Month: February 2020

Here We Go Again

Eco-Crap, Science!

Oh FFS:

Climate change could wipe out up to HALF of all plant and animal life on Earth by 2070 if temperatures keep increasing, study warns
The impact of ‘maximum temperatures’ is more important for species survival
Experts tracked species in hundreds of locations to see how they handle heat
If temperatures rise by 3.6F we would still lose 20 per cent of plants and animals
If they rise by more than that we could lose up to half of all plants and animals

Yeah, and IF temperatures rise by 200 degrees we’d all melt into one big bouillabaise. As always, beware the weasel words like “could” and “if” (also “and”, “the” and all the other words these assholes use when they’re trying to scare us into doing something stupid).  And 2070, now?

The sad thing is that all this alarmism is affecting people — fortunately, just the ones who are fragile and easily conned.

People who suffer ‘eco-anxiety’ reveal their terror about the climate crisis is causing insomnia, depression and chest pain

I hope you all die from those symptoms because quite frankly, you’re all too fucking stupid to live.

Swarms

Military

Some time ago, I was pondering the state of our air power in terms of its being able to police Third-World conflicts.  Frankly, it made no sense to me (and still doesn’t) that we would need to spend x million dollars to send a jet fighter (or even an Apache chopper) just to drop a missile on an Afghani wedding party, when even a simpleton like me could see that the same job could have been executed by a WWII-era P-51 Mustang for about a jillion dollars less.

Seems like someone in the Pentagon has been having similar thoughts:

US Special Operations Command is moving forward with its armed overwatch plan, independent of the Air Force’s light attack experiment, inviting industry for a briefing on a proposal to buy an estimated 75 aircraft.
SOCOM will hold Industry Days March 4-5 for the Armed Overwatch program, which will “provide Special Operations Forces deployable and sustainable manned aircraft systems” that will be used for “close air support, precision strike, and SOF intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in austere and permissive environments.”

And here are the stats on one of the bad boys they’re considering.

My only question is:  why only 75?  Why not five hundred and seventy-five? I mean, instead of sending a few missiles from one plane onto a target opportunity of fuzzy-wuzzies, why not go Full Dresden and rain a hundred missiles or so on their turbanned asses?  I’m not talking of big, expensive missiles here;  just some little Radio Shack-type sweeties that can get the same message across for far less money.

And let’s not forget the magic word “jobs” (pilots and navigators/fire-controllers) which would flow from this expansion — one more stat God-Emperor Trump can add to his next employment report.

By the way:  I love the paint job on these planes, although in today’s .dotmil, they’ll no doubt be outlawed because they frighten the enemy too much.  Don’t get me started.

Oh, and one last thing:  “deployable and sustainable aircraft systems”?  Whatever happened to simple expressions like “aircraft” or even better, “airplanes”?  Fucking nimrods.

Stalingrad Falls

Beauty

…and in other not-news, we have this development:

Less than one-third of women worldwide are satisfied with the size of their breasts.

Anyone (male or female) over the age of 16 will know all this — like we need a study to tell us the news.  [eyecross]

But yes I know, this report is useless wifout pichurs.

Don’t look too unhappy to me, but I’ve never been able to figure out what women are thinking anyway.  All I know is that this girl looks quite satisfied with her superstructure:

But once again, I’m not the expert on this topic.  It might just be the guns.

ULD Update Part III

The Gun Thing

Now we can talk about the optics I’m thinking of putting on whatever rifle I finally choose for Boomershoot 2020.  To start with, I looked at this article, which lists the most popular scopes used by the majority of serious long-distance competitive shooters.  To spoil the surprise, I’ll tell you that pretty much all of them (e.g. Kahles) cost more than $3,000 — which, given my budget, makes them unreachable.  Back to Square 1, more or less.

I know a bit about scopes (admittedly, while not that up to date on the most recent developments), but having struggled with scopes at Boomershoots passim, I know a couple of features that are must-haves:

  • at least 20x magnification (25x would be even better)
  • a front aperture  (“bell”) of at least 50mm diameter
  • preferably, an illuminated reticle for when the weather clouds over, or it gets towards evening — understanding that this feature typically adds about $300 – $400 to the price
  • and of course I’d be looking at scopes priced in the $900 – $1,300 range

I’m also unimpressed by a fiddly reticle requiring a laptop to make calculations, because it would just take me time to get to work the things properly.  I know my way around scopes, pretty much, and Boomershoot is not a “precision” competition which would require such things anyway.

So with that in mind, I looked around at various online outlets which specialize in these things (SWFA, Europtics etc.) and came up with a shortlist (in no specific order, prices approximate):

 1) Sightron 6-24×50 SIII 30mm (illuminated MOA-2, side focus, 1/4 MOA, zero stop) $1,300
It’s an excellent scope, even though it’s at the very upper end of the price range.  The 6-32x model with the identical reticle is a couple hundred bucks cheaper.

2) Minox 5-25×56 ZX5i 30mm (matte, illuminated plex, side focus) $800
Minox is my favorite mid-range scope, but this one suffers by having no mil-dots or gradations. But the price means I could afford a better rifle…

3) Sig Sauer 5-25×52 WHISKEY5 30mm (illuminated MOA-2, quad plex, side focus, 0.25 MOA adjustment)
$1,300

I’ve never shot a SIG scope before, but this one has had some good reviews.  Likewise, no mil-dots etc.

4) Zeiss 6-24×50 Conquest V4 30mm (illuminated #93, side focus, ext. elevation turret)
$1,200

Right now, the Zeiss would get my vote.  Without the red-dot it’s $200 cheaper.

5) Steiner 4-20×50 GS3 30mm (Plex S1, Side Focus, 2/p)
$1,200
This Steiner doesn’t have an illuminated reticle, but nobody I know who shoots this brand has ever had any bad words about the quality.  There’s another one at the same price, with a different reticle.

6) Nikon Black FX1000 6-24×50 30mm (illuminated, side focus, FX-MOA FFP)  $800

If all else failed and the budget fell apart, I’d go with this one.  I just don’t know whether the Nikon scopes have the consistent quality of the others above — there’s a reason why their sales have tanked over the years –and I can’t take the risk.

7) Sightron 10-50×60 SIII 30mm (wide duplex, side focus, 1/8 MOA target knobs) $1,100

The upper end of the “regular” (i.e. crosshair) scopes, this would not ordinarily excite me except for that 50x magnification and massive 60mm bell (!).  That said, Sightron makes the same model with mil-dots, for a few bucks more.

These, so far, are my top seven choices.

(For those who are wondering “Where the Leupolds at?”  should know that the combination of illumination + >20x magnification puts most Leupolds outside the price range, as seen here and here, for example.  It’s a pity because I love the brand, but there ya go.  Ditto Nightforce here and here, also Leica;  and as for Swarovski… fergeddabahdit.)

All experiences with any of the above scopes, or any I may perhaps have missed, should be shared in Comments.