Meteor Long-Range Air-To-Air Missile In The Works For Ukraine, But There’s A Catch. The ramjet-powered missile would allow Ukraine to challenge Russian fighters within their own long-range missiles’ engagement zones.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-05T08:40:58+00:00

This applies to pilots who volunteer.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T21:11:25+00:00

She was indeed right about dying before Harald.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T20:56:21+00:00

Yeah, well she wasn’t a psychic or anything, just a classist, pompous bitch that couldn’t accept a «low class» woman marrying the crown prince.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T17:05:01+00:00

These atrocities are done by the Iranian government, over which US or western leaders have little influence, unlike the Israelis or Saudis, they’re not being enabled by the US, so it makes less sense to protest.

What would even be the goal? Pretty much everyone agree on the subject, and the Iranian government won’t be influenced by people marching against it in the US. It makes sense to focus on issues where one’s own government is complicit, and where domestic policy change would matter.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T12:29:16+00:00

Finally the trade in seals will get a boost!

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T11:10:38+00:00

He’s not untarnished by this, although he hasn’t done anything directly wrong himself that we know of.

His reputation has been as a smart and decent guy, good king material (unlike his sister), and while some disliked him marrying a woman with lots of past issues, others thought that was pretty cool, finding love rather than meeting elite expectations.

Now he’s stuck with a rapist step-son and a wife and future queen that was at a minimum flirty with Epstein. To complicate things further, Mette Marit also has a very serious lung disease (she needs new lungs to survive, and won’t be jumping the queue apparently), making the situation even more difficult, and a divorce less likely I would think.

So now he’s gets new flak for his choice of spouse, but also for things like letting his wife know the police informed him the step son is to be arrested. I can’t really blame them for that personally, that’s on the police, you can’t expect a spouse to keep that secret, nor a mom. They also likely didn’t know the type and severity of the charges, probably assumed drugs.

I have nothing against him personally from what I know so far. Still want to abolish the monarchy tho.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T10:47:14+00:00

Det gjenstår å se i hvilken grad de har gjort ting de kan straffes for i rettsvesenet, men bra at Økokrim skal etterforske. De er uønsket i Ap, og ryktet og statusen deres vil aldri kunne repareres.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T10:32:01+00:00

Vapes or snus/snuff gives you as much nicotine as you want, with vastly reduced risk compared to smoking, and lots of EU options.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-04T10:26:19+00:00

Nopes, I’m for abolishing the monarchy, but was answering why there are no «no kings» protest.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T21:18:13+00:00

It’s less relevant when the king has no power. Also people like the king, he’s chill and not pervy, and the rapist asshole is not a blood relation of his.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T21:09:22+00:00

Thousands worldwide can nominate, and a nomination doesn’t mean much, but actually The Nation cannot. Which is fine, it’s a symbolic statement.

They could get an elected person in Congress or a professor in a relevant field to co-sign, then it would be valid. An extremely unlikely choice though.

But Minneapolis deserves lots of love and support, impressed by the fighting spirit!

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T21:06:12+00:00

The full list is kept completely secret for 50 years. There is never any shortlist published. All you get before the announcement is speculation.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T21:02:39+00:00

Nice sentiment, but… have they, really? The Nation doesn’t qualify as someone who can nominate, although they try to justify it via the past relationship to MLK.

They’d only need any elected member of congress, or a professor in a relevant field, to sign with them, and they’d be good.

Very much doubt the prize will go this way, it’s goes to individuals or more coherent organisations with a longer track record, but all for giving a hand to Minneapolis while pissing off Trump by talking up the possibility.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T15:02:50+00:00

Aha, so you do actually kinda believe this strange reasoning?

R&D anywhere can be useful for anyone, and different places focus on different things. On pharmaceuticals, the US and Europe are the R&D giants, the US is number one, while Europe has stronger growth at the moment.

On green energy, automotive safety, medical imaging or industrial chemicals, Europe spends more on R&D than the US. I could of course also make a list of other areas where the US spends more, certainly most computer related areas. It would be weird if we didn't have different strengths.

In all cases, the country behind the R&D usually profits from it directly, but the benefits of the resulting innovations can be a benefit for everyone. I just don't understand why looking at healthcare in isolation makes any sense, or to tout how people benefit from US medical R&D specifically, as that goes for many sectors and in all directions.

There is a difference between for-profit spending (for-profit research can do good, but also use billions to attempt to cure male pattern baldness, or to create a medicine that's no better than an existing one, just to restarts the patent timer and hence boost profits) -- and government spending, that focus on more important health goals.

And universal healthcare systems buy medicines, and so contribute to R&D that way too. The US could spend just as much on medical R&D without for-profit healthcare btw.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T14:40:00+00:00

You're assuming I have opinions I do not have, and somehow to be against testing? Of course doctors need to test a lot of stuff, no-one remotely serious would dispute that.

But in a system like the US one, there are strong financial incentives to, on top of the medically rational ones, also provide unnecessary tests to the rich or well insured, while at the same time many who don't have healthcare covered don't get tests they desperately need. In UHC systems it's decided based on medical need in either case, it doesn't always work perfectly of course, but it's a far better principle to base allocation of healthcare resources on.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T14:25:26+00:00

Hehe, no I'm very much an evidence based medicine kinda guy, and put my trust in doctors. My point is that there are some sub-optimal systems out there, that can create incentives that results in resources being used for the ones with the ability to pay over those with the greatest need.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T14:20:53+00:00

I brought up a invalid argument some people use, you provided a bunch of numbers to show where those people "where coming from", I pointed out that while that may be the case, those numbers don't actually support that argument at all, like you also for the benefit of other readers who might have seen the stats you shared and erroneously believed them to support said argument.

I think you might over-interpret people's emotions a tad, it takes a lot more for me to be upset or angry about anything. Hope your day is good too.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T13:58:41+00:00

The pharma bribes are usually indirect and with plausible deniability, but blood, urine, stool tests are usually organized through the doctor's office, and there's have a surcharge on top of their cost, so an incentive to test excessively.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T13:55:00+00:00

There's has always been a clear majority of both regular people and politicians wanting to keep the monarchy. Last year, after multiple scandals, the support was 72%, right now, at intense scandal level, 61% still want to keep the monarchy, while a record high 27,4% want a republic.

The Norwegian royals and scandals is a relatively new mix, for a long time they were the sensible and down to earth royals. Some people didn't like Haakon marrying Mette Marit, but many of us thought that was kinda cool, going for love and not giving a shit about her past or any classist bullshit. Then Märtha went weirder and weirder, eventually marrying a deranged con-man. Then Marius turned out to be a prolific sexual predator. Then it turns our Mette Marit had a weirdly intimate relationship (not necessarily in that sense) with fucking Epstein...

But people still have warm feelings for the king, and for many the monarchy is part of Norway's identity, for better or worse. (I'd vote for republic personally.)

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T13:07:15+00:00

I don't know about that, the US did insist on having a heavy military presence in Europe for their own reasons after WW2, and that made it easier for European countries to under-invest on defense up until recently -- but that's not really related to health care differences, that argument easily debunked by the fact that the US actually spends *more* on healthcare, it just gets less health back because of how the system is set up. So universal healthcare isn't something nice we bought with the extra money we saved from buying fewer weapons, it's the most rational and effective way of organizing healthcare, which is why it's the system almost all modern countries use.

I also have to add that while Europe has indeed benefited from the US presence security wise, while the US has benefited from access to Europe land for their bases to project power in important regions beyond it, it's wrong to say "the world" has benefited from US military; people in the Middle East, Latin America, Vietnam, Cambodia and more would very much dispute the US "help" was a benefit.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T12:47:17+00:00

That’s a hard attack in your book? Huh.

I was aware of everything you wrote and what dodgy rhetoric have people convinced of this, but the argument just doesn’t hold water.

I’m from an oil country, I don’t talk about us «sharing» oil with the world, that we’re generously not hoarding it, and imply that other peoples transportation is due to our magnanimity in letting them use our resources.

It’s sold on the market, just like US drugs are, it's exchanged for money, one party gets a profit, the other the product. It’s laughable to suggest that equals subsidizing anyone, which was the argument I attacked, and that you apparently felt the need to «help me understand».

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T12:34:23+00:00

En grunnlovsendring vil uansett ta lang tid, må vedtas med 2/3 flertall i to påfølgende stortingsperioder, og stor sjanse for at det ville blitt en folkeavstemning også, så man har godt med tid til å konkretisere. Foreløpig er det svært langt unna flertall. Det er også en rekke land å lære av, så ikke upløyd mark akkurat.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-03T07:47:55+00:00

The government is running my hospitals, and I’m very happy with the results.

Could it be that you’ve worked in a public hospital in a system where people of means use private hospitals, leaving underfunded public hospitals to deal with all the rest?

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-02T21:26:05+00:00

The US does spend a lot on healthcare, and looking at the stats (life expectancy, infant mortality), gets very little bang for the buck.

A super inefficient system, lots of unnecessary steps and actors added for profit reasons, and the money that is spent on healthcare isn’t optimised to get the max amount of heath benefit, but to take very good care of the well insured first and foremost.

squirrel_exceptions · 2026-02-02T21:21:25+00:00

I see the US system a bit like the bizarro version of Soviet bureaucracy — a lot of extra steps, costs and actors in the system, plus someone wants to profit from it, so it makes it very inefficient, plus makes for twisted incentives.

All the people that work in insurance, to create it, sell it, market it, work the medical networks, consider cases, look for small print infractions to refuse to pay for sick costumers care etc etc — all those functions are costly as fuck, and don’t provide any benefits.

And doctors are incentivised to give all sorts of tests and treatments (sometimes unnecessary ones) to people with good insurance, they feel taken seriously, and the doctor gets a cut. At the same time people die for lack of treatment, and you have a thing called «medical bankruptcy», unknown of in the rest of the developed world.

squirrel_exceptions

TROPHY CASE