Aluminium foil, to wrap up electronics (including aforementioned radio) to protect from EMP (don't have this yet)
I don't think that is how EMP shielding works. Also would your electronic need to be shielded before hand, so having materials to shield them later is irrelevant?
TIRM
2mo ago
If it is true that the explosives were inside the batteries, then there is nothing to see. It would look normal inside.
You could cut apart the battery and compare it to similar batteries. Or blow it up with a sympathetic explosion to see if it has explosives.
TIRM
2mo ago
There were people in the late 19th and early 20th century who grasped an important point about ballistics that drove them toward a hypothetical high velocity 6.x mm round as the ideal round. They were ignored by the gigantic round advocates in charge of the US at the time. But they existed. That was originally published in 1930, it was republished 1957.
In the 19th century the US Navy correctly envisioned the future and developed a high velocity round.
the explosive effect of a small-caliber, high-velocity bullet against the human body—the bullet tumbles or fragments to produce devastating wounds against bone or fluid-filled organs—would be more incapacitating at all ranges than wounds made by a slow-moving bullet of large caliber
In a report used to justify the development of the 19th century .236 Navy.
Looking at the development of the 7.62x39 I see that the Soviets considered dozens of alternatives. But never once considering high velocity smaller diameter. Maybe they were unaware of American and British developments in high velocity smaller caliber rounds. And so merely made a really underpowered version of some 19th century round.
TIRM
2mo ago
You any I have a different understanding of easy.
Cutting apart every component large enough to plausibly hold a bomb and correctly inspecting it by people who know what they are doing on a sampling of every incoming shipment is an enormous burden. I have spent months of my life going to other countries and telling people who assemble and test electronics "do this thing like I'm showing you now". And then later they don't do what I showed them.
I think these people would have the obvious idea to check their equipment for bombs, and then almost entirely fail to actually check their equipment for bombs.
TIRM
2mo ago
then an explosion with women and children around
That's the similarity.
The difference is these are micro-target explosions in the pockets of the targets rather than the entire market blowing up. So really quite different in the important metrics by my estimation.
TIRM
2mo ago
Supposedly the batteries were swapped with equivalent batteries with added explosives. Merely looking at its insides may not be informative. Are they also going to cut apart batteries and other components? On a sampling of units or every one?
As a trust issue: the next time a member of hezbollah is given a device for communication, will they trust it or fear it is a bomb or tracking device or otherwise compromised?
middle managers try to show the plebs who exactly is running the show
On that point:
In the case of managers, Amazon aims to flatten organizations by asking each of its S-teams, or senior leadership teams, to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of 2025, according to the message.
Unclear if they mean fired or just turned into individual contributors. Presumably a mix of both.
TIRM
2mo ago
Soleimani was killed by a supply chain attack. He had couriers go to other countries and buy cell phones for him. And he kept switching phones so no one could tell which phone was his and track him.
The CIA learned about this and intercepted all of the cell phones in those markets and installed spy software on all of them. Then they waited for one of those phones to be sent to Soleimani and then travel to Iraq. Then simply bomb the phone and he is dead.
That's merely a software change. The Israelis appear to having gone one step further and performed some hardware modifications.
TIRM
2mo ago
Mid grade AR15s are cheaper than SKSs in America. Long gone are the days of cheap Soviet guns and ammo. This was a stylistic choice or something. Something unrelated to fairly considering their capabilities and prices.
TIRM
2mo ago
I don't live in a swing state or a Congressional district capable of electing a Republican. There's nothing I bring to the table by voting. I'm going to do it, but in a performative unproductive sort of way.
Yeah 7.62x39 is not at all a well designed round. They took the old 7.62x54R and shortened the case length until it was small enough. No design process or attempt to optimize for performance. You end up with a moderate sized round with low recoil and poor ballistic performance. They could have instead made a deadlier higher-velocity flatter-shooting round. But they didn't want to.
To leap to the defense of the SKS: it is light, not too long and low recoil. I have a Korean War M1 and that thing is heavy and the ammo is enormous in comparison. Keeping size and weight in mind, I'd want the SKS.
But strange these two would-be murderers didn't bring any modern magazine fed rifle.
TIRM
2mo ago
I've shot an SKS a couple times. It is indeed a fine rifle. The stripper clips can be tricky if you are not used to them.
TIRM
2mo ago
Republican congressional baseball team shooter also had an SKS. Also failed to kill anyone.
TIRM
2mo ago
In 1922, Harvard’s president, A. Lawrence Lowell, noticed a precipitous rise in the number of Jews accepted to the university and proposed accepting a quota of only 15% Jewish students.
But instead implemented admissions changes that allowed them to arbitrarily deny Jews without explanation or official quotas.
the committee suggested improved procedures to “accomplish a proper selection of individuals among the available candidates for admission to Harvard College” (Report). Put simply, qualitative factors like personality and background, rather than test scores, would now carry more weight—a democratizing “sifting” process. For the first time, students who had scored poorly, but who had less-tangible strengths to offer the Harvard Community, had a leg up in admissions. Sidestepping Lowell’s brazen condemnation of particular ethnic groups, his committee had ostensibly crafted a policy of inclusion. Despite this meritocratic rhetoric, however, personal correspondence among members of the Harvard community suggests that a primary goal of the changing policies was in fact to curb the admission of minority students, especially Jews.
And many other articles on Google. I read a good one years ago, but can't find it now. These other articles make the same claim that the switch from entrance exam to holistic admissions was a scheme to restrict the number of Jews accepted to Harvard. It took a few years, but they achieved <15% Jewish student body without implementing the proposed quota. With an arbitrary entrance policy they didn't need quotas.
TIRM
2mo ago
Do they find themselves in that situation and then choose to discriminate against you because they don't like your face
I read a good article that I can't find now about this. Around a century ago when schools like Harvard switched over to holistic admissions processes in order to discriminate against Jews, there was one admissions interview report that simply said something like "ears too big". So yes, from the beginning if they don't like your face then you don't need to attend.
TIRM
2mo ago
Ancient Greeks and Romans had cannabis. Banning it is the brand new thing here.
TIRM
2mo ago
now for it especially on the rich—render to Caesar and all
I don't believe Jesus was advocating for modern American progressive taxation. Jesus was dodging the Pharisees' gotcha question, not saying we need high taxes on rich people.
I count this as an example of 21st century progressives imagining that a guy from 2000 years ago must have supported their recently invented progressive ideals.
TIRM
2mo ago
There was a point early on where "two weeks to slow the spread" was defensible. Turns out it was the very slipperiest of slopes and over a year later some children weren't allowed in school.
TIRM
2mo ago
I thought this was a solved problem with the Simpons-style cartoonish yellow skin color that is not within the range of typical human skin tones. Late stage jaundice patients not included.
TIRM
2mo ago
On one hand: yes to all points.
On the other hand: no employer of mine has ever dared drug test me. Somehow I get a pass but some guy whose job involves stacking and unstacking boxes must never touch cannabis on a day off work, unless he wishes to be fired.
I get firing people who show up to work high or drunk. Obviously. But checking if someone smoked weed at any point in the past few weeks is a craze for many employers. And I mean craze in a very negative sense.
At least some major employers are coming around. A few years ago Amazon stopped firing low level warehouse workers for pissing hot for weed. Because if someone wants to work in an Amazon warehouse and can hit their strict metrics, why would you fire them because they smoked weed at some point in the past few weeks?
TIRM
2mo ago
"Transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison".
I believe that one is real. Harris at some point supported government paid transition surgery for illegals in prison. It sounds crazy because the outer surface of culture warring is typically lunacy.
TIRM
2mo ago
Attacks on infrastructure are not a good idea
Russia endlessly attacks Ukrainian infrastructure. It appears to be a great idea and in fact key to winning wars.
Don't you think it's up to Europeans to decide who they're going to buy fuel from ?
Pipelines are entirely undefesible. So let's say any nation with the desire has a veto on this decision.
And yes, Europe is the most feckless and counterproductive allies the US could have. A parasite society hiding under our defense umbrella, using our hard-found pharmaceuticals without paying to support them and endlessly funding our enemies.
Who would be drone bombing American LNG plants? Not Europe for sure. We've seen their complete inability and extreme passivity in this conflict. You think Russia would do it? I suppose it is possible. But the US has historically been extremely shielded from direct counterattack like that. 9/11 being the one exception.
I get that encasing something in aluminum with no gaps would shield it. Aluminum is the fourth most conducive metal and a good shielding design made out of aluminum would work.
But merely wrapping something in aluminum foil would leave small gaps that I think would defeat the shield. I get that you'd overlap the aluminum layers and not have large gaping holes, but I don't think that's good shielding. I sometimes deal with EMI issues at work and it is much harder than you'd think to shield parts. "Wrap it in foil" is not a clear path to success. I have literally seen parts wrapped in foil in misguided attempts to shield them. They were really quite leaky from an EMI point of view. "Put it in a metal enclosure whose lids or openings are sealed with metal EMI gaskets" is what actually works.
I think if the typical person tried shielding a radio with aluminum foil, they would screw it up.
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