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Willy OAM (Matt) and History Legends (Alex) posted a video with a surprisignly deep discussion. I am dead serious about it: just about every other video like this is pure propaganda, shallow yapping. Not this one. Its main downside is the length: two hours and a half. I watched it a couple of times in chunks and in background. Naturally, I have a few comments.

The condition of victory: we are too late for recognition of Donbass now. All of the 4 new regions are officially recognized, so now Russians cannot back down until they re-take Kherson.

In addition, Ukrainian terrorism is a problem. If Zelensky or his successor is allowed to sign a piece accord, nothing will change. They will continue to drone the heck out of Russian civilians, assassinate (like Dasha Dugina), send bombs (like Kerch bridge). Just because of this, Russia cannot stop without a regime change anymore.

In February 2024, when Russian soldiers were in suburbs of Kiev, a possibility existed that the Kiev regime would take it seriously. Russian delegation said: knock this shit off, of this is what's going to happen, understand? When the West vetoed it (by executing a top negotiator as a warning to Zelensky), that possibility was closed off.

Corruption: Matt and Alex talk as if the corruption is endemic to Ukraine. But it's not the whole picture. Ukraine was the dedicated corruption statelet for EU for decades. It began when Kuchma was President. The corruption was fostered and promoted by EU and US, top down. From Hunter and Burisma down to the last border guard, the whole society is now fully corrupt. You need decades and a generation change to uproot it. The effort is comparable to what Italy is doing to uproot mafia in the south.

East Ukraine versus West Ukraine: I feel like I'm dragging this high-brow talk down by bringing it up, but there was a great Chad westerner and Virgin easterner meme. It went like this:

Chad western Banderite: Earns money by smuggling and selling stolen goods. Doesn't give a shit about laws, toppled the government on the maidan. Happily speaks his weird dialect with over 9000 Russisms. Dreamed of war against the moskal since the 90s. Ran away from his first battle, is alive. His hometown wasn't bombed. Stole humanitarian aid, bought a new apartment. Shot a child, said it was a saboteur, got away with it.

Virtin eastern Ukrainian: Works 9 to 5 or owns a small business. Followed the law, voted in elections. Learned literary Ukrainian, tortures himeself and his family with it. Didn't want the war, forced to shoug "akhmat sila" with face in the dirt. Fights Russians to the end, his body will never be buried. His hometown was destroyed in fighting. Humanitarian aid didn't come, again. Fired a T-90, hit a civilian home, the judge in Donetsk will setence him for genocide.

And for the coda: Virtin believes in a united Ukrainian people. Chad doesn't consider East Ukrainians to be Ukrainians, or human at all.

Now that I successfully injected shallow lewidness, check out the video. One extremely interesting theme in it was an over-arching one, and the one the duo didn't name explicitly, but discussed in some depth: how comes that Russia is winning, while they obviously have fewer men and fewer resources than Ukraine fully backed by NATO? Yes, the population of Ukraine is smaller, but they can mobilize a far greater ratio of it, because NATO produces everything they need. Russia has the concern of ruining the economy, but Ukraine has no such concern.

Alex in particular pointed out that there was no objective reason why this scenario of crushing NATO victory wasn't realized. It was purely a series of bad decision by Kiev, Zelensky, and NATO. We can speculate that it was largely driven by the debilitationg effects of pervasive corruption. Russia is winning because the enemy is fully corrupt. There is a lesson for America in this.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The chatter about sending NATO troops to Ukraine was about for months, but just like globohomo seeking a formula for a non-nuclear war with Russia, it took a while to find a suitable approach for the escalation. The latest rumored plan is to send NATO troops to the border of Belarus, freeing up a few more Ukrainians to die at the Russian front.

The question is, what is next?

A key corollary of The War to The Last Ukrainian was running out of Ukrainians eventually. Seems obvious in retrospect, but we are reaching the point a little sooner than expected.

As I wrote before, the globohomo plan was to throw another nation into the war next, and then another, and continue until all Russians and New Europeans are dead. And presumably then Africans are used to re-populate the land, although I'm not sure WEF gave the plan enough thought. We don't need to think about such a far away future either.

Sending Polaks to guard the border with Belarus is obvious next step. Inevitably, a stray missile will happen or other, and there you are: Poland is at war with Russia, while Brussels and D.C. remain on the sidelines, rub their hands, and cackle.

The point of view of RAND and defense of American interests did not prevail.

UPDATE: Did I call it or what (lol). Even a Russian "expert" can see it coming. Here's what I found in Russian language media — an article by one Evgeny Pozdnyakov quoting "Dr." of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov:

"This way, we are going to deal with slow and gradual dragging of individual European states into the war with Russia. The eastern countries of the region may become the first victims. In time, a risk exists of expanding the zone of the conflict westward. The core of the Washington's plan is to have states enter the conflict as independent actors, without forcing the aliance [NATO — zaitcev] to intervene".

The difference here is that he thinks that U.S. Government is calling the shots and makes the plan for the global war. But I consider the global transnational elite as a whole to be the motive force, and the U.S. Government merely a component of it, and only insomuch as it's captured by the globohomo. Theoretically specking, it's possible for the U.S. to refuse to participate and stick to its own interests. That is what RAND report called for. But the events showed that the capture of our government was too strong, so people who commissioned and produced RAND report did not get their way.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 03:34 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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In the past couple of years, when someone asked me how long I expected the war to continue, I answered that it's going to be very long, potentially about 20 years. I said that because the ruling globohomo[1] is extremely malignant, vindictive, and above all hungry for power. They cannot tolerate a formation of any alternative power centers, and having put Russia into a position of an adversary, they have no choice but to defeat it. Otherwise, the very foundations of their power will be shaken.

However, these motivations are not rational, and my assessement of them is founded on the general observations of the kind of people we have in power (such a Ted Cruz and Jake Sullivan). In addition, although U.S. is the backbone of globohomo's hard power, the country's interests are not in alignment with globohomo's interests. So, what if someone stopped to think what these interests were?

At the end of 2022, someone at RAND did just that, and produced a report, that takes about an hour or two to read. I am reluctant to quote just the conclusions, because the thinking from the position of American interests is very interesting. But surprisingly enough, the conclusion was that "... avoiding a long war is also a higher priority for the United States than facilitating significantly more Ukrainian territorial control."

A year after this report was written, we can see Ukraine running out of men[2]. My expecation was that once Ukraine is done, the globohomo will throw another nation into The War, most likely Poland. They will continue this until Russia is spent, was my thinking from the basics. They finally found a formula of waging a hot war with Russia without going nuclear, of course they will want to expoit it. But what if someone in American ruling circles were to listen to RAND? What if they can break free from globohomo and act in the American interests? Then the war would be over and I would be wrong.

Either way, read the report if you have the time.

[1] Obviously "globohomo" is an online slur. But it is apt, and the best approximation that the serious thinkers produced was The Global Transnational Elite. I'm going to continue using the slur in the absence of an alternative.

[2] Articles on the topic are dime a dozen today, but the one at WaPo was written before the failed counter-offensive of 2023. What an example of journalism.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have some significant concerns about these worrysome developments. And the adults seem not to care, which is one of the concerns.

I'll have to write on this topic later, but for now, let me capture something that Mark Felton said in a video:

The N.S.D.A.P. was essentially the party of right wing, nationalistic, lower middle class Germans (...). Adolf Hitler was from such a lower middle class background. So also Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and many of the other top leaders. And the lower middle class tastes and values permeated Nazi policy and the new society they sought to create.

Unfortunately, what Nazis offered to the disaffected was (national) socialism. The result is well known.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:12 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A couple of days ago, someone in India noticed that Russian mission started later than its Indian counterpart, but it's going to land first, because Indians chose an extremely long and involved trip path, taking 40 days instead of 10 days. With national prestige on the line, Hindustan Times made the following interesting claim:

To send Luna-25 to the moon, Russia is using Soyuz 2.1, which is a powerful rocket that can give the necessary thrust to the spacecraft to reach the moon’s surface, instead of having to wait in earth’s orbit.

The Indian space agency, which launched its craft on-board the Launch Vehicle Mark-3, earlier known as the GSLV MK3, has a far less fuel capacity and thrust. It also has limitations of the payload capacity.

However, anyone who knows anything about space rockets will immediately recognize that Indian LVM3 rocket is in fact about twice as big and powerful as Russian Soyuz-2. Its launch mass is about 650 t vs 320 t, and the GTO performance is about 4 t vs 2 t for Soyuz.

Leaving aside just how journalists get away with boldly posting such false claims, what went wrong? Why did a far more powerful Indian rocket underperform in this mission? The expert consensus answer is a combination of two factors: poor mission planning and architecture of LVM3.

Indian rocket is indeed very powerful, but calculations (not mine) show that it can only inject 2100 kg to a direct transfer orbit to the Moon. This happens because LVM3 is designed for comsats and uses a large 3rd stage, which ignites relatively early. For a Moon trip it contributes 3 km/s! Because of its size it is heavy, and that handicaps its performance in beyond-Earth missions.

Still, 2100 kg is more than mere 1750 kg that Soyuz-2 managed. However, Indians chose to split the mission into orbital and lander segments. The orbiter does pretty much nothing except providing a backup for communications, but it eats the mass budget. The mass of scientific instruments is about 30 kg on both missions, although 26 kg is taken by the rover in Indian case.

Of course, Indians will be the last to laugh if Luna-25 lands into a crater that precludes direct communication with the control station at Earth.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The resilience of Russian economy was a bit of a surprise to be sure [1], [2]. A year ago Russians found that no enterprise in the country made nails. Nails! It's not wonder that our experts expected the whole economy to unravel.

But on this topic, I'm concerned about something else: when Russians (re-)started production of previously imported goods, they received a product that is both of a better quality and cheaper than the one before. I know of at least 2 examples that are 100% not a fake news: cat food and bricks.

Leave the war aside for now and ask how this is possible. Why is it that the international trade and markets did not settle onto the best product. How did it stay unbeknownst to consumers, so that their cats only received better food when trade links were broken by force. My inner libertarian cries very much while seeking answers.

Something like this happened in America too. When Trump chose to focus on regulation and protectionism, a legion of experts expressed grave concern that he was about to damage the well-being of Americans by destroying our foreign trade. But the result was an incredible economic growth and the longest period between recessions ever.

Honestly I suspect that thanks to the sanctions, Putin's regime is experiencing a bit of unintentional Trumponomics. The global elites made him a favor by destroying some of the worst of rent-seeking, wealth transferring schemes that were burdening Russian economy. Oft evil shall evil mar and all that.

Keep in mind that sanctions absolutely work in targeted areas. For example, Russian space industry is hurting greatly. Their GPS system is in jeopardy, teetering on the brink of coverage gaps, while the launches of all-domestic satellites keep being postponed. I'm not arguing against sanctions (although I'm against the overuse and abuse of them). But there's certainly more to the story than just some kind of weird failure of the sanction regime to bring Putin to his knees - something that has a lot of import to our own lives in America.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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S: How is she still not in jail for sending undeclared medical goods via the postal service
X: > she :FeelsCringeMan:
J: because he fled the country
J: that's why he was in ireland
S: oh, that makes sense
N: what did szhxir do?
S: made homemade tranny hormone meds in a bathtub and shipped it to children via USPS or something
N: ...
S: and bragged about this fact on social media
N: I like how these people think they have absolute immunity from every possible consequence
S: then proceeded to get KiwiFarms nuked, IIRC
S: J probably knows the actual details
S: ya, you'd think giving children any sort of medicine without their parent's knowledge would be enough
S: but lul tranny privilege
J: are you asking about this SPECIFICALLY
J: or
J: this entire's troon history
J: which is
J: INSANE
J: and AFFECTED THE ENTIRE INTERNET
J: LIKE
J: THE INFRASTRUCTURE
J: OF THE INTERNET
J: IS FOREVER CHANGED
J: BEACUSE OF THIS TROON
N: might as well link the whole story
J: There is no full story
J: the media literally printed this fags story without question
J: I don't think anyone ever summarized it
J: but basically
J: him and another troon literally run a fucking grooming discord
J: and send bath hormone pills they made by cooking plastic bags to children
J: and kiwifarms documented the entire thing
J: beacuse they had people inside the discord
J: now keep in mind that kiwifarms is troon central too
J: so anyways
J: that fag has to flee america
J: and goes to ireland
J: because of this
J: and then he contacts the media and claims he had to flee america because kiwifarm people attacked him when he was putting groceries in his car
J: so
J: this troon starts a campaign to take down kiwifarms
J: that makes mainstream media
J: around the world
J: and reddit joins the cause
J: and they harass cloudflare
J: at first cloudflare says they don't take down content unless it's illegal
J: but after a full month of them getting harassed
J: they relent
J: so kiwifarms hops from DOS to DOS service
J: but the other services
J: couldn't stop the GIANT FUCKING DOS that was hitting kiwifarms
J: which was LITERALLY AFFECTING TIER 1 ISPs
J: because troons were buying chink botnets like candy
J: so Kiwifarms got kicked even from a russian service because it was affecting their business because only cloudflare can stop such huge attacks
J: so then
J: kiwifarms is literally like
J: "FUCK IT WE'LL MAKE OUR OWN DATACENTER WITH DOS PROTECTION WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS"
J: and they ACTUALLY SUCCEED
J: SO THEN
J: THE MEDIA AND TROONS
J: ASK TIER 1 NETWORK PROVIDORS
J: TO FUCK WITH KIWIFARMS ROUTING
J: AND AN AMERICAN ONE DID
J: WHICH IS
J: UNPRECEDENT
J: AND FUCKED UP
J: BECAUSE THEY DON'T EVEN DO THAT FOR PEDO SHIT
J: TIER 1 PROVIDORS NORMALLY NEVER INTERVENE
J: THEY'RE ALWAYS NEUTRAL NO MATTER WHAT
J: So this entire movement to take down kiwifarms finally dies down because reddit gets bored of it

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Beretta 80X, announced at this year's SHOT Show, apparently allows cocked-and-locked carry mechanically. However, the manual says not to do it:

IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO FIRE
Engage the thumb safety by rotating the safety lever with a fully upward thumb pressure, so as to cover the red warning dot (the red dot is visible when the thumb safety is disengaged), causing the hammer to decock and rest on the hammer stop.

 

And in red font:

WARNING: Always ensure that the safety is fully engaged until ready to fire. A safety is fully engaged only when the safety can move no further into the safe position. A safety which is not fully engaged will not prevent weapon discharge.

The disparity between the reality and the manual created a certain confusion and controversy.

Here's what a former R&D engineer, now a program manager at Beretta, wrote about it at PF:

As a TDA shooter and a Beretta employee talking about an Italian product (aka the European team wrote the manual with their legal counsel, and they are very safety-minded), I must insist on the decocked position for carry.

That said, technically speaking, the safety has been redesigned from the old gun, and that middle position is an intentional step with an active trigger disconnect, and this gun does have a firing pin block... Do with that information what you will...

Now, I'd really truly strongly recommend each shooter evaluate the safety detent strength and holster coverage before making any CCW decisions, and note our DA pull on that gun is easily in the 5.5# range. That extra length/trigger feedback in the first pull as a 'are you sure you want to put a hole in this?' is a major benefit of the TDA systems for bump in the night, while the modern lightweight pull isn't hurting your accuracy or slowing you down if you're positive that trigger needs to get pulled.

Personally, when I get mine, I'll be carrying mine in the same condition as I carry my PX4 Compact Carry.

Naturally, he had to recant soon thereafter. Users soon found that it was possible to make the gun fire in the "false safety" condition by pulling the trigger several times, or pulling it sideways forcefully.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 06:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Quoting from May 25, 1999:

"Question (Norwegian News Agency): I am sorry Jamie but if you say that the [Serbian] Army has a lot of back-up generators, why are you depriving 70% of the country of not only electricity, but also water supply, if he has so much back-up electricity that he can use because you say you are only targeting military targets?

"Jamie Shea: Yes, I'm afraid electricity also drives command and control systems. If President Milosevic really wants all of his population to have water and electricity all he has to do is accept NATO's five conditions and we will stop this campaign. But as long as he doesn't do so we will continue to attack those targets which provide the electricity for his armed forces. If that has civilian consequences, it's for him to deal with but that water, that electricity is turned back on for the people of Serbia."

Heh.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Received a message from a friend yesterday. He's a CP, IR, CFI: the usual for a serious hobby pilot with IT background (he's a fairly normal sysadmin - Cisco etc.)[2]. But on the side, he flew a Caravan for Martinaire for 4 months or so, and a King Air for a jump outfit a bit on weekends. And now, he accepted a job at an airline. Part 121, not a quasi-airline like Boutique.

He's going to spend a week typing in ATR 76, then a month or so in Florida getting ATP. As soon as he passes the checkride, he's getting into the right seat. The airline pays for everything.

All these years, the media kept making stories about "pilot shortage". And it always was bollocks. So I tuned it out this time around too, but things look different now.

I mentioned this to my wife. She said that she saw an interview with an airline CEO (I don't watch TV, but she does). The exec said something to the effect that, for decades, they sent people to furlough, then recalled them, and pilots always trundled obediently back. But not this time. They aren't returning, thus making the 2022 pilot shortage real.

If she told me before I heard from my friend, I'd think the exec was lying as usual.

Maybe some people don't want to ruin their health by getting jabbed with a dangerous non-vaccine, and the pay no longer makes ruining one's health worth it, even at majors. I dunno, that could be a factor. But it cannot explain the entire amount of pilots not returning from the 2020 furloughs.

[2] For comparison, I have PP with 700 hours, no IR.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:29 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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As published at the official website of Austalian Foreign Ministry:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by a widespread disinformation campaign, both within Russia and internationally. Tragically for Russia, President Putin has shut down independent voices and locked everyday Russians into a world characterised by lies and disinformation.

The addition of sanctions on those responsible for this insidious tactic recognises the powerful impact that disinformation and propaganda can have in conflict.

The Australian Government is sanctioning 10 people of strategic interest to Russia for their role in encouraging hostility towards Ukraine and promoting pro-Kremlin propaganda to legitimise Russia’s invasion.

This includes driving and disseminating false narratives about the "de-Nazification” of Ukraine, making erroneous allegations of genocide against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, and promoting the recognition of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic as independent.

The Australian Government continues to work with digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to take action to suspend the dissemination of content generated by Russian state media within Australia. [...]

So there you go. It's only 10 people now, but you never know where this is going to end, and at what moment saying anything not approved will become punishable in Australia.

Some are already taking sides. Pixy was trawling Instapundit comments, shitposting for Ukraine and globohomo. That is a serious problem for certain Meenuvia residents.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:42 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The hickory continues growing and reached about 4 ft in the 2021 season. Unfortunately, the leaves look a little diseased. Apparently it's about normal in Texas, which is unfortunate.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I lived in three free-standing houses with attached garages in the U.S., and all three had the same design feature: the door from garage opened into laundry, which then connected to the rest of the house, typically into kitchen area.

But why? Isn't garage supposed to be dirty while laundry is supposed to be clean?

There must be a very good reason why Americans build their houses that way. But although I am curious about that reason, at this time it's no longer important, because I moved the door from position G1 to position G2 in the picture.

This allows to disrobe in the mud room upon arrival by automobile. Also, it permits causal access to garage without intruding into the laundry area. It's way more convenient, no matter how you look at it.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The question of flying a light, personal airplane in a helmet comes up once in a while. As it happens, I have some experience, which I'm going to outline as bullet points for future reference.

Pro:

• You do not need sunglasses and your headset cups always contact your skull properly. You do not need to buy super expensive flying sunglasses with thin temples.
• Your chance of head injury is decreased in certain types of crashes (funnily enough I tested that by experience when I flipped the Carlson and smacked the runway with my head). This is particularly welcome by solo backcountry guys.
• You can fly airplanes with no interior padding in turbulence, like Cessna 162, where I bloodied my head quite well before the helmet times.
• You know who of your fellow pilots are dumb and not to be trusted when they try to make pitiful, inept jokes regarding the matter about which they know nothing.
• You never need to lift your glasses in order to look at backlit LCD displays in the panel. Just glance under the visor. So comfy. This only came about as iPads and the like proliferated. Obviously you can see the steam gauges through eyeglasses.

Cons:

• Not all headphones are compatible with helmets, so you choice of modern ANR headsets is limited.
• Either you carry an additional piece of luggage, or your flight bag is enormous with a separate compartment. This was always a sticking point for me more than anything, especially on ferry flights where you travel commercial with that helmet. Remember that you have to protect the visor and you don't want to check it in.
• If you're tall, you run a risk of scratching canopies in many low wing GA airplanes.

As far as the choice of the helmet, Gentec is designed to save your head when you punch out of F-22. A Gallet helment is more appropriate, I think. But personally, I fly in David Clark K-10, because it's cheap.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over the years of my career, I noticed one funny coincidence. If a company reject me, they are going to fall on hard times. If a company extends me an offer of employment, they are going to prosper.

On the success side:

• MCST (although struggling, it still exists)
• Red Hat (purchased by IBM after a long run of success)
• 3PAR (the only of its generation of storage start-ups, alongside Zambeel, etc., who reached the product phase and exited to acquisition; still exists!)
• Metabyte, of course.

On the failure side:

• Sun Microsystems (4 rejections, too: I pecked at them until they died)
• Transmeta (3 rejections)
• Zambeel (forgot about them until today)
• NUVIA (they actually exited into acquisition, but an ignominious one)
• And finally, Igneous (they were tough; took the curse 4 years to kill them)

Note that my score is not perfect: OVH is still around. Although perhaps it takes a little time, I interviewed for them only a couple of years ago.

Also note that the rejecting companies do not fail because my great capabilities were not employed. As long as they decide to hire me, it is all good, even if I decline. It's the curse of rejection.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:01 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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When I started the .380 ACP Death Watch series, I wrote:

... the fate of .380 hangs upon an introduction of a small gun with 10 or 11 round capacity. It must be well designed and be of high quality. And it likely needs to be made by a top-tier brand, and be striker fired (until the LCP II appeared, this last point was a must, but I'm not as sure anymore).

The promise of P365 380 by SIG only that, a promise thus far: the gun is not yet on the market. In addition, a re-chambering of a 9mm gun is a poor palliative, not enough to arrest the decline of the cartridge.

But never fear, Ruger is on it! The new LCP MAX is already in the hands of reviewers. And it's a true .380 gun.

I'm most happy to see decent sights on it. After the poor capacity, the milled-in sights were the second biggest show-stopper for me.

Glock, where is my G42X? Late to the party as usual?

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 03:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I matched the leaves against pictures in a reference book, and found that the plant in question is not a pecan, but a Black Hickory. This is immensely disappointing, because its nuts are not edible, at least not easily. They do look totally like pecans from the outside, and the plant was growing from a nut, so I took it for a pecan.

I'm going to continue to refer to it as "pecan" for the sake of continuity.

Update: Pecan 5.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 05:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A woman and I went to raid a rental counter of a local range.

My impressions:

• G43X is very large. Very, very large. The grip has a swell, which is absolutely unnecessary. Recoil is surprisingly noticeable.
• P238 works well, but 6 round mags only is a pain. I am unable to disengage the safety with the knuckle like on 1911. I can do it by transfering the thumb on the other side, but that is asking to drop the gun and takes time.
• P365 is nice (finally shot one with a short mag).
• Shield Plus is not bad, but for some reason on the rental unit the slide stop does not disengage when slide is pulled and must be clicked down. WTF. The safety is nasty, better not use it.
• Hellcat feels blocky like old Glock, not nice at all. Recoil is unexpectedly uncomfortable. Sights are so-so: the gun is mechanically accurate, but the prevalence of white hinders the acquisition of sight picture.

Woman's impressions (she has hand issues):

• G34X hurts the trigger finger
• P365 hurts the wrist
• P238 is very nice, almost no recoil, cute. Failed to go into battery once - could be rental springs. Hard to see sights, dots dominate.
• Hellcat is unimpressive
• Shield Plus is the best.

Our old eyes have trouble with sights on many of these guns.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 12:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The decline of .380 was touched upon at this blog previously, but compared to certain other cartridges it remains positively mainstream. Here's how I commented in a THR forum thread:

Whilst I haven't done an exhaustive search, it would appear that the panic buying has resulted in the disappearance of .357 Sig pistols from the market place.

Who bought them? Was it first time gun owners, desperate for some kind of handgun, who didn't know what they were getting or didn't care? Or was it existing gun owners looking to expand their horizons regarding ammo availability?

Both.

Remember that in the past ammo shortages it was a coping strategy to rely on boutique calibers to carry one over while 9mm was gone from the shelves. So, experienced people who expected this shortage to be like the ones before, bought boutique caliber handguns with an expectation of the ammunition remaining available. They were wrong, but they had no way to know and their experience played against them.

The novices bought them too. They bought everything. I remember there was a period when a number of people asked in online forums "I see this great deal on Walther Creed, should I get it?" (and many more just picked it before asking). But that is a gun that ceased production in 2016! Clearly, Walther saw a chance to release their remaining stocks of Creed at bargain prices. Beginners snapped those Creeds. And they snapped the .357 guns.

And I'm sure some remembered that Jack Wilson used a P229 in .357.

And if all these .357 Sig have been purchased, what does that mean for the future of the cartridge? Will it be one more mainstream, resulting in high production rates of ammo? Or will these guns just sit on shelves in closets, or the back of gun safes once everything calms down again?

The latter.

The fundamental problems of .357 SIG haven't gone anywhere. This is how Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner put it:

"I was reading an article published back in the Fall of 2000 by Dr. Gary Roberts, who is probably the most well-known wound ballistics researcher active today. He was sharing the results of a .357 Sig gelatin test he performed at the California Highway Patrol Academy range. This was printed in the Wound Ballistics Review, which was a scientific journal intended for hardcore ballistics nerds, so it tends to be pretty dry and technical most of the time. But at the end of this one article, Dr. Roberts breaks into editorial mode and he says,

""Compared to a 9mm, the .357 Sig has a decreased magazine capacity, more recoil, as well as greater muzzle blast and flash, yet at best it offers no gain in bullet penetration and expansion characteristics. What is the point of this cartridge?”"

Emphasis mine. Copied from transcript of a August 2018 video.

This isn't a thread about .357 Sig vs [insert cartridge], but a general musing on how increased sales of one of the least popular service cartridges might affect its future.

The .357 is already dead. Of course, it will stay around like 7.62 Tokarev, but I do not see it staging a comeback like the 5.7 did. Fundamentally there's nothing good about it, only drawbacks, so it will remain "a hot round for cool dudes", to borrow from LifeSizePotato.

But it's interesting to watch the struggle of .380 Auto. That cartridge has peaked around 2016, when about 25% of new guns sold were in that caliber. Its share declined since and was at 17% before the pan-de-nic. I expected that the strain on manufacturers, who struggle to meet the demand for 9mm guns would crush it completely. But then, after the pandemic started to wane, SIG introduced P365 in .380. Isn't it interesting?

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There is a regulatory dispute between Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Elon Musk's SpaceX going on, concerning the orbits of SpaceX StarLink communication satellites. SpaceX filed a petition for more orbits, such as the top altitude is 570 km, coming close to those reserved for Amazon's Project Kupier at 590 km.

This is the third time that I remember Bezos finding issues with Musk in space. The other two were the patent for landing a rocket at sea and the dispute over the lease of KSC Launch Complex 39A from NASA.

A common theme in all three disputes is an attempt by Bezos to lay claims far ahead of the delivery, while Musk was actually doing something that Bezos only plans to do in the indefinite future. StarLink satellites already provide service to subscribers, but Kupier satellites aren't even launched yet. American astronauts launch from LC-39A in SpaceX Dragon, when Beaos' rocket is not even built. And, not being built, it obviously had no chance to land at a ship, while Musk does that all the time.

At a certain point, general public is going to start noticing a pattern.

UPDATE 2021-04-29: Bezos loses to Musk again and protests regarding NASA awarding SpaceX a contract for HLS.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:13 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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