They do work. They’ve been using them to blow up tanks.

The way they’re used there isn’t much time for that. With regular drones they hunt around for something to kill and then dive in. The wired drones stay hidden until the target comes into range and then they just come out for the strike. The defenders only have a few seconds to react.

Wire guided missiles have been in use since WWII.

Markus Reisner has a pretty good explanation of how they’re deployed in one of his videos.

They have much shorter range so they basically set them up as ambushes. The wired drone gets hidden somewhere at a choke point. An other operator flies a recon drone at long range. When they report that a good target has come into range the wired drone takes off and hits the target.

I thought this would be a thread where we post our unhinged snacks.

My goto smoothie:

• 1 banana
• 2 scoops of protein powder
• 3 heaping tablespoons of Benco cocoa powder
• 1 heaping spoon full of peanutbutter
• 2 cups of whole milk

Clocks in at about 1000 calories. It’s great if you’re the type of person who chronically forgets to eat

Ikea really managed to pull off a magnificent marketing stunt.

They have the same furniture quality that you can get off of Amazon, Wayfair, or Walmart but you have to go get it out of their warehouse and deal with the logistics of getting it to your house. But they hand out some meatballs and give everything funky Swedish names; so people get the impression that it’s a fancy European experience.

China is the single largest manufacturer of Ikea products. I found that when I went directly to the source, I could get the same item cheaper or a better item at the same price. That deal is likely to die with the new tariff regime but that same regime will have similar impacts on Ikea.

I really wish we could retire the phrase “tech bro”.

It actively alienates allies that we desperately need.

The average techie does NOT fit the mold of “tech bro”.
They tend to be very liberal https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/CA/Santa_Clara/122582/web.345435/#/summary They tend to be more LGBTQ friendly than most industries https://www.spiceworks.com/hr/diversity-inclusion/guest-article/top-lgbtq-friendly-industries-in-the-us/

There’s a loud minority of tech leaders who qualify as “tech bros” and they’re not representative of the industry. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-02-20/california-silicon-valley-andreessen-zuckerberg-musk-donald-trump

If we continue to lump that large majority of nerds in with that group; at best we’re wasting time yelling at allies, at worst we’re driving them to the other side.

They gave up their bicycles and quaint straw hats for modernity and now they think they’re entitled to the same standard of living as Americans.

Don’t care

It’s easy to ignore the suffering of others. Have you spent any time in villages where the richest people live like medieval peasants because the whole town hasn’t had any infrastructure improvements in over a century? “Rich” in those places just means slightly less desperately poor. They’re quite egalitarian, it’s just that they’re all broke together.

I’ve never heard of Siemens referred to as an “automation company”.

That’s technically true but they’re much more into heavy industry. They build power plants, trains, ports and industrial automation equipment. They’ve had to lay off some of their own employees but I’m not aware of any cases of their business putting other people out of work.

I likewise appreciate you’re reading and tolerating my bloviated comment :)

I’ll take a stab at it but I don’t remember that movie well so I had to re-watch the clip.

I’ll start by reiterating that the above stuff is generalizations. Some authors ignore them and some intentionally break them. I thin Kingsmen falls into the latter category.

The movie is full of class shibboleths and makes a point of dissociating etiquette from kindness or morality.

To start with, it’s rude of Valentine to offer McCdonalds. There’s an expectation of generosity towards guests and McDonalds certainly doesn’t meet that expectation in that sort of setting.

Sir Galahad’s response is that of a perfect guest. He doesn’t argue with his host or call him out. Instead he accepts what is offered and humbly supports Valentines implication that it’s the height of epicurean delight.

The larger context is to set up a contrast between Valentine and Eggsy. While booth violate high-class etiquette rules, Valentine does it out of aggression and selfishness and Eggsy does it to save the world.

No shame.

I view it as a friendly competition between Europeans. Right now, Spain is in the lead. UK and Italy are trailing but they’re still racing in the right direction. I’m cheering for them to catch up.

There are a lot of interesting discussions around the use of food in movies. Even ones that aren’t directly about food.

Regular food intake is critical for our survival so it makes sense that it takes a large social role.

As a general rule, making and sharing food is considered “good”.

• “Everybody eats when they come to my house.” - Cab Calloway
• “You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.” - Arlo Guthrie

Taking and consuming food is “bad”.

• “Get in my belly!” - Fat Bastard
• “Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?” - Jules

The exception is when food is offered. In that case, graciously accepting the food is also good.

• ET and Sloth (from Goonies) accept the candy.

German in US movies has a wild array of quality levels.

The best ones are all from native German speaking actors. Movie actors don’t need native proficiency since the script is written out for them. The accents are really hard to nail down though and native speakers often have some regional dialect that second language learners almost never pick up.

Mac Steinmeir nails it in Saving Private Ryan and he’s Bavarian. Christopher Walz speaks flawless German. His French and Italian sound perfect to me but native speakers consider him “pretty good for a foreigner”. He’s Austrian.

Christian Slater has a very clear accent in Heathers but he’s not supposed to be a native German speaker.

The English accent is often used for evil empires too, eg Star Wars.

Weight is a pretty poor predictor of planning and effort.

The overwhelming evidence is that for some people it takes far more work to maintain a healthy weight than it does for others.

Physics tells us that CICO predicts weight gain and heaps of empirical data tells us it’s one of many relevant factors.

Most people don’t really control their weight by counting calories. They go by how they feel and our feelings,are heavily influenced by our biochemistry. Semaglutide doesn’t work by giving people will power or self control; it works by targeting GLP-1 receptors to make them feel full sooner.

Is absurd that we essentially have a regressive income tax. I also wouldn’t ignore the global environment during that period.

During those decades, the US was effectively the only industrialized nation in the world. Everyone else either never had factories to begin with, or had smoldering piles of rubble where their factories used to be.

The major difference is that in “blink” and “chicken” you expect to keep doing your thing (eg driving straight ahead) while only your opponent makes concessions.

The Cuban missile crisis involved significant concessions on both sides.