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Why can't NATO make ammo for Soviet-era weapons? NATO countries should have built up manufacturing for 152 mm artillery and 125 mm tank Ammo starting in 2022.

Marko has stated that Audi has made Sainz an offer Red Bull can't match. Which implies that Red Bull has been in talks with Sainz. Not great news for Perez. Regarding Antonelli, I don't think he is ready for F1. Could be 2026, though.

Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull. No details known yet, but lots of speculation. Is he going to Ferrari or Aston Martin? It's not clear either how soon he can work for another team. And the big question: will Max Verstappen leave, too? In other news, the city of Hockenheim is selling the Hockenheimring to private investors. That's good news for motorsport in Germany as the city wasn't ready to make big investments or gamble tax money on hosting a GP.

I have left it, too. But that has made me more dependent on youtube... Never encountered any of the nasty stuff while I was using Twitter, though. I guess I was careful with who I followed. And I never wrote a tweet either.

When it comes to things like the war in Ukraine, Twitter is the main source of info. The classical media has no first-hand info, so all they do is interviews with "experts" or rehash stuff found on Twitter. That's not all bad as the Institute for the Study of War or the UK ministry of defence regularly post their latest intel there. I hadn't realised it before the war, but politicians and journalists depend heavily on Twitter, which is why there was such an outcry when Musk started to mess with it.

The internal combustion engine won't stay the same. It will lose 150 kW of power. That's why they're tinkering with the aerodynamics. They need to reduce drag to avoid embarrassingly low speeds on the straits. And the ICE will run full throttle in slow corners to charge the battery because recuperation from braking won't be enough.

Ain't no such thing as the original with a building that old and construction work that took centuries to complete. They started remodeling before the building was even finished. As Ran mentioned, the pre-fire state was the result of extensive remodeling in the 19th century. The church had no spire before 1859, so a modern design would have been just as (un)original as the old one.

What options are there that are better than Audi? Apparently he could go to Mercedes, but only on a short-term contract. Audi would be a long-term commitment. The downside is that he'd be in bad car in 2025. Would be nice to see Mick racing in F1 again (he does WEC with Renault), but I don't know how realistic that is. Seb seems to miss racing but I don't think he'd commit to F1 full time again. He did a WEC test with Porsche, though. Maybe he'll race for them in 2025. Meanwhile, there's concern about the 2026 engine rules. In simulator tests, the cars were slower than F2... But 2026 is the year Alonso is powered by Honda again, so it's kind of appropriate.

Sainz could go to Sauber. They'll be Audi from 2026 on, and with the new regulations, they're as likely to be competitive as any of the big teams.

Alonso has renewed his contract at Aston Martin. Which makes it more likely that Verstappen goes to Mercedes if the situation at Red Bull escalates.

Making a big-budget movie is quite a gamble, particularly when the source material is rather nerdy. The JJ Abrams Star Trek movies weren't really a success. Dune Part 1 must have lost money, too. Part 2 is a moderate success, but no more. David Lynch's Dune lost the studio a lot of money, but it was great promotion for the books.

Our Galaxy is about 30 kpc or 100,000 light years in diameter, so distance definitely is an issue as the universe is now. On the other hand, if by some magic we could travel across the galaxy in a reasonable time, we could also reach our neighbor galaxies. They don't move away from us either, because of gravity. Of course, that's just our backyard. As for intelligent life, there's probably a lot of it but it doesn't really matter because we won't make contact. Maybe we'll find signatures of life in the atmospheres of planets orbiting nearby stars but that's about it.

That landing operation certainly wasn't a routine operation. IIRC, it would have taken the Harkonen decades to pay back the debt it left them in. That's also why the Atreides didn't expect a force of that size. It was practically unheard of. The Fremen weren't good fighters before Paul came. They couldn't take on the Harkonen, much less the Sardaukar. And they weren't just a few thousand. I think the figure of ten million is mentioned. That's the total population but it would still make a force of above one million. Space travel is the monopoly of the Spacing Guild, and that includes stuff in planetary orbit. So the emperor can't just put his own satellite there. And it was the Harkonen who ran the planet to begin with. As for the planet's ecology, that probably doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, especially based on what we know now, but I don't see much of a problem there. Particularly in a setting where there is interstellar travel (which is apparently instantaneous) or genetic memory. There's certainly nothing wrong with there being no rain on a planet without water. I don't remember if they mine the polar caps for water but I think they do.

I object to calling the KJA books fanfiction. If the authors were fans, the books shouldn't be so full of deviations from Frank Herbert's Duniverse. It has been a long time since I last touched one of those books, but they felt as if the authors hadn't even read Dune.

People calling USB C a universal standard always reminds me of this: https://xkcd.com/927/ The only thing universal about USB C is the plug. What the port or even the cable can do varies. As for your dad's ipad, I'd check if the charger provides enough power. Not sure if this is still the thing with newer chargers but the ones that came with iphones used to be too weak to charge an ipad.

Russia exports _crude_ oil. The refineries produce gasoline and diesel for domestic consumption. Would be rich if Russia had to import refined oil from India, though.

Corporate headquarters is now in Arlington, VA. Shows where their priorities lie.

I haven't heard about that. Is there a source? ETA: OK, found something to that effect, but it doesn't mean anything. Hamilton made statements like that up to the very moment the Ferrari deal was announced.

The latest rumor is that Horner might actually be promoted rather than fired. That would probably mean Max and Newey leaving. Mercedes would like to have Max, of course, but their car is rather mediocre this year. Aramco are trying to buy Aston Martin are ready to pay Verstappen and Newey a ton of money if they join the team. It's probably a better option than Mercedes and Ferrari doesn't have a free cockpit.

That's a weakness of GDP as a measure of wealth. It measures production, but not loss of assets through wear and tear. Neither does it count the depletion of natural resources.

As Werthead explained:

Press agencies refuse edited photos for good reasons. Press photos are usually meant to document certain events, and once a picture has been touched by photoshop its documentary value is zero at best. Kate can post as many photoshopped pictures on Instagram as she wants but the press shouldn't touch them with a tentpole.

Her name is already out: Fiona Hewitson. She was Horner's personal assistant.

Rumors about Marko being sacked. And Max Verstappen heading for Mercedes.

Everybody wonders why Scholz doesn't want to give Ukraine these missiles. There's some kerfuffle in Germany about a conference (not sure if it was video or audio only) that has been wiretapped and published by the Russians. Four generals of the German air force discuss Taurus and if the Ukrainians could use it without German service personnel being involved. Apparently it's possible (Sholz claims it isn't), but would take some extra effort and time. They also imply the presence of UK and US service personnel in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda makes a big fuss about their discussion of how to destroy the Kherch bridge.