Ship's Locker: Out of the Closet

[Condottiere]

Future of Hand Grenades Can't Wait to Yell "Yeet Out!"

The Army is opting for a very different type of grenade design here; the prototype renderings show it no longer has the spoon clip that has been a staple of the typical hand grenade for as far back as the M1 of WWI. Improvements since then have included moving to a circular design which is easier to throw than a pineapple shaped grenade, we’ve also been working on decreasing the chances of it making up its own mind on when it wants to detonate. This is thanks to using the more stable explosive called Comp B inside the M67.

The Next Generation Hand Grenade doesn't have a catchy name for it right now so they’re calling it the “the enhanced tactical multi-purpose hand grenade” catchy, put that on a bumper sticker.

The biggest upgrade here is that it gives the operator the option to switch the grenade between concussion or fragmentation explosion types with the flick of a switch. Concussion grenades only have a blast radius of 2 meters because they don’t send out any shrapnel as opposed to Fragmentation grenades which have a 15 meter blast radius sending pieces of metal flying out everywhere at high velocities. After not going out side for three months if either one went off in my apartment it would be an improvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMcq1i3dJ_U

Programmable hand grenade.

My personal opinion is, that a grenade is not a bullet, this thing is designed to ricochet; highly trained soldiers will be able to optimize employment of a programmable, adaptable, hand grenade.

For the rest of us during a highly stressful situation, keep it simple; maybe add a motion sensor that calculates when the grenade is far enough away from activation point, and if it's moving back there.

 

[Condottiere]

D&D Why you should play Gnolls - Dungeons and Dragons Gnoll Character art Rookzer0

Strait from the Monster manuals if you're interested in playing this Hyena based monster race as a player, you're options are quite broad. form eating your own party memebers to selling yourself to Yeenoghu for unlimited Death powers. Building out A Gnoll PC can be a lot of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H48Tx9NMRoU&list=PL1simUH32oLKd6tgvkOfvI0RgmqeWAb8B&index=4

Or Vargr can be played like Gnolls.

 

[Condottiere]

M3 Infrared Sniper Carbine

The first US military night vision system used in active combat was the T3 Carbine system - an infrared light-amplifying scope and IR floodlight mounted on an M1 Carbine. About 150 of these were used on Okinawa, and were quite effective. The system was refined over time, and by the Korean War this version was in service.

The M3 scope here has a longer effective range (125 yards), and still required the user to carry a heavy backpack-mounted battery pack to power the scope and light. They were used primarily in static defensive positions in Korea to locate troops attempting to infiltrate in darkness. In total, about 20,000 sets were made before they became obsolete, and were surplussed to the public.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvfABFaiBVo

Early prototype?

With the battery pack and range, reminds me of a laser carbine.

 

[Condottiere]

What is Gold-Pressed Latinum worth?

The currency known as "gold-pressed latinum" is ubiquitous in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but what if we could assign an actual modern currency value to it? Let's explore!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSnwRshpDc

One Credit Imperiale is five gold pressed latinum strips; four and a half.

 

[Condottiere]

British Cabin Pressure Flare Pistols (Quite Unusual)

Signal flares were an important communications tool for aircraft during World War Two, and a multitude of flare pistol types exist with mounting brackets for aerial use. The introduction of pressurized fuselages made this a much more difficult proposition, however. These two flare pistols were designed by the British to maintain the pressurized seal of an aircraft body while still allowing firing and reloading through a pivoting mount and system of seals. I bet you haven’t seen something quite like these before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3mP1bcwJU

Space flares: communications security, or when you need rescuing.

 

[Linwood]

Future of Hand Grenades Can't Wait to Yell "Yeet Out!"

The Army is opting for a very different type of grenade design here; the prototype renderings show it no longer has the spoon clip that has been a staple of the typical hand grenade for as far back as the M1 of WWI. Improvements since then have included moving to a circular design which is easier to throw than a pineapple shaped grenade, we’ve also been working on decreasing the chances of it making up its own mind on when it wants to detonate. This is thanks to using the more stable explosive called Comp B inside the M67.

The Next Generation Hand Grenade doesn't have a catchy name for it right now so they’re calling it the “the enhanced tactical multi-purpose hand grenade” catchy, put that on a bumper sticker.

The biggest upgrade here is that it gives the operator the option to switch the grenade between concussion or fragmentation explosion types with the flick of a switch. Concussion grenades only have a blast radius of 2 meters because they don’t send out any shrapnel as opposed to Fragmentation grenades which have a 15 meter blast radius sending pieces of metal flying out everywhere at high velocities. After not going out side for three months if either one went off in my apartment it would be an improvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMcq1i3dJ_U

Programmable hand grenade.

My personal opinion is, that a grenade is not a bullet, this thing is designed to ricochet; highly trained soldiers will be able to optimize employment of a programmable, adaptable, hand grenade.

For the rest of us during a highly stressful situation, keep it simple; maybe add a motion sensor that calculates when the grenade is far enough away from activation point, and if it's moving back there.

Really wondering how they switch between concussion and frag. Maybe for concussion you open vents in the shell?

 

[Condottiere]

Prefragmented parts might be within the shell, and opening the vents lowers the pressure sufficiently that there's almost no force applied to that.

Keeping them closed blows the fragments through the shell.

But that's pure speculation.

 

[Condottiere]

The Desert Eagle .50 AE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK21F7Wy7uc

Between six to ten inches.

With integral compensator.

Ensure you have a firm grip.

If you're feeling anatomically inadequate.

 

[Linwood]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-53076806

This is what happens when your starport has poor ground control....

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Condottiere]

S&W Chemical Company 37mm Gas Gun

The Smith & Wesson company was purchased by the Bangor Punta conglomerate in 1964, and BP also owned one of the early pioneers in police tear gas products, the Lake Erie Chemical Company. Once it had both companies under single ownership, the decision was made to rebrand the tear gas product line as the Smith & Wesson Chemical Company. S&W was obviously a brand with lots of recognition in law enforcement, so this was a good idea. S&W began production of a new model of 37mm tear gas launcher using the N frame revolver clockwork, coupled with a simple break action barrel. The system was available as either a pistol (7.5 inch barrel) or a stocked carbine (14 inch barrel) - and a nautical line-throwing version was also made. This is probably the finest quality tear gas or flare gun ever made, as the clockwork from the revolvers gives it a great single action and double action trigger pull compared to the typical utilitarian flare gun.

A variety of projectiles were made, including short-range, long-range, and barrier penetrating models (see poster below). These were all available loaded with smoke, CS, or CN gas. Production appears to have ceased in 1984, when the Bangor Punta conglomerate was bought out, and Smith & Wesson sold off from it shortly thereafter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwFIbAF5C0

Seems like an enlarged shotgun; also, grappling launcher.

Multipurpose.

 

[Linwood]

A clever Traveller might be able to convert it into an improvised rocket launcher. It would probably be mediocre for effectiveness but it would look really cool...

 

[Condottiere]

Down the ship gangway; short range.

 

[Condottiere]

Is There a Proper Way to Fire Two Guns at Once?

If you’ve ever seen pretty much any action movie involving a badass spy or member of law enforcement, you know a common trope in the industry is to have the protagonist firing away at the bad guys with a gun in both hands. But is this ever actually done in real life and, if so, what’s considered the proper method for such badass looking weapon wielding?

To begin with, there are indeed many accounts of people in history wielding two guns at once as a fighting tactic despite it being decried by basically every firearms expert on the planet today. In fact, historically matchlock pistols, among others, were often built and sold in pairs with some even being specifically designed to be held in either the left or the right hand.

As you might have guessed from this, there was a time when dual wielding....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_UsNNlZ3g

Not just dexterity, ambidexterity and multitasking.

 

[Linwood]

And distraction?

 

[Condottiere]

Were Nunchucks Ever Actually Used in Combat or are They Primarily a Hollywood Thing?

Famously a weapon of choice for legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, at least in certain films, nunchaku, or nunchucks, are a popular facet of pop-culture and there are those who’d have you believe that this humble weapon used to widely shatter jawbones like Samson during a particularly bad hair day. But were nunchucks ever actually used in combat? After all, one is just about as likely to hurt themselves or allies around them than an enemy unless extremely well trained, and even then its a risk when not particularly careful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QX135-3c0

Speaking of dual wielding.

So, towel and pencil.

 

[Condottiere]

Traveller: Part 1 - Introduction

The first in a series where I discuss Mongoose Traveller Second Edition (MGT2). I give my thoughts on the game, and dispel one persistent myth about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCq91MP9wE


Tacky ships on fire Orion shoulder to cry on.

Mongeese never say die!


Traveller: Part 2 - Character Creation

Let's build a character. Part two of my series on Mongoose Traveller Second Edition (MGT2). Today we go over character creation rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEwwopcCONY


University degree: +20% wages

Enemy: female stalker; changed professions after finding your pet bunny boiled on your stove.

Connections: met at a casino; had to dispose of a dead hooker.


Traveller: Part 3 - Skill Mechanics

Part three of my series on Mongoose Traveller Second Edition (MGT2). Today we go over game mechanics for Task rolls and Skill Improvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22pbSwPFmwM


Making Youtube videos requires a skill check; critical success: recommended and trending; critical failure: copyright strike.

Study period: pregnancy test.

All work and no play makes Jack a Trader.


Traveller: Part 4 - Combat

Part four of my series on Mongoose Traveller Second Edition (MGT2). Today we go over combat, armor, and healing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaW5R5c-ojo


He chose ... poorly.

Customize weapon.

 

[Condottiere]

General Relativity Explained simply & visually

When Albert Einstein first published the Special Theory of relativity in 1905, he was ridiculed. People thought it was just too weird and radical to be real. Einstein wasn’t satisfied with his theory either, because the theory did not apply if Gravity was present or if the observer was accelerating. One day, while observing a window washer on a ladder near his patent office, he had a thought experiments.

He imagined what would happen if the worker were to fall. He put himself in the window washer’s perspective, and imagined what he would experience as he was falling. He realized that if he was falling, gravity would be the only force acting on him. He would be accelerating towards the ground, but since the ground would not be pushing up on his body, he would feel no weight. And this would be no different than being weightless in space.

In a way gravity and acceleration were different ways to describe the same thing. The way to connect gravity in the theory of relativity was through the idea of acceleration, and this became the basis of general relativity.

Einstein imagined being in a room with no windows, and a bathroom scale. It would weigh 80 Kgs, What if the room was on a space ship accelerating in an upward direction at 9.8 m/s/s. He would feel the same weight. There would be no difference

He imagined what would happen if he took a flashlight and pointed it from one side of the room to the other, as the space ship was accelerating upwards. If he had a ruler, he could measure the height of the light on the other side of the room. He realized that the height measured on the wall would be lower than the source of the light, because the floor of the room would be rushing upwards at ever faster speeds, as the light was propagating across the room. The light beam would appear to curve downward.

However, If you were on earth, and you measured the two heights, you may think that there should be no difference. That light should go straight to the other side of the room. Einstein thought it can’t be because it would violate the principle of equivalence. Acceleration of the room on a space should be no different than the room under the influence of gravity on earth. He realized that this meant light must bend in the presence of a gravitational field.

But light should be going on the shortest path. Then he realized, maybe the shortest path between two points is not a straight line but a curved line near gravity.

This was the key insight that Einstein had about gravity. But in order to express this mathematically, it required very complicated mathematics that even a genius like Einstein could not easily figure out. He contacted an old buddy from his college days, mathematician Marcel Grossman.

It’s important to note that the trampoline analogy you normally see on TV shows and youtube videos like this is a 2D plane used for visualization purposes only, but it is really in 3D.

In order for this theory to really be taken seriously, it had to make a prediction that could be tested, which was confirmed by the fact that it explained Mercury’s orbit which had been a mystery for decades because it had a precession. General relativity predicted exactly the precession that Mercury actually has.

But many skeptics still remained. The most fool proof confirmation came 4 years after he published it,when a team led English Astronomer, Arthur Eddington. in 1919, photographed stars near the sun during a total solar eclipse. He found that light passed near the sun was bent by the curvature of space due to its gravity. This is the moment Einstein became a celebrity.

Why is this not just a distortion of space but also of time?...because special relativity says that light always moves at the same speed regardless of perspective or reference frame. This means that light will have the same speed in an accelerating reference frame as it will in a resting reference frame. But since the distance traveled by the beam of light in a gravitational field is longer due the curving of space, in order for the speed of light to remain constant, time itself must pass slower in the gravitational field relative to time in empty space.

You should know that although General relativity is an amazing achievement, it does not answer everything. Questions remain. Although it tells us how gravity works, it doesn’t really tell us what exactly it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzQC3uYL67U

You wouldn't need wings.

 

[Condottiere]

Does Gravity Require Extra Dimensions?

It’s been 120 years since Henry Cavendish measured the gravitational constant with a pair of lead balls suspended by a wire. The fundamental nature of gravity still eludes our best minds - but those secrets may be revealed by turning back to the Cavendish experiment. That steampunk contraption may even reveal the existence of extra dimensions of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z91oGI5aP0A

Space, space, space,time, and charisma.

 

[Condottiere]

Can Viruses Travel Between Planets?

With the global pandemic of Covid 19 still encompassing the word, we are generally not big fans of viruses right now. But we sure are thinking about them a lot. That’s right, even astrophysicists are pondering these bizarre little critters. In fact, astrovirology, although very new, is actually an emerging subfield of astrobiology. And that’s because it turns out viruses don’t just influence organisms - they’re incredibly important on a planetary scale. Perhaps an interplanetary scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ZcvPW5EcI

Life is infectious.