leicsmac

... because apparently every piece of SK news in western countries, even if its the latest KakaoTalk update, has to be analysed from the point of view of the noisy neighbours, as if SK isn't a fully developed and reasonably peaceful nation state with internal matters much more pressing than NK. It's lazy analysis and frustrating to see for someone who has spent some time there and knows most of the time the locals simply don't give a shit (for good reason) about Oop North.

... and atypical it was, then. Should have put something on it to soften the blow, mate.

I don't see that either because: - the NK's want control of the peninsula and the SK citizenry subservient, not dead, which means again that something like this does nothing for them politically - if they really wanted to do it, then the NK's could do something like this themselves but fair enough. Again, naturally the aims of such nations and those in the West are not aligned, but that doesn't mean they're automatically Stupid Evil (more emphasis on the first word there). I'm not seeing any kind of payoff in this being a deliberate act, so it's almost certainly a dreadful accident.

For it to not be down it's either catastrophic failure, neglect or a mixture of both, yes.

Yeah, agreed. WRT the wall though, if that's not there, the plane goes straight into a low density residential area - that could have been even worse. I can see why the wall was there and it may, in this case, actually have prevented more deaths. As @SpacedX said above, it does look like the plane landed way downrange - whatever it was caused a situation that both required immediate landing, no chance for any go around and with limited systems, hence the touchdown halfway down the runway with no landing gear. We'll only really know why when the black boxes have been analysed.

The Azerbaijani one, do you mean?

Waging war for specific reasons for specific gain, as @Paninistickers also alludes to above. Yes, their leadership are bad hombres, that's obvious, but instigating a South Korean plane crash gives them nothing politically, so there's no reason for them to do it.

There's a world of difference between deniable attacks on infrastructure or targetted assassination attempts of dissidents and the deliberate killing of nearly two hundred civilians in a passenger jet. I'm sorry, I'm not getting there - the Russians aren't moustache-twirling villains who slaughter innocent people purely for its own sake, as opposed to Western interests as they are, they remain human and rational actors and they take life for specific reasons for specific gain - there is no gain from doing this.

Seems then that the most likely pathway was there was an initial approach that resulted in a birdstrike that damaged systems enough for the Mayday call and for the plane to have to attempt another landing immediately with no time for ground teams to ready themselves, and either the damage or negligence meant that the landing gear couldn't be deployed, resulting in the second attempt which ended tragically. But it's only when the flight data boxes have been analysed that we'll really get the full picture.

That didn't happen in the Cold War (KAL 007 was a case of miscommunication and mistaken identity, not malice), there's no real reason for it to happen now. No need to argue conspiracy when there's not even a shred of evidence for it.

Pakistan and Saffers both trying to choke this match, but in the end it appears the former won that particular contest. SA now guaranteed a WTC final place, Aus looking more likely for the other one at the moment.

To protect the surroundings from takeoff backblast, looking at the map. Such a wall being involved like this is practically unheard of in the last few decades. Apparently they had a missed approach before making the attempt that ended like this, but who knows? The flight recorder has been recovered, so I guess in time people will know.

Plane overshot the runway on landing at Muan Airport in Korea. Terrible footage, looks like only two people out of about 170 odd survived. Unusual too, this kind of thing really doesn't happen with modern aircraft.

And likely guaranteed the draw, barring an atypical India collapse tomorrow.

If you're on an Apple+ binge, The Silo, For All Mankind and Slow Horses all are greatly recommended.

I'm inclined to think that Trump and Musk are aligned, but it seems rather certain that large parts of his first voter base are not, and he might have to do some work there.

To give more info on this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv7gxp02yo Will be interesting to see if Trump and Musk can keep the outright (as opposed to sneakier) bigots onside.

Reddy has definitely bought time. Not sure what the weather forecast is for the next two days, but even if India are all out first ball tomorrow. Aus will still need most of the day - at least - to build a lead that they would feel comfortable declaring on. It's looking like even in worst case India would need to just bat out a day to secure the draw. Edit: unless the Aussies do their typical swashbuckling thing, get a lead of roughly 300-350 with four sessions left and declare looking to force a result?

... and the Telegraph were kind enough to give him a full front page spread of him describing exactly how he wants to tongue Musks ringpiece for money and power. Unfortunately, we're in the rather interesting timeline where appealing to short-sighted self interest is actually working in quite a few places. As such, the next few years will likewise no doubt be...interesting.

They've worked with difficult leaders in the past since the advent of full democracy there, there should be every hope that they will do so again. But yes, it's far from all done.

Another fantastic piece of work from NASA. Hopefully we'll get a much better idea of how the interior of Sol works which will in turn lead us to better understanding of how it affects us here on Earth.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj30234e0djo South Korea has voted to impeach its acting president Han Duck-soo, two weeks after parliament voted to impeach its President Yoon Suk Yeol. A total of 192 lawmakers voted for his impeachment, more than the 151 votes needed for it to succeed. Prime minister Han took over the role after President Yoon was impeached by parliament following his failed attempt to impose martial law on 3 December. Han was supposed to lead the country out of its political turmoil, but opposition MPs argued that he was refusing demands to complete Yoon's impeachment process. The Korean opposition not messing about then. Not confirming the judges we need to run the impeachment case against your former leader? We'll throw you out on your ear too and get someone in who will. The US might want to take notes on how a system of checks and balances really works.

Alexa, play "Entry of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik.

Certain parts of the Cold War was a lot more unstable than the current situation, and the weapons didn't fly then. That's encouraging. Of course, put enough strain on vital resources and all bets are off.

I may not have been clear enough myself In any case, long and the short of it is that we'd better get better at maintaining the living space we have or there will be rather less of it, with unpleasant consequences.