Zoraptor

I don't know whether that was significant, so far as I am aware the warnings did not identify their origin as being radar station or plane. Probably depends on when the statement was said and whether the Russians presumed warnings would be sent by the planes, certainly the pilot himself seems to give a blunt denial of receiving any warnings whatsoever in his interview. One of the more interesting things is that you can extrapolate back on the Turkish radar plot to see when the jets turned towards Turkish airspace, and the only way the Turkish story works is if the Su24 was flying at around 300kph and around 5 minutes flight time towards Turkey but 600kph when intruding, both are way below the average cruise speed for a military jet of around 900kph (which would give about 1.30 flight time towards Turkey and a ~6s intrusion, per the trace). Some discrepancy might be explained by dropping bombs during the trace, but it's well known that most russian bomb drops are semi dumb computer assisted releases, not actual ground attack (due to Sa-7 etc they stay at 5000m+) Russia is also sending S400 SAMs to Syria now, not exactly unexpected.

Because it would piss the Turks off, mostly, since they're making money from the trade too. The financial information from the abu Sayyaf raid made the links between Turkey and ISIS explicit. It doesn't have anything to do with direct US economic interests, just not wanting to annoy an ally and the belief that with limited attacks ISIS could be funnelled to attack the right people, ie Assad and pro Iran Shia in Iraq. Russia started bombing the oil infrastructure in a big way a week or so ago, and I think it's fair to say that Turkey has shown some annoyance in their response.

Heh, the 'Turkman' commander who was machine gunning the pilots in their parachutes is actually a proper Turk citizen, it seems, and a prominent member of their phalangist/ fascist movement the Grey Wolves. Might be wise for him to invest in a lifetime supply of EDTA... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subNDl0FFl0 is the audio (ignore the video, it's stock) released by the Turkish air force. Means pretty much literally nothing though, it's in english which russian pilots are not required to learn and does not identify which craft it's directed at in any way. There are examples of other warning that have been given in similar circumstances, eg when the Vincennes shot down IranAir655 it identified airspeed, aircraft type and tried various frequencies. OK, so they misidentified speed, aircraft type, and used frequencies that an airbus mostly couldn't monitor, but at least they tried. The Turkish warning which was delivered over a similar time span apparently did none of these things by Turkey's own admission, and there appears to have been no attempt to directly contact or identify the Su24 in any way. It certainly doesn't detract from the distinct impression that it was a deliberated act where a shoot down with pretext was the desired outcome rather than a last resort.

We can both play the emphasis game, I just have to emphasise the one, confirmed, lock during the one, confirmed, intrusion. As I said, I presumed you were talking about the two separate incidents, not two locks during the same one. Easy mistake to make given you were talking about a 2nd, seemingly mythically confirmed by Russia intrusion at the same time. So, no Russian confirmation of the 2nd incident, you just believe NATO? Fair enough, so far as it goes, but you were talking explicitly about Russia admitting two incidents, which it seems never happened and only one was admitted to. That's significantly beyond simply not believing the Russian version, that's putting words into their mouths.

Mostly I'm wondering what the asterisks you're going on about, there's a whole lot of windmill tilting going on there. The Turkish accusation was that the Su-30 was in their airspace for minutes, it's them saying that nothing to do with me saying it, and since you referred to 2 F16s being locked onto I presumed you meant the two incidents in which that happened, one of which was the Mig29 which everyone agrees wasn't in Turkish airspace and Turkey did claim was russian. As for the quoted section got an actual cite, from Russian officials, for an admission to both incursions? Because both the AJE Moscow correspondent and RT said today that only one incident had been admitted to, by Russia, and everything else I've seen is people citing the Turkish accusation and Russian admission, singular. As for the pilot, he may have been rescued. Should be taken with large grain of salt until there's official confirmation/ pictures, of course, though the rebels are claiming both are dead still. The navigator is definitely dead, and definitely shot while descending by Turkish proxies. An interesting aside is that the Russians are insisting their helicopter was destroyed by a mortar despite the pretty clear video evidence it was destroyed on the ground after abandonment and not by a mortar, presumably because the sight of a clearly german origin, US manufactured TOW destroying the helicopter would be very inflammatory if admitted to.

You could actually run across the Turkish territory faster than their initial claim, it's only 1.5-2km wide, you can measure it yourself. Unsurprisingly Turkey has rather enlarged and enhanced the width of that territorial peninsula on their radar trace, it's extremely narrow. However, the initial claim may well have either been a translation error or the period in Turkey's self declared exclusion zone rather than actual intrusion. Either way that story lasted about 5 minutes itself before it was changed. Deliberate shooting of a Russian plane by the Turks equals Illuminati conspiracy theories. Hahaha, you're mental. Yeah, not exactly rational analysis. Even according to the Turkish story the jet must have been either fired on while outside Turkish airspace or hit while outside it, both of which are legally dubious and both of which say it was both 100% deliberate action and 100% deliberate escalation. There's no way at all that it wasn't calculated, it was the right target- the oldest plane the Russians have in theatre- and not a fighter as various media refer to it as- there were cameras, plural, ready to capture the moment the plane was hit not just when it crashed, the pilots were captured by a direct Turkish proxy and the more general Turkish acts in the area have been consistent with such an interpretation. Not only have they shot down the russian jet, they've also attacked the closest thing to genuinely moderate rebels (YPG) repeatedly and their known proxies have been routinely attacking the specific anti-ISIS force on the ground as well. The worst thing is the execution of the pilots by the Turkish proxies though. For those defending Turkey just imagine if Iran shot down a US warplane and Kataib Hezbollah then machine gunned them in the air and what the response would be and whether anything Iran said would be listened to.

In this case you probably should have googled it yourself first. Russia admitted to one intrusion only, and when they "went further and locked up two F-16Cs with missile locks while still in Turkish territory" one was not in Turkish territory and was- according to the Turks- a Mig29 and hence SyAF, since everyone agrees the Russians have zero actual Migs in theatre. Full reuters quote addressing both issues: Also, official Turkish claim to the UN is 17 seconds of airspace violation which is at least roughly accurate for crossing a 2 km wide strip twice as they claimed.

Plus the Gold Box D&D and Warhammer games too, Twitcher 3 also 50% off.

The turkomen militia* that executed the pilots is Turkeys most direct Syrian proxy of all. Quite apart from not wanting to be them I wouldn't want to be a Turkish helicopter pilot 'accidentally' (very regularly) violating Armenia's air space, since there's a Russian air base in Armenia. *al qaeda affiliated too, of course, hence the watermarking on some of the videos. Looks like there's going to be a lot of tepid responses from politicians, with presumably a whole lot of "what the asterisks were you thinking?" behind closed doors. Plus of course some more "don't bomb Al Qaeda plz" from NATO's sec gen, and dodging the question of where the plane was shot down. Also after Russia bombed a bunch of ISIS oil infrastructure and tankers. That's a whole lot less oil money that won't be finding its way into AKP pockets any more. Turkish proxy Ahrar ash Sham is now attacking a Yezidi village in Afrin along with their Al Qaeda allies, coincidentally.

Russian version now seems to be that the plane was hit 1 km inside the border and crashed 4km inside, with no intrusion. Putin sounds pissed, unsurprisingly. Unconfirmed that the 2nd pilot is also dead. In Latakia no one is PKK aligned. It's Syrian army, various 'FSA' and Al Nusra. The particular Turkish proxy in the area are Turkmen, specifically a rather unpleasant islamist group. Attacks on them and them losing rather badly at the moment is what Turkey is ostensibly annoyed at, though Turkey didn't give a hoot about turkmen in Amerli when it was besieged by ISIS, nor by the current shenanigans by his house Kurd Barzani in Toz Khormato where turkmen were being ethnically cleansed until a shia militia stepped in. Around 2/3 of the Syrian border is controlled by the PKK affiliate YPG though, just not the part near Latakia. The YPG is also by far the biggest faction in the new 'Syrian Democratic Forces' which are meant to be the guys fighting ISIS on the ground for the west, and they've been regularly attacked by the Turkish military in various places. As for long term alliances, so long as Erdogan has the Bosporus and doesn't do anything utterly mental (realistically, far more even than this) he'll have NATO. He also has probably the 3rd most effective rebel group as a proxy, and decent relations with the other two more powerful ones (JAN/ ISIS).

One pilot is dead. Or the rebels made a Weta Workshop level dummy of someone known to be a Russian pilot inside two hours. I think I'd prefer the latter, but it isn't likely. Seems pretty definitive that it was shot down well inside Syrian territory, even the Turks are admitting that. That's supposedly the official radar trace of the encounter. The site of the hit at least seems accurate, since the pilots were reported captured/ dead near Rabia which is around 8 km inside Syria and ~7.5km from the crash site. It seems deeply implausible overall though for the plane to crash a few hundred meters from the border yet have been- according to the trace- heading deeper into Syria in the exact opposite direction. Evasive might explain it, but there's zero evidence that the Su24 had any inkling they were targeted, rather the opposite since the plane is clearly still in cruise configuration with its wings forward. Almost certainly it was shot down without knowing it was targeted, pretty much the first thing to do if it was jumped is to change configuration to wing back which is far faster and supersonic capable.

Seems likely one pilot is dead, though it's not fully confirmed there certainly are pictures floating around showing a dead uniformed pilot. That will make things particularly unpleasant. Ironically Lavrov is meant to be visiting Ankara tomorrow, seems rather unlikely that that meeting will take place now. Or at least not in the manner originally intended. Some interesting timing going on, what with Hollande trying to drum up a solid coalition and Jabhat al Nusra and Ahrar ash Sham (Turkey's main proxy) attacking the Kurds and SDF (~FSA, though meant to be fighting ISIS specifically) in Afrin. The jet supposedly crashed here if Al Jazeera is to be believed. Doesn't really say much since either way it's very close (few hundred meters) to the Turkish border, but since both the pilots (especially, since they'd eject close to initial impact) and plane came down in Syria it seems likely they were in Syrian airspace at the time.

I certainly wish it were about Thanksgiving, given the potential for escalation. Couple of proper news articles coming in Al Jazeera (pro Turk) and RT (pro Russian).

Russian Su-24 shot down by F16s (per Turkey) or ground fire (per Russia). Apparent crash site is in Syria, one pilot claimed captured by Turkman (rebel) group in Syria, reports (unconfirmed) of fighting near Turkish border between Russian quick response force and well, hopefully rebels else it's Turkish ground forces. Turkish claims are that it violated their airspace, Russia denies it. Should be noted that Turkey has unilaterally extended its airspace 5 km into Syria, so both may be telling the truth there, facpov. If it was shot down in a self declared air space extension article 5 NATO protection will not apply.

I actually tend to agree, though I have no idea what to give as a shorthand label to the current situation. But, someone on the economic left is far more likely to label the current situation as being laissez faire much as someone on the economic right is likely to label it as socialism or similar. Both are wrong, but that would be their honestly held opinion.

Meh, SOHR yet again. Literally a dude in a Coventry basement with a grandiosely named organisation ejecting a stream of asterisky statistics like an infamous off colour internet meme. In this case I wouldn't actually be surprised if that figure is accurate, but it's still pretty misleading. Given that Russia has averaged about 100 strikes per day since October (fewer sorties, some sorties strike multiple targets) it's a rate of less than 1/10 of a civilian killed per strike. Hardly indiscriminate, certainly. There's always some grim hilarity to be found picking his stats apart. Those 22,370 'barrel bombs' which are a tool for targeting civilians result in 6900 civilian deaths, meaning less than 1/3 of a civilian is killed per strike. That's some spectacularly poor quality deliberate targeting of civilians, manufacture the bomb, fly it off in a helicopter in order to kill 1/3 of a civilian per strike. It's almost as if they aren't actually targeting civilians... The drone program has a far worse rate of civilian death despite its somewhat questionable methodology of counting every male semi adult or up as a terrorist by default. Seriously, SOHR is an utterly rubbish source, at least as bad in reverse as anything the syrian government puts out information wise. Most of the media love it though, as it actually does release stats and largely releases stats that they agree with.

I rather suspect that all the 'end capitalism' type statements are more in the vein of 'end laissez faire capitalism' in reality. There's a distinct tendency to leave out important adjectives in politics which is why you have the liberal economic but socially neolithic Australian Liberal Party and a lot of socially liberal but non classic liberal economic leftist parties all labelled as 'liberal'. In any case, socialism is only incompatible with laissez faire capitalism, more interventionist or state capitalist models are still capitalism while being increasingly compatible with socialism. Communism is the philosophy that is theoretically incompatible with capitalism, though practically even there they aren't wholly immiscible because most communism is actually 'communism' much as most socialism is 'socialism' and most laissez faire capitalism is 'laissez faire capitalism'.

The information on Prey 2 was definitely 'public good' information that Kotaku had no obligation to withhold- rather the opposite given the extremely unpleasant rumours about Bethesda trying to constructively bankrupt Human Head as a cheap way to get a game and a studio out of the original deal- and it was clear that Bethesda repeatedly and outright lied about Prey 2's status and the accuracy of Kotaku's initial article when they produced the emails the article was based on. It might be a case of a broken clock being right twice a day but Kotaku did their job there, and did it well. It was newsworthy, accurate and informative; exactly what actual journalism should be. It also happened to be extremely embarrassing for Bethesda and certain people at Arkane, but it was ultimately Bethesda's fault for that embarrassment since they did lie repeatedly and expect not to be called on it. Don't know much about the F4 situation except that its development was at very best an open secret. As for Ubisoft, if they got sick of the Grayson's of the world turning every interview into a 'but my soggy knees!' fest then I doubt they'd be the first or the last. End of the day it certainly is Ubisoft's and Bethesda's decision who to provide their privileged information to, though it certainly does illustrate why you get so many softball "F4 has technical issues, but they're awesome technical issues 11/10" type reviews. Vicious circle really, say what the publisher doesn't want to provide actual information and run the risk of not getting official information in future or hold your tongue/ don't look at all to make sure you don't poison your relationship with PR. Do one and you're doing your job but may miss out on the exclusives and day 1 reviews which are the lifeblood of your site, do the other and you've become a glorified PR agent yourself.

Assange isn't a Marxist. Is there some sort of hidden chapter in Das Kapital that I missed excluding hat/ unlockable/ collectible based economies from other petit-bourgeois/ worker oppressing approaches or is Varoufakis not actually a dirty commie either? He's kind of got that reputation because he loathes the ECB etc, but that's called having a brain, not being communist. Indeed, I'm pretty sure Marx would hate steam- dress Gabe up in a pin striped suit with a cane and top hat and he'd be the epitome of the 19th century capitalist, plus he's head of a global religion- and would amend his most famous tenet to "Religion, and gaming, and probably sports too now I think about it are all the opiates of the masses". He'd have disowned Varoufakis over his association with it.

Despite what their promos says GalCiv 1 (and hence Stardock) has been on GOG for quite a while. Can't say I blame them for the slight inaccuracy/ over hype though, Stardock titles are an excellent fit for GOG and getting their recent and upcoming releases is very nice to see and a good deal for all involved.

Saudi has been on the Human Rights' Council since September. There was a minor scandal because the UK actively helped them to get on it in a vote trading deal. As with most non security council things about the UN it has no practical power, at least, and tends to be used for diplomatic trolling more than anything else. (ISIS does occasionally attack Israel, one of the 'jokes' about the conflict is that Al Qaeda and ISIS fire off mortars into Israel and Israel responds by, uh, attacking the government. It's why some of the more snarky observers have started calling Israel "Al Qaeda's air force" since this happens every time the government gets too close to the Golan)

I suspect their Beth blacklisting (wonder if they filter kotaku to ILoveOblivion.com like they do for the 'codex?) had far more to do with the very highly embarrassing Prey 2 email leaks rather than any coverage of a game every man and his dogmeat knew was being made like F4. Makes no real difference either way though, guess they miss out on weekends in swanky hotels and complementary bottles of 'real' nuka cola, the poor chaps.

Technically, rather a lot of Indians are Aryans so, uh, they're white enough for Hitler. Though I suspect that is not what was meant. Probably Al Qaeda in the Sahel, they were 'allied' with the local Tuareg rebels in northern Mali. Some of them may have defected to ISIS though. Boko Haram seems unlikely as they'd probably go for one of the neighbours who had intervened against them and they're actually a long way away from Bamako.

I am awaiting the "For whom the Bell Tolls" of our generation, inspired by the events surrounding GG. Homage to Catalonia GamerGhazi, Eric Blair's memoirs of joining a movement for idealism and its slow decay as its eats itself. May or may not involve literally being shot in the neck by someone from KotakuInAction/ 8chan. Picasso's Guernica Brianna Wu commemorating a tragedy visited upon the innocent by mercenaries of the Breitbart Legion. Anthony Beevor's Gamergate, perfect fit to go with Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad, Spanish Civil War, Berlin '45 etc. (I'm actually rather amused by the flags, to be honest)

Do you really not see a difference between Not taking initiative to publicly mourn something, as long as no-one is asking you to.and Actively showing disrespect and spite for other people's mourning, like booing(!) a minute of silence.? Let's just disingenuously group both of those under "not caring enough" and equivocate away? If the situation was reversed, with the Turkish attack coming after the french one and there being no minute of silence for the dead french but a request for silence for the dead turks then yes, I'd expect some french to boo instead of honour it. Some would see Turkey as (not inaccurately, to be honest) enabling ISIS and there would definitively be a jingoistic 'asterisking muslims/ refugees/ refugee enablers' attitude from some, we can already see that; and it would seem that the turkish lives would be valued more than the french ones. It's not about saying that any lack of respect is OK, but there are reasons for it and they are reasons which would apply to every country/ nationality/ ethnicity/ religion under the right/ wrong circumstances. As for not caring enough, when it was 200+ Russians blown up the UK- formally, and as direct policy since it was their FM saying most of it- used their deaths to make cheap political points, smugly said it was a bomb publicly before telling either the country whose people had died or the country where the bombing occurred, and were as close to actively happy that those people had died as it is possible to be because it would be 'difficult' for Putin and his policy in Syria. That's not only not taking the time to honestly mourn but is most certainly showing disrespect by trivialising their deaths into a stick to hit an opponent with. And yet, nary a complaint about it; but we all know what would have happened if the situation had been reversed. It doesn't mean that I think the people disrespecting are nice or right, whether they be the Brit Foreign Secretary of Mehmet Blogsadoglu doing it. Get upset at people not showing enough or any respect though? Asterisk that, they don't have to care, real life ain't some web 2.0 emotional circlejerk. TLDR: there's no obligation to pay respects unless you're playing COD: Iteration, though you may be a bit of a dong if you actively disrespect.