Exactly, there’s a reason that civilian space agencies worldwide are very careful about notifying other governments about launch schedules and planned trajectories.

I don’t know if decapitation strikes would even be in the Russian government’s best interest. By now, the current Ukrainian government decisionmakers are known quantities to the Russian government, they’re very predictable. They’re also amassing morale problems as Ukrainian citizens question their leaders’ competence. Why risk replacing ineffective and unpopular leaders with potentially effective and popular ones?

I doubt his blackmail of important officials is limited to only foreign officials.

I’ve long thought that open American fascism wouldn’t be Nazi Germany 2.0, but instead the normalizing of sundown towns and extending that concept to larger cities. No massive bureaucracy or central planning. Just letting local thugs do whatever they want so long as they obey state-level and federal-level thugs.

I do believe the IOF is short of manpower, and the conscription of the ultra-orthodox will eventually be a necessity if they want to continue war in Gaza (or start something in Lebanon or Syria).

Unless the US simply sends in their regular ground forces to help Israel.

Oh, Lunar Gateway is an even stupider project than that. It was only proposed because the SLS rocket that was planned to launch Orion capsules is too underpowered to put the overweight Orion capsules into lunar orbit. SLS can either launch flyby missions, or it can put Orion into that wacky halo orbit to dock with Gateway so crew can transfer to the Starship-derived lander.

SLS can’t be made for higher performance because it was specifically planned to reuse space shuttle components. And that reuse was planned because it reduces R&D expenses for the defence contractors involved in the project - particularly Northrop Grumman and Boeing.

I’m assuming that it’s chuds doing the shootings, and the chuds-in-power are worried that if they publicize prosecutions their base will turn on them. If any shooters were even the slightest bit left-leaning, American authorities and media would be figuratively shouting it from every metaphorical rooftop.

Uninvited 2.

It’s a surprisingly good platform for what one might call “mid length” videos.

It’s also still quite good for leftist content these days, despite their algorithm changes over the past year. The trick is to make extensive use of the like button.

I’m not sure that this video counts as news, as it’s more a single person’s speculation. But I think it’s worth watching. Somebody’s thoughts on links between the big US spending bill, RFK’s wearables comments, Neuralink, and Alligator Alcatraz.

Minus ten points for the slur, but plus a hundred points for having some common sense and morals.

I AM GOING TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE

Next year’s World Cup will be even more chaotic - it’s being jointly held in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. I’m making a prediction that Trump will poke his nose in at the very last minute and demand that either all of the games are held in the US, or none of them can be.

One thing I never liked about Element is the devs’ refusal to put effort into supporting multiple accounts. Now I’m starting to wonder if that was a deliberate choice and not a fundamental technical limitation. Discouraging multiple accounts and effectively forcing people to use one identity for everything is exactly the sort of requirement I’d expect from VCs looking to sell out to advertisers.

Probably. Pretty much everyone does, at least the civilian receiving-signals-only version.

This seems to have flown under the radar, but I think it’s pretty significant. Iran’s government has switched to using China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system. Firm details are in short supply, but my own (possibly wildly incorrect) reading from the various articles is that Iran’s government now has access to the more precise military version of BeiDou, and is possibly directing its agencies to disable the use of the American-run GPS in government-issued devices. I doubt that GPS is being actively jammed.

The squeaky tank sound has become pretty popular on tiktok, filling the same comedy purpose as the traditional cricket sound.

I just got a refurbished T14s thinkpad and it’s the most pleasant laptop experience I’ve ever had. Worked with every Linux distro I’ve tried out of the box. Good build quality, great matte IPS screen, charges by USB-C. It even has a little built-in sliding webcam cover. Not great for gaming but fantastic for travel.

(also, something else about the tungsten producers - Canada’s actually 4th, so I guess we might see the Fallout 1 intro but about ores instead of oil )

Funny thing is that the new Liberal minority government, with the help of the Conservative party, recently passed a prominent piece of legislation that seems laser-focused on making it easy for mining companies to ignore a lot of safety and environmental regulations. I wonder if the idea is to make Canada the go-to source for minerals important for the US defence industry and use that as a trade-negotiation bargaining chip now that the US is having problems sourcing them from China, Russia, and countries allied with China and/or Russia.