Ugh I KNEW That

The M60 MBT has a multi-threaded upgrade program.

From earliest to last, skipping a few minor ones.

The M60A1 (1962) starts the ball rolling with the M68 gun and cupola for the M85 MG.  AVDS-1790-2A diesel, CD-850-5.

Then there's M60A1 AOS (1972) which gets stabilization.

We're skipping over the M60A2...

Then M60A1 RISE (1975) which upgrades the engine, transmission (AVDS-1790-2A diesel and CD-850-6) and electrical system.  Oh, and adds AOS if it didn't already have it.

M60A1 RISE+ (1978) adds passive IR, an NBC system, better radios, ditches the M73 for the M240  and smoke dischargers.

M60A3 Passive (1978) is like a RISE+ with a better engine and transmission (AVDS-1790-2D, CD-850-6A), upgraded fire control computer wind-sensor, laser rangefinder and better night vision gear.  Some tanks were upgraded, some were new build to this standard.

M60A3 TTS (1978) is an M60A3 Passive with a thermal gun sight.

M60A1 RISE Passive (1980) gets the engine and transmission upgrade from the M60A3 Passive, plus a kevlar spall liner, better night vision for the driver, deep fording kit and mounts for reactive armor.  Another way of saying it, it's an M60A3 passive without the fire control and ranging upgrades that can partially submerge.

The Army and Marines made the same upgrades through M60A1 RISE+.  The Marines didn't spend their budget to shoot better or see better.

I totally forgot the split between M60A1 RISE Passive and M60A3 TTS.

The Good Bills

These are the three good gun bills so far this session.

HB 17 by Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman repeals Florida’s mandatory waiting periods. If enacted, a gun buyer can take possession of their firearm as soon as the background check is completed. Yes, you read that right — no more waiting to take possession even after the background check is done.

Rep. Rudman’s bill fixes that and goes a step further too. If the FL Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) takes too long and doesn’t complete the background check within three days, the dealer can release the firearm. No more waiting around and having your rights delayed.

HB 1223 by Rep. Bobby Payne restores gun rights for young adults. This bill restores the right to legally purchase a firearm for those who are under 21. Sadly, back in 2018, under the leadership of then Governor Rick Scott, Florida’s Republicans stripped young adults in the state from being able to legally exercise their Second Amendment rights. Again, HB 1223 fixes that and restores their rights.

HB 1619 by Rep. Michael Beltran makes Florida a true Constitutional Carry state. This bill repeals the Open Carry ban and goes a step further; it removes several gun-free zones. These include polling places and college/university campuses. If enacted, Florida would join the 45 states that have adopted Open Carry. Currently, only Florida, California, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut ban it.

Luis Valdes
Florida State Director
Gun Owners of America

For A Change

I've been participating in a spirited discussion about tanks on a forum and it's been nice to be able to talk about something I actually know a bit about.

Instead of sitting there trying to absorb stuff I don't know a thing about.

It all started with someone posting an article about what a death trap the Chrysler XM1 was and its numerous deficiencies that will get our boys killed dead if we ever have a war with the Rooskies.

An article from 1980.

I remember the talk about the shot-trap and how the bottom of the turret and top of the hull would channel a round into the turret ring to the dismay of the crew inside.

Except...

The rounds that would be so deflected don't have the penetration to do any damage once they get there.

Sabot rounds don't ricochet like that.

HEAT and HESH might, but the "pinball" effect will either detonate them too soon, doing little damage; or slow them so much they don't detonate, doing no damage.

The rounds that gave rise to the term "shot trap" armor piercing ballistic cap and armor piercing hard core (APBC and APHC) do ricochet as predicted.  And lose so much energy in the process that they will not damage the turret ring, let alone penetrate.  APBC and APHC are obsolete rounds.

I'm also enjoying all the tank cliches being spouted as absolute facts.

Things like the Sherman being more fire prone than any other tank.  It wasn't more prone than any other before wet stowage, and far less prone after.

You were far more likely to survive your tank catching fire if it's a Sherman than any other tank of the war.  Crew egress is excellent.

I Hope This Works

Texas has, apparently, ordered their national guard to seize control of a park used by illegal aliens.

They are, further, barring Federal Border Control from the area.

I am cautiously optimistic.

Ewwwww

I took some pictures of something inside The Beast to help a fellow PPV owner.

The camera can see stuff my blind eyes can't.

Time to do some detailing!

It's nasty down there.

Jaded

In the car club I'm no longer a member of, there's a couple of members with impressively fast cars.

The problem is, all I can think when they beam proudly is, "You sure did pay for that, ayup!  That's some mighty fine check writing you did there."

Now Sports

I've long maintained that the only pro sport I give a shit about is Hockey.

I don't follow other sports and only know what I know about them from osmosis.

Lately I've taken to replying to someone talking to me about other sports with minutia about battleships.

"An Iowa class battle ship has nine 16" guns mounted in three-gun rotating gun-houses..."

And such.

Their eyes instantly glaze over.

I can go for several minutes too.

When they ask what I'm talking about, I say, "you were talking about something I didn't give a fuck about; so I'm talking about something you don't give a fuck about."

You wanna talk about basketball, I'll talk about battleships.

That's More

I just got done reading that I'd be money ahead buying an LS3 long block instead of doing the displacement-on-demand (DoD) delete on my car.

On the plus side, the LS3 is a 426 to 436 horsepower motor as opposed to the "mere" 355 to 362 of my L77.

Using the LS3 cam in my motor is supposed to be worth about 40 more horses, so 395 to 402.  Nothing to sneeze at.

But money ahead?

A complete kit, less programming, is just about a grand.

The best price I've found on that short block is six and a half thousand.

Basic programming is a mere $100.

Last time I checked $1,100 < $6,500.

Never mind that I already have the tools to do a DoD delete and lack a couple I'd need to swap the block.

The Bills The Bills

No man's liberty is safe while the legislature is in session.

Florida's legislature is in session.

It's too early to bother listing the good and bad bills, most of them won't be progressing very far.

The usual attempts at banning normal, common use firearms and their accompanying normal capacity magazines and expanding where you cannot carry a gun are included as if this were California.

Even more fun is the redefinition of machine gun to match the language of the bump-stock ban then governor, now US senator Lurch signed.

But "little chance of passing" is not "zero chance" so we should keep a weather eye out.

No Bill

The grand jury for the Houston taqueria shooter has declined to pursue charges.

When this happened, last year, the interwebs were all a quiver about how this guy fucked up and went past the requirements of self defense.

Especially the anchor shot.

Strict reading of the law will lead you to that conclusion.

I tended to agree that he'd screwed himself by taking that extra step once the threat had ended.

I maintained that he shouldn't be, but probably would be.

It would appear that I am not alone in my thinking.

The Harris County, Texas grand jury tasked with the case decided that ridding the world of one scumbag gives a little latitude about when, exactly, the threat ended.

He was not a good person.  He was out on bond for domestic assault.

It needs to be mentioned, every time, that the deceased was convicted of a robbery where their fellow robber killed the person they were robbing.  He served 6 of the 15 years given him for the crime. 

Note: If 15 years meant 15 years he'd still be in prison, and alive; because he was convicted in 2015.

Insured

My home insurance carrier decided to drop us because we made a claim for damage from Ida and they felt we didn't sufficiently respond to their orders when told to jump.

For some reason they think the roof was damaged when it was the facing below it along the front porch.

They kept demanding inspections from people who kept telling us that they don't DO inspections.

So we've spent the past four months trying to figure out why they were dropping us and jumping through hoops to keep them.

$1,000 worth of inspections, $200 at a time, getting home and wind abatement inspectors out here was rejected by our carrier.

The crux of the matter turns out they wanted a roofer to sign off that the roof had five years left in it.

No roofer will touch that.  If they say it's good for five years and it fails, they have assumed liability.

They're not stupid.

So we used one of the inspections we'd paid for to get a different company to underwrite us.

Stormtroopers

At the Venn diagram overlap of veteran, Lego and Star Wars we find:

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 1, reg.

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, reg.

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 187th. Legion.

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 212th. Attack Battalion.

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 501st. Legion.

Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 501st. Legion., 332nd Company.

Republic Clone Shock Trooper Phase 2, Corusant Guard / Shock Trooper

Imperial Stormtrooper.

Imperial Army Snow Trooper

I am missing several units of Clone Trooper.

Things You Don't See Every Day

When FuzzyGeff and I were taking pictures of the sun, I heard the clear note of two piston engines in the sky.

Two engines usually means something cool!

I was expecting an old war-bird, but...

Looks like two different years of Bonanzas to me.

That's Right (Updated)

I skipped the BRDM-3 because the vehicle in T2K never happened!

There's no 30mm armed version of the thing.

The OT-65 in the game is closest to the OT-66, but not quite the same.

I need to check if the BRDM-2 would have stayed in service, because I think they were being phased out for BTR-70 variants.

Update: The BRDM-2M remained in service with the turret from a BTR-80.  Still 14.5mm gun though.

I think the same trend was going on with OT-65 users too.

Update: The OT-65 and OT-66 would have been out of service by the time T2K rolled around and were, mostly, replaced by the very similar BRDM-2M.

I feel all better now!

I might make stats for the OT-65 and 66 anyways, because there are still a lot of them around in storage depots today.  Someone probably got some running, much like the Soviet Union Russia is doing with T-55's for service in Ukraine.

I Need To Check The Math

It occurs to me that if the plane depressurizes, they will descend rapidly to an altitude where I can breathe.

I wonder if one could simply skip the mask that drops from the ceiling, pass out, then wake up when there's enough air.

The reason I wonder, if the plane is crashing, I think I'd rather be passed out.

Loss

When I look up the stats for the motor in The Beast I find two numbers.

355 hp and 362 hp.

That's SAE-net.

Digging deeper, it says that the lower number is for the automatic.

All Caprice PPV's are automatics.  The Aussies and Middle East got the manuals.

There's no actual difference in the parts of the engines, so it must be in the "net" part of the specification.

That'd be the torque converter.

It only costs 7 horses?

Color me impressed.  It's not 1970 any more.

Oversight

I noticed today that my Twilight: 2000 conversion missed two Warsaw Pact 4-wheel armored cars.

The Czech OT-65 and Soviet BRDM-3.

I need to fix that.  Should be simple.

Later I need to do the vehicle guides.

Things You Didn't Know You Needed

Your Krag takes too long to load?

Anderson and Braathen have got you covered!

At least in 6.5x55mm...

Older Edition

Took my father-in-law to the used bookstore to get him a fresh batch of western novels.

I found the book on the right:

It's a 1919 printing of the 5th Edition.

It is substantially different from my 1990 printing of the 23rd Edition.

A bonus is the log tables!  The 23rd doesn't have them.  In 1990 they expected you to use a calculator.

It's neat to see what something I'm familiar with looked like 105 years ago.

Did You Know?

You do not have to wait until the change oil light comes on before you change your oil.

This is a mystery to several people I'm familiar with.

Likewise, with modern engines and oil, you don't need to do it every three thousand miles anymore.

6,900 miles with 39% showing on the oil life monitor seems a good compromise.

I discovered that you can buy 12 quarts of Mobil-1 in a "wine box".

I need 8 quarts for the change and it's something of a pain to measure it out to keep from overfilling.

But it's also nearly $20 cheaper than buying the exact amount of oil with a single 5 qt jug and three singles.

He Probably Should Have Done It Sooner

Wayne LaPierre has resigned, as I am sure everyone reading here already knows.

He's a wonderful example of "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain."

I met him once at a book signing, still have the signed copy around here someplace.

I wonder if we're going to be able to get the NRA back under the membership's control with him out the way; or if the court case is going to nuke it from orbit.

Whups Wrong Shooter

Nothing to see here, narrative mismatch error.

No mention of the Perry, Iowa shooting on MSN now that we know it wasn't a white supremacist bigot who did the shooting.

Whither TL4

GURPS defines the medieval period as TL3.

Players of D&D think they're playing in a medieval setting.

But much of the equipment in D&D is TL4 according to GURPS, which says it's "age of sail."

So much of D&D is already TL4, I wondered if adding the "missing" TL4 item would break it.

That would be guns.

Pathfinder even has a "gunslinger" class.

Critical Role has a main character in their anime, Legend of Vox Machina, who uses a gun.

TL4 is 1450 to 1730.  Guns go from cannon lock gonnes to full flintlock in this timeframe.

But does it matter?

The only things that change, besides firearms, is the adoption of what GURPS calls fencing weapons.

D&D is early TL4 where "sword" still equates to the GURPS broadsword and not a rapier or smallsword.

Artwork from D&D clearly shows ships that are obviously NOT TL3, much like the armor available.

Matchlock and wheel lock guns don't break the paradigm.

Multi-barrel and superposed loads (which didn't catch on in the real world) might get more common if there's an, ahistorical, adventuring class.

The existence of armed and armored, but not noble, persons is also ahistorical.  Never mind the racial and gender egalitarianism that's been there since day one, despite what Hasbro thinks.

Considering that I don't think it's even difficult to run a fantasy campaign with Old West gear, it's simple to add some early firearms to the mix.

I've also considered the effect of letting the dwarves and elves be the source of TL4 goods and letting people pay double for them.

The Ulfbrecht swords from history are an example.  It appears unlikely that the places where such swords are found had developed the furnaces needed for crucible steel.  But they did have trade networks to places that had.  A pig of crucible steel could readily be hammered out into a far better blade than could be made from bloomery iron by virtually anyone who could make a sword.

Crucible steel is a very late TL3 technology, but it wasn't native to where the swords have been found.

By TL4, it's a normal technology and it leads to making the long, narrow blades of rapiers.

To CAWS Or Not To CAWS

There's a serious case to include the H&K CAWS shotgun with my GURPS conversion of Twilight: 2000 because the gun was in the original game.

But...

I've already replaced the cancelled LAV-75 with the M8 Buford.  The LAV was in the original game, the M8 was the FMC CCVL at the time.

The Army never adopted the LAV-25, but the Marines did.  I've included it in my conversion.

The CAWS program withered on the vine just after the original T2K was published, and long before the timeline of the game.

There are other, small, changes.  By 1997 without the "peace dividend" there would have been progress on many fronts that didn't happen in our timeline.

In the real world, even with the "peace dividend" there were no 105mm Abrams left in the system.  OG T2K has an M1, M1A1 and M1A2 (M1, M1E1 and M1E2 by the rules).

By the time I'd joined the Army, two years later, the M1 was gone and 105 armed M1's were the M1(IP) standard which has the better armor of the M1A1, without the better gun.

Even with the end of The Cold War every Abrams prior to M1A1(HA) was removed from service.  Continued Reaganesque funding would have put the M1A2 into service years early and what I call the M1A3 being fielded off reasearch from the, abandoned, M1 TTB.

M1E2 from the original rules was a remote turreted tank that was never adopted, but loosely based on the M1 Tank Test Bed.

I replaced the three OG listings with an M1A1(HA) and an M1A3 with a mounting more similar to what was on the Stryker than the TTB.  The M1A2 would be the same as our timeline.

The point of all that was, I've made changes to suit reality...

That I've done the work to stat the H&K CAWS means little since I've fully statted out the LAV-75 and skipped it.

 

JellyFish

FuzzyGeff took an outstanding pic of the "jellyfish" from the Falcon launch.

At the top of the frame you can see the first stage doing it's retro burn, at the bottom, the second stage heading to orbit.

Scoured

Gods forbid people read this shit and think for themselves...

The Perry, Iowa shooter's social media has, already, been scoured off the internet.

To prevent us from reading the killer's own words and deciding for ourselves if others like them pose a threat, I am sure.

Now we will get what the killer said filtered through the media, and more importantly, the government

Remember, we're still waiting for the Nashville shooter's manifesto to be released officially.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant and we keep shoving this stuff into the dark.

What Did He Mean "Slow Of Mind"

I was this many years old when I finally put together that the TRS in TRS-80 means Tandy Radio Shack.

Timing

I'm not, generally, a conspiracy theorist; but it's fucking uncanny how there's a school shooting immediately after major news that reflects poorly on liberals.

Epstein list yesterday, shooting today in Perry, Iowa.

Bayonet Mass Variations

For the M7 bayonets:

BOC, 10.4 oz.

Conetta, 10.3 oz.

Gen Cut #1, 11.4 oz.

Gen Cut #2, 11.3 oz.

MILPAR, 10.7 oz.

For the M8A1 Scabbards:

PWH #1, 5.2 oz.

PWH #2, 5.2 oz.

TWD, 5.3 oz.

VIZ, 4.9 oz.

For the M10 Scabbard:

Gen Cut, 4.0 oz. 

I wonder what the target weight was for each.  We've got a 1.1 oz. range for the M7's, with the 1960's bayonets being lighter than the mid-80's.

Mileage

The Beast managed a respectable 24.2 mpg on the 301.2 mile trip.

Not bad for a 4,162 lb., 362 hp V-8 car hauling three people (with two being none-to-skinny).

Launch

FuzzyGeff, Marv and I went over to Titusville and watched SpaceX send up the Ovzon-3.

We met up with a buddy from the car world and had lunch at Dogs-R-Us then went out to watch the show.

Cameras were present.

My version:

Marv's version:

I didn't catch the landing burn on account of the incompetence.  I failed to mash the record button, I just pressed near it.

M7 M10

For my birthday, Marv got me a Gen Cut M7 bayonet.  It looks to be an unissued, but out-of-package example.

Because it was on sale, for an excellent price, it did not come with a scabbard.

Amazon, of all places, sells bare scabbards.  Because I am awash in M8A1 scabbards, I chose an M10 for this bayonet.  New in wrap!

Cage code 20014, interestingly enough, is for General Cutlery!  The same folks who made the bayonet.

Compared to the vintage M8A1.

The M10 scabbard is 4.0 oz. and that's 0.9 oz. lighter than an M8A1 (both weighed without the shoelace).  Interestingly, this M7 and scabbard weighed 15.5 oz.  That makes it an 11.5 oz. bayonet.  A previous measurement of an M7 with M8A1 scabbard was 15.3 oz. for a 10.4 oz. bayonet.

I'm interested to see what the tolerances on the parts are to give that spread.

Forgotten Weapon

 

OG Twilight: 2000 had the H&K CAWS.

In the original game it used standard shotgun ammo.

The CAWS program was long dead before the year 2000, it was dead before the Soviet Union went tits up and the Berlin Wall fell.

So I never included it in my GURPS conversion.

Still...

I've done some easy research and developed GURPS stats for it.

18.5x76mmB is the all brass round.  It will not fit in a normal 12ga shotgun.

However, it will accept normal 12ga ammunition.

There are three rounds in 18.5x76mmB, 000 Buck, tungsten pellets and flechettes.

The "full auto" rate of fire is a mere 4 shots per round, barely better than a semi-auto shotgun's 3.

The tungsten pellets hit pretty hard, 2d+2 pi, but they don't quite go as far as normal shotgun rounds.  Just 35/675 with an NP of 8.  000 does the normal 1d+2 pi out to 50/900, NP 8.  The flechettes are fun, NP 20 doing  1d+1 pi-, but getting 80/950 for range.

NP is the number after the RoF 4x, so 4x20 for the flechettes and 80 shots on the RoF table for a +6 to hit!  Bwahahahahaha!

Normal 12ga ammunition uses the same damage and range stats as the lowly Remington 870 you can find in High-Tech.

I'm still debating if I should include it.  What's the hive think?

Stone Age

It was probably looking for information about neanderthals that got the Al Gore Rhythm to start sharing stone knapping videos to me on YouTube.

It's amazing how much of a nodule of flint or obsidian ends up on the ground to make one spear head.

It's misleading, most of the those flakes are purposed to other tools.  Very little was wasted when this technology was at its peak.

It's sometimes strange to think of this as technology, but it most certainly is.

I'm even starting to learn the differences between early and late versions of the tools, as the technology of knocking chips off gets more refined and elegant.

Justice

It's important that only the people who did the crimes be punished for them and only those whom were harmed are recompensed.

There are no living Americans who were slaves prior to the 13th Amendment being ratified.

Likewise, there are no living Americans who owned any of those slaves.

Considering the 360,000 people who gave their lives to free the slaves and make sure those slave owners remained where the laws of The United States would affect them...

America is even with the former slaves and their descendants.

It's not America's fault that you failed to do anything with that freedom...

Except...

The Democrats.

They're the KKK, they're Jim Crow, they're who fought so long for segregation, they're who opposed every attempt to make black people actually equal for decades.

They're the people that are keeping you from succeeding and they're doing it by tricking you into thinking they're helping you.

But, you keep reelecting them...

So my sympathy is somewhat thin.

I want you to have the same chances I do, but you have to accept that will mean you risk the same failures I do as well.

I am no great success, but I know it's my fault, and I blame the correct person for my failure.

You should give that a shot.

PS: You're going to have to abandon your Democrat endorsed toxic subculture and become Americans too.  Being an American is actually a pretty sweet deal, you might find it suits you.

PPS: The Democrats actively fought your emancipation so hard that there needed to be two additional Constitutional amendments just to make sure you got rights everyone else thought came with being citizens until the Democrats systematically denied them to all y'all.

I Thought That Sacred Meant Important

Dear indigenous American people who lost the war over who owns that "sacred" land;

In the intervening 100 years since the end of that war, there's been nothing stopping you from buying much of that land back.

Especially with the largess from the casinos.

Yet...

Well, you didn't buy it back, so you don't get a say in how it's used by the present owners.

Let There Be Light

Marv got me a Crimson Trace CMR-208 light for Christmas!

 

It replaces the TLR-3 I had on it.

 The CMR-408 is a little heavier, but it uses the 123 battery my other lights use and it's noticeably brighter.

Plus, I think it looks better.

All is not wasted, the TLR-3 can live on Mollie-Bean.  There's nothing standard on her, so an odd battery fits right in!

Stopped Clock

The 2nd Amendment is, indeed, for everyone.  Just because that's true, doesn't mean that saying it makes your cause righteous.  If you're planning on using your guns to take away anyone's rights or liberties you are not the good-guys.  You are the person the 2nd Amendment was written about.

 

The brew-ha-ha over the KE Arms KP-15 has nothing to do with the quality of the product.

In the red corner we have fascists who think they're freedom fighters.  Unrelated to this is a measurable portion of this corner are very pro-LGBT and a noticeable portion are Satanists.

In the blue corner we have Christian bigots who think they're saving liberty from fascism.  But they cannot just oppose the brownshirt behavior without mentioning the LGBT and Satanists.

Would that both sides lose.

I just wanted a good product at a decent price.

But the fucktards on both sides fucked that up for the rest of us.

But I'm sure to be called a bigot for wanting equal rights.  The same rights for every person.  No special rights for anyone.

I've asked before, "are you a person?"

Black PERSON.

Gay PERSON.

White PERSON.

Straight PERSON.

Religious PERSON.

Atheist PERSON.

People have rights, and we all have the same rights.

Denying someone else their rights to exercise your own makes you a tyrant. 

Both sides are guilty of this, though they don't appear to realize it. 

And this is just skimming the surface in a Cliff's Notes manner.

I Spotted It Too

This guy makes a "documentary" about how much better Switzerland is than US at understanding our 2nd Amendment.

Colion Noir makes an excellent counterpoint.

The Swiss are pretty good about gun ownership, but the fact remains that they are still Europeans with a European outlook on things.

They also made some serious concessions to the EU concerning gun regulation not that long ago too.

It's Good In GURPS

The AN-94 was VERY speculative when I first converted Twilight: 2000 to GURPS, but I figured that if I was going to include the H&K G11, I might as well have the Soviet reply.

It's like a heavy AK-74S that is somewhat somewhat susceptible to debris.

And fucking expensive!  Six times the price of the 74 to get that hyper-burst.