Xoon

I found this quite interesting, and I would like people to share their opinion on this: In short, magnetic gearing. Zero contact between the two "gears" meaning "no friction", no need for lubricant, very reliable and claimed efficiency of 99% at high speeds and "much higher at lower speeds compared to conventional gearing. What this means is that you can have a final drive with almost no wear and a very long lifespan, if we do no count the bearings. It also has a side effect of slipping when the torque goes past the rated torque. This means that the drive would disengage instead of breaking itself. I think this works well with electric motors, considering their long lifespan, which often needs a gearbox to optimize the torque. The company realized this and apparently made a Psuedo-direct drive, integrating it into the motor and claim a much better torque density. I think this would be quite useful for AFVs to reduce the size of the engine bay. They also made a magnetic CVT: Should be self explanatory for anyone that knows what a CVT is. Claims to be 32% more efficient that a conventional gearbox. The only disadvantages I can think of is higher price and needing to keep the magnets below their Curie point. And we have magnetic bearings too: Simply, they are like magnetic gears, only as bearings. They can support a theoretically infinite RPM, with no friction. They can operate in a vacuum and in very hostile environments. They come in two types, active and passive. Active bearings use sensors and electromagnets in a feedback loop does a "tug of war" to keep the object in the center. A passive system uses permanent magnets. Some include a backup bearing in case of a failure. Same disadvantages as above. This could make for a system with almost zero friction, no lubricant and a very long lifespan. In theory, non of these parts would ever need to be replaced, some maintenance would be needed to remove pill up of dirt and dust. With a magnetic coupling, you could also have a sprocket that does need to compromise the armor, as it can transfer the power through it magnetically. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_bearing http://www.magnomatics.com/pages/technology/pseudo-direct-drive.htm http://www.magnomatics.com/pages/technology/low-ratio-magnetic-gears.htm http://www.magnomatics.com/pages/technology/magsplit.htm http://www.magnomatics.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_coupling

Heard this on the Radio today: "The a armed police response has been sent to Stavanger Hospital university after a man with a carrying a "knife-like object" was spotted in the university. The police are currently searching for the man" I guess the police don't have much to do here in Norway.

Not sure what the measurements are in the US. But in Europe we measure battery size by Kwh. The power divided by the amounts of hours. One kwh is equal to 1kw*3600s (1 hour). This means that a 1 Kwh battery could run a 1Kw load for one hour, or a 2Kw load for 30 minutes, or a 4Kw load for 15 minutes. The exception being power banks and computer batteries, which are measured in Ah. The reason being that the voltage is constant (5V), also manufacturers usually use mA so that they can make the numbers look big, like 10 000mAh, instead of simply 10Ah. I think you are mistaking voltage and power here. It is true that wiring cells in series increases the power, but so does wiring them in parallel. Ohm's law explains this: Take a 12V 1A cell, if we use Ohm's law, we will see that: V*I=P 12V*1A=12w So we know this cell has a power of 12w. By wiring it in series we double the voltage. Now the cell is 24V 1A, by using the same equation: 24V*1A=24w By wiring it in parallel we double the amps but the voltage stays the same. This cell is 12V 2A, and what do we get? 12V*2A=24w Now you talk about stupidly high power with no energy. I am assume you meant stupidly high voltage with no amps. This is easily possible, just take a sweater and rub around a bit to make static electricity. Now touch anything conductive. GASP, you just discharged up to around 12 000 000 volts! Now why did the room not explode and the conductors vaporize? Because the current is minuscule, 0,00001mA maybe. This is around 0,12w. Absolutely nothing. You can see this is tasers. You only need 12 000 volts to have a very effective taser, at around 20mA. Voltage is the pressure in a water pipe. Current is the amount of water flowing through the pipe. Resistance is the inside diameter of the pipe. Power is the amount of well, power in the water. Like the power in a motor, it does not matter if the motor is 6V 1000A or 6000V 1A, they both have a power of 6Kw. (It does impact motor design and such, but that is off topic). What limits engineers from simply wiring a million cells in series and parallel is the heat generation and BMS. Example of a Tesla battery pack: Yes, they could have simply hooked a super capacitor to the grid that lasts for 0,1 second like you mentioned.

Progressiveism and meritocracy does not mix well. They almost oppose each other. I presume that France is alike to the rest of the west in terms of progressive-ism, maybe not as high as in Scandinavia, but still prominent. I agree here, except at one thing. Though grades strongly correlate with intelligence, they are not a sign of intelligence. Simply repeating lines from a book is not intelligence, it is just a memory game. Take the same person, and put them in a situation where they have to solve a completely new equations. They will fall short, even if they aced every test up til then. A lesser intelligent person can practice very hard to achieve the same result as a genius. This is why I prefer IQ, since it is not affected by practice, socio-economic status, parents, or renowned schools. You can be a homeless poor immigrant with no parents and no education, no tutoring and not know the language of your country. And you can still score 160IQ, which makes you a genius, while a person growing up in a perfect environment could score 100, the average IQ. The only thing that affects IQ is genetics. Well, you can lower your IQ by heavy drinking, drug use, poising, brain damage etc, but that is obvious. The problem with such a system is quite simple. Either you make all education government controlled and outlaw all private education, tutoring and such. Or you can give school vouchers to students, so that the school can compete between themselves, but force them not to be able to take more than the school voucher. Both systems are to a point impossible to do perfectly because students can simply study abroad. And the education would be too expensive unless you dramatically innovate. Or you can use a completely meritocratic system, where the smart are put in the good schools, and the average go to average schools, and those in need gets special education to help them catch up. Let people go to private school, do tutoring, and everything. The two earlier mentioned are a by-product of a bad educational system. I like this idea. But I think schools would oppose this. At least here in Norway, school are payed by how many students they educate. So by taking in as many as possible and lowering requirements, they can make a bigger profit.

This is why I like the idea meritocracy. Your skill is examined through exams and achievements and you are judged as such. Same reason I am for legalizing IQ requirements for jobs and having a mandatory IQ test for the population. You might call it unfair, since a person with a IQ of 100 won't get a engineering job in a firm because they set the requirement to 130 IQ. But let me put it this on the edge: Who would you want to oversee the construction of a nuclear powerplant, a man with the IQ of 80 or a IQ of 160? Also, isn't it inherently unfair to the people of higher IQ that they are unable to use their talent? And pushing people that are simple incapable to do too hard tasks? By examining people's IQ, personality types and aspects we can figure out what job suits them the most. And we can massively increase productivity of workers. This might spawn elitism, but honestly, doesn't western society already have a lot of elitism? In my perfect world view, everyone would be judged fairly and be able to use their potential to the fullest, with social mobility of 20%. Hard work would equal good pay. And anyone would have to ability to make their fortune if they set their minds to it, equal opportunity for all. And this might spawn urgency, which is a big motivator for wealth accumulation. And as they say, wealth only lasts 3 generations. So in my opinion, a large survey should be started. To analyze school systems around the world to reform the current educational system. The focus should be on getting people a job and being productive. Not giving them a long vacation and enslaving them on debt, and using that money to push a political agenda.

I really find the statement that "getting a Phd, higher education or alike gets you a job" is pretty much bullshit. Job opportunity gets you a job. I does not matter if one spends 3-8 years extra on education if there is no work. Here in Norway, if you go get a certificate as a welder, industrial mechanic, carpenter, construction worker, electrician ect, you are guaranteed a job. Why is that? Because the industry is in need of these workers, a job opportunity. And because you do 2,5 years of apprenticeship at one of the companies, they will most likely hire you when you are done. Compare this with a person following their parents wishes and goes for higher education, but have no idea what they want to do in life, just that higher education gets them a job. They will do general studies, take the most fun and effortless subjects, giving them the least amount of possibilities. Then when they finish high school they are forced to take a choice, they extend the time with people's college. Then finally they are forced to take a choice and they do some field they find fun, like community economics or psychology. Both which we have in such a huge demand that they will have a really hard time getting a job. Or in the worst case scenario, they take something like music and philosophy, which makes them seem really cool during their campus years, but won't accomplish anything. This is the reason the Norwegian government introduced the Y-way. Because the industry really disliked having engineers designing things they had no idea how worked. This often caused cases of what we called "quality engineering", when a bolt is only able to be turned 1 degree at the time with a weird angle with a wrench, or a time when the engineers have a great idea of putting a air compressor under a train, causing it to continuously break down because of dirt and wear. For clarification, I do see the statistics. But that is more because of signal theory and the tendency for more intelligent people to take higher education than average. Some of the main reasons the industry cares about phds and such is because if is a sign of intelligence, the best pointer after IQ, which is illegal to put as a job requirement.

Are blue-collar workers looked down upon in the west?

Sounds like a huge waste of money.

So since we are on the subject of education, how does education work in the US, and any other country for that matter? Here in Norway we first have primary school, from age 6-13, but you can begin at age 5 if you request it. Then middle school, from age 13-16. Here you begin getting grades, these are needed to get the school or line you want. From here on out, you have several options: First, you could join the army, but you need to apply and get approved for that. Second, you can go straight to becoming a apprentice if you want get a contract with a company. Third, in a extreme case, you can take all your subjects as a external candidate during middle school and go straight to University or college. Fourth, you can go to high school and do general studies, these come in a million variants. With this you can go to university or college, if you have good enough grades that is. And fifth and lastly, you can go to trade school, where you will spend on average 5 years learning a trade and getting a certificate, and in theory a job. Usually it is 2 years of school, and 2,5 years as a aprentice. Though some fields are exceptions, but the overall time is still 5 years. When entering trade school, you can chose between about 8 lines for the first year. These are electricity and electronics, Technic and industrial production, Construction, Restaurant and service, design and health. In the second year you specialize into a specific trade, like plumber, healthcare worker or electrician. Since you have 5 years of potential free high school, you can also in the fourth year do add-on, which gives you general studies and allows you to go to university or college. If you want to be a engineer we got the Y-course, which allows people that got a trade certificate to take a pre-course over the summer, instead of add-on, to become a engineer or civil engineer. If you have no idea what you want to be, you can go to a people's college for 1-2 years, which is basically just paying to have fun and get a few points. Or you can apply for a free year were you can work. Alternatively, you will be called in for military service as a conscript for 18 months. Here you technically got no choice, but since we got way to many applicants, the army simple can't pay for them all, and has to be very picky, and will rule out uninterested people. If you do decide to do higher education, you have 3 choices. You can go to a trade college, and become a trade worker or whatever it is called, basically a more educated tradesman. This requires you do have 5 years in the field or a trade certificate of the same trade. Alternatively, you can get another trade certificate, and as long as it is inside you area of work, you only need about 2,5 years as a apprentice and to pass 2 exams. Or, you can go to university and take a bachelor degree, which is 3 years, or a master degree which is 5. To give a example: engineers take bachelor, civil engineers take master. Even longer educations can happen as you build on your trade, like a surgeon. Or become a scientist. All of this is free, except around 300 USD a year for campus fee, and living costs. And books, the books can easily cost 2000 USD. This education system has worked out well for Norway, considering we rank at the 11. highest amount of billionaires per capita in the world. For comparison, the US is the 10. And this is a pretty good feat considering the extremely high labor costs and the very poor environment for companies here in Norway.

It seems commonality and price is the answer. The CV90BK is simply a CV90 MultiC with a L16 81mm mortar and a FCS. You should not underestimate the Norwegian armies wish for cost cutting in the weirdest places, besides, we burnt all our money on the F-35s. MUCH cheaper solution than the AMOS:

"Bombekaster på belter Hæren og Forsvarsmateriell demonstrerte den nye CV90BK (bombekastervogn) på Rena. Digitalisert kommunikasjon mellom våpensystem er hovedstikkordet for økt kampkraft. En stund lå tåken for tett over regionsfelt Østlandet til at demonstrasjonen kunne begynne. Det er nemlig ikke lov å øvelsesskyte uten klar sikt. Telemark bataljon, Hærens våpenskole og Forsvarsmateriell beholdt imidlertid både roen og troen, og ikke langt tid etter lettet tåken. Dermed kunne de fremmøtte få se hva den nye CV90-typen hadde å by på. RULLENDE BOMBEKASTER Fire CV90 bombekastere sto klare. Alle fyrte av fem granater hver i retning av målet, som befant seg mellom to til tre kilometer unna. Mortar Weapon Systems (MWS) er navnet på bombekastersystemet i vognen. Den store forskjellen fra eldre bombekastervogner er at innrettingen i CV90 er automatisk: MSW vet hvor det selv er, og i hvilken retning det peker. MSW kommer dermed mye raskere til skudd etter at vognen er kjørt i stilling. – BEDRE TREFFSIKKERHET Fagsjef ved våpenskole, oberst Trond Haande, forteller at vognene vil tilføre Hæren en betydelig kapasitet innen beskyttelse og mobilitet. De nye vognene gir også Hæren nye muligheter for å få ild på bakken i løpet av potensielt 1–2 minutter fra målet er observert, noe som er en betydelig oppgradering. – Takket være den nettverksbaserte kommunikasjonen mellom drone, stormpanservogn og CV90 bombekaster, oppnår Hæren bedre treffsikkerhet og utsetter personellet for mindre risiko enn før. Tidligere har informasjonen om målets plassering vært formidlet gjennom muntlig overføring. Nå kan dette skje elektronisk, sier oberst Haande. – Vi i Forsvarsmateriell er glade for å ha levert CV90 bombekaster til Hæren. Dette gir økt kampkraft gjennom gode og fremtidsrettede tekniske og elektroniske systemer, sier Forsvarsmateriells delprosjektleder, Per Rune Hansen i Kampvognprosjektet. " Translation: "Mortars on tracks Hæren and Forsvarsmateriell demonstates the new CV90BK (Mortar vehicle) at Rena. Digitized communication between the weapon systems is a important aspect of increased combat power. For awhile the fog laid too thick over the region of østlandet before demonstrations could start. It is not allowed to practice firing without clear sight. Telemark bataljon, Hærens våpenskole and Forsvarsmateriell meanwhile kept their cool, and not long after, the fog lifts. This meant that the visitors could see what the CV90 variant was capable of. ROLLING MORTAR Four CV90 mortar vehicles stood ready. All fired off five shells in the direction of the target, which was between two to three kilometers away. Mortar Weapon System (MWS) is the name of the mortar system on the vehicle. The big difference from the older Mortar vehicles is that the mortar system in the CV90 is automatic: MWS knows where it is, and in which direction it points. MWS comes with much faster rate of fire after the vehicle is in position. -BETTER ACCURACY Head of weapons school, Colonel Trond Haande, explains that the vehicles will add considerable protection and mobility capacity to Hæren. The new vehicles also gives Hæren new possibilities for rounds on the ground by potentially 1-2 minutes from the target is observed, which is a considerable upgrade. -Because of the network based communication between drones, IFVs and CV90 Mortar vehicles, Hæren accomplices better accuracy and exposes personnel for less risk then before. Earlier, information about the target whereabouts had to be communicated verbally. Now it can happen electronically, says Colonel Haande. -We in Forsvarsmatriell are happy to deliver the CV90 mortar vehicles to Hæren. This gives increased combat power through good and futuristic technical and electronic systems, says Forsvarsmateriell's part project leader, Per Rune Hansen in the Tank program." Source: https://forsvaret.no/aktuelt/testet-ny-cv90-bombekaster

Alright, Sufficient English* then.

You two probably ended up speaking with the older generation, which English is very bad honestly.

Depends on the person, but yes, a 13 year old Norwegian does about as well as a average adult American.

Not to discredit you or anything, but "the" does not exist in Scandinavian languages. "En" means specifically one, singular, only one. In Swedish/Norwegian/Danish "En bil" translates to "One car" or "A car" in English. However, "The car" translates to "Bilen". And because we Scandinavians hate consistency, this does not even necessarily carry over to other words. Example: "Bilen, døra, huset, dama, og hode" translates into "The car, the house, the lady (or girlfriend), and the head" And to make matters worse, we have loads and loads of dialects. Oslo-, Østlendings-, Telemarks-, Agders-, Stavangers-, Sørlendings-, Bergens-, Sogner-, Sogn og Fjordanenes-, Sunnmørs-, Ålesunders-, Moldensers-, Nordals-, Trønders-, midtlendings-, Nordlendings-, and immigrant speak dialects. And this is only the few most commonly known ones. I could probably write a page or two. Most likely, if you learn Norwegian, you will learn the Eastener dialect and bokmål, the governments most used written language. You might learn nynorsk, which is more akin to a compound of the dialects of Norway, and if you are a hipster, you could learn blandingnorsk, which is a mix of both. But you might end up with a "foreigner dialect" since many people that try to learn Norwegian without speaking with Norwegians end up with no dialect, making them sound very stale. I dunno how close Germans and Dutch are, but Norwegians and Danish share basically the same written language, since those bastards only wanted danish to be though at universities and to be used by the government, and since the Black death pretty much killed everyone, wiping out Norse. Our verbal language is closer to Swedish though, so we can easily communicate, though with some errors. Danish is a bit harder, and but we can still understand each other if we have to, but most of the time we prefer English. Icelandic is a bit harder, which is old Norse. Takes a bit for me to understand, but I still understand them. The finish sounds like this for us" Hakka paka, pelite mitrta makke", basicly a lot of "akka, pelite", same goes for Sami. When it comes to German, we can communicate very basically. And English you may ask? Well, pretty much every kids past primary school speaks and writes English as well as a American.

Then you I assume you understand how a monitor makes no difference.

You can still notice something at the corner of your eye on a flat screen. Ever played FPS? Humans are good at tracking moving objects at the edge of their vision, be at on a screen or physical object.

I remember seeing a video on liveleak of a identical SVBIED during the Coalition siege of Mosul. Pretty sure it is the same one, so I think this information is wrong, at least the "biggest ever produced" part.

The two ATGMs are identical, and considering the RWS does only mount a javelin, it means the MCT-30 in this picture has two Javelins. Never heard about the MCT-30 using anything else than Javelins.

Used up all our money on the F35s. And yes, in short it says that the modernization is insufficient in combating the Armata series (The Armata series is not mentioned, but EVERY Norwegian knows what they mean when they say potential enemies.) They are not saying that we will use the old Leos until 2025 though: "Konsekvenser ved denne utsettelsen vil bli søkt redusert gjennom ulike tiltak for videreføring av stridsvognkapasiteten og kompetansen frem til nye stridsvogner er på plass." "The consequences of this delay will be reduced by searching through different alternatives for continuation of tank capacity and competence until new tanks are acquired". Not a perfect translation because the wording was quite strange, but it gets through the point.

This is actually really good, and I REALLY hope feminists don't latch on to this and distorts this. And as mentioned by Jeep, a male role model is extremely important for a child's development, the higher risk of crime, drop out and poverty is extreme. This is what gangs thrive on, as they act as a "male role model" for the young men seeking a masculine role model.

Honestly I feel like this entire gun control thing has went off the rails. People have no idea what they want. They want it black and white. So why don't we try and map out what people want and how this can be accomplished with gun control. First off, gun control activist want to reduce the deaths and damage caused by guns every year I presume. Let's take take the 11 000 figure rounded down because I am lazy. This is the biggest and easiest problem to fix, as the others are user faults and requires prohibitively expensive and complex solutions. Suicides are irrelevant since the reason of suicide is not the gun, take the Netherlands where 40% are done with death by tram, are trams the issue here? No. Ok, now, what type of guns kill people the most? According to you guys, 90% deaths are caused by handguns. This equates to 9 900 deaths, the only way to reduce this by removing guns is the ban all gun sales, which is not doable, since I am pretty sure no country has ever done this, and since we are talking about Murica, the land of guns, this is in practice impossible. What about banning all other guns? Machineguns, ARs, shotguns, etc. You would then reduce deaths by 10%, or 1100 deaths. Honestly, not really a impressive figure, and lets think about this realistically, how did actually a more powerful firearm aid the killer in these 10%? Not much, and the actual reduction would be much lower. What other solutions do we have? Licence regulations. Most mass shootings are caused by unstable or mentally ill individuals, scrubbing them out of the system would make a impact, banning semi-automatic guns, not sure how. A license regulation if properly done should be happily accepted by gun rights activist, since it still allows legal gun owners to own almost anything they want, if they qualify for it. Yes, licenses could be regulated like cars. A hunting licence for a proper rifle, either semi or bolt action depending on hunting regulations, and regulations regarding magazine size, since you do not need a 100 rounds drum mag to shot that one bullet through the dear's heart and lungs. Sub classes would exist, like small game and large game. A self defense carry license, for handguns only. Why? Because out of practicality, you want something small with enough power to scare away the attacker, a semi 9mm pistol (or 45. ACP and similar) should do, having a MG3 on your back that you want to deploy and cock before use is not. For target shooting, shotguns, rifles and pistols manufactured for this purpose would be allowed in a target shooting licence, with sub classes for each type of weapon. For joy shooters, basically the people that buy a MG with a ammunition back pack just for the joy of shooting it downrange, you could have a collectors licence. It would again come in sub classes depending on the type of weaponry. Licences would be renewed every so often, require membership in a club, allow random check ups, regular use and to be revoked by the club or government if the individual is not deemed fit to operate the firearm. In a very pro gun activist version of this, we could reduce gun related deaths, and allow gun owners to own machine guns, rifles, shotguns, ect. If we legalize many banned guns, we could effectively kill the black market. Though, some guns should be soft banned, no using a 14,5mm HMG to hunt, or a anti-material rifle for self-defense, or a automatic AR as something you can carry around on your back anywhere. This is honestly up to you guys, since you know what type of guns people want. Lastly, i have to say this biometric safety thing sounds like bullshit. How is the sensor supposed to stop the owner from firing the gun? With a small lock or restricting the firing pin? This can easily be bypassed by removing the lock. The only reason this works in cars is because they have a computer inside that requires a specific code, or else they won't unlock the steering wheel, spray fuel into the engine, open the throttle body, and such. I have maintained a few rifles and they are simply too simple to have such a system, it could work on a railgun or a coilgun, but not on a chemically operated gun.

The point is, cars provide economic growth. They allow people to travel, earn and spend money. Transport goods and such. A gun does not, since they not the same. Of course, this is not how it is represented, because saying to the public "Yes, we are going to kill more people a year because we want more economic growth in this area" does not really catch on well. I am not sure what the problem is with automatic weapons and semi-automatics. The problem is not the weapon, it is the shooter. Why not just improve the licence process? In Norway, you have to store the weapon in a weapons locker, separate from the ammunition, remove the bolt when storing it. You have to be a in a hunting club to have a hunting rifle, a shooting club to have a shooting rifle. And you have random checkups, mandatory tests. Mental issue tests and criminal background check. If you stop hunting or shooting, you lose your licence. Gun murders here are very rare. Basically, you need a reason to own a firearm here. This makes it hard however to own ridicules weapons like a AR15 for hunting. But you can legally own a MG42 and shoot with it, but those needs a collectors licence. My friend got one.

The claim that videogame violence desensitize you is complete bullshit. Actually, statistics actually show a reduction in aggression and violent behavior. Videogames are a medium that people can act out their fantasies in, meaning they are not incentivzed to do it in real life. Want to go on a killing spree? Do it in a videogame for the same rush, with no downsides. Videogames tend actually to show humanities dark sides. Take a game DayZ, a a horror shooter about surviving a zombie apocalypse. People kidnap people, break their legs, make them bleed, force feeds them rotten food, poisons them and dumps them in the wilderness. They force people to fight for their life, or they are shot. And the average player also tends to go on a killing spree, killing newly spawned people that have no way of defending themselves. Basically a heavily armed soldier with hundreds of rounds mowing down people with just their fists or a shovel. These same people are perfectly working people that live normal lives and don't hurt a fly. About why politicians ban guns, but don't care about automobiles? Simple, money. Automobiles makes a lot of money directly for the country, guns make a small sum. This is how road speed is regulated, how much profits you want to earn, compared to how lethal you want the road.

East of the shackleton craters seems like the best spot for a lunar base: It has near constant sunlight throughout the lunar summer. Also a light map made by NASA, brighter means more sunlight throughout the six months. The most illuminated ares marked here: A and B seems like the best location, since they receive the most sunlight of them all (81-85% of the day). Building a colony in this general location would be the best from a power standpoint. Cabeus and shoemaker crater are the best spots for mining water that can be refined to for example fuel. Lastly, flyover of the moon: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3686 Source: http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071023/full/news.2007.182.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc-20101215-south.html