There are simple figures - average monthly wage in Russia vs that in Ukraine - which was always higher in Russia. If you watch POW's interviews - people state their salaries, I envy them a bit.
There were simple cases - Ukrainians going to work to Russia right from western Ukraine, where they are definitely not pro-Russian anyway.

As for toilets? If somebody has a "better shitter" in Ukraine - it's not because of Ukraine, it's because of he has personally invested into having a more comfortable life. Why don't russians do that? Probably they expect it to be done by the state and not by themselves. Does this show Ukraine in any way superior? No. It only shows Ukrainians that are used to the fact of anarchy and effective absence of state power.

I can pinpoint you places in Kyiv (not the "outskirts") where there are no connections to sewers at all. So-called "private sector" (built during USSR mostly; perhaps some were rebuilt nowdays) - tens of meters from multi-floor buildings built during USSR and Ukraine rule has no sewer connection. The house I own in one of oblasts - has "central" water (built by local community) and natural gas (same case) and everyone has a "shit collector" of their own - with ordering of shit-transporter "barrel" periodically and stuff .

A bit more Bucha screw-ups by "Radio Svoboda":
https://youtu.be/hWNEjsN8GMM?t=926

They show "civilians are interrogated at gunpoint", seconds later they show "territorial defense fighters" - a group of people wearing typical civilian clothes and nothing that could distinguish them from civilians.

So, such "TDF" are the ones who should be "thanked" for most of the terror happening. When you start playing guerilla tactics - civilians suffer badly. Was it worth the result?

The whole movie is about SSU colonel, who returned back to his family and was captured w/o any resistance due to photos in one of the family smartphones (aha, "secret" service...), interrogated and tortured and died later in the forest due to beating and cold weather.

Factor in almost 100% 3G-4G/LTE, fiber, cable, whatever else high-speed Internet coverage all over the country - meaning almost real-time data was getting streamed/sent to "appropriate parties" leading to feedback in the form of 204mm shells incoming.

Basically - "who cares?". It's not that much critical anymore and even if it's destroyed - does Ukraine have enough forces to exploit this success? I doubt that. And if it doesn't - then it's again a pure PR/waste of resources bs that is performed all the time instead of real military operations. While russians try to destroy our military and infrastructure objects - our "volunteers" try to destroy some random something in the middle of nowhere instead, accomplishing only one task - making russians realize they are at war and need to go and fight.

It was stupid to attack Belgorod with limited forces for weeks instead of keeping silent/digging trenches for months and then doing insane Prigozhin-style breakthrough at that part of the front, cutting off every bridge and communication device found on the way, all the way to Azov Sea and maybe some other directions.

"Bucha butchery". Too many PR-related coincidences. This whole war rotates around PR bullshit.

There's just one issue with current warfare - everybody has a radio transmitter. You know what would have happened to you in WW2 if you were a civilian and had one? Why this time it should have been the other way? An idiot riding a bicycle talking over the phone gets shot, a guy who took the order and executed the civilian gets sentenced. Russia has failed to do the war properly - "Post office, telegraph, telephone, banks" ((c) Lenin, 1917 revolution) - neither was hit by initial strikes or later. Effect? Each civilian became a potential spy, informer, artillery corrector. Not mentioning stupid situation with russian soldiers using ukrainian sim-cards to do calls.

"Destroyed cities" - army of Ukraine is defending and choosing where to fight, with predictable consequences. So far russians didn't try playing "Stalingrad" anywhere.

Russians wanted to change Ukraine - they clearly understood that conquering it will be like conquering 20 Chechnya's.
Neither is USSR but Ukraine tries to (miserably) resemble it when it comes to motivating people to go and die. Doesn't work in capitalist world. They promised "we'll pay out $300K" (15M UAH) to the relatives of KIA soldiers - didn't deliver. That is called fraud. And it's not the first time by "Ze" government. First was promising to pay over 400K UAH as an aid for a newborn child (it was from 12K up to 60KUAH=7.5K USD before Poroshenko and became flat ~45K UAH - 1,5KUSD spread through 3 years which was not even enough to buy "Pampers"), then they've refused to recognize death after Covid vaccine and pay out anything. (Only monetary cases reviewed, populist political promises are untouched)

Thing is that "people" in 2014 and people in 2024 - are very different. 10 years of propaganda and "adjusted" education did wonders. I have a friend who had spent 2 days to get mobilized "anywhere" literally on the first 2 days of war. "We were attacked, we must not surrender or agree to russian terms" was his motivation. Has has passed Bakhmut, Chernihiv, and other parts of the country I've never even heard of before the war. Now he has "left his brigade by himself" and faces a "bright" perspective of 5-12 years sentence, after 2+ years in trenches. (funny - he wanted to return but "go get attorney" has stopped him)

If Ukraine did play wisely in politics - this war would have never happened in the first place. Shortly after the start of the war - we've got official confessions from top politicians that Ukraine had at least 3-4 months to outplay plans of Russia. Nobody didn't even try; many people were openly laughing to Putin's "security assurance" proposals - I'd like to see them doing the same at the cemeteries where their friends are buried.

Things are both simple and complicated for case of Ukraine:
1) we (still) have different language preferences - a significant part of the country speaks russian. Some try to "migrate" to ukrainian but that is an endless source for (stupid) jokes. Nobody cared about language issues when people voted for independence of Ukraine in 1991. Majority understand well both languages and can speak both as well (basically VERY limited number of people speak "clean" ukrainian or russian without using words from the other language, sometimes transformed appropriately - just like kids do that)
2) we have different Christian confessions with issues like "we want our brand of Christianity with pagan gods included"; on the other hand - nobody cares about different kinds of Islam/Judaism, as well as Catholics, all sorts of cultists and so on.
3) some population wants to live in "Russia from TV" or maybe even real one but can't migrate there for obvious reasons (simply put - no money and bureaucracy). Some still dream of USSR - mostly retired people forced to live getting $100+-/month.
4) some will do anything for cash, sometimes after precalculating the final odds.

It's easy to spot multiple internal conflicts and things went well more or less till 2004 - with balance not being forced by either side. Winning presidential elections was a no-brainer - give some hints that you'll make 2 "state languages" and you get support from russian-speaking part, add something really valuable for ukrainian speakers - and you've got the majority. Then Maidan-2004 has happened, with typical "fight corruption" and "for everything good" promises, resulting in ignorance of votes of half of the country, a pause used for pouring a ton of sh*t on one candidate and praising the other and a third tour of voting; at the same time a part of the voters were mocked by another part - "Downbass" referring to Down syndrome and "Luganda" populated by "lugandonians" referring to Uganda (or Luanda - basically most people from the street will not tell the difference) and condoms, probably "condoniggaz" will be the suitable translation. And that parts of the country had all the coal mining and majority of heavy industry. Then hopes got broken by more corruption scandals directly related to the president and a clear win of the former looser in 2009. Of course even more corruption has followed (who'd have doubted) resulting in 2013 "Maidan" starting as usual and ending as totally radical nationalistic venue being carried out to all parts of the country; 2004 had a bit less nationalism and much less hatred, it was more a funny freak show.

Of course this situation was exploited by Russia - with full range grades of success (Crimea) and failures (Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa) with Donbas region taking part somewhere in the middle. But who has created it and what were the goals? What did they expect or hoped for? Or they simply tried to pursue their own interests using third-party funds and doing what they were told to do? Maybe some day in memoirs we'll get the real picture.

"Because they can" - it's easy to do stupid things, it's hard to fix the consequences.

"Plains"? "Champs Elisees" that is? Maybe.
But modern war is about combined arms tactics, drones and so on.
"Russia occupied by France" - happened 200 years ago, things didn't end well for France (they have learned the word "bistro") and Poland (got annexed for 100 years). To successfully occupy any territory - you have to invest into it. Russia was doing that almost always in its history - and it was working well until something was happening to Russia itself.

Yes, the stakes are constantly going up - Ukraine has failed to prevent war (it had at least 4 months to do something - starting with direct negotiations or outmaneuvering Putin by providing unconditional amnesty to separatists - just like it happened with Chechnya), has failed to solve it at the start - when the costs were low. So now, when the costs went over the top and Ukraine stays bold on its desire to ruin Russia - Russia has to justify the resources spent for this conflict, and the "justified" mark is constantly moving upwards towards total elimination of Ukraine as a state.

"Peace talks" now for Ukraine equals death (at least "political death") for everyone at the top - their actions have caused lots of losses, they've spent enormous amount of resources and credit costs without any real achievements. For Russia - it'll not look like a victory either as the initial political goals were not achieved and are as far as never before. Though I believe the real goals were by far not the ones declared - give a "magic kick" to industry by forcing outsiders run out and prepare for the next "modern" war. Yes - this conflict is simply a costly preparation to the next.

Ukraine never had such an option. Only politicians inside Ukraine were claiming they want to join NATO for years - but those claims were definitely not accepted by NATO multiple times, inside the country they were also causing tensions. After all - it was predicted in 1990s that Ukraine joining NATO will cause a war with Russia. On the other hand - NATO refused to guarantee not accepting Ukraine in the future.

In accordance to the constitution of Ukraine - there's no need to hold any referendums:

"The land of Ukraine and minerals in it belongs to the people of Ukraine. Property rights on behalf of the people of Ukraine are delegated to the heads of regions (oblasts)" (c) Constitution of Ukraine.

So, basically - a head of oblast can do any sh*t he wants, like join USA, and the only need for referendum is to convince USA that the people, indeed, want to join it. Or else - there are no property rights and the Constitution is just an expensive substitute for toilet paper.

There is definitely a certain percentage of "pro-russian" population in Ukraine - and either it'll be eliminated, physically, or they have the right to join whomever they want - taking what belongs to them according to the laws, that is. I don't know what's for do we need that kind of people and each elections splitting the country by half, or parties activities, church being forbidden and so on. It is impossible to build any democracy if there are existential incompatibilities inside the country unless politicians will stop the radicalization of the society inside it or those incompatibilities get eliminated one way or another.

Parabellum ammo? You must be joking. I thought it's about 14.5mm KPVT or 30mm shells for Shilka .

Ammo and weaponry are just a part of the equation. Laws about usage make a huge difference. "An attorney check is attached to each bullet you shoot" - and even that may not be helpful enough.

In Russia (stop laughing) there are multiple cases when people get jailed for defending themselves/their homes/etc. One guy on youtube told his story where he was defending from several drunk attackers who grabbed him and tried to beat him - he shoot several times "somewhere behind" while wrestling with them (lately he knew he had shoot off a "ball" of one of the guys). The footage from multiple surveillance cameras was available and it clearly showed who has started the "violent" part and what was going on. The attackers didn't file a criminal charge for some reason - so he decided not to do that as well (as he only got scratches/etc while one of the attackers got serious damage). The case came down to "shooting in a place where you're not allowed to shoot" and there's nothing about self-defense in non-criminal cases. Morale? "Don't use weapons for self defense if you're not at the shooting range". Such things are ridiculous till the very moment you get in similar situation. Other guy has prevented a pedophile from "youknowwhat", probably killing him in the process - got 7 years in jail and still says he'd act the same if he had to. Not everyone is prepared to pass a part of his life in jail.

There's just one thing I don't understand.

We live in 21st century. DNA analysis costs under $100, anyone can do it (those 23andme and other services). Maybe "enhanced" processing will cost significantly more - raising total cost to $150-200 but still that's affordable.

So WTF we still use this "statistics" thing instead of studying "what does affect the outcome", linking positive and "side" effects to our genes and getting realistic predictions individually?

Most of people who jump with parachute end up well - 2% is "typical/acceptable losses" figure during military training. But I don't think everyone will agree to jump even for free if he understands he can be in that 2% figure.

A man can easily have 300+ kids a year (uhm, well - there are certain biological limitations on the other side - so it'll require choosing the "right time" for women, meaning that up to several K may be required to choose from). And then what? What kind of father will he become? Who will support all that 300+ women during pregnancy and later on? Recently (like in the last century) a mother growing a kid on her own became pretty common and possible - though with some limitations. More that one kid? I've heard of a prostitute who grows 7(!, surely from different fathers, truck drivers) and they are completely "equipped" - clothes, food, toys, etc - so social workers can't do anything about that situation. What's in the head of that kids? No idea. But that situation is an exception and I doubt things will end up well.

Religion does promote responsibility although the form it does that is very indirect. There are societies where a man has multiple wives and there are opposite situations as well - it's all dictated by the life circumstances.

And physiological pleasure and hormones... What will make a man waste his life to support another person or even several? "for free" that is. You can't imagine what could one afford if he had no kids.

Imagine that you don't need to eat or drink to live (that is completely... like you're "solar-powered") - will you waste your time and effort to get food? Maybe you will - if you like the process of eating. Or maybe not - if you don't care or have other tasks. Now substitute the word "food" with "sex" - and you get the picture.

There are 2 things to remember: psychology and physiology.

Physiologically you may need it once in a while even though nothing wrong will happen if you don't (except your abilities in that part will decline) or have it a bit more often - your body will adjust to that.

Psychologically you can want it "all the time" unless you have more urgent and/or interesting things in your life - like hobbies/work/hunger/etc. A dog starts licking his dick when he has nothing to do. If you follow your "desires" completely - this may not end well for your physiology either.
Sometimes you may be in need of attention and care more than anything else.

I strongly believe that only wine and wine-derived products (brandy) are forbidden and the formal reason is almost exactly the same as to why red whine is used in Christianity rituals where it symbolizes the blood of God. So the wine-alikes (wine made of other fruits/plants/honey is not wine, technically speaking) formally are not forbidden. At the same time there are 2 widely known facts - drinking alcohol in childhood, before sex and during pregnancy can have negative consequences on the next generations  and average Arabic person gets drunk extremely fast (simply as the consequence of multiple generations not touching it at all). Factor in excessive heat of the desert climate and increase of heart attack and similar risks if you drink alcohol at the same time. Remember, there was no vodka or brandy or other strong alcohol beverages centuries ago (brandy had appeared during middle ages and vodka as a mixture of water and alcohol in certain proportions maybe even later). I'm sure the distillation/rectification process existed long before it was used to create strong alcohol beverages - but somehow it was not used for that.

To me - the goal of Islam was to keep nation alive and healthy despite harsh conditions of the surrounding life. That principle explains many things - like multiple wives (during wars many men get killed - and a woman without husband had almost no chance of growing kids, not even mentioning of getting pregnant again - to compensate the losses), not eating pork ("dirty pigs" could not only transfer diseases but increase blood system-related issues, especially when used without alcohol), and probably any other "not doing something" has a logical explanation applicable to the times when Islam has appeared.

For some reason - smoking and using "substances" in variety of ways were not forbidden - probably because there was no habit of doing that so long ago at the scale we do that now.

I'm not "anti-v" but in Ukraine if you die after vaccine (pretty much any) - "it's just a coincidence, nobody dies from vaccine". Same thing if you get any side effects - good luck proving any link between the vaccination and the consequences.

This is what I call "denying any responsibility" - which is plainly unacceptable. In USSR - no doubt we'd get all vaccinated (maybe even forcibly), just because the country was the owner of the people and they were its main resource, no people=no army=no country, no sense to knowingly cause damage, anything happens to you - the state does all it can to treat you. In modern day Russia - the answer is "maybe". In Ukraine - it's "how much for pouring that sh*t down the sewer pipe and writing I'm vaccinated?" - as the main resources are land&minerals, nobody needs those people. Many people are about "let's take precautions and see what happens" - and it's the only reasonable position. The vaccines are largely untested and nobody is going to cover any side effects that people may encounter.

The responsible position in my understanding is "whatever happens during next X days/weeks to the individual leads to state taking care of the situation" - even of you literally walk out of the window after LSD and vaccine - "oh, that's the insured case, here's a bag of $$$". I know, this sounds absurd and ridiculous - just as claiming "the person had some per-existing condition so he died due to it and not the vaccine he took hours ago".

"There are lies, big lies, and statistics". Properly presenting unverifiable figures typically allows changing public opinion on anything.

Thank you, coinotron, for being with us all those years.

I wonder why do you go down?

Зачем?! Это ж не магия. Это тормоза, если своп таки начнут юзать в таких масштабах (точнее, гораздо раньше, ибо в рандоме с SSD читается десятки МБ/с).

"децентрализованная" и "руководство компанией" - не видите противоречия? Раз есть руководство - есть кого посадить. Будут обороты - будут внимание и посадки...

Вся вина за прокол с KYC - на амерах и финансовой системе в целом, которые заставили биржи, никогда к этому не готовившиеся, это собирать и хранить. Без предоставления норм и стандартов как именно всё это делать. Хотя биржа - не банк, и напрямую с кастомерами и деньгами, как правило, не работает ("чемоданчики" им. бтц-е - местный колорит). Бирже эти данные - нафиг не нужны (если ты хакер, решивший хакнуть биржу - все равно ничего толкового не пришлешь). Вот и получили - неготовность бирж к этим накладным расходам, дополненную отсутствием процедур сбора,хранения и утилизации данных и реальной ответственности сотрудников за их разглашение, что и приводит к очевидным последствиям.

Сегодня во многих странах есть возможность технически избежать работы с кастомерами - просто авторизуя их через их банки (в Украине - BankID и подобные), но нужно пнуть систему и получить ответ "да, так можно, если стучать о том-то и туда-то" (не факт, что такой ответ будет положительным). Конечно, это отпугнёт людей с не очень законными занятиями и не только их... Но - или криптоанархизм - без законного выхода в фиат в принципе (и конкуренция с потоками кэша), или "типа законность" - но тогда все эти коины тупо конкуренты вестерн юниона и банков, играющие на их поле, по их правилам, и выглядит оно как "5-е колесо в телеге" - банкам достаточно снизить тарифы и чуток упростить процедуры.

Да, все биржи писались быстро, "на коленке", хз кем и единственная цель там была - "чтоб коины не сперли". Так и банки - тоже не фонтан в плане IT, и проколов хватает.