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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 21:03:40 GMT
8500 miles in 15 months. Sounds like intergalactic use to me.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 16:25:00 GMT
I am also concerned at the impending scenario of Putin resorting to the nuclear option. The issue is one will be fired first and where will it be aimed at? I don’t think a second will be fired but I do see a huge non-nuclear war following it.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 13:08:12 GMT
I can’t actually tell if that’s a piss take or not but I’m looking forward to reading Twitter posts with the hashtag #InternationalMensDay in November. I reckon my phone will catch fire.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:48:25 GMT
So, this is today apparently. A Soviet public holiday, albeit with origins elsewhere, it was never heard of when I grew up. W2.1 refused to celebrate it after the collapse of the Soviet Union as she felt it was just a horrible reminder of the few sops given to the populace during the Soviet era. She just asked me where her flowers were and I replied that she told me it reminded her of communism so I didn’t bother but reminded her I buy flowers every week as part of the weekly shop - the fact that I like flowers in the house as well is neither here nor there, they’re for her Anyone else celebrating?
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:40:41 GMT
The problem for introducing any fundamental tax changes, of which road pricing is one, is that MPs are inherently keen on maintaining their income and lifestyle so anything which looks like a sure fire defeat at the next election is a bit of a tricky one. Imagine rural, conservative constituencies where there is one bus a day being told they’re now being charged by the mile when they’ve forgotten the Bisto and have to nip to the nearest convenience store on a Sunday, a 10 mile round trip.
The other issue with such systems is revenue collection and modelling. These technological solutions need to be paid for and maintained, so part of the road pricing is lost there. Then the initial model assumes pricing at peak hours at X price when suddenly everyone starts driving at cheaper times and the rates need to increase (like when fewer fines manifested when the C Charge was introduced in London). Collecting tax through the price of of liquid fuel is so simple that replacing it will only be an abject failure by comparison.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 8, 2022 9:29:45 GMT
Just under 60,000 thus far according to official figures. But if I were a Russian propagandist I’d say the Russians in Ukraine don’t need to flee and are now released from the Nazi stronghold in Kiev that has gripped them in terror for so long.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 21:15:47 GMT
The problem with arguing ‘what if nato didn’t like Belarus as a neighbour’ is that nato has expanded to the Belarus border. It has an expansionist policy that is central to the issue with Putin. I think it’s been said somewhere above that countries actively request to join NATO. That none are actively requesting to join the Russian federation says more about the view of “Putin bad - Western Europe good” than any personal rantings from me or anyone else.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 18:50:42 GMT
So just to prove how much Putin wants to see the stability of Ukraine as a non-NATO state his solution is to make it uninhabitable. Has he made the same statement about Finland? and what his response have been if NATO said they didn't like a Russian puppet-state in Belarus as a NATO neighbour and demand that no Russian military action could ever be launched from there?
Yes a simplistic kind of demand from Putin to feed his simplistic advocates, but not really any kind of simple solution. As ever the Russian simple solution is as we are seeing being played out. The Rouble is just about half the value it was before this invasion - even his simplistic advocates must see that he's a dickhead as they work out if they're having half a loaf of bread or only 2 hours of heating a day.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 7, 2022 16:11:14 GMT
Sounds like getting used to a four stroke bike after years on a two stroke. When I got on that Fireblade I had about 15 years ago after years of 250s I nearly went through the screen just rolling off the throttle.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 20:04:31 GMT
The seats. Air cooled, heated, massage function and immensely comfortable.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 9:08:54 GMT
Last time they tried there was that little problem called the Cuban missile crisis. You told me earlier that my 12 year timeline between Budapest and Czechoslovakia was taking poetic license and now this The Warsaw Pact was NOT like an alliance: it was control by Moscow. Forcible control and the installation of a puppet government. Like Ukraine would be if Putin has his way. I agree (as I did earlier) that Putin is not our version of Hitler - he is geographically but not in political terms. Geography shows that Rusyn tribes spread across Russia and the Ukraine but the Polaks were different and controlled a lot of Ukraine through war-gains. Hitler the same: German speaking in Czech, Poland, Slovakia (which didn't exist really) Hungary, Austria (still) was from the Germanic tribes that were indigenous there. So they are geographically the same. Politically: Hitler came to power from a background of a Germany perceived as militarily and industrially castrated by the Treaty of Versailles, thrust upon the German people by the victors of war. Putin is coming from a wealthy state with vast natural reserves and trade influence, no real restrictions on its military or the travel of its population. So yes, we have to deal with him because he is the face of Russian politics but unlike Hitler he has not become so through restrictions imposed on the nation by others.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 5, 2022 8:27:54 GMT
Why does he want a buffer zone? Because he doesn’t want what he sees as hostile and expansionist forces camped on his border. NATO started as 8 countries, its now 30. Most of that growth coming from Eastern Europe. It’s hard to argue that it’s not expansionist. And if Ukraine can join NATO can Cuba establish a military alliance with Russia? Yes, Cuba can - but would it be along the lines of NATO? Putin sees NATO as as hostile and expansionist but in reality its expansion is by countries that were subjugated by Moscow for half a century+. They made the choice to join NATO not for aggression but to protect themselves from the horrors and restrictions they had already experienced. NATO does not tell each nation state how to behave but offers a guarantee of joint action to protect - something done to avoid a divided internal European war. Putin doesn't like NATO not because it is expansionist and aggressive but because it prevents Russian domination of its neighbour states, who (I'll repeat) have independence from one another and both Russia and the USA.* The Warsaw Pact era was nothing like that: you did what the Kremlin said or were imprisoned or shot and so were your family and associates. This is why attempting to blame the NATO expansion as the cause of Putin's aggression riles many: it's an excuse to grab very fertile and ore-rich lands for Moscow's benefit not for the befit of the local nation or the wider market. *Even the EU states have independence from one another and EU wide rules and directives are only enacted after representatives from ALL member states have ratified them. This independence was clearly demonstrated by the individual rules applied by states during COVID.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 15:55:13 GMT
It looks nice. But dressing up a dreary person to the nines doesn't automatically make them dynamite on a night out... 😆. I went out with a particular pretty girl a couple of times as a 6th former and one of my school friends said “bloody hell, mate - you need something with half a brain in it!”
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 14:41:58 GMT
If the water supply is disrupted then the controls would remove the rods to perform a controlled shut down I would imagine.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 4, 2022 12:58:37 GMT
Current storage design for waste decrees two simultaneous hits by a pair of A380s (guess what I’m working on…….) The problem with ordnance attacks is that they’re not factored in as the assumption is the most likely attack will be terrorist based, not military as attacking a nuclear power plant is banned under the Geneva Convention.
Any uncontrolled release of very active material is horrendous - remember that stored material is already depleted but still has a 100 year storage requirement. The act of attacking one is more a sign of reckless insanity and desperation than anything else as the aim of gaining land is ended by not having land that is usable.
For Russia and ROTW the only “out” is a change of leadership allowing a change of policy allied to immunity for Putin’s inner circle.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 22:45:12 GMT
Petrol and diesel in the Watford area was still about 6p/litre cheaper than at home last Saturday Would you rather live in Watford or Camberley?
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 15:15:12 GMT
He doesn’t want a NATO border but is happy to keep moving west until he meets one…… then another …… then another. When the Soviets controlled Hungary they didn’t like the relative freedoms of Czechoslovakia so went there in 1968. A bit of poetic licence there! As well as being 50 years ago, in the Soviet era when the Warsaw Pact was in full swing, the two events were 15 years apart I think? 12 years. I agree on the timescale but the reforms being pushed from Prague (ie more like Western Europe) were the trigger to invade a neighbour. As to the Warsaw Pact element I don’t think the pact was the kind of collegiate forum NATO is: Moscow led end of story. Putin’s views were formed by this period of Russia is boss and any view of even semi independence from Moscow is anathema.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 14:47:02 GMT
He doesn’t want a NATO border but is happy to keep moving west until he meets one…… then another …… then another. When the Soviets controlled Hungary they didn’t like the relative freedoms of Czechoslovakia so went there in 1968.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 14:31:04 GMT
Andretti
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 12:17:21 GMT
As recently as November last year Putin asked Biden to make legal guarantees that NATO would not expand eastwards. He didn't even get a response from Biden, but from the NATO secretary general who completely rejected the request. This is like the meat head neighbour down the road asking you not to park your car on his lawn and you sending your little sister to tell him to f... off. It surely wouldn't much of a shock if he slashed your tyres and punched you in the face. This makes the assumption that the US runs NATO, which it doesn’t. Asking the POTUS to give an assurance from NATO highlights the mentality of Russia feeling that Europe is overrun and guided by the US, which is an historical view based on the occupied post war years. It also ignores the fact that a lot of US culture, values and population is essentially European (which is where the bond comes from) and the fact that European industries are as rife in US territories as the US ones are in Europe so there’s less domination. Putin also wants to undermine the European trading and security bloc on his doorstep by still prattling on about the power of the US as opposed to the EU.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 10:23:53 GMT
Yep. MSF all the way.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 7:58:32 GMT
The immediate horror of death and destruction is dwarfed by an entire generation (and probably two) of Russians left to live a life not countenanced for nigh on thirty years (or just about a generation). It may not be “Putin bad / west good” but it’s certainly Putin’s inner circle’s fault that the next generation has a shit outlook.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2022 0:34:46 GMT
Aside from the physical operational readiness there’s one other issue: these boys in the convoys weren’t psychologically prepared for what’s been encountered. This is a Slav v Slav battle, albeit Rusyn and Ukrainian are different tribes of old. They see the lives and homes of babkas and dedos like their own grandparents’ destroyed they start to question it.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 2, 2022 23:45:07 GMT
Just discussing with W2.1 and she expounded the theory that because of the expectation of swift wins the arriving invaders were not fuelled or rationed to withstand a long initial foray. So a drawn out attritional war has commenced, to extend the 8 years of a scenario in the east akin to what we called “the troubles” in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 2, 2022 21:14:14 GMT
The comparison of Putin to Hitler is hyperbole. His actions are closer to Bush and the war on terror (where Bush used his military superiority to invade and occupy a sovereign state). I wouldn’t compare him with either. Bush had the larger support of his electorate and Hitler was fairly popular at home as well. Not to say Putin is not popular but not to the same extent. He is more like the Soviet leaders of old that preferred isolationism and control over international trade and affairs. I did read that some of those soviet-era-mindset Russians are fine with a total loss nuclear war as if the west destroyed Russia the rest of the world wouldn’t be worth living in without Russia so they can all die too.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 2, 2022 16:26:22 GMT
Nope. His license is Russian. David Richards voted against the FiA rule to allow Russian drivers to race as neutrals so it got pushed through Motorsport UK as a ban so that Russia as a whole feels the consequences as they have no part in a global sport.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 2, 2022 15:48:15 GMT
Looking like Haas will soon have no Mazipin or whatever his name is. Ineligible for Silverstone and no doubt other local motorsport organisations will follow. Assume also they will have no Uralkali money pretty soon. Will make the obstruction to Andretti Racing’s entry fade away pretty quickly I imagine.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 2, 2022 15:37:49 GMT
You know there’s issues when the ECB says this: And whilst there have been comparisons with pre-WW2 Europe for various reasons, there’s another inter-war phenomenon to consider.
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Post by Big Blue on Feb 28, 2022 14:48:36 GMT
I've not built any Lego for a long time, but they always provide spare connectors. More so with the LR models, as it adds to the authenticity! 😆 I bought the Lego TVR model and it came with unlabelled bags (which would be 6&7 I guess). Put them together and one was an AA van the other a trailer.
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Post by Big Blue on Feb 25, 2022 13:14:19 GMT
Having gone from 19mpg average to 35mpg average one could argue I’ve made that choice already. This is one of those difficult questions like how much would fags need to be before you gave up smoking. I remember a guy on the radio years ago saying he’d give up immediately if they were £5 a pack. They’re over £10 a pack now so I wonder at what point he gave up…….
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