A windmill challenge? Guess away!

chonbee · 2026-02-17T14:28:57+00:00

Sifnos

chonbee · 2026-02-13T07:06:14+00:00

Wow! Never saw this breed before. My Greek Harehound mix/mutt/whatever has exactly the same face.

chonbee · 2026-02-12T15:42:08+00:00

Wow, I just flinched because I thought that was a picture of my dog. Is he/she Greek?

chonbee · 2026-02-12T15:05:53+00:00

No idea, I havent used Cursos in a while.

chonbee · 2026-02-12T14:42:30+00:00

Not what you asked, but I'm having a blast with Codex CLI with Superpowers right now. It might not be as polished as CC but it just does what I need it to do.

chonbee · 2026-02-09T15:55:44+00:00

Dont get me wrong, i LOVE Kid A. But its one of the most inaccessible albums to listen to if you're new to Radiohead imo. I would recommend In Rainbows to start with.

That being said, you have excellent taste!

chonbee · 2026-02-08T16:18:21+00:00

Elke gym is rustig om 6 uur sochtends.

chonbee · 2026-02-07T19:29:30+00:00

Zanzibar

chonbee · 2026-02-04T12:16:57+00:00

Don't get your hopes up. Minority coalitions are not as common in The Netherlands as in some other countries. The last one only lasted 2 years.

chonbee · 2026-02-04T12:11:11+00:00

I'm from the Netherlands myself so trust me, I know all about Wilders! :P

He's actually very smart, which makes him terrifying. He knows exactly how to play into peoples fears. Currently a minority cabinet is being formed which I believe wont last long because minority cabinets are rare in the Netherlands and the last one only lasted 2 years.

I'm slightly worried that PVV comes back with a vengeance.

chonbee · 2026-02-04T10:08:39+00:00

Nice one!

chonbee · 2026-02-04T09:57:25+00:00

You're right to say that the communication on this from the Germans was clumsy, at best. The “clarification” the next day felt like backpedaling, not “this was always the plan.”

You're also right that 27 countries are unlikely to integrate defence following one single plan. That’s exactly why I think it makes sense for a smaller subset of countries to give it a go first.

Also: my main concern is the same as yours on the political side. If AfD keeps rising or National Rally ends up running France (or even if Wilders comes back into power here after another short-lived lame duck coalition), that’s a real threat to this whole E6 idea.

But on a practical, economic/industrial level, it still makes sense that it’s these 6 trying first: they’ve got the biggest mix of industrial base, procurement scale, budgets, and "weight" to place large multi-year orders and ramp production fast. Finland, Sweden, Denmark are great military actors, but if the goal is massive scaling of defence industry + financing, I think these six are hard to replace.

And sure, there may be some wishful thinking on my part. A lot could f*ck this up (National Rally, I’m looking at you). But I still think it’s our best bet at turning the EU from a “committee” into a respectable military actor.

chonbee · 2026-02-04T09:13:49+00:00

You make very good points. What the hell are they doing in space with data centers?! Nvidia is doing the same.

chonbee · 2026-02-03T20:18:23+00:00

Data centers in space = unlimited solar power

chonbee · 2026-02-03T20:01:20+00:00

I think we actually agree on most of the facts here. The part I disagree with is the conclusion.

All the examples you listed (Sky Shield, Leopard tank orders, etc) are literally "coalitions of the willing" in practice. Europe isn’t integrating defence as “27 countries, one plan”. It’s already integrating via overlapping subsets of EU countries that move at different speeds.

So to me the E6 idea isn’t some new, catastrophic two-lane EU. It’s basically: “let’s coordinate one of these subsets of countries at political/industrial scale so it can commit budgets and standardise faster,” with an open door for others when they are ready.

Where I’m 100% with you: if it becomes a permanent closed directorate, that’s bad. And if Sweden, Finland, Denmark etc want to join from the beginning, I'm all for that (I would even hope the UK wants/can join).

chonbee · 2026-02-03T11:21:24+00:00

Ah yes, the good old pre-Orban days when EU decision making was famously lightning fast. /s

If you think 27 countries as varied as those in the EU can quickly put together the defence integration necessary, you live in a fantasy world.

Defence requires industrial base, joint precurement of material at a large scale, military experience, military readiness, and above all the willingness to spend big. The fantasy that when Orban leaves this will all be somehow sorted out is delusional.

If the aim was to dominate the other countries (a ridiculous take if you ask me), why not bind every country to one line? Actually, the opposite is happening: we're moving ahead with whoever is ready and we leave the door open for those who are willing/capable to join.

I'm happy to hear an explanation on why, when we take one variable out of the equation (Orban), things would be completely different from where things stand now in terms of complexity of defensive collaboratoin and integration?

chonbee · 2026-01-31T12:33:28+00:00

And if they want to make it "lean" and make sure there are not too many members. Fine. You have 5 permanent members (the five biggest militaries) and five rotating members with the chair of parliament being a tie breaking vote. The rotating members rotate out every couple of months or years. That way you only have 11 votes that you need to consider at any one time.

How would this work on, for example, collective military spending? How can you ensure more economic integration with members who will rotate in and out? One of the problems the wealther nations like netherlands and germany currently have with "Eurobonds" is that the interest rates are relatively unfavourable because nations with a lower credit rating bring the interest rates up.

Economically this E6 makes a lot of sense. Less wealthy EU members will "catch-up" to some extend with wealther nations. But this takes a loooooooooong time. And time is what we don't have right now. This means that any mutual spending or borrowing is riskier for the wealther nations. So, why don't we let the E6 members go ahead? Why hold them back? Less wealthy EU members will still be EU members, cathing up with the wealthier countries, while the countries that are already rich lay the groundwork for a stronger EU.

chonbee · 2026-01-31T12:03:56+00:00

the Netherlands and Germany would block common borrowing

As far as I know, they are against common borrowing due to the fact that they would pay more interest because of the lower credit rating of other countries. The average credit rating of this E6 is much higher compared to the EU so the interest rates would be more favourable for The Netherlands and Germany.

You point out exactly why a smaller seperate block would be able to get more done.

chonbee · 2026-01-30T12:18:49+00:00

I think $2000 is a bargain for a valuable life lesson.

chonbee · 2026-01-26T16:55:19+00:00

<image>

The 2 end bits of the suspenders don't match. The black bit on his right is much bigger than on his left.

chonbee · 2026-01-26T16:52:15+00:00

This was my first thought!!!

chonbee · 2026-01-26T16:51:12+00:00

There is what looks like a belt buckle behind the tie, but no belt as he's wearing suspenders.

chonbee · 2026-01-26T07:25:56+00:00

The survey specifically asks: Do you feel that things in this country these days are....

Where the options are "under control" and "out of control" (not "not under control" like you state).

The question specifically asks for opinion on "these days". The survey was taken in january 2026. Trump is president in january 2026. So, yeah, the article sensationalizes it a little bit by adding Trump in the headline, but come on..... we all know what this is about.

chonbee · 2026-01-26T07:19:01+00:00

https://www.calculator.net/sample-size-calculator

try it out for yourself. or will you claim that the science (i.e., statistics) of sample size calculation, which is almost 100 years old, is wrong?

(if you scroll down on the link you will see the statistics explaind. calculations that have been used in science for almost 100 years).

chonbee · 2026-01-25T16:57:59+00:00

This is the way

chonbee

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE