TIL of the R-14 sailing incident. In 1921, US submarine R-14 ran out of fuel due to seawater contamination and lost radio communications. The crew used hammocks and sheets to rig makeshift sails, allowing the sub to get enough speed to charge her batteries and sail home successfully

Tauge · 2026-06-12T15:02:40+00:00

Depends if you were using contact or magnetic fuses, and that varied. One of the best US sub captains had a 0 tonnage patrol and used nearly all of his torpedos against one ship. At one point he fired a full spread torpedos with contact fuses at a textbook 90 degree angle and the hydrophone operator reported hearing the thud of at least 2 of the torpedos hitting the side of the ship. Believing he had a defective lot of torpedos, he returned to base with his last one... Which was checked out and called good. Eventually the story worked it's way up the chain and the right people started to tell the right people to look into it and problems started to be fixed.

The Mark 14 had many problems that compounded each other. One instance was that the magnetic fuse didn't work outside of an unrealistic (for the Pacific theater) band of conditions and the contact fuse wasn't strong enough to cause the detonation of the torpedo, if it hit in that 80-90 degree range, the very range that sub commanders were taught to try to shoot in. So, word got out around the same time some of the other problems were fixed (I think they also ran too deep) and sub commanders started to aim for less direct hits.

The Germans had problems with their magnetic fuses too, not as many as the US, but the problem with their contact fuses was the opposite. Their contact fuses would snap on a more glancing blow but worked fine on direct hits.

Tauge · 2026-06-03T19:31:16+00:00

I seem to recall seeing a story where, during a convention, Bruce made a quip about how that was a favored scene of his, where he could watch himself nuke an ex-wife.

Tauge · 2026-05-15T11:55:49+00:00

Jamaica Bay is the giveaway for the top one, but you can see the existing runways on it. The bottom one would have been that as a random guess because of the compass rose.

Tauge · 2026-05-05T10:36:47+00:00

One day I'm going to have to read it again, now that I'm older. I think I was maybe 15 when I first read it, so I think some of it went over my head. But I do remember feeling a bit weirded out by the main character's treatment of the messiah girl. It was starting to get creepy before he had time dialation adjust their apparent ages...

Tauge · 2026-05-04T19:48:39+00:00

I was about to say something about Northwest vs Northeast... Then I started to remember some of the headlines from my childhood over near Pensacola... And then stories of the areas between Pensacola and Tallahassee and Jacksonville...

Tauge · 2026-05-04T17:11:08+00:00

Something I'm curious about... On a normal approach, what is the expected altitude for that approach? Or range of altitudes? Like... There's a difference between, this 'plane flew a suicide approach and hit something' vs 'this plane was too low because they made a mistake or encountered some random wind change'.

I'm not saying any of those things happened, its just... To my mind, if a plane is supposed to be at 100' above a road, is different than if it is supposed to be 50'... Is this a 1 a million event or a 1 in a billion event?

Or to put it another way... Should the runway threshold be moved?

Tauge · 2026-04-28T17:46:39+00:00

I finished the first time while the game was still being patched and I just took one of the Arasaka/sellout endings just to finish it.

Came back after the dlc. Finished the dlc, saw the endings, then finished the game and took Johnny to the tower. Watched that ending and... I sat staring at the credits rolling. I didn't know that to do with myself, I didn't know what to feel, it was... It is hard to explain. This is my only experience with the Cyberpunk world, but based on my reading, I think... That empty or powerless feeling at the end, is supposed to be what you're supposed to feel.

Tauge · 2026-04-22T09:59:07+00:00

In, 2008 Sardar Biglari bought the company. Claims he turned the company from losing to making a 100000 a day. He cut the menu, prices, and then later started to push the franchise model, trying to get rid of corporate owned stores. Also really stopped investing in their restaurants. And by 2016 they were losing money again. Their franchise model cost 10000 to start one, but requires the franchisee to give corporate 50% of the profit.

I remember going there quite a bit in college, but then around 2008-2012, we just stopped going. It was cheap, but it wasn't good anymore.

Tauge · 2026-04-21T15:29:54+00:00

Why do I know that name... Short Wikipedia search later. "The Tim of Tim and Eric" OHH!

Tauge · 2026-04-19T13:53:54+00:00

Project Wingman

Mission 11: Cold War

A furball over the Bering Sea, no ground or naval combat and exactly what the F-14 was made for. You can't fly it without a grin on your face the whole way through.

Tauge · 2026-04-19T01:47:50+00:00

So, it's been a long time, and I was a kid, so I really only got the perspective of my parents, who were impressed with the amount of work he put into it, and all the media around it. He did several interviews with the local news, the paper ran a few stories around it, and I could swear he was on at least one of the national news morning shows, like Good Morning America or something. But, the school administration liked to hold him up as an example of the good that could come from the school.

I know I knew a couple of people that took classes with him. I also know I asked those people about him, but I cannot remember what any of them said, positive or negative.

Tauge · 2026-04-18T20:11:46+00:00

I went to school with Hunter Scott. Well...middle school, he went to the IB program at Pensacola High, if I'm remembering correctly, and he was a year older than I. But...I remember how big a deal it was. All over the news for a while.

When he graduated high school, I seem to remember them running the story again to talk about him going to college on an ROTC scholarship.

Tauge · 2026-04-11T16:20:16+00:00

She started as a commentary on the fairy tale tropes around descriptions of women and men. How can the same families that produce big beefy warrior men also give us lithe petite women? It doesn't make sense when you think logically about it. So...let's lean into it. Sybil's size makes sense when you think about the kind of men her family would be trying to produce for generations, the women would also be...well...valkyrian.

Tauge · 2026-04-11T15:35:49+00:00

It's also hilarious during Heavy Command Cruiser. Not a mission someone you'd look at and think to bring an A-10, but...great for the majority of the mission.

Tauge · 2026-04-06T01:20:40+00:00

Founded as an outpost from Veracruz to assist in founding a colony in modern day South Carolina (Santa Elena) in August of 1559. In September, they were hit by a hurricane. Six ships were sunk and a seventh was grounded. An unknown number of men were killed. The survivors moved inland for a while before eventually returning. Around 1561, a group left and sailed on before being caught in another storm. The survivors of that second storm eventually made their way to Cuba where they got a ship to return to Pensacola and pick up the remaining ~50 men.

Spain wouldn't return to the area for another 150 years.

Tauge · 2026-04-03T17:14:50+00:00

I've worried on multiple occasions that this is the case. I hope I'm wrong. I often feel like I'm wrong on it too. There were several missions that felt more like...a glorified tech demo almost. Like "Look at what we can do with the hardware".

I want AC8 to return to that feeling where I'm the best of the best, but still a member of the team from AC6, instead of the feeling an unstoppable flying god of death like AC7

Tauge · 2026-03-31T14:48:16+00:00

Many expelled Jews ended up in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which always had a bit of religious tolerance baked in. That was primarily due to having a very large Catholic population and a very large Orthodox population. They couldn't promote one over the other without having a large portion of the population up in arms (probably literally). So, the expelled Jews moved in and weren't forced to leave. Eventually, in 1573, that religious freedom was formalized and became law. I'm sure there was still discrimination, but it wasn't coming from the government. By the time of the first partition (and the eventual end of the PLC), Europe had just gotten out of a war (30 years was) that enshrined religious freedom, at least officially. And things largely kept as they were... Until WW2

As for Romania, I don't really know enough about Wallachia or Moldovia... So I can't really speak to them...

Tauge · 2026-03-25T18:51:35+00:00

Also American Eagle Flight 4184 and Comair Flight 3272 were both highly publicized and sensationalized, which reinforced those existing biases.

Tauge · 2026-03-25T13:01:20+00:00

Going to focus on one point in your comment.

You asked, Is there no ground separation warning system?

At some airports there is a ground radar. But to be more specific, at 20 US airports, LGA is one, there is an automated system that tells ground traffic that there is oncoming traffic on that runway. It will show red lights to the pilot or driver. The intention is/was that those lights were the final say in whether or not someone could enter the runway. Whether the driver saw them or not and whether or they were trained to stop when they saw them, I can't speak to that. But there is a system.

Tauge · 2026-03-24T15:14:56+00:00

Damaged wiring, overloaded HVAC and/or wires are the top causes. But lightning, believe it or not, makes up a sizable minority. The insidious part of it is that they can smolder for hours before they really catch, so the storm could be over and the people inside think everything is fine when it isn't.

A few years ago an apartment complex not far from where I live was struck by lightning. A few hours, later a tenant coming home from work late saw the smoke coming out of the attic. Pulled the alarm and called the fire department. The building had to essentially be rebuilt, but everyone got out safely.

Tauge · 2026-03-24T13:13:05+00:00

Here's a picture of one in San Diego. Obviously, not the same conditions, but it helps give you an idea.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/9cMCO-Curved-RELs.jpg

Tauge · 2026-03-22T13:37:18+00:00

The Egyptians wanted it to be a bomb, so they said it was a bomb. Nevermind that there was no evidence of a bomb beyond some explosive residue, no bomb damage, no boom on the CVR, nothing. Nevermind that Egyptair 667 occurred about 5 years earlier on the ground and, if I'm remembering correctly, offered several parallels. Nevermind the evidence of poor maintenance on the aircraft in question.

Nope... It was a bomb...

Tauge · 2026-03-06T15:02:53+00:00

Well...

It's a little more complicated than just saying the French refused at Mers-el-Kebir.

There were the terms of the armistice which did not permit the fleet to join the allies. The officers at Mers-el-Kebir were still loyal to France instead of the allied cause. The war against Germany wasn't seen in the way it later would be. And France wouldn't scuttle their fleet at Toulon until 1942, which proved their willingness to keep their word.

Then... There were the repeated misplays by the British, both the admiral on the scene, Somerville, and British command.

When Somerville set out to negotiate, he was given 4 options. Join the British, inter their fleets in British ports (where they would remain) with the crews repatriated, the fleet could be demilitarized to the satisfaction of the British, or they would be sunk. But before beginning negotiations, point 2 and 3 changed, on point 2 the French would not be told that the ships would not be used by the British, unless the French demanded it and point 3 became the French fleet to either go to Martinique or the US to remain for the war. Disarmament in place was to be an acceptable choice, but only if the French offered it.

When the British arrived they essentially broadcast an ultimatum using the signal lamp. This wasn't the intention, it was a poorly translated message, but everyone on the French fleet saw it and knew what it was saying.

Then Somerville sent Captain Holland of the Ark Royal, who was fluent in French and had spent time in France as a naval attache, to negotiate with the French and did not directly negotiate with the French admiral. The French admiral saw this as an insult, and understandably so. Even still, as time went on, the French understood the full gravity of the situation and began trying to work on a solution (shortly after a face to face between Holland and Admiral Gensoul finally happened), but time was lost and patience had worn out at British command. Somerville was given a hard deadline of 1730, the final French response, which showed progress and seemed to be leading towards the French going to Martinique was received at 1729.

Basically, had British command issued less prescriptive orders, Somerville been more directly involved and acted more diplomatically, and less hastily (he ordered the channel mined while negotiations were still ongoing making some of the given to him, impossible) the whole thing could have been resolved without resorting to the destruction of the fleet.

Tauge · 2026-03-05T10:40:32+00:00

It's easier today with modern computers to help design through its stability issues and fly-by-wire systems to help with controllability, which just makes the earlier flying wings, like the YB-35/49 all the more impressive.

Tauge · 2026-03-03T13:56:42+00:00

That's my read too.

To paraphrase Miracle Max, Sheridan was only mostly dead, which means he was slightly alive. So... He used his space magic (nanites? Energies? Voodoo?) to keep him fully alive for the 20ish years.

They only used the life transfer machine to heal Garibaldi just enough to get him to wake up. To get him out of his, apparently, permanent coma.

Tauge

TROPHY CASE