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Seems like a good time to repost this six-year-old short film:

Hamas is savage and evil. For those who have been talking about LOAC, here's a tidy primer:

And now Hunka is, or will be, the subject of an extradition request. "Extradition sought of Waffen SS Nazi Veteran who was honoured by Trudeau and Freeland in Canada's Parliament. A Polish government minister has launched a bid to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man who fought in a German-Nazi division during..." The optics just keep getting worse; it is a gift to Russian propaganda; the extradition efforts will keep this in the news cycle for much, much longer than it naturally would.

Fully agreed. To add to that: as much as I am, in vast understatement, not a fan of the current government, I find it incredible to think that someone did a background check and then thought "shouldn't be a problem". The current government has done some foolish things to pander to, for example, the Sikh vote, but there isn't a meaningful 'aged former SS' vote. So unless the Speaker or someone near that pipes up and says "but... we thought he was reformed", I'm leaning towards "administrative stupidity".

Let's put some guardrails on this. It was not "politically stupid", it was administratively incompetent. No-one thought, or perhaps someone carelessly or arrogantly bypassed a protocol, to background-check a person to be feted by the House of Commons. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/speaker-responsibility-inviting-nazi-soldier-conservatives-blame-pmo Kind of like when the current government invited a convicted attempted murderer and Khalistani sympathizer (etc. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaspal_Atwal#:~:text=In February 2018%2C Atwal gained,local radio in British Columbia. ) to a reception during a Canadian government trip to India. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-india-atwal-controversy-1.4546502 The current government has committed any number of sloppy gaffes, even more than one would expect for a government this long in the tooth (8 years, or 2899 days, in power), although this one may take the cake. In Canada, there is none of the (legitimate) nuance discussed here. In the public mind, SS == evil, period. The speaker will almost certainly have to resign, if only to staunch the international reputational bleeding.

The Skydio 2+ commercial drone will already follow a person you tell it to. It is a small step from there to "follow that helicopter / tank / AFV ... right up to contact".

The difference is between 'smart' and 'wise'. And there's the issue of values - good or bad. poor values lead to a lack of wisdom, and poor outcomes when 'smart' is used to accumulate wealth. Not that there's anything wrong with wealth, if honestly achieved. You wrote earlier that Prig had enough money to retire in grand style. But for people like him that's not the point - the point is power, and you don't get that in retirement.

Something not much discussed in the giga-thread: https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/09/05/inside-ukraines-assassination-programme “Any person who betrays Ukraine, shoots at Ukrainians or fires missiles on Ukrainians should understand that they are being watched and will be brought to justice,” "If you are asking about [creating a version of] Mossad…We don’t need to. It already exists." Behind a paywall. You can easily get around it, or just pay for a great subscription. Best global news organ in the world. Various war criminals may not need to worry about the ICC so much as SBU and HUR.

The Economist agrees. Of course, one needs to read instead of watch: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/08/14/russia-will-struggle-to-cope-with-a-sinking-rouble

From the Economist: "The war in Ukraine shows how technology is changing the battlefield But mass still counts, argues Shashank Joshi in the first of seven chapters of a special report on the future of warfare" Another useful analysis of what this war means for the next war. Shashank Joshi is the defence editor for the Economist, previously a think-tanker at RUSI. https://www.economist.com/special-report/2023/07/03/the-war-in-ukraine-shows-how-technology-is-changing-the-battlefield I like a lot of it, but here's one quote: “You can’t cyber your way across a river.” It's a paywall. Recommended if you know how to bypass or just have subscription (well worthwhile).

My attempt to add useful linguistic context has failed completely. Or, as one might put it, my wording and the response was probably not ideal.

They used one word, "ideal". When a native English speaker says conditions are "probably not ideal" (a more full quote), what they mean is conditions are awful, but are saying it more politely (more circumspectfully). Seeing as you're from Eastfalia, perhaps English is not your first language and this would not be obvious to you.

Fortuneately - because otherwise we would be building our replacements - Moore's law cannot continue indefinitely and has already been slowing for about ten years. Moore's Law is dead, says Gordon Moore | Computerworld (archive.org) http://web.archive.org/web/20200613232824/https://www.computerworld.com/article/3554889/moore-s-law-is-dead-says-gordon-moore.html

I live less than ten minutes from there. The plutonium would explain the night-sky glow coming from the north

1) agreed. Either they have developed some magic smokeless powder that reduces throat erosion (e.g., less abrasive) or some magic barrel material. Unlikely, but then again, I didn't think 80K PSI was possible with safety cartridges. 2)The perennial argument. Every pound has to come from somewhere. 3) I wasn't aware of that - would you have a link to tests? - but it makes sense. The larger the bore diameter, the greater the difficulty in suppression (hence effective shotgun suppressors are huge); the higher the muzzle pressure (and with 80K in the chamber I have to believe that the muzzle blast is substantial, although a quickly-burning powder would ameliorate that), the greater the difficulty in suppression. 4) another perennial argument - early advertisements for the M16 showed a guy shooting it from his chin (he must have had a stronger chin than me), full auto. Not sure how much this matters for semi fire, although it certainly does for full auto. Regarding it fully replacing 5.56, from wikipedia "Operational testing of the XM7 rifle, XM250 automatic rifle, XM157 fire control optic platform agnostic unit and the 6.8×51mm ammunition squad weaponry is expected to begin in 2024. However, this does not guarantee actual widespread future issue."

Thanks for the clarification; I thought you meant it as most do: bigger diameter, more stopping. Terminal ballistics is more complicated than that.

The shockwave theory comes in different forms - some say velocity (hence the 5.56 SS109 was supposed to be immediately lethal), some say momentum / mass (hence 30-06 or larger "high power" is supposed to be immediately lethal). The reality is that blood vessels are quite elastic and "shock waves" don't happen. I have viewed a video where a suspect, in a van, was nailed directly through the heart by a 12g slug, completely destroying his heart - if you've ever field-dressed a deer during shotgun season, you've seen the large permanent wound channel. He continued to take volitional action - to try and kill FBI agents - for about 14 seconds. So much for the shock wave. I don't have a view on the veracity of the video that got this started. Could be faked, although I would be unsurprised if it was real. "stopping power" is largely a myth. Shot placement is the primary issue. Shoot a guy in the center of the head with a .22lr and he'll die instantly. Shoot the same guy in the leg with a .50BMG and, depending on the placement, he'll lose a leg eventually, bleed out in a few minutes, or just have a limp or scar later in life, but he'll be able to keep fighting if he wants to. Stopping a threat immediately / quickly is a matter of crushing or tearing central nervous system / major circulatory system tissue. That's done through the permanent (not temporary, most human tissue is quite elastic and bounces back) wound channel, which needs to be deep enough to reach the tissue and wide enough so as not to require pinpoint accuracy. Have a google for "permanent wound channel SS109 ballistic gel" (or M855 if you prefer that). When the 5.56, at short enough ranges (depends on the cartridge variant and barrel length), turns sideways and splits at the cannelure, the resulting permanent wound channel, in width and depth is very effective in the human torso. You'd almost think it was designed for that purpose. The US' move to the 6.8x51mm (civilian name, ".277 Fury", a remarkable cartridge) is stated to be for defeating current and future body armour. Current 5.56 variants will not go through plates, although they will leave a remarkable bruise and/or crack bones in the impact area. Could be both. Spike the bottle with the wrong kind of alcohol!

1) only if it's a central nervous system hit. Firearms aren't death wands; even someone shot in the heart may have a few seconds of volitional action. Or someone shot in a limb may think they're dead and just, as you say, fall like a log (I would say sack of potatoes, a log is rigid and persons in the condition we're discussing just collapse). 2) a) one flash: assuming 30FPS video, the "shutter" will be open for a fraction of 1/30s - in bright light, without ND filters, perhaps 1/1000s, so muzzle flashes are most often not caught on video. Even in low light, 1/60s would be the shortest shutter speed, and muzzle flashes again are often not caught - they have a very short duration. 2) b) it's a bit surprising. Military ammo contains flash suppressants - but maybe this was a bad batch. Also, the lack of clear shadow in the video suggests either highly overcast conditions or dusk / dawn, so flash would be seen more easily than in full sun.

Thanks, I agree. Also, it seems to me that these steps need not be completely serial. For example, one can build a cancer aligned with an early-exploited fracture and hold them in reserve or use them to test the waters while other fractures are exploited. In any event, the framework you mentioned will be helpful when I'm talking to my political friends. Google did not see anything - is this a 'capt special' or is there some concise literature around the sequence?

Where does Canada sit on this scale with regards to Chinese efforts? The recent Johnston inquiry was underwhelming in terms of useful information.

I wanted to stay out of this, but here we go. On the first part: Numerous studies (no, I can't produce them, but someone better than me with google / waybackmachine may find the first one I am aware of done by the Pew Research Center) show proportional and related systems to have materially more waste and corruption. The "why" seems to be that fringe parties - which proliferate in proportional systems - swing the balance of power and leverage this. Also, in proportional one need not have "big tent" parties, so fringe and lunatic fringe and single-issue parties end up with representation. And no, the 11% of people who believe Elvis is still alive don't deserve independent representation. Also, first-past-the-post systems have greater longevity of the polity (fewer revolutions) and less overall political violence. For more: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-first-past-the-post-isnt-to-be-abandoned-lightly If the US extirpates gerrymandering (which encourages extreme candidates) and somehow manages to reduce the grotesque amount of money in elections without impairing freedom of expression, it will have better results. On the second, it will never happen. People have a natural tendency to band together to protect their shared interests (e.g., trade unions), and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Most likely I'll go back to lurking and enjoying the interesting discussions popping up as the Ukrainian counter-offensive warms up.

Here is a good summary of Western learning to date. I say "good" because it aligns with what is brought forward on this forum. Too many good quotes, best to read it all, but I do like the opening line, "In battle nothing is ever as good or as bad as the first reports of excited men would have it.” Paywall, you can get past it: https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/11/30/what-is-the-war-in-ukraine-teaching-western-armies

Others (Steve?) have said it would be cheaper to just pour concrete. but a plywood tetrahedron, or a plastic one - a cheap pour mold, not injection - with junk recycled plastic, or a cheap mild steel tack-welded together, or somefink, would work and would explain the picture. Not freeze-thaw, not with so clean a fracture line. It may be having some effect, and about time. China has agents in MP offices (influencing policy), spends in the low millions annually to affect public discourse, aka "will", and has an obvious mouthpiece in the Senate - all in Canada for those wondering. Perhaps this will be the start of something real and not just posturing: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/liberals-foreign-agent-registry

On another note: Russian military gear insufficient for harsh winters, leads to soldiers dying from hypothermia | Fox News Cold-related deaths already. Winter is Ukraine's friend. Oh, and "caution, non-liberal site, enter at your own risk".

As far as I can tell from reading several thousand year's literature, human _nature_ has remained the same. But when you say 'tech evolves', there are two kinds of technology- physical and social. Both evolve. In the Oddessey, Odysseus returns home and slays the suitors. Today, we hire a lawyer. That's social technology; just like we no longer have honour duels because we can sue for defamation. So human nature intersects with social technology - to the extend that the social technology works, we no longer need be savage.