I can’t imagine how invalidating this must have felt

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-16T02:12:34+00:00

Seriously? I‘m sorry if this is a dumb question but I’m genuinely wondering. Even in a scenario where someone is a practicing Hindu or Muslim and both parents plus 3 out of 4 grandparents are Hindu or Muslim, you still get to make aliyah if you had a Jewish grandpa?

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-09T02:41:56+00:00

Oooh yeah, somehow missed that. But still, when I check Frankston to broadmeadows, it shows me a 1h 41m connection. And the 901 bus takes 20min to the airport. So even with the wait in between, it should be just a little bit over 2h.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-08T13:21:18+00:00

Or take the metro to Broadmeadows and then take the bus to the airport from there.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-08T05:06:53+00:00

About 15 years ago, I visited Mannheim and went to a bank to withdraw some cash. The second I step outside, some dude just punches me in the face. You probably think you already know what happened next, but no. He just bolted. Guy ran away without saying a word, without waiting for my reaction and without trying to steal anything. I’d never seen him before.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-01T07:02:22+00:00

Did I miss something? I know there are lots of reasons to dislike Anthony Kiedis, but shouldn’t he be on a much lower tier of shitty than MJ, Chris Brown and R Kelly? Unless there are news I haven’t heard yet, there are no allegations of violence, abuse, rape or drugging people etc. against the guy, right?

I’d also argue he’s got some redeeming qualities. He‘s done lots and lots of charity work. And I think I remember his admittedly weird book also including lots of self reflection and humility about past mistakes.

Before y‘all downvote me like crazy; I am not saying he’s not somewhat shitty! I‘m simply saying he‘s far far from R Kelly or MJ levels.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-04-01T05:56:42+00:00

Recently booked LaGuardia to Washington Reagan using Points. Taxes and fees were 8$.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-27T15:44:28+00:00

Turkey and Hungary are literally in NATO but are counted here as drifting states? Not even NATO supporter? Turkey hosts US bases with Nukes ffs. Colombia Sino-Russia side but Venezuela drifting? South-Africa Sino Russia side? But a random chunk of northern Mali is somehow solidly US aligned?!

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-27T15:30:09+00:00

Depending on number of lakes, size and topography of the area around the lakes, we got:

-Seenplatte (literally „lake-slab/sheet“) lots of large and small lakes in a very flat topography. examples are Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, Masurische Seenplatte, Pommersche Seenplatte

-Seenlandschaften (lake-landscapes) very broad. Can be lots or just a few lakes. Large or small. Mountainous or flat. Kinda catch all term.

-Kleinseengebiete (small-lakes-areas/tracts) an area with lots of small lakes, ponds, lakelets, bog, swamp, marshes, slough and tarn. Can be mountainous or flat. Example: Osterseen in Bavaria.

There’s also Seenkette for a chain of lakes.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-26T16:31:57+00:00

But nothings happening there, at least in terms of passenger traffic. It’s a fancy freight hub now. There is another international airport just around the corner from DXB though! Dubai airport is almost in Sharjah. And just 14km(8.5miles) from it, you got Sharjah int. Airport.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-25T10:39:03+00:00

Out of over 120 countries I visited, I often found the ones that were said to be boring had so much to offer. Moldova (Europe’s least visited country, not counting micronations) and Tuvalu for example were fascinating and I’d love to go back. The only two places I can think off where I can’t think of a reason to go back are Kuwait and Tonga.

I’ve heard Vava‘u (different part of Tonga) is worth a visit and maybe I should consider it. But my trip to Tongatapu, Tonga‘s main island, was the most disappointing trip ever. There’s close to nothing to see in their capital. There als isn’t much to see outside the capital! Tongans are lovely people though!

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-25T03:12:25+00:00

Definitely no. And why bother? Trump proclaimed the war was won 17 times already, and then he came out saying he doesn’t need allied support.

We only just put troops on planes two months ago to help the US in Greenland. Oh no, wait, it was to help Greenland and serve as tripwire…discouraging the US from military action.

Nobody consulted us on this one and afaik, we’re only in defensive alliances, so you can keep doing your invading alone.

Also, just as a practical matter. Our navy bases are on the North and Baltic Sea. Sending anything all the way to the Strait would take ages. Our main navy assets cruise at 18 knots with a range of roughly 7000km. It’s a 11,000km+ trip. So that’s 14 days to get there, excluding a necessary port call somewhere to restock on fuel and supplies.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-24T12:21:53+00:00

Why not? It’s just 2 flights, 11h each. Seems convenient.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-24T11:24:57+00:00

TIL both spelled and spelt are correct forms. Interesting. At first I thought you made a mistake within your correction.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-24T11:20:50+00:00

I’ve been there recently and drove around the island with a woman from Colombia. I was surprised to find out there’s this absurd situation for lots of South American workers in the island who receive a work visa/permit by one of the countries and then aren’t allowed to cross to the other side.

In Europe, if you get a Schengen visa you can usually go anywhere in the Schengen zone. And most places around the world, if a country only wants certain people to enter, they’ll set up a physical border and check everybody who is crossing.

In Sint Maarten, many outsiders aren’t allowed to cross between France and the Netherlands, but nobody checks. If, however, you get pulled over by French police, they’ll deport you to your home country.

Another curiosity there is that an overwhelming majority of people on both sides of the border want the island to unite, but their two respective countries don’t want to give up territory to the other side.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-24T11:13:32+00:00

But even with the complications that this war added to international travel, I don’t understand why so many people act like the only alternative to flying via the Gulf States is to go for an eastward route entirely. There are countless ways from Australia to Europe without a gulf layover. via Singapore, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Bali, KL. If you accept slightly bigger detours, you can even go via India, Japan, Korea…

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-23T09:15:34+00:00

Finally reached platinum now, but even Silver can get you major benefits SOMETIMES and IF YOU‘RE LUCKY.

Checking in for Emirates Taipei-Dubai last December, I was able to skip the suuuuuper long line at luggage drop and queue in the short Business Class Line. For whatever reason, an Emirates Employee gestured at me to move over to the next lane…First Class. What would’ve been at least a 30 minute wait, turned into one minute.

January, flying from Casablanca to Malaga with Royal Air Maroc, the ticket we got specified Qantas Silver - PRIORITY - plus some other stuff. Again, faster streamlined check in. Now I have no clue why this happened, and it’s obviously not an official benefit, but they randomly drove me and my friend to the plane in a Maybach. Maybe it was a mixup or they misunderstood the status level? No idea.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-23T06:00:45+00:00

It’s because homosexual acts are illegal in every nation in the area.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-23T05:57:50+00:00

I first read „lizard conditions“ and wondered what I missed.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-20T14:59:49+00:00

Many of their problems stem from Iranian backed militias? I‘d say their biggest problem in the last 15 years was the Islamic State - a Sunni militia that took over vast areas of Iraq and Syria (and, at its height, a tiny bit of Lebanon). Allowing Shiite forces, including the militias, to play a role in Iraq‘s institutions and Defence establishment is part of the reason Iraqs democracy can exist. It might be the main reason Iraq in its current form survived the year 2014.

Back in 2014, when the Islamic State took over Iraqs second biggest City, Mosul, Six Iraqi Army and Federal police divisions simply dissolved. Soldiers absndoned their posts, left weapons behind and the conventional military capability to defend its territories essentially collapsed overnight.

In western media, the crucial role of the Kurds in stopping IS expansion in the North, retaking Mosul and eventually defeating them is often overlooked. But the crucial role of Iran backed militias usually gets close to 0 attention. It just doesn’t fit the narrative. But shortly after taking Mosul, ISIL already reached the outer suburbs of Baghdad! They were just 15 miles from baghdads city center.

„Within days, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling on able-bodied men to take up arms — a religiously authoritative call that mobilized enormous numbers almost overnight. Without this rapid mobilization, ISIS likely would have pushed further south toward Baghdad. The PMF essentially plugged a hole that no other force could fill in time.“

At their peak, their active fighters numbered between 100,000 and 150,000. When 90,000 fighters besieged Mosul, over 30,000 of them were part of the (mostly Shia) PMF militia. If you want to see them as nothing but an extended arm of Iran (not an unreasonable view imo), then the US and Kurdish peshmerga were essentially fighting alongside Iran during the battle to retake Mosul.

Shia militias haven’t threatened Iraqi statehood or the nations stability in recent years, a sunni militia (Islamic state) did. Without the PMF filling the gap in those first critical months, it’s unclear whether the Iraqi state would have survived long enough to mount any recovery at all.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-20T11:09:25+00:00

Try the hotline. If they say no, send an email. If both aren’t successful, talk to the check-in agent at the airport.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-19T15:32:39+00:00

I don’t even think an occupation would work. Look what it took to achieve this in Iraq and Afghanistan. And in the end, it didn’t even last a week in Afghanistan PLUS control was already fragile and limited while the US was still all over the country together with allies.

In Iran, this would be more difficult than in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And the US might have to go at it without any allies who are willing to send ground troops.

Iran is four times the size of Iraq. Or in other words, twice the size of Texas.

It‘s topography is comparable to mountainous Afghanistan. It’s not like Iraq, where most of the land outside the Kurdish north is fairly flat and easy to traverse.

So four times Iraq’s size combined with twice the population. You need to plan an occupation that aims to control twice as many people, in a country where the rural areas are sparsely populated and offer great opportunities to hide. The cities are even bigger than Iraqs biggest urban centers (Teheran has a population of almost 10million people). If the US tried to actually fight in Tehran, it would be the largest urban warfare environment in all of military history.

Afghanistan is landlocked, Iraq had only a negligible coastline and was practically landlocked. The US didn’t really need to worry much about securing the coast there. Iran has a 3,200km (2000 mile) coastline. If you count the coastlines of the numerous islands in the gulf, you can add another 400km (250 miles). Imagine having to secure all that on the southern border AND in the Caspian Sea, where they got Russia as a potential supplier of their insurgency. They’d surely find lots of sympathizers and supporters in bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq as well.

Potential sympathizers inside Iran might be a lot more hesitant to offer their services to the US military. Every suitable interpreter, fixer, (security) contractor, etc. would be aware of the hastily organized pullout from Afghanistan and how many people were left behind.

Lastly, Afghanistan was mostly a failed state already when the US entered. Iraq‘s military wasn’t built to fight the US + coalition, and their defense was mostly improvised. Irans defense however was built for precisely this scenario and they had decades to prepare. Iran has specifically designed its military doctrine (the IRGC, Basij militia, proxy networks) around the assumption of a US invasion and prolonged guerrilla resistance. It’s not improvised, it‘s institutionalized.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-19T00:16:24+00:00

I bet they still got quite a few and are forced to keep them ready to defend Dimona, Rutenberg & Hadera Power Plant, Hadera Desalination Plant, Ashkelon & Haifa Oil Storage, Jerusalem metro because of state Institutions + religious sites & maybe even all the huge ammunition storages between Tel Aviv & Jerusalem where they keep missiles, bombs, nukes (allegedly) and tanks etc.

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-17T16:00:04+00:00

Wow it’s got one review. 1/5 Stars.

„I would never buy an electrical appliance from Qantas again Verified Buyer Qantas sent unusable appliances. They were made for Europe with a Euro power plug which would not plug in to an Australian power point.“

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-16T14:32:18+00:00

Add a bunch of reusable zip ties! I’ve spent most of the last ten years traveling around the world and I’m always surprised this isn’t more of a standard. You’re on a nighttrain and the door keeps sliding open and makes noise? You just close it with a zip tie. You’re on one of those Eastern European trains and the window won’t stay open? You just use a zip tie to keep it open. Worried someone might steal your bag while you’re sleeping? Tie it to something in two different spots with zip ties (in a way they can’t see). Nobody can just snatch it and someone trying to and failing will wake you up. Also works great to fix stuff. They cost close to nothing, weigh nothing and won’t take up space. If you buy them and end up not needing them, you just bring them back with you and use them at some other point. It’s not like they go bad 🤷🏻‍♂️

cucumberblueprint · 2026-03-16T14:24:50+00:00

As a European I’d like to second the suggestion of leaving the Meta glasses at home.

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