Here it is, all you need to know:
The US Air Force has itself a new toy… a 2,000-pound GBU-31/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb modified specifically to be a ship killer. In a video just released, one of these bombs, droppable by an F-35, whacked a cargo vessel and basically snapped it in half like a Twix. Whether it would do that to a proper armored combat vessel is less certain, though it’s pretty clear it wouldn’t do the ship any favors. The “Quicksink” bomb uses a combination of GPS and a nose-mounted radar seeker to control tail fins in order to put itself directly on target.
If you look closely (it helps to put the video on 0.25 playback speed) it looks like the bomb doesn’t actually hit the ship, but instead hits right next to it, going off kinda underneath the vessel. This creates a shock wave that pushed the middle of the vessel up, and creates a bubble under the vessel that doesn’t support it when it bends back down, thus Twixifying the ship. When the mist clears the vessel is already largely below the waves. Before the strike you can see what looks like a pretty healthy discharge of water near the rear of the ship, perhaps indicating that a bilge pump is working overtime to keep a leaky old vessel afloat. Possibly not the most representative demonstration of use against a modern military vessel, but for sinking crappy freighters, perhaps just the thing. European governments could make do with bombs like this in the Med and the Channel to deal with their ongoing seaborne invasions.
Rocket Lab launched an Electron space launcher today… and caught the booster with a helicopter. The recovery did not go to plan however; reportedly the dynamics of the helicopter/rocket system was unusual and the pilot of the helicopter released the rocket. It seems he must have done so from a low altitude, as the booster survived splashdown and is being recovered and returned.
As elegant as a SpaceX landing? Nope. Better than anything else out there? Yup. The more the merrier when it comes to recoverable rockets. I’m sure Rocket Lab will figure out the problem and work to correct it. That’s how *good* engineering is done. The payload was apparently successfully delivered to orbit.
Ah, the good old days…
And this one from just about two months before he died… you can tell that he was at about the end of his game:
If this is true… boy howdy will the fallout be *amazingly* entertaining.
ENGAGE LOKI MODE
Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows
If true, this could well result in the Democrats seizing further control in November, since they will be able to use this to fearmonger. In any event, politicking in the next few months will be energetic.
Man, I wish I could invest in Libs of TikTok.
MASHUP! Pro-abortionists are losing their minds over the thought of not being able to kill babies. pic.twitter.com/0oqFZyMpu5
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 3, 2022
Previous footage showed a little drone dropping something akin to a grenade, doing damage to soft targets. Here’s one apparently kerploding a *tank.* WTF??? It drops *two* bombs, so it’s clearly not one of those dinky camera drones, but something bigger, but it still seems like a whole lot of bang for the buck.
Russia Will Quit International Space Station Over Sanctions
12-month notice, it seems. Kinda curious what Russia thinks they’re going to do in space on their own. Team up with China, maybe?
A photo-illustrated article on some of the feline survivors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you’re a fan of cats… prepare for a “Jurassic Bark” sort of response.
Saving Private fluffy: how Ukrainians rescue pets and zoo animals from war
Horror footage shows moment Chechen commander killed while boasting about victories
He’s jabbering away, filming himself with his cell phone …
… when something comes zipping in and explodes right next to him. The moment of the explosion is not captured well, as you would expect with a millisecond-moment on a crappy cell phone… but what is caught – badly focused, motion-blurred, jarred, etc. – looks like we’re seeing this guys soul being sent directly to Hell:
Neato. A Chechen fighting for Russia to invade another country? Hell would seem an appropriate destination.
Note: I saw the video yesterday, but durned if I can find it again. Oh well.
UPDATE: link to the video after the break. I have also put three frames there… “normal,” “uh-oh” and “transporter malfunction.” Seriously: modern pseudo-Star Trek *loves* horrible things and horrible people; I’m surprised I haven’t seen horrible transporter screwups. If they decide to do such a thing, that third frame could serve as a template. A disturbing template.
Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine – to find they’ve been remotely disabled
Nothing locks up like a stolen $300,000 John Deere combine shipped by Russian invaders to Chechnya.
What would be best would be if these stolen vehicles could go on some sort of Killdozer rampage. Or just burn themselves up. But turning themselves into bricks is a nice start. Sure, the thieves will simply take them to a chop shop and make some money on the spare parts (something Russian farmers are going to need since doubtless John Deere customer support is likely thin on the ground in Russia these days), but they won’t do near as well as if they’d had functional equipment.
Maybe don’t steal things.