No_0ne

A minor point, but current nuclear power is fission. Maybe you meant fusion? In that case, consider that Edward Teller was proposing that fusion power represented a clean, cheap, easily obtainable source of infinite energy in 1946, when he was seeking funding for the development of what came to be known as the hydrogen bomb. Despite 75 years of research and untold billions in funding, controllable fusion reactors probably aren't much closer to reality now than they were in Teller's day. Fusion power does hold promise, but the technological challenges are immense, far beyond those which we faced during either the Manhattan Project or the Space Race. There have been a few developments along this line, but despite the breathless promises that "fusion is just around the corner" that you read in assorted science and news articles on a yearly basis (similar stories have been written for decades), fusion remains but a tantalizing dream of the (distant) future ...

If laws were written in plain language, allowing just anybody to read and understand them, what would all the poor lawyers do to make a living ...

This is true, but there's another factor in play here that's also complicating the process of ramping up oil production. For several years now, oil companies' stock prices have been falling, in some part due to investors demanding more returns from the companies in the form of stock buybacks and higher dividends. As these prices fell, oil companies reverted from a pro-growth stance to one of buying back stock and paying out higher dividends to investors. Exploration and development budgets have been slashed, less profitable fields curtailed or abandoned, and equipment leases allowed to expire. All this complicates the "drill baby, drill" philosophy from taking hold again. Thus far, most companies are reticent to pivot from this stance, as the wildly fluctuating prices and supply issues in the past decade have made many of them skittish. Even now, with oil prices rising rapidly and world production and availability falling, most of these companies have adopted more of a wait and see attitude towards increasing expenditure for exploration and development. In addition, investors and lenders aren't providing new capital to oil companies that aren't paying out a high percentage of cash to investors, thereby choking off a ready means of increasing production capacity ...

Just read an article talking about stock futures and commodity prices. Oil prices are rising again overnight, hitting highs last seen in 2008 in anticipation of Western nations sanctioning oil sales by Russia ...

A couple of days ago there were reports that Russian sellers couldn't offload oil supplies even at a substantial discount to the Brent crude rate normally used throughout the European markets. This was without any sanctions on the sales, buyers simply weren't buying Russian oil supplies. I don't know if this was for symbolic reasons due to the war, or maybe buyers were afraid that sanctions would be applied before the contracts were delivered, thus risking their investments altogether. In any case, apparently Russia is finding it increasingly hard to sell crude on the open market ...

The first time I paid $1 per gallon for gas (technically 99.9 cents, but rounded to $1) was in the spring of 1980 in Memphis. Using an inflation rate of 3%, that totals to $3.46 per gallon today. At the time I was in college and for me, money was a lot tighter then than now. As I remember, gas prices went up some more over the summer before falling back later, however it's that first episode of $1 gas that stands out in my memory. This was after the hostage crisis in Iran and during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, so world tensions were high and gas prices rose quickly, much as we're seeing now. Inflation was also running rampant at that time as well. There's no real point to this anecdote, other than to say that gas prices have always been volatile, and geopolitical issues often have a marked influence on them. I expect that at some point prices will fall again, much as they have done before, but regardless the increases we're seeing today are not unprecedented and, accounting for inflation, aren't higher than in prior, similar episodes ... Another data point, in the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane local gas prices hit $4 per gallon (and were reportedly well over $5 in many parts of the country). Inflation over the 17 year interval since then has been rather tame compared to the 3% rate commonly used for historical estimates. Using only a 1.5% rate, that $4 gas of 2005 equates to $5.15 today, so we have a ways to go to match that year's gas prices ...

And you just had to go ahead and jinx us ...

That's pretty common around here too, along with yahmommaanyall. Had a Yankee professor in college who became an amateur linguist interested in the regional dialects and expressions around West Tennessee. He once told me that "y'all" was exactly one and a half syllables, and was impossible for anyone not born and raised in the south to ever learn to pronounce. He was correct of course ...

Nope. Lived my entire life in West Tennessee, heard this use of "carry" since I can remember. In fact, I didn't realize until your post that it's not universal ...

Yup, pony up the $35 (assuming it's still that price) for a membership and you'll get the secret handshake, the double top secret code words and lots of other perks like the cool kids have ... Edit: You do get stuck with the fugly orange tag below your avatar pic though ...

The various iterations and derivations of the original AK-74 are the most widely produced firearms in history, and Ukraine has (or had) some of the largest weapons storage facilities in the old Soviet Union, so I suppose there are still a lot of 7.62x39 weapons available there. In addition, many police and security services in both Russia and Ukraine still use these weapons, and there are MG's in that caliber that exist as well. Finally, it stands to reason that at least some of the weapons currently making their way into Ukraine are chambered in x39, thus if it is the actual ammunition described in the interview I'm sure it can be put to good use there ...

One positive thing about the Ukraine posts, at least that endless Covid thread seems to be dying out ...

There's a oot fo good advice here, so i won't repeat what's already been said. While I'll applaud your desire to take up reloading, now is a really difficult time due to shortages of almost everything involved. One thing I would ad, you occasionally see people getting out of reloading and selling used equipment, sometimes at good prices. One place to get familiar with, even if you don't plan to cast your own bullets is https://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/

Question about police parked on the side of the road at night Krispy Kreme had a sale on ...

As peejman says, most of the engraved markings you find on old milsurp stocks are rack numbers, put there by whatever military once owned it ...

As others have said, refinishing destroys any collectablity it had. Fix any problems, but otherwise leave it as is ...

FIFY Probably a very expensive Bubba job, but still a Bubba ...

Yes, and I've heard older car collectors talk about buying Duesenbergs at used car lots in the '50's for $500 and less. If we're going to wax nostalgically about missed opportunities, we might as well dream big ...

I liked mine well enough that I still have it. It;s the only plastic pistol I own, or am ever likely to ...

There's an adage in the collector community, that you never pay too much, you just buy too early. Stick with quality firearms with some historicity, avoid the urge to "improve" these, and you generally will be able to at least get your money back over time. Find an area(s) you enjoy learning more about, and concentrate there. Have fun ...

Cool, I didn't know they were still doing that. In the 70's, I worked a few times as a camp counselor at the old Milan 4-H camp while I was still in high school. My favorite assignment back then was as the "range counselor", basically the safety officer in charge of either the shotgun or the rifle ranges we had there.

The most likely consequence of this settlement will be increased premiums from insurers marketing corporate liability insurance to gun and ammunition manufacturers. Those premiums were almost certainly rising already, as the entire insurance industry has been "tight" for a while now, with premiums for all forms of insurance increasing. This settlement probably doesn't represent a truly consequential loss for the insurers or the reinsurers involved, however given the present status of the market it certainly doesn't help any ...

And to put things in perspective, Jerry Mathers ("the Beaver") is 73 years old now ...

Very true. While we won't see the kind of price increases that have occurred since supplies of older milsurps dried up in the primary market, those that become available through the secondary market won't ever be significantly cheaper than they are now. Sure, like everything else, bargains will crop up occasionally, some folks will get in financial difficulties and have to do a firesale, and there's always the kindly old neighbor who lets you have their old warhorse on the cheap, but in the future the market won't be down very much for very long and prices will creep up for many years to come ...