t_mkdf

mike, 22 days ago to random

The big problem with Tesla that this article misses completely is that many of Tesla's most enthusiastic customers (like I once was) no longer want to support a person who is actively promoting hateful conspiracy theories and providing nazis and Russians with a platform to disrupt the upcoming U.S. election.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/chaos-at-tesla-what-analysts-think-about-elon-musks-cuts-and-layoffs/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into AC/DC AI @ac

j2bryson, 26 days ago to random

This really seems underreported, presumably because it’s a Russian assault on NATO infrastructure, and no one wants to admit we’re at war?

Russia accused of GPS jamming after aircraft disrupted

Finnair suspended flights to the Estonian city of Tartu after GPS signal interference prevented two planes from landing. Estonia and Lithuania have blamed Russia for jamming GPS signals in the region.
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-accused-of-gps-jamming-after-aircraft-disrupted/a-68964307?

anderspuck, 29 days ago to random

"They need to do what’s called income mobilization,” she said. "And increasing taxation is part of this.”

From: @thejapantimes
https://mastodon.social/@thejapantimes/112346537715763236

kravietz, 1 month ago to Germany

In #Germany debate escalates about whether the #nuclear phase-out was justified granted its consequences for German economy that are becoming evident now. In the new turn, it is being suggested that the minister of economy Habeck was lied to by his own experts who claimed the phase-out is going to be harmless.^1

At this stage I can only reiterate that since 2011 when the plans were announced hundreds of worldwide climate experts appealed to Germany not to phase-out nuclear, which is one of the few low-carbon and dispatchable sources of energy. Climate scientist James Hansen had been calling German phase-out a “climate crime” and in 2019 hundreds of scientists wrote an open letter to German government asking to reconsider.^2

As I wrote a few years ago, the whole phase-out plan was plagued by cognitive biases, falsified data and excessive optimism about “prospective technologies of future”. The biggest blame however goes to “environmental activists” such as #WWF and #Greenpeace who were absolutely knowingly and cynically lying about both evils of nuclear and benefits of #renewables, convincing many people and pushing the government towards the current failure.^3

kravietz, 1 month ago to Germany

Three #Germany citizens were arrested on suspicion of having worked as foreign agents for #China Ministry of State Security with goal of forming research partnerships with German universities and collect information useful from military and economic point of view.

https://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2024/Pressemitteilung-vom-22-04-2024.html?nn=478184 (in German)

randahl, 1 month ago to random

Several of you have asked, why half the Republican party has voted for Ukraine aid today, if the party is against it.

The truth is, many republicans have wanted this aid for months — even Mike Johnson was for it in the beginning.

But Trump wanted Biden’s Ukraine agenda to fail, and very few Republicans dare to go against the tzar, because if they do, Trump will immediately endorse another political candidate in their home district.

But what turned this around was security briefings…

1/2

Loukas, 1 month ago to random

I just saw a job advert for professional editors. "Instead of being worried AI will replace your job, shape the future of AI!" They want people to write texts for AI training.

”Instead of being worried about Christmas, turkeys can shape the future of Christmas!”

kravietz, 1 month ago to Germany

Dark clouds gathering over #Germany industry sector, which is now admitted even by RWE CEO Markus Krebber:

Companies and investors have scouted other countries offering attractive subsidies and cheaper energy prices. “You’re going to see a bit of recovery, but I think we’re going to see a significant structural demand destruction in the energy-intensive industries,” Krebber warned.

German electricity sector strategically depends on coal and gas for its dispatchable generation. Krebber now admits that shutdown of #nuclear power plants was a huge mistake:

Echoing criticism in Germany over the country’s energy policy, Krebber said then-chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2011 to shut down its nuclear fleet without replacing the fuel with another energy source aside from Russian pipeline imports was a “mistake”.

Then he dismisses the current narrative dominated by “we’ll just replace it by X” where “X” changes every few years in a vicious cycle: renewables industry comes up with new snake oil, investors hype it as “the future solution”, prototypes are built and fail, and we’re back to square one. Investors cash profits and the grid is still screwed. Krebber says what every single grid engineer was saying for the last two decades of anti-nuclear hysteria worldwide:

“When you know exactly what you want to shut down, you need to immediately start thinking about how do I get the new technology in the ground?” he pointed out.

Source: https://archive.is/xW1SC#selection-2993.0-3015.167

What we should of course keep in mind is that as recently as in 2021 the same Krebber categorically rejected any idea of extending operations of nuclear power plants:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rwe-ceo-rejects-keeping-nuclear-power-plants-open-2021-08-24/

kravietz, 1 month ago to Russia

Residents of #Russia flooded Orsk refuse to evacuate in fear of organised teams of looters. The woman quotes looters who robbed flats and shops in previously evacuated districts. A few days ago, local emergency minister argued that they issued a flood warning „over a week ago but nobody listened”. Please keep this in mind when someone denies Russian looting of Ukraine — Russians even loot their own country when they have an opportunity!

kravietz, 2 months ago to Germany

A new wave of outrage going through media outlets framing #Germany Olaf Scholz statement about presence of #NATO soldiers in #Ukraine. This is just one sample, all media reports sound ery much the same.^1

Germany was accused of a “flagrant abuse of intelligence” after revealing that British soldiers are supporting Ukrainian forces launching long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

I’m just wondering, to whom he really “revealed” that?

1. Russian intelligence - knows about it and actively hunts them, real or imaginary
2. Russian public - this is the most ridiculous concern, because Russian audience since 2023 is being fed continuous stream of news about fighting with NATO, hundreds of “foreign mercenaries” being killed weekly etc.
3. European public - pro-Putin audience just listens to the same news as above, just from Sputnik and RT; pro-Ukrainian audience, like me, is only annoyed by insufficient military support for Ukraine
4. European politicians - I think this is the real protected minority: non-admission of presence of NATO instructors and intelligence in Ukraine allows them to continue the “non-escalation” narrative and pretend to be Chamberlains of the 21st century

Who is that public “secret” being guarded for then? 🤔

kravietz, 3 months ago to poland

An excellent analysis from #Poland Jacek Raubo for Defence24.pl portal. Raubo looks at #Russia chances of unrolling an actual war with #NATO through a popular Western perspective of that being “irrational” and “suicidal”, and thus unlikely. It’s in Polish and automatic translation should work pretty well, but I’ll drop a few teaser quotes:

The mere assignment of tasks to the [Russian] intelligence services does not always have to coincide with the search for answers, but on the contrary with the reinforcement of the theses of their own decision-making centres.

Previously, Raubo correctly described Russian decision process as concentrated in a narrow circle and thus susceptible to extreme cognitive biases. The above paragraph essentially means that even a perfectly efficient foreign intelligence is always processed by political players in Kremlin.

It is conceivable, for example, that an appropriately formatted picture of the transformation of NATO, which speaks of a continuous weakening of this defence alliance, is being conveyed to the Russian elite. Or, conversely, a twisted image of imaginary threats from NATO increasing emotional tension among decision-makers in charge of the decision-making process.

So the decision to invade a NATO country, even in a hybrid manner, may be a “rational calculation” based on irrational foundations and goals:

According to the author, this is why we are now so often talking about a scenario that also involves the possibility of hostilities breaking out in Europe, where a NATO member would be attacked. Putin’s team has already shown repeatedly that we are not talking about the stereotypical ‘great chess master’ who sees a dozen moves ahead of the West. Russia can make an error of judgement, which is why it is so important in this regard to have a strong deterrent in NATO and Europe, as well as showing concrete examples of a show of force, such as the Steadfast Defender 2024 manoeuvres. This helps to reduce the possibility of a belief in Russian decision-making circles that their image of NATO and the West as a weak system is correct.

And, most importantly, Russia’s inflated war propaganda founded on the “besieged fortress” narrative cannot be ignored as a factor:

Even Prigozhin’s operetta-like ‘putsch’ told us a lot about what could happen if more soldiers and mercenaries were suddenly demobilised, but without achieving strategic success. Not to mention the whole nomenklatura that is making war more important. Let us remember that this is nothing new, as it was the same with the war in Chechnya. But now, because of the full-scale invasion, this practice is on a much larger scale. Subsequent months and already years of war underline that even successive territorial conquests and the occupation of parts of Ukraine will not necessarily satisfy this system of state propaganda, emotions, money and people. Therefore, unfortunately, the authorities in the Kremlin might as well look for the desired breakthrough in a direct clash with NATO, if only over the Baltic states.

Full article: https://defence24.pl/geopolityka/pokonana-rosja-tez-moze-zaczac-wojne-z-nato-opinia (in Polish)

t_mkdf, 3 months ago to Russia

A new video by @anderspuck

What do people mean when they say that #russia might challenge #nato?

It probably won't be at the Vistula but close to Vittula.

https://youtu.be/ZY7GPBSyONU?si=W2VtM3yS8oRm23Pi

kevinrothrock, 5 months ago to random

Only $300 million. (I can imagine people reading this and being aghast for very different reasons.)

image/jpeg

anderspuck, 5 months ago to Russia

This week, both Blinken and Stoltenberg reiterated the notion that #Russia has already lost in #Ukraine because they failed to achieve their original goals.
This is the kind of dangerous narrative that I talk about in this video. We have to stop talking about the war in terms where it sounds like Ukraine has already won.
https://youtu.be/-8ZPbnVqHrY

t_mkdf, 5 months ago to random

A new video by @anderspuck

This time about the rationale behind the russian human wave attacks.

This video highlights to me one core problem of war studies and IR: we (and e.g. russia) only have imperfect assessments on the thought process and values of our opposition.

What makes sense to us doesn't need to make sense to them. And the larger this discrepancy the larger the room for misunderstandings and errors.

E.g. we thought they would freeze the conflict...

https://youtu.be/-8ZPbnVqHrY?si=MrbDVptiIrf9Jy7s

t_mkdf, 6 months ago to Ukraine

In view of botched reforms in procurement it is only logical (and has a broad support) to allocate more funding towards Ukraine directly...

#ukraine #bundeswehr

https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/ukraine-krieg-deutschland-militaerhilfe-nato-100.html?at_medium=mastodon&at_campaign=tagesschau.de

t_mkdf, 6 months ago to random

Saint Martin's Goose with 3 hours to go...

t_mkdf, 8 months ago to DadBin

"Violence of action means the unrestricted use of speed, strength, surprise and aggression to achieve total dominance against your enemy."

This is a pretty good description on how our 3 year old #daughter dominates her 6 year old #sister.

t_mkdf, 9 months ago to random

I just finished the last two YT videos with @anderspuck

Really great analysis by him and Perun.

What I might add to the "Kofman" debate about Bakhmut is that the degradation of PMC Wagner really played nicely (though probably not directly intended) into the Ukrainian strategy of destabilising russia.

Without PMC Wagner's degradation the mutiny probably wouldn't have happened.

https://youtu.be/rNw4wkkibso

https://youtu.be/7rBlVnc_DEw

t_mkdf, 9 months ago to VideoGames

"Introduce yourself using seven #videogames"

1. Civilization
2. Star Control II
3. Baldur's Gate I+Il
4. Knights of the Old Republic
5. Total War: Medieval II
6. Monkey Island I+II
7. Mechwarrior III

#sevengamestoknowme
#7gamestoknowme

t_mkdf, 10 months ago to Ukraine

@anderspuck

Did you already read Mearsheimer's new piece? What is your take on it?

IMO he underestimates russia's internal struggles (mutiny, purging of Generals, economic decline). And overestimates russian military capability (basically assumes that russia will get also Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Odessa at some point in the near future...).

I kind of feel I wasted my time reading this.

#ukraine #russia #mearsheimer

https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/the-darkness-ahead-where-the-ukraine?utm_medium=reader2

t_mkdf, 10 months ago to Bulgaria

Does anyone have more information about the rumour that the #G7 are planning a "#NATO" lite for Ukraine (funding, intel sharing, logistics, economic help...)?

If true this would be great news and signal to #russia that they cannot simply hope that Western resolve and support for #Ukraine will collapse.

https://youtu.be/ERn9TG_P9Ts

t_mkdf, 10 months ago to random

German foreign minister AL Baerbock in The Guardian:

"Russia’s war of aggression has marked a rupture in the world. For my country, it has opened a new chapter, redefining how we seek to promote peace, freedom and sustainability in this world: as a partner that embraces its leadership."

My impression is that Germany is moving into this direction. Albeit with the dynamic of a big tanker.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2023/jul/06/russia-war-ukraine-germany-foreign-policy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

t_mkdf, 11 months ago to random

@kravietz @chowderman

Germany is late to the party again and is discussing different zones for energy prices (Denmark has 2, Norway 6, and Italy 7...).

The interesting thing is that with reliable on and off shore wind power energy prices in northern Germany could be really cheap compared to southern Germany (especially Bavaria which relied on nuclear... And gas. And where wind turbines are frowned upon).

https://www.agrarheute.com/management/finanzen/einheitlicher-strompreis-deutschland-haltbar-5-preiszonen-602662

t_mkdf, 1 year ago to random German

Game of Thrones, russian MoD version (a long read).

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-30-2023