Science and Technology
Miniguns
Back around the Civil War, a dentist name of Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling developed an idea for a weapon so terrible that it would end war. Cartridge-loading repeaters were in their infancy, but Dr. Gatling ran with the idea and came up with a gun using multiple barrels turning around a central shaft. As a […]
Venezuela raid – where were their SAMs?
Like many other ‘invincible’ entities, Venezuala’s defenses took a thrashing this last week. Seems we keep seeing these so-called battle-tested, best-in-class systems getting absolutely hammered – why is that? For the last decade, the Kremlin’s sales reps have been pitching the S-300VM “Antey-2500” as the ultimate shield. It was sold as a system capable of […]
Cutting edge stuff
Some interesting stuff starting to take shape. The world we know now… I wonder how much of what is cutting edge now will be considered cutely quaint in a few years. Starting off the show, Sweden is introducing what it describes as the world’s first 5th generation submarine. We know the F-35 fighter is 5th-gen, […]
Army going nukular
Ah, the old days when Jimmy Carter had been a nuclear officer but couldn’t even pronounce it. Well, the Army is getting into the nuclear business. Not with ‘special weapons’ (somewhere I have a photo of a Special Weapons transport truck driving by some clueless German anti-nuke demonstrators) although some of the heavy arty […]
New Gee-Whiz toys
Let’s open with a Happy Veteran’s Day to all! I am officially encouraging you all to ensure some lucky person has carnal knowledge of your closest vet today. Which, being you, should work out well. On to business. It’s a drone world after all. Who would have forecast few years ago that drones would develop […]
Saturday Shorts
Lot of quickies today. (If only…) The robbery at the Louvre was spectacular, fast, and over $100,000,000 worth was stolen in minutes. Interesting factoid has emerged since then – turns out the Louvre CCTV system is password protected, as it should be. But, as always, natural stupidity trumps any artificial intelligence. Their supersecret complex password? […]
No more magnetic catapults?
Think this may be an off the cuff comment, rather than a serious statement? President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an executive order that would compel the U.S. Navy to use steam-powered catapults and hydraulic elevators on new aircraft carriers. Trump has railed against the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults and […]
Drone killer
Anyone remember a much less expensive ’80s sci-fi movie called “The Last Starfighter”? Fun movie in which a kid from a trailer park discovers that the Space-Invader-type game in his trailer park is actually a recruiting tool for an intergalactic war when he gets recruited for one of the sides – and then becomes the […]
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