EB-Barrington

Thanks, I looked into it. I seem to have a few flagged comments, but I'm not yet fully hellbanned. I guess I have to be a little less political on here.

China is repressive, autocratic, dictatorial, illiberal, unaccountable, coercive, censorious, surveillance-heavy, propagandistic, corrupt, brutal, heavy-handed, intolerant, secretive, and very very very militarised.

Just an FYI.

When this war is over, the first and main thing Ukraine should do is prepare for another russian invasion.

Nice. I'm an ex-tour guide, and had many jovial discussions with a colleague who toured Myanmar and LOVED the food - he knew I thought it was pretty average, at best.

Of course, that crazy guy didn't really like Thai food...

Example: in Australia there is an organisation named APRA AMCOS. A friend had a job with them, his job was to visit businesses, see if they were playing music, take evidence of such, and then that business would receive an invoice for the right to play the music.

There were many employees of APRA doing this, in every state, and many cease+desist/lawsuits.

The case was clear cut - you play the music, you paid a fee.

https://www.apraamcos.com.au/

(I guess many countries have similar organisations)

In remote parts of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, I saw wild approach closely and then be hand-fed.

I had the same thoughts as you - these animals don't behave as expected - it's like they haven't yet learned that humans can be dangerous.

From someone who used to do a lot of this sort of thing around the time of this blog post (even in my fifties now,I still do):

I often thought I was taking photos of buildings and spaces that would soon not exist. In hindsight, I was correct. To have this blog documenting something from so long ago (relatively speaking) is a true gem.

Urbex, in general, is an absolutely harmless illegal pursuit,or hobby if you will. The people who go to the places few will ever see, are documenting spaces that will generally be soon lost to the world.

It's a really great thing IMHO.

Just my 2c.

Soviets, not russians. The Soviet forces consisted of people from fifteen present day countries, only one of which was russia. More non-russians were lost than russians

Considering how many millions of people the Soviet Union murdered in its own nation (before and after WWII), and the nation's of other non-Soviet European nations being invaded anexed.."to save Europe from Europe" would be a statement that many, many Europeans may not agree with.

Wind, current, tides, your own boat at risk as well as other people's boats alongside... docking can certainly get the heart pumping.

(Liveaboard cruiser here)

Can anyone in Belgrade tell me: is smoking still allowed in Kafana's?

(other than Cafes in Vienna, Serbia was the last refuge of the smoker in Europe)

Edit: just clicked the link, smoking continues. Damn I miss Serbia.

(I once watched a guy at a Kafana struggling to decide whether to eat, or continue smoking. He ended up doing both simultaneously)

Regular russians are being forced to accept the consequences of their fellow compatriots raping, murdering, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and all-round generic war-criming, multiple times on a daily basis for almost two years now.

Good.

I was living in Kyiv during the last Chernobyl fires (2020) - they were BIG.

There have been others - it's a very dry place in summer.

I'm not American.

And, I'm capable of seeing more than one evil in this world.

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Russia is committing to a genocidal war, this is why they have sanctions against them.

They are literally state-sponsors of terrorism and they're funding privately operated terrorist groups.

Rapes, murders, destruction of civilian infrastructure, it's all well documented.

Challenge your friends at every opportunity - don't let it slide.

'bad guys' didn't need quotations.

What Russia and Russians are doing in Ukraine is pure evil.

They are well and truly the bad guys in this war - afterall, they started it.

Across the border: Ukraine completely stopped alcohol sales for the first couple of months (approx) of the war. Bars* and restaurants were closed, markets would not sell alcohol to anyone.

* there was a single bar open in Kyiv - where the foreign journalists hung out.

I have literally called for the death of a well known politician on Facebook and Twitter. My posts still stand.

I'm against censorship - fortunately I'm calling for the death of a right wing politician, hence that's ok - as the internet is not so accommodating to those who lean right.

Eat up Martha

(one of the 200,000 former Newton owners here)

More info here from Portuguese news source:

https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2022-07-31/5-rescued-af...

Discussion amongst "cruisers", common terminology for people who live on boats:

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f2/orcas-sink-yacht-off...

Hi, yes, as true at it ever was. Indeed, the choice is wider than all the paid streaming services combined.

One reason: it serves no other function.

Weirdly, I'm not in any of those categories, and yet, I haven't been mobilized.

Nor have the countless numbers of men I see every day, walking around central Kyiv.

Heroim Slava.

Without timelines being specified, undoubtedly Ukraine will expel Russia from Crimea, and Russia as we know it will be over.

Hello from Kyiv.

Surrounding Kyiv several months ago, were thousands of items of Russian military hardware, plus thousands of troups.

After most were destroyed/liquidated/killed, the remainder ran away like the barbarian cowards they are.

Current Russian military presence around Kyiv = zero.

Outcome = changed.

"winning"

Russia is either specifically targeting civilian infrastructure, or their weapons are not as good as you're implying.

Which one is it?

Hello from Kyiv.

Current events tell us the US was right.

Russia instigated the war, there is no "or not".

Russia invaded Ukraine.

Before that, there was no war.

This is an exceedingly simple concept, and a fact.

Russia instigated the war.