History, Politics And Current Affairs

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Sat Jan 17, 2026 8:16 pm Been a while, but I read some-where that 'Dazzle' camo scheme was surprisingly effective against one of the two main types of optical range-finder...

But the Germans preferred the other !!

Correct- razzle dazzle worked against coincidence rangefinders but not stereoscopic.

To answer a question on Quora (how tiring were BISMARCK's rangefinders to use?) I found the following.

Page 69 for reference, the data is fascinating.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD0200796.pdf

The proposed site of the new Chinese Embassy is also 1 metre (metre!!!) away from a main fibre optic node leading out of central London.

Hmm, I couldn’tpossibly foresee a problem there.

More suggesting it's actually a supercapacitor: Here is everything we currently know about the Donut Lab solid state battery! The claims for their cells include: ~100,000 charge cycles Potentially ~50 million miles of use (!?!) 400 Wh/kg 5 minute charge time (~12C) Here is what I saw at CES: Displa...

No I'm not talking about little planes, I mean 500km+ transport for 100s of PAX. Yes, I mean ask him! That’s the end goal, he isn’t working on general aviation from what I recall. Sorry, missed this - haven't been on here much recently because the ICE debate is just getting too depressing. At the m...

Shit... Larsen AND Adams? Gary Larson, of Far Side fame, is still alive and sometimes drawing . He was born in 1950. Gary Larsen, defensive tackle for the Rams and Vikings, is also still alive, although probably not playing much football of either sort. He was a member of the Purple People Eaters. ...

Meanwhile we got a bit of wind around the back of the house one night, and I drove home from work in heavy rain.

Talk about highly localised!

Yes, that's like the Hummer III. Tough on the outside, standard chassis and mechanicals on the inside. What I think is more likely to be the Official TBO tank: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Carro_Leggero_3_35-001.jpg/1280px-Carro_Leggero_3_35-001.jpg Is that the flamethr...

Scott Adams died earlier today. Along with Gary Larsen, two elements of my formative years into early adulthood are gone.

Just don’t bring Tab Clear into it!

I’ve noticed that a lot of delivery drivers have developed the habit of simply leaving stuff on our doorstep. Without so much as knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell. As we’re right on the street that’s not great. Sometimes we only realise that there has been a delivery when checking our em...

warshipadmin wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 7:27 pm No I'm not talking about little planes, I mean 500km+ transport for 100s of PAX.

Yes, I mean ask him! That’s the end goal, he isn’t working on general aviation from what I recall.

warshipadmin wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:47 am I'm too well dined to work it out but at what point in Wh/kg does a battery powered passenger aircraft start to make sense?

Ask PDF27, that’s what he does as a job iirc!

As far as the Donut Labs one go, since first deliveries of products seems to be set for March 1st I would imagine that we’re going to be able to figure out relatively soon if the claims hold true or not. I should add, from Toyota they also had recently press releases stating that they will be enter...

Toyota filed a patent last week for a battery achieving 1000Wh/kg with a mental discharge rate and a charge time 3-100% of 5 minutes.

Something’s going down in the battery world.

Sukhoiman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 06, 2026 7:39 pm He did give an apt warning right at the start

I’m glad he did!

Nik, as soon as I saw the topic I knew a) it was you and b) you’d be tying my brain in knots! this is fascinating, thank you!

Sad news. I knew he had cancer but wasn’t aware it was pancreatic. Poor guy. I always enjoyed his work.

Happy New Year all!

...Dave Barry's usual December masterpiece. I don't care if you're Conservative, Liberal, or Raving Loony, this is funny . Mike https://substack.com/home/post/p-182456375 This shit is usually only funny when it’s true. It doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive however! (Can we borrow your raccoon pl...