Gorth

What's that heating thing you people are talking about?

More like an infomercial... a few of my favourite youtube channels for military history. Just linking a single video from each channel. Check out their channels for other videos if their areas of expertise is of interest. Drachinifels: Everything you thought you wanted to know about naval warfare and then some. Mostly covering WWI and WWII, but also a few notably wooden ships encounters and Pre-WWI ship engagements. Guides for specific ships and their history as well as his drydock series which is sometimes hour long episodes of Q&A about all things naval warfare. Mark Felton: British historian. If you thought you knew everything about WWII, think again. You are not even in pre-school yet compared to this guy BazBattles: Covering a lot of famous and completely unknown battles throughout history. From ancient Egypt to Napoleonic wars. Aften with a slightly humorous touch in the animated parts without it becoming actually silly.

A bit late, but... the Australian take on Q Anon

Serious question. How would you tackle the issue of there simply not being enough jobs for people in the future? Increasing automatization of tasks (less need for people to perform the tasks) and a world population that is now not just too large, but way too large to be sustainable? Short of committing mass murder, genocide and forced sterilization of large numbers of people that is?

Back in Denmark (mind you, that was almost 20 years ago, it may have changed), it used to be a proportional thing. They would look at the household income overall and number of kids etc. Calculate a pro rata amount. You get a special monthly subsidy per kid (regardless of your financial status), so having more or less kids was supposed to be less of a factor. You could also get subsidies for rent etc. if you're a low income family, renting an apartment. It was way more granular than just UBI or not. At least it used to be. If you were out of a job, the first stop would usually be the unions where most Danes I knew at the time had unemployment insurance, covering a percentage of your normal salary for a period of time (80% up to fixed limit, whichever was lower, for 2 years iirc). You could get those insurances without being part of a union too I think. Memory a bit fuzzy here. Never had the insurance, was never a member of a union.

Ooh, pretty lights! They just don't make bands like this anymore

I know. I remember one of those old Danish shipping companies, Maersk (https://www.maersk.com/), getting hit by ransomware attack a few years ago. The old guy is tough as nails and told the hackers **** you. We'll rebuild our systems. Even if the cost of doing so was $200 million. Mind you, the old guy running the family business can afford it. https://www.forbes.com/sites/leemathews/2017/08/16/notpetya-ransomware-attack-cost-shipping-giant-maersk-over-200-million/?sh=1277cda54f9a

A bit more on the above... Cyberpunk 2077 makers CD Projekt hit by ransomware hack https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55994787 "The perpetrators claim to have stolen source code for several of the firm's games which they said they would leak unless a payment was made. But the Polish games company said it would not negotiate. In a statement on Twitter, CD Projekt Red posted a copy of the ransom note which said the hackers had copied code from Cyberpunk 2077, Gwent, and Witcher 3, including an unreleased version of the latter. “We have also dumped all of your documents relating to accounting, administration legal, HR, investor relations and more!” the note added. "Dumping" means copying the information to an external source. “If we will not come to an agreement, then your source codes will be sold or leaked online and your documents will be sent to our contacts in gaming journalism,” read the note, giving a deadline of 48 hours."

Till Lindemann (from his own projects, when not doing stuff with Rammstein). Platz Einz (Number One, First Spot, multiple possible translations, but in this case, It's referring to the top spot on the charts). Yes, this *is* the censored version. Visit porn sites for the uncensored version.

I know they say the pen is mightier than the sword... but sentencing what was a 16-17 year old girl for doing stenography?

Nostradamus is better at the doom and gloom stuff https://nypost.com/2020/12/28/nostradamus-predictions-for-2021-dont-look-good-for-earth/

Bruce... seriously. Listen to yourself. Those same countries that had no problem whatsoever carving up Serbia when it fit their interests? Let me ask you the opposite question. Why would Ukraine have any claims on Crimea other than Ukraine said so and some western countries thought it would annoy Russia and so they agreed to Ukraine's claims. It was never historically part of Ukraine. The population is sure as heck not Ukrainian. The only people with any legitimate claims on Crimea besides Russia are the Tartars and they don't have a nation state to represent them. Do you care at all about what the people in Crimea desire or is it enough that what they desire doesn't match how you want the map to look like? Edit: So, yeah. Ukraine is really the only one here with no *legitimate* claim whatsoever on Crimea. Russians yes, Tartars yes (even more than Russians). Ukraine... only in Western geopolitical power plays. Like, because "We says so, therefore!" Edit2: The Ottoman Empire effectively handed over the Crimean Khanate as part of a peace treaty between The Ottoman Empire and Russia and it has been Russian ever since. Even if the French and British waged war there almost a century later and completely laid waste to Crimea, causing a mass exodus of the surviving Tartars because of famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Küçük_Kaynarca

I sometimes wonder what world you live in Bruce... the same world that expect Russia to hand over a large chunk of of its citizen to what is now a foreign country because someone in other foreign countries says so? It's not exactly that those same foreign countries respect any democratic processes when the outcome is undesirable. Oh yes, the same foreign countries that were happy to carve up another country (Serbia) when it fit their geopolitical narrative? The hypocrisy is strong in those foreign countries.

It might not be the CIA, but something really *is* weird about both the poisoning in England and the one of Navalny. Why use something that is as Russian as vodka and normally deadlier than cyanide, yet in both high profile cases it failed and left a lead to Russia that had more lights lighting up the path, than a runway approach (by using a uniquely Russian substance behind that dates from the cold war era)? Of course it could be somebody in Kremlin, heck, I do believe the most likely culprit is botched intelligence operations behind it, but you sort of have to ask yourself, any former Soviet states (or countries with access to cold war era depots) holding a grudge against Russia and stand to benefit from playing Russia against the west?

Nah, the bushfires in West Australia are out of control, I'm sure no Covid virus is going to escape Perth

I'm sure KGB uses Novishock, not Covid

They probably hacked every research facility in the world and used the best bits of each... UK, US, Chinese, you name it

And they still argue today if Oswald acted on his own initiative Edit: I know, selective quoting changes the meaning of the sentence a bit, but it's one of those "mysteries" where my curiosity gets the better of me and I would love to know the whole story, even its very simple, he just did because he felt like it. Similar to Jack the Ripper. To be a fly on the wall and figure out the actual truth of the guy. Yes, I'm weird like that.

My inner pragmatist is not in favour of something that could destabilize Russia. Navalny might consider himself a crusader, but being good at crying foul doesn't necessarily make you a good leader. Even less so if you have to pick up the pieces of what you broke. Just smashing stuff for the sake of smashing stuff isn't going to make the life of the average Russian any better either. This is not the West with half a century or more of democratic traditions. Slow and steady (and less belligerent than China) transitions to a more modern and open society preferred, thanks As for Aung San Suu Kyi, if the military walks like a duck, sounds like a duck... time to duck and cover, a coup in all but name.

<insert some catchy Petshop Boys tune here> Go west! Well, turns out it's now WA (West Australia) turn to deal with a quarantine breach and put Perth and everyone else "over there" in total lockdown for a bit (similar to what we had here in Brisbane a few weeks ago). Damn hotel security staff just can't keep their hands off the guests https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-01/wa-covid-lockdown-contact-tracing-system-in-the-spotlight/13107516 I'll blame the South Africans of course.

You had me at 'hello'

I suspect the Chechen war was both bloody, brutal and inhumane for the people living there. But you have to hand it to Putin, the region did get a lot more quiet. Maybe his KGB background came in handy? Like both how to instigate and how to quell a rebellion 101?