Comments

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

FuglyDuck, to world in Biden invites Trump to work together to lobby Congress on an immigration bill as both candidates visit border
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Because Trump wins as long as you don’t “get it done”. Stop acting like the turnip is a rational actor motivated by what’s best for the country. He’s not.

Also… we don’t need “tough” border control. We need more immigration judges and resources for courts so they can process people faster, get immigrants and migrants seeking asylum processed and legal faster; so they’re in and out of the system and productive members. we need a legal and effecient path to citizenship. (or at least, green cards/work visas.)

FuglyDuck, to world in Big Fat Missiles To Take Down Big Fat Russian Planes. How Ukraine Brought Back Its Massive S-200s.
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

I was gonna go with fucked, but that works too

FuglyDuck, to world in Big Fat Missiles To Take Down Big Fat Russian Planes. How Ukraine Brought Back Its Massive S-200s.
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

So if missiles are phallic…. (And let’s be honest, they rather are…)

What does that make Russian planes?

FuglyDuck, to world in Violent riots erupt at UC Berkeley over Israeli speaker
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

here is the only other article commenting on it. Which, that seems to be a UC Berk student-run newspaper… they’re not on MBFC.

in any case, from that article, it seems to be the only mention of possible violence. the article only says that:

… During the protest, the group chanted messages like “Long live the intifada,” “Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go” and “Killers on campus.” The crowd marched from Wheeler Hall at 6:00 p.m., to Zellerbach, where they were met by UCPD.

By 6:30 p.m, protestors had crowded side entrances to the building.

Officers struggled with the group at a side door of Zellerbach, one of them pushing a protester. UCPD officers stationed in Haas Pavilion moved towards the main entrance at 6:40 p.m. …

though, here’s a statement from the other side of things:


The Hillel further noted that they are supportive of the University holding the “disruptors” accountable “for their actions and destruction of university property.” …
“Breaking windows, intimidating students, and inciting a mob are never acceptable and have no place in civil discourse,” the statement read. …

Note that, the way I read it, it’s a general statement of “don’t be violent”, and it doesn’t sound to have been particularly violent. I imagine if they did in fact break windows, we’d have seen lots and lots of photos of that (in OP’s article.)

FuglyDuck, to world in Incredibly, The Russian Air Force Has Lost Another Rare A-50 Radar Plane
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

2nd, but they ostensibly had 7 in active service. the Ukranians shot another already; and chances are there’s some that are being used as parts donors for the others and so are unable to fly.

FuglyDuck, to world in Incredibly, The Russian Air Force Has Lost Another Rare A-50 Radar Plane
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

So… has Russia started resorting to the stock piled Capiseen 38 engines?

FuglyDuck, to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Dude. We learned the basics in highschool physics. There’s been enough leaks that the public has enough knowledge to piece it together.

It’s not the knowledge that’s hard, it’s the getting the materials without attracting attention.

Even then, things like the effects of exoatmospheric nukes aren’t classified. It’s kind of hard to classify something that affected Honolulu from past its horizon (Starfish Prime was about 9 deg. Above Hawaii’s horizon; and posed a massive interference in the electrical and communications grid,)

You can’t hide in space. And you really can’t hide a nuke detonating.

FuglyDuck, to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

You’re completely ignoring the rest of what nuclear weapons that we have designed, tested, and are far more powerful because thermonuclear weapons are just more directed energy than you can fathom.

Thermonuclear weapons, which have existed since the late 1960’s to early 1970’s change the entire battlefield and you are currently ignoring anything larger than the fission bombs that we dropped on Hroshima and Nagisaki.

Thermonuclear bombs… are directed energy weapons now? They’re vastly more energetic. I’ll grant that. But they still bombs. they still detonate in an explosion. lets just lump neutron bombs into here as well. Oh, and by the way, most H-bombs are initiated by a fission device that then triggers fusion of deuterium or tritium;

Further, the Starfish Prime test which I’ve already linked above was a W49 Thermonuclear bomb. (Specifically modified from a Mk 28 Y1 warhead to fit onto a Thor ballistic missile.) So it’s patently ridiculous to say I’m ignoring h-bombs.

it’s also patently ridiculous to say I’m ignoring your singular source (which is a science fiction YTer), while outright dimissing and ignoring my own sources provided. Granted, it’s mostly wikipedia. I like wikipedia as a high-level starting point. The pages are all very well sourced themselves, if you’re curious.

You’re a goddamn idiot that refuses to look at sources. Congratulations you just proved to all of Lemmy that your takes are nothing more than lies, or propaganda

says the guy whose sole source is a scifi YouTuber, and who doesn’t even recognize the distinction between a directed energy weapon (aka a laser, among a few other things) and thermonuclear warhead. Please, continue being insulting. It’s okay, I can ignore you.

FuglyDuck, to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Nope, I didn’t watch the video, and after your little rant, don’t actually think it’s worth my time. Particularly the part about “normal layman’s understanding.” Lay off the condescending attitude.

Let’s start with some basics. A nuclear weapon is, essentially an uncontrolled, run-away nuclear reaction. The blast wave is creating by the interaction of the EM release with whatever is around it. In air, it’s an explosive blast wave, as the air turns to superheated plasma and suddenly starts expanding.

In vacuum, there’s nothing and it’s pretty much mostly just an EM pulse- there’s still plasma and stuff, but it’s a lot less, so the EMP is far stronger than the physical blast wave.

The energy released from that is mostly in the blast and shockwave, about 50%. In atmosphere that is incredibly destructive. In space, far less so.

Roughly 35% of the total energy release is in the form of heat. We’ll get back to that.

Around 5% is ionizing radiation- though that’s higher in a neutron bomb, with another 5-10% in residual radiation.

That is what we’re talking about when we say “nuclear weapon.” You might be inclined to include Project Excalibur here, it compared to an EMP blast, it’s overkill for what it would kill, and I’m not convinced it would be precise enough to hit something the size of a minivan- or a water melon.

Even the nuke-pumped xray lasers suffer from basic physics- the vast majority of its energy is still released as in a typical nuclear detonation. The lasing media lasts just long enough to convert a small fraction of that into a laser. It’s soul advantage is being able to engage across line of sight.

Such a device is simply not an ASAT weapon, and in any case, remains purely hypothetical.

If we actually start making the types of warheads that will be useful in space, rather than eliminating an entire city, and wasting most of the energy, we can easily mount those warheads on already existing weapons platforms to shoot down any satellite or spaceship with a nuke if we want to.

  1. See the definition of a nuclear explosion.
  2. A nukes energy is extremely difficult to contain never mind control. It literally vaporizes things near enough to it. In space, “near enough” becomes a lot smaller
  3. The closest thing humanity has ever built to a “spaceship” is either the ISS, Skylab, or Mir stations and the orbital transports like the shuttles; the Soyuz, Dragon and Apollo capsules. Are you seriously suggesting nukes as a means to attack any of them?

If they launch ships, we can make nuclear warheads that we haven’t made specifically for space combat that won’t go boom so much as transfer as much energy as possible, to totally overheat and destroy the ships.

What fantasy do you live in? Warships in space aren’t a thing. Because they’re too expensive, too vulnerable and too useless. Russia is absolutely not deploying a space navy.

As I’ve been trying to say this entire time, Putin is trying to launch nukes to use the EMP to knock out the hundreds of western satellites that are in orbit above and around Russia.

To take out satellites, it wouldn’t take much of a nuke, a single Starfish Prime test was only 1.4 MT, and would wreck havoc on today’s orbital infrastructure.

FuglyDuck, (edited ) to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Alright, lets get some perspective here. The largest-anything we have in orbit is the ISS. it’s also the only thing that’s both permanently in orbit an manned in space. (the capsules necessary to shuttle crew and supplies are the only manned thing.) the ISS is about 350x240 feet.

For comparison, it would happily occupy about half the flight deck of the Gerald R. Ford super carrier. (which measures 1,092 x 252 ft).

even a strategic nuclear warhead wouldn’t be able to reasonably hit the ISS. or any specific satellite- it’s designed to targets the size of cities, not targets the size of your mom’s minivan. Even deep inside the Earth’s atmosphere, you wouldn’t use a nuke to take out a carrier group, nor a single carrier. They’re expensive, relatively rare, and baring some sort of wonky russian logistics failures, any military in the world that has the capability of launching a nuke at all; has the capability of fielding anti-ship missiles.

Nukes tuned for a giant explosion are not so great at pumping out EMP’s (EMP’s are seen as an unwanted byproduct because that’s energy that’s not going to the big boom.) nukes that are tuned for EMP bursts have weaker explosive power anyhow. They’re very effective at knocking out un-hardened equipment across broad stretches of orbit. Which, incidentally, is now the kind of thing Russian needs in an ASAT weapon. With Starlink microsats being a thing now; they can’t afford to use missiles to take out individual satellites, and it’s very hard to harden a microsat against that kind of attack. (and the starlinks, for example, are disposable anyhow.).

But it’s not the explosion that’s doing the damage. it’s the EMP burst (that was originally an unwanted side effect.)

And just for the record, if this is an ASAT weapon… we, uh, already have the capability. (a RIM 161 Standard Missile 3 was used to “decomission” US 193 which had failed shortly after it’s launch. (it did have a shitload of hydrazine on board… but, it was a convenient time to test the SM-3’s ASAT capability.). I doubt very much that we couldn’t put a tactical nuke onto that platform and get into space. (actually, I doubt very much that it wasn’t a somewhat morbid consideration in the ballistic missile’s development. even if nobody is going to admit that. it was developed as part of the aegis missile defense system.)

Now, as for far-future-battle spaces, I suspect everything will go in one of two ways. Probably both, actually. Project RHO has a lot about all of this. ignore the 90’s website design, lol. But they make the case for massive orbital installations. there won’t be anything like ‘fighters’ or even manned attack craft. I would add, the other way things might go is “disposable”. I.E. things that people accept will get destroyed, and designed to be cheap enough so that at least some will get through defenses.

I suspect, that IRL space combat is going to fall into the “lol, wut?” category, at some point. largely because of the economic costs of actually fielding an “effective” military is just ridiculous compared to how effective such a military force in space will actually be. A bit like in the Dune series with the spacer guild responding to attacks simply by refusing their services to that house (and effectively isolating all of their territorial holding.) Wars would be fought on and around planets without disrupting anyone’s non-military shit. because that invites retaliation.

FuglyDuck, to world in Hezbollah commander trains Russian drone operators in Syria for deployment against Ukraine
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Since we’re bombing shit any how…

Maybe we could spare one or two for that facility?

Or would that cross lines. “We have intel houthis are there too.”

FuglyDuck, to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

Explosives- even nukes- in space are kinda dumb. They rely on atmosphere to transmit the kinetic energy. Without substantial atmospheric pressure, they loose strength very quickly.

Which is why most ASAT ordinance is some variation of kinetic kill- shot gun shells or just big masses that smash stuff.

A nuke won’t be used for its explosion, but rather the EMP.

FuglyDuck, to world in US tells allies Russia could launch space nuke this year: NYT
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

There’s been some speculation that it came out to justify killing surveillance reform (ie nsa, feebs, buying location data and stuff from brokers,)

FuglyDuck, to world in AI hiring tools may be filtering out the best job applicants - BBC Worklife
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

wow. you must have some rather useful HR people…

FuglyDuck, to world in Putin gifts car to Kim Jong Un in sign of ‘special personal relations,’ North Korean state media reports | CNN
@FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

The entire roof is a fractal antenna. Hooks up to star link. The best Russian tech!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • fightinggames
  • All magazines