Hopfgeist

joined 1 year ago
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[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The craziest thing is that a single person can decide what the representatives can vote on, and thus keep the entire country hostage. In many civilised democracies, any faction (usually there are more than two) in parliament can introduce bills to be voted on. Which would make this whole thing impossible, because there clearly is a broad majority for a huge Ukraine aid package. But they don't get to vote on it, because a minority can demand that unrelated stuff get tacked onto the same bill. What does Israel (armed to the teeth anyway, and not currently putting their might to good use, losing what sympathy they might have had after the October 7 atrocities) and US border security have to do with Ukraine? You want to vote on those issues, too? Fine, introduce a bill and vote on them. Separately.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

They are going to build the Fuchs and the Luchs? The Luchs has ben decommissioned by the Bundeswehr and replaced by the Fennek and the Marder quite some time ago. It was, however, impressively silent. With all auxiliary aggregates turned off (but the main diesel idling), and rolling slowly on sand, it could literally tap you on the shoulder with its 20 mm autocannon before you would hear it. The Fuchs is just an armoured personnel carrier with no armament. Both are amphibious, which may become important.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

ebay is very international, and is also by far the greatest site for second-hand stuff in most European countries. I normally buy my used drives there.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

mixing drive models is certainly not going to do any harm

It may, performance-wise, but usually not enough to matter for a small self-hosting servers.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Mirnograd : the Russians hit 2 missiles from the S-300 air defense system. The police department was destroyed.

Is this a translation error? Did the S300 really hit two Ukrainian S300 air defence missiles? That would be an unexpected operational success. I assume a "with" is missing: "the Russians hit with 2 missiles ..."

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

I think you are spot on.

S300 are anti-aircraft missiles. Converting them for surface-to-surface use is very inaccurate. So they are not targeting specific civilian objects, they just don't care. If they aim them roughly at civilian areas, it can still be a war crime, and it is tactically and strategically mostly useless.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if

Neither would I. Just saying that "smoking at the workplace" alone won't suffice. Unlike in, say, a ~~fireworks~~ munitions factory.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Can transformer cooling oil form flammable vapour? Maybe, I guess, if it's hot enough, but I'm not sure. But when the transformer gets hot and explodes it may cause an oil spray fine enough to create a fireball, which may look similar. The first stage of a "proper" BLEVE is normally the "expanding vapor" cloud, which is visible as such, before it has mixed with air sufficiently (and/or reaches an ignition source) to burn and form the fireball. Then again, in smaller ones, and in the dark, the vapour cloud may be so short-lived that it cannot be seen.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not sure this has been the official "explanation" this time, but looking at it from a technical side, there isn't normally anything in a transformer flammable enough to be ignited by a cigarette, even if you could drop it directly into the cooling oil (which you can't: they are normally sealed). My understanding is that you need a sustained arc over several minutes of "normal" electric current, or several lightning strikes to heat up the oil enough to catch fire. That requires some major fault. I guess a suitable type of warhead could cause it eventually, but not immediately.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

What are we looking at? Incendiary cluster munitions?

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

They need more Gepards! They can do it with fewer shots, I guess. But even though slow and low, hitting those things with manually tracked FlaK is no small feat. Well done!

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Oh no, another red line! How many were there now?

Normally, the Russian air defense should deal with Tomahawks easily (they've had decades to prepare: Tomahawks are nuclear-capable, so it was a top priority to develop the look-down shoot-down capabilities of the MiG-31 and others), but the way it's been going recently I would give it a substantial chance of getting through to Alabuga.

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