Hot Fresh Memes!

Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Have To...

A good modern concealment rig will let you carry a surprising amount of handgun almost undetectably. I've known plenty of people who run longslide Glocks with dots and lights AIWB from the PHLster Enigma or high-end appendix rigs.

But just because you can, does it mean you have to?

Middle o' the Week Memery!

Dynamic Range

I remember being out walkabout one afternoon and spotting this Porsche. I was on the same side of the street as it and it was hard to get a shot because not only was that tree and trash can in the way, but the angle of the sun had the car heavily backlit. I wound up walking down the block and crossing the street to get the shot.

A big part of the problem was the camera itself. I was using an original Canon EOS Rebel DSLR from 2003, which has a 6MP CMOS sensor. I could have used spot- or center-weighted metering to expose for the car itself, but the background would have been entirely blown out. It would have been a terrible shot.

Fast forward to this year and that Datsun Sports 1600 I saw down on the Near Northside (maybe it was technically Herron-Morton? anyway...) and the shot posed similar problems. The car was parked in deep shadow, while the background was brightly illuminated by summer sunshine from a cloudless sky.

The big difference was the fact that I was using the Olympus E-M1X, which launched in 2019 and uses a 20MP CMOS sensor.

The crucial difference between the two sensors wasn't the resolution, however, but the dynamic range. The Rebel's sensor had a dynamic range of 10.6 EV, while the newer Olympus has a more modern 13.0 EV range. Nearly two and a half stops of DR makes a big difference in getting usable images. I didn't even use center-weighted metering.

.

Meme Dump!

Legend...

You want a lesson in sportsmanship?

Ohtani waves his team off, averting a potential bench-clearing brawl. Then he goes over and banters with the Padres dugout, defusing tensions, goes out to take his place on first, chatting amiably with the San Diego first baseman... and when the ump calls "Play Ball!", he up and steals second.

Legend.

.

Memes to Help Face a Monday!

Automotif DLXXXIII...

Here's an attractive little 1964½ Ford Mustang convertible. There wasn't yet a 2-barrel version of the 289 cubic inch "Challenger" small-block, so the base V-8 in the very first Mustangs was the 260-cube version of the same motor, with two tiers of 4-barrel 289 in the option list.

This Rangoon Red ragtop has the 260 and a 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic slushbox.

It was photographed with a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.

Holy Memes!

Soulless Drones

From an interview with techbro Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe:

What the hell? "I don't want to have to spend the time to [watch the show/read the book/listen to the opera], just tell me what happens." Like life is a book report to be cheated on by reading the Cliffs Notes.

"I don't want to actually eat the steak dinner, it takes too long and feels like just a waste of time, so I take two vitamin pills and ask my Agentic AI for a summary of what wagyu tastes like."

What a bunch of shallow, plastic, soulless goons these guys are.

.

Demon Core Memes!

(For those who don't know: The demon core.)

.

Tab Clearing...

• PHLster Holsters has a new newsletter...and a new newsletter editor.


• The Devil and Sergeant Danny Applewhite


• Deputy Cletus has left the building.

.

Memes for Your Friday!

"...then his INDOPACOM started crying."

We're gonna pivot to Asia any day now... any day...

This essay has a good historical analogy...

"CENTCOM remains the operational and institutional center of gravity for the U.S. military, absorbing high-demand assets, dictating deployment rhythms, and monopolizing policy bandwidth. ... Thus, it is a bureaucratic and strategic vortex that resists de-prioritization, even as its theater becomes less strategically vital."

The Global War on a Noun apparently came with a hell of an institutional hangover.