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AdmiralTheisman

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Everything posted by AdmiralTheisman

  1. Wow, thanks for the excellently detailed answer and the easily comprehensible presentation! I appreciate it a lot as well as the linkage to the broader problem of describing military equipment.
  2. I don't know if this is an ignorant question or not since I know exceedingly little about small arms, or if this is the right place to pose it, but on at least some forums the M14 rifle is viewed as a bad rifle, while the FN FAL seems to have a positive perception. Why is the M14 so much worse than the FN FAL for military use? Surely they can't be that dissimilar, both being gas-operated rifles firing the same cartridge from what looks like roughly the same weight, and entering into service just a few years apart? What's better about the FN FAL?
  3. Strange. Thank you for pointing it out to me. I don't use Scribd much, and generally prefer DocDroid but it wasn't uploading there. I've uploaded it to Google Drive instead. From testing it the file is too large for preview but it does allow it to be downloaded.
  4. I am unsure if this is the right thread for it, but I recently found an online version for free of the book Les véhicules blindés français 1900-1944 by Pierre Touzin. So far as I know it is much utilized in citations of French armored vehicles from the era (wikipedia is jammed with it), and is an important book for French armored development. It is naturally, in French. I've uploaded it to Scribd as a private document.
  5. https://www.techniques-ingenieur.fr/actualite/articles/route-solaire-normande-electricite-51088/ >French ecological ministry says the Normand 1km solar roadway would produce 17,963 kW per day >Immediately forced to backtrack and then it becomes 767 kW per day >Actual production numbers come in and it is only 409 kW per day for 2017 >Efficiency is horrible and it would be better in the South but its vulnerable to heat and so it would literally melt >It cost 5 million euros to build and it'll produce 2.2 million kWh throughout its expected service live of 15 years, so 2.27 euro per kWh while French electricy costs are .19 euro per kWh. >But it gets even better, it might only last 7 years, amazingly there is "unexpected" stress and wear on the joints of solar panels on a highway Don't worry, solar roadways will be working any day now!
  6. On the topic brought up previously about push-pull configurations, but sadly off topic for the thread, why didn't four engined bombers use push-pull configurations to reduce drag? They wouldn't have the bailing out, take-off, center of gravity, navigation, and vibration problems that fighters had, and the 4 engine nacelles on a bomber look like they would cause a lot of drag that could have been reduced with just two push-pull nacelles. Just not worth it on a heavy bomber compared to a fighter? There seem to have been quite a few 4-engined push-pull aircraft in the Interwar but their designs cease almost entirely by 1935 after having trailed off after 1930.
  7. French armament 1940 makes the claim on pg. 94 that : ● Tank construction technology and Somua S35 tank The Somua S35 was intended to be produced in the USA but due to WW2 that never happened. All what the French learned about casting technology was transferred to the USA and that inspired more or less the turret of the Lee, the hull of the M3A1 and the Sherman general design. The conception/design of the future M4 Sherman is in fact partly inspired by these studies and French engineers were present in the US "Ordnance" during debriefing meetings in Washington beginning July 1940. But what is sometimes heard about the Sherman being directly linked to the Somua S35 is an urban myth. Is it known if there is any validity to such an assertions, that the Sherman was influenced heavily by the Somua S35? Frankly it sounds sort of like an attempt at face saving by "yeah we lost, but the silly Americans used our superior technology to build their tanks", but I mean, that's why I'm asking.
  8. Don't have any pictures unfortunately but I was reading a French document ( http://1951.polytechnique.org/URL/Launet_DCA.pdf) on anti-aircraft warfare and it reported that the French had a project to put a twin 90mm anti-aircraft gun on an AMX 13 chassis. Man the French loved that tank, its amazing all of the shit they tried to cram onto it. Ce matériel bitube de 90 mm résultait d’une évolution entreprise dès 1948 et qui devait aboutir à la définition d’un équipement en 1951. En effet la DEFA avait demandé à la Société des Forges et Ateliers du Creusot (SFAC), du groupe Schneider, par lettre du 17 septembre 1948 (44 94 ST/ART), d’établir un avant projet de «matériel de 90 mm DCA bitube sur affût automoteur à chenille», et dont la masse ne devait pas excéder 15 tonnes (9 ). La SFAC établissait alors un projet utilisant un châssis du char AMX 13 (10), mais ne parvenait pas à satisfaire toutes les spécifications. This twin 90mm gun resulted from a project undertaken in 1948 and which had an intended completion date in 1951. DEFA had asked the Société des Forges et Ateliers du Creusot (SFAC), of the Schneider Group, by a letter on September 17 1948, to establish a pilot project of a "twin 90mm anti-aircraft material on a tracked self-propelled mount", and that the mass must not exceed 15 tons. SFAC thus established a project utilizing the chassis of the AMX 13 tank, but this did not manage to satisfy all of the specifications. "Did not seem to satisfy all of the specifications" Hmm, however could that have been. Bonus: Finalement on renonça au début des années 60à l’un et l’autre de ces matériels, trop lourds et trop complexes. Certains les qualifièrent de «délire d’ingénieurs». Finally one renounced both of these equipments at the beginning of the 1960s, being too heavy and too complicated. Some people qualified them the "delirium of engineers".
  9. Normally I don't feel much sorrow from these events, but it is terribly sad that the Alexandrov Ensemble suffered such horrible casualties. They have such a proud tradition and have produced so much brilliant music, it is tragic that they've been so brutally winnowed. I can't imagine the difficulty they'll have in dealing with the grief of this and rebuilding seems almost impossible. According to Russia Today they lost the entirety of their choir except for three soloists...
  10. If I may inquire, is it known how the Japanese planned to deploy and organize these tank destroyers? Were they going to be ad hoc groups or small formations, or integrated into larger forces like their armored divisions?
  11. My personal favorite university president letter, dating from October 24th; She also sent out a letter about post-election affairs, but it was depressingly drab. She has a salary of more than $300,000 if I correctly understand.
  12. There is a thread posted there about post-election suicide prevention.
  13. http://greatlanguagegame.com I thought it was an amusing game and somewhat relevant, it is interesting to hear the differences between various languages. On the other hand when it gets to things like distinguishing between Hausa/Swahili/Telugu/Javanese it gets rather difficult…
  14. Loans in butter were acceptable in 16th century Europe; European history provides examples of international lending in commodities to add verisimilitude to theoretical discourse. In the 1520s Lubeck made loans to Sweden in kind, that is, in goods, and in the 1550s King Gustav Vasa made loans in both money and goods (Heckscher, 1931 [1953], pp. 213-14). The 1520s loans were repaid, as well as made, in kind, and in consumption goods including, in 1532, butter. A payment due in 1527 was postponed, as it happened, because the food gathered for the purpose in Stockholm was suspected of having become tainted (ibid.). (A Financial History of Western Europe, pg. 260)
  15. I hope that this is for others adding in with some of our own? I had posted this but then my normal tendency to second guess myself came into effect and I was giving myself thoughts about it being primarily for you to post seminars that you have collected. MIT has its own recorded courses ( http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/#history ), but there are only 2 in the history section, and they are significantly shorter than their Open Yale Courses equivalent, and they weren't even playing for me earlier… which is admittedly probably more due to me not upgrading relevant software than the actual course. Asia in the Modern World looks quite interesting; I haven't looked at the others in the same detail but they are available on . I also really recommend the already-mentioned Open Yale Courses' Global problems of population growth, which while not in the history department was a majority or at least a plurality devoted to historical matters, and which was my favorite course that I had watched there. And there was even one about France, so high praise from me!
  16. I think the Nantucket ones were the better part of the series for the Change ones, but it may just be a personal preference. A stranded remnant of modern civilization isolated in ancient times and fighting to both survive and to defeat its own sins is more interesting to me than the post apocalyptic society with the primary change being a lack of modern technology, not to mention that while I'm fine with the single magic element throne in - "The Change" - I had thought the vaguely pseudo-magic boogeyman they were fighting against from Montana? less palatable. I'm also unconvinced that nationalism would disintegrate to feudalism so easily, although admittedly in the shock and chaos I could see a reversion for a period of time. But provided that reasonable quality printing presses exist, universal literacy is possible, and is the bane of a feudal organization of society ultimately. I haven't read that side of the series in a long time and I haven't read some of the newer books at all though. I did like the earlier books more than the later ones. I have finished reading China against the Tides: Restructuring through Revolution, Radicalism, and Reform. In general it is a bit (maybe more than a bit) biased in favor of the Chinese communists and of the hardline Maoist period, but it did provide a comprehensive view of the evolution of CCP politics and policies, and PRC internal social and governmental structures. I also thought the part on Nationalist China to be intriguing for its analysis of its problems; some of what it says is backed up elsewhere (such as its tax policies, which saw most tax income come from industry and indirect sources rather than the landlords and the countryside, in addition to having a wretched financial structure overall), and some not, such as when it downplayed the Nationalist Chinese role in the war against Japan and lauded the Communist contribution. Admittedly, this could be due to the older publishing date of the version I read, from 1997, I vaguely remember something being said about the Western scholarly view over the Nationalist contribution becoming more rosy over time. Next I am either embarking on A History of Modern India, 1480-1950, or finishing Strategic Views from the Second Tier: the Nuclear Weapon Policies of France, Britain, and China. I also intermittently read A Storm of Swords, the third Song of Ice and Fire book. Downloading books I will never read from FreeBookSpot is also a pleasurable way to feel better without exerting any effort.
  17. Today I learned 18th century Chinese needed to work on their tiger drawing skills; (larger picture = http://i.imgur.com/qYX0VO9.png = from Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes) The paper I found it in - Kleutghen, Kristina. "Chinese Occidenterie:The Diversity of "Western" Objects in Eighteenth-Century China." Eighteenth-Century Studies 47.2 (2014): 117-35. Project Muse. - was actually very interesting and dealt with there being a similar "Occidentalist" craze in Chinese court culture as there was an "Orientalist" fixation in Europe, with interest in Western modes of painting and clothing, import of Western "curious things" ie. goods like mirrors, glass working, clock making, enamel working, spectacle manufacturing, tabletop amusements such as miniature perspective theaters, and the establishment of manufactories for their domestic production. Its fascinating that a similar phenomena occurred in China as in Europe, for an admittedly brief period of time, given that previously only Orientalism was explored and the Chinese are perceived as having rejected European goods as inferior - which they were in most cases, there was a reason why the only thing that sold was opium. But that tiger drawing was hilarious.
  18. South Africa can be added, and so that we can simulate the Bush Wars we can add an opposing faction with low morale, poor organization, bad training, inefficient planning, mediocre equipment, wretched logistics, and reliant on their sponsors for any successes, which will represent an excellent opportunity to add in Italy.
  19. Thanks for the responses to my query, it clears up why they were used instead of single engine fighters. The concept makes sense, even if I still find the idea of a 6-person and rather big medium bomber conducting strafing attacks like that rather funny.
  20. This is sort of only tangentially related, basing on this being one of the strafing bombers, but why were the twin engined strafing bombers of the A-20/A-26/B-25 types either successful or at least viewed as so successful in their roles? It seems as if having a twin-engined bomber doing work like that would be inefficient and they would be less effective in providing strafing interdiction and close air support than fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft. True, they had more machine guns, but surely the 6-8 machine guns of the average American fighter were sufficient for ground tasks, and having 12+ is reaching the point of diminishing returns? Or were their advantages stemming from greater structural strength enabling more sustained support operations, longer loiter times and more range due to more fuel, more eyes observing targets on the ground, greater capacity of ammunition, or reluctance of fighter pilots to engage in ground support operations? Or just greater general capacity, in that they would be able to bomb targets, but also be able to conduct prolonged strafing missions afterwards, and thus the addition of forward-firing machine guns simply represented an expansion of their general capabilities, without significant opportunity cost?
  21. May 4th, 1799: The second Siege of Seringapatam, between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company and the Indian princely state of Hyderabad, ends with the successful British storming of the fortress-capitol, achieved after a siege of around a month. British guns had achieved in opening up a breach, helped by mines, in a weaker part of the defenses, which was ultimately stormed by British troops. The result of the battle was the death of the Mysorean leader, the Tipu Sultan, who de-facto led Mysore in place of the Wadiyar dynasty. Following the battle, along with re-adjusting Mysore's borders, the British would re-install the previous Wadiyar dynasty, establishing a princely state protectorate. The ultimate effect of the battle was the end of a significant faction opposed to British influence, helping to secure British control over the southern part of India. While the extent of Mysore's challenge to the British is debatable (some of the books and sources I have been recently reading bout them take a very pronounced pro-Mysore stance, and in my opinion omit information to attempt to improve their case - ie. over-stating progress in the Mysorean navy's construction schemes by stating only their very ambitious construction goals without stating the actual progress attained, or ignoring military defections), they seem to have generally, at least temporarily under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, have been a surprisingly competent and capable force. It is of course easy to recognize the advantage of modern weapons and to attempt to acquire them, something most states during the colonial age succeeded in, the Europeans always being eager to make a profit and to throw a wrench into the gears of their competitors. However, the Mysorean leadership during the period seems to have had a much better grasp than most of the need for supporting institutional infrastructure behind such military machinery; that in addition to having troops with European guns, one also needs effective officer leadership and operational experience, military training, a local industrial base capable of producing one's own weapons, and that infrastructure projects and economic reforms (standardization of weights and measures, promotion of financial systems) are vital for providing the economic base for these armies - and that your helpful foreign "advisors" should be in general taken with a grain of salt; used, but not enabled to make themselves indispensable. While some books may make excessive claims upon the Mysoreans, claiming them to have been of a similar nationalistic fire as the French, and of the same industry and vigor as the Americans, they do seem to have been substantially more effective than the rather mediocre efforts vis a vis the British of the rest of the Indian states during the era. Of course, in the case of Tipu Sultan, this is in many degrees overshadowed by religious policy; a debate exists between two sides, one of which claims him to be a stern but fair leader between the Hindus and Muslims of Mysore, while the opposing one claims widespread depredations and discriminations against the Hindu population, as well as large-scale outright massacres in conquered states. It is possible that the second one may bear significant influence from the British, who were always very eager to discredit their rivals (as with all colonizers, although the British are probably the best at propaganda from the lot; it was standard operating procedure to portray local leadership as despotic/immoral/tyrannical/backwards/mentally unsound when they were a nuisance (and to portray them as time-honored/progressive/customary/morally upright/in line with the natural order of things when they were in line properly), Belgian policy against kings in Rwanda forms a good example), but regardless I would have to claim my lack of significant reading upon religious policy from academic sources as to avoid making a firm judgement, although claims about some of the contents of his diary which talked of the conquest of the world by Islam put him in a bad light by modern, western eyes. Also reminds me that I should re-read the Sharpe's Tiger, my vague memories involve only escaping some tigers and killing Tipu Sultan. Good romp, sadly the collection I had (most of the series!) was returned to their original bookstore many years ago, although the books are also available online. Reading on a computer is sadly distracting though. Tipu's tiger, which also could emanate mock wails of the soldier and growls of the tiger.
  22. (There is also an uncolored version, with sharper clarity) I thought that this work, by Frédéric Sorrieu, and entitled La République universelle, démocratique et sociale, is good illustration of the liberal-romantic-nationalist thought ongoing at the time of the 1848 revolutions.
  23. Thanks. Yes, I had liked the Honorverse and David Weber's works, there are some flaws with Mary Sues and the :not: British Empire in space winning eternally, but overall I enjoy Weber's works. The name I adopted a while ago for another site, and I recycle it intermittently for various uses.
  24. Japan also has, as I understand it, a low level of gender equality in work. This sounds a bit odd on the face of it, since traditionally the impression is that countries with more gender inequality would have higher birth rates; wife stays home and has nothing else to do but raise the kids. Before the 1970s, this was true; countries which had a higher level of female involvement in the work force tended to correlate with lower levels of fertility. However, since the 1970s this has flipped. Now, countries which have a higher level of female involvement in the work force also correlate with higher levels of fertility. A lot of countries previously noted for high birth rates - such as the Southern European countries, Italy, Spain, and Portugal - have now flipped, and have catastrophically low birth rates. Italy's TFR is 1.37, Spain's 1.32, Portugal's 1.23. These can't be easily explained by poor economic performance in recent years either, since their pre-crisis TFRs were, while somewhat better, still low. Portugal was 1.39 in 2008, Spain 1.45, and Italy 1.55. In general in Europe the North has a reasonably high TFR, while the South and the East has a low TFR. Germany is the exception with having a TFR much more akin to Southern Europe, which has been hypothesized for a number of different reasons, but generally difficulties for working mothers and a lack of supportable alternate family structures than traditional marriage are commonly cited reasons. In France as the example of a high TFR, there is the traditional family model with children, and the cohabitation model with children, while in Germany there is the traditional family model with children, and the cohabitation family model without children. France also has the mentioned better ability to integrate working mothers while still enabling them to have children, something the Germans have been less successful at. East Germany had a higher TFR for a while than West Germany from the 1970s on, with high levels of work participating for married women and child care facilities, and iirc East Germany recently surpassed West Germany in TFR. Note: The East Asian countries mostly correlate to the Southern European countries for similar fertility situations, which is why they're a relevant comparison. Japan also does have falling rates of sexual activity and a growing population not interested in a romantic relationship too, which I can't imagine is a good thing. Otoh, the same trends do exist elsewhere, even if they may be famously associated with Japan. The US slipped below 2.1 TFR, according to google we're at 1.88. Probably mostly due to the continuing economic crisis. France and Ireland are generally in the 2.0 range, sometimes they're above, sometimes they're below. Generally a bit below but its close enough so that when one takes into account immigration, and continued population increase as a result of youth cohort sizes they continue to grow. If one counts Turkey and Mexico as being part of the "developed world" because they're in the OECD, then they have a high fertility rate, as does South Africa. But all of those nations, despite being sometimes pegged into the industrialized world and/or with OECD membership, don't really have the level of developed countries in my opinion. There are also the oil-rich states of the middle east that can only be counted as "developed" for artificial means, so therefor I can't be bothered to look up their TFR. Israel has a high TFR as well, but that is due to special characteristics from various minorities, both Jewish (the Orthodox Jews) and Muslim, who have a high birth rate. Sometimes the argument gets brought up as France's high TFR being due to the Muslims, but from the papers on the matter that I've read, their impact is marginal. While economic matters do play a major part, concerning immigration it can only partially solve a population decline. Newcomers naturally age themselves, and so countries wanting to deal with aging problems require large numbers of immigrants. According to a UN report on the matter, the number of immigrants required would cause their population to reach to 50-99% of the country's population, something which is both politically impossible but also infeasible. To quote said UN report (an older report from 2001, but the fundamentals still apply) on the matter, concerning South Korea; In order to keep the ratio of the working-age population to the population aged 65 years or older at its 1995 level of 12.6, it would be necessary to have a total of 5.1 billion immigrants from 1995 through 2050, or an average of 94 million per year. This number is enormous because the initial level of the potential support ratio, 12.6, is relatively high. Under this scenario, the total population of the country is projected to be 6.2 billion in 2050, of which over 99 per cent would be post-1995 immigrants and their descendants. Of course, for the purposes of maintaining population levels, that is different, but under a successful assimilation model immigrants will eventually reach the same birth rate as the rest of the population, which from my recollection, is generally the case even with Europe and continual fears about immigrant populations there. The paper covering that is probably somewhere on my computer. But in general, while immigrant can blunt population declines, in the event of very low TFR, immigration can only have a limited effect concerning population decline unless if we're talking about huge population waves. Taking into account political issues, its infeasible to have immigration levels of the amount required for maintaining current population levels for many nations. I doubt Japan will allow in large waves of immigrants into their island any time soon. Germany has also seen a gradual rise in their TFR, although it is still far below replace rates.
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