costard
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Posts posted by costard
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Hang on. Barnes Wallis? The observation of the shockwave effect in bridge pylons? The failures on the earthen dams? All incorrect?That was on PBS. I watched it a couple of months ago from their website.Frankly, I wasn't terribly impressed with the experiment. I guess you could say it was amazing that it worked at all, but it was the kinetic force of the bomb hitting their dam rather than the blast/shock that broke it. They sort of glossed over that part. The wartime setup was orders of magnitude better...but then, they had orders of magnitude more money to spend on it.
Michael
Just the fact that they able to place the bomb against the wall would have helped, surely? So the experiment wasn't a failure, just expensive. Movie Star expensive...
The reflection of a shock wave under water from a higher density mass
can be modelled in ultrasound - the greater the difference in densities, and the more uniform the boundary between the two, the more energy is focused at the boundary. Whether a significant proportion of the energy would find mechanical release in the surface of the wall was what Barnes Wallis experimented on, after noticing the way the tops of concrete bridge piers were shattering when hit with a large steam hammer into a particular river bottom.
In the case of the piers, the shockwave was traveling from the hammer, down the pier, hitting and reflecting off the river bottom (change in density) and traveling back to the top. There it meets a even more marked change in density - some of the energy in the shockwave has to keep going in the direction of the open air. If their isn't enough mass in the air, there is little route for the energy to go to heat. Instead, the reflection back from the top surface of the pier sets up harmonic waves of standing force in the concrete, which under tension, turns to fragments. The kinetic energy of the flying fragments accounts for some portion of the energy of the shockwave.
From what I underst[ood\and], what Mr Wallis found was that the amount of explosive required to cause a dam wall to fail was relatively small if it was placed up against the wall, (well, duh) and was smaller again if placed on the wet side of the wall. He then turned his mind to placing a relatively small amount of explosive up against the wet side of a dam wall (small being about 1 tonne here, I think, could be wrong) without using up hundreds of bombers. Apparently the method he came up with worked.
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Nobs, in the cesspool it isn't the cream that rises to the top. Just sayin'. (for those of you paying attention, 'guellen' is a swiss-german word for that which does.)
Yeks, what would you have Emrys' barrel changed to? I'd suggest a bucket full of holes (so his putrid and incontinent verbiage spills onto his shoes. Also, quite a nice metaphor for the creature itself - a popped balloon might do as nicely.)
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If they're only playing I'm happy enough. They seem hopeful mosters in any case.
A '96 Chasselas by Rosewood of Rutherglen. The '96 marsanne (Tahbilk) is all gone, but will be remembered as one of the best wines I've ever had. Still, plenty of '99 and '02 in the pile of cardboard boxes that constitutes my cellar (rummaging around for a wine takes on a whole new meaning when you have to beware the redbacks.)
What is the Emrys drinking these days? Bud? Duff? Rum, perhaps?
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My mind is a playground for monsters, Ambrosius. Send me a setup.
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Nice one John.
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I was reading some comment on the limits of power of/for/by the pontius potus. The claim was that there is no limit.
The reality is that the limit is defined by the man himself - what he is prepared to do. He might find the limits of what he can do quite easily in particular classes of action e.g. contrary to the current understandings of defined possible actions in physics, engineering, politics. It is probable, given the necessity to compete in the political arena, that he has a reliable memory for those things that he cannot do, and that he has tried.
What we have is a defined plan to the end game. What we don't have is the plan to avert it. If the limits on his power are realised by a man, but no solution to a problem presents itself, he must needs therefore to refer to creativity and curiosity - what happens if I try this? The limits on power are quite well defined, I think, in the medical community. ok, scoff, but "First, do no harm." (One of the bankers used that this week in US). The problem for the man is that he perceives that this option isn't available to him - yet it is. It is his self-imposed limit, only he can realise it as a behaviour, an action. So its not as if it doesn't work for all the problems, but it'll probably sort out quite a few - (happily) providing for an energy budget that can be used to focus on other aspects of the complex problem before him
(it must be noted that idea of the powers of a superman have changed appreciably over time - at least in regards to the behaviours that are limited only by understandings in physics, engineering, etc (mythos?). Ethos has bogged down in imperfect understandings of the language used in law, mythos is all we have left.)
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I suspect timmy69 is frustrated and baffled, but not offensive.
I haven't played the demo. That said, if a setup zone exists, the ground colour will be appreciably different to the surrounding areas - a reddish or blueish overlay. Units may be placed anywhere within this zone by clicking on them (the overhead icon will change from green to bright orange), then selecting a move order from the movement menu (move, quick, slow, etc), then clicking on the ground in the setup zone. If you double click on the unit, it will highlight all the units in the group - so double clicking on a squad will highlight all the units in the platoon, double clicking on a company commander will highlight all the units in the company etc. The movement order will then apply to all the highlighted units. If the movement order thus given is for an area outside the setup zone, it will show up as a coloured line from the unit to the spot selected - a movement order that will be carried out when the battle is started.
Hope this helps. The learning curve is steep for CMx2 (don't expect to have fun in real time for quite a while) but the rewards are adequate recompense for the effort required to learn the game. Cheers.
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I've found that putting a "face" order at the end of the movement, with the "face" target line drawn direct to the object I wish to target gets rid of most of my positioning problems. The command system is pretty accurate - if the target is in the general direction of the "face" order, there may be objects in the way that obscure the target: by drawing the "face" line directly to the target the weapon is set up to hit that target. Not 100%, but better than 80% in my experience.
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His approach might appeal to people living in the 1770's. Obscure bunch to target for approval.
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Cheers for this Diesel. Interesting article.
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They're either incompetent or lying. Probably both.
Assume that all electronic communication is intercepted, and that the NSA is able to decipher most of the encrypted stuff, do a search for keywords and flag the communications that register for follow up analysis. The idea that logs of the machines the messages originated from or were forwarded to aren't kept is plainly ludicrous. The idea that this information isn't available to enable the intelligence agencies to act in times of need is beyond belief. This is information that needs to be available in real time, so the state of knowledge would be fairly exact.
It could be that the wording of the demand for information was such that a loophole could be found to enable the telling of the truth without actually revealling the information.
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Damn, and I thought we was all sailing six points to the wind.
You nay-sayers and doom-merchants will always point to the negative aspects of capitalism, but it has always been thus:
What is it that is so new; what is it that differentiates this scenario from the situation in any empire of old, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottoman and the Sung - all of them survived until.. until the credit ran out and the average Joe said "quite frankly, I'm better off buying a defencible piece of land with water and soil than I am investing in the Emperor's multiplex, 'cause the mongols is coming". Whether they be actual Mongols or just folk who are over it (UK riots, French riots some years earlier).. Dissolution of the things that are written on a piece of paper - never signed by you or by me, but somehow law for all.
Oh, Costard. You are so negative, Why can you not be like everyone else and just believe! We have been told what to do, and as long as everyone keeps doing it, we should maintain positive growth and the happiness quotient and all good things..? Why can't you just relax and watch Batman and laugh along with the morning tv hosts. Why can't you just put up and shut up and keep giving me your superannuation?
Oh, Costard - so much reasoning from one who is so far removed from where the decisions are made; what are you doing? Should you not be advising president Obama? Or Prime Ministre Cameron? But no, you are here in the forum, and everyone is soo sympathetic.
Oh, Costard.
If only you could put your mind to actual use..
Or is this an excuse to do nothing?
Yeah, I'm here too, so mea culpa.
Ok, this deserved a reply. My apologies for being dilatory, I hope the argument is worth it.
The idea that I might publicly air my stance on values and their relevance in informing our behaviour is more in the need to continue to argue against the current fashion of "It has always been this way... heed my counsel of despair." (This is not always the line you take but it has been present in the instructions to look to history for examples echoing current behaviour.) The argument I contradict is that no-one has ever generated wealth by behaving in an honourable (where honour might be an example of a value informing our behaviour) fashion. When this is proved (by inspection, a valid method of proof, even if it is a little simple for sophists) to be self-evident bunkum based on an erroneous interpretation of the means of generating wealth, the argument changes to "... wealth that matters." The counter argument has dropped to the level of "Dishonourable behaviour is honourable behaviour." and needs no more of my time spent in refutation - except that the statement is still being made today, in the fashion, and has been gaining ground throughout my lifetime. The argument promoting the acceptance of corrupt behaviour needs to be refuted at every turn. Allowing the corruption of publicly preached and generally held standards of behaviour will not lead to a future in any way better than one where our current behaviours are informed by the values so publicly preached: love, honesty, dignity, respect, courage. How about these five for starters (sburke can probably help me out with a sixth, but it doesn't really matter what words you choose so long as you describe a continuum of values that lends itself to the management of groups of individuals in the pursuit of building the common wealth of that group.)? It is this that might be new - we have no excuse whatsoever to misinform ourselves as to the consequences of behaving in a corrupt fashion, or of allowing corrupt behaviour to guide us in the pursuit of behaving as social creatures.
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How's your Button/Open Up tab showing?
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My excuse is something to do with having a password that I can only remember in terms of rhythm and finger placement: I do most of my lurking on an iPad so the touch keyboard keeps me from logging in to mock and sneer.
In other news; I loaded up my spanking new copy of CMA today, clicked my way straight into a campaign and found myself playing RT. Scramble and fizz and I think I may be hooked. Dark side, here I come.
Aff, who you playing with? I need something to do with my mid-life crisis that doesn't involve getting a lot poorer. Waking up on Monday morning feeling like I'd been fighting Maoris all weekend is something I gave away in my early thirties, maybe I'm wise enough not to seek the big pain any more and can just enjoy the game.
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It sounds like the pistols are using the same hit and effect code that SMGs are using - same calibre, same round, save some (quite a lot) of coding by not having to introduce specific routines for pistols.
I think the work around so far has included a disastrous morale state for crews on abandoning a vehicle, but if they have decent leadership and experience (or, in terms of code for morale status, need to be able to re-man the vehicle and fight on) they'll fade this state and return to normal morale.
Just guessing, but I think it makes sense given the results we're seeing. I can't see that a solution apart from writing a routine for pistols as a class of weapon will work too well, we'll just have to wait and see what Charles comes up with.
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Have to agree with Sakai on this one. If Iran were to get the bomb, I think there is a fair chance they'd use it. And they would certainly use it as diplomatic leverage. Surely they would have no problem arming Hezbollah, Hamas, or any other anti-western faction either.
One of the scarier considerations one has to make, however, is what other nations will do. China and India have serious interests in Iran and everyone knows Russia would be adamantly against any sort of military response.
Its a crazy time.
Iran knows that if they use a nuke they're liable to end up as impurities in quite a large puddle of molten glass - and the rest of the world will shrug it's shoulders and say "Well... nothing to do now but clean up this latest nuclear mess." Currently, Iran isn't fighting a war. The only stimulus to war I can discern is coming from the US/Israel/UK axis. Whilst it may be true that some aspects of civil rule in Iran are a little hard to deal with given the holywood-centrist nature of our conditioning here in the west, the absolute contempt for the law evident in the behaviour of many of our own leaders is no reason for delighting in the prospect of imposing our leadership on the populace of Iran, particularly given the costs to be extracted in the pursuit of this aim.
I think what is happening in Syria is payback for Russia interfering in Georgia, and I do not think the west has the wherewithal to impose empire upon the world any more. The sooner it wakes up to this fact and starts to behave in a semi-civilised fashion the better.
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Poodles...
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Awesome link Means. Thanks.
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It's blasting a hole that a vehicle can pass through that's a bit crank though.
Michael
Yup - having a "blast - vehicle sized hole" command would be useful. Sort of sensible, too.
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The good news is in the quality of the discussion in the comments thread. The ZH site is providing a platform for a discussion of the events and some pretty good-humoured and smart people are talking about them. There is enough understanding of the complexity of the problem to give us some hope... (there's that word again, but if there is any good thing I can reasonably expect from the entire situation it's more and shorter periods of hopefulness. Wish in one hand...) that we'll at least have a pool of competence to pick from when things really do get tough.
Nah, I'm enjoying it because I am learning about the deal: I cannot get the spread and detail of information through newspapers/BBC, I just get frustration with the lack of meaningful progress and anger at the lack of meaningful (or even just true, fer chrissake) information. With this comments section I get humour, wit, and a distilled source of information: a Dom or Chartreuse as opposed to a single malt whiskey.
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This is a good article followed by an outstanding commentary. Best night I've had in quite a while. Hope you're all keeping well.
Oh yeah, We are All Greeks
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Aff, second row? Really? The most boring, overworked place on the field. It surely takes a special person to like playing that position. Props have heaps more fun - you get to rub noses with like-minded blokes, stomp on hookers feet when they go to strike at the ball, steal balls (and tries! hah, when did a second rower last experience that glory!) at the front of the lineout, be first at the breakdown and gently persuade the opp to let go of the ball with your booted feet (best if you've managed to catch a five-eight - they value their fingers and you get instant submission).
As for BD6's assertion that the small fast guys play the wing - take a quick squizz at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsXTa7UCGlk.
The ball carrier in rugby has to be aware of what is happening behind him - it's the only place he can pass the ball to with any degree of security. I think this requires far more of the team bonding than the larger teams of gridiron can realistically expect to manage. The lexicon of US football tactics provides the quarterback with predictable options out front - provided his offense is good enough to evade the defense and gain position - to my mind it does seem to take the spontenaiety and creativity out of the game.
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It's smellier and stickier - you ain't got nuttin' on our ****.
Could this be the last Peng Challenge Thread????
in Combat Mission Fortress Italy
Posted
I heartily recommend you stop wasting time reading this tripe and head over to the Machine Gun thread to catch the latest installment. Strongpoints is shaping up too - watch the struggle to try to achieve the beautiful clarity of Jason's writing. Good stuff.
Speaking of which, Christmas. I'll be elsewhere, hopefully with no access to a computer and plenty access to a good book or three. Merry Christmas all.