Toxn

'Why Americans lose wars' thread confirmed.

Pretty much. He was/is in good company though - people lurve them some made-up history.

I'd say the most retarded ideas are currently transhumanism, modern naturalism and (related) conservative environmentalism. But that's personal preference.

He had an economic theory that he felt explained broad historical trends and could be used to map the future of society. Further, he believed his theory allowed one to identify and work towards an ideal society where humans could be their happiest. In terms of being retarded, that's right there with catholicism, libertarianism, neoliberalism and the Washington concensus.

Eh, I wouldn't say anemic - it's producing intermediate cartridge levels of energy and probably has great penetration. Its just that anything blackpowder looks useless compared to a smokeless equivalent.

Standard threshold dose response curve: I think this should be the default assumption for radiation exposure.

Hmmm... given that velocity and around 2kj of muzzle energy, you end up with a projo weighing 11.93g (184 grains). Which results in a 7mm lead bullet something like 4-5cm long in order to pack in the mass. So, yeah. Not doable. Edit: doing some more rough maths, a long-ass 7mm bullet will weigh something like 8-9g (I used an approximation: 3cm total length, 2cm tube + 1cm cone. lead mass = ~8.8g). Best case scenario, your SCHV 7mm round produces around 1450J at the muzzle. Edit again: just realised that the cartridge I'm describing is essentially a warmed-over .303 (original recipe). For reference: ~14g (215 grains) bullet, ~4.5g (50 grains) powder, ~564m/s(1850 fps) velocity and a muzzle energy of around 2200J.

Speaking of blackpowder small arms, does anyone have a good idea about the maximum velocities obtainiable? I've heard that practical concerns limit the calibre to around 7mm, so I was thinking of what a SCHV blackpowder rifle/cartridge would look like.

Hormesis fits with what we know about biology, and handily explains why some areas with naturally high background radiation levels don't have higher levels of cancer.

A bomber, showing off bomb bay and wing racks:

The FL-01 'Mingo' Experimental spaceplane: Production models are slated to come in white, pink and hot pink camo colour schemes.

Finally, something small arms-related I can be interested in!

Perhaps the God of Infomercials exists in the form of an unholy trinity? Technical Father, asvertiser Son and credulous Spirit?

Hwang Woo-suk as one of the nine forms of the great demon of hubris and scientific fraud. The ninth form shall, according to our texts, be revealed upon the start of the great battle of the holy unified theory. There it shall decieve many of the righteous and lead them astray, before being slain by a particularly well-written article in a peer-reviewed journal.

Norman Borlaug as god of fertility and agriculture. My personal religion has him returning to the earth to drive out the hippy, cleanse the anti-GMO, return the sacred funds of research and double yeilds on all major food crops.

The great god Thomas Midgely: god of terrible but personally profitable fuck-ups. And also politics, plumbing and infomercials.

Pull a Lockheed and lower the price on paper, while making sure the manufacturers come from every province of Kerbalia

It even sucks in pilots trying to bail out. Truly the complete package...

More thoughts on the report: One issue I can see is that it envisions near-peer competitors who refuse to operate their own awacs and distributed sensors (but have stealthy supercruising jets). Surely any competent adversary expecting a deep strike by the U.S. is now sticking IRST systems and radar sets all over the landscape in order to nullify the range advantage provided by the stealth boat/drone swarm approach? Adding to the above (and per my ongoing obsession with drone spam), wouldn't one approach be to simply saturate the air environment with cheap, disposable assets in order to confuse and overwhelm the lesser number of missile boats your opponent is using? Finally, I wonder about the use of anti-stealth (as in: a bunch of hard-to-kill targets designed to suck attention away from your quieter birds) as a means of levelling the playing field and degrading an opponent's sensor capability.

For you old South African military buffs, here is a nice shot of the Pretoria silo, where a third of our nuclear arsenal was stored (the other third being held at Cape Town and Bloemfontein): Here is an interior shot of the lower portion of the silo, taken a few years before the 'disassembly' process was begun and we 'retired' our fleet of Long Tom III ICBMs: Of note is the rotary magazine system (not shown), allowing three ICBMs to be rapidly launched from the single, armoured launch tube. Here is a picture of the launch tube cover plate from above, taken after the conversion of the silo into a 'monument':

Further Olifant sightings - this one was successfully destroyed after an extended battle in the area around Van Reenen: Soldiers, when interviewed, described the battle and its associated carnage as "appalling", and "可怕".

Olifant tank, seen in the process of invading an exhibition and crushing a display: The brave soldier seen on the roof was killed in the process of trying to hurl a grenade down the open hatch. The MBT then went on to squash ten bystanders and mount a T-55, before retreating under heavy fire.

Here is a recently-surfaced photo of some of our brave boys conducting an exercise near Dullstroom: Rumour has it that, after the completion of the exercise, the lads all headed into town to try the famous trout pies and beer. Good show!

Having conclusively proven that the Olifant is the best (and most terrifying) MBT ever released into the wild in a tragic move for which we all suffer on an continuous basis, I thought that interested parties might like to know some more about recent military developments in South Africa. First off: here is a picture of the SAS Thabo Mbeki (our recently acquired President-class carrier) seen entering Cape Town harbour: The South African Navy, who obtained the vessel for what has been described as a 'suspiciously low' price from an anonymous third-party vendor, are reputedly very happy with the increase in long-range striking power that it provides to our armed forces, along with the freshly repainted finish. Another new development has been the recent acquisition by the SANDF of a large amount of 'surplus' equipment. This has begun showing up at army exercises, where it has proved popular with the troops: Note the light-weight rifle and snazzy sunglasses - two items especially appreciated by our hard-working lads. Other recent equipment purchases - widely praised for their 'made-in-China affordability', have been focused towards filling specific niches which have become apparent over the last few years: Finally, the SANDF is proud to introduce a new line of MBTs to our existing fleet - the Iphisi Main Battle Tank: It is hoped that these placid, benign vehicles will help to stem the Oliphant scourge which we, in our arrogance and pride, unleashed upon the country.

Sure. Per KSP's usual weirdness, it's a lot lighter and longer-ranged than anything that size has any right to be. Otherwise, it's a mash-up between a J10 and F16 (where Jeb left the limiter on the fly-by-wire off) that can't break Mach 2 and only has 8 hardpoints. I was intentionally being coy about this, as I was interested to see what people would come up with given only the requirements of 'make better plane to beat existing plane'. Because then they get to define and defend what 'better plane' means. I will include the relevant information in an edit of post #3.