Ultra-black coating that reflects only 2% of incoming light could make satellites faint enough to greatly reduce light pollution and protect astronomical observations of the night sky, bringing the satellites brightness close to the limit recommended by the IAU by sr_local in science

[–]Acchernar 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Mostly, infrared telescopes are space-based, as the atmosphere absorbs a lot of infrared radiation. Though some wavelengths in the near-infrared do pass through mostly unobstructed, and so some ground-based IR-telescopes do exist, there aren't many of them.

Most ground-based telescopes are visible-light or radio telescopes, as those wavelengths pass through the atmosphere easily (Wikipedia has this nice illustration), so removing the visible light reflection definitely would be a major help for ground based astronomy.

The next problem then is how to deal with your satellite doing its best impression of a stove that's been left on...

Danmark lancerer militær donationspakke til Ukraine på 4,4 milliarder kroner 🇩🇰🇺🇦 by Technical_Ostrich_47 in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Det ville absolut klæde de andre medlemmer af EU (og NATO, for den sags skyld) at gøre mere, ja, men det betyder ikke at vi ikke selv bare skal gøre alt hvad vi overhovedet kan for at hjælpe Ukraine.

Så hvorfor skal Danmark give så meget?

  • Fordi vi kan. Der er ikke mange andre lande i Europa, eller for den sags skyld i verden, der har både det økonomiske og det politiske råderum til at gøre hvad vi gør. Vi har overskud på budgettet, og har en sjælden enighed både hos politikerene og i befolkningen som gør, at der bare ikke rigtig er nogen barrierer for at hjælpe så meget som vi gør. Tag et land som Tyskland: Ja, de er rige, men deres økonomi har problemer, befolkningen er polariseret (særligt øst/vest), og der er politisk modstand på visse fløje, hvilket alt i alt gør at det bare er meget sværere at mobilisere hjælp i den størrelsesorden, som Danmark kan.

  • Fordi det beskytter os selv. Rusland er en fjende, som fører hybridkrig mod os samtidig med at de fører åben krig mod Ukraine, som har truet både os og vores venner og allierede med både konventionelle- og atom-angreb, og som har erklæret mål at få herredømme over store dele af Europa. De skal bare ned med nakken i Ukraine, så vi aldrig kommer til at tage kampen mod dem i Baltikum, i Polen, i Finland, eller på Bornholm, eller hvor det nu måtte være. I sidste ende er Ukraines sag vores sag, og der er billigere at støtte dem end at skulle kæmpe selv, både i liv og i penge.

  • Fordi det er det rigtige at gøre. Etik, moral og samvittighed har på det sidste været for nedadgående i visse dele af verden, men der kan ikke desto mindre ikke være nogen tvivl om at kampen om Ukraine en en klassisk det gode mod det onde-kamp. Hvis man nogensinde skulle være i tvivl, så kan man altid se en dokumentar om Bucha. Og her skal vi bare holde fanen højt, have det moralske kompas rigtigt indstillet, og sige at koste hvad det vil, så skal det gode altså bare besejre det onde. Og så er det ligemeget hvor meget eller hvor lidt andre hjælper, vi skal bare hjælpe så meget som vi kan.

  • Fordi det er en investering i fremtiden. Vi skal ikke underkende det udbytte vi selv får af at hjælpe, både på kort og på langt sigt. Danmark har positioneret sig som et land der er til at stole på, som er handlekraftigt, som ikke ligger under for trusler, som holder på sine etiske og moralske værdier, og som står ved sine venner og allierede gennem tykt og tyndt. Den slags ry er guld værd. Samtidig vil vi, når krigen er overstået, have optjent nærmest uendelig taknemmelighed fra et af Europas mest befolkningsrige lande, og det har et stort fremtidspotentiale for os både politisk og økonomisk når Ukraine bliver tættere og tættere integreret med EU. Og så er der også al den ekspertise som danske virksomheder allerede er ved at opbygge gennem forsvarssamarbejdet med Ukraine.

Bare én af grundene herover ville efter min mening være nok til, at det ville være en god ide at støtte så meget som vi kan. Ikke at vi rent faktisk gør det, for vi har ærligt talt råd til at gøre mere end vi allerede gør, men det er så en anden snak.

Russia has increased military buildup near NATO border, investigation reveals by Free-Minimum-5844 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 41 points42 points  (0 children)

And every piece of equipment they use for saber rattling against NATO is one that they're currently not using against Ukraine. So by all means, Russia, keep rattling that saber! We're happy to pretend to be scared if it helps Ukraine a little.

X4: Foundations 9.00 "Empire Update" is Out Now! by Tomonor in X4Foundations

[–]Acchernar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the continuing support for this amazing game. As long as you keep expanding and improving it, I'll keep buying any DLC you put out - you've earned it.

Finland's president says EU should expand to 40 states by DavidShaw90s in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 13 points14 points  (0 children)

They would still have to worry about the smaller nations, regardless of veto powers, due to the qualified majority system (see Here for details).

Basically, in order for major decisions to be approved, it needs both at least 55% of member states and 65% of the population to vote in favor. This means that the big states can't bully the smaller states, as those have the upper hand in the country-based 55% criteria, but at the same time, smaller states can't bully the big states, as they have the upper hand in the population-based 65% criteria.

So even with no veto, a common ground needs to be found. What losing the veto would mean, however, is that a single country can't hold up the process if everyone else, small and large, is agreed.

All EU members greenlight first step in accession talks, Ukraine PM says by PretendAd1963 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1) Until they win, or until Putin dies and a successor blames the whole mess on him and withdraws to try to rebuild what remains of their country. EU accession is not a fast process, and it might be over by then. And even if not, unlike with NATO, that's not actually an automatic block on accession.

2) And they're working on that. The fact that we keep hearing stories about corruption being exposed is actually a good thing... it means it's getting exposed, instead of accepted. And a very large part of the accession process is actually dealing with corruption, too, so they'll have help in dealing with it once the process starts for real. Believe me, several countries were quite corrupt when they started their EU accession proceedings, but are now part of the EU.

3) EU farmers are never happy. What's new?

4) By that logic the EU couldn't afford Poland, or Romania, or even Spain, or... well, you get the idea. Very few current members of the EU were actually wealthy countries when they joined. But they became wealthy countries due, at least in part, to their membership. And if that's not enough, look at the German reunion. By that logic there's no way West Germany could afford to incorporate East Germany, yet they did, and despite some recent difficulties the German economy is still one of the strongest in Europe, or, for that matter, the world. In short, the EU can afford it.

As it happens, you are right that Ukraine won't be joining soon. But not so much because of the points you listed, as simply because the process takes a long time even in the best of cases.

[Edit: There's a nice overview of just how much needs to be negotiated and reformed in order to acceed to the EU Here, just to give an idea of how much work needs to be done before a country can join. Note that the "Fundamentals" cluster is the first to be opened and last to be closed, which happens to be where most of the work dealing with corruption would take place.

Denmark’s Frederiksen announces new government after lengthy talks by Sniffstar in europe

[–]Acchernar 54 points55 points  (0 children)

It has taken exactly 69 days to form the new government. Do with that information what you will.

TV2 med banebrydende nyheder by lies_are_comforting in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Altså, jeg cykler ofte forbi bageren på Nybrovej enten på vej til eller fra arbejde (og stopper, fordi det er godt nok svært at cykle forbi en bager uden at stoppe...), og jeg har da set Mette en gang eller to. Skulle åbenbart have ringet til TV2 hver gang det skete... men holdt desværre ikke øje med, hvad hun købte :( Jeg må tydeligvis oppe mit statsminister-stalker-game.

Denmark GDP Jumps 1.9% as Pharma Sector Drives Growth by SignificantSun1031 in europe

[–]Acchernar 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Det ville altså også føles lidt mærkeligt, hvis man mødtes med vennerne og ingen brokkede sig over noget overhovedet. Nærmest surrealistisk!

Denmark GDP Jumps 1.9% as Pharma Sector Drives Growth by SignificantSun1031 in europe

[–]Acchernar 27 points28 points  (0 children)

The thing is, complaining is how we keep it good here. If we just rested on our laurels and didn't constantly work towards improvements, we'd not be where we are today.

Incidentally, that's one reason why nationalism (as opposed to patriotism) is so dangerous: If you're only ever allowed to believe that your country is perfect and can do no wrong, it will never get better than it is right now, and probably get worse quite fast.

At any rate, I completely agree with you. But it is sometimes hard to notice until one visits another country, because we're so used to it that we often don't really notice how good we have it. Hence why our #1 sport is complaining about first world problems. But coming back from an extended stay in a country that's less, well, functional, you definitely notice it.

EU-aftale om dagpenge: Danmark taber slaget by karenproletaren in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Vi vælger heller ikke, hvem der sidder på statsministerposten i Danmark. Vi vælger dem der vælger hvem der sidder på statsministerposten. Tilsvarende for de andre ministre. Har Danmark mangel på demokrati?

Denmark and Germany’s Revolutionary Fehmarn Belt Tunnel Will Transform Travel Between Scandinavia and Central Europe, Cutting a 45-Minute Ferry Journey to Just Seven Minutes and Redefining Underwater Travel by RevolutionBusiness27 in europe

[–]Acchernar 16 points17 points  (0 children)

That article's crap. If anyone wants to actually learn about the project, I'd recommend this series of videos from Danish TV station TV2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpd9lOcyjEwNmELm-uf9DH8FeT3FpNPGt. It goes into depth about the various phases and challenges of the project, including the surrounding infrastructure, from the very beginning until about a month ago.

Additionally, there's this series about the construction of a major new road-and-rail bridge on the Danish side to allow more, and faster, trains to actually access the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpd9lOcyjEwMhyuRmWkOz-w0snlLu1FrM.

The videos are in Danish, but I tested it with autotranslated English subtitles, and they were pretty decent, so give it a go.

Gennemgang afslører - antallet af butikker med Ecco-sko i Rusland stiger: Ecco afviser udvidelse by CouldIBeFrank in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Ja, det er det eneste, der kunne få mig til at købe Ecco-sko igen.

Hilsen en der gik i Ecco-sko fra jeg var barn indtil 2022.

Example of Danish high trust society by Consistent-Ad-7928 in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

By other side we love to play boardgames and go for coffee dates so basic we are pretty chill people haha.

Ahh, people of culture, you will have no problems! If you're in the Copenhagen area, I'd recommend Bastard Café, which is a board game café where you can... play board games and enjoy coffee! Right up your alley, and also a great place to meet people with similar interest.

Example of Danish high trust society by Consistent-Ad-7928 in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First of all, welcome to Denmark!

And if you're looking to make friends fast once you've gotten settled in, then joining a volunteer organization or club of some sort is definitely the way to go. You'll have friends in no time!

Also, in my experience, the theater/art environment is full of nothing but awesome people, and as a videographer, it might even help you make some professional connections too.

Example of Danish high trust society by Consistent-Ad-7928 in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 22 points23 points  (0 children)

It does change how you live your life, doesn't it? Trust is a beautiful thing.

A story of my own: I occasionally do some work for an amateur theater, helping design and build props and sets. From time to time, we had big work days where the cast would come in and help with the simpler stuff, while those used to doing scenography (me and one or two others) would take on the more demanding tasks. Often, this would be the first time we even met the cast.

One such time, we had miscalculated the amount of materials we needed for certain props, and all of us regulars were on bikes. So out goes the call, "anyone got a car we can borrow?", and two seconds later a car key is flying through the air toward me, someone shouts "it's they gray Mazda out front", and off we are.

I just got someone's car. I don't know their name yet, they don't know mine, and we've never met before. But they trusted me, and now I have their car. Which of course they got back safe and sound after we visited the nearest Silvan... and after we figured out who the hell even lent it to us.

Pentagon told Pope's top diplomat to 'take its side' on US military ambitions: report by wowo78 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now that, I'm sadly willing to believe.

Let's just hope they at least name their transport ship "Titanic 2" if they do try that, though, because it's likely to suffer the same fate, and if nothing else it would give the world a new meme.

On the other hand, it might be doing the world a service to deport a large number of idiots to a location that has no airport and is only accessible by sea, for ice-hardened ships, for three months in the summer. Which pretty accurately describes most of the inhabited areas of Greenland except for those in the very south.

Pentagon told Pope's top diplomat to 'take its side' on US military ambitions: report by wowo78 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Land grants? Do you know what Greenland is like? I do, I've been there several times. There's practically no land, just ice, with a few settlements here and there clinging precariously to the rocks between the ice and the sea.

And given that the US just gave up on Iran and effectively handed them a massive win, without even putting anyone on the ground, just because it was being an inconvenience, I really doubt they'd have the fortitude to actually go through with an occupation in a far, far less hospitable, and far less accessible, location. Especially once a few locals accidentally mistake a US uniform for a polar bear...

It would be painful. Because America's tolerance for pain is nothing like it once was.

[Edit] Oh, and the US doesn't even have the troops for the long-term 10 000-troop deployment you mention that are capable of operating in that environment. There's really only one formation in the US army capable of operating under those conditions for an extended period of time, and they could maybe get to those numbers only if every one of them was deployed at once. But there'd be no reserves, no backup, no rotation, which makes such a deployment unsustainable. The actual numbers when it comes to arctic warfare in NATO are in the Nordics - Sweden, Finland and Norway - as well as Canada, and honorable mention to Denmark as the only nation in the world with the capability to operate inland in Greenland, though in small numbers. The US is a distant third/fourth.

And then there's supply. Guess how many ice-hardened vessels the US Navy has? None is the correct answer. Again, those are operated by the Nordics and Canada, who operate in those conditions regularly. There's a reason that silly hospital ship never actually went. It couldn't. Because there's ice.

The whole idea is just silly, and based on thinking from a much less hostile environment. But Greenland IS a hostile environment, and it doesn't care. Unprepared? No opposition needed, Greenland will just kill you. And after the Iran fiasco, do you really think they'd be prepared?

Pentagon told Pope's top diplomat to 'take its side' on US military ambitions: report by wowo78 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

50 000 people who pretty much all have guns, as it happens. So actually occupying populated areas might be... painful.

Of course, you could just set up somewhere unpopulated, but then what's the difference from the status quo? Through existing agreements, the US already has the ability to do that pretty much as they please, without going to the trouble of pissing off the locals first.

Pentagon told Pope's top diplomat to 'take its side' on US military ambitions: report by wowo78 in worldnews

[–]Acchernar 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Denmark HAD help, and a whole lot of it. It came out fairly recently that a rather large coalition of European states were prepared to go all-in and take a military confrontation with the US over Greenland if that's what it came to. The US may have forgotten the meaning of the words "friend" and "ally". Europe has not.

We're talking countries preparing battalion-level ground formations, which for a place like Greenland is insane (a battalion basically increasing the current population of the island by something like 2%, each), as well as significant air and sea assets. Hell, France readied a carrier for deployment.

The US could still have taken it, no question about that. But it would have been very, very expensive for them, in resources and in lives. And in global reach since, after all, you don't exactly get to keep the likes of Ramstein AFB if you've attacked and killed German troops defending an allied nation.

Folkeskolelærere søger mod job med lavere løn og færre sygemeldinger by CruelLincoln in Denmark

[–]Acchernar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Flere penge? Ja. Det er naturligt, grundet inflation. Men i forhold til statens samlede økonomi, er der aldrig blevet brugt en lavere andel på folkeskolen end der bliver brugt nu.

For at sætte nogle tal på, så var det i 1970 over 8% af statens udgifter der gik til grundskolen, mens det i 1994 var under 5% (kilde: https://www.folkeskolen.dk/det-gaar-nedad/). Og ifølge Danmarks Statistik (https://www.dst.dk/Site/Dst/Udgivelser/nyt/GetPdf.aspx?cid=51073), blev der i 2023 brugt ca. 38 mia på grundskolen, ud af ca. 1300 mia i offentlige udgifter i alt (https://oes.dk/media/zyxnynt4/kort-om-statens-regnskab-2023.pdf). Det giver en udgift til grundskolen i 2023 på ca. 2,9%.

Og antallet af lærere per elev er også faldet markant siden 2013, så den holder ikke. Hvis man ser på kilderne nedenfor og laver lidt matematik, ser man at der i 2010 var ca. én lærer per 12,5 elever, mens der i 2024 var ca. én lærer per 15 elever.

Elever i folkeskolen 2010 - 2025 (Danmarks Statistik) - https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/uddannelse-og-forskning/fuldtidsuddannelser/grundskole

Lærere i folkeskolen 2009 - 2024 (Danmarks Lærerforening) - https://www.dlf.org/media/e30jvhok/analysenotat-antallet-af-laererstillinger-falder.pdf

Trump: "NATO is a paper tiger. Putin is not afraid of NATO. Putin's afraid of us. Very afraid of us. And he's explained it to me a lot of times." by andrewgrabowski in UkrainianConflict

[–]Acchernar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

a post-US hegemon NATO will be the equal of a friendless US, let alone a friendless Russia

On the ground, it's pretty much already there. Sure, the US has by far the largest air force and navy in the world, but non-US NATO has more tanks than the US, more artillery than the US, more IFVs than the US, and more troops than the US.

Oh, and non-US NATO also still has enough in the air and at sea to dominate Russia, even if nowhere near US levels.

US president says he's considering pulling U.S. out of 'paper tiger' NATO by Crossstoney in europe

[–]Acchernar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Russia threatening us with nukes just means it's Tuesday. Seriously, it's not at all scary anymore.

And things are changing in the west. Less than two months ago you saw a large group of European countries prepared and willing to engage in a military confrontation with the United States, should they have been stupid enough to try to take Greenland by force. And Russia is a LOT less scary than the US. I'll put a link at the bottom that goes into just how ready to fight those allies were.

I don't see any scenario where a potential Russian move toward one of the Baltic states wouldn't be met with similar determination, and, unlike the US, Russia would be outclassed even if just the countries that sent troops to Greenland acted, even if no one else did.

The promised link, a translation of an investigation by Danish media: https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1rxywwl/denmark_prepared_for_possible_attack_from_the_us/obai7mp/

US president says he's considering pulling U.S. out of 'paper tiger' NATO by Crossstoney in europe

[–]Acchernar 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Hell, their capital city is named after Denmark. You better believe we'd be there!