The Off Topic Topic

[grumbler]

Question: on the chart, Richleau does somewhat better than Bismarck, even though both have the same number & size of guns (8 times 15 inch). What's the extra factor at work here? Better targeting control?

Higher muzzle velocity on the French gun and greater explosive power.  The tradeoff is higher barrel wear (and thus increasing inaccuracy over the life of the barrel liner).  This chart doesn't account for the early dispersion (i.e. much higher salvo impact area) of the French gun, not solved until postwar.  It assumes constant 5% hit rates between guns, which certainly isn't true for the French gun in the war, because it never got fully tested and worked up.

[Malthus]

Question: on the chart, Richleau does somewhat better than Bismarck, even though both have the same number & size of guns (8 times 15 inch). What's the extra factor at work here? Better targeting control?

Higher muzzle velocity on the French gun and greater explosive power.  The tradeoff is higher barrel wear (and thus increasing inaccuracy over the life of the barrel liner).  This chart doesn't account for the early dispersion (i.e. much higher salvo impact area) of the French gun, not solved until postwar.  It assumes constant 5% hit rates between guns, which certainly isn't true for the French gun in the war, because it never got fully tested and worked up.

Thanks!

[The Brain]

Bismarck! Sink the Bismarck! And have a yabba-dabba-do time. A dabba-do time.

[The Larch]

Just saw a report on Republic Srpska, the Serb-part of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Looks like the next war brewing in Europe... 

Yeah, things have been going politically sideways in Bosnia for the last few months. I've been meaning to post about it but for some reason or the other never got to it...

Basically, the balancing scheme that has kept Bosnia somehow united the last few decades, based on the three communities (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) working together in a pseudo-federal state, seems to be on the verge of collapse, due to the Republika Sprska moving away from the scheme and little by little building their own pseudo-national institutions, with a view towards separation from Bosnia and unification with Serbia.

Bosniaks and Croats have traditionally been opposed to this (it's not the first time that Republika Sprska stirs shit up in the B-H arrangement), but recently a Croatian party (no idea about their level of support) came up in support of an eventual dissolution of the current B-H arrangement, with Croats also going their own way, and in the last few years there have been rumblings behind closed doors in the governments of other former Yugoslavia countries about how the B-H arrangement seems to be coming to an end and a peaceful resolution to it should be sought.

The proposal that had been secretly floated in one of the so-called "non-papers" that were drafted on the issue last year called for a peaceful dissolution of B-H, with each community going their own way, and eventually the Croat one would join Croatia, the Republika Sprska would join Serbia and a rump Bosniak state would be left alone.

Other proposals being debated for the area in those "non-papers" dealt with a possible unification of Kosovo and Albania.

If anyone wants to read a bit on the "non-papers": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Balkan_non-papers

[Syt]

For some levity:

[Syt]

Kyle Rittenhouse says he plans to sue Whoopi Goldberg and others for calling him a murderer.

[Eddie Teach]

It's the American way. 

[grumbler]

Kyle Rittenhouse says he plans to sue Whoopi Goldberg and others for calling him a murderer.

Maybe he'll hire Sydney Powell as his lawyer.  And then they televise her deposition of Goldberg.

[Sheilbh]

Very fun interactive map of Victorian election violence in England and Wales (from individual, incident, disturbance, riot)
http://victorianelectionviolence.uk/interactive-map/

Excited to discover that in my area in 1910 the successful Liberal candidate was almost attacked by a mob of his own supporters and had to be protected by the police. And the 1852 incident when two men attacked a committeeman of one of the candidates (who they voted for), because he'd promised to pay for refreshments if they voted the right way and then went back on the deal

In my mum and dad's area after the declaration of results in 1880, "there was much rioting", as "Fordington roughs" attacked voters wearing Conservative colours (stil blue). The "pelted electors with mud, smashed windows of shops, overturned Conservative carriages, damaged the homes of prominent Conservatives and injured many individuals." They also tried to force their way into the Conservative candidate's offices. Military had to be called in and the riot act was read.

Edit: It is very funny just going round and clicking on literally any incident for how riotous everywhere was - from a random small North Welsh town in the 1885 election

In Gwytherin, some Radical 'lambs' (roughs) took part in riotous conduct, smashing windows and doors of the rectory. They also threatened to 'kill the old tory' in reference to the Rector.

[Savonarola]

Happy National Engineer Week to the forums engineers!  Here's an IEEE quiz to determine what type of engineer you should be.

(Of course I got Electrical.)

Valmy, have you gotten your PE?

[Valmy]

Yep! Back in 2019.

[Savonarola]

Yep! Back in 2019.

Congratulations; is Texas like Michigan (and Florida) where you're a licensed engineer; or do they do it that you're a licensed electrical engineer (California and New York do it that way)?

[The Brain]

Happy National Engineer Week to the forums engineers!  Here's an IEEE quiz to determine what type of engineer you should be.

(Of course I got Electrical.)

Valmy, have you gotten your PE?

You are a Manufacturing Engineer
Manufacturing engineers are involved with the process of manufacturing from planning to packaging of the finished product. They work with tools such as robots, programmable and numerical controllers, and vision system to fine tune assembly, packaging, and shipping facilities.

Er... I'm a nuclear engineer/physicist. The quiz doesn't appear to be entirely accurate.

[Grey Fox]

I got Nuclear Engineer.

That's funny.

[Iormlund]

And I got Mechanical Engineer. I'm a Manufacturing Engineer so something is indeed amiss.