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cvos | 11 years ago | on: World War II in the Pacific, narrated by my grandpa

If you are interested in a very good (and long) writeup about world war II from a perspective you probably didn't hear about in school:

When we try to imagine what happened when the Japanese imperial navy approached Midway Island we're likely to get an image out of Star Wars -- daring attack planes, as graceful as swallows, darting among the ponderously churning cannons of some behemoth of a Death Star. But the sci-fi trappings of Star Wars disguise an archaic and sluggish idea of battle.

What happened instead was this: the American squadron commander gave the order to attack, the planes came hurtling down from around 12,000 feet and released their bombs, and then they pulled out of their dives and were gone. That was all. Most of the Japanese sailors didn't even see them.

One bomb fell on the flight deck of the Akagi, the flagship of the fleet, and exploded amidships near the elevator. The concussion wave of the blast roared through the open shaft to the hangar deck below, where it detonated a stack of torpedoes. The explosion that followed was so powerful it ruptured the flight deck; a fireball flashed like a volcano through the blast crater and swallowed up the midsection of the ship.

Sailors were killed instantly by the fierce heat, by hydrostatic shock from the concussion wave, by flying shards of steel; they were hurled overboard unconscious and drowned. The sailors in the engine room were killed by flames drawn through the ventilating system. Two hundred died in all. Then came more explosions rumbling up from below decks as the fuel reserves ignited. That was when the captain, still frozen in shock and disbelief, collected his wits sufficiently to recognize that the ship had to be abandoned.

The last of the carriers, the Hiryu, managed to escape untouched, but later that afternoon it was located and attacked by another flight of American bombers. One bomb set off an explosion so strong it blew the elevator assembly into the bridge. More than 400 died, and the crippled ship had to be scuttled a few hours later to keep it from being captured.

Now there was nothing left of the Japanese attack force except a scattering of escort ships and the planes still in the air. The pilots were the final casualties of the battle; with the aircraft carriers gone, and with Midway still in American hands, they had nowhere to land. They were doomed to circle helplessly above the sinking debris, the floating bodies, and the burning oil slicks until their fuel ran out.

This was the Battle of Midway. As John Keegan writes, it was "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." Its consequences were instant, permanent and devastating.

It gutted Japan's navy and broke its strategy for the Pacific war. The Japanese would never complete their perimeter around their new empire; instead they were thrown back on the defensive, against an increasingly large and better-organized American force, which grew surgingly confident after its spectacular victory.

After Midway, as the Japanese scrambled to rebuild their shattered fleet, the Americans went on the attack. From Midway till the end of the war the Japanese didn't win a single substantial engagement against the Americans.

They had "lost the initiative," as the bland military saying goes, and they never got it back.

http://www.leesandlin.com/articles/LosingTheWar.htm

cvos | 12 years ago | on: Discontinuing support for all third-party messaging networks

They likely want to become a standalone messaging app in the hopes of an acquisition as messaging apps seem to be mimicking the Search Engine wars of 1999.

Does anyone have recommendations for a good multi chat app replacement besides trillian?

cvos | 12 years ago | on: Dogecoin market manipulation?

Once upon a time in a small village a man appeared who announced to all the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10. The villagers knew that the jungle held countless monkeys, easily caught. The man bought 2 thousand.

As the supply diminished, they become difficult to catch, and villagers returned to their farms. The man announced that he would pay $20. The villagers renewed their efforts and caught 1,000 more monkeys.

The supply quickly diminished, but before they returned to their farms the man increased his offer to $40 each. Monkeys became so rare that it was difficult to even see a monkey let alone catch it. But they caught 500.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $100 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business his assistant would now buy for the man. The man departed.

Then the assistant told the villagers, “Look at all these monkeys the man has in that big cage. I will sell them to you at $50 each. When the man comes back you can sell the monkey’s back to him for $100.”

The villagers gathered up all their saving to buy the monkeys. The assistant took their money. They never saw either the man or his assistant again.

cvos | 12 years ago | on: Formula 1′s Leading Team Has a Big Secret

The main reason for the strict limits on car and engine design is safety.

It is possible to build an uncontrollable death rocket on 4 wheels, but this would simply be to dangerous for the drivers and fans.

If these strict regulations were not in place the teams would create cars that would be self destructive.

cvos | 13 years ago | on: Ramit Sethi and Patrick McKenzie on Getting Your First Consulting Client

xentronium There is no way to private message on HN, but I am in need of programming work here please email me cvos{at}netpaths{dot}net

In the spirit of this post, it pays to be active where potential employers are. If you want to work with HN type of companies, then being an active member of this community is one of the surest ways to success, especially if you have physical barriers such as being in a different country.

cvos | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: Review RentPost.com

Question: without testing, how do you know that an automated "accessible system... its only going to make a landlords life worse" ?

Have you evidence this is true? I work with web hosting and clients can send support tickets at any time, but rarely do. They have the option of asking infinite questions such as, I made a change why did my website break, why is my site not in google for [insert impossible keyword here], I want to change the background color, why is the email from my mom spam... but it almost never happens.

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