A maser is a device that produces coherent microwaves, through amplification by stimulated emission. The term is an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation

TIL, thank you friend!

There has been development of smarter jammers that’ll ‘listen’ for the frequency used, and pump out jamming to defeat it, but I haven’t heard of a steerable unit like that - very interesting.

Yup, air burst and lasers are the leading ideas atm. But you’re still dealing with a zone of protection a kilometer or so - not a big deal to defend the main command post or vital supply depots, but spreading that out to industrial areas, grid power stations and substations, seaport complexes, or cities and your ‘blanket’ of protection starts looking too small for the job of covering the ‘want to have’ as well as the ‘need to have’ protected.

As someone who’s been following this fairly closely since the Syrians started toying with it, and the Ukrainians threw it into hyperdrive… There’s no good counter when drones are cheap to make and can be programmed to run on a flight course:

• Jamming has to fight inverse square so the radius is trash (and kills a lot of useful civil RF ranges like WiFi). Something like 200 meters is a strong system currently, and power needs ramp up fast.
• ‘Kinetic hard kill’ like traditional air defense is way too expensive per shot, plus there’s issues with UXO, debris, and limited launching platforms. Legacy air defenses like Tunguska or FlakPanzer with programmable airburst rounds work best, but at very short range and make a lot of secondary fragments by design. Taking the guns out, interceptor missiles start at five figures.
• Laser systems have a lot of promise with none of the explosive downsides whilst being cheaper per shot, but range isn’t great - you’re focusing energy to physically melt the target, and all light suffers from diffraction. It is better than jamming, but far too close for comfort.

That assumes you know the drone is coming, mind you. Piston-engine flying wings aren’t silent, but they are generally made of polymers/laminates that are hard to detect via radar. Thermal cameras and acoustic sensors so far are the best early warning systems, but radar is still a huge help.

And then there’s FPV and quadcopters. While a larger munition like Shaheed can be under $10k, even the more advanced FPV/quads with night vision (or even thermal) cameras frequently run under $1,000, up to a few thousand. Air dropped explosives have been fundamental in changing the course of the civil war in Myanmar for the rebels, it’s like having a budget Air Force and spy satellites on call.

It’s honestly a solid lane shooter FPS, but it falls flat of the Battlefield killer it could have been. Enough realism and no respawns to make you treat it seriously, but it’s also not ArmA levels of “welp, time to respawn and drive/walk to the objective for 15 minutes”

Plus doing the training unlocks the squad role slots for online play, get that season pass shit outta my face

Been done, and didn’t work. Players complained of “Slow weapon upgrades” and “No character progression” and was received poorly, needs more gritty realism.

Or explosions

Don’t let your memes stay dreams 🥰

I am against my brother, my brother and I are against my cousin, my cousin and I are against the stranger.

Fuck around with the locals, and you might find them unified against you (NSFW). The nomadic groups are no strangers to violence.

A face even a mother couldn’t love.

Because people won’t leave Xitter. Mastodon was propped up expressly as a replacement, but the bird yet lives.

There wasn’t actual 1.0x LPVOs until like 2010, the S&B 1.3-4 and 1.1-4 was the closest for a long time.

There’s A BUNCH of claw mount electro/optics that were used before good red dots came out:

• Hendsolt ‘projector’ sight
• D-cell maglights
• Laser Products (aka Surefire) weapon light

Ahhh a classic 🤌

Lawful- Neutral renter reporting in:

• Fresh paint and a lot of putty hide a lot of sins
• Magic erasers ARE magic
• Home improvement stores just like sell door trim, hardware, etc and they’ll color match paint
• Most post-inspectors are looking for egregious issues or evidence of a bad fix/cleanup. That’s now your threshold for quality

I fixed an entire doorframe trim and drywall after the back door got kicked in - paint and putty are your friends

Eyyyyy we’re fucked 🙃

It’s not helping. We aren’t going to get a “deus ex machina” moment on righting damage done to the environment. Yes focus on the bigger goals and pollution sources, but this is a trend in the wrong way to enlarge Elon’s money pile.

Yes, the rocket is reusable. The fuel is not, and by lowering the cost per kg of space freight, it has driven more usage of rockets. Which use non-renewable fuel at astounding rates and make huge emissions for a minor payload total.

We’re seeing extreme temperatures and unseasonal weather events already - James Webb is cool and the ISS does need service missions but Starlink is just more orbital trash waiting to happen.

Source: I work in/with electronics manufacturers

Tl; dr - a mix of value engineering and consumer preference. You wanna buy a $3k TV, or a $700 TV? How rock solid does your automatic sprinkler really need to be, compared to a satellite radio in the Sahel?

Per IPC industry standards, there’s three classes of electronic workmanship/quality control used:

• Class 1: It works, just about. Shoddy soldering is okay as long as connectivity is maintained. Passing a QA test may be as simple as “it runs when powered”. This is where most consumer grade stuff lives: calculators, watches, flashlights, etc.
• Class 2: Better built with generally more QA. Testing usually involves actually checking for function and different modes. Generally used only on commercial/civil government stuff like traffic lights, power controllers, heavy machinery - anywhere where reliability and longevity is worth paying more for.
• Class 3: Complete process control and 100% coverage function (and almost always) burn-in/stress test cycles. Top quality and cost, typically only used for military, aerospace, or medical - where stuff failing means people die.

This is an important clarification, you’re right. The yaw angle is minimal in ballistic flight, the level of keyholeing in the photo is rather dramatic. Though the 5.8x42mm is standard with a mild steel penetrator like M855, and the round was definitely built with cost as a major factor - maybe a bad lot of ammo?

5.56 (especially M855 for some reason) also exhibits ‘fleet yaw’ for the first couple of yards when fired. Factory new barrels and ammo doesn’t matter, iirc something about the rapid application of rotational force from rifling and projectile construction

Bullets – all bullets, not just .22 caliber ones – experience a period of very violent yaw and turbulence when they exit the muzzle, causing their angle of attack relative to their flight path – that is how “straight” the bullet is in flight – to vary wildly. Within 50m, they found, two bullets fired from the same gun, at essentially the same time, might impact a target at two completely different angles.

I found a real easy approach to any undesired solicitation - zero contact, no reaction. Works on telemarketers, panhandlers, salespeople etc.

I have no shame about ghosting you publicly when the only thing you’re after is my money. If I’m in the home generator store, sure thing bro talk to me about my home power needs. If I’m walking out the supermarket and you slide around a booth to “help me keep my home safe during unrest” nah fam you can fuck yourself.

Cold open sales is parallel to pick-up “artists” imo. You want the transactional outcome for yourself, and my consent is the only thing you’re concerned about taking care of.

Yes. Going from thinking “yeah, that’s a tree ofc” to talking like a paid shill to everyone I know “I CAN SEE EACH LEAF!!! ITS LIKE I’M SEEING IN HD”