Author | Lightnews

Nick Bradbeer

@nickbradbeer.bsky.social

630 followers 300 following 1.2K posts

Assoc. Professor of Naval Architecture @ UCL. Director, UCL Submarine Design Course. Nerd, maker, gamer, wargame builder. He/him. I mostly post about games I'm playing for fun and games I'm creating for work, with the odd diversion into submarine design.

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 14h

Best disease system of any RPG ever!

But so bleak I can't face playing it. :)

Reposted by Nick Bradbeer

James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 2d

Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 2d

Presumably it takes less time if you just ignore the idea that there are rules?

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 2d

Imagine my delight when I discovered fetch is a long-established established term of art in my field.

It's HAPPENING.

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 2d

What a weird thing to say.

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 2d

It's nearly Fauxmas - one of my favourite traditions.

Bunch of friends who never get to see each other any more rent a big house for a weekend and hold Fake Christmas at the end of October.

Then we get to see our families at actual Christmas and it breaks up the winter term nicely!

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 3d

No heisting!

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 3d

(Oop - and Germany, which I think might actually have been the major funding partner for this part of the general project to assist Russia in safely storing naval nuclear materials.)

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 4d

Interesting places on Earth - the Saida-Guba reactor storage facility.

Large concrete pan just west of Gadzhiyevo on the Kola Peninsula for the storage of reactor compartments cut out of nuclear submarines at their ends-of-life.

(IIRC partly funded by the USA and Norway to reduce env impact.)

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 4d

That's on you, man 😀

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 4d

I just wrote "we assume Pi is 3" and now I feel like a real engineer.

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 5d

Relatable.

(Usually that means I haven't noticed a depth offset)

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 5d

(They actually started this attack southeast of the two Novembers; worked across their south, up past their west and then dropped in behind them. They were wonderfully patient about it.)

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 5d

It's "Computer Games with the Class" day again.

This year's cohort learned the importance of patience in ASW, in maintaining range advantage and firing from the baffles if you can.

(We enjoy the urgency of discussions when torpedoes are inbound and we're not pausing the game.)

A tactical display from the computer game Cold Waters on a classroom projector screen

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

It turns out you're allowed to do crime as long as you always vote Republican?

Is the concept of not saying the quiet part out loud just not a thing we're doing any more?

MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 8d

BREAKING: Trump commutes sentence of disgraced former congressman George Santos.

“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

"You are now free to use slurs, you're welcome."

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

So, meh, worth the time and interesting but could have been substantially better. /End

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

My main gripe is that I noticed enough (four or so) obvious factual errors (e.g. referring to HMS Dreadnought as an SSBN) that I'm left with a nagging worry that I can't really trust any of the interesting nuggets that I don't *know* are wrong.

/4

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

The ending felt oddly facile "just think, if we applied the great minds which designed these submarines to saving the environment, obviously they could solve that totally unrelated problem."

/3

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

The early years history is illuminating (and rather terrifying) but the book tails off as history advances and the chapter on the Kursk disaster felt both very overblown and disconnected from the rest of the narrative. /2

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 8d

This week I have been reading "Rising Tide, The Untold Story of the Russian Submarines That Fought the Cold War" by Weir & Boyne.

An interesting read in many parts and full of useful snippets, but overall rather disappointing.

1/

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 9d

That is very cool and very surreal.

Also while of course you have inert training ICBMs, the idea still feels really wild to me.

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 9d

Everyone had been very politely not, RIGHT UNTIL NOW.

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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 9d

That feels like it has the tone of that "you wouldn't download a car" ad

Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 9d

I'm starting to assume the US just doesn't like having a reliable nuclear force any more.

Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 9d

BREAKING: The Trump regime is now illegally and unconstitutionally slashing the DOE national labs. The DOGEing continues.

* widespread RIFs
* Sandia California in Livermore may shut down entirely
#nokings
cc @fedsagainstdoge.bsky.social @energycommerce.bsky.social

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