It is very common to gamify everything, particularly if the platform itself is a gaming one! So be aware that all those tricks will be systematically used by the site owners and the programmers with the help of some strong marketing if they can afford it. Sites that have  long history may have perfected the techniques more than sites that are still exploring the behaviour of their clients.

You are right, I am not sure if the average player is that concerned with all those concepts such as probably fair or other. It think that it is much more about ensuring afully comprehensive experience including some of the best individuals serving as a client customer help and dialoguing with the users when that is needed. All the technicals are far less important.

Well, there are quite a few APIs out there and that is a bit of your own personal tastes and the skills of the team or individual that is going to produce the site and even a question of good marketing integration for search engines. My first instinct when developing a full new model is to go for a very lean development that can deliver a basic product to the marketing at minimal costs.

Again, a treaty imposed under threat -  a whole country subject to the Moscow government and waiting for the next invasion of their sovereign territory. Your argument is "all you have to accept is that we will tell you what you can or cannot do, else we will destroy your country" which is not really acceptable, or from Ukraine perspective, it is perfectly acceptable to say, "we will do with our country what is best for our future and our people, not for yours".

In fact that is the essence of having an independent country - choosing your destiny within a range of options and the limitations. There are many cases in history of Metropolis - Colony relationships and it is clear that colonies usually get the shorted end of the stick.

Bottom line, it is legitimate for a free country to choose the relations they wish to establish. In my view, all Moscow had to do was nothing. That would have prevented the war.

Please read carefully. It says (ironically) that surely they want to share it (I should have said "enhance it"?) - which is what would happen if the RF annexes Ukraine. That would be a nightmare scenario for Poland, NATO the EU and possibly the US. Not that Ukraine having a border with the RF is something to be liked, particularly if it joins the European Union.

Joseph Borrel, maximun EU diplomat, has recently said that the EU can no longer be a "herbivore" when all the rest are "carnivores". Maintaining an army is costly and also carries political risks of various types if it is  a large army. Western Europe is tired of wars and has reached (at least for now) the conclusion that it is much better to simply not go to war among them. Such costs are even larger if there is a substantially large border with the RF (and its aggressive junta) near the heart of the economically most significant regions of Europe -is going back to cold war.

I am not sure the level of knowledge here, but the wars in Europe have been devastating. A million wars waged in the middle ages, the Napoleonic wars, WW I, WW II, even more recently the Balcan wars... these have achieved nothing but death and economic loses and decline respect to US, China and the rest of the world. It would seen that Putin has read the wrong history books during COVID, as he seems to have forgotten the basic principles: Everytime that an European country has grown too strong, all the rest have allied to stop it. Th RF, in this context, is no different (except that is not even particularly strong, just manically aggressive under the current regime).

Nope, he did get something wrong. The price of having RF near Europe is unacceptable. If the RF destroys Ukraine, it will be rebuilt better.



The Ukrainian army has shown bravery, commitment and cohesion beyond what many would have thought possible. I cannot think of a better ally nor any other army that can answer more properly "I am the storm" to the devil's ear.


... while arguing that the dude actually is a "superior mind that has understanding beyond anything you can fathom"...


Of course, Poland is being the main corridor for supplies, weapons, training and has donated weapons of their own ex Soviet arsenal because they plan to invade Ukraine. Sounds like a tactic that could be copied and would fit perfectly in the current RF masterplan: Arm Ukraine before invading it. Shoigu are you there reading? Use this tactic pleeease.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/06/15/poland-has-given-ukraine-military-aid-worth-at-least-1-7bn-expects-allies-to-help-fill-the-gaps/


Also, yes sure, Poland wants to share a border with the RF. What could go wrong?

But that is something you and I do not get, because we are not in the path of the light like o48o and friends.

 Articles 4 and 5 are not automatic. These enlightened creatures think that NATO is like a robot, you press the button and it jumps.

This are the statistics for unexploded ordinance, just for the UK:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/471707/20150320-FOI-02246-Unexploded_Ordnance-Stats.pdf

Around 50 cases a year and this is not in Cambodia nor Laos nor a country in central Africa. It does happen and it particularly happens when working on agricultural tasks (second to construction of course). Poland was pretty much fought all over and the Russian army was there, so there is a case to consider. Mainstream media are speaking of missiles. Again the fragment in the picture is quite crude,  too large for a MANPAD I would say.

Russian made... yep, does not add anything. A fragment from an intercept, quite credible. A "precision" missile, yep also a valid hypothesis.

Not yet. An attack or an offensive action is usually met with a proportional response, so no time for Armageddon just yet. What could be a proportional response? The danger is escalation, but we are still a few meters apart from it.

Firstly the US and allies must make up their minds about what happened - my first instinct is that the target obviously does not make any sense and I am not sure there is anything in there that could be a target. A missile flying through half Ukraine must have been at some point detected?

Looking at the picture, it seems a vey small effect for a full missile detonating. You can see a small crater, even smaller than one from an arty shell, and a tractor that is not that badly damaged. Could have been a fragment or even WWII unexploded ordinance?

I guess their argument would be that they are actually winning it twice against Ukraine against themselves. I really hope that the soldier who allegedly wrote that is never found - even a honest complaint could be interpreted as treason. The more nervous they grow, the more are they going to repress every sign of dissent.

I am really surprised that any army has such a level of incompetence. We are not talking weapons or other things that are expensive, we are talking procedures and techniques which only require a little care.

Good argument, but is not a classification and I do not justify anything done to him (other than replacing him for someone who does not want to wage wars), I just got tired of they guy actually saying that others are the "Nazis", when is following the Reich manual better than Goering:

- Going into offensive on a "pan-Eslavic" motto (For Hitler it was the Anchslush, the pan-Germanism and, look at the coincidence, the "German speaking majority in Sudetenland and Austria".
- A very clear Russian supremacist policy. All regions are there to be used by the dominant ethnic Russians.
- Pretence of law, as long as "the Chiefs" decide it is not conveniet.
- Incarcerate political opposition (Nazis with the Communists in Germany, Putin with any opposition such as Navalny, but not only Navalny).
- And, not exclusively Nazi, but very Prussian: Put the citizens and the state to the service of the army instead of the opposite (nowcompulsory service on an offensive war).
- Using terror tactics against civilians (Nazis in Poland for example, the orcs in Bucha, Irpin, ... )
- Bombing cities trying to make the enemy surrender (Battle of Britain and yes, the US in Japan, etc...).
- Using the propaganda machine to keep the population ignorant (to the point of not calling this a war and sentencing those who dare!).

So, yes, Adolf Putin is not name calling nor a class, is a description ... or perhaps is that all tyrants end up looking the same.


You are a genius.

Are you aware that I use Adolf Putin in a negative way right? I mean, not sometimes, but more like in 3 of every 4 posts, it is impossible not to notice. I even wrote a few posts with my reasons to believe why Putin is actually acting like the Reich Nazis.

Apart from that, you are using the oldest propaganda tactic in history - you classify a person or a group as something undesirable, so that anything you do after that becomes justified (e.g. despicable Arab terrorist, Capitalist American, Wicked Hilary, traitor Spansky ...). It is only for simple minds like yours, most people in the internet era can pick this easily.



Ah, you looked hard to find that one uh? And worked hard on interpreting that as xenophobia as well by cutting the text:


My comment is very clear: many RF citizens (not only Russians) are trying to survive psychologically and trying not be part of Adolf Putin's clusterfuck and trying very hard not to feel like shit for being in the RF under this government of psychos. You are too, in your own stupid way calling names like a confused teenager and pretending that everything is going well and somehow there is a reason why 80.000 RF young men are dead and many more will be unless the madness stops. So you are very familiar with what I am saying, oh yes you are.


The topic is that you were brawling about Ukraine not being able to retake any substantial territory or city. You were wrong - do not worry, everyone gets things wrong sometimes and you are probably going to get many more so learn to live with it and do not hate yourself for it.

Of course you don't know why the "optimism". You do not know your enemy and you probably will never be able to - too long being a servant of the Psychos.

You think that Europe particularly supports Ukraine without any reason? You have not grasped even the basic concepts of the Ukrainian resistance and the international support. I am going to give you just one very practical and simple reason, there are many ethical and philosophical ones  - at the risk of trying to plant a seed in a rock:

 - Europe does not want to have a victorious RF army at the gates of Poland. The cost of that is much higher than supporting Ukraine's effort.

And on regards to Ukraine, obviously most Ukrainians would rather avoid being under the rule of Moscow. I am not sure you get it, so trust me on this one.

I am sure that even someone with a 5 year old brain like your, that throws Nazi here and Nazi there can understand that. The RF army is a threat and should have been stopped much earlier.

Reasons for optimism... well, it does not seem to be going that bad, you know...


Well, RF seems not keeping even that.

No, the RF has done that before - flattening whole cities like Aleppo, just to mention one.

Oh certainly, the worst enemy of the RF army is the culture and leadership of the RF army. The tactics that work for countries that have less support and less resources, like basically flattening any city to the ground and mass-graving population into submission, have failed against the determination and quite decent organisation of the Ukrainian army. I hope you are right, the strategy that has worked in the southwest may be used in other areas. The area near the Dnipro was particularly suited to a logistics cut-off, it may be more difficult to implement in other areas.

However other strategies may be possible and equally effective. The RF army has a couple strengths, but a million weaknesses.

With time, it is possible that better analysis of the battles and tactical situations becomes available. I am personally very interested in understanding tactics and strategy and wars (useless and detestable as they are) are possibly the ultimate expression of these. The war in Ukraine will be much more documented that any other war before.

The doings of the RF chief psychos will probably be in the same bag as the allied frontal assaults in WW I, Gallipoli, the US presence in Afghanistan and the Romanov's  army in WWI, Stalingrad for the Nazi army and countless historical strategic mistakes from Craso in Parthia to Napoleon coming back from his exile.

At the moment, all the east bank of the Dnipro seems to be falling progressively under Ukrainian control. There are rumours of RF soldiers being instructed of dressing as civils and get out however they can.

https://deepstatemap.live/en#8/47.021/33.937 This map usually gets it right.

I am waiting to see if Ukraine consolidates or intends to actually cross the Dnipro. It would be an extreme strategic risk to do so, but I am not sure if this is a full collapse or just a disorderly retreat.

There is a say in Spanish, "a enemigo que huye, puente de plata" - "give a silver lined bridge to a running enemy". My take is that Ukraine has renounced to damage Kherson even further while also renouncing to capture a few thousand RF soldiers. Would that have been possible? Would that have been a decisive hit to the RF army?

@Branko, you may be right in many of your appreciations on the US foreign policy and their general attitude to the world.The US craps periodically on whatever country is not doing their will, particularly when the Republican Party (which is linked to the oil cartels like a toe to a nail) is in power and has to return the financing favours.

None of that makes Putin's RF good for anything, none of that makes a government from Moscow good for Ukraine. Sometimes you have to choose between two not really good options. Given the track record of Putin and the RF government, and the general track record of using Ukraine to Chernobylize, Holodomor it, burn it to the ground to stop the enemy and using the Ukrainians as cannon fodder, I am sure you are not surprised that they are willing to put a fight to try something else.

I believe Ukraine has a future in Europe if they can progress towards a stronger rule of law and governance, and it is a much better one that anything that Putin can offer - not that he is offering anything.


This comes from the guy who wrote "once Trump wins the next election..." (congrats on the mid-terms  ). But again, just to humour your argument, in the hypothetical case that Zelensky is killed, nothing changes. Ukraine is not holding because of Zelensky, it is holding because there are many people willing to fight for their independence. As simple as that.

Now, if Ukraine loses the war, whatever that may mean for you, peace does not come. Ukraine is likely to keep an active resistance and Putin is certainly not stopping his invasion of Europe.

Peace only comes upon a notorious and clear defeat of the RF army beyond any excuse or possibility of make-up. The equilibrium that US and Europe are doing at the moment is making the RF army retreat, while not completely destroying it and not creating a situation in which Adolf Putin is removed from the genetic pool of the world, as that would create immense risks.

In all honesty, I am not sure if the US at this point has made a deal with Putin, Tordesillas Treaty style *left for me, right for you". I am going to keep believing that they want Ukraine to have a strong grip in Crimea and would consider great to have the influence of the RF fleet diminished as a minimum.

I am sceptic, but time will tell.

I just saw the last "public discussion" of the Chief Psychos speaking about how are they retreating from Kherson (to be confirmed) because they "want to save the lives of the RF soldiers". My conclusions about it:

- The soldiers would have been all right, they would have simply surrendered en-masse and probably marry some Ukrainian widows and live happily ever after free from Adolf Putin.
- The fact that they abandon the city means that the scarcity of cannon fodder is much more acute.
- They are trying to convince future recruits that they will be cared for.

All this points to very little depth in the front lines. The classic structures of reserves at 5, 15 and 30 kilometres are not being implemented, breaking RF's own tactical manuals and that is an indication of extreme weakness and lack of resources. They are very close to their "safe territory" and the supply bases.

I am really surprised if at this point anyone with an internet connection would join.

The black Fridays started being just for general shopping and then it came the cybermonday for electronics and the like. I wonder if the casinos could get all in an agreement and start promoting... I do not know, the PlayTuesday  Jokes apart, promotion should be taken very seriously, since the budget for gambling also competes with the rest of the expenses in leisure and entertainment.

Employees are just employees and in casinos and game platforms they are under intensive scrutiny. Just imagine that you had a CCTV pointing at you when you work, clients that are trying to scam from time to time, a clear set of instructions to play, very clear directives and, being honest, strong penalties if you do not follow the orders. It is more like being in an army if you think of it.

To be honest, the "bluff" is very spectacular when it happens and it always comes up in movies and stories that are told among friends. It is that extra that comes with being able to confuse the opponent, however it is very difficult to play with experienced opponents and the professional players will tell you that is so risky when bets are high that it is very rarely used.

I think that to learn poker you may start with a course or a book but later down the line you will need to have a good player at least telling you how to start learning the strategies and how a proper training is planned. Dedicated poker players spend as much time playing as chess Masters playing studying and using the computer to check alternatives and determine courses of action.

Nah, it looks quite the opposite. The labour market in the US is so strong that is nearly impossible to control inflation, but also there is still a problem with supply and is going to stay in there if China keeps the Zero COVID policies and shutting down cities and business.

So no short term Fed pivot and the BoE and ECB are not going to fall behind, since they want to keep at least parity and have even bigger inflation problems.