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Putin: "Stick to the timeline!"


tsar4

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3 hours ago, Top Gun said:

Yes, but they know damn well what instant conclusion your average reader is going to draw from that headline. 

Probably because the average reader doesn't actually have common sense.  I mean, even McGuyver couldn't  make a thermonuclear device out of a Toyota.

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It's not even a common sense thing; I have literally never heard anyone use the phrase "hydrogen bomb" to refer to anything else other than a thermonuclear weapon. It's just shitty writing, which unfortunately is par for the course when it comes to general-audience science articles.

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12 hours ago, Top Gun said:

It's not even a common sense thing; I have literally never heard anyone use the phrase "hydrogen bomb" to refer to anything else other than a thermonuclear weapon. It's just shitty writing, which unfortunately is par for the course when it comes to general-audience science articles.

Like Buddy said, it's click-bait and it's most definitely not a scientific article.

The idea of calling a thermonuclear device a" hydrogen bomb" is itself something of a misnomer since the hydrogen isotope component of the nuclear device is secondary to the actual process itself.  It's not that the writers even expect the general public to know what is actually involved in generating a cataclysmic bomb, just that there should be heavy (pun intended) scepticism about the idea that a rag tag bunch of soldiers have the technological know-how to build such a device and that a wrecked Japanese import has the requisite fuel for such a device.  That's how clickbait works - it makes an ostensibly absurd statement that is just interesting enough to warrant the reader opening the article to confirm that doubt and discover how the literal clever "trick" works.  That's not to say you shouldn't be angry, though.  Clickbait articles almost always are a waste of time because they have a tend to foist minor or irrelevant events onto a time constrained reader.

...

FWIW- hydrogen had a notorious reputation well before Oppenheimer's team developed the atomic weapon.   It had been a little less than a decade since the Hindenberg captured the public's imagination and first introduced the idea that hydrogen itself posed a lethal risk of combustion.  When it came time to describe the next generation weapons, identifying the unrelated hydrogen isotopes used as fuel could be a quick way to describe the increased peril of the advanced weapons.  Personally, when I think of "hydrogen bombs", the first thing that comes to mind isn't a nuclear bomb, it's an exploding Zeppelin.  That's because the strongest visual image I have of hydrogen being destructive is of a fully engulfed blimp, while the images ingrained in me of atomic weapons are distinctly different and less defined by the explosion itself and more defined by the surreal destruction that comes from the weapon's shock waves.  Clickbaiters rely heavily on these collectively understood visual images when peddling their misdirections.

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1 hour ago, Raptorpat said:

we were taught in grade school cold war history that it developed atomic<hydrogen<modern nuclear 

It's all a refinement of an extremely delicate process to control the reaction with more stable fuels.  Ironically (yeah it is), a heavy hydrogen atomic device has a more controlled reaction than a pure hydrogen fueled combustion.  I would imagine that the russians unlucky enough to the unorthodox car bomb got the turbo charged equivalent of lighter fluid fireball.

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Ukraine’s offensive derails secret efforts for partial cease-fire with Russia, officials say

The warring countries were set to hold indirect talks in Qatar on an agreement to halt strikes on energy and power infrastructure, according to officials.
 
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Speculation: this might explain both Ukraine's incursion into Kursk (to improve a negotiating position) and the reduced tempo of Russian missile strikes on Ukraine during the last couple of months. 

 

Although this news becoming public knowledge is probably bad for any planned negotiations. 

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3 hours ago, Belize said:

Speculation: this might explain both Ukraine's incursion into Kursk (to improve a negotiating position) and the reduced tempo of Russian missile strikes on Ukraine during the last couple of months. 

 

Although this news becoming public knowledge is probably bad for any planned negotiations. 

Any promises that would be made by Lavrov probably have as much value as Von Ribbentrop's did.

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4 hours ago, tsar4 said:

Any promises that would be made by Lavrov probably have as much value as Von Ribbentrop's did.

I have always been skeptical of negotiations (ceasefire, peace, whatever you want to call it). Instead, I have been assuming the war in Ukraine will harden or freeze at some point, whether there are any negotiations or not. When both sides realize they can no longer advance, and they become aware of how many resources they are burning through (both the lives of soldiers and ammunition/equipment), they will look for some way to rest. 

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2 hours ago, Belize said:

I have always been skeptical of negotiations (ceasefire, peace, whatever you want to call it). Instead, I have been assuming the war in Ukraine will harden or freeze at some point, whether there are any negotiations or not. When both sides realize they can no longer advance, and they become aware of how many resources they are burning through (both the lives of soldiers and ammunition/equipment), they will look for some way to rest. 

It's only going to end it Zelensky or Putin are ousted. Because people on both sides are very aware of how much of a quagmire this is.

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A study in Russian ineptness, lies & backtracking...

How the Kursk invasion played out from the Russian side.

"The “Two Majors” Telegram channel, followed by more than a million people, said a small group of “the enemy” had managed to get only as far as 300 metres inside Russia and was “being destroyed”. It suggested the operation was being staged by Ukrainian “TikTok units” as a media exercise."

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One of the weirder things about this war is that I am a random American, and I actually have to listen to pro-Russia bloggers because, while they often are lying propogandists and are unlikable, you can still glean some truth out of them.

In the months leading up to the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, I regularly watched a pro-Russia YouTuber because he was informative about weapons and the make-up of the Russian military along the line of contact. He often spouted offensive geopolitical beliefs, but he was useful in that comparatively small knowledge set. 

I haven't looked up one of his videos since last summer because the counteroffensive ended, and I'm kind of happy about not watching them anymore. 

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Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis

When Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority is tested, his response often lacks quick, decisive action that lives up to his bellicose rhetoric.
...
 
“Even then, he did his usual thing of more or less saying, ‘Just sort it out,’ and not actually providing any meaningful leadership or strategy for how to do that,” said Mark Galeotti, a Russian security expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “Once again, it shows Putin in classic form, hiding from a crisis.”
 
 
Putin ordered the officials to drive Ukrainian forces out — then reverted to scheduled meetings, including talks with regional governors and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the days that followed, without publicly mentioning the crisis. Putin held a regular meeting with his Security Council on Friday to “talk about new technical solutions” for the Ukraine war, before announcing plans to jet off to Azerbaijan as if there was nothing amiss at home.
“This is Putin expecting other people to do all the hard work, and he’ll claim the credit for anything that goes well, and likewise, he’ll blame people for anything that goes badly,” Galeotti said.
Four days after Putin tasked Russia’s military with driving out Ukrainian forces, it was clear that an attack initially seen as a short-term nuisance — a “provocation” in Putin’s words — was increasingly likely to take Russian forces weeks or months to address.
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As the Institute for the Study of War has pointed out, one long-term effect of Ukraine's incursion into Kursk is that Russia will now have to more prioritize the international border with northeastern Ukraine. You might say, "surely they were already doing that" but the answer is "no, surprisingly Russia was lax with that border up till now considering the ongoing war situation". Now Russia has to spend even more resources on securing it. Resources that are limited. 

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2 hours ago, Belize said:

Kremlin response to Kursk incursion shows how Putin freezes in a crisis

When Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority is tested, his response often lacks quick, decisive action that lives up to his bellicose rhetoric.
...
 
“Even then, he did his usual thing of more or less saying, ‘Just sort it out,’ and not actually providing any meaningful leadership or strategy for how to do that,” said Mark Galeotti, a Russian security expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “Once again, it shows Putin in classic form, hiding from a crisis.”
 
 
Putin ordered the officials to drive Ukrainian forces out — then reverted to scheduled meetings, including talks with regional governors and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the days that followed, without publicly mentioning the crisis. Putin held a regular meeting with his Security Council on Friday to “talk about new technical solutions” for the Ukraine war, before announcing plans to jet off to Azerbaijan as if there was nothing amiss at home.
“This is Putin expecting other people to do all the hard work, and he’ll claim the credit for anything that goes well, and likewise, he’ll blame people for anything that goes badly,” Galeotti said.
Four days after Putin tasked Russia’s military with driving out Ukrainian forces, it was clear that an attack initially seen as a short-term nuisance — a “provocation” in Putin’s words — was increasingly likely to take Russian forces weeks or months to address.

Full article (Washington Post via MSN)

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