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Comment Re:if by "much higher efficiency" you mean 40% vs (Score 1) 257

I am curious that you say fuel tanker efficiency is 80%, that would indicate that a tanker uses 20% of the energy contained in the fuel it transports. I don't know what the right number is, but I would be very surprised if it used that much energy.

That got me curious so I looked up some numbers. Using Swedish figures (i.e. 50 kubic meters, i.e. 13k gallons, load for tanker, 0.020 litres/tonkilometer, that's for a milk tanker, doing long haul, which is the closest I could find), I get a fully laden tanker doing about 2.35 miles/gal (US).

So to burn 20% of it's load the shortest it could travel would be 6k miles (a bit longer as it would burn its own fuel during that time, and even more if it would offload part of its haul during the trip). I don't know how that would measure up to how they actually drive to their delivery point, but it seems on the long side.

P.S. I didn't check my calculations so feel free to do that, before betting any money.

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

No, that was part of the course: "Free warfare".

That's why the 80mm is handy. The 120mm really isn't man portable, and you can't easily store hidden ammunition in suitable spots. The 80mm is readily man portable and can be hidden most anywhere, while it still packs the punch that the 60mm decidedly lacks. In fact as the ranger battalion I did my (shortened due to injury) service in had as it's main mission to perform sabotage and ambushes of the enemy's logistical support train behind enemy lines, I'd say we had "asymmetric" down to a "T".

That said, armed insurrection against a state level enemy having just a few rifles is a pretty doomed affair. Having access to a firearm is probably the least useful attribute of a successful insurgent. Having, or having access to, intelligence, leadership/chain of command, logistical support, counter intelligence and security would be much more useful, critical even.

If you study the resistance movements that were active in Europe during WWII, you'll see time and time again that your options against a determined foe are limited, and firearms aren't a central part of it. In fact you can have a very successful resistance without any firearm. The Danish resistance (and the Norwegian to a lesser extent) for example forbade the targeting/assassination of German personnel as the resulting reprisals against the civilians took such a tool that it made such operations impossible. Instead they targeted their own countrymen that were deemed to be collaborators. Insurgency is a dirty business. So, if you come across such as juicy target that you can't ignore it, you'll want as much effect as is humanly possible, i.e. explosives and some way to deliver them (c.f. the fate of the SS Donau.) Using a gun would have been worse than useless during that operation, and would have led to failure.

So in summary. While having and knowing how to shoot a rifle isn't a completely useless skill in the "stay behind" scenario, it's not a very critical one either. There are many other skills and preparation that you can't do without. You'd probably be better off staying at home reading books than going to the range...

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

As for not understanding true freedom, get back to me when you have a right to keep and bear arms.

Well, get back to me when you have an armed service based on national service. We are all trained soldiers and we know where the ordinance is stored. So you'd better practice and practice and practice with that rifle. My 80mm mortar has a decided advantage in range... :-) I know who I would bet on as an ultimate check on government overreach.

When it comes to civilian firearms ownership, one adult male in five has at least one firearm, so it's not as if Sweden is devoid of of guns. About 20% (give or take) of all households have a gun in the house.

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

Where does that end? Do they have the complete right to take what I did and claim it as their own?

That you want my work free, gratis and for nothing, that's clear, but that's not freedom. Not for me. Your rights end where mine begin.

P.S. Check out some freedom indicies, then you can comment on us not understanding "true freedom". Which sounds suspiciously like a "true Scotsman".

Comment Re:Oddly enough (Score 1) 400

I was appalled without having to see it. Visual media was not needed.

And it was the opposite for me. Seeing the video told me things about this event that I didn't know before. Just the statement that IS "burned someone" can mean many different things, it could mean (like it did in South African during apartheid) that an angry mob showed a tire onto someone and set it alight, or it can mean something more organised.

Now when we think of IS we don't think of "organisation", so I expected to see the usual half arsed wobbly camera, spur of the moment thing, but watching the video this is far from true. This video has production values. It must have taken considerable staging and time to shoot and edit. Sure, some reported on this, but it didn't really hit home with me until I actually saw it. It looks like something from Hollywood.

I came away with a somewhat different opinion of IS after this. Not necessarily more positive, mind you, just to be clear, but different. Wathing this video more than just a report of the actual act affected my understanding of what needs, could and should be done to rid the world of them.

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

Compare this freedom with the GPL's mandate to only distribute others' work on the same terms as your own. What gives you the right to tell someone else what they can do with their work? How is this freedom?

The fact that they include my work gives me that right. If they want to do their own thing without my work, that's completely up to them, and I'm not stopping them in any way shape or form.

It's freedom because it doesn't interfere with my right to not have to suffer free loaders. It's freedom because it acknowledges I have rights in how my work is used (ownership).

Societies where these rights aren't acknowledged aren't living in a state of freedom, they're living in a state of anarchy. A form of government that isn't very popular, for good reason.

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

No. The freedom of other to take my (BSD licensed) work as their own harms me. (Which is why I don't use it...)

And the GPL doesn't force you to give code away afterwards. That only kicks in if you wan't to distribute your binary, or make it otherwise available. If you want to keep that code for your own use, that's A-OK.

Comment Re:Ain't freedom a bitch... (Score 1) 551

RMS wants software to be free, but GPLv2 is more free than GPLv3 because GPLv2 has fewer restrictions on how the software can be used.

By the same token a country that allows slavery would be more free than one that forbids it, since the latter would have more "restrictions".

Thus, the mere number of rules/regulations/laws/restrictions can never be a test of freedom. For freedom to exist, there must be rules (even the hardest of hard core libertarians agree to this).

Hence, GPL software is more free than e.g. BSD-licensed software, since the former preserves that freedom for everyone and disallows the limiting of this freedom by others.

Comment Re:Similarly .... (Score 2) 192

That's why people have always put metal foil stickers on the EPROM window to protect them. Even exposure to sunlight can mess up uncovered EPROMs. And a little sticker seems easier and more reliable than making sure not a single camera makes it through security.

Another problem in power generation is that arc fault detectors also has a tendency to be tripped by camera flashes. So keeping cameras out of power plants/transformer sites/etc, is standard operating procedure since time immemorial.

And these EPROMS probably had that black gunk on them that were popular when EPROMS were used in production. Problem is that the gunk had a tendency to dry up and fall off after a couple of decades.

Comment Re:Children are not property. (Score 1) 297

Sure, I wasn't saying that I agree with all or even necessarily much of the legislation against drugs, only that the argument against them usually isn't couched in terms of what it does to consenting adults, but what those adults do to society at large.

But if you check the history of Kevorkian he was acquitted all the times he assisted someone else committing suicide, but when he pressed the plunger himself he was convicted. Giving someone the hypodermic; OK. Injecting someone; not so much. So I think my original characterisation still stands. There is a bright line that must not be crossed legally speaking (mainly because it then becomes difficult to differentiate between murder and suicide after the fact), but if you stay on the right side of it you'll be in the clear.

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