Automotif DCXXXIV...

Tasty 1965 Pontiac GTO. Standard engine was the 389 with a single 4bbl carb, with a Tri-Power 389 optional.

Photographed with a Nikon Zfc and a Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

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It's about frickin' time.

I’m rarely in a Walmart and every time I am, I’m surprised anew by their archaic checkout. I mean, I literally used Apple Pay to buy an obsidian knife from the flint knapper in Pioneer Village at the Indiana State Fair the other day.

“What do you mean I gotta actually take my card out of my wallet and stick it in the machine with my hands like it’s 2015 up in here? I used my wristwatch to pay a guy in bib overalls for a stone knife last Wednesday, for heaven's sake!”

Resin-filled cholla hilt and gold sheen obsidian blade.

Well, Wally World is finally saying they're going to bring touchless payments, including Apple Pay, to their stores by the end of this year. Better late than never, I reckon.

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Meme Dump!

Meme Dump!

Red and Yellow

Above you will see a U.S. Navy International Harvester tractor, while below is a sporty-looking red Porsche.

TGIF Memes!

Big Horse!

New Percheron at the Indiana State Fair Pioneer Village this year.

These were shot with a Nikon D4, using a Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G VR zoom lens.

You can click to embiggenate to their full 16MP glory.

Meme Dump!

Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #265...

If ever there were a pistol with my name all over it, it'd be the Langdon Tactical Beretta 80X Cheetah. It's got a sweet DA/SA trigger, that cool bronze-colored coating on the frame, and it holds 12+1 of .32ACP, my favorite little semiauto chambering.

You can even get holsters from PHLster, a Skeleton like the one in the photo or a fully set-up Enigma Express.

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Midweek Memes!

Tab Clearing...

• Naval Estimates, a browser-based game of warship design in the Dreadnought Era. Looks like big nerdy fun!


• Tales of crossing the Russian border in the Current Era.


• Run by slavers, manned by captives, the internet scam compounds are moving deeper into Myanmar, adopting AI tools.

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Meme Dump!

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!