Women with Weapons

Stop Changing Your Oil Every 3000 Miles

Oil chemistry and engine technology have evolved tremendously in recent years, but you'd never know it from the quick-change behavior of American car owners. Driven by an outdated 3,000-mile oil change commandment, they are unnecessarily spending millions of dollars and spilling an ocean of contaminated waste oil.

Although the average car's oil change interval is around 7,800 miles — and as high as 20,000 miles in some cars — this wasteful cycle continues largely because the automotive service industry, while fully aware of the technological advances, continues to preach the 3,000-mile gospel as a way to keep the service bays busy. As a result, even the most cautious owners are dumping their engine oil twice as often as their service manuals recommend.
After interviews with oil experts, mechanics and automakers, one thing is clear: The 3,000-mile oil change is a myth that should be laid to rest. Failing to heed the service interval in your owner's manual wastes oil and money, while compounding the environmental impact of illicit waste-oil dumping.

Scared Into Needless Service -Part of the blame for this over-servicing lies in our insecurities about increasingly complicated engines that are all but inaccessible to the average driver. Pop open the hood of a modern car, and a mass of plastic covers wall off the engine. On some vehicles, the only thing an owner can easily access is the oil cap.

The 3,000-mile myth is also promoted by the quick lube industry's "convenient reminder" windshield sticker. It is a surprisingly effective tool that prompts us to continue following a dictate that our fathers (or grandfathers) drummed into our heads: It's your duty to change your oil every 3,000 miles — or your car will pay the price. But as former service advisor David Langness put it, the 3,000-mile oil change is "a marketing tactic that dealers use to get you into the service bay on a regular basis. Unless you go to the drag strip on weekends, you don't need it."

Read More Here:
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/stop-changing-your-oil.html?mktcat=maintenance-article&kw=stop+changing+your+oil&mktid=ob61762858&msite=w

Women with Weapons

In Defense of Women

Whereas Women can choose not to become Victims of Cowards and Liberals...

Important Guns in History #11

XM-25, 2010

Perhaps the most innovative small arm of recent years is the XM-25 "Punisher" 25-mm grenade launcher. A laser measures the range to the target, so the grenade can be set to explode midair at the exact point it passes over a foxhole or a wall to target enemies behind cover. Five weapons were issued in Afghanistan on a trial basis in 2010 and they have had good reports. However, the XM25's estimated cost of over $30,000 may prove to be something of a limitation for now.

Read more: The 11 Most Important Guns in History - Popular Mechanics 

Important Guns in History #10

Glock 17, 1982

Austrian Gaston Glock came from the world of polymer engineering rather than that of gunsmithing, and his revolutionary 9-mm Glock 17 is a simplified handgun made mainly from plastic, except for the barrel. The frame is lighter and more durable than steel and absorbs some of the recoil on firing. The 17, which takes its name from its 17-round magazine being Glock's 17th patent, was designed with improved ergonomics and three independent safety mechanisms; it will not fire unless the trigger is pulled and all safeties are off. The Glock rapidly won a two-thirds share of the U.S. police market.

Important Guns in History #8 & #9

Uzi, 1948

Major Uziel Gal developed his new 9-mm submachine-gun for the Israeli Army by incorporating a telescoping bolt that wraps around the breech end of the barrel. This reduces the overall length of the weapon. Combined with an extending stock, this breakthrough makes for a compact, lightweight weapon, and the Uzi proved popular from the outset. Vehicle crews adopted it in place of the handgun; Special Forces adopted it because they needed something light and handy in confined spaces. More than 10 million have been made, including a micro-Uzi version the size of a large handgun.

AK-47, 1949

When Mikhail Kalashnikov set out to design an assault rifle for the Soviet Red Army in the 1940s, he knew it had to be simple, cheap, and reliable, with accuracy taking second place to firepower. His design, the 7.62-mm AK-47, is arguably the most effective and popular weapon in history, with over 75 million made. Large clearances between moving parts make the AK-47 easy to manufacture and resistant to fouling by mud, sand, or dirt. This ruggedness, and the ease of maintenance and training, has made it the favored weapon of guerrillas, freedom fighters, and terrorists the world over.

 

Important Guns in History #6 & #7

M2 Browning, 1933

Browning's other lasting contribution to weaponry was one of the most formidable machine guns ever made. Designed toward the end of World War I, the M2 began as a water-cooled design but shifted to air-cooled, requiring a heavy barrel. At more than 80 pounds the "Ma Deuce" is a cumbersome weapon, but the .50-caliber round fires with about four times the energy of a typical rifle bullet. It will go through an inch of steel armor and is lethal at two thousand yards. The M2 is still in service with a design that is fundamentally unchanged.

M1 Garand, 1936

Canadian John Garand of the Springfield Armory developed the first semiautomatic rifle to be adopted by a major nation. Technically known as just Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, the gun has always been called a Garand. The gun uses some of the energy from the high-pressure gas generated during firing to eject the spent cartridge and chamber a fresh round. This gives a higher rate of fire than earlier bolt-action weapons, although the clip of just eight rounds reduces ammunition use. About 4 million were produced in World War II; Gen. Patton pronounced the Garand "the greatest battle implement ever devised."