It seems that they successfully shut down pumping oil northwards at Andreapol. As a result, the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland (volume about 20% of Russia’s oil exports) no longer gets oil by pipeline. Cutting off 20% of exports is a very (very) good result, worth far more than a remote-controlled light aircraft.
Maybe I’m misreading because one poster above deleted their comment, but I can’t understand: how exactly has TSMC shown “disrespect”? Or was the poster showing disrespect?
Putting corporations aside and speaking of states: the US and Taiwan have respectful and friendly relations. They depend on each other.
Now, a tariff of 25-100% on a partner’s primary export and one’s own vitally important import is more like putting a shotgun to one’s leg out of spite. It would be hurting oneself and hurting the other side - and not a little bit.
The US is a store that Taiwan frequently shops in - a very big defense equipment store, I should say. Some of the toys cost money, but if you buy enough, you get kickbacks - the US gives Taiwan some security assistance for free. It also says it will assist Taiwan if anyone (we can imagine who that might be) attacks it.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is a store the world frequently shops in - a very big microprocessor, memory and microcontroller store. Frequent customers can tell TSMC “it would be nice if you brought some of your business here, we have a vacant spot suitable for your plans”. And it works: one factory will be built in the US, one factory in the EU. Maybe elsewhere too. Getting that to happen didn’t need Trump or insane levels of customs tariffs.
To achieve that, people just negotiated like normal people do. TMSC know they operate in a country prone to violent earthquakes and close to an agressive neighbour, they are quite OK with placing some of their business abroad.
For those who want to read longer, the original article in Berlingske. Not paywalled:
https://www.berlingske.dk/politik/new-poll-shows-overwhelming-majority-of-greenlanders-reject-trump
P.P.S.
The primary suspect was the right one: Vezhen has damage to its anchor. Swedish authorities have boarded it.
Finnish “Yleisradio” reports here that the owner company admits causing the damage: “anchor fell down in harsh conditions”.
The “harsh conditions” here in Estonia, about 300 km from the scene, include a wind speed of 1.2 meters per second. :) On an image from the scene, courtesy of YLE, the sea is flat like a glass table. That’s some harsh conditions…
P.S. A secondary suspect has been identified. “Pskov” (name implies that it’s a Russian ship) had its transponder off while crossing the cable.
https://bsky.app/profile/pekka.bsky.social/post/3lgo6wiwt222j
Some background about the preliminary suspect, m/s “Vezhen”.
Additional source (Reuters): Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage
A source about how the ship maneuvered near the cable.
Half of Europe survived the Little Ice Age because of that unholy weed. :)
I came here to say that, but you got here first, so have my upvote. :)
Recipe:
To be mixed in a huge bowl and laid out into 2 food dryers. Sorry, I don’t have exact quantities, I always use both of my food driers. I run them at +70 C.
True, but in a hypothetical alternative, the refining equipment would stay intact and refine more oil. As things are - if a distillation column gets borked, it’s 3 months of stopped production as a minimum. More if it had Western parts, which most of them likely do.
I appreciate the effort of running this place - it’s working well from my perspective - and hope you find the colleagues you need. :)
Myself, I can’t volunteer - I already moderate a few communities elsewhere, my time is limited, and I’m politically too partial. I also cannot say that I fully agree with local federation policy.
Same here. Forums (about science fiction, aeromodelism, electric vehicles) have been important to me, and continue to be important in some fields.
Eastern Europe: “we know already, and they (pointing westwards) are starting to get it”.
I checked now, and apparently there is none - but LibrePay claims to accept “direct debit from an euro bank account”, so small donations over Librepay should not feed any banks. :)
Regarding e-mail: “riseup.net” requires that a long-time user vouch for a new user and invite them. If the new user quickly turns into a complaint magnet (there’s a coming-of-age period after which their actions are considered their own), both the user and the inviter will be held responsible (kicked off the service). I think (hope) they aren’t so strict with VPN, but they have limited people and could not administer a mess made by a big bunch of people.
Needless to say, none of my (anarchist) comrades have ever been kicked off RiseUp, but they don’t send spam or threats, they just send their cat pictures encrypted with GPG, causing the authorities endless work. :)
Just like every reasonable service, RiseUp has a few technical mechanisms to ensure they aren’t compromised (disk and inbox encryption, etc) but obviously those can’t help against a dedicated and well-resourced adversary.
So, whatever e-mail server you use - use PGP / GPG. :) Then the adversary must compromise your device. If you are hardcore, encrypt and sign on an offline device. Then the adversary must breach the air gap.
(I used to sign releases for some anonymity-related project years ago. Those were the times when I seriously took measures because others depended on me. Currently, not so much.)
P.S. As for the lack of resources at RiseUp: this can be alleviated by donating to them. Which reminds me, I should set up a small regular donation to their representative organization in the EU.
Under the divine guidance of Elon Musk, I strongly doubt if emperor Trump will break any big tech. More likely he’ll pat them on the back (while requiring more surveillance data to be submitted).
They got some stuff that matters, among them KazanOrgSintez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazanorgsintez).
A chemical plant in the Bryansk oblast also left the conversation.
And of course, it seems that Ukraine (recently, not today) got the aviation fuel reserves of the Engels air base.
I don’t see any echoes of a monster
I think it’s not possible to see that far. Ability to write good stories and ability to maintain ethical behaviour, they’re probably unrelated abilities.
For example, Yevgeni Prigozhin actually wrote decent children’s stories, but alas, his personal ethics didn’t prevent becoming Putin’s accomplice with a private military company.
That’s some sad reading. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, from the point where the train crashes back to where the company forces an engineer to cut corners on the design.
Legal classification: probably rape, definitely sexual assault.
An enabling factor: wealth (he was in a position to influence other’s well-being economically, offer hush money and sign non-disclosure agreements).
“‘I’m a very wealthy man,’” she remembers him saying, “‘and I’m used to getting what I want.’”
An excuse: BDSM. The author of the article is correct to note:
BDSM is a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent
As for the search for the origin of his behaviour… I think they’re on the right track. Like a former child soldier who carries a war inside them, Gaiman has probably been carrying a lot inside.
In 1965, when Neil was 5 years old, his parents, David and Sheila, left their jobs as a business executive and a pharmacist and bought a house in East Grinstead, a mile away from what was at that time the worldwide headquarters for the Church of Scientology. Its founder, the former science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, lived down the road from them from 1965 until 1967, when he fled the country and began directing the church from international waters, pursued by the CIA, FBI, and a handful of foreign governments and maritime agencies. David and Sheila were among England’s earliest adherents to Scientology.
/…/
Palmer began asking Gaiman to tell her more about his childhood in Scientology. But he seemed unable to string more than a few sentences together. When she encouraged him to continue, he would curl up on the bed into a fetal position and cry. He refused to see a therapist.
Reading this, it seems obvious that Gaiman developed his behaviour due to trauma during childhood and youth - and has been exhibiting behaviour patterns that became normalized for him during time in the cult.
As for people whom he assaulted, it seems that they too carry a pattern - they were vulnerable at the time. Some had already experienced violence on themselves. Which, it seems - often hadn’t been resolved, but had become normalized. They were not the kind of people whose “no” is followed by physical self-defense or the full weight of legal options - and Gaiman understood enough to recognize: with them, he could get away with doing things.
She didn’t consider reaching out to her own family. Her parents had divorced when she was 3, and Pavlovich had grown up splitting time between their households. Violence, Pavlovich tells me, “was normalized in the household.”
Well, what can I say about it…
…it is customary that accusations be investigated by cops (who hopefully cannot be bought) and presented as charges to a court of law. The defendant should have a chance to deny or excuse their actions, but if deemed guilty, is required to give up time or resources either as compensation or punishment. A court could make lesser or greater punishment dependent on taking action to fix one’s behaviour traits - seeking assistance and not offending again. Those harmed should be offered assistance by their societies.
and probably hard-cap the number of communities one person can mod.
I would like to underline and emaphasize this one.
As for the rule change in general (note: I’m from a different instance so it doesn’t influence me much) - it seems reasonable.
If there is a community where a respectful disputation of facts - with sources to back it up - gets immediately resolved with a ban hammer, that community is not a healthy thing to have on an instance, so administrators might want to step in.
Myself, I’ve noticed one such community on the “hexbear” instance. Got banned for explaining well-known historical facts, with references to sources and all. The reason: I was “reactionary” and only one narrative was allowed. If it had been on another instance, maybe the admins would have done something. But since it was there, there was no recourse except leaving.
Narrator: “they heard him - and replaced it”.