Automotif CCCLXXXIII...

Super clean 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. I think that color was called "Garnet Red"? I'm not sure. Fender badges say it's got a 327. Seeing as how the exterior has been kept looking all fairly factory original, no reason to assume that's not what's under the hood.

.

Unsafe Dreams

I've participated in a fair amount of force-on-force training of the "sims guns and dull knives and inert pepper spray" variety, but I'm certainly not qualified to conduct any. Not only do I not consider myself an instructor, I have absolutely zero desire to be one.

Yet in my dream last night, I was conducting this force-on-force scenario for a group of people, and it was a fairly complex one. There was a narrow street, lined with shops and cluttered with market stalls and populated with role players, and the participants would navigate their way from one end of the street to the other, with a couple role players who would interact with them in varying levels of annoyance, insistence, and even aggressiveness if sufficiently mishandled.

All fairly normal, except people kept wandering through the middle of the scenario. Various TV reporters and their camera crews would come traipsing in, or people who wanted to watch the class, or whatever.

Now, if you've done this stuff, at least with a reputable instructor, you know that the scenario area is supposed to be completely sterile, with nobody in it who hasn't been patted down and had their pockets emptied of anything even vaguely weapon-y. Yet here I had people just wandering through and I kept having to call the whole thing to a halt and shoo them out and try and restart the scenario.

I woke up feeling maddeningly frustrated and the day hadn't even started.

"Whaddaya mean there's someone behind me?"

Concealing a Cannon

Carrying a jumbo-size blaster like a Glock 21 or the new FN 510 discreetly can be a chore, especially since concealment-oriented holsters for large autos are sometimes difficult to find.

One solution has been to use light-bearing holsters that index on the light and thus accommodate a wide variety of pistols.

The FN 510 is actually too big for the Bawidamann Gotham, which will swallow a P220 or Brigadier-slide Spaghetta with ease.

It works in the original PHLster Floodlight with the shock cord set at its loosest. We're fixin' to give it a whirl in the Floodlight 2.

FN 510 Tactical with Holosun 508 & Surefire X300U

Counterterrorism

As the Global War on a Noun wound to a close, US defense priorities swung back toward conventional fights against near-peer opponents and counterterrorism funding was cut back.

However with the Great Game heating up in the global South, this is having some foreseeable consequences:

"As Washington pulls away from counterterrorism, the Kremlin has leaned in to fill the resulting void and reap benefits outside of the terrorism domain. Russia used the guise of counterterrorism support to justify its meddling in Libya, for instance, while actually pursuing other objectives in the country and on the African continent. In April 2019, U.S. forces withdrew from Libya after defeating the local Islamic State branch—but just over a year later, Russian fighter aircraft were in Libya alongside 800 to 1,400 Russians linked to the Wagner Group and other Russian private military companies (PMCs). Today, these forces are concentrated around Libyan oil facilities where Russian state-backed oil and gas companies own stakes.

Moscow has likewise leveraged its military and PMCs to woo other African governments struggling with growing insurgencies. They offer military hardware, training, and even mercenaries to help with no restrictions on use nor lectures on civilian harm in exchange for gold, natural resource concessions, or other forms of payment. As in Libya, Russian troops help secure these resources rather than actually fight al Qaeda or the Islamic State. Moreover, the combination of human rights abuses by Russian and local state security forces, authoritarian rule, and bad governance often inflames rather than suppresses a local insurgency. Russian counterterrorism assistance ultimately has little to do with terrorist threats and much more to do with sanctions evasions, buying votes at the UN, and otherwise securing Russian interests abroad."

China, too, is hip-deep in subsaharan Africa, of course, and not even bothering to use mercs as a cutout.

.

Overheard in the Office...

So I'm pretty addicted to the Spelling Bee game at the NYT, and I was playing this morning...

Me: "What do you mean it doesn't know 'wadi'?"

RX: (from down the hall): "'W-A-D-D-Y' or 'W-A-D-I'?"

Me: "The latter. I know it's a foreign word, but it knows 'tatami'."

RX: "The Times like Japanese better than Arabs."

Me: "They sell tatamis at Ikea, but not wadis."

RX: "They sell wadis in California."

Bully Boy

In cameras with two card slots, I generally have them both set to record RAW. That way if one card takes a dump, I have a spare.

There's one exception, though. Fujifilm's digital cameras will record files that emulate the look and feel of various Fuji films, and so on my X-T2 I have one slot set to RAW and the other to a save faux film JPEGs.

Lately the emulation setting has pretty much just been left on "Fuji Acros B&W film with a yellow filter" and left there.

Black & white, after all, is photography's mother tongue.

 

Strange and Unusual...

"There’s a large slice of the shooting demographic that just loves something a little novel, a little different. Internet phenomenon Ian McCollum has basically made a career out of catering to this interest in the unusual with his blog and Forgotten Weapons video channels.

If you really want to perk up the attention of these folks, a firearm that’s a little off the beaten path is a sure-fire way to do it. Whether it’s revolvers that fire from the bottom chamber or work with shotgun shells, pistols that fold, or derringers with an unusually large number of barrels, you’ll find enthusiasts for it. Unusual operating systems are also a guaranteed crowd pleaser here."

Some gun hipsters are hipster-er than others...

photo by Oleg Volk

Ducking Autocucumber

Predictive text on my various iThingies is really quite good at analyzing my frequently-used phrases. 

For instance, on Facebook I can type "Still waiting on that eyeroll react, Zuck" entirely using predictive text just by typing "Sti".

On the other hand, while I have never in my life typed "ducking shirt" intentionally, autocorrect would have me doing it twice a day if not manually overridden.

Supposedly, though, the latest updates to Autocucumber are going to fix that.

"In 2014, Naomi Campbell congratulated “malaria” on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (She might have meant “Malala.”) According to Wired, employees at Goldman Sachs were upset that Microsoft Word corrected their company’s name to incorporate a profanity. The phrase “autocorrect made me do it” has become a way of explaining away embarrassing substitutions such as “sex” instead of “sec.”

Jillian Madison, who curated a website of autocorrect blunders, released the book “Damn You, Autocorrect!” in 2011. “If you say, you know, ‘I’m going to run and pick up the kids,’ it often turns into, ‘I’m going to run and pick up the LSD,’” she told NPR."

Automotif CCCLXXXII...

Honey Beige convertible, photographed 6/23 with Canon EOS 1D Mark IV

1958 was the 50th anniversary year of General Motors, and they commemorated it with special anniversary versions for each division.

Chevrolet's was the Bel Air Impala, which became the first iteration of the long-running Impala nameplate at Chevy. From then until 2020 (with short gaps from '86-'93 and '97-'99) there was an Impala somewhere in Chevrolet's catalog. 

Sport Coupe, photographed 9/21 with Nikon D800

If the earth is flat and space is fake...

...then this guy's got some weird looking dust flecks in his lens.

Oops, I did it again! This time from Netherlands, during Steve Bowen & Woody Hoburg spacewalk. The full solar transit lasted 0.75 second 😎

Each frame is a single shot at 1/32000s with the OM-1 on the CFF200 apo: I never make ISS transits from stackings or assemblies! pic.twitter.com/94y644q4bI

— Thierry Legault (@ThierryLegault) June 10, 2023

Automotif CCCLXXXI...

1976 Pontiac Grand Safari. Last year of the full-size GM wagons before downsizing.

455 4-barrel, nineteen and a quarter feet long, 5200 pounds of road-crushing weight.

These had the funky power-operated tailgate where the lower part would retract into the floor and the glass would slide up into the roof.

First pasture pool, then futbol...

In their continued effort to "sportswash" the shady rep of their government, the Saudis are spending jillions recruiting slightly past-their-prime big name soccer stars for their national league.

For a hilarious take on how this is going to work, here's a good rundown:

"Welcome to Bins Fulla Moolah, Saudi Arabia’s premier retirement community for world soccer stars. We’re here to hijack…your hearts!

You must be here because you’ve heard about the Kingdom’s plans to recruit you and other global soccer sensations whose contracts in the most competitive leagues are running out..."

.

Once in a Lifetime

Some people go through a whole newspaper career without getting to write a headline like this one:

Supreme Court rules for Jack Daniel’s in fight over poop-themed dog toy

.

"Are you a gun hipster?"

This piece is laugh-out-loud funny...

"Where others embrace threaded barrels, modern optics and tactical pants, you may feel a strange attraction to cold war battle rifles and cleverly engineered fixed-barrel actions. In extreme cases, you may have even considered purchasing a DSA FAL or an HK P9S.

But fret not, fervent friend of hammers, decockers and non-tilting breech-lock mechanisms. You are not alone. There are others like you. Others who think, feel and live like you. Others who know German date codes by heart. Others who feel that same sense of rage, loss and emptiness when they see a Beretta 92 with a red dot.

We call ourselves…

Gun Hipsters."

You should go and RTWT.

I think my own creds are solid in that department...

Tab Clearing...

• Gorillafritz: "Why won't my revolver cylinder turn?"


• Tactical Professor: The Charlotte, NC Bus Shootout


• On Her Own: Why guns can be a bad idea for self-defense.

.

Automotif CCCLXXX...

The DeLorean is one of those cars that is much cooler in the mind's eye than it is in real life.

Build quality was godawful, as cars from boutique manufacturers usually are. Owners of everything from Lambos to Lotuses put up with fit and finish issues that would outrage the buyers of a Camry or Taurus.

It was notoriously underpowered, with a 130bhp SOHC Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V-6 struggling to move roughly 2,800 pounds of car with anything approaching verve. (That's about the same weight as my Z3 with less than seventy percent of the power.) Acceleration was tepid, with Road & Track unable to crack the ten second barrier in 0-60 acceleration, well short of the manufacturer's claimed 8.8 seconds.

Among a host of build quality problems was one unique to long commutes in cold winter climates. Condensation would form on the underside of the engine compartment lid, drip onto the throttle cable, and then freeze. The driver would discover this when they tried to exit the freeway and lifted their foot off the throttle to no noticeable effect on the rate of speed...

You'll note that Indiana's seven-digit license plate left this DeLorean pilot unable to squeeze the entirety of OUTATIME on his vanity plate.

.

Heh.

"I don't like the term 'woke,'" Trump said during his speech at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines. "I hear the term 'woke, woke, woke.' It's just a term they use. Half the people can't even define it, they don't know what it is."

Like "fascist" and "communist", it's become a content-free snarl word that just means nothing more nuanced than "someone I don't like".

.

Change in the Weather

A front moved through last night with a sprinkle of rain and, after a long hot dry spell we get to look forward to several days with low humidity and highs in the Seventies.

It could be like this year 'round and I wouldn't mind. I also wouldn't be able to afford to live here.

Of course, if you really like this weather, you could just buy a mobile home and chase it.

Rocinante has been saddled.

So Mike Pence has officially thrown his hat in the ring.

I'm not sure who he thinks his constituency is, but it's a free country, I guess. Maybe he's hoping that Jack Smith or Ronald McDonald will clear Trump out of the way and then, I dunno, aliens will come take DeSantis back to the homeworld when his human suit malfunctions one time too many.

Still, it's wise not to make too many predictions this early in a presidential race. This time in 2007 I seem to recollect hoping that Fred Thompson could upset front-runner Giuliani for the GOP nomination and go on to defeat sure-thing Dem nominee Hillary in 2008.

I believe in the American people, and I have faith God is not done with America yet. Together, we can bring this Country back, and the best days for the Greatest Nation on Earth are yet to come! 🇺🇸 #Pence2024 pic.twitter.com/A8EkqgCDAm

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 7, 2023

.

Automotif CCCLXXIX...

Dodge has gotten a lot of mileage out of the "Dart" moniker, and not just figuratively. They introduced the Dart name in 1960 for a newer, slightly-smaller Dodge model based on a Plymouth that would fill out the catalog with something cheaper to buy and thriftier to drive than the full-sized Matador and Polara models.

After a quirky-looking second generation that only lasted for one model year, 1962, a new downsized third generation of Dart debuted as something called a "senior compact", a name meant to reflect a car that was slightly larger and roomier than the '61-'62 Valiant/Lancer Mopar compacts.

Unlike the Valiant/Lancers, the new-for-'63 Dart models rode on a 111" wheelbase, which was a four-and-half inch stretch over the earlier car. While 111" was indeed compact by the standards of early Sixties Detroit, where full-size behemoths like the Dodge 880 rolled on wheelbases nearly a full foot longer, by the time the Dart was discontinued after the '76 model year, it was feeling distinctly mid-sized.

Originally introduced with your choice of Slant-Six motors in 170cid  displacement with 101 SAE gross horsepower or the classic 225 cubic inch version rated at 145 gross bhp, an all new engine was added for 1964.

If the fender badges on this super-straight Dodge Dart 270 sedan aren't fibbing, it has the brand-new-for-'64 273 cubic inch V-8. With a 2-barrel Carter carb, 8.8:1 compression, solid lifters, and a single exhaust, the 273 was rated at 180 SAE gross horsepower and gave a noticeable performance bump in these relatively smaller, lighter cars over the regular six cylinder mill.

The 273 was the first in a long line of what were dubbed Chrysler's "LA" series of small blocks. It was produced in 318, 340, and 360 versions and eventually morphed into the fuel-injected 5.2L and 5.9L Magnum V-8's of the Nineties, powering a host of Mopar trucks. It also served as the basis for the 8.0L V-10, which was basically a 360 with a couple extra cylinders.

While the '64 Dart was the first year of the new LA V-8, it was also the last model year of a quirky old Mopar artifact, the pushbutton gear selector. If this car has a three-speed Torqueflite automatic transmission, then rather than having a conventional lever on the floor or column, it has a set of pushbuttons to the left of the wheel.