rjshae

We watched the latest Dune movie and enjoyed it. The music is very moody but the visuals and effects are impressive. I could easily watch it a few more times. One thing I wish media movie releases would do is provide an option where the vocals are increased by about 15-30 Db. It's hard to hear them over the ambient background noises and music.

It's missing the wingnut, but I suppose that's not specific to the far right. 😄

During conflicts certain uncomfortable topics may get set aside or minimized as they can be used for disinformation purposes by an adversary. The Russians have already been exploiting racial divisions in the US to sew further discord.

Yes, it's an expedient perspective that minimizes distraction from the main goal. Such is human nature.

The precedent for lowering the sanctions will be a binding peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, with the US and EU as interested participants and guarantors. We could speculate about what shape that will take, but without a treaty Russia has little diplomatic leverage on the West. Hopefully such a treaty will stick, or they could be fighting another war in 10-20 years.

US Army using lessons from Ukraine war to aid own training

We have built labs there in the past.

It's probably intended for internal digestion, so Putin can redirect passions over the struggling war effort to an external factor.

Bummer. The Little-Known Role of the Soviet Union in the Vietnam War

I'm sure there is biological science taking place in Mongolia, so a biological lab would not be out of place. A bioweapons lab is something else entirely.

I just listened to his filthiest joke ever told. It's... NSFW.

I think the expectation is that they will return home after the conflict is over.

The variants used by the Czech and Croatia military can fire anti-tank guided missiles and other armaments.

The New York Times reports that 50,000 to 70,000 tech workers have now departed Russia with an additional 70,000 to 100,000 to follow. That's a pretty significant brain drain for the Russian economy.

The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel. It's a history of textiles and its impact on civilization. Interesting factoid: a viking sail took 385 days of labor to produce.