Russia requests that Germany recognize the Siege of Leningrad and other WWII war crimes as genocide

Broke: the Russian government is illegitimate because Putin wins 85% of the vote and has no serious challenger

Woke: the Russian government is illegitimate because a supermajority of citizens and a majority of republics voted to retain the Soviet Union and its dissolution was an illegal act counter to the will of the people

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So where’s the international show of support for the Russian people in the aftermath of this attack? Have we lit up buildings with the Russian flag? Where’s the “je suis Russia”?

Another study finds that Havana Syndrome is still fake

TOPPLE. BEHEAD.

Argentina’s government rules out free dengue vaccine despite record deaths

Presidential Spokesperson Maneul Adorni says there is no plan to make Dengue vaccine free and compulsory to citizens despite a record number of deaths this year.

President Javier Milei’s government will not include a vaccine for Dengue fever in its national vaccination calendar. Speaking at a press conference in Buenos Aires on Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni shot down suggestions that the state would make the jab free and compulsory to citizens despite a record number of deaths this year.

Adorni, who also questioned the vaccine’s effectiveness, said talks over its inclusion on the national vaccination calendar are “not on the agenda,” though the decision could be revisited in the future. “Immunity is achieved over time, so vaccinating now would mean that immunity will be achieved in four months, where the mosquito is no longer a problem, even though its effectiveness has not been proven,” said Adorni.

Argentina has seen 79 deaths from dengue over the last eight months, 69 of which have been registered since the turn of the year. In the past week, 22 people have died after infection from the virus. Infection numbers are soaring. So far in 2024, more than 102,000 cases have been reported, which is 86 percent of the 120,000 cases registered in total, another record.

Milei said in an interview last Sunday that the dengue crisis is “part of Kirchnerism’s negligence” – a reference to the government which preceded his in office. He accused them of “not having run a good campaign a year ago.”

For those seeking vaccination, the TAK-003 vaccine, also known as Qdengam, produced by the Japanese laboratory Takeda, is available in Argentina privately. Each dose against the virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, costs about 70,000 pesos (about US$80 at the official exchange rate), while the minimum wage is set at 202,800 pesos (USS$232).

Eduardo López, an infectious disease doctor at the Buenos Aires Children’s Hospital, contradicted Adorni’s remarks. “Studies show that vaccines are safe and effective,” he told the C5N news channel.

Andrea Gamarnik, a virologist, specialist in the dengue virus and researcher at the CONICET scientific research institute, denounced on the X social network that Argentina is “in the worst dengue epidemic in history” but that experts are not “allowed to work” because, she believes, the government is dismantling the scientific system.

A month ago, tens of thousands of people around the world shared videos of mosquito swarms in Argentina. That particular one was an invasion of Aedes Albifasciatus, a species that grows especially after the rains and in open, grassy places, unlike Aegypti, which grows mainly in cities and spreads Zika and chikungunya as well as dengue.

Both my mother and sister have dengue, both had serious fever but are now recovering. Hospitals wont give them tests, stating that “they don’t have any” or are reserved for some special cases. “Come back tomorrow” they say. So far I’ve been able to avoid the disease, but I work in the streets so it’s a matter of time one of these little fuckers bite me.

Also, oncologic patients are getting their help completely shut down by the government, leaving them to fend off by themselves against predatory pharma practices. The state decided to fuck off and the market will never help, we’re all being left alone.

I try to mask it all off with some jokes and whatever, try to sound positive. But deep down I’m reaching a breaking point. Everywhere I look there’s misery, hunger and desperation and it’s all catching up to me.

Nasrallah thanks the people that voted uncommitted in the Dem primaries

It is believed more than half of Brits have been exposed to conspiracy theories about Princess Kate.

Payton said the Russians have likely helped to fuel the cruel online storm which has been circulating around the Royal Family in recent weeks.

The Sun last week called on the world to “Lay Off Kate” after she was criticised for editing her Mother’s Day family photo - before vile fake tales started spreading.

Why is the royal family allowing Russian propaganda to dominate the news cycle when Kate could just like hold up todays newspaper?

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I wanted to write a short primer on missile terminology at the start of the week, but my phone deleted most of it so I ran out of energy. Here it is again.

#Aerodynamics: Hypersonic: Technically a buzzword, but is regarded at Mach 5 (aka 5x the speed of sound). In US Military terms, this refers to a weapon that can perform maneuvers at this speed above. Ballistic missiles travel at above hypersonic speeds or above by virtue of all their other properties, but don’t fill the US military definition as they don’t do maneuvers in response to incoming fire. Even the original V2 approached hypersonic speeds. This speed makes the weapon difficult to intercept, as there’s less time to intercept and any change in direction is “larger” for the purposes of interception. However, most cruise missiles and anti-tank missiles are not hypersonic, and are even subsonic. Hypersonic velocities introduce some aerodynamic and physical/mechanical complications that slowly increase depending on the local air pressure and multiple of the speed of sound. As a counter-example, a Mach 10 projectile 60 km above the Earth’s surface will not produce the same plasma envelope or heat as the same profile projectile 2 km above the Earth’s surface. Be wary when seeing this term in the media, it sometimes refers to ballistic missiles, which is nothing special unless they can course correct.

Supersonic: An actual technical term that means above the speed of sound in a given context. You know this. At sea level (and for many military applications), this is roughly 340 meters a second (1200 kmph or 760 mph). There are a bunch of aerodynamic qualities that change around this speed. I say around as air flowing past a bit sticking out (say, a wing, or radio antenna etc) will cause air to flow faster than the speed of sound, creating lateral forces that affect the vehicle (vehicle: plane, missile, bullet etc). Those lateral forces mean a vehicle will want to be solidly above or below the supersonic threshold. The lower the air pressure (usually, the further up) reduces the speed of sound, but also reduces the supersonic effects (to zero, as you slowly go up into the stratosphere). For long ranged air-lining, a higher altitude where your jet engines still run is better, but for other purposes it varies a lot.

Subsonic: Slower than the speed of sound. You are this, probably.

Missile Types: Ballistic Missile: A vehicle (plane, missile, or bullet) that follows approximately a ballistic trajectory. Usually, such a vehicle will expend all of its fuel on the way up (at most), and rely on orbital mechanics to maintain its speed on the way down. Longer ranged ones will avoid the Earth’s atmosphere for a lot of the journey. This means that such a vehicle will be very speed<->weight/fuel efficient. If it isn’t striking a moving target, it also needs the least amount of redirection by weight. Its main disadvantages are that its very easy to detect by RADAR, since it by definition goes over the horizon very far away, and that it can get difficult to course correct for many reasons. As the air pressure goes down due to altitude, your aerodynamic surfaces matter less. As the pressure and speed increase, both heat and RADAR are less effective on the way down. Nonetheless, they are very hard to shoot down. Famous examples: V2 Rocket, Iskander, Kinzhal, and ATACMs. They’re also cheaper per range/weight.

Cruise Missile: A missile that follows the curvature of the Earth (instead of ballistic trajectory), usually powered by a jet Engine and are usually subsonic. Compared to Ballistic missiles, they’re easier to guide and harder to detect by RADAR. However, once they are detected, they are easier to shoot down. They can even be chased and engaged with fighter aircraft. Some of them have a lower powered RADAR that lets them follow terrain up and down, making their visibility extremely low when going cross-country. Cruise missiles have an ascending, descending, and a cruise trajectory, and generally behave like a plane (indeed, the original Kamikazes planes were called early cruise missiles, but the V1 is closer to what we’d call a cruise missile). They have similar vulnerabilities to planes. Various methods of making them harder to shoot down, coating them in RADAR absorbing paint, making them faster during one stage (often descent, for things like the Zircon), RADAR following terrain, Jinking maneuvers on descent, hardened noses etc. Famous examples include the V1 Buzz-bomb, Tomahawk Missile, Zircon… Anti-ship missiles are often a variation of this, flying lower and with less range but otherwise performing the same function.

Missile: Much talk of missiles, traditionally it means something that isn’t powered in flight (e.g. an arrow, rock, bullet etc), but nowadays means an unmanned powered flight weapon (e.g. a cruise missile, ballistic missile etc). Nonetheless, it is always separated from the operator and firing mechanism, as is tradition.

Anti-Aircraft Missile: The Ballistic and Cruise Missiles usually go to destroy battlefield assets of one sort or another. AA missiles specifically destroy missiles and aircraft. They tend to be the fastest rocket powered missiles for their size. Things like the Patriot or the S-500 are AA missiles, and are capable of catching up to and destroying other missiles even if the other missile has passed the launch point. The tend to fly in a straight-ish line, always heading for the predicted trajectory of the target.

Drone: Often powered by an electric motor, subsonic, and intended to loiter in the battle space until needed, as opposed to launched for mission. Blurry term.

Motors:

Rockets: Rockets are high power per weight, high power per time, and extremely cheap. Their disadvantages are running time and they are less able to be controlled (there are fuel rockets, but that’s generally outside the scope of a military context). They are mostly used on Ballistic and AA missiles, and the final portion of some cruise missiles. The smallest missiles (MANPADS, MANPAT?, etc) also tend to use rockets for their simplicity, tolerance to size, and cheapness.

Jet Engines: Jet Engines offer very high power to weight ratio, weight to range, and medium efficiency. They’re usually found on cruise missiles and aircraft. Some cruise missiles final stage may seem like they attain rocket-like velocities, but in-fact use scramjets to attain this velocity. They tend to be very high cost for all dimensions (range, efficiency, volume etc), but fulfill a niche in between traditional combustion engines and rockets.

Piston Engines: Outside the scope of missiles and aircraft nowadays, though they used to be used in aircraft. They are cheap, have high tolerances and fuel efficiency, and can adjust their power for a purpose very well. They tend to be quite heavy for their power output though. Poor torque at low RPS compared to all other engine types. We don’t see these on missiles or aircraft atm and I don’t see it except in some extremely niche cases.

Electric Motors: These tend to be somewhere around Jets and Pistons, though they tend to have quite high weights to volume and power. They offer very high torque at low RPS compared to jets and lots of power variability, and much lower mechanical complexity compared to equivalent Jet and Piston designs. As the line between missile and drone gets blurred, I imagine we’ll see this blurred. However, for the time being, if something is electrically powered and seems like a missile, it is a “drone”.

Motor vs Engine: Motor provides motive force generally, engine provides motive force with internal combustion. Colloquially, these are pretty interchangeable. However, if you need to… Steam Engine, Jet Engine, Electric Motor, Pressure Motor. Usually, this is rotary. Rocket engines, despite being a combustion system, often get called motors.

Guidance systems:

RADAR: The standard method of tracking aerial targets and sea targets. Metal reflects Radio very well compared to air or water, or even soil, so this can be tracked very easily. Sometimes, especially for smaller projectiles (e.g. AA guns), the RADAR is on the ground and the projectiles pull into the reflection from the target until they are close enough. Missiles can also track into such a reflection; Semi-homing RADAR (Fox-1). For larger systems, a RADAR array can be mounted on the projectile (active homing RADAR, Fox 3). This is used in civil and military aviation constantly, but can also be used for reversing your car, speed detectors etc. Can be jammed, but not as easily as you’d think.

Infrared/thermal/heat-seeking: (Fox 2) The main method other than RADAR for tracking aerial targets. Aircraft tend to run hot. Thus, an infrared camera can track a projectile into a target for much cheaper. Most military aircraft carry flares to guide heat-seeking projectiles away, to varying degrees of success. This also tends to be pretty short ranged; infra-red gets soaked up by the atmosphere pretty quickly. Also, for faster missiles, the nose cone gets hotter as the velocity increases, which reduces the ability of thermal optics to see any target.

Manual or external guidance: Receiving data from somewhere else to guide the missile. Wire-guiding on anti-tank weapons is a classic method of this, however the modern Dong Feng uses transmissions from an AWACS to guide to target. These tend to vary quite wildly and their counter-systems also.

Aerodynamic Control: Uses fins and wings to control the direction of movement. Only applicable for low altitude missiles, and less applicable for supersonic vehicles (but not inapplicable, you just have to design around it)

Gyroscopic Control: Stabilisation control that allows you to adjust heading based on previous velocity. Used in conjuction with other controls.

Vectored Thrust Control: Uses thrust from the Motors to control the direction of movement. The only valid method of control when outside the atmosphere.

I’ve seen a lot of takes lately about ISIS being essentially a US asset at this point. Tracks with what I know of US methods historically, but wondering if anybody has anything substantive or specific on this.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro is indicted for first time over alleged falsification of his own vaccination data

Talking to a red fash from a former eastern block country is so disorienting.

Them: Immigrants are taking up all our housing.

Me: Actually housing problems are a result of housing being treated as a vehicle for profit

Them: I agree, commie blocks were good, the market can’t handle housing properly

Me: So???

Them: Immigrants are taking up all our housing.

It’s basically just the Patrick wallet meme.

tempted to download tiktok as a show of my support to the Peoples Republic of China