Loge

My understanding is that the airline must provide a paper trail proving the origin and history of the replacement parts. You can't prove that maintenance was done properly unless you can make sure the replacement parts really fulfil the requirements. It doesn't suffice that the part 'fits'.

It should be of consequence if the plane the part is from has been stolen. Otherwise they could just use that plane. But has we have seen, even China won't let those planes into its air space. Ownership matters as much as airworthyness.

My understanding is that the documentation of the maintenance work will reveal that parts from stolen planes have been used.

Not sure that they can use parts from stolen planes for maintenance. Domestically, sure. But internationally, I doubt it. IIRC, the origin of the parts must be documented as well as the maintenance work. What China has done is ban all aircraft with uncertain ownership (i.e. stolen from Western leasing companies) into its air space.

Which reminds me: Has anything been heard about Gerasimov since his visit on the front line in Donbas? He was notably missing at the 9th May parade.

It's a bit more complicated. The Soviet Union had two competing design teams, and therefore there are two different development lines. The T-80 is based on the T-64, which had been developed alongside the T-62. The design of the T-64 was rather ambitious and made the tank expensive in production and operation. The T-72 was originally designed for war time mass production only, but it was decided to introduce it in peace time because it was so cheap. At the same time, the T-80 was developed and went into production, too. The T-90 is an evolution of the T-72.

Even without rule changes the cars evolve so much that the teams build a new car from scratch every season. It's one of the things that make the sport so expensive. And sometimes the changes don't suit a driver. The Mercedes dominance from 2014 on was unusually long.

The hype about KIC 8462852 "Tabby's Star" has ebbed a bit. It can be observed from the ground and has been, but no spectacular dimmings have been observed since the end of the Kepler mission. There has been a number of small ones, but those can be explained by dust.

The question is, why is Scholz dragging his feet over Ukraine? Is that him or the party? He certainly isn't being held back by his coalition partners.

Well, the SPD are still doing better in the polls than they used to before Scholz. And one shouldn't forget that he doesn't lead the party, so technically he can't be held responsible for what happens at state level. But yeah, his first six months in office haven't been particularly great. Cabinet ministers from the SPD don't particularly shine either.

Don't forget that prices in Europe include VAT, usually about 20 %.

Ukraine's military would also have been much stronger. But yeah, without help from the US they might still have been fucked.

Not much. But it could be seen as a snub against the country.

So what exactly has Nehammer been doing in Moscow? Meanwhile, the German president Steinmeier has been told not to visit Kyiv. That's the second snub from the Ukrainians after the ambassador refused to come to a concert at Bellevue Palace.

The sanctions won't stop this war but they can prevent Putin from starting another. Russia doesn't have much of a semiconductor industry and they can't build one on their own. The sanctions cut them off from the supplies they'd need. Putin can't replace the gear he loses, at least not with modern weapons. Maybe they still can make the T72, but that's about as good as it gets without modern electronics. Actually, it looks like Russia's arms industry has already been crippled by the 2014 sanctions, which is why none of the wonder weapons Putin loves to bragg with has been seen on the battlefield.

If it was just Linke. The SPD isn't any different. The only party in Germany that's halfway credibly anti-Putin are the Greens. Everybody else wants Ukraine to surrender ASAP so they can go back to business as usual.

If you need Wagenknecht, something has gone wrong quite badly. The whole thing just hasn't been handled well. If you are in government, you are supposed to have a majority. Trying to make a law against parts of his own coalition wasn't a particularly smart move by Scholz. Maybe a deal with the Christian Democrats could have been found, but he would have had to give them something in return.

Looks like Die Linke is toast in the west. And even in the east they're low double digits, except in Thuringia. It was obviously a mistake by the SPD not to take in former SED members back in the 1990s. But that's spilled milk. Merging the parties now? Not a smart move for the SPD.

RIP Duke Leto.

Mazepin has been sacked. All future Russian GP have been cancelled. Haas will have to find a new sponsor as well as a driver. Might hire another pay driver.

Not sure about ESA but Germany has suspended all cooperation with Russia in science. That includes the eROSITA X-ray space telescope, which has been shut down.

In other news, Russia won't supply Soyuz launchers to the European Space Agency anymore. All cooperation on scientific missions has been suspended, too.

So Scholz has announced an extra 100 billions for defence and to raise the regular defence budget to those 2% of the GDP. I wonder how much support he has in his own party for this. The Putin shills are quiet for now but how long will that last?

Gerhard Schröder was German chancellor before Merkel (1998-2005). He was the leader of the Social Democrats, the party of the current chancellor, Olaf Scholz. He is also on the board of Gazprom, and a big buddy of Vladimir Putin.

So Nord Stream 2 has been stopped for now. Schröder should follow Gerard Depardieu's example and become a Russian citizen.