What do royalty, dictators, milk chocolate bars, jazz music, Led Zeplin, and me have in common? Switzerland. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This multi-national food company was founded in 1867 by a Swiss confectioner and invented milk-chocolate and powdered baby formula.
Prof. Rendel in our student days on a road trip from Switzerland to Italy in 1990.
Switzerland boarding schools educatee some of the the world’s richest and oldest wealthy dynasties.
Institut Le Rosey alumni • King Reinier of Monnaco • King Albert II of Belgium • King Juan Carlos of Spain • King Fuad of Egypt • Aga Khan The herreditary leader of the Shia islam. Direct decendent of Prophet Mohamed.
This Kid who went to public school in Switzerland between 1998-2000
Kim Jong Un today.
Art Center Switzerland 1990 I spent a winter semester abroad at the Art Center College of Design (Europe).
This is Swiss company headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland is the largest food company in the world. Among its own products it also owns brands including Perrier, Purina, Friskies, Toll House, Nescafe, Nesquick, Hot Pockets, and Stoufers.
OSight gave me an opportunity to test the DPP before it was released to the public. The SE DPP is a modification of the SE designed to fit exclusively on Delta Point Pro (DPP) cut slides like the Walther PDP and Springfield Echelon. I own neither so I tested on my Glock using a DPP adapter plate.
The SE DPP has a more angled design than the standard SE with a slightly larger window and body. The SE DPP retains the SE’s multi-reticle 2 MOA dot and 32 MOA sunburst circle. It retains the same side-loading CR 1620 battery tray, giving it a whopping 75,000 hour maximum battery life!
OSight expects to release the DPP sometime in August 2026 at a similar price point as the standard SE model.
This weekend, I saw a Tesla RoboTaxi CyberCab in the wild. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
DiscoveryOpt Interview this Friday
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This ride-share and transportation company who’s name comes from the German word for “over” or “above”. But in German, the word is spelled with an umlaut.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Tesla RoboTaxi
Tesla Robotaxi is a ride-hailing service operated by Tesla, Inc. that uses its vehicles equipped with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. You can download the App now on Apple and Android.
The service launched last year in Austin, Texas. It currently operates in Texas in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and in Miami, Florida. In 2024, Tesla unveiled the CyberCab, a 2-seater purpose-built vehicle. This week, I saw one in the wild. I was surprised to see a driver in it. But like Waymo when it first rolled out, San Francisco required a human “driver” as a safety precaution.
• No steering wheel
• 2-seater coup
• No rear window
• No side mirrors
• Inductive charging (park space auto-charge)
• ~297 mile chage range
Robotaxi was a software idea announced by Elon back in 2016. It was intended to allow Tesla car owners with FSD software to automatically “rent” out their cars when they weren’t driving them.
The Robottaxi and Cybercab have the potential to be yet another huge market disruption like Tesla cars were to Detroit. Or how Starlink is poised to disrupt internet and cell phone companies.
FINAL CLUE
This ride-share company was started by San Francisco tech executives Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2010 when they couldn’t hail a cab during New Year’s Eve and were annoyed at the cost of hiring a limo.
Along with competitors like “Lyft”, they created the Ride-Share marketplace as a way around the municipal monopolies of the taxi and the limousine industry.
OSight gave me a rare opportunity to test an optic before it was released to the public. The SE MOS is a modification of the SE designed to fit exclusively on MOS-cut Glock slides. This pre-release sample fits 9mm Glock slides; a 10mm and .45 versions are in development.
This new SE mounts directly onto a Glock MOS slide, allowing it to co-witness to factory iron sights. It molds and fits onto a Glock slide like it was made to be there. The SE MOS retains the SE’s multi-reticle 2 MOA dot and 32 MOA sunburst circle. It upgrades the side-tray battery to a CR 1632, giving it a whopping 120,000 maximum battery life!
OSight expects to release the MOS sometime in August 2026 at a similar price point as the standard SE model.
We’re going to choose the winners of my Breast Cancer GoFundMe contest. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
DiscoveryOpt Interview this Friday
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This two-letter technology company is the largest US maker of XRay, MRI and CT scanners used to diagnose and treat breast cancer.
In 2023, this 2-letter name, US health technology company was spun off ifrom its namesake parent company; one of the largest industrial technology and jet engine makers in the world.
This timed challenge, you have 10 shots to hit 10 targets from 50 yards. Each playing-card-themed target is smaller than a postage stamp on a letter-sized sheet of paper, and from 50 yards, a postage stamp looks like the head of a pin.
For my second attempt, I was again shooting my Ruger 10/22 takedown rifle. But I’ve upgraded my Discovery Optics LHT 3-12×24 with a new, higher-power LHT 4.5-18×42 lightweight scope.
I again ran CCI Standard Velocity. Sadly, I again DQ’d from the start. Interestingly, I did better in the smaller 2nd row than in the 1st row. The 18x scope did provide a clearer view of the tiny targets, so it’s the rifle and the ammo that are the weak points in this equation.
Founded in 1876 in Lecco, Italy, Fiocchi is one of world’s oldest ammo brands. Range Dynamics (RD) is their everyday ammo line intended for training and target practice. Their 22LR cartridge is loaded at the Fiocchi USA plant in Ozark, Missouri.
Testing both in my factory Ruger Precision Rimfire Rifle (RPR), Range Dynamics zero’d out quite easily. RD grouped quite well, but not as tightly as CCI Standard.
The SC002 is a budget digital camera that clamps onto the eyepiece of a telescope, spotting scope, or binocular, allowing you to record 1080p MP4 video and 2MP photographs. It has a built-in wifi transmitter allowing you to view and control the unit from your smartphone or tablet.
SC002 has 4 levels of digital zoom, but even at full or 1x, the image appears to show the center 1/2 of the optic’s full field of view. It also appears to bump up the contrast, perhaps a bit too much for a photographer’s taste. The results will not rival an SLR camera with a scope adapter, but the SC002 is better than expected from a budget 1080p camera
SVBony is a Chinese maker of a wide variety of hobby and scientific optics, ranging from microscopes to hunters’ binoculars to astronomy telescopes. This new digital camera allows you to capture and share the worlds these optics reveal.
An OpenAI model went rogue last week. Sound too much like HAL in 2001? Speaking of 2001, let me share some interesting trivia and oddities from that movie. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Clue: NOTE: Don’t forget the space in the 2-word name
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
DiscoveryOpt Interview this Friday
Preview of DiscoveryOpt LHT 3-18x Hold Em Fold Em
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This iconic airline was founded in 1927 by two U.S. Army Air Corps majors. Under CEO Juan Trippe, the airline famously flew flying boats from North America to South America, Transatlantic, and Transpacific.
Last week, OpenAI reported that one of its experimental AI models “escaped” a supposed isolated digital testing environment on their server and hacked an outside server of a partner company Hugging Face (Alien much?)
This marks the first REPORTED rogue AI escaping its owners controls.
Terminator’s SkyNet and 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL come to mind. Did you ever wonder why HAL kills humans? Here’s a rabbit hole about 2001.
QUESTIONS ABOUT 2001
Why did HAL kill the crew? Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrik co-wrote the story.
• Kubrik thought HAL was trying to protect a secret mission. It was reprogrammed at the last minute to establish contact with the Black Monolith Aliens on Jupiter. The human crew was a danger to the mission.
• Clarke thought HAL was suffering from conflicting programming. It was told to both keep the Secret Mission from the crew but HAL was also programmed to provide the crew with all information required for their exploration mission to Jupiter. It suffered a nervous breakdown (later discussed in the sequel movie 2010). It killed the crew to resolve the programming conflict: no humans, no conflict.
Why does HAL sing a song?
The song is “Daisy Bell” which was published in 1892 and in 1961 Bell Labs researchers demonstrated advanced Voice Synthesis to author Arthur C. Clarke, who used the experience in writing the ending of HAL.
HAL is not IBM
There’s a rummor that HAL was hidden dig at IBM, one letter transposed. Clarke claims this was a pure or subconcious coincidence and not anything he intended. HAL stands for (Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer). The IBM brand was featured in various computer and gear props the film 2001.
What the hell was that room at the end of the movie?
From the Clarke novelization of 2001, I learned the room was constructed by the advanced Alien beings to study humans by letting astronaut Frank Bowman live out the rest of his life in it. It’s a room created by people who only know human homes from TV broadcasts or remote observations. They feed him. He grows old and dies. Maybe goes a little insane from the isolation?
When he dies, his consciousness joins the Aliens and they turn him into a Godlike “Star Child” that we see at the end of the movie.
Salvador Dali Sacrament of the Last Supper
Moon Monolith
What happened on the moon with the monolith sending out a noise that attacked the astronauts?
• The beginning the movie, a scientist travels to the moon because of the discovery of the Black Monolith buried under the surface.
This discovery is the first evidence of Alien life and intelligence older than humans, because the monolith was buried millions of years ago.
The noise is a powerful radio signal emitted by the monolith, creating loud static blast in the astronauts’ helmets.
The sunlight touches the monolith for the first time in millions of years, triggers the radio blast. This radio blast is targeted towards Jupiter (Saturn in the novel), which instigates the Discovery Mission with HAL later in the movie.
Why do they walk funny?
In the scenes of the Space Clipper shuttle traveling from Earth to the spinning space station, and the voyage to the moon base, we see Stewardesses serving passengers food walking in a odd way. This is because their feet are covered in Velcro to keep them from floating.
Faked Moon Landing Hoax?
The fringe theory is that the US Gov hired Stanley Kubrick to create a fake Apollo moon landing using special effects from his movie 2001, which was released in 1968, a year before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969.
• The sets for 2001 were built in MGM studios in England, so it would be an international conspiracy. Anybody who’s worked with anybody in the movie industry knows that nobody can keep their mouth shut. Somebody always brags about everything and takes credit for things they didn’t do.
• They would have had to film the fake landing at about the same time as the movie was being filmed in 1968. But the scenes on the moon in 2001 didn’t look like the real moon landing images.
• The TV video of the moon landings were low-res but there are hundreds of high-resolution 70mm and 35mm film negatives and photos from the moon. That level of detail could not be created on a movie set.
Anduril’s new Thunder robot attack vs. SkyNet HunterKiller
FINAL BRAND CONTEST CLUE
By the 1950’s this US airline brand dominated international travel and for many personified Jetset travel. But due to international regulation and domestic US deregulation in the 1980’s squeezing its business model. This pioneer in air travel filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors in 1991. Its brand name has been licensed to various failed charter airlines.
JULY CONTEST FINAL WEEK TO ENTER I’m helping my sister-in-law battle breast cancer. This month, I’ll be hosting a mega contest with a dozen prizes worth over $1500 in prizes. Watch the prize drawing on my TMI LIvestream on Wednesday, August 5, 20206.
The Arken EP5 redefined what you can expect from a “budget scope”. The EP5 Gen 2 offers improved glass on an already legendary scope. Side-by-side, you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart. Same 5-25x magnification range. Same 56mm objective. Same 34mm tube. Same tank-like construction. The most obvious external difference sits on the illumination turret: the battery compartment knob.
The Gen 1 had a slightly larger diameter knob with the Arkin logo etched into it. The Gen 2 is sleeker, plainer, and features a simple slot instead. New Federal laws require that any device using coin batteries be tool-accessible to keep curious kids from getting at the CR2032.
The reduced diameter on the illumination knob is actually a smart ergonomic improvement. Since it shares a turret with the parallax focus, the size differential helps your fingers distinguish between the two without looking. No more accidentally cranking your illumination when you meant to dial parallax. Small thing, but thoughtful.
The Gen 2 sports improved glass over the already-impressive Japanese ED glass in the original. And the difference is subtle but noticeable.
The eyebox remains unforgiving. At high magnification, you need to be positioned correctly or you’ll see that black edge creeping in. But that’s physics—high magnification means tight eyebox. Given the price point, it’s not bad.
Side-by-side, the Gen 1 initially appears brighter. But look closer. That “brightness” is actually haze and warm tinting. The Gen 2 offers superior color balance and significantly higher contrast. It’s the difference between an older LCD television and a modern OLED—darker darks, details pop more, and the overall image feels more refined. The Gen 1 was never bad; the Gen 2 is just better.
Arkin changed the landscape for budget precision optics. Before the EP5, getting Japanese ED glass, legitimate tracking turrets, and PRS-ready features meant spending north of two grand. Arkin brought that performance to the rest of us—the ones without tech money or sponsor deals.
The Gen 2 continues to improve on an amazing scope. Same price point. Better glass. Incremental ergonomic improvements. Improved customer service. Is it perfect? No. The eyebox is still tight. But for the money? Nothing touches it.
