• 3 Posts
  • 262 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 17th, 2023

help-circle
  • I think it’s more the fact that the Russians likely wouldn’t be selling their “good” nukes. They would be selling the old, run-down ones. They would be a large chance they wouldn’t detonate properly.

    There’s also a lot of debate on how well the rest of Russia’s nuclear arsenal has been maintained. It’s highly specialist work that can’t easily be verified by non-specialists. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Russian nukes were already non-viable due to corruption affecting maintenance.



  • I personally support this plan. Smoking in the UK has already plummeted. A lot of smokers have moved to vaping. Unfortunately, those left are often the ruder ones. Limiting where they cam smoke, or reduce expire for everyone else is a big dead for me.

    Additionally, it’s not banning nicotine, it’s banning cigarettes. Vapes have changes the balance on that one. They are less damaging, and cause far less issues with passive smoking. This acts as a pressure relief valve, rather than a blanket nicotine ban. Also, at no point will an existing (legal) smoker go from legal to illegal.

    The vape issue definitely needs fixing. A number have found advertising to younger users is a good money maker. Limiting the options here l, without an outright ban would help reduce the harm to children. It wouldn’t significantly affect ex smokers who moved to vaping.





  • Just noticed a slight typo, fixed now. Also, at that point, most of the tests are useless and distinguishing the differences.

    It’s also quite weird. To me, it’s completely normal. It actually took significant mental training to match up with how others think. I knew I was quick, but not that quick.

    Unfortunately, it’s also a coping mechanism (adhd + autism + a few more quirks). My brain handles certain tasks abnormally. E.g. I can’t read emotions intuitively. I have to brute force it with general intelligence methods. I also have memory issues, again, compensated for with brute calculations.

    It’s a bit like being terrified of riding vehicles. You learn to cope. You then get slightly surprised when people complain how hard marathons are. You jog the 15 miles to work and back everyday! It’s not that hard. You develop the skills because you need them.

    Intelligence (particularly IQ) is also only a subset of being smart. I know people far smarter than me. Their IQ might not be at the same level, but they can leverage it massively more than I can. I’m a hot rod, amazing on a 1 mile track, crap on normal roads.


    1. Yes, I even have the paperwork to back that up. (99.7 percentile)

    2. No, I’m also a classic example of the difference between intelligent and smart. I’m a 1000hp engine in a reliant Robin van. Immense power, but limited in my ability to apply it to useful tasks.

    3. I’m the main character in my story. I know, logically, that I’m just another speck of humanity to others, but my ego can’t function in that state, so it doesn’t.

    Edit: apparent an extra 9 slipped in.


  • A modern nuke is FAR from the “bang 2 rocks together” designs that were first designed. For a start, most are fusion devices. Fairly exotic reactions are used to make a small amount of fusion material to go critical. This creates a shaped charge on a fusion core. The compression wave sets fusion happening, which releases 95% of the energy. Most of Russia’s arsenal is of this sort.

    The downsides of these is the use of exotic elements. They often have a short half life, e.g. tritium, with 12.5 years. This means they decay. Even worse, some of the byproducts will actually poison the reaction. E.g. Rather than producing a flood of neutrons, they absorb them.

    If any of this chain fails, then your fusion nuke becomes, at best, a low yield fission nuke. More likely, it becomes a dirty bomb. It’s still nasty, but not the city destroying terror weapon it would be intended as.





  • Nukes and ICBMs are extremely complex devices. They also require extremely specialist servi e work to remain functional. Even worse, the only people who can actually check that work are the ones doing it.

    Russia hasn’t detonated a nuke in decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of their arsenal are now duds. The money embezzled, while boxes were ticked. Similarly, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of their ICBMs just wouldn’t launch.

    Russia’s nuclear capabilities are likely a paper tiger, and Putin likely knows this. Until they try and use them, they are scary. If they try and they fail, they are in a VERY bad situation.

    Putin is many things, but he’s not stupid. It would take a LOT more pressure from nato for him to even consider using nukes.


  • The message wouldn’t be to Putin directly. It would be to those both in his power base, or capable of disrupting it.

    The goal would be to push Russians to the point they deal with Putin internally, and/or put putin in a position where he needs to end the war to stabilise his own position. It’s all about making the right people feel the effects.

    Oh, and as a European, I think the risk is acceptable. If Putin struck at a NATO country, the results would likely be swift and short. The only unknown would be Russian nukes, and even those are far more of an unknown than most people think.




  • I tend to prefer pass phrases, they are a lot easier to type and speak, if required. Mine regularly blow past 20 characters.

    As for salting, that only defends against rainbow table attacks. The salt needs to be stored along with the hash. That is find for most accounts, but once you’re in banking territory, that’s a bad bet.

    You also can’t assume you have no vulnerabilities. If someone gets your database, you can’t defend against brute force attacks.

    Lastly, if you are doing passwords properly, you shouldn’t care much about length. There are a few dos attacks to worry about, but a 512 char limit will stop those, and not limit any sane password.