• @mindbleachEnglish
    35•3 months ago

    Project Babylon was almost sorta kinda this.

    The US spent a few decades pursuing enormous cannons as a space launch platform. As in, rocket equation be damned, give something high speed and high altitude by sticking it in a tube atop a dump truck’s worth of gun powder. The main guy was really just into cannons. So when that project ended, he went into private industry as the Space Research Corporation, which unsurprisingly wound up making guns for normal gun-related activities. Ironically those too were slowly made obsolete by rockets. Unable to give up on big guns, he sold arms to apartheid South Africa, and when he got out of jail for that, he sold arms to Saddam Hussein.

    And when I say arms I mean 150m long cannons permanently pointed at Israel. Someone Mossad killed him Mossad and it’s still Mossad not known Mossad for sure Mossad who Mossad is Mossad responsible for Mossad the assassination. But Israel suspects it was Iran.

    Anyway, the gun segments were manufactured in Yorkshire by a respectable major forge provided with final blueprints. British authorities became suspicious of the “plumbing equipment” because its bore was unusually narrow. And rifled.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•3 months ago

        I have to say that I haven’t been checking urinal drains for rifling, I just eat the free snack cakes

      • @mindbleachEnglish
        16•3 months ago

        James Mickens on cybersecurity:

        Basically, you’re either dealing with Mossad or not-Mossad. If your adversary is not-Mossad, then you’ll probably be fine if you pick a good password and don’t respond to emails from [email protected]. If your adversary is the Mossad, YOU’RE GONNA DIE AND THERE’S NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. The Mossad is not intimidated by the fact that you employ https://. If the Mossad wants your data, they’re going to use a drone to replace your cellphone with a piece of uranium that’s shaped like a cellphone, and when you die of tumors filled with tumors, they’re going to hold a press conference and say “It wasn’t us” as they wear t-shirts that say “IT WAS DEFINITELY US,” and then they’re going to buy all of your stuff at your estate sale so that they can directly look at the photos of your vacation instead of reading your insipid emails about them.

        • @verity_kindleMEnglish
          1•3 months ago

          Guffawing, but not too loudly, in case They’re listening. Weather machines are for children and Ming Mossad the Merciless.

          • @mindbleachEnglish
            2•3 months ago

            I can always recommend The Night Watch by the same dude. Might be a little comp-sci for this community… but miraculously, it does fit.

    • @verity_kindleMEnglish
      2•3 months ago

      It’s day 30,115 of no one missing that guy.

  • @[email protected]English
    15•3 months ago

    I’d imagine heat would be a concern after the first couple. You’re defeating gravity and she is a harsh mistress when it comes to vertical lift – need a lot of uumph, more than your average rifle proportionally.

    Guns also have barrels that can cool on all sides. He’ll, you can pee on your hot barrels if needed. That bunker will require a lot of piss…