As a Russian I will explain my vision: one of the oldest Western traditions is to demonize Russia and Russian people. You can find plenty of examples in the Western literature from 100 years ago, from 400 years ago, and right now on CNN or Bloomberg or in any Hollywood movie.
E.g. movie Tenet starts from depicting a scene from "Russian life": under a low sun, in freezing cold, dirty hungry Russians are crawling in the dirt gathering "pieces of Uranium" with their bare hands.
Or you can open just about any publication/movie about Russia/Soviet Union from just about any period of time: there would be not a single good word. Western Media almost never publishes something like: "There's a new school/hospital/stadium/factory opened in Russia". Instead all you can see is "Russian corrupt government officials set a record of eating 100500 babies alive today.", "Weak Russian economy means that Russians will survive on a diet of two rotten potatoes a day in 2026", etc. etc.
It's just that Soviet period is demonized the most.
I spent three years on Africa, and it’s the same story there. Literally everyday millions of africans laugh and sing and cry with joy at weddings, parties, birth of children. New hospitals get built, life is rapidly improving.
Basically nobody in the west has any idea, and people always assume I was in a hell hole the entire time. It’s wild what propaganda will do for knowledge of a place.
So basically you are fine living in a imperialist, totalitarian dictatorship, where the slightest descent is punished by years in prison, because the boot on your neck is Russian made?
The rest of the world having to clean up the mess left by the Soviet Union (paying for the cleanup and decommissioning of nuclear submarines, Chernobyl, rebuilding eastern Europe) may have a lot to do with the anti-Soviet attitude.
Have you ever wondered if maybe that (and by extension your attitude to it) is part of the problem?
Honest question here. What is the Russian opinion about the quality of life in Russia, in Soviet times and post collapse? It seems to me as an observer from North America that the Russian people have had to ensure a lot of violence from their rulers for a long time.
Russian soldiers stole radioactive materials with their bare hands in Chernobyl some years ago. When you steal thousands of children, keep invading neighbors, assassinate people all over europe, its not that weird that you don't have the best PR. The western world tried to get you to join the free world for almost 30 years, so this is all on yourself.
Maybe if not for the majority of Russians actually supporting the brutal dictator ordering ongoing war crimes in Ukraine you could ask for some sympathy.
This isn't just oppressed society afraid to act. This is actual support for the actual killer of the babies. Despicable.
Some of it is also caused by the pervasive hostility to the values important to most humans, pervasive disinformation efforts, and aim to destroy the peace and integrity of the countries it perceives as a competition.
For now I'll just agree this is largely deserved, and I'll play the sad tune on the tiny violin.
The USA is the #1 supporter of baby killing in the world right now, by a huge margin. Everyone outside the USA’s imperial propaganda bubble can see it - Americans cannot.
Are all Americans bad guys because of what they are allowing to happen with their countries resources?
Rusofobia started in middle ages, long before Putin was born. And it never ended.
> Some of it is also caused by the pervasive hostility to the values important to most humans,
USA started with a genocide of a whole continent. Started more wars than any other nation/state in the human history. Probably killed more civilians than any other nation in history (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, just to name a few countries with huge losses among civilians, not even counting those who died from hunger or illnesses caused by US wars and deliberate destruction of agriculture and infrastructure).
So what? Do you read every day that it is the most belligerent and aggressive state on Earth, although it really is?
> pervasive disinformation efforts
I've already wrote in the original message, how Russia is portrayed by the media and Hollywoold. Is it a really true information? Not propaganda and disinformation?
> And note that for most people, a week to few weeks of the exercise give stronger orgasms and ability to delay the ejaculation.
I've experienced all those benefits when I started walking two times a day, 8-10 thousands of steps a day continuously for several weeks. I haven't performed any other exercises.
But it's really boring and you need to do it every day. I do it only because I need to walk a dog.
Photography has made me realize how much I was previously ignoring. There’s so much to see, and even when walking the same route over and over, there’s an astounding amount of change over time. Often little things.
The Bird ID app made me realize just how many unique birds were making up the sounds I was hearing. As I learned to distinguish between them, I found myself fascinated in a way that I’d never been before.
Walks became almost meditative over time, and the sights and sounds a kind of salve for my often tired brain.
I often feel like I can think more clearly when walking as well, and thought processes kind of just sort themselves out as I go.
I highly recommend making walks more than just a way to move your body. They can be much more, and getting the benefits of movement almost feels like a happy side effect.
I also recommend the Seek app by iNaturalist. Though if you’re like me and use it to identify plants and every bug you see, you may not actually get that much walking accomplished.
Season likely plays a factor too. There are many plants that more or less look identical (to the untrained eye) until they either bloom or grow large enough.
true. it is also pretty bad at IDing things that are half-formed, eg a bud that hasn't bloomed yet, presumably because most photos in the dataset are of the blooming version.
Walking is considered by einstein and pretty much all thinkers to be critical to deep work. It's also covered in Cal Newport's book "deep work" briefly. Which is a short audiobook worth reading.
One such prescription would be to do deep work early in the day then walk after and walk again 2 hours before bed. Another would be split the deep work with a 1 hour walk and do the 2nd walk after the 2nd block.
It may be more fulfilling with lots of interesting ideas rattling around. YMMV
I desperately want to do this type of walking, but I live in a major city. There’s always something to distract me, which is great for boredom perhaps, but ruins any sense of zen or reflection. I would say half of every walk involves people yelling, loud vehicles, and louder music. Noise-cancelling headphones are only useful for distraction through podcasts and music, not for decompressing. I’m starting to wonder if the solution, the sad solution, is to walk on a treadmill at a gym during off-peak hours.
I am also not too satisfied by this problem. Newport says city walking increases decision fatigue instead of decreasing it. It seems like another point against urban environments. I still walk to and through city parks and I feel it helps me, but I take the same designed route every time to reduce decision fatigue. I think it still helps.
Have you considered earplugs? The firearms community have some pretty great ones which are readable and fit really well. Check out Axil x30i for example.
I find thunderstorm noises superior to white/coloured noise - because it's a natural sound the brain filters it out, and obtrustive noises are camouflaged within it, and filtered out too. So the loudness required is less than the loudness needed for white/coloured noise to be effective.
I don't find walking to be boring at all! Especially when I'm working on something new, I will walk as many as 10 miles a day while thinking through all of the design corners.
Even when I'm not working, I like taking long walks to think about family, friends, video games, etc.
Its a great way to get into your head without the distraction of a phone or feed or forced message.
>But it's really boring and you need to do it every day. I do it only because I need to walk a dog.
I'm lucky enough to have a pedestrian path to do my long walks (so no cars or even bikes to contend with, bikes have a dedicated parallel path), so I listen to a podcast while walking around 1 hour/day.
There is some evidence that we offset all that activity later in the day. I know that if I go for a long bike ride then I will inevitably veg out in front of the TV later.
Exercise is important but it's not because of the burning of calories.
I often listen to podcasts while walking. Or I think. I also own a walking pad and walk while working (1h in the morning, 1h in the afternoon - not every day but most).
You must have been in really bad shape before if you're getting such noticeable health benefits from a rather modest exercise intervention like 8k steps.
Soviets did not want czechoslovakia to have nuclear power, soviets wanted to be only one enriching, so czechs designed their own - gas cooled one, which did not needed enriched fuel. Wikipedia says "with help of soviets" but wikipedia forgot to say that soviet "input" was reason said reactor had so many problems.
And after that they were forced to use water cooled ones from soviets. But they built every screw in those 5 power plants. 15-20 reactors.
Also currently working plants were progressively updated and electrical output increased by 30 %.
Czechs were last in europe to have uranium mines, some of mines were used as slave labor camps for dissidents / political prisoners (60 000 i think) under soviet occupation (pre1989). They were mining radioactive ore with bare hands and lived in buildings without heating. ( clergy was big part of political prisoner population, connection with clergy man Mendel )
Regarding building of power plants, I've studied the information I could find but very briefly. Including some interviews with Czech people who built those reactors.
> Czechs were last in europe to have uranium mines, some of mines were used as slave labor camps for dissidents / political prisoners (60 000 i think) under soviet occupation (pre1989). They were mining radioactive ore with bare hands and lived in buildings without heating. ( clergy was big part of political prisoner population, connection with clergy man Mendel )
Yeah, that's exactly what is called "propaganda". Just like the movie Tenet starts showing "life" in Russia/USSR where in some "typical Russian city" "typical Russian people" gather pieces of uranium on the streets with their bare hands. Yeah, this is exactly how we live and always lived. /s
> Czechs were last in europe to have uranium mines
"The Svornost mine (German: Einigkeitschacht) is a deep mine in Jáchymov. It is the oldest uranium mine in the world and the oldest mine still in use in Europe."
...when we are reproached with cruelty, we wonder how people can forget the most elementary Marxism.
---- Lenin
"How long will you keep killing people?" asked Lady Astor of Stalin in 1931.
Replied Stalin, "the process would continue as long as was necessary" to establish a communist society.
Probably 61,911,000 people, 54,769,000 of them citizens, have been murdered by the Communist Party--the government--of the Soviet Union. This is about 178 people for each letter, comma, period, digit, and other characters in this book.
------
so they killed more than 50 milion of own citizens, neighbors, family etc. But they wont kill political dissidents in country they do not care about in slightest?
Educate yourself.
After Hitler in west, reforms came.
After Lenin in east, Stalin came.
One in west was voted into power. Two in east were not. All three murderous mistakes.
Also, officials* in current Russian Putin regime say that above number is not true, and that soviets intentionally killed only 24 million people.
Because they do not acknowledge some "situations" like Ukrainian famine, deaths from nuclear tests on people,... as a "intentional" killing ... i.e. 'not their fault'.
Wasn't banned by Imperial Russia either. There was a very short period of time (1799-1828) when all kind of waltzes were banned, but the ban was never enforced and it had nothing to do specifically with polonez or Poland.
You can always find a way to eliminate an undesirable candidate. E.g. declare that they're "paid by Putin". That's all you need to eliminate the undesirable politician, there are usually exactly zero proofs. Declaring that someone is "pro Putin" is enough.
Actually, the range of methods is slightly wider. E.g. there was a French politician investigating the сase of corruption of Ursula von der Leyen. That politician died from "heart attack" just a few days before the hearing. Ah, that's a "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy theories" are explicitly forbidden now in several EU countries. Also, very convenient.
Same for comments in the Internet. E.g. if you writing something western people doesn't like on Reddit/Facebook/whatever, the only reaction you'll get will be "you're a Kremlin troll"
No need to think and analyze yourself. There's only one truth in the world and it comes from Bloomberg/CNN/BBC.
'India imports most of its energy'. So what's happened to the extremely abundant 'free energy' available from the sum in India. They have the expertise, they could make the funding available. What is missing in their thought processes or is there something wrong with the premise?
US is prosperous because it produces the world currency. Need to buy steel? Just print more dollars and buy it from any other country. Need to buy food? Ditto. Need to buy brains? Ditto.
No working is required, when you can print any amount of currency and can buy anything from any part of the world with it. Yes, printing speed up inflation a bit, but unlike in any other country of the world, when US is printing dollars, they spread the effects of inflation on all of the world: US becomes richer and all other countries a bit poorer.
This is why linking dollar to the gold would kill US prosperity. Also, one reason is why US is so heavily militarized and is fighting wars all over the world: you need to constantly threaten all the world so that they can't even think of choosing any other mean for world trade other than dollar.
> This is why linking dollar to the gold would kill US prosperity. Also, one reason is why US is so heavily militarized and is fighting wars all over the world: you need to constantly threaten all the world so that they can't even think of choosing any other mean for world trade other than dollar.
Bingo ! Many people conveniently overlook this reality. Most countries don't simply choose to trade and hold USD because it's the most stable currency pegged to a stable, rationally driven economy. No, it's because if they choose not to, they suddenly become a "nuclear threat to world peace" and we magically find non existent WMDs. It's a bullying tactic.
kitty is nice, but it has a problem with garbled unicode sequences (e.g. if you accidentally cat a binary file to standard output). It sometimes hangs up for a minute or two on seeing invalid unicode sequence. At least that was the case for several years, and so I switched to alacritty because it doesn't have this problem.
No matter what PHP project I worked on, it was always a mess. Unreadable mess of HTML, PHP and SQL all of them intermixed in one file. Instead of templates, there's a line of PHP, line of HTML, line of PHP again. Instead of using SQL placeholders, there's usually string interpolation. Lots of copy paste, I've seen a commercial PHP project, that was sold for around ~200 EUR, that had almost no functions: every repeating part of functionality was copy pasted 3-10 times.
All the PHP projects I've seen, eventually failed and had to be rewritten in another language. It was impossible to add new features and fix bugs in such a code. For example, if the original code uses copy paste instead of functions (and it is very often the case for PHP code), you'd have to fix every bug 3-5 times (most of the time, you fix it in one place and only after deployment realize, that the bug still manifests itself in 2-4 other places).
Yeah, maybe PHP is very easy to write and deploy, but this simplicity somehow makes bad programmer out of the person writing in PHP. I know, it's very subjective, but I had such a negative experience that I gave myself a promise to avoid PHP related jobs at all costs.
Also, maybe it was slightly more difficult to use other languages for web development 20 years ago. You'd have to use CGI, or set up some mod_python with all of its quirks, but those times are long gone. It's almost as easy now to develop/deploy Web apps in any other language.
E.g. movie Tenet starts from depicting a scene from "Russian life": under a low sun, in freezing cold, dirty hungry Russians are crawling in the dirt gathering "pieces of Uranium" with their bare hands.
Or you can open just about any publication/movie about Russia/Soviet Union from just about any period of time: there would be not a single good word. Western Media almost never publishes something like: "There's a new school/hospital/stadium/factory opened in Russia". Instead all you can see is "Russian corrupt government officials set a record of eating 100500 babies alive today.", "Weak Russian economy means that Russians will survive on a diet of two rotten potatoes a day in 2026", etc. etc.
It's just that Soviet period is demonized the most.
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