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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Somehow I doubt that "peace keeping unit" is the correct term here...
He's an outright fraudster and nutcase. I do not believe he ever worked for the CIA if so it was simply an intern and he was quickly fired like Howard- doesn't mean he can't be a traitor.
So are many important US companies.
jeewee3000
Active Member
These quotes made me think of Henri Poincaré (French mathematician) that said:There is lot of evidence Why smart people are more likely to believe fake news. Proof is in the pudding - it's not like all smart people are atheists.
People simply believe anything they want to believe.
A few selected quotes:
Smart people can be ignorant at the same time.
“To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.”
― Henri Poincaré
And more generally he outlines first principle thinking (without stressing the physics part of it like Elon does):
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Maybe we can try and keep the thread on track about current events in Ukraine...
Poland expelled a horde of russian diplomats today. Charged a polish citizen with spying for GRU.
www.aljazeera.com
Just last week they charged a spanish reporter as a GRU agent.
Chubais- the man who created the Oligarchs quits and leaves Russia.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/JLQNTXJDX5I4RP4GHJOAOPVDLI.jpg)
www.reuters.com
Poland expels ’45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats’
Russian envoy to Poland confirms the expulsions, saying Warsaw gave the individuals five days to leave the country.
Just last week they charged a spanish reporter as a GRU agent.
Chubais- the man who created the Oligarchs quits and leaves Russia.
Russia's Chubais resigns as Putin's special representative due to war - sources
Anatoly Chubais, the architect of Russia's post-Soviet economic reforms, has quit his post as a Kremlin special envoy and left the country due to the war in Ukraine, two sources told Reuters, the highest profile protest by a Russian figure against the invasion.
www.reuters.com
Tiger
Active Member
He has a condition, you know? Anyways, nobody's perfect, even though some of us would like him to be.
This was pretty good. I guess he released it on March 5, so we know a bit more now. He has done an update
I think that's what they call it. Essentially they are there to prop up the government.
I want to agree completely but there are some very small tactical nuclear weapons that might, in a sufficiently demented mind, have impact limited to a small area.
McGregor is a Putin fanboy and a traitor as far as I'm concerned. He's all in favor of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the murder of innocent civilians. Not clicking on that link in a million years. John Yahoo is going to be the first on my ignore list.
glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
So as I understand it, there is a "Railroad War" going on in Eastern Ukraine. The Russian army relies heavily on railroads to provide logistics to their army. The Ukrainians blew up rail heads at the beginning of the war to prevent the Russians from using them. However in Russian occupied territory they can start rebuilding the rail heads quickly, as they have 15 brigades of railway troops dedicated to setting up and repairing railroads.
Unfortunately, in the south coming out of Crimea, they were not able to blow the railheads before Russian troops occupied the area. They already have an armored train and supplies flowing all the way into Melitopol.
So what to do about it? Railroads are my profession, so I will try to help by giving out some informed opinion. Blowing up bridges is a good start. And we see the Ukrainian troops doing that where possible.
But as you can see, with smaller bridges like this, it's not very effective. This bridge could be repaired relatively quickly by dumping a bunch of ballast (rock) into the river and supporting the tracks. The issue here is the damage is very localized and repairable. Also, there are likely only so many bridges to blow that in territory accessible to Ukrainian troops.
What to do about the miles of track on flat land? It would take a lot of explosives to blow up any significant amount of track. Back in World War II, the Germans came up with a simple device attached to a locomotive, the Schwellenpflug (sleeper Plow).
Here is a video of it in action.
As you can see it's very effective at destroying wood railroad ties (sleepers). Once the ties are destroyed there is no way for the railroad to hold gauge and any locomotives run on those tracks would quickly derail. Also, this can take out miles and miles of railroad. It would take the Russians a very long time to repair these tracks. But the problem I see, is that Ukrainian railways are mostly concrete ties.
The sleeper plow will likely not work very well with concrete ties. The issue with concrete ties is that they are constructed with pre-stressed reinforced concrete. The metal rebar reinforcements inside the ties will want to keep the railroad tie in one piece. They won't plow very easily like a wood tie will.
So what to do about this? Well, in my experience the weakness of concrete ties are the "towers" or the fastening system that holds the rail to the ties.
It appears the Ukrainians us the Russian KB-65 rail fastening system.
The weakness in this system is the hold down lags. If you break out the lag bolts holding the rail down, the tie is complete junk and useless. I believe it would be relatively easy to modify a railcar or locomotive to install "hammers" that will come in contact with these hold-down fasteners and by driving through them, it would tear them out destroying the tie.
Operation Tie Buster:
-Obtain two diesel locomotives and a pair of flat cars or tank cars.
-Modify the tank cars to attach deployable hammers.
-Drive the locomotives out to the railroad in need of destruction/sabotage. Drive them out to the farthest half way point where there is cover. Deploy the lead locomotive towards Russia. Drop the hammers, fire up the locomotive, Full throttle towards the Russian lines. Get out and let the locomotive runaway towards Russia destroying the railroad while it goes. Eventually, the runaway locomotive would run into something, perhaps the Russian supply trains or something depending on how the lines were switched. Either way, once the locomotive has a head of steam, it would be difficult to stop. If the tank car it was pulling was loaded with explosives, all the better. It would be quite the show.
-The other locomotive would drive towards the Ukrainian lines as far as it was determined to where they want the railway taken out.
Anyway, just an idea. Trying to help out somehow with things I know.
Unfortunately, in the south coming out of Crimea, they were not able to blow the railheads before Russian troops occupied the area. They already have an armored train and supplies flowing all the way into Melitopol.
So what to do about it? Railroads are my profession, so I will try to help by giving out some informed opinion. Blowing up bridges is a good start. And we see the Ukrainian troops doing that where possible.
But as you can see, with smaller bridges like this, it's not very effective. This bridge could be repaired relatively quickly by dumping a bunch of ballast (rock) into the river and supporting the tracks. The issue here is the damage is very localized and repairable. Also, there are likely only so many bridges to blow that in territory accessible to Ukrainian troops.
What to do about the miles of track on flat land? It would take a lot of explosives to blow up any significant amount of track. Back in World War II, the Germans came up with a simple device attached to a locomotive, the Schwellenpflug (sleeper Plow).
Here is a video of it in action.
As you can see it's very effective at destroying wood railroad ties (sleepers). Once the ties are destroyed there is no way for the railroad to hold gauge and any locomotives run on those tracks would quickly derail. Also, this can take out miles and miles of railroad. It would take the Russians a very long time to repair these tracks. But the problem I see, is that Ukrainian railways are mostly concrete ties.
The sleeper plow will likely not work very well with concrete ties. The issue with concrete ties is that they are constructed with pre-stressed reinforced concrete. The metal rebar reinforcements inside the ties will want to keep the railroad tie in one piece. They won't plow very easily like a wood tie will.
So what to do about this? Well, in my experience the weakness of concrete ties are the "towers" or the fastening system that holds the rail to the ties.
It appears the Ukrainians us the Russian KB-65 rail fastening system.
The weakness in this system is the hold down lags. If you break out the lag bolts holding the rail down, the tie is complete junk and useless. I believe it would be relatively easy to modify a railcar or locomotive to install "hammers" that will come in contact with these hold-down fasteners and by driving through them, it would tear them out destroying the tie.
Operation Tie Buster:
-Obtain two diesel locomotives and a pair of flat cars or tank cars.
-Modify the tank cars to attach deployable hammers.
-Drive the locomotives out to the railroad in need of destruction/sabotage. Drive them out to the farthest half way point where there is cover. Deploy the lead locomotive towards Russia. Drop the hammers, fire up the locomotive, Full throttle towards the Russian lines. Get out and let the locomotive runaway towards Russia destroying the railroad while it goes. Eventually, the runaway locomotive would run into something, perhaps the Russian supply trains or something depending on how the lines were switched. Either way, once the locomotive has a head of steam, it would be difficult to stop. If the tank car it was pulling was loaded with explosives, all the better. It would be quite the show.
-The other locomotive would drive towards the Ukrainian lines as far as it was determined to where they want the railway taken out.
Anyway, just an idea. Trying to help out somehow with things I know.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Looks as if even without the bolts the fixtures still keep the rail from moving side to side, at least for a while.
_Redshift_
Member
Yes, he has claimed Asperger’s syndrome. That might very well be, but that means Tesla as a company sufferers from some of his impetuous decision making.
Nevertheless, I have tremendous respect for Elon. He has achieved near impossible things no other person could have, possibly. From 2011 till mid last year, I was as much a big fan of Tesla as anyone could be.
However, the bad service, unreliable features, laughably bad ergonomics of the latest V11, unilateral slowing down of supercharging on older cars.. changed my mind. These things might just add up one of these days to losing their leadership position in EVs. Could take a while though, seeing how big Tesla is, right now.
Anyway, I don’t want to derail this thread. No more comments on this subject from me.
navguy12
Active Member
There are some examples of fake news prior to our post modern age.
This is the first one that came to mind (I’m sure there are many other examples):
ZachF
Active Member
Russian oil discount continues to steepen.
What I’d do now if I was Europe would be to start (large) tariffs on Russian energy exports, and use the funds to give out a “prebate ” to its citizens to help pay for the higher prices.
What I’d do now if I was Europe would be to start (large) tariffs on Russian energy exports, and use the funds to give out a “prebate ” to its citizens to help pay for the higher prices.
glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
In my experience once the restraining fasteners are removed, the rail will roll if you were to run a locomotive on it. Especially in a curve. Or just through the normal hunting action of the rail cars. But, the same device used to hammer off the towers, could also be designed to give the rail "a little push" to get it to start to roll. You might be surprised to find out how much rail turns into a wet noodle once it's no longer restrained.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Seems like DOD Press Secretary Kirby all but confirmed there are efforts to get long range air defense systems into Ukraine, although not explicitly that it is coming from US stocks like the WSJ report is suggesting (Kirby seems to suggest more it is from ex-Soviet nations).
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