@colin-d-howell.bsky.social
raw-egg detective: *munches chocolate-covered espresso beans*
December 16, 2025 at 8:21 PM
raw-egg detective: *munches chocolate-covered espresso beans*
Ah, yeah, the MP5 is definitely a submachine gun!
Heh, I'd say I'm more of an all-around nerd with a science/tech bias. The gun bit started only in recent years, after wanting to better understand what real gun nerds were talking about. I'd never call myself any more than a wanna-be. :)
Heh, I'd say I'm more of an all-around nerd with a science/tech bias. The gun bit started only in recent years, after wanting to better understand what real gun nerds were talking about. I'd never call myself any more than a wanna-be. :)
November 25, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Ah, yeah, the MP5 is definitely a submachine gun!
Heh, I'd say I'm more of an all-around nerd with a science/tech bias. The gun bit started only in recent years, after wanting to better understand what real gun nerds were talking about. I'd never call myself any more than a wanna-be. :)
Heh, I'd say I'm more of an all-around nerd with a science/tech bias. The gun bit started only in recent years, after wanting to better understand what real gun nerds were talking about. I'd never call myself any more than a wanna-be. :)
... The big .50-caliber Browning that Mirren's character is wielding is an extreme, scaled-up version of those, originally designed for attacking lightly *armored* vehicles, aircraft, and such-like.
November 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
... The big .50-caliber Browning that Mirren's character is wielding is an extreme, scaled-up version of those, originally designed for attacking lightly *armored* vehicles, aircraft, and such-like.
... Machine guns proper, without the "sub-", fire rifle ammunition, which is high velocity (several times the speed of sound) and much higher in power. Think of the belt-fed or magazine-fed machine guns of World War One and their descendants. ...
November 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
... Machine guns proper, without the "sub-", fire rifle ammunition, which is high velocity (several times the speed of sound) and much higher in power. Think of the belt-fed or magazine-fed machine guns of World War One and their descendants. ...
Terminology digression: so-called submachine guns fire pistol ammunition, which is low velocity (just over the speed of sound) and low power. The classic Thompson submachine gun ("Tommy gun") is a good example. (In fact, Thompson coined the term, though he didn't invent the idea.) ...
November 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Terminology digression: so-called submachine guns fire pistol ammunition, which is low velocity (just over the speed of sound) and low power. The classic Thompson submachine gun ("Tommy gun") is a good example. (In fact, Thompson coined the term, though he didn't invent the idea.) ...
Hah, there's nothing "sub-" about that machine gun! That's a bloody .50-caliber Browning, about as full-fledged as a machine gun can get before graduating to autocannon status. I can well understand why that scene would be a favorite!
November 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Hah, there's nothing "sub-" about that machine gun! That's a bloody .50-caliber Browning, about as full-fledged as a machine gun can get before graduating to autocannon status. I can well understand why that scene would be a favorite!
It's a self-deprecating term that U.S. railroad enthusiasts use for themselves. The etymology seems uncertain, but I imagined it was a play on words which combines being "rabid" with the unwanted tendency for steam locomotive boilers to "foam" if their water is contaminated.
September 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
It's a self-deprecating term that U.S. railroad enthusiasts use for themselves. The etymology seems uncertain, but I imagined it was a play on words which combines being "rabid" with the unwanted tendency for steam locomotive boilers to "foam" if their water is contaminated.
It's missing the entire Philippines!
"No, nothing was ever here, why do you ask?"
"No, nothing was ever here, why do you ask?"
September 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
It's missing the entire Philippines!
"No, nothing was ever here, why do you ask?"
"No, nothing was ever here, why do you ask?"
This battle and the Norwegian king's escape from the invasion are dramatized quite well in the 2016 Norwegian movie "The King's Choice", which is how I learned about this incident!
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
This battle and the Norwegian king's escape from the invasion are dramatized quite well in the 2016 Norwegian movie "The King's Choice", which is how I learned about this incident!
Although Oslo still eventually fell to the Nazis, the extra time bought by the fortress's defense was enough for Norway's government and royal family to evacuate from the city and prepare to flee the country as its government-in-exile.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Although Oslo still eventually fell to the Nazis, the extra time bought by the fortress's defense was enough for Norway's government and royal family to evacuate from the city and prepare to flee the country as its government-in-exile.
Between the torpedo damage and the fires, Blücher would sink in the fjord within two hours. (The wreck is still there today.) The German ships it had been leading decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retreated.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Between the torpedo damage and the fires, Blücher would sink in the fjord within two hours. (The wreck is still there today.) The German ships it had been leading decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retreated.
The fortress commander then followed that up with two torpedoes (just as ancient as the guns!) from the fortress's underground torpedo battery. Both hit, taking out the ship's engines and starting flooding.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
The fortress commander then followed that up with two torpedoes (just as ancient as the guns!) from the fortress's underground torpedo battery. Both hit, taking out the ship's engines and starting flooding.
Said officer took one look at the approaching German ship, decided it was up to no good, and had the fort fire two well-aimed shots at Blücher from its forty-year-old heavy guns; these set the ship afire and disabled its own main guns.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Said officer took one look at the approaching German ship, decided it was up to no good, and had the fort fire two well-aimed shots at Blücher from its forty-year-old heavy guns; these set the ship afire and disabled its own main guns.
As Blücher led the German ships up the Oslofjord towards the city by night, it came near the Oscarsborg Fortress, an aging fortification armed with obsolete weapons from the turn of the century, manned by young trainees, and commanded by an old officer on the verge of retirement.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
As Blücher led the German ships up the Oslofjord towards the city by night, it came near the Oscarsborg Fortress, an aging fortification armed with obsolete weapons from the turn of the century, manned by young trainees, and commanded by an old officer on the verge of retirement.
The real record for an ignominiously short combat career among Nazi German warships has to be the heavy cruiser Blücher, which during the Nazis' invasion of Norway in April 1940 was sent to help take Oslo, the capital. Blücher was practically brand new; this was its first combat operation.
August 17, 2025 at 11:32 PM
The real record for an ignominiously short combat career among Nazi German warships has to be the heavy cruiser Blücher, which during the Nazis' invasion of Norway in April 1940 was sent to help take Oslo, the capital. Blücher was practically brand new; this was its first combat operation.
*opens refrigerator*
*struck by blinding solar glare*
*closes refrigerator*
*struck by blinding solar glare*
*closes refrigerator*
August 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
*opens refrigerator*
*struck by blinding solar glare*
*closes refrigerator*
*struck by blinding solar glare*
*closes refrigerator*
...sieges of Alesia
www.reddit.com/r/Ancient_Hi...
www.reddit.com/r/Ancient_Hi...
June 24, 2025 at 7:07 PM
...sieges of Alesia
www.reddit.com/r/Ancient_Hi...
www.reddit.com/r/Ancient_Hi...
I had the advantage of a late start, being born in 1968. :D
June 24, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I had the advantage of a late start, being born in 1968. :D
Rome was indeed built on a swamp, and I have no doubt that it was a very unhealthy city in ancient times, but as for "sewage was non existent", that's just not true. Rome was one of the pioneers of sewer system engineering. Look up "Cloaca Maxima".
June 24, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Rome was indeed built on a swamp, and I have no doubt that it was a very unhealthy city in ancient times, but as for "sewage was non existent", that's just not true. Rome was one of the pioneers of sewer system engineering. Look up "Cloaca Maxima".
May you be haunted by the Force ghosts of thousands of aggrieved Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives.
(Wait, would they be "Force ghosts", or "Tractive Effort ghosts"?)
(Wait, would they be "Force ghosts", or "Tractive Effort ghosts"?)
June 23, 2025 at 7:08 AM
May you be haunted by the Force ghosts of thousands of aggrieved Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives.
(Wait, would they be "Force ghosts", or "Tractive Effort ghosts"?)
(Wait, would they be "Force ghosts", or "Tractive Effort ghosts"?)
Try it again, *keeping* the hyphen in "-ai". Just make sure to separate it from the previous word with a space.
It acts as a negative flag, just like any other Google negative flag, such as when you'd add "-site:reddit.com" to *exclude* results from Reddit.
It acts as a negative flag, just like any other Google negative flag, such as when you'd add "-site:reddit.com" to *exclude* results from Reddit.
June 11, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Try it again, *keeping* the hyphen in "-ai". Just make sure to separate it from the previous word with a space.
It acts as a negative flag, just like any other Google negative flag, such as when you'd add "-site:reddit.com" to *exclude* results from Reddit.
It acts as a negative flag, just like any other Google negative flag, such as when you'd add "-site:reddit.com" to *exclude* results from Reddit.
The "-ai" has to be a separate word. In the example you show, it's combined with another word, so it has no effect.
June 11, 2025 at 12:14 AM
The "-ai" has to be a separate word. In the example you show, it's combined with another word, so it has no effect.
I ate up _The Rising Sun_ in my teens (early 1980s), and it led me to see that war as a quasi-independent conflict in its own right, rather than a mere WW2 "theatre". Do you have any suggestions for correctives or alternatives to Toland, particularly from Japanese perspectives?
June 6, 2025 at 8:56 PM
I ate up _The Rising Sun_ in my teens (early 1980s), and it led me to see that war as a quasi-independent conflict in its own right, rather than a mere WW2 "theatre". Do you have any suggestions for correctives or alternatives to Toland, particularly from Japanese perspectives?
I don't think he expressed such sentiments in _The Rising Sun_, only the now standard accounts of U.S. lack of preparedness. His later (1982) book _Infamy_ might have leaned that way, but I've never read it—nor do I particularly wish to.
June 6, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I don't think he expressed such sentiments in _The Rising Sun_, only the now standard accounts of U.S. lack of preparedness. His later (1982) book _Infamy_ might have leaned that way, but I've never read it—nor do I particularly wish to.
One strange irony: the model of German acoustic torpedo that WATU's Wrens devised this tactic to counter had been codenamed "Zaunkönig" by the Germans, which happens to mean "wren".
June 6, 2025 at 9:31 AM
One strange irony: the model of German acoustic torpedo that WATU's Wrens devised this tactic to counter had been codenamed "Zaunkönig" by the Germans, which happens to mean "wren".