cichlisuite

yes, infrasound is a persistent form of pollution today. Most of the time you don't even know it's there, but in moments of attention it really becomes this ever present annoyance. Not far away from where I live is an industrial furnace for aluminium casting, and it's situated right in the center of the town (terrible idea). The sound reverberates between the buildings and the surrounding hills work as a sound amplifier (I live on a hill), so it's like an old Greek open-air theatre effect. "My" hill also catches a distant transport railway and a motor highway. Both are around 10-15km from here but I can hear them in rare moments of complete silence as this low-vibrating noise or hum, the railway especially at night with the heavy diesel locomotives. I wonder when urban planners are going to start to take these things into their decision making...

well that explains a few things if true

yeah, makes sense from a technical, sound mixing point of view, when you have so many sounds coming through the mix. Thanks for the explanation. If it was made to be 100% realistic you'd probably just hear ear ringing all the time ?

at 1:37, 1:45

No, you missed my point. The "proof" for the lack of EU 5th gen hardware readily available is Germany panic-buying F-35s. Which kind of ties into other points I was making in my post... You're now making a whole different point... How viable the F-35 is as a military plane (for US or EU) is a very long and tiresome debate, it's also off topic. But we can go into it, if it's that important. If Germany suddenly feel the need to step up their fighter game, Eurofighter + Tornado would do for the time being until FCAS doesn't bear fruit. But obviously, I'm not Luftwaffe's chief of staff.

hey I was always wondering why is sound design in modern games (and some movies), especially when it comes to big explosions -- instead being loud af, deafening, etc, they are immensely compressed (or not?), like soft, plastic sounds, like plastic rocks falling on plastic surface...(sorry I don't know how to properly describe it)

One thing is sure, US military tech is very advanced since they pour immense investments, talent and brain power in R&D. Also, modern military equipment is very expensive to research, manufacture, and integrate. The latter is as important as the hardware itself, since everything is in networks of command and control. So these solutions come almost "out-of-the-box" for the allies since they also need to share the infrastructure and command and control. I can understand how these solutions might be economically more viable, but at the same time the whole US approach comes in as monopolistic. Their economic system of big defense contractors working for the government who itself pushes out for new markets through lobbying, alliances, and "pushing for increased defense spending" is actually a water-tight system that kind of defies the liberal free market ideas of the US. Basically, US government is this huge client with constant needs that uses foreign politics as a leverage to open new markets under different pretenses, including "national security" where military equipment is not available to any other nation outside the alliance. So the federal government with its aggressive foreign policy always ensures that the defense sector gets nice big contracts, while the contractors push for new tech to be sold, so this becomes some sort of evil feedback loop. So what you said about "US pushing for increased military spending" is of course right, but it's a tongue-in-cheek kind of thing, as in "we got all you'll ever need". I was looking for the source where it uncovers how General Electric (and others) was buying up EU defense (and affiliated) firms as a measure to eliminate market competition, but unfortunately I can't find it anymore (it's been some years since I've read it), so that's unfortunate. IIRC is had to do with high-tech titanium turbine production (5th gen jet engines) and semi-conductors. Bottom line is, yes, Germany and France are capable to produce first rate military equipment, but the over-reliance on US protection (because of lobbying that ensured markets for their programs), this capability is on the back foot, where the main production is more focused on civilian stuff, and going back to increased military production would mean re-structuring mass production to accommodate it, but also, several defense programs must be initiated first. This would require some long-term planning which EU is not doing, and the proof is the fact that Germany is now panic-buying F-35s. The Eurofighter program is also a symptom of this, because the platform is not multi-role, but rather an air superiority design.....yadayada lol

Well Syria, and turning a blind eye on Israel vs Palestine and Saudi vs Yemen for instance, and leaving Afghanistan in complete disarray with increased corruption is right up there sharing the hall of fame with Putin's Ukraine adventure in my book. Actually, by yearly donations of billions of US dollars to Israel to continue its genocide is straight up proxy war financing... And with all the evidence of war profiteering, meddling and war crimes US committed in the middle east, north Africa and south America, the Hague is now preparing a dossier on Putin but not on any aforementioned US adventures is blatant one-sided policy that reeks of hypocrisy, and I'm being very gentle with my wording here. US foreign policy is very aggressive and completely self-interested in driving hard bargains with its "allies", which, for their lack of sovereignty in this case could be as well called vassal states and not allies. I'm yet to decipher the true intentions of Brexit, but I dare to speculate, that it was meddled by interest groups very keen on weakening the EU global relevance. It is well documented that the NATO expansion, direct meddling and lobbying, and increased military industry spending by US was aimed at weakening European military industry. US blocked France from selling military equipment to Australia. And now Germany is buying US 5th generation war planes. And now Javelin sales are skyrocketing. This is just too perfect to be a mere coincidence, isn't it? I'm not a militarist in any sense, but I support Macron's idea of an independent European defense force. Of course, with France being the only EU country with its military industry still more or less intact, this would play well for France, but taking the right steps, and the EU finally coming together, all nations could benefit from it, although it's hard for me to swallow this (military is nonetheless, a necessary evil, still).

It's not like that has stopped anyone before ? you just need a nice pretext that generates a lot of emotions. Certainly. But the main pillar of EU's existence is its post-ww2 EEC, and the EU is basically EEC with further consolidated laws to facilitate smooth trade. Coherent foreign policy was always coordinated (*cough* sprung *cough*) by US interests. The US also has individual agreements with individual EU countries, which do not always work in the interests of the EU as a whole, and if EU began working as a coherent entity, it would render some of the US co-dependent support roles moot. So, a certain level of EU divide is definitely in US' interest.

Well yes, but I know for a fact that US was actually involved in Ukraine as was the UK in the time when Putin installed his puppet leaders. They had their intelligence assets inside Ukraine (they still do), they all knew and were up to date what was going on there. Which leads me to my pre-conclusion that they were opportunistic and waiting for their moment as they always do. Selling weapons is a lucrative business. Perhaps they underestimated Putin's resolve, and thought that Putin's meddling could prepare ground for a "peaceful" NATO expansion, and the plan backfired. European Union, unfortunately, showed itself unable to form a coherent and decisive foreign policy, with each major member playing their own foreign policy game, and is able to step together only when US shows its interest, which further leads me to conclude that a disconcerted EU is in US (and Russia and China's) interest. So, the clusterfuck is most definitely part of the design.

I don't think Biden is a neutral party in this scenario

On a serious note, you mentioned a healthy debate, which means that all viewpoints have to be discussed and ruled in/out, even those that we might not like, Because the real truth is ugly on both sides (and most probably we're never going to know the real truth that is being discussed behind closed doors). The world has become so convoluted in agendas these days and no one is a saint: the 'west' has as much blood and shit on their hands, we cannot deny that, and it is being obscured as a form of narrative (e.g. "we are the good guys"). If we go by moral standards, no one should really be pointing fingers at this point and accusing the other for being a terrorist, because they all have blood on their hands. Russia is playing their propaganda game on whitewashing their moral standpoint against the west, but so does the west against Russia. But behind the curtains of this theatre, a different game is being played: that of opportunism. Can really anyone tell what news is "fake" and what isn't? The ugly truth is, unless one devotes a large majority of one's free time into analyzing all the different major and fringe sources and opinions from all overlapping fields, and invest some brain power into it, one is not going to be able to follow the thread of real truth, but instead just eat whatever suits one's preferred construction of reality. That is a problem. It's a symptom of a different reality. The real question is why didn't the west take Putin seriously before he started his shit in Ukraine? All the facts pointed in this direction, yet, the people in power did not act. I'm seeing multiple historical bells ringing here. Was it disbelief because of some sort of hubris? Was it opportunism? Incompetence? I'm going to refrain myself from telling my opinion on this.

During the weekend I watched this incredible 4-part epic War and Peace. This channel is full of gems. "My idea is that if evil men are linked with one another and therefore strong, the honest men must only do likewise."

Access to the Black Sea? that would require seizing control over the Bosporus, which would mean going to war with Romania, Bolgaria, Greece and Turkey, which is practically impossible for Russia (they are all NATO members). Not just in military terms, but also in political terms, as it would require a commercial passage through the Dardanelles or the Aegean Sea to actually make is feasible. They need a land route to Crimea if they want to make it strategically viable. That's why they are after the Azov land strip and the Donbass is an extra security buffer with a bonus.

I like My Sharona

https://roland50.studio/ quick electro/acid to mess around

is Putain too obvious? I know we have some french speakers here...

well to be fair the russian military did an abysmal job (fortunately), so firing the commander-in-chief is really not surprising (i'm surprised putin didn't do it sooner tbh) involving FSB into the matter, however, inclines me to believe the c-in-c might had been doing some sabotage-ing because russian operations operations in ukraine are that bad, it would be surprising if that wasn't the case (can they really be that bad?)

Funny how the sociopathic politicians do a 180 kick-flip benihana over the ramp when they smell their opportunity for shameless self-promotion for the sake of political points and, in our case, pre-election maneuvering. After Salvini's promo trip to Ukraine from which he was deservedly ousted by the mayor of Przemysl, now our prime minister Janša also went to visit Ukraine to show his unwavering support. He even published a picture of himself as the defense minister from 1991, dressed in a military camo uniform, along with Zelensky's picture when he was dressed in a helmet and a body armor, as if they are brother in arms, birds of a feather. It's completely fine and welcome for him to offer support if it wasn't for the complete change of his political narrative that was going on for the last several years: feeling his best among the likes of Le Pen, Meloni, Salvini, Orban, etc, who sympathized with Putin and even received his funds for their political campaigns. He wants us to forget his life work on eliminating free press, meddling in state legal authorities, cleaning up opposition, curtailing personal and political liberties, etc. He will now receive 100,000 Ukranian refugees with an open heart, after he spent years building an argument of a radical nationalism against dark-skinned refugees from Syria, Afganistan, north Africa, etc. The war in Ukraine now became one of his pre-election promotion strategies. "Heroes don't run, heroes fight." lmao, sure Janša, sure.

^....or in her case, surrounded herself with people who work for her so she doesn't have to

your heart must be fresh broken in order to enjoy Pierrot Le Fou and Le Mepris. I'm speaking from experience, there's no other way.

I'll vote for the next asteroid the size of a continent to just obliterate the whole thing. there's no other way.

But not everyone fights on the same side though. As ww2 history showed us, every country under Nazi occupation had a resistance and a collaborationist movements. Even neutral or un-invaded countries had volunteers who fought on both sides. And the messed up thing about the collaborators was that they legitimately thought they were fighting for a good cause, e.g. anti-communist. Unfortunately, this divide is still present today, and it further messes up things. New generations don't have the experience of the horrors of past wars. One would think that a country such as Ukraine, in which nazi pogroms were so terrible, they would be extra vigilant towards nazi ideologies, but it evidently (and unfortunately) isn't so.

right on, cloud storage baby. what's next... my call is agro-corps with climate change, followed by robot dogs because of "civic unrest"