Since the area contains heads of state (enough to measure in tons) among them the wannabe god-emperor of America, yes, it will be a parade of the latest antidrone tech. :)

Also, everyone near airfields will be scanning for anti-aircraft installations in the shrubbery. The usual stuff.

It’s not a big number, but only 300 such drones exist, to my knowledge.

I wonder, hypothetically, if ICE could continue to effectively do its job under mild conditions of area denial and defense in depth… e.g. if their vehicles, wherever they are found, would run a high chance of getting blocked in by careless people parking other vehicles in unfathomable ways, while some percentage of vehicles found in more private locations experience an increased risk of vandalism…

It seems he lost his mind, before losing his body too. :(

According to labels, I’m using plain ordinary G.652.D with a 25 mm bending radius. Maybe I got lucky with the pencil experiment. :)

I know the “bend insensitive” versions exist, but when the cheaper alternative worked, there seemed to be no need.

What kind of comms do the wires allow?

In case of FPV drones, anything up to and including gigabit TCP/IP.

It’s neither, they’re spare wire reels for older tow missiles which were wired for the same reason.

Nope, it’s all telecom fiber. TOW uses copper to my knowledge (never seen one, not fully certain). Droners use telecom grade single mode fiber (fused silica, 125 micrometer diameter, acrylic coated).

I build some (they aren’t in Ukrainian hands yet, but will be - if they want them, because they’re advancing super fast and could be many steps ahead). There is no “might”, they work.

10 kilometers of fiber weighs 1.5 kg, less if you buy fancier kinds of fiber. A drone with 10-inch props lifts this without problems. You can bend the fiber around a pencil and only experience degraded signal. Only a 90-degree bend will make it snap. In the war zone, landscapes after some battles already resemble “attack of the spiders” movies.

In peace time, the challenge is finding a farmer who allows using their field to test this. Promising to reel everything in and pay for damaged crops goes a long way, though. But sea is an even better idea - easier to reel it back.

P.S.

I am quite grateful to an Ukrainian radio amateur, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov. He published info about the early Russian models that were found crashed, and made a big deal about it, as one should. People listened to him and took him seriously, and started developing them ASAP.

From the article:

“De jure” U.S. recognition of Russian control in Crimea.

That would contravene the Budapest memorandum, in which other signatories (including the US) promise to “Respect the signatory’s independence and sovereignty in the existing borders”. Most likely, the president of Ukraine cannot simply sign this, but is required by constitution to hold a referendum. Which is not possible in war time. So to my understnading, this point sabotages the rest entirely. Ukraine cannot sign and ratify this, and consequently won’t.

“De-facto recognition” of the Russia’s occupation of nearly all of Luhansk oblast and the occupied portions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

That would be merely untenable for Ukraine.

The lifting of sanctions imposed since 2014. / Enhanced economic cooperation with the U.S., particularly in the energy and industrial sectors.

That would be active cooperation with the agressor.

I’m not sure if my crystal ball is cheap glass or a real palantir, but I see this proposal in the paper bin. I see the US overstepping promises made in better times. As a consequence, I also see certain European countries give zero damns about which weapons systems contain US components, and give those systems to Ukraine while they re-arm themselves with locally made items.

If you think of the fill percentage, I think that’s too optimistic, since they’re in a war. There is constant demand. However, even 50% would be an extremely big amount, and relieve Ukrainians from a lot of pressure (last year, when a similar thing happened in Toropets, it had effects on the front within weeks). This time, from the videos I saw, there was enough to keep detonating for a long time.

Whatever the fill percentage and loss percentage, the site is closed for a long time - if something remains, it cannot be reached, it has to be examined and re-certified. But more likely, very little will remain.

In the coming days, satellite photos will tell what the situation is.

Competent ones, I think they do.

Possible explanations:

• yet another time, someone had set money aside for personal use, consequently the bunkers had doors made of plywood or roofing tin :)

• arrival of drones was timed to match the loading / unloading of an ammunition train (that’s when even competent militaries have to bring their stuff out)

I hope her lawyer is skilled and the court responsive to arguments - and she gets her freedom back.

If I was her, one of my first actions would be starting to teach a colleague to replace me, while asking colleagues abroad about open jobs in research (followed by questions about legislation, immigration and civil rights).

Basically, I would not stay in a country whose officials wronged me for no reason, and might do that again.

When I date people, I don’t allow myself to go forward without completing a mutual background check. I ask questions and talk about politics, tell about situations I’ve encountered and listen attentively.

I want to know about the other person’s world views, decision-making and problem-solving methods - and to inform them about my own. I want to know how they tell apart truth from a lie, what they think about state and centralization, wealth and poverty, science and religion, civil rights and minorities - and to inform them about what I think, so they could make informed decisions.

Ironically, I don’t wish to know what party they vote for - because the selection is shitty and I laugh about my own past choices. :)

Recalling situations where world views mismatched - I’ve had to part ways with one person because she was too spiritual. Two people subscribed to odd conspiracy theories. One person’s goals in life warned me about excessive self-interest and lack of care about others.

P.S.

Trying to switch perspective and step into the shoes of a woman, I think it can be a warning sign if the other person gives excessive gifts or feels “obligated to take care” - one should inquire about the reason. I would also be wary of people who eagerly accept me as the new centerpoint of their life - it might indicate an obsessive tendency and severe symptoms if the relation should break. If the other person exhibited jealousy about friends or controlling behaviour, that would be a definite warning sign to me.

P.P.S.

As for social media, yes, it can corrupt people’s perception of reality. How to pull them out of the bog, no idea. As for how to avoid them getting there: no algorithmically steered social media.

Other sources have reported that the Trump administration has approached some European country with the reqest to stop supporting Ukraine.

The request was rejected.

The article is scary… I used to study biology and still know a dozen antibiotics by heart. This was resistant to everything I remembered. Reading the passage, I was unable to guess what they treated it with. The article follows up by telling, however. :)

Testing indicated that the cholera strain that the travelers brought home was a particularly nasty one. V. cholerae O1, which is linked to other recent outbreaks in Eastern and Middle Africa, is resistant to a wide variety of antibiotics, namely: fluroquinolones, trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, beta-lactams, macrolides, and sulphonamides. The strain also carried a separate genetic element (a plasmid) that provided resistance mechanisms against streptomycin and spectinomycin, cephalosporins, macrolides, and sulphonamides.