Humor Random Comments Thread

[MaxBuzz]

a barn lock hung on an old rusty Soviet switchboard

 

[Urwumpe]

That's the problem. I think that Urwumpe was thinking to some kind of charge point that could be used by the neighborhood, with thing such as intelligent plugs. The issue is that the first bored teenager or drunkard will trash the thing in no time, even if its well-designed. In France there were a couple of "free-service electric cars to rent" experiments, but overall it was a failure, maintenance and logistics costs were not worth it. Those kind of things can work on the paper, if everyone is a perfect citizen. Reality is different.

Actually, I just thought about stupid plugs. Including the good old lock-and-key cryptography. The cables are the weakness, though cutting through a 400V charging cable isn't exactly good for becoming an adult later.

Yeah, you have to expect vandalism there. If people damage cars parked in your neighbourhood, they will also damage charging infrastructure.

And since damage to parked cars is surprisingly low, I proclaim, that the golden rule might still be valid today.

 

[Urwumpe]

a barn lock hung on an old rusty Soviet switchboard

If its a Soviet barn lock, maybe.

If I am allowed to be discovered, I need just two NATO E-tools (see image) and 3 seconds to break any padlock found in the western hemisphere, though you might hear this bang miles away then...

You can never have enough of those at home, really.

 

[Artlav]

Sadly, locks are a social construct.

 

[Fabri91]

What would that mean for people who live in flats/apartments?
You can't exactly drop an extension cord seven floors down and around a building to whatever unoccupied nook of the street you managed to park in this time.

I agree that EVs are practical for city driving and commuting, but cities are also places where most people won't have a personal-house-on-a-plot-of-land-with-a-garage type of a place to live.


Which is exactly the route i was thinking of when asking if the charging stations actually exist, since a lot of the ones listed on the maps here don't actually exist at all, or are some private locked up installations.

This is indeed a problem - here at least a good number of flats have either private underground parking or some sort non-publicly-accessible parking area reserved for residents, so it might be less of an issue than elsewhere.

 

[N_Molson]

And since damage to parked cars is surprisingly low, I proclaim, that the golden rule might still be valid today.

I'd say the real question is the cost of the infrastructure, and also the fact that power cables themselves are quite valuable (copper). In France the electric cables from trains are already a real problem. Even if you might think it is very dangerous, some people have the know-how to cut them "safely" and sell the copper. Likely to be organised gangs because it takes timing and some logistics, but still a problem. Efforts have been made to lock the accesses to railways, but never underestimate criminals creativity...

 

[Artlav]

I mean, cutting a high voltage cable safely is fairly straightforward, criminals dumb enough to get it wrong tend to die out quickly and the survivors are a little bit smarter every time.

 

[Urwumpe]

I'd say the real question is the cost of the infrastructure, and also the fact that power cables themselves are quite valuable (copper). In France the electric cables from trains are already a real problem. Even if you might think it is very dangerous, some people have the know-how to cut them "safely" and sell the copper. Likely to be organised gangs because it takes timing and some logistics, but still a problem. Efforts have been made to lock the accesses to railways, but never underestimate criminals creativity...

Well, in this case its mostly because the cables are easily accessible and the cables have a very high value with some people asking little questions, where the copper came from. And those rails are also a good place to get an amount of similar cables on a coil that is less suspicious than many different BEV charging cables.

Here such a crime failed epically because the criminals did not know WHERE they had been attempting to steal copper cables... Instead of some distant rail owned by a large anonymous state company with little interest in its business, they tried to steal the cables from privately owned museum rail. Because of that, the owner easily noticed that some people have a weird interest in his rails and placed a babyphone near the museum rails... just a few nights later, the babyphone caught the thieves inflagranti and they had been pretty surprised when suddenly all this police turned up in a tiny mountain village far from every civilization...

But again: Considering how easy it would be to just vandalize a car, its good that it does not happen that often. There could be thousands of damaged cars in Germany every night with minimal risk for the criminals and there isn't.

 

[N_Molson]

Here such a crime failed epically because the criminals did not know WHERE they had been attempting to steal copper cables... Instead of some distant rail owned by a large anonymous state company with little interest in its business, they tried to steal the cables from privately owned museum rail. Because of that, the owner easily noticed that some people have a weird interest in his rails and placed a babyphone near the museum rails... just a few nights later, the babyphone caught the thieves inflagranti and they had been pretty surprised when suddenly all this police turned up in a tiny mountain village far from every civilization...

? now that's a good one !

But again: Considering how easy it would be to just vandalize a car, its good that it does not happen that often. There could be thousands of damaged cars in Germany every night with minimal risk for the criminals and there isn't.

That's why working in insurances is an economically viable thing. They make their margin on that very "possiblity".

 

[Urwumpe]

? now that's a good one !



That's why working in insurances is an economically viable thing. They make their margin on that very "possiblity".

Yeah. And especially Germans have a weird obsession with insurances... I am sure, I can be insured against a death star appearing in our solar system.

 

[Arvil]

A day in the life of Christian Doppler.

 

[Notebook]

US warship tested with 40,000lb explosive

The US Navy conducted a 'Full Ship Shock Trial' against its aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

www.bbc.co.uk

Anyone know what device was used for the explosion?

 

[Notebook]

Mapping quest edges past 20% of global ocean floor

We need a complete picture of Planet Earth and that means finally acquiring a definitive seabed map.

www.bbc.co.uk

The quest to compile the definitive map of Earth's ocean floor has edged a little nearer to completion.
Modern measurements of the depth and shape of the seabed now encompass 20.6% of the total area under water.
It's only a small increase from last year (19%); but like everyone else, the Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project has had cope with a pandemic.
The extra 1.6% is an expanse of ocean bottom that equated to about half the size of the United States.

 

[Arvil]

They don’t say what device, but, it was 40000 pounds (18143 kg). Appeared to be on a barge. A video from the Ford, it was about a ship length away, shock wave in the air took less than a second to reach the camera.

 

[Notebook]

Ah, I thought it was under water. Didn't see the barge.
To be honest, it seems a daft thing to do to a functioning warship. Nothing they couldn't do through simulations?

 

[Arvil]

The ship is engineered for this. You can simulate all ya want, but a real test will reveal bad hull welds, etc. In accordance with regulations, they put out a marner’s notice, overflew the zone for other vessels, and took steps to Make sure there were no detectable mammals in the area. doing a search, I noticed they do this for most of the first line warships new construction. I can only imagine how loud it was in engineering.

 

[jedidia]

To be honest, it seems a daft thing to do to a functioning warship

It might be very annoying to realise that your design doesn't hold up to the specifications, but I do think it would be a lot more than that if you only find out when in contact with the enemy...

[rant]
In other military related news, the Swiss military department opted to buy the F35. When the decision was made that the public vote would only allocate budget, but not get a say in which plane to buy, I was all for it, because actual military leaders were surely better equiped to make that decision rather than 8 million random people. Now I realize that "coolest toy" seems to have been the main evaluation criteria of the military department all along, and I'm banging my head against the wall. To think of how many good, actually proven planes could have been bought with the money that is now being sunk into what is effectively a handful of unproven, overpriced prototypes+ for which there will be eternal replacement part shortage and that will be a maintenance nightmare... Seriously!
[/rant]

 

[Fabri91]

It might be very annoying to realise that your design doesn't hold up to the specifications, but I do think it would be a lot more than that if you only find out when in contact with the enemy...

[rant]
In other military related news, the Swiss military department opted to buy the F35. When the decision was made that the public vote would only allocate budget, but not get a say in which plane to buy, I was all for it, because actual military leaders were surely better equiped to make that decision rather than 8 million random people. Now I realize that "coolest toy" seems to have been the main evaluation criteria of the military department all along, and I'm banging my head against the wall. To think of how many good, actually proven planes could have been bought with the money that is now being sunk into what is effectively a handful of unproven, overpriced prototypes+ for which there will be eternal replacement part shortage and that will be a maintenance nightmare... Seriously!
[/rant]

While it is true that there were issues with the F-35 program and sustainment cost still doesn't seem to be where it needs to, I do not agree that calling it a "prototype" would be appropriate at this point, with >600 examples already produced, which is > 3 times all the Rafales and > 2 times all the Gripens (all variants, not just the proposed relatvely new E, which would indeed be a quasi-prototype), and quite close to the total number of Eurofighters manufactured to date, with purchase price very much in line with these other three contenders - indeed a reason for the recommendation seems to be that a higher number of aircraft would be able to be purchased.

EDIT: I just hope that it doesn't become a political point to block the purchase of the F-35 due to it being the F-35 like it happened in Canada, another legacy Hornet user who ended up purchasing a number of "well used" Australian Hornets (after the RAAF started its transition to the F-35) for spare parts just to keep the fleet going after the whole procurement process was thrown out of the window with no alternatives for political brownie points.

EDIT 2: it's also my understanding that part of the F-35 offer comprises the final assembly of four examples at RUAG facilities, specifically due to requirements linked to the ability to perform maintenance internally, which makes sense (this should be an addition since Switzerland "gave bidders an option to also propose add-ons intended to “enhance Swiss autonomy at an additional cost”.).

EDIT 3: Dassault is apparently trying to get in through the kitchen windows (link):.

DeepL translation of the last paragraph:
Political rope pulling

Further investigations by this newspaper have revealed that there has been a lively exchange at ministerial level between Switzerland and France in recent days and weeks. The results of the talks between the finance, economics and foreign ministries of the two countries are not publicly known. According to reports, France is trying to win the bid from Switzerland also through political countertrade. Among other things, there is talk of political support in relations with the EU.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[Arvil]

If my old ship, USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is any indication, these have to last up to 50 years, it’s gotta be right out of the gate. And my other ship was USS Rushmore (LSD-14) went from 1944 to 1976. Imagine driving your car hundreds of thousands of miles/kilometers a year for 50 years.

 

[Urwumpe]

If my old ship, USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is any indication, these have to last up to 50 years, it’s gotta be right out of the gate. And my other ship was USS Rushmore (LSD-14) went from 1944 to 1976. Imagine driving your car hundreds of thousands of miles/kilometers a year for 50 years.

If the taxpayer pays for the show, my car could last millions of miles and could provide 500,000 jobs maintaining it for 50 years of service.

I would then even put a national flag on it.