Have you ever noticed how often zippers malfunction? And it’s always
rich men’s zippers that just won’t stay shut. Funny thing. I always
buy regular price (WalMart usually) pants and I’ve never had my
zipper fail. Been a time or two I forgot to close the thing but I’ve
never had a zipper come open of its own accord. You’d think a rich
man would be able to afford to buy pants with reliable zippers.
Wouldn’t you?
Yep, it’s the nylon zippers that fail.
Being softer they wear faster and pull apart.
In addition the plastic pins in the pull unit break
easily so the zip fails to close in the first place.
Metal zips wear much slower and the pins are significantly
stronger so the zip generally last longer than the garment.
Since the nylon zips are smoother and less ‘clunky’ to use
they are more likely to be found on up-market clothing.
I’ve known people like him, always needed sharpening sooner
that the rest of the tools, or the bulb that everyone regrets to
use since it’s dimmer than the rest. Dave’s like the charismatic
jock who did well enough in sports, but wasn’t good enough
for the big leagues and blames everyone else for his mistakes.
I don’t know if narcissists gravitate to positions of power or if
power turns people into narcissists. Well, both, I know, but I
don’t know which is more prevalent.
One thing about old Slinom, he’s consistent about jumping to wrong conclusions.
Of course, for some of them, he has been pointed right at them and practically
encouraged to jump, but hey, that’s easier than thinking for himself, right?
In his defense, if his people reproduce immersed in water, like both
sharks and many gastropods, he may not have the background to
get the references. He will soon.
I was going to query if the silence from Dave meant the bunker had
been breached, or if it was just that the communication/power had
been cut off. However you have answered that question before before
I asked it. That leaves one question; were there any survivors?
I’m not really sure if using a series of god rods would
be better or worse for minimizing collateral damage than
trying to hit with one.
You could use shorter rods and it would probably be easier
to secure the kill. (Just keep going, fire, analyze result,
rinse, repeat until you’re sure your deep enough).
On the other hand, just one miss could to severe damage to
any bystander, one single shot where the stabilizers didn’t
work or some other technical problem made them miss the mark.
And what about the debris – it would keep either falling back
or be kick away elsewhere. (Sand and even dust does have a
density similar to rock – and that’s what’s important at the
speeds we’re talking about)
IMS, when Niven and Pournelle (originator of the “god rod” concept) used the things in
“Footfall” they were more like 2 meters long and about the diameter of concrete reinforcing
bar. That would be much more of a “surgical” strike. I see no reason to believe a grav head
propelled rod could not be delivered with an error circle under 6 inches. Especially considering
it would be dropped from a very steady/stable hovering platform like a D Fly or Locust. Using
a laser designator and a seeker head like on a JDAM and literal pinpoint accuracy should be
child’s play.
A single 2m rod of tungsten could penetrate about 16m of concrete.
If you want to reach deeper you’ll have to remove the rubble
somehow – and at increasing depth keep new debris from falling
into the hole.
If you don’t the next salvo will just wrack 16m of rubble into
smaller and ever smaller pieces. After a while, a significant of
that rubble would be pieces of tungsten so the overall density
would actually increase over time, limiting the reach of future
rounds.
Way back during the last year or so of the European theater of world war two
a few Lancaster Bombers (and possibly a few flying fortresses) were modified
to carry a single ten ton bomb. While these piston engine aircraft were never
able to reach the altitude the bombs were designed to be dropped from they
still penetrated about 30ft (10metre) into the ground before exploding.
Of course with modern jets and bomb designs we do penetrate much deeper now.
The Catian targeting system is capable of isolating just the engines of an
enemy ship at distances where the enemy ship itself is not visible to the
naked eye thus I doubt it would have any problem targeting the center of the
rubble pile left by the conventional bombs. The first god rod would penetrate
the rubble pile and a few additional meters before converting all that Kinetic
Energy into heat and blasting out an even deeper hole. Most of the debris is
flung straight up creating a clear space for the next god rod (if it is close
enough). As you get deeper you need more energy to clear the hole; no problem.
just drop the god rods from higher up.
In short: the most import factors for calculating the penetration
of a high velocity projectile are the length of the missile and the
relative density of it compared to the density of the target.
“Ground” has a density of around 2-3g/cm³ and iron around 8 and
tungsten would be over 20.
With this numbers, a tungsten should penetrate about 8 times its
length of rock or concrete.
The rods only have to penetrate until they reach the open space inside the bunker.
It may be 600 feet deep, but it isn’t 600 feet thick. Once Skycat sees clouds of
dust appearing at the exit(s) like the one Mustang Sally used, it will be time
for “A couple more, just to be sure”.
It occurs to me that, while it hasn’t been stated, the Empire could have airships
equipped with ‘gravitational vacuums’ flying over to suck rubble out of the way
into some kind of container to be dumped safely nearby. Scheduled between the
rods. It would require careful coordination, as fast as they’re coming. But a grav
beam pointed straight down is going to pull at everything in its path, including the
earth itself, but tidal forces will pull the small stuff faster. Would need extra ‘lift’
(grav beams at celestial objects) and something to deflect and catch the stuff
before it reached the emitter, but it sounds feasible to me.
I haven’t seen any mention of it in the story but that is a good idea,
It’d have to be a larger ship though the fireflys and the medivac’s
engines wouldn’t have enough pull without tearing the mounts off.
The craft would have to fly up while pulling it’s load and to dodge
out of way while a second craft would take over until the mass was
high enough to burn up in re-entry. VERY tricky. I gather this is a small
city or at least a large town so just letting it go would be bad.
Once the bunker is breached, due to the mass of the debris above it
most of the new rubble would be blown downward into the open
spaces. Not really a problem.
True, and they were warned this was coming. I’m sure all the Imperial
troops feel the same as me, too little, too late. The best scenario would
of been that they got out and learned, but Dave and the rest were too
cocky (why did that make me think of the Schlong drive?) heh…
I was thinking in terms of getting it out of the way so succeeding rods didn’t have to
penetrate loose debris, per me’s description of the issues that creates. Sure, once
the bunker is penetrated that’s not an issue.
I have no doubt that if an Empire that to fly to other worlds AND
drop small asteroids on Lamira in a quarter mile area and NOT
cause damage to a much larger area could handle dropped in series
telephone pole sized rods in a area the size of a city block. of
course they used control vanes driven by the same software that
ran their ships in planetary landings, it was the only way.
Low-level AI no doubt.
I feel for Mike, I’m sure he knew everyone in there and that they
didn’t deserve to die just because of blind obedience. I agree,
Dave’s not here, anymore.
Aside from the side splitting humor there, the Hammers are sealing
their own fate by falling for this very clear trap, setting them up
to fail and costing themselves the chance for their shipping
businesses to fail horribly. If Slimy keeps pushing like this
they’ll be ejected from the planet and refused the shipping rights
for themselves.
Hear that Slimy? That’s the sound of your hubris being slowly toted up!
Agreed; in fact the hammerheads would probably learn more by just seeing what was in
the cargo hold than investigating the Schlong Drive (self contained humus drive).
Another look at the Schlong Drive entry door shows it does not look like the entry
to a toilet or bathroom so I now think it is the entry to the sludge tank from
bathrooms and toilets that is fed to the recycling treatment plant feeding the
hydroponics. The tank is covered by a cloth or plastic cover adorned with crude
humor slogans, jokes and cartoons. The cover is held in place by a hidden zip.
It could be the hydroponics bay with the waste recycling tanks etc…
Considering the size of the tanks for a long-range ship would be fairly
large and would need that big of a door to move out/in replacement
tanks. I still like the “High Five” idea although granted it’d be hard to
draw.
Hmmm. Just a thought here. I don’t know how much you can arrange things?
But, with the impacts getting closer, things on the walls and desk top
would have begun to shift, or fall off, or bounce…
The last hit before it reached the bunker would cause bits
of the ceiling to start to fall, that would the time to say it
and do it at the same time. Hope they all are wearing the
brown pants…. Survivors might be embarrassed…
Panel 4 is so real. I’m thinking right now of Putin.
However he’s not the only one.
Of course, often the hubris filled leader survives and the
good people who followed through ignorance or fear are the
ones who pay with life or limb.
President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neanderthal B Woodman Domestic Violent Extremist SuperStraight
I believe if there were any survivors it would be anyone near the outer
wall of the bunker, they would be the best bet to hold up the weight of
the debris. The real trick would be to get to them in a few days otherwise
they’d die of thirst. Any large room’s ceiling would fall in with tons of dirt
and such would follow.
Question for PC. When do the vote counts at TWC reset? Ostensibly it would be midnight
Tuesday night but midnight where. UTC? Eastern time? Central? I want to watch and see
if “Girl Power” and, to a lesser extent, “Two Kinds” vote counts exhibit the same sort
of anomalous activity they did this month. “Girl Power” is north of 24,500. “Two Kinds”
is just shy of 10,500. The next nearest is barely 6,600. I plan to watch and see if
they or others appear to be gaming the system this coming month.
0200, I think, maybe 0300 Eastern time. It varies depending on if we’re in Daylight
Savings Time.
Right now the vote resets at 0700, so the monthly count probably changes at 0200.
I won’t vote on the 28th, but after the monthly reset on 01 Mar. That way TWC gets
a couple extra votes at the very beginning.
(If you have an account like I do, you can vote, then sign in and vote again.)
Minor cheat…
Had to go look it up. I assume the portion of the President’s Palace that is being hit with the
bombs and god rods has the bunker under it but does NOT have the President’s Office,
since that’s where the mounted head is that this mission is to bring home. With the Intel it
would take to know that and plan this raid to take advantage of it, I’m surprised they needed
to send in new target spotters. I guess the targets were already known; they were bringing
in the lasers to highlight them and setting them up under the direction of agents already there.
PC you did it again. Pass the zipper to schlong.
Oh boy. Thanks for the giggle.
Oh and pulsing thruster. Yep good one.
Getting past the Zipper to get at the Schlong,
has caused many to get all choked up.
Allowing the Schlong to Drive past the Zipper
has caused many oopsies in history.
(especially when it goes into pulsing thruster mode)
Have you ever noticed how often zippers malfunction? And it’s always
rich men’s zippers that just won’t stay shut. Funny thing. I always
buy regular price (WalMart usually) pants and I’ve never had my
zipper fail. Been a time or two I forgot to close the thing but I’ve
never had a zipper come open of its own accord. You’d think a rich
man would be able to afford to buy pants with reliable zippers.
Wouldn’t you?
Yep, it’s the nylon zippers that fail.
Being softer they wear faster and pull apart.
In addition the plastic pins in the pull unit break
easily so the zip fails to close in the first place.
Metal zips wear much slower and the pins are significantly
stronger so the zip generally last longer than the garment.
Since the nylon zips are smoother and less ‘clunky’ to use
they are more likely to be found on up-market clothing.
Not being the smartest one in the room,
even when alone?
Man, that sucks!
Well, there’s always some plant around …
or a book …
or …
a light bulb?
The bacteria in his guts,
mites on his skin,
amoeba in the drinking water…
why, the list goes on and on.
I’ve known people like him, always needed sharpening sooner
that the rest of the tools, or the bulb that everyone regrets to
use since it’s dimmer than the rest. Dave’s like the charismatic
jock who did well enough in sports, but wasn’t good enough
for the big leagues and blames everyone else for his mistakes.
I don’t know if narcissists gravitate to positions of power or if
power turns people into narcissists. Well, both, I know, but I
don’t know which is more prevalent.
That is a great burn that I must use this week!
Thank You PC
“you are smart as a paramecium”.
“‘well,. you is smart as a single meseeum.”
“wait … never mind.”
P.C. Lots of variations to this saying,
but that last phrase is hitting below the toe nails.
One thing about old Slinom, he’s consistent about jumping to wrong conclusions.
Of course, for some of them, he has been pointed right at them and practically
encouraged to jump, but hey, that’s easier than thinking for himself, right?
In his defense, if his people reproduce immersed in water, like both
sharks and many gastropods, he may not have the background to
get the references. He will soon.
Even if they were Earth born Humans they’d not be guaranteed to get
the joke.
For one they’re way too focused on getting vital intel, focused enough
to be blinded by it.
And, of course, we seem to be very creative when it comes to finding
names for genitalia.
Dave? Dave! DAVE!!!
Dave’s not here, man…
At least… Not anymore…
Oh, he’s around here somewhere…
ALL around here…
Oh gawd….
I’m dying here…..
My ribs…..
Thanks for the warning PC,
saved me from having to wipe
down my monitor again….
I was going to query if the silence from Dave meant the bunker had
been breached, or if it was just that the communication/power had
been cut off. However you have answered that question before before
I asked it. That leaves one question; were there any survivors?
I’m not really sure if using a series of god rods would
be better or worse for minimizing collateral damage than
trying to hit with one.
You could use shorter rods and it would probably be easier
to secure the kill. (Just keep going, fire, analyze result,
rinse, repeat until you’re sure your deep enough).
On the other hand, just one miss could to severe damage to
any bystander, one single shot where the stabilizers didn’t
work or some other technical problem made them miss the mark.
And what about the debris – it would keep either falling back
or be kick away elsewhere. (Sand and even dust does have a
density similar to rock – and that’s what’s important at the
speeds we’re talking about)
IMS, when Niven and Pournelle (originator of the “god rod” concept) used the things in
“Footfall” they were more like 2 meters long and about the diameter of concrete reinforcing
bar. That would be much more of a “surgical” strike. I see no reason to believe a grav head
propelled rod could not be delivered with an error circle under 6 inches. Especially considering
it would be dropped from a very steady/stable hovering platform like a D Fly or Locust. Using
a laser designator and a seeker head like on a JDAM and literal pinpoint accuracy should be
child’s play.
A single 2m rod of tungsten could penetrate about 16m of concrete.
If you want to reach deeper you’ll have to remove the rubble
somehow – and at increasing depth keep new debris from falling
into the hole.
If you don’t the next salvo will just wrack 16m of rubble into
smaller and ever smaller pieces. After a while, a significant of
that rubble would be pieces of tungsten so the overall density
would actually increase over time, limiting the reach of future
rounds.
Way back during the last year or so of the European theater of world war two
a few Lancaster Bombers (and possibly a few flying fortresses) were modified
to carry a single ten ton bomb. While these piston engine aircraft were never
able to reach the altitude the bombs were designed to be dropped from they
still penetrated about 30ft (10metre) into the ground before exploding.
Of course with modern jets and bomb designs we do penetrate much deeper now.
The Catian targeting system is capable of isolating just the engines of an
enemy ship at distances where the enemy ship itself is not visible to the
naked eye thus I doubt it would have any problem targeting the center of the
rubble pile left by the conventional bombs. The first god rod would penetrate
the rubble pile and a few additional meters before converting all that Kinetic
Energy into heat and blasting out an even deeper hole. Most of the debris is
flung straight up creating a clear space for the next god rod (if it is close
enough). As you get deeper you need more energy to clear the hole; no problem.
just drop the god rods from higher up.
The ten tons bombs you’re talking about where ginormous, according
to the German Wikipedia article about the “grand slam bomb” it was
over 25ft long.
KInetic impactors don’t work the same way as bombs do.
For the physics side of it please read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth
In short: the most import factors for calculating the penetration
of a high velocity projectile are the length of the missile and the
relative density of it compared to the density of the target.
“Ground” has a density of around 2-3g/cm³ and iron around 8 and
tungsten would be over 20.
With this numbers, a tungsten should penetrate about 8 times its
length of rock or concrete.
The rods only have to penetrate until they reach the open space inside the bunker.
It may be 600 feet deep, but it isn’t 600 feet thick. Once Skycat sees clouds of
dust appearing at the exit(s) like the one Mustang Sally used, it will be time
for “A couple more, just to be sure”.
So Dave was even more stupid than we thought?
Even when he WAS there, he really wasnt…
It occurs to me that, while it hasn’t been stated, the Empire could have airships
equipped with ‘gravitational vacuums’ flying over to suck rubble out of the way
into some kind of container to be dumped safely nearby. Scheduled between the
rods. It would require careful coordination, as fast as they’re coming. But a grav
beam pointed straight down is going to pull at everything in its path, including the
earth itself, but tidal forces will pull the small stuff faster. Would need extra ‘lift’
(grav beams at celestial objects) and something to deflect and catch the stuff
before it reached the emitter, but it sounds feasible to me.
NIce idea. We might even get a new (tiny) moon out of that.
I haven’t seen any mention of it in the story but that is a good idea,
It’d have to be a larger ship though the fireflys and the medivac’s
engines wouldn’t have enough pull without tearing the mounts off.
The craft would have to fly up while pulling it’s load and to dodge
out of way while a second craft would take over until the mass was
high enough to burn up in re-entry. VERY tricky. I gather this is a small
city or at least a large town so just letting it go would be bad.
Once the bunker is breached, due to the mass of the debris above it
most of the new rubble would be blown downward into the open
spaces. Not really a problem.
True, and they were warned this was coming. I’m sure all the Imperial
troops feel the same as me, too little, too late. The best scenario would
of been that they got out and learned, but Dave and the rest were too
cocky (why did that make me think of the Schlong drive?) heh…
I was thinking in terms of getting it out of the way so succeeding rods didn’t have to
penetrate loose debris, per me’s description of the issues that creates. Sure, once
the bunker is penetrated that’s not an issue.
I have no doubt that if an Empire that to fly to other worlds AND
drop small asteroids on Lamira in a quarter mile area and NOT
cause damage to a much larger area could handle dropped in series
telephone pole sized rods in a area the size of a city block. of
course they used control vanes driven by the same software that
ran their ships in planetary landings, it was the only way.
Low-level AI no doubt.
I feel for Mike, I’m sure he knew everyone in there and that they
didn’t deserve to die just because of blind obedience. I agree,
Dave’s not here, anymore.
Aside from the side splitting humor there, the Hammers are sealing
their own fate by falling for this very clear trap, setting them up
to fail and costing themselves the chance for their shipping
businesses to fail horribly. If Slimy keeps pushing like this
they’ll be ejected from the planet and refused the shipping rights
for themselves.
Hear that Slimy? That’s the sound of your hubris being slowly toted up!
Agreed; in fact the hammerheads would probably learn more by just seeing what was in
the cargo hold than investigating the Schlong Drive (self contained humus drive).
Another look at the Schlong Drive entry door shows it does not look like the entry
to a toilet or bathroom so I now think it is the entry to the sludge tank from
bathrooms and toilets that is fed to the recycling treatment plant feeding the
hydroponics. The tank is covered by a cloth or plastic cover adorned with crude
humor slogans, jokes and cartoons. The cover is held in place by a hidden zip.
It could be the hydroponics bay with the waste recycling tanks etc…
Considering the size of the tanks for a long-range ship would be fairly
large and would need that big of a door to move out/in replacement
tanks. I still like the “High Five” idea although granted it’d be hard to
draw.
‘
‘Beast ( from Marvel) had his catch phrase: ‘Oh my stars and garters!”
Now we have a new one: ‘God Rods and Pulsing Thrusters!’
’cause, ya know, they both f**k things over…
Yeah, I took the plunge. Had to hammer that home-‘
KAJM WOULD YOU JUST NOT!
‘Sorry. Was that a dick move?’
Was that a DICK move?
Yes, and a glorious one!
Hmmm. Just a thought here. I don’t know how much you can arrange things?
But, with the impacts getting closer, things on the walls and desk top
would have begun to shift, or fall off, or bounce…
https://blog.jumpstartinsurance.com/more-ways-to-keep-buildings-safe-in-earthquakes/#:~:text=They%20work%20by%20reducing%20the,this%20reduces%20the%20overall%20sway.
quite a few of the “high end” / government, bunkers have these in place,.
to stop just that.. Dave don’t like spilling his tea.
when the bomb shock wave gets there..
Very neat!
The last hit before it reached the bunker would cause bits
of the ceiling to start to fall, that would the time to say it
and do it at the same time. Hope they all are wearing the
brown pants…. Survivors might be embarrassed…
Panel 4 is so real. I’m thinking right now of Putin.
However he’s not the only one.
Of course, often the hubris filled leader survives and the
good people who followed through ignorance or fear are the
ones who pay with life or limb.
“Oh God!”
Don’t call on God now to save you,
you brought this totally on yourself.
I believe if there were any survivors it would be anyone near the outer
wall of the bunker, they would be the best bet to hold up the weight of
the debris. The real trick would be to get to them in a few days otherwise
they’d die of thirst. Any large room’s ceiling would fall in with tons of dirt
and such would follow.
The overpressure when breached would probably kill anyone inside the bunker.
True, and if there is any water lines overhead, they would flood the
area pretty quickly too. Just being hopeful for the undeserving.
Question for PC. When do the vote counts at TWC reset? Ostensibly it would be midnight
Tuesday night but midnight where. UTC? Eastern time? Central? I want to watch and see
if “Girl Power” and, to a lesser extent, “Two Kinds” vote counts exhibit the same sort
of anomalous activity they did this month. “Girl Power” is north of 24,500. “Two Kinds”
is just shy of 10,500. The next nearest is barely 6,600. I plan to watch and see if
they or others appear to be gaming the system this coming month.
0200, I think, maybe 0300 Eastern time. It varies depending on if we’re in Daylight
Savings Time.
Right now the vote resets at 0700, so the monthly count probably changes at 0200.
I won’t vote on the 28th, but after the monthly reset on 01 Mar. That way TWC gets
a couple extra votes at the very beginning.
(If you have an account like I do, you can vote, then sign in and vote again.)
Minor cheat…
Another would be using a VPN with the option to change your world zone.
Like Nord or Surfshark. And no I don’t can’t afford it.
Had to go look it up. I assume the portion of the President’s Palace that is being hit with the
bombs and god rods has the bunker under it but does NOT have the President’s Office,
since that’s where the mounted head is that this mission is to bring home. With the Intel it
would take to know that and plan this raid to take advantage of it, I’m surprised they needed
to send in new target spotters. I guess the targets were already known; they were bringing
in the lasers to highlight them and setting them up under the direction of agents already there.
You’re missing something.
http://thegentlewolf.net/comic/tgw-1043/