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#91

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by viper37 - July 14, 2025, 03:06:09 PM

Or to defend it for that matter. I'm not a military buff at all but it does feel that no matter what the innovations and developments we still always end up with the poor bloody infantry.

Yes.  Infantry always need artillery/missile support, really.

Drones is just a new way of doing it.

#92

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by viper37 - July 14, 2025, 02:55:39 PM

Grok has been referring to itself as MechaHitler. 

And the DoD is now using Grok.  

#93

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Sheilbh - July 14, 2025, 02:40:51 PM

Or to defend it for that matter. I'm not a military buff at all but it does feel that no matter what the innovations and developments we still always end up with the poor bloody infantry.

#94

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by viper37 - July 14, 2025, 02:39:24 PM

Would 50 days take us into mud season?

drones aren't bothered by mud

Drones are useless to capture territory though.

Infantry is needed to capture ground.  One day, infantry may not need to be human, but it does not change the fact that infantry is needed to occupy or liberate villages and cities.

#95

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - July 14, 2025, 02:36:40 PM

Would 50 days take us into mud season?

drones aren't bothered by mud

#96

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - July 14, 2025, 02:31:57 PM

Yeah - exactly.

I've yet to see an argument against AC that doesn't also apply to central heating, but one is obviously necessary. The other "philosophically problematic".

#97

Off the Record / Re: Climate Change/Mass Extinc...

Last post by viper37 - July 14, 2025, 02:26:26 PM

Well needless to say no danger of drying out here this summer   

It has been very weirdly wet and "cool" for a central Texas summer. It sort of reminds me of how Summers used to be here in the 1980s, hot but not crazy hot and crazy humid, just with biblically torrential downpours.

That's God's warning to listen to scientists.  But will the Texans hear it...

#98

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by crazy canuck - July 14, 2025, 02:19:34 PM

Cooking is quantifiably bad, but I think it's also philosophically problematic. Cooking offers comfort, making the consumption of food both more palatable and safer to eat, at least for now. No one is really disputing we should keep cooking meals. When you can cook your meals and not truly feel hunger, the screaming urgency to tackle the collective issue of a world on fire can recede slightly.

And this is where I have to fess up. I actually cooked and, I must also confess, I have even eaten at a restaurant where food is cooked, maybe 10 times a year. If the government came for my kitchen, I wouldn't demand they "pry it out of my cold, dead hands", as one Republican said of his gas stove, but at times like these, I'm deeply, guiltily glad of it.

Cooking isn't the answer. We need more ambitious plans but, without them, many more people – not just rampant individualists, climate deniers, laundry liberators and fridge freedom fighters, but hot furtive hypocrites like me and anyone desperate to get a good meal – will be tempted by the easy, filling, tasty solution.

#99

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by viper37 - July 14, 2025, 02:17:19 PM

Oklahoma farmer killed by water buffalo he bought at auction just a day prior 

Two "aggressive" water buffaloes fatally attacked an Oklahoma man before confronting — and delaying — police and firefighters who responded to care for the victim, authorities said Monday.

Brad McMichael, 45, died on Friday from injuries he sustained from the large animals he had purchased at auction a day prior, his family and police said.

Hey, euh... err, only in Oklahoma?  


I'm sorry my American friends, but your country will never cease to amaze me.  And not always for the best...

#100

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - July 14, 2025, 02:13:11 PM

Incidentally in the same paper on the same day

Ed Miliband would let a turbine farm destroy Brontë country. We need net zero, but at what cost?
Simon Jenkins

Of course the climate crisis must be confronted, but history, tranquility and beauty must also count for something

This is where I think the right-wing papers support the right while the left-wing papers criticise is also maybe a bit of a misdiagnosis.

Because I think the Guardian is the most small-c conservative/opposed to change paper in the country - it's always framed as wanting profound, radical, systemic change across society but absolutely opposing anything short of that. While I think a lot of the right-wing press (especially the Mail) are basically pretty radical.