"I want to know what war is! I want you to show me!!" (Apologies to 'Foreigner')

No, Europe is not at war with Russia - not yet. Sure, Europe spies, facilitates killing of Russians in Ukraine and Russia, and holds onto Russian money. On the other hand, Russia kills Russian dissidents in Europe, snips cables, holds onto European assets and occasionally jams GPS. This isn't war. The two sides should be actively negotiating a wind-down of hostilities with each other and in Ukraine, and retaliating proportionally to offenses to keep each others worse instincts in check. But this is not war.

This is not the Jetsons. If Ukraine had a robo-army, by now there would be no "busification". And yes, Russia is losing more men, but why do you think that is? It is because the Russians are attacking, breaking cover. If the Ukrainians attacked, the same would happen to them.

It may be that the Ukrainians have superiority in autonomous targeting drones; that the Andurils and tech startups of the West help them in this. But how long do you think this superiority will last? Will this period be long enough to enable the Ukrainians to break out and get the the Donbas back? What do you think will happen to the casualty exchange rate when Ukraine attacks?

Yes, drones can help attack, but they cannot hold land. That requires men. Again, we are not in the Jetsons era yet.

Look, Ukraine is already in a demographic death spiral. Using EU funds, it is importing guest workers, already reluctant to enter a warzone, while shipping of it's own youth to die at the front. Ukraine is desperate to involve the West more deeply in the war. This is unsustainable and dangerous for both itself and the West.

Say, your plucky smaller friend is getting trashed in a bar fight with a big guy. He is gesturing at you frantically to join in. Won't the wise option -- for him and for you -- be to urge him to stop the fighting and try to come to terms with his opponent? Rather, the West keeps slipping Zelensky the equivalent of knuckle dusters, tells him "Keep going", "punch him over there", "look out for his left hook", and swears at the Russians while quietly buying uranium and gas from them. Rocky Balboa's coach is doing business with Ivan Draga.

Those Ukrainian defensive lines you speak of, the ones that are too sacrosanct, they are no guarantee. The Ukrainians need to scramble and build new ones behind them anyway. The Russians are still advancing, imposing losses on Ukraine's assault brigades that have taken back territory in the last two months. The Ukrainians aren't going to get a dramatic infusion of soldiers. So they need new lines far in the back anyway, either as defenses after surrendering territory, or as fallbacks if the frontline is breached. The West should help Ukraine build new lines in the back (the only real security guarantee), encourage them to make concessions for peace and broach the topic with the Russians

There is no permanent tech advantage to either side in this war. Only the potential for peace is permanent

Ukraine used Turkish Bayraktars, Russians got Iranian Shaheds
Russians invented cope cages, Ukrainians got them too.
Ukrainians got FPV drones, Russians got them too
Russians invented fiber-optic drones, Ukrainians got them too.
Now if the Ukrainians get assault robotic and evac robots, the Russians will get them too

One side has most of Europe backing it; the other side has most of Asia. Too many resources behind both parties for either to lose easily.

Stop the fighting. There are no winners here. Only worse-off losers.

Both Russian casualties and Ukrainian casualties have long passed the 'unsustainable' mark. Now both side are getting close to the point where either side can tap out. But Ukraine is closer to that point than Russia. Yes, Russia is losing, but Ukraine is losing harder and faster - it has less land, men, money, and munitions than Russia. It is getting attrited faster. Ukraine has the bigger job ahead of it after the war - blowing up unexploded ordanance, demining, rebuilding, repopulating.

Ukraine needs to:
(a) make an offer that the Russians can at least use as a fig leaf to concede peace.
(b) Ukraine also has a problem with a section of insubordinate rightwing soldiery that resists any peace concessions. Ship them straight to the fight. Want to disobey? Go fight then! Just don't take the rest of the country with you.

Why? So Ukrainian people can live. So its current leader can live. So the country is not at risk.

:-P

The union is fighting a losing game. They should use the momentum to launch their own employee-owned ride-sharing app.

Years ago, I saw a video of DIY-science types growing a chicken fetus in a glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

That's OK

  I'd rather win the battle for the TV I possess now and take the risk of losing an industry-wide war for TVs I may never purchase in future.

Otherwise, I lose both the battle and the war

No, it's a serious suggestion.

I'm puzzled why it is controversial instead of obvious.

Yes, an AI model training on AI output will be more entropic than Anthropic. But there's no eating of one's own tail going on here... Just one AI trained on good data going about classifying, responding to and otherwise pre-processing data generated by other AIs.

  Gmail uses AI filtering to bin AI-generated spam. As does Apache Spam Assassin (Bayesian classifiers, etc).

Make AI be the drain. Have AI review AI-generated bug reports , classify them against existing big tracker entries, respond, bubble-up real issues, etc.

Maybe setup another 'AI mediated security list' that has agents and their human masters merrily chatting, and that bubbles up real issues to the main security mailing list.

When I see switches like this, I think ..

'Indefinitely Free'. Charge may come anytime. Stay alert.

Like with Tesla: 'Mostly Autopilot'. Crash may come anytime. Stay alert.

I'd rather use the default OS app password manager or setup rsync. Just so I don't have to stay alert about yet one more thing.

Are they doing '100 points of ID' or just checking email?

It depends on the complexity... Safety matches are an ultra-simplified procedure. I was taught to use flintstone but have forgotten how to.

The human body produces things like acetone, cyanide and bleach - but does this in molecular amounts and carefully compartmentalised enclosures.

But the customer pays for tarriffs, right? So if the business paid for an illegal tariff, and passed it down the chain, shouldn't their customer get the refund?

If not, why not pass a law saying so?

This could fund the stimulus/grant/tax refund that Trump wants to give common folk

Granted, eBay can be horrible. But .. Gamestop? Overreach. Why? Greed, aka 'Incentives'?

Gamestop's CEO is Canadian. TB Bank is also Canadian. From the CEO's Wikipedia page:

--
  In January 2026, the board granted him a 100% performance-based stock option award valued by press reports at approximately $35 billion if fully earned, covering 171.5 million shares at $20.66 per share. The award is divided into nine tranches that vest only if GameStop simultaneously hits market-capitalization and cumulative-EBITDA targets, with full vesting requiring a $100 billion market capitalization and $10 billion in cumulative EBITDA, roughly tenfold the companyâ(TM)s value at the time of the grant.[31][32]