Recent content by thatguy96

On the matter of the MH17 shootdown, I think there's a confusion about the capabilities available to militants in eastern Ukraine, as well as the capabilities of most surface to air missile systems. The operators of the system in question were probably not in contact with a larger air traffic...

The expanded universe is full of additional upgraded X-Wing variants developed after the fall of the Empire, but they all supposedly basically followed the same general design. On the other hand, the Z-95s had far more extensive modifications made to them, or so we are generally led to...

This was the first time I've listened to one of the Science and Tech podcasts and I'm sorry to say I couldn't make it past the 11 minute mark. The whole first segment seemed to be based on a headline and no one seemed to have been alerted that it would be a matter for discussion. The...

I think the PTO is less appealing than the ETO in no small part because of issues of "war guilt" and how things were decided. In the ETO, the allied powers generally decided that Germany was firmly and almost solely in the wrong (we don't spend any time haranguing the Finns, Hungarians...

This is exactly right. What we're seeing with VR control here is very similar to what we're seeing in terms of helmet-mounted off-bore sighting equipment for military aircraft. In fact, the technology behind the two is mostly likely related in some fashion as its the same basic requirements...

I would just say that regardless of what people would like, the Mason-Dixon line does not get to move around. I think the people who would want to dispute its location are the same people who developed the term "Mid-Atlantic" to disassociate themselves with the sorts of people who choose to use...

I'm not really trying to offend anyone, but from what I'm understanding of the Red Cross's problem with video games and the Escapists' staff's understanding of international law, both should leave the other alone. Its clear their expertise is in different areas. The Geneva Conventions only...

This goes back to the A-12/SR-71 bomber concept. Research done on meteor impacts provides a lot of the basis for this. The impact of a solid object moving at 7000 miles per hour (or whatever its terminal velocity is) is theoretically capable of creating massive amounts of damage, comparable to...

Most treaties take specific time to define what various terms mean. The term "weapons of mass destruction" in the 1967 treaty is not defined at all, only that it includes nuclear weapons. Common meanings of a term are of little legal significance and one could easily argue that something like...

Both the United States and the British tested the potential of LSD in this capacity. The hallucinogen known as BZ was actually fielded, though it was never used. Star Wars was already of debatable legality under the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972), as is the current slew of missile...

I think this might have been the case up until around the turn of the 20th century, but in the day and age of videogames, most of what you see in them has been proposed to some degree already either to the military or within it. There's very little the US military hasn't tried. Before 1980...