History, Politics And Current Affairs

Just checked it, and it turns out I was recalling it wrong. The Branco River isn't navigable up to Boa Vista(there's a waterfall in the way); at best you theoretically could get up to Vista Alegre and drive down(up?) 152 km to Boa Vista on BR-174. The surer(only) way is to go all the way from Manau...

It’s hard to evaluate exactly how the C-390 compared to the C-130 in this area based on what I’ve found so far. It appears that it can do it to some extent: https://youtu.be/ivM6nlo9DOU But, turboprops may still be preferrable in that scenario. 'Can do it, but not as well as the C-130' is my unders...

Is there any particular aspect to the ”isn’t a good inter-theatre transport” that you’ve heard mentioned? That’s to say, does it relate to something like very short runways or something like that? Operation in short, unprepared runways, essentially. Although the C-17 is capable of that, my understa...

I wonder if either the C-390 or C-130J would make a good AWACS In case of the C-130 https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ebay-lockheed-AWACS-C-130-2020-08-06-a1.jpg Embraer supposedly is looking at AWACS and remote sensing variants of the C-390, to replace both va...

- Defence programs: Chávez being armed by the Soviets and being a clear and present threat will probably mean F-X gets done in the late 90s(no idea right now which fighter would win). VBTP-MR might be sped up to the late 90s to the early 00s if the defence industry gets its house in order enough to...

Some quick thoughts about Brazil here, will return to this thread later: - Engesa might be too far gone to save here, even with the continued Cold War and the absence of the twin punches of contracted defence budgets and ex-Soviet equipment fire-sale. Brazil has no money to save it, and the Saudis s...

Thanks for checking on that. Say, were you the person who wrote the Brazilian Navy ORBAT? Is there any chance you still have that sitting around? You're welcome. Yes, it was me, and no, I don't have it because I never wrote that in a file - I wrote it all in the reply window, in one sitting(took me...

Do you happen to know if the Rio Branco is navigable to Boa Vista year round? I couldn't find anything about regular river ferries to/from Boa Vista. But it did sound like river traffic was dependent on rainfall and time of year. Just checked it, and it turns out I was recalling it wrong. The Branc...

IIRC, you can bring units by river up to Boa Vista(the Brazilian Army has been doing a lot of exercises involving reinforcement of units in the Amazon recently, and I remember one of those bringing mechanized units to Boa Vista). There was a 'highway' going from Porto Velho to Manaus(BR-319), but wo...

Now that it’s almost Fire pit season in NJ I have a question I have thought about it and I have to say I have no idea. How do gendered languages like French or Spanish work with transgendered people? Some people have been trying to reintroduce the neutral gender in Portuguese. For personal pronouns...

Amid a spiralling flood (mixed metaphorsRus) of bad news stories, I have a good one- 10 or so years ago I had chemo, using the poison cisplatin. Amongst many horrible side effects it zapped by my kidneys down to 50% functionality (eGFR). I just had a blood test and now I'm up to 59% That surprises ...

Got an e-mail yesterday saying that the newest book I bought from Amazon(Friedman's British Aircraft Carriers ) had a delivery failure because of 'incorrect address'. B***h, I've been using this address(a Miami-based package-forwarding service) for more than a year now, and it's the first time I get...

When I was a kid, we used to watch side launches at American Shipbuilding in Lorain, where my dad worked - several of the USCG's 210' cutters and a NOAA research ship. IIRC, much bigger than that, and you'd better be launching them backwards into the river. Not enough space for such a launching the...

Sukhoiman wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 10:22 pm ok fess up, who voted for Sabre alongside me?

I did. But Voodoo, and Thunderbolt are good names too. Demon would look good for the F/A-XX

Happy Birthday!

This afternoon, we lost our 7 year old Labrador, Buddy, after a very sudden deterioration of a heart condition. My first dog, he showed the meaning of man’s best friend through his utter loyalty, devotion, enthusiasm and love. For someone who has never really experienced happiness, joy or being wan...

Happy New Year to you all.

We have an idiomatic expression in Sweden that is originally borrowed from (low?) German. ”Ont krut förgås inte så lätt”, which literally translates to ”evil gunpowder does not easily perish” and makes no sense when you think about it. The explanation is that the original is roughly ”Unkraut vergeh...

Merry Christmas to all.

Congratulations!