Wiki Economics

Of interest:
Britain's Three-Day Week
Keynes' Bancor proposal...
...which lost out to the Bretton Woods system

Reverse-Ogive

Talk about a weird bullet profile.

Crypto Edu

I can't even remember where I got this from...but it's an educational link on crypto.

Log Books

This is kind of a link dump because it's been in my reader for a while and I need to cut down on tabs.

I have a Moleskine notebook that I got for recording data for one rifle in particular, and wasn't sure what I should log in it.  In my search for info, one useful forum thread popped up on PAFOA.

From the OP:

The data log for a given shooting session would include altitude, temperature, air density, date, time, wind speed and direction, the ammunition specs, number of rounds fired for the barrel used, point of aim, point of impact, range, group sizes, round count, scope elevation needed, windage adjustments, departure angle, light direction, etc.

Additional comments:

If you are reloading I would keep track of your load data, and so you can see how it performs differently at different temperatures and pressures, etc. You mentioend keeping track of air density, but you might also want to keep track of barometric pressure, they are actually slightly different, but both do increase and decrease in a similar fashion. I would also keep track of my throat length in the chamber in the log book (just whenever you measure it, not every page), so you can adjust the seating depth of your loads, etc as you need to. I know alot of shooters like to keep track of how they "feel" as well; like if they're tired, nervous, stressed, had too much caffeine, need a cigarette, etc, cold, etc.

He also noted cold-bore data should be logged if making that first shot is an objective.

AXTS Lower

Via the Defense Review blog, I found this bad-ass fully ambidextrous lower receiver from AXTS Weapons Systems.  The pattern above the mag-well goes well with those PMAGs....  The downside is that this lower only comes fully assembled.  The A-DAC-F is their stripped lower alternative, but it's not built the same.

Diatomeceous Earth

Funky.  It's interesting that this can be mixed with food to be preserved as an insecticide.

7.62x25 Stuff

Found a company selling gas-operated 7.62x25mm AR-15 uppers for $800.  Interesting that they're shooting corrosive ammo through it.

Also found a ballistic test of a 7.62x25mm round against a Type 2 Kevlar vest in front of a block of ballistic gelatin.  The bullet won.

RTAmerica Video

Featuring clips of Vanderboegh and Codrea, from the latter's GRE column.

I wish that the first guy interviewed had a better definition for tyranny, like the "where the people fear the government" one.

Minnesota Appleseed

On the Appleseed forums, there's a Minnesota-specific area, which has a list of Minnesota riflemen and after-action reports for shoots.  There's an AAR for the April 2011 Rochester shoot.

Also, there's an instructor selling Tech-SIGHTS on the forums.

Past history: AARs for the April 2010 shoot in Rochester and June 2010 shoot in LaCrosse.

4/20 Link Dump

I need to restart Firefox again, so here we go.

The Battle of Athens TN - What to do when there are election hijinks.

Making desiccant packs for long-term firearm storage - Doc on Scribd

The history of FOPA - Salient since McClure died this year.

Paper Jade

Somehow I came across a site called Paper Jade selling washi for origami.  They have aizome paper, which I'm interested in.

Battle Mug

I was checking out Magpul's Facebook page and noticed a comment about a "Battle Mug". My interest piqued, I did a search and found the item. The rails are sweet, but...it's $279!! WTF?! Also, it's aluminum and the coating isn't described.  Hero Gear looks like an interesting shop.

American Eagles

Searching for more info on American Eagles, I came across the US Mint's page that describes the requirements for becoming an "Authorized Purchaser" to order bullion directly from the mint.

The United States Mint charges a modest premium above the current market price of platinum, gold, and silver to cover minting, distribution and marketing costs.

• For the Silver Eagle, we charge the United States Mint's Authorized Purchasers the price of silver plus $2.00 per coin premium. Minimum ordering requirement is 25,000 coins.
• For the Gold Eagles, we charge 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounce coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.
• For the Platinum Eagles, we charge 4%, 6%, 10% and 15% premiums for the one, one-half, one-quarter and one-tenth ounces coins respectively. Minimum ordering requirements are 1000 ounces.

Ow.  25k coins times spot + $2 (currently about $42) is a lot more than I can afford....  At least I have a link to point people to whenever the overhead of bullion comes up.

Corrosive Ammo

On SurvivalBlog there's a post indicating which U.S. surplus ammo lots have corrosive primers.  There's also a link to an article on how to clean after shooting corrosive, which I need to know since I just bought some, as well as how to test to see if a given cartridge is corrosive.

M855 vs. M995

I was looking for information on M855: I'd read that it has a steel core penetrator in the bullet, but it usually isn't called armor-piercing.  So I found a page that describes the difference between M855 and the AP round, M995.  It turns out that M855 has a SC, but it's not considered AP.  The AP round has a tungsten carbide core inside the jacket.  Bad-ass!

C Products LLC

Aw shit.  C Products is going through a "transition"--apparently they've been sold.  Except there's a lot of hijinks going on as far as where standing orders are, and who's responsible for what.  LCJ Wholesale is apparently the new retail outfit.  At this point it's not clear who the buyer of the MFG operation is.  A thread on Arfcom has remarks from the old staff Larry (the owner?) and Chad (director of sales?).

This explains why CDNN doesn't really list C Products mags anymore.