rjshae

Targeting Russian oil facilities: not a war crime.

Analysis of the conflict from the CSIS: Russian Casualties in Ukraine: Reaching the Tipping Point

Iran vs. US? Hmm. Well we'll see how good Qatar is at event security then. If it was at a more neutral site it would be a fun matchup. As it is, Qatar has rumored links with Islamist extremists.

I'm giving Wasteland 3 a go now to see if I enjoy it, having waited for patching to reach a fairly stable state.

It's fairly typical for a nation's populace to support a war effort at the start, regardless of the moral validity. It doesn't always end up that way.

Mmm, yes well China didn't qualify, so size and wealth don't always matter. Anyway, less wealthy nations often do well in sports as it's a road out of poverty for some players.

That's probably true of most regions not in Europe or South America. We all know which region's teams will be playing in the final few games. At least for now.

What is little known about that is the US intel on the Iraqi WoMD in 2003 was uncertain and they rated themselves as such. What gets pushed is the political spin brought on by the Bush administration, including Rumsfeld and Cheney. They saw what they wanted to see, and sold the world on that viewpoint. Little evidence for Iraq WMDs ahead of 2003 war: U.S. declassified report Personally I never viewed the action as about WMDs; it was always about oil and terrorism.

The USMNT have (barely) made it back to the World Cup. They're still sloppy as all get up.

Bruce Willis Stepping Away From Acting Following Aphasia Diagnosis Damn, that's a shame.

Ha! It's open season on seizure of Russian assets. Game on.

Because we still have one foot left to shoot?

Spiderman is the perfect everyman fantasy. He's not a space alien, a super scientist, or a cybernetics expert; just a mostly average guy who has a weird accident. That's probably one reason why he (and Batman) have such an enduring fandom.

B-52: April 1952 to present

Nailed it.

Dune wins 6 Oscars, but they were all in the "spectacle for the eyes and ears" categories. I guess it was a nature documentary then?

I burned through Star Mother by Charlie N. Holmberg in about a day. It's a modern myth about a young woman who is called by tradition to literally bear the (star) child of the Sun god, a labor that, historically, has always been fatal for the mother. Next up is War Lord by Bernard Cornwell; I've enjoyed many of his works in the past.

You're trying to turn a relative risk into an absolute. Getting some exposure doesn't mean you're going to catch it, it just increases your odds. Yes you can still minimize your risk and not live like a hermit.

That's not really an answer.

The longer you avoid getting COVID-19, the better the medical technology used to treat it and the more likely that an ICU bed will be available. Risk-wise, it still pays to isolate.

Hypothetically speaking, suppose the Ukraine and Russia come to terms with some treaty terms and transfer of territory. What is to prevent Russia from spending the next five years fixing their armed forces and then just repeating the invasion?

That was probably the first Star Wars movie I've seen that actually felt like a solid sci-fi drama, rather than space opera fantasy. But I agree that the character development aspect wasn't very good.

Yes, a lot of really horrific acts get justified during war time, including this one. I think if Russia does use nuclear weapons to avoid defeat, that will significantly increase the likelihood that a future NATO-Russian conflict will rapidly go nuclear as well. I'm picturing a Putin attempted land grab of the Baltic States where there is little likelihood of stopping the Russian advance, seeing the use of nukes to stop the lead columns.