Ukraine Conflict

[majestic]

Indeed, we're also giving all the presents on the 24th. The other two days are mostly for family meetings and feasting.

[Elerond]

9 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

And, of course, Christmastime in Russia is still nearly two weeks away (January 8th) since they're Orthodox.

These days it probably needs to be specified as Russian Orthodox as Ukraine's Orthodox church moved to use Gregorian calendar and had their Christmas already

[Mamoulian War]

17 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/putin-bans-russian-oil-exports-countries-that-imposed-price-cap-decree-2022-12-27/

Feb 1 is a ways off, at least.

The price of Ural is already long time under the price cap. And China and India will definitely not pay more, just because of Putins beautiful eyes

[Mamoulian War]

There are rumours in Russia, that Rogozin blames “traitors” inside Russia, that they have given intel on his birthday party to Ukrainian side.

[xzar_monty]

Whenever rumours are mentioned, I am reminded of an exchange in the Sandman comics: "Only a fool listen to rumours", says the first person. "Only a fool ignores them", says the second.

Can't remember who they are, except that Morpheus is one of them. Anyway, excellently put. That's how rumours are.

[Gfted1]

"Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see."

[Mamoulian War]

27 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

Whenever rumours are mentioned, I am reminded of an exchange in the Sandman comics: "Only a fool listen to rumours", says the first person. "Only a fool ignores them", says the second.

Can't remember who they are, except that Morpheus is one of them. Anyway, excellently put. That's how rumours are.

Could not agree more with the both statements

[xzar_monty]

Btw, today[*] marks the 100th anniversary of the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century: the founding of the Soviet Union.

 

[*] Another possible date is two days from now, December 30.

[Gorth]

3 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

What about Danes? Do they follow the custom of celebrating Christmas on the eve, i.e. 24th, or is the big day the Christmas day, i.e. 25th? There are interesting differences here, too. (In Finland, the big day is the eve, that's when children get their presents.)

Same as Austria (reading  the post by@majestic). We "celebrate" on the 24th, kill our cardiovascular systems and livers on the 25th and nurse the hangovers on the 26th

[xzar_monty]

Just now, Gorth said:

We "celebrate" on the 24th, kill our cardiovascular systems and livers on the 25th and nurse the hangovers on the 26th

...and head to the gym, completely committed, on January 2nd. (Supposedly. I'm guessing a bit here.)

Dang, if only it was possible to bet against other people's New Year's Resolutions. There'd be some serious easy money in that.

[Malcador]

44 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

"Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see."

Nah, here that only applies if it's bad news for your team. 

[pmp10]

Some interesting predictions by Michael Kofman.

 

22 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/putin-bans-russian-oil-exports-countries-that-imposed-price-cap-decree-2022-12-27/

Feb 1 is a ways off, at least.

That was a long wait for quite a standard response with some opt-outs. 
Seems both sides are being really cautious about the energy markets. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by pmp10

[Zoraptor]

10 hours ago, Sarex said:

Gorth is right, it's Jan 7th.

hah, serves me right for being a smart arse while not checking.

8 hours ago, Elerond said:

These days it probably needs to be specified as Russian Orthodox as Ukraine's Orthodox church moved to use Gregorian calendar and had their Christmas already

To be finicky, not much Ukrainian Orthodox presence at Christmas time, in Russia, though.

Both the Ukrainian Orthodox churches still use Gregorian, at the moment. UOC allows services on Dec 25th though, as of this year.

[Sarex]

44 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

hah, serves me right for being a smart arse while not checking.

Confirms you are not a Russian at least.

[Elerond]

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

hah, serves me right for being a smart arse while not checking.

To be finicky, not much Ukrainian Orthodox presence at Christmas time, in Russia, though.

Both the Ukrainian Orthodox churches still use Gregorian, at the moment. UOC allows services on Dec 25th though, as of this year.

Do you mean Julian?

Question does it matter if Russia does not have much of Ukrainian Orthodox, in case of thinking that "since they're Orthodox." is explanation for something when Orthodox churches have started to split which calendar they use? Orthodox like all Christians celebrate Christmas December 25th, but Orthodox churches didn't switch to use Gregorian calendar, when it was released probably because it was done by Catholic church.   25th of December by Julian calendar currently hits to January 7th in Gregorian calendar (date is slowly moving towards summer because Julian calendar does not have leap years to even out fact that Earth doe not go around the Sun in 365 days, but in 365.256 days).

[Zoraptor]

11 minutes ago, Elerond said:

Do you mean Julian?

No, I most definitely mean Gregorian. Not many people know this, but Julius Caesar was actually G. Iulius Caesar. With the G standing for... Gregorius, obviously. The Julian calendar was actually invented by catholics in the 16th century which is why Orthodox christians hated it (Pope Julius II, hence the name of the calendar. One of the more memorable characters in 'The Borgias' TV show and nicely played by Colm Feore too)

Spoiler

The January 8th one was definitely not deliberate, that one most definitely was.

I was sorely tempted to have della Rovere (--> Julius II) be a character in the Medici TV show instead, but somehow resisted the urge.

 

Quote

Question does it matter if Russia does not have much of Ukrainian Orthodox, in case of thinking that "since they're Orthodox." is explanation for something when Orthodox churches have started to split which calendar they use? Orthodox like all Christians celebrate Christmas December 25th, but Orthodox churches didn't switch to use Gregorian calendar, when it was released probably because it was done by Catholic church.   25th of December by Julian calendar currently hits to January 7th in Gregorian calendar (date is slowly moving towards summer because Julian calendar does not have leap years to even out fact that Earth doe not go around the Sun in 365 days, but in 365.256 days).

Both the countries relevant to this thread, and the one actually specified, celebrate on January 7th though. Not really necessary to specify which branch of the Orthodox church in those circumstances unless you're really being picky about things.

Yeah, Romania/ Bulgaria/ Greece and some others celebrate on Dec 25th, but then your argument is "but what about Greece, Romania or Bulgaria?" and, well, we all know what happens then.

[Elerond]

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

 

Both the countries relevant to this thread, and the one actually specified, celebrate on January 7th though. Not really necessary to specify which branch of the Orthodox church in those circumstances unless you're really being picky about things.

Yeah, Romania/ Bulgaria/ Greece and some others celebrate on Dec 25th, but then your argument is "but what about Greece, Romania or Bulgaria?" and, well, we all know what happens then.

My original point was that Ukraine's Orthodox announced calendar reform 24th of December of this year (according to Gregorian calendar), that they will switch to use Gregorian calendar (Of course full calendar reform probably will take sometime). So in future Russian orthodox church will be last major orthodox church that will use Julian calendar.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, Elerond said:

So in future Russian orthodox church will be last major orthodox church that will use Julian calendar.

Serbia still observes Christmas on the 7th, Egypt too.

[Malcador]

Orthodox Christmas is now the evil one.

[Chilloutman]

only correct day of Christmas is 24th.. barbarians...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 hours ago, Sarex said:

Confirms you are not a Russian at least.

That's just what a Russian would do to trick you.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Space KP, Baby
Evil software

[xzar_monty]

So, apparently, the "special operation" is not directed against Ukraine. Russia is simply responding to a Western attack that has been in preparation for eight years and whose aim is to destroy Russia and enslave Russians, or something along those lines. It's absolutely mad, but I suppose there are plenty of people willing to swallow it.

Remember, war is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

https://meduza.io/feature/2022/12/30/meduza-poluchila-metodichku-kremlya-o-tom-kak-propagandisty-dolzhny-podvodit-itogi-2022-goda

 

It's odd to see all the takes people have on the conflict. For example, our Serbian contributor @Sarex recently suggested that a particular development in the war demonstrated the West's or NATO's desire to get involved. I thought this was a mightily peculiar way to look at it: surely the West and NATO (whichever it was he was alluding to) has had the best part of the year to enter the fight, to deploy troops etc. But it hasn't done it. If it really wanted to do it, well, I suppose it would have done it months and months ago.

But Russia's take is surely far beyond that, it's simply absurd. I've said it before, but along with everything else, it's absolutely fascinating to see how Russia can be both an extremely brutal murderer and a completely innocent victim at the same time.

[Chilloutman]

Funny part is, if 'west' wanted to ever invade Russia, there were plenty of good opportunities after soviet collapse, why it waited until Ukraine found gas deposits is baffling...

[xzar_monty]

9 minutes ago, Chilloutman said:

Funny part is, if 'west' wanted to ever invade Russia, there were plenty of good opportunities after soviet collapse, why it waited until Ukraine found gas deposits is baffling...

Indeed. Or (as I've said before) if anyone wants to invade Russia, the perfect opportunity has been there for months: the western flank of Russia is open for all invaders, just go. But no one wants to.

It's really very unfortunate that facts are irrelevant when it comes to paranoia.

[Malcador]

The Inquisitor is on to you, Sarex!