red750

Here's one for yer.

If you identify a UFO as a UFO, it is no longer unidentified. It's just a FO. If it then lands, it is no longer flying, so it's just an O. Prove I'm wrong.

A small aside. Over 2.5 million have signed an online petition in the UK calling for another general election.Read more.

Partisans Strike Again: Russian "Hideout" in Crimea Exposed The Atesh resistance movement continues to monitor Russian military activities in Crimea. Their latest findings have uncovered critical information about Russian air defenses at a military base on Cape Fiolent, near Sevastopol. According to their report, the base is guarded by S-300 air defense systems. "Our agent has examined the base on Fiolent. The 25th missile unit, S-300 air defense, and the 26th radar battalion are located there. These units secure the coast and airspace. We are tracking weak points and sending data to the Ukrainian army for further action," Atesh representatives announced on X (formerly Twitter). The Russian S-300 is an advanced air defense system first developed during the Soviet era. Initially deployed in 1979, it is designed to protect military and infrastructure sites from aerial threats. As WP Tech reports, the system is equipped with a range of radars and missile launchers capable of detecting and neutralizing aircraft and ballistic missiles at long distances. It plays a key role in Russia's air defense network, operating as a medium- to long-range system. Features and Capabilities Range: Depending on the variant, the S-300 can target threats 150–200 km away. Altitude Coverage: Capable of hitting targets at altitudes up to 27 km. Missiles: Commonly uses 9M82, 9M83, and 9M83ME missiles, each weighing approximately 1,800 kg, including a 180-kg warhead. Targeting: Can engage up to six targets simultaneously with 12 missiles in flight. This system is a cornerstone of Russia’s defensive strategy in Crimea, providing protection for both land and air operations. The intelligence gathered by Atesh could prove pivotal for Ukrainian forces. By identifying vulnerabilities in the S-300's deployment and radar coverage, Ukraine may develop strategies to counter this sophisticated air defense system effectively.

'Ukrainians got hold of Putin's plan' Ukrainian intelligence has obtained a document that would reveal the plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For now, it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the document. But according to the content, which may or may not be part of an official draft proposal, Putin would propose, among other things, dividing Ukraine into three. Ukrainian intelligence has obtained a document that would reveal the plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For now, it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the document. But according to the content, which may or may not be part of an official draft proposal, Putin would propose, among other things, dividing Ukraine into three. The document that Ukrainians got their hands on was allegedly drafted by the Russian Defense Ministry, according to Ukraine's Interfax news agency. The exact author of the plan, is not known. This is Russia's plan for Ukraine If Interfax's sources are to be believed, Russia allegedly plans to annex the eastern regions of Ukraine - including partially and fully Russian-occupied territories. The western regions of Ukraine would become “disputed territories.” These could be claimed by neighboring countries, including Poland, Hungary and Romania. The remaining area, including Kiev, would become a puppet state controlled by Russia. In this way, Ukraine would be completely dissolved as an independent state. In addition, the document would also discuss four possible scenarios for the development of the world order, according to the Interfax source. Read more here

Entire Russian regiments desert Putin’s war in Ukraine In February 2022, Vladimir Putin shocked the entire world by sending Russian troops to invade neighboring Ukraine. The Kremlin promised a quick war against Ukraine, swiftly taking over the Donbas region and encircling Kyiv, the country’s capital. View slideshow here

Shock as Trump slaps on tariffs to curb the flow of drugs and illegal immigration into the US Donald Trump has just announced his biggest executive order yet and he’s not even officially the president. In a bid to curb the flow of illicit drugs and illegal migrants into the US, Donald Trump plans on slapping Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff until these illegal activities stop.

Trump's 'political whirlwind' may force 'overreach' that will doom presidency: CNN analyst Donald Trump's return to the White House will most likely set off a "political whirlwind" in Washington, D.C. — especially if he can place his preferred choices in top administration positions, a CNN analyst wrote Monday. The president-elect's team has quickly announced a slate of Cabinet nominees that have been questioned as unqualified or even dangerous, and writer Stephen Collinson said some of the most controversial picks face a big test heading into Thanksgiving week. "One big unknown is whether Republican senators are again prepared to challenge Trump’s judgment after it quickly became clear that [attorney general nominee Matt] Gaetz wouldn’t have enough of their votes to be confirmed amid his own sexual misconduct allegations, which he denies," Collinson wrote. Read more here

'I intend to defend them': Senate Republican warns Trump against government purge Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), despite being a staunch Donald Trump ally, is warning the president-elect against any plan to go on a mass firing spree of government inspectors general. In an interview with Politico, Grassley was asked whether Trump should do as some of his allies suggest and conduct a purge of inspectors general, who are responsible for investigating alleged wrongdoing in key executive branch agencies. "No," Grassley replied. "He should not." Grassley also indicated that he would not sit idly by should Trump go after the inspectors general, even though he remained mostly silent when Trump fired some of them during his first term. "I guess it’s the case of whether he believes in congressional oversight, because I work closely with all the inspector generals and I think I’ve got a good reputation for defending them," he said. "And I intend to defend them." That said, it's also possible that Grassley is talking out of both sides of his mouth. As Politico notes, "last week, Grassley sent every inspector general in the federal government ademand for information about sexual harassment settlements involving employees of the watchdog offices," which "seemed to raise the possibility he could be gathering data that Trump’s team could use to target specific IG offices."

This SCOTUS precedent could derail Trump’s dream of ending birthright citizenship: legal scholars One of President-elect Donald Trump's many controversial proposals is ending birthright citizenship, which is promised in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Journalist Maryam Khanum, in an article published by International Business Times on November 25, explains why Trump's proposal may run into major legal hurdles. That is The Most Realistic PC Game of 2024 "President-elect Donald Trump's promise to end the practice of birthright citizenship in the U.S. with his return to office will likely be thwarted by a Supreme Court precedent that is over a century old, according to experts," Khanum explains. "Trump has long promised to end birthright citizenship. In fact, he first discussed this goal when campaigning for his first presidential term in 2016." But Khanum notes that according to legal scholars, the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark could prove to be obstacle for Trump and his allies. In that case, according to Khanum, the High Court "ruled that any child born on American soil is a U.S. citizen even if their parents are not U.S. citizens." According to Khanum, "The ruling followed the birth of Horace Wong, who was 21 years old at the time of the case. Wong had been born to 'subjects of the Emperor of China" in San Francisco and was determined to be a U.S. citizen." Leti Volpp, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, recently told Bay Area station KQED, "We have a legal system which is based on precedent. In the case of Wong Kim Ark ... there has been no chipping away at precedent through other decisions," Volpp continued.

A fairly new feature appearing at caravan parks around the country is dog-friendly campimg spaces. Many people would like the opportunity to take their dogs with them, but most parks are "No Dogs Allowed".

I use the handbrake at every lightnstop. If I just gey stopped, first car in the line, I can put it in neutral and take my feet off the pedals. Get ready when the light on the other street turns amber, or the right turn arrow turns amber. (They get first go.) The part I want removed is the one that turns traffic lights red when I'm 30 metres short of them.

I do.

C'mon, it's not that hard. You're overtthinking it. The phrase is "Drumming up support." Drumming, supporters?

Just 8% of new models in showrooms today have this once omnipresent feature A once omnipresent car component that millions of drivers on the road have learned to use and grown to love is nearing extinction, according to a new report. Just one out of 42 new cars launched in the last 12 months has the feature - and fewer than one in ten models in showrooms today have one, despite the item formerly being a staple of every interior. The part in question is the manual handbrake, which is rapidly becoming less popular in new models as manufacturers make electronic parking brakes the norm. Online car sales platform CarGurus carried out analysis and found just 49 out of the 587 different passenger cars on sale in dealers today are fitted with the 'analogue option' of a levered handbrake. This means buyers who want one in their next motor can only choose from 8 per cent of the market. But can you guess which car - from a firm UK favourite brand - is the only 2024 newcomer to have a manual handbrake installed? Dacia, the budget-friendly manufacturer, is the one car maker to release a new vehicle in the last 12 months with a manual handbrake. Its £14,995 Dacia Spring EV - the cheapest electric car on sale in the UK - has arrived on our shores with both a market-leading price and a levered handbrake. While it might not be a surprise to learn that Dacia has retained the old-hat feature - likely due to the lower cost of fitting one over an electronic parking brake - the decision does make the Spring an outlier in the EV segment. Almost all new electric vehicles come with an electronic parking brake, which is often the default choice for the latest cars with automatic gearboxes or single-speed transmission, as is the convention for battery-powered cars. Currently, four in five (80 per cent) of models in Dacia's product range can be ordered with a manual handbrake. However, the Romanian brand is very much the exception to the rule when it comes to retaining this old-fashioned component. This is especially the case after the discontinuation of a number of long-running models in the last 12 months, all of which had manual handbrakes. Read more here

A new slap in the face for Putin In recent weeks, arms deliveries, aid to Ukraine and an increased presence in Eastern Europe have shown that NATO is ready to contain Moscow. Deliveries of modern weapons, including long-range ATACMS missiles, have opened up the possibility for Ukraine to launch attacks against strategic targets on Russian territory, including airfields and ammunition depots. After the Americans, and Joe Biden's agreement to use ATACMS on Russian territory, and the British go ahead for the Storm Shadow of Keir Starmer's government, it's now France's turn to authorize the use of SCALPs to bomb Russian territory. This was yet another “slap in the face” for Moscow. In response, Putin carried out a demonstrative strike with an Oreshnik ballistic missile on the Dnieper, threatening the West with nuclear escalation.

Getting there. What's in the background?

Putin Aide Reveals Russia's World War 3 Targets In West View xideo here

Putin breaks nuclear taboo In his solemn address last Thursday, the Russian president threatened countries that help Ukraine with nuclear retaliation. In this respect, an extract from Vladimir Putin's speech about the new Russian doctrine is particularly illuminating: “In response to the use of American and British long-range weapons, on November 21 this year the Russian armed forces launched a combined strike on one of the objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. One of Russia's latest medium-range missile systems was tested under combat conditions, in this case with a ballistic missile fitted with non-nuclear hypersonic equipment. Our rocket specialists call it the “Oreshnik”. The tests were successful, and the launch target was reached. On the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, one of the largest industrial complexes known since the days of the Soviet Union was hit, which is still producing missile and other weapons technology today.” And Putin put on the pressure and threatens: “We will determine the targets to be destroyed in subsequent tests of our new missile systems, based on threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider that we have the right to use our weapons against military targets in countries that allow their weapons to be used against our targets, and in the event of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will react just as decisively and in the same way.

Russia's automated nuclear retaliation system What's the "Dead Hand," Russia's last resort system if Putin and his top officials are killed? It's an automated defense system that guarantees nuclear retaliation even in the absence of the Russian leadership, designed to ensure the survival of the state in the event of a devastating attack. It's also an automated defense mechanism that allows Russia to respond to a nuclear attack even in the absence of its president or military leaders. Developed during the Cold War under the name "Perimeter," the system has been the subject of speculation and mystery, particularly after the fall of the Soviet Union and its continued existence in today's Russia. The creation of this system was in response to the possibility that a US nuclear first strike would disintegrate the USSR's chain of command, leaving Russia vulnerable. Perimeter was designed to automatically launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, without human intervention, if the country was confirmed to have suffered a devastating nuclear attack. Although Moscow has never officially confirmed its existence, in 2011, the commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Sergey Karakaev, acknowledged its operation to the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, claiming that Russia could destroy the United States in less than 30 minutes.

Russia's economy on the brink as the 'market is dead' and prices soar Russia's economy is showing increasing signs of strain more than two years on from Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, with one insider gloomily admitting: "The market is dead". Prices for essentials such as milk, potatoes, and butter are soaring, hitting ordinary Russians hard, according to a report produced by Western-aligned Russian broadcaster Current Time. So serious is the situation becoming that retailers are even having to tighten up resorting security to combat shoplifting, while surging mortgage rates have caused a collapse in new apartment sales. Such issues reflect deeper economic turbulence, with the Central Bank battling to curb inflation as the costs of war and sanctions mount. The once-resilient economy, previously buoyed by wartime production and government spending, now faces stark challenges. Read more here

Sorry Pete. not quite.

No need to be rude. Oh, that's the catchphrase. That's correct. CP228.mp4

Five out of six train models in the Victorian metropolitan fleet will not fit in the Metro Tunnel due to enter service next year. They had to build a new fleet of trains especially for the tunnel, and the two lines (north and south) that will use the tunnel. Those lines will not run through the city loop. Labor claims that is world's best practice.

Read five reports on reactions to Trump's election (skip the one in the middle about Clinton's visit to a Swifties concert). Read reports here.