Regarde Aduck posted:

isn't it only the US where apple has a huge market share, it's like 20%-30% everywhere else?

Regarde Aduck posted:

isn't it only the US where apple has a huge market share, it's like 20%-30% everywhere else?

In Training posted:

Why does iOS have 99.5% market share in dprk????

In Training posted:

Why does iOS have 99.5% market share in dprk????

In Training posted:

Why does iOS have 99.5% market share in dprk????

stephenthinkpad posted:

TIL there is a country called Jersey, uhh

In Training posted:

Why does iOS have 99.5% market share in dprk????

stephenthinkpad posted:

TIL there is a country called Jersey, uhh

Sapozhnik posted:

My father complained at one point that vegetables in the Brezhnev era had so much nitrate in them that they would cause cancer and that people would have to buy edible vegetables on the black market or something like that.

Cerebral Bore posted:

this raises the question of where exactly these non-nitrated vegetables are coming from, especially in sufficient quantities to be competitive with the legal market

Regarde Aduck posted:

they're mostly known for collaborating with the Germans in ww2

Megamissen posted:

i would like to know more about this

Horseshoe theory posted:

Most of those places are tax shelters.

CODChimera posted:

for real though, anyone know a decent place to get neutral updates and maps?

quote:

Researcher about possible sabotage on the Ofot line: - A targeted signal to deter us

The Ofot line can be a favored target for strangling, among other things, Norwegian industry. - They can target our interests without triggering Article 5, says a researcher at the Norwegian Naval Academy.

Bot 02 posted:

People in the west are unable to grasp that things here are poo poo because of reasons that are entirely our own faults, instead it has to be sinister Russian sabotage.

I want to bring up a recent example from my own country. A train carrying iron ore along an important rail line derailed and the news were quick to point at the Russians:

https://www.nrk.no/nordland/ofotbanen-stengt-igjen-_-blir-etterforsket-som-sabotasje-1.16779974

A month later it became clear that the Norwegian railway network agency had known that there was a problem with this rail line for a long time but just hadn't fixed it lol

Truga posted:

Starsfan posted:

The fact that the proposed timeline for the procurement and the delivery of the shells keeps getting moved back should raise some eyebrows.. originally they were supposed to start arriving near the beginning of March if I remember correctly

Still.. they announced a dollar amount so maybe there is something there

Bot 02 posted:

People in the west are unable to grasp that things here are poo poo because of reasons that are entirely our own faults, instead it has to be sinister Russian sabotage.

I want to bring up a recent example from my own country. A train carrying iron ore along an important rail line derailed and the news were quick to point at the Russians:

https://www.nrk.no/nordland/ofotbanen-stengt-igjen-_-blir-etterforsket-som-sabotasje-1.16779974

A month later it became clear that the Norwegian railway network agency had known that there was a problem with this rail line for a long time but just hadn't fixed it lol

quote:

The derailments on the Malmbanan - now Säpo is connected
Updated February 27, 2024 Published February 27, 2024

The ore line has been hit by two train derailments in Vassijaure in a short time. The police are investigating the case under the criminal classification of suspected sabotage and Säpo is also involved.

Already at the first of the two recent train clock derailments on Malmbanan, in December, the police opened an investigation into suspected sabotage.

- These are quite serious events that affect the infrastructure quite significantly, says Karin Markaberg, head of section at the police in Norrbotten and explains that it is a routine measure.

It is unclear whether a crime has been committed

If it is the case that there is something to indicate that it is actually sabotage, Karin Markaberg cannot say
a.–

At present, we have not come so far that we can say anything. But we don't have anything that concretely points to that, says Markaberg.
The security police engaged

SVT has spoken to Säpo, which confirms that it is cooperating with the police regarding the latest derailment.

- In general, we cooperate closely and often, so also regarding the derailment on the Malmbanan, says Gabriel Wärnstedt, press spokesperson at Säpo.

quote:

Russia has no designs on any Nato country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic but if the west supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, president Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday, reports news agency Reuters.

Speaking to Russian air force pilots, Putin said the US-led military alliance had expanded eastwards towards Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union but that Moscow had no plans to attack a Nato state.

“We have no aggressive intentions towards these states,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript released on Thursday.

“The idea that we will attack some other country – Poland, the Baltic States, and the Czechs are also being scared – is complete nonsense. It’s just drivel.”

Ardennes posted:

The big complaint is usually cars (which are priced in international terms) and electronics, in particular, usually people have to buy a budget Chinese phone rather than the latest iphone.

Telluric Whistler posted:

Very high market share (50%+) in Anglo and Nordic countries, plus Taiwan and HK if you break them out as markets

It's basically a luxury good and you could probably find similar correlation for like... BMW/Tesla ownership or per capita consumption of Fiji/Evian/San Pellegrino

I think there's also absolutely bonkers numbers (90%+) in Pacific islands but similar to why 85% of cars there are Priuses it's likely because they're the market for 3rd generation refurbished goods

quote:

It’s time we talked about the fall of Kyiv

Far from this being a frozen conflict, a nightmare scenario is edging into view because the West is failing to send arms

It is July and the Russian army is at the gates of Kyiv. President Zelensky delivers an emergency broadcast to repeat his defiant words, first uttered in February 2022, that he does not need a ride out of Ukraine. No, he needs ammunition to stay and fight the Russians.

If only the West had listened and done more when the brave Ukrainians were pleading for help, that might have made the difference. While the allies squabbled and the United States eventually provided another $60 billion in aid, as spring turned to summer, Putin’s troops broke through the lines in the south and east. Retreating Ukrainian forces were able only to slow the advance. When the Russians closed in on the capital, a new wave of refugees fled Ukraine seeking safety from incessant bombardment.

This is the nightmare scenario now being contemplated by western policymakers. Events are forcing military and civilian leaders in London, Washington, Paris and Brussels to map out the catastrophic collapse of Ukrainian forces denied the weapons and munitions they need.

Contrary to the predominant view that this is a perpetual “frozen conflict”, with neither side able to win a decisive advantage, the front line is bitterly contested and there is a real risk of Ukrainian forces being pushed back. Nato leaders must hope their gathering in Washington in July for a summit celebrating the 75th anniversary of the alliance is not consumed by such a crisis.

Only a year ago, it was all very different. The hope then was of a Ukrainian spring offensive that would reclaim territory. That didn’t work and, as the American magazine Foreign Affairs put it this week, “Ukraine is bleeding. Without new US military assistance, Ukrainian ground forces may not be able to hold the line against a relentless Russian military.”

The governments who support Ukraine most strongly are clearly worried and considering even the worst scenarios. The US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has issued several warnings that Ukraine is running out of money, while urging Congress to pass the aid bill that is stuck amid legislative infighting. The US risked being responsible for Ukraine’s defeat, she said.

A Russian advance would obviously be disastrous for the Ukrainians. It would also confront the West with all manner of tough challenges. Would the allies send troops to defend Kyiv? President Macron has clearly sensed the danger and is trying to steer the West towards a more muscular approach by raising the possibility of ground troops. Other countries, such as Germany, strongly object. When will the message be finally understood that peace for European populations is guaranteed only by strength? When Ukraine falls and Putin moves on to menacing the Baltics, Poland, Finland, Sweden or Norway?

No one who is a supporter of Ukrainian self-determination against Russian barbarism wants this nightmare scenario to come true. Yet the stakes are so high. We have to be aware of the terrible price of defeat.
I’m for maximum military support on the basis that Ukraine must win. The consequences of a partial or complete defeat would be calamitous in ways western populations have barely begun to understand. But we have a lazy habit in the comfortable West — away from Europe’s front line in east and south Ukraine — of wishful thinking and being unprepared for bad surprises.

Indeed, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a surprise to most countries. The US and British governments ran a public campaign in the run-up to warn their allies. Few listened, apart from Finland, Poland and the Baltic states, where they know what it means to live next door to an expansionist Russia. Elsewhere, it was fashionable to dismiss this as the Americans and the Brits getting it wrong again. Remember Iraq?

Ahead of Ukraine, the Biden administration was scarred by having failed to foresee the instant collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021 when US forces left. Then the early phases of the war produced another extraordinary surprise. Zelensky’s refusal to leave Kyiv demonstrated the power of the individual in history to set an example of resistance that is followed by his fellow citizens.

Those are three enormous surprises in less than three years and it can happen again. Yet, weary western public opinion appears to have settled into a view that although we’re helping the Ukrainians to defend their homeland, they are stuck in an impossible stalemate before what is most likely to be some kind of “peace” deal fixing the current lines of combat. And then we can think about something else.

Polling conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations in January in 12 countries suggested that only 10 per cent of voters think Ukraine can win. Some 37 per cent thought that a compromise was most likely and 19.5 per cent thought that Russia would win in the end.

Scenarios other than military defeat are available, of course. There could be a coup in Russia or a newly elected President Trump might seek to impose a ceasefire and de facto Ukrainian surrender. Perhaps Ukraine holds on and Europe gets its act together, using the clout of a GDP ten times bigger than Russia with a population three and a half times larger.

As it is, we are in danger of losing sight of one of the main lessons of Ukraine’s war. Retreating to the post-Cold War complacency about European security is not an option. We need to think entirely differently about how dangerous the threats are, arm ourselves accordingly, prepare for the worst and at best hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Leandros posted:

Kim Jong Un bought a Pixel but didn't like it and so he bought 199 iPhones

Raskolnikov38 posted:

if kyiv falls can we all go back to calling it Kiev

my bony fealty posted:

all those restaurants that changed their menu to chicken kyiv are gonna look so stupid