mostly_links_to_ssc
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User ID: 1097
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Sexy and adult: Conan the Barbarian. Show the climb from reaver to king, in a picturesque, episodic tale. The 1982 movie is great, but making it a TV series lets you add a sense of progression, call-backs and brick jokes.
Family fun: Might be done to death but I would just do King Arthur again. Keep the basic structure of random boy turns out to be good king, add all kinds of fantasy adventure. Or maybe make your own live action, western Isekai, bringing the genre to a mainstream western audience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nord_Stream_gas_leaks#The_leaks
Pipe // Location [of leak]
Nord Stream 2 pipe A // exclusive economic zone of Denmark
Nord Stream 2 pipe A // exclusive economic zone of Sweden
Nord Stream 1 pipe A // exclusive economic zone of Sweden
Nord Stream 1 pipe B // exclusive economic zone of Denmark
If you look at a map, the three clustered explosions sits right at the border between Sweden and Denmarks economic zones. The fourth explosion looks out-of-place, why make the effort to make it happen clearly in the Danish economic zone? And was there a point in putting the three clustered explosions right at the border (maybe someone is a fan of the Bron TV series?)? It might just be that this is where most of the shipping goes so it's a good place to blend in with the crowd though.
One under-discussed thing: the explosions were planned to take place in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. What was the point of this? Is it a provocation against Sweden and Denmark? I guess placing them on international waters makes it easier for whoever wants to to investigate (or harder, given how crowded it could get).
EDIT: I suck at geography: all of the Baltic is someones economic zone. But still, why make the effort to drag both Sweden and Denmark into this? The obvious reason is to make the investigation harder by making it cross-national, I guess.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
If Russia did it, I wouldn't expect anyone to present solid evidence anytime soon. The Swedish investigation is probably what would announce that, and they are far from done yet. What makes you think otherwise?
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
The Baltic is also full of Russian ships, who operates without their actions being condoned by NATO. Sure, if Russia did it, the US probably has great hydrophone recordings of everything that happened. But they aren't going to go public with that: you don't want to expose your capabilities.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
The US sent a Navel vessel into the Baltic for the first time in two decades.
You are misunderstanding, and bordering on misinformation. The US send an* amphibious assault ship* into the Baltic for the first time in two decades. The US sends ships into the Baltic all the time. Quick google example, USS Oak Hill visits Poland in 2018. https://pl.usembassy.gov/oak_gallery/
I mean, your metaphor is more than fair to the Kremlin perspective, but it still has Russia in the wrong. Even if I have your cousin in a long-term rental contract, and I harass him, and I siphon your electricity, and I'm about to invite my ex-con gun nut friend, you are still not justified in blowing up my house. Especially not if you are going to do it with me still inside it. If you decided to do so, it wouldn't be unprovoked in the strict sense, but you would still be acting wildly out of proportion to the actual offense.
While scary, the metaphorical neighborhood spat is not a situation that justifies violent self-defense. On the other hand, if I see you entering my property with the bomb on you back, I'm quite justified to shoot you in defense (at least according to Rittenhouse morals). And if I shoot you from inside the house as you bring your bomb with intent to blow both house and me to smithereens, it's a clear-cut case of self defense.
Instead, you could maybe spend a small percentage of the money you would spend on the bomb and use it to get your cousin out of the situation. You can also negotiate with all your other friendly neighbors for your electric cable, they all liked you and would be happy to host it (before you did the bomb plan, now they don't trust you for obvious reasons). The ex-con gun nut you can't stop, but he's already hanging out at all your other neighbors anyway. And he might actually be quite friendly once you get to know him. (Also maybe you guys could re-negotiate the deal you used to have* about not having the worst kinds of intermediate-range guns laying around?)
*until you broke it.
But it's all just metaphors.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Does anyone know a good overview of prisoners of war in the Russian invasion of Ukraine? I would like to see an estimate on the number of POWs on each side, an explanation on how prisoner exchanges work at the low level, and how the POW balance impacts the war on a high level. E.g. does the recent events in Lyman change the POW balance in a significant way, and does this have any knock-on effects?
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Russia hasn't really shown any competence in small tactical operations (Hostomel airport, Zelensky death squads, Snake Island) or intelligence operations (Sims 3, "Signature Unclear"). Personally I'm not surprised that they can blow their own pipeline on international waters I'd be more surprise if they did it without leaving a shitton of evidence. We'll see in the coming days.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Remember the Maine.
It's plausible that the Maine sunk by accident. No-one is claiming that this is an accident: it's very clearly black ops.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
This was likely West-aligned
Could have been Belarus, now they have the only pipeline from Russia to Europe. Very nice position for Lukashenko to be in. Also third parties, as previously mentioned.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Finally, a real conspiracy! Clearly, someone is doing policy with other means here, will we ever know who?
This is an act of war, right? Against whom?
These things usually happen in the shadows and you don't know if something did happen or not or if it was all just an accident, so refreshing to have something where it's totally obvious that that black ops are involved but still unclear who did it. I can't remember the last time something like this even happened. Has it ever happened?
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
Some Swedish hipster choices:
Hållplatz -- Göteborgselektronikerna (list of tram stops in Gothenburg)
Hålla Din Hand -- Doktor Kosmos (list of activities for left-wing activists)
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
I mean, I guess languages always drift in this way were terms migrate to related but different meanings. Still, it's a bit annoying that "ethnicity" was a way to not talk about race, and then it suddenly became race-coded anyway.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
I would say that someone can have Hungarian decent or Dutch decent. Talking about a Hungarian race sounds weird though.
It's not my definition of ethnicity that leaves the "sub-race" term lacking, it's every definition of ethnicity I ever seen. If you need a term for sub-races, find one or make it up, but don't change "ethnicity", which is a perfectly usable term that means something else.
mostly_links_to_ssc
2yr ago
What definition of ethnicity do you use? By all definitions I can find, the grown child would have Hungarian ethnicity. As far as I can tell. ethnicity is always about culture, not decent.
I've noticed how more and more people use the term "ethnicity" to mean "race". Here's an example from 1:26:20 in the latest Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast episode "Has Freedom Failed Us? A Debate" (which is otherwise excellent, I might do another post on its contents later):
Patrick Deneen: "If you read the context it's clear he means a kind of cultural tradition, and not a kind of ethnicity" [while talking about a Viktor Orbán speech]
It might be pedantic, but this annoys me. My understanding is that ethnicity is cultural: If a Hungarian couple adopts a Chinese baby and raises it in Hungary, that child will be ethnically Hungarian when grown up (but it will "have Chinese decent" or more controversial "be racially Chinese" or "be racially Asian").
I understand that people tiptoe around the word "race" since misusing it can get you cancelled but replacing it with another word that means something else is just wrong.
This is the end of this rambling. Has anyone else noticed this?
I feel you could fit almost everything under "substitutes for religion" with this reasoning. To me, the argument is too broad to be useful. Reminds me of Scott's post from ancient times:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/13/arguments-from-my-opponent-believes-something/
https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/03/25/is-everything-a-religion/
Interesting note on the thickness and pressure, I didn't know that. And I agree that it makes sense to blow the pipeline in the western Baltic to make the culprit more ambiguous (also, there's more shipping here then e.g. in the Finish gulf which also helps hiding any suspicious activities). But why do it exactly at the border between the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark? And why cluster 3 explosions here while doing a fourth further south?
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