Gorth

Our boss had been indisposed for more than a week now and did have to visit the hospital. A bad case of covid. He was fortunately vaccinated or we would be hiring now. He has underlying health conditions hence why it hit somewhat hard

That would be a Danish river in a Danish jungle

Rather than keep editing my my post to add links, just another link to a previous discussion about things that may be too complex for humans

I guess this had to happen... Reminds me of a recent post of mind claiming there is no true randomness, just systems there are too complex for us to properly understand. Edit: Ok, the word I used then was predict, not understand.

Ethics aside and just looking at the technical side of things, Russia made two significant military blunders. Not having twenty first century communication technology and a complete lack of modern air warfare doctrine. Ironical that Ukraine is calling for the US to start fighting Russian planes when they are hardly there to begin with. Russia has no air superiority whatsoever. Much of the rest of that military disaster that is the ground campaign follows from those two issues. An enemy that knows your every move and lack of timely intel/reconnaissance Two lessons they need to learn… some day.

Hindu "nationalism" (it's not nationalism, but religious fanaticism) threatens not only their Muslim citizens, but Christians too. The number of murders, bombings, church burnings (with the villagers) of Christians is on the rise in both India (by Hindus) and Sri Lanka (by Buddhists) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/22/world/asia/india-christians-attacked.html (meh, paywall, just ignore unless you are a sub already) https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/india/ https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/under-caesars-sword/christian-responses-to-repression-in-india-and-sri-lanka/5A6C24D44EE79E1DAACFBBBD54F1FF42 https://ucs.nd.edu/report/responses-to-persecution-by-region/south-asia/india-and-sri-lanka/ Just the top of the iceberg... As for Russian girls singing... for some reason I remembered this video from a few years ago. However, my favorite Slavic performance was not singing, but something completely different from this extraordinary and very expressive Ukrainian woman:

Capture The Flag... the Japanese way

Big League Polo...

An oddity from Finland... the Wife Carrying competition!

On an only tangential note, History Matters is an awesome channel and can be recommended to anyone who wonders about the lesser known stuff. He mainly focuses on the "weird" questions in world history, the things people rarely think about. Like why does Belgium exist? or why did Sweden side with North Vietnam? Most of the videos are about three and a half minute and a few "longer" ones close to ten minutes. The humor in his videos is usually top notch too

Who said barter economy was dead? The floods are finally receding in east Australia. Now starts the political **** fight over why the Federal Government refused to let the armed forces help in regions that vote for the opposition party... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-12/scott-morrison-flood-qld-emergency-call-adf-boosts-numbers/100905714 "We have the Fijians coming through, a US Navy ship (USS Frank Cable) is pulling up and 100 sailors from the US Navy will start working in Brisbane in the coming days," Major General David Thomae said. On Friday night, Mr Morrison visited the Governor-General to sign a national emergency declaration for flood-affected communities in New South Wales. A day earlier, he said he would make the declaration for parts of Queensland, even though Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was not needed anymore as the state had entered the recovery phase of the disaster. I.e. true to form, The Liberal Party (ALP) delivering too little and too late to make any (positive) difference for Australians. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-16/liberal-upper-house-mp-to-quit-over-flood-funding/100914460 A Liberal upper house MP is resigning and a Northern Rivers mayor has gone to the Governor-General over concerns about perceived favouritism in the allocation of federal flood assistance. Key points: Communities in the Labor-held seat of Richmond are yet to receive extra disaster relief from the Commonwealth Liberal upper house MP says she's quitting politics because of "unethical" funding Ballina Mayor complains to Governor-General about delays getting support for flood victims Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced extra financial support would be available immediately for people in Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley local government areas (LGAs), which all sit in the Nationals-held seat of Page. Being a Patron, I've seen the preview of the upcoming "Honest Government Ads" on the subject (of selective spending of federal tax funds to ALP seats). Will post it once the public version is available. Almost as bad as when Morrison appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars ear marked for supporting grass root sport for young Australians, to build facilities like fields and gyms in impoverished areas and spend it all on luxury indoor swimming pools and recreational facilities in some of the most affluent areas where his constituents live.

Nanowar of Steel being Nanowar of Steel... those wacky Italians

For it is written… “He that is without sin among you, let him throw the first hand grenade” Meh, just kidding. Little comfort, but nobody lives forever. Fairly sure the people of Iran are ready to move on from the ayatollahs. Gradually as they keel over from age or abruptly as people are just fed up with unnecessary hardship

...the distant sound of thunder is the applause from the Saab and Lockheed share holders Curious what China is going to make of the situation. I would be surprised if Xi isn't going to try to profit from it *somehow*. Either by striking at Taiwan when everyone else is pre-occupied with Ukraine or more insidious, sending "military advisors" to support the Russian army. The latter to try out how well Chinese doctrine and equipment fares against western technology. By now, the west is an active participant in the war in all but name and provides some of the hardest hitting gadgets and surveillance technology available to Ukraine. Just to test the water in a for China safe environment to see how it stacks up in case someone decides to interfere with the intended invasion of Taiwan. Maybe he just want some international credit for being great diplomat if brokering something between Russia and Ukraine some day. Could be something completely different.

Poor Boeing. Not getting a break these days. I may be a bit old fashioned, but something about the F-18 Super Hornet's esthetics just appeals to me, even if Lockheed's new plane is better at delivering tactical nukes (which is what the now 35 new F-35's seems to be earmarked for, the bulk of the German Airforce still seems to become made up of the Eurofighter)

That must be why the Saudi and Chinese national debts are outstripping the US and EU countries national debts by so much of course, debt only matters if you intend to pay your creditors some day

Japanese rock...

Some of them actually do a decent job. Warning, this video features intense, relentless combat. But it's not what it looks like at first and the guy does some very decent analysis work afterwards piecing together what's happening.

For those interested in military tactics and strategies... an interesting analysis on why Russia sucks at air superiority and all the problems it causes for land based operations. It's like, the military strategists in Moscow never watched CNN footage of the Iraq War in the 1990's Edit: Even little old layman me noticed back then, that the first wave of attacks were against air defense systems to the exclusion of many other things...

See one of my previous posts in this thread. Different rules applies in the self interest of countries who are active participants in a war. As long as they don't pretend not to be that is

You didn't really fix anything. My rant wasn't about free speech (That's Gromnir's desk), but against the totalitarian principles of governments limiting what you are allowed to read and see. Edit: Point in case, the Australian government cracking down on the free press and even individual YouTubers when they reveal uncomfortable truths. Yes, the media may be utter crap, but I believe it to be one of the hallmarks of a free society, that people are allowed to form their own opinions and not have it dictated by the government. Edit2: My own experiences with RT are two videos I saw some years ago. One where Putin put some regional administrator in his place and one where he met some young girl and everyone was fawning over him and his generosity. Goebbels couldn't have done it better. Never felt like watching again, so no, don't really have horse in the race there. It's the principle that matters, people should decide for themselves if the message is laughable or not. At least in a free society.

I suspect it's predominantly used for real estate purchases. In this case inside the UAE. Never mind that half of London is probably owned by Russians at the moment (money laundering being a primary industry in the UK, through Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Jersey etc.) No idea sure how that counts for convertibility?

Those strange and often overlooked collateral damages of war in Ukraine... Chelsea FC and Bitcoin https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60714952 Chelsea's credit card facilities have been temporarily suspended while banks assess the implications of sanctions imposed on Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. The club has been given a special licence to operate despite Abramovich having his assets frozen by the UK government. Banks want to assess the licence criteria to ensure it does not breach the government's sanctions and Chelsea do not know when the suspension will be lifted. As part of the licence terms, Chelsea cannot receive money for match tickets which have not already been sold, future gate receipts for FA Cup games or merchandise from the club shop. That is likely to leave the club with a huge shortfall, with their monthly wage bill amounting to £28m a month. The club *may* be able to play the remaining games this season, although that is currently in doubt. They will for sure not be able to participate in the Premiere League next season if current status quo is maintained. If the club folds (likely), it could leave a gap in London's economy worth billions of pounds. Abramovic? He'll probably just head off to Israel (he has Israeli citizenship, being a Jewish). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/12/russians-liquidating-crypto-in-the-uae-as-they-seek-safe-havens Crypto firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are being deluged with requests to liquidate billions of dollars of virtual currency as Russians seek a safe haven for their fortunes, according to company executives and financial sources. Some clients are using cryptocurrency to invest in real estate in the UAE, while others want to use firms there to turn their virtual money into hard currency and stash it elsewhere, the sources said “We have one guy – I don’t know who he is, but he came through a broker – and they’re like, ‘we want to sell 125,000 Bitcoin’. And I’m like, ‘what? That’s $6bn guys’. And they’re like, ‘yeah, we’re going to send it to a company in Australia’,” the executive said. Bitcoin working as intended I suppose. I'm sure Scott Morrison will welcome some reasonable party donations to facilitate such business transactions.... Which leaves the question, is the anonymity going to remain part of the future of cryptocurrency, or will the current war put an end to it. It has for many years been the favourite money laundering tool for organized crime, but popular opinion may help politicians to finally get an iron collar put around the the neck of Crypto brokers.

The Ministry of Truth would like to interview you for a position they have... Don't count on me as an immigrant. I'm allergic to totalitarian regimes like the kind of society you seem in favour of. The sooner the EU falls apart, the better. It was never a union for the people, but a union for the political and economical elite (despite how it was sold on originally in 1957) Sanctions against Russia is fine. Just drop the hypocrisy and "holier than thou" attitude and call it what it is. On government levels it's geopolitical power play. Not to be confused with grass root levels, as plenty of people will boycott Russian products for all the right reasons. A country that had legal racial segregation up until approx. 25 years before the end of apartheid (one of many gifts from England to Africa) is not the best example. Not that this has anything to do at all with what is being discussed of course. Which, IIRC, is how close the EU is to evolve into something out of Orwell's 1984, where decisions are removed several levels from people and said people will now no longer have free choice of what information they want to access. Because, some information is dangerous to the regime? Do you even know how, what you are in favour of, sounds? The road to hell is paved with good intentions sometimes, except this crack down on civil liberties are not in any way good intentions. It's a tool of power, used to control people. Hint: What you need is not less information, it's more information.

That looks quite representative of first episode