Meme Dump...

Snitch Culture on the Skids...

The anonymous Pennsylvania McDonald's employee who dimed out the CEO shooter could have a hard time collecting his reward.

The FBI's reward payment system is contingent on conviction, and the NYPD gives you a special PIN code when you call in a tip that is necessary for receiving reward payments and the fast food worker called local 911 and not the NYPD.

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Brace for the Arglebargle...

The laws surrounding the manufacture and sale of firearms, or even of what is and isn't a firearm in the first place, are complicated enough that event the majority of gun owners aren't familiar with even a fraction of them. (Remember that if you would list "guns" or "shooting" as one of your hobbies or interests, that alone puts you in a minority subset of people who own firearms.)

When I saw the video of the dude capping the UnitedHealthcare CEO, like Ian over at Forgotten Weapons I knew it wasn't (like idiot spokespeople at the NYPD claimed) a B&T VP9.

At the time, I remember hoping that it was at least a factory clone and not an 80% kit build or a 3D-printed frame because that would unleash a tidal wave of stupid from the sort of people who not only know nothing about guns or gun laws, but also don't like them very much.

And here we are...

At first glance, the gun in the police photographs — the one the authorities believe Luigi Mangione used to kill the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare — appears to be a Glock-19, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol used by military forces, police officers, civilians and criminals all over the world.

But upon closer inspection, it is clear that the weapon was not factory-made, but was at least partially produced by a 3D printer. The giveaways are subtle: The Glock logo is absent from the pistol’s grip, where it would ordinarily be imprinted, and the angle of the grip is peculiar. Indentations on the grip, known as stippling, are patterned in such a way that the gun’s “fingerprint” can be directly linked to a unique free-to-download 3D-printed design known as the FMDA 19.2 Chairmanwon Remix.

In the first sentence I'm already annoyed by the hyphen in "Glock-19" and it doesn't get much better from there.

Boomsticks: The new Ruger/Magpul RXM...

Testing continues on the Savage Stance XR.

Meanwhile, I can finally talk about the new Ruger. In a world where there are already several Gen3 Glock 19 clones of varying quality, it's easy to go "Ho-hum, another one..."

But Ruger and Magpul are both manufacturers that know what they're doing; this isn't some back-alley operation in Istanbul.

Plus, it's not a Gen3 Glock clone, but rather a vastly product-improved pistol that happens to have used the G19 as a jumping off point. It has a direct-mounting optical system that is similar to that on the Echelon that will accommodate the three most popular optic footprints (RMR, DP Pro, RMSc) and comes with co-witness sights including a tritium insert up front with a high-viz surround. The fire control unit is in a true chassis, for grip-swapping customizability. Best of all, the price point is...aggressive.

Everything good about a Glock MOS and then some, without having to put up with Glock's adapter plate setup, which is frankly starting to look like hot garbage compared to everyone else's, at a screamingly low price? That's likely to make a dent in the market.

Testing is underway for an upcoming feature-length review in Shooting Illustrated.

Meme Dump...

Squirrel!

These were snapped with the Olympus OM-D E-M1X using the M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 superzoom. That lens is one of the great things about the Micro Four Thirds format, as it has an equivalent focal length range to a 24-400mm lens on a full frame camera yet is smaller than a soda can.

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Midweek Memes...

Upside-Down World racing news...

So Cadillac is going to be fielding an F1 team and intends to design their own powerplant for the series, but it's going to take a couple years to get from the drawing board to race-ready.

In the meantime?

Ferrari has announced a "multi-year agreement" with Andretti Formula Racing to supply the Cadillac Formula 1 entry with power units upon its entry to the championship in 2026. The team, led by TWG Global - which recently took over the running of Andretti Global - and General Motors, was provisionally accepted onto the grid from 2026 by F1 last month, though full confirmation must yet be given.

This feels so Bizarroworld: A car sporting big GM logos and a Ferrari motor..

That must have been a rush...

Most journalists go through their entire careers without an opportunity to write a headline like this.

10/10. Perfection. No notes.

Parenthetically, while "Stylish But Illegal Monkey" is a bit of a mouthful for a band name, you could always call yourselves SBIM. Throwing this idea out there for free if anyone wants it.

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On the upside, and on the downside...

On the upside, I am vindicated for all the times over the last couple days I've had to explain to people that "No, I don't care what the NYPD spokesperson said, it's not a B&T Veterinary Pistol, it's a regular recoil-operated nine. Probably a G19 or clone."

On the downside, now I have to brace for a tidal wave of derp about so-called "ghost guns" and 3D printing.

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Meme Dump...

Monday Memes...

Well, this is a lot of fun!

Someone has come up with a cool little website that allows you to add your own text to some legendary video game screens. It's a fun little time waster. I hope Wing Commander gets added.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

In case you, like me, were ever wondering who buys those weird blingy 'Special Limited Edition Gold Plated Commemorative' guns, the answer appear to be "people who do a lot of drugs and then fly to Australia to attend clown school".

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Meme Dump...

Traditionnnnn!

I'll tell you the real reason it's important for kids to learn to read cursive: So they can understand and honor our traditions. 

 Click this link and tell me I'm wrong... 

Life comes at you fast.

Syrian government resistance has completely collapsed, people are wandering through Assad's palaces and posing for selfies with the Maybachs in the garage, there are rumors that Assad's getaway plane got shot down. It disappeared from Flight Tracker after making a precipitous u-turn and nobody knows where he's at.

Meanwhile, RUMINT is that remaining Russian forces in Syria have bailed and left the remains of Assadist forces to their fate.

While a lot remains unclear about the future in Syria, watching a brutal dictator get toppled and his torture prisons emptied will always warm the cockles of my heart.

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Recent Car Write-Ups...

• 1963 Pontiac LeMans coupe with a 326 V-8


• 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible


• 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe

Also, photos of a Corvair Greenbriar van and some classic MGs in motion...
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Saturday Meme Dump...

 

Well, that was an awful dream...

I had a perfectly horrible acrophobe's nightmare last night.

We were living in an apartment in a high-rise that was part of one of those big mixed-used developments they're always using to revitalize downtowns. To get home, depending on which entrance you used off the street, required traversing rather a lot of three-story indoor mall, taking escalators and then a grand staircase to reach an elevator lobby on a balcony overlooking the big atrium of the mall.

It must have been a swank place to live because I saw Hoda Qutb and Ellen DeGeneres chatting on their way to catch a cab from the elevator lobby.

Anyway, I'm standing there waiting for the elevator going up and one comes from below. The doors open and all of us start to step forward to get on, but the car is full, so everybody stops to wait.

The doors start to close, but this one guy at the very front is absorbed in his smartphone screen and, as he realizes the doors are closing, he sticks his foot out to cause the doors to reopen. Only something's faulty and the car is already halfway to the next floor.

Dude realizes he's about to step into several stories of thin air, tries to backpedal, drops his phone into the elevator shaft, attempts to lean forward and grab it, overbalances and goes face-first into the elevator chasm (I say chasm because all the elevators in a bank share a single shaft).

There's a Wilhelm scream, cut short by a sickening thud as he caromed off the back wall of the shaft. I blurted "My God!" and just sat down there on the carpet, lightheaded.

The dream went on for a while longer as I kept doing normal activities, but now I was noting that the whole shopping center was one giant falling hazard: Decorative staircases with too-large gaps in the treads, soaring walkways with way-too-low railings, that sort of thing. I woke up with sweaty palms.

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Memes for Friday...

Meme Dump...

QotD: If Everybody's Special Edition...

From Bobbi's post about Emergency Alerts:

"As a practical matter, all that is needed are alerts for "lost child" and "lost adult." Details should go in the accompanying text message, to tell you and me if we should be looking for a four-year-old Native American child or a 60 year old law enforcement officer: it's supposed to be way to help out, not an overloaded "thin blue line" flag with a special stripe for each and every sliver of the population who might be at risk."

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Midweek Memes...

Eras?

When you say "the Malaise Era" in reference to cars most people know what you're talking about: that period of time when cars were slow and awful. It came after the "Muscle Car Era", but when did it end? And what was the period before the "Muscle Car Era" called?

This is the sort of thing I'm pondering at the moment. I have some ideas, maybe a pretty good post's worth.

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Memes to Amuse You...

Floating Home

So I'm tooling around the satellite view in Google Maps, as one does, and I'm scrutinizing Presque Isle up there in Erie, Pennsylvania and I see what look like a bunch of cottages in the middle of Horseshoe Pond.

"Huh," say I, "I wonder what's up with these?"

So I grab my little Street View dude and drop him on the Coast Guard Road that runs alongside the pond and sure enough, those are houses on pilings or floating homes of some sort.

Quick! To the Google!

And there I found this neat little story...

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Monday Morning Memes...

Anti-Sleep Cat

Holden started out the evening curled in a ball at my feet, which meant I couldn't stretch my legs out full length.

Eventually my knees were aching enough that I sat up and picked him up and set him on the bed next to me so I could straighten my legs. I carefully set him so that he was stretched parallel to me, leaving me the maximum amount of room to toss and turn in comfort.

Somehow, in his sleep, he rotated himself through ninety degrees on the bed until he was stretched out across its width, about at my waist level, leaving me barely enough room for the width of my hips if I lay on my back. If I lay on my left side in any position other than completely straight as a board, my butt would be hanging off the bed.

He's lucky he's so cute.

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Alleged Jaguar

So artist's renderings of what is allegedly the all-new Jaguar EV have leaked.

It looks like an unlicensed Barbie Cullinan trying to dodge a trade dress lawsuit from Rolls Royce.

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