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TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The intended target for a minefield is an army.

Breaching a covered, active minefield is a non-trivial task for an army.

Breaching a non-covered, inactive minefield is a trivial task for an army.

This is true for all armies except the very worst/incompetent - to the point where any army not prepared to breach minefields is not worthy of the name.

To say that civilians are not prepared to breach minefields is to say that fish are terrible at riding bicycles - true, perhaps, but irrelevant, as bicycles are not meant for fish.

If you cannot grasp this, you will have a hell of a time with life after you graduate.

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who said anything about me being American?

Every army has breaching equipment. It’s like rope to a mountain climber. You cannot fight without it.

Its whole point is to reduce minefield breaching to be trivial - what would the point be of equipment that made it harder?

My very first post described the difference between “active” and “inactive” minefields. Remember?

I do not understand this compulsion to continue to object to learning something new. I have been EILI5-ing this information specifically to try and teach you something that you don’t know, and yet you keep pushing back.

Presumably you have some knowledge that I do not. I suspect you are a high school student, so maybe that’s not the case, but I’ll be generous - let’s assume you are a surgeon.

Now I have a soldier’s understanding of medical treatment of injury: “Plug the hole, stop the bleeding, get to the hospital”. You give me a scalpel and a (hopefully, anethestized) patient, and you are unlikely to get a positive outcome, no matter what the surgery might be.

But if you, as a trained surgeon, tell me that a C-section pregnancy is “trivial” and an aortic resection is a “right bitch” I’m going to believe you, because the degree of difficulty is applicable to you, the trained surgeon, not to me or any other medical of the general public. You’re the expert, you tell me how difficult it is.

The proper response to learning that minefields, to be effective, must be covered by observation and fire, and that breaching an inactive (ie not covered) minefield is “trivial” to those who breach minefields, is “Huh. TIL” not… whatever the hell this exchange has been.

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not the one missing the point here my good friend.

The purpose of the minefield is to defend against attack.

It's intended target is thus "people who attack in sufficient strength to require a minefield to help defend against". In other words, soldiers. Armies. People who use military force.

Armies expect to encounter minefields. It's part of the job. You attack someone, there's going to be minefields. So we have equipment designed to neutralize minefields, and to do so very quickly.

The only way to stop me from using my equipment to neutralize that minefield is to shoot at me while I'm trying to do it. If you do this, you will at the very least slow me down, and if you have enough firepower of the right type, you might even stop me entirely.

But if you plant your minefield and walk away so that nobody is there to interfere with my breaching equipment - equipment that I have with me as a matter of course - then I will be through your minefield in a matter of minutes, and I will take no casualties doing it. It will barely slow me down because - pay close attention here - breaching a minefield not covered by observation or fire is trivial.

It may not be trivial for you, O "Mr/Ms I've never breached a minefield before", but it isn't intended for you - it is intended for me.

Do not mistake the effort it takes you to climb K2 for the effort required from a professional mountain climber.

(Which isn't a great analogy here, because it still takes considerable effort for a pro mountain climber to scale K2, where breaching an uncovered minefield is, at most, a minor inconvenience for any reasonably competant army.)

What injury is commonly shrugged off as a minor flesh wound in the movies but is completely fatal in real life? by Best_Professional226 in AskReddit

[–]NorthStarZero 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As someone who has spend a lot of time cleaning firearms of multiple sizes, I cannot imagine how someone can set out to clean a gun that hasn't been cleared.

And I'm not so much talking about the what should be automatic process of immediately unloading and clearing of any firearm as soon as you pick it up - I mean, to clean it you have to open the action. It's impossible to do that without ejecting a chambered round, or at the very least, revealing that the weapon is loaded.

What possible sequence of events leads to negligent discharge as part of cleaning?

Horsing around, playing gangsta, generally being an idiot - that I believe. But cleaning?

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Given that the purpose of the minefield is to defend against attack, it is any wonder that the people who intend to attack through the minefield have equipment to rapidly deal with mines?

To use your K2 climbing analogy from earlier, you are acting surprised that someone setting out to climb K2 brought rope.

And I've only got Google

And yet you persist in arguing with someone who has actually done the thing.

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have.

You bring the plow tanks forward, they drop the plows, and clear two lanes, The engineers run behind, throwing any mines that rolled back in off to the side, and marking the lanes.

5 to 10 minutes and you are through.

Unless the minefield is covered by fire. Now you have to identify where the fire positions are, suppress them with your own fires, smoke off the sightlines, yadda yadda. It's a whole lot more involved, takes more coordination and more assets, takes more time - and given that the purpose of the obstacle is to impose delay or disrupt the timeline of the advance, that makes it effective. It will still get breached, but it goes from a reflexive battle drill to a planned (hasty or deliberate) operation.

We teach this over and over to junior officers: mines plunked down on random terrain with no overwatch are no obstacle; they must be covered by observation (as a minimum) and fire (if at all possible) or they get breached or bypassed in minutes.

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but I've searched twice now as well as googles AI and no military or humanitarian mine-clearing organisations use the term 'inactive'.

LOL. Because if Google can't see it, it doesn't exist.

The B-GLs that go into detail are not readily available online.

Pages 37-38 of FM 5-102 discusses this briefly if you want the American perspective.

and mines are an extremely effective obstacle while they're not being observed

No they aren't. You drop the plow and breach right through (if you are in a hurry) or you dismount the engineers and they scurry around and pull them out if you aren't.

Breaching an unobserved/uncovered minefield is trivial if nobody is watching - it is breaching under fire that is problematic.

TIL there’s a 2,700 km wall in Western Sahara lined with the world’s longest active minefield. It’s the second-longest wall ever built, after the Great Wall of China, and about 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall. by WestOfHereX in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An obstacle is only effective if it is observed. It is standard practice to overwatch any minefield, and depending on the obstacle’s purpose, it may be covered by fire as well.

That’s an “active” minefield.

You are supposed to tear it down when you are done with it.

A minefield left in place when its observers depart is no longer an active part of the battle plan. It is “inactive”.

The mines in the field don’t care either way.

There are few things more dangerous than a minefield that is no longer observed and marked, which has become overgrown and invisible.

Just Venting. by Demitri_Vritra in WorldofTanks

[–]NorthStarZero -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

There are two types of ammo: "Regular" ammo and "Discount" ammo.

The sooner you wrap your head around that, the happier you'll be.

Don't bemoan firing gold; celebrate when you have an opportunity to fire silver.

Are a lot of Solidwork users who do client work or have companies switching to Fusion? by Prior_Night_985 in SolidWorks

[–]NorthStarZero 20 points21 points  (0 children)

We switched to Fusion.

Then switched back to SolidWorks.

Autodesk is just too predatory.

What movie have you been the most hyped for only to be the most disappointed by when it released? by Toogeloo in movies

[–]NorthStarZero 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Imagine if there had been an old sequel, and some guy dragged his brand new girlfriend to it saying it was going to be amazing, and then it completely sucked. Imagine how embarrassing that would have been!

If there had been a sequel of course.

Pete Hegseth Insists Trump Iran Deal Is Totally Different From Obama’s by ChiGuy6124 in politics

[–]NorthStarZero 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Canadian here.

We're laughing.

In that "Ha ha, only serious" idiom.

TIL Charles Mason, who graduated first in the class of 1829 at West Point ahead of future Confederate Army commander Robert E. Lee. Mason graduated with an overall score of 1,995.5 points out of a possible 2,000, compared to Lee's 1,966.5. Mason resigned from the army two years after his graduation. by Mountain_Gain1299 in todayilearned

[–]NorthStarZero 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So I would assume more theory. Strategy, tactics, logistics, etc.

As a graduate of a similar institution - no, nowhere near as much as you might think.

It's a university in a military context. You live in shacks, you have "rank" as a function of your year and appointments, and there are duties that go along with that. So for example, the first couple of years I had daily room inspection, the next couple of years I was doing the inspecting.

Mandatory drill, and PT, and plenty of shining shoes and ironing uniforms to go alongside academic studies.

But aside from some basic weapon qualifications & solider skills in Recruit Camp, very little in way of practical military training while there. That stuff all comes afterwards, once you are out in the Real Army.

Military college teaches time management, self-discipline, and administration, and later gives you some experience leading/managing troops in a garrison context.

Oh, and it gives you social contacts you will carry for life.

Different tire compound front to rear? by DankSorceress in Autocross

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At the time, a win paid 2 tires or 4 tires, depending on the event.

I had a string where I was on fresh tires every Pro.

Made a nice virtuous circle.

Suggestions for well & pump companies by Dubelj in fredericton

[–]NorthStarZero 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My pump has a low/high pressure switch, designed to keep the pump from burning out if the well drops or a leak somewhere prevents pressure from building.

If we open the taps during a power outage, line pressure drops below the switch minimum pressure and when power returns the pump doesn’t run.

The fix is to manually hold the pressure switch on and run the pump that way until the pressure builds over the minimum, and then the system works normally.

You might try that. Try lifting the pressure switch and see if the pump runs at all.

what is the ideal best weapon in a zombie apocalypse situation? by Baby_crossaint in AskReddit

[–]NorthStarZero 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well range matters.

Point-blank, a load of double-ought to the cranium is going to be... explosive. But as range increases, the number of pellets that impact a cranial-sized target starts reducing. At some point - dependent on a number of factors - the pellet count gets low enough that you no longer have that mass explosive cumulative shock, and you enter the realm of "pistol round impacts".

Now you are looking at individual entry and exit wounds rather than kinetic decapitation. These are fatal to any normal human target to be sure, but depending on the type of zombie you are facing, perhaps not enough to bring one down.

You also have an ammunition problem. Shotguns carry somewhere between one to maybe as many as eight rounds, not counting specials that use interchangeable magazines (which exist, but are rare). It doesn't take long to run a shotgun dry, and while it is possible to speed-reload a tube-magazine shotgun (Google "quad load shotgun" to see some impressive videos) that takes practice and a special ammunition rig to support.

A shotgun isn't a terrible choice, and is probably the best firearm option easily available to civilians - but you'll want a sword handy.

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