(Thread IKs:
fatherboxx)
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Vaginaface posted:Any time you want to post about the tone or events in Belarus you should. There's a lot of speculation in these threads from outsiders about what Belarus is thinking, and more insider perspective would be great imo Noted.
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May 17, 2023 13:57
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 23:01 |
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Is your stay expected to be a long one? I'd probably be nervous to be in Belarus right now just because the place seems rather on edge, which is understandable what's happening down south.
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May 17, 2023 14:13
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Sekenr posted:If anyone is interested how is Belarus after 2 years away. Minsk is a ghost town, but so are the rest of region capitals. Someone from Homiel told me that they thought their city was too empty, and they visited Minsk on May 9 (Victory Day, the biggest secular holyday), and it was just as desolate. Only some people at shopping centres. Apart from people leaving the country and the general depression and fear, there are some other factors that contribute to it. Like a lot of younger people who you would expend to hang out in downtown moved out to suburbs and microdistricts, while pensioners spend more time at home or in the yard next to their block of flats. There are fewer concerts and other cultural events, so spending an hour on transit when you have decent pubs and parks where you live is simply not worth it. Another contributing factor is that a lot of people continue to work from home, and in bigger cities there are obviously more people with jobs that allow that (that impacts Friday nights the most, I guess). And finally, in this economy, people simply spend more time at work and have less money on entertainment, so more people have to stick to the home-work-home routine. It's also the beginning of the dacha season, and a lot of people are out of town, but there are still clearly fewer people than usual for this time of year. Paladinus fucked around with this message at 14:38 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 14:17
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Sekenr posted:2. At passport control they study passports with looking glass. In all booths, it looks stupid as gently caress probably want to see if made on basic printer.  Echoing what others say about your impressions of life back in Belarus - your insights are fascinating and very welcome. But stay safe.
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May 17, 2023 14:33
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Zedsdeadbaby posted:They took out a nighthawk. That's nothing to sneer at. “Zoltán Dani, now running a bakery, and Dale Zelko, now retired from the U.S. Air Force, met in 2011. They have since developed a friendship.” I love this bit of humanity long after the war ended.
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May 17, 2023 17:25
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Sekenr posted:If anyone is interested how is Belarus after 2 years away. hey now, Georgia's an exception since their economy runs on tourism. most post-Soviet airports are a bit... iffy. i don't recall Minsk being any less dingy than Astana or Tashkent, or even Sheremetyevo circa 2010 (the latter has since had a considerable glow-up because lol infinite Moscow money funnel). that's maybe not a resounding endorsement. i can't remember Volgograd, Irkutsk, Manas, Almaty, or Pulkovo at all, but i figure they mostly have a similar "planes land here and you can go through migration control, don't expect much else" vibe
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May 17, 2023 17:33
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Was at Almaty airport in September, is podunk if you’re used to western airports but it’s not sketchy or anything.
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May 17, 2023 19:22
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SVO 15 years ago felt like a dump but so did the international concourse in Atlanta around the same time. In large part it was because of the overflow from the smoking lounges + weird clientèle (Russian vacationers vs. crew cut dudes in large groups).
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May 17, 2023 23:53
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At this point I don't care how an airport looks, I want to get on and off the plane and through passport control if necessary. Jose Marti, with the Soviet legacy, is very utilitarian but completely sufficient. Madrid T4 is a work of art, but designed by a raving sadist. So, I would lean toward the dreary-but-functional airports if I had to choose.
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May 18, 2023 00:27
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https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1658986422307635204 ... About in time for a possible next round. Hopefully they relocated it some....
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May 18, 2023 01:49
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OddObserver posted:https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1658986422307635204 The best Russia can do is another large missile attack in a couple of weeks to a month from now, based on their cadence of slow missile production or having to dig up old stock from some frozen bunkers in Siberia.
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May 18, 2023 02:01
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OddObserver posted:https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1658986422307635204 
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May 18, 2023 02:08
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Rad Russian posted:The best Russia can do is another large missile attack in a couple of weeks to a month from now, based on their cadence of slow missile production or having to dig up old stock from some frozen bunkers in Siberia. Well, they have a bunch of strategic bombers in the air, and they threw 5(?) sea-borne missiles at Odesa earlier in the day. I think it's likely the question of how low they are willing to let their stocks go.
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May 18, 2023 02:10
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I didn’t think of how much of a windfall for intelligence agencies this war could be. Apparently the CIA is being so bold as to recruit spies via propaganda videos, but tons of Russian officials and civil servants have got to be looking for better alternatives by this point if they haven’t skipped town already. https://youtu.be/LIKFMDPsd8g
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May 18, 2023 03:02
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wet_goods posted:I didn’t think of how much of a windfall for intelligence agencies this war could be. Apparently the CIA is being so bold as to recruit spies via propaganda videos, but tons of Russian officials and civil servants have got to be looking for better alternatives by this point if they haven’t skipped town already. Now I'm imagining geolocated google ads. Some Russian guy starts browsing Reddit and up pops a "In Debt? Need Vodka Money? We have the job for you! Visit www .cashforstatesecrets. gov today!" Fake edit: No, autoformat, that isn't an actual URL and I don't want to check if it's valid for many reasons.
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May 18, 2023 04:11
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Bremen posted:Now I'm imagining geolocated google ads. Some Russian guy starts browsing Reddit and up pops a "In Debt? Need Vodka Money? We have the job for you! Visit www .cashforstatesecrets. gov today!"
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May 18, 2023 05:50
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Bremen posted:Now I'm imagining geolocated google ads. Some Russian guy starts browsing Reddit and up pops a "In Debt? Need Vodka Money? We have the job for you! Visit www .cashforstatesecrets. gov today!" .gov domains can only be registered by the US government, so you don't need to worry about that  *I guess technically there could be a hacked DNS server or something but it's unlikely
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May 18, 2023 06:20
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Bremen posted:Now I'm imagining geolocated google ads. Some Russian guy starts browsing Reddit and up pops a "In Debt? Need Vodka Money? We have the job for you! Visit www .cashforstatesecrets. gov today!" current reality on all sides is not that far off of this
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May 18, 2023 06:37
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Herstory Begins Now posted:current reality on all sides is not that far off of this The FSB just runs War Thunder discords now.
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May 18, 2023 07:15
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ShadowHawk posted:Pretty sure Google stopped serving ads in Russia once the war started, along with everyone else. A lot of in-app ad networks operate from Singapore and happily take Russian business either directly or through intermediaries. Google ads are shut down but I've had Russian ads reach me on youtube even through VPN so you can arrange targeting if you really need to. If CIA were serious about recruting whistleblowers they unironically should have done the most blatant, short and direct trashy ads on gambling and porn sites that are not picky about the quality of ad traffic - those would have better chance to reach anyone than weepy short movies filmed in Lithuania.
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May 18, 2023 08:08
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fatherboxx posted:A lot of in-app ad networks operate from Singapore and happily take Russian business either directly or through intermediaries. Wagner already had ads on porn websites. Not sure how effective that ad campaign was. https://www.dailydot.com/debug/russia-wagner-group-pornhub-advertisements/
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May 18, 2023 10:23
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Rad Russian posted:The best Russia can do is another large missile attack in a couple of weeks to a month from now, based on their cadence of slow missile production or having to dig up old stock from some frozen bunkers in Siberia. They can always pull more missiles from strategic force stocks. Like they probably did for that strike.
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May 18, 2023 11:24
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quote:“We are the best loving private army in the world. We are recruiting fighters from all regions of Russia,” a female voice states. “Do not jerk off, but go to work in the PMC.” Best, huh?
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May 18, 2023 12:31
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Bremen posted:Now I'm imagining geolocated google ads. Some Russian guy starts browsing Reddit and up pops a "In Debt? Need Vodka Money? We have the job for you! Visit www .cashforstatesecrets. gov today!" They've been doing it for a while (or at least they were) - if you go on youtube, etc., in the vicinity of the Russian embassy in DC, you used to get ads appealing to embassy employees unhappy with the war to come talk to American authorities. Not sure if it is still going on.
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May 18, 2023 12:37
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Scratch Monkey posted:Best, huh? Best-loving
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May 18, 2023 12:48
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Tbf “you’ll get laid you big manly man you” is a primo recruiting tool for militaries since time immemorial
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May 18, 2023 13:09
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They're a bunch of wankers so the recruiting pool makes sense
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May 18, 2023 13:53
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Sekenr posted:If anyone is interested how is Belarus after 2 years away. what are people themselves saying
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May 18, 2023 14:06
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Scratch Monkey posted:Best, huh? NoFap Army
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May 18, 2023 18:16
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Quick q for the IK/mods lurking around: is cinci's weird rule about not being allowed to post the text of paywalled articles still in effect? I don't wanna eat a sixer for a Guardian article about life in occupied Mariupol a year on from Russian occupation just because it wants you to subscribe
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May 18, 2023 18:25
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HonorableTB posted:Quick q for the IK/mods lurking around: is cinci's weird rule about not being allowed to post the text of paywalled articles still in effect? I don't wanna eat a sixer for a Guardian article about life in occupied Mariupol a year on from Russian occupation just because it wants you to subscribe Guardian isn't paywalled though, you can just click through the subscribe nag and read the article. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/18/its-like-the-ussr-residents-on-life-in-mariupol-a-year-since-russian-occupation
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May 18, 2023 18:28
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HonorableTB posted:Quick q for the IK/mods lurking around: is cinci's weird rule about not being allowed to post the text of paywalled articles still in effect? I don't wanna eat a sixer for a Guardian article about life in occupied Mariupol a year on from Russian occupation just because it wants you to subscribe I am not against it but I think it is at forum mods discretion since it is copyrightable material
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May 18, 2023 18:32
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fatherboxx posted:I am not against it but I think it is at forum mods discretion since it is copyrightable material Thanks, I'll hold off til a mod weighs in because I wanted to get into a deeper discussion of the topic beyond what would fit in for the GBS thread Lum_ posted:Guardian isn't paywalled though, you can just click through the subscribe nag and read the article. Strange, it won't let me read anything after I hit 11 free articles read unless I VPN into another location
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May 18, 2023 18:33
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Some satellite photos from Bakhmut, one 5/8/2022 and one from 5/15/2023: https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1658890117061255172 The entire western side seems like it's just rubble now and basically every field is a moonscape.
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May 18, 2023 18:37
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WarpedLichen posted:Some satellite photos from Bakhmut, one 5/8/2022 and one from 5/15/2023: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/18/stark-before-and-after-images-reveal-the-obliteration-of-bakhmut
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May 18, 2023 18:40
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Hopefully it can be rebuilt quickly when Russia is finally kicked out of Ukraine. You can see the rebuilding of Grozny on Google Earth with the time slider and it was rebuilt pretty quickly. I think Russia rebuilt it as part of their suing for peace deal to get them out of Chechnya. 2002:  2009: 
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May 18, 2023 19:12
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Hell, look at pictures of Berlin or Tokyo in 1945 vs 1950
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May 18, 2023 19:50
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fatherboxx posted:Google ads are shut down but I've had Russian ads reach me on youtube even through VPN so you can arrange targeting if you really need to.
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May 18, 2023 19:54
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Remember the guy who leaked documents for discord cred? Well, looks like discipline may be as bad as compartmentlization in there: https://twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC/status/1659162367823863809
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May 18, 2023 19:58
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 23:01 |
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OddObserver posted:Remember the guy who leaked documents for discord cred? Well, looks like discipline may be as bad as compartmentlization in there: Yeah, there's a reason that unit was stood down and stripped of its mission. I imagine the unit commander's last meeting with his superior went something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onBZBAHB_ws
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May 18, 2023 20:23
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