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Travel 4: All Around the World Same Song

The level of poverty of American citizens in our Pacific Islands possessions is insane. The only thing worse is the level of poverty of some Native American tribes in New Mexico or Oklahoma. Appalachia and the ghetto look like Monaco in comparison.
 
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I was amazed when I moved here how many varieties of SPAM there were. At least a dozen.

I remember we had 1 can in the house and my dad threw it out about 10 years after I last recalled seeing it in the back of the pantry.
 
Slap Shot said:
I was amazed when I moved here how many varieties of SPAM there were. At least a dozen.

I remember we had 1 can in the house and my dad threw it out about 10 years after I last recalled seeing it in the back of the pantry.
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Why?
was still good to eat
 
Is potato.

Is there a Pulitzer for Understatement?

A suspicion is that Russian airlines are cutting corners with safety and seeking to operate ageing aircraft without proper maintenance following tough Western sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
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Swansong said:
If you were to write a comprehensive book about the last century+ of Russian history, it could very easily be called "Deferred Maintenance: A Comprehensive History of Russian from 1900 to present".
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You misspelled 1200.

Russia is the country equivalent of a 19-year old guy who suddenly realizes his GF is coming over in 20 minutes and he has to "clean up."
 
Kepler said:
You misspelled 1200.

Russia is the country equivalent of a 19-year old guy who suddenly realizes his GF is coming over in 20 minutes and he has to "clean up."
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Fair enough. Look no further than their attempt at an aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetzov. And then compare it to the ship built off the same exact plans, mostly in the same port, by Ukraine and then China. The Russian ship is a disaster that is currently unsailable. The Chinese version is about to be retired, but because they've replaced it with newer versions. But it sailed successfully without much problem, whereas the Russian ship needed tugs anywhere it went.

Why? Because the Chinese fix things when they break and the Russians don't.
 
Swansong said:
Why? Because the Chinese fix things when they break and the Russians don't.
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Maybe they just can't. I can't imagine the level of technical education is high, and those people who are good must immediately bolt for a civilized place.

Russia is the South but the women are pretty and it's -20.
 
Kepler said:
Maybe they just can't. I can't imagine the level of technical education is high, and those people who are good must immediately bolt for a civilized place.

Russia is the South but the women are pretty and it's -20.
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Much of it came down to... wait for it... a lack of ongoing preventative maintenance. So, engines die mid-cruise. Catapults snap because they aren't taken care of. You name it, if it needs maintenance, it broke. The Russians know how to do these things, but their budget does not afford them the opportunity. Russia's military is hell bend on nukes and cutting edge technology and keeping up with the US. Unfortunately for them, their military budget is less than 1/10th of that of the US.
 
Swansong said:
Much of it came down to... wait for it... a lack of ongoing preventative maintenance. So, engines die mid-cruise. Catapults snap because they aren't taken care of. You name it, if it needs maintenance, it broke. The Russians know how to do these things, but their budget does not afford them the opportunity. Russia's military is hell bend on nukes and cutting edge technology and keeping up with the US. Unfortunately for them, their military budget is less than 1/10th of that of the US.
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I thought the Russians were famous for efficient and inexpensive solutions to technical problems in their space program (well, and covering up the body count). You know the joke:

1589764015030



But maybe that was just the Soviets.
 
Kepler said:
I thought the Russians were famous for efficient and inexpensive solutions to technical problems in their space program (well, and covering up the body count). But maybe that was just the Soviets.
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Well to be fair, the level of corruption and graft since Putin took over would make Lenin reanimate as a zombie and then kill himself.


But in general the soviet doctrine was always "make it work as cheaply as possible". And that's fine for most things. But believe it or not, powering an aircraft carrier that has the capability to launch and retrieve modern fighter aircraft is really fucking hard. These aren't small prop planes that can get airborne in 100 feet on their own power, and can also slow down and stop in a short distance. Russian fighters weren't designed for extremely low speed flight, so they need to land faster than American fighter-capable planes like the F18 or F35. Thus, you put more strain on said arrester cables, which require more maintenance, etc.


The one benefit to the world on this one example of the aircraft carrier is that the Russians designed it to be a diesel ship and not a nuclear ship. The idea of a floating Russian nuclear reactor is positively horrifying.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJkmcNjh_bg&ab_channel=Perun

Watch this guy. He gets into great detail about why Russia's military is a spectacular failure.

TL;DR: Russia wants to be the US, in that the US military is elite-level at all things (offense, defense, force projection, logistics, space, nukes, etc.). But the US spends a fucking lot of money to do this, and Russia's military budget is like 8% of the US's. But Russia wants the nuke force. They want 5th gen fighters. They want a modern aircraft carrier.

Effectively, if you want to be everything, you need to spend everything. Otherwise pick something and spend your money on that. Ukraine spends 100% of their military budget on defense, for example.
 
Finally made it home from Arctic Winter Games Sunday morning. Was supposed to be Saturday night but our charter flight was delayed because there were no customs agents at the airport to clear the inbound crew that was supposed to do our check in. Then we got further delayed because they had to a manual check in process because of paperwork issues. A 8pm departure got pushed back to midnight. Fun.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Finally made it home from Arctic Winter Games Sunday morning. Was supposed to be Saturday night but our charter flight was delayed because there were no customs agents at the airport to clear the inbound crew that was supposed to do our check in. Then we got further delayed because they had to a manual check in process because of paperwork issues. A 8pm departure got pushed back to midnight. Fun.
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Just think of the stories you can tell the grandkids.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Finally made it home from Arctic Winter Games Sunday morning. Was supposed to be Saturday night but our charter flight was delayed because there were no customs agents at the airport to clear the inbound crew that was supposed to do our check in. Then we got further delayed because they had to a manual check in process because of paperwork issues. A 8pm departure got pushed back to midnight. Fun.
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Glad you still have your limbs.
 
Trip for the Berlin marathon in the fall officially booked. 4 days in Berlin, 3 days in Prague. Flying Delta/KLM through Amsterdam each way, with Atlanta on the way out and Detroit on the way back. Have ~3 hour layover at each stop to hopefully not have to worry about customs delays and the like.
 
unofan said:
Trip for the Berlin marathon in the fall officially booked. 4 days in Berlin, 3 days in Prague. Flying Delta/KLM through Amsterdam each way, with Atlanta on the way out and Detroit on the way back. Have ~3 hour layover at each stop to hopefully not have to worry about customs delays and the like.
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Will fan be able to take in an ujpest game?!?

two great cities there.
 
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