What's good (and bad ) about Russia?

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Bad propaganda, Willedo.

ome, you're not suggesting that a Russian state sponsored news outlet would pull our legs, are you? Heaven forbid.

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

I wonder if they awarded four to promote the category, or whether it was hard to pick one winner in such a large field of nominations in the first year.

Actually, I think we are wrong in giving the gong to these documentaries. Churchill's Island is a 1941 propaganda film chronicling the defence of Britain during the Second World War. It received the first Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject, awarded at the 14th Academy Awards ceremony in 1942. For the 15th Academy Awards in 1943, documentary features and short subjects competed together for Best Documentary. Four special awards were bestowed among the 25 nominees, and these are the ones we've mentioned. I think that those four were classed as Documentary Features. The rest seem to be short (about 10 minute) films.

[Old Koreelah]

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

I wonder if the music was just a random thing they tried, or if there was already some scientific background to it.

[old man emu]

Music has charms to soothe the savage beast. My dog used to lay quietly within earshot of my radio from which classical music came. He started to get active when I was listening to Jazz.

 

The phrase 'music has charms to sooth a savage breast' sounds Shakespearian but in fact comes to us from The Mourning Bride, a poem by William Congreve, 1697:

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

The Latin epic poem Pharsalia, which was written by the Roman poet Lucan, contained lines which must have been Congreve's source.

Whose charming voice and matchless musick mov'd
The savage beasts, the stones, and senseless trees,

If two people were to be asked to come up with three things that music affects, the chances of both of them independently coming up with

1. savage beasts/breasts,

2. rocks and

3. trees

must be astronomically small.

[Old Koreelah]

This savage beast can now be quieted by ABC Classic via a great set of noise-cancelling headphones I got last birthday. Bluetooth ABC Listen from the phone in my pocket and go to work clearing firebreaks with the wizzer.

 

Early in the day, when my motors are still asleep, ABC Jazz seems to get me going. I suspect the secret of Jazz is it’s unpredictability- it keeps you interested and stimulates your brain.

[facthunter]

Never seen a punch up at a Jazz thing. It's always possible as in some (ignorant) places it became a place to be seen and they didn't know when to clap so identified themselves early. Nev

[willedoo]

I like good jazz. I don't like the type where every musician in the band is madly riffing away trying to outdo the others. It's like a whole pile of solos competing. Not sure what they call that style, if it is one.

[Yenn]

I saw Ella Fitzgerald on TV last night with a jazz quartet, while I have always been a fan of Ella I was really taken with the jazz Quartet, really great background for a great singer and when she put them forward for a solo, there was no great showing off, just lovely jazz.

[willedoo]

One thing about the Russian armed forces is their high mobility due to the amount of heavy lift aircraft at their disposal. The air group airlifting the Russian contingent of the CSTO peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan is using 70 Ilyushin Il-76 transports and five Antonov An-124's. Over that distance, they're capable of inserting at least three battalion groups plus their equipment per day. The initial airlifts have all been airborne special forces to secure the Baikonur cosmodrome and other Russian bases and critical airfields.

 

The Ilyushin 76 has been a great old workhorse over the years. For age and type, the American analogue would be the Starlifter. As far as I know, the Starlifter doesn't have anywhere near the rough field and low maintenance capability as the Ilyushin. One of the initial design briefs of the Il-76 was rough, short field capability and to be able to operate independently with a crew of five or six for up to a month at a time. All you need is a grease rag and a big hammer.

[willedoo]

That was a short but expensive exercise. The Kazakh President has announced that the multi national peacekeeping force will begin a phased withdrawal in two days time, with a total of ten days for the complete withdrawal. The troops would have only needed to take one bar of soap and a few pairs of socks to see the deployment out.

[onetrack]

I recently came across a BBC story detailing some keen Russian (actually Belarussian) blokes who are constantly searching for, finding, recovering - and restoring, WW2 Russian AND German tanks - as well as other WW2 vehicles!

 

It's quite an amazing story, and these blokes are truly dedicated. What I found fascinating was the Russians used children to fabricate their WW2 tanks! They must have been desperately short of labour!

 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180312-the-salvagers-who-raise-world-war-two-tanks-from-the-dead

 

The interesting part about these items salvaged from Eastern European marshes, swamps and bogs, is that they are all surrounded or covered by poplar forests.

But the tannins in the bark from the poplars, which permeate the water in the swamps and marshes, are an excellent rust-prevention chemical, and that is why so many of these recovered war machines show so little corrosion.

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by onetrack

[old man emu]

Here's more information about the use of tannin as a rust converter.

http://www.restaurarconservar.com/WebRoot/ce_pt/Shops/298256/MediaGallery/Tannic-Acid_Rust-Converter.pdf

[Old Koreelah]

I knew a bloke who salvaged WWII scrap; few speak of the ever-prsent danger of dusturbing high explosives encased in corroding metal casing.

The stuff used by Japanese forces is apparently very dangerous even today.

 

[willedoo]

12 hours ago, onetrack said:

The interesting part about these items salvaged from Eastern European marshes, swamps and bogs, is that they are all surrounded or covered by poplar forests.

But the tannins in the bark from the poplars, which permeate the water in the swamps and marshes, are an excellent rust-prevention chemical, and that is why so many of these recovered war machines show so little corrosion.

I'll have a look and see if I can find a particular Youtube video. It was a WW2 T-34 recovery from a bog. When they towed it up and out of the bog, I was amazed to see all the track gear working. There wasn't one seized roller or idler. The turret must have been sealed, as the small arms they hauled out of it looked in almost working condition. The good condition of the tank was almost unbelievable once the mud was hosed off.

[pmccarthy]

I saw that one too. Amazing condition.

[Yenn]

Good material used in construction would help also.

A WW2 Liberator bomber was found near here about 15 years ago. It hit high country and was torn apart.One engine had a cylinder torn off and the exposed piston pivoted freely on the con rod and the rod pivoted on the crankshaft. It had stood up to the sub tropical rainfall and high humidity for over 50 years.

[willedoo]

For all the doubters that Vladimir Vladimirovich has a sense of humour, check out this photo. Although taken a few years ago, you can clearly see that he almost smiled. Almost.

[Marty_d]

He's smiling on the inside.  I reckon that one was taken the day Trump became president.

[willedoo]

16 hours ago, Marty_d said:

He's smiling on the inside.  I reckon that one was taken the day Trump became president.

Funny thing is that Putin thought Trump was a big improvement when he first got in, but he soon realised the orange clown was a prickle in his undies. Putin's getting a lot more co-operation and reasoning from Biden. Just one example, the Republicans were proposing sanctions to try to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but it's just been voted down in the Senate by the Democrats.

 

The Democrats said it didn’t help Ukraine and denied Biden leverage to deal with the Kremlin. And there's the rub. Biden might not be perfect, but from my observations he's streets ahead of recent past U.S. presidents in dealing with the Kremlin. Biden and Putin might not be good buddies, but they've known each other for a long time and have a form of mutual respect for each other's capabilities.

 

The problem the U.S. has with sanctioning Russia is that they are running out of sanction ammunition. Too many more sanctions, and Putin will be in a position where he has nothing more to lose. That creates a dangerous situation where the only response left for the Americans is the military option, and we all know that won't end well. At least Biden is smart enough to know that and opt for the carrot and stick approach. Add to that, despite his public stumblings, Biden is a good negotiator and has decades of deal making experience behind him.

 

The Americans have only two tools at their disposal to enforce their will on the world. One is their economic strength and the threat of sanctions, and the other is military force. An overuse of sanctions is a bit like interest rates. Lower them too much, and governments lose the option of lowering interest rates further to stimulate the economy. Likewise with sanctions. Run out of things to sanction and you lose sanctions as a weapon. Biden has made a lot more progress with Russia in his first year than was made in a combined twelve years under Obomber and Trump.

[willedoo]

Russia's de-dollarization is continuing. They were once one of the biggest investors in U.S. dollar debt. Russian Treasury now holds only 2.3 billion in short term bonds and 101 million in long term bonds. That's 1.3% of their investment level in the dollar in 2010. Last year, the National Wealth Fund reserve divested itself entirely of the dollar. It's been replaced by euros, yuan, Japanese yen and gold. Russia is a significant investor in real physical gold, as opposed to paper gold held by many countries.

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Russia's de-dollarization is continuing…

Who would blame any nation for wriggling free of American financial sanctions?
The US has over-used their dominance of the world’s monetary system.

China and Russia are said to have been developing a gold-backed cryptocurrency

[willedoo]

Warning: this post could cause induced sleep. Best read just before bedtime.

 

The race is on for the U.S. to financially emasculate Russia before Russia becomes immune to American sanctions. When their sanctions are no longer effective, the only other option is the military one. The U.S. know that it's not a sound plan to pick a fight with the world's biggest nuclear power. They had a reminder of that the other day when a Russian nuclear sub with 160 nukes on board popped up off the U.S. coast. It's been reported that it was only detected once it started to head home.

 

That leaves the current relationship as one big ongoing game of chess with an element of poker thrown in. The bulk of sanctions have been applied mainly since the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine and the subsequent re-unification of Crimea and Russian support for the Donbass provinces. The sanctions took a toll, but Russia quickly learned to adapt and use them to their advantage. They sourced replacement imports from non sanctioning countries and diversified their economy away from near total dependence on oil and gas revenue.

 

Economically, Russia is now far better off than they were before the sanctions started. They have foreign reserves of more than 600 billion USD value, and their debt to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world. That's even without factoring in the GDP generated from the black and grey economy, which is significant in that country.

 

The problem for the U.S. is that they've overplayed their hand. By applying sanctions every time Russia farts, they now find themselves running out of options. The big stick has been whittled down to a twig and they've done it themselves. From this point onward, available options will hurt the U.S. and their allies as much as it will Russia. Their big threat of blocking Russia from the SWIFT payment system appears to be evaporating. The Europeans don't want to be cut off from Russian gas and imports, and don't want to lose further export markets to Russia. America has more or less hinted they'll back down on that one.

 

So why does the U.S. continually strive to bankrupt Russia? The simple answer is that a prosperous Russia has the revenue to re-arm and become a serious military competitor to the U.S.. The Americans know that it's not easy to impose their will on a well armed perceived adversary. Compare Russia during the 1990's to Putin's Russia of the last twenty years and you can see why the U.S. hates him. A bankrupt nation with a depleted and ineffective military has become what it is now under Putin. This is what bugs them. All the other stuff they bang on about is just smoke and mirrors. They couldn't give a stuff about Crimea or anywhere else despite the lip service they pay to it.

 

The real reason behind the American animosity is that:-a.. they don't like competition, especially militarily, and b.. Putin took their lollies away. In the 1990's, it wasn't a problem for the U.S.. Russia was bankrupt and they had their own man in the Kremlin as president, in the form of a drunken, traitorous stooge. He gave the Americans everything they wanted. Then along came Putin. The first major thing he did was to take back Russia's resources (the lollies); no more 10% of profits which in reality equated to 10% of sweet F.A. after company write offs. Russia finally got their fair share of royalties and revenue.

 

Putin didn't stop there. He broke the stranglehold of a lot of the American installed oligarchs and oversaw a rebound in the economic strength of the country. The end result was that Russia made money and spent a fair bit of it rebuilding the military. The situation at present is a bit dodgy for both parties. When the next planned gas pipeline from Russia to China is flowing, the gas exports to China will equal that to the EU. When that happens, America has run out of sanction tools as Russia won't depend financially on European gas exports. Added to that is that Russia and China are increasingly doing trade in their own currencies. In another ten years, Russia can say goodbye US Dollar, we don't need you any more.

 

It's possibly one of the factors behind America's increasing hostility and sword waving. They know their window of opportunity to break Russia is shrinking, and that they only have a certain amount of time up their sleeve. So who wins the poker game is anyone's guess. Hopefully, it will end in a draw and we don't see mushroom clouds.

 

 

[old man emu]

Talk of Russian economic recovery always seems to concentrate on the use of that recovery for military expansion. Are we being fed biased news. Does anyone know how Ivan and Natalya and the kids are doing? Are things still grim for them, or is the economic boom making for a better life? It seems that Ivan and Natalya are doing OK compared to Karen and Chad in the USA,

 

https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/russia-vs-america-real-income-comparison/

[willedoo]

51 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Talk of Russian economic recovery always seems to concentrate on the use of that recovery for military expansion. Are we being fed biased news. Does anyone know how Ivan and Natalya and the kids are doing? Are things still grim for them, or is the economic boom making for a better life? It seems that Ivan and Natalya are doing OK compared to Karen and Chad in the USA,

 

https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/russia-vs-america-real-income-comparison/

Interesting article, ome, and well worth reading. In general the Russian standard of living has increased quite a lot since the post Soviet 1990's. Surprisingly, a lot of people in the West still have that 25 year old stereotype of average life in Russia in their minds. Having said that, like a lot of countries, there's still a lot of people doing it tough in some of the regions. A percentage of that is due more to the failings of the regional administrations than that of the federal government.

 

Russia has some good things for the average Ivan. Like the article mentions, free health care, cheap transport, 13% flat tax, cheaper cost of living, all comes into the equation.

 

There's also one thing I think is a good idea, and that's how modern apartment developments are being done in cities like Moscow. I don't know whether it's done that way because of government mandate or whether developers still have that Russian way of doing it, heavily influenced by the Soviet legacy. Either way, they do them intelligently. Admittedly, in cities like Moscow they have the advantage of geography over our developers. When our cities expand, it's usually into formerly good agricultural land. Places like Moscow are surrounded by bush, which is cheaper and there's lots of it, so good planning is easier.

 

The Soviet legacy is strong in a lot of their developments. Plenty of green space and children's playgrounds in a social, communal, park like atmosphere. They get the best of Soviet design and planning without the worst of it, ie: no lifts, small apartments, and shared ablution and cooking facilities. But if you're on a small budget and don't mind that, there's another good feature of a lot of their apartment developments.

 

The mini apartments are on the ground floor or at basement level. They are modern little one room apartments with limited facilities, very similar to our motel rooms. Down the hall is a communal kitchen/ cooking facility and a communal laundry. You can buy one of these units for prices like $15,000 USD. They are ideal as a stepping stone for young people. Let's say you are a young IT graduate who has landed a job in the city centre. You can buy one of these with bus and rail links to the city almost right at your door. Work hard, save money, sell the mini apartment and upgrade to a higher level.

 

Where can you find that in our country. Recently I heard a bloke on an ABC radio interview. He's written about his experience as an Uber driver and related the story of a lady customer he picked up. She was out of town, living in a type of tree house shanty she'd made. Turned out she was employed in a corporate position, but just couldn't find a place to rent because of the rental crisis. We're rapidly turning into a country where our young people will never be able to own their own place and will struggle to pay rents.

Edited January 21, 2022 by willedoo