Yeah, that map shows the borders of the Soviet Union. It was the first I could find in a hurry, It’s old but helped to prove my point that their landmass east of the Ural mountains is mostly wilderness. Here’s a more up-to-date version that tells the same story:
Here is a map showing where the majority of Russia’s population lives:
https://maps-russia.com/maps-russia-geography/russia-population-density-map
The largest part of Russia is the vast Siberia, which is basically just endless forests, mountains and arctic tundra with few cities here and there - and the winters can be extreme. If not for the rich resources and the jobs that extraction of those resources creates, not many would choose to live there.
Yes. Casualties are soldiers who either die in battle or get wounded badly enough to be taken out of action for a longer time.
Trump negotiating wirh Putin is like a clueless kindergartener playing chess with national master.
They’re going to force Ukraine to give up on Crimea and the eastern occupied terrritories, but Ukraine gets back some strictly defined areas where rare earth metals can be exploited.
Trump will consider this as an absolute victory and in the near future Europe will pay the heavy price if Russian aggression is rewarded this way.
EDIT: Changed “Krim” to “Crimea” to avoid misunderstandings.
Are you familiar with the Russian prison system? I am not certain if a life sentence there qualifies as “living”, except that you’re still breathing.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-prison-system-interview-olga-romanova/32614416.html
When TOS aired the first time in my country, I was 9-10 years old. I found it mind-blowingly good compared to other shows at the time. I had learned to read when I was 4 and I read a LOT. And not just books for children, I also read classics and nonfiction natural science as much as I could.
I was a strange kid, but all my reading had made me ready to understand the social commentaries in TOS and the fictional scenarios really opened the concepts up for me. I often went to the library to research stuff that was explored in the latest episode to make sure I had understood everything.
My son is 13 now, we started to watch the TOS DVD-set together and he loves it. Although he is older than I was, he is not an avid reader like me. He needs many of the concepts explained and subtle guidance to understand the underlying larger themes, but he has shown advancement and after every episode we have a small discussion. I love teaching him this way.
We just finished season 1 and my son noted: “Athough this show is ancient, this stuff is still relevant and happening even today, isn’t it?”
“The cope cage! It does nothing!”
That was pretty wild development, yes. But still, we will not make any territorial claims. Doing so would effectively render the protection provided by NATO’s Article 5 null. We would once again be alone against a nuclear power with much larger resources than we could ever have.
So we won’t be doing that.
Finland won’t make any claims. This much is certain.
The only way we would even consider restoring the stolen lands would be IF the Russian Federation falls and IF the initiative for reunification would come from the Karelian Republic.
My last brew was a pale ale-weißbeer - hybrid and it turned out fantastic. I used Magnum and Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops and weißbeer yeast, the resulting flavour has a tinge of aniseed/licorice root in it. The IBU is somewhere near 30.
I made a 23 litre batch for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, I should have made 2 batches. Guests shared my opinion of the quality and yearned for more ;)
Playstations 3, 4 and 5 are capable of playing Blu-Rays and DVD’s. I guess the same goes with the later Xbox-models, assuming they have an optical drive.
I cannot fathom why one would purchase any console without one.
Andrew Robinson’s vision of the Garak’s character was that he was sexually attractred to Bashir right from the start. Playing this openly would have been way too much for 90’s TV, so he stuck to the idea but downplayed it. Which most likely is the reason why the interaction between these two characters was so great.
Yes! I bought mine in 2004, it was the only proper steel string guitar that I could afford at the time. And it is a really good guitar. There has been zero need for any adjustments, the only replaced part (excluding strings, of course) is a single tuning peg. I was drunk and slipped while I was playing, the guitar hit the floor first but miraculously there was no other damage.
A friend of mine was a guitar tech/roadie for Dio and Metallica in his youth and when he tried the F310 his opinion was that “This isn’t a bad guitar at all, actually it sounds a lot like my own Martin back home. You really might want to hold on to this one.”
Living in the same latitudes I could only take it as a compliment.
“You fucking Alaskan!”
I laughed uncontrollably for several minutes after receiving this compliment. Wrong continent, buddy.
Distilleries commonly produce a variety of alcohols, not just ethanol for human consumption. First ones that come in mind are methanol for antifreeze solutions and isopropyl alcohol for sanitizing and industrial solvents.
Cutting the vodka production is a nice bonus hit to the morale, but damaging the supply lines of military production is most likely the main goal here.
With their families held hostage back in Shitty Korea, it is very doubtful that defecting/surrendering will be their first choice.
Over 1700 personnel down in one day. The meat grinder hungers.
The minister in charge of these issues is a religious homophobe and the “party” he represents is more like a loose protest coalition of confused conservatives and racists.
Our prime minister “would have liked Finland to join the initiative, but the ministers have the authority in their own cabinets”. The racists have our prime minister’s balls in a grip, since the government would dissolve if they got offended and decided to leave. And since the current right wing government is the only chance to crush the labour unions’ power, prime minister Orpo seems to be more than willing to suffer one humiliation after another to win this prize for the corporate sector.
I fear they won’t. They’ll just try to do the trading in the dark.
Getting cheap energy and tightening Russia’s leash for the same price is just too good deal for China to waste.