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atomheartbevo

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by atomheartbevo

  1. Over/under on how many schools will be turned into charter schools if/when they take over AISD? I'm picturing Lamar, Kealing, Ann Richards at the very least. Houston's Top Magnet High Schools Could Become Private Partnership Charter Schools, Raising Equity Concerns
  2. https://mickryan.substack.com/p/ukraine-dispatch-5-ukraines-new-directorate https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/contributors/articles/mick-ryan A key observation is that the frontline is now at a point of 'drone saturation.' Now, within 15km of the front line, vehicle movement is difficult to impossible. Infantry soldiers must march to their positions for 10-15km. When armoured vehicles and artillery are deployed, these can be subject to up to 40 attacks per platform per day. Ukraine has invested in decoys and deception activities, and every HQ is now buried deep underground. The re-birth of modern deception is an important lesson from Ukraine, albeit an old one re-learned. https://www.newamerica.org/future-security/reports/the-future-of-deception-in-war/ The question however is whether this saturated environment, which has built up over three and half years, is possible elsewhere? In non-contiguous theatres like the Pacific, it might be difficult to achieve this level of saturation, at least in a short period of time. This offers opportunities, but also may see ISR gaps for an adversary to exploit. Despite this saturated drone environment, infantry is more important than ever to seize and hold ground. An indication of this is that while every Ukrainian brigade has 1-2 drone battalions, they all retain 3-5 infantry battalions as well. Drones are not replacing soldiers but extending and complementing their capabilities. Really good stuff at the links and rest of tweet thread
  3. "Orban said the only ones supporting peace in the Ukraine situation are “the United States and little Hungary in Europe.”
  4. Not just the rich, but the middle-class bureaucrats that are skimming fuel and funds. Blackout curtains don’t cover up the sounds of generators on the balcony.
  5. It is an interesting thought. You can look at an issue and easily figure out whether Rand Paul will side with or against Trump because he’s an ideologue. For the most part, he’s going to stick to his guns. It’s a little more nuanced with her because she’s an opportunist, and is trying to thread the needle on being MAGA but not being tied to stuff that could drag down Trump.
  6. But there is this from last June: Houston ISD takeover by state will continue through 2027, TEA announces – Houston Public Media And Morath just replaced the four board members who were loudest about questioning his last budget.
  7. Yeah, really good. Only thought of him as the Beatles guy.
  8. Star Fleet Battles? Which oddly enough still exists. They were able to use IP from the TOS and the animated series but couldn’t call themselves Star Trek and couldn’t do anything related to the movies or TV shows from the 80s on. They are mentioned in the video above. You could design a lot of ships. If not that, you might check his channel, he covers a lot of early sci- fi tabletop games. https://www.youtube.com/@TabletopSciFi
  9. Given that there are members of his party in Congress who oppose this, and other extenuating factors (like the elections this week), I wonder how long this will last. For whatever reason, this is making a lot of people uncomfortable who would normally cheer this on. It won't take many dead American troops to ratchet up the tension. He likes to blame other people for stuff, but this is 100% all him, and he's been claiming it. He's not doing a good job of selling it either - the attempts to bring the Monroe Doctrine into play were weak (and I doubt most Americans even know what that is anymore), and people are chuckling over the idea of Venezuela being the baddy when the cartels in Mexico do far more damage.
  10. I'm wondering if there's also a problem getting western electronics.
  11. Not sure if this is the same one that flew to Venezula (it stopped in Sudan I believe) Creepy, like big-ass spiderwebs.
  12. Pretty wild how much of the battlefield is covered by video.
  13. Does Surly really need the competition though?
  14. I remember in basic training they were used to fatten up some of the skinnier folks right before they started full-on training. Kind of the opposite of the fat platoon who were having to jog/walk every morning and being made to mow around the base with mechanical lawn mowers.
  15. A high school buddy and I were talking this past weekend and started talking about Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game that we played in the 80s and early 90s (it ran from the early 80s to the first season or two of The Next Generation). This: I had the deluxe 2nd edition (thanks mom and dad) Some of you may have bought this, not realizing it was a FASA game manual: I have a collection of manuals that was maybe half this (but mine are in better shape) that I picked up back in the 80s and then at various used bookstores over the years: And maybe a quarter of these ship miniatures: I've been pouring through these links Links to FASA Star Trek RPG sites – TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding This weekend I'm going to be digging out a bunch of stuff, and I've already hit up ebay to buy some miniatures and manuals that I always wanted but couldn't afford at the time or never saw (once it was discontinued a lot of shops dropped it). Anyways, we have found people that have adapted Roll20.net to play it, and more promisingly, it works with Steam's Tabletop Simulator: Steam Workshop::Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator which, as the name says, is for the "sequel", the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator I just downloaded the majority (maybe all) of the manuals ever made for it (thank you internet archive) and am pouring through them until I get my physical copies out/and or receive them from ebayers. Nice to have digital copies on my iPad, as I've got a couple of trips later this year. We figure we will try and get it going in person over Thanksgiving with the two of us and our sons, and then if it works out, I might try and run some games for others (maybe through this thread). We want to try the roleplaying game, but holy crap it's complex and a lot going on, so we may start with the combat simulator and go from there. The RPG game was amazing though, if you were nerdy as hell, you could build an officer character with a complete career from before Starfleet Academy through the Academy and then into your career. Here's a decent breakdown of the FASA universe and he has several videos covering the FASA games/supplements.
  16. "that message pops up automatically when stuff gets real heavy" I'm sorry, but I'm laughing at that.
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