leicsmac

I guess we'll find out. Nothing personal, but let's hope that you are wrong.

This makes it sound like Russian victory is pretty much an inevitability. Let's sincerely hope that isn't the case.

I think if the four regions go then Ukraine will absolutely demand - and should get - NATO membership, because that's the only realistic way Russia don't revisit in a decade or so.

I wonder what kind of deal would be reached, though?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72pp3yqzjyo Clues hidden deep in the trunks of ancient trees have revealed that last summer was the northern hemisphere's hottest in 2,000 years. Last year had already been confirmed as the world's warmest on record by a large margin, at least since 1850, due to climate change. But tree rings, which record temperature information far further back than even Victorian scientific records, now show just how unprecedented last year's scorching temperatures were. Researchers say that temperatures last June, July and August were nearly 4C warmer than the coldest summer two millennia ago. Well, apparently the "medieval warm period"... wasn't all that warm, for purposes of comparison. How about that.

It needs reform to reduce errors, because that was the original reason for its implementation - and if that requires temporary withdrawal while it's fixed, then fine. Throwing it out without the idea of reform is reactionary, rose-tinted Luddism which has no place in a progressive society, including football.

Interestingly, I thought it did have a lot of substance and didn't rely solely on spectacle as the final bits of the original GoT did - I mean, how many big fights/deaths/dragon mauling events were there in the season? Can see why someone would think otherwise, though.

I thought HotD was pretty damn good tbh. Shame about Rings of Power - though they might have the excuse that the Tolkien estate pretty much hamstrung them by forbidding them from using almost all the source material, hence the going off-piste with almost all the characters and plotlines. An epic HBO/Amazon-made depiction of the First and Second ages that was book-accurate would have been awesome.

I see the point - even though the whole idea just seems patently ridiculous to me when it's so obvious that while there's all this posturing and policymaking WRT being "better" than the other guy or in the interest of "not being taken advantage of", the odds increase of outside events (human driven or not) sending a not-so-polite reminder that none of us are better.

The divided part, you mean? Well, appeal to the rather obvious fact that there are bigger problems facing our species than each other, and those problems will cause us to be still more divided as they get worse - if they are allowed to get worse. And so they should perhaps be prioritised. Perhaps that doesn't appeal to the ape hindbrain enough, though.

Ronnie Reagan Red Scare-style speeches about how dangerous the world is today and why. The greatest threat our species faces right now are those that have to be addressed as a species. Looking to divide it Cold War-style is going to be grossly counterproductive there, so the whole premise is ridiculous.

Pretty much.

I'm pretty sure we will see more geomagnetic storm-related fiction in future, given how much damage it can do to our digital society these days. But on topic, it's a truly amazing phenomenon.

"Rugged individualism", and a different kind of the Lords grace, viz. "Prosperity gospel" and the "Just World" fallacy, as cultural imports, is what happened. And the places where it's more prevalent prove that it leads nowhere good.

This shouldn't really be unpopular because it's logical IMO - they would be a weaker prospect than Luton next season, therefore boosting our own chances of staying up, and the idea that we might supply the coup de grace in that regard is the cherry on top.

Perhaps so. Certainly a good time for the sport right now.

Oh, no doubt. Life has recovered from mass extinction events before, of course. Just a shame about everything that will be lost, really. Including our civilisation and the idea that we can be somehow different from the animals we should be stewards of.

IMO the real issue is (as you infer here) not ignorance as such, but more denial and apathy. It is so much easier to close your ears and go to those safe havens you mention than actually face down the biggest problem the biosphere has faced in the last 70 millenia. I do think that population is very big, yeah, and in democratic systems, that represents a real problem.

I think that the coverage is widespread enough that everyone with an Internet connection and not blinded by denial or short-term self-interest (or both) knows what the score is, tbh.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68921215 Fuelled by climate change, the world's oceans have broken temperature records every single day over the past year, a BBC analysis finds. Nearly 50 days have smashed existing highs for the time of year by the largest margin in the satellite era. Planet-warming gases are mostly to blame, but the natural weather event El Niño has also helped warm the seas. The super-heated oceans have hit marine life hard and driven a new wave of coral bleaching. The analysis is based on data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Service. And on today's edition of Record Breakers...

Examples of sporting players so far ahead of their peers it's insane...

For me, it would depend on the strength and size of the response. If it was a withering response that remained within the Ukrainian borders, then it might - might - not escalate. If it then or at the same time looked to target Russia or the current government running it directly... then I think all bets would be off. That's a possibility, but it's also a gamble on it being the case - if it turns out that it isn't, then it might instead have the opposite, unifying effect, giving him even more power. Honestly, any situation where NATO and Russian troops directly meet in battle is fraught with danger and everyone knows it - which is why the current Russian leadership, including Putin, won't let it happen, therefore no nuclear weapons being used in the first place.

Which would likely end up escalating beyond that anyway, given the degree of that overwhelming response. So yeah, it's just posturing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpeg21x7n7qo Two Nasa astronauts are due to head for the International Space Station aboard a new spacecraft. Boeing’s Starliner will blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, in its first crewed test flight. The era of commercial spaceflight has its first hints of competition!

Fair point well made.