bob sykes: All of the ship’s officers are fat women.
Handle: The cargo ship which rammed until and took out the Key bridge in Baltimore also lost power, but reportedly its electrical systems had been acting up for a while.
doclove: It is amazing no one got permanently mutilated, maimed or killed, and thank God for that.
VXXC: Things have changed significantly due to drones, especially in Ukraine, although it’s been building a generation. That men will not be fighting is an overreach. We have new tools, and that’s all. The best information and developments on this are the soldiers innovating on the battlefield themselves. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians have been very innovative. Death focuses the mind. The problem for the West, and for that matter the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and the Armor branches and...
VXXC: “The specialist dive and hydrographic vessel lost power and ran aground on Saturday evening while conducting a reef survey one nautical mile off the southern coast of the Samoan island of Upolu.” Lost Power? I’m not a sailor or ship power engineer. WTF lost power? My house has generator backup, along with triple internet and if necessary, a wood stove for heat. How are these ships losing power? Other than yes we get it…yes..but why are these ships losing power?
Jim: In his Order of the Day he claimed the Austrians had recognized ‘that we are only fighting each other so that the English can sell their sugar and coffee at a higher price’. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Phileas Frogg: Despite their obvious differences, one cannot help but note the similarities in the spirit of the moment: https://m.media-amazon.c om/images/I/61o0g+Hfb8L. _AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg History tends to underestimate a good salesman.
Isegoria: “The position overlooked a freshly dug tank ditch. The wide, deep ditch blocked the approaches to the valley. Next to the ditch was a large pile of antitank mines, concertina wire, and metal pickets. Davis’s company commander had told him that an allied engineer unit had dug the ditch in preparation for the arrival of the Americans.” (Yes, its suboptimal position is definitely an essential part of the story.)
Freddo: IIRC the tank ditch was an impromptu effort by an oil company engineering team. (And its suboptimal position of course an essential part of the story.)
Isegoria: I was immediately confused by the tank ditch out in front of the four trails, because my first instinct was to lure the enemy as far into a narrow trail as possible, before springing a trap. The front slope seemed too vulnerable. The rear slope seemed ideal, if we had long-range anti-tank weapons. I thought the deciding factor would be that we had numerous second-rate anti-tank weapons that would only be effective at short range, from above.
David Roman: I’m confused, who is the dictator here? The senile dude widely acknowledged to be unable to be left alone who will sit in the White House for three more months? Netanyahu, unable to win an election, hated by 80% of his electorate and driven to continue war only to save himself from jail? Zelensky, ruling without a mandate for a year now, as the textbook definition of a self-appointed dictator?
Gwern: The gag of quoting ChatGPT was stale 2 years ago.
Jim: Dan Kurt: “The tyranny of the IQ curve strikes again: too many of our youth are going to college.” Bookreading is in steep decline among all classes, cultures, and brain stratifications. We live in a society.
T. Beholder: Hmm. The straightforward is dangerous, but it depends on how well the enemy is prepared for a breakthrough. If those dudes were trained by Soviet “advisors” and actually listened, they may succeed. If they are not familiar with uses of armor other than as cavalry, basic field fortifications covered by a minefield may deter them from even trying if artillery support cannot do all the job. The reverse slope would work the best, but only if there are just the tanks and other vehicles, with very...
Will: It gets worse. Many universities are now creating programs, especially those online, in which they mandate professors are not allowed to use books in their classes. They must only use “open source” documents — and trust me, they do not use journal articles. Students find them far too difficult to read. We are also starting to see newly minted PhDs who grew up never reading, becoming college professors. Naturally, they do not assign books. Academia is morally broke.
Dan Kurt: The tyranny of the IQ curve strikes again: too many of our youth are going to college.
T. Beholder: It’s so much worse than this. Too many game designers make something that confirms their biases and never stop to question their assumptions. Too many game designers make something that they THINK will confirm their biases. Then never bother to analyze what actually goes on and why, until it turns out the result either does not work this way, or is broken outside their pet scenario. Nor even test extensively by people unfamiliar with their notions of how it “ought” to work. The best will...
T. Beholder: Introduction of field fortifications greatly changed the game in this aspect too. The infantryman can compensate for troublesome march with tenacity in defense. That is, the soldiers could run in the open, but as long as cover is not obviously useless, they naturally don’t want to leave it when the situation is bad enough as it is. So it may take much more of motivation to attack, but retreat is also inhibited. Of course, exhaustion on a march still matters. The first iteration of “Defence...
Alex S.: I also noticed that persons that are excessively social stop thinking by themselves. They look like they are part of an organism and not an individual anymore.
Isegoria, may you have a rational yet funny Christmas! ;-)
Thank you kindly, Borepatch. In fact, I’ll try to keep things rational yet funny into the New Year.
..and that’s why I come here often.
Happy coming New Year!
Happy New Year to you, too, Tatyana. (S Novim godom!)