Boring but Practical/Real Life: Difference between revisions

* [[The Lab Rat]].

* Rope. Yup, it's almost as old as a stick - and it's funny how many jobs friction (and occasionally gravity) can do for you. Tying many common knots is ''simpler'' than the proverbial ability of fastening shoelaces. Remember, with little practice most of these can be - and were - used efficiently despite bad lighting and severe rocking, by [[The Drunken Sailor]] who pays more attention to not being blown overboard. [http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/6263/Several-types-of-knots?topicId=68612 Blackwall hitch]{{Dead link}} is barely enough to be called a knot at all, yet has its uses - e.g. to hold a sack closed tight under its own weight, yet accessible immediately by lifting off the hook. Bowline can be tied in a few seconds with one hand. Constrictor (holding so well that people used to simply cut it), [http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/transom-knot transom knot], [https://web.archive.org/web/20210307145202/https://www.google.com/adsense/domains/caf.js miller's knot]{{Dead link}} (can hold a sack mouth tight when immobile, but easy to weaken and untie), cleat hitch (a common way of mooring) and rolling hitch all differ from the trivial clove hitch only by one extra slip or wrap of the rope. Only a few, like [http://wildernessarena.com/skills/knots-and-rope/ropes-and-knots "Monkey’s Fist" and Masthead knot] are somewhat complex - and they have many uses, too.

* The Mosin-Nagant rifle: A design over a hundred years old (and you might get a rifle that physically ''is'') and outdated for a large portion of its service life, but it's cheap, built to withstand the Russian winter, simple enough for a conscript to use, takes cheap ammo (As not only was enough made for the rifles, it is still in common use today), has all the power of a full power cartridge, and is fairly accurate.

* There's no shortage of fancy muzzle devices for sale for the AR15 platform with cool spikes or dragons attached to them, yet it turns out [https://web.archive.org/web/20160511220850/http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/06/jeremy-s/ar-15-flash-hider-shootout/ the best for hiding flash]<ref>the ones that perform marginally better vent gas downward, which work poorly with prone firing as it defeats the point by kicking up a cloud of dust which is ''worse'' than muzzle flash</ref> is the plain looking, dirt cheap (often free with barrels), standard issue for US rifles A2 Birdcage. While the A2 is a poor compensator (it was never intended to be one) one of the best devices [https://web.archive.org/web/20160427185520/http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/11/jeremy-s/556-muzzle-device-shootout/ for all around performance] in all areas for judging a muzzle device (recoil, muzzle climb, flash hiding) is ''also'' a cheap, standard issue, simple looking muzzle device.

 

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