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Monday Links – Again
At least until I get some new Monday Fiction to put here, I’m probably going to use the Monday slot for links I’ve picked up that I find amusing.
First, from Reason comes an article on Japan reopening nuke plants. Per Ronald Bailey: “Japan is over its anti-nuclear Fukushima freak out. The rest of the world should get over it and build more nuclear too.”
From The Firearms Blog comes an article on Hillsborough County is arming its SRO’s with B&T APC9 subguns. Not that I’m against SRO’s having subguns, but I have to wonder if the choice was influenced by the fact that B&T’s import arm is based in Tampa.
Three items in the history files:
First, it looks like Genghis Khan’s tomb may have been found.
Second, last week was the thirtieth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew wreaking havoc across South Florida. Probably the lasting legacy of the storm: “In 1992, Hudgison says there were over 400 different building codes in the state but because of Hurricane Andrew, there’s now one uniformed code for Florida.”
Finally, from the Mises Institute comes an article on Malcolm McLean, the man credited with the innovation of the cargo container. I’ll admit that I have a fondness for those unsung inventors and entrepreneurs who develop the things we take for granted, but are the backbone of our modern world. Like cargo containers.
Finally, a couple of military tech items:
First, Lock-Mart says it’s delivered a laser weapon to the Navy for mounting on warships. The Navy has stated for a while it’s trying to get away from explosive propellant cannon and guns. Considering the danger to the ships, I can’t say I blame them. This may be the first step for that.
Second, part of the weapons the American government are sending to Ukraine include a vehicle-mounted weapons system. It includes a four-barrel rocket launcher and sensor turret. Instant technical, just add Toyota Hilux.
Friday Quote – Jean-Francois Revel
Utopia is not under the slightest obligation to produce results. Its sole function is to allow its devotees to condemn what exists in the name of what does not.
Derek’s Mildly Useful Reviews – Peaky Blinders and Reacher
The Wife, MIL, and I watch a show while we eat a meal. Mostly dinner, but sometimes over a weekend breakfast. Sometimes, we will end up binging a show we planned to watch more slowly. Two of the more recent shows were Peaky Blinders on Netflix and Reacher on Amazon Prime.
Peaky Blinders starts as a gangster show about a family of gypsy street gangsters and their rise in post-WWI Birmingham England. The first four seasons are solid gangster crime heist type shows. Smart writing, interesting characters, twisty plots. Soundtrack is solid, but not period. The fifth and sixth seasons were good, but the writers were infected with a common need to prove their correctness. All of the sudden, the gangsters are fighting fascists with the communists in late twenties Britain. It felt very much like they were taking modern issues and loosely draping history. And it felt a bit preachy. Which is not what I wanted. The rest of the story was at least interesting. Would I still recommend the show (including the last two seasons)? Hell yes.
Reacher, by contrast, was great popcorn fun television. Amusing characters and dialogue, but heavily driven with action and a kind of tropey plot and atrocious tactics/gun handling/fight physics. I think The Wife got tired of me yelling at the screen. She also learned what it meant to “rat-fuck a body”. You know it was good when what should have been a week’s or so worth of viewing ended up being watched over a weekend.
When Massad Ayoob Talks…
I listen hard. Particularly about how to choose an attorney to keep my ass out of jail after a self-defense incident.
Monday Link Time
First, just in time to celebrate the feds for passing their crony corporatism for the semiconductor sector, comes this article from Bloomberg about a coming bust in that sector. The semiconductor market enjoyed a massive run-up in orders during the pandemic, sending sales and stock prices to new highs and triggering a global scramble to find enough supplies. There was hope in some circles that the boom could be sustained for several more years without a painful pullback, but chipmakers are now facing a familiar problem: growing inventory and shrinking demand. [Snip] But fortunes have turned swiftly for the biggest chipmakers. Companies like Nvidia Corp. are reporting more that 40% annual declines in their core businesses, while Micron Technology Inc. warns that demand is evaporating fast in many areas. Well, this feels familiar. Particularly those of us who have watched the boom and bust cycles in the firearms industry.
The joke was that the lamentations of enlisted soldiers who couldn’t poorly spend their enlistment bonuses or sign up for bad loans on Dodge Chargers and Challengers, because the automaker is discontinuing them. Dodge will be putting an end to its iconic Charger and Challenger lineup real soon as the company teases a new era of mystery cars to come. The electrified future is slowly creeping into Dodge’s ICE-ladened inventory. It sounds like the lamentations will be short-lived as the young men will have electric versions to make bad decisions about.
At least, it will be cheaper in the future to hear better as the FDA approves OTC hearing aids. Come October, instead of being forced to visit an audiologist and shelling out thousands of dollars for the added expense, hearing aid users will be able to purchase FDA-certified hearing aids from any major retailer like Amazon, Walmart or Best Buy without needing a prescription. IMO, we will see some good, generic hearing aids, but the best will still require special testing and fitting. Kind of like electronic ear pro we have now.
In the life-saving category, we have an article from Active Response Training on the best tourniquets. You really need to RTWT. And take a Stop The Bleed course. And don’t cheap out on your tourniquets.
Finally, our light item (courtesy of The Brother) is on the proper method of peeling off Post-It Notes. The article is amusing, but the TLDR is peel side to side, not down to up.
Friday Quote – Tom Givens
Neither your understanding nor your consent are needed for someone to change your life drastically, or end it.
Very Interesting Concept
When I saw this pop up on my YouTube feed, my first thought was “hey, that looks like my Bren.” Then, as Ian explained the concept behind the rifle, I was very intrigued. I’m not going to be in the market for a new rifle for a long while, but I do like when people try out new ideas. Even if it’s how to use existing stuff in new ways.
Downsizing – Vehicle Edition
Since The Wife and I are both teleworkers, we’ve been discussing going down to one vehicle. Mostly, that has been discussing of if we should sell/give my Xterra and just keep her CRV. Part of the issue is that I really didn’t want to give up the Xterra. Yet, we kept asking ourselves the question of why we were still holding on to it.
A couple of weekends ago, just out of curiosity, I looked up the values of both cars. That changed the conversation. Her Honda was worth almost as much as we paid for it. We discussed it more over dinner. Could we just sell both cars and get one we both really wanted?
We looked at a bunch of cars in our new “price range” and tentatively agreed on a Subaru Forester. The Wife started calling around. No one around us had new ones, and used ones were sparse on the ground. We did test drive one just to make sure that the Forester was at least comfortable to drive. The salesperson was clear that if we wanted one in the pipeline, it would be a month – maybe six weeks. Two to three months minimum if we wanted to order one. We looked at the used ones on the lot. The price difference was about two grand between the new ones in the pipeline and the used ones on the lot. And the used ones were 2019’s. Plus, the salesperson was kind of a dick.
We left talking about what should we do. Then we found a dealership with new ones in stock. There was just one small issue. It was about an hour and a half north of us. Still, they had the ones we wanted in stock. After work, we convoyed up.
We really liked the Forester we saw. Test drive confirmed we really liked it. The price was really at the top end of what we were willing to pay. The salesperson showed us a model that had just come in. I liked the green color, the fact that it had almost all of the same features, and was less expensive. We started running the numbers. Then it seemed to take a while. A lot longer than it should have. Finally, the salesperson comes over with a sheepish look on his face. It seems the green one was supposed to be in the loaner program and wasn’t even supposed to be on the floor. So, we were back to original car. Still doable.
After a long wait and some initial paperwork, we’re off to the Financing Lady. She explains that some of the long wait was due to The Wife missing a word on the address on her license (something we get to correct) and they can’t seem to spell my first name correctly. Then, she proceeds to inform us of a couple of items she discovered when going through our files. Since we were buying from the same chain that sold us The Wife’s Honda, the Financing Lady found out we were due money back from a maintenance contract and other items. Did we mind that she put all of that towards the down payment? Um, no. That was very helpful. We start signing. I comment on the picture of her cats on her file cabinet. This led to an ongoing conversation between The Wife and the Financing Lady about how to take care of kitties. As we were nearing completion, the Financing Lady asked if we brought in the Xterra. Yes, we did. How does it run? Pretty good, why? It seems the Financing Lady is looking for something like that. I’m pretty sure that my old Xterra won’t even hit the market.
By the end, it was nearing 11 at night, and we still had better than an hour drive home. We were all smiles as we drove it back home.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now a single car family. And that car is hereby designated the Ward Wagon!