Lorindól

Russia and Trump lied ?

Inconceivable!

I fear they won’t. They’ll just try to do the trading in the dark.

Getting cheap energy and tightening Russia’s leash for the same price is just too good deal for China to waste.

Yeah, that map shows the borders of the Soviet Union. It was the first I could find in a hurry, It’s old but helped to prove my point that their landmass east of the Ural mountains is mostly wilderness. Here’s a more up-to-date version that tells the same story:

https://www.geo-ref.net/pdf/russia.pdf

Here is a map showing where the majority of Russia’s population lives:

https://maps-russia.com/maps-russia-geography/russia-population-density-map

The largest part of Russia is the vast Siberia, which is basically just endless forests, mountains and arctic tundra with few cities here and there - and the winters can be extreme. If not for the rich resources and the jobs that extraction of those resources creates, not many would choose to live there.

Yes. Casualties are soldiers who either die in battle or get wounded badly enough to be taken out of action for a longer time.

My electric guitar is a Swedish Hagström Ultra Swede, I always wanted to get a genuine Gibson Les Paul but never could afford one. So I ended up with the much cheaper Ultra Swede, have been playing with it for two years and I’m more than happy with it.

I also have two Finnish Landola acoustic guitars from the late 60’s - early 70’s, a 12-string “Colorado” model and a 6-string “Buffalo”. Both sound excellent, especially after I made new bone nuts and saddles to replace the original plastic ones.

Farscape is excellent, but it’s very trippy and the heavy use of Muppets may be offputting to some. And it’s far from harder scifi like the Expanse.

And it has Derek Smalls in the backgroung waiting for his turn.

Absolutely brilliant.

Exactly the same situation here. I’ll wait for a while and see what happens.

I have not claimed any profession.

In my original comment I did state that I got into officer training, perhaps you assumed that as a career officer? I admit that the conscript army system is so profoundly different that I could have been more precise.

I assumed that the later mention of university studies would have made it clear that I was not a career soldier.

It is also true that I cannot verify my claim about the IQ test. Like I said earlier, it was a part of another student’s thesis. We got to hear the results after the test, then the gathered data was processed anonymously. If I recall correctly, the study was more about the qualities of the test itself, the qualities of the participants were not important. I think everyone got a free movie ticket for taking the test and I spent mine on “Kill Bill” 1 or 2.

But tell me, why would I want to lie about this? To what gain?

No edits have been made and you know it.

Just admit you made a mistake and we’ll laugh this off.

Are you familiar with the concept of “projection” in psychology?

Yes! If you know how to look up edit history, please do so! There has been no editing on my part.

You’re getting quite incoherent.

I have edited nothing, so it matters not if the edit history is publicly available or not. If this is your attempt to discredit me, it’s pretty pathetic. You just didn’t bother to read what I had written, right?

Our universities do not use IQ tests to select students nor have I claimed that they did. This is your own mental fabrication.

Depending of the situation, in my country we DO refer to ourselves as “officers” or “reserve officers”. Spesific rank is used in the garrisons and drills or when an individual is interviewed by the media. In the refresher drills the reserve officer ranks are equal to career officer ranks.

I understand that this all may be new and confusing information to you, but some things can be done very differently in different countries.

You are quick to leap to wild conclusions.

The army test is taken by every conscript at the beginning of the mandatory military service. It is an aptitude/IQ test which had a lot of similiarities with the Mensa type test I took later. You need a high enough score to get into NCO or officer training. The ones who graduate from the officer training may apply to the military academy after their mandatory service is over.

And like I clearly wrote in my original comment, the test I took later was a Mensa type test, using similar questions. It was a part of cognitive science or psychology department’s student thesis, not a Mensa test. I majored in educational psychology, so I do have some understanding of what IQ tests are. I got a high score in one and it resulted in absolutely nothing in my life.

I have not claimed to be a career officer. I am a reserve officer, I did not wish to apply to the military academy, therefore the refresher courses. And even if my soldier’s oath would not prevent me from discussing service matters with aggressive strangers on the Internet, my common sense would.

You are indeed a peculiar one. On my first comment I tried to validate the very point you made of IQ tests being poor indicators of true intelligence by sharing a personal experience (even though I know the fallacy of empiric experiences) on the matter. Yet you vehemently attacked my statement and accuse me of lying.

Lastly, your opinion of me is irrelevant, only the truth is relevant. One would gain nothing from lying to strangers. Perhaps practising some restraint on your part would result in more fruitful and pleasant dialogue in the future?

I’ve never taken any preparatory courses for anything and I’m not really good with mathematics, so no and no again.

And why I put the quotation marks around good is a reflection of my native language, we do that when one wishes to express their personal disbelief or doubt. I am well aware that the ~140 score is considered a good one by the designers of the test.

I served in the late 90’s and there have been several refresher courses but I’m not at the liberty to discuss any specifics of service matters publicly. If you have done military service you know this.

No.

The whole point - which you seem to have missed - was that getting a “good” score in some test can mean very little or nothing in real life.

It just means that you’re good at that sort of mental exercise.

We had to take a mandatory IQ test at the beginning of military service, my score was in the highest percentile and because of this I ended up in officer training. It wasn’t the Mensa type test, they measured our language, math and pattern recognition skills with a vast battery of questions with a time limit.

Many friends of mine got average IQ scores in the army test but they are the ones who are really smart and extremely succesful.

In university I got a chance to take the Mensa type test and got ~140 points. I just laughed it off since at the same time I was struggling to pass my courses, while my friends who got average scores passed them with ease.

I do not consider myself really “smart” in any way, I just have a very good memory and I’m pretty adept at solving problems. Otherwise I’m just about as average a guy can be.

Few years ago I did a full rebuild of a top-of-the-line tube radio from 1958 and use it daily in my living room. My stereo tube amp is from 1963 or 1964. Both sound astonishing.

My binoculars are from WW II - era. I had to realign the prisms when I got them but the optics are about as good as you can get.

I also use an iPod Nano 2Gen almost daily, I think I bought it in 2008 and the original battery can still hold enough charge for 4-5 hours of continous play. Incredible device with a neat perfect UI. The physical jogwheel can be operated through pocket fabric, so I can switch songs or adjust volume while running without even having to remove the iPod from my pocket.

Although we never even seriously discussed giving up conscription, we Finns also made mistakes. Like cutting down the war time troop numbers from ~500 000 to current ~240 000 in the early 2000’s. It did seem like a moderarely reasonable action at the time, but luckily it will most likely be remedied sooner than later.