I just remembered this thread for some reason.
I wonder what will happen to the Wagner operations in Libya and Sudan, if Prigozhin will be able to remain in control of them or if they somehow also will be absorbed into the regular army structure. Either way sounds like a headache for the Kremlin.
Out of the 20 F1 seats, at most 6 of them are able to win races. Unless you're a generational talent you will probably have a better time in Indycar, at least you will have a chance at a competitive car and race wins.
Face looks a bit like Harry Du Bois.
Wait, you guys (sometimes) get email notifications?! I haven't gotten one in like two years, I thought email was cancelled.
A more knowledgeable friend wrote a much more eloquent piece that was published today. Google botched the translation, so here's a better one: The fact that the Left Party opposes the decision is being waved away. It is not surprising. The Left Party's credibility on defence issues is low. Not only because of the vacillation on the issue of armaments to Ukraine, but also because the Left Party's alternative to NATO is now to arm Sweden. Something they have consistently opposed in the past. It is sad, because now the development of the Swedish armed forces is being left to our hawks. This means not only that we will be involved in more expeditions to the Third World, but also that our own security will be weakened by NATO membership. I am referring not only to the heightened threat level but also to the type of defence that the right will build. In the debate, it has long been a prevailing truth that NATO membership provides a stronger defence. Certainly, NATO has an obvious deterrent effect on Russia. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. But it is also clear that defence trends are set by NATO's strongest partner, the United States, and that the alliance has functioned primarily as a foreign policy tool for the country. NATO advocates are correct in the sense that membership does not seem to force countries to participate in operations. On the contrary, several members have opted out. On the other hand, it is clear that NATO influences how countries' defences are structured and trained. When Sweden dismantled its invasion defences, operational defences took their place. New capabilities were brought into focus. The operational defence no longer carried the ability to secure our borders from hostile forces. The coastal artillery was completely dismantled, and Sweden's ability to sink a Russian missile cruiser, as Ukraine did with the "Moskva", was weakened. The Amphibious Corps was formed instead. That the corps would be able to operate abroad was emphasized in the plans. At the same time, great emphasis was placed on the compatibility of our forces with NATO. The fact that defence was reduced after the collapse of the Soviet Union is not surprising in itself. The security analysis showed that Sweden's potential enemy no longer posed a threat. But instead of focusing on a cheap and general defence focused on cost-effective and deterrent capabilities such as anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles in home guard and infantry regiments, we did just as the other NATO countries did. We retooled to engage in the same warfare as the US. Instead of strengthening our ability to deal with conventional war, we developed mobile, lightly armoured, quasi-police units. It is therefore no coincidence that we have conducted several expensive, protracted and difficult-to-defend operations in irregular conflicts. Several countries that have approached NATO have made the same mistake. The most obvious example was when Georgia, which at the time aspired to NATO membership, was invaded by Russia. The country, which has fewer than 4 million inhabitants, had a force of 2 000 in Iraq at the time. Instead of training and strengthening Georgia's defensive capabilities against its most likely enemy [Russia], the US, in the process of their full membership, had trained and equipped them to participate in a pacification campaign against insurgents in the Middle East. Instead of strengthening their defences, they acted in line with the prevailing NATO doctrine. This dissonance is telling for other countries that have been close to NATO as well. It is also part of the explanation why the defence issue has been separated from perhaps our biggest security problem, which is our welfare. For all these years, the right has got away with discussing the defence issue separately from the total disaster of privatisations and dismantlements. Despite the fact that the issues are closely linked. With our current health care and transport infrastructure, Sweden cannot hold out for long in the event of an outbreak of war. It is the civilian health service, through the civil defence, that will deal with wounded civilians and military personnel. On a typical weekend in Stockholm, Karolinska goes into staff mode. Our railways don't even handle our civilian traffic but instead of fixing this, vital infrastructure is sold to foreign powers. No new bomb shelters have been built since 2002. Overall, societal resilience is low on the agenda, whether the threat is war or climate change. But unfortunately, the left has been making dizzying arguments against NATO, focusing almost exclusively on the history of the alliance and the lack of democracy in its member states, instead of making clear the link between welfare and resilience in a crisis, and the long-term effects that joining NATO will have on the direction of defence. Based on a shock doctrine, many decisions will now be taken. Many of them will have far-reaching effects, globally as well as in our neighbourhood. Russia will see the Baltic Sea surrounded by NATO, which will make a possible confrontation with the Baltic States more difficult. Sweden will also become a less interesting party to deal with when negotiations concerning our interests can be conducted directly with the United States. Nevertheless, the situation is not as stressful as the right would like to claim, there is no realistic scenario where Sweden would be invaded by Russia at this time. If anything, the war in Ukraine shows that Russia's capabilities have been overestimated by virtually the entire warfare community. Right now, over 70% of Russia's standing combat forces are locked in what appears to be a protracted war. Russia's air force and navy have demonstrated weaknesses that Sweden has both the technical knowledge and an existing industry to exploit. Russia's aversion to Swedish-Finnish NATO membership could also have been used to facilitate peace negotiations in Ukraine - once you join, the "threat to join" card cannot be played again. We are now facing a situation where we are tying our defence to the goodwill of the US. It is the only country in NATO that could seriously assist us with our greatest shortage: soldiers. The other European countries would themselves be drawn into the war and would be unable to come to our rescue. This comes at a time when the US has wanted for nearly 30 years to turn away from Europe and focus instead on the perceived threat posed by China. Starting with Obama, every US president has sought to break the deadlock in the Middle East and realign the military. Although Article Five does not oblige members to support the US in the event of a confrontation in the Pacific, surely no one believes that NATO would not be pulled in. What is to say that NATO will not impose yet another new, for us irrelevant, defence doctrine on Sweden? So NATO is not only a moral issue, but also risks preventing us from strengthening our defence in practical terms.Today, 16 May, Sweden will submit its application to NATO. If Erdogan or perhaps Orbán does not block it, within a year we will become a member of the largest alliance in history. For those of us who oppose NATO, time has already run out - we won't have time to mobilise to stop the decision, or even get the issue dealt with democratically. Things have moved very quickly since the world really grasped the changed security situation.
One day I had Spotify set to shuffle and it followed up Ian Dury and the Blockheads' "Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt 3" with Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire". That got me thinking of other songs where the singer is listing things. I ended up with this playlist. Any suggestions of songs I missed?
From a Patreon post back in July I had not read until today (this excerpt was preceded by 15 more paragraphs outlining what to expect in the future): Just . . . don't expect any of that from The Action Button Season One Finale: Action Button Reviews Cyberpunk 2077, a video that has provided me roughly sixteen lmaoaneurysms per hour of editing work. When I first started this series I wanted the videos to possess the beefy texture of old floppy glossy magazines. For this season finale I drilled down on that "magazine concept" like my name was Hori Taizo. I figured, there's no better way to pave the path for a new style than by grinding the old style into a fine spreadable powder. So oh baby: I haven't wheeled "apotheosis" out of the wordshed or scare quotes in literally fifteen years, though dude, I probably am gonna hafta do it for the announcement post of this god-forsaken video presentation. I figure that in this life, you either go out with a bang or you die with intact eardrums. In the words of Johnny Silverhand as pronounced by Keanu Reeves, "I'm here to say goodbye [to big long horribly wild videos, and hello to much different ones]! Sorry, in hindsight, I probably chose the worst video imaginable to share with y'all...Expect videos you can confidently send to a friend who has never played a video game before, and receive a text later informing you that they actually watched all of it.
So far this summer I've only read books in Swedish, which has been a nice and relaxing change since I usually end up reading in English because it's easier to find pirate copies. Skymningstid (Dusk) is a political thriller set in 1970s Sweden written by Henrik Bromander. Like many other western European countries after WW2, "neutral" Sweden also had a Stay Behind movement, a network of cells training and preparing for armed resistance in case of a Soviet invasion. Unlike other countries like Norway and Italy, Sweden haven't had any official investigations or acknowledgements of this movement, even though it was very much a real thing. One of the few things we do know about the movement is that one of their bases of operation was Skandiahuset, where Stig Engström worked, the man pointed out by investigators last year as the likely murderer of prime minister Olof Palme. If that isn't fodder for some great conspiracy theories, or in this case a fictional account of a conspiracy, I don't know what is. Svarta bär (Black berries (but actually it's blueberries?)) follows a group of Ukrainian berry pickers working in Lappland in 2020. The days are long, the working conditions horrible and the translated swearing very colorful. The book I'm currently reading is about the terrorist attack on Utøya and is called You can flee from a madman but you can't hide from a society. It's really good, but I've had to put it down so many times because it really gets to me. Might have more to say about it when I've finished it.
I remember stocking up the pantry early in February, but it was still a "what if" scenario then in my mind. "The Moment" came much later, March 13th, when all the sports were cancelled. Formula 1 decided to cancel the season premiere one hour before the first session on Friday, Indycar did the same thing, and the week after the Swedish soccer league postponed the start of the season indefinitely.
Looking forward to the "atheist android necromancers stealing kids" conspiracy theories!
There were 3197 thefts of catalytic converters in Sweden last year, compared to 74 in 2019. So maybe not a new phenomenon, but a drastic increase.
Can't have 420 music threads without the general. Edit: the video appears to be age-restricted, but not the lyrics video.
Havin' a disco monday.
It's really about ethics in games journalism!!
1. Gyllene horden 2. Potere operaio 3. Målle Lindberg 4. Albert Camus 5. Kräftor kräva dessa drycker 6. Dalasi 7. Harry Martinson 8. KFMLR 9. Korint 10. Linear tv
Russell has been stuck in a Williams, the slowest car on the grid, for two years now, and have never been out-qualified by a teammate. Lewis Hamilton haven't missed a race since 2007. Russell won the golden ticket, to drive a Mercedes, and proved himself worthy. I watched him win F2 back in 2018, but to finally see what he could do in a competitive car in F1 was amazing. I just hope we'll get to see him get a shot at Lewis Hamilton before he retires. That's Lewis Hamilton, a 1-time world champion, with a young George Russell in the background hunting for an autograph.
174 deaths and 5400 confirmed new cases in the last 24 hours. Travel recommendations for Christmas is coming next week. My plan is still to go see my parents as long as I'm healthy even though it's a six hour drive. Gladly accepting all suggestions for how to do it safely if any of you did something similar for Thanksgiving. I'm planning to do my last trip to the store etc a week in advance and bringing sandwiches and coffee from home to not have to stop on the way. While up there I'm staying out on the island which has like three other households, and only seeing my parents, as well as my brother and his wife who I will be traveling with.
I saw some horrific statistic in a lecture slide some years back that not only was 90% of all street trees in Oslo Tilia cordata, but almost all of them were genetic clones. Although they're lovely and useful trees I haven't used them in a single project since then.
I actually went ahead and set up a Youtube channel last week to save the tunes from these threads and be able to listen to them in a playlist. Here's the latest playlist, I'll try to keep it updated throughout the week.
Daddy Boastin passed away today. I'm pretty sure his Trinity Sound is the oldest (at least still active) sound system in Sweden. Went to one of their clubs as recently as last year. I probably heard his song "Värsting" before The Specials. He's probably best known for his feature on Teddybears' album Soft Machine.
There is definitely a lot that makes him suspect and if the initial investigators had been competent they would have taken him into custody for questioning in 1986 instead of looking into what every Kurd in Stockholm was doing at the time. At the same time, there's a lot of questions left unanswered, most importantly why did Engström, a graphic designer, carry around a Magnum revolver at work? Just in case he would run into Palme? There was definitely widespread hatred of Palme in the right-wing Täby Moderates circles he was a part of, even viewing Palme as a class traitor, but was it enough to inspire a political assassination? One of my favorite conspiracy theories regarding the murder that ties in with Engström, was that it was carried out by elements of the "stay-behind" movement, the Swedish version of Operation Gladio, who thought Palme was getting too close to the Soviets. The leader of the movement, Alvar Lindencrona, was the CEO of insurance company Thule, which later became Skandia, where Engström worked. The stay-behind movement was set up by Tage Erlander, Palme's predecessor and mentor, giving some ironic flair to this theory. What really speaks against Engström being a part of a conspiracy is how much he kept appearing in the media afterwards, and even appearing as a witness in court twice in the defense of Christer Pettersson. You would think his would-be co-conspirators would be more able to rule him in. Also, why would you use a collector's piece like a .357 Magnum revolver for a planned murder that you would then have to get rid of? So I guess I believe Engström might have been the one who did it, even though I was expecting more from the investigation, and I'm still holding out hope that more facts or better forensic techniques will appear one day to definitively close the case.
I'll take the occasional banger exploding over vuvuzelas every day!