Russia - Ukraine

[Mark E. Long]

I would imagine them going to Germany first is to repaint it to be a Ukrainian aircraft.

And to update weapons carry abilities and some avionics packages .

 

[mtrycrafts]

And to update weapons carry abilities and some avionics packages .

Unfortunately, this whole operation hit a snag. Poland announced it publicly and not informing the US and US military beforehand.
Now it may be sh.. up the creek.

 

[3db]

I only visit this thread randomly as it makes my blood boil and it takes me a few hours to cool off. Other than making a donation to the Red Cross, I feel so helpless and fustrated and Im not of Ukranian desent either.

 

[SithZedi]

Unfortunately, this whole operation hit a snag. Poland announced it publicly and not informing the US and US military beforehand.
Now it may be sh.. up the creek.

It was problematic and now its embarrassing. Polish planes to US Nato Airbase in Germany? Who's pilots were going to fly them in to Ukraine?
Aid (Lethal) should be quietly moved over the border even on horseback without headlines from attention seeking politicos...Like the US did before we entered WW2. We sneaked weapons & planes (stripped down in parts) to the Canadian border where they were picked up on horseback in some cases to fool German spies. Poof, British weapons.
That way the enemy does not know what or how much they are dealing with.
Our leaders are measured again and found wanting.

 

[StereoBliss]

True leadership

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1501304515588415490

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[StereoBliss]

I only visit this thread randomly as it makes my blood boil and it takes me a few hours to cool off. Other than making a donation to the Red Cross, I feel so helpless and fustrated and Im not of Ukranian desent either.

I wouldn’t trust the Red Cross


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Dude#1279435]

Generationally speaking I doubt ANYONE on this forum knows what sacrifice / suffering really is. The enabling BS has gotten worse with each succeeding generation, starting with the 'boomers' , yes I'm one of them...

Think that's kinda the point though. So they don't have to suffer. Well $4 gas and inflation will bring about the economics in them I'm afraid.

 

[highfigh]

XL hasn't been built nor would it change gasoline prices 1 cent.

The Southern leg has been built, Obama declined to grant the permits for the Northern leg. Doesn't seem like a great source to move so far for refinement, though- the sand is so abrasive that it would wear through the pipe quickly.

 

[Mark E. Long]

Unfortunately, this whole operation hit a snag. Poland announced it publicly and not informing the US and US military beforehand.
Now it may be sh.. up the creek.

Agree this type of deal should not have been made public in any way . NATO better get on the same page on this as to me it seems there not .

 

[highfigh]

This may have been mentioned in this thread previously, but OSINT sources have been reporting that U.S. B52s have been flying missions over Romania near the boarder with Ukraine. This has been covered to some extend by the MSM (e.g. CNN) so it's not a huge secret, but the OSINT sources provide updated info on the flights much more frequently. How significant is this? I really do not know, but it does seem to be at least in part a message to Putin (i have no inside knowledge, and I'm not a military expert).

View attachment 54397

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1500808540436537346

One thing that may show Russia's preparedness is the fact that they didn't take out the Ukrainian radar systems and haven't gone in with heavy bombers. If their plan was to drag this out as long as possible without causing overwhelming damage, I think they can be considered 'successful'.

I remember hearing comments around the time of the Gulf War that the US wouldn't have the stomach for a long battle- well, we were there for two decades. The Russians are surrendering, some have walked away and people are making calls to Ukraine to find out where their family members are because they haven't heard from them.

Once again, people who don't want to go are being sent to war, likely without adequate training and form reports, without adequate food & supplies. With any luck, Putin's circle will close in and he'll be gone soon.

 

[highfigh]

The thing is, the increase in engine fuel efficiency over the past few decades has been remarkable. But, instead taking advantage of these new technologies to reduce fuel consumption, Americans (and Canadians, to a lesser extent) have simply bought larger, more powerful, vehicles (especially pickups) and negating the increased efficiency. I wonder what effect it would have on overall fuel consumption if the people who drove pickups because they wanted them vice needed them had chosen smaller vehicles...

The public are being cowed by the new, shiny cars & trucks. There's no freaking reason a pickup truck should cost what it does, but the manufacturers are grabbing people by the snout and dragging them into the dealerships to sign their lives over.

What 'remarkable' increases have been made, other than the few good examples at the top? The CAFE Standards link from DOT shows "In 2012, NHTSA established final passenger car and light truck CAFE standards for model years 2017-2021, which the agency projects will require in model year 2021, on average, a combined fleet-wide fuel economy of 40.3-41.0 mpg."- well, that's not gonna happen. Instead, it also shows "The EPA also said that early projects suggest fuel economy will jump to 25.7 mpg in the 2020 model year, which would be a new record."- that's well short and if they think progress will be made when the manufacturers can buy carbon credits from each other, they're delusional.

What high fuel economy data have you seen that's not available here?

There would be no comparison if those pinheads who conflate need and want had bought smaller cars, but with the "It's bigger, so it's safer" mantra, little shoebox arss will remain the minority.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Now we have to be on the lookout of fake debunking.

In the Ukraine Conflict, Fake Fact-Checks Are Being Used to Spread Disinformation

Social media posts debunking purported Ukrainian disinformation are themselves fake. That doesn’t stop them from being featured on Russian state TV.

www.propublica.org

 

[Madhuski]

True leadership

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1501304515588415490

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Kind of refreshing to hear the plain old truth

 

[GO-NAD!]

The public are being cowed by the new, shiny cars & trucks. There's no freaking reason a pickup truck should cost what it does, but the manufacturers are grabbing people by the snout and dragging them into the dealerships to sign their lives over.

What 'remarkable' increases have been made, other than the few good examples at the top? The CAFE Standards link from DOT shows "In 2012, NHTSA established final passenger car and light truck CAFE standards for model years 2017-2021, which the agency projects will require in model year 2021, on average, a combined fleet-wide fuel economy of 40.3-41.0 mpg."- well, that's not gonna happen. Instead, it also shows "The EPA also said that early projects suggest fuel economy will jump to 25.7 mpg in the 2020 model year, which would be a new record."- that's well short and if they think progress will be made when the manufacturers can buy carbon credits from each other, they're delusional.

What high fuel economy data have you seen that's not available here?

There would be no comparison if those pinheads who conflate need and want had bought smaller cars, but with the "It's bigger, so it's safer" mantra, little shoebox arss will remain the minority.

You alluded to it yourself with your comparison of your Cutlass and the Hellcat. It's not so much that they have increase actual MPGs drastically. It's that they have taken advantage of increased efficiency and cheap fuel prices to increase engine sizes and power.

 

[SithZedi]

The Southern leg has been built, Obama declined to grant the permits for the Northern leg. Doesn't seem like a great source to move so far for refinement, though- the sand is so abrasive that it would wear through the pipe quickly.

This type of oil, Bitumen, has to be processed at specially equipped refineries, few of which exist in Canada, more are located in the US. If Bitumen continues to be used as a source of fuel, it would be far better to build those refineries near to the mining locations, then piped out. That's a big investment but its better that than pushing "peanut butter" through a pipeline.

Anyway, with no pipeline the oil will continue to come into the US via railways, which is much more dangerous and 30 times more prone to leakage versus a pipeline. Again, chose your poison.

The Canadian's have moved on from XL anyway. The Bitumen has to go somewhere and new pipelines are in the works in Canada to move it. Enbridge 3 Line replacement through Minnesota gets it to the Great Lakes located Superior Terminal (owned by Enbridge) for use elsewhere. Then there is the Trans Mountain Expansion to British Columbia which gets the oil to the Pacific for export. That's a whole other kettle of fish politically and environmentally.

Line 3 Replacement Project

Line 3 Replacement Project

www.enbridge.com

 

[panteragstk]

You alluded to it yourself with your comparison of your Cutlass and the Hellcat. It's not so much that they have increase actual MPGs drastically. It's that they have taken advantage of increased efficiency and cheap fuel prices to increase engine sizes and power.

There's a reason that a lot of the new high powered dodge cars will have turbo I6 going forward. Easy to make a lot of power, but will be better on MPG. Probably will break quickly since it'll be a Fiat motor, but who knows, they may do a brand new design from the ground up.

I'm hoping for the best.

 

[John Parks]

Totally agree with that.
This latest generation(smart phone) is the worse prepared both physically and mentally but its not their fault, its ours.

This is a clever (and rather disturbing) vid that reflects exactly what you are talking about. If you don't have time, watch the first minute and skip ahead to the 3:00 mark...

 

[SithZedi]

This is a clever (and rather disturbing) vid that reflects exactly what you are talking about. If you don't have time, watch the first minute and skip ahead to the 3:00 mark...

Thanks. Its clever indeed. Sound track was annoying musically speaking : 0
With Covid, have not been out much publicly in two years but went out to my first indoor restaurant recently. I enjoy just sitting back and watching people in general, something I picked up traveling overseas a bit. Nothing has changed. Just looking around the restaurant I saw multiple tables with 2 to 8 persons seated and watching their phones instead of speaking or interacting with each other. Twice I saw waiters have to interrupt the seated parties so he could take their order.
Barbarians at the gate are indeed waiting for this version of civilization to fall over. Idiocracy.

 

[highfigh]

You alluded to it yourself with your comparison of your Cutlass and the Hellcat. It's not so much that they have increase actual MPGs drastically. It's that they have taken advantage of increased efficiency and cheap fuel prices to increase engine sizes and power.

To be fair, the only real data used by the computer in the Cutlass was engine temperature, throttle position, RPM and maybe knock sensor. The control and data stream in a new car is so advanced that they might not have bothered on the Cutlass, by comparison. Also, the tolerances in newer engines allow much better life, higher compression when using a turbocharger, smaller assemblies allow higher RPM and it's no longer necessary to use a large displacement engine in order to achieve better performance but average fuel economy still isn't where it was supposed to be.

Larger engines are due to demand- it's just a matter of being possible to reach those HP ratings through newer technology.

Don't get me wrong- pushing the technological envelope is necessary and the results are really great, but if we're going to kick the fossil fuel monkey, alternatives need to be found and improved. That's the goal, not bigger engines.

 

[GO-NAD!]

To be fair, the only real data used by the computer in the Cutlass was engine temperature, throttle position, RPM and maybe knock sensor. The control and data stream in a new car is so advanced that they might not have bothered on the Cutlass, by comparison. Also, the tolerances in newer engines allow much better life, higher compression when using a turbocharger, smaller assemblies allow higher RPM and it's no longer necessary to use a large displacement engine in order to achieve better performance but average fuel economy still isn't where it was supposed to be.

Larger engines are due to demand- it's just a matter of being possible to reach those HP ratings through newer technology.

Don't get me wrong- pushing the technological envelope is necessary and the results are really great, but if we're going to kick the fossil fuel monkey, alternatives need to be found and improved. That's the goal, not bigger engines.

When you consider that the original standard engine in a Dodge Caravan was a 2.2 litre four-banger with less than 100 BHP and got about the same mileage as the present 3.6 litre V6 with over 280 BHP, it's clear that manufacturers used greater efficiency to increase power, not to reduce fuel consumption.

While modern technology has been employed to reduce engine sizes with similar, or greater, power, it hasn't been across the board. The 1982 Camaro Z28 had an anemic 5.0 litre, while 40 years later you can get a supercharged 6.2 litre.

Yes, while customers have demanded greater power over the years and manufacturers have answered that demand, it went hand-in-hand with dropping fuel prices. But, the customer isn't always right. If the entire world consumed resources like western countries (especially North Americans), we'd be living in a hellscape already.