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  A thermobaric weapon uses oxygen from the air, rather than pure oxygen in a cell, as fuel for detonation. Conventional explosives consist of around 25% fuel and 75% oxidiser by weight, but thermobaric weapons are 100% fuel, making them around four times more powerful than conventional explosives by weight. However, what makes thermobaric weapons so dangerous is the way in which they kill their victims. Of course, they have the same effects as normal explosives; victims might burn to death or be crushed by debris, but the pressure wave created by sucking the oxygen from the air can rupture lungs and eardrums and cause blindness - but crucially it is very unlikely to make the victim fall unconscious. This means that many deaths from thermobaric weapons occur by suffocation of a fully conscious victim who has had both lungs ruptured. Thermobaric weapons were used by the USA in Vietnam, and were considered so cruel that they have not ever been subsequently used by any country since o...

  Everyone less Covid-cautious than me is a murderer, and everyone more Covid-cautious than me is a maniac. It seems that nearly everyone, or at least nearly everyone on Twitter (and other social media) believes some version of this statement. Now, do not get me wrong, the murderers and maniacs do walk among us - I think anyone would have a hard time excusing the actions of Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the various national lockdowns that hit the United Kingdom over the past two years. However, the point is that everyone sets the bar of what is acceptable just below what they are actually doing - and the bar of what is and is not acceptable is a very firm, and very binary line for most people when it comes to coronavirus. There is some logic in it - after all if you believe what you are doing is acceptable then why would you limit yourself further for what you see as no reason? But the logic seems to end there, as people find it very difficult to conceive that others might pu...