Your Own Personal Nguyen

Funny New Guys lets one delve into some really creepy aspects of magery, magic and war.

Not least of which is the Zombie spell.  For a mere 8 FP and a minute of casting, plus a "relatively complete dead body," you can make yourself your own necromantic slave.

Learned some necromancy before dropping out of college and getting drafted?

Sick of digging latrines and sick of burning shit with diesel?

Wasn't there a dead VC sapper in the wire last night?

Private, your problems are OVER!

Until you get caught with your rotting pal who's... well, not very fun to be with or around.

It's Vietnam and it's HOT.  Your VC ditch digger is rotting!

Once the flesh falls from his bones, he will stop stinking and still be a useful skeleton, but until then...

No matter, have Nguyen stand on top of a handy ant hill until those, industrious, little insects pick him clean.  Better have him make a chicken wire enclosure to keep the birds off him, though, as they tend to dismember bodies while they snack.

But the entire platoon is going to be in on helping you violate the laws of modern warfare concerning the desecration of enemy bodies when they discover just how HANDY such a thing is for avoiding tedious manual labor.

Denying Our Troops Life-Saving Gear

In GURPS Magic there is a spell called Missile Shield.

It costs 7 fatigue to get started and 3 per minute after the first minute to keep going.

If you're not keeping track of fatigue, your average person has 10 and casting that spell is a hit to their available fatigue, but not crippling.

The problem is if you're humping the bush in Vietnam with medium encumbrance and it takes 4 FP an hour to march along.

The fire fight starts two hours in and you use a ring enchanted with Missile Shield to cast it and...  You're now on the verge of collapse with -5 FP.  See Basic Set p.426 for why this is VERY BAD.

Such a ring is 400 energy to make and that's a mere $150,000 if cast traditionally with "slow and sure" means and $20,000 if enchanted industrially.  With a starting wealth of  $15,000 and not enough demand to start an industrial production line...  It's probably not going to come up in play.

But something that will is a healing potion.

Chiron is the healing elixir.  Mass produced it will run a whopping $51.75 per dose.  That might seem a lot but it will heal 1d HP worth of damage per application; that's the same as 1 to 6 days of total rest and recuperation!  20 minutes of First Aid/TL7 will restore 1d-1 HP.  The standard issue field dressing has a dose of ointment form built right in!

Can you imagine how the media would be harping on things if the troops didn't get issued such a field dressing?  The medic will also be carrying a supply of Chiron too; in both powder and liquid forms.

There was sure to be a, sad faced, Walter Cronkite wondering why we couldn't spin up the production line for those rings.  60-Minutes has not yet aired...

M1952A Vest

In 1967 the issue fragmentation body armor vest was the M1952A.

In GURPS terms it's 8.5 lb., $400 and gives DR 4/2*.  The higher DR is vs pi and cut, lower against all other types.  The * means it's flexible armor.

The later M1969 vest is almost identical in GURPS terms.

Familiarity (Updated)

The timeframe that Funny New Guys is set is 1967.

That sets some important points for weaponry.

It means all the "work" I did looking up Blooper stuff is still relevant and the more familiar M203 won't be on the scene yet.  The XM148 has started field trials.

It also amends my list of available rounds:

See High Tech p.143 and p.145 and SEALs in Vietnam p.33 for stats.

M381 HE (1953) - 3 yard min distance. 32g Comp-B. 0.503 lb. 

M386 HE (1961) - 15 yard min distance.  33g Comp-B. 0.503 lb.  

M397 HE-AB (1964) - 15 yard min distance.  32g Octol.  0.507 lb.

M406 HE (1961) - 15 yard min distance. 32g Comp-B. 0.503 lb.

M441 HE (1961) - 1 yard min distance. 32g Comp-B. 0.503 lb.

M576 MP (Multi-Projectile) (1966) - No min distance. 20 #4 Buckshot pellets. 0.254 lb.

M583 White Star Parachute (1964) - 330 yard min distance, 40 sec, 45,000 candela, falls 7' per second. 0.47 lb.

M583A1 White Star Parachute (1967) - 330 yard min distance, 40 sec, 90,000 candela, falls 7' per second. 0.47 lb.

M585 White Star Cluster (1961) - 330 yard min distance, 5 flares, 7 sec, 55,000 candela. 0.41 lb.

M651 Riot Control CS tear gas (1967) - 33 yard min distance, 6.5 yard sphere, 20 sec burn time. 0.45 lb.

M661 Green Star Parachute (1967) - 330 yard min distance, 40 sec, 10,000 candela, falls 7' per second. 0.47 lb.

M662 Red Star Parachute (1967) - 330 yard min distance, 40 sec, 20,000 candela, falls 7' per second. 0.47 lb.

M682 Red Smoke Canopy (1967) - 150 yd. min distance. 90 sec burn time.  Deploys under a parachute that snags in tree branches.  0.48 lb. 

M713 Red Smoke Ground Marker (1965) - 15 yd. min distance.  25 sec burn time.  0.49 lb.

M715 Green Smoke Ground Marker (1965) - 15 yd. min distance.  25 sec burn time.  0.49 lb.

M716 Yellow Smoke Ground Marker (1965) - 15 yd. min distance.  25 sec burn time.  0.49 lb.

I should also note that the date I've shown is just the earliest reference I have for the round in question.  Some of them must pre-date that because the M79 is first fielded in 1961.

Found all the in service dates! 

That makes my infantry weapons list:

M16A1 rifle (XM16E1?)
M60 machine gun
M79 grenade launcher
M1911A1 pistol (but I'm amused to change that to M4...)
M26 (lemon) and M33 (baseball) are the common fragmentation grenades.

Being Rich Is Nice

I wish I was rich enough to own a professional sportsball team.

Because once you're that rich, you no longer have to pay for things.

Like the building called a "stadium" for your team to play in.

You make the taxpayers from the location of your stadium pay to build it.

If they don't you find a different group of politicians to cave into your demands and have THEIR taxpayers build it.

The taxpayer is rewarded with increased spending on law enforcement to combat the increased crime during games and events at the stadium.

They are rewarded with increased traffic congestion from games and events at the stadium.

The promises of increased business and economic benefits are illusory.

They have never once panned out.

And I say this as a hockey fan and a fan of the Tampa Lightning.

But if the Bolts demanded a new stadium on my back, I'd be helping them pack for their new home someplace else.  If they wanted to move to my county, I'd be lighting a fire under my administrators to nuke the deal.

Coincidentally, Amalie Arena, home of The Bolts, isn't my taxpaying problem.  It's Hillsborough County's.  I don't live there.

I live close enough to get all the benefit I want and far enough away to escape the costs.  I feel so damn clever at this bit of happenstance.

I'm Not Cheering

The CEO of United Healthcare got gunned down in NYFC.

I am not celebrating, but I am also not very surprised.

After dealing with insurance companies with Harvey's shoulder and knee I'd be writing to the Coast Guard to report them drowning instead of calling 911.

I am dead certain there are people who are dead because of a slow response from their insurance company, or from a flat denial of a claim.

That's sure to create a population of very bitter folks and if that population grows large enough, it's bound to include people who will act on that bitterness violently and with finality.

And here we are.

PS: Name me a single industry that's made better by insurance paying most of the providers.

If This Were Us

If I got busted selling an NFA item without a Form 4, or selling a non-transferable NFA item to a normal person:  I'd be in jail!

But Bradley Wendt, police chief of Adair, Iowa, is not in jail.

Is he?

Hey!  WAIT!  He is!  Or will be once he loses his appeal.

But something he says worries me.

"If I'm guilty of this, every cop in the nation's going to jail."

Exactly how widespread is cops selling NFA stuff without the proper taxes and licenses?

And, honestly, how can we get more of it because, clearly, the sales aren't feeding crime beyond the malum prohibitum violation of the NFA.

The only reason I wouldn't be getting an M134 from the trunk of my local LEO's car is I can't afford the $6,000 a minute rate of fire.  But I'd damn sure like a couple lowers with giggle switches.

I think that this conviction and the statement of the former police chief are evidence enough to end the stupidity of the NFA and let us have our liberty back.

Quote Of The Day

Taken in its entirety from Task And Purpose:

Normally, Thanksgiving is synonymous with food, family, friends, and giving thanks. For @TheEconomist, Thanksgiving apparently means taking a turkey-sized dump on disabled veterans. The other day I had the unfortunate opportunity to read an unattributed article on The Economist titled, “American veterans now receive absurdly generous benefits” and it left me with a lot of thoughts. (You can read it for yourself here: https://econ.st/3D0Nk87, just be ready to sign up for a subscription.)

The piece on The Economist has no author and reads like it was poorly run through ChatGPT. And the title of the piece is insultingly stupid. The definition of absurd is “wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate.” I’d challenge the anonymous cowards at The Economist to illuminate us on which parts of veterans’ healthcare and benefits are inappropriate, illogical, or wildly unreasonable?

I am a disabled veteran. I had my right leg blown to pieces on September 4, 2006, in Fallujah, Iraq. Since that time, I have had to walk with an above the knee prosthetic and I have not had an easy day physically for as long as I can remember. Hey, The Economist, which portion of my healthcare or benefits are wildly unreasonable?

Service to our country can be an incredibly uplifting and positive experience for many who wore the uniform, but that service can also involve hazards. Some disabled veterans struggle physically or mentally with the effects of their service. Bullet wounds, Traumatic Brain Injuries, Post Traumatic Stress, and other effects of a service can sometimes cause chronic issues for veterans, and providing care and benefits for those issues is certainly not inappropriate or illogical.

While the AI assisted “journalists” at The Economist boldly chose not to put their name on this piece, they did attribute a quote to another non-expert in veteran benefits, Mark Duggan from Stanford University. Mark foolishly stated about VA Disability and Compensation, “Once you qualify you have an incentive not to get better.” An incentive not to get better?!?!? Hey Mark, any clue how I can get my right leg back? I’d gladly give back the money I’ve received so I can get up out of bed without the assistance of a wheelchair or a prosthetic.

The meandering poorly structured article in The Economist highlighted a lot of increased numbers and statistics, many of these figures quoted began back in 2001. It highlighted the increased number of veterans with high disability ratings beginning to increase in 2001. However, nowhere in the article does it state what else began back in 2001. These dopes conveniently left out the Global War on Terror that began in 2001 lasted for TWENTY YEARS! A full 20 years of the same all-volunteer force serving over and over, and over again in the same toxic hellholes fighting the same brutal terrorists. Gee, I wonder why today’s veterans are presenting with more chronic ailments than generations that came before us.

Ivy League elitists like Mark Duggan and the pretentious wankers at the Economist clearly didn’t bother to do much research on veteran disability or bother to speak to one of the millions of disabled veterans like me. We would have told these arrogant snobs that certain injuries and illnesses are with us for life, and no disability rating is worth the difficulties that come with some of the aftereffects of service.

The real cherry on top of this turd sundae was the lazy suggestion (possibly lifted from the fools at the @washingtonpost Editorial Board) that VA should means test veterans before receiving benefits. As in, if you make enough money after service, you won’t be taken care of for the costs of war. If The Economist had bothered to attribute a name to this drivel, I would ask that idiot, “how would you means test my inability to teach my son to ride a bike?” It’s a pretty routine joy that most parents get the privilege of taking part in. However, my prosthetic leg doesn’t really function in a way that allows normal bike riding. So that is a simple joy I won’t get. How exactly do buffoons like Mark Duggan and the dollar store journalists at The Economist suggest factoring in that loss?

The last paragraph of this loosely compiled puddle of garbage juice included the statement, “Reducing payments to former soldiers will never be popular, but it would be wise. America’s veteran obsession has gone too far.” — TOO FAR?!?!? Holy hell, this sounds like it was written by a jealous also-ran who every veteran has probably met. The guy or girl who “totally would’ve joined…but I didn’t because I would’ve told-off a Drill Instructor if they got in my face”. Losers…

In the future, if any major publication wants to embarrass themselves by anonymously taking shots at disabled veterans, I’d like to offer my services. I can start by helping you research this subject to learn about the actual effects of service-connected injuries and illness. I can also connect you with other disabled veterans so you can hear first-hand accounts of some of the difficulties veterans face. I could even help google image search pictures of actual veterans, instead of the stock photo of firefighters The Economist used at the top of its trash piece on veterans. Then finally, if you are still intent on disparaging disabled veterans, I can assist you in removing your head from your ass…free of charge.

Patrick Murray, national legislative service director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars office in Washington, D.C.

I can't find a lot (or anything) to disagree with here.  Spending on veterans is among the first things DC nukes when they go towards balancing budgets.

I was there when Clinton was spending the peace dividend and noticing that a homeless people got better care from a for-profit hospital than a veteran got from the supposed-to-be-dedicated-to-them hospital.

I cannot help but wonder if there'd been proper care and therapy for my legs if I would be spared the constant pain from neuropathy. 

I'm sure that FuzzyGeff and Technomad can relate stories about how bad I was hurting and what a charming fellow it made me.

But too many people think that because veterans will stoically suffer that we SHOULD.

I won't even get into the weeds of talking about how the same people talking about cutting off support for veterans are the same assholes that tie the military's hands and prolong conflicts and assure there be no victory, lasting or fleeting.

In Honor Of The End Of Prohibition

Some bathtub gin!

Wetted For 91 Years

I almost missed end-of-Prohibition day!

Have a drink!

It's legal!

The "Benefits" Of Hearing Loss

A nice thing about losing a significant amount if hearing is losing the need to have a stereo past a certain point of fidelity and needing music past a certain bit rate.

Why pay for it if I can't hear it?

Since my hearing loss is focused on certain frequencies, I also don't need to waste money on subwoofers because I can hear bass quite well, thank you.

That sometimes makes me dial in the equalizer so that it sounds wrong to other people as I tune my experience to match my memories of a song before I murdered my ears.

I've also noticed that I am more sick of saying "What?" than people are of repeating themselves so I can understand (and they are VERY sick of it).  For many situations I just smile and nod until they quit talking than to bother to get them to say it so I can understand it.

Oddly, I can often pick out their voice better in a jumbled background than if it were merely quiet.

Not For Years

I feel like I should mention that I have not bought anything from iTunes for years.

Their store stops working when OS support ends.

So, when they stopped supporting my version of OSX, I stopped buying from them.

What I had used them for was to replace all the music I had on cassettes and CD's from the early '80's.

Napster facilitated my change from discrete physical media to using digital.

The music industry really should have realized that Napster was, effectively, a loss-leader that led many of us to be buying after trying.  It was handy for finding the correct version of the song I was wanting to buy.

They should also have noticed that a lot of the music people were "stealing" wasn't available for purchase because it was "out of print."  People wanted to buy it, but the music industry was refusing to sell it.  That did nobody any good.

Amazon has been just as convenient as iTunes for getting music, it's DRM free, and it works on all my devices.

Casette CD iTunes MP3

I'm getting a bit sick of rebuying my music.

For the most part, I had the problem solved with iTunes, but...

There's a few songs, here and there, that are in a format that can't be read by a device here and there.

Mutter mutter, grumble grumble.

The case in point is the stereo in The Beast cannot read m4a files, despite those files being DRM free from iTunes.

That means having to get new copies in mp3 that it can read so I can listen to them without fiddling with the phone and bluetooth.

The phone plays m4a files, but doesn't show the song on the screen.  If you can't see the song on the screen, you can't take a clever "Hulk In Tree!" pic.

Why no Hulk song?  Why Iron Man get song?

We take a series of "Hulk in the tree" pics every year, kinda like a fun, digital, advent calendar.

Where would you like to see Hulk?

Quicker

When looking up loads for the M79 I was struck that a shotgun is a higher velocity gun.

12ga is about 1350 feet per second with #4 buckshot.

The M576 round is a mere 885 fps with the same shot.

12ga is firing 24 pellets instead of 20 as well.

I can see the argument for using a shotgun instead of the blooper for close in work.

#4 buck was used extensively in Vietnam.

Why Can't We Get Along?

Because one side really believes this:

Exactly how many women have been arrested for having an abortion since Roe v Wade was overturned?

Exactly how many, of any kind, LGBTQ people have been jailed for simply being whom they are?

There's prolly something about illegal immigrants and racism in this "comic" too, but I am not liberal enough to parse the symbolism shown.

But the liberal side really does seem to think that with Trump back in office means tyranny and bigotry will reign.

Never mind the bigotry of showing a white man doing the oppressing in the illustration...

But it's OK to be bigoted against white men for... reasons... or something.

More Concerning

Past the cost of the new, flammable, refrigerants is the concerns about the leak detectors.

Having had to replace several, not very complicated, starter capacitors I am very concerned that the leak detector will fail and the failure mode is "I detect a leak!"

That will mean dragging the AC guys here with their leak detection stuff to confirm that there is no leak and no fire risk and then replace the sensor.

A new, hidden, cost!

It will only take a few laps of this sensor failing and there being nothing wrong besides the sensor before the do-it-yourselfer starts stocking the sensors, or wires around them.

Now we're going to see some flames!

Systems that cry wolf get ignored or bypassed.

If you don't believe me, just look into the window of a car in the other lane and notice how many are driving with amber and red warning lights on the dash.

Inside Minimum Distance

A 40x46mm round that hits someone inside it's arming distance will still do some damage.

1d+2(0.5) cr dkb (double knockback).  The unarmed slug of an M381 HE round will roll an average of 5.5.  That drops to 4 penetrating.  It also does 11 points of knockback and that will knock the average ST10 person back a yard.  Not a pleasant hit, but better than sucking up the 4d-1 [2d] cr ex of the round going off.

At 7 yards (with skill 11) we can expect to get 3 pellets of #4 buck from the M576 round that'd be 3x 1d-1(0.5) pi-.  Average of 7.5 points rolled, 4 penetrating and doing 2 points of damage.

But inside 3 yards:  You lose the bonus to hit from multi-projectile, but the damage swells to 7d(0.5) pi- and the target's DR is multiplied by 10 (plus the effects of the armor divisor).

That armor divisor also, normally, gives an unarmored target DR 1.  So it, too, swells to DR 10.

The average hit from "extremely close range" rolls 24.5.  That drops to 14 penetrating and doing 7 points of damage.

Not Quite As Bad

In 1972 the average price of regular gas was 36.9¢ per gallon.

With the 655.18% inflation since then, gas should be $2.789 per gallon.

Last time I filled it was $3.159.

Corrected for inflation, gas is about 13% more today than in 1972.

The $1.199 gas of 1991 should be $2.779 gas today.

But the $3.699 gas of 2012 should be $5.089 today, so something went right and gas prices broke from the rest of inflation.

Bloop

M79 ammo in Funny New Guys Vietnam.  Also for XM148 after 1965 and M203 after 1969.

See High Tech p.143 and p.145 and SEALs in Vietnam p.33 for stats.

M381 HE (1967) - 3 yard min distance.  32g Comp-B.  0.503 lb.

M406 HE (1967) - 15 yard min distance.  32g Comp-B.  0.503 lb.

M433 HEDP (1971) - 15 yard min distance.  45g Comp-A5.  0.507 lb.

M576 MP (Multi-Projectile) (1967) - No min distance.  20 #4 Buckshot pellets.  0.254 lb.

M583A1 White Parachute Star Flare (1972) - 600ft altitude, 40 sec, 90,000 candela.  0.49 lb.

M585 White Star Flare (1967) - 330 yard min distance, 7 sec, 55,000 candela.  0.41 lb.

M651 Riot Control CS tear gas (1967) - 33 yard min distance, 6.5 yard sphere, 20 sec burn time.  0.45 lb.

M661 Green Parachute Star Flare (1972) - 600ft altitude, 40 sec, 8,000 candela.  0.49 lb.

M662 Red Parachute Star Flare (1972) - 600ft altitude, 40 sec, 20,000 candela.  0.49 lb.

XM674 Riot Control CS tear gas (1968) - 33 yard min distance, 6 yard sphere, 36 sec burn time.  0.463 lb.

M676 Yellow Smoke (1967) - 150 yd. min distance.  90 sec burn time.  0.48 lb.

M680 White Smoke (1967) - 150 yd. min distance.  90 sec burn time.  0.48 lb.

M682 Red Smoke (1967) - 150 yd. min distance.  90 sec burn time.  0.48 lb.

There's a husha bomb "silent" HE round running around with the SEALs and some flechette rounds circulating too.
 

I Beg Your Pardon

Hunter Biden has gotten a sweet deal of a pardon!

Do not despair!

Biden the Younger may no longer plead the 5th if someone makes him testify now.

Everything has a silver lining!

Not that I expect anyone to supoena him...

That's Not The Official Loadout

With the idea of press-ganging Marv into making a Funny New Guys character, I decided to look up the loadouts for the various weapons carried in Vietnam.

I found this guy.

What I'd found in my research into the web gear made me think that 9 20-round magazines were carried for the M16.

He's saying they lugged around 20.

He's also carrying 200 rounds of spare ammo on 10-round clips.

Plus 200 rounds for the M60.

I'd encountered the carrying ammo for the M60 before.

I'd made characters who lugged around ammo in their packs to reload magazines later, an idea that Willard dissuaded me of, but it persists.

But, he was there, I was not.

Now I'm trying to figure out HOW he carried 20 magazines.  1 goes in the gun.  A magazine pouch will hold 4 each.  An ammo bandolier has 7 pockets and each will carry one magazine.  Three pouches and a bandolier will do it.

That bandolier came from an ammo can and was packed with 14 10-round clips.

I wonder if he was really carrying 140 spare rounds instead of 200 in clips.

Also of interest is the grenadier carrying 25 40mm grenades.  The standard bandolier carries a whopping 6. A vest would tote 24.  There are many bags available to carry them around loose though.

Most photos of grenadiers in 'Nam I've found are wearing the same LBE as the other grunts, and that makes me think that some were carried in the standard ammo pouch; 2 easily, maybe 3 but you'd need a DX roll or a Fast-Draw -4 to get just one out without pulling all three out.

This dude can lug around 30 grenades with his vest and bandolier.

Running Out Of Time

In April, my "favorite" climate "scientist," Michael Mann, predicted 33.1 ± 5.8 named storms for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

The total stands at 18.

We have just under six hours to get to the low end of 27.3 storms before hurricane season ends.

That's about a storm and a half per hour.

This prediction was roundly mocked by several of the local meteorologists too.  They were saying 16-20.

Weathermen 1.

Climate scientists 0.

Just For The Brahs Here

This is a, finely crafted, link that I guarangoddamtee to be good at the time of posting.

From the EPFUCKINGA.

Notice: "Starting as soon as January 1, 2025, restrictions will take effect on the use of higher-GWP HFCs in new 1) aerosols, 2) foams, and 3) refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump equipment."

The EPA is enforcing it as a hard deadline rather than a soft phase in.

100 Year Old Cars

Sound on!

Also, not a bad rendition of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

I Don't Remember Being Asked

On January 1st your air conditioner becomes obsolete.

Not by design.

Not because it doesn't work.

Not because a better system is supplanting it.

Because the government is mandating a change to a different refrigerant.

Again.

I am fascinated that with all the talk of democracy from some corners of politics they didn't even ask if I wanted the cost of a new system to triple.

They didn't even check to see if the average citizen could afford such a change.

I plan on writing my congress creatures about this passed-in-the-dead of night tree-hugger law.

Because we can still step back from the mandate, the companies are still allowed to make legacy components and refrigerants to get past existing warranties.

I don't think we will because the existing refrigerants are out of patent and the new stiff is still under one.

It's regulatory capture in the name of global warming.

Again.

Pics Working Again

 I didn't change anything, they just started working again.

Google is wonderfully inconsistent about how Blogger works.

I Admit I Wasn't Really Paying Attention

BUT!

I remember us pledging to defend Ukraine back when we encouraged them to give up their nukes.

I also recall that everything was going OK when the corrupt leader of the Ukraine was a Russian mouthpiece.

It also seems to me that we got involved with Ukrainian politics and got that corrupt mouthpiece replaced with a different corrupt politician who was more beholden to the Delaware Crime Family.

That appears to have triggered Russia a great deal and has led them to test the waters by annexing Crimea, waiting to see if the world would do anything, then going for the rest of the place.

That they did it when the Delaware Crime Family was in office was shitty timing for Russia.

No corrupt leader beholden to them in office, no carefully laundered foreign aid gets filtered back to "The Big Guy."

I think that is the crux of the matter.

Nothing I've read makes me think I want either side to win; but rather that it'd be best if they both, as nations, lost.

It'd really be best if it'd never started and all the innocent people caught up in it were spared.

But the innocent never do seem to avoid it, do they?

Just Fourteen ONLY Fourteen

When noticing that the average hit from a middling trained gunner only got 14 hits instead of the expected 28 when firing an M494 105mm APERS-T round at 50 yards with muzzle effect selected...

I have to also remember that the 3d cut per flechette will average 10 points raw damage each that becomes 15 once its through their uniform and that is 210 total points of damage.

The average 10 HP human is automatically dead after taking 60 total points of damage and cannot be resurrected past 110.

He's not less dead because he only took half the expected number of hits.

Prolly got a couple of his buddies too.

My Family Doesn't Talk To Me

If you were to observe my sister and my father, you would get the impression that she's the only child of his second marriage.

I don't exist to them.

My aunt has made mention of it several times.

It upsets her a lot more than me.

Willard Is A Draka!

Someone doctored this picture of Willard:

Into something from the SM Sterling Draka novels (Probably "Under the Yoke):

That's interesting!

Flechette Math

The M494 is a fletchette round that bursts like a shrapnel round making a cone of death.

A person's silhouette is approximately a square yard.

At 50 yards, with it set for muzzle effect, the cone of fletchettes has expanded to a circle of about 176.7 square yards.

So one would expect that person to absorb 1/177th of the 5,000 little bees.

That's around 28 fletchettes.

Many fewer than I expected!

Skill 11, 3-seconds of aiming.

That's a -8 to hit for range.

+11 for number of projectiles, +5 for Acc, +1 for Braced, +3 for the targeting computer.

23 or less to hit.

Average roll of 10 means that 14 hit.  Critical hit of 3 just gets 21.

About half of what you'd expect with the average roll.  75% with a critical hit.

GURPS doesn't simulate large numbers of projectiles well.

Ham And Turkey Day

It's the gut buster holiday, though we eat more on Christmas here.

The last three years we've pawned the cooking off on Bob Evans, and saved a little money and a LOT of time.

I'm thankful for the little stuff because the big stuff is, presently, handled.

Sadly.  There is no hockey.

Also:  So far I have not checked the mail box.  At some point I will forget, I am sure.

What About Flechettes?

Flechette rounds keep coming up in science fiction stuff, but they're an ammunition technology that keeps failing to live up to the hype.  At least in small arms.

Shortly after the introduction of the M79 grenade launcher, a round firing 45 of these teeny darts was fielded.

Notice the lack of even an XM number.

They didn't stabilize and would often hit sideways.  Their light weight meant that they barely raised a welt, let alone hurt anyone.

If they did land point first, they rarely did any substantial damage.

GURPS gives them 1d-3 pi-.  So whatever small amount penetrates gets halved!

The average hit will do a mere 0.25 points (min 1).  So you're going to need lots of hits for it to matter.

45 projectiles means you get a +6 to hit.

Using the same Skill 11 grenadier from last time...

At 20 yards they have a 11 to hit so, average 2 fletchettes scoring.  For 2 points of damage.

At 7 yards they tend to get 5 hits.  5 points of damage.

Not quite as good as a M576 buckshot round.

It's Liquid Bread It's Good For You

The history of beer!

I'll drink to that!

Beer is civilization and a polity that claims to be a civilization without beer is savages aping the forms of civilization.

Self Correcting

In the discussion about tariffs and Mexico, I am only seeing remittances being talked about in the comments sections.

Taxing remittances at some insane amount, like 90%, removes a gigantic incentive for illegal aliens to be here in the first place.

It's also around $65 billion a year removed from the US economy and injected into Mexico's.

Mexico stands to lose far more than we will in a protracted trade war; especially if we figure out that despite the price of goods here going up from the tariffs, so do wages and wages earned here get spent here and that spreads out to other parts of the economy.

The current system of cartelization does get cheap goods, at the cost of domestic jobs and stagnant wages.  Goods NEED to get cheaper in this paradigm because wages are, defacto, falling as inflation eats them before they're even earned.

If were to two-prong our attack on fixing the economy we'd talk about how the NLRB is unconstitutional too.  Breaking the unions would go a long way towards making manufacturing affordable again.

I Don't Necessarily Trust Him

Mr Musk might not be the paragon of liberty many people are making him out to be.

Being a car guy, I noticed another side of him with Tesla.

If you buy the top of the line super duper Tesla, get bored with it and sell it to someone else; Tesla will audit the sale and decide if the next owner paid enough for all the features and if they decide they didn't:  They disable the features.

That's at least adjacent to "you will own nothing and like it" territory.

I have a hearty mistrust of places that rent you something under color of selling.

Tricking The System

 

 HA!  Thag know some basic HTML and I can trick it into showing me the picture without using their interface!

Take that Google!

 

 

#4 Buck

#4 Buck does 1d-1(0.5) pi- and gives 27 pellets in 12ga 2-3/4"  00 Buck does 1d pi and you get 9 pellets.  For the record, a .22LR from a pistol does 1d+1 pi-

Coincidentally, the M576 multi-purpose round for the 40mm grenade launcher also uses #4 buck, but just 20 pellets.  40x46mm is a much larger round than 12ga 2-3/4"!

Despite the low damage, it was, apparently, very popular with shotgunners in Vietnam.

The #4 gets a +5 to hit from one shot and +6 for two; 00 gets +2 for one shot and +4 for two due to the number of pellets flying.

More hits could mean more damage despite the halving of the damage after penetration.  For a single shot the same roll means 3 more pellets hit.

Range is kinda pathetic, so let's keep it to 20 yards, -6 to hit.

A skill 11 shooter will have a 7 chance to hit with a single round and 9 with the RoF of 2 of a pump shotgun shooting 00 buck.  On average, they're gonna miss with both.

The same shooter will have a 10 with a single round and 11 with two.  On average, they'll get one pellet to hit with one round and two with two.

Our grenadier gets a +4 to hit with his single M576 round and will likely be missing...

Hits do more damage than misses regardless.  (1 point or 3 points is more than zero).

If we let the enemy get much closer, like say, 7 yards... it's only -3 to hit.

That means rolls to hit of 10 and 12 for the 00 and the average roll will now land 1 or 3 hits.

#4 needs 13 and 14 to hit and will land 4 and 5 hits respectively.

40mm needs 12 so the average roll lands 3 hits.

00 buck will do (on average) 3.5 hits per round; so 3 or 10.

#4 buck will do (on average) 1.5 hits per round; so 6 or 7.

40mm does the same average damage so 4 points of damage from its three hits.

At longer ranges #4 is going to work better because you're going to be hitting more.

Blogger Is Being Strange Again

 

For some reason I can insert this picture of The Beast with my laptop and Ubuntu, but not my desktop and Win7.

Odd.

Two weeks ago, the opposite was true.

Update: Now that I have inserted this pic with the laptop, it will recognize it and let me insert it again from the desktop.  This appears to be true of any photo that has already been linked.

Don't See These Much Anymore

 

Nice VW Type 3 wagon cruised past while I had my camera out taking pics of The Beast.