Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #264...

Ruger P-85 Mark II (click to embiggen) It came with the Hogues. Not a fan.

The original Ruger P-85 had a situation where the firing pin could break and the hammer-dropping safety could thereby cause an unintended discharge.

The fix was adding a block that rotated into place between the hammer and firing pin as the safety lever was manipulated. It was retrofitted to existing pistols and new ones that came from the factory with the improved lever, as well as a few upgrades derived from the military's XM10 handgun trials, were sold as the P-85 Mark II.

Additional improvements to the pistol resulted in the Ruger P-89, which I've written about here and there. Matt at Hipster Tactical has a great deep dive on the P-89 and its antecedents here.

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Rocket Fighter!

Me 163B at National Museum of the USAF

It was fueled by "C-stoff", which was a combination of hydrazine hydrate and methanol, and "T-stoff", which was 85% pure hydrogen peroxide. If there was leftover fuel in the tanks on landing, it could explode. If the takeoff were aborted and the plane nosed in hard, the 275 gallon tank of hydrogen peroxide behind the cockpit could rupture, sloshing into the cockpit and turning the pilot into flieger soup.

One of the few pilots to survive the whole Me-163 program, Mano Ziegler, wrote an occasionally hair-raising memoir titled Rocket Fighter which is available cheaply on Kindle now.

Me 163B1-a at Udvar Hazy

Monday Meme-day!

Tab Clearing...

• China's getting extra frisky with Taiwan and the Philippines, and meanwhile we're stripping our last carrier out of the Pacific to go plug holes in the Gulf. "Pivot to Asia" my ass.


• The deficit continues growing at a record pace, nearing $40 trillion.


• We live in a world of miracles and wonders.

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Indy Flood Update...

I've posted plenty of pictures from the sculpture gardens that surround the Indianapolis Arts Center, including photos of my favorite one, Twisted House, by John McNaughton.

Here's a photo of my friend Dave standing in front of it for scale:

I saw a photo of it in the news yesterday afternoon...

Meme Dump!

Here Comes the Flood

We're fine here in SoBro, but the White River's gonna crest here in north Marion county early this afternoon.

Ravenswood is gonna flood, but Ravenswood floods all the time. They're closing the gates in the flood wall here in Broad Ripple up on 67th Street. This is a novelty to me. I’ve been here close to twenty years now and this is the first time I remember the flood gates getting closed. We'll be fine (they're a bit more than a mile north of us) but the Arts Center is fixin' to get wet.

The big loser is going to be the quaint little neighborhood of Rocky Ripple. Nestled in between the White River and the canal, over by Butler University, it's surrounded by a levee built in 1937 after the historic flood of 1913.

The White River is gonna get higher than it did in 1913 and may overtop the levee by as much as a foot, which will wipe out the parts of the structure that are in poor shape. If that happens, bye-bye Rocky Ripple.

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Meme Dump!

Overheard in the Hallway...

Me: "We need a new holiday for pedants, where we explain everything to each other in tedious detail. Call it Belabor Day."

RX: "So, weekdays. Also weekends."

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Isn't It Ironic?

The Field of Dreams game, played in the iconic ball field in the middle of the Iowa corn, featured advertising on the outfield walls for Fanduel Sports and BetMGM.

Which, I mean... were they trying to torment Shoeless Joe's ghost, or what?

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Memes on a Rainy Friday!

Stupid Weather...

As you may have read elsewhere, we've been having some weather here this week.

Unfortunately, all this weather volatility has occurred during the first week of the Indiana State Fair.

Looking at the forecast, I think I'm just going to punt on the Fair this week and hope to get in some good visits Tuesday through Friday of next week.

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Meme Dump!

Important Announcement!

When burying your loved ones these days, it’s important that you inter them with a smart phone.

Placing coins on their eyes does not work anymore. Charon is apparently no longer accepting cash and wants the recently deceased to download the ETERNAL FERRYMAN app so that they can pay via PayPal or Venmo in order to be poled across the River Styx.

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Life in the Panopticon, Part 24,917...

It would appear that the government is scrutinizing anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram accounts...

"Investigative journalist Dan Boguslaw first published several fusion center bulletins about DeFlock, a crowdsourced map of ALPR cameras. 404 Media has now obtained four more recent law enforcement briefings warning police to surveil or beef up patrols of areas where Flock cameras are located (the documents are embedded below). These briefings document instances of Flock vandalism and warn, specifically, about the DeFlock “National Week of Action Against Automated License Plate Readers,” which is essentially a series of public meetings and protests about the dangers of mass surveillance."

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Reverse Lend Lease

A lack of suitable night fighters saw the USAAF operating Bristol Beaufighters in the role in Europe until enough P-61 Black Widows were available to fill the ranks. The Beaufighter Mk.VIf above is painted up as the aircraft of the commander of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron circa September of 1944.

Below is a Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc (Trop) as it would have served with the USAAF in North Africa.

Hump Day Meme Dump!

People’s taste is all in their mouths.

According to an email I just got, the Beretta 80X in .32ACP is fixin’ to take an indefinite hiatus from the Langdon Tactical catalog.

If you are a person of sophisticated tastes who appreciates the Trey-Deuce Browning, this might be your last chance to get the ultimate launcher for that sweet little cartridge.

EDIT: Apparently they'll be available on a much more limited basis, but not as a regular stocking item.

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Tornado

The USAF's first operational jet bomber, the four-engined North American B-45 Tornado was the main nuclear deterrent based in western Europe in the early years of the Cold War.

The B-45C at the USAF museum in Dayton is painted in the colors of the 47th Bomb Wing (Light), which was based out of RAF Sculthorpe in the 1950s. The wing had flown A-20 Havocs and A-26 Invaders in World War Two.

In today's episode of "The Internet Was A Mistake"...

What is this I can't even

Done GIFfrom Done GIFs

Meme Dump!