Donward

Wow. For a state that is so lovely, California is terrible. There are occasional burn bans in Seattle and we get bad air in the summer and always a few weeks in the dead of winter where we have some still, dead days. But I live far enough out in the country where that doesn't matter.

I forgot the nonsense about the Boers. Not having enough/good enough equipment was hardly the reason why the Brits fared so poorly.

Wood stove baby. Up here in the Pacific Northwest wood can be had for free if you have a truck and don't mind a little exercise. I am sitting here with the fire crackling, sipping Trader Joes tea and eating peanut brittle. (Another couple weeks until we get Internet though. On the IPhone).

The American artillery was still using black powder. The US was lucky that they were facing a third-rate colonial power like the Spanish coupled with troopers who were grown children/had high morale. And again, I can't remember if the smoke complaint was just about the arty or all weaponry. (My apologies) Teddy Roosevelt's rather self-important (but still useful) account of the campaign is particularly damning about most of the US military's equipment and tactics. Being a "veteran" account there's also the grass is greener aspect.

By all, I meant generally the artillery - which the Americans just happened to bring along - although I thought the "smokeless" Krag ammo was "smokier" than the Spanish. Again, working from the Mark 1 Memory Nugget.

Also the author advocates going out and shooting something with a brain attached. That rules out using the author as a ballistics test dummy. It also seems he's one of those "I was a soldier/marine therefore my opinion counts more" types. By that logic, JM Browning, John Pedersen, John Garand and "Carbine" Williams had no business designing firearms since they were nothing more than geeks with slide rules.

Clearly the Stg44 is the perfect example of a rifle being developed with zero interference from politicians.

I have yet to see anything disproving my Insane Clown Posse theory of "Miracles". They happen every day you know.

Also I like the bit about how the Rough Riders woulda lost if it weren't for the artillery and Gatlings... As if all modern battles aren't won by artillery and crew-served weapons. And - I'm working from memory since my library is a shambles and is in packing boxes spread across three seperate geographic locations - I distinctly recall TR complaining about how outclassed American artillery was in Cuba.

That's funny because if we go by veteran accounts - the guys who were there - they were more worried about the old Rolling-block Remingtons whose slow moving, high caliber rounds caused more grevious injuries. The 7mm Mausers were seen to over penetrate causing small through-and-through wounds. The thing that impressed the Americans was the use of smokeless powder with all the Spaniard's modern weapons.

9/10. Better than most of Ray Bradbury's work. Would assign to gauche seventh graders to do book report on. Needs more Martians.

Got through reading "Decision in Normandy" by Carlo D'Este. Of its 500 pages, 450 seem devoted to debunking Monte's efforts at Caen and the Field Marshall's claims that he always intended the British left flank to act as a shield while the Americans pivoted. For fun, I then read William Forstchen's "Rally Cry", book one in the Lost Regiment series where a Union Civil War regimented is transported to SB alien world with 10-foot tall aliens that ride horses like mongol warriors and feed on humans. At the moment I am flipping through a 1960 Paperback called "Invasion (Swastika in title) They're Coming" by Paul Carell and purports to tell the D-Day Invasion through the eyes of the enemy. For the first time!

That's a pretty poor Earned Run Average which approaches Texas Rangers levels of ineptitude.

For having good graphics I am dismayed at how poorly designed the game play is. The worst is the lack of ground friction (whatever the technicall term is) of tank driving. It feels like I'm driving a skateboard in an 8-bit Nintendo game.

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*Cue Rambo* "Nothing is over!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7VZ1IflkWCY

I've only played Wart Chunder in the arcade scenario. Whether it's planes or tanks, the games feel like you're wandering around aimlessly and whether the game is won or lost is completely random and outside of your control.

Yeah. When he starts out by extolling the 6.5 Arisaka right off the bat - I own one and actually LIKE the action - he loses a lot of credibility. I like the current "golf bag" approach. But I'm a Mark 1 civilian and am used to having one gun that does - more or less - one job.

One of my buddies is literally a rocket scientist who works at one of the local aerospace subcontractors that build a lot of the propulsion systems used by NASA and the military. I can't wait to pick his brain about these events.

The Vikings in Greenland were pretty much the outcasts of the outcasts. I knew I should have written down the author of the Greenland Vikings book I read fishing this summer. He was a Canadian that tracked down the likely landfalls of the Norse in Vinland in the 1960s. But the author did not paint a flattering picture of the fighting prowess of the Vikings in America.

Out here we have Hanford and the Downwinders. Which would be a good name for a garage/punk band.

30-30 lever action bestest gun. 45-70 also good. If the second number denotes the grains of black powder needed to propel the projectile, it will do. That is all.