AK-47-type rifles aren't popular in the USA right now

NYT found an American product apparently benefitting from tariffs:

The causes of the firearm’s disappearance include tariffs, sanctions, rising ammunition prices related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the soaring popularity of the AR-15.

The AK’s shape may still be iconic, but its new cost is unappealing to many gun buyers. An AK, or Avtomat Kalashnikova, which cost a couple of hundred dollars in the 1980s, can now go for five times more, and is considered by many to be a boutique item.

...

Overseas firearms manufacturers that supplied AK parts and rifles are now more focused on arming Europeans, fearful of an approaching invasion from Moscow, than on supplying the Americans

Members of the ultra-elite Delta Airlines membership class get ferried around in Porsches to their connecting flights?

Ben Ryder Howe for New York magazine:

Is it true, I ask, that Delta sends a Porsche Cayenne to pick up 360° members and whisk them across the runway to meet a tight connection while the rest of the plane waits to deboard?

“Yes”

...

Is it true, I continue, that before every Delta flight the airline sends him a handwritten welcome card?

“Yes”

...

SkyMiles members are so devoted they barely flinched when Delta did something two years ago other airlines had long wished to but couldn’t: It tweaked the formula of its loyalty program to reward travelers for how much they spent instead of how many miles they traveled. 

...

Last year, Delta reaped 55 percent of the airline industry’s profits despite having only 20 percent of market share. 

(Similarly, I heard speculation this week that the Disney theme park business is somewhat insulated from economic trouble because they've trained their visitors to pay for so many upcharges.) 

Medicom made figurines of the various animal characters from the movie "Flow"

Capybara, Lemur, Secretary Bird, Dog, and Cat up for preroder.

Two new video game Humble Bundles

The Indie Icons Showcase starts at three games for $5, Steam scores displayed. 

And the "Build, shuffle, and battle" bundle promises an "all-star collection of inventive deckbuilders" starting at five games for $10.

Today's news and jokes

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I enjoyed the 1952 novella "Travel Light" about an orphaned girl who loathes heroes and is beloved by Odin

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I read it after reading this article by Duncan Fyfe about its rediscovery:

Travel Light gets better with distance. The more time that passes since the publication of the 1952 novel, the more likely a reader will apprehend it with wonder. The book is astonishing, but you’ve probably never heard of it. Its author, Naomi Mitchison, is even more astonishing, but you’ve probably never heard of her either. Most of all, the reader will wonder, how has this novel been out there for 70 years without having become a canonical text for every bookish child in the world?

37% off right now at Amazon, although I used the Libby app.

Lego Warhammer 40K Firstborn Dreadnought and Ultramarines

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