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COMPLETELY off topic. Buying a home in a unknown market, just hit with horrendous and unexpected Inspection Report

Royal Tiger Imports brings Ethiopia’s Arsenal to America - If you don’t know by now, Royal Tiger Imports is offering for sale some of the rarest late 19th century to mid-20th century military rifles and carbines to ever make their way to the collector market. What makes them really significant is not so much the types of weapons available, as it is their remarkable and undisputable provenance to Ethiopia. One of the least studied and most important military powers in Africa, Ethiopia’s history was shaped by the arms its people bore. Military history buffs have likely, at least, heard of...

This week stargazers will be able to see up to 25 shooting stars per hour fly across the night sky as the Orionid Meteor Shower puts on its annual show. These meteors streak across the sky each October, through until November 7 – but peak viewing is expected on Wednesday, October 21 around midnight. This cosmic event happens when Earth passes through stream of debris left behind Comet Halley – the parent comet of the Orionid shower. You should be able to see the shooting stars from whatever direction you look, but they will appear to come from the constellation...

These are the faces on the other end of Jeffrey Toobin’s zoom call

Do any of our fellow Freepers play strategy board games? My brother taught me to play Alexander when I was 12 and I've been playing games ever since. I mostly like Avalon Hill Games but also have some by GMT and SPI. It's also possible to play these via email and online through various platforms.

It's a shame I quit drinking a long time ago. My FR Profile is now old enough to buy booze. 21 years on this fine forum as of today. Thanks to Jim Robinson for providing this magnificent forum, and to all my fellow FReepers who have shared their thoughts, wisdom, humor, tears, hopes and strength over these many years.

SIG Sauer's 9mm Pistol feels both new and familiar within the MPX line. The MPX family of pistol-caliber firearms fixes the main flaw of close-bolt blowback designs: excessive bolt weight. Adapting the AR-15 platform to 9×19 Luger with a gas-piston action, SIG engineers cut the overall weight and the reciprocating bolt carrier in particular, making MPX lighter than other 9mm ARs and cutting the recoil intensity at the same time. The resulting weapon is available as a 16-inch carbine, and as submachine gun, short barrel rifle and pistol, all available with 8-inch or 4.5-inch barrels. In the carbine form, the...

One of the world’s oldest workshops for smelting copper – going back some 6,500 years – has been uncovered in Beersheba by archaeologists at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The remnants go back to the Chalcolithic period – the word “chalcolithic” is made up of the Greek words for “copper” and “stone” – is so named because although metalworking was already in evidence, the tools used were still made of stone. An analysis of the isotopes of ore remnants in the furnace shards show that the raw ore was brought to Neveh Noy neighborhood from Wadi...

The Virginian's James Drury Discusses Life On The Popular Western The Virginian was a Western TV show that ran from 1962 to 1971. It was based on the 1902 Owen Wister novel, "The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains." The star was the foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, played by James Drury. He was known only as The Virginian, the man with no name. The series circled around the foreman’s quest to maintain an orderly lifestyle at Shiloh. It was set in Medicine Bow, Wyo., around the year 1898. The Shiloh ranch was named after the two-day American Civil War...

A War Story for the Ages - During World War 2, the 7th BG's 9th Bomb Squadron was dispatched to destroy a railroad bridge at Pyinmana, about halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay and near two active enemy fighter bases. The formation was led by Col. Conrad F. Necrason, 7th BG commander. The B-24 on his right wing was piloted by 1st Lt. Lloyd Jensen whose copilot was 2d Lt. Owen J. Baggett. On that mission, Baggett was to earn a distinction believed to be unique in Air Force history. Before reaching Pyinmana, Burma, to destroy a bridge, the American B-24...

There’s good reason to see the Paramount blockbuster film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. It’s the true story of a group of six former US military private security contractors who fight with awe inspiring bravery and professionalism to save the lives of their fellow Americans during the September 11-12, 2012 terrorist attacks on the American diplomatic compound and a CIA base (known as the Annex) in Benghazi, Libya. In a battle that eventually took on the feel of a small scale Alamo — odds against them may have been higher than 10 to 1 — they steadfastly stuck...

In the bizarre year that’s 2020, another highly unusual event is headed our way. This year’s Halloween full moon will be visible to the entire world, rather than just parts of it, for the first time since World War II, astronomy educator and former planetarium director Jeffrey Hunt says. “When I was teaching, my high school students thought a full moon occurred every Halloween,” said Hunt. Not quite, though pop culture decorations sure make it seem that way. The last Halloween full moon visible around the globe came in 1944, he said. He’s written about the event on his web...

Which game critters offer new hunters the best entry into the sport? From spotting to taking down with a clean shot, we cover America’s most feasible options. When getting into the hunting game, it's best to start with some lighter or easier prey to help you practice. Of course, before you head out into the wilderness, you need to do some target practice to ensure you know how to use your weapon properly. Once you can easily hit a target that isn't living, you can start hunting animals. The general rule of thumb for hunting is that the smaller the...

Which Duty AR is King? – Nick Perna, a former soldier and currently a cop, weighs in on whether the M16A2 or M4 is a better overall weapon system. Age equals experience. One of the few perks of getting old is that you get exposed to more things throughout the course of your life. This includes weapon systems. I’ve been making a living with a firearm since the late 1980s. In jobs ranging from the military, bounty hunting and law enforcement, I've carried a wide variety of handguns, long guns, crew-served weapons and other things that go "Bang!" I've personally...

Historian John Keegan words on World War II, was "the largest single event in human history," a conflict "fought across six of the world's seven continents and all its oceans. It killed 50 million human beings, left hundreds of millions of others wounded in mind or body and materially devastated much of the heartland of civilization." Much have been analyzed and explored from numerous angles in history books, films and art. Common figures and events are familiar to the average high school student who is buried in the history books. This era is filled with complex and endless fascinating stories...

Gangster Weapons of the Past - In the early 1900’s French gangsters used a weapon called an Apache Revolver that functioned as a revolver, a knife and brass knuckles. (three weapons all in one) The Apache operates on the principle of a pepper box revolver using a pinfire cartridge and incorporates a fold-over knuckle duster forming the grip and also a rudimentary foldout, dual-edged knife. Due to the lack of a barrel, the revolver’s effective range is very limited, but since all of its component parts can be folded inward towards the cylinder, it was easily concealable inside a pocket....

That they’re easy to carry, often pocket-perfect and lightweight, inexpensive (or relatively so), and sold in drugstores, airport arcades, supermarkets, and many other venues outside the hallowed precincts of the glorious bookstore does not make them less worthy of a good life as a book. Many old and battered paperbacks are treasured by their owners, for content they can’t replace in another edition or for pure sentimental attachment. Who among us hasn’t got paperbacks that we can’t part with, even as we wonder what we can do to keep them going? Paperbacks’ chief fault lies in the often low-grade (inexpensive)...

Source/ Brad Luttrell/GoWild A few years ago, I was a beta tester for a new phone application marrying social media with the Great Outdoors.  Naturally, I was intrigued. There were few social media platforms catering to fishing and hunting interests at the time. Nobody appeared to have the market cornered. And this company, even in its infancy, had an ambitious goal to take it by storm. That company is Louisville, Kentucky-based GoWild—an outdoor start-up guaranteed to pique one’s interest.Why The App is Catching FireAgainst many competitors in the space, GoWild has effectively navigated the digital wilderness—especially as content becomes more politically divisive and concerns...

The Idea looked better on Paper - In World War Two Japan had a paratroop corps, Germany provided the technical assistance with equipment implementation in the late 1930’s. One of the methods was the use of parachute-equipped containers housing the firearms, this was dropped separately from the paratrooper. In the combat drop at Sumatra (Japanese) and Crete (Germany), both drop zones had problems of weapons containers landing far from troops, resulting being out gunned. Especially, the experiences of the airborne attack on Palembang in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, February 13-15, 1942. In that battle, the airborne troops were equipped with...

A Way To Keep Your Head Down While Firing At The Enemy - When fighting stagnates and enemy lines dug into trenches, snipers target anyone whose head pops up above the edge of the trench. Solution: Keep your head down, but your rifle up. The Germans called it Spiegelkolben. Just mount a rifle to a periscope. That way the rifle could be lifted up to get a clear shot at the enemy trenches while the shooter remained safely out of sight using mirrors to see his sights and a length of wire to pull his trigger. While all the major...