Toxn

As X pointed out, early firearms were developed from early cannon. Wrapped barrels might have been seen in hand cannon, but arquebus were well past that. It should not be forgotten that even the shittiest black powder firearm provides an huge amount more velocity than even the best muscle-powered weapon (200m/s vs 50m/s). They consequently provide an order of magnitude more penetration. What doesn't get mentioned is that the plate was proofed against pistols and lighter pieces. A full-bore musket, on the other hand (up to 20mm bore, barrel up to 1.5m long) was not going to be stopped by anything that a normal person could wear. This meant that proofing was essentially a combination of QC and marketing baffle. This is why it pains me endlessly to see games wallow in pseudo-medieval nonsense. Can you imagine how much more awesome RPGs would be if they rolled with 15th to 17th century instead of endlessly recreating the 11th to the 13th? This is also the reason why African arms and armour of the 18th and 19th century is so interesting.

I might be able to help as well (family-in-law over there) but it would take a while.

Firearms, even terrible ones, are better because: - low skill requirements - loud and flashy - impressive terminal effects The first successful homemade musket I made took a wooden shield that had successfully withstood dozens of arrows and spears and shoved a roofing nail though it so hard that it was irreversibly pinned to the tree behind it. Even more impressive, this was after punching through a 2mm steel plate in front. If I had been a prospective customer weighing up this new-fangled gun thing, you can bet on that demonstration being persuasive.

Relevant.

Living in a country where high-poundage, long-draw bows never developed, I have come to realise that wood quality is hella important to bow making. We just don't have anything that is well suited to developing long bows and recurves*, so it never happened. Hell, I still don't have access to anything better than balau (and even this in limited quantities) and so my bow making career has been an endless series of failures. I suspect the Pacific Northwest (which, from what I hear, is infested by pines) may have suffered from something similar. While I am dispensing wisdom, I have also come to realise that bows are a ridiculously unintuitive invention. The idea of careful tillering and working, without which your bent stick will last about 10 shots before breaking and hitting you in the nuts, is just not that obvious a step. Bows are hard, basically. * Without having access to a sawmill

But Colli, this is the TERRIBLE music thread. And E6 are anything but terrible...

Proper socketed arrowheads are a pain to produce without an anvil horn, btw. edit: all the metal native American arrow heads I could find references to are non socketed.

I think you managed to take this way more seriously than either the writer of I did. Plus, I don't see libertarians as being over-fond of justice as a concept.

Already linked the first For what it's worth, long arrows are a great solution for archer's paradox, energy retention and wind shear. The fact that they keep getting reinvented again and again should say something. As should the fact that Western-style archery and bowhunting seems unable to break out of the mold of small, light arrows which then suffer from low terminal effectiveness.

Throwing away humour for a minute (ever the last defence against despair), I have seen and worked in bureaucratic cultures which positively reward dysfunction. Which is why the analysis of this terrible incident is so interesting (and depressing). I mean, the system worked (sort of, eventually) in finding and punishing the people who actually did the crime. But it also punished the people trying to uncover it, and rewarded the people who most directly enabled it. So, what can you take away from this? That the best you can hope for is that things kind or work? Or that bureaucracies always protect the people at the top, making justice into a mockery where the people at the bottom suffer no matter what path they choose? Or that large enough organisations will, by simple statistics, produce a niche where their worst tendencies can be expressed? There's a lot to process here.

That they occasionally allow browbeating incompetents to enable rape-murder sprees?

Like all truly great lefty intellibabble, there are a few gems hidden among the dross and verbiage. Capitalism, for instance, is a system that can only function on difference. Once we have built our tech base to as far as we can currently take it (see: decelerando), how is international capitalism supposed to work? Opening up the solar system is one of the few ways left. Hence, any drive to open up the solar system should be resisted by dedicated communists so long as capitalism exists.

Apparently the VT fuzes were incredible works of engineering - the sort of thing that only comes from really good minds being applied to a difficult task using cutting-edge tech.

I personally suspect that it's closer to 5:5, but it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's just sort of fascinating to me.

Those I can make. A well-made Mongolian recurve, however, has always eluded me.

I forget how dense Uranium is...

Tell that to every sensor-fused shell ever. I am not entirely ignorant of this. Due to the ammo, or due to problems with the gun? Again, I'm sort of amazed that nobody seems to have put this one together. For one thing, having an electronically unlocked action would instantly solve a bunch of issues with using blowback actions on larger calibres (you could set the unlock delay to release the bolt whenever the pressure has dropped to safe levels). For another, the use of a common power supply would tremendously simplify the addition of sights, lasers, torches, cameras, ballistic computers and what-not. You don't even have to rely on a battery: just make part of the breech out of something magnetic and run the action over a coil for self-recharge. Finally, going for a common electrical system gets you closer to implementing ECT propellants, which are one of the few viable means of increasing velocity that don't involve eroded rails and wrestling with magnetic saturation.

God I want that bow...

I just wonder at how mechanical guns are, to the point that asking about the possibility of an electronic gun gets me blank stares. I would have thought that an electronically locked, electronically fired and electronically secured gun would be pretty trivial to make, but can't find even a test example.

Mix it with cornmeal, coat it in taco spice and deep fry it...

My wife has mentioned that one of the more unpleasant aspects of horse ownership is sheath cleaning. That, along with detailed descriptions of the use of phantom mare and an explanation for why mares in season need to have their tails tied back, makes me think that it's probably a good thing that parents generally don't know much about horses when they send their little diddums to riding school. As for the invention, maybe it's to prevent unwanted mounting when teasing a mare? It's still fucking stupid, but at least that's a use.

I think you mean PROGRESS

This thread is dedicated to the knowledge you have acquired, and how it has enhanced your inner life. For example, studying evolution and population genetics has done approximately nothing to increase my employability. But the understanding I've gained has been invaluable in positioning my life and works within the grand sweep of the universe. Knowing in your heart that you are a minute spec in an infinite, uncaring cosmos. Knowing that this body you occupy is in some sense a fleeting vessel for ageless genes, quick to be discarded and renewed. And knowing that life itself represents something like a cosmic rebellion against the great plan of the universe: a little trickle of increasing order in an ocean of unwinding entropy. These are thoughts that can change your perspective about life; its successes, failures, goals, ends, means, triumphs and tragedies. Please share with us what you have learned about beauty, and what you have felt about truth.

I'll stand by any outbred animal, no matter how ridiculous, over an inbred one. Your mutt will at least have a good chance of living a longer, healthier life than its parents.

And yet we tend to want to argue when our emotions are touched by a topic... I'm going to second the call for proof of some sort to back up assertions (unless you are explicitly providing something as a personal opinion and therefore expecting it to carry no persuasive value), but will also call to extend this approach to the wider discourse. We should not be afraid to have our ideas and assertions tested by others: only bad ideas fail when they get hammered on a bit. We should also try to be patient with each other. It can take a lot of effort to understand a position you do not agree with, because our ape brains seem to be wired to think that understanding an idea is the same as endorsing it. I'm inviting Zin to have another go, here. And not just because I've made some of the same arguments myself