They got some stuff that matters, among them KazanOrgSintez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazanorgsintez).
A chemical plant in the Bryansk oblast also left the conversation.
And of course, it seems that Ukraine (recently, not today) got the aviation fuel reserves of the Engels air base.
I don’t see any echoes of a monster
I think it’s not possible to see that far. Ability to write good stories and ability to maintain ethical behaviour, they’re probably unrelated abilities.
For example, Yevgeni Prigozhin actually wrote decent children’s stories, but alas, his personal ethics didn’t prevent becoming Putin’s accomplice with a private military company.
That’s some sad reading. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, from the point where the train crashes back to where the company forces an engineer to cut corners on the design.
Legal classification: probably rape, definitely sexual assault.
An enabling factor: wealth (he was in a position to influence other’s well-being economically, offer hush money and sign non-disclosure agreements).
“‘I’m a very wealthy man,’” she remembers him saying, “‘and I’m used to getting what I want.’”
An excuse: BDSM. The author of the article is correct to note:
BDSM is a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent
As for the search for the origin of his behaviour… I think they’re on the right track. Like a former child soldier who carries a war inside them, Gaiman has probably been carrying a lot inside.
In 1965, when Neil was 5 years old, his parents, David and Sheila, left their jobs as a business executive and a pharmacist and bought a house in East Grinstead, a mile away from what was at that time the worldwide headquarters for the Church of Scientology. Its founder, the former science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, lived down the road from them from 1965 until 1967, when he fled the country and began directing the church from international waters, pursued by the CIA, FBI, and a handful of foreign governments and maritime agencies. David and Sheila were among England’s earliest adherents to Scientology.
/…/
Palmer began asking Gaiman to tell her more about his childhood in Scientology. But he seemed unable to string more than a few sentences together. When she encouraged him to continue, he would curl up on the bed into a fetal position and cry. He refused to see a therapist.
Reading this, it seems obvious that Gaiman developed his behaviour due to trauma during childhood and youth - and has been exhibiting behaviour patterns that became normalized for him during time in the cult.
As for people whom he assaulted, it seems that they too carry a pattern - they were vulnerable at the time. Some had already experienced violence on themselves. Which, it seems - often hadn’t been resolved, but had become normalized. They were not the kind of people whose “no” is followed by physical self-defense or the full weight of legal options - and Gaiman understood enough to recognize: with them, he could get away with doing things.
She didn’t consider reaching out to her own family. Her parents had divorced when she was 3, and Pavlovich had grown up splitting time between their households. Violence, Pavlovich tells me, “was normalized in the household.”
Well, what can I say about it…
…it is customary that accusations be investigated by cops (who hopefully cannot be bought) and presented as charges to a court of law. The defendant should have a chance to deny or excuse their actions, but if deemed guilty, is required to give up time or resources either as compensation or punishment. A court could make lesser or greater punishment dependent on taking action to fix one’s behaviour traits - seeking assistance and not offending again. Those harmed should be offered assistance by their societies.
and probably hard-cap the number of communities one person can mod.
I would like to underline and emaphasize this one.
As for the rule change in general (note: I’m from a different instance so it doesn’t influence me much) - it seems reasonable.
If there is a community where a respectful disputation of facts - with sources to back it up - gets immediately resolved with a ban hammer, that community is not a healthy thing to have on an instance, so administrators might want to step in.
Myself, I’ve noticed one such community on the “hexbear” instance. Got banned for explaining well-known historical facts, with references to sources and all. The reason: I was “reactionary” and only one narrative was allowed. If it had been on another instance, maybe the admins would have done something. But since it was there, there was no recourse except leaving.
The base is probably established using some long-term lease agreement. One would have to read the fine print about ending the agreement, but in principle - I agree.
There is another complexity, though - the words were said by not-yet-president. There might be a difference between a president threatening another land, and a not-yet-president doing so. Currently the president is Biden and will remain so for 9 more days.
Regardless, if the US base in Greenland were to see motions towards ending its lease agreement - especially if Trump keeps saying the things he has - that would be 100% understandable.
When the countries were still on amicable terms, Ukraine leased Russia some naval bases in Crimea, and we know what happened subsequently in 2014 - they were used to stage a takeover of the peninsula.
I will second that. I read about HMPV (human metapneumovirus) this autumn when one of my friends got it. It’s nothing fundamentally new. It’s poorly understood. Maybe it has a new and more capable strain.
From Wikipedia:
HMPV was responsible for 12% of cases of acute respiratory tract illness in otherwise-healthy children in a US outpatient clinic[2] and 15% and 8% of cases (respectively) of community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization in children under and over the age of 5 in the United States in 2010–2012.
So on some years, it’s pretty widespread. And like all viruses, it mutates to spread better and get past host defenses. I’m inclined to think that this virus has made some evolutionary advance. If the advance happened in China, the more capable or novel strain will spread out of China and bother others fairly soon. If the advance happened elsewhere, it will spread from elsewhere. But since it’s an old virus - not nearly as hard as COVID.
There is certainly something going on with HMPV in China:
In late 2024, human metapneumovirus was linked to 6.2 percent of positive respiratory illness tests and 5.4 percent of respiratory-illness hospitalizations in China, more than COVID-19, rhinovirus or adenovirus.[3][better source needed]
(source)
Trump seems to have become even more prone to picking confrontations.
Now, as for Greenland… I’m fairly sure that the Inuit understand their possible paths.
Denmark -> is a foreign power, but the weakest and most friendly foreign power that is available. If someone wants a career abroad, via Denmark it’s possible to access the EU. As part of Denmark, one gets a stable democracy with decent health and social security guarantees, and decent workers’ rights.
The US is not a comparable replacement. It’s a damaged democracy (part oligarchy) with a problematic electoral system that produces a two-party political landscape. The landscape is currently very polarized. The US is arguably nearing a constitutional crisis due to Trump, the first felon president. In almost every comparison, the US scores high on violence and low on social / medical guarantees - it’s the country where cops shoot citizens and citizens shoot health insurance bosses. It has nothing appreciable to offer in terms of workers’ rights.
If I were a politician in Greenland, I would offer to join the US - on the condition that Trump successfully commits seppuku. A decent president should be willing to lay his life down for such a big territorial gain. :)
That is probably true and I do not dispute most of that.
However, I disagree about it being unnecessary to know the details. If it’s about a specific person, there is a need to know where the bullet came from, who had opportunity and who had motive. (Besides the general lack of care about human life in the region.)
A sniper believed to be part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) forces shot and killed her friend, 22-year-old journalism student Shatha al-Sabbagh, a few days ago.
This is the only information we have about the shooting from this article.
Without more information and context, there seems to be a considerable chance that the sniper, whoever he was, did not shoot al-Sabbagh because of being a journalist, but for some other reason (for example, mistaken identification). The outcome is equally bad for the person who died, but the situational picture that one can build from the information looks rather different.
What I am surprised about is that frontline soldiers still use such a large percentage of quadcopters and appear to operate them with BetaFlight.
Quads need twice as much battery to deliver the same payload as a plane would. And while BetaFlight is mighty fine for sports, it seems to have no “heading lock” behaviour - so if you jam a machine running BetaFlight, it won’t be able to go where it used to go.
I have the feeling that we’re only seeing the beginning of the first episode of a quite gruesome story. There will be far more capable drones (and antidrone drones, and automated weapons stations) right around the corner.
At some point, offensive operations will involve releasing thousands of drones at once, and if the defender hasn’t fortified well (earth protects), then defensive operations will foremost attempt to mop them up. EMP will be used for sure when swarms get very big and nasty.
I can only speculate, since I’m not from there. To my understanding you aren’t either.
If war came here, I would probably stay. Maybe because I’m an aeromodelist that flew drones already in 2004. I would probably think “it’s bad stuff, but I have trained for this job for 20 years”. But if someone didn’t give me a correct job to do, I’d politely refuse. Jail is better then stupidity.
If someone thinks that jail is better than any participation in war, I understand.
If someone thinks that emigration or hiding is better than jail, I understand. If my home country wanted my building or flying skills to invade or conquer, I’d disappear or resist.
But there is something you need to understand, which I feel from reading your post that you don’t.
In Ukraine, the president changes, in Russia, the same guy rules since Yeltsin picked and propped him up 25 years ago (after so much stealing that Putin’s first decree was to give Yeltsin and his family immunity, and of course, after Yeltsin had started enlarging presidential power during the constitutional crisis and the Supreme Soviet (parliament) had been fired upon). Putin continued that path, but the word “autocracy” seemed appropriate until recently. In the last decade, only the term “dictatorship” seems appropriate. Full totalitarianism hasn’t been achieved yet, but is approaching fast.
In Ukraine, you can campaign and demonstrate against the government and my anarchist comrades operate above ground. Some of them have voluntarily joined the army, and some have died. Some have gone there from Russia, joined the Ukraininan army, and some of them have died too. They weren’t patriots. They just knew the difference and knew the cost of Putin’s regime to society. Officially, they fought for Ukraine. In their own mind, they fought to stop Putin’s conquest and help break his regime (which had imprisoned and killed people who mattered to them).
In Russia, they operate underground. Saying the wrong stuff gets 5 years. Army has a habit of torturing and shooting its members. Police has a habit of torturing people. Courts take direct commands from the prosecutor and security apparatus. Opposition politicians die of poisoning or get railroaded to prison.
If one has any interest in politics, the difference between Ukraine and Russia is massive. Only for a person who wants to eat in the morning, work during day and eat in the evening - with no interest in society whatsoever - only for that kind of a person is the difference limited. Yes, it’s possible to live in both countries. Sun still rises and wind still blows.
Indeed, war has a flip side of selection. Ukraine will lose some percentage of its society and Russia will lose some percentage. The social profiles of the people who are lost - can be understood. Both societies are burning through their groups most willing to fight, but the way of mobilizing people differs considerably, so the groups that lose most members will differ by country.
I will tell as much as I know about the profiles.
Under the divine guidance of Elon Musk, I strongly doubt if emperor Trump will break any big tech. More likely he’ll pat them on the back (while requiring more surveillance data to be submitted).