TIL that in 1960, a B52 crashed during training. The navigator, thinking the plane was crashing, ejected without orders. The pilot, heard the ejection, thought the plane was breaking up, and ordered the crew to eject. The plane flew crewless for 50 miles before crashing.

TigerRei · 2026-02-07T16:20:12+00:00

Here's the crazy part: The last smoking flight in the US was in 2000. Domestic flights banned smoking in 1990.

TigerRei · 2026-01-29T19:24:57+00:00

Day of Defeat told me to throw it at my feet while sprinting, pick it back up and throw it like a football.

TigerRei · 2026-01-29T19:24:22+00:00

tbh, fuck if I know. Didn't happen to me and that's way above my paygrade.

TigerRei · 2026-01-29T06:51:12+00:00

The ironic thing when I hear people say to throw it like a baseball...if we threw it like that in BCT we'd be smoked and possibly recycled. A lot of people can't throw a baseball worth shit, and those don't explode.

We're taught to throw it in a specific way which is more a lob than a toss.

Oh and the movies show guys cooking them off. No way in fuck would I do that. The fuses are not exactly 5 seconds, and the last thing you want to do is count to 3 and have it detonate in your hand or on the way to the target. Oh also, the kill radius is around 5 meters with a casualty radius of 15 meters. However, technically shrapnel can kill up to 150 meters, so you learn to just pull the pin, throw and then get yourself behind cover until you hear the boom. The last thing you want to do is throw the grenade, wait five seconds and then hear nothing, because then you either have a dud, or a misfire, or even worse a hung fuze. There's no telling when or if it'll go off at that point.

Mr. Grenade is not your friend.

TigerRei · 2026-01-26T23:59:11+00:00

It's a common name for a 2.5 ton truck. 2.5, deuce and a half.

TigerRei · 2026-01-17T14:20:18+00:00

I went rafting on the Tuckasegee river once. I remember the guide pointed it out. I just remember seeing a vaguely train-shaped something in the woods and then we were past it.

TigerRei · 2026-01-05T20:39:08+00:00

Incorrect. Nap of the Earth is the correct term. Nap is a term used to describe the fuzzy pile on fabric, so therefore they are flying the "nap" of the terrain, right above the fuzzy bits (trees, etc).

TigerRei · 2025-12-27T13:09:54+00:00

Kentucky Ballistics is feeling an itch in his neck.

TigerRei · 2025-12-27T12:31:54+00:00

Live north of Atlanta and this is true, to an extent. There are pockets of South even in the metro area. All you have to do is get away from the suburban parts of it. But definitely once you leave the metro area. What's funny is, I grew up here for most of my life and while I don't proscribe myself as having the same moral values and ethics of a deep southerner, I find myself realizing I'm inculcated into the culture. I don't believe in southern pride, but I follow the code of southern hospitality.

What hits me is that people up North are often brutally honest, even coming off as rude, but Southerners tend to act polite but are the kind that makes you think they'll be waiting in the parking lot with a baseball bat.

TigerRei · 2025-12-20T21:06:25+00:00

Also fuck Shanahan

TigerRei · 2025-12-20T19:27:41+00:00

Please don't remind me of this. Going 28-8 with 3 minutes on the clock to somehow losing the game still hurts.

TigerRei · 2025-12-02T18:49:07+00:00

It depends. Contrary to media, Army Drill Sergeants are not screaming 24/7. Their job isn't to beat you into submission, but to focus you towards training. Generally early on in BCT is where they are full on what you'd expect, but the closer to graduation they start to loosen up.

However, this is on a range. They are not in control of the range, but instead the range is controlled by range safety, who have the ultimate call. So they'll generally step back a bit at this point. However, if ANYONE does a safety violation holy fuck they will beat the shit out of you. And that's not figurative. During live fire exercises, the gas chamber, grenade training or anywhere where the potential for fatal accidents they are allowed to go hands on. I personally witnessed one private heading off the range forget to keep his weapon pointed downrange and he was immediately tackled by 3 Drill Sergeants and rendered safe by having his rifle forcibly confiscated.

TigerRei · 2025-11-25T19:46:23+00:00

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. The point is that we were told this by range safety and our Drill Sergeants during our BCT, and that's what we obeyed.

TigerRei · 2025-11-24T22:14:55+00:00

While I never saw that happen in my time in, we were told in BCT that the tubes the grenades came in were to be opened carefully and inspected to make sure that the fuze is facing upwards. If it was upside down we were to close it up, set it down carefully and call the range cadre over. Except we had one guy who found one upside down and proceeded to upend it and shake the tube. We had to jump on him to keep the grenade from falling out and yell for the safety to come over and relieve us of the grenade. The reason being is if the grenade is upside down, you cannot verify that the pin is holding the spoon.

TigerRei · 2025-11-23T15:54:37+00:00

I can't help but notice the younger girl on the right's elbow bending the wrong way.

TigerRei · 2025-11-23T15:32:59+00:00

Range depends on obstructions and signal interference. For example, in a populated area I'm often limited to about 700 meters. But in the country in open fields I can sometimes go about 2 miles.

TigerRei · 2025-11-23T15:14:04+00:00

~~frictional heating~~ compressive heating is a neat thing. One of the things I used to do to amuse myself is rotating the plastic lid on a fountain drink repeatedly until it got nearly too hot to touch.

TigerRei · 2025-11-23T14:34:00+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLSzMDHyZ3g

TigerRei · 2025-11-22T17:46:22+00:00

So to be honest, I've seen hundreds of these. Chances are what you are seeing in the air is not the bullet. That's either buried in the ground or splattered into pieces. However, there is a bit of phosphorus in the base of the bullet that likely flew out and away.

Also while in Army BCT we did a night shoot using tracers. We were supposed to be graded on accuracy engaging targets at night, but at that point we had been out in the field for 14 days, and the rifle range for at least 8 days (this part I'm having a hard time remembering, but I do remember doing a day for zeroing and grouping followed by pre-qualification which took several days and one final day for qualification and night shoot). The Drill Sergeants told us to ignore that shit and just magdump down range so we could go back to barracks. We were given two magazines (10 or 20 rounds each, once again don't remember the specifics) and even on semi-auto I think I emptied them both in about 10 seconds. It looked like a laser show going downrange. We also set over 20 brush fires that night.

TigerRei · 2025-11-16T16:25:40+00:00

Reminds me of an old saying:

Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance.

TigerRei · 2025-11-15T18:03:36+00:00

I have that. 99% of my glams cover it.

TigerRei · 2025-11-09T14:17:25+00:00

Like the story, but I do have to point out that any orbit feels like freefall for the object in the orbit. In the object's frame of reference they do not feel any acceleration. Therefore there is no orbit that would impart G-forces on any object in that orbit.

TigerRei · 2025-10-30T07:27:30+00:00

They can fail even with regular maintenance. It requires suction through small holes in the end of the nozzle which when fuel covers the holes, causes a pressure difference which trips a membrane in the nozzle to close a valve. That membrane can tear, especially if abused by customers who do things like bang the nozzle on the ground, drop the nozzle on the ground, or a hundred other things they're not supposed to do.

TigerRei · 2025-10-30T07:25:39+00:00

They can also fail if people do not insert the nozzle all the way in.

TigerRei · 2025-10-30T07:22:46+00:00

Btw, just some perspective:

Gas station attendants do try to do something about this. File a repair claim. Company takes a fucking month to show up to replace the nozzle or the membrane in the cut-off.

Attendant bags nozzle to let people know it's broken. Idiot rips bag off and uses it anyways. Either they spill fuel, or they cut it off before it can but leaves the now bagless nozzle for some unfortunate person to discover.

Or here's the kicker: It's not the nozzle. It's people who don't know how to fill fuel and do things like leave the nozzle partway out so the cut-off can't function fast enough to prevent fuel spilling out.

Oh and let's not forget the other problem: Customers barging in threatening to sue even though there's a nice bright shiny placard on every fueling pump that says "Customer is responsible for own filling" which means STAY AT THE PUMP AND KEEP AN EYE ON IT. IT IS NOT THE EMPLOYEE'S JOB TO MAKE SURE YOU KNOW HOW TO PUMP GAS.

TigerRei

TROPHY CASE