Conflict

In the huge mess of "are you a dealer or not" that ATF just put out is a bit where keeping records of how much you paid for a gun is an indication of intent to profit from a future sale.

If you insure your guns, though, the insurance company is going to want to see how much you paid and track how much they are worth.

So anyone who insures their guns is a dealer?

Even more fun, Florida's statute to prevent government from making registration lists reads as if it bans individuals and companies from recording serial numbers on a spreadsheet.

Gotta love it!

Bad Shoot

If you ever wonder if it's a good shoot or a bad shoot, just ask yourself if you would be going to prison if you had done the shooting.

I say this, because except for qualified immunity, the cops operate under the same statutes as we do.

Airman Roger Fortson didn't even have his finger on the trigger of the pistol he had in hand pointed at the floor.

That got him ventilated by Deputy Triggerhappy.

Go find the bodycam, Airman Fortson didn't do anything to get shot.  No furtive movement.  He was simply at the door of his domicile with a firearm in his hand.  A prudent response to someone unexpectedly pounding on the door.

This is the kind of police shooting that gets me aligned with the defund the police because Deputy Triggerhappy has already claimed self defense, and I am certain the Okaloosa Sheriff's Department (of shots fired acorn fame) will soon affirm that all relevant training and procedures for the use of deadly force were adhered to.

I'm strongly of the opinion that your home should be sacrosanct from officer safety because, if no other place, you have the most right to be there.

I've also long held that as interchangeable representatives of The State that officers must actually receive fire before shooting, not just feel threatened.

The State came to Airman Fortson's door and had him killed because he was armed.

Be Careful Whom You Force To Care

I trend to supporting LGBT and associated stuff.

Once you're a person, you have rights and I demand that people get their rights.

I don't support one group or another getting more rights than anyone else.

Disclaimer out of the way:

Dear radical trans advocates,

When you sling your accusations at someone for being anti-trans or transphobic; are you sure they're not just responding to people like you being assholes about it?

Because a lot of you ARE being assholes about it.

A decent sized hunk of the "transphobic" aren't against you, per se, they simply don't give a fuck.  Apathy is not opposition or hatred.

Until you demand that they take a side, with the same sort of deal the anti-gun people give gun owners, "admit that you're wrong (and evil) and I'm right (and virtuous) and THEN we will discuss what level of punishment you will receive for being wrong (and evil) all this time."

If you don't accept their entire position as right and virtuous, you will be treated as if you were a mustache twirling villain Klansnazi bent (pun!) on the eradication of all but the cisnormative.

Lots of folks respond to this with, "Shiny, let's be bad guys," and lean into it.  If they're going to be punished for it, might as well commit the crime too.

I'm not talking about the people who were bigoted before you opened your gigantic "heads I win, tails you lose" narrative.

These are people who're nominally on your side, but don't feel they have to actively agitate all day, every day for your rights when you clearly don't give two shits about anyone else.

It's playing with a sleeping dragon's tail and it will be bad to wake it up.

There's lots of, "oh yeah, well fuck you too!" in American politics.  Especially in cases where someone should have taken the win and gone home to enjoy the fruits of their victory; but didn't.

Civil Rights, LGBT and women's rights are such cases.

There's going to be a lot of people who were satisfied with the progress made who might be very fucked if this presses too far.

PS: Phobia comes from the Greek for fear.  They don't fear you, they HATE you.  Transmisia is the word you're searching for.

PPS: I'm friends with several LGBT people who are very concerned with the effect the assholes are having on the everyday straights.

I Have A Wrench

I originally statted a 40mm combination wrench for an Interstellar Wars character.

4 lb., swing +2 cr Damage, Reach 1, Parry 0U, ST 12

I don't have a 40mm wrench myself.

My biggest combination wrench is a mere 32mm.

1.8 lb.  So, sw+1 cr Damage, Reach 1, Parry 0U, ST 8

I should probably reach for my 18" (450mm) pipe wrench if I need to bludgeon someone with a tool.

 

5.5 lb.  sw+2 cr Damage, Reach 1, Parry 0U, ST 12.  I think I'm a point short on ST for it, so -1 skill to my skill level of Axe/Mace; which is at default of DX-5.  I normally give myself a DX of 12, so my Axe/Mace skill is 7; 6 with the pipe wrench.

That's not very good at all.

With my normal ST of 11 I'd do 1d+2 cr with the combination wrench and 2d-1 cr with the pipe wrench.

Upgradin'

The center console in The Beast is from a company called Nenno.

For $250 you, too, can get a console made from particle board with two cup holders that are rarely useful.

The small one perfectly holds a 12oz can.

The large one perfectly holds one particular size of Gatorade bottle.

Nothing else fits well.

I'd mentioned my 3D print idea and someone of a Facebook group suggested getting the cup holder insert from an '07-'14 Silverado.  $12 from Amazon.

First I pried out the useless holders.

Then I removed about 100 staples and peeled back the pleather.

Then I cut away the offending wood and put the pleather back.

Then I had to do some trimming on the Silverado holder and used some RTV to secure it to the pleather.

Nice to have a cup holder that holds most anything I want to put in it again!

Fixin'

The left fog light had ceased to function, so I ordered new bulbs.

This is the bulb in question.

I'd ordered a set of LED bulbs to replace them, which arrived today.

They didn't want to fit in the capsules and I discovered why.  The melting bulbs had distorted the hole for the bulb from the heat!

Some light trimming later and I got the new bulbs in.

They're brighter!

Not yet melted all the way right side halogen bulb:

Spiffy new LED bulb:

Yes, you have to take off the wheels and pull back the fender liners to get at the bulbs.

A test drive to Marv's confirmed they're throwing a lot more light than the older bulbs.  I could drive with them if the headlights failed.

Huzzah!

Questionably Legality

Solid brass turtle defense tool.  The spike is to crack their shell.

For a change, it's heavier than the Basic Set thinks they should be.  0.8 lb. measured against 0.25 lb. in the book.

This gives your punch with Brawling a +1 to damage.

The legality of brass knuckles is, typically, silly in Florida.

You can have them.

You cannot make them or sell them.

You cannot conceal carry them.

They are subject to local ordinances because they are not part of the state preemption on weapons.

They do count as concealed dangerous weapons.

They are not mentioned at all with regards to use as paper weights or meat tenderizers.

The combination weapon that's the M1918 trench knife is more legal for carry.  We're not talking about making sense, we're talking about the law here.

100 Miles North Of Ames

 

FuzzyGeff took this image last night at a rest stop North of Ames.

He said there wasn't anything to see naked eye, but he took some pics anyways.

The Culprit

 

That big sunspot about 3 o'clock is where the impressive aurora came from.

I am actually quite happy to see sunspots, even with coronal mass ejections, because that means that Russian astrophysicist was wrong and we're not going into a Meander Minimum this cycle, at least.

Though an active sun bringing warmer climates will give the globull warmerists more ammunition in their steadfast attempt to reduce us to being envious of Mycenaean technology.

7d Furious

7d pi is 7d pi.

I'm still not seeing the advantage of .277 Fury over .308 Win.

And I say this as someone who likes .270 Win.

My choice of .270 had a lot more to do with it remaining in stock when thirty caliber rounds became unobtanium and my uncle's endless debates over .270 v .280 v .30-06 than any tangible advantage in range or penetration.

Treadmill Pride

Former friend, Anglave, was fascinated with the airplane on a treadmill problem.

Not the problem itself, but the need for people to chime in and stake out their argument; then digging in on their answer to the exclusion of all other things.

I remember when he tried to bring that up, it triggered me to passionately explain MY position.

Well, I would like to think that he'd be proud of me that the airplane on a treadmill problem is making the rounds again on Facebook, and that I am not even clicking on the link to read the comments, let alone making a comment of my own!

For the record, the problem was from a high school teacher attempting to teach the class about how forces work and was trying to show that the propeller didn't act on the ground, yet the plane would still move.

It snowballed from there.

Preliminary

The first draft of my cupholder is exported to .stl and off to JT for printing.

Prototype in PLA and test fitting, then the production model in black ABS.

I omitted the holes for switches and plugs in this iteration because I need to see how it fits against the dash and how much access I have to the cubby and trunk button.

She's Right You Know

I had a particular player, Doug, whose goal in character creation was to use all of the game rules and break the game and/or campaign.

She's also got advice for the GM.  Much of this I noticed on my own, but it's good to keep in mind.

It took me many years to stop treating the players like they were my enemies.  I have never run a session without at least one player treating me, personally, as their enemy.

This led to a realization that all of us were there to have fun.

This will give rise to the temptation to go more story driven and putting the players in the back seat while you spin your narrative with minimal input from them.

I've always been more of a "present the world and sit back while the players explore" style GM; but this can lead to them sitting around doing nothing because...  I don't know why they couldn't self motivate.

The scars from my more adversarial days led them to avoid most of the disadvantages and character traits that I could use to have the adventure come to them.

We were just coming out of it when I upped and moved to Florida.  That's a happier ending than it sounds because I would have become a suicide statistic if I'd stayed in Ames.

Now I have several campaign ideas and a dearth of players to play.

I know, now, to give them something to decide rather than a roll to make.  The dice are there for a reason, but sometimes it's better to play it out than to roll it out.  Role over roll is more satisfying.  I've seen that over and over.

I Wish I'd Said That

Bearing Arms and David Codrea are both concerned that "common use" is excluding a lot of guns because they were made illegal before they could be acquired in sufficient numbers to attain "common use" status.

Welcome to 2014, gentlemen.

But Is It Still 25 Years?

It's an old joke that we'll have fusion power in 25 years.

I've been hearing people say that for 40 years.

It's always 25 years away.  They've been as accurate as the globullwarmering people, actually.

But we keep chipping away at the engineering problem.

Six minutes is significant.

This test did not generate any power, but containment is a critical step if you're going to light a sun in your warehouse.

I'll Buy The Popcorn If This Passes

6 months community service in Gaza for illegal protesting at a college.

OMFG I wanna see those morons deal with Islam unfettered by Western norms and laws.

It will, of course, never pass.

It's also not constitutional at all.

It'd still be hilarious!

Can't Blog Drawing

I'm designing a 3D print to give myself better cup-holders, more charging options and a place to mount the switches for tap-shifting.

Gods I am rusty.

CAD and thinking in 3D takes a lot of smoke, so blogging might be light for a bit.

Related.  The 16 year old Mac Pro chugs along like it was new.  The only thing it can't do is get online and surf the web.

It's a lot like having a computer 30 years ago, actually.

Interesting Vid

 

LA Police Murder Black Man With Tree

Darwin never sleeps.  Unlike this driver at a light.

113 on surface streets and thrown so far from the car he could have been charged with fleeing the scene.

I also note that Lambo's are better at felling trees than Corvettes.

Isn't It Interesting

The FAA won't let you be a commercial pilot after age 65 because at such an advanced age it's not safe to trust their judgement any longer.

Isn't it odd that there's no such restriction on running for office, something that presumably is much more dangerous for someone with poor judgement to do...

Just sayin'.

Seems like some cognitive testing should be implemented.

Two Year Gap

I'm a bit sick of the constant narrative that the US lost in Vietnam.

We'd fought them to a standstill and Linebacker II had them at the table giving favorable terms.

In short, we'd won.  In 1973.

We did not win in such a way that North Vietnam would never try again, and they did so about two years later.  The South was woefully unequipped to deal with it, and never really had the will to resist successfully.

We weren't there any more.

Had we been, the North would have lost spectacularly.

They knew that, that's why they gave us terms, waited for us to leave and invaded at the height of FUCK FORD AND ANYTHING HE MIGHT SUPPORT!!!

But internet historians don't bother actually reading history, they just regurgitate the BS.

All Cylinder Drive Mileage

Back in February I had JT disable 4-cylinder mode.

I feared that it would have a massive, negative, effect on mileage.

It turns out I needn't have worried.

Running 87 octane E10 gas was getting 16.5 mpg before.

Running 89 octane ethanol-free gets 16.2 mpg now.  Running E-Free has a better seat of the pants feel and did before the DOD disable too.

The absolute best mileage I've ever eked out was 28.7 mpg with E-Free on a cold-dry day and sticking to back roads with 55 mph limits.  On average E10 regular would get 26.5 mpg.

E-free on all eight has been getting 25-26 mpg with just being careful with the throttle.

Considering the car is rated for 15/24, I'm not displeased.

You're In The Driver's Seat Dude

Hamas is begging for a ceasefire.

I've mentioned the solution to their problem before.

Hamas can surrender.

It's the only solution that makes sense for Israel.

They've tried all of the other solutions over the years and it always ends with a Groundhog's Day like repetition of hostilities to almost winning then letting Hamas/Hezbolah/PLO off the hook again.

I'm sorry, Hamas, but you've shown for decades that to stop short means Israel has to do it again in a few years.

Rest of the world: Israel has shown nearly insane levels of restraint dealing with this shit.

Look at what the US did after four airliners were hijacked and a few thousand people were killed.  There's an entire region that should be sighing in relief that we get bored easily and have forgotten how to win wars.

Eating Like The Poors

A friend of Harvey's gets a weekly basket of food from the food bank.

Being too good to eat half of it because...  They don't say it, but it's because a lot of the staples are (CENSORED) food.

So we get a weekly quarter basket of (CENSORED) food.

We then, promptly, don't eat any of it, but it's shelf stable and is great for the hurricane prep box.

We're cycling the stocks and I made the beans and rice today.

The flavor packet does nothing.

It's just beans and rice and completely vitamin enriched.  Bland as fuck.

Although it's nutritionally complete, I'd hate to subsist on it for long as it comes.

Happily, I have a cabinet of spices to throw at it!

With some Scezchan sauce and soy it's quite good.

What Day Is It?

 

I'm here all night, don't forget to tip your server.

I Should Test It

According to the default stats, the saber is better at delivering impaling damage than a the pick.

I'm betting that pick punches armor way better than a thrust from the sword.

It's making me think that changing the damage from sw imp to sw (2) pi one-handed.

I need a plausible plate to test on.

My buddies, Ray or Mike used to snag us those heavy duty baking sheets from the places they worked.

We calculated them to be DR 3 or 4 back in the day.

Fine

Medieval hand weapons made after TL7 are automatically upgraded to fine quality at no extra cost in GURPS.

 Everything here is from Cold Steel.

The cavalry saber is, in GURPS terms simply a broadsword with an open frame basket hilt.

It's too light.  2.1 lb. with scabbard instead of 3 lb.  But Damage should be sw +2 cut and thr +2 imp, Reach of 1, Parry 0, ST 10.

The martel de fer is far too light; 2.2 lb. when a combination pick/hammer should be coming in at 3.5 lb.  It's also a bit long, it can readily be wielded two handed.  So I compromised by using the pick stats and reducing damage by 1.

Damage one-handed is sw imp and sw +1 cr, Reach of 1, Parry 0U, ST 10.  Two-handed is sw +1 imp and sw +2 cr, Reach of 1, Parry 0U, ST 9†.

The tomahawk is, again, too light at 1.3 lb.  It's closest to the hatchet's 2 lb.

Damage is sw cut, Reach of 1, Parry 0, ST 8.  Can be thrown!  Damage sw cut, Acc 1, Range x1.5/x2.5, RoF 1, Shots T(1), ST 8, Bulk -2.

You DO have silly larp weapons of your own, don't you?

PS: If you happen to have an M1917 Cutlass sitting on your shelf:

Damage is sw+1 cut and thr +2 imp, Reach 1, Parry 0, ST 8.  It should be about 2 lb. with scabbard, but real world weights are missing the Low Tech stats consistently.

I Should Write About...

Sometimes the long silence is from my brain latching onto a topic I've already written about that I find when I search to make sure I haven't already written about it.

Brain then locks up and says, "I like Santa."

This, in turn, locks up the free ice cream machine for hours or days.

Huzzah

A local tuner shop I've done business with before is willing to try swapping my tires from the steel rims to the Camaro rims.

They're also going to dig into the body control module and activate my domelights so they come on when the doors open.  This is known as a 7Y6 delete after the SPID code.

I'm going to have them check the boxes to shut off the daytime running lights and to activate the remote start option.  Remote start will take more work to get functioning, but the first step is the BCM.

GPMG

What the hell is a GPMG or General Purpose Machine Gun?

I'm reading a debate where they're making it sound like it's impossible to define.

I'd always thought it was a single gun that could be employed as a light and medium gun with light being from a bipod and medium from a tripod.

Light and medium being defined as roles rather than guns.

In this paradigm, a heavy machine gun is one that does sustained fire; which is just more volume than a medium gun is expected to do.

What makes a heavy gun gets blurred considerably by large caliber guns like Ma Deuce.  M2HB doesn't do a lot of volume, really.

In WW2 the US heavy MG was the water-cooled M1917, medium was the M1919A4 and the light role was filled by the BAR.  Notice they're all in .30-06?

That's because the role is caliber independent.

That's why an M60 or M240 at the squad level is an LMG, and so is an M249.

An M249 can be mounted on a tripod and employed as a medium gun too; yet it's in 5.56.

The M249 can be considered a GPMG because of this.

It's slippery.