So, in 10th grade, for a team project on Roman History, we did a mock news show, like if they’d had television news back in the first century AD. One of the skits we did was reporting live from the Teutoburg Forest, circa 9 AD. Playing Varus, I assured the “reporter” everything was fine, not to be alarmed by false reports of a major defeat, and in fact we were in the process of conducting a “tactical withdrawal” from the area and nothing more. I then started walking off-camera, drawing my sword while muttering “What will Caesar do to me…?” Once off-screen, I admitted a long, agonized groan, and the “reporter” then relayed the shocking news that I had fallen on my sword.
All that to say… I never would have guessed that at 16 I had every qualification to be a General in Putin’s army.
GIve him a break. Defenestration is a cool word that one very rarely gets a chance to use. Given that we have the perfect opportunity here, it’s no wonder he wants to take it out for a spin.
You know, I had thought about that. If they could push back the Russians to having nothing but Crimea, maybe they could cut it off. After all, they’d be much closer to being able to hit the bridge with artillery at that point. Fresh water would already be cut off by then, and that bridge would be just about the only good resupply route left.
Sadly, it seems that even the closest part of Ukraine outside Crimea is still around 100 miles from the bridge, and I don’t know of anything they have at the moment that can hit that far. They may have something that can, but it doesn’t seem to be officially known at this point. So if they take out that bridge, it looks like it’s going to be through an unconventional means.
Agreed, that is a very cool word. I remember hearing it once before but you have to hear words more than once to be able to remember to use them in conversation.
This is news to me. Even Amtrak, which has electrified territory from Boston to DC and non- south of there, pauses in DC to swap out the locomotives. I won’t say it is impossible but I am unaware of any locomotives in the US with both a diesel prime mover and a way to collect power from a third rail or overhead.
As I said in my post #380, diesels are perfectly capable of running under wires and often are for the maintenance trains where the power is off, but that doesn’t mean they have any use for it.
Metro North ( commuter ) Railroad operates dual mode GE diesels ( a 3200 HP version of the GE “Genisis” locomotive ) out of NYC that can run off their diesel prime mover or third rail electric. It’s predecessor “fallen flag” roads operated dual mode diesel/third rail since 1957, and the units saw service till the early “aughts”. NJT ( New Jersey Transit ) operates diesel units ( Alstom units, I believe ) that can also run off of overhead catenary.
A straight diesel electric, either a passenger or freight unit can run “under the wires”, no problem. Happens all the time on the Northeast Corridor.
Solovyov’s always ranting about grabbing people by the ears and shooting them. It’s obviously deeply ironic that Solovyov is complaining about people lying.
and other - normally fairly good informed - Ukr tweeteria are talking about 18-22k RU troops still on the wrong side of the Dnipro
that could be a REAL turning point in the war … if the UKR manage to kill 5-10k troops in the next days, the mood might shift in RU (anybody remember the mamushkas organizing that were vital ending the Afgh. war (and implicitly, the soviet union) ?
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in an interview with Reuters that it would take Russia at least a week to withdraw its troops from the city of Kherson. With the Ukrainians advancing at rapid pace - many settlements liberated today - and the Russians seemingly falling into their customary panic mode, things could go south quickly for the Russians (metaphorically, rather than physically).
