Here’s an impressive shot:
May 012022
May 012022
Very rare experimental 1913 Patton Saber for the US Cavalry
This saber was made by the Rock Island Arsenal with an additional feature not normally found on swords: a 1911 pistol. I can see this going kinda wrong, but I still kinda want to give it a shot. Clearly it was not adopted for use; it’s practicality is to be seriously doubted. I wonder if the people behind it made it hoping it would be a practical weapon, or if they did it purely as a conversation piece… or as a joke.
Apr 302022
This sort of thing is not new… I recall seeing drones like this being used like this in the middle east a few years ago. I imagine China is thrilled that they are unwittingly serving as arms dealers for the forces opposing Russia… and giving ideas to those who may soon have to face Chinese forces.
Also notice: that looked like it was, before the invasion, a pretty nice house. Russia will have one *hell* of a reconstruction bill when all this is done.
Come Back Alive fund showed work of Mavic 3 drone which they upgraded. (It costs only $3000).
The fund not only bought 17,000 body armor, 3,500 optics, 77 vehicles and more since 24 Feb but also created many IT and technical upgrades for🇺🇦armyhttps://t.co/o77FjneGq2 pic.twitter.com/u0RZqqTv9b
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 29, 2022
I suspect the bomb that was dropped was a fairly simple explosive, basically a hand grenade or small mortar round.For anti-infantry purposes, this works: the video shows one guy likely killed, another guy crawling away and then stopping, either injured or dead. What you *want* is a weapon that injures as many as possible, but not necessarily kills. The dead are dead… but the injured are costly liabilities, requiring resources and personnel to take care of.
But imagine if it was a shaped-charge warhead, perhaps taken from an RPG… and smuggled into a port city such as Sevastopol where cruise missiles are being loaded onto submarines. Poke a few holes in a surfaced and docked sub and boy, you might really make a mess. If you can penetrate the torpedo compartment (honestly, I suspect it would take a fairly massive warhead to do that, but who knows) or zap a cruise missile… scratch one sub, and block one dock.
🇷🇺submarine stroke Ukraine with cruise missiles. Reportedly this is the 1st time🇷🇺military used submarine strikes agst🇺🇦–Reuters
A satellite image collected this morning revealed the loading of probable Kalibr missiles on Kilo-class submarine in Black Sea Sevastopol port @Maxar pic.twitter.com/7n1CQR5GxJ
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 29, 2022
An armor-penetrating bomb would be useful for taking out tanks like this one that spent a good long while destroying a building that apparently had a number of civilians sheltering in the basement:
🇷🇺tank in Mariupol destroys residential building where ~20 civilians hid in basement; then, occupiers herd survivors in unknown direction
"A visual explanation why Mariupol civilians R afraid to leave basements, don't believe 🇷🇺 on safe evacuation from the city" – Azov Regiment https://t.co/2wyLwhdwcv
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 30, 2022
Apr 302022
The news out of China, in particular Shanghai, is just bizarre. The governments extraordinarily draconian lockdown just doesn’t make sense on the face of it. It seems nuts. But the video below presents a few theories that *do* make it make a bit of sense. The first is that Xi is simply stubborn, and that saving face – either of the man himself or of The Party – trumps reason. But the last theory is the most disturbing… and it seems pretty believable: the havoc and despair produced by these policies is intentional because it’s a test. If China invades Taiwan like Russia invaded Ukraine, the worlds response would be similar: an economic lockdown of China. How would China’s cities respond to suddenly no longer having income? When all the factories shut down and nobody is working, how bad will it have to get before the citizens rise up or die en masse? China is also hoarding food supplies as if they are preparing for something major.
Some people wonder why the West should give a damn about Ukraine. *This* is part of the reason why: if large dictatorships see that they can invade and conquer without meaningful pushback, they’ll do it again and again until they *do* get pushback.
Apr 292022
Casual Geographic explains succinctly and entertainingly why some species are more important than others. Spoiler warning: humans do a dandy job of wiping out those important species.
Apr 292022
The best of the Russian military seem to be getting smacked about by *farm* equipment. I saw these sort of vehicles all over rural Utah; they are great for tooling around farms, ranches, small towns. And now it seems like they’re great for mounting smallish anti-tank missile launchers and crew served machine guns and harassing million-dollar main battle tanks.
Ukrainian Battle Buggies Are Out To Kill Russian Tanks
They’re cheap, fast, maneuverable, cheap, maintainable/repairable and cheap. Being small, they’re probably a *little* hard to hit. And I’ve little doubt that rural Ukraine is as filled with them as rural Utah is.
#Ukraine: A curious buggy (all terrain vehicle) armed with a Stugna-P anti-tank guided missile was recently destroyed in the vicinity of Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast. Such vehicles are currently used by many Ukrainian hit-and-run and raid teams in the region. pic.twitter.com/6JW9FbDpLB
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 28, 2022
🇺🇦 mobile ATGM, 2x Skif and 1x Corsar pic.twitter.com/cDW1cGGbor
— Abraxas Spa (@AbraxasSpa) April 21, 2021
Apr 292022
The uncomfortably-named “Padraig Belton” who works for the BBC came to the US and forgot that the US doesn’t have British power outlets, so he went to WalMart. He reported on twitter his findings.
The whole thread is just filled with comedy gold.
— 🇺🇸 Aaron Harper 🇺🇸 (@AaronHarper78) April 26, 2022
There are times when I really, REALLY miss Utah. Where the local grocery store sold ammo and magazines, but if I wanted pistols, shotguns and AR-15s I’d have to walk all the way next door to the Ace Hardware.
Apr 292022
So this 16-year-old decides to steal a car. While being chased by the police, he decides the thing to do is to bail out of the passenger side… while the car is still going at a pretty good rate of speed, with the result that he’s spun like a ragdoll. At the time he was wearing a neck brace due to an injury he’d received from a prior car theft escapade. He has apparently *several* recent arrests related to car theft.
So, the question: what good could come from this fine young gentleman ever being released back into society? Can any valid argument be made for something other than permanent incarceration, deportation or execution? Is there any possibility that someone with this combination of criminality *and* mind-boggling stupidity ever contributing positively to society? Or would the community and the gene pool be best served by him being removed from it before he could do more damage?
In the process of bailing out he let his car continue down the road unmanned. Passing over the median and crashing head-on into another vehicle, potentially killing people, is a very real prospect. Consequently, IMO he should be charged with attempted murder. And since I see no reason to be lenient with *incompetent* murderers compared to successful ones, I see no reason why he should avoid the maximum punishment meted out to murderers.
Apr 282022
Both Russia and the US seem to be afflicted by it, whatever it’s called.
Apr 282022
HOTOL was a 1980’s/90’s British Aerospace idea for an airbreathing SSTO spaceplane. As with all such designs to date, it came equipped with a heavy load of optimism; physics, however, does not care about your sunny worldview, and like all other airbreathing SSTOs to date, the design simply could not be made to work with existing materials, propulsion systems, politics and economics.