Harvesting Meat
Is the Ten Point Nitro 505 the best crossbow, or just the most expensive? There are a lot of crossbows out there for sale. Modern compound crossbows are quiet and effective when combined with modern hardware. Will the bodkin tip with pop-out razors cut through Kevlar? Yes, like a hot knife through butter. 505 feet-per-second and 227-foot pounds of punch. It’s a hunting option that you shouldn’t overlook.
The Myth
In the past, human beings lived in harmony with nature and with each other.
(Link) h/t Claudio The settlement is believed to have been home to between 200 and 500 people, with houses built on stilts above the lake’s surface or in areas regularly flooded by rising waters.
And it is slowly revealing some astonishing secrets.
During a recent dive, archaeologists uncovered evidence suggesting the settlement was fortified with thousands of spiked planks used as defensive barricades.
“To protect themselves in this way, they had to cut down a forest,” said Hafner.
But why did the villagers need to build such extensive fortifications to defend themselves? Archaeologists are still searching for an answer to the elusive question.
Researchers estimate that roughly 100,000 spikes were driven into the bottom of the lake off Lin, with Hafner calling the discovery “a real treasure trove for research.”
The Human Home
(h/t Claudio) We have to come to terms with the fact that most solar systems are wildly different than the one that we’re familiar with. A good piece on The American Thinker.
US Credit Rating Downgraded
Oh, How Times Have Changed
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
A belated welcome back. I faithfully checked at my normal allotted time everyday. Of course I still occasionally check in on the long since gone Woodpile report just in case of you know a miracle.
Blogs have a life cycle. Just like everything else.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. AGO C.I
2. Junkers Ju 188
I thought that you might fall for the Flying Pencil rather than the upgraded (on steroids) Ju 188
A part of me says I recognize that menu.
$3k for a crossbow is a bit out of my league. But it looks cool.
Overtime
Marble Mouth Yellen was mumbling her way through another “Bidenomics is terrific!”spout-age while in the real world the S&P was tanking…retirement fund lost a bunch in short order. Effer’s. (Apologies, the only appropriate word for these morons.)
Yeah, look at the bright side, Ed. The crossbow you buy for $3,000.00 today will cost $30,000.00 next week. What an investment.
I’ll take two.
One is none, Ed.
Menu: at today’s silver price, a dollar in 90% silver coins is worth over $16. That 60 cent cheeseburger platter is $9.60. Seems about right.
You can thank the Federal Reserve for that. Today’s dollar buys what 3 cents bought in 1913 when the Fed was founded.
SiG, I’m tired of being beaten up. I realize that may resonate with many of this blog’s readers. Children born today have no concept of what was. Maybe that’s just a generational thing and the march of progress/folly?
It might be, LL. My parents were always talking about how expensive things were getting. To me, it was just worrds….
Middle son, who is not political, texted me a picture of a Conoco price billboard along with FJB. Maybe that will motivate him to start voting.
Between The Fed and IRS is like getting it from both sides and you’re in the middle. “Squeezed” is the perfect descriptor.
Q: What’s the difference between the IRS and the Mafia?
A: The interest rate. (Although today the Fed and the Mafia aren’t that far apart).
Exactly…and now IRS agents carry, making the difference even less.
IRS Criminal Agents (as opposed to revenue agents) have always been armed. They went after Capone, after all. The problem today is that they need modern military hardware and the target is political.
Wicked crossbow design, a lot going on there. Those will be next on the Dem’s ban list because the look mean. That projectile looks like someone put a lot of engineering into it…overkill?
“The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel points to micro and macro scientific evidence of the uniqueness of earth and our solar system as designed by God. The grass isn’t always greener, but hats off to those who explore such possibilities.
The Woolworth’s menu reminds me of going into Horn & Hardart’s outside Philly, and the prices look about the same. A bygone era when proprietors could make good food without the government’s overbearing “help” and regulation…to keep us safe. Meddlers ruin the American Dream aspirations for many while making the simple, complicated. A dopey hotdog cart takes umpteen licenses and payouts (aka Mafia “protection”) to just sell a dog and soda. Simpler times were better in a lot of ways…including enjoying life as you prefer.
Glad your back up and running.
I don’t think that the broadhead pictured is over-engineered. You can always resort to the Bear Razor, which did essentially the same thing without quite as much bodkin/penetrator. If you look at a bodkin (penetrator) from 1066, the arrowhead wouldn’t be all that different. English archers with yew bows carried a broadhead for unarmored targets (horses) and a bodkin tip that would penetrate armor.
Of course, armor then as now is/was not all created equally. Some of the tests that are done in a contemporary setting show that well-made plate armor would deflect a bodkin at a relatively close range (Agincourt scenario), however, chainmail over a padded coat, which is what the less affluent wore, didn’t offer much resistance to arrows.
As an engineer-type, weaponry tech fascinates me…hence the semi-rhetorical question. Thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense.
Making my case: ”A spokesman for Hawaii’s emergency management agency says that none of the 80 warning sirens placed around the island were activated at any time during the wildfire that has caused massive damage and taken at least 93 lives.
Seems there was a fault in the power grid. Geez.
To be fair – Oh, the siren is going off, what does that mean? A tidal wave, a plague (Hawaii way overreacted to Covid), or – the island is going to burn to the ground?
I think that a firestorm is about the last thing that the residents of Maui would have anticipated.
Most people aren’t expecting or paying attention to an island wildfire, they are going about their daily business. The idea is to alert that something is up to get folks to switch modes. Didn’t happen. Heard residents were complaining about power outages hours before (per some reports). On purpose? Who could know.
The sad truth is there is a lot of blame all around, mostly at government officials tasked with infrastructure and safety. Now we (they) have another mess.
Lahaina was a nice place, but it was also a disaster waiting to happen. Here’s an article that mentions some of the problems:
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/how-invasive-plants-caused-the-maui-fires-to-rage
There’s also the fact that basically none of the place was built to fire codes, and the capacity for fire fighting was low.
It’s leeward, basically a desert, people built too close together out of the wrong materials and didn’t manage vegetation nor take precautions. I gather one of the old names for the place meant “unrelenting sun”.
It’s a tragedy, but not a surprise.
-Kle.
Hawaii has a building code – now – but for decades, it was ‘who can build the cheapest crackerbox’ – the old town in Lahina was one of many current examples. There’s a lot of conspiracy stuff because the Gates mansion and movie star mansions didn’t burn. The answer isn’t some sort of class system beyond the quality of construction and the irrigated spaces around the buildings that had significant setbacks from each other.
Sirens go off for misgendering, dead naming, micro aggressions and other Real Problems. Duh. Wildfires? Pish.
Maybe change them to the Muslim Prayer Call, that’ll their attention.
Ah, armor vs arrows/bolts. Piles and bodkins worked on less than plate armor, though good jack (little plates riveted or sewn into a vest) could also stop AP ammo. Against broadheads and other cutting head styles, ha, good maille and a gambeson would stop those.
Didn’t Woolworth’s also have a soda fountain where you could get a coke float?
I know some of them did because I went there and bought shakes, floats, etc. back when it existed. Lunch counters were a thing then. Gone now, gone forever and it’s too bad.
I ran the inflation calculator on that Woolworth menu guessing it’s from 1960, the .55 cent Hamburger platter comes to $5.68 today.
I find it depressing. Dinner is now $40 per person without alcohol as sort of a bottom end unless you want to eat off paper.
Crossbow. Coincidentally I was looking at crossbows the other day. Wouldn’t want a top of the line model but you can buy a fair amount of capability for 1500 or so. Funny I went from compound bows to recurves to long bows and back to recurves and now moving on to crossbows. The engineering in the point is fascinating.
Ancient peoples. There has been strife between groups of people since people have started banding together at the dawn of history. Peace is the exception.
Ahh, inflation. In the one month I took the trouble to compare prices year over year (Dec 21-22) on the stuff I actually buy inflation was almost 23%. It was depressing so I stopped because it took a fair bit of records keeping.
Going to a lunch counter at the 5 and 10 for a root beer float used to be our once a week treat in the summertime. I miss it but things change, not necessarily for the better.
Ed, I started with recurves that went from a 42-pound Ben Pearson and ended in an 85-pound Kodiac. The compound bows were a real game-changer. The compound crossbows are insane, but they’re still one-trick ponies. Getting that second bolt off without letting the world know that you’re reloading is a challenge. It’s smooth with a compound longbow.
SK Bows, out of South Korea, make some really nice composite recurve bows. Light on the draw, heavy on the release. A 35lb draw releases like a 55lb bow.
You don’t need pulleys to increase power. Good basic bow design will help a lot. So will modern materials.
Though the wheelies and the trigger releases do provide the normal person the ability to do what took a lifetime of training back in the days of straight self-bows (like the longbow.)
I almost thought it was a spear gun. Do the arms swing out, or are they always against the stock like that?
All the department stores, five-and-dime, and discount places where I grew up had a lunch counter. I remember the ones at Woolworth’s, SS Kresge’s, Goldblatt’s, and all the other local stores.
Woolworth’s counter actually provided GOOD food! I remember those prices and that being a ‘treat’ for us go eat there.
That’s a SWPL menu. We didn’t have a Woolworth’s when/where I was a kid, but the K-Mart had a big counter and booth area with a similar menu. It was a treat to “eat out” there.
Now we have “great ethnic restaurants” everywhere. So grateful to be saved from SWPL food, social cohesion, high-trust society, and markedly lower crime. Because now I can get a bowl of piping hot menudo just around the corner. Totally worth it! 👍 Such are the glories of our immigration policies.
There’s nothing like a bowl of warm snot-like menudo to turn your life around.
In the very beginning we were in harmony, then things went south.
Just look at us now, a constitutional republic?
Said the Bidens, straight to the nearest bank.
The price for the crossbow is comparable to a high-quality single shot rifle. It is what it is. You pay for performance, you pay for the brand.
Crossbows are nice. Better penetration than from an arrow, traditionally. But the reload thingy doth sucketh big time.
As to punching through kevlar and other aramid fabrics, a pile or bodkin, even a good target point would probably be better than any broadhead.
To stop penetration of kevlar, just backing or facing it with a chunk of pickle barrel, like a breast plate or chicken plate, should suffice. You could go fancy and use some UHMW plastic sheets, but you can find those plastic barrels everywhere. The thicker ones (black, blue, white) are nice but the thinner ones (brown) will work.
Anti-Stab armor is better against arrows (low to mid velocity penetration) but won’t do squat against bullets. Though a ‘composite’ armor of good kevlar and plates will stop the stab or poke and the bullet, to a point. It’s a trade off. What are you facing? How much mobility do you want? How good is the shooter/stabber/hacker?