Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Ryan McBeth" channel.

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  2. Nonsense! Woke up dreaming of eating a cat from a Penthouse Pet. Thankfully, it was just a nightmare involving a needy model, don't want to relive that waking nightmare again! Had feline in my mouth before, damned cat actually stepped in my loudly snoring mouth. Why and how mystified us both, both of us equally grossed out. Me, got litterbox du foot, cat got a mouth full of saliva, so we were tied on that debacle. Well, except that the foot couldn't digest my mouth, the same couldn't be said of the poor cat's foot, who was utterly unwilling to lick that foot clean for good reason. Yeah, had an interesting life. Did I ever mention that I really hate interesting and prefer boring? Oh, shall I discuss that this blood libel is over a century old and barely retread over anti-Chinese immigration from the railroad construction era? I've not heard a new idea come out of the GOP in decades, everything is a century old or older. Literally, just changed a few stickers, apply the same libel to a new group. "They're stealing our jobs!" Yet, oddly not a single one of them wants to sign up for minimum wage and muck out the industrial henhouse the size of a large warehouse full of chicken shit. Not. A. One. Did it with my own small henhouse. Which is why I don't have chickens now. Next up, Nativist Riots requiring artillery to suppress them.* *Two incidents, Philadelphia Nativist Riots resulted in a number of dead, including responding militia and involved rioters stealing artillery to destroy Roman Catholic churches (Irish Catholic immigration wave at the time). The other, Big Army shelled the Bowery to suppress rioting.
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  12. Deuterium doesn't have a half life, it's stable. Tritium half life is 12.3 years and usually is in a pressurized tank inside the warhead that can be swapped out, with only a small amount used, as both nations use lithium deuteride for the fusion stage, which neutrons from the boosted fission primary fission the lithium into tritium. Lithium is a weird element... There are a number of common failure modes for nuclear weapons. The high explosives degrade over time, especially in the presence of ionizing radiation. The same is true of the electronics. Tritium does need replacement fairly often to maintain purity. Helium and hydrogen embrittlement is a problem in both the fission stage and the storage container for the tritium. Corrosion, yeah, but that's why the plutonium and uranium are plated with gold (typically). When the Soviet Union fell, only one military portion received adequate funding, the Strategic Rocket Forces and their boomers (sort of, on a highly limited basis for fully operational boats). The stockpile dedicated for anything beyond limited tactical strikes likely did atrophy though, both due to corruption and lack of funding, as maintaining nuclear anything is damnably expensive. And was a high priority for the US to maintain, as proved by the saga of fogbank. Code name for a polystyrene foam that the DoD literally forgot how to make and needed to replace, as it was crumbing over time. It was to be replaced with a more modern aerogel component, but that component wasn't functioning at all, so a crash project ensued to figure out how to make the old component, see what made it work and replicate it in the modernized version. That mushroomed into a 200 million dollar program and eventually, the issue was traced to a contaminant that made the x-ray laser actually work, as that was critical to the ablation system (this is all open source information). The laser is hugely inefficient, bad enough that Teller hung his hat on it being made efficient for his SDI contribution and destroying his and LLNL's reputation at the time, but was sufficient for inside of a confined, excited warhead and was eventually replicated in the new aerogel and now being actively incorporated in updated warheads. Very important, utterly critical, entirely forgotten, it was so critical for us, Russia suffering economically fared worse, I'm certain. So yeah, it's an open question on how many lower priority warheads would actually function, rather than splatter a few pounds of plutonium at the impact site and maybe a half ton of depleted uranium as well, the enriched stuff not weighing in all that much and still fairly long half life anyway (seriously, if you enjoy mineral water, it comes from wells that frequently have uranium leeching into them from the granite bedrock, folks, welcome to earth, didn't like that fact, maybe your ancestors should've stayed inside of the battlestar). So, where we stand now is China vs Russia some years ago, where Russia laughed at "China's Final Warning", thousands of which being issued without action, we're getting dozens now of "Russia's Final Warning", while observing their paper tiger burst into flames in action. Paper tiger also being a term Russia used about China's military. And Putin is an egomaniac, but not stupid, he's not about to launch and accept his family and nation glowing in the dark. Like me, he has a gun and knows not to grab the end the hot glue comes out of.
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  18. The funny thing is, everyone gets their panties in a twist over radiation from a thermonuclear warhead and that isn't the greatest threat. Most of the radiation is in the fireball and well, if you're inside of the fireball, you've got a whole hell of a lot else to worry about - like being incinerated. Fallout from a modern warhead is typically fairly low as well, as most are set for air burst to maximize destruction by heat and overpressure, figure around a half ton, most of which will decay in around 12 days, most a lot sooner. But, that overpressure and heat, that is the destructive parts, think concrete wall moving at the speed of sound, with negative pressure between pulses, plus the fireball that well, is hotter than the surface of the sun. That's one hell of a pee-pee smack! Broken gas pipes, which the pulverized buildings help by adding fuel, the word being firestorm. Firestorms aren't any fun, we're talking about getting pulled into the fire from more than two blocks away. Most deaths will occur from carbon monoxide poisoning from the firestorm, well, those who weren't ground into dogfood when their building collapsed on them or had their window glass shred their body. Suffice it to say, I have intimate knowledge of how a nuclear warhead works, as I worked on nuclear missiles as my first MOS. I call them what they are, products of the insanity factory. The problem is, if one country has them, well, we'd damned well better have them too, lest oh, nuclear blackmail occur, which is precisely what's being attempted. Trust me, trying to blackmail me is a really shitty idea, not known for enhancing one's chances of survival. And realistically, I'm old, banged up, not in the best of health, so life in prison or the death penalty aren't exactly a deterrent. So, what does it take to launch any part of our nuclear arsenal? One telephone call from POTUS, his identity confirmed by someone in the line of succession and in possession of "the biscuit", the magical boom-boom code phrase of the day that POTUS and others in the line of succession possess (typically, it'd be SecDef). Target selection via the SIOP. No magic buttons, no red phones, a secure telephone is all that's needed. The "Football" being only used while traveling. If traveling, the Football comes along for between times, like while they're setting up the portable SCIF (yeah, they have one that converts a room into a full grown SCIF in kit form, pretty cool, looks like a royal gonad crusher to set up. Apparently, Dick Nixon was drunk a lot toward the end of his Presidency and had actually ordered North Korea nuked. His Chief of Staff sat the orders on his desk and said, "We'll see if he still wants to do it in the morning, after he sobers up". Yeah. Oh, for the record, I actually hate nuclear weapons with a passion. But, we don't live in an ideal world, so we're not going to have ideal solutions to our problems.
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  47.  @MA2-o2l  it seems as if you're thinking that their primary weapons would be neutron bomb class weapons, but one doesn't require gaseous tritium to boost the primary, cryogenic tritium also would more than suffice. Especially true given the use of neutron generators to time a neutron pulse to accelerate fission initially. For neutron bomb class, one simply substitutes the tamper casing, changing over from depleted uranium to aluminum, lead or even plain iron to provide tamper ablation and pressure, while being less neutron absorbing to an extent. The fireball itself and the explosives would absorb a fair amount of the primary neutrons anyway, hence why an EMP infrequently (especially in "super EMP" class) as the fireball essentially eats the neutrons. The weapon core is a bit like Las Vegas, what happens in the core stays in the core, at least radiation wise. The weapon's primary purpose is basically a supreme air heater, so the heat and shockwave do all of the dirty work, save with EMP devices that utilize the gamma pulse and neutron bombs, which bombard the local area with fast neutrons to neutron activate and penetrate armor. As gamma doesn't travel well through the air, oxygen especially ionizing easily and blocking it, that leaves neutrons which have limited range and activated metals tend to be short lived isotopes, which finally leaves the old fashioned nuclear and thermonuclear effects of shockwave and thermal pulse. Since the primary is of a limited low yield device, boosting provides much of the energy to help complete fission of the primary core and it again, is of limited yield, basically enough to compress the secondary that has the higher yield, up to half of the yield of the weapon, the tamper being the final stage and providing the final half yield, at a cost of making the bomb dirtier. Regardless, as I recall, the typical size maximum I've seen in tritium dewars and flasks was only in the 100 - 500 ml size. As for Russian functional devices, I'd anticipate moderate degradation of their functional stocks. Their strategic, high priority warheads being the highest in reliability, their countervalue designated, moderately degraded in reliability. Adding in attrition of malfunctions that are normal in missiles, I'd estimate around a 50% failure rate at most, minimum of 35 - 40%. After all, everyone wants their dacha in the woods...
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  68. I always loved the "The Military-Industrial Complex" and the knee jerk, "There's no such thing". No, there is. They're called defense contractors, they specialize in contracting for the DoD. They don't specialize in fast food, they don't specialize in making luxury cars, they don't specialize in a field of medicine, they specialize in areas specific to the DoD. They're also not some evil villain living under an erupting volcanic lair. Their business specializes in DoD, just as a plumber specializes in plumbing and not hair dressing. As for MICE vs RICE, I prefer RICE. Reward isn't always money, it can be possessions, favors, power, hundreds of things that are no or minimal financial cost, but not available to the prospect. Snowden was ego, I base that upon actually meeting him during a DoD wide response to a compromise throughout the SWA AOR. Wouldn't have remembered him, save for the ego, while possessing only mediocre talent, but was excessively proud of his degree. Stuck in my mind and when his face flashed on the news, yeah, came right back to me. Agree though, his FSB handler should've been given a medal and promotion. For the "guests" that appear, well, they gain stature in their niche and hence, Reward rather than money. Many conflate money with power and influence and they're different things. One can influence with a few casual words. Money can buy some power, but remember the lesson of OJ. OJ went on trial for his life, expending tons of money and ending up the poorer for it in the end. Oliver North lied before Congress, got caught perjuring himself, got his own shows for his trouble. North didn't have much money, but he had power in knowing people and events. He never needed a trial.
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  76.  @Chuck59ish  Boston and Halifax, tied and true forever. Boston sent help to Halifax after the port explosion in WWI pretty much leveled their waterfront and have exchanged gifts fairly often since. Frequently, it's where Boston's official Christmas Tree comes from. I served US Army from 1982 - 2019 (end of year). Dealt with a few red book incidents, not a lot of fun, but came with the job. Trained with one East German officer on an exchange program that slipped through the cracks, as he was former Spetsnaz. Recognized by both insignia worn and well, the last time I saw him, he was aiming a Makarov at me. We were patrolling a rifle range firing line, saw each other at 25 meters and mutually froze. I reached for my old low rider holster, he reached for his, neither of us wearing one of those models at the time, due to our mutual duties and uniforms. I said, "Look, we were both doing our duties, it's over now". He responded, "Da". Do my immediate left was one firer, who literally dropped his rifle, rolled over from his prone position and looked at me questioningly. He was our Slavic language interpreter. "Sorry, but you don't have a need to know". He shrugged, returned back to his firing position. Out of all enlisted, he went out with my group for drinks. True story. Shit gets weird at times, but we're all doing our jobs and if improbably recalled to duty after retirement, I'd still kill him if I had to. And no, people. It's still classified. I'll probably get shit saying this much. But now, I'm old and ill, so life in prison doesn't have that much of a threat to me any longer. But, experiencing and getting to survive to talk and write about history, as it is written, well, it... sucks.
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  111. He's totally right! That's why Patton lost WWII. Lacking air superiority, the Germans overcame the Allies during the Battle of the Bulge, slaughtering all of the allies and shortly after, nuked New York city. Oh wait, despite no air superiority, tanks did cover the day with infantry cover. Survivability onion, I'm reminded of an M1 Abrams that was killed by a newer model RPG that made one big sensation in Iraq. One shot, right between the idlers, penetrated the hull, entered the crew compartment, the jet grazing the loader, killing the tank by the jet hitting the "brain box". They junked the tank, not due to critical damage, the CPU box could've been replaced, but to dismantle the hull to analyze the failure and damage done by the new model warhead. A good movie illustrating tanks penetrated and remaining in use was the film T-34. When asking anyone about combat and warfare in general, pretty much the absolute last person in the universe that I'd ask is Elon Musk. He's got zero military training, zero military experience, but somehow is an expert in warfare? He's invented nothing whatsoever, codeveloped one website, "earned" his fortune by inheriting an emerald mine, bought everything else and hired experts in those fields to develop things, but did precisely what Liberace did - be mediocre in everything, save being a showman. Might as well also ask for treatment advice for my Crohn's disease, which is also something he's got no training or experience with - or maybe DIY brain surgery. I can kill a tank in a number of ways, such as a mobility kill - damage the drive enough that the tank can't move. Now, it's a bunker that's well, not as strong as a bunker. I can firepower kill a tank - damage optics, gun, loading system or ammunition storage enough to prevent utilization of the weapon(s), it's a huge metal box now, can use it to ferry supplies on top and inside, the weapons are useless. I can k kill, a wee bit harder on anything not Russian, as Russia insists on putting the blammo inside of the hull with the crews - any major hit that puts thunder, fire and brimstone inside with the blammo and blam! The hatches turn into flaming jets, might lift the turret off, the crew is decently cremated instantly, the tank is now junk. Anything less and one can kill the entire crew and scoop out the cremains and shreds, minor repairs and the tank is back in business.
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  124. Lightning isn't much of an EMP, which is a regional phenomena. Geomagnetic storms are also regular occurrences from solar outbursts, thankfully nothing like the Carrington event, but still plenty spunky and causes some hair loss in the load protection and management centers. Radiation, yeah, a few days and everything's fine for a fair bit of time outside. Give it two weeks, you're pretty close to background radiation levels again. New Orleans, kind of a poor example, when Houston would be more damaging to fuel infrastructure, as was illustrated a few years back after a hurricane hit there. AWS, Google and Microsoft cloud management centers, although a cyber attack would be just as effective and a lot cheaper. Another misconception is one bomb per target. For large targets, both CEP comes into play, as does the nature of a target. An air field needs multiple devices, with a military air field likely needing up to a half dozen devices to entirely destroy. Degradation vs destruction are also facets to consider. MAD becoming a component, what we'd get is what we'd send. Upside is, deployable warheads are quite limited compared to the height of the Cold War. Still, it's moderately likely my area would get some licks, as we've Chambersburg not far away and the area is dotted with DLA and NSA (Naval Support Activities, not the Puzzle Palace) depots, if things went toward countervalue. Slightly more likely, which remains extremely unlikely, a strike on a NATO member with a tactical device, which would earn a reprisal strike of a like nature. An analogy for that is, two prize fighters in a heavyweight boxing match, both having anvils in their gloves. Nobody's going to want to swing first, as they know a swing is going to then be coming their way. Circling back to EMP, due to the geology of the area I'm living in, whenever we get any halfhearted geomagnetic storm, my computers crash due to power spikes riding past my filters. For what I've got, not worth getting a saturable reactor to try to block those odd spikes. A data center, yeah, worth the expense of protecting, even a main office, a home office, yeah, not worth spending more than all of the computers are worth to protect them.
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  127. The "This is my first day at" one was a joke, saw it when it was fresh. People dutifully followed on with other ways to impress the boss... Mine being, "Don't forget to pour around the gasoline on the way out the door". True though on never push updates out on Fridays. You push them out as mandatory immediate at COB on a holiday weekend Friday, then pour the can of gasoline out on the way out the door. One thing that really didn't sit well was, those companies that had test groups and deployment staging configured in Falcon's updater found to their horror that Crowdstrike had overrode the client organization settings and pushed the update as mandatory and immediate. That went from one lead balloon to a Blitz barrage balloon squadron full of leaden balloons. I've used their software, got our organization out of a jam with a very longstanding APT attack that was ongoing for long enough that we joked that the APT was eligible for a retirement pension due to the amount of time spent within our network. Went from loggers with delays of 19 - 26 hours to instantaneous alerts and accessible logs, literally capturing one attack in realtime, buffering it in its entirety and leveraging packet captures, submitted their latest PE software to the FBI and DHS for submission to the vendors, halting a major attack on our network and apparently, a half dozen other organizations. Attack being via RDP and novel(ish) an ancient method being revived - buffering into notepad the binary, something I'd not saw since the Windows 3.11 days. I know about that one in detail, as I ran that one down and wrote the report on it. Downside, all it needed was a repadding and recompile and they'd be at it again, but that was long enough to get the behavioral software to recognize it and jam it up in IPS. A bit later, we found the entry point - a long forgotten, unpatched DMZ test machine on a multinational network. Once it went offline, the attack was over. All, a side effect of having a network that happened, rather than one that was planned. If I'm at BSOD, yeah, lemme click on that one. Gimme a minute to grab the disconnected keyboard and start typing in commands. JLOTS, reminded me of the Mulberry harbours at Omaha. And precisely like with the Omaha one, a storm came in and knocked the snot out of it, forcing it to be abandoned. Maybe next week, we'll try the charge of the Light Brigade... Circling back though, I'd not include the A-10 being eliminated in favor of fast movers with lighter capacity overall. For CAS, it'd be inferior due to lower loitering time, less rounds for the cannon and generally just ill suited in that role. It'd be like trying to revive the museum ship battleships to assume the role of a cruiser. They could sort of do it, just not very well in that role. Sure, you can try the new guy, but I'll stick with Frank Moses. ;) And don't tell me "it's old", the BUFF is even older, both run on coal, so what, they still work and work well in their roles.
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  131. Now, now. That wasn't an invasion, that was Russian troops going on vacation and their commanders generously allowing them to take their vehicles and equipment home with them on vacation. Remember that nonsense being press released from the Kremlin? Yeah, I agree about the Crimea part, started there as a test, we failed and well, one failed President that also ignored a pandemic encouraged escalation by Putin. You missed one other use of nuclear weapons, typically neutron bombs - area denial. Then, one channelizes adversary movement into a desired direction and area. Also, we've not used Cheyenne Mountain Complex for a C3 center for ages, the C3 center is now a standard office building and the old bunker is just communications switching for the most part. I've also ungently reminded some Russian stooges that only one nation in the world has ever used nuclear weapons in war. And that that country tested cobalt-60 releasing warheads first. And that countervalue strikes would be preferred to wasteful counterforce strikes, as Russia would run out of population centers down to village level before we'd run out of warheads, leaving the population depleted below survival levels. They attempted then to shift goalposts, counting large cities in the US only, upon which I reminded them again of village level raising the number from 1300 to 19000+ vs our number of cities exceeding the numbers of cities, towns and villages in Russia. They did the smart thing and went for a nice hot cup of STFU. I grew up in the Cold War, I trained and operated in the Cold War, much of my career specifically targeted at Soviet, essentially Russian forces. Diplomacy isn't saying nice doggy until you find a rock, it's saying nice doggy until you can pull out the gun and fire. And blathering veiled threats of nukes, ancient news and flat out boring, Putin ran off at the mouth at his supermissile we're not hearing about since it blew up its scientists and irradiated its water based launchpad, but he had during his brag sessions threatened to salt the warheads for port attacks, which would really foul US ports and coastlines - plus our largest population centers. I countered then with, the only reply is a full level countervalue response and between his missile blowing fissiles all over the place and such responses, he STFU. And as I've happily informed all readers that I live at ground zero anyway, I really don't give a fuck kind of set the tone, as I was born a week after Tsar Bomba. I'll definitely outlive Putana. Oh, one did suggest I'd discover Novichok, I reminded them that we have long had samples and a standardized detector, so the most likely outcome from such a thing would be a redelivery in a Russian styled gift package to a very inconvenient location, at a sensitive time, resulting in Russia having a really bad day from an inconvenient and usually troublesome part-ally. Because, we trained to fight dirty and think much farther ahead than they're used to dealing with. They really hate reply in kind with high explosive babushkas. Just to remind them that I remembered the bombs in children's toys in Afghanistan that they used.
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  142. I'm reminded of the Fukushima meltdowns. CNN had Bill Nye on to discuss when they were injecting boric acid into the reactors to prevent criticality. Bill, being a good engineer and generalist totally flubbed things, confusing cesium-137, a fission product for boron, a neutron poison. Now, on day one, that'd be a no biggie, not enough time to line up any consultants that knew a control rod from a fuel rod. After that, not exceptionally excusable, as people who worked on nuclear reactors were lined up around the block to talk about what was going on and were studiously ignored. Instead, they had "whistleblowers" that were crackpots or well, a mechanical engineer who once worked for Boeing on hydraulics discussing the physics of a nuclear reactor. With the efficacy of asking a barber about constitutional law technicalities. Better off asking wait staff, oh wait, I'm sure they would, rather than ask an attorney. Being right has a low return on investment to the MBA crowd, being first is what counts and well, we see what MBA attitudes did for Boeing's profit margin with the 737 MAX debacles. And the booze bottles in the under construction Air Force One candidate... Pity, as MBA types are invaluable within their fields of expertise, but lousy outside of their lanes, as are every other specialist around. You don't ask a network architect to fix your car, you don't ask your barber for legal advice and you certainly don't ask your attorney to remove your gallbladder, you go to the appropriate expert in those fields. Or do your own research and remove your own brain tumor. Sure that'll work out well. Although, one's next career would be as a second lieutenant/ensign. ;) I'll just get my coat...
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  158.  @chriswheeler6092  to be pedantic, we've not been officially at war since WWII. That was the last time Congress declared war. That said, one can't find very long periods where military action wasn't engaged upon. Hell, Yemen fired missiles at the Eisenhower just this week, missed, but they fired and they in turn received an unfriendly visit by Ike's jets. Above, there was a suggestion that only R&D and tooling was all that was needed, so that weapons could be built in time of need. OK, using that notion, we'd have no aircraft carriers built, so while our merchant vessels are burning and sinking, we'll have to build a supercarrier, combat aircraft, bombs and missiles, train crews, figure five years and we can respond. So, yeah, we need a standing ready force to respond in a sane amount of time. We also don't need an excessively large force that remains idle, as that's an insane waste of resources and funding. So begins the magical balancing act of well, human existence, balancing military readiness against available resources. One area Ryan skimmed over a lot on was WWII. That was a time of total war, the entire national economy was dedicated toward winning the war and that was true with all participants. Anyone thinking that remains true today via the mythical MIC, well, please show me a recent model Singer Sewing Machine Company machine gun, how about an International Business Machines machine gun? A pilot lamp company submachine gun company perhaps? All true in WWII, I've fired all three during my military career. Kind of missed that ancient grease gun... Nope, once the war was over, the demand of their rather novel product lines ceased and they went back to making sewing machines and adding machines and light bulbs for radios. There is a sizable dedicated defense arms and support corporate presence, there pretty much always was. Think that those ships build themselves? Think those M4's replace themselves sexually or something? No, they only fuck the folks they're aimed at and occasionally, their operators. Think those base showers fix themselves? Nope, they need contractors to electrocute troops in the shower, huh, bad example. Think those troops can run their own networks worth a damn? Trust me, they can't, they get top notch training, then become ComSec custodians and never touch the equipment beyond end user again. I know that last part from firsthand experience, as I offered to train them and give them an opportunity to do their jobs, but their commander declined, despite their desire to train in their actual military jobs and well, frequently, that turned into a retention issue that remains a problem today. So, we retain what we must to continue to conduct trade, keep our military ready to confront any adversary with current equipment, rather than as we did bloodily in the past, with obsolescent equipment and training, balancing that upon our available resources. It ain't easy. But, a truer thing was never said, "It's never easy". Otherwise, someone else would've already done it.
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  162. And his magical drones would have to fly a wee bit low. To detect alpha radiation, well, it's got a range in air of around 1.5 - 2 inches, gonna have to get a tiny bit low - inside of homes low, ramming into furniture low. Oh wait, maybe beta radiation, it's got a longer range and some nuclear components are beta emitters - oh crapmuffins, that's a whopping six inches. Plutonium and uranium primarily decay by emitted alpha particles, with plutonium emitting at a 3 - 5% rate gamma, which wouldn't escape the reflectors and tamper of the weapon case. Nukes don't generate gamma radiation in detectable amounts and again, we're talking a few feet if someone suddenly made a special gamma tagged nuke for no reason. A mythical nuke that would have unstable high explosives, long defunct tritium and oh, those were strategic missiles, weighed in at at least a half ton to a ton. And I actually have had my hands literally on a nuclear warhead. I started my military career in Pershing missiles. Thus far, the overhwelming majority of "drones" shown in videos online have been either passenger aircraft or helicopters. Most, requiring watching the extended video to see the autofocus finally overcome oversaturated sensors to actually focus on the point source that's the navigation lights. Then, one sees a tail stabilizer, skids, a canopy or wingtip beacons and tail logos. Telling though is the mythical warheads are from Ukraine, not any of the other republics. Who is Russia a bit miffed with this week and looking for an excuse to escalate to literal nuclear weapons - per Putin's own words? And no, they're also not mythical Soviet suitcase nukes, if they brought those into the US, we'd have done the same to them and we'd both have forests littered with really, really expensive paperweights that are toxic as all hell, with unstable explosives, as radiation and RDX are incompatible. That's one of the reasons for our bomb modernization program, the other being some other components that also have degraded.
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  165. We didn't call them charges on mortars, they're referred to as increments. They're typically smokeless powder, same thing that's in modern small arms cartridges. So, they don't explode, they burn rapidly via deflagration. Detonation results in a mortar tube becoming a pipe bomb. There are plenty of increment fires on youtube, where improperly disposed of increments catch a spark from the gun firing and catching fire. Fire bad around explosive rounds, says Frankenstein. Germany vociferously objected to US usage of shotguns during WWI. They cleaned out trenches quite efficiently. Disassembled, not so much, but short barrels equals wide dispersion of pellets, precision aiming just wasn't in the cards in trench warfare when inside of an enemy trench. But, at 100 meters, a shotgun's just weight to lug around. Great master key though. I don't get the question about ID plates from expended munitions. Does the questioner think that an enemy is going to order that part number for their own usage? Munitions are tracked by lot numbers and for some systems, serial numbers. It's nice to keep track of ordinance, it's even nicer if one batch is recalled and we have a serial number to say "yep, that goes away, it's recalled". Not worth the effort to remove plates before usage and well, the enemy don't know who fired what serial number bit of ordinance. Yeah, we didn't just train once and get stuck on a shelf. We trained, returned to unit, cleaned and maintained our equipment we trained on, train with the equipment, use that equipment, rinse and repeat each year in quarter year increments of each phase. The wider the variety of equipment one fields, the more crap you need to acquire and distribute to maintain and supply it. So, six models of tank means six models of tank parts and specialized munitions for each different type of gun used. It's called what it is, a logistical nightmare, as well as a training nightmare. As for doctrine, for much of my military career, the world largely concerned itself with two doctrines. NATO fighting doctrine and Warsaw Pact fighting doctrine, with small bits of North Korean to be a distraction. Across dozens of nations, it simplified things a lot and enhanced interoperability. That got honed during the GWOT by a lot. Warsaw pact is gone, but Russia remains, although to study performance thus far, I don't think that they know or train to any known doctrine...
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  171. Known currently. SecDef has prostate cancer and had an elective procedure that had some issue that became an emergency sufficient to earn an ICU stay. So, likely to clear, ahem, flow procedure, possibly ablation (several methods for that), possibly expansion, biopsy, etc. So, either obstruction or sprung a leak of red stuff, the stuff that when you run low on does that killing you thing. Or priapism. The latter, I doubt, as that typically won't land you in the ICU. The treatment will just make you think that you will. Now, you're POTUS, being asked about SecDef's Johnson... Do you really want to discuss Old Blue on your SecDef with the press, for starters? Now, it was an emergency, ambulance and ICU and all. So, there might've been some brief confusion as his deputy gets staged into position, comms get transported and set up, etc, but later that day, not so much, but you're still getting asked about SecDef's dick. While alluding to contingency matters in the NMCC and line of succession. Now, consider POTUS' age and faith, I really don't see him willing to have him or his staff discuss another man's salami. But then, I am a fan of Occam's Razor. Add in, it sounds like the emergency hand-off turned into a goat screw, yeah, tons of rug sweeping under. Especially considering, who verifies POTUS identity in the nuclear chain again? Major? Champ? Commander? SecDef? The Acting briefly in Puerto Rico without secure comms and judging by some concerned delay, perhaps forgot a certain biscuit during a time of high tension between nuclear armed powers? Yeah, the pastabilities abound, all reasonable and embarrassing and should've been handled better. And well, when you want to get out of the hole, it's a lot easier if you put down the shovel.
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  181. OMG, I was dealing with radiation all day! The damned bus wouldn't even try to use a radiation rejection system called an air conditioner "because it'd get too cold" as we hit near 90 degrees farhenhot. Seriously, I'm comfortable in 80 - 85, that was a bit warmer, I was actually covered with perspiration and was perfectly comfortable in Djibouti and Qatar. Enough said. Did get uncomfortable, badly when playing Santa Claus - oddly, largely for Muslim children. Light, heat, microwaves, radio waves are all electromagnetic radiation. Neutrons, what are they? Protons, who? Beta particles (aka really fast electrons, making grandparents CRT tubes embarrassed), huh? Alpha who? My skin blocks that shit, might as well verbally insult me, it'll hurt more. Gamma, no Incredible Hulk here, just, well, dead. Really nasty shit, ranging from knocking electrons up to super knocking them up and an electron and anti-electron get reproduced, totally bad karma for your cells in any way you wanna slice it. As in, what is that dead thing, Alex? Bananas, well... Argon balloon, lighter... OUCH! I was joking, dammit! An electron from a tritium particle hits a magical phosphor chunk, making it glow, so that you can see it, Ryan missed that. Can I get some Pu-238? If so, just drop it off with NASA, they're flat out of it. For personal collection, I'll be satisfied with a small sample of depleted uranium, hopefully encased in a wee bit of plastic to keep it safe from my radiation breath. While at the urologist, I was reminded oddly of the Davey Crockett missile. Mostly, due to the sample containers... Sir, you want me to shoot a whatlear whattle, just over there and then *what?!?!?!*, can you kindly urinate in this container, initial and date/time the sample? Because, you must be motherfucking high and I wanna see just what you're stoned on...
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  185. For most, especially IT students, it comes down to what one is comfortable using and also does what you need it to do. I could do all of the tasks discussed and more with my old Mac, alas, it was stolen during a move and I set some options to brick it. I keep one Windows system at home for specialty work and to read some medical equipment. Everything else is largely either *BSD or Linux. Each to its own strengths and abilities, as I'm fluent at the SA level on all. Might get a Chromebook, just for shits and giggles, but well, I can get pretty much anything to do what I need it to do, when I can't, I'll VM or remote into a bridge box I have to reach a machine that does that specialty task. Oh, for the record, my apartment's smaller. That means, if I shot a video, it'd sound like I'm videoing from the middle of a data center's server room. And previously, in a many hat role, I was base IASO, mail filter admin, antivirus admin, patch management admin, defacto IAM for the installation, web filter owner (I was the best out of automations at RegEx anyway), as well as requested and issued elevated access tokens. Plus command and staff, a few IA meetings a week and Shell Answer Man (especially when an organization needed assistance with a firewall modification request). Most of my work was conducted by scripts, stage a script to perform the task needed, check the script logs, massage any recalcitrant job(s), smoke cigarettes and drink coffee while the scripts did their jobs. I also owned all of the computer and user logon scripts and was consulted heavily for GPO modifications. I'm that prick that could give an accurate resultant set of policy result before the tool could. And yes, the sea did indeed part, but honestly, that was due to the DFAC's beans...
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  199.  @RyanMcBethProgramming  tipping my hat on the observation that an attorney couldn't be assed to read a constitution he was speaking about. One expects attorneys to be prepared and well informed on such things if they're speaking on them. Perhaps, you've found one former President's next attorney? I've noticed that you also do what I have frequently done in in person discussions about the vote, give the history of who was enfranchised first, as many have forgotten their school civics classes and foreigners are confused no end by our federal and state systems, being accustomed to strong central governments. Still, could Ukraine successfully run an election during this war in particular? Color me dubious, the chances of organized Russian interference and injected false ballots would be quite high. It'd be right up there with expecting a free, fair and valid ballot during Nazi occupation and we know who'd end up getting hailed. Back to civics lessons, recent online discussions, "Why did they bother to give this guy bail?", "Why is this guy even getting a lawyer for defense?" and worse, displaying pure ignorance on the contents of the Constitution, a document written in plain English and understood trivially by even Elementary school students. But, cutting school budgets and confiscating dictionaries from libraries are important for our nation's welfare. But, what would I know, I ain't got no brunging up. Oh, wasn't only Privates doing stupid stuff, after all, we had the Private of the Officer Corps to also tilt nipple to... ;)
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  203. I dunno, that one guy with a pro mask, every unit has "that one guy"... I was that other guy, the one standing smoking a cigarette inside of a cloud of RCA, shunting men to where I needed them and I'll feel irritated when I get the time later. Yeah, I was that prick that stood in a cloud of CS, CN, OC, whatever the lowest budget agent was that week and smoked a cigarette while directing men around to where they needed to be. Yeah, me and protests, I'll let somebody else be a soft target. I'll be bringing up the rear with a full case of beans, the Conventions be damned. Seriously though, that's always been a pet peeve on Hollywood crap, big badda boom, people go flying through the air in precisely the same way people don't fly, remain intact and yeah, nope. Loads of shredded and broken, tons of red stuff that the bodies are running out of, everyone's in shock as our central nervous system isn't constructed with extreme concussions in mind - as military medical science is finally discovering. The problem with tracers is, they work both ways. Blood, old medic's adage, eventually all bleeding will stop - react wrong, it'll stop the way you didn't want it to. Still, one other adage, "Don't get shot". The bodies in rooms, anything of intelligence value? As for war crimes, conducting war crimes is the swiftest way to find oneself in the midst of a reprisal, as the Waffen SS learned the hard way after summarily executing Allied prisoners. Another Hollywood gun is a lot newer, but we used similar for .50 BMG simulators, propane gas gun that has a spark plug to detonate the gas when the trigger is depressed. Then, there's CGI boom-boom-bang-bangs. Never ceases to amaze me on how quiet Hollywood guns are, as you said, shoot-em up inside of a room, end up with dead people and deaf people. Eh? MRAP, same with aircraft, fuel hungry beasts that eat spare parts for light snacks. The one area most frequently forgotten in films is, vehicles - armored or combat aircraft are fuel hungry as all hell. Hell, even Patton forgot that lesson and had to learn when his tanks exhausted their fuel until the fuelers caught up. The problematic White House assault is easy, Scotty fucked up with the transporter. That's why we said to never drink and beam. Damned senior officers always thinking that they're special... :P Whatever are you talking about with the sandbags? Every CSM worth his salt will want fresh sandbags, with fresh paint on both sides. Yeah, you know I had to go there. ;) The Beast is a tank that's disguised as a limo. Yeah, the hummer would've come apart like an opera singer at a rap concert. Current issue for Protective detail is the MP7, a wee bit of improvement over the 9x19.
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