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Sturgeon's House

Donward

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  1. Metal
    Donward reacted to Xoon in Competition: Californium 2250   
    Imagine a BV206, only that everything can rotate 360 degrees.  Like a excavator. 
    Because I am sure our superior drivers can cope with the sudden rotation of his workstation and sometimes complete lack of vision while guiding his vehicle through narrow mountain roads. No less should be expected. 
     
    In a way, the vehicle would be a turret on tracks. Kinda like this:

     
    Also, welcome Zadlo to the forum and this GLORIES competition, I am looking forward to your great contribution to the greater good. 
  2. Controversial
    Donward reacted to DIADES in Competition: Californium 2250   
    Remember, the Cascadians are ever trying to use asymmetrical warfare to sow dissent.......
  3. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from DIADES in Competition: Californium 2250   
    It sounds like someone doesn’t understand the spirit of the contest and needs to be sent to the Glorious Agriculture Camps in the Mojave Reclamation Zone for further spiritual enlightenment.
  4. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from Collimatrix in Competition: Californium 2250   
    “Bailing out”? 
     
    What sort of Wrong Think is this?
     
    Armor for our crew minions will increase their devotion to pushing on with the fight!
  5. Tank You
    Donward reacted to Toxn in Professional vs citizen soldiers   
    One of the interesting things about good books is that often their marginalia are worth a seperate look all on their own. I was reminded of this when reading Scheidel's "The Great Leveller"; which, in addition to being deeply depressing, also had a few interesting tidbits here and there on other matters.
     
    One that caught my eye was the point that armies were historically rather elite institutions. Less than 1% of the population would be on campaign in all but the most dire of circumstances, and the sort of men who made good soldiers in ancient times were by definition the young, strong and those well-resourced enough to afford at least a portion of their own kit. Our intuitions about ancient warfare are accordingly skewed by the comparitively recent emergence of citizen armies which peaked in the 20th century.
     
    Scheidel's other point here was that, in armies as in so many things, we're reverting to historical norms. This means that the slow proffessionalization of armed forces around the world is not actually a contingent or abnormal thing driven by external (read: polical) considerations - much as the return-to-conscription camp would like to believe otherwise. Instead it is simply a recognition that a modern, well-trained soldier wielding expensive and technologically sophisticated equipment, is an order of magnitude more effective than a conscript.
     
    Remarkably, there is actually some evidence from my country's own military history for just such a hypothesis. Here I'm referring to the battle of Kibati in 2013, where ~230 SANDF special forces and paratroopers faced off against ~5000 M23 irregulars. Thanks to our own disorganisation and the decay of our armed forces, there was not as much lopsidedness in terms of equipment as is usually the case. With more-or-less equal levels of equipment and no outside support (including heavy armour or air support), the SANDF forces killed 700 for the loss of 15. Even accounting for the inherent issue of attacking forces taking higher casualties, this still represents something like a 15:1 level of effectiveness per man. In the aftermath of the battle, the SANDF got its shit together and sent in a properly-equipped battalion with air support. Then they inflicted ~500 casualties for no loss.
     
    This seems to me like a pretty good natural experiment in how the tides have turned.
  6. Controversial
    Donward reacted to Belesarius in The interesting ship photos/art thread.   
    "Many people assume that the Panama Canal had a massive impact on the dimensions of warships in the United States Navy. While this is true, many do not realize that warships of the US Navy were also under a height restriction.

    Just as the Panama Canal influenced the beam of warships, the Brooklyn Bridge influenced the height of them.

    This is because of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This Naval Yard was so important to the United States Navy that it wanted all warships to be able to sail up the river and use it. This meant traveling under the Brooklyn Bridge and its 135' (41.1m) of clearance.

    This clearance influenced warship design for quite some time. Even some of the later super carriers were designed to be able to travel under the bridge. This picture shows the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CV-64) traveling under the bridge. She had a folding mast to allow her to travel under the bridge."  - Navy General Board FB.
  7. Metal
    Donward reacted to Scolopax in The Shipwreck News Thread   
    USS Wasp has now been located as well.
     
    https://www.paulallen.com/uss-wasp/
     
     
  8. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from N-L-M in Competition Suggestions   
    Nah. They'll just go the Egyptian/French route of giving their rulers all the same name.
     
    Her Benevolent and Serene Majesty, Queen Nancy Pelosi the VIII of the  Dianetic People's Republic of California.
  9. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from Sturgeon in Competition Suggestions   
    Nah. They'll just go the Egyptian/French route of giving their rulers all the same name.
     
    Her Benevolent and Serene Majesty, Queen Nancy Pelosi the VIII of the  Dianetic People's Republic of California.
  10. Tank You
    Donward reacted to DIADES in Overrated Allied Weaponry in World War II   
    Except aircraft are a hell of a lot more expensive than plate.  The British carriers were just not suited to operations in the Pacific which is fair enough, its not what they were designed for.  Regardless of any particulars of the ships themselves, their embarked aircraft were  generally inadequate - for a range of reasons.  War is always about doing the best you can with what you have.  My maternal Grandfather served in Indomitable - Hellcats and Avengers.  He was injured in the 1945 kamikaze attack.  The armoured deck is generally credited with saving the ship in that case.  He also got to see all the remaining aircraft pushed over the side when the war ended.  But I digress, if we are talking over rated or not, then context is all.
     
  11. Tank You
    Donward got a reaction from DIADES in Overrated Allied Weaponry in World War II   
    Again. There's the definition. Overrated does not equal "bad". I think both the Garand and MG42 both fall in the overrated category despite both being very good firearms for the time. The MG42 as we know still is serving today in various countries as the MG3/MG74.
     
    The Garand was a great rifle. I would consider it to be obsolete right now as a military firearm. Does any country still use it? And, no, it isn't even "functionally" obsolete like say, an SMLE Enfield or Mauser 98K or Mosin Nagant would be a functionally obsolete weapon in that some goat herder in the Stans might still have one on hand that he is able to make ammo for by hand in order to take pot shots at The Infidel. The en bloc clip in the Garand sorta adds one more bit of complication for this sort of guerrilla activity. 
  12. Sad
    Donward got a reaction from DIADES in Overrated Allied Weaponry in World War II   
    I'm kind of glad this little thread got resurrected for at least a little bit, if only as a reminder how superior most of the American (and much of the Allied) equipment was compared to their Axis adversaries. And even if there is a debate over whether a weapon was "overrated" it wasn't necessarily bad, and was certainly better in most cases than contemporary Axis equipment, assuming the Axis even had anything that was contemporary to it to begin with.
  13. Tank You
    Donward reacted to Domus Acipenseris in General news thread   
    https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admission-cheating-scheme/index.html
     
    Parents paid up to 6 million dollars to get their kids into college.  About 50 people were arrested on fraud charges.
     
    Some of it is absurd.  Ringers for the SAT.  Bribing coaches to recruit non-athletes who then suffer injuries once they step on campus.
     
    Whatever happened to just putting up a building Thornton Melon style?
     
     
  14. Tank You
    Donward reacted to LostCosmonaut in Competition Suggestions   
    I'd prefer 1940-50, since that would let us go with California's response to the previous competition, which is the general idea we'd been kicking around on discord.
     
    Or if we want to do 1930-40 I could make up some ORIGINAL CONTENT DO NOT STEAL about another chunk of postapocalyptic America.
  15. Tank You
    Donward got a reaction from DIADES in Competition Suggestions   
    #TOOSOON
     

  16. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from Belesarius in Ornithology Updates   
    Just shared this with Mrs. the Captain. And the wretched bird is peering over my shoulder as I type. 
  17. Metal
    Donward got a reaction from Lord_James in The UK Brave Space For Shitposting and Other Opinions Thread   
    Knife Crime Island is the official Sturgeon's House codename for the theater of operations that comprises the British Isles. 
  18. Sad
    Donward reacted to LoooSeR in The India-Pakistan shitstorm thred.   
    lol, India

  19. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from Lord_James in Movie tanks and terrible Vismods   
    Not sure if Looser'd but...
     

  20. Metal
    Donward reacted to Meplat in United States Gun Control Megathread   
    We may (very soon) get Constitutional carry in Kentucky.
    Keeping my fingers crossed.
     
    ETA-
    IT PASSED.  Kentucky has Constitutional carry.   60 "yes" , while 37 found freedom "scary".
  21. Sad
    Donward reacted to Belesarius in The India-Pakistan shitstorm thred.   
    Salty.
     
  22. Funny
    Donward got a reaction from Lord_James in North Korea, you so crazy!   
    Getting this thread warmed back up again!
     
    Vietnam deports Kim Jong Un impersonator ahead of summit
    https://nypost.com/2019/02/25/vietnam-deports-kim-jong-un-impersonator-ahead-of-summit/
     

     
     
    Howard X, whose real name is Lee Howard Ho Wun and lives in Hong Kong, was deported because officials said his visa was “invalid.”
    He said he received no further explanation — and claims he was kicked out of Vietnam because the real Kim has “no sense of humor.”
     
    “The real reason is I was born with a face looking like Kim Jong Un, that’s the real crime,” said Howard X.
     
     
  23. Metal
    Donward reacted to EnsignExpendable in Scale Models Megathread   
    Aaaand it's done!
     








    Full album
  24. Metal
    Donward got a reaction from Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect in Fuck What Anyone Says; Violence to Chickens is Both Entertaining and Wholesome   
    Chick-Fil-A Commits To Using 100% Born-Again Chickens
    https://babylonbee.com/news/chick-fil-a-commits-to-using-100-born-again-chickens
     
    So this is probably the reason why Chick-Fil-A chicken is so bland and tasteless.
     
     
  25. Controversial
    Donward got a reaction from LoooSeR in Cats Have A Shitty Taste In Music   
    Y-Oooooow!
     
     
     
     
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