Elerond
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Posts posted by Elerond
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4 hours ago, BruceVC said:
University education? It shouldnt be free if students abuse it and arent committed to complete there degree because most countries will have limited spaces at universities and you dont want someone wasting state resources if they lack the real interest and discipline
University education should be free, because students learn best when they focus solely in studying instead trying to joggle work and studying. Living for students is already expensive even without needing to pay for education. Educated people are benefit for whole nation.
Universities should pick their students by their academic merit and nothing else. People who have been good students in elementary and high school, have ability complete university. If students don't have real interest and discipline they don't really spend any resources as they don't participate in the education. Universities should follow progress of their students and have counselors to help students to over come their difficulties.
To be fair: I personally benefited of Finland's free education from preschool to university education and study grant from government for living expense. as I come from working class family with 4 kids where only one of the parents had job, so we didn't have much money to spent, but me and all my siblings were still able to get university education and high paying white collar job.
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1 hour ago, xzar_monty said:
I'm not saying what you describe is simple, but as far as "complex" assassinations are concerned, here's an exceptionally good example. This Dugin case falls some way short.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahmoud_Al-Mabhouh
Footage (recommended for anyone interested in complex covert operations):
It depends who did the killing. In Al Mabhouh's case most of complexity comes from fact that Israel send it own agents to do the killing.
If Ukraine agents did the hit, it also adds quite lot complexity in the scenario. Like how Ukraine infiltrated its agents in Russia during war time. How Ukraine agents acquired needed information and explosives (as it not that easy to smuggle them over the border). How Ukraine agents hide from Russian authorities and (planned to) escaped the country.
Killing itself is only small part of such operation regardless of fact do you blow bomb in car of suffocate person with pillow in their hotel room.
As target Al Mabhouh seem one that would be more likely to be assassinated by state operators than either of Dugins
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1 hour ago, xzar_monty said:
"With friends like these, who needs enemies" or whatever.
But yes, it does appear that the situation is quite messy: the people who tried to kill Dugin, were they pro-Ukraine folks who wanted revenge for Dugin's policies / philosophies, or were they pro-Russia / pro-Putin folks who wanted to express dissatisfaction? No way to tell, I suppose, at least for now. And of course these two aren't the only possibilities.
It was quite complex assassination.
Bomb seem to have put in car, which was registered in Darya's not her fathers name (according to leaked government documents) during cultural festival which Dugins participated. It seem that it had remote trigger or timer as it exploded five minutes after car left the festival area. Bomb seem to have designed only to kill people inside of the vehicle.
Assassin(s) had pretty good knowledge about Dugins, their schedule, which car they drive. And they had access to explosives and trigger, were able to bypass Toyota's theft deterrent system and knew where explosive needs to be installed in order to kill driver instantly. They also installed explosive in festival site's parking lot during daylight. Russian investigators believe that it was contract hit, which probably will not make it easier to prove who was actually behind the hit.
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Metformin has worse adverse effects than any of the Covid vaccines
And results to help against covid don't seem very convincing
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1 minute ago, Zoraptor said:
Well, if you insist.
Let's apply the logic of Tom Mutch and friends per the school they visited to other situations, eh? Bakhmut, in May, ~20km away from the front line, but a 'front line' town that justifies using civilian infrastructure for military purposes, despite even the journalists admitting that there were still civilians present. Right, so the definition of front line is 20km away... the width of the Gaza Strip is 6km. Will Tom and friends justify Hamas using schools etc when the furthest distance they can literally, physically, be is about 10km from the Israeli border (and if you count the sea ~5km)? Will they say that they're not disproportionately endangering civilian lives because those civilians have nowhere to go? No, of course not, because they aren't impartial and they'd be terrified of getting an AI like backlash and being called anti semitic.
Describing Bakhmut as a front line town now, sure. He was saying that in May though. There's military necessity to occupy civilian infrastructure on the front line because if you don't the enemy will, there isn't when they're 20km away, unless they've invented teleportation in which case you've got bigger problems.
Would you like a list of all the schools hit in Bakhmut that were presented as being indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure, by western journalists, starting in May? Because there are a lot, and they're all presented as indiscriminate attacks, by said journalists, many of whom like Tom presumably knew outright that Ukraine was using schools as bases- but somehow failed to mention that relevant fact. You'd think that if they were actually impartial they might have though...
They also betray a pretty crappy understanding of humanitarian law, ie it applies to those you like, not just those you don't. Ultimately the reason why you shouldn't use protected civilian infrastructure for basing and why it is a warcrime unless it's of military necessity is because it erodes the protection for every school, including those that are still used as schools. That's why both Hamas and Ukraine using schools as bases is bad, and a war crime, and despite Hamas' bases being a lot closer than the one at Bakhmut.
You aren't going to see that mentioned by most journalists though, because they base their understanding of things like the Geneva Conventions and warcrimes on what they feel they should say, not what they actually do.
School and other civilian buildings without civilians are just buildings and using them for military operations aren't against any international law. You can even use have troops in hospitals with weapons as long as hospital is just for military personel
Journalists are civilians, so if they were present then civilians were present. Question is were their life but in risk when they shared room with Ukraine troops in the school.
Your text betrays your crappy understanding of international humanitarian laws too, so you at least have something common and you can also add AI in same bunch, they also don't have good understanding of how humanitarian law works.
And you seem to have something against journalist as you keep attacking them even though I have not even mentioned who was the person in question (I give hint none of them was Tom Mutch).
I find it funny that you think that journalist are so bad sources but people in Russian prison camp and troll accounts are good sources.
I would like to also point out as we seem to have lost from the original point which is why AI's report about Ukraine troops has got people angry, even though reports from UN and Human Right Watch that told about same issue didn't, that I do believe that Ukraine troops have broken humanitarian laws and probably also committed war crimes during the war, and AI got people angry because they just do shallow reports with poor details and their main focus is to wrote snarky summaries to make their target sound bad.
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8 hours ago, Malcador said:
How is thiea, would be interesting to see what hit it.
Nothing according to Russia, as they say there was accident that caused their ammunition stores to explode
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15 hours ago, Zoraptor said:
Reporters are not primary sources unless they're also eyewitnesses. The hint is in the name: Reporters. You go to primary sources if you can, that's just... basics- that's like eschewing eyewitnesses to get the good oil from wikipedia. Still, typical of reporters to pack a sad when someone thinks they aren't important.
Reporters AI didn't interviewed lived in one of the schools AI was talking about in their report. You can make your own conclusions were they eyewitnesses or not Ukraine army putting setting their troops that they endangered civilians (which includes those reporters).
EDIT: Dismissing reporters just because they are reporters is just arrogant and stupid, considering they they are trained to document and retell things they witness. It is their job to seek full picture and report happenings with details. So they are excellent eyewitnesses if you want to report what is happening in area where they are currently themselves working to report what is happening.
But it is good that you think reporters are unreliable to tell what is happening and are pack a sad when people don't think they are important, that is attitude that you should keep when you read reports from AI's reporters
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21 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:
That's... good. Reporters aren't experts on war crimes, and they most definitely aren't impartial.
No, but they are people that were in the front lines seeing where how Ukraine used those schools and hospitals that Amnesty's report was about.
Also there was no impartial people as they interviewed civilians (which reporters are) in front line towns
EDIT: As report was about putting lives of civilians in risk. So not taking account of view of certain segment of civilians in area is just shoddy work and I can't see anyway how it could be seen as good.
Quote"Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February, Amnesty International said today. Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure." [source]
And yeah, there's some detail there.
That is not detail, that is accusation without detail.
Where they did such, when they did, how often they did. How much risk increased for civilians, did Ukraine forces do anything to mitigate risks, etc.. Details.
I am sure if article was about Russian actions you would also praise it for it supreme accuracy and excellence
EDIT2:
QuoteThe Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks. All parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and take all feasible precautions, including in choice of weapons, to minimize civilian harm. Indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects are war crimes."
This is one example of Amnesty's shoddy work, as this was not in original release, they added that paragraph after getting critic about their report being Russian propaganda piece. And they show they good practices by not mentioning that they edited their report after its release
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9 minutes ago, Sarex said:
So seeing how they are saying it tastes the same, must mean it's still cardboard between buns.
Considering that they use same supply lines and ingredients there should not been any big changes in taste until they run out of supplies in storage and need to replace them
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1 hour ago, BruceVC said:
Greenpeace? Why do you dislike them, is it because they criticize all the dolphins and whales that you Scandinavians love killing and eating ..Elerond thats guilt you feeling and its normal. It means you human
Their greatest achievement today has been, replacing nuclear power with coal power, and they have audacity to call themselves as protectors of nature
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7 hours ago, Malcador said:
The reactions to Amnesty International's report is something I don't get, AI always gets dismissed when they say anything negative about the Blue Team though, so isn't a total shock. But was expecting something more from AI to warrant that, the report seemed tame and I'm not seeing this supposed "false equivalence" being drawn here.
At least the Telegraph's take on it is funny - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/06/amnesty-now-utterly-morally-bankrupt/
AI did their typical way half asset job with their reporting (ignored calls from multiple international journalists that tried to give them their input for the article, they don't give any details how international humanitarian laws were broken and so on, which is typical for them in all of their reporting, which is why they usually fail to get any done to correct the breaches they report) and in case of original version of report of Ukraine's breaches they didn't contextualized their findings and their last report of the war was over month ago, making it look that it was just Ukraine that had recently broken international laws (fact that Russia used immediately in their messaging).
Amnesty usually gets away with their poorly written reports because they report wars and issues that don't have much interest, but in case of Ukraine, Ukraine has vested interest and they currently have lot of sympathy. Also current global political climate is unstable and people have much stronger reactions towards certain issues (Ukraine conflict being one of them).
Amnesty has used to criticism towards their work, but they have relied on supporters to be disinterested of details which has given them ability to do their job poorly in past, but now they found out that when they report about issue that their typical supporters are actually interested in they typical shoddy reports will not be received favorably. Shoddy reports work only when their reader is already agreeing with issue in first place and report just strengthens their biases.
In my opinion people should not support organisations like Amnesty International and Greenpeace (and many others, but I have personal issues with those two, so they get to be my examples), who do shoddy pseudo political work in name of better world but at end just cause harm because they don't have any actual interest to do work that actually would solve the issues they claim to try to solve.
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At least Russia has find useful purpose for all that natural gas they don't deliver Germany via Nord stream 1.
Picture shows about 30 m high flame from Nord stream 1's compressor station in Russian Karelia, picture is taken from Finland about 20 km away of the compressor station. 30 m flame means about 100 MW power, so they have burn about 10k euros worth gas per hour for past week
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6 hours ago, BruceVC said:
No thats not accurate, monkeypox origin is Africa and its been around since the 1960's and it is well known to epidemiologists and virologists who study viruses
There are lots of diseases that none of us know about because they haven't been experienced in our country so when monkeypox started being seen in Europe and US the Western media would naturally report on it because its a real disease
After Corona and the fact we live in a globally connected world I would think that any argument that a diseases is unique to an area is moot when that disease starts spreading
The most important point is not creating outrage about a name that is 70 years old but rather how do we treat it and how infectious is it
Technically its origin is in Denmark, as it was first found in monkeys in laboratory in Copenhagen, Denmark.
With Spanish flu logic (named after ones who first reported about it) it should had been called Danish pox
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you can also use ctrl+shift+v for plain text paste
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4 hours ago, BruceVC said:
So you are fine living in a world where someone protests peacefully and then someone makes a false allegation that they committed a crime and then that person gets fired?
Its not about the legal right of the school board, I am asking if you are personally fine with that and if that is how our Democracies should function?
Thats not what happened with Moorehead but that seems to be what you saying in your post?
No, I like live in country where there are protections for employees, but Pennsylvania is not place where employees have legal protection, like I said employers there can fire people without giving any reason if they feel like it. So if they fire someone who is protesting it is not any different them firing person who didn't nothing. So if person does not like how things work in their home state they should protest for change laws there.
Pennsylvania is under republican control, so this republican voter most likely has at least in past agreed with their employment laws and that employers should have right to fire anyone they like to fire.
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6 minutes ago, BruceVC said:
The issue is not that he was accused of being a racist but not everyone who attends Trump rallies is a racist.
The issue is the board accused him and created the impression that he was an active participant in the violence of 6 January and that created reputation damage for him because at the school he worked at people believed it. It wasnt true. Thousands of people participated in 6 January rallies and most of them didnt storm the Capital or break the law
Dont you guys have defamation in Sweden where you can sue for it under certain circumstances?
We dont know if he is racist, its not about racism. This about a false accusation about his criminality on 6 January
Pennsylvania is 'at will' state where employers can dismiss employees without cause.
So maybe he should next time go protest Pennsylvania's worker laws instead. And sue his employer if he thinks that they have defamed him instead of not going to work in state where there is no employment protection.
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1 minute ago, Chilloutman said:
sure, but its still better than if they just turn them off permanently. There must be some plan to replace their maintenance output anyway if they plan to disable them right?
Yes natural gas from Russia
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1 hour ago, Chilloutman said:
i thought that changing rods is normal procedure and every plant do it from time to time?
It is but it means that power plant will be down several days and you need alternate sources to replace it, which may cause issues when you have multiple nuclear plants going offline same time during energy crisis. And things are made more difficult by fact that original plan was not continue use these plant, so there is not fuel in storage for them and some of needed maintenance breaks have been skipped because they were needed in original plan.
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3 hours ago, Chilloutman said:
@Lexxlooks like your nukes are not in that bad shape...
Only problem with those three has been that they are filled with end of life uranium rods (uranium is reprocessed to max), so they need process new uranium rods for all of them and they all need be shutdown for fuel change in short time frame and it is possible that all three need to be offline same time.
Reactivating already closed nuclear plants would be much bigger project.
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49 minutes ago, Gorth said:
Huh, Iran too... Saudi Arabia has become a major buyer of Russian oil
Supposedly they buy refined oil cheap and sell their own crude to western countries at premium rates.
India just buys Russian oil and sells it to west and Greece is so nice that they help them to hide origin of the oil when Greece tankers carry the oil.
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-india-violating-the-eu-oil-embargo/a-62291074
As there is no sanctions against Russian oil in the EU, there is not illegal in what they are doing, but when energy companies in EU say that they have stopped using Russian oil they probably don't tell truth as most of them buy oil from Greece.
Strangest thing is that Russia is make less money from oil than before as they sell it to India with massive discount, and also India don't seem to make much profit of the arrangement. Meaning that it looks like that EU's energy companies are the party that seems to make most of the profit, because market price of the oil is so high, as they seem to buy oil cheaper than before Ukraine crisis, but sell fuel in record high price because of oil's market price.
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1 hour ago, Sarex said:
That is not what I heard, the story went that companies were scared to buy from Russia for fear of breaking sanctions.
There has been issues where some countries have had problems to pay Russia, because banks have refused to do transactions in fear of breaking sanctions, but those issues have not been concern of US companies.
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There is no block for exporting Russian grain and fertilizers. Russia is blocked exporting grain and fertilizers they have taken from Ukraine. Russia has self blocked its exports because they feel they aren't treated fairly.
So US farmers haven't been able to buy fertilizers from Russia even though there is no import duties, because Russia doesn't sell fertilizers.
Media seem to be very lazy when it comes to details why these negotiations happen.
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2 minutes ago, BruceVC said:
Great feedback, thanks Elerond. Have you been to Estonia?
Yes, it take only 2h to go from Helsinki to Tallinn with ship and it cost 20-40€.
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Tallinn's Old Town is not only medieval looking it is medieval.
It is part of Tallinn that existed already during Hanseatic League era in 1400s
It is common that Estonians speak English.
Estonia is part of EU's eastern block, so they will have different views of things than western European countries. Although it is probably most western of east block countries.
Their education system is decent in western standards.
There is divide between Estonian speaking population and Russian speaking population and current world situation probably has not made things better.
Taxation in Estonia favors rich.
Estonia's consumer price increase is highest in EU, which is important factor to take account if you want to do business there.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/prc_hicp_manr/default/table?lang=en
current situation has not made things easier
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The All Things Political Topic - We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office
in Way Off-Topic
Posted
They will do it again either same year or next depending of if course is organized multiple times in year or only once.
It is grant not loan (268.23€ per month plus 80% of their rent, although there is cap that depends on city where you live). Additionally government gives guarantee for low interest loan (interest rate is 0-1% depending on bank, max amount is 18000€ in five years). Half of loan is written off if student graduates in time. So if student takes loan and does not graduate they will pay that loan back in 10-15 years depending of their plan with their bank.
Government grant is for five years (in master programs) and universities kick students out after 10 years if they don't show progress in their studies. Student needs to pay back their grant money if they don't get enough study credits (30 credit points, so about 800 hours worth of credits) during a year.