WTF: Russians reportedly shelling a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., news, nukes, politics, russian empire, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 032022
 

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on fire after Russian attack

A spokesman for Europe’s largest nuclear plant says the facility is on fire after Russia attacked the power station in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar.

“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram. “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.” Tuz told Ukrainian television that it is urgent to stop the fighting to put out the flames.

From the AP:

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on fire after shelling

Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz said.

A government official told The Associated Press that elevated levels of radiation were detected near the site of the plant, which provides about 25% of Ukraine’s power generation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been publicly released.

This map might prove useful:

https://www.windfinder.com/#5/47.0252/47.3730

Shows current wind directions. At the moment, the winds in the region of the reactor under attack are circling around a region in north-eastern Ukraine, then seemingly drifting south-east over Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran. If the reactor pops, the Caspian Sea is likely to get trashed. Tomorrow the wins is to be more generally easterly, but Saturday the wind will come down from the north and then hang a right straight over Greece. From then on it looks like the region of Greece and Turkey will get a constant flow from the area of the reactor.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 7:06 pm

And there’s confirmation that the Russians trashed the Mriya

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., history, news, politics, russian empire, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 032022
 

UPDATE: A better look, courtesy Russian state TV:

—————

Here it is, on fire. You can see the blue, yellow and white nose laying cocked at an angle.

Good job on deNazyfying the Antonov 225. Bah.

 Posted by at 4:19 pm

“Layman’s Terms”

 AARRRGH, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Meh., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 032022
 

“Ukraine is a country…”

One can argue whether VP Harris is a moron or not. But it’s pretty clear that she thinks that the people listening to her are at the very least monstrously ignorant. Of course, the possibility exists that she may be right: the interviewers seem thrilled to have her, and thus the listeners stand a fair chance of being like-minded; to be thrilled to be graced with the presence or “wisdom” of anyone from this Administration would be indicative of ignorance at the very least.

 

The full interview, if you want to subject yourself to it:

 Posted by at 12:06 pm

“And it exploded”

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 022022
 

Based on the timing, seems like they were about 1.7 miles from the second detonation. That kind of light from that far away probably indicates a pretty sporty explosion… thermobaric bomb of great magnitude, or a hit on an ammo dump. One person suggests the first explosion was nuclear; I would *guess* that the yellow-orange nature of the flash would argue almost immediately for a chemical explosion. A nuclear one – at least one measured in the kiloton range and beyond – should be white, perhaps blue-tinged, like a welding arc. If you see *that* kind of flash light up the sky… well, go perpendicular to the wind, then turn into the wind and get out of the fallout zone.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 11:42 pm

SLS, Orion: Nope. We can’t afford them.

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., I'm from the government, Meh., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 022022
 

Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild

…the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch—for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems—will total $4.1 billion.

…$2.2 billion to build a single SLS rocket, $568 million for ground systems, $1 billion for an Orion spacecraft, and $300 million to the European Space Agency for Orion’s Service Module.

…NASA will spend $93 billion from 2012 to 2025 on the Artemis program.

Gosh, If Only there was some alternative launch vehicle program that we could turn to that could potentially launch at a rate higher than once a year and at vastly lower cost…

 Posted by at 7:41 pm

Russia liberates Ukraine from big box home improvement stores

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Mar 012022
 

In Putins quest to save the Ukrainians from Nazis, the Russian military successfully bombed an “Epicentr K” store in Chernihiv, Ukraine, which is apparently the equivalent of a Lowes or a Home Depot (which means there are probably a gaggle of dubiously-legal immigrants lurking around waiting to get picked up for some day labor). So be proud, Putin-bots! Your Great Hero is proving just how valid his invasion is.

Russian attack of Ukrainian home-improvement store seen in satellite image

 

 Posted by at 11:18 pm

All the really cool stuff is too expensive or too far away

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, news, science  No Responses »
Mar 012022
 

2 monster black holes are headed toward a collision that will rock the fabric of space-time

The two black holes are designated PKS 2131-021 are spiraling towards each other. PKS 2131-021 is a “blazar,” a major source of a relativistic jet. The average distance between the two is about 50 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto… but the combined mass of billions of times that of the Sun means that the orbital period is about two years. When the two coalesce into a single black hole, the gravitational waves will resound across the universe. Should be a hell of a show.

Two problems:

1) This will happen in about 10,000 years.

2) It’s about 9 billion light years away.

Bah.

 Posted by at 11:08 pm
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