Multi-Trick Pony

 The world is currently in the process of driving me batshit crazy.  Well, I say it is the world but in truth, it is pretty much just the USA and Russia.  Mostly, it is the political scene in the USA.  I have had to cut back on some of my news watching for the sake of what sanity I have left.  Luckily, I have other interests

I do consider myself a futurist and I generally pay pretty close attention to technology and science trends and news.  As is true in other endeavors, the fact of something isn't necessarily the thing you pay attention to.  Rather it is how that fact or change or new tech etc etc etc, will affect life in the future.

The attached video does a pretty good job of explaining the dimensions and output of a new electric motor design.  The motor it focuses on is rated for 1000hp.  For reference, the engine in a big rig or a large class A RV would typically have an output of 400-600hp.  The video is easily worth the watch.

I do not know what use cases are actually planned for the motor.  In my mind, adding a couple of these 30lb motors and perhaps a 200lb battery/controller to a big rig could make a real difference.  The rigs could use the electric motors to initiate motion from a stop without the typical plume of diesel exhaust hitting the air.  It could make going uphill with a full load something that doesn't have to back traffic up.  Fuel might well be saved and rather than the noise of the "Jake brake" slowing could be used just to charge the battery back up.  There is a ton of potential for savings on fuel, time, air pollution, and noise.

Of course, some folk will bitch for whatever reason they want to bitch about it but, the potential is still there. The future is coming whether you are "here for it" or not.

Out of the Frying Pan ...

 If there was any doubt, it is gone.  In the last few days, I heard Mullins talk about the war in Iran except that then he claimed it isn't actually a war.  I heard him refer to President Hegseth a couple of times.  His press interviews are painful to watch and there is a near guarantee that he will be getting some of the facts totally wrong.

I can only reach one conclusion.  The incompetence is intentional.  This time around, Felon47 has refused to hire anyone who is not incompetent and manipulable. Ignorant me from just a few years ago would have doubted there were that many people who were materially soooooooooo much less capable than the Felon but he found a bunch and the idiots in the Senate let him.

 

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”- Albert Einstein

Images Of The Future

Y'all military types might wanna go ahead and watch this.  There will come a time in the not too distant future where this is more relevant than you imagine.

https://youtu.be/4cc1pPmHY_M?si=5SBkIHNMvwo1ossQ 

Caveman Computer

 I have taught a few folk to shoot over the years.  Generally I will show them the various parts of the weapon, show them the ammo and explain how it all works.  Then I might shoot it a time or two to let them get accustomed to the noise and see, if applicable, the kick.

Overall, I do not want them surprised by the weapon in operation. I want them to know with reasonable assurance what should happen and in what order.  I want them to know when/if something has gone wrong and they need to alert me or someone else with greater knowledge than they.

I want them to understand the weapon before they attempt to use or operate the weapon.  Nothing about about how I taught those folk was remarkable.  Few, if any, weapons specialists in the world would suggest that you use weapons you do not understand.  Imagine you are a WWII bomber pilot early in the war.  You could have dropped thousand pounds bombs from a low level bombing run and been perfectly fine.  If you tried that same procedure with the same distances but you dropped a nuke instead, you just made your last screwup.  You used a weapon you did not understand.

That is the attitude I bring to the table with my support for Anthropic and their reluctance to give Piss Drunk Pete their trust and permission to use Claude AI however they wish.  I rather doubt Kegseth understands the AI any better than I do.  For now, it needs moral human supervision and morality is in short supply with this (mis)administration.

If you were to hand a caveman a machine gun, what do you think would happen?  We may not have to wait very long for a demonstration.

Death To Irony!!!

Irony has been dying the death of a trillion cuts for quite some time now. The frequency of cuts has accelerated over the last, say, year+ but the diagnosis hasn't changed in waaaaaaaaay longer. Why do I mention it? Oh, no reason really.

Congress has not renamed the Dept of Defense. As such, anyone claiming to adhere to the law while using the phrasing "Department of War" is lying and should be trusted like a poison ivy salad with an arsenic dressing.

The Things Change More ...

 Consider this: https://newatlas.com/military/liberty-class-autonomous-naval-ship-production/

Now, think about designing in solar panels, small wind turbines, and even wave power and suddenly you have a loitering sensor array with the potential for weaponization.  They could build and launch thousands of the things.  Schedule them for maintenance once a year (scrape the hull, paint, assess the internals etc etc)

Essentially this could be an element of the surface version of the "Loyal Wingman" program for the skies.  I would probably suggest that each vessel carry a habitat on the deck  for a few humans so that the vessels can be used in search and rescue ops.  I suppose they might as well include a container with ~20 launch able UAVs.

With no crew, the design elements that make Navy ships (barely) suitable for human habitation are largely gone.  No galley or mess decks, minimal or no water desalination or purification, HVAC sufficient to maintain operating range temps for the sensors and weapons systems, no berthing spaces.

Waaaaaaaay less expensive to build.  Waaaaaaay less expensive to crew (what with their being no crew and all).  No breaks for anything except maintenance and/or repair.  Seems like we should have had this already.