Unless you want to take out a whole bunch of them. Swarm of nanosats with some kind of miniexplosives or even just one-use engines to force deorbiting would probably still be more efficient, unless…
Unless you want to go for geostationary. A real crowd of satellitrs which have a feature of always looking at the same part of the Earth. While it would be very easy to send a boom device to low earth orbit (also very crowded), erasing a bunch of satellites there would be a temporary inconvenience (let’s not talk about Kessler) since a lot of what’s important is either a global constellation (starlink, gps) or has redundancies (earth observation comes to mind). But explode a nuke in the geostationary over the US and suddenly America has no sat TV/radio, no weather sat coverage and it’s harder to patch up than “just” replacing missing nodes of a constellation.
What is clear, however, is that Trump — who ostensibly spent four years as president of the United States — has little clue about what NATO is or what NATO does. And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish...
And the attack was done by rogue non-state actors. Europe agreed to go burn a whole district because a thug who lived roughly there punched USA in the face. Now Europe faces an entire mafia from another town and Trump says “should’ve bought better gear, bye suckers”.
The commissioner responsible for the chat control was thoroughly corrupt by a company which created the scanning system. She was also either unbelievably dense or very, VERY dedicated to her role of a pearl-clutching, think-of-the-children granny. To the point of arguing with IT specialists on TV.
Ylva Johansson. She’s Swedish and late last year went on tour around Swedish media about chat control. The media, however, were prepared so hilarity ensued.
Polish farmers have again taken to the border with neighboring Ukraine in their new month-long strike against EU policies and unfair competition from abroad....
Oligarchs. You’re missing oligarchs. The issue with Ukrainian agricultire is that a lot of it is a big, concentrated business with ties to Western capital on top of the traditional post-soviet oligarchy. This influences actions of both Ukrainian and EU politicians. The matters of imports or transit from Ukraine could be very well sorted out for the short term, but no one in power is really willing to do so.
In the long term Polish agriculture faces a serious challenge from Ukraine when it gets more and more integrated with the west but it’s also not so binary in terms of who floods whom with produce.
Across Russia, creaking infrastructure and a wave of accidents have plunged households into the cold in the depth of winter, fueling rare showings of public frustration....
I recommend everyone who hasn’t to look up the idea of “Potiomkin villages” (and subsequently Potiomkin anything eg. Potiomkin AI). In short: back in the tzarist days lower ranks put up mock villages which looked clean, modern and prosperous for higher ranks (and tzars) to see during visits. These mockups were essentially theatre decorations which hid the real state of the matters - dilapidated, dirty, poor and corrupt. For at least the last decade everything we saw of Russia was Potiomkin in nature - either to show off before the West or to hide corruption before own superiors.
Both are true. The standard of living did improve. But it was so abysmal, that even after the improvement only very few parts of Russia can compare to the rest of Eastern Europe, not to mention anything richer.
Ahaha we’re so fucked. The sea temperature is not just higher, it was rising the whole previois year and it’s flatter than in the past. Say goodbye to seasons, we’re heading into the “flood season and heatwave season” territory. Last year I heard top scientists saying “it’s bad and anomalous but not exponential”, this looks… increasingly exponential.
An Israeli tank attack on a United Nations center sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians has killed at least nine people and wounded 75 others in Gaza’s second largest city, senior U.N. humanitarian officials said Wednesday.
No no no no. It’s, you know, just warfare. Terrible things happen at wars. But you can always send more missiles and bombs so Israel can end the war faster! No genocide to speak of! Just mundane defensive war.
Yes. Most people don’t have the awareness of a lot of what’s been said in the comments or they suspend it in their daily lives. They do what they feel is right and since most were socialised in a similar way the signal-response expectations match. Then a certain rapport can be formed by the empty interactions borne out of the semi-conscious feeling that it’s “right” or “nice” to initiate a small talk and respond to it in kind. In this way indeed most of us are like 15 yo girls, just somewhat more serious and self-controlled.
If I were in a condescensing mood I’d say humans generally are bots following Pavlov’s reaction patterns imprinted during upbringing. But this would be a severe oversimplification and a little a-hole talking through me.
US President Joe Biden has said that attacks on the Houthis will continue even as he acknowledged that the group have not stopped their Red Sea attacks....
NATO is launching its largest exercise since the Cold War, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a “near-peer” adversary....
That’s an amount of gear and people comparable to what a mid-sized European country could have and what a big European country could muster on short notice. It’s “only” a factor of 2 or 3 less than what Russia prepared for Ukraine at the beginning. It’s likely more than the combined forces of the Baltic states’ militaries and the NATO contingents stationed there.
With a generous dose of optimism it is a force that would at least hold a conventional invasion at bay, if not defeat it via superior tech and sea support. It is a lot even in absolute terms, for an exercise it’s massive.
Whether pro-Israeli bots like it or not, numerous acts by IDF do fit perfectly into descriptions of the acts forbidden by the convention. Even if the case is eventually dismissed it will be on technical grounds such as “it’s actually a war crime not a genocide” not because “IDF did nothing wrong”.
ussia is pursuing legal means, including obtaining representation from international law firms, to stymie efforts by the U.S. and its allies to seize frozen Russian assets, Bloomberg reported on Jan. 12, citing unnamed sources....
Rumor has it that the plan is to get 100 bn of this money funneled to Ukraine support mechanisms. With the 50bn EUR the EU is trying to move from their coffers it would add up to 3 years’ worth of secured in advance support for Ukraine. Which is important because who knows what kind of nutjobs and assets will rule both the US and the EU institutions by the end of 2024.
You’re not getting good data from most of Europe either. At this point hardly anyone cares and death causes are reported as they were before 2020: pneumonia, dementia, cardiac arrest etc. Whether these were caused or worsened by COVID isn’t anyone’s concern.
Aaand there goes the last credible line of defense: that his only connection was ownership and he was detached from operations and books of the company. But alas.
Imagine the following scenario: On the 9th of January 2024 in the morning we wake up to news that President of the USA Joe Biden suffered a stroke and died in White House. The administration confirms that the death was entirely natural and no third party contributed to it. Even before the news reach all TV stations another one...
Prime Minister: Denmark to supply all its artillery to Ukraine (euromaidanpress.com)
"Serious national security threat": Fears rise over reports Russia plans to put a nuke in space (www.salon.com)
The House Intelligence Committee Chair asked Biden to declassify intel on reported nuclear anti-satellite weapon...
Britain Confronts Fears of a (Gasp!) Tea Shortage (www.nytimes.com)
Shipping issues in the Red Sea have led to delays in tea deliveries, but British retailers assured consumers that any shortages would be a “blip.”...
Trump Is Losing It: It is unclear whether Donald Trump has forgotten the precise nature of NATO or whether he ever fully grasped it in the first place. (www.nytimes.com)
What is clear, however, is that Trump — who ostensibly spent four years as president of the United States — has little clue about what NATO is or what NATO does. And when he spoke on the subject at a rally in South Carolina over the weekend, what he said was less a cogent discussion of foreign policy than it was gibberish...
Backdoors that let cops decrypt messages violate human rights, EU court says (arstechnica.com)
Polish farmer protests heat up, threatening Polish-Ukrainian relations (kyivindependent.com)
Polish farmers have again taken to the border with neighboring Ukraine in their new month-long strike against EU policies and unfair competition from abroad....
Republicans Are Planning to Totally Privatize Medicare -- And Fast (www.rollingstone.com)
Russians freeze as Putin’s war and aging pipes reveal cracks at home (www.nbcnews.com)
Across Russia, creaking infrastructure and a wave of accidents have plunged households into the cold in the depth of winter, fueling rare showings of public frustration....
2024 Begins With More Record Heat Worldwide | On the heels of Earth’s warmest year, January was the eighth month in a row in which global temperatures blew past previous records. (www.nytimes.com)
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/022b4096-b1b1-4a43-bf4e-8d7e83826e8b.webp...
Dungeons & Dragons Publisher Denies Selling Game To Chinese Firm: Here’s What To Know [was: Hasbro Seeks to Sell IP “DND” and Has Had Preliminary Contact with Tencent] (pandaily.com)
Israeli Tank Attacks U.N. Shelter, Killing 9 and Wounding at Least 75, United Nations Says (www.military.com)
An Israeli tank attack on a United Nations center sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians has killed at least nine people and wounded 75 others in Gaza’s second largest city, senior U.N. humanitarian officials said Wednesday.
Ron DeSantis DROPS OUT and endorses Trump (www.nbcnews.com)
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Biden says air strikes against Houthis in Yemen will continue (www.bbc.com)
US President Joe Biden has said that attacks on the Houthis will continue even as he acknowledged that the group have not stopped their Red Sea attacks....
California health officials shorten COVID isolation period to 1 day, previously 5 days (ktla.com)
NATO to hold biggest drills since Cold War with 90,000 troops (www.reuters.com)
NATO is launching its largest exercise since the Cold War, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a “near-peer” adversary....
Germany says will intervene at The Hague on Israel’s behalf, blasts genocide charge (www.timesofisrael.com)
Bloomberg: Russia preparing legal defense to slow, prevent seizure of frozen assets (kyivindependent.com)
ussia is pursuing legal means, including obtaining representation from international law firms, to stymie efforts by the U.S. and its allies to seize frozen Russian assets, Bloomberg reported on Jan. 12, citing unnamed sources....
Drought Touches a Quarter of Humanity, U.N. Says, Disrupting Lives Globally (www.nytimes.com)
U.S. Still Recording 1,500 COVID Deaths Each Week as Cases Surge Around the Globe, Greatest Surge Since Omicron Variant (www.democracynow.org)
Trump Admits He Was “Doing Services” for Foreign Governments Who Paid Him (newrepublic.com)
If Trump and Biden both died today, what would happen?
Imagine the following scenario: On the 9th of January 2024 in the morning we wake up to news that President of the USA Joe Biden suffered a stroke and died in White House. The administration confirms that the death was entirely natural and no third party contributed to it. Even before the news reach all TV stations another one...