How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?

[Carolus]

5 hours ago, chrisl said:

If your panels aren't on a 2-axis gimbal you probably want to install them tilted at the same angle as your lattitude.  Germany is far enough north that it will put them 45-50 degrees-ish, so they'll be high enough to be a fence and at about the right angle.

It was found in experiments that vertical solar panels offer basically the same energy output as an angled panel.

The reason is that although the panel receives less solar radiation energy, the generated heat can dissipate better, which results in increased efficiency, which brings them up to the same output as an angled panel.

 

[Carolus]

Some "homefront" news. Maybe we have heard of the recent fires at the American and British 155mm munitions factories?

Might be just a coincidence, but...

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/generalbundesanwalt-ermittelt-zwei-mutmassliche-russische-saboteure-in-bayern-verhaftet-a-0115bebd-195a-41fb-83be-da8d642045cd

In Germany, two Russo-Germans have been arrested for espionage and sabotage. They are accused of taking pictures of American and German military installations in Bavaria (one of which is a training facility for Ukrainians on Abrams tanks) and planning to use explosives to disrupt military support transports en route to Ukraine. 

Both of them were in contact with the FSB and one of them was member of a Russian militia unit which operated in Donetzk / Donbas 2014 to 2017. The unit is considered a terrorist group in Germany, so that Russo-German is also accused of membership in a terrorist organisation.

 

 

Edited April 18 by Carolus

[Tux]

54 minutes ago, Carolus said:

It was found in experiments that vertical solar panels offer basically the same energy output as an angled panel.

The reason is that although the panel receives less solar radiation energy, the generated heat can dissipate better, which results in increased efficiency, which brings them up to the same output as an angled panel.

 

Interesting. By “vertical solar panels” you presumably mean panels laid flat (so ‘pointed’ vertically upwards)?

[Carolus]

Just now, Tux said:

Interesting. By “vertical solar panels” you presumably mean panels laid flat (so ‘pointed’ vertically upwards)?

Ah, sorry. With vertical panel I meant 90° to the ground. 

A panel that is parallel to the ground would be "horizontal" for me. 

 

[Tux]

3 minutes ago, Carolus said:

Ah, sorry. With vertical panel I meant 90° to the ground. 

A panel that is parallel to the ground would be "horizontal" for me. 

 

Ah ok. Yes, me too but it seemed even more counterintuitive that a panel standing upright would be as efficient as an angled one. That’s why I wanted to check.

Even more interesting!

[Beleg85]

Sweet bloody Jesus if true (if not, it's good at least to laugh through tears). But seriously, perhaps this aid will indeed come soon, crazies in US politics are getting even more crazy lately. Maybe it's good sign, you know- like fever or diarrhea under certain conditions?

Edited April 18 by Beleg85

[JonS]

I mean ... I think that's a joke? But with MT "Empty" Greene (proud veteran of the Bowling Green Massacre) it's really really hard to be sure. That is bat**** enough to have actually leaked out of her ears.

 

Edit: oh FFS. Those really were among the proposals she submitted

Edited April 18 by JonS

[JonS]

2 hours ago, Carolus said:

It was found in experiments that vertical solar panels offer basically the same energy output as an angled panel.

Presumably this is only true at fairly high latitudes - north of 45°N or south of 45°S?

[Carolus]

33 minutes ago, JonS said:

Presumably this is only true at fairly high latitudes - north of 45°N or south of 45°S?

The study was done in the Netherlands, and another in Germany, so this criterium applied. I don't know if they extrapolated anything to another latitude.

But the panels were bi-facial and adjusted to face towards east and west, not south (and north).

The idea is that they have their output maxima in the morning and the evening. The idea is to augment, not to supplant traditional solar farms, and reduce the need for batteries.

That means it would work in the equatorial region as well, where the sun also rises and settles in east and west. But bi-facial panels are more expensive. 

https://undecidedmf.com/have-we-been-doing-solar-wrong-all-along/

(@admins my apologies for the distraction I brought in - I will respond via DMs if anything else is to be said about solar panels)

Edited April 18 by Carolus

[Battlefront.com]

OK, let's stop with the solar panel stuff.  As fascinating as it is, and as much as it is the reason you're seeing this post, it's very off topic.

Steve

[billbindc]

2 hours ago, Beleg85 said:

Sweet bloody Jesus if true (if not, it's good at least to laugh through tears). But seriously, perhaps this aid will indeed come soon, crazies in US politics are getting even more crazy lately. Maybe it's good sign, you know- like fever or diarrhea under certain conditions?

From what I’m hearing, deal is done but passage is not. There could and are likely to be some bumps ahead. What has changed is that it has finally gotten through to everyone but the loons that disaster is being courted and not just for Ukraine. Keep those fingers crossed. 

[Bearstronaut]

2 hours ago, Beleg85 said:

Sweet bloody Jesus if true (if not, it's good at least to laugh through tears). But seriously, perhaps this aid will indeed come soon, crazies in US politics are getting even more crazy lately. Maybe it's good sign, you know- like fever or diarrhea under certain conditions?

The crazies are loud and get the most play on social media. MTG is a vile, stupid woman but what is worse is that the members of her party that actually understand the Russian threat are afraid of her and her supporters.

[Ultradave]

3 hours ago, Beleg85 said:

Sweet bloody Jesus if true (if not, it's good at least to laugh through tears). But seriously, perhaps this aid will indeed come soon, crazies in US politics are getting even more crazy lately. Maybe it's good sign, you know- like fever or diarrhea under certain conditions?

It's unfortunately true. Not that these and the others she introduced will go anywhere, but she DID introduce them and proudly lists them on her X feed.  Others introduced diverted 100% of aid for 2 bills each to Lahaina, Oahu, and East Palestine, Ohio. 

Dave

[Battlefront.com]

25 minutes ago, Bearstronaut said:

The crazies are loud and get the most play on social media. MTG is a vile, stupid woman but what is worse is that the members of her party that actually understand the Russian threat are afraid of her and her supporters.

It used to be that mental illness, extreme immorality, blatant lying, obvious criminality, etc. were frowned upon.  The sad fact of the GOP, for a while now, is that as long as you parrot various right of center talking points nobody within the party will do anything.  Look at how much effort it took to get rid of Santos.

There's so many downsides to a political party that values power over policy, however on topic with this thread we're seeing that it can also cost lives and come at a steep cost to national security.  The Ukraine funding bill should never have been held up, but even the Republicans angered over its delay stayed quiet for months because they put party over country. 

Obviously there was a lot of pressure building up behind the scenes, and it is why this thing finally is on the way to a vote largely intact, but so much time slipped by that didn't have to.  It would have taken only one pro-American GOP House member to have gone to Johnson and said "I'm going to leadership challenge your arse if you don't put this bill to a vote" to get things moving faster.  Johnson needs to fear the majority of his caucus more than the insane fringe.

Steve

[Bearstronaut]

2 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

There's so many downsides to a political party that values power over policy, however on topic with this thread we're seeing that it can also cost lives and come at a steep cost to national security.  The Ukraine funding bill should never have been held up, but even the Republicans angered over its delay stayed quiet for months because they put party over country. 

 

These fools want the power and respect of being a global superpower and absolutely none of the responsibility. I'm convinced that if Russia rolled into the Suwalki Gap tomorrow that half of the House GOP would refuse to fund the military.

[The_Capt]

27 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

It used to be that mental illness, extreme immorality, blatant lying, obvious criminality, etc. were frowned upon.  The sad fact of the GOP, for a while now, is that as long as you parrot various right of center talking points nobody within the party will do anything.  Look at how much effort it took to get rid of Santos.

There's so many downsides to a political party that values power over policy, however on topic with this thread we're seeing that it can also cost lives and come at a steep cost to national security.  The Ukraine funding bill should never have been held up, but even the Republicans angered over its delay stayed quiet for months because they put party over country. 

Obviously there was a lot of pressure building up behind the scenes, and it is why this thing finally is on the way to a vote largely intact, but so much time slipped by that didn't have to.  It would have taken only one pro-American GOP House member to have gone to Johnson and said "I'm going to leadership challenge your arse if you don't put this bill to a vote" to get things moving faster.  Johnson needs to fear the majority of his caucus more than the insane fringe.

Steve

It is potentially worse than that.  This sort of dysfunction does nothing but feed anti-democracy sentiment.  Democracies die due to abandonment, history demonstrates this quite well.  If the system is seen as "unworkable" democracies often choose suicide.  This is the threat to the US and global stability.  Trump and Greene are symptoms of something far deeper and dangerous....apathy that leads to despair.

[Battlefront.com]

10 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

It is potentially worse than that.  This sort of dysfunction does nothing but feed anti-democracy sentiment.  Democracies die due to abandonment, history demonstrates this quite well.  If the system is seen as "unworkable" democracies often choose suicide.  This is the threat to the US and global stability.  Trump and Greene are symptoms of something far deeper and dangerous....apathy that leads to despair.

A friend of mine, smart and truly a good person, believes that the only way to fix the REAL problems with our government (and for sure the list of REAL problems is very lengthy) is to "tear it all down".  This is why he supports Trump.  What he doesn't realize is that is equivalent to someone in debt and trying to raise a family advocating demolishing their home, with everything still in side, because the toilette backs up every so often.  He really doesn't understand the ramifications of what he's advocating for. 

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

Looks like Russia is finally using widescale CS gas on Ukrainian positions.  We've seen this here and there for most of the war, but it seems there is much more of it going on now.  This report documents its use pretty along the whole front:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/06/russia-using-illegal-chemical-attacks-against-ukraine/

Steve

[cesmonkey]

 

[The_Capt]

11 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

A friend of mine, smart and truly a good person, believes that the only way to fix the REAL problems with our government (and for sure the list of REAL problems is very lengthy) is to "tear it all down".  This is why he supports Trump.  What he doesn't realize is that is equivalent to someone in debt and trying to raise a family advocating demolishing their home, with everything still in side, because the toilette backs up every so often.  He really doesn't understand the ramifications of what he's advocating for. 

Steve

"Tearing it down" will introduce massive collective uncertainty into the last global superpower and roughly 330 million primates...many armed to the teeth.  It does not take a "smart and truly good person" to see how that will likely go.

The American Experiment is, at its roots, a massive social test.  A test to see if our species has evolved to the point where a power sharing scheme like democracy can survive at scale.  I would say the jury is still out.

[danfrodo]

13 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

A friend of mine, smart and truly a good person, believes that the only way to fix the REAL problems with our government (and for sure the list of REAL problems is very lengthy) is to "tear it all down".  This is why he supports Trump.  What he doesn't realize is that is equivalent to someone in debt and trying to raise a family advocating demolishing their home, with everything still in side, because the toilette backs up every so often.  He really doesn't understand the ramifications of what he's advocating for. 

Steve

well, one solution for 'house has rats' is to burn the house down.  Easy and mindless.  But a smarter, less lazy person might actually choose to do the work of actually removing the f-ing rats.

[Battlefront.com]

Follow up on the Crimean attack.  According to the Ukrainian government:

Quote

The attack seriously damaged four missile launchers, three radar stations and other equipment, Ukraine’s military spy agency said on Thursday.

“The number of enemy aviation objects destroyed or damaged and the number of casualties among personnel of the Russian occupation army is being clarified,” it said after announcing the “successful” operation. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/18/ukraine-russia-war-news-latest-russian-spies-arrested/

 

Hopefully Haiduk will have some verified information to share.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

2 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

"Tearing it down" will introduce massive collective uncertainty into the last global superpower and roughly 330 million primates...many armed to the teeth.  It does not take a "smart and truly good person" to see how that will likely go.

Nope, it takes someone who understands the complexity of the world around him and has some notion of historical precedents to draw from.  Sadly, this is not what he gets on Fox News.

The further one goes to either political extreme the more simplistic the messaging becomes.  This then breeds a false sense that there is an easy solution, or at least straight forward.  To stop picking on the right for a sec... talk to a radical left person who believes everybody would be better off without police or that rent control is how to maintain affordable housing.  Whatever downsides you try to point out will be waived away as overstated or invented by "the establishment".  At best you might get them to admit that their simplistic solutions aren't perfect, which will then be followed by "but it's better than the way things are now".

I don't really mind that people don't have the time, experience, and/or intellectual capacity to understand how complex this world is.  What I mind is that they refuse to consider that they don't have the time, experience, and/or intellectual capacity to understand how complex this world is when they go to vote.

Steve

[Tenses]

3 minutes ago, The_Capt said:

"Tearing it down" will introduce massive collective uncertainty into the last global superpower and roughly 330 million primates...many armed to the teeth.  It does not take a "smart and truly good person" to see how that will likely go.

The American Experiment is, at its roots, a massive social test.  A test to see if our species has evolved to the point where a power sharing scheme like democracy can survive at scale.  I would say the jury is still out.

"Tearing it down" is what Russia and other autocracies active in "Western" Information space is advocating. This would destroy us all and they could feed on the chaos however they would see fit.

Unfortunately USA is not alone with this issue, this is general democracies flaw. We either change the democracy itself and the executive law that follows after it or we will join autocracies, possibly the hard way. The "bad guys" knows very good that the system is flawed at the moment and they exactly know how to use it.  

[The_Capt]

10 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

Nope, it takes someone who understands the complexity of the world around him and has some notion of historical precedents to draw from.  Sadly, this is not what he gets on Fox News.

The further one goes to either political extreme the more simplistic the messaging becomes.  This then breeds a false sense that there is an easy solution, or at least straight forward.  To stop picking on the right for a sec... talk to a radical left person who believes everybody would be better off without police or that rent control is how to maintain affordable housing.  Whatever downsides you try to point out will be waived away as overstated or invented by "the establishment".  At best you might get them to admit that their simplistic solutions aren't perfect, which will then be followed by "but it's better than the way things are now".

I don't really mind that people don't have the time, experience, and/or intellectual capacity to understand how complex this world is.  What I mind is that they refuse to consider that they don't have the time, experience, and/or intellectual capacity to understand how complex this world is when they go to vote.

Steve

What I find truly amazing are the inconsistencies people are willing to hold so deeply.  For example:

"We can't let in all these immigrants!  They will destroy our nation!"

"Tear the whole system down!"

So on one issue we have to preserve the system while on the other we need to tear it down.  So the real issue is "who" is tearing it down and power distribution post-teardown.  This inconsistency demonstrates what this whole thing is really about and there is little honorable or aspirational about it.  When extremist/reductionist narratives spark up they are filled with these sorts of inconsistencies and paradoxes.