could have wealth and land without any titles.  Some titles that kept wealth and land got political power.  Some people of wealth and property had little to now political power.  And there was political power without property, title or wealth!

I've never had a player group that seemed interested in navigating it.

I've played a character in a world where I noticed it more than the GM and he was over his head with the nuances of the world he'd created.  His girlfriend's character totally missed what he was trying to do and whirled off on her own to do society stuff while the rest of us were being bound by our duties.

This is definitely something the GM needs to decide on and make available to the players before they waste points on things that are included with another advantage; or be made aware that just because you're a baron, it doesn't mean you're rich and you need to take some wealth too. 

Order Of Knights Of The Library Of Saint Jerome Of Stridon

I posted here that clerics in AD&D are described as, "This class of character bears a certain resemblance to religious orders of knighthood of medieval times."

GURPS doesn't really have a clean and clear path to getting a warrior priest, but it does have mages and vows! 

The Hospitalers and Templars don't really fit the mold well, so I thought to create a new order!

The Order of Knights of the Library of St. Jerome of Stridon.

Members of the order take vows.  Vows to not use edged weapons.  Vows to restrict their spell use to certain colleges in accordance to their religious dogma seems to fit.  Basically to pare them down to the AD&D Cleric!

If I wanted to get a bit dirtier do the investiture and sanctity instead of magery and mana and let any religious mage take any spell just like a conventional mage just with different prerequisite advantages.

This has the advantage of being relatively simple and allows for different religions to have different restrictions on their warrior priests.

I think I even have a list of the vows for the Hospitalers and Templars from GURPS: Banestorm already so I have three flavors of Cleric already!

Huzzah!

I like simple solutions.

I think I might have come up with a similar solution for Druids with restricting them to Animal, Elemental and Plant colleges. 

I Have A Character Concept

I have a mage idea that's just a name and a fragment of a back story.

Malcom the Incompetent.

Due to a gap in his education, he learned that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, but missed that the 'in' prefix normally doesn't work that way.

By the time he'd learned his mistake, he'd been insisting on the moniker for years. 

He will, of course, be a competent mage. 

Barriers To Entry Take Five (We're On Five Right?)

Just like everyone experiences the upgrade differently, not every person on the "good" side of the barrier gets all the benefits because there's additional barriers and sub-categories.

But something that happens with EVERY case of barrier to entry is a steep reduction in the number of people who can cross the barrier.

Citing that there's a shortage of people who have the requisite license is proof of a barrier in action, not a refutation.

FFS it's right in the name Barrier to Entry.

It keeps people from entering the profession by its very nature. 

Another common thing is for the people who've crossed the barrier to be absolutely unable to perceive that they have and that it was there.  "But I don't make more money than, example in same profession, therefore there must not be a barrier," is the form it often takes.

That's experience and specialization in the field, not the barrier itself.

I really do have a degree in this.

You know, credentials. 

I Know When I Stopped Stopping By

Dissent Brewing in St Pete is closing.

They did some serious pandering for Black Lives Matter.

Their beer was decent, but I can get beer that's just as good without a lecture about how guilty I should feel for being Caucasian.

Yet another business that failed to recognize who was spending the money to keep the doors open. 

50 Years!

Fifty years ago I sat in a theater and watched Jaws.

Tonight, I sat in a theater and watched Jaws.

It's held up wonderfully!

Hurry!  It's only going to be in a theater near you for Labor Day weekend and it's well worth the experience. 

Work Your Side Of The Street And Punch Your Own Weight

While contemplating the owlbear, griffons, hippogriffs, corviths and such other animal hybrids, it occurred to me that we don't see much of the human-animal hybrid...

We have some centauroids and satyr.

In a world where the Gods are provably real and physically present some of the time...

There's things you should not do, and don't get to do twice. 

The Gods don't like people playing God and making centauroids is making people and making people is God work not talking monkey work.

Thus there's a place that used to be a wizard's tower where a wizard is being slowly and painfully killed for their transgressions against the Gods.

It might even be a place to pilgrimage to.  Or a tourist trap.

No matter why people come to see, the important thing is to remember WHY the screaming in pain for decades dying wizard is being punished so.

Spread The Word.  Tell your friends.

You don't want the Gods to ask themselves, "Were we being too subtle with the other guy?" 

Did It Again

Typed out a huge rant, made baseless accusations, slung insults and, generally, made an ass of myself.

Felt better after doing so and hit delete rather than publish.

I keep saying that this place is for my pressure relief more than anything else and ofttimes the composition of a rant suffices to lower the pressure and let me drive on.

All y'all don't even need to read it. 

Range Time

Got Harvey to the range yesterday.  She's learning that shooting uses different muscles from anything else she does and the bionic shoulder gets sore and tired fast because of her neglect.

However, she expected to be rusty, stayed relaxed and shot well.  Groups were centered, not off to the left like normally happens when she gets rusty.

I also took care of something I neglect.  Actually shot my daily carry gun.

I skip shooting it because I am carrying it and the range rules forbid drawing your carry piece.  That means it stays in my pocket rather than getting shot.

The good news is I had nothing to worry to about.

Fun was had by all! 

As Good As It's Gonna Get

Canon EOS M50, EF-M 15-45mm: f/8.0, 35mm, 1/160", ISO 100 Cropped

I could add a lot more polish to this cannonball, and not make it any better.

Getting some sun and shadow on things really helps, I think.  Modern cameras rock, this was shot in Program mode and I just let the camera make the decisions for me. 

I'm Not Obsessed You're Obsessed

I wondered about being unable to get the angle from the painting and considered that I'd judge the angle from the taped together magazines.

So I re-taped them so that they could actually be used and that gave me a different angle where the magazines matched the painting!

It lays out on the bed pretty well.

Might have to try for one on an ammo box later this afternoon. 

This Is Twice

"Once is happenstance.  Twice is coincidence.  The third time it's enemy action."

-- A Goldfinger 

For the second time a trans person has shot up a place associated with a religious school.

First in Tennesee.  Now in Minnesota.

We're getting perilously close to "where there's smoke there's fire" point and having to look a lot harder at the trans community and ask some hard questions.

One question that the LGBT community will fight tooth and nail to keep from being asked, let alone answered, is, "is gender dysphoria the primary ailment or a secondary symptom of an underlying problem?"

Modern psychiatry doesn't want to ask this either, from fear of the LGBT community's response.

I'll say it again.

The people with simple gender dysphoria are absolutely harmless.  The only problem is a mild delusion that the person in the mirror isn't them.  It's easy to work with and around.  They also tend to live long, reasonably happy lives.

Then there's the folks with gender problems that stem from something deeper.  Again, most of the time, it's manageable and has happy outcomes.

Outcomes that lead to them recognizing their genetic sex as their gender.

This is an outcome that's unacceptable to the LGBT political activists and they try to treat a symptom with little more than placebos and palliatives; leading to the underlying problem to run rampant untreated.

Why?

Because if you do, successfully, treat the underlying problem they stop being trans!

The activists can't fucking have that!

We can't even try to sort the different causes out from one another without being accused of LGBT genocide or other such nonsense.

So we end up with untreated psychoses which lead to violence to themselves and others.

There's some huge problems in modern psychiatry that need to be addressed, and there's a mountain of political activists in the way of what was once a promising scientific field. 

Details

In the T2K Small Arms Guide the M16A2 they show has some, oddites.

There's no groove for the charging handle latch.

There's a retaining pin for the buffer retaining plunger.

The lower doesn't have the reinforcement that an A2 lower should where the receiver extension screws in.

The markings say "CAL .223" instead of "CAL. 5.56 MM." and "MODEL SP1" but do not say "PROPERTY OF US GOVT."

Like my clone, there is no pin for the auto-sear despite being marked for burst.  Also, like my clone, that's a semi-auto hammer.

The upper has the distinctive "shelf" for the cut-away half-moon bolt-carrier that kept SP1 owners from being evil and converting them to full auto.  It also has the SP1 screw at the front instead of the more normal captive pin.

Some details of the rear sight and handguard make me think the artist was working from a picture of an A1 style SP1 and they used artistic license to change them to resemble M16A2 parts.

That author drew over several photos that I've found later to make them more T2K from the original sources.  Several Vietnam photos got that treatment, his "kevlar" helmets are obviously M1 pots with skirts added than the real deal. 

Fair Winds

Randy "Duke' Cunningham has left the chat.

Naval Aviator

Congressman

Criminal (Repeating myself?)

Convicted Felon (Pardoned) 

T2K Small Arms Guide 2025 Edition

Now with KaBar, taped magazines and dog tags!  The angle of the painting is impossible in real life.

 

The original:

I noticed that you can't insert the magazines taped like they are.  Wanna bet a nickel that the original artist didn't try and only had a short period of time to paint what they had?

My previous attempt in 2016:

If anyone recognizes the crate from the OG artwork, please let me know.  I'd love to get one.  I don't recall ever seeing one that used hex-head bolts and didn't have a rib at the ends of the lid.

How To Make An IDF M16A1 With This One Wierd Trick

If you put an Orlite magazine into your M16A1 clone, it's magically transformed into an Israeli M16A1!

This also shows why you need to grind down the overinsertion ribs for most guns.

Many, if not most, AR magazine wells won't let you get an Orlite magazine fully inserted without some carving or grinding on the overinsertion rib.

While taking these pics I noticed that, now that I have an Orlite magazine and a KaBar, I can take an almost fully accurate picture of the painting from the Twilight: 2000 Small Arms Guide.  I don't have the right ammo box, but I have one that's VERY close. 

Barrel And Twist

GURPS does and doesn't account for the difference from the old 1:12 rifling for M193 and the later 1:7 rifling for NATO ammo.

There's clear hints in some of the stats that 1:9 rifling is treated the same as 1:7.

I've made stats for every gun I've ever owned and I got to wondering if the fine distinctions mattered much.

At least in game terms.

The shortest barrel here is 11.5" long with 1:9 rifling.

4d+1 pi to 600/2,700.  That gives 5-25 raw (avg. 15) damage.  600 yards is more than enough for social occasions.

In 14.5" we have both 1:9 and 1:7.

4d+2 pi to 750/2,900.  That gives 6-26 raw (avg. 16) damage.

16" is in 1:9 and 1:7.

4d+2 pi to 750/2,700.  Same damage as 14.5" but with a bit more range.

20" in 1:12 is different than 1:7 or 1:9.

5d pi to 500/3,200.  That gives 5-30 raw (avg. 17.5) damage.

Tighter twists yield...

5d pi to 800/3,500.  Same damage, a bit more range. 

For a long time I depended on a Mini-14 with 1:10 rifling from an 18.1" barrel.

5d-1 pi to 480/3,000.  That gives 4-29 raw (avg. 16.5) damage.

The long lusted for Galil ARM had an 18.1" barrel and 1:12 twist.  Comes out to the same as the Ruger.

We're not talking about a huge difference in damage.  We're not even seeing a big change in the Bulk stat.  -4 for the SBR's and -5 for the longer guns.

The term nugatory comes to mind and grabbing the lightest of the guns seems the best choice, should I find I've been dropped into a GURPS world.

That'd be Brenda at 8 lb. with the optic if I want to use the heavier rounds that I've accumulated for just such an occasion.

The M16 and M16A1 clones are lighter, but I've come to appreciate the faster acquisition times from even a 1x optic. 

EDIT TO ADD: The 20" barrel with 1:7 twist's stats, I think, are assuming you're using proper NATO ammo which is longer and heavier than "normal" 55 gr ammo; so if you really get into the weeds of statting things out, you might consider using the M16A1's stats when firing M193 from an M16A2.

Or not...  You could also take the position that the longer ranges reflect the greater stabilization and would apply regardless of bullet weight. 

Citation Deleted

There's things I've tried to document on this blog that no longer have citations because there's a dead link.

Occasionally, I can find a new link, but not very often any more.

It's sad because I had a link to the history of the Orlite magazine showing that they were first issued to the IDF in 1982 and the metal mesh reinforcement for the feed lips starts in 1992.

The 1983 patent shows a screen like reinforcement at the lips, so...

The example I own has a mesh in the lip area, so...

But the link I had is dead.  I never posted it to the blog, just saved a bookmark, and it's gone.

There's information that I think should be saved that is going away because the authors don't maintain their sites or the domains don't.  Amounts to the same thing.

I think I am going to have to start committing copyright violations and copy-paste entire passages to make sure they last as long as Google keeps Blogger going.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if we know what year the Orlite becomes readily available, but if you run a Twilight: 2000 RDF sourcebook campaign, it might just matter. 

Quoted For Truth

"As [Gamemaster], I am in fact an eldritch god of fate and chaos who may, at any time of my choosing, look down and say "THIS ONE PLEASES ME.""

--R Orbeck 

Saving Money

I was singing in the shower and had an epiphany!

The Lipsey's Gen 1 Classic is a Gen 3 in all but name and differs only in the frame.

That would make it a representative example for nostalgia purposes and I realized that my Gen 2 is closer to a Gen 1 in most respects, except for the frame.

I already have a representative example!

Nostalgia is actually served already.

Apparently, my Gen 2 slide will fit and function on the Gen 3 style Classic frame and there's a couple for sale in the $150ish range.  Seems a cheaper way to get my itch scratched. 

OG Plastic Magazine Comparison

Referencing my methods from this 2018 post:

Orlite 30-round magazine
Measures 0.210"
Falls free from neither test gun.
Readily tilts and binds.

2012 made Thermold 30-round magazine
Measures 0.159"
Falls free from neither test gun.
Readily tilts and binds.

Bonus!  The Brownell's Retro magazines! 

Brownell's 20-round Retro Steel Waffle Magazine
Measures 0.265"
Falls free from both test guns.
Readily tilts and binds.

Brownell's 25-round Retro Steel Magazine
Measures 0.315"
Falls free from Kaylee, not from Sabrina.
Readily tilts and binds. 

Springy

So far, all of the 30-round AR magazines I've taken apart, except two, use the bog-standard USGI pattern spring that's been around since 1967.

Ironically, those exceptions are USGI!

The gray body, tan follower and the tan body, blue follower magazines use a different spring.

Organize your preps accordingly! 

Orlite

The Israeli Orlite magazine is, if not the first, one of the earliest plastic magazines for the AR platform.

3.8 oz. empty compared to the PMAG-30's 4.7 oz.   1 lb. 0.5 oz. loaded vs to 1 lb. 1.7 oz.

It can accept any standard clip loading system the AR can use. 

 Zero anti-tilt features and what looks like a normal, if blued, USGI 30-rounder spring and a copy of the black USGI follower.  The follower drags on the sides of the mag and the follower is slow.  When unloading it with the Strip-LULA I noticed a bit of a delay for the column to rise to the lips.

The over-travel lips have been ground down.  I, dimly, recall that some magazine wells prevented the mag from being inserted with them intact.

A magnet weakly sticks to the sides, so there must be some kind of metal reinforcement in there. 

Markings are sparse.  Not sure what the 0/30 code denotes.  Lot number if the internet can be trusted.

I think they were made from 1982 through 1994, but I don't have a solid source.  They were replaced they the standard gray body, green follower USGI magazine though. 

What About Us You Fucking Cadaver?

Rick Scott is sure putting himself out there to help the victims of the fire in Palisides, California.

They do need the help, their own governments have utterly failed to do so.

But he's proposing things to help there that would certainly help HERE but hurricane victims don't count because he's the senator from California and he doesn't worry about Florida.

RECORD SCRATCH

Senator Scott ISN'T a senator from California.

He's the senior senator from Florida!

What about US you lurch looking motherfucker?

Shit like this is why I voted for Nelson way back.  Nelson, despite being what he was, could at least be counted on to do what he did the way he did it and was, thus, easily countered.  Scott, on the other hand, just randomly crusades without consideration for the voters who put him there.

He is, for the record, the term limited governor who signed the most sweeping gun control Florida has suffered in decades.  Decades that included Democrat governors passing "shall-issue" CCW by the way.  He's also the term limited governor who signed our red-flag law.

He's a poster child for lots of things that people advocate for that are not good ideas in practice. 

This Parallels What I Was Trying To Say

If there are any flying monkeys left reading:

Redneck Rising

Credentials and training that aren't actually needed to do the job at hand are barriers to entry designed to inflate salaries for those on the other side of the barrier.

My example of needing to be an RN to do work that most anyone with a very basic amount of medical training can perform looms large here.

On The Tree

Found this pic on Facebook: 

I had been driving for a few years before I encountered a car that had "three on the tree" or, in my mind, a stick shift with the shifter where an automatic trans selector should be.

All the manuals I'd driven, to this point, were on the floor and all the automatics on the column.

I remember being relieved and disappointed to find it was simply the same H-pattern as a floor shifter; just rotated 90°.

I was expecting something a lot more cryptic.

 

DR OF An AK Magazine

GURPS, generally, does not track the DR of equipment except to figure out how to damage it.

It does have rules on p. B557 to calculate the DR and HP of objects.

A loaded, steel, AK magazine should have DR 5 and 3 HP.  That gives a Cover DR of 6 (p. B408).

A 7.62x51mm round doing 7d pi will do an average of 24 points of damage, 6 will be absorbed by the magazine and 18 will penetrate to the torso of the mook, doing 18 damage.  24 points also does 9 points (piercing damage is halved on injury tolerance: unliving) to the magazine which is enough to, possibly, kill it.

00 buck, doing 1d+1 pi will do an average of 4 points of damage.  It will neither hurt the mook, nor damage the magazine enough to make it useless.

#4 buck, doing 1d-1(0.5) pi- will do a average of 2 points of damage which is utterly useless at penetrating both the cover DR of 12 from the magazine protecting the wearer and the DR 10 of the magazine itself.  Remember; that (0.5) doubles the DR.

Mr Fleetwood's recollection of #4 Buck failing to penetrate an AK magazine in a chest rig GURPS! 

Not Really A Shotgunner

I own two 12ga shotguns because I feel that a gun-owner should own a shotgun.

I used to shoot trap and field, even getting good at it, but I don't really shoot shot.

It extends to GURPS characters too.

Only six instances of carrying a shotgun in more than a hundred characters.  One of them is carrying one she can't really handle and got a quirk for choosing it.

Shotguns have less capacity, bulkier and heavier ammo than most other choices.

I prefer a rifle.

The GURPS rules back my prejudices. 

It's Good To Be The Admin

Something I can do as the admin here that normal commenters cannot do is make multiple tries at my comment without anyone seeing the errors.

I can go, "Shit!" delete the message, after copying it, edit the content and then post it again.

Occasionally, it takes several times to delete my typos and errors.

More than once I've changed my tone in my reply too. 

Found It!

Using a laser or fusion gun to burn through armor!  I've mentioned it before.

I found the note for it on p.559 of the Basic Set.

Repeated impaling, piercing, and large piercing attacks against the same small spot (an area with SM 0 or less) lower DR at that specific point as if it were semi-ablative; repeated burning, corrosion, crushing, cutting, or huge piercing attacks at that same spot reduce DR at that point as if it were ablative.  DR never falls below 1 for wood or 3 for brick, concrete, or stone. For rules governing semi-ablative and ablative DR, see the Damage Resistance advantage (p. 46).

I knew I'd read it someplace! 

#4 Buck

Reading my most recent issue of Shooting Illustrated (Sep '25) and they have an article comparing 00 Buck to #4 Buck.

It's something I've already seen for GURPS.

SEALs In Vietnam gave us stats for #4 Buck because it was exceedingly popular in 'Nam with troops who toted a shotgun.

00 Buck is the GURPS 4e default damage for a shotgun; it does 1d+1 pi, 40/800.

The smaller pellets of #4 Buck do 1d(0.5) pi-, 30/600; but you get three times as many pellets (27 v 9).  That gives a better chance to hit.

At 15 yards vs average VC mook:

00 Buck from your Ithaca model 37 can bang out two shells per turn, slinging 18 pellets down-range.

With a skill of 12, -5 to hit for range, +4 for the number of pellets, net 11 to hit.

With a rcl of 1 that means two pellets will hit on an average roll and do 9 points of damage which is a major wound.

#4 Buck sends 54 pellets for a +6 and a net 13 to hit.

That means that 4 pellets hit on an average roll and will do, on average, just 5 points of damage.  Just barely a major wound.

This seems to agree with the conclusions in the article.

This GURPS!

I Did Not Previously Know This

Your Swiss Army Knife might have a place to stow a straight pin!

Look for this little hole under your corkscrew:

 I had some buttoneer pins handy:

 Update: 1-3/4" is the maximum pin length!  The 2" pin pictured will poke out from under the scale at the far end and snag on your pocket lining.

Slides right in and is retained by the closed corkscrew!

My older knives don't have the little hole, but it's very neat to have learned this.

From a YouTube short, no less.

 

It Was Worth Checking

An anon comment suggested Armslist in my Glock 17.1 quest.

Excellent suggestion, I tend to forget they're there.

Sadly, the prices aren't any better than GunBroker, but there's more choices in the OG model.  $2,500 for an unfired 1988 made gun with everything!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I am more and more convinced I was an idiot for trading my original gun in for that Glock 21 I still have.  Without regard to future value or future collectors, I did not save the original box, accessories or owner's manual.

PS: This also reminded me check Florida Gun Trader.  No Gen 1 at all. 

Market Research

When the gunshop in Clearwater told me $1,000 for a Gen 1 Glock in mediocre condition with one incorrect magazine, I felt they were asking too much.

This auction:

 

Puts lie to their claim that one in good condition with the box and accessories is worth two grand.

$1,326 for two correct mags, (mismatched) case, and all accessories.  That's a little short of two grand. 

But, as with all things, an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and I'm not willing to pay for $1,000 for a Gen 1 when the clones are hovering in the $600 range.

Lots of collectors don't want to admit it, but a clone market DOES affect the price of the real thing. 

Another One Down

Following in the footsteps of The United Kingdom, France and China; Israel's next infantry rifle will not be a bullpup.

So far, the only nations to buy a second bullpup have been nations that adopted the Steyr AUG; and they go with upgraded versions of the AUG.

It's kinda telling. 

DEI Capture

The main problem most people have with DEI, even if they're unaware that DEI is present, is that DEI demands that the goods produced are exclusively Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and not the purported product they're supposedly selling.

DEI becomes the product, exclusively.

As I asked about Black Star Brewing, "Is the beer any good?" 

I ask Jaguar, "Is the car any good?"

I'm asking if the food will remain comfort food as Cracker Barrel goes through the throws of DEI capture. 

When I buy a product, I want it to do what it's supposed to do and I'm buying it for itself.

I'm not generally buying a political or social position that comes with a physical product as an afterthought. 

If Money Was No Object Hot Rod

Being the child of a MOPAR fan and being married to one, if I had an unlimited budget I think that I'd be looking at a '72 Fury, Imperial LeBaron or Satellite with a modern driveline.  '72 is a great year for MOPAR and good looks.

Perhaps Hemi™, perhaps LS.

I like big cars and I cannot lie!

Hot Rod Goals

I'm not in the "moar powah!" to the expense of all other considerations camp.

I'm not willing to sacrifice a comfortable ride for skid-pad bragging rights any more.  I made a fun car a miserable car doing that.

It makes me sad, because that misery made me let it go too soon and it had a lot of neat shit in it.

I want a car that handles well enough and has sufficient power.

The Beast really fits the bill.

I dunno what the skid pad is for it.  It's supposed to have 355 horses.

I've never put it on the clock or the dyno.

I don't even know if the category name I've chosen for what I want is already being used for it.

Cruiser.

I like to hit the open road and enjoy a drive.

I don't want my ass or back to complain that I did so.

I want to hear the tunes while I'm cruising.

I want some rumble, but not at the expense of comfort, my ears ring enough.

I want decent mileage and I want to be able to trust it on a 3,000 mile road trip.

It's nice if someone else says, "cool car!" but I don't need them to. 

Language Barrier

It's like clip vs magazine all over again.

When you open the gas port on an FAL have you increased or decreased the amount of gas getting to the piston?

Turns out it's a trick question!

The FAL has two places where you can affect the amount of gas getting to the piston.

The first is the gas plug on the front of the piston tube.  It has two settings, on and off.

It is often accompanied with a flip up sight for aiming rifle grenades.

The second is the gas regulator and that's what most people are talking about when they say opening or closing the gas port.

If the gas plug is in the ON position, it's on.  The gas port is open.

What the gas regulator does is control the amount of gas that's vented from the gas tube before it hits the head of the piston.

More open means more venting which means less pressure on the piston which means less energy is converted to motion.  Depending on the ammo and gun, you can set it so it won't even eject the empty case.

More closed means less venting which means more pressure on the piston which means more energy is converted to motion.  You really can't hurt the gun closing the regulator all the way; there are also vents you cannot adjust.

The service manual from FN says to check the springs periodically and replace as needed.  Helpful, no?

Logic would say that if you're running at max pressure, then you'd need to change your springs more often.

There are rare cases when max gas and weakening springs have caused damage to the lower receiver, especially with aluminum lowers.  Most especially with folding stocks, it seems that the springs for the folding stock are weaker than the fixed stock to begin with. 

Siphoning

I was reading that a non-significant portion of Russia's defense budget may be redirected to things like hookers and vodka.

In their defense, have you TRIED hookers and vodka?

Sure beats doing your job! 

Disheartening

Going through the Gunbroker ads/auctions for a Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic.

First pass is trying to find the least extra charges.

It's bad enough that I have to pay the 7.5% sales taxes, I don't wanna pay 3% credit card or 2% insurance fees too.

Then I don't want to pay an excessive amount for shipping.

Then I need to make sure that the seller is an FFL because the two closest FFLs that deal in transfers don't accept guns from unwashed gutter people (even as they happily take our money to do transfers!)

Once this list is assembled, I read the feedback.

I start with the negative, because how a seller handles the things that go wrong is a far better indicator of their character than when things go perfect.

The list is down to zero sellers right quick. 

On one hand, I've checked the feedback after buying something from Gunbroker and didn't encounter what all of the people posting negatively had happen to them.  Stuff that probably would have sent me elsewhere had I looked first instead of after...

Life is full of risks! 

Can't Say I Didn't Try

We canvassed the local gun shops today.

It ended up being a ride in the car with friends with a meal at the end rather than a purchase a gun.

Which was a surprise, because when Willard and I are looking for something specific, that usually means Marv will end up buying something when he wasn't looking at all. 

No shop had what Willard was looking for.

One shop had what I was looking for. 

A mid-88 made Glock 17.1!

No tupperware, no brush, no owner's manual, no loading tool, one, incorrect, magazine.

$1,000.

How about no?

I'm watching two Glock 17.1's on Gunbroker that are well south of a grand with two days to go.

There's one with the tupperware case, instructions, manual, one magazine and missing the accessories for $1,800.  No bids.

I am not so enamored of the OG to pay much of a premium to get it.  Maybe if I tracked down one of the guns I bought new back when, but...  I didn't save the serial numbers.

Looks like I am "settling" for the Lipsey's Gen 1 Classic.  Those are getting a cachet all their own, so it won't end in a loss. 

Willpower

"I have plenty of willpower!  What I need is won't power!"

-W. Fleetwood 

Brevity

If you're going to sit down and write a 600 word essay on a topic in a forum, go ahead and spell out all the words.

You're committed, go the rest of the way.

YKWIM? 

They Already Have Severely Curtailed Gun "Rights" There

 

While they're looking at their government banning machetes, they seem to have forgotten about how they lost their guns.

And it seems that once you lose the guns, everything else eventually gets banned as well.

From the wikipedia page on Australia's gun laws, they don't seem too much worse off than much of Europe, but still need to "mother may I?" owning pretty much anything with extra steps to get "better" stuff. 

21 Years Old

GURPS 4e is now old enough to drink.

Happy birthday to my favorite RPG.

4e has been the newest edition of GURPS for more than half its existence. 

It's Something More Fundamental

Crispy keeps crashing.

It wasn't the fan.  We replaced that.

It doesn't appear to be the RAM, I swapped that out for a different known good set.

The SSD in it isn't that old either.

After a crash, it fires right back up without any drama or error messages.

Might simply be time to get a new (used) computer to replace her. 

Update: 

It might be the laptop tray thing I've been using flexing and blocking air flow too.  A more rigid solution is on the way. 

To Mod Or Not

Now that I've found that I am not suffering from Temporal Inertia, more commonly known as the Mandela Effect, and I know that Gen 1 Glock 17's did come with a hole for the lanyard like I remember...

The Lipsey's Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic doesn't have the hole.

Should I modify one to have the hole?

Willard and I have often mentioned that people modify their guns without regard to future collectors and here I am...  Considering making a small modification to make it more like the gun I remember owning.

It'd be making a clone of the gun I used to have from a clone of the model I used to own.

This is getting oddly meta.

Common Misidentification

They did not make the Gen 1 Glock for very long.  Lemme rephrase that, they didn't offer them for the USA for very long, just 1986 to 1988, though there are 1989 made Gen 1 guns out there (they appear to be foreign contract guns not US market).

For some reason the Gen 2 guns are frequently thought to be Gen 1.

Here's a handy primer to help determine what generation you have: https://blog.talongungrips.com/talon/how-to-identify-your-glocks-generation/

I see this a lot on Gunbroker.  Which is frustrating when I am shopping for a Gen 1.

I have a Gen 2 Glock 17 already, 1994 made LEO marked magazines.

The huge difference between Gen 1 and Gen 2 is the checkering on the front and back of the grip.

All of the Gen 2's I've seen have had the hole for a lanyard.

Mandella Effect Glock 17 (Possibly Not)

The Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic does not have a hole for a lanyard at the back of the grip.

My original did!

Except that it didn't.  The lanyard hole doesn't appear until the Gen 2.

Neither of my Gen 1's, nor the Austrian P80, have that hole.

But I remember it being there.

I remember attaching my lanyard to my G17 when we went to the Czech border.

Which makes me wonder...  Did I drill a hole for it?

Probably not and I probably didn't use my lanyard either.

It's strange.

Update:

I hit Glock Talk and found a thread on this topic and found:

Some do, some don't and they begin to appear sometime in '87.  Late enough for mine.

Rough Sledding

In my research into the American West for Sabers and Sorcery, I've been sloughing through the numerous treaties with the American Indians.

19th century legalese is a wholly different language from English and modern legalese.

Florid prose comes close to describing it.

But what seems obvious to me, with the clarity of hindsight, is every treaty the US wrote with the Indians presupposes that the US is the rightful owner of whatever land was being discussed at the time and it was graciously granting the Indians use of it.

And the Indians, from a Western Civ point of view, agreed to this presupposition by signing the thing with those phrases intact.

Kids, it wasn't just the breaking of the treaties by Whites that fucked Indians, it was the treaties themselves in several cases.

And it wasn't a direct, dry, fuck either.  It was subtle.

It took advantage of the Indian cultures not doing things in the same manner was Western Civ and explaining it in layman's terms that didn't work the way the Indians would understand it.

The US probably would have gotten away with it if it weren't for all the blatant violations by white settlers and massacres by US troops.

But there are also plenty of very clear treaties that the US and the White settlers obeyed to the letter that the tribes ignored.  The US public, at the time, was inclined to ignore the violations because of poor harvests and lack of game and the Indians were just looking to find subsistence.

They would have ignored it too if it weren't for all of the massacres of white people.

Both sides had plenty of people who didn't care about the treaties and were going to do what they were going to do regardless.

A lot of them got killed for that.

A lot of other people got killed for them getting killed for that too. 

No The Other One

The Fort Laramie Treaty is often cited when talking about how evil the United States and Whites are against the Indians.

The thing is, it's not THE Fort Laramie Treaty.

It's the second.

The first one dates from 1851 and pretty much everyone ignored it from the moment it was signed.

Where it wasn't ignored, it was selectively cited by any given party of the thing as justification for doing something against the other parties.

Whites mined, hunted and farmed where they weren't supposed to.

Cheyennes and Arapaho attacked Sioux, whom they felt were just as much an invader as the Whites.

Settlers attacked Indians.

The Army ignored Whites encroaching on Indian land.

Indians attacked settlers and ranged far outside the treaty lands to do.

In short, nothing was changed a whit by sitting everyone down to sign the thing.

What's the definition of insanity again? 

I Don't Remember

My first Glock 17 was purchased at the Patch Rod and Gun Club sometime in 1989.  I don't remember exactly.

My second Glock 17 was purchased in mid 1991.  I think.

I remember that the one I bought in Iowa from Jacobsen's Gun Center had the adjustable rear sight.  Sporting purposes requirements and all.

I don't remember if the one I bought in Germany had the adjustable sight or not.

I want to say it did, but...

Did the guns that were sold on post in Germany have to conform to the import regulations?

No idea.

If yes, then it did have adjustable sights.  If not...  It could be either way.

The Lipsey's Classic reissue of the 1st gen Glock has the fixed rear sight.

Since this quest is to have (a clone of) the same gun I had when I went to the Czech-German border I want the same rear sight it had.

AND I CAN'T REMEMBER!!! 

I doubt that anyone will be able to say, definitively, if I got it wrong or not.

A Quest!

I have decided that I'm going to get me a Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic that Lipsey's was kind enough to have Glock make.

They're readily available on Gunbroker, but it occurs to me that I should, at least, canvas the local gun shops to see if they have one.  Saves on shipping and fees it does.

But I'm without my gunshop shopping buddy.

Used to be we'd make the rounds twice a month, but Willard has been absent of late and I'm unmotivated to go alone.

Yes, Willard, this is your invitation to join me on my quest!

Wednesday works best.

Even Deeper

A Lenovo T420S wants DDR3 PC3-10600 RAM.

Going back through my order history, that's what I ordered for Crispy IV.

What was in there was 2x8gb DDR3L PC3-12800 RAM.

The only time I've ordered that was for DerpyPuter.

Even more perplexing is the DDR3L RAM is Crucial brand.

The only time I've ordered that was for DerpyPuter.

All the previous orders for the Lenovos has been Timetec brand.

Working from the theory that I'd recycled some take-out RAM from the machines as delivered...

I've found the RAM I took out of all the Lenovo's and everything is accounted for and I cannot figure out why Crispy IV had Crucial in it and not Timetec.

The T410's came with a single 4gb stick, those got upgraded by adding a single 4gb to the other slot.  The T420's all came with two 4gb sticks and they've all been upgraded to 16gb with 2x8gb sticks.  I have baggies labeled for each machine and they have 2x4gb in them. 

All I can figure is they messed up my order and I just slapped it in because that was the only RAM I'd ordered that week.

Two and a half years of feeding it 1.5v instead of 1.35v might just have taken its toll. 

Mystery Deepens

Crispy IV is not fixed.  She's better with the new fan, but she still failed in the same lock-up as before.

The difference is she went four days without failing this time instead of a few hours.

She will run indefinitely playing a movie, but crashes while I'm surfing the internet.

We're now suspecting the RAM, which also appears to be the oldest two sticks in service in a laptop here.

I've swapped the RAM from the seldom used Crispy II to see if that cures the issue.

PS: if you're confused at iterations of Crispy...

The name comes from them having black cases instead of the silver of the MacBooks they replaced.

Crispy I is the first T420S running Win7.  This name was also applied to it running Ubuntu 20.

Crispy II is the same machine running Win10.

Crispy III is the second T420S running Ubuntu 22.

Crispy IV is the second T420S running Ubuntu 24 on a new hard drive.

Reading Comprehension

Some thoughts I have require several levels of iteration before they manage full coherence.

I iterate here, so if I'm being confusing to you, wait a couple days and a clearer version of what I'm on about often appears.

But what happened recently isn't really from what I said, but how they read it.

I know what I was thinking, and it's obvious my text didn't match, but what they were replying to didn't match my thoughts or my text.

They read the first half of one line and wrote a paragraph of frothing hate on something that actually got explained a couple lines later... if they'd bothered to read it.

Another side tone is that they seem to think that I owe them the respect they think they're due.  Nope.  Don't owe you nothin'.  This ice cream is free.

I know what they earned here being critical of my words.  Contempt.

Wanna bet not a single one of them will come back and read the third iteration of what I was trying to say and apologize?

I am TRYING to be a better writer.

I am TRYING to be clearer in what I write.

But those are internal, personal, goals.

Feedback does help be figure out what I'm doing wrong, but, as the posting rules say, "Don't be a dick." 

Nobody Got Shot

A woman in a grocery store parking lot felt that it was my fault she zipped out between two cars, too close to my bumper for her liking, and called me an asshole.

Realizing we were exchanging friendly greetings, I called her a bitch.

She ran her cart to her car, came back and started screaming obscenities at me.

I dunno if she was going to take a swing or not, but I was getting a little nervous she would.

When she screamed that she was calling the cops a bystander announced they already had and he obviously had his hand on his carry gun under his shirt.

She about-faced and left.

About here I noticed my rescuer did not have a phone out.

I said, "thanks!" and he said, "any time!"

Despite what the gun grabbers have repeatedly said, neither of us shot her.  I was assured that anyone with a concealed gun would start blasting with the least provocation.

I had my hand on my gun in my pocket, which is prolly not the best place for it when someone it preparing to punch me.

PS: I am absolutely thrilled that she decided to quit and leave.  On my cane I'm not really able to retreat and I'm really uncertain about what I can do besides take a beating if lethal force is inappropriate and the courts have been VERY inconsistent in Florida about this kind of disagreement and disparity in force.

Scale

Lego Star Wars sets trend to being underscale compared to the minifigs.

Our reg from the 501st will act to show the scale problem.

Actually, It's two scale problems.

In one scene of "Attack of the Clones" the top of his head should come to about the center of that round joint.  In another, the top of his head should come just, barely, to the bottom of that disk.

The larger scale is closer to how it's shown, most of the time, in The Clone Wars series making it about 1/3 the size it should be.

Lego made a minifig scale AT-AT, so there's a bit of hope they're make an Ultimate Collectors Edition AT-TE for us Clone Wars fans.

Gosh It's Hot

Decided to take The Beast / Sweat Box on my running around today.

It was warm, but not brutal at first and with the small amount of wind, not too uncomfortable.

The second half of the trip, though, was brutal as the dash indicated 95+ degrees out there.

Bearable as long I was moving, but ugh at lights!

The heat is why the AC still doesn't work in the car, I'd die working in the hot sun or stifling garage.

So I waits until we get a cold front to sweep through.

Crispy Update

There was one, odd, loss of power crash after I got it home.

Since then, all has been well.

It was a bit glitchy on YouTube, but Harvey was hammering the routers with her work meeting at the time and all the machines were having the same speed problem.

Cautious optimism continues. 

This Is Me Holding My Breath

DeSantis says he wants to get Red Flag stuff rolled back.

Considering that it was a landmark piece of legislation from his predecessor who's a US Senator, I don't expect the RINOS to let this one go.

It would help a great deal if the Republican Party was actually a single party and not this strange three headed beast.

Update:  While we're discussing repeal of the Red Flag laws, can we also get a law in place that when the cops return the guns they confiscate, they don't put all manner of onerous requirements for "proof of ownership?"

I don't even have to prove to the IRS my income from 7 years ago, but I need a sales receipt for a gun I bought 20 years ago to reclaim it from law enforcement who knows they got it from me?

That is bullshit.  I'm pretty sure everyone knows it's bullshit too.

The Spirit Of Florida

Here's a petition asking Publix to bring back their hurricane cakes.

They discontinued them in 2022 after they became "controversial."

You know, some Karen felt bad about someone getting hit with a hurricane while the rest of us had a hurricane party.

It's really not an exaggeration that Floridians don't get motivated about a storm until it hits Cat 3.

Beer and Ice is on the preps list for most of the people I know.

You have to maintain a sense of humor about the stalking turtle.

Bland

You can live indefinitely on a diet of potatoes, cooked kale and whole milk.  It is nutritionally complete and has sufficient calories.

Would you want to?

On many forums when someone is discussing an old design, like the 1911, there's always at least one person who will chime in that they only own MODERN designs and don't have a cabinet full of useless relics.

First off, Sunshine, in the course of owning my safe full of useless relics; your "modern" design isn't mechanically all that different from a 90 year old gun.  The big change has been in materials.  Related to the materials change is a trend to make them easier to manufacture.  But they're still using the same tilt barrel short recoil action that Browning and Saive put into the Hi-Power.  And that came from eliminating the link on the 1911!

Still.

Where did this idea that gun ownership must be brutal and utilitarian come from?

My thinking about the post about the 1911's and Glocks that have slipped through my fingers reminded me of clinging tenaciously to the minimum for home and self defense.

I was forced to be utilitarian because I had to be.

But these people talk like being anything but is shameful and I don't understand it.

I've long held it's OK to own a gun because it makes you happy even if it's a useless piece of shit.

My .25 ACP collection has no real utility; but I think they're fun.

It is OK to have fun!

I wonder if these are the same people who have every penny planned out in advance and eschew having fun in their earning years because they're going to be rich and able to do anything they want when they retire young.

I've met a few of these people living in Florida.  You know what they do?  The same thing as before without a job to keep them occupied.  They don't know how to have fun so they sit in their well furnished, but sterile, McMansions and do... nothing.  They're bored and unhappy and don't understand why I'm so cheerful being a poor.

Poverty Cycle

Nostalgia has driven me to repeatedly get a 1911.

My first one was my dad's Rem-Rand.  I regret trading that one for my Glock 21, and I keep that Glock just to remind me.  I like the G21, but it's no Rem-Rand M1911A1!

Number two was an AMT Hardballer.  I didn't really care for it.  Something was off about the feel and I sold it to a buddy.

Three was a Springfield M-1911 A1 GI.  The goofy lock in the mainspring housing bugged me, but not enough to swap it out.  I toted this gun for quite a while.  It got sold to a buddy when my CMP M1911A1 entered the chat.

Four is a Colt Gov't Model 38 Super.  My only Mk.80 lockwork, and she shoots a dream.  This one got tinkered with a great deal.

Five is the mixmaster Ithaca M1911A1 I got from the CMP.

I've managed to get the number to two and stay there for years!

Huzzah for me!

Glock 17's slip through my hands a lot too.

I had to sell the first Gen 1 I got from Patch Rod and Gun club because of the circumstances of how I purchased it.  The dispensation to get it didn't extend to bringing it back into the states.

The second Gen 1 was a used one.  I think it was part of the same trade as the Rem-Rand.

My first Gen 2 went to AuntTheBat because she needed a pistol for home defense once we broke up and she kicked me out.

I went a long time without a 17 until the Gen 2 that's in my safe now showed up.

I almost got a Gen 5, but that got subverted into a Glock 45.

I am poised to get a Lipsey's Gen 1 Classic to fill the niche of "issue" guns that the Gen 2 fills right now.

It's nice that I haven't HAD to sell a gun for a long time to keep the utilities on and a roof over my head.

I am sure my mom tried to explain this stuff, but it didn't take until I'd made all the mistakes.

I'll Try This Again

There's a level of education and skills called a, "registered nurse," or RN.

There are jobs that require that level of education and skill.

There are also jobs that require that level of education, but not that level of skill.  These jobs can be performed by people with much lower levels of education, but have been banned from this job by the license and credential requirements.

Thus, a CNA trained person was able to perform a RN required job successfully enough to earn a promotion because the skills needed for the job were obtained through the education and training a CNA gets.  This was illegal because you need an RN to get the job and they lied about their qualifications.

Do you fuckwits understand now?

I know what an RN does.

I know there's lots of jobs in medicine that don't require an RN to DO the job, but do require an RN to GET the job.

If you think that license requirement means that lower levels of education cannot do the job you're the ignorant fools, not I.  To listen to some of you, no lives have ever been saved by an uncredentialed bystander who knew how to do first aid.

It's not a difficult concept.

Citing jobs and tasks that actually require the full set of RN skills does not refute my point at all.

They way you're citing it, though, convinces me more and more that the medical profession is not particularly well educated and is primarily concerned with gatekeeping rather than treating patients.

Plus your comments have been refuted by people I know in meatspace who are definitely credentialed as RN's, vs your imaginary existence and claims in the comments on a blog. 

And with this, the Aesop Flying Monkey Entertainment Network is signing off.

Regular programming will resume. 

Aesop

Tell your fucktard flying monkeys their comments aren't going to be published.

They only read the one post you linked to and think that's the totality of what I've said.

Plus!  All they've managed to do is convince me that RN's are all idiots and the world would not be substantially harmed if they all disappeared.

Maybe all y'all should stop coming here since I upset you so badly. 

Eyes Crossed

Took Crispy IV to JT's for surgery.

He got the new fan installed and he only had to take it apart one more time for a missed ribbon cable.

Had three screws left over, but...  We found a home for two of them!

We're cautiously optimistic.

The old fan had significant resistance to spinning by hand until I loosened it up by forcing it.  It stayed loose, but who knows how long that would have lasted?

The proof is in the pudding, so we'll see if it starts locking up again over the next few days.

M.2 Differences

Back when I first bought DerpyPuter from FuzzyGeff for the princely sum of $1, I made a list of upgrades for it.

One of the things on the list was an M.2 2280 2tb drive to replace the 256gb drive it came with.

Glad I double checked something and discovered the 256gb drive is NVMe PCIe 3.0 and not SATA III.

Completely different pins!

The reason I wanted 2tb is because Crispy IV has 2x 1tb drives and that holds all the music and movies I like to have onboard.

Prices have come down a tad since I first did my research.

A 4tb M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 4.0 drive is a mere $220 now!  Sure it will run a bit slower on my 3.0 interface, but that's a lot of storage for my needs.

To think, I almost bought a gun... 

Committed

I finally got Crispy IV (a Lenovo T420S running Ubuntu 24.02 LTS) to commit to a failure mode!

It's been acting like a heat issue, but the fan's been working every time I checked and it would fire right back up after holding the power button down.

I got a LOT of dust out of it Friday evening and today I decided to pull the keyboard to look and see if the fan was clogged.

More dust removed and the fan appeared to spin freely.

Put it back together and...  "FAN ERROR" during boot.

The BIOS won't go past that, so it shuts off immediately.

Intermittent fan fail would cause the crashes I've been seeing.

Happily! I have a spare fan assembly for it in stock and JT is comfortable with taking it far enough apart to get at the fan.  Hint, the fan is the first part into the chassis, so it's the last part out if you need to replace it.

I'm also going to have him teach me how to move the Home folder from Crispy IV to Derpy.

Prescient?

I wrote this over 13 years ago.

Bidding War

Every so often I look around for a Gen 1 Glock 17.

An actual, vintage, 17.1 is very hard to come by and, usually, very expensive; so I end up looking at the Lipsey's Gen 1 Classics.

A couple weeks ago I found one with a penny start and not much bidding, so I put a max bid of $300 on it.

It went from $250 to $260 and it stayed there pretty much until the last half hour.

The last two bidders didn't get past my $300 until almost the last 15 minutes, then spent the next hour and a half running it up to just over $400 in $5 increments and resetting the clock to auction's end because of Gunbroker's 15 minute rule.

While $400 for one of these appears to be a decent deal, the bidding war reminds me of why I bid the way I do.  Put the max I'm willing to pay as my max bid and then let it ride, or not.

Because these two, "it's just $5 more," for another $100.

There's going to be around another $100 in fees, shipping and taxes too.

I learned about auction fever with my '91 Caprice.  I paid $8k for a solid $5k car because I couldn't let the other bidder win!  If I'd stuck to my plan, I would have paid $4,500 for a 9C1 and gotten a 350 instead of a 305.

But I learned something important that day.

Red Dawn Trivia

Driving home from visiting my Dad's parents in Homeland, CA we happened to stop at a truck stop that had three helicopters packed onto flat-beds.

I was quick to spot the Soviet markings, but they were mostly under tarps.

There's so much military in the Southwest, we had no idea what they could be.  Real gear being tested?  Vis-mods for training?

Some months later, in a theater, I shout, "I saw those packed on a truck in a truck stop!"

Avenge Me!

Shake your AK over your head and shout, "WOLVERINES!" today is the 41st anniversary of the original Red Dawn.

Spanish Sounds Cooler Sometimes

"¿Dónde están los francotiradores?" is Spanish for "Where are the snipers?"

What I think is interesting is "tiradores" means shooter.

Sniper in Spanish is Frank shooter.

Or is it actually Franco Shooter?

Trying to find a handy etymology site that's in English for a Spanish word is harder than I thought.

The internet says:  The franco part is borrowed from French for 'free' which has something to do with 'free companies' which were civilian units not part of the main armies who mainly harassed the enemy.

I'm At A Loss

S&W just released a new version of the Shield, the Shield X.

It's like a supersized version of the Shield Plus.

But it's more similar to the M&P 2.0 9 Compact.

Here's a comparison.

The X is 0.07" longer, 0.1" shorter and 0.26" thinner, 3.7 oz. lighter.

Same barrel length and two fewer rounds with the flush magazine.  It will be a different 13 round magazine from a Shield Plus because of the baseplate filler.

GURPS stats are very similar too!

Thinner and lighter seems to be what you get for your money.  Might have to have Harvey see if it fits her, but the M&P 2.0 9 Compact IS our Goldilocks gun.

Off By A Month

Florida has declared guns and ammo tax free from September 8 to the end of the year.

I misread that as being August for some reason and was getting all excited.

DOH! 

Braking Gnus

New information is coming from the USAF about the M18 pistol that "went off by itself" and killed that airman.

They arrested someone on manslaughter charges.

Probably going to arrest more since giving false statements is mentioned for more than one person.

This sure seems to change the story from going off by itself to I was playing with it and it went off. 

Baby Gate Update

Stuffing a pillow in the gap between the gates prevents Beeper from using it as an entry.

The gap, with the pillow removed, lets Harvey pretend I'm a prisoner and pass food through the slot.  We're easily amused. 

The gates with a small fan running in the peak of the afternoon does let the bedroom match the rest of the house temperature.

I'm still peeved at the AC company and have no forgiveness in my heart.

Especially after the finance company called asking about the scathing review we left for Graham Heating and Cooling.  Apparently Graham tried to dissemble to the finance company and that they did everything they were contracted to do...

Fine, I will accept that you did everything in the contract.  We fucked up by signing it when you appeared to be verbally confirming you understood what we wanted done.

The first clue we should have gotten that we weren't speaking the same language with this company should have been the job going from $1,000 total to $1,000 per register.

We talked to them about that estimate three times and never once got the impression that it was going to be per vent in the ceiling.

Now we know better.

I know I am sick of them saying we need to add yet another thing to the system every time they come out to do the annual maintenance that came with installation of the air handler and compressor.

Isn't it odd that we need a UV light in the air handler now that the duct work is done?

We've compared notes with friends and they're getting the same lines from their companies too.  Need new ducts, need a UV light, etc...

I need to add that Graham Heating and Cooling isn't actually the company that installed the air handler and compressor.  That was Crystal HVAC.  Crystal went under and Graham inherited their customers when they bought them out.

When we got the new system I asked the Crystal installers about the provisions for the UV lamp in the manual he'd left laying around for me to thumb through.  I was told, then, that if I just used the expensive air filters, I shouldn't need a UV light.

The OEM light assembly is just $200 from Amazon and looks like it will take all of half an hour to install.  A far cry from the $1,000 for the part and $1,200 for installation Graham offered me.  Though the tech did mention that there's $50 lights that work just as good, they just burn out more often than the OEM. 

PS: I notice that HVAC is ANOTHER barrier to entry license required career here in Florida.  Hmmmmmmmm. 

I No Longer Believe They're Trying

I watched a video from Mark Smith's 4-Boxes Diner youtube channel where he's trying to spin a unanimous 6th Circuit decision that machine guns aren't protected by the 2nd Amendment is a good thing.

The guy busted with the Glock Switch® is a scumbag.

The gist of the spin is that scumbags don't get good decisions and we're better off with a bad outcome because scumbag.

I think.

His delivery is hard for me to follow sometimes.

But I think he's wrong with regards to how I've watched the Supreme Court act.

If all of the circuits agree on something, they don't grant cert.

The 6th Circuit judges are decently good on gun stuff, and they say no machine guns.

That's ammo for the opposition, frankly.

You pretty much need a circuit split on an issue to get them to take a case based on something they haven't already made their minds up on.  Even then, there's no guarantee.

Watching some of these gun lawyers being happy with things getting set in amber with painting us into the "bearable, common and not dangerous" only firearms pisses me off.

Starting with the last.  Is gun.  Is dangerous.  So accepting the "dangerous" as means of disqualifying 2a protection just means that we're going to fight a subjective standard in every case.

Common pisses me off for two reasons.

First is the shortsightedness that means that we're never going to get newer guns if they can ban them before they can become common.  If these lawyers had been presented with this in the early 1800's we'd have never have gotten caplocks because caplocks were unusual and uncommon; but everyday, common, flintlocks would be OK.

Second is machine guns are unusual BECAUSE of the NFA, GCA and FOPA.  They'd be common if it were possible for people to get new ones because people are more interested in them now than they were in 1986.

Lastly, bearable should frighten you because it will become subjective.  What's bearable?  By one person?  What about cannon?  Can you ban tanks?

Considering we used privately owned canon in the Revolution, it makes me doubt the founders wanted crew served banned.

Arms means every deadly instrument of the soldier.  Last I checked, soldier meant more than just infantry.

Another bolster for arms being more than what you can carry is Congress' power to issue letters of marque and reprisal.  That requires privately owned, crewed and operated warships.  That's main body Constitution too!  Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11.

But even if we limit it to just what the grunts are lugging around, they're not carrying semi-automatic rifles.  They're carrying machine guns.

Tench Coxe is rolling in his grave. 

The Flying Monkeys

I tend to get two modes of operation.

First is when I explain why I'm talking about something then talk about it.

The rationale gets repeated as the subject and I get comments about how wrong I am about what I said.  Ignoring that this is just and explanation about what I went on to talk about...

These are the kind of people who read "Well regulated militia," and say there's no reason to have a personal firearm.

Two blogs in particular send the flying monkeys like this.

They read what they think I said without getting to the conclusion and castigate me in a way that ends up justifying my feelings on any given matter.

They comment with little tests to show how clever they are and how uneducated I am.  Tests that don't have any bearing on the conclusion I've come to.

My second mode of operation is just saying what I thought about something with little to no explanation.

Now the predominate comments demand that I explain.

My position gets posted to one of these blogs and the flying monkeys come here to explain to me why I am wrong and why I feel the way I do.

So far, they've never managed to actually hit my reasons for feeling the way I do.

But it's starting to feel like these two blogs don't do anything but read other folks blogs so they can shit on them for their followers to expand out like flying monkeys and shit in the comments.

Been here before, it dies off after a bit.

I don't even read those blogs, I just have started recognizing the monkeys.

Since I piss them off so much, they should stop reading here too. 

End Of An Era

I think they've been going downhill since they discontinued their free floppy disk service, but what do I know.

“AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet. This service will no longer be available in AOL plans. As a result, on September 30, 2025 this service and the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued.”

Bigger

The Traveller jump drive is essentially a fusion power plant and bank of capacitors.

I've found conflicting information, but it would appear that all of the jump fuel is consumed prior to jump.  Drop tanks are canon and they don't work otherwise.

One source says "about an hour" between jumps if you have the fuel.

So a Type S has to move 270,000 liters of liquid hydrogen in an hour.

At about 2m per second that needs about a 10" pipe.

I seem to remember that a jump can take place in a single 20 minute combat turn, so we're going to need a bigger pipe than that!

If we move it faster, just over 3m per second we can get away with a 12" pipe.  17" if we don't speed up the flow.

12" pipe fits with my mental image of how the engineering spaces look.

80 Years

80 years ago, this very minute, Bockscar dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki, Japan; marking the last use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

We've been doing good not using nukes since then, but we've come closer than I'd like more than once.

Trivia for this day, Enola Gay was flying as part of the overall mission on a weather reporting flight over Kokura. 

Have You Considered Fucking Off?

Look, RN's in the comments, especially ones with prominent links to their business web pages in their bios, all you're really doing is cementing my opinion of your profession rather than convincing me that you aren't overeducated underachievers.

"I'm an RN," followed by a statement of how long you've been one and then saying something to the effect that I'm in error and missing that what I've been saying is what I've observed with my own, direct, senses.

What you are doing is called "argument from authority" and saying that I shouldn't believe what I've observed because you... dislike it?  Don't believe it?

But one thing I'm not doing here is lying.

Something you're not doing is convincing me I am mistaken.

You're almost literally using the "no true Scotsman" defense of your profession.

Actually, you sound a lot like cops claiming there are no bad apples... 

PS: The one commenter whom I know works medicine who's not being prick about it is Aesop!  Good on him! 

PPS: Harvey corrects that she was both a CNA and a CMA and is laughing at the RN's in the comments as they are being deleted.  She might even have a guest post in the near future to tell stories about how wrong the RN commenters are. 

If You're Going To Quote Me

Copy paste isn't that hard.

Just sayin. 

If you paraphrase, you don't use quotation marks. 

America Was Wrong About Ethanol - Study Shows

Mea Culpa

While trying to make a point, I didn't delineate fine enough.

In the world of medicine there's hyper fine gradations of "nurse".

Each with it's own skills, license and education requirements.

Then there's the job that a person is required to do and the level of nurse mandated to do it.

When I mentioned that my CNA relatives and RN friend agreed that the skill set to do the work is similar it was in reference to the job that the, now arrested, unlicensed former CNA was performing.

The home-health care job can be performed by just about any half intelligent, conscientious, and reasonably careful schlub.  The actual skill requirements to perform the job are very low.

The skill, education and license requirements are very high. 

But people doing the job have to be rated to do some serious shit that never comes up in the course of the job.

A CNA isn't trained to do RN stuff when the world is pear shaped.  I am sorry if I implied they had those skills when talking about barriers to entry.

But I think we can agree that you don't need to be certified to the level that RN's are to hand out little paper cups with pills in them.  Yet, in Florida, an RN has to pass the pills out to the lower rated folks to deliver to patients.

I we can also agree that it doesn't take as many RN's as are mandated to the work.  Especially since they justified having this level of education and skills as a "just in case" of pear shaped crisis. 

This also ignores that a practicing emergency room RN is living in a vastly different environment than an ACLF charge nurse or a home health care service nurse. 

The actual job that two RN's of my acquaintance do at an ACLF and a hospice, respectively, is sit behind a desk and surf the internet all night.  When something happens it's, essentially in two categories:  Sign off on what their minions did to fix the problem or call the doctor.  One of them BRAGS about how little they do.

The job these two are doing we called CQ, or charge of quarters, in the Army.  I don't think it needs an RN to do it.  Just like most home health.

Again, the person arrested with a CNA level of education was doing the RN job long enough to earn a promotion it was a routine background check that noticed the lack of certification for the job they were performing, not a failure to perform the tasks. 

Akschually

Akshually comments are now banned.

Start your own blog.

Akshually counts as off topic, really. 

Not Very Impressive

The Type S scout / courier from Traveller uses 20 dTon of liquid hydrogen in the course of a 2 parsec jump.

My mind had always envisioned giant pipes and bolted flanges to move all that liquid.

It might still need that, depending on how fast it uses the hydrogen, but if it's used up over the entire two weeks instead all at once, a mere 1/2" line will suffice to feed the drive.

I cannot remember if a canon answer is given. 

Wait! I Know This One!

Could it be because the shooter is from the wrong demographic group to successfully press for more gun control?

Link to X because it was asked for.

Barrier To Entry

Read this article about a CNA with an expired license passing herself off as an RN.

The Lovely Harvey used to be a CNA and The Boy's godmother is a current RN.

Wanna know the difference?

It's not much.

Some prerequisite classes, a couple tests and a license.

They agree there's not much actual difference in the skills needed for the job.

It's a license requirement.

Harvey's mom was a CNA as well, and is old enough to remember when it was just "nurse."  All the subcategories of nursing started with delineations in responsibility.

Entry level had more scut work and less responsibility.

In many cases, no formal education was required.  People were trained by the institution.

I suspect that lawyers for malpractice insurers stepped in somewhere here and now formal education is mandated for all but the glorified janitorial work.

But, early on, the education was the same and experience was how you got the higher positions.

Now, you need additional formal education and licenses to even apply, making it more expensive to meet the prerequisites and thus requiring more salary to compensate for their investment.

I will bet you that my first aid training from The Army is sufficient to provide most of the care that this, arrested, former CNA did on 4,400 patients.

I speculate on this because I did that care for Harvey when she was recovering from her shoulder replacement.  Husbands are allowed to be unlicensed nurses on their wives with no formal education!  We had an RN on call for emergencies, but most of the actual care is simple and easy stuff.

UPDATE: It is important to note that the person in question was doing the job successfully and it was only a background check prior to A PROMOTION that got her busted.

Not Near Everything

I'll take misleading headlines for $1,000.

I read 'everything' and thought, "that's a capital offense in France?  Good for them!"

Sadly, they're just deporting him back to Morocco. 

Thag Lurn

Did you know that the magazine release on a S&W M&P Shield Plus is reversible from RH to LH?

I did not.

But I do now!

I'd long wondered why there were two slots in the magazine if you couldn't reverse it.

This procedure is NOT in the owner's manual. 

SLAP

Banana Ballistics fired some .50 SLAP into various thicknesses of mild steel.

 

Mild steel has DR 56 per inch.

Normal .50 BMG does 6dx2 pi+.  SLAP is APDS and GURPS: High Tech says that becomes 6dx3 (2) pi.

That's an average hit of 63, which should penetrate 126 DR, that should punch 2" of mild steel (DR 112).  But it didn't.

The 355gr projectile at 3,184.4 fps calculates to a "mere" 6dx2 (2) pi or 84 DR...

1.5" of mild steel has a DR of 84, so it should just barely penetrate with nothing left over to damage the target.  There's a bulge, but no hole...

SLAP sort of GURPS?

Clearly The Hero They Deserve

The New York Fucking City's 73rd Precinct's Facebook Page posted this picture:

Sharp eyes and quick action. While patrolling Brownsville, our Public Safety team stopped someone for a quality-of-life violation and uncovered this loaded firearm. One more off the streets, keeping our community safer.

Considering that I've (almost) got one of those in my pocket right now...

That's an M&P Shield, mine's an M&P Shield Plus.

But one has to commend the heroism associated with disarming someone for the temerity of wanting to defend themselves and doing something that millions of people do everyday perfectly legally in the Free United States.