Gorth

Im Westen Nichts Neues was a good read. War is not a recommended solution to any problem.

Jawohl!... /smart salute

One of the previous videos I posted, gave a sort of answer to that. The Baltic countries does not provide good staging grounds for a massive invasion of Russia. Ukraine (and Belarus) does. With the loss of Poland, DDR, Czechoslovakia etc. as buffer territory, Ukraine became the "new" buffer to protect against invasions from the west.

I honestly found it a bit "toothless" and tame compared to some of their usual offerings, but hey, it's free. I know I'm a patreon, but that is by choice, not by necessity. I do find they ruffle some feathers that needs ruffling.

More war this way...

This thread moves fast than the front line at the moment... annexed a few posts to start a new thread with Old thread

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.