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For many years I carried an 11lb rifle (7mm Rem Mag with rosewood thumbhole stock) around the mountains of Alaska chasing dall sheep. I'm not entertaining whines about walking 300 yards over flat ground with a 13lb rifle.

Good to see you gemihur!

By the way, wanna educate us on the etymology of "gemihur"? I tried it backwards. No help.

Paul

Typical of Alain.

Paul

Once again I am here to mark the passing of a dear friend. This one, Alain Truba, AKA j0e_bl0ggs.

He passed away this morning while in the care of the National Health Service in Leicester, England. Alain was a very good friend of mine. He was an exceptional engineer, and quite an accomplished machinist/"gunsmith". He was a 'no nonsense'  kind of a guy with little tolerance for BS, but a 'diplomat', he wasn't. However, he very rarely, very rarely, was wrong. Which often made his particular form of 'bedside manner' all the more aggravating. Nevertheless, he was a great asset to me and to THL, and THL would not have survived as long as it has without his help.

As you know, back in August Alain lost his beloved dog, Jesse. That, coupled with the loss of his job, (the business he had worked at for 30 years folded up), broke his spirit. Basically, he simply lost the will to live.

I shall miss Alain greatly,


Paul

Alain didn't make it out of the clutches of the NHS. He passed away this morning. Another of my friends, and a significant loss to THL.

Paul

At this point, most of the effort is being spent trying to keep the NHS from killing him!

Look up "remdesivir": The WHO and the NIH have both disapproved it's use because 1) it is ineffective, and more importantly, 2) THE DATA show that it causes kidney failure in 28% of patients. Alain is in THE KIDNEY WARD BECAUSE HIS KIDNEYS ARE BARELY WORKING! The GOVERNMENT doctors in the NHS argued vigorously and THREATENINGLY to give it to Alain. Alain, his brother, and a third person had to DEMAND that they not give it to Alain. Either they're just plain stupid, or they're trying to kill Alain. Which option would you prefer?

Paul

He's still kickin', Jorge! I think he's too mean to die!

Paul

Even as an inveterate "cheap scope" user, I must admit that 'clarity' is one characteristics  that separates 'cheap scopes' from 'expensive' scopes. That said, I have noticed that in the  recent decade, the clarity and the focus-from- edge-to-edge of  'cheap scopes' has started to approach that of 'expensive scopes'. In other words, while 'expensive scopes' remain better in clarity and field of view focus, in my experience, the gap between 'expensive' and 'cheap' has narrowed.

Another characteristic that has significantly improved in 'cheap scopes' is the repeatability associated with windage and elevation adjustments. "Used to be", one got their cheap scope sighted in, and then DIDN'T TOUCH the turrets. The reason being, that ALL scopes, including all but the absolute best (most expensive), could NOT be relied on to "return to zero" after adjusting for windage or elevation. Nowadays, all but the cheapest scopes are highly reliable in that respect.

You may have noticed that the original post was dated January 3, 2006: Only 17 years ago.:D I would argue that scopes have improved significantly in those 17 years. Add another 10 years to that, and the improvements are even greater. Of course, the gap in the price between 'cheap scopes' and expensive ones, has also narrowed, and none of them have gotten CHEAPER!


PAUL

Until I get back to Missouri in about three weeks, Marcus, you'll have to rely on sakorick for pictures. Maybe he'll post pictures of his and mine, side by side.

Paul

Just heard from Martin: Alain's back in the ICU.

Paul

Here are SOME instructions for saving, either as a PDF file, or you can send to a printer, (yikes!). These instructions SHOULD work on either a Mac or a Windows computer. I'll start first with how to get a thread stored, then I'll provide a recommendation on how to get to the threads you want to store. I'm still going to contact GoDaddy regarding DVDs of the entire database in a format suitable for accessing AND READING with either a Mac or Windows machine.

1) Open a thread that you want to store. The top of the thread should look SOMETHING like this:



"Click on" the FARTHEST RIGHT-HAND "down arrow" - the one pointed to in the above image. A pop-up menu should pop up. :grin: Click on "Select All", (where the arrow is pointing in the following picture).


2) On a Windows machine, hold down the "Control" key AND the "P" key. On a Mac, hold down the "Command" key AND the "P". These commands SHOULD cause a "printing" menu to pop up. On either operating system, you should see options to send to your printer to print, OR, to "Save as PDF". I recommend that you "Save as PDF", but if you want a "hard copy" of the thread, (printed version), choose the "Print" option.

3) When you select "Save", (or "Print"), a menu will pop up asking about options for how you want it printed, OR WHERE you want it saved. If you choose "Save to PDF", the default file name will be the name of the thread, and the default location will be your "desktop". Once it shows up on your desktop, you may move it to whatever storage location you care to.

Now, let's look at how to find threads using the THL search engine. (Which is pretty poor for anything more than basic searches.)

From the "Home" page, the top should look similar to this:

Click on the "Search" button where the arrow is pointing. A popup menu should appear that looks like the below image.


Click on "Advanced Search". You should see something like the following.

Let's say you want to find all the threads STARTED by Jamie.270. Enter "Jamie.270" where the arrow is pointing.


Then click on "Search Now", (where it says "2nd").


What follows will be a list of the first 1000 threads STARTED by Jamie.270. Click on a thread that you want to preserve on your machine, and follow the instructions at the beginning of this post.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO EXPERIMENT WITH THE SEARCH ENGINE. There is no way I can go through all the permutations of options available therein. "Fool around" a bit until you're satisfied you can find the threads you want. If there are more than 1000 threads found by the search engine, (I have just shy of 20,000 posts, not threads), you'll have to figure out how to use the various options on the search engine to parse them into blocks of 1000.

If you have problems, start by sending me a Private Message. I'll get it, and we can discuss the issue. If it is a general problem that others might be interested in, we can post it in this thread.

As I said, I'm looking into how to get the "whole thing" on DVDs. "On DVDs" is easy. The challenge is getting it on DVDs IN A FORMAT THAT CAN BE READ by a Mac or Windows machine!


Paul

I just keep shaking my head.

Alain has been in the hospital for two weeks. "Diagnosis" was "sepsis" along with SEVERAL other issues. Yesterday, Martin spoke with a doctor that was reviewing Alain's chart. The doctor asked, "Do you have any idea what the source of the infection is?" Martin said, "I assumed it was the burn on his leg." THE DOCTOR SAID, "WHAT BURN?" I kid you not! TWO WEEKS in the hospital, "they" don't know why the antibiotics aren't working on the infection, and the attending doctor doesn't know about the severe burn on Alain's leg that he got SEVERAL MONTHS AGO!

Heres the good news: FINALLY, they got a microbiologist to identify the specific infecting bacterium, (Morganella morgan). Therefore, they have FINALLY figured out what antibiotic to use. According to the doctor, "We're not worried about his heart. We're not worried about his spleen. His kidneys may not be functioning properly because we haven't been using the right antibiotics. They may "start right up when the infection is knocked back." The circulation in his legs is fine. So...

Provided the idiot GOVERNMENT doctors haven't screwed around long enough to kill him, and the RIGHT antibiotics get ahead of the sepsis, Alain could go home in a week or two.

I should hear from Martin this afternoon, and the doctor said the effect of the CORRECT antibiotics should be "very apparent within 24 to 48 hours." This afternoon will have been 24h.

More later.

Paul

We never "made this happen". You now most certainly have a basement, and I'm fairly certain we can get the variables between our two locations sufficiently similar so that the comparison is legitimate. I'm bringing my light meter down with me when I come down next month.

Paul

[MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

J0e-bl0ggs is doing better. He's out of the ICU, but still in the hospital, and will be for some time to come. (I wish I could fully relay how bad the NHS is in spite of what our lying Press spews.)

I think he's out of the woods with regard to living/dying, but he still has some serious issues to deal with. I don't know how much he would want "the world" to know, so I'll let my explanations stop there. I still haven't been able to speak with him directly, but he's in pretty good hands as far as family and friends goes.

If and when I hear more I'll post it here.

Paul

There hadn't been much worth reporting, but...

He's out of ICU, but lots of issues still to be fully assessed. His potassium levels are down out of 'critical', but still high. There are several other issues that have been ID'd, but not assessed. He's not really out of the woods yet. The National Health System, in spite of what the US's lying Press says, is grim, at best. J0e_bl0ggs' actual survival remains at 50:50 - per my assessment from this side of the planet. The REALLY good news is that he has a friend (SmokeyJoe) there wrestling with the NHS and taking care of extra-hospital matters - dog, house, etc. Without that friend's intervention, he likely would be dead now. No exaggeration.

Paul