#Russia and Canada are both bigger than US

[mlembug]

funny how the goalpoints are shifted now

"damn I can't ask them states because they already know them"

"I know, gonna ask for *capitals*. Surely they don't know *that*"

Ultimately proving OP's point

i think that, if youre usamerican and any time someone calls out your lack of knowledge on global geography you start talking about how bad the usa education is and how its actually not your fault that you dont know what continent nigeria is on because you cant look at the google maps bc donald trump will personally shoot you, youre very annoying

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New NASA Study Tallies Carbon Emissions From Massive Canadian Fires

Extreme wildfires like these will continue to have a large impact on global climate.

Stoked by Canada’s warmest and driest conditions in decades, extreme forest fires in 2023 released about 640 million metric tons of carbon, NASA scientists have found. That’s comparable in magnitude to the annual fossil fuel emissions of a large industrialized nation. NASA funded the study as part of its ongoing mission to understand our changing planet.

The research team used satellite observations and advanced computing to quantify the carbon emissions of the fires, which burned an area roughly the size of North Dakota from May to September 2023. The new study, published on Aug. 28 in the journal Nature, was led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

They found that the Canadian fires released more carbon in five months than Russia or Japan emitted from fossil fuels in all of 2022 (about 480 million and 291 million metric tons, respectively). While the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from both wildfires and fossil fuel combustion cause extra warming immediately, there’s an important distinction, the scientists noted. As the forest regrows, the amount of carbon emitted from fires will be reabsorbed by Earth’s ecosystems. The CO2 emitted from the burning of fossil fuels is not readily offset by any natural processes.

An ESA (European Space Agency) instrument designed to measure air pollution observed the fire plumes over Canada. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument, or TROPOMI, flies aboard the Sentinel 5P satellite, which has been orbiting Earth since 2017. TROPOMI has four spectrometers that measure and map trace gases and fine particles (aerosols) in the atmosphere.

The scientists started with the end result of the fires: the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere during the fire season. Then they “back-calculated” how large the emissions must have been to produce that amount of CO. They were able to estimate how much CO2 was released based on ratios between the two gases in the fire plumes.

“What we found was that the fire emissions were bigger than anything in the record for Canada,” said Brendan Byrne, a JPL scientist and lead author of the new study. “We wanted to understand why.”

Warmest Conditions Since at Least 1980

Wildfire is essential to the health of forests, clearing undergrowth and brush and making way for new plant life. In recent decades, however, the number, severity, and overall size of wildfires have increased, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Contributing factors include extended drought, past fire management strategies, invasive species, and the spread of residential communities into formerly less developed areas.

To explain why Canada’s fire season was so intense in 2023, the authors of the new study cited tinderbox conditions across its forests. Climate data revealed the warmest and driest fire season since at least 1980. Temperatures in the northwest part of the country — where 61% of fire emissions occurred — were more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.6 degrees Celsius) above average from May through September. Precipitation was also more than 3 inches (8 centimeters) below average for much of the year.

Driven in large part by these conditions, many of the fires grew to enormous sizes. The fires were also unusually widespread, charring some 18 million hectares of forest from British Columbia in the west to Quebec and the Atlantic provinces in the east. The area of land that burned was more than eight times the 40-year average and accounted for 5% of Canadian forests.

“Some climate models project that the temperatures we experienced last year will become the norm by the 2050s,” Byrne said. “The warming, coupled with lack of moisture, is likely to trigger fire activity in the future.”

If events like the 2023 Canadian forest fires become more typical, they could impact global climate. That’s because Canada’s vast forests compose one of the planet’s important carbon sinks, meaning that they absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere than they release. The scientists said that it remains to be seen whether Canadian forests will continue to absorb carbon at a rapid rate or whether increasing fire activity could offset some of the uptake, diminishing the forests’ capacity to forestall climate warming.

IMAGE: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed wildfire smoke from Nova Scotia billowing over the Atlantic Ocean in May 2023. Warm weather and lack of rain fueled blazes across Canada last year, burning 5% of the country’s forests. Credit: NASA

[usafphantom2]

The man who stole America’s stealth fighter secrets for China 🇨🇳

It’s not uncommon to hear people say that China’s most advanced stealth fighters, the in-service Chengdu J-20 and forthcoming Shenyang FC-31, incorporate stolen design elements from existing American and Russian fighter programs. Russian allegations of copycat technology are born largely out of overall similarities between the J-20 and Russia’s long-defunct MiG 1.44 program. However, although Russian allegations leave at least some room for debate the same can’t be said for China’s theft of American stealth fighter designs.

In March 2016, a 51-year-old Chinese national named Su Bin pled guilty to charges associated with what the American Justice Department described as a “years-long conspiracy” conducted in concert with high-ranking members of the Chinese military to steal American military secrets – most notably, the designs for advanced stealth fighters like the F-22 and F-35.

“Su admitted that he conspired with two persons in China from October 2008 to March 2014 to gain unauthorized access to protected computer networks in the United States – including computers belonging to the Boeing Company in Orange County, California – to obtain sensitive military information and to export that information illegally from the United States to China,” reads the Justice Department release.

Su Bin, who worked in Canada under the name Stephen Su, was a well-regarded businessman and entrepreneur in the aviation industry, serving as the sole proprietor of a small company that specialized in aircraft cable harnesses. This company, called Lode-Tech, was described by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations as a “small player” in the field, with only a handful of employees and limited access to broader aviation programs.

However, despite the minimal reach of Lode-Tech, Su Bin himself worked tirelessly to establish in-roads within the Canadian and American defense industries, forming an extensive network of business contacts that, over time, allowed him to gain increasingly unfettered access to internal networks maintained by a variety of American and Canadian defense contractors.

As Bob Anderson, the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence, put it, “he cultivates you over time.”

China began formal development on its first stealth fighter, meant to compete directly with Western jets like the F-22, in 2008, awarding the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation a developmental contract meant to mature its Project 718 design proposal.

Starting that same year, Su began working directly with two professional hackers employed by China’s People’s Liberation Army, using the information he’d gained through his business contacts to enable the theft of more than 630,000 files from Boeing – a massive 65 gigabytes of data – related to the C-17 heavy-lift cargo aircraft. But Su had his sights set on an even bigger prize: information regarding America’s stealth fighter programs.

Related: Beating China could mean bringing the C-130 back to aircraft carriers

A five-ship formation consisting of a C-17 Globemaster III and four F-22 Raptors fly over Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Heather Redman)

Over time, Su’s ability to win over business contacts enabled the theft of even more information mostly on the development of Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. While Su did not immediately have access to Lockheed Martin’s networks, these aircraft were not designed or built solely within the halls of Lockheed Martin. Both of these fighters represent the efforts of a chorus of contractors and subcontractors, with design specifications shared across firms for the sake of manufacturing.

When people took note of Su’s interest in these classified programs, he assuaged their concerns by pointing out that he was only asking about specific, seemingly unimportant things.

“Su would say, ‘I’m not asking you to give me the F-35, but what’s it matter if I get one system out of it that we could sell to a friend or a prospective client?’” said Anderson. “And then go from there, and it takes time.”

Over at least six years, Su and his hackers would gain access to tens of thousands of files associated with these stealth fighter programs.

Correspondence between Su and his team shows he not only provided overall direction and guidance for this effort, but he even worked to translate the stolen information into Chinese, going so far as to draft formal reports for the PLA’s General Staff Headquarters on the material they managed to steal.

A redacted image from the F-35 report Su Bin prepared for the PLA’s General Staff Headquarters. (Creative Commons)

Su and his co-conspirators may have worked tirelessly to gain access to this information, but they worked just as hard to cover their tracks. FBI counter-intelligence experts traced their work through multiple third-party nations, where they had established “hop points” – a term used to describe compromised or purchased intermediary networks meant to disguise the infiltration’s actual point of origin.

In 2009, six current and former government officials confirmed with the Wall Street Journal that the Joint Strike Fighter Program that produced the F-35 had been accessed multiple times by Chinese hackers, who had secured several terabytes of information regarding the aircraft’s design and systems. At the time, Pentagon officials explained that the hackers used a method that encrypted data as it was being stolen, making it difficult to assess what specific data had been compromised. However, it is worth noting that some of the most secretive systems being developed for the aircraft are kept isolated from broader network access to avoid these sorts of security breaches. Nonetheless, this revelation was the beginning of the end for Su and his team.

In one 2011 e-mail entered into evidence, Su bragged to his Chinese contacts that the information they stole from the F-22 and F-35 programs would “allow us to rapidly catch up with U.S. levels … To stand easily on the giant’s shoulders.”

Beginning in 2011, in what Chinese officials might describe as little more than coincidental timing, the J-20 fighter design that had been maturing since 2008 suddenly adopted several significant – and stealthy – changes. These changes wouldn’t manifest in a new prototype, however, for three more years.

By 2013, Su had also established connections with GE Aviation in Cincinnati – a firm renowned for advanced turbofan technologies that China has struggled to develop for its own stealth fighters. It’s worth noting that both the F-22 and F-35 are powered by Pratt & Whitney powerplants, but GE was responsible for competing designs meant for service aboard these jets. According to Defense Department insiders, GE’s YF120 turbofan proposal for the F-22 Raptor was actually the more advanced and capable design. Pratt’s YF119 engine ultimately won out due to its simplicity and the lower risk associated with relying on more mature and proven technologies.

In March 2014, China’s new and improved J-20 design finally emerged, incorporating modified diverterless supersonic inlets (DSI), redesigned vertical stabilizers, and more. When pictures of the new J-20 first reached the internet, multiple defense outlets highlighted the now even more pronounced similarities to Lockheed Martin’s stealth fighters.

Visible changes in China’s J-20 stealth fighter prototype fielded in 2014 (bottom) versus its previous iteration (top). (Via the Chinese internet)

As well-known aviation journalist David Cenciotti reported at the time, the J-20’s newly redesigned nose, in particular, bore a striking resemblance to the F-22 and F-35. That same year, USNI News contributor Feng Cao also drew direct comparisons to America’s stealth fighters, even highlighting its change in color to “F-22 grey,” likely a sign of improved radar-absorbent skin. Defense outlet War is Boring was so taken by the improved features of the new J-20 design that they ran a story with the headline, “China’s Latest Stealth Fighter Prototype Has, Well, Actual Stealth Features.”

Now, it is important to note that not all of the design changes to the J-20 are easily attributed to espionage. Some changes and improvements can be traced to on-record developmental efforts within Chinese academia… but not all of them. Nonetheless, the new-and-improved J-20 could be seen as a massive victory for Su Bin and his espionage efforts… but he wouldn’t have much time to celebrate. At right around the same time the new J-20 prototype was revealed to the world, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a criminal complaint and subsequent indictment against Su for the theft of thousands of files associated with American defense efforts. Four months later, in July 2014, he was arrested by Canadian authorities.

Visible changes in China’s J-20 stealth fighter prototype fielded in 2014 (bottom) versus its previous iteration (top). (Via the Chinese internet)

While the FBI is traditionally responsible for investigating these sorts of crimes, the Air Force’s Office of Special Projects (PJ), a subset of the Office of Special Investigations, ultimately played a vital role in securing Bin’s arrest and extradition to the United States thanks to their ability to work directly with defense contractors and senior U.S. government officials, including members of the Air Force’s C-17 program office and others within Lockheed Martin itself.

American law enforcement eventually managed to access the messages exchanged between Su, his hackers, and Chinese military officials in which they wrote and revised formal reports for the People’s Liberation Army outlining their efforts and the data they’d managed to steal. The collection of stolen files combined with this correspondence left the charges all but irrefutable, and Su opted to wave the extradition hearing and be transferred directly to the United States.

Initially, Su was facing 30 years in prison for his crimes, but he quickly accepted a plea agreement, providing his full cooperation to American authorities in exchange for a much shorter 46-month sentence.

Despite the breadth of Su’s theft, many of the documents he and his hackers stole were not, strictly speaking, classified or even export-controlled. However, as the Air Force pointed out in 2016, even these less-significant thefts, in aggregate, allowed the Chinese military to reverse-engineer a wide variety of aircraft components that would otherwise have cost millions to develop from scratch, saving not only money, but a great deal of time associated with research and development.

Related: Pakistan wants to fly Chinese stealth fighters alongside its F-16s

F-35 (top) compared to J-20 (bottom).

“Su Bin admitted to playing an important role in a conspiracy, originating in China, to illegally access sensitive military data, including data relating to military aircraft that are indispensable in keeping our military personnel safe,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin.

Su’s unearthed correspondence, the timeline of design changes incorporated into the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter, and his subsequent admission of guilt, all point directly to China’s theft, and use, of Lockheed Martin design elements in its own fighter programs, though this idea remains the subject of debate within Pentagon and aviation circles to this day.

The J-20 is obviously not a direct copy of the F-22, and assertions that it would need to be to benefit from this sort of technological theft reflect a lack of understanding of fighter design. A tactical aircraft is, fundamentally speaking, not one thing, so much as a broad collection of components and design cues married to one another through functional form. Like a child bearing only a slight visual resemblance to her parents, genetic similarities run more than skin deep.

Comparison of F-22 (top) and J-20 (bottom).

Yet, the most conspicuous similarities between Chinese and American stealth fighters are, nonetheless, fairly easy to spot. Despite the J-20’s overall delta-wing and canard design resembling Russia’s defunct MiG 1.44 stealth fighter effort, the radar-reflecting design cues leveraged by the F-22 and F-35 are readily visible in the Chinese fighter.

Some have disputed this in recent years by alleging that these similarities are based not on theft, but physics, claiming that these shared design elements are the inevitable result of any fighter design meant to marry aerobatic performance to low-observability. This claim would seem to be substantiated by numerous other stealth fighter programs in development today that also bear a striking resemblance to America’s F-22 or F-35, like Turkey’s KAAN, South Korea’s KF-21, or India’s AMCA.

The truth, however, is that both the Indian and South Korean stealth fighter efforts saw direct engineering support from Lockheed Martin, and Turkey’s KAAN fighter began development in 2016, three years before the country was removed from the F-35 program. These fighters bear a resemblance to Lockheed Martin’s because they all have benefitted from access to Lockheed Martin’s design efforts.

The idea that all stealth fighter designs will ultimately mature in the shape of an F-22 can be easily dismissed by simply looking over the competing stealth fighter developmental efforts from other firms that ultimately didn’t see production for one reason or another. Boeing’s admittedly goofy-looking X-32 and Northrop’s legendary YF-23, both jets that competed and lost against Lockheed entries, were not only broadly comparable in terms of stealth, but it’s widely understood that the YF-23 was even stealthier than the YF-22 that matured into today’s Raptor.

Other stealth aircraft efforts like Northrop’s Tacit Blue, Boeing’s YF-118G Bird of Prey, NASA’s X-36, McDonnell Douglas’s A-12 Avenger II, and more all represent different approaches to low-observable tactical aircraft design that bear little resemblance to Lockheed Martin’s approach.

Related: Why stealth helicopters are so hard to design

Northrop’s YF-23 stealth fighter design. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Put simply, Lockheed Martin didn’t uncover the one-and-only approach to stealth fighter design in the early 1990s, leaving the rest of the world with no choice but to follow in its footsteps. Instead, Lockheed Martin offered the U.S. military the most viable combination of performance, stealth, and political support necessary to see its jets go into production. Since then, Lockheed Martin’s success with these designs has positioned it to support American allies and partners in their own developmental efforts, resulting in a great deal of similarity across some foreign designs.

China’s use of Lockheed Martin design elements in its stealth fighters, then, does not represent the inevitable result of radar and wind-tunnel testing, but rather a concerted effort to bridge the gap between Chinese and American fighter technology through a combination of direct theft and a fair bit of traditional domestic R&D.

So what does this ultimately mean for China’s J-20 or their new stealth fighter in development, the FC-31 (sometimes also known as the J-35)? Espionage has always played a role in the advancement of military technology and will continue doing so as long as wars are waged. These fighters do not need to match their American counterparts in all performance metrics to represent a potent threat to American security and interests, and indeed, they likely don’t. Their real value is as part of a broader defensive strategy and air warfare doctrine that China is still actively developing as we speak, and as such, the ultimate impact of these platforms has yet to fully manifest.

China’s operational J-20 (Wikimedia Commons)

It would be a mistake to dismiss these copycat fighters as little more than designer-imposter jets with no real combat prowess due solely to their use of stolen design elements. A Hi-Point pistol may look like a Glock run through a broken copy machine and may not offer the same accuracy, reliability, or ease of maintenance… but that’s little solace to anyone who’s been shot by one. And the truth is, a highly trained special operator armed with nothing more than a cheap pistol may be even more dangerous to an opponent than a dummy like me with the fanciest Sig money can buy.

Effective employment strategies and tactics can often offset technological shortcomings, and as such, China’s employment of stealth technologies in new fighter designs doesn’t need to be as refined as America’s. With the right strategy, training, supporting systems, and personnel, the underdog can always come out on top.

So, did China steal F-22 and F-35 designs to benefit its ongoing fighter efforts? The answer is unequivocally yes.

But is that a reason to dismiss the threat posed by these aircraft and others to follow?

The answer there is unequivocally no.

@Alexhollings

@SandboxxNews

[cryingoflot49]

Book Review

The Texas - Israeli War: 1999 by Jake Saunders & Howard Waldrop

It’s 1999, seven years since they dropped the nuclear bombs and devastated the world with chemical and biological warfare. The human race has known nothing but warfare ever since. The world’s population is in decline, all except for the nation of Israel where it continues to grow beyond sustainable means. Israeli mercenaries hire themselves out to fight wars for the major countries. Some of those troops end up in the U.S.A. This is the situation in the misleadingly titled The Texas – Israeli War: 1999 by Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop. It is a short novel with a provocative premise, but a shockingly ordinary plot.

Actually the premise is completely bonkers. It all starts when Ireland doses the British government with LSD, setting off a chain reaction. The U.K. then attacks China and South Africa with nuclear weapons, Russia and Canada step in to defend the British, and China launches chemical and biological attacks on both nations. The chemical agents used by China get carried by wind across the border into America and decimate all the vegetation, natural and agricultural. Meanwhile Texas secedes from the United States and kidnaps the American president while the dopey Vice President runs the country as a dictatorship. The CIA hire a team of Americans, Israeli mercenaries, and disgruntled Texan nationalists who want Texas to rejoin the Union. Their mission is to invade Texas and rescue the president from a prison fortress while America seizes Houston and the oil fields on the eastern coast with the aid of the Cuban navy attacking from the Gulf of Mexico the way America seized Normandy in World War II. I’m not sure how the Cubans got mixed up in all this. Certainly Fidel and Che wouldn’t be too happy about this, but that is the story as told by the two authors. In the real world, anyhow, by 1999 the Cuban military probably didn’t have enough force to attack anything bigger than a college campus. Rack this book up as another science-fiction prediction that never came true.

Aside from the post-apocalyptic premise and a few minor details like tanks that shoot lasers and cockroaches that grow to the size of small dogs, there isn’t much of anything that is otherwise science-fiction about this whole venture. The plot is an ordinary military combat operation story and would mostly be the same regardless of the setting and where it takes place.

But the characters are written with sufficient depth to humanize them and make them interesting and sympathetic. Sol is an aging military commander from Israel and he has made marriage and retirement plans with his hot military cohort Myra Kalan. Another commander named Brown is a war weary African – American segeant who wants all the combat to end so he can experience the peace that he has never known. The Texan Mistra accompanies the tank platoon because, being a former member of the fascistic militant group the Sons of the Alamo, he has an intimate knowledge of the fortress layout where they hold the president captive.

On a technical level, this book is quite good. Although the plot is pedestrian, the suspense and narrative tension are done effectively. The action scenes are fast-paced and exciting. The characters are realistic and easy to relate to. The pacing is good and in terms of descriptiveness, there is a lot of imagery and world-building that works quite well; it reminds me of the bleak and desolate landscapes of J.G. Ballard novels. The biggest problem is the overbearing arbitrariness of it all. Why are the Israelis cast as the mercenaries? Soldiers from just about any nation would have worked just as well. My guess is that one of the two authors is Jewish, but that wouldn’t account for much in terms of the story. The novel over all doesn’t appear to be commenting on anything specific. The troops are diverse and multi-ethnic which is good; there is even a strong female character in Myra Kalan. The catastrophic environmental destruction and hellacious nature of the war make sense for a novel written during the Cold War and the Vietnam War era, a time when environmentalism was taking root in American society. The oil companies are greedy and evil while the Texan nationalists are vicious and Nazi-like. The authors have a definite Liberal streak. But these are small details of the story, not the main point of it all. And the way that Cuba comes to fight on the side of the U.S. federation gets no explanation either. This novel just doesn’t have any definite meaning when it seems like some kind of statement should be there.

The Texas – Israeli War: 1999 is an interesting and well-written book, but it lacks something substantial to make it truly great. It is an interesting precursor to the post-apocalyptic movie and fiction trend of the 1980s; think of the Mad Max cycle of movies and all the imitations it spawned. If you want to read this for fun, than go for it. If you are looking for something meaningful, don’t bother.

And regarding the Israeli soldiers fighting in Texas, that leaves only one question in my mind: what would Kinky Friedman think of all this?

[queerbauten]

@catgirltoes said: The Heritage Festival organizers do have that level of psychic rot, unfortunately. :(

My brother was telling me about this, and I hate it. For one, it's bad on general principle—not only is it disgustingly xenophobic, but it's wildly inconsistent (it's not like they're removing other cultures whose related nation-states are committing atrocities...).

For another, the only person I can remember who has both outright asked me if I'm Russian (instead of probing to find out if I'm broadly spicy white) and acted like they weren't about to get weird about it was... a Ukrainian refugee at my work. She'd only been in Canada a few months at that point, and she still hasn't been here a year yet. She asked if I was Russian (and/or Ukrainian), because she had seen my (very Slavic) first name on a sign-in sheet. A few weeks later, she told me she had forgotten my name (but that I was Polish, heh). I told her my full first name, along with the diminutive I go by in most settings. She then asked if she could call me by a culturally-specific diminutive, specifically pointing out that it is used in places like Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.

I said yes, of course, because: 1) that's so, so sweet; 2) I like her; and, 3) it was one of the few instances where anyone outside of my family cared to engage with my Slavic ethnicity beyond, "Ooh, cultured foreigner!!" (I'm... a second-generation Canadian.)

And so, the point here is that Ukrainian civilians and Russian civilians aren't enemies. They're friends. They're family. They're neighbours. I have no reason to believe my coworker would have treated me differently had I been Russian. She could see that my cultural background was an opportunity for unison, not discord.

It really all comes back to that Marjane Satrapi quote: "The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same."

[litheammunition]

If it's helpful, here are some answers from England:

I can confirm that international travel is assumed. I've been to two foreign countries in the first half of this year, and my colleagues are surprised when I tell them I'm not going away for the summer. Beyond a certain income level, it's expected that you'll go on at least one overseas holiday a year. I'd been to a dozen countries before adulthood, three of them with my small village state school.

Yes, I've visited France much more than Russia. Part of that is convenience - I can get there by car, boat, train as well as plane - but the destination matters as much as the distance. The cultural ties, and learning French rather than Russian in school, are certainly a factor.

But I've also spent a lot of time in Greece, which is like Russia in being on the opposite side of the continent and using a different alphabet. A bigger factor for us is the climate. We spend a lot of time complaining about the British weather and tend to leap at the chance to get some sun. The Mediterranean coast and Canary Islands are popular destinations, despite being a little further afield. Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin etc. are closer, but more likely targets for a short weekend away.

I do think that I wouldn't feel the need to leave the US as much. The advantage of living in such a large country is that you don't have to cross a border to get some sunshine at the beach, or some snowy mountains for skiing, or any of the other climate based reasons for us to travel. You've also got a lot to see in terms of sights, whereas having grown up in the UK I feel like I've seen a lot of the variety we have to offer. There isn't as much cultural difference, which I would miss compared to visiting Budapest or Sardinia, but the other pressures aren't there.

I also don't blame Americans because of the distance. Having travelled to the States a few times, I wouldn't want to make that flight (and jet lag) a habit. It's much easier for us to visit Cyprus or Iceland than it is for an American to visit anywhere other than their neighbours (and Canada hardly offers much more of that cultural difference that domestic travel is missing). I can understand why they don't want to fly across either ocean regularly, even if it's affordable. It's a bit of a trek.

Finally, there's the matter of vacation days. Anecdotally, from those I've known who have worked on both sides of the pond, it seems that Americans get very few days off to justify that sort of long-distance travel. If I visit the US I know I'm going to lose a few days to travel and would want to book a couple of weeks off to make it worthwhile. I gather that Americans don't have that luxury - but that isn't a dig, because the flipside to all of those anecdotes is that the US salaries were much better. It seems like a trade-off where the UK is somewhere between the US and e.g. France, but I've always been able to take four to six weeks per year and that inspires me to use them to do more than go to the next county across.

since moving here ive noticed europeans have no concept of how few americans ever leave USA. every american tourist youve met is of an economic crust that is vastly unobtainable to the other like. 85% generously. no matter what you have believed i can guarantee this. even getting to canada isnt really a possibility and the mexico-US border is highly controlled and militarized.

to put it into perspective. a ~2 hour flight from london to warsaw is like. 30 to 45 USD?

and a 2 hour flight from one US city to another would be about 130 USD

it was very cheap to fly here. i make over 100k USD now and i dont know if ill ever be able to afford leaving. if that gives you an idea of how prohibitive travel is here. i havent even touched on how the US has Zero guaranteed holidays by the govt. many people here go years without ever having an entire week off of work

this has had a like. massive impact on American Brain and they dont even know it because travel isnt even a consideration economically. they dont even know how much more vacation time european countries have guaranteed

[darkmaga-returns]

Zionists Grasp At Delusional Fantasies While Israeli Generals Seek Exit Ramp

30 October 2024 by Larry C. Johnson 72 Comments

If you are considering holding a rational discussion with an ardent Zionist about Israel’s increasingly dire predicament, don’t waste your breath. These cats are beyond the reach of reason. Let me give you a prime example from today’s Jerusalem Post — Isolated Iran: Israel’s success in driving Islamic Republic’s allies away – opinion, by Alex Selsky.

Author Alex Selsky is an adviser to the Middle East Forum, former advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lecturer in the Department of Politics and Communication at Hadassah Academic College, and a Major (Res.) in the Israel Defense Forces.

Selsky writes:

One of the key successes of Israel’s recent strike has been to distance Iran from its close allies, Russia and China. First, by making it clear to both countries that they neither should nor realistically could protect Iran in the event of a war. And just as importantly, by sending Iran the message that it will stand alone. While it was expected that Russia and China, maintaining robust strategic and economic ties with Iran, would be unlikely to take substantial steps to defend Iran, recent events have made this reality evident to all. Israel should seize this opportunity to maximize Iran’s isolation, which will weaken it significantly—economically, militarily, and politically. Economic constraints, historical precedents, strategic calculations, and the potential for regional and domestic instability suggest that Russian and Chinese support would likely remain limited to diplomatic condemnation and indirect assistance. The internal dynamics within Iran, alongside broader regional factors, could potentially prompt domestic and regional efforts to overthrow the regime if a credible threat is perceived.

Selsky reveals a staggering ignorance about current events. Maybe that is because he’s been hiding in a bomb shelter to avoid getting hit by the daily barrage of Hezbollah rockets. Whatever the reason for his delusional article, making repeated false claims does not alter reality. So let us deal with some facts.

First, Iran is a member of BRICS and was warmly embraced last week by the leaders of 36 countries that represent an economic block that is bigger than the Group of Seven (i.e., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union is a “non-enumerated member”). Many of those countries — Russia, China and India in particular — condemned Israel’s attack on Iran. Iran’s participation in BRICS means that it now has a means to circumvent Western sanctions and grow its economy.

Second, Russia and Iran have concluded a mutual security agreement, which is supposed to be signed in the next week. Instead of “isolating” Iran, this means Iran has a nuclear power backing it up. Apart from that, Russia supplied Iran with a large quantity of air-defense and electronic-warfare equipment that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) employed with great success to blunt the Israeli attack.

Third, Russia and China remain committed to conducting military exercises with Iran and Iran is reaching out to its neighbors. On October 19, Iran conducted a naval exercise with Russia and Oman. And Iran announced plans to do another with Saudi Arabia:

[quantifiableme]

I do feel like, as an American, it’s really important we acknowledge how fucking big America is.

Because the only other countries that can really understand physically how fucking BIG we are are Russia, China, and like Canada. (Feel free to throw in another one, I still think my point works.) Like those are the only other countries with THIS MUCH LAND MASS.

And yes China and Russia are both bigger, but what makes the US different is we’re sort of the only country with our population as SPREAD OUT as it is. We’re like butter on toast, we really spread ourselves thin.

Like if we look at population density maps, which when they do it with lights is probably one of the *prettiest maps*, you see that China (above) is fucking LARGE. But 94% of it’s people are on the east coast.

Similarly, Russian civilians usually trend toward the southern boarder. And for obvious reasons, I’m sure living in Northern Russia requires a level of survival skills that makes you basically your own sovereign.

And I’m not saying no one lives in Inland China, or that no one lives in Northern Russia. However, the people that do are so completely removed from the rest of the population, they’re probably like survivalists or practice very traditional farming that they are their own society. I’d bet policy makers don’t really take them into account because they 1.) Don’t vote and B.) wouldn’t follow those laws anyway.

America is a little different.

Like, out two biggest populations (New York and LA) are on OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE COUNTRY. They have two different time zones, opposite weather conditions, opposite immigration populations (past and present). We sort of die out in the Great Plains there, but that’s where we keep VEGAS.

I say this as someone from the Midwest (look at the pretty lakes on top there) who went to college in Florida (the penis looking shape at the bottom right corner) at a school with a HUGE international population. And may I say, sometimes I related more to my international friends from Germany or Columbia than I did with an American from Tampa.

Which is sometimes what annoys me about international people who have a thought or two to say about American laws or policy. Like yes, we’re bad at it. We got a lot of things we gotta tinker and fix, just like all other countries. However, YOUR country probably has a bit more of a cohesive culture or political background on certain topics. Maybe there are more conservative Chinese people, but you probably all agree that you’re concerned about shipping and nautical trade because *94% of you are on the ocean*. And I don’t believe for a SECOND that no one in Northern Russia doesn’t have a fucking gun. THERE ARE VERY LARGE BEARS THAT RUN VERY FAST.

Making federal laws in any country is hard, but American politics are a totally different monster.

Even an Asian American from New Jersey will have a completely different experience than an Asian American from Arizona. Queer people in Montana couldn’t *fathom* the culture and subcultures of people in New York. They don’t even know they exist. Even look at the hip hop community: East Coast and West Coast and Midwest and Atlanta are basically different planets, and they’re the same genre of music. And don’t even get me STARTED on religion. Hey Britian, so you know what a Mormon is? Because we have one state that gets 6 electoral votes in our elections that is just one VERY SPECIFIC protestant religion of Christianity that thinks drinking liquor is a sin. Energy Drinks are very very very popular there. (Shoutout Utah, I see you.)

So yeah, a New Yorker is going to prioritize public transportation reform, while a governor from Montana wants to protect National Parks. California people do not understand Midwest Hunting as a recreational activity, and I thought the Everglades were mountains until I went to Florida and realized they were swamps. My Floridian friends made fun of me, but they don’t know there are 5 Great Lakes so *raspberry noise*.

So yes we have a culture. We have 100,000,000 MAJOR cultures that make no sense and will never interact, because our cities are father away than some of you are to other continents.

True American culture was the friends we made along the way. 💛

[the-firebird69]

You're a couple more areas with ships that are getting ready to launch

-one of such areas besides Greenland there are two big holes and either side of it in the ocean and they're going to put up walls and those ships are owned and operated by the max and each one of them is 1,000 miles no they're 5,000 mi ships they're bulky in the middle they're about 2,000 miles wide and their class A one of those ships could defeat two or three of the 11,000 mi ship in Greenland.

-there's a couple other places where these ships are Hudson Bay had one and it was huge it was Tommy f and Hudson Bay has another one and it's huge and it's Tommy f it's a new Hall it's much sturdier it has JC and Mary Stone just as the other ships do all of the Mac ships have the stone of JC and Mary and all of these new ships and the ones that are launching actually all of them are with the stone from JC and Mary and they did find it and they are using it it's a huge huge huge cavern and a several of them and they are probably the lunch but the Hudson Bay is the property of the clones as you move west there's two more on very far north Canada and those are the property of the max now the Hudson Bay is about 500 miles across the ship was about 10,000 mi long and the new one is about the same and the armor is much better with the two next to it each about 400 miles across and they're about 5,000 miles long but the whole is bigger than the inside so you wonder how it's going to get out let's go upwards it starts to get smaller only 20 mi from the opening and they plan on using lasers to widen the hole and through the ground and you'll see how powerful they are and they will see her right through it's not a big area it's about 50 x 30 MI by 300 but it's big enough and it's on both sides so the ships are pretty big they're about 600 by 5000 miles and they're bulky and they are class A one of those ships to 11,000 MI Stone chips even if it has a whole bunch of small ships it's very high tech and of course those are Max ships and a that's mack ships

-one more area is the North of in the Bering Sea and there's two holes it's your 500 miles wide one that's closer to the United States are the clones the one closer to Russia are the max and they each fighting each other over hardware but they're more or less leaving each other alone a little but the clones are getting beat up

This is going to change the course of everything possibly people want better ships and they want to go after Max and these are motivated people these ships can kick some serious ass one of the 5,000 mi ships could bring the empires entire fleet to its knees two of them can destroy it

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[acourtjester]

Misleading. A lot of these were protectorates and mandates after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the resulting agreements of the League of Nations. Some are also now independent kingdoms in their own right, and others were formed due to mutually beneficial agreements like trade and protection. While of course some are from the worst periods of colonialism but we must distinguish the differences if we want to be critical thinkers and socially and historically intelligent.

Love that for them, op must be using independence broadly because a lot of these are kingdoms in their own right. Really up until the 60s and 70s and until Britain joined the EU, people in Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc considered themselves British. Identity is ever changing sometimes. None of us our truly independent of each other ❤️ empires come and come, until we understand and rise above the human desire for power we will not learn from our mistakes. Also I haven’t looked at them all but Ireland doesn’t have an Independence Day, and the uk only managed Israel and Palestine after ww1 due to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, it was tasked with the admin role by other nations, along with Jordan, Iraq, Cyprus and other regions around that area. A reminder of the complexities of these issues in some cases especially with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain were the same all because independent peacefully while Qatar, UAE, Oman emerged due to treaties and agreements from the 1800s that benefited both parties in trade, protection etc. more importantly most of these are commonwealth countries, the largest group of democracies in the world, and we must all work the world over to defeat the tyranny that China, Iran, Russia and others wish to bring. The western leaders especially in Europe have been asleep at the wheel for the last 30 years and need to wake up, closing nuclear stations and relaying on Russian gas was beyond stupid for Germany, as was there wicked punishment on Spain, Ireland and others after 2008 especially as it was German banks pumping the money into property in those countries. Leaders expected China to overtake the usa as a superpower, that didn’t happen and most likely won’t ever as its population is declining. Since 2008 the USA with a population of 350 million its economy is one third bigger than that of the eu and uk and 50% larger of just the EU’s.

[kallulovesu]

Yoooo! If it’s cool can I get yandere allies minus england (or just yandere Canada, America, and Russia if it’s too many) with an s/o who just a sweet chaotic dumbass?

Like they have no sense of danger like “ooo! Snake! Yoink!” *gets in a shopping cart to joust their friend* “hey check this out” *rams head through wall. Just a doing stupid stuff, they’re sweet hearts but just don’t think before they act

Gn!Reader Thank youuuu!

He felt an odd sense of deja vu, which he wasn’t able to tell if he liked or not.

Although one thing was for sure; Canada genuinely loved having you around even with your personality being rather overwhelming at times. It wasn’t anything too new, and he also couldn’t help but think that your case was cuter— if you weren’t doing anything too dangerous because god did you make him go crazy sometimes. Trust him it wasn’t fun yelling at you to get off of a fucking brown bear until his throat felt like it was going raw,

Such things actually did happen pretty frequently... but he found himself not particularly minding these occurrences because of how you worried you’d be. Being all apologetic and pampering him with delicacies you bought or by brewing his favorite cup of tea. Even soup sounded good, but he, to be honest didn’t feel like it was safe enough to let you near a stove.

Speaking of...Canada usually tries to keep dangerous objects away from you. Perhaps he was too paranoid, especially since you’d probably find a way to turn anything into a weapon— but he couldn’t help but fret over what would happen if you took ahold of the wrong things, say a knife. So he tends to keep them away from where you cant find them and only lets you use the really safe ones.

He did tend to feel like a caretaker, although that wasn’t something that he disliked all that much. Simply happy to be able to look out for you and being of help.

Matthew enjoyed joining you on your antics every now and then, finding it oddly freeing; acting like nothing in the moment mattered while he fooled around with you. Although a lot of bad things can happen while the only one usually looking out for the danger is...not really paying attention themselves. Which means the two of you have landed in the hospital at least once or twice by now.

Soulmate...the love of his life....the one that fully matches his energy!!!

Long story short; this man is absolutely enamored with you. A lot of the people America knows tend to lack the energy that he, himself owns, so there aren’t a lot of people who he can hang out with to his fullest. Which is why he couldn’t help but he beyond overjoyed when he met you! You seemed kind, not too strict, and a risk taker! It was everything that he loved in one.

There are barely any days where he can be seen away from you, always sticking to your side like an overexcited puppy and seeking all the attention you could give. He seriously doubts that you’d have any fun hanging out with aaaalll of these boring people that were only looking to ruin everything, so it would be much better for you if he went along with you. Or that’s what he usually tells you but it’s also rather obvious that he just doesn’t want anyone to take your focus from him,

pranks...oh the pranks. He adored making fun of others along with you, being an easy way to have fun with you and making others he disliked look like a fool. It definitely got the two of you in trouble but it was fun! He also got to see you laugh afterwards, which he probably cared more about than some stupid punishments.

Also, did I mention the fact that you’ve both probably gotten severely hurt when hanging out??

...

He usually tries to be the bigger person and looks out for you whenever the two of you are spending time together, although all of that gets thrown out of the window when he start having a bit too much fun...which results in at least one of you getting hurt during it. Alfred does feel really bad about it and makes sure to apologize toooons of times while treating you, giving you gifts and a lot of cuddles that were sure to make up for it!

Although— Alfred doesn’t really care to bring you to the hospital whenever this happens. It was unnecessary to him, and he already knew enough about health to heal you up as fast as possible! There was also the fact that he didn’t even trust his own country’s healthcare .

It was actually pretty cute to him, in a sense! Although he didn’t like how eerily familiar this felt.

Russia...oh, it’s hard to tell what exactly this guy has on his mind. It doesn’t seem like he truly minds your behavior; simply seeing it as your own cute quirk that he couldn’t help but love, although he has voiced concerns of your well-being over how rash you could be, suggesting that it was better to look out before something bad happens. You usually didn’t listen to him, resulting in a little accident happening just like he said. It was actually quite amusing to him.

It was weird to you how easily he could tell such things... you’ve probably even accused him of being a clairvoyant of some sorts more than once, which he only laughs at in return.

He’s always the one treating your wounds whenever you get hurt; a large smile on his face while his hands were busy putting a bandaid on the spot, giggling about how this could’ve been prevented had you just listened to what he said. How it would’ve just been for the better if you obeyed.

And he doesn’t just let it slip either— genuinely expect to be house arrested if you ever managed to wound yourself really bad. Even if he’d already force you to be bedridden until you’re healed, he’ll add two weeks extra just for the fun of it. Leaving you with but a few other sources of entertainment and himself, always sticking to you and simply saying that he was keeping guard if you ever were to ask. But it’s obvious that he just likes having you being calm so he can get his cuddles. He isn’t that slick.

[beardedmrbean]

Mass protests, once a grave threat to even the fiercest autocrat, have plummeted in effectiveness, a study shows. Factors appear to include polarization, social media and rising nationalist attitudes.

Evidence of rising authoritative governments, or NYT being poo poo heads?

Submitted by @eggs-n-ham-sam

Gonna be a little of both is my guess, that and something about digging in their heels.

Gonna put most of the text under a cut, but I'll get the whole thing so nyt doesn't get more clicks.

_____________________________

Iran’s widening protests, though challenging that country’s government forcefully and in rising numbers, may also embody a global trend that does not augur well for the Iranian movement.

Mass protests like the ones in Iran, whose participants have cited economic hardships, political repression and corruption, were once considered such a powerful force that even the strongest autocrat might not survive their rise. But their odds of success have plummeted worldwide, research finds.

Such movements are today more likely to fail than they were at any other point since at least the 1930s, according to a data set managed by Harvard University researchers.

The trajectory of Iran’s demonstrations remains far from certain. Citizen uprisings still sometimes force significant change, for example in Sri Lanka, where protests played a role in removing a strongman president this year.

But Iran’s unrest follows scores of popular eruptions in recent months — in Haiti and Indonesia, Russia and China, even Canada and the United States — that, while impactful, have largely fallen short of bringing the sort of change that many protesters sought or was once more common.

This sharp and relatively recent shift may mark the end of a decades-long era when so-called people power represented a major force for democracy’s spread.

Throughout most of the 20th century, mass protests grew both more common and more likely to succeed, in many cases helping to topple autocrats or bring about greater democracy.

By the early 2000s, two in three protest movements demanding systemic change ultimately succeeded, according to the Harvard data. In retrospect, it was a high-water mark. ____________________________

they're not really less effective, I think this author has it all wrong and is pointing at the wrong enemy.

pointing at the right wing boogeyman which is a red herring, using Hong Kong as a example they had half the population in the street at one point no issues with mobilization or coordination they had it down they were doing pretty good for a good while, then it all crapped out.

Part of that was covid but the bigger part was that governments over the years have figured out that all they need to do is dig in their heels and say no we're not going anywhere

Venezuela is a great example of that, most everyone but China and Cuba said the other guy was the winner and shit was fucked up and all that good stuff.

Maduro said nope, not goin anywhere and eventually everyone had to go do the things that put food on the table.

Protests are bigger, louder, and more organized than they ever been, other than that whole Sparticus thing, and they're being defeated by the bulk of the people in charge sticking their fingers in their ears and going lalalalala can't hear you until the protesters run out of steam.

HK had theirs running a long time, but the guys in charge of all the money and other resources could hold out just fine through it.

That's my theory at least, this guy is too focused on a bad guy instead of a bad system.

Around that decade’s midpoint, the trend began to reverse. By the end of the 2010s, though protests continued to grow more common, their success rate had halved, to one in three. Data from the early 2020s suggests that it may have already halved again, to one in six.

“Nonviolent campaigns are seeing their lowest success rates in more than a century,” Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist who oversees the protest-tracking project, wrote in a recent paper.

The years 2020 and 2021 “have been the worst years on record for people power,” Dr. Chenoweth added.

The causes of this trend are still in debate. But experts have converged on a few broad forces thought to drive it — some of which can already be seen in Iran.

For one, polarization is increasingly prevalent worldwide, with income inequality, nationalist attitudes, fragmented news media and other forces deepening divisions across social and political lines.

Iran, whose political parties compete noisily even amid autocracy, is no exception. Some analysts see growing signs of polarization there along economic lines, urban-versus-rural divides and a moderate-versus-hard-liner split that is as much partisan as cultural.

Polarized societies, in moments of turmoil, become likelier to split over mass protests. This can bolster even despised governments, helping them to cast protesters as representing a narrow interest group rather than the citizenry as a whole.

Social media, which enables protests to organize and gather in once-unthinkable numbers, often with little or no formal leadership, may also paradoxically undermine those movements, according to a theory advanced by Zeynep Tufekci, a Columbia University sociologist.

In earlier eras, activists might spend months or years building the organizational structures and real-world ties necessary to launch a mass protest. This also made movements durable, instilling discipline and chains of command.

Social media allows would-be protesters to skip those steps, spurring one another to action with as little as a viral post. The result is rallies that put thousands or millions of bodies in the street overnight — but that often fizzle just as quickly.

Without that traditional activist infrastructure, social media protests are less equipped to endure government repression. Leaderless, they more easily fracture and struggle to coordinate strategically.

Protests were traditionally just one tool in activist campaigns to pressure governments, alongside back-room negotiations with political leaders or alliance-building with powerful actors. The use of social media, by channeling popular energy away from such organizing, means that mass protest is now often the only tool, and typically ineffective on its own.

At the same time, autocracies, responding to popular revolts in Arab and former Soviet countries at the start of this century, have learned to undermine mass movements with subtler methods than brute force alone.

“We live in an age of digital authoritarianism,” Dr. Chenoweth, the Harvard scholar, has written. Dictatorships, seizing on the internet and other tools, have developed new methods “from direct surveillance of activists’ communications to online harassment and intimidation to the rapid diffusion of state propaganda to the infiltration of movements to selective censorship.”

This is rarely enough for governments to quash all dissent. But, to prevail, they need only create enough doubt, division or detached cynicism that protesters fail to achieve a critical mass of support.

Iran’s is one of many governments to develop such tools, combining digital shutdowns and censorship — narrow enough to frustrate activists without provoking a wider backlash — with online nationalist propaganda and disinformation.

And governments increasingly find allies against protests among their citizenry. Rising illiberal attitudes, which often see strongman rule as desirable and protests as lawlessness, sometimes manifest as popular support for government suppression of those movements.

One result of these changes is that protests’ success is no longer defined by crowd size, Dr. Chenoweth has argued. Rather, the most important factor may be a movement’s skill at persuading or pressuring key power brokers in a country to break ranks with the government.

Economically motivated protesters in Chile in 2019, for instance, faced violent suppression but won allies in the political system’s upper echelons, who channeled their rage into concrete demands and then helped to bring them about.

But what might sometimes look like a successful citizen uprising may, once the dust settles, turn out to be a case of political rivals seizing on unrest to grab power for themselves.

In Zimbabwe in 2017, for instance, military leaders and other figures deposed the country’s longtime ruler, Robert Mugabe, claiming to deliver change on behalf of protesters. But the new government, once in office, largely ignored or quashed the ralliers. Much the same happened two years later in Sudan.

For Iran’s protesters, one lesson is that they will need to win sympathetic allies within the government.

But such back-room lobbying typically requires experienced activist groups of exactly the sort that Iran’s government has spent years dispersing.

And it requires fissures among those ruling elite. While Iran’s system is notoriously fractious, its multiple power centers and factions all stand unified in defense of the country’s autocratic system, a legacy of that government’s emergence in violent revolution.

Iran’s protesters do have one thing going for them: the prominent role of women on their front lines. This has been shown to significantly increase an uprising’s odds of success, researchers say.

Because women in any country come from all walks of life, their participation can transcend social or demographic divides associated with polarization.

Observers also tend to see movements as more legitimate when women are visibly involved, research finds. And security forces may be somewhat less violent in responding.

Still, this is hardly a guarantor of success when other dynamics don’t align, as Sudan’s pro-democracy rallies, often led by women, have found.

While it is hardly the case that mass protests now necessarily fail in today’s world, their plummeting odds of success may have ripple effects beyond even the decline of democracy.

For one thing, armed rebellion, long disavowed by democracy activists as counterproductive, has seen its effectiveness decline more slowly than that of nonviolent protest, the Harvard data shows, making the two methods now nearly tied in their odds of succeeding.

“For the first time since the 1940s, a decade dominated by state-backed partisan rebellions against Nazi occupations,” Dr. Chenoweth has written, “nonviolent resistance does not have a statistically significant advantage over armed insurrection.”

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

Hey, this is gonna be a really long one but for good reasons and I see no other way to ask it. I'm writing a Hellsing fanfic and I'd like to ask about something that could give me a bigger picture from a different perspective. I saw your last ask on Seras and it somewhat gave me the courage to ask this. It'd be both SFW and NSFW but here I go. (I'll say male main character or main character but maybe do this in a reader headcanon style. OH and thank you if you answer this)

Let's say, before Seras joined Hellsing, or even left the orphanage (in my story when she was at the age of 16 and my male oc would've been about a year younger than her) she had a boyfriend. Believe it or not, it was when she had snuck away from the nuns and administrators to go to a creek near the Welsh border (because I'm just gonna say that the orphanage was there) where small communities of Welsh/Old English (I mean the really old English) people basically dress in clothes that are like early medieval clothes/tunics (basically accurate Viking age tunics or clothes) but have some modern stuff like jeans or stuff like that and use modern tech, but the culture is also derived from this period but is massively modernized. Yet as she sits at a bank near a creek, somewhat crying or maybe just having a bad time and suddenly my main character comes through and sees she is having a shitty day and talks with her.

At first, she's defensive and standoffish, but soon he disarms her attitude and turns out to be a really chill and good kid. Of course, after a few weeks, Seras starts to sneak out and see him every few nights or even nightly. They become boyfriend and girlfriend after one of the villages caught her sneaking into the home of the uncle of the main character. Eventually, the nuns let her see him and all that.

After some time they got really close as partners and would make out under the tree they first met. Yet on one of the last nights, they see each other before the main character tells her he's going to a festival/reenactment in the Balkans and maybe gone for some time but he promises her this, that he'll return and some good news, his uncle promised to take her to America where she can live with him and his family so she doesn't have to worry too much about what happens after the orphanage. Then, he leaves after giving her his farewell gift, a necklace of Freyja the Norse Goddess of love, she gives him the address of the orphanage so he can write letters to her.

Once he gets to the Balkans, Millennium sets up a rebellion and massive terror attack that sparks tensions in the Balkans and leads to another war, a really big one too. The entirety of Europe, some of the middle east, and parts of North America are engulfed in its flames, nations burn and new empires rise. Russia, many Balkan nations, Central Europe, Scandinavia, France, and even Canada and America are being hit with this disastrous conflict.

5 long years passed, my main character has been through a lot. He's been a slave during the beginning of the war, led a slave revolt, fought alongside his brothers as leaders of warbands, bringing the fight to the monsters that tried to take over the Balkans and many other places, fought off Iscariot and the catholic church with the many troops apart of their factions when they led a botched crusade down to Bosnia, saw his eldest brother get killed by Iscariot, then moved all across Eastern and Northern Europe to fight monsters and liberate many of the countries under their reign of terror, and had finally reached North America after fighting through Greenland and Iceland alongside the Vikings to free the people there and then managed to land in Newfoundland to set up a small kingdom there. He was a captain of the Varangian Guard (Viking guard to the byzantine emperor) and was a famed man far and wide, yet his mind was in tatters from the PTSD and haunted by the tragedies unfolding around him

Yet the main character forgot about his promise to Seras... worst of all he knew he left someone there and would try to return one day but he forgot her name. Yet the memory of the orphanage's address stayed in his mind... not only that, he remembered her face. Yet he wrote back, yet no response came. Then he met another young woman and adopted her brother. He was 18 at the time when they got married and became king and queen together and signed a peace treaty with the vampires on the island of Newfoundland, so they could live in peace. Sadly it was not meant to last. One day, marking the anniversary of the peace treaty signing, the leader of the vampire faction on the island broke the treaty and attacked the capital settlement, killing the main character's wife and capturing the main character. After three days they sentenced him to death, only to be saved by his adopted son, who would be dead in a snake pit when a vampire threw him into the pit of venomous snakes. In a rage, my main character slaughtered the vampires in the prison and got to bury his son next to his mother, then had destroyed the vampire faction after rallying an army of Vikings. Yet... vengeance was bittersweet. The leader that instigated this was dead, yet there were vampires and human thralls that were totally innocent who had gotten killed in his berserker-like rage. The main character looks at the wasteland of the killing field, guilt finally setting in. Now they had reaped what they are sewn. All was lost, nothing gained and now the ghosts would haunt him for years to come, never to leave him in peace and only serve to haunt his nightmares.

The main character and his friends went back home to their mothers and fathers, only to be expelled from America after a great Viking army led by the king of the North Sea Empire, Knut, invade America.

Fast forward a week or two later, The main character and his family move into Wales and the same village where this all started. Memories of when he was 15 slowly come back to him, he was 20 now.

Now Seras was dealing with her own losses, first, her humanity, her arm, and many friends died in the attack on London. Yet she still had Pip for the most part and Integra was still around. Yet one day, Integra receives word that you and your friends are settled in Wales and are securing Welsh provinces and the now Welsh-speaking areas of western England from the vampire threat that millennium exacerbated.

One day Seras is assigned to go to her old orphanage, long-abandoned mind you, and meets the main character once again, at first they can't recognize each other. The main character is in his chainmail and lamellar armor, his coif covering his face except for his eyes with a nasal helmet protecting his head. Not to mention his Norman arming sword was in hand, ready to fight hard and Seras had her big guns, they had a job to do, kill the vampires dwelling in the orphanage together. How would Seras react if his coif and helmet were knocked off?

Okay so here are a few of the things I thought of.

Seras would already be a bit rattled or on edge being in her old orphanage, and this new agent/person she's meeting for the first time doesn't help.

After the helmet comes off and his face is revealed, she'd pause, taking a good look at him. At first it's just to get more intel on the man. (It's up to you if she'd recognize him right away, I don't think she would though)

When she would finally recognize him, her memories would come flooding back to her, also letting Pip know who this man was as well as he'd be able to see her memories as well.

She'd rush over to help with the reason his helmet got knocked off, if it was an enemy, the building collapsing, or whatever and call out to him by name, shocking the Main Character as he doesn't know her so how does she know his name?

After the battle Seras would be more friendly and open with him, and be filling Pip in on information mentally as she tried to converse with the Main character

That's when she'd realize that he doesn't remember her, which hurts

I think after that, Seras would try to jog his memory with stories and stuff, like their old promise. Again, it's up to you if this would work (or at least help) or not. I think the Main Character would at least realize the situation and explain that he lost his memory a few years ago.

One big thing I definitely would personally do is have them visit the old tree where they used to meet up and lay together.

I hope this is what you were hoping for and that it helps with your fanfiction! It sounds like you already have a lot figured out! Best of luck with it and I hope you have fun writing it!

[controversial-articles]

My Opinion On The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

 On 24 February 2022, the Russian Troops marched into the small nation of Ukraine, setting both the people of Ukraine in utter chaos, as well as the world superpowers. The West retaliated immediately to this bold move by Russian President Vladimir Putin. As of the current time(7.October.2022), the war is still going on, and voluntary troops from different countries of the West have been participating in the War from the side of Ukraine. The Ukrainians are also doing everything in their hands to protect their nation and their freedom.

How, did it all happen?

But, how did it all happen, in an era, where the so-called supreme race of white people, self-proclaimed themselves as civilized and superior? Let's discuss the events which led to this. As we all know, the USSR disintegrated in 1992, after its disintegration, Russia warned all its former territorial states not to join the European Union and the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO), and the West also insured Russia that they won't let them join these organizations, but Ukraine tried to in 2012, so Russia annexed, the Crimean region of Ukraine, but once again Ukraine repeated the same mistake and thus, naturally for its own national security and interest Russia declared war on Ukraine. 

The most hypocritical part of this situation is that NATO and the EU assured Russia that its former territories won't be added to NATO or the EU, but they were still added to these organizations.

The Funds for War

As we all are, known to the fact that the U.S.A sanctioned Russia at the start of this war and the entire Western World is criticizing India for buying oil from Russia. But notice one thing after being sanctioned, Russia is still able to keep up with the war, how? Because the EU is the one funding this war, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Poland, and several other countries in the EU are still importing crude oil, pipeline gas, and coal from Russia for their energy needs. Just recently on July 21st the Nord 1 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany went down due to the lack of maintenance, and the US lifted the sanctions imposed and let the required part be imported to Russia from Canada. Why? Because the German economy would allegedly suffer very significant hardship. 

Gains for Russia

Russia has started this war for its own national interest, so therefore it must gain something out of it, as history has repeatedly taught that, wars and battles don't simply happen for no reason as wars are costly. Through this war, Russia will almost be able to gain complete control over the Black Sea, if it weren't for Turkey, as well as, it will gain control over the fertile farmlands of Ukraine. So this war is a win-win situation for Russia.

Losses for Ukraine

Even though I am in no position to say this, it was one of the worst military decisions in the decade taken by the President of Ukraine 'Volodymyr Zelenskyy', to fight back against Russia, a country which is 28.32 times bigger than Ukraine, which has the world's 3rd strongest military. 

Even if hypotactically Ukraine wins the war now, which it will not, it will have already suffered enormous losses in this war. Millions of its citizens have been displaced, and it has now lost almost all of its infrastructure(roads, buildings, apartments, factories, etc.) now Ukraine is at least pushed 50 years back in the world. 

And if it loses, we all know what will happen. There are no arguments for that.

What's in it for India

Due to this war, there was a rise in inflation in Western countries, especially India's old colonizer the United Kingdom. Since Ukraine was a major wheat producer and exporter in the world, but now due to the war it's not able to export wheat anymore, thus naturally there is a food shortage in the world, and since Russia was a major fossil fuel exporter of the world, but due to the sanctions it's not able to export anymore. Compiling all of this together, with the fact that India is a major wheat producer, Indian diplomacy has managed to set itself in a proper global position, by exporting wheat at a cheap price, as well as by defying the Western countries and standing with its old trustworthy noble kinsman Russia.

Russia's inability to export fossil fuels to Europe is leading the European economy into chaos and slowly leading the European economy to bankruptcy. This is a major gain for the rising Indian economy.

After all, it is well said, "One's loss is one's gain".

Where should India stand

After reading the last topic it is pretty clear, where should India stand, which is neutral. We should maintain good relations with the West also, India is currently in not a position like Russia or China to openly defy the Western powers on a global scale, but since Russia is an old friend of India, we should wish for its victory in this war, as well as for the safety of the Ukrainian people. But out of all this, the most important thing is India's national interest, which is being satisfied by our diplomats and especially India's brand ambassador(Foreign Minister) Dr. S. Jaishankar. At the current moment, we might not be able to see the benefits, but such things are done in a long-term plan, elucidating it, in the near future India and its citizens will greatly profit from the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

In such things, we should be rational not emotional.

[beggingwolf]

Following in the steps of @ticklefighthockey and using her grimy prompt generator to do fic concepts so I can feel "productive" while I procrastinate on the fic I should be writing. badwrong below the cut you have been warned.

Hmm yum I'm gonna do a light twist on the sidmario idea that has been toyed with for something similar and go the route of: a/b/o universe where omegas can only procreate with alphas and to fix the population decline breeding programs were implemented, with the first batch being, oh, carefully selected for media exploitation and propaganda.

Let's say in this universe that the societal collapse and theocracy that rises encapsulates both the US and Canada and collapses them into a single mega-state, and Mario is given an inordinate amount of power due to his money and social status, and he folds Sidney under his care, as this happens during Sid's rookie year.

Alas, Mario believes in the mission of the new state, largely because he things it can wrangle things to his advantage on the ice... so he decides to pull over the player they had drafted from Russia, Evgeni Malkin, and match him to be Sid's stud. Incentivized by the state and by the state's goal to make a golden omega out of Sid, Mario has Sid branded as an omega publicly and then ~begins the new breeding program~ with Geno and Sid, determined to create miraculous hockey offspring, though Sid, of course, wants no part in it. noncon galore, dark and dreary, Geno wary of the new state but thinking there's no other way to play hockey than to submit to Mario’s will.

Zhenya's mama was always scared to death when the youth team traveled to America to play. Zhenya's coach and papa insisted; it was necessary for his development as a player, and maybe one day he'd play there in the NHL.

Zhenya's mama watched as his papa signed off the application for Zhenya's passport, her face drawn and dour. She warned Vladimir how the shifters liked their family's blood. Many a forefather had been lost before the Soviets had purged the country of the beasts.

Americans insisted they could live alongside them; it was stupid, and Natalia was convinced it was wrong. She made Zhenya sling an amulet around his neck at the airport.

"This doesn't come off. Not when you play, not when you shower, not when you sleep," she told him. He nodded, thinking it the stuff of fairytales, but he was a good son and did as she said.

Their first stop was a tournament in Minnesota. Cold, frigid, too much like Russia -- Zhenya wanted to see palm trees and beautiful tanned people -- but the food was a revelation. McDonalds and Pizza Hut and restaurants full of grease and big American-sized portions.

In Minnesota they were set against a host of American teams and a few from Canada. The refs only spoke English and Zhenya's coach had tried to teach them the basic English words but it was always so hard for Zhenya to understand.

They were playing against the Canadians, against this team that had no right to be as good as they were. They had one player who was small but freakishly good, and he was pissing Zhenya off more and more by the minute. He kept cutting through their defense like a knife through jelly, and Slava was not good enough between the pipes to stop him.

Zhenya was not one of the bigger boys on the team, but he was bigger than this twerpy Canadian, so when he saw his chance to land a hard check, he did.

They both went down with the force of Zhenya's push; Zhenya fell on top of him and as he pushed himself up, the boy turned up to face him.

Shining, golden eyes. That's what Zhenha saw. His heart froze in his chest, and the boy--shifter--thing looked at him.

Its gaze slid down, to where Zhenya's amulet was hanging out of his jersey.

Zhenya shoved himself up and away, but the whistle had already been called. He sat in the penalty box and watched as the shifter scored again.

He stewed on the bench for a few shifts, punished for his stupidity, and then was released back onto the ice during the third period.

He wasn't expecting the hip check. The kid, beast, isn't big enough to, but it lands it somehow and pins Zhenya up against the boards during a behind-the-net scrum.

It reaches up, and it wraps its fingers around Zhenya's pendant, and it pulls.

The pendant, on its thin metal chain, snaps away from his neck.

Zhenya stares.

The thing smiles at him.

He's shaken for the rest of the game, quiet when his teammates ask; shifters are ghost stories back home, they're nothing, he's not a baby.

They lose. The thing skates over to Zhenya, grinning, and says something.

Zhenya's amulet dangling from its fingers, it says something and then Zhenya’s body stops working.

He gets taken off the ice by his teammates. He recovers in the hotel, the coach worrying over him. Everyone is quiet until they get his mother on the phone and she starts wailing.

The shifter claimed him. It won't be acted upon until they're both of age, but it staked its claim, and almost a decade later, when Zhenya returns to America, it is as the pet of Sidney Crosby, shifter and hockey prodigy.

Crosby waits at the airport for him. He's not alone. Mario Lemieux is there, as are a dozen reporters with enormous cameras, and they all snap pictures of the collar Crosby has in his hands that will mark Zhenya as his.

Zhenya has spent the last six years trying to steel himself for this moment. He isn't prepared to see that on the thick leather collar, the old pendant has been worked into the design, a handsome, terrible jewel in the center of it, resting just under Zhenya's Adam's apple.

Crosby collars him, the cameras clicking, Lemieux watching silently. Zhenya holds himself so still, like it will save him.

Crosby smiles. His eyes are still that glimmering gold that has haunted Zhenya's dreams for years.

"Come on," Crosby says to him. "They've gotten the locker room ready for us."

Zhenya swallows. The collaring was the first part. What is to come after -- the reason Zhenya was prepared solemnly before his flight, his body rubbed clean, his hair neatly cut, his ass gently stretched open with a plug -- is the true test of his mettle.

Crosby leads him away.

Mhm oho mpreg verse where the Crosbys live in a commune and Sidney has never been a particularly devout boy. He was banned from sports at puberty, like all children found to have the ability to carry a child in the sect, but all he wants is to play hockey. He gets into trouble all the time and is subjected to tons of discipline at the hands of the sect's leader.

Everyone tells him he's so handsome, comely, if only he could behave himself, he'd be a treasure to marry off. Maybe the sect leader finally threatens Sid; if Sidney doesn't behave, the leader will take Taylor for his fifth wife. Sid muzzles himself, very angrily, and tries so hard to be good.

Acolyte Malkin returns from doing mission work, bringing in several new families to the sect, and as a reward for his devotion the leader gives newly -"tamed" sid to Evgeni for his service.

Can Evgeni really tame Sid? Perhaps only if he spoils/ruins/debauches/claims him in front of the sect, showing what the power of [whatever spirit they worship] can do to help subdue a wily wife.

[my2phetaliaheadcanons]

Hybrids

Canada – This man would be a Timber wolf hybrid. He has that strong sense of pack and loyalty. He would kill for his pack and work had to defend it. If you go off the stereotypical and the often-used fictional version of wolf hierarchy then he would be the alpha.

Matt’s fur would be thick and mid-length. It has slight curls and is the same color as his hair. His ears stand straight most of the time, but often move when he is feeling extreme emotions. His tail hardly wags, but on occasion, they will move slightly. Just a small wag. It's kinda cute to watch.

Russia – Kamchatka Brown Bear, mostly because when I think of Viktor and an animal, all I see is a bear. This man is very smart and so are bears. Whereas he uses his smarts to defend what is his. It's not uncommon for him to leave those intruding on his territory near the borders to show what happens to trespassers.

Viktor has small, rounded ears and a small round tail. He doesn’t express as much emotion as other hybrids, but if you look closely sometimes you can catch something twitching or moving. It looks so cute, but the real danger of any bear hybrid is its claws. His huge hands have even bigger black claws. Each claw is huge and could do serious damage if they were to slash someone.

Sweden – Swedish Moose. Just like the moose, he is tall, and he is very territorial. He stands there proud, looking happy, showing off his antlers, and then someone steps a little too close to his herd. That person will more than likely not survive.

He is built more like a centaur and it makes him a lot taller than his human self, which is already tall. His fur is lighter, much like his blond hair, but it has some small patches of white near the bottom of his legs. His antlers are off-white and he is very proud of their size. He is always disappointed when they fall off.

Greece – He’s a floofy boi. This hybrid is a big bad Greek Shepard. Unlike most, with black and white coloring, Greece has brown coloring. He often is found working, whether it is herding sheep or getting farm chores done. He is happy to fulfill his master’s wishes, but he is quick to try and change the relationship to where he dominates if he sees weakness.

He wants to be in control and work. If he can do both and have people working his way it's a plus. He believes that his way will work better. So why shouldn’t he be the master and you follow his order?