1.8 billion divided by 10 000 units = 180 000 dollars each

They’re bonking mad.

Side note: I built a set of FPV glasses for approximately 150 euros last summer. Sure, they don’t have integrated communications or night vision, but they still work, even if they aren’t perfect, and only cost a thousand times less.

They tried it, saw that it worked, and took a step back.

These days, drones with neural network based machine vision (ability to recognize targets) phone home to an operator and request a permission to attack.

The interesting bit: it is within the capability of one well-informed and well-motivated engineer or coder to create such systems. It doesn’t require a megacorps.

Then again, nothing new: mine-laying was previously within the capability of one person too. Now the mines just fly, swim or drive, and may consider on their own.

Countermeasures - blinding the device, shooting it down with an interceptor which is a bit more agile but is allowed to be considerably more dumb (in air defense, you typically have a clear target), possibly also bricking it with an electromagnetic pulse (at short range, so less than optimal). Installing nets over anything and everything. Painting false targets on random stuff and confusing patterns on real targets.

Well, Ukraine does launch interceptor drones from An-28 airplanes. Small cargo planes that fly at reasonable altitude.

This does two things:

• almost doubles interceptor range
• increases control distance

But this practise occurs far in the rear, out of range for Russian fighters and air defense, which would shoot down an An-28 without trying twice.

China did it somewhat differently: they’re building dedicated jet-powered drone carrier UAVs. Sized like a small cargo plane, but no crew.

Personally, I think the Chinese approach is the most sensible.

Can you name 3 alive Chinese people right now?

I can, but I do not expose my AliBaba contacts. :)

Besides, Chinese salespeople and even some engineers have the silly habit of adopting Western-sounding first names for business communication, so you don’t get a real name in casual talk.

It’s a bit like Xi Jinping naming himself Timmy Jinping for easier diplomacy. I wonder why. :D

Another silly bit… I’m from Estonia. Back a few years ago, some Chinese gal decided that advancing business relations would be well served by sending me Ramadan greetings (note the cultural dissonance in a country where a Muslim celebrating Ramadan would experience difficulties).

I happily explained to her that we don’t celebrate Ramadan here, except for very few people. What I found out: Estonia in Chinese is “Àishāníyǎ”, which strongly suggests a place with lots of sand, so she guessed I was probably Arab. The language barrier is pretty high both ways. :)

Oops, sorry - reading in a hurry is a great way to make mistakes.

What is wrong with those police officers?

In this case, I would venture to guess: lack of critical thinking.

Um, what part of the word “Sikh” made you think of sharia?

Now, as for the killer, he got the highest punishment a reasonable country gives: life in prison.

Beyond that, it regularly starts happening that people who aren’t guilty get executed. It’s very hard to write a law describing when a murder is “clear enough”. Nobody has managed so far. All the countries which sentence people to death sometimes execute people who aren’t guilty.

How? There is nothing that prevents a woman from using fuel and matches.

I saw this thread and came here to bring notice of something that was decided by actions over the Persian Gulf two months ago, and is now happening.

Russia’s monthly ballistic-missile production now exceeds Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 production. And it takes 2-3 interceptors to stop one Iskander, says expert

This is not Russian propaganda, this is an Ukrainian analysis of the situation.

The situation, put shortly:

• Trump needed to get his way against Iran so badly, that he wasted a decade’s worth of missile defense
• everyone who depended on Patriot PAC-3 is experiencing a severe shortage
• Lockheed Martin manages to make 53 interceptors per month (they hope to increase this)
• Russia meanwhile increased its production of Iskander to 70 per month
• a typical interception requires firing several interceptors
• even if Trump agreed to sell all of production to Ukraine, it would not suffice

Fortunately, Ukraine did not sit idle. It started mass producing medium-range drones which reach the typical launch sites of Iskander SRBMs. Lacking a way to defend, Ukraine will 95% likely attempt to take out the launchers, while looking for a way to disrupt Russian production with long range strikes at factories.

Missile defense is an extremely expensive way of fighting which can only accomplish the goal of buying time. With the reserves the US had built up, it could have been sustained. Not any more.

Sadly, we will be reading headlines about Russian missiles causing great damage in Ukraine, with an increasing frequency. We’ll also be reading about drones that semi-autonomously hunt for missile launchers, about Russians attempting to develop a longer-range Iskander, and hopefully about some critical factories blowing up really soon.

I think women should not flee from such households before doing a few necessary things to enact collective punishment on their collective opressor - the family - via suitable methods.

It’s not hard to figure out how to do maximum damage. The mistake of opressing a woman should be remembered in the family for decades.

I think the strategy of just publishing the AI-generated deepfakes and educating the public, so as to immunize everyone against the concept, is a good one.

It’s not feasible to “catch” a Chinese law enforcement officer or propaganda worker operating from China - as long as they remain home, all that’s possible is to take down the fakes.

But she notes, mostly correctly:

“They don’t use this on men. Because it doesn’t really hurt men,” she said.

…and there’s history of it not working on men. Back in the old days (1960), KGB tried to blackmail the Indonesian president Sukarno with authentic sex tapes. Sukarno just requested more copies, saying that the footage was popular back home.

There is no shame in being targeted with deepfakes. There is shame involved in targeting others with deepfakes.

Law enforcement should try to pursue those who do it, but society should become immune to this phenomenon. It should be brushed aside with no social consequences to the person being targeted (or positive consequences like increased solidarity).

Absolute poverty.

Yesterday, I read a description of an Ebola ward where relatives are allowed in (some with as little protection as scarves and rubber gloves) because the clinic cannot offer the patients food and water.

Also, local burial customs (getting people not to touch the dead is a challenge).

Also, denial (some don’t think it’s real, or real enough).

Is this about transport distance, or an admission about the state of dismantling the CDC? :o

I trust they will be cared for.

Reuters is not saying good or bad, they are just reporting that this happens.

In the sense that more countries are better prepared to blow up vast amounts of stuff, one may conclude it’s bad.

In the sense that deterrence may prevent conflict, some people may think it’s good.

Either way, it’s real. China has mounted more warheads on missiles and is working to better protect them from a first strike. For whatever reason, they think this posture is necessary.

They took her four times to get it; twice she was turned away because she had a cold. “Don’t stress,” he says the health care worker told them, “the vaccine can be administered up until she reaches 5.” The third and fourth time, he says, they were told the vaccine was unavailable.

Mild level of WTF while reading. The first two times had a reasonable explanation.

She was discharged and readmitted to hospital a total of five times, Al Amin says; only on the fifth occasion did a doctor tell him she was suffering from measles.

Serious levels of WTF while reading. Every time a measles patient goes without a diagnosis, the hyperinfectious disease gets another chance to spread.

There is no such wavelength available to my knowledge, although I would appreciate if someone pointed out a suitable window.

They are indeed throwing a lot of resources at a solution that will need a (kinetic) backup solution on a rainy, foggy or snowy day.

Water droplets absorb and scatter visible light, thermal radiation and short-wavelength radio waves. To the point of military radars being less capable during rain. Ice crystals are easier on radar, but mess up light even more severely.

In the Middle East, perhaps. In Ukraine or Russia you simply don’t have laser weather most of the time.

I live in a country of 1 million next to a “global superpower” (also see “second army in the world”) (also see “the Russian Federation”).

And I swear by the name of Nestor Makhno that if they’re going to try invading here too, I will be bombing military objects around St. Petersburg.

This is the same thing that the rest of NATO swears, not all by the name of Makhno, some have different ideas about what might work. :)

Deterrence works. People have the right to self-determination. They realize this right with alliances and guns. If a neigbour has plans, is big, has problematic manners: then with lots of guns. We learnt that Ukraine did not have enough guns to deter, and as a result Russia tried an invasion. Taiwan has geopolitical leverage with its chip industry and a sea that somewhat protects, but may have learnt the same lesson from Ukraine and wants more guns.

Also noted: .ml

The people of Taiwan do not need more guns.

The people of Taiwan, as represented by the government and the Legislative Yuan, do think they need more guns.

Probably because of the swarms of Chinese aircraft which regularly practise attacking them, and the even greater swarms which sit and wait.

I wish there was a diplomatic solution, because any military action in the strait of Taiwan would cause a rapid and severe global crisis.

But the diplomatic action should not be abandoning Taiwan, because that won’t avert a crisis. If Taiwan is attacked, it will fight and land strikes on China too, resulting in exactly the kind of crisis everyone should avoid.

That is almost certainly another war crime. :(

The people targeted had high visibility vests. No camouflage, no weapons, not shooting at anyone. Waving for an ambulance to stop in the middle of a street.