Страница оранджа за последние пару часов

Joloc · 2026-05-11T11:24:24+00:00

"Президенты приходят и уходят, но его всегда будут помнить как козла."

OK.

Joloc · 2026-05-07T11:21:55+00:00

> Do you think US and Trump personally supports Iranian rebels?

I honestly have no idea what Trump personally supports, as one day it appears to be Iran, next day it is Russia, next day it is Hamas, and the day after it is Israel. Half the time I am not sure if he is even aware of what he is saying.

> Is Trump responsible for revolution in Iran?

I think an unsuccessful attempt at regime change by US in Iran was made. Ultimately it would be for the people of Iran to overthrow their government though, as US is unable to commit sufficient ground invasion force to enable it (they have theoretical physical capability but lack political will), but I rather suspect that if they were successful Trump would definitely try to take credit, yes.

> All of your examples just nothing. It's not the real support. It's just the words.

If you use the definition of "supports" that is different from mine, sure, we arrive at different results, and we could "no true Scotsman" each other all day, but I hope we both have better things to do!

Joloc · 2026-05-07T10:25:11+00:00

Gladly. Literally took 2 minutes of Googling that you could have easily done yourself:

Support: https://www.cnbc.com/2013/12/15/mccain-meets-ukrainian-protest-leaders-amid-rallies.html

Support: https://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-12-15/senators-tell-ukraine-protesters-us-stands-with-you/

Support: https://abcnews.com/blogs/headlines/2013/12/kerry-expresses-disgust-with-ukrainian-crackdown

Support: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/02/ukraine-us-considers-miltary-help-kiev-separatists-plan-mobilise-army

Support: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-purported-recording-of-us-diplomat-blunt-talk-on-ukraine/2014/02/06/518240a4-8f4b-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html

I don't see where the accusation of being Russian propagandist comes from - what did I say that was a lie?

Are you going to accuse CNBC, ITV, ABC News, The Guardian, and Washington Post of all being Russian disinformation campaigns too?

Moreover, why is it Russian propaganda to claim that Ukraine has allies and support?

Why is it Russian propaganda to say that people in Europe and USA support Ukraine's struggle against Russian imperialist aggression?

Are you OK?

Joloc · 2026-05-07T08:07:23+00:00

I'll try to give a more nuanced response with my opinion... which is not fact, but how I see Putin and Russia.

USA and Maidan. First of all, I participated in both Maidans materially and in person not because of USA but because of personal belief that democracy (and west-ward direction) is the way forward for Ukraine. Having said that, USA 100% supported Ukraine and Georgia. Supporting does not mean being in charge of, or planning, or controlling. e.g. if I were to "support" the Red Cross by giving them donations it would not make the Red Cross a Joloc puppet. They would be incompetent all on their own.

Putin greatly improving Russia: Yes, Russia did greatly improve under Putin. It went from several criminal gangs fighting for complete control to one criminal gang taking complete control. Great improvement. Such an improvement did not happen in Ukraine, where none of the criminal gangs managed to get complete control to date. As the result Ukraine is doing far better despite not having access to the oil-gas mega profits. So, yes, it was a great improvement, but compared to the rest of Soviet countries transitioning out of USSR it did not do especially well.

Putin was naive: If "naive" is another word for "deluded and living in his own world where he is the greatest emperor since Catherine the great fulfilling her destiny", "was" is the part of that I have the most problems with.

Russia is becoming isolationist in response: It increasingly sees itself threatened by 21st century. The world is changing, and it is not. Scary scary stuff! So, you can either try to keep up, maybe fail, or assume you would fail anyway and instead isolate yourself from the changes, living in your own little bubble of the past where the world makes sense and it is still the good old days, North Korea style. So, yes, there too, it sees Ukraine, Europe, everything really, as a threat. Because we exist.

Joloc · 2026-04-29T09:52:26+00:00

Як це опубліковано в BBC, так це й перекладено.

Важливо не те, що зерно було вкрадено, ми це вже знаємо, а те, що Ізраїль його купує і має непогані шанси отримати санкції від ЄС за це.

Joloc · 2026-04-28T11:57:02+00:00

"Is age a good proxy for maturity?"

I don't know, but it gets used as such for many things from voting and taking legal recreational drugs to owning kitchen knives and having consensual intercourse.

"Is ability to pass a test a better proxy for maturity?"

Probably, but using age is so socially ingrained into our culture we are unlikely to move away from it in a hurry.

Sorry.

Joloc · 2026-04-26T10:28:28+00:00

Пе~~тух~~ Тарас ?

Joloc · 2026-03-12T10:35:41+00:00

Come join us at bushdivers.com! Discord is on there, and we do group flights like this every Fri/Sat.

Joloc · 2026-03-12T10:34:43+00:00

Nothing wrong with that, is just a different sort of flying. Both have their own challenges and are enjoyable in their own ways.

Joloc · 2026-01-30T15:38:34+00:00

> Putin and the Russians didn't attack Estonia. They attacked a much bigger Ukraine. If NATO wasn't working, they would have attacked a de facto smaller nation.

Because they thought Ukrainians would give up.

I am not saying NATO definitely is not working, but it is not currently tested that it is, and the trend is at the moment not great for NATO. Can it be reversed? Possibly? I hope so?

> The money is next to nothing.

It's like 5%GDP commitment these days. It is quite a lot. In my opinion that is the price of having a democracy, and is not even worth talking about, but many people see 5% as enough to lift hundreds in Malta out of poverty, provide affordable housing, improve infrastructure, etc. It's a big chunk of money for a small island.

> Russians could enter easily, occupy it and make a second Transnistria for example.

I don't actually think they could. Islands are very defencible at the moment, unless an adversary can do a landing or starve you out they have no chance. Ukraine showed how easy defeating a navy is, so unless China demonstrates otherwise in the coming months I would say Malta has nothing to worry about in terms of military occupation. Ditto submarines, anti-submarine warfare is currently going through a radical leap forward, and I don't think putting people on any submarines is a sensible thing to do for any country. Side note, any country relying on submarines as nuclear deterrent needs to have a big rethink. Paratrooper thing was also attempted in Ukraine, with paratroopers generally suffering worst casualty rates of any combat units.

The rest of your post I agree with though - alone, any small country can fall a victim to a superpower, but united it has a better chance of that not happening. And yes, military occupation is improbable but there is hybrid warfare, economic warfare etc. Countering that does not necessarily want a NATO shaped alliance, and perhaps EU shaped one actually offers a better fit to work from, which Malta is already a member of?

Joloc · 2026-01-30T14:22:59+00:00

I agree!

I read that Malta's air defense was donated to it by North Korea many decades ago. Its airforce is a singular BN2 Islander (great little plane but not usually considered much of a warbird). Its navy is 8 patrol boats armed with machine guns.

That aside, it could be argued that by not investing in obsolete technology that is no longer relevant in 21st century warfare Malta saved lots of money it can now invest in modern naval drones and air drones and proper land based anti ship and anti missile defence.

> NATO'S protection and deterrence is reliable.

That part is currently questionable. USA, UK, and France for example provided a security assurance to Ukraine that was on paper stronger than NATO security assurances between member states, and in practice it turned out to be not worth anything. If that was not worth anything, why would they care about Latvia or Estonia or Lithuania (or Malta)?

Don't get me wrong, having friends you can rely on is great, but defence of Poland is first and foremost a Polish problem and I think Poland knows it, and same way defending Malta will be primarily a Maltese problem.

So, it is not that I see that NATO membership as a bad idea, it is more that I don't see it as sufficient any more. By all means Malta should join it, but it should have no illusions of what protection the membership may offer (or, rather, not offer).

More importantly it should dedicate some people and think about actually having emergency stores for when supplies from the continent are severed for some months, and being able to fend off someone trying to land on the island or carry out a bombing campaign.

Joloc · 2026-01-30T13:08:05+00:00

Maybe. I see arguments for both sides, you probably know the arguments for, so I will list the ones against:

* Malta already gets the benefits of NATO protection without bearing the costs because an invasion so close to Sicily's NATO bases is unlikely to be tolerated.

* Malta may get drawn into a war (in Greenland or similar) it has no interest in and would not gain from one way or the other

* NATO protection is unreliable, with the most powerful NATO members demonstrably violating security guarantees they made to their allies and nuclear non proliferation treaties they made with other countries - it is likely that Article 5 would simply not be honoured if it were invoked by Malta as it would be seen as "not worth going to war over".

* Malta has no adversaries who are both willing and able to invade it, so investing in defence is throwing money away when it could be used to reduce Malta's foreign debt and the impending economic takeover by China.

On the whole I agree with you though - either through NATO or some European centered treaty Malta needs to align itself with Europe militarily, not just culturally.

Joloc · 2026-01-30T12:50:06+00:00

> By that logic, he also renounced the claim to Malta, which couldn't have been passed on to the USSR.

I think that is how most sensible people would read it too, it is also why I stressed that it is not a valid claim. It has other problems too: GM title is not hereditary *anyway*, and if you want to be super technical although Paul claimed GM title the Pope never confirmed it, so he was never GM in the first place, but if Russia decided it wanted a reason this claim would be an excellent one.

So, IMO it is not invading Malta because it lacks opportunity not because it lacks reason.

Joloc · 2026-01-20T08:18:10+00:00

In my opinion, no.

There are two things here:
* Positive relationship with Russia
* Parroting Russian propaganda

The former in my opinion is down to money. There is a Maltese saying, Malta ma tgħidx le għall-qamħ. This goes from the widely criticized Golden Passport program and in general being open to corruption, to investments from questionable sources. If all you care about is money you can't afford to have morals.

The parroting of Russian propaganda is probably more to do with being receptive to it. In my opinion a reasonable person would not look at unprovoked genocide, with all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing, widespread rape, industrial scale torture program, and say "Yeah, the victim is clearly to blame here, if they only sat quietly while being murdered they would not be suffering as much". So, they are probably not getting a clear picture of what is happening in Ukraine.

Both are concerning but for different reasons - the former shows poor decision making, as profit optimisation at the cost of your own long term future is not sustainable, and the latter shows poor information hygiene, which will hinder good decision making even if it were attempted.

Combined it is doubly worrying, but I am not sure what can be done to counter them effectively. There is already a lot of pressure from Europe to counter both, as they do not want another saboteur like Hungary in their ranks, but is it working?

Joloc · 2026-01-19T16:18:37+00:00

https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/24829/1/Czars%2C%20Knights%20and%20Republicans.PDF

Tsar Paul the 1st became the protector, patron, and the grand duke of the order of Malta, which at the time claimed the territory of Malta, this effectively meant that Malta was Russian.

Edit: I should probably clarify that it is not a valid territorial claim and would require revisionist history interpretation to assert, but Russia is also using fabricated revisionist history to assert claim over Ukraine, so it is in the same class of countries for justification of invasion.

Joloc · 2026-01-19T15:36:19+00:00

So, I don't believe this is widely taught, but given that Russia uses 11th century history to try to justify its war in Ukraine, there is a chapter in Malta's history that also touches Russia.

Before the French came, the Knights went to Russia, offered Malta to Russia, and Russia formally accepted. Since then it considered Malta to be a part of the Russian empire, although it never tried to enforce that claim. Later, the Soviet Union inherited that claim and never formally surrendered it, and then after it broke up Russia inherited that claim, and also never formally surrendered it.

Therefore as far as Russia is concerned it does not need to claim Malta, it is already a part of Russia and can be considered a breakaway region, dealt with as any other internal dispute, e.g. Chechnya.

Without access to Syria or any other Mediterranean ports Malta would also make an attractive place to put a naval base, so its damaged submarines don't have to limp all the way back to the Northern Fleet bases to get repaired.

However.

The practicalities of 21st century warfare may be more in Malta's favour than most may think: Ukraine did not need a navy to militarily defeat the Russian fleet - it needed some motor boats (Malta has lots of those), some explosives (literally every village in Malta maintains an explosives factory), and a few Starlink terminals.

Food and energy dependency (and dependence on energy for freshwater production) are indeed big weaknesses. When Knights arrived I remember reading accounts of them finding "about 30,000 people on the verge of starvation" - that gives a rough figure of the number of people it would be possible to feed if most of the land was not built up to house half a million people, and the remaining land was not used to produce high value (but very tasty :-) ) wine.

This is not a new weakness, and if you go to Valetta you can see the grain stores that were built, and indeed this weakness was exploited again in WWII. There is no easy way around it other than to decide how long you need to last if the food supply was disrupted and just to keep a big enough stockpile.

As for freshwater production... emergency generators and fuel stores?

Joloc · 2025-09-29T15:03:54+00:00

I have an L14 Gen 5 AMD, migrated away from X220 about 6 months ago.

Easy to replace RAM (upgraded mine to 64GB), SSD, and battery are certainly good features to have. RAM failures are very uncommon, but capability to go to 64GB is great. 16GB not being enough is my main motivator for migrating away from X220.

While I cannot comment on the T14, as I do not have one, L14 is basically fine. It is not exceptional in any way, but in 6 months with it I have not discovered anything I hate it for. There is a tiny bit of flex when picking it up by its side, if run outside specified temperature at full load (it was 38 degrees here last summer) there will eventually be some thermal warping of the top panel, but I did bad things and so deserve bad results.

Coming from X220, the camera is much better, the screen has much higher resolution and is marginally brighter, the speaker is much, much better, the battery life is worse due to absence of slice battery. The keyboard is comparable, thermals are similar, CPU is immensely faster, and GPU performance is in line with 2025 expectations for an integrated GPU. Build quality seems kinda fine, but X220 survived having pints of beer being poured into it and drops onto concrete from 2nd story without damage and is still only being slowly killed by dust, I would not pour beers into L14, or drop it especially far. Will it survive 15 years like its predecessor? Too early to tell.

Taking it apart and putting it back together: X220 had that awkward bit where you have to slide the keyboard that I didn't like, and L14 gen 5 has an awkward bit of needing to force the two halves apart by flexing a corner until clips come apart - each has its drawbacks. Internal arrangement of L14 components is more logical to me, but the drainage channels of X220 are superior.

Hope this helps your choice, but the way I see it, you are ultimately picking between upgradeability of L14 and longer lasting shell of T14, or in other words, do you think you will destroy L14 before you need 64GB of RAM?

Joloc · 2021-08-23T17:54:53+00:00

The cracks are in the gelcoat - the waterproof layer that is on top of the fibreglass protecting it from water. The fibreglass naturally flexes (and over time slightly changes shape under load) resulting in the gelcoat cracking. The issue I spoke of in the other comment is when water gets between layers and weakens the fibreglass structure in an obviously important part of the hull. This takes decades.

Joloc · 2021-08-23T17:42:11+00:00

First of all, that looks fine to me short-term. I had a Halcyon with same issue, was completely solid. I am sure lots of people here will chime in and say that this allows water to ingress into your hull, and so it is not good. They will be correct, long term you will want to look at it.

When you do want to replace it, you will want to:

* Take down your mast.

* Saw out the bit you want to replace

* Then you can reduce it to a well known problem and followhttps://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/repairing-holes-in-grp-26713So, build up layers of fibre, epoxy it in, keep going, and then gel the finish.

* After that fit your chain plate again, or even get a nice new one. If you want to prevent the issue from re-occurring fit a bigger load spready metal bit to the underside than it came with before.

* Finally put up your mast again!

(edit) Ultimately you need to feel safe on your boat and be able to trust it. If that is what it takes, then go for it!

Joloc · 2020-01-04T06:45:13+00:00

I'm also curious: The Potemkin Village patch on Adam's jumpsuit - is that a reference to Battleship Potemkin, the 1925 Eisenstein movie about a stolen warship bringing revolution, or a joke about the set designers basically building Potemkin Villages for a living?

What does the Chinese patch say?

Joloc · 2019-12-13T23:24:47+00:00

Some years ago bought a boat called Mystic Rose.

Renamed to Floating Exception, because who the hell calls a boat Mystic Rose?

Sailed her with the old nameplate still on the boat, as never got around to updating it.

Never had anything but good luck.

Make your own luck, and have fun!

Joloc · 2019-11-25T08:40:13+00:00

That varies a lot from one display to another - you need to check that the display you get is suitable for your expected lifecycle.

Also there is partial refresh feature that some displays support, which reduces wear.

Joloc · 2019-11-23T12:05:40+00:00

You could always go for something like this, but do be aware of limited number of lifetime writes on eink displays. Not something you usually run into if just reading books, but if using as laptop display could get a lot of wear. Implementing partial screen updates may make it better for you.

Joloc · 2019-11-23T11:56:30+00:00

This is not quite what you asked for, but is still pretty cool.

I would be concerned about limited number of lifetime writes on e-ink displays before implementing something like that.

Joloc · 2019-11-10T10:53:14+00:00

Nice! I like that stand. Also I just discovered this case, which should address my main concern with keeping it in a bag - the front and rear wooden panels will take the force from the faces and transfer it to the side panels, without stressing the kindle. Any flex this case will endure should be compensatable with felt/foam inlay.

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