For all intents and purposes, there are two pathways for us to derive energy: nuclear and solar (nuclear at a distance if you will).

You could, but that likely wouldn’t warrant the fixed costs necessary to develop such a system. In the grand scheme of things... the amount of water you’re evaporating... waste frack fluid is a literal drop in the bucket.

As presented here, the answer is “no, evaporating water is not the future of renewable energy”.

The test may not have been an ideal representation of the laser’s capabilities. If a drone runs on fuel, targeting that section of the aircraft will cause the fuel system to fail one way or another (literally dozens of ways for it to fail other than going boom).

A caveat to all of that is that tanks also operate in a different sort of “dirty” environment: they’re close to the ground. The bar for detection and targeting when your target is close to a bunch of random crap is much higher than a plane that’s literally just surrounded by air. Also, because the tank is close to the…

I was standing on top of a 62 story building which was a turning point for the Blue Angels at the Chicago Air & Water Show this past August. A few times the F-18s probably flew within 200 yards (maybe closer tbh) of the building. They weren’t even remotely on the throttle and the raw noise was enough to shake anyone.

Now that I think about it, something like a Super Tucano should be capable of launching from a Wasp class.  

Depends on your definition of winning. Do we achieve the political outcomes we hope for? Not often. Do we rack up a multiple of enemy casualties relative to our own while we have one arm tied behind our back? Damn straight.

I have a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier which has a lot of the same features. I run a lot (about 40 miles/week in addition to swimming and biking) and I have to say it’s been transformative for me. To just be able to go out the door with only a watch (no clunky phone, no wallet, etc) is really liberating.

AT&T and Verizon both have “number share”. They basically give your watch its own phone number but they set things up in their system so that both your watch and your phone ring at the same time. I have that on my Samsung Gear S3 on Verizon. I have to pay $5/month for a “line access fee.” I’d imagine the same will…

Did anyone else notice the big dog’s dong was blurred/pixelated? Is that really where we’re at as a society?

The current craft is likely too small but that’s an excellent and very realistic application for the DOD to pursue. If you read through some of the research literature, it’s amazing how very slight changes to the purity and structure of the diamond alter its ability to combine beams.

Can’t hippos straight up kill a crocodile if they want to?

I recently got a flyer in the mail for a class-action lawsuit against my alma mater for failing to disclose the the dangers of concussions/CTE to players. IMO, the way this will play out is lawyers will succeed with such a lawsuit, colleges/high schools won’t be able to afford the insurance going forward, those…

I’ve always wondered if NK wasn’t a front for a Chinese nuclear weapon program. It could be argued that China never got as far along with their nuclear program as they would have liked (they never tested a miniaturized fusion warhead) and that NK is a nuclear surrogate for them.

My impression of the Rolls Royce engineers designing this engine:

The done dilemma might be a good reason to bring back the XM-25 or develop a similar counter-defilade weapon. IIRC, the XM-25s range for area targets was less than 1km.... which is too short... but a larger, vehicle mounted system that could fire programable airburst munitions with a range of up to~5km would be…

Honest question: what’s the plan if a lot of these high-income, high net-worth individuals decide to up and leave? This is not an unprecedented question either: both Baltimore and Chicago are seeing an exodus of millionaires.

Does anyone else think Cable is OP?

Two things come to mind: