Vacuum Bombs and Cluster bombs.

 These are not new.  We had them in Viet Nam.  Nor are they outlawed far as I know.  Some talk on TV indicated that the TV person had no idea what these two weapons are. 

   The cluster bomb, or cluster bomb unit (CBU), is an air dropped anti personnel munition.  It is a big sheet metal container, perhaps five feet long and weighing maybe 750 pounds.  The container is filled with grenades, small explosive charges, each with its own detonator.  When dropped, an explosive charge blows open the sheet metal container and all the grenades are freed.  Each grenade arms itself after it turns over a hundred times or so.  One cluster bomb will cover a much larger area than a plain old iron bomb.  Against infantry, a cluster bomb can be very deadly. 

  The “vacuum bomb” is what we used to call a fuel air bomb.  It is just a big tank of flammable gas, natural gas, propane, whatever.  When it hits the ground, a big valve opens and all the flammable gas is released.  After a few seconds, to give the gas time to mix with air, a detonator ignites the cloud of fuel air mixture.  Pound for pound, flammable gas provides far more energy than TNT, so the explosion of a fuel air bomb is intense. 

Strange Putin Photos.

I have seen two such photos on the Internet so far.  They start in an enormous room, with a huge table, 40 or 50 feet, running down the middle of the room.  They show Putin sitting at the head of this huge table.  At the way far end we see a handful of flunkies of one sort or another.  And 30-40 feet of table between Putin and the flunkies is unoccupied.  Is Putin off on an ego trip or what?

 

Cogeneration.

 To make electricity steam boilers produce hot high pressure steam.  The steam goes into steam turbines which turn the alternators that actually make the electricity.  The steam, cooler and lower pressure comes out of the turbine.  This waste steam is too cool and too low pressure to feed into a turbine, but it is plenty hot enough for space heating.  Locate your building close to an electric power station and you can heat it with waste steam from the turbines.  The electric company will be glad to sell it to you at a good price. 

   For cogeneration to be really effective, the electric power station has to be located downtown where there are plenty of buildings needing heat.  This works, electric power stations run quietly, are not very big, and make fine neighbors.  I used to own a triple decker in Cambridge right off Western Ave.  There was a nice power station right on Western Ave. 

   For fossil fuel plants cogeneration works fine.  Nuclear plants not so much.  The greenies hate nuclear power and put out all kinds of anti nuclear propaganda and run off demonstrations at nuclear plants under construction.  So we can skip nuclear plants for cogeneration. 

   But we ought to insist, thru our public utility commissions, that new fossil fuel electric power stations be located downtown so that cogeneration is possible.  It will save a good deal of fuel over the years.

Damn the Greenies, full speed ahead.

    The TV said Biden was negotiating with the Europeans about cutting off Russian oil and gas sales to Europe and America.  What Biden-the-Woke should do is stop American buying Russian oil and gas.  Let the Europeans figure out if they want to subsidize Russia or not.  We don’t have to, we have solid petroleum reserves on American soil and we should use them rather than pay money to Putin.  Who will use the money to invade Ukraine. 

   The American greenies are dead set again this.  They think we can run our society without drilling for oil and gas.  They are wrong.  To provide central heat to our homes in the dead of winter, and gasoline to drive to work, takes fossil fuels.  I cannot run my car on solar or wind.  Nor can I make it thru a real winter up here on solar electricity that goes away when the sun goes down.  I need electricity to make my oil burner work.  When the juice goes off, the oil burner shuts down, and my pipes freeze in a few hours. 

   We were producing enough oil and gas to supply the entire country when Trump left office.  Given a bit more than a year, Biden has reduced American production to the point that we don’t have a surplus to ship to our European allies, and we don’t have enough to even run America.  We could easily jack up production to where it was when Trump left office last year.  Biden doesn’t want to do this because of all the nasty things the American greenies would say.  There aren’t that many greenies in the country, Biden could bring oil and gas production back and the majority of the voters would cheer.  The majority of voters far out number the greenies.

No Fly Zone Enforcement

There has been some talk about how the US might enforce a no-fly zone by shooting down any Russian aircraft that violated it.  It would not work quite that way.  Upon detecting a Russian aircraft in the no fly zone, the US fighters would radio it, on guard frequency, and order it out of the area.  If the Russian complies, all is well and good.  If it does not comply, the US fighters would follow up with the traditional shot across the bow.  And possibly some hot rod flying to scare them off.  Only after all that fails would shooting start for real.  

Another question.  Would shooting down a single Russian fighter be enough to kick off nuclear war?  During the Cold War, the Russians shot down several US recon aircraft.  We sent diplomatic nastygrams to the communists, but we didn't threaten war over a single aircraft.

Taiwan is different from Ukraine.

The TV has been talking up China’s threat to invade and conquer Taiwan, comparing it to Ukraine.  There is one big difference between the two.  There is a 120 mile wide strait between Mainland China and Taiwan.  It’s blue water, deep enough to float air craft carriers.  Chinese army has to cross this strait by ship.

  Up until Biden, the US promised to defend Taiwan by the US Navy steaming into the Taiwan Strait and sinking the Chinese invasion force.  Today, a lot of people, me included, fear that Biden lacks the courage to back up 70 years of American promises and order the US Navy into action.  We fear Biden will chicken out in the clutch.

   To prevent this disgraceful action, every American needs to get to the polls in November, and vote a straight Republican ticket. 

 

Shelling a nuclear power plant is craziness

 Apparently the Russians want to do Chernobyl all over again.  Shelling a running nuclear power plant is asking for another Chernobyl.  A nuclear plant needs a lot of stuff working to keep it running safely, the cooling system, the fire fighting equipment, the control room, electric power to move the control rods, and more.  Shelling the plant is likely to break something essential.  

   If they just want to control who gets power, and turn the lights out on the Ukrainian resistance, all the Russians need do is surround the plant, wait for the operators to get hungry, and offer them food if they come out and turn the place over.  Shelling is no part of this.