China's aggression is changing the nature of sovereignty.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/31/china-blasts-walmart-and-sams-club-over-stupidity-/ China is trying to determine what the free world can do, buy, read, or whatever it wants. We must mock their attitude and their wishes if they are as crazy as they have been. The CCP does not represent most of the Chinese people and its territorial areas. 

[TailingsPond + 1,013]

50 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Yo ding dong, you only get lead leaching out of old pipes if you have slightly acidic water.  Change the PH of the water and no lead leaching occurs and why ALL old water systems are able to still be operational for hundred +++ years. 

The water source for Flint was changed BACK to the OLD source of water with a higher PH and there is no lead problem anymore. 

Fact remains the water coming out of the tap was not fine.  Warp that fact in your mind all you want.

Perhaps, just perhaps they should have tested the water at a few end-user points?  What a concept!! 

I worked in a old building and they took away our water filters saying the tap water was fine without.  To show the water was fine they tested it for a bunch of stuff and it backfired, the lead levels were 12ppb (limit 10ppb).

We got our water filters back (we tested the filtered water, it was <1ppb Pb).

Look up all the criminal charges and civil payouts for their mishandling of the water system.  Why are you defending the poisoning of children?  Many people didn't do their jobs properly:

a) they should have known

b) they should have tested

c) they shouldn't have waited so long after a bunch of complaints rolled in.

d) they tried to cover stuff up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Criminal_prosecutions

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by TailingsPond

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,194]

2 hours ago, TailingsPond said:

Fact remains the water coming out of the tap was not fine.  Warp that fact in your mind all you want.

Perhaps, just perhaps they should have tested the water at a few end-user points?  What a concept!! 

I worked in a old building and they took away our water filters saying the tap water was fine without.  To show the water was fine they tested it for a bunch of stuff and it backfired, the lead levels were 12ppb (limit 10ppb).

We got our water filters back (we tested the filtered water, it was <1ppb Pb).

Look up all the criminal charges and civil payouts for their mishandling of the water system.  Why are you defending the poisoning of children?  Many people didn't do their jobs properly:

a) they should have known

b) they should have tested

c) they shouldn't have waited so long after a bunch of complaints rolled in.

d) they tried to cover stuff up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Criminal_prosecutions

 

Does anything you typed have anything to do with what I typed?  Nope.  Different subject.  Subject in case you never read, was that the water sources in the USA are massively polluted and unfit to drink. 

If you wish to say replace the pipes... Uh... Different subject again.  Subject

[TailingsPond + 1,013]

On 12/30/2021 at 4:14 PM, footeab@yahoo.com said:

 

As for drinking water... Is there anyplace in the world with better water quality than North America with a near equal in population?  No. 

You said "drinking water" not natural sources.  It only becomes drinking water after some treatment, chlorination, and distribution to customer.

Utilities understand that the distribution system needs to be handled as part of the process.  For example residual chlorine to prevent bacteria growth in pipes after it leaves the plant. 

It's all great that some river is pristine, but if what is coming out of the tap is garbage your "large population" is drinking low-quality water.

[TailingsPond + 1,013]

9 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Does anything you typed have anything to do with what I typed?

See quote above.

Drinking water is stuff that is actually consumed.

Edited January 1, 2022 by TailingsPond

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,194]

9 minutes ago, TailingsPond said:

You said "drinking water" not natural sources.  It only becomes drinking water after some treatment, chlorination, and distribution to customer.

Utilities understand that the distribution system needs to be handled as part of the process.  For example residual chlorine to prevent bacteria growth in pipes after it leaves the plant. 

It's all great that some river is pristine, but if what is coming out of the tap is garbage your "large population" is drinking low-quality water.

Uh, genius... no.  YOU changed it to drinking water in your own mind.  Last I checked, I was replying to FrankieCCPboy. 

[TailingsPond + 1,013]

11 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Uh, genius... no.  YOU changed it to drinking water in your own mind.  Last I checked, I was replying to FrankieCCPboy. 

Read your own words, I quoted you above.  Use the correct terminology if you want to be understood.

Now you're just running - this is a public forum.

Edited January 1, 2022 by TailingsPond

[frankfurter + 562]

4 hours ago, ronwagn said:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/31/china-blasts-walmart-and-sams-club-over-stupidity-/ China is trying to determine what the free world can do, buy, read, or whatever it wants. We must mock their attitude and their wishes if they are as crazy as they have been. The CCP does not represent most of the Chinese people and its territorial areas. 

Compliments, you are one of the best facts-twisters I have ever encountered. The Chinese have never told the world what it can and cannot do. You amurcuns have and do.  The article states clearly the Chinese are criticising the decision to pull products, which said pulling is based upon false pretenses.

[frankfurter + 562]

2 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Uh, genius... no.  YOU changed it to drinking water in your own mind.  Last I checked, I was replying to FrankieCCPboy. 

Well, whatever your strawman arguments, the fact remains: an entire community was poisoned, with effects that will endure a lifetime.  I suppose you find this acceptable?

[nsdp + 449]

I am going to take issue  on four of our presidents. Lincoln, Washinton,  FDR and Harry Truman.

On Whasington "The Greatest Man in the World. But King George reserved his greatest compliment for the adversary he never met. On hearing that George Washington would resign his commission and retire from power, the King said if true that made Washington the greatest man in the world. And this admiration must have continued, for many years later King George acquired for his personal library an engraving of Mount Vernon, the home of the man who had defeated him so many years before." https://www.computerimages.com/musings/george-washington-and-king-george.html Any of your leaders get that kind of complement?

As for MR Lincoln our greatest president, he held the US together in its greatest time of crisis, kept Great Britain and France(France went to Mexico instead) out of the civil war, issued the Emancipation Proclamation  and the Gettysburg Address( far surpasses anything Churchill did), started the formal abolition of slavery despite MAGA groups in the North. Started the Homestead Act and the Land Grant universities, MIT, Cornell,  Penn State,Purdue including Historically Black universities like Grambling, Alcorn State, Tennessee State and the Transcontinental Rail Road ( like building the Trans Siberian Railroad  during the First World War) to name a few.

FDR well he brought the US into WWII as a united nation rather than split as during WWI. The New Deal started US financial recovery, the LendLease Act with a tip of the hat to Canada for being the key to producing many materials  and food for Allies.   Environmental programs to end the  Dust Bowl and other disasters.

Harry Truman  ended segregation in  US military and civil service. There was and still remains more to be done. Those living in Europe better thank him  for your living standards arising from the Marshall Plan. The Berlin Airlift (along with pilots and planes fromGreat Britain, and pilots from Canada and France) is greatest peace keeping event in history.  His planning for the Surrender of Japan  created South Korea and  sponsored the resolution that made the UN  a co equal partner in defending when Stalin and Mao made a grab.  The democritization of Japan.   His management of the surrender of Japan saved 30-40million Japanese, Korean and Chinese civilian lives, use of another 10-15 atomic bombs.  Give credit for holding Stalin to sending troops to Manchuria preventing Japan from returning 1million  more troops to Japan to face a US, Aust, and GBEmprire (including 1.5 million troops from the Indian Army)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4uDfg38gyk  

book get the second edition.

Ok  SUVNV  and you loud mouths you give even ONE comparable foreign leader. Churchill, remember his handling of India.  In my opinion Mandela comes the closest.

Edited January 1, 2022 by nsdp
omited link

[SUZNV + 1,197]

1 hour ago, nsdp said:

I am going to take issue  on four of our presidents. Lincoln, Washinton,  FDR and Harry Truman.

On Whasington "The Greatest Man in the World. But King George reserved his greatest compliment for the adversary he never met. On hearing that George Washington would resign his commission and retire from power, the King said if true that made Washington the greatest man in the world. And this admiration must have continued, for many years later King George acquired for his personal library an engraving of Mount Vernon, the home of the man who had defeated him so many years before." https://www.computerimages.com/musings/george-washington-and-king-george.html Any of your leaders get that kind of complement?

As for MR Lincoln our greatest president, he held the US together in its greatest time of crisis, kept Great Britain and France(France went to Mexico instead) out of the civil war, issued the Emancipation Proclamation  and the Gettysburg Address( far surpasses anything Churchill did), started the formal abolition of slavery despite MAGA groups in the North. Started the Homestead Act and the Land Grant universities, MIT, Cornell,  Penn State,Purdue including Historically Black universities like Grambling, Alcorn State, Tennessee State and the Transcontinental Rail Road ( like building the Trans Siberian Railroad  during the First World War) to name a few.

FDR well he brought the US into WWII as a united nation rather than split as during WWI. The New Deal started US financial recovery, the LendLease Act with a tip of the hat to Canada for being the key to producing many materials  and food for Allies.   Environmental programs to end the  Dust Bowl and other disasters.

Harry Truman  ended segregation in  US military and civil service. There was and still remains more to be done. Those living in Europe better thank him  for your living standards arising from the Marshall Plan. The Berlin Airlift (along with pilots and planes fromGreat Britain, and pilots from Canada and France) is greatest peace keeping event in history.  His planning for the Surrender of Japan  created South Korea and  sponsored the resolution that made the UN  a co equal partner in defending when Stalin and Mao made a grab.  The democritization of Japan.   His management of the surrender of Japan saved 30-40million Japanese, Korean and Chinese civilian lives, use of another 10-15 atomic bombs.  Give credit for holding Stalin to sending troops to Manchuria preventing Japan from returning 1million  more troops to Japan to face a US, Aust, and GBEmprire (including 1.5 million troops from the Indian Army)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4uDfg38gyk  

book get the second edition.

Ok  SUVNV  and you loud mouths you give even ONE comparable foreign leader. Churchill, remember his handling of India.  In my opinion Mandela comes the closest.

I don't quite get your message you tried to send me with your listing  and I  don't have telepathic ability. If you didn't mention me in your post  I would guess you talk to someone else. 

If you talk about my observation that  US people don't trust the presidents in their terms, then I stand corrected. All of the great presidents you listed above had to overcome heavy criticism in their terms which made them even greater. 

[nsdp + 449]

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168323

23 hours ago, frankfurter said:

Valid points. Are you implying the US grid is somehow impervious? A grid that is crumbling before your eyes?  True, the greater threat is that posed by submarines.  I think we all can agree the superpowers have sufficient arsenal to destroy the world 100x over, though 1x is surely sufficient. The question is, who is gonna push the big red button, when, why?  Given the USA is the ONLY madhouse to have deployed nuclear against a CIVILIAN target, the prospect of a US 1st strike is higher than for other countries. 

 It is an either or choice for comrade Putin.  Either the US or NATO not a chance to get both.   As for the US I don't think Comrade Putin has the 850,000 smart weapons he needs.   Yes your grid is in sad shape but show me another major country that has less vulnerability.   At lest we studied our grid https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43604/6 and have stocked essential equipment to replace key damaged parts https://www.cbo.gov/publication/56254.  Canada comes closer than any other country I know.   If the US did a first strike anywhere  it would look like Baghdad in 1991 or 2003. Also you would know that we understand that  we would have to live with the consequences of a nuclear strike  and unlike you do not consider that to be an option.

If you get the National Geo   film you will have an elementary school understanding.

As for your very stupid A Bomb remark, get an education.  Japan planned a national Kamakazi  with 20-30 million civilians dead(10-15 atom bombs used) in Japan and about 400,0000 per month in areas outside Japan.    That does not count a million plus US military dead, plus a million Empire dead plus 4-5 million Chinese military dead.  Know what  you are talking about before you make another stupid remark.  It to convince Japan's scientists that the US had more than ones. it took two A Bombs plus the Russian invasion of Manchuria  to convince  the Emperor that it was over. It took Senior Army and Naval officers startin g with the war minister Anami committing hari kari  and a failed military coup to make the rest obey the Emperor.   Many places it took personal appearances by either the Prince Chichibu or Takamatsu ( brothers of  Hirohito)  to order surrender.

DM Giangreco aimed this book at people who ignore real history and invent their own.https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/168323

Edited January 1, 2022 by nsdp
missing link

[nsdp + 449]

On 12/31/2021 at 12:12 AM, frankfurter said:

Iimho, you have missed the point, entirely.  The Go Brandon is a fad.  Your question is why we see not such in other countries.  answer: Other people in other countries choose not to waste their attentions on fads.  How you Americans choose to worship and criticise your handlers is up to you. But what change is effected by this? None. If you kept your attentions internal, we would have little to discuss. The problem is the majority of you support your incessant invasions and mass murders of innocents, and those of you who do not support give only lip service to protests. The very few people who do try to stand for morals are eliminated or neutered, like Kennedy, King, Muhammed Ali, others. A president is murdered, yet no open trial, etc. Nothing has changed since 1960, nothing will change, and the world continues to suffer from you all.

You need to learn real history not some one's imagination of it. Kennedy had no morals and made the decision to start the killing of US Troops in Viet Nam. His response when pressured to abandon Diem was and I quote:

“We don’t have a prayer of staying, we' re going to throw our asses out of there at any point. But I can’t give up that territory to the communists and get the American people to re-elect me.”

On Labor Day 1963,  Kennedy sat for an interview with Walter Cronkite. “It’s their war,” Kennedy said, “but we shouldn’t withdraw.”https://nypost.com/2017/09/14/vietnam-reveals-the-folly-of-a-war-that-scarred-america/  Some morals. We were stuck until 1965.

There were 24 pilots in Vietnam on the day Kennedy took office. He immediately sent 400 green berets. There were 11,300 troops on 1/1/ 62 and 16.300 on 1/1/63 On the day Kennedy died we had another 7, 310 in transit to Vietnam.  Withdrawing 1000 troops in 1965 was not going to get every one home by Dec. 31 1965. 

AS to Muhammed Ali the Drs. will tell you:Boxing Great Muhammad Ali's 'Sad Decline' from Brain Damage Explored in New Biography. https://people.com/sports/muhammad-ali-brain-damage-explored-new-book/that is two out of three you've gotten wrong. In US Schools you would have been included in the  class for students with special needs or are you one of these who believes what he wants whether or not it is reality.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

16 hours ago, Strangelovesurfing said:

Americans don't have handlers, you do, quit projecting. Fads come and go in the US because the country has the luxury to entertain trends and fantasy's due to living on the most secure geography on Earth. When you aren't worried about someone attacking you, there's plenty of time to pick lint out of your belly button.

Kennedy was assassinated, his assassin was murdered shortly thereafter. How do you have a trial for a dead man? 

There are two types of trials in America, one is in a court room. The other is the long process of releasing movies and books after the fact and society eventually makes its own historical judgement. You don't understand this because it doesn't exist in your country. You swallow what the CCP feeds you and that's the end of it.

 

Americans do have handlers, as does everybody else in the West. This is done by tight control of your media/informational fodder. Things that don't require your input you simply don't know about. This is, for example, evident by the entirely ad hoc token issues defining your supposedly principal political divide - abortion and gun rights. Have you noticed, that those simply don't exist elsewhere? Have you wondered, why that is? In all actuality, are your politicians working for major corporate sponsors and the essence of their real work is no concern of yours. You don't pay them enough to do anything for you.

In an odd twist, you can see the scenario of absolutely everybody ganging up on just one guy they can no longer ignore, as evidenced by Trump. Who had 99.9% of all media and large portions of his own government apparatus rabidly hostile to him, inciting irrational hate of him on in a common American induhvidual? Incidentally, this is very similar to treatment experienced from your establishment by Russia, which otherwise had nothing in common with Trump. Can you explain to me why it is so? Spare me the usual arguments.

a) Trump was a racist, misogynist or otherwise insufficiently woke. Possible, but not extremely so. Do you remember the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, for example?

b) Trump was a buffoon, clown. Perhaps, but not the most extreme clown around. I mean Dan Quale? Sara Palin?

c) Trump was totally incompetent and a Luddite. That he was. Note that there was at least one "system candidate" running on a Luddite program identical to Trumps, namely Carly Fiorina, the stupid bitch who destroyed HP, one of the greatest American companies. So, is it about actually trying to deliver on his electoral promises, no matter how stupid? Indeed, it is not customary done.

Even the MAGA thing he likely lifted from here

In case you didn't know, Foreign Affairs is the official rag published by the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations

The muther of all American "think tanks" entasked with foreign policy, thusly representing some kind of bipartisan consensus. Otherwise I don't really know what it is about. This issue is very famous for its early prediction of resurgence of Russia and discovering the necessity of finishing it off before it's too late

All of which leads me to think that the only thing that was so wrong about Trump is that he was a genuine outsider having no handlers! Your Congressional elections are 100% predetermined, due to extensive gerrymandering at the level of electoral district. Senatorial/gubernatorial elections are about 80% predetermined and only the Presidential one is somewhat up for grabs. (To what exact extent being difficult to determine due to so little statistics available for it)

When somebody important gets assassinated, you ask a question of cui  bono? In Kennedy's case, largely the Brits. This is possible not in scope of our current conversation, but check out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O'Kennedy

Incidentally, this also represents the only grave violation of the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Emoluments_Clause

known to me, in an incident where JFK graciously accepted the present of O'Kennedy coat of arms and the title of the King of Ireland from the Irish Republic! I mean, does a royal title count as a foreign title of nobility? Nobody as much as bat an eyelash, so I supposed JFK acted regal enough? Suppose somebody did. I imagine the only way for JFK to wiggle out of it would be to shrug and say that the title was always rightfully his, anyway. Which does not exactly make it any easier for the British crown, regardless of whether it is true or not. Compare that to how many times they tried to nab Trump on the same clause for accepting whatever imaginary favors from Putin. Which is preposterous. The only way to quality on formal grounds would be for Putin to make Trump Hero of Russia. It's the only thing they've got that works remotely similar to aristocratic order of chivalrous knights. All the other Russian awards are just medals, they confer no titles, same as in US. It is also utterly impossible to nab a US politician for receiving cash from abroad on formal grounds. The very extensive collection of legalese that is your campaign financing laws can be summarized as "don't ask, don't tell" Note that this particular theory is the only one that also explains the "Kennedy curse" that is, as if somebody was after all the Kennedies, not just JFK. This is because royalty spreads like a venereal disease (or worse), so royal vendettas need to eliminate every single contender to the throne. Which has happened in the history of England a lot, most notably in the

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses

where the contenders, Lancaster and York clans eliminated every single male-line contender, leaving the throne to a very weak matrimonial claim of Tudors, which extinguished with the Liz I (the Virgin Queen) who put out for no one. Dunno if you'd like to know more? You'd need to have a basic background on who exactly determine who exactly determines who inherits what throne and how? As you may have notices, even the British royals, who run what is essentially still is an absolute monarchy do not seem to be entirely free to decide on that. To make the long story short, for a claim to the British throne (actually, all three Union thrones) to be legit, you better be a direct successor to this guy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I

Which the current grandma isn't really. Her grand children are though, by the way of Diane Spencer, their mom. Phil and Chuck (the Mountbatten) are nobody in particular after the plan to make them Kings of Greeks didn't fan out. Not really of acceptable royal blood. I have a very strong hunch, than when grandma finally croaks, there will be some motions for  Chuck to abdicate in favor of Bill & Kate, who are much more presentable.

There are other types of trials in US today. One is by a Federal Grand Jury, a secret tribunal that is under no obligation to even reveal what the exact charges are to anybody, including defendants attorney. For example is Julian Assange dealing with one now. This medieval artifact of the British common law (aka law for commoners) is known to remain operational only in US and Liberia, likely the most terrifying of all African shitholes. Welcome to the club.

The other one is instantaneous and extrajudicial lynching by the cancel culture, destroying somebody's livehood. Examples are the producer Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey. Waiting for a historical judgement on that. No, not really. If it isn't by the book, it isn't much of a law. For example, in LA county is DUI manslaughter potentially a misdemeanor. Obviously, nowhere else. This tells us something how your law is treating entertainment celebrities when the cameras are off, don't it? Most of the body of your common law is sufficiently vague to be applicable (or not applicable) in entirely ad hoc way. These parts are the ones of relevance to you. The statutes of interest to Uncle Sam, such as commercial and taxation codes are meticulously codified. Unlike you, does Uncle Sam knows his rights (and always grabs more

Thesis. US is entirely lawless. Prove me wrong! You cannot conceivably accuse a Russian of drinking the CCP kool aid and dismiss.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

4 hours ago, nsdp said:

You need to learn real history not some one's imagination of it. Kennedy had no morals and made the decision to start the killing of US Troops in Viet Nam. His response when pressured to abandon Diem was and I quote:

“We don’t have a prayer of staying, we' re going to throw our asses out of there at any point. But I can’t give up that territory to the communists and get the American people to re-elect me.”

On Labor Day 1963,  Kennedy sat for an interview with Walter Cronkite. “It’s their war,” Kennedy said, “but we shouldn’t withdraw.”https://nypost.com/2017/09/14/vietnam-reveals-the-folly-of-a-war-that-scarred-america/  Some morals. We were stuck until 1965.

There were 24 pilots in Vietnam on the day Kennedy took office. He immediately sent 400 green berets. There were 11,300 troops on 1/1/ 62 and 16.300 on 1/1/63 On the day Kennedy died we had another 7, 310 in transit to Vietnam.  Withdrawing 1000 troops in 1965 was not going to get every one home by Dec. 31 1965. 

AS to Muhammed Ali the Drs. will tell you:Boxing Great Muhammad Ali's 'Sad Decline' from Brain Damage Explored in New Biography. https://people.com/sports/muhammad-ali-brain-damage-explored-new-book/that is two out of three you've gotten wrong. In US Schools you would have been included in the  class for students with special needs or are you one of these who believes what he wants whether or not it is reality.

You need to learn some history yourself. In all the local conflicts, would you find the great colonial powers and especially the reigning hegemony sitting on all the chair at once. Also, in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh initially had just as many advocates within the US administration as Diem, recognizing them for what they really were - forces of Vietnamese liberation from colonial yoke, i.e. Vietnamese nationalists.  IMHO, would be the most obvious lesson to learn from the Korean war. What cast the vote again Minh is him signing up as a client of USSR. Simply proclamations of adherence to Marxism-Leninism never interested anyone. Case in point the Khmer Rouge / Pol Pot, who also professed to be Commies, but were a client of USA instead of USSR and actually at war with Vietnam.

USA had more hardware than the French and spend more money on the region than them during the French wars in Indochina, without even participating in the hostilities. You are perpetuating some official fairy tales. Uncle Sam is hardly ever as unprepared as you think.

Muhammed Ali send all the wrong messages to the disadvantaged children interested in boxing carrier. Dance like a Butterfly? Get an early onset of Parkinson's. I recommend going the George Foreman way, Have a gorilla-shaped skull and a pea-sized brain. Make millions selling BBQ grills in your older days!

The rationale for that should be obvious. You cannot compete with the mutants. There is this Chechen youth who first made the rounds for having a neck thicker than his head and for actually breaking those county fair punching bag apparatuses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjcvuQucElY

Actually, I haven't found any footage of a device actually breaking, because they probably got in trouble for that, but found this footage of a more sophisticated one which gave the readout of some 979 kgs-force units in the trial before its last. This appears to be more than any heavyweight boxer ever formally measured on such a device. Tyson, for example, punched 644 kgs. Maybe you've got more data.  I am seeing a lot of psi units of pressure translated via specifically sized contact patch on the glove, which is unnecessarily vague.  Supposedly, the evil Russian Ivan Drago from Rocky punched enough psi to translate to 4 tons. Were this really the case, Rocky would've had no chance. We are talking about manually collapsing wimpier highway overpasses and such. Anyhow, this be coming from a 16-year old amateur.

As far as gorilla skulls, they also exists. I've got one, for example. As it turns out, my head got an

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittal_crest

like a pithecathrop. Found out after (barely) surving a dive head first into asphalt from about 3 stories high The anthropologists called this sort of thing "robust features" Anatomically modern humans, aka Cromagnon skulls are not supposed to have any. Those supposed to have died out due to growth in cranial capacity. There is at least one known anomaly to that - Neanderthals. Whose skulls are more "robust" than Cromagnon (have more bone) but also have a higher cranial capacity (1200 vs 1400 cc average) The fad about whether modern humans have any Neanderthal DNA is changing back-and-forth, but it is safe to say that African people are least likely to have any, with Neanderthals being a European phenomenon only. So, what's the deal with George Forman and it there a correlation between intelligence and head size?

Behold the amazing cranium of Oprah Winfrey.

https://brainsize.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/the-brain-size-of-the-worlds-most-successful-woman/

Who happens to be a possession of a largest known female cranium to the best of knowledge of US military while simultaneously being the single richest self-made female. Can we infer something from just this one example? I would be inclined to say that in this exceptional case, we may. For example, we could infer that those in the possession of gorilla skull without the brain being pea size, tend to choose a different career path to professional boxing? It'd be interesting to know if Oprah's amazing skull is "robust" Alas, political correctness prevents such inquiries. In general, comparing statistical samples of vastly different sizes, like the "Bell Curve" is doing, is a no-no.

Disadvantages. Nobody makes a motorcycle helmet Oprah's size. Allegedly she usually wears two wigs, one on top of each other, to obfuscate the size of her head. The

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Crown_of_Hungary

is also too small. Too bad. Apparently, the Hungarian Constitution says that whoever wears the hat, rules Hungary. So, can I just go put it on? It may be just large enough for me, or maybe not due to the very odd shape. Who did it originally belong too, Atilla? Most modern wearers had to wear another hat underneath to a coronation

I have been able to find a fitting motorcycle helmet made by an obscure Indian company (my head circumference is about 600cm, Oprah's 620) I don't really have a motorcycle, just choose to not let CCTV record my mugshot sometimes.

We have also firmly established that Islam actually does appear to be a positive factor in combat sports (see the Chechen youth) If you are a Muslim woman, there is no telling what you can do, given the unique right to fully disguise yourself most jurisdictions grant. I think they should be robbing banks more often?

Here is an interesting way this has been challenged here in Austria

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-14135523

where a fellow won a right to wear a noodle strainer on his head for his official EU Id mugshot on religious grounds (he is a devout pastafarian) I wish I was equally slick and could restate my affinity for wearing motorcycle helmets indoors as a religious conviction. Which it obviously is.

[QuarterCenturyVet + 312]

12 minutes ago, Wombat One said:

I disagree. We certainly could do without the CCP, but I think about half the Chinese pop'n would agree with us on that?

Clearly, as an aussie, you're well aware that a logical majority is irrelevant. 

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

23 minutes ago, Wombat One said:

UNSW researchers set world record in solar energy efficiency | UNSW Newsroom

About us | Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering - UNSW Sydney

Reports of beating the efficiency records are several a day. 40% efficiency is kinda racy for an outfit that simply took OTC cells and "used them in a new way" My guess is, the result is a combination of

a) Your ozone hole being still around?

b) Sizeable optical concentration device?

c) A box providing cryogenic cooling?

Sorry, the only description of the experiment is what I can see in the picture, which kinda makes it somewhat less than serious. What I happen to know is that PV cells routinely achieve efficiencies in excess of 40% in outer space. Actually, you can buy production cells rated at 40% efficiencies on Earth from the likes of Boeing Spectralab already

https://www.spectrolab.com/photovoltaics.html#space_arrays

With usual caveats

a) Those are not exactly planar devices. Some kind of optical concentration is employed.

b) Those are full-spectrum triple junction cells, made out of 3+ layers of different exotic semitransparent semiconductors. A total waste at the ground level, where there is mostly IR. So, their 40% is probably measured under optimal conditions on top of mount Everest?

As far as what is really out in any practical sense seems to be the so called HJT (heterojunction) cells.Those are also usually three, but they are not all optically transparent, with the middle one being bulk silicone. The effects seems to be a purely semiconductor one, with a layer of a-Si of opposing p- and n- doping direction somehow compensating for the bulk silicone being crappy polycrystalline grade of ad hoc granularity. Can't say that I understand those. They weren't around when I was in PV business development (before 2008 crisis) Anyway, these things are peaking at some 23%. Surprised to find a Russian company among the leaders

https://www.hevelsolar.com/en/

Ah, just bumped their efficiency claim to over 24% (caveat - as measured at a -26°C ambient

Now, those guys appear to be associates of Mr. Vekselbergs Renova group (one of the more stupid Russian oligarchs) They ended up with PV manufacturing equipment arm of Swiss Oerlikon corporation, a total lemon. In quick succession, Oerlikon spun off the shop and sold it to useful idiots in Austria, who sold it to Vekselberg's useful idiots, who sold it to the Russian government. (Rosnano, an officially designated pit of corruption immune to Western sanctions on the account of great damage their leader, Mr. Chubais has done to Russian economy) Everybody was making fun of these guys. Alas, I can see they learned the old Silicon Valley adage. Fake it till you make it! The Russian government kicked Vekselbergs ass and made him buy off the product his ex-Oerlikon equipment made. Which is what Hevel is. Now, why do I have my doubts that Australia can keep up. Have you gotten anybody with an expertise in thin film semiconductor manufacturers, like equipment making displays? No? Than you need some start up making it, with your best hope being regular CVD/PVD guys like these.

https://australianvacuumservices.com/thin-film-deposition

Now, why was Oerlikon for sale? It turns out they had a competitor in Hungary, called EnergoSolar, which actually had prior art on all of their IP, was much cheaper and actually ended up hiring all their staff away, starting with the CEO. For the Western purposes, all of their IP was shared and attributable to this fellow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvind_Victor_Shah

whose main distinction is being a skilled Persian carpet salesman. Persian scientists are known to write the best grant proposals! I think I could also get some Ali Rahimi, PhD, MIT to write just about anything for me and have it cited much. From that article I just found something new. Oerlikon PV manufacturing equipment was sold to Tokio Electron (like the second biggest name in the business) who closed the shop  (called TEL Solar) at somewhere over 12% efficiency (normal for basic a-Si) So, there are Japanese useful idiots too? Did they ever realize they got sold an 1950-ties Soviet research institute of vacuum deposition tech from  Novosibirsk, which USSR relocated to Budapest in some Comicon parts exchange with the Huns? This was obviously before somebody came up with the HJT sandwich with bulk, which is better than the sum of its individual parts.

So, why there is hope yet for backward and remote countries like Australia? See, all the equipment positioned to make thin-film semiconductor parts is way too complicated for solar cells. It is largely shared with cutting edge equipment making thin film displays, which is an overkill. You can think of a cell as a display with an individual pixel a few centimeters across. Proofs

a) At some point, AMAT (Applied Materials) landed in Hungary in full force and bribed and stomped all the local resistance. Any Hungarian official will simply pretend that EnergoSolar doesn't exist. Amazing what amount of damage a major American corporation can do in our backwoods. I remember them as modest and struggling company who employ the parents of my friend Yuri.

Alas, EnergoSolar is still around and appears to be doing something like facilities management? officially. The Hun psyche is very flexible. I've actually seen a miraculous device they simultaneously pitched to EU as a) An oven to burn "elephant grass" A nasty, cellulose-rich shrub so polluted with silicates that it would clog conventional burners b) Vacuum deposition device for making solar cells.

My take on it is as follows. The thin-film semiconductor manufacturing community is interested in keeping the status quo. They are working on bumping up the resolutions as far as possible, so they can bridge the transistor density gap with photographically guys. Take Jobs supposedly not seeing pixels anymore on iPhone's Retina display that was 2560 x 1600. I know for a fact that this is BS. I own two panels made by the same plant (used to be LG Phillips, now just LG)  in the same resolution 2560 x 1600 in the same IPS tech, one is 30" and another 17" (Being 16:10 aspect, most of those go into various Macs/Apple widgets) For 30" it looks just right. For 17" everything is too small. I often have to scale everything up by 125%-150% (whatever it means, it is still broken in Windows for 16:10 aspects and I've got yet another Microsoft intern to kill) Also note this interesting observation

2560 x 1600 = 4096000 (which is already quite 4K)

The official 4K resolution works out to be

3840 x 2160 = 8294400 (which is actually south of 8K) AFAIK, all that any computer desktop UI does at this resolution is using a pixel that is 2x2 box of actual pixels its got, with possible exception of rendering text.  You are the useful idiot paying for these activities in terms of lowered battery life and yet faster hardware to move the data.

Using 16:9 widescreen ratios derived from consumer TV is always to your detriment, because it works out to a repeating fraction 1.(7) So, you can always drag a Windows screen somewhere where you cannot grab it back on such a screen. There are no reports of this ever happening on Apples, but only because they use 16:10 screens throughout (works out to 1.6 exact) Something similar in binary. Microsoft, however accidentally, possible introduced something even better for laptops with "Surface" aspect ratio of 3:2 (1.5) Highly recommended.

The situation is even worse on the receiver end. There is (was?)  once a sensor called

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foveon_X3_sensor

which stacked 3 individual receptor sites over each other, separately for RGB wavelength. Alas, Sigma seems to have caved in and got into megapixel race, shipping matrices with 60+ megapixels, which are still not moire free like X3 was at much lower res. What do we learn? The bulk silicon part of the sandwich can obviously be improved by similar means! It is possible to have semitransparent layers out of bulk silicon alone, optimized for different wavelengths. Not sure whether it makes sense to include the blue site for a PV cell, due to blues being largely Raleigh-scattered, but see for yourself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation

b) There is actually a peculiar organization making solar cells in most imaginably ghetto style possible, by bath immersion, called First Solar, which use CdTe (cadmium telluride) This

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_telluride_photovoltaics

says they are using some kind of PVD process, but we don't have to believe them, do we? Either way, they are making their own production equipment? You know how econ and business textbooks tell you about vertical integration being wrong/obsolete and high specialization always good. Wrong. These guys single-handedly make out pretty much all of the world market for tellurium metal. So, they can also afford to take their own old batteries back in for recycling and have a special EU exemption from ROHS specs limiting use of toxic cadmium. They can make pretty much as many batteries as there is tellurium feedstock.

The efficiency has not improved a bit since 2011, at a very respectable 16%

https://www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/first-solar-sets-record-for-cdte-solar-efficiency-072811

It seems that their niche is near complete indifference to overheat. Incidentally, the best purely thin film triple junction silicon cells also seem  to have crapped out at 16% in 2011

https://www.cleanenergyauthority.com/solar-energy-news/unisolar-breaks-thin-film-pv-efficiency-record-071511

These guys are defunct, but for reasons possibly not related to PV, being part of this rather advanced organization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Conversion_Devices

Can anybody explain why it makes so much difference to make the middle part bulk Si? A heatsink? Don't think I follow it.

If I have to come up with a native advantage for Australia, I'd bet on the fluoride toxins the local shrubs supposedly feature? Natural Novichoks, so to say, got to be good for chemically etching stuff. This is why your local fauna is ever so slightly deranged. They are not immune to the stuff, only more resistant. Also why there is no danger in bunny rabbits overrunning them.  Remove the lush greenery caused by European settlers and artificial irrigation, and they'll die out on their own.

AFAIK, It is pretty much impossible to experiment with CVD/PVD in Europe, because technical gases are not available for sale. Imagine that. I can buy any solid or liquid reagent, but pressurized gases I have to rent! (Technically, the rent is for the cans) There are only three providers, obviously forming a cartel. In a special case of unusually backward country like Austria, I'd have to cut a bespoke deal to get the basic essentials like silan, because apparently nobody has ever requited such a thing before.  Than, I will have to convince every minor government official left and right that it is not, indeed, toxic waste.

Actually, if that issue could be solved there is a better market to approach - dry cleaning! There are some Italians making the rounds pitching dry cleaning based on supercritical fluid extraction using some kind of silicone solvent. It is very through and the only byproduct of the process is regular sand! Got no traction from EU so far. No silicones listed as environmentally benign and/or suitable for dry cleaning, only for artificial tits? The EU likely needs more employees featuring artificial tits and their connoisseurs to promote the idea of silicone being fundamentally good? I am sure Italy sends plenty.

On a more serious note, every sufficiently advanced startup needs to incorporate in the US. Than, you can safely operate in Europe doing whatever the heck you want, too. It is pointless to reason with Eurofag officials. They do understand the language of American boot very well.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

3 hours ago, Wombat One said:

"Hence, Russia's foreign policy is increasingly reaching for military instruments when it comes to relations with the US&NATO". 

Therein lies the problem?

The US & NATO have focussed on "soft power" in order to create a "loose Euro-Russian alliance" whilst Russian paranioa and dreams of empire still persist and as always, lead to an arms race which will bankrupt Russia, leading to further hostility, which increases Russian paranoia and leads to an even greater arms race, which bankrupts Russia, leading to further Russian paranoia.....  

Of course, the more the Russian people suffer, the more they love Putin? I can see how well it works for him, but the rest of Eastern Europe seem to have voted with their feet?

Overdramatized. Russia has yet to resort to military instruments in dealing with European NATO. Most of the brushes with US have been covered up by mutual consent. These were all during USSR times and resoundly won by USSR.

US, of all people, have done anything but enable a "Euro-Russian alliance" If you don't believe me, listen to George Friedman of STRATFOR fame giving talks. Preventing German-Russian alliance happens to be his pet peeve. As far as the Eurofags are concerned, their opinion does not interest anyone in US. Did you know that both USSR and post-USSR Russia actually tried to apply for NATO membership and were refused? For obvious reasons of NATO being a solution looking for a problem.

There is not going to be an arms race that might bankrupt Russia in any way, because before USSR has left the building, it resoundly won the arms race for good. So, Russia is actually speaking from a position of unassailable military strength. Regardless of how much larger the Western collective GDPs are.  Unfortunately for us, very few outside of the highly specialized military intelligence outlets have an understanding of this, giving us an impasse. Because Russia actually has zero interest in attacking anybody  in the West first. Most Russians actually quite like and admire the West (on the account of lack of familiarity with the subject, if nothing else) The new overzealous Eastern members running ahead of the NATO steamroller in their hostility to Russia are, of course, a security threat for everybody involved.

The "rest of Eastern Europe" voted with their feet after a through

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lustration

of their government and security apparatus of any potential loyalists of the previous setup and replacing them with US/NATO shills weened on various "grants" This went far beyond how far the German de-Nazification policies went after WWII (they went nowhere. all the Nazis officials kept their positions till around the student protests of 67-68, when they were usually old enough to retire anyway)

"Soft power" as in spreading vicious lies about Russia? In this case yes, there is a lot of this. Russians are not really suffering, or at least not more than ever before. What exactly did you mean by that? Like getting poorer or something else?

Edited January 1, 2022 by Andrei Moutchkine

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

48 minutes ago, Wombat One said:

True, and I believe that the sooner we take on the CCP, the fewer casualties we will suffer, but the whole world now knows that global wars are fought for resources, not freedom these days, and we should be quite open about the fact that the CCP has no right to gobble up the entire world's resources and emit more greenhouse gases than the rest of the world combined? Not now, not ever?

Ah, an actual half-truth. How is the "CCP" (you probably meant the whole country of PRC in this case) In what way did the Chinese gobble up your resources, except for paying market prices for them?

How much of that stuff they "gobbled" they did to manufacture your stuff? If you were to do it yourself, you wouldn't be able to afford much. Ditto for the greenhouses. How much of it is your manufacturing offload?

On a per-capita basis, is a Chnese induhvidual significantly more economical than you, being from a "first world" country.

The "greenhouse gases" issue, if anybody were to take it seriously, likely has technical solutions. Why should anybody take it serious. It looks like a neocolonial plot to tax the developing economies for the privilege of developing to me. Remember the ozone hole? How come we never hear about it anymore? It appears to be still there. The Chinese, being the manufacturers of most of fluorocarbons involved, had most of the hoops to jump through. Everybody's household cooling appliances became significantly crappier, having to replace fluorocarbons with something either flammable or corrosive. Industrial HVAC/aircon equipment prevalent in the West changed jack. They simply switched to a different fluorocarbon that is actually more volatile and would be more damaging to the ozone layer according to the original logic of fighting the ozone hole. If only there was any truth to it. Which there isn't. I have a much better explanation as to why the ozone hole is an entirely natural thing that unlikely has anything to do at all with any human-made fluorocarbon.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

2 hours ago, Wombat One said:

I disagree. We certainly could do without the CCP, but I think about half the Chinese pop'n would agree with us on that?

Who is you? Pretentious first-world shmucks who figured it all out, or so they think. (It is safe to say that you misjudge the opinion of half the Chinese population) I'll explain it to you. The CCP primary governance principle is meritocracy. As opposed to Western proposition of (phony) democracy, which is some kind of popularity contest if I understand it right? Do you not see that there is some amount of strength in this alternative? As far a fascist streak, it appears to be typical for every effective Chinese/Far Eastern government. What is the principal difference between the kind of Chinese ethno-fascism you find in the mainland PRC, vs the Taiwanese and Singapore variety of the same? I don't see any. As far as Australia is concerned, I think your government easily exceeded the Chinese on the amount of fascism dispensed, despite being ah so woke, upbeat and democratic-like.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

2 hours ago, Wombat One said:

Have you not heard of "the Silent Invasion"? China has control of all the world's trade routes, the arteries of the world. They have armed troops in Tibet, Hong Kong, have claimed the Phillipines Sea, the Senkaku Islands, Laos, Pakistan, Iran, and many, many other countries. There are more "puppet-states" of China than there ever were under British colonial rule. The CCP are the biggest hypocrites the world has ever known.

China does not have control of most of the world's trade routes. In a military sense, most are controlled by US. You can expect the Chinese to squeeze the Americans out of their immediate neighborhood soon enough, but that's about it. In a commercial sense, they are no better than 4th largest ship owners out there, after Greece, Denmark and Japan. The more abstract functions like shipping insurances or certifications are firmly in the hands of the West or most advanced Western allies in Asia Pacific, like Japan and Singapore. Did I forget anything?

What is wrong with the Chinese having armed troops in Tibet and Hong Kong? Not that I thought that it was generally the case, but that happens to be territories generally recognized as being under their governance? What if there are Australian troops in Tasmania? The actual PLA (the Army) is not intended for fighting their own citizens. They've got more police-like armed goons for that, same as everywhere.

The Chinese "puppet states" arise by owing money to the Chinese, given out in form of development credit. The same money is usually available from the IMF at the lowest rates, but most strings attached. EBRD (EU) is likely more of the same. There is also the Asian Development Bank (currently, a proxy for Japanese capital, but intended to become a tool of the ASEAN also) The CHinese are obviously interested in recasting their infrastructure financing in form of BRICS, but everybody else in this group is currently too broke to play. There were hardly any upsides for those under the British colonial rule. It was all stick with no carrot. Nobody has as many puppets as Uncle Sam, who uses both.

You sure managed to bump a bunch of issues that have nothing to do with each other. I am pretty certain that Chinese claimed no lands from Pakistan and Iran, who are genuinely Chinese allies of sorts getting something out of the mutual relationship. Pakistan depends on China for maintaining any resemblance of parity with India in weapons tech, while being a major distraction for same from the Chinese POV. The Chinese energy security depends on buying oil from Iran. They will do so even when faced with whatever sanction treats from US. This makes Iran significantly more resilient economically. The Strait of Hormuz and eventually whatever the entrance to the Red Sea is called is going to remain as critical a choke point as ever, so Chinese can be expected to be arming Iran. So are the Russians, BTW. AFAIK, the Chinese did not lay claim for the the Phillipines Sea, only for the Spratley islands there? The Chinese claim for Senkaku Islands is incredibly weak and they know it. They simply hate everything Japanese. (a sentiment shared with pretty much everybody else on the region) Should the Japanese show a minimal amount of remorse for WWII, like the Germans did, the situation will change. Laos owes money to the Chinese. What did you offer them except from minefields left from the time of Vietnam war? The Chinese just bankrolled a swanky new high-speed rail line into Laos, which nobody really needs. Until they patch it further to Thailand, that is.

[SUZNV + 1,197]

6 hours ago, Andrei Moutchkine said:

1 Americans do have handlers, as does everybody else in the West. This is done by tight control of your media/informational fodder. Things that don't require your input you simply don't know about. This is, for example, evident by the entirely ad hoc token issues defining your supposedly principal political divide - abortion and gun rights. Have you noticed, that those simply don't exist elsewhere? Have you wondered, why that is? In all actuality, are your politicians working for major corporate sponsors and the essence of their real work is no concern of yours. You don't pay them enough to do anything for you.

 

2 US is entirely lawless. Prove me wrong! You cannot conceivably accuse a Russian of drinking the CCP kool aid and dismiss.

That is precisely my point. US is a weird combination between 1 and 2 which is very hard to understand especially with Europe or Asia cultures. US wasn't directly influenced by French Revolution, Marxism, proletarian international and socialism in Europe. Recent movements are just came from the seeds  of the Cold War Era. No one understand more about the US than the Soviet Union.

I don't really understand how the Founding fathers can lead a bunch of selfish "mob", everyone for himself, to fight for freedom and  then designed a very decentralized system aka individualism. I bet even the founders would amaze how things turned out.

Yes, in history there are slavery, peasants or proletariats revolutions/rebels but they were from desperate survival situations or when the aristocrats class has no power of control left and was in downward trend. The closest rebel may be the Spartacus.

If we consider every country is a big organization and look at organizational and human behavior aspect, then most of the systems in Europe and Asia countries social  values are more about Mechanistic Model while the US social values are more about Organic Model.  

The handle in Mechanistic Model is quite easy to understand, things are centralized with structure, with lots of regulations/expectation to bound things together, you can stir the wheel and the whole car will go toward desired direction. When the wheel is broken, then good luck in stirring.

To handle in Organic model is much much more decentralized and self healing, with minimal fixed regulations/values/codes and everything else  move freely in chaos and no one knows which shapes and forms and structure it will become to adapt to the surrounding environment.  Anything against the core codes/values will be destroyed.  The end of the slavery in Civil War is just a consequences as it is against the codes. 

 

It is impossible to win against US in  a direct war after WW2. And it is very hard to stir an organic model to the favor a direction, but have to break down the US fundamentals/codes/values first, to turn the code to something else or to add more codes. This is the 45 goals the Soviet planned to decay US gradually from within, written since 1960s.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/naked-communist45-goals-destroy-united-states-america-waghelstein

After the cold war, US people thought they won the Cold War but didn't realize the seeds was planned from within. The codes changed, more codes was added with immigrations and ideologies from other countries as a result of globalization which make the organic model shifting toward mechanic model gradually.

US people are busy with life and media and take the convenient life, and wealth for granted and want to match the welfare standard in Europe without realizing that is why France, Germany cannot keep up in recession time.

The continual shifting toward Mechanistic model give the US politicians got more handler and more powerful as the welfare system was designed for the very unfortunate, not for people to freely choose between "work" and "life". Once a person purposely chooses "life" over "work", he and his family is held hostage by the politicians. 

I don't really know which model US would shift toward to in future and how long would it take to change the direction.

US businesses take incredibly risks on startup with venture capital in organic model as "fortune favors the brave" but they want to turn things into Mechanistic model to manage risks , especially with global corporation public stocks. 

If you are immigrants just keep the US core values expectation, you should be okay. I found US is the most friendly to adapt for immigrants with lots of opportunities. 

I won't get into the debate between pros and cons of each model because of the values/codes of a culture may change. We have success or failure example for both and a success now is not a guarantee for no failures in the future. But I will give example for illustration for now:

Mechanistic Model:

Success: Singapore with Lee Kuan Yew,  Korea with Park Chung Hee, China (for now), arguably Japan and Germany.

Failure: Countless in history, Empire rise and fall. 

Organic Models:

Success: USA , but the trend is shifting toward Mechanistic model.

Failure: Arguably Myanmar,  Afghanistan and many African countries. However these are only decentralized up to tribal levels, not at the individual levels like the US yet it is decentralized  enough so it is incredibly hard to change/improve.

Exception:

India, although lots of hierarchies  in Caste system yet very decentralized. I would guess it is stuck right in the middle without the trend to shift to any direction. I don't know should I count this in success or failure.

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by SUZNV

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

3 hours ago, Wombat One said:

Yes indeed Andrei, that is the whole point of the Euro-Russian alliance. So that we can share our common bigotry? Why should Russia and Europe and the USA fight with each other when we share a common ancestry whilst those with ambition to enslave us all cheer from the sideline? It is nearly past time for Russia to join the modern world. This may be your last chance to do so peacefully.

There is no Euro-Russian alliance, for as long as there is the US. Otherwise, it would make a lot of sense.

USA interest in not having anybody overtake them in military and financial power, of course. This includes their dear EU allies. Otherwise, see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides_Trap

Who is the modern world, you, the "first world?" A little bit past you prime, i shall think. You are clearly a waning civilization of post-modernism, moral relativism and post-truth. Going down the drain soon enough, IMHO. Also IMHO, is Russia actually resurgent. At the very least, an also-run at has been for the last 1000 years or so. Do so peacefully or what? You gonna kick our ass? Just you, the Aussies, or the mighty Kiwis too? You have been rather lucky in not having much of business relationship with Russia. Check out this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKPoBTlsn2c

(Sorry, could not find anything but an Indonesian source on it quick enough) There has been a first ever friendly visit of a Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber to Indonesia. And indeed, why not? The specified range is 12,300 km. The weapons stand off range is over 5500km

https://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/missile-threat-and-proliferation/todays-missile-threat/russia/kh-101102/

What would be your interception plans for an aircraft that goes Mach 2.3 fast and kills from 5000 km away? How many targets you've got worthy of nuking? Like three, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth? One shall be enough then. That's like Soviet 70-ties tech with only minor upgrades. I just found some finished 80-ties parts they never rolled out yet.

[Andrei Moutchkine + 828]

4 hours ago, Wombat One said:

It sounds like the steroids are affecting your cognitive abilities.

Mine? Aren't you an Australian? So what's your stake in this? The Australian participation will have a negligible effect, something upon which everybody agrees. Since you have no formal obligations to NATO, staying out is the only logical thing you can do. Now, before going out, USSR had won the arms race. That most people don't realize. But, rest assured that using any kind of "hard power" is playing to one strength that Russia's got actually got. So, you are welcome to try. It hasn't happened yet, because Russia (and later day USSR before it) has no interest whatsoever in attacking anybody West and no obvious benefit from doing so. Could you enlighten me to why on Earth should we be doing it? The Russian threat is as manufactured as it ever was.

[Boat + 1,325]

The social media row erupted after U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law on Dec. 23 legislation banning imports from Xinjiang over concern about forced labour there. 

 

  Walmart is the latest foreign firm to be tripped up by Western pressure over Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs and other minority Muslims in Xinjiang and China's importance as a market and supply base. 
 

I always thought China, Russia, Iran and N Korea should be dealt with through trade. So old man Biden is doing more than our previous presidents attempting to train the Chinese on how to treat people. Not enslave them. The old fart still allows flaring and millions of leaking wells. Can’t have everything. Die from pollution but with increased decency has a sketchy ring to it.