History, Politics And Current Affairs

I'm not. It might be a European thing.

Oh Dear! AI models, created by stealing data, have targeted other AI models to take them over and steal their data.

Is this something we should condemn or encourage? I'm torn.

and

How Sad! Never Mind!

It's missing the companion book: The Dangers and Concerns of Moonlighting as an Exotic Dancer while in the Services Including such necessary chapters as: Matrimony Article 134 (104 Indecent Conduct) And You - How not to buy a Big Chicken Dinner Article 134 - Fraternization The IRS: Be Sure to Pay Yo...

It could be they have reduced piston ring contact pressure to get less friction That is my understanding. They're also using super-thin oil which I don't think bodes well for long-term wear protection. IMVHO auto companies are pushing so hard for squeezing out ever better mileage (with turbos, dire...

The largest fossil vertebra of Megalodon were originally found in 1978, broken in 1989, misplaced, relocated in 2017, languished in some obscurity, and now has some new publications. It confirms the previously reported diameter of 23cm, and thus provides more support to the extrapolated length of ar...

...Here's a thought - I know, it's gonna sound crazy but it might just work - how about REFUEL CERTIFYING A PILOT BEFORE YOU TYPE CERTIFY THEM AND SEND THEM TO A LINE SQUADRON??????? We've already killed one kid this way, we almost lost a few more on this. Mike I think they were being type-certifie...

...Here's a thought - I know, it's gonna sound crazy but it might just work - how about REFUEL CERTIFYING A PILOT BEFORE YOU TYPE CERTIFY THEM AND SEND THEM TO A LINE SQUADRON??????? We've already killed one kid this way, we almost lost a few more on this. Mike I think they were being type-certifie...

Prehaps Amazon got gunshy after blowing a billion on two seasons of rings of power. Honestly I bet if they refrained from major name actors (let's be honest, star power doesn't put butts in the seats like it used to) they could produce a decent series on a modest budget. I bet they revisit this in ...

So we wandered along to hear a bunch of show tunes (mostly opera and musicals), by 4 singers. Whenever they started belting the songs out fortissimo to my (adjacently professional) ear there was a lot of distortion. So is it when singers sing loud they introduce distortion, or do the audio guys del...

Is this more worth of:

"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody rockets today!"

or

"You've lost another one, Jeff?"

Tangential: US seems to pole-mount 'local' transformers, while UK prefers neat 'block-house' brick buildings. The pole-mounted kit is inherently more vulnerable to lightning strikes... FWIW, back in the days of 'B&W' TV when, beyond range of 'rabbit ears' on set, you needed an 'arms-span' of 'H...

I’m well aware of the issues with last mile service, having lived through my fair share of big thunderstorms, derecho and hurricanes. Spot last mile disruption restored pretty quickly is what I would expect to see. My point isn’t that those things don’t happen. My point is that you’re describing is...

It’s not that serious unless your power company has seriously skimped on maintenance, is a mass murderer, or both (cough, PG&E, cough). At least in the US, local utilities have both the authority and responsibility to trim trees necessary to protect lines (though homeowners are not advised to r...

Huh? How vulnerable to weather is your power infrastructure? Given that the UK routinely gets lots of nasty winter weather, your infrastructure should be pretty robust against storms bringing down power lines. Thunderstorms generally don’t cause massive blackouts from lightning strikes if you’re pr...

Or that it's a big pile of fairly homogeneous stone, in a pyramid shape, and placed on fairly solid ground. Plus a significant amount of survivorship bias, in that pyramids with structural problems under seismic loads would have collapsed in the past 2500-5000 years, thus not being available for stu...

FTA A significant drawback of the cycler concept was that the Aldrin cycler flies by both planets at high speed. A taxi would need to accelerate to 15,000 miles per hour (6.7 km/s) around Earth, and 22,000 miles per hour (9.8 km/s) near Mars. Delta V 17 km/s. that's about 1/3 the escape velocity of...

To add to the above, I haven’t been able to read the full srticle as it’s paywalled, but I saw the below snippet posted which is rather interesting. It suggests that the French have offered to transfer a hull built for the French navy to Sweden in order to accelerate the delivery process. That coul...

Neat idea, but in the era of supercomputers, is it useful? Belushi TD No, it's pretty much useless. It just says that he can predict whether the asteroid can cross both orbits based on early observation data. Since the orbits of both Earth and Mars are known to a fine degree of detail, as well as a...

The White Elephant class will take at least two years to design, and even longer to start construction. The next Administration will undoubtedly cancel it or convert the funding into something a bit more sane. If the Navy BuShips really sees it as a boondoggle, they can and will also slow roll it, d...

Micael wrote: ↑Tue Apr 07, 2026 5:10 pmMeanwhile:

The question is whether that's ignorance or stupidity. Ignorance can be fixed, even if she should be able to do the research herself, having a doctorate and all. Stupid is forever.