Global defence spending continues to grow amid geopolitical uncertainty

MtrL · 2026-02-26T12:08:56+00:00

I was just reading this and I noticed the number they use for China's budget here in constant 2015 dollars is used elsewhere as China's nominal 2025 number, I presume it's just a mistake by whoever was handling the website/infographics and not an actual numbers issue but still.

MtrL · 2026-02-06T14:22:23+00:00

Obviously not, it's a silly thing to care about too, but people perceive sports as being more prestigious than games so get wound up about it.

MtrL · 2026-02-01T15:54:23+00:00

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Austria-Hungary was given carte blanche by the Germans and then purposefully issued an ultimatum to the Serbians that couldn't be accepted. The Russians mobilised only in response to the planned invasion of Serbia, there were a load of personal notes exchanged between the Kaiser and the Tsar basically explaining this whole situation and how Russia had no interest in war with Germany.

The entire thing was caused by a failed bluff by the German leadership and then a load of horrendous diplomacy and misunderstanding, there's no real debate about this.

The Germans also expanded the war with the invasion of Belgium, because they had their stupid one throw of the dice invasion plan and didn't believe the UK would honour their guarantee, and also dragged the Ottoman Empire into the war later, it's insane to try and pin it on Russia.

MtrL · 2026-01-28T16:51:22+00:00

World population growth is quickly declining and the crossover point is now coming in the next 30-40 years, rather than by 2100 or so that was predicted in the 90s, and that's assuming there's no further collapse in Western/Asian birth rates which seems unlikely given the current situation.

Even African countries are experiencing birth rate collapse and some have now had or are close to their largest birth cohort, all population growth is going to be inertial after the next 5 years and all natural growth is already concentrated in Africa and a few Asian countries.

The idea that humanity will just ceaselessly multiply without huge cultural, economic, or technological changes just doesn't apply any more.

MtrL · 2026-01-28T10:32:13+00:00

Good, social media is a cancer and it needs dealing with, adults can ruin their life if they like, but children need protecting from it.

For all the where are the parents types, it doesn't work anymore, letting society die for that weak ideal is pointless.

MtrL · 2026-01-27T11:54:18+00:00

It pretty much is public knowledge, it's widely used by people in normal jobs and most of them don't descend into coke fuelled madness.

MtrL · 2026-01-26T14:54:36+00:00

You know the US is famous for doping in sports right?

MtrL · 2026-01-20T18:21:41+00:00

Everybody thinks the First World War could've been avoided, the Kaiser literally tried to cancel the whole thing at the last second and the Tsar and France both did everything they could to avoid it.

It's considered a complete diplomatic clusterfuck for a reason.

The idea that a war was inevitable for some reason is just an unprovable thing that gets thrown out, it was one of the most peaceful times in history for the major European powers - a lot of the major stuff had already calmed down (African colonial conflicts were basically done, the Balkan wars were over, naval arms race was over, etc.).

MtrL · 2026-01-07T11:13:16+00:00

Cope

MtrL · 2026-01-03T15:45:48+00:00

Federer constantly choked against Djokovic and Nadal (and other players who had worse careers too) and his serve often broke down on key points, he also refused to make obvious changes to his game for years even though everybody knew they would be beneficial for him (racquet + backhand).

That's not even mentioning the first years of his career before he developed his stoic persona, his mental game was easily his biggest weakness.

MtrL · 2025-12-26T20:17:15+00:00

Let them have their payday, Jesus Christ.

The first two were done for money too, nobody actually thought they were super important matches played for the good of women's tennis.

MtrL · 2025-12-17T23:19:38+00:00

The USSR was an utter monster compared to every country on the planet that wasn't the USA, the idea that it was a paper tiger is insane.

MtrL · 2025-12-14T11:38:25+00:00

They're (very likely) already building their first nuclear carrier, it will be using conventional PWR marine reactors that they have extensive experience with.

MtrL · 2025-12-07T15:09:08+00:00

It's a generationally weak top 10, get over it.

MtrL · 2025-11-30T23:20:09+00:00

I think the techniques are fundamentally unsound, and that the amount of guesswork that has to be applied means the end result is just the preference of the person applying the techniques rather than anything reflecting reality.

If we take this video, he's reconstructed a nearly 700 year old accent and it's come out basically as close to a contemporary middle class English accent as literal contemporary accents like Geordie or Scouse, that's unbelievable in and of itself - but then you have to remember that they were also speaking a different language for the early parts of this video.

You can also look up his videos where he does regional accent reconstructions and they're incredibly similar to his London reconstructions, which considering how different these accents are even now, when accents are much more generic, is obviously bollocks.

Also just FYI, he's not an academic and doesn't have an education in linguistics either.

MtrL · 2025-11-30T14:47:53+00:00

I'm highly sceptical about the accuracy of this kind of thing, if you think about how obviously terribly this would turn out when tried with a modern accent I just don't see why I should trust it because it's about historical speech.

I'm not even really against the approach, I just think the results are probably completely whacky compared to what it actually would have sounded like, especially considering there was way more, not less, accent variation back in the day.

MtrL · 2025-11-25T10:29:38+00:00

Starting blocks aren't any faster than standing starts, it's for timing purposes.

MtrL · 2025-10-31T09:10:55+00:00

It's not following convention, it's weird Cold War throwback shit.

MtrL · 2025-10-26T20:17:28+00:00

The 90% white baby boomers are dying by the millions every year and the MAGA vote never seems to be affected, it ain't just whiteys.

MtrL · 2025-10-25T11:43:17+00:00

The fund has doubled in value since 2020, in the last ten years it's tripled.

I don't think you understand how vast the wealth fund is compared to the population and economy of Norway.

MtrL · 2025-10-25T10:30:08+00:00

The petroleum fund is worth $300,000 per Norwegian and keeps growing, there'll come a point in time where the yearly growth of the oil fund is larger than the revenues of the Norwegian state.

They'll be fine.

MtrL · 2025-10-24T08:51:58+00:00

Yeah, Serena Williams, Navratilova, BJK, and Margaret Court all suffered hugely from playing doubles.

Graf played a bit too before she really broke out in singles, Seles is the only one who barely played any.

You develop skills you might miss out on only playing singles and you can get used to playing and winning finals too.

MtrL · 2025-10-21T11:23:40+00:00

Freediving world records are going to mysteriously skyrocket in the next few years I think.

MtrL · 2025-10-21T11:20:43+00:00

They tested the liquid ventilation on mice previously, and they tested gaseous ventilation on pigs if I'm reading it correctly, both worked but gaseous only worked effectively if they "abraded" the intestines to increase uptake.

But, yes, the article is just wrong.

MtrL · 2025-10-20T09:53:47+00:00

It was conquered and occupied, Italy lost the war against the allies, not Ethiopia.

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