CitizenVectron

Private equity is going to control the world within a few years (I mean, it kind of already does) and if you think the current dystopian capitalist hellscape is bad...

Nederland schaft voor ruim 150 miljoen euro munitie aan voor F-16’s Oekraïne | Nieuwsbericht | Defensie.nl WWW.DEFENSIE.NL Nederland maakt ruim € 150 miljoen vrij voor de aankoop van munitie voor Oekraïne. Het gaat om lucht-grondwapens voor de F-16’s die naar Oekraïne gaan. Ze kunnen door F-16’s worden gedropt. Deze munitie wordt rechtstreeks bij de industrie aangekocht. Dit maakte minister Kajsa Ollongren bekend naar aanleiding van een bijeenkomst van de Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) van gisteren. Netherlands buying $163 million worth of air-to-ground munitions for F-16s for Ukraine to use when the jets are delivered this year.

Ukraine’s Drone Strikes on Russian Oil Refineries Mark New Phase in War WWW.BLOOMBERG.COM Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion has entered a new phase, pitting homegrown drone technology against a 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile) swathe of largely Soviet-era oil facilities.

Attacks on Russia Border Regions Bring Home Costs of Putin’s War WWW.BLOOMBERG.COM Deadly attacks on Russian regions bordering Ukraine are increasingly bringing home the costs of Vladimir Putin’s invasion. That doesn’t yet mean people are turning on the Russian president over the war. The Freedom of Russia Legion (the group of Russians that "invaded" Belgorod region last summer using Ukrainian and Russian gear) is at it again. This time they've managed to destroy a bunch of Russian positions and emplacements, and even apparently capture quite a few border towns. What is particularly interesting about this round of attacks is that artillery/drone strikes are being employed, almost certainly by the Ukrainian regular military in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts of Ukraine. There is a theory (which I almost ascribe to, at this point) that Ukraine is doing this to regularize the shelling of Russian positions inside Russia. This eliminates another of Putin's red lines. So when the Freedom of Russia Legion is finally defeated by Russia (or retreats, same thing) in a few weeks, Ukraine can just keep up the shelling. The goal is to create a demilitarized zone on the Russian side of the border so they can't shell Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv.

Yeah but

Ukraine performed a drone strike on the Russian airfield in Engels (Russia) last night. Satellite pictures show at least 9 strategic bombers on the tarmac yesterday, but no confirmation of what was hit. Russia has already said that all drones were intercepted...but they also say that when there are videos of things hit. I assume more info will come out in the next 24hr.

Russia is saying they believe that 2,000 French troops are to be deployed to Ukraine (not near front lines), and that Russia will make them a priority target.

There will be videos of men eating asbestos by next week.

Czech Republic turning out to be the OGs of Europe. Not only have they found support to get the original 800,000 shells for Ukraine (funding is secured)...they've also found another 700,000 shells from non-NATO sources that can be purchased for Ukraine: To paraphrase someone elsewhere: some Czech warehouse inspectors with flashlights are doing more for Ukraine than Germany or France* *obviously they are doing a fair bit—but I would argue that 1.5 million shells is worth far, far more to the actual war effort than the equivalent in some of the gear Germany is providing. The total for this 1.5 million shells is $3.3 billion.

Great video with Hans Zimmer on how he created the score for Dune Part Two (which imo is the best film score in over a decade): Also confirms at the end that he's been working on Dune: Messiah's score since the second day of filming for Part Two.

Just breaking from multiple internal sources: Looks like they will likely start outsourcing animation to other countries via contractors to save money, similar to Illumination. Executives saw the massive success of Kung Fu Panda 4 and thought "yeah my bonus was great...but imagine if we'd only had to pay half to our staff!"

You mean Dune Part 1? The two movies are a single story, so you need to watch the first before the second. And yes, the first is amazing as well.

Russia hit Odesa last night with a missile strike that has so far killed 16+ civilians, including children. After the first strike, they waited 30 minutes and hit the same location again, killing first responders (one of their strategies). Russia claiming to have killed military leaders, but it was just a civilian area.

Greece negotiates deal with Czechia for ammunition transfer to Ukraine - Euromaidan Press EUROMAIDANPRESS.COM Through a deal with the Czech Republic, Greece will supply Ukraine with 2,000 Zuni rockets, 180 anti-tank rockets, 90,000 projectiles, 4 million bullets, and 70 howitzers without depleting its own...

lol. Ukrainian weapons technicians after this war are basically going to be Fremen, capable of adapting any advanced weaponry to any other system. I can picture the stereotype of a shaved-headed man naked Yevhenii with a cigarette drooping from his mouth idly screwing a tank barrel to a civilian helicopter.

Also, the Freedom of Russia legion (anti-Putin Russia soldiers that are based in Ukraine, and "invade" border towns) have been scaring people in Belgorod the last few days. They've attacked a few small outposts, and have caused some people to flee the city of Belgorod itself through announcements they are going to take it. At most they have 1,000-2,000 soldiers, so unlikely to do any real damage, but they've been able to take out at least one RADAR site and a few Russian emplacements. Mostly just psychological.

A few more videos floating around of Ukraine hitting gas/oil refineries in Russia with drones. Sounds like their refining capacity is down about 15% due to strikes. That's not a huge deal by itself, but the bigger issue for Russia is that it means that crude oil is continuing to pile up, and they have limited storage. They will likely have to stop/cap a few wells soon to slow down the crude, and that comes with risks due to lack of replacement parts from the west for restarting them. Macron gave a big speech about the importance of Ukraine, and also used a little more forceful language about having "our boys" in Odesa, if needed. Unlikely, but it's important to push the envelope with language so that more options are on the table. 300,000 shells have been paid for from the "Czech" find (likely from an African country like Angola, etc) and should be in Ukraine in the next 2-3 months. Another 500,000+ are also ready to be purchased, if western nations commit. And finally: EDIT - For the AASM HAMMER missiles (similar to US JDAMs), France announced in January that they'd deliver hundreds to Ukraine, likely at a rate of about 50 per month. So that's cool.

Top Democrat Schumer calls for new elections in Israel, saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace - ABC News ABCNEWS.GO.COM Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on Israel to hold new elections

At the same time...every single actual election that has occurred has resulted in Democrats seeing +5% to +10% compared to polls.

I can't sleep on flights either, and it definitely messes with the first day of a trip, depending on the time change.

Nice little nugget from the article below: Longer-range ATACMS are closer to being delivered thanks to their replacement finally entering US stocks. wsj.com WWW.WSJ.COM

In what way? And what is your definition of DEI in terms of how it's being used?

Yeah, a lot of speculation as to why. He's deleted all his social media and Disney isn't commenting...so I am assuming something behaviour-related.

Breaking rule since there aren't any other good sources for Russian videos:

It's like if two clones need to run a 100m race to get a job, but one clone got spit out of the vat as Chris Christie, and the other is Usain Bolt. Also, most examples I see of "unfair" hiring (usually women or POC over a cis white man) are cases where: - Both candidates meet the requirements - The cis, white man scored 99.9% and the other scored 99.8% I hire people all the time, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that the people "most qualified" for a job are often the biggest assholes and you don't want them on your team. You want someone that meets certain base requirements, and then you want other non-tangible things that will help the team succeed. That includes diversity of experience and background to bring different insights to a group.