If a 40 kiloton nuke appeared on a Nimitz carrier deck and exploded, would it sink?
Forty kilotons on the deck? The fireball of the nuke of that size is 350 meters. A Nimitz-class carrier is about as long. Nimitz-class carrier It depends a bit…
When Trump declares martial law and cancels the 2026 midterms, will his MAGA fans finally wake up? Will the generals finally step in and remove Trump?
The American people are in the midst of a right wing dictatorship and need to do something about it before it is too late. Spain had a 40…
Afghanistan: Who do Afghans consider a worse invader, Soviet Russia or America?
I remember a talk with a Soviet officer who served in the Baltics and Afghanistan in the 1980s. He told me: “Could never figure out these Afghans. With…
Why doesn’t honey go bad?
Honey never spoils–Archaeologists have dug up jars of the stuff from ancient civilizations, perfectly edible after thousands of years in the earth. The secret is honey’s hostile environment…
What makes the Boeing B-52 so hard to shoot down? Why doesn’t it just get smacked out of the air?
The B-52 is a big ol’ lumbering plane with 8 engines putting out a lot of hot exhaust. The North Vietnamese found out in the 1960s how easy…
Why don’t we use the Tesla turbine?
It was elegant. Simple—Just smooth disks stacked together—spinning from the force of steam or air flowing between them. Not one fancy blade to break. Not one complicated component—The…
I think Donald Trump has done more for this country than Barack Obama has done his whole career. Can you change my mind?
I think Donald Trump has done more for this country than Barack Obama has done his whole career. Can you change my mind? Why would I try to…
If I shine a flashlight at Mars, does a small amount of the light actually reach it?
Let’s say you had a very nice flashlight with a 5 degree beamspread and a 1 watt visible beam. At 60 million km to Mars at close approach,…
Have you read Mein Kampf? Would you recommended it to an intellectually curious person?
Yes. I read the Finnish translation in my fcucked-up teens. My impression was that this is a rant of someone who is undeniably intelligent but completely fcucked up. It…
Why is it that a 747 starts off slowly then halfway down the runway, it’s full throttle? An A380 is full throttle from the start.
Apparently, a lot of pilots are not aware of the origin of this practice. This was not done until the 747 was introduced. Prior to the 747, when…