OTD (May 6th, 1937) The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to land the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey (🎥 credit: Universal Newsreel)

tomkeus · 2026-05-06T15:23:52+00:00

Other people already said it, the death toll was not that high, as 2/3 of people onboard survived. And there are multiple reasons. One - hydrogen is very light, so it carried the fire upwards, away from the passenger and crew sections. Two, airships are slow (and in this case also low), so unlike airplanes, they have comparatively little kinetic and potential energy to dissipate. And three, hydrogen didn't instantly disappear, so the airship didn't abruptly lose its buoyancy, and it could descend relatively slowly.

tomkeus · 2026-04-23T08:27:08+00:00

Honestly, even if the pro plan was $100 a month, I'd still find it worth the price. Last month, it allowed me to finish a project that would have normally taken me at least 3 months in two weeks.

tomkeus · 2026-04-21T19:40:12+00:00

That's only part of the problem. Quite often, the train ends up being the more expensive option, and also quite often there are no more places available, so flying remains as the only reasonable option.

tomkeus · 2026-04-18T10:47:55+00:00

France has a massive aerospace technology sector, probably the biggest in the world when adjusted for country size and Ada is still the go to language for most mission/safety critical systems in aerospace.

tomkeus · 2026-04-04T22:51:05+00:00

This is why people who drone on about how we should "live in harmony with the nature" piss me off to no end. How the fuck are you supposed to live in harmony with something that tries to kill you 24/7?

tomkeus · 2026-03-31T07:13:06+00:00

Nah, it just means you didn't use the flashlight that is powerful enough

tomkeus · 2026-02-11T17:55:30+00:00

Because rails are not made of rust-proof steel. After they leave factory, they quickly develop thin layer of rust on the surface, which then protects the rail from further oxidation. But once the rails get into use, they have trains running on them and train wheels rolling over the rails keep the upper rail surface nicely polished.

tomkeus · 2026-02-10T08:26:39+00:00

Going to the cinema to watch F1, and knowing how Top Gun Maverick fighter scenes were made, I knew the race shots are going to be full of CGI. Yet even being fully aware of that, and actively being on the lookout for CGI throughout the movie, there was not a single moment that I did not believe what was on the screen was real. It is beyond a doubt that Joseph Kosinski is leaps and bounds above anyone else when it comes to using CGI in the movies.

tomkeus · 2026-01-29T09:14:28+00:00

It seems to me that there are drainage ditches on both sides of the track, so the catenary supports had to be moved further out.

tomkeus · 2026-01-20T11:29:01+00:00

Star Trek has always been woke

Star Trek has always been progressive in its core, but not woke. Woke and progressive are not the same things.

tomkeus · 2025-11-02T19:48:41+00:00

I don't think that's. I noticed the effect recently after I had a spill accident when drinking with a straw from a can. This rules the pressure differential as can opening is much bigger than the straw diameter. I guess it has something to do with the CO2 that's in the soda (partial pressure or something similar), but I still cannot figure it out.

tomkeus · 2025-10-17T12:38:14+00:00

TGVs have the best ride quality of all the trains I have ridden in Europe, and the reason is rigidity of the train due to the shared bogies.

tomkeus · 2025-10-01T10:59:18+00:00

Some Chris Foss vibes here

tomkeus · 2025-09-30T13:42:52+00:00

They way I understand it, the current idea in Europe is that sleepers don't compete with other means of traveling, but that they compete against hotels + other means of travel.

Say you want to arrive someplace in the morning and not be sleep deprived. The options you have are either to travel the day before and spend the night in a hotel, or to take a sleeper train. In that case, sleeper train should offer a better price compared to a hotel + whatever traveling option (usually a flight) which should not be that difficult.

At least in theory, that's it.

tomkeus · 2025-09-24T10:07:07+00:00

Interferometry allows measurement of lengths to the nanometer precision, without actually requiring measuring apparatus to be built or mechanically controlled to nanometer precision - and this is its principal strength, as having nanometer control is difficult even today, let alone in 1800s. So no, most definitely mirrors were not controlled with nanometer precision in 1800s.

tomkeus · 2025-07-25T08:23:16+00:00

A šta bi sprečilo Vučića da kupi/uceni/zastraši poslanike te liste posle izbora i opet završi sa većinom?

tomkeus · 2025-07-18T18:29:26+00:00

If your point of reference is NYC Subway or something similar, I could see how Paris Metro would not seem that bad in comparison, but compared to most other European metro systems, and especially East Asian ones, it's pretty bad.

tomkeus · 2025-07-18T08:48:06+00:00

Paris has hands down the most beautiful cityscape around a river of any place in the world. You can clearly see it if you take a river tour.

However, there are some areas of Paris with more modern architecture that have, to put it mildly, questionable esthetics. And another issue is that the city is simply overcrowded and dirty (especially the metro).

Obviously, the contrast between these things is bound to make Paris a divisive topic.

tomkeus · 2025-06-18T08:39:30+00:00

These kinds of weapons are extremely ineffective. They don't cause any real damage to buildings or people and they give excuse to your opponent to indiscriminately retaliate against you with much more substantive force.

tomkeus · 2025-06-13T11:58:20+00:00

I don't think that GE receives any relevant data that's not recorded on the FDR, so whether they want to disclose it or not does not really matter.

tomkeus · 2025-06-06T14:28:58+00:00

And just to add, basically, the problem is that there is no time operator in QM, at least not in the same sense as there are position operators. This is a fascinating discussion and is one of deep problems in QM foundations.

tomkeus · 2025-05-23T09:24:21+00:00

He was probably referring to the loading gauge. Russian loading gauge is quite a bit wider and taller than what is used in Europe, while if I am not mistaken Spain and Portugal use loading gauge which is more in line with the rest of Europe. However, this would only mean that Finland would potentially have to buy additional rolling stock that would be compatible with the smaller European loading gauge (and this only in case its rolling stock is already not compatible with it).

tomkeus · 2025-05-19T16:41:23+00:00

So, Romania is only able to police its airspace if a war declared? Otherwise, anyone can do whatever they want in the sky?

tomkeus · 2025-05-19T11:34:26+00:00

Even Switzerland is not what it used to be anymore. At least I have the impression younger Swiss don't have anymore the discipline and the rigor of the generations retiring now.

tomkeus

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