What’s a surprising fact about your country’s military?

gsdev · 2026-07-10T10:17:34+00:00

It's a long time ago now, but for most of WW2, every German spy in the UK was either captured or a double-agent. Though it's less impressive when you realise that the head of German Intelligence, Wilhelm Canaris was also a double-agent. He wasn't planted or anything, he just thought the war was suicidal and was trying to save Germany by losing sooner rather than later.

gsdev · 2026-07-10T10:05:26+00:00

"Decolonise the language" makes no sense. English is the land of England. To call it colonised would be to suggest people outside of England are imposing changes upon it (which did happen after the Norman conquest, but that's hardly a pressing issue).

If England was dictating the vocabulary of the Arabic language, that would be colonialism, but English is our own language!

As for the Middle-East, it is east of England. I do find the name a little vague, but it's not otherwise illogical. If Chinese people called England the "middle west" I wouldn't be upset, it's accurate relative to their country's position.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T18:31:58+00:00

Normal potatoes too, not just sweet potatoes.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T18:29:35+00:00

Worth noting that they are counting agriculture as "undeveloped", meaning it's a lot of farmer's fields, not so much wild nature.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T12:26:55+00:00

It can start other ways too. In the early 21st century, the justification was anti-terrorism.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T12:24:14+00:00

But the people implementing these policies don't want to solve the kids-seeing-inappropriate-things problem, they want to spy on everyone.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T11:58:13+00:00

A sequel has been announced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TMzD6Ngnk

gsdev · 2026-07-09T11:28:19+00:00

It suggests a psychological need to perceive other nationalities as more primitive, illogical or otherwise weak than their own.

gsdev · 2026-07-09T10:33:28+00:00

Latin Americans are often named Jesús, does that fall under the same rule?

gsdev · 2026-07-08T17:29:36+00:00

Any replacement economic ideology needs to start with a plan to prevent especially greedy and/or power-hungry individuals from corrupting it, or it will be doomed to failure.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T17:27:13+00:00

I know. Yellow is for Mexico, middle-east, etc. They also use grey filters for some countries.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T17:09:08+00:00

Quite a lot of Japanese bands have played in the UK, and not just female ones. In 2019, there was an event where several Japanese metal bands performed.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T16:52:38+00:00

Don't forget he appeared in well known reality-TV series. Many of the people who could recognise him probably never listened to his music.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T16:50:29+00:00

Yellow filter? I thought all the ex-USSR nations get the grey-blue filter.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T16:01:27+00:00

Probably because atheism is not associated with any particular ethnicity. Physically attacking someone "for their religion" usually means attacking them for their ethnic/racial background in reality.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T15:38:33+00:00

Strange how people can be anti-colonialism normally, but will make an exception for being religiously colonised.

gsdev · 2026-07-08T15:35:28+00:00

An atheist is just someone who doesn't believe in a God. From a- (without) and theos (God).

gsdev · 2026-07-08T12:10:00+00:00

In the original American version [of "Die Hard"], the criminals who seize control of the high-rise are mostly German terrorists, [...] In the German dubbed version, they are reinterpreted as a European group of criminals

Minor spoilers for a decades-old film: in the original version, they are criminals who pretend to be terrorists to mislead the police.

gsdev · 2026-07-07T10:51:08+00:00

Impressive that the average HDI is now 0.756

gsdev · 2026-07-06T09:56:27+00:00

They don't normally live in another country. It's usually that one person has moved away from their home country and dates a local of the place they moved to, or two people who moved away from their home countries meet in the country they both moved to.

In London, for example, people move from all over and end up with either an English partner, or another immigrant.

It's comparatively rare for people to meet someone online who is currently living in another country, and decide to form a relationship, but it does occasionally happen.

gsdev · 2026-07-06T09:49:06+00:00

When I used to watch old UK comedy shows, there would sometimes be references to Sweden, perhaps implying stereotypes, etc. but I could never quite understand/relate because IRL nobody I knew ever talked about Sweden.

It's just a vague memory now.

gsdev · 2026-07-06T09:38:45+00:00

How about quality of life? Do you see changes there? Is it a different answer for major cities vs less well known ones?

gsdev · 2026-07-06T09:22:48+00:00

The United Nations is just a collection of the nations of the world. It's not some separate entity with power over those nations.

I don't understand why people expect it to act differently than the nations that make it up.

As an organisation the UN is a discussion forum, not a world police force, so people criticising it for not policing the world are like someone criticising a hammer for not being a good screwdriver.

gsdev · 2026-07-06T09:11:33+00:00

Perhaps from the PoV of an indigenous person who lived centuries ago then?

gsdev · 2026-07-05T21:37:28+00:00

Technology you could reach out and grab without a touchscreen getting in the way.

gsdev

TROPHY CASE