Playing with train tracks & F-16s

[malada]

Ukrainian railways are a wider grade matching the old Soviet sized tracks and trains.

They're starting to redo some of the lines to the narrower Europeans Union's standard. This will increase the speed at which supplies can be moved from the EU to Ukraine and deny the system to Russian trains.

This does mean that Ukraine will need new locomotives and train cars... but they probably need to be replaced anyways. Hey, more jobs for European workers. I am including Ukraine as European.

I've also heard that Norway will be donating 22 F-16 fighters to Ukraine. Only 12 are airworthy and the rest are parts machines. It's a start and long overdue.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Well.. that's 10 more planes than they have F-16 pilots, so far. But as you say, it's a start, and Ghost of Kyiv proved it only takes one... (did you know there's fan-fic of him/her?)

IIRC the other Baltic states said something about changing rail gauges too, for much the same reasons. At this rate Russia is going to end up Balkanised!

[acelightning73]

How come this is the first I've heard of the Ghost of Kiev?
And it might not be a ghostly pilot. We both know that machines, if complex enough and loved enough, can leave "ghosts" behind. A sentient patriotic ghostly fighter jet! Wow, what a concept!

[acelightning73]

I'm sure you know how easy it is to make one usable machine out of five or six dead ones. And F-16s have all those fly-by-wire and avionic tricks built in, which ought to make them easier to learn to fly

[malada]

It depends. Some parts fail quicker than others and the ones that need repair may need the same part. When I was repairing video monitors at the station there was a pile of broken monitors that all needed the same expensive transistor replaced. I had to replace them one at a time so as not to overshoot the budget.

As for the F-16s - I'm sure Biden and company can sneak out a few boxes of spare parts out the back door. And maybe invite a few Ukrainian fighter pilots to come over and try out our F-16 simulators.

[acelightning73]

When I worked at United Nations Radio, there was one of the guys there who couldn't believe a woman was capable of understanding complicated machinery. I came back from "lunch" one night and he offers me a challenge: He described how one of the big Ampex studio audio tape machines might have been attempting to malfunction, and handed me the schematic. I looked at the diagram, and played with the machine to watch it fail, and determined the rewind/fast-forward relay was shorted internally. He handed me a replacement and I replaced it. And it worked just fine. He had bet me money that I couldn't do it, and he paid up. (I spent the money on Chinese takeout.) And I never let him forget it.

Another time,this asshole watched me arrive for work, dripping wet - it was pouring rain outside, and he said, "You're all wet." I said, 'It's raining, and it's two blocks from the subway to here." He replied, "Well, it doesn't rain inside taxicabs." What a dickweed.