I’m gonna sing the doom song now…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, nukes, politics, russian empire, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 272022
 

Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, escalating tensions

The invasion of the Ukraine doesn’t seem to be the overnight success I suspect Putin figured it would be. So now I have to wonder if he’s thinking of turning the place to ash on his way out. The rest of Europe and the US may also be in the crosshairs. This would do Russia no good, of course. Nobody would benefit from Russia getting nutty with their nukes.

Except…

I wonder if the Chinese Communists would like to be the unopposed barbarian warlords sitting atop a radioactive pile of skulls? Somehow I suspect that they wouldn’t mind a crappy standard of living if *they* were in charge of the whole planet, trashed though it may be.

 

Fortunately, the United States Government is here to help:

https://www.ready.gov/nuclear-explosion

GET INSIDE

Get inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. Brick or concrete are best.

Remove contaminated clothing and wipe off or wash unprotected skin if you were outside after the fallout arrived. Hand sanitizer does not protect against fall out. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, if possible. Do not use disinfectant wipes on your skin.

Go to the basement or middle of the building. Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not a part of your household. Children under two years old, people who have trouble breathing, and those who are unable to remove masks on their own should not wear them.

Ahem. In the event a nuclear ᚠᚪᛣᚳᛁᚾᚷ bomb goes off near you, what you really need to worry about is social distancing. Not getting flash-fried or marinated in fallout.

And in the event of a major disaster, there are a number of things you should have at hand. But it’s curious that this government website seems to have forgotten a few:

 

Curiously only two references to “firearm” on the whole site:

 

 Posted by at 7:46 pm

Firing a Fliegerfaust

 aircraft, awesomeness, Crazy, history, rockets, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 272022
 

It’s more relevant than ever: home expedient man portable anti-aircraft missile systems. It is as yet undetermined how successful (or not) manpads have been at swatting the aircraft buzzing over Ukraine, but it’s likely a safe bet that solutions dating back to World War II are unlikely to be terribly effective. Nevertheless, as wonky as this thing is, it is undeniably entertaining as hell. The “fliegerfaust” was a late-war German desperation weapon designed to bring down low flying aircraft by launching a swarm of small unguided rockets. It is unlikely that this sort of thing would have *ever* worked against Shturmoviks or Jugs, much less against Hinds or Frogfoots… but it still seems to be unreasonably *fun.*

 Posted by at 3:44 pm

Antonov AN-225 Mriya: probably lost

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., history, news, politics, russian empire, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 272022
 

The Russians seem to have launched a strike on the hangar housing the Mriya.

Note that they don’t actually show images of the trashed Antonov. So until there’s a body, it’s still alive… but it looks bad.

As with a *LOT* of things being broadcast, use skepticism. Still, note the helpful red lines scribbled onto the screencap in the lower photos:

 

The Antonov company themselves have not confirmed the condition of the aircraft:

 

 Posted by at 1:31 pm

B-47/B-52 on Amazon: reviews, please…

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, history, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Feb 272022
 

So I’ve gotten word that my book “Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution” has been received by some people who bought it on Amazon. But so far, there has been only a single review posted there. If you purchased a copy from Amazon and have received it, I would appreciate it if you could rate and/or review it.

And if you purchased “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: Origins and Evolution,” why not rate and review it as well? I mean, come on… this sample of uranium ore has more than 1,400 reviews.

 Posted by at 9:29 am

Well, this should prove interesting

 history, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, russian empire  No Responses »
Feb 262022
 

An attempted coup in Belarus? If it fails… well…

 Posted by at 7:49 pm

That’s a big sheet of paper

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, drawings, history  No Responses »
Feb 262022
 

A recent acquisition is this Grumman general arrangement diagram of the EA-6B “Prowler” electronic warfare aircraft. It’s about three feet wide and fifteen feet long, and has been stored folded for many decades. In order to scan it, it needed to be converted from “folded” to “rolled,” otherwise it won’t feed through the scanner. This is not a problem; there are several techniques that will safely flatten out old, brittle, folded paper like this. Some people like to iron paper; my own preference, visible here, is to hang the sheet in a bathroom and run a good hot shower. The paper is permitted to get slightly damp; this softens the paper and undoes the decades of folding. The paper is then rolled around a cardboard mailing tube. The end result is that the paper goes from complex curvature to simple curvature, and feeds smoothly through a large format scanner. The sheet has undergone the flattening process, with scanning to occur soon.

In this case, though, something further and dire might need to be done. I don;t know yet whether the scanning company can scan something this long, and at 300 DPI, it’s something that can’t be processed with most image programs (there is a limit just shy of 30,000 pixels, or ten feet at 300 DPI). if they *can* scan it, then I hope to have them chop the digital image into two; if they can’t scan it… I’ll probably slice the paper into two. Not something I normally approve of, but there is a *wide* gap in the paper between views, so the diagram itself will not be at risk, and the value of having the image scanned and immortalized it probably more important than having a giant intact sheet of rolled-up paper.

Note industry standard scale reference near the bottom.

 Posted by at 6:58 pm

“Liberation?”

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 262022
 

Putin’s hilarious explanation is that Russia is liberating the Ukrainian people from evil overlords. I’m not sure how this helps:

That is, admittedly, a hell of an image. I’m honestly a bit surprised that with all that damage the apartment building is still standing, though I imagine it will have to come down. Add that to Russias reparations bill, I suppose.

 

 Posted by at 12:53 pm
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