#but it was a good starting point in researching the aggression and territorial disputes

[thecodekeeper]

I recently had a family event and it reminded me why I'm the most insufferable person to talk wwii with. It's literally just

Sb: Asks a basic question about the why's and how's

Me, pulling out dozens of books written by dusty old men: To understand WWII we must first examine the Crimean War...

[27snakesinatrenchcoat]

Here's the story about Splish, the killer platy that tried to kill everyone in our 20 gal

We went to the pet store to get platy fish because that's what @grandpacare wanted as pets.

We picked up 4 fish: 1 male platy, 2 female platties, and a female balloon belly molly (that was older and blatantly pregnant but the healthiest looking fish in the tank)

We had also picked up 3 corydoras along with 2 snails for the same tank earlier.

At first everything was great. The three platties swam together, ate together, hid together. Big Mama would swim with them when she was feeling good, but was preparing to give birth so she spent a lot of time hovering behind the heater and patrolling the area behind the filter.

This lasted a few weeks. Big mama had babies, about 12. We left them be, as actual breeding and raising fry was not the intent of this tank.

And then, out of nowhere, Splish, who up until this point was a female sunburst platy, changed gender to male.

All hell broke loose.

It started with small territorial disputes: Splish would intentionally invade areas Splosh liked and had kinda claimed as his personal hides. He did this constantly, intentionally starting fights, often even making the first attack.

That escalated quickly when Splash, now the only female platy, came into breeding age.

The males would spar constantly. At first we thought it was Splosh who was the problem because he was larger and older, but we quickly learned that Splish was the sneaky instigator. He'd charge at Splosh, immediately turning to the side and flaring his fins. The moment Splosh returned the gesture, Splish would attack and then run, often darting behind the glass fish or through some foliage while Splosh gave chase.

Splosh would get stuck on the glass or lost in the foliage, all the while Splish would dart around the far side of the tank and, after making sure Splosh wasnt in sight, would dash up to where Splash was and begin attacking her before aggressively attempting to breed.

After about a week and a half of this, Splish was the same size as Splosh and growing larger, and we decided to remove him from the tank. By now, he'd terrorized every fish in the tank with the exception of the corydoras and I'd had enough of it.

We attempted to move Splish to the 30 gal, as it was currently and intentionally under-stocked.

I supervised the entire event, as Luna lives in the 30g and she's my baby.

At first they were separated as I adjusted Splish's container to the temp and water parameters of the 30g, and while Luna seemed interested, she didn't seem upset (shes very curious but not aggressive by nature... usually). In fact she seemed almost uninterested this time, which I immediately found odd.

As soon as I let him loose, I saw a side of Luna I'd never seen, and havent even seen since.

She hated him. As soon as she got within 6 inches of him she froze, fins wide open. She followed him slowly as he started looking around, slowly gill flaring at him when he'd stop and turn to face her.

He ignored her.

In fact, he turned to the side and opened his fins.

Luna would flare and charge, causing him to dart away, without having her actually bite him. She'd use her fake-out strike to chase him to the far side of the tank, and then watch from a distance, but he kept coming back. He didnt get the message, or he didnt care.

Luna does this little thing when she gets stressed out and is at her wit's end; It's when she darts towards the window and swims back and forth across the the top of the tank before swimming up and down in the corner while staring at me.

At this point I removed Splish because honestly? I love Luna and I'm not letting him stress her out like this. By the look of it, this wasnt going to work anyway. He wasnt even phased by Luna, and while she's not normally aggressive, she needs her space to feel safe.

At that point he got moved to the quarantine tank with some of the molly babies. While he was there, I did some research about his breed and discovered that, based on his size and tail length along with the personality development, he is quite likely a swordtail hybrid, and heavy on the swordtail part.

Splish, the little orange shark, now lives alone in a 7.5g with live plants.

Because of everything, I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to move him back into the 20g, which was the original plan. He's larger than everything else in that tank now, and we already know hes very aggressive.

The good news is he doesnt seem to mind being alone. His tank needs more frequent water changes because of the size, and he often doesn't approve of that, but once it's done he'll check the tank out for a bit to see what's changed before either grazing or hiding in one of his favorite places.

He might just get to be a lone king for the rest of his days. Maybe that's all he ever really wanted... who knows I'm not a fish.

And now everyone knows the story of Splish the platy, an absolute nutcase that is more willing to fight than my betta.

[khalilhumam]

Chinese netizens rebrand Xi Jinping’s international relations strategy as ‘wolf warrior’ style diplomacy

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New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/chinese-netizens-rebrand-xi-jinpings-international-relations-strategy-as-wolf-warrior-style-diplomacy/

Chinese netizens rebrand Xi Jinping’s international relations strategy as ‘wolf warrior’ style diplomacy

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump both participate in the current Sino-US diplomatic battle. Photo from StandNews, used with permission.

To mark its central role in international relations, China continues to highlight the importance of its diplomacy. The latest episode took place on July 2020 with the inauguration of the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy research center. Yet as certain Chinese netizens point out, China's diplomacy has made a number of powerful enemies as a result of its assertive, and often aggressive stand that is thus dubbed by Xi's critics as “wolf warrior” diplomacy. Established by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the center aims at developing and studying a form of diplomacy based on Xi Jinping thinking and statements. Wang Yi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said in his approximately 5000-word inauguration speech on 20 July 2020:

今日之中国，正前所未有地接近实现中华民族伟大复兴梦想，前所未有地走近世界舞台中央。…面对风云激荡的国际形势，习近平总书记以伟大战略家的远见卓识，准确把握人类社会发展规律，全面判断国际形势走向和我国所处历史方位，提出了一系列富有中国特色、体现时代精神、引领人类进步潮流的新理念新主张新倡议…

Today’s China is unprecedentedly close to achieving its dream of a great revival of the Chinese nation, and approaching the center of the world’s stage… Amid a rough drift in the international world, Chief Secretary Xi Jinping, with his great strategist vision, has grasped the law of the development of human society and made a comprehensive judgement of the world’s future direction, and the historical position of our country. He has provided a set combining theory and practice, that manifests its Chinese character and the spirit of our times, to lead the human world into a progressive stage…

Wang also mentioned China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its success in creating opportunities in the current economic chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as one of Xi’s accomplishment.

‘Wolf warrior’ diplomacy

But Wang Yi’s speech has little connection to what many countries experience in their relationship to China. Indeed many describe Beijing international strategy as a form of ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy.  The term comes from the 2015 popular Chinese movie Wolf Warrior – a patriotic action movie that is remembered for one of its famous punchlines saying: “Whoever offends China will be eliminated, no matter how far away” (犯我中華者 雖遠必誅). The assertiveness of the “wolf warrior” style has been echoed and applied by a number of Chinese diplomats. For example, in March, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian spread a conspiracy theory on Twitter, according to which the U.S Army could have brought COVID-19 to China. This came as a response U.S, president Donald Trump earlier use of the term “China virus” to describe the novel coronavirus. Prior to this in February, China’s ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou said explicitly that “we treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns” when commenting on China’s abduction and 10-year jail sentencing of publisher Gui Minhai who was born in China, but is now a Swedish citizen. Some also describe China’s aggressive diplomacy as “hostage diplomacy”. The detention of and espionage charge against  Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun in January 2019 was viewed as a consequence of the counter foreign interference laws enacted in November 2018 in China. A more obvious example of diplomatic hostage was the detention in December 2018, and later the indictment of two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on spy charges. The move is widely viewed as a retaliation on the detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou pending court’s ruling on her extradition from Canada to the U.S. As the recent enactment of national security law in Hong Kong has undermined the “One Country Two Systems” commitment under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and extended extra-territorial jurisdiction to the arrest of foreign citizens, a number of countries including Canada, Australia, the United States and Britain have cancelled extradition arrangement with Hong Kong. Furthermore, Trump also signed an executive order to suspend special treatment for Hong Kong, meaning U.S policy that applies to mainland China on issues such as visa application, punitive tariffs and sensitive technology export will now be extended to Hong Kong.

Territorial conflicts with neighbor countries

In addition to the conflicts with Western countries, China has clashed with its immediate neighbors in recent years. Since 2013, Beijing has started the construction of an artificial island in the South China Sea in the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands regions. This move has intensified territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. In the East China Sea, China and Japan both claim rights over a set of desert islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, where both engage in regular naval activity. In the Taiwan strait, China has adopted “a grey-zone conflict tactic” by holding its military exercise in the vicinity of Taiwan's air space and waters. All those moves could rapidly escalate into violent clashes as demonstrated very recently in the fight between Chinese and Indian soldiers in the disputed territory of Ladakh on June 15. The incident caused the death of 20 Indian soldiers, and is the first deadly clash between the two countries in at least 45 years.

Netizens’ take on Xi’s diplomacy

None of the above challenges to China's diplomacy were mentioned in Wang Yi’s speech. Chinese netizens, on the other hand, have composed their own list of Xi’s diplomatic achievements on Twitter to reflect the reality China is facing. EvanLi2020 wrote:

“一带一路”，无底债务 “中国制造2025”，帮着美国赶紧抓捕 武汉肺炎，全球点燃 香港国安，世界不安 中印边境，石头相碰 “习近平外交思想研究中心”，���是好！ 专家学者，欢聚一堂，恰似猪狗，不知羞耻？ pic.twitter.com/vSPtFXN2dp — 壮飞 Flying in Rain (@EvanLi2020) July 21, 2020

One Belt One Road led to an unfathomable debt. Made in China 2025 helped the U.S to arrest those who had been recruited by China under an innovation program called the 1000 Talents Plan. Wuhan pneumonia ignited the whole world. Hong Kong’s national security made the whole world insecure. The China-India border turned into a stone clash. Hurray to Xi Jinping diplomacy research center! So many experts happily get together. Do they even know what shame means?

Hongkonger @wwp_5110 highlights the dimension of China’s money diplomacy:

Xi‘s Thoughts on Diplomacy all about giving MONEY around the WORLD — wwp (@wwp_5110) July 21, 2020

Political dissident @chanweijian2011 says the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry has turned into the Ministry of Making Foreign Enemies:

习近平外交思想研究中心成立。习的外交不就是红卫兵式的战狼外交吗？一骂，二谎，三泼，四吹牛，研究个狗屁，听命就是了。习上台以来外交部的功能基本上已经消退，成为中宣部的一个对外机构，或者是部队前线快板队。中国三十多年来顺风顺水的外交已经终结，外交部成为交恶，结仇，喊打，喊杀的断交部。 pic.twitter.com/idzGCtoT3I — 陈维健 (@chenweijian2011) July 20, 2020

The Xi Jinping’s Diplomacy Thought research center was inaugurated. Xi’s diplomacy is nothing more than Red Guards-style ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy. Its four elements are cursing, lying, acting in a shrewd manner, and bluffing. WTF is this so-called research? Just listen to the orders. The function of the Foreign Affairs Ministry has been dissolved and it has turned into a branch of the propaganda department doing cheerleading work. This is the end of the good old days in diplomacy. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has turned into the Ministry of Making Foreign Enemies:

< p class='gv-rss-footer'>Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[businessliveme]

How to Value Wealth in ‘Game of Thrones’

How do you put a price on a dragon? That’s the most vexing question facing anyone who wants to assess the dynastic fortunes that drive the plot of Game of Thrones, the epic TV series returning to HBO on April 14. Yes, it’s a fantasy saga that mixes medieval knights and castles with sorcery, zombies, and dragons.

But at its core, Game of Thrones is a contest involving nine very wealthy families—and Bloomberg News knows how to measure the holdings of real-world billionaires. So we set out to rank the wealthiest of Westeros, comparing their fortunes at the beginning of the series and where they stand before the eighth and final season.

There’s no shortage of material. Five novels by George R.R. Martin have been expanded into more than 60 hours of television drama that’s gone significantly beyond—and, in some cases, departed from—the books. Using this information to track the wealth of the ruling houses from the start of the series to the final episodes is more difficult than using wills, corporate earnings, or trusts to unmask billionaires.

“The books go into a lot of details about the economics of each family,” only some of which show up in the show, says Adam Whitehead, a fantasy critic who has written about the economics of Martin’s world and received public accolades from the author.

Ultimately, experts on Game of Thrones and finance who agreed to help us measure the relative assets of the Starks, Lannisters, and the other noble houses brought the puzzle back to the question of what a dragon is worth.

Three dragon eggs reverse the fortune of the penniless heir presumptive of the once-ruling House Targaryen. In the fantasy world of Game of Thrones, dragons are thought to have existed in not-too-distant history before going extinct in recent generations. Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons prove essential once they’ve matured, becoming a source of almost incomparable power.

There are methods that can help put a value on a dragon. Comparing the winged beasts to a fighting force of humans is one way to approximate their worth, says Michael Whitmire, chief executive officer of cloud-based accounting company FloQast. He created financial statements for House Lannister and published his results online.

“How many people would it be required for you to choose the group of people instead of the dragon?” Whitmire asks. There are few battles in the show that pit dragons directly against human soldiers. When they do fight, dragons almost always smoke the competition. Literally.

“If you have dragons, you would have most of the economic benefit in the world”

At one point, a transaction between Daenerys and moneyed merchants comes close to establishing a market price. She agrees to exchange one of her then-baby dragons for 8,000 enslaved troops and roughly 5,000 trainees, although it quickly becomes clear that the exchange, and the price that goes with it, is a ruse. Instead, Daenerys commands her dragon to burn the merchants and then frees the slaves.

For such difficult-to-sell assets as dragons, with no comparables on the market, financial experts would likely scrutinize them in one of two ways, says Steve Schuetz, a managing director for Valuation Research Corporation and Game of Thrones enthusiast. One is by evaluating the cost of dragon ownership. What’s the value of the time and money that it would cost to acquire an egg, incubate it, and then raise and train a baby dragon? Adjust that estimate for any dragons that don’t hatch or cannot be taught—or, in the case of the show, are captured by a zombie warlord.

Another method, the income approach, would estimate the potential plunder a dragon could generate on its owner’s behalf, or the potential destruction it could defend against, adjusted for its remaining useful life.

When rivals discover the existence of House Targaryen’s dragons, it triggers an arms race that adds a further wrinkle. House Lannister, the other clear candidate for wealthiest, develops a weapon that can harm a dragon, but it’s inaccurate and easily destroyed. Schuetz says emerging threats can help determine how much of a risk factor—and how much of a discount—should apply to the dragon’s value.

The Lannisters have access to capital the other noble families don’t. Their ancestral home is famed for its gold mines, a source of capital creation that’s easier to benchmark. “The Lannisters just control more territory. They’ve got more cities, they’ve got more lands under their control in the wealthier and more populated part of Westeros,” Whitehead says.

And that’s before you consider House Lannister’s strength in global trade and capital markets. “Whoever can control trade with the Free Cities can become quite wealthy,” says Whitehead. In the show, the dominant Iron Bank of Braavos is located offshore. Whitehead compares the fictional bank to the Medicis in 15th century Europe—both financiers wield more power than kings.  “That’s why I think they’ve got the edge, going into the final season.”

So which is it: the bankers or the dragons?

To determine which family comes out ahead in wealth, we conveniently ignored the existential threat the zombie-like White Walkers pose to life on the continent. The rankings below rely heavily on Whitehead’s work, although Bloomberg sided with other experts who argued that dragons trump all other holdings. There’s nothing stopping Daenerys from using her dragons to make a very compelling case that the Iron Bankers should give her all the gold she wants, at very favorable rates.

“If you have dragons, you would have most of the economic benefit in the world at that moment in time,” Schuetz points out. “You have an ability to not only protect yourself but to be aggressive and take anything you want.”

Anyone who plays the game of wealth would probably choose to own the dragons.

House Targaryen

Current Rank: 1 Starting Rank: 9

At the beginning of the saga, this former ruling family of Westeros is homeless, subject to repeated assassination attempts, and in possession of little more than a famous name—and three dragon eggs. The eggs are thought to be worthless curios. Then the poorest of the major Game of Thrones families sees its fortunes dramatically change.

In addition to the dragons, the most valuable assets in the world, Daenerys Targaryen enters the concluding chapter of the story in control of House Lannister’s Casterly Rock and the cities of Slaver’s Bay. She has a large fighting force. While not necessarily relevant to our final valuation, Daenerys also controls the island fortress of Dragonstone, which sits atop a potentially valuable commodity: dragonglass.

House Lannister

Current Rank: 2 Starting Rank:  1

The family’s slogan about debt repayment owes at least part of its origin to the substantial gold reserves at Casterly Rock, although by Season 8 it’s been revealed that the Lannister mines haven’t been producing gold in years. Still, the family’s vast wealth can be quantified by the 3 million gold dragons in loans made to King Robert Baratheon, as well as what appear to be the best-equipped armies and ready access to commerce with the free cities such as Braavos. It’s clear that the Lannisters start out on top of the pack.

Access to the global financial system helps keep the Lannisters in control of the Iron Throne. Cersei makes good on promises to pay back debt owed to the Iron Bank, depicted as far and away the most powerful financial institution, and uses a new loan to hire a 20,000-strong mercenary army. The Game of Thrones section of Fandom.com disputes this figure, which Cersei provides at the end of Season 7. Should the poverty of King’s Landing, from which the Lannisters rule, be counted against the family’s wealth? The shortage of food and supplies must be weighed against control of a significant port and commercial hub which, together with access to borrowed capital, can open up trade and imports from relatively fertile lands elsewhere.

House Arryn

Current Rank:  3 Starting Rank:  3

The mountainous natural defenses of the Vale region are a key asset for its ruling family, freeing up common people to farm and pursue other commercial activities without the ravages of the continent-wide warfare.

The Eyrie, home of the Arryns, is thought of as impregnable for anyone without a dragon. The Vale is also home to Gulltown, the closest major port to the free city of Braavos.

The mounted Knights of the Vale are worth far more than the average foot soldier. It’s unclear, though, exactly how many knights House Arryn can supply at full mobilization. We see that these forces are large enough to turn the tide of a battle for Winterfell and are relatively fresh at the end of Season 7, having sat out prior battles.

House Stark

Current Rank:  4 Starting Rank:  4

The Starks and their vassal houses may control more land than anyone, but it’s sparsely populated and difficult to traverse. Natural resources such as timber, iron, and silver speak to the opportunity for development, but limited manpower and the coming winter are poised to curtail any such efforts. Like Siberia, the North is as difficult a region to fight as it is to develop.

This resource wealth allows them to edge House Greyjoys at the end of Season 7, despite the discount winter puts on the value of their land. The Starks still have access to trees, game, and other natural resources, despite a depleted and war-weary fighting force.

House Greyjoy

Current Rank:  5 Starting Rank:  7

The Greyjoys have few resources at their disposal, and their raiding culture makes prospects for economic advancement unlikely at the start of the series. A lack of rich forests makes building ships difficult.

By the end, the Greyjoy financial picture has clearly improved, but the details are fuzzy. Euron Greyjoy’s pledge to build 1,000 ships at the end of Season 6 is clearly hyperbole, according to military experts. Still, boats are valuable, particularly when used for such things as trading rather than raiding, and the growth of this fleet indicates a rise in the ruling family’s fortune.

House Martell

Current Rank:  6 Starting Rank:  6

The sandy region of Dorne is limited in population and in arable land. Exports include wine and grapes.

House Martell does have a fighting force and some ships, although the story provides few details about their number.

Though most of the main characters in this house are dead by the end of Season 7, it likely still exists in some form; Oberyn says in Season 4 that he has eight daughters. Meanwhile, Dorne’s isolated locale would have insulated it from excessive material damage.

House Tully

Current Rank:  7 Starting Rank:  5

The Tully seat should be a wealthy one, judging by its fertile land and central location. Unfortunately, this location also means that it’s regularly torn up by every war that comes its way, and thus less likely to produce income. Volatile vassals such as Walder Frey, a noble who controls a lucrative crossing over a key trade route, likely translates into lower tax revenue even at the start of the show, leaving the Tullys with more than their fair share of headaches.

The top surviving Tully becomes a prisoner of the Freys and eventually orders his troops to surrender. It’s not clear what, if any, significant wealth remains by the time we reach the final season of the show.

House Baratheon

Current Rank:  8 Starting Rank:  8

One would think that the ruler seated atop the Iron Throne would also lead one of the richest families in Westeros, but King Robert Baratheon is the exception. He starts the series more than 6 million gold dragons in debt, owing 3 million to House Lannister alone.

By the end of Season 7, brothers Robert, Stannis, and Renly Baratheon are dead, although Robert’s illegitimate son Gendry appears to be on the up-and-up as a fleet-footed member of Jon Snow’s retinue. Survival is more than House Tyrell can claim.

House Tyrell

Current Rank:  9 Starting Rank: 2

At the start of the series, the Tyrells were giving the Lannisters a run for their money as the richest house in Westeros. The pivotal assets were a vast amount of fertile land and a large population that paid taxes.

House Tyrell had the ability to raise a large army—backing Renly Baratheon in Season 2 created a unified force of 100,000 men—but this military capacity was regarded as far inferior to the Lannisters’ battalions.

The continuation of House Tyrell went from grim (after the death of heirs Margaery and Loras) to doubtful. Lady Olenna, the de facto head of the family, poisons herself after the Lannisters seize Highgarden. This formerly wealthy family may be wiped out.

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