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10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Difference is he's got a lot more money, power and influence to protect him. It's kind of amazing though how far he's fallen from a social perspective. Getting booed like that at the Chappelle show was stunning.

Problem is, the people losing out if he runs Tesla into the ground have a lot of money too. A Twitter bankruptcy will probably be quite bad already. Larry Ellison, Saudi Arabia, and some big banks stand to lose  money there. Musk probably could reimburse them with money from selling more Tesla stock. Actually,  wonder if that isn't already happening. But if Tesla tanks he is in real trouble. And let's not forget that the company's relative success so far was all based on faith in Musk, which he has just destroyed.

31 minutes ago, Fez said:

Probably the same reason a variety of other top-tier US weapon systems haven't: They're very expensive, very rare, and Russia doesn't have any so there's worry about them capturing one.

I doubt that there's much danger of the things getting captured. Their range isn't very long. You have to place them close to potential targets. If you use them to protect critical infrastructure from drone strikes, they'll be located far behind the front line. I suspect that there just aren't that many units around. Germany sent a bunch of Gepard SPAAG. They are somewhat dated but apparently very effective. Of course there are way too few of them, and procurement of ammunition is a bit of a problem (because  the manufacturer is Swiss.)  

2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I guess it's better for Ukraine if Russia aims missiles at patriot anti-missile batteries than aiming them at civilians and civilian infrastructure. So if nothing else, please deploy patriot systems to the Ukraine so that it gives Russia more purely military targets to have to shoot at. There may be the added benefit of patriot systems making Russian missile strikes ineffective while they remain operational.

Patriot are extremely expensive. According to Wikipedia, a battery costs one billion dollars. That's a billion, not a million. And one rocket costs 3 million dollars. One thing about this war is that both sides shoot a lot and don't hit very often. That's the old Soviet style of warfare. Let the artillery fire at a certain area till there's nothing left standing. That doesn't really work with modern precision artillery and rockets. They can't be procured large quantities. You have to think before you use them.

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I did ask you before what's the Florida of Germany...

Austria. 

According Chuck Pfarrer, the Ukrainians are pushing eastwards south of the Dnipro estuary from Kinburn peninsula.

22 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

It's still verifiably wrong. This isn't some Russian (cyrillic alphabet) or Chinese or Japanese name, where you could make an argument about transcription into another language. Both German and English use the Latin alphabet. 

It's definitely not wrong as long as you refer to the dynasty rather than individuals. None of them actually used it as their name when they still were a ruling dynasty. Nowadays they use Habsburg-Lothringen as a surname. That has a fixed spelling. The dynasty, not really. It isn't as if Charles V carried a passport that said Habsburg.

7 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Small mishap on your part so to speak. It's Habsburg not Hapsburg. Assuming you mean the probably most inbreedy dynasty in Europe. Their ancestors make the genetic pool of rural Alabama look diverse.

 

Hapsburg is a common spelling in English.

The Babylon 5 finale is hard to beat.

The missile strike is probably more driven by discontent at home. The pro-war crowd isn't happy with the recent losses in Kharkiv and Kherson and are calling for nuclear strikes against both Ukraine and NATO. Putin seems to think he has to give them something. He has to know by now that he won't break Ukraine's morale. If anything, he can hope for the West to falter and stop supporting Ukraine.

From the maps and aerial views, the terrain does not look suitable for battle tanks. And it is in reach of the Ukrainian artillery, so maybe it's possible to take and hold it.

ETA: I don't know this guy but he seems to think Ukraine can take Kinburn peninsula:

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1591612984127799302

As somebody else stated further above, Twitter has never been a success as a social network. It is a useful source of news, though. Wouldn't know where else to go for info on the war in Ukraine. Certainly not the big media outlets.

1 hour ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

Dugin should be careful around windows. 

Or cars.

39 minutes ago, JGP said:

 

Hmn.

 

Sound all around. I like it.

Well.the WSJ article actually says the ammo won't go to Ukraine. Apparently it is to replace US-made ammo from the US's stockpiles that has been or will be sent to Ukraine.

Fun fact about the cost cutting. The $13 billion dollar loan Musk took to finance the takeover will cost Twitter (not Musk) one billion dollar interest a year.

25 minutes ago, Padraig said:

What is the general feeling around the progress of this war now?  Not much seems to have happened over the last few weeks but maybe that was to be expected given the arrival of winter?  And perhaps Ukraine will eventually start making significant ground again?  Or has Russia largely succeeded in freezing this war (and will press on again in the New Year when they have more troops fully mobilised)?  Or is it too difficult to call?  There certainly seems to be a lot of confusion around Kherson.

The Russians have dig in and try to hold on to the territory they still occupy. The front line hasn't changed much over the last couple of weeks but the Russian losses have increased:

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1588452710697046018?s=20&t=v4CMD-kg0fGlP8XQelHvdg

On 10/31/2022 at 2:38 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

How is a foreign police force able to operate in the United States?  Pray tell?

By intimidation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/27/canada-secret-chinese-police-stations-investigation

It appears that stealing children isn't enough. The Russians are now stealing corpses, too:

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/28/europe/potemkin-remains-removed-kherson-ukraine-russia-intl/index.html

So we have a deal between FIA and Red Bull on the cost cap. Red Bull have accepted a penalty of $7 million (which doesn't count against the cap) and a 10% reduction of their wind tunnel time for 2023. And of course, the overspending was on stuff like catering and benefits for employees on sick leave, not car development.

Still no final verdict or deal over the (alleged) overspending. Meanwhile, Dietrich Mateschitz has died. There had been talk about his deteriorating health before, when the deal with Porsche was called off. One has to wonder what this means for the future of the F1 team. Marko is quite old, too, and one has to wonder how much clout he has left with Mateschitz gone.

The Chines Communist Party is holding its congress, which is expected to confirm Xi for another term. His predecessor was escorted out of the hall.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63355950

I wonder if people fall out of windows in China or what kind of accident people have there.

$3 million definitely isn't Ferrari's development budget. I think the figure is from Mercedes, and it's what they spend on upgrade parts. (My understanding is it's the manufacturing cost of these parts.) And of course they could spend $5 million if they cut cost elsewhere. The budget cap doesn't cover anywhere near all of the team's expenses to begin with. 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-cost-cap-what-is-it-how-it-works/10379799/

Red Bull's "overspending" is probably the result of a dispute over what expenses fall under the cap and what don't. 

ETA: Mercedes spent about £300 million in 2021 according to their financial report.

Regarding Crimea, Ukraine's access to the sea will never be safe as long as Russia holds it.

Apparently Belarus is sending tanks to Russia. They appear to be T-72A (an old model) from storage. I guess that means they won't send troops.

What are they going to do, take away last year's championship a year after the fact? This year's? That would massively damage the sport. It would have to be a budget reduction for next year, or something like that (e.g. less testing). That always leaves the teams with the choice to sacrifice next next year for an advantage in the current season.

So FIA found that Aston Martin and Red Bull have violated the cost cap rules for 2021. Aston Martin hasn't exceeded the cost cap itself. Red Bull has, according to FIA, but denies it. Seems the amount is rather minor, though. Nothing about the consequences yet.

I have always wondered how they are going to enforce the cost cap. Surely there a lot of accounting tricks the teams can play.