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Cyrano4747 posted:Isn't that story from Red October? No. In fact the bits of Clancy that I recall that deal with satellite imagery event have a character who does image analysis for a living pointing out that it's really easy to read into them what you want to see and how you really have to keep in mind how *not* clear and unambiguous they are. Like at one point they're looking at pictures of people at a rifle range in the desert and he says "Look, what you have here is a picture of some people lined up, *probably* firing guns, that's all." He's damned sure not saying you could read their scores.
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Aug 31, 2016 00:52
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Phanatic posted:No. In fact the bits of Clancy that I recall that deal with satellite imagery event have a character who does image analysis for a living pointing out that it's really easy to read into them what you want to see and how you really have to keep in mind how *not* clear and unambiguous they are. Like at one point they're looking at pictures of people at a rifle range in the desert and he says "Look, what you have here is a picture of some people lined up, *probably* firing guns, that's all." He's damned sure not saying you could read their scores. That was in Patriot Games. And then like two books later in the Cardinal of the Kremlin they're watching a live satellite feed and one guy says "that guy is KGB, you can tell because his shoulder boards are green."
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Aug 31, 2016 01:13
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Cyrano4747 posted:On the other hand you have the Democrats who got into an ideological race to the left in the primaries. Hillary was scrambling to not lose to Sanders, and a big part of that was sucking up to unions in a big way. Plus, with Trump beating the "I care about factory workers" drum so hard they don't want to look like they're less friendly to workers than he is. And here I thought the reason people opposed it was because of its restrictions that prevent countries from enacting legislation that a corporation operating within its borders claims would lessen its future profits, restrict the extent states can enact environmental and labor standards, restrict the ability of governments to provide public healthcare, and the expansions of copyright law.
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Aug 31, 2016 01:21
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StandardVC10 posted:Both Presidential candidates have come out against it now. Hillary is lying, the Democrats will fall in line, and the Republican establishment is in favor of the TPP anyway. If she wins it'll pass, for better or (more likely) worse.
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Aug 31, 2016 01:32
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Smiling Jack posted:Russia's recent forays into "cyber" (I hate that loving term) and disinformation is worrying; they're currently trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US election process. Yeah, lost conventional geopolitics so now they're exploring "what kinda things can we do to hurt everyone else without it actually being war?" Works great for Putin either way; it plays into his whole "WHOLE WORLD OUT TO GET RUSSIA" propaganda campaign
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Aug 31, 2016 01:40
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Concordat posted:And here I thought the reason people opposed it was because of its restrictions that prevent countries from enacting legislation that a corporation operating within its borders claims would lessen its future profits, restrict the extent states can enact environmental and labor standards, restrict the ability of governments to provide public healthcare, and the expansions of copyright law. It only actually does one of these things (expanding US copyright to other signatory countries in some ways, which I'm not really a fan of and consider a legit reason to oppose it in its current form if that's something you feel strongly about); the rest are more or less FWD: fwd: FWwwd: DEAR GRANDSON OBAMA IS A MONKEY!! levels of failing to understand and/or not actually bothering to read the text of the agreement I'd assume there's a thread better suited for discussing the ins and outs of trade agreements buried somewhere in
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Aug 31, 2016 02:43
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I was just saying that those are the type of arguments I see from the left-wing, rather than stuff about unions and factory workers. Good point though. Here's a thing I read about a month ago about people waxing nostalgic for Stalin in Russia: Inside Russia's Resurgent Communist Party
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Aug 31, 2016 03:02
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Some anecdotes about and from Sakai Saburou, Japanese navy fighter ace.
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Aug 31, 2016 03:48
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Smiling Jack posted:Russia's recent forays into "cyber" (I hate that loving term) and disinformation is worrying; they're currently trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the US election process. Cliffs on this? I've never even heard of it before but what is the theory?
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Aug 31, 2016 11:50
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Shooting Blanks posted:Cliffs on this? I've never even heard of it before but what is the theory? Basically the Belgian Supermarket Murders were just so loving weird that they've been variously ascribed to a gang of sociopaths, Operation Gladio, part of a larger Soviet plot to destabilize Europe, or the goddamn Fremasons.
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Aug 31, 2016 11:57
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Smiling Jack posted:Basically the Belgian Supermarket Murders were just so loving weird that they've been variously ascribed to a gang of sociopaths, Operation Gladio, part of a larger Soviet plot to destabilize Europe, or the goddamn Fremasons. Funny Games, Belgium edition.
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Aug 31, 2016 11:59
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That guy sounds p amazing.
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Aug 31, 2016 12:07
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iyaayas01 posted:We realized it was a losing battle because after a couple emails with the heraldry office it quickly became clear that "Timets Mortem" Fear Death and a grim reaper with a scythe dripping blood isn't in "good taste." Timete (in the plural, anyway) 
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Aug 31, 2016 12:41
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Mortabis posted:China isn't part of TPP I said IF china signed it, IE became incorporated into it in tge future
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Aug 31, 2016 13:26
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I guess that rivet story was BS. Maybe the real details were different, but I was just regurgitating a story I heard from a Navy friend of mine
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Aug 31, 2016 15:28
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Captain von Trapp posted:Hillary is lying, the Democrats will fall in line, and the Republican establishment is in favor of the TPP anyway. If she wins it'll pass, for better or (more likely) worse. Hillarys position change was nakedly cynical. If the legislature got their act together and somehow passed it, I've no doubt she'd just cite *reasons* why it was a good idea now and sign it instantly.
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Aug 31, 2016 17:51
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What a great profile of an unusual specimen - A Japanese ace who survived the war. Right up until the end when the "russian bias" surfaces. Which causes me to doubt the whole thing. No shade on Sperglord Actual, it's an interesting article, just that perhaps we need to be aware of the potential for bullshit
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Aug 31, 2016 17:57
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BIG HEADLINE posted:"Arc Light" by Eric L. Harry. Seconding Arc Light but also warning you off of buying any other Eric L Harry books. Protect and Defend was Clancy-level slow plot progression, and my brain seems to have blocked out Invasion altogether, probably a self defense mechanism.
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Aug 31, 2016 19:58
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bitcoin bastard posted:Seconding Arc Light but also warning you off of buying any other Eric L Harry books. Protect and Defend was Clancy-level slow plot progression, and my brain seems to have blocked out Invasion altogether, probably a self defense mechanism. Agreed. Arc Light similarly is a nice work of fiction in the sense that the American people seemingly don't lose their collective loving minds after a limited reflexive counterforce strike by the Russians. At one point one of the protagonist's wives has to drive through an active fallout zone on an interstate, and the state trooper just advises she close her AC vents. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 20:04
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My favorite Cold War book is The Charm School, although it gets a bit weird near the end.
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Aug 31, 2016 20:05
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BIG HEADLINE posted:Agreed. Arc Light similarly is a nice work of fiction in the sense that the American people seemingly don't lose their collective loving minds after a limited reflexive counterforce strike by the Russians. At one point one of the protagonist's wives has to drive through an active fallout zone on an interstate, and the state trooper just advises she close her AC vents. I'll jump on this train. A fun piece from its time, and I actually own a hardcover copy. The part where said wife is in the hospital and is asking where to go to pay her bill? I think it's more of a commentary on people from California than anything else. But, this was probably what people were encouraged to think back then*. A short initial conflict, with decon and everything working well enough to open roads again. Then even some conventional attacks on power plants, with the TV still around to warn you about it. The realistic scenario of a full exchange wouldn't have been the same novel. It would have been an entire book full of the parts with airbases being remodeled by thermonuclear weapons, and then nothing. "Something, something, the secondary wave through the ground broke both of his legs at the ankles, and everyone burned with their mouths open." * (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtoiQs-zHNU) Effective-Disorder fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 22:40
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I remember a lot of 1980s fiction being full of "everyone loving does horribly" post nuclear exchange. It was a weird time.
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Aug 31, 2016 22:57
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Effective-Disorder posted:I'll jump on this train. A fun piece from its time, and I actually own a hardcover copy. The part where said wife is in the hospital and is asking where to go to pay her bill? I think it's more of a commentary on people from California than anything else. Oh, for sure - but I last read it as a kid in middle school, and I still remember the Marines in the story on an LHD going across the ocean talking about how The Weather Channel had become the most watched network on television because of the up-to-the-minute fallout tracking. Nowadays, if NYC had a low-yield device go off in Central Park you'd have people panicking in Omaha for the next week thinking THEY'RE NEXT.
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Aug 31, 2016 23:01
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Fancy video of Patriot intercept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HvAuIi02AE Unless you're a turbonerd like me, this second video isn't worth watching in its entirety, but the link is time-stamped to a very good shot of PAC-3 end-game vs an air-breathing threat. Probably the clearest shot of the lethality enhancer popping I've seen in a publicly released video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo06xd6_ziM&t=148s
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Sep 1, 2016 00:04
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also get hyped for missile defense* *completely ignore the bogus stats that have since been roundly disproven even among the missile defense community and publicly posted. But all those clips of old-school news were interesting at least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeHo0FxQUEA
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Sep 1, 2016 03:40
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Smiling Jack posted:I remember a lot of 1980s fiction being full of "everyone loving does horribly" post nuclear exchange. they even made us read Z for Zachariah in school and everything poo poo was grim back then
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Sep 1, 2016 11:52
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VikingSkull posted:they even made us read Z for Zachariah in school and everything poo poo, even music videos were full of post-apocalyptic scenes and settings. I hate using the word zeitgeist but that's very much the right word in this case.
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Sep 1, 2016 18:17
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Phanatic posted:I hate using the word zeitgeist but well now Gunther Hermann has to change his password. Thanks a lot!!
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Sep 1, 2016 18:35
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VikingSkull posted:they even made us read Z for Zachariah in school and everything We had to read it and watch the BBC play of it. The rape scene was awkward, but what did our English teacher expect from a load of 14 year old boys?
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Sep 1, 2016 18:51
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC-7dWHaPM SpaceX's rocket blew up on the pad today during a test. This was going to be the first launch of a reused rocket. Was.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:03
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC-7dWHaPM No, it wasn't. That's not scheduled until mid-October.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:05
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:SpaceX's rocket blew up on the pad today during a test. A shame, but it sounds like nobody was hurt at least. 
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Sep 1, 2016 21:12
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC-7dWHaPM Was a new core.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:14
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Mortabis posted:No, it wasn't. That's not scheduled until mid-October. Really? Man my local news blows.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:14
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NPR I think started that misreporting.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:24
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Alaan posted:NPR I think started that misreporting. Government agenda against space privatization
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Sep 1, 2016 21:32
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 Though I'm sure it was just someone going "Wait, didn't SpaceX just announce a reused core this week, yeah, that must be it. Put it in" and no one bothered to check.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:37
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Doctor Grape Ape posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceC-7dWHaPM As horrible as the event is, that's a pretty great set of explosions.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:50
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I read that the big problem is that it went off on the launch pad. If a rocket KB's on launch you lose the payload, but that's really the end of it. Damaging the launch apparatus could apparently stop or delay some other launches up later this year. Also, I read that there is a lot of speculation it had something to do with the launch pad hardware, not the rocket. Something something fueling and support system something rocket science.
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Sep 1, 2016 22:00
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During a launch sometime this year, I remember them calling out the spherical LOX Tank visible on stream as having been there since Apollo and they were going to replace it.
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Sep 1, 2016 22:20
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