Russia/Ukraine conflict

[stopcrazypp]

So does the UK. Chile as well (using the parade uniforms of the pre WWI German Imperial Army).

The UK one composes of horseback riding and marching bands, so even though the military participates in a big way, it's akin to a normal parade (which regularly have marching bands participate).
Comments about why it has been this way mentions the same concerns raised above:
"Traditionally, the British army has not deployed modern weapons at coronations and other ceremonials, arguing that public displays of nuclear missiles or tanks are for authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China."

Bearskins but no drones: did coronation parade reflect modern UK military?

Observers split on whether armed forces’ high-profile ceremonial role could help or hinder their image

www.google.com

 

[RobStark]

So does the UK. Chile as well (using the parade uniforms of the pre WWI German Imperial Army).

The UK and Chile(full Democracy?) are more like old timey antique car parades.

They don't display their most advanced hardware. Meant to intimidate their enemies.

 

[Unclepaul]

It looks like that if the Nuclear Power Plant reactor blows up, the radiation cloud will blow over most of Russia.

 

[Just a Reader]

The UK and Chile(full Democracy?) are more like old timey antique car parades.

They don't display their most advanced hardware. Meant to intimidate their enemies.

Perhaps you should look at the democracy rankings, e.g. by the Economist. Chile is well ahead of the US and let's not even talk about countries like Ukraine.

 

[RobStark]

Perhaps you should look at the democracy rankings, e.g. by the Economist. Chile is well ahead of the US and let's not even talk about countries like Ukraine.

Perhaps one should look at history.

Military Dictatorship ended in 1990 and Chilean miliary appointed two unelected Senators as late as 2005.

The US military staging a coup is unthinkable. In Chile it is always in the background.

 

[BitJam]

It looks like that if the Nuclear Power Plant reactor blows up, the radiation cloud will blow over most of Russia.

That's not what happened with Chernobyl. Here is a map of increased radiation dose due to the Chernobyl disaster. Europe bore the brunt. Radiation reached Moscow but it also reached London, Lisbon and all other European capitals.

I was traveling in Wales a few years later; the sheep were marked with colorful chalk to indicate which ones were not safe (to eat?) due to the nuclear fallout.

I got the map from this article:

Updated Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in the North East Region of Romania after 35 Years of Chernobyl Fallout. Is There a Link between?

Thyroid cancer (TC) represents a worldwide problem, the consistent growth of the incidence increment issues about management of risk factors and curative treatment. Updated statistical data are not complete in the North East region of Romania and need to be improved. Therefore, through this...

www.mdpi.com

 

[petit_bateau]

That's not what happened with Chernobyl. Here is a map of increased radiation dose due to the Chernobyl disaster. Europe bore the brunt. Radiation reached Moscow but it also reached London, Lisbon and all other European capitals.

I was traveling in Wales a few years later; the sheep were marked with colorful chalk to indicate which ones were not safe (to eat?) due to the nuclear fallout.

View attachment 949551

I got the map from this article:

Updated Incidence of Thyroid Cancer in the North East Region of Romania after 35 Years of Chernobyl Fallout. Is There a Link between?

Thyroid cancer (TC) represents a worldwide problem, the consistent growth of the incidence increment issues about management of risk factors and curative treatment. Updated statistical data are not complete in the North East region of Romania and need to be improved. Therefore, through this...

www.mdpi.com

This was slightly atypical winds for the Chernobyl disaster. Ordinarily the dispersion would be towards the east. However one cannot presume that the Russians would be that fussed, or that the winds would cooperate.

The UK one composes of horseback riding and marching bands, so even though the military participates in a big way, it's akin to a normal parade (which regularly have marching bands participate).
Comments about why it has been this way mentions the same concerns raised above:
"Traditionally, the British army has not deployed modern weapons at coronations and other ceremonials, arguing that public displays of nuclear missiles or tanks are for authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China."

Bearskins but no drones: did coronation parade reflect modern UK military?

Observers split on whether armed forces’ high-profile ceremonial role could help or hinder their image

www.google.com

Yes - believe it or not sword drill was part of my basic training, for parade ground use only one hoped. And it is the Army that does this stuff with glee, the rest of us try to let them do it all.

If there are more than personal weapons on a parade or ceremonial march, then it is in poor taste.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Allegedly:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671587850238697472

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671501823084052486

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Tried to just post the second tweet about state-of-the-art german sensors for UKR helos, but somehow got the first tweet about AMRAAMs as well...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671627372494221315

 

[bo3bdar]

A thread about Sacks:

Thread by @P_Kallioniemi on Thread Reader App

@P_Kallioniemi: In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American entrepreneur and investor, David Sacks (@DavidSacks). He's best-known for his investment in various tech firms, for his ghost town podcast service, ...…

threadreaderapp.com

Switched the link to threadreaderapp instead, because Twitter UI is pathetic with that 'thread' business.

Nice take down of Sacks and his simplistic mindset about the war. The points here clarified that Sacks is not worth any further time. He's a simpleton with no understanding or studying of Ukraine and Russian history.


Another takeaway- he must be a horrible poker player. Poker is all about odds and expectation probabilities. It's not about bluster and bluffing, yet that is exactly what he suggests for the war using a poker analogy. He's doing that fake 'realist/realpolitik' thing where he thinks he understands the situation completely, ignoring all of his prior mistakes that refute that, and that demonstrate we cannot possibly ever have complete information.

This is why values matter- because you do the right thing even when it's hard and everyone says it can't work. You stand up to the bully and take a beating because that's the only option that works long term.

 

[wdolson]

A thread about Sacks:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643320887779762176

I wasn't that aware of his background. He is a fairly good investor, but with everything else he really is Dunning-Kruger writ large.

This phenomenon isn't new. The robber barons of the 19th century thought they were superior human beings because of their ability to create monopolies and make a lot of money.

James Burke hasn't done much in recent years (he's getting up there), but he made a number of documentaries for the BBC back in the late 70s and 1980s. The strength of these documentaries was showing how nothing happens in isolation and anything new came from an older idea. Connections was about the history of technology and The Day the Universe Changed gave the same treatment to science.

I remember one of the episodes, I think it was Connections, but may have been The Day the Universe Changed he talked about the impact of the theory of evolution from Darwin and how people applied it to society even though that wasn't Darwin's intention. In Russia a revolutionary who took the name Lenin mixed Karl Marx's ideas with social Darwinism and tried to reshape his country. The Nazis in Germany tried to do the same thing with their theory of the "master race" of Aryans.

In the United States successful industrialists claimed they rose to the top because of survival of the fittest and because they were the most fit they deserved the best of everything. They also thought themselves intellectually superior and everyone should be taking their advice.

That superiority of the wealthy hasn't gone away. Some like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are wise enough to realize their strengths are not universal, but some think that because they were good business people that makes them superior in all areas. Sacks and Thiel both are in the latter camp.

On matters of world politics Sacks is about as reliable as the drunk at the end of the bar.

 

[madodel]

Leaked Emails Reveal How Putin’s Friends Dodged Sanctions With Help of Western Enablers

 

[madodel]

Prigozhin is reporting UAF advances in several places including a crossing of the Dnieper southeast of Kherson and a force near Tokmak which Denys thinks makes no sense since it is nowhere near the front lines. So maybe Prigozhin is making most of this up. President Zelinsky stated that the UAF is advancing slowly because of all the mines the Russians have laid along the front. And Russia is digging trenches on the border of Crimea. Seems they are expecting to have to defend it.

 

[BitJam]

I remember one of the episodes, I think it was Connections, but may have been The Day the Universe Changed he talked about the impact of the theory of evolution from Darwin and how people applied it to society even though that wasn't Darwin's intention.

I had previously mentioned the book: Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. It was published over 100 years ago and IMO is still an excellent refutation of social Darwinism. It provides mountains of evidence that shows cooperation and mutual aid within a species is vastly more important to survival than competition.

To some extent language helped humans thrive because it allowed us to gang up on other animals more effectively.

 

[wdolson]

I had previously mentioned the book: Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. It was published over 100 years ago and IMO is still an excellent refutation of social Darwinism. It provides mountains of evidence that shows cooperation and mutual aid within a species is vastly more important to survival than competition.

To some extent language helped humans thrive because it allowed us to gang up on other animals more effectively.

Agreed.

Humans also succeeded in the world because of the ability to use tools to make tools. A lot of animals use tools, but they are all first order tools. Humans are the only ones that make more sophisticated tools using simpler tools.

It's also my personal theory that the reason homo-sapiens forced out the Neanderthals was the ability to use ranged weapons. Neanderthals had shorter legs and arms. They were not built to throw weapons which required them to get in close to kill prey and put them at a disadvantage when fighting homo-sapiens with throwing spears.

But humans also have an advantage being able to coordinate activities with precision other animals can't match. It makes us very good at killing one another too, unfortunately.

A lot of animals have become successful by teaming up with humans. Felis domesticus (house cat) is the worlds most successful cat species because they started hanging out with humans and then got friendlier when humans started interacting with them. The latest theory is that they domesticated themselves.

The canids that allowed themselves to be domesticated by humans have also become a very successful species with most living better lives than their wild cousins. Many dogs work with humans to do various things.

Horses have also become a global species thanks to partnering with humans. They were a critical transportation animal for millennia before motor vehicles came along, but there are still a lot of working horses in the world as well as a huge number kept as pets.

Humans also raise a lot of animals for food, but those animals would be far less numerous if humans didn't domesticate them. The most numerous bird in the world is the chicken.

 

[adiggs]

Agreed.

Humans also succeeded in the world because of the ability to use tools to make tools. A lot of animals use tools, but they are all first order tools. Humans are the only ones that make more sophisticated tools using simpler tools.

It's also my personal theory that the reason homo-sapiens forced out the Neanderthals was the ability to use ranged weapons. Neanderthals had shorter legs and arms. They were not built to throw weapons which required them to get in close to kill prey and put them at a disadvantage when fighting homo-sapiens with throwing spears.

But humans also have an advantage being able to coordinate activities with precision other animals can't match. It makes us very good at killing one another too, unfortunately.

A lot of animals have become successful by teaming up with humans. Felis domesticus (house cat) is the worlds most successful cat species because they started hanging out with humans and then got friendlier when humans started interacting with them. The latest theory is that they domesticated themselves.

The canids that allowed themselves to be domesticated by humans have also become a very successful species with most living better lives than their wild cousins. Many dogs work with humans to do various things.

Horses have also become a global species thanks to partnering with humans. They were a critical transportation animal for millennia before motor vehicles came along, but there are still a lot of working horses in the world as well as a huge number kept as pets.

Humans also raise a lot of animals for food, but those animals would be far less numerous if humans didn't domesticate them. The most numerous bird in the world is the chicken.

Or did the cats and dogs domesticate humans

Gotta say - wheat, corn, and similar staples are awfully successful species once they found humans to feed and plant them; sow their seed; keep the competing species at bay....

 

[RobStark]

 

[petit_bateau]

Bridges ..... Storm Shadow

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671745644438986753

or

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671767278000504832

Comms

Thread by @sambendett on Thread Reader App

@sambendett: 1/ QUICK THREAD about some of the communications problems still encountered by the Russian forces in Ukraine - from a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel. Main points below: t.me/dva_majors/184… 2/ "Nothing in...…

threadreaderapp.com

Choppers

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671510501463826432

Belarus

https://twitter.com/x/status/1671634468610736129

 

[RobStark]

Here is a video of the damage to the bridge