Lancer L5 AWM

Lancer Systems have announced a new polymer AR15 magazine to be officially announced at SHOT (well, pricing and availability to be announced then.)

The "Advanced Warfighter Magazine" looks to be an evolution of their current translucent polymer mags, with a more robust feed lip assembly and improved floorplate for easier disassembly.

The follower is supposed to be an anti-tilt design, which if true would alleviate my biggest complaint about their current generation of translucent mags.  (I can get pictures of what I mean later tomorrow if people are currious.  I've got two Lancers around somewhere.)

The body is also textured for better handling.

Coffee House Culture and Its Downfall

In 18th-century London, the slang phrase for withdrawal as a method of birth control was “to make a coffee-house of a woman’s privities, to go in and out and spend nothing.” (This, according to a contemporary dictionary of vulgar slang.) All these years later, freeloading is still an issue. Zeigel says he sees students come into the Golden Roast with their own food and drinks, just to use the free Internet. Shaun Parrish says there’s a reason why Java no longer has free refills—they can’t afford to. Because while he doesn’t like to think of coffee as a commodity, it is one, and it’s one with skyrocketing prices.

Sucky thing to do, and I don't understand why they'd let them stay.  I guess it must be some hippie thing to let the freeloaders hang out.  I guess we're just more courteous here.

On the other side of things, I do agree that slow drip coffee is all sorts of delicious.  I've only had it once at a place out of town, but it was well worth the wait.

I did kind of have to giggle about this too-

But the market has expanded so much that even crappy liquor stores carry random varietals and tape reviews from Wine Spectator next to the price tags. I’ve seen Grenache at convenience stores in Georgia. The Olive Garden has an Amarone on its wine list. An Amarone! And none of that would have happened without the Gallo brothers popularizing mediocre wine.



Like the way Starbucks has popularized mediocre coffee.

And if you've read my handful of coffee posts before, you know I feel much the same way about them.  Yes, I applaud their politics, but charging a dollar more per cup does not improve the flavor.

Sig's 2011 Products

The Sig Sauer Handgun Blog has the skinny, the P210 looks to be returning, and the 7.62x39mm carbine has made an appearance.  Part way through the list is this one too-

SIG 50 .50 CAL BMG, 29″ Barrel, 5 Round Box Magazine, Bi-Pod

It should be interesting to see Sig's take on a big rifle.

Cold

Woke up, the car wouldn't start (put a brand new battery in it last year when it did this, and now that it's cold again, same problem. Grr.) so, angrily, I bundled up and took the single speed to the coffee shop.

Two years ago, I pretty much road the thing nearly all winter, even through some nasty snow storms.  I don't remember it being all that bad, just made sure to put on the long underwear and a good hat.

As I was coming home, I could only come down to two conclusions.  Either Global Warming is indeed a load of crap, or I'm simply becoming less tolerant to sub-arctic temperatures.  Even with my shemagh wrapped around my face and my heavy deerskin mittens, I couldn't wait to get back inside. The bridge of my nose seems to always take it the worst, and hasn't yet recovered.

I'm leaning towards the first.

Darkship Thieves

I picked this one up after the fantastic Larry Correia suggested it to his readers a little back.  In so many words, I'm very glad I did.  It has been a very fun ride, and one of the better space operas I've read in a while.  So good I had to come on here and let you guys know about it as soon as I finished (seriously, I finished the last sentence, pulled out the netbook, and typed this up.) I'm just going to go ahead and steal some of Larry's words on this one-

Darkship Thieves is classic sci-fi and it is very good. Honestly, reading it took me back to when I was a teenager and first discovered Heinlein. It is kind of a libertarian space-opera adventure. Sarah’s got big ideas, visualizes an interesting future, and writes a really fun main character. Athena Hera Sinestra is a troubled, snarky, pain in the ass, stubborn, rich kid, with an attitude. Basically she’s a badass, she’s funny, and you can’t help but root for her.

And I've got to say, I agree 100%. 

M&P22 Photo

Buds Gun Shop has a picture.

Word is they're being manufactured by Walther, and will be in 10 or 12 shot flavors.

I'm hoping it fits in standard M&P9/40 holsters.

First mentioned rumors here.

Bang

Gifts for Guys

From Gear Scout.  I think I'd be happy with just about anything off that list, save for the chew tin pouch (that stuff kind of grosses me out...)

Dummy

Fine Art

Playing a little with photoshop.  The original photo wasn't quite what I wanted, so I messed with it a little, and I think it turned out alright.

Magpul RSA

The Railed Sling Attachment is now shipping out to retailers.  It looks to be a good alternative to what I'm running right now, and the price is much better than similar options, so I may be looking to pick one up in the future.

Time of year

It's finals season and I woke up with a splitting headache and an old Army injury demanding I earn this month's disability check, so forgive me if there's not much happening around here the next week or so.  I do have some gear reviews on the horizon, some great products I'm excited to get the word out about.  In the mean time, real life has to butt it's ugly head in.

Every Question From Every Gun Forum

Brought to you by a couple talking cartoon puppies.  (Careful, there's a couple f-bombs at least...)



(Found it on Gear Scout)

I see your...

...Couch Ninja, and raise you a Hotel Lounge Sniper.

Golly Gee Whiz!

This is to inform you that your email have been selected for a cash prize of £950,000.00 and a brand new BMW X6 Series Car from the BMW AWARD DEPARTMENT in London Uk. Contact Dr Smith Goodluck by Email: bmwautomobilecompany43@yahoo.com.hkwith the following: Names:, Country/Address of resident:, Occupation:, Date Of Birth:, Phone Number

It's from a doctor, Dr. Goodluck no less, so it must be legit, right?

Somehow I don't think so... say hello to my gmail's spam bin.

M&P .22lr pistol?

And not the AR clone.  Somebody on ARFCOM found this.  A Google search pops up a few more retailers with similar ads.

Would be nice.  There were hopes of this last year, but SHOT Show came around and it didn't appear.  Maybe this year?

Heh.

It made me giggle a bit too.

Restrepo

I haven't seen it yet, but I want too.  I guess you can buy it here.

(It's on the wishlist over there <--- if you want to get a blogger a nice Holidays gift...)

UCP RIP?

Gear Scout says yes.  Couldn't have happened to an uglier camo.

QOD

Robb sums up why I avoid debating gun banning and the like in any social situation.

The thing is, she’s a standard gun banner. Devoid of facts, bases her opinions primarily on emotions, can’t let people comment on her blog without approval, and completely lacking in any real common sense. I have no issues with other gun bloggers relentlessly poking fun at her, but for me I have other things to do, like clean the lint out of my belly button or trim my nose hairs.

If I realize I'm talking to somebody who's on the other side, I generally just change the subject or leave the AO.  It's simply not worth the time or effort really, I'm not going to change their minds, and I have enough frustration from everything else in my life.

I will admit that I did break my personal rule once, but there was much alcohol and a cute girl involved.

Back to the lot...

It was bugging me that I couldn't get to the same spot I took the first couple shots from last night, but I was able to get in there this evening, about 40 hours after it first started falling.

I still nearly got the car stuck in a drift getting there.  The stuff piled up deep in some spots, especially with the wind wipping across our largest parking lot.

The nearest big box store made some cash out of the deal, I saw more than a couple students walking from the store to their cars with brand new snow shovels.

Must be crappy out...

So I checked the stats for today, and noticed they were slightly higher than normal, which is weird for a Sunday.  Then I thought about it for a second, and checked the handy little map on Sitemeter-

Reminded me of another map-

Sorry... geography moment...

But I do agree, nice day to stay in and surf the blogs.  Too bad some people have to work...

Snow

Most of it's stopped falling, just blowing around now (calling for -25 or lower windchills through the night though.)

Dad got the money shot after clearing the driveway this morning though-

Most of it in about a 24 hour span.

Cat $hit One

Don't know how I missed blogging about it, but episode 1 of the animated series "Cat Shit One" has been floating around for a while.  Cute fluffy bunnies with guns is always a good thing, especially when they pute so much detail into said guns.

And it keeps coming...

I wanted to get a picture from the same spot as last night, but that parking lot is unnavigable at this time without some serious ground clearance and traction.  Instead enjoy the view of the sidewalk in front of the office.  Grounds cleared the sidewalk not too long ago, but the stuff keeps falling and the wind keeps blowing.

On a less exciting note, which may develop into a much more exciting one, the wiper blades on the squad car have more or less self destructed due to the ice.  Good times.

Front Towards Enemy

Ick.

This was about an hour ago-

Supposed to keep up until maybe late at some point tomorrow night (ok, tonight.  Some of us haven't gone to sleep yet though.)

Already pushing three to four inches, rumors are somewhere from 8-12+ by the time it's all done.  Joy.  Snowshoes are in the back of the car, just in case.

Update:
Same location about two hours later-

The little Chevy after running for 15 minutes-

Poor little thing.

Anyway, bedtimes for me... as the sun comes up.

More Cool

Antikythera Mechanism built out of Legos.

Weekend dose of cool

Scrollable panoramic view of a P-51 cockpit(like you're sitting in the seat. Up, down, left, right, zoom.)  Pretty freakin' sweet.

Multitasker Tube Update

I got one a few months back, and wrote it up here.  It's still rocking, and since then I've added a few things to the case, so I thought I'd toss up some pictures and mention what's what.

I picked up an Otis M16/M4 cleaning kit recently, and tossed a couple items into the Tube's case, making for a decent "quick problem solver" sort of kit.  I think I'm pretty well covered for most issues I've run into with using dirty dirty Wolf and the like.

I added the short cable and bore brush from the Otis kit, along with a little bottle of CLP.  Between this and the Boresnake that lives in my ACS stock, I feel pretty well covered (I do need to grab the broken shell extractor out of my range bag and toss it in here now that I think of it...)

I've run into the problem of a stubborn chamber on the range before. Thankfully a squirt of CLP and a run through with a Boresnake took care of things, but having a dedicated chamber brush makes me feel better.  The Tube is threaded to be compatible with Otis components, and makes a great handle for the short cable and chamber brush.

Just lock the bolt back, insert the brush through the ejection port, and give it a few turns.  Follow it up with a pass or two from the Snake, and it's good to go.

Multitasker's full line is well worth checking out, and the Multitasker Tube still remains a great addition to your range bag or SHTF kit, or whatever you keep your AR stuff in.

Oh, I'll be reviewing another one of their offerings pretty soon too, as soon as I get a chance to try and break it.  Here's a teaser shot though.  Serendipity, thy name is Multitasker.