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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Let's Talk Potatoes!
They are, I suppose, second only to wheat, etc when it comes to world calorie intake. So pretty damn important. But not internationally--they can't easily be traded. They are too heavy by value and too prone to damage to be bulk-cargoed. But, fortunately, they can be grown quite easily, anywhere, by anyone. They shouldn't show up on any causes-for-concern.
Russians have been mainlining on potatoes ever since Tsarist times. No matter what successive governments did there were always potatoes to eat. And to make vodka, which pretty much did it for Ivan and Ivana. Until Putin's times.
There are potatoes from China and Egypt in the shops but three times what they cost last year. Nobody knows why. It's got something to do with the war but nobody can really fathom what's going on.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The Russians are firing fewer and fewer missiles Ukraine.
At the start of 2024 large missile attacks on Ukraine contained 100 plus missiles.
The latest massive retalliation against Ukraine's drone attacks on Riussian airfields could have been as low as 20, maybe high as 50.
This is because Russians are now switching their attacks from expensive missiles to cheaper drones. Both sides are now in a weapons race to produce more and more intelligent drones.
What we are going to see is European companies start mass production of AI drones to help Ukraine. They will do this whilst also stockpiling drones for Europe's defence, just in case Ukraine lose.
These Euro drones will soon be taking on the Russian/Chinese drones.
Who wins is anyone's guess.
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Ishmael
In: Toronto
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Let's Talk Potatoes! |
Why has there never been another potato famine?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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As far as I know there has only been one society based on potatoes. I am citing orthodoxy here but the Irish set-up was
* the dastardly British had allowed the Irish to keep to their traditional ways
* the traditional Irish way was to subdivide the family farm between all the children
* the average Irish family farm got smaller and smaller
* the dastardly British were keeping the Irish alive in unexcelled numbers
* until the population of Ireland had reached eight million (more than there are now)
* the only plant that could feed eight million people in tiny farms was the potato
* when a country is a monoculture based on one strain of the mono-plant there can only be one outcome.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Wiley wrote: | | The Russians are firing fewer and fewer missiles Ukraine. At the start of 2024 large missile attacks on Ukraine contained 100 plus missiles. The latest massive retalliation against Ukraine's drone attacks on Riussian airfields could have been as low as 20, maybe high as 50. |
Why should anyone care? Even the most massive drone/ missile attack kills half a dozen people and they're only women and children.
| This is because Russians are now switching their attacks from expensive missiles to cheaper drones. Both sides are now in a weapons race to produce more and more intelligent drones. |
It says a lot about the intelligence of the industrial/military complex that it has taken them twenty years of peace and three years of war to realise this.
| What we are going to see is European companies start mass production of AI drones to help Ukraine. They will do this whilst also stockpiling drones for Europe's defence, just in case Ukraine lose. |
That's not the way it happens. They'll do a bit of figuring, they'll go into serial production while someone (i.e. Ukraine) needs them, then they'll go back to sleep. Were there any stockpiles of anything when the the Ukraine War started?
| These Euro drones will soon be taking on the Russian/Chinese drones. |
If the Ukraine War goes on long enough.
| Who wins is anyone's guess. |
* It will not be determined before the end of the Ukraine War
* They can never go up against each other directly because everyone is nuclear-armed so there cannot be a conventional war using drones
* Insofar as proxies use drones in conventional wars they will have to use what they are given
* Insofar as independent non-nuclear actors fight wars they will use whatever is on the market at their price range
* The manufacturers of which will have nicked all the good ideas from either side.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | It says a lot about the intelligence of the industrial/military complex that it has taken them twenty years of peace and three years of war to realise this. |
A bit longer than this actually. The Germans were using tele-guided bombs from aircraft in 1943 and cruise missiles in 1944 so drone warfare technology had been around for sixty to seventy years before civilian professionals and hobbyists started using them. Meanwhile the Great Powers were building aircraft carriers to do the same job.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The west really need to supply Ukraine drones in exchange for Ukrainians training our military in how to conduct drone warfare, we are now way way behind them, and the Russians.
It's pointless us training their grunts anymore.
The Ukrainian drones are now being used to take out factories that produce Russian drone parts, as well as suveying the front, bringing up supplies, attacking the enemy, taking down incoming drones, being used as decoys, etc.......
Air space is getting more important militarily than ground space.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| we are now way way behind them, and the Russians. |
And yet the west persists in seeing the Ukraine War as amateur hour (on both sides). We're going to get a shock if we ever have to fight a real war as opposed to rolling over third-world countries or militarised terror groups.
| Air space is getting more important militarily than ground space. |
The whole doctrine of
* air engagement turning into
* air superiority turning into
* air supremacy
is going to need updating. Are there even going to be manned fixed wing aircraft at all? Maybe an AWACS a long way off. Personally I wouldn't risk an aircraft carrier anywhere close enough to use it. But then again it won't be that safe in Plymouth Sound.
| It's pointless us training their grunts anymore. |
Or training our own for that matter. Will there even be armed forces in any traditional sense? Or just civilian techies with computer screens and joysticks.
| The Ukrainian drones are now being used to take out factories that produce Russian drone parts |
They'll be made in China. No, it will our civilian techies trying to take out their civilian techies.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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It will be old news to you, Wiley, but I just saw my first drone rope-a-dope trick today on Denys Davydov's daily update. A Ukrainian drone-spotter sees a Russian armoured vehicle trundling along, a drone is sent out to take care of it but, because of the anti-drone protuberances all Russian vehicles have now, the drone comes up with one of its own as it nears the Red Menace.
This ensnares the drone to the vehicle and it's goodbye, Ivan. Just before this he showed us a more conventional drone entering a sealed bunker (it had the password, I expect) in order to destroy a Russian drone spotting vehicle. An underground AWACS, if you will.
See it all here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbmZ_y5W1ek
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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You can now get paid if you convince a friend or relative to join the Russian army.
"Don't worry Ivan, the pay is two and half times the national average, and Trump has promised it'll be sorted in the next 24 Hours, you won't see any fighting at all "
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Another commentator claims that these bumper payouts--and it's even more if you are KIA--mean many of the poorer provinces are running out of money to pay them. The richer ones still can but nobody living in the Moscow or Petersburg areas would dream of joining the army for love or money.
(I do not subscribe to this theory but I thought I would pass it on.)
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I told Vladdy the Baddy that he would be better off conscripting and finishing the job swifly and quickly, but he didn't listen. Now the worse it gets, the more he loses, if the provinces can't pay, Vlad has to either pay them or the Koreans. Russia might have not lost a million (as it's claimed) but the recruitment is at about a 1000 a day, just to keep or increase the 650,000 in the field.
There is no profit in this war to Russia. As the Ukrainian drones are now attacking Russian factories which are making the parts for the military complex, and the airfields that are being used to bomb Ukraine, Russia must recruit more security, more police, more intelligence analysts, as well as more Ivans to work in the military complex, who are needed to make the new weapons to replace those that are being lost on the battlefield.
This will drive up the costs of recruiting soldiers, and the death payments, further.
It's a leaking wound.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| If the provinces can't pay, Vlad has to either pay them or the Koreans. Russia might have not lost a million (as it's claimed) but the recruitment is at about a 1000 a day, just to keep or increase the 650,000 in the field. |
Russia is never going to run out of money in our lifetime.
| There is no profit in this war to Russia. |
It is not a matter of profit for Russia, it is whether it is profitable for Putin.
| As the Ukrainian drones are now attacking Russian factories which are making the parts for the military complex, and the airfields that are being used to bomb Ukraine, Russia must recruit more security, more police, more intelligence analysts, as well as more Ivans to work in the military complex, who are needed to make the new weapons to replace those that are being lost on the battlefield. |
This is true but just more whistling in the wind. Russia's a big country and, if it ever runs out of anything, China's a big country.
| This will drive up the costs of recruiting soldiers, and the death payments, further. It's a leaking wound. |
And has been since Day One. They're still there, still pushing forward...
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A Victim Speaks
CNN news anchor: It's great to have you in the studio, Mr Ambassador. Can you let us know the scale of the casualties?
Israeli Ambassador: The latest figures I have only covers the Tel Aviv area... | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Given the worldwide pandemonium, it's worth pointing out nothing much has happened. A few dozen people have been killed and some buildings have been demolished. Far from preventing Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel has made it certain:
* In 2015 Iran agreed not to make nukes
* In 2017 that agreement was ripped up by the Americans
* In 2017 Iran was free to start making nukes
* In 2025 Iran was negotiating to stop making nukes
* In 2025 Israel stopped those negotiations
If I was an ayatollah I would issue the following statement:
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"Dear Israel: As your fine intelligence services have informed you, we will soon have enough weapons grade uranium to make nine atomic bombs and we have secure underground facilities to make them in.
As soon as they are ready we will take out one of your cities, probably Tel Aviv, probably by using an oil tanker arriving by sea or a pantechnicon coming overland. Or it might be via a surprise ballistic missile. Any which way, we anticipate half a million Jewish martyrs.
We will regard that as full and fair repayment for your recent unprovoked attacks on our homeland. If, however, you decide to retaliate, we have eight more where that one came from. The choice will be yours.
All the best from your opposite numbers here in Tehran."
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