Russia wouldn’t even have had to capitulate, a white peace and some empty diplomatic gestures from Ukraine (like signing a piece of paper in which they promise to “denazify”), would have been enough to get a peace that Russia can sell at home. The classic power play of “we’re going home because we accomplished all objectives, we’re definitely not running away with our tail between our legs”. But Putin would rather see hundreds of thousands of Russians die, just so he can pretend one more year to never be wrong about anything.

From what I remember (it’s been over a decade since I read it), the southern hemisphere has much more water than the north.

Water is a great heat battery, especially deep oceans. And there’s a gigantic mass of water in the south. So in the summer it stays cooler because that mass of water can store a lot of energy, and in the winter it stays much warmer because the oceans slowly releases the heat that they have stored.

All that water mass is essentially “dampening” the climate extremes. And since ocean water also slushes around + evaporates in much greater mass than the little water on land, heat also gets redistributed better than on land.

So in short: more water = cooler in the summer + warmer in the winter.

It wasn’t really immediately, it was only under Pooh Bear that mainland China abandoned all pretenses and went full authoritarian in Hong Kong. China seems to be doing another great leap forward, again lead by a paranoid authoritarian leader who happens to be superb at politicking, but bad at governing. It’s as if history is doomed to repeat itself.

Edit: I somehow misspelled Hong Kong.

I still use Foxit 9.72 on my pc (which I don’t have open ATM, so I can’t check to be certain I gave the right version). I have tried newer versions, but there always was some kind of enshittyfication change that annoyed me and I always reverted back to that last good version.

I know “lab” is an abbreviation for Labrador (a dog) or laboratory. You probably meant lap. I was a bit confused at first, because it’s entirely plausible for a cat to sit on a dog :) Shuffling is walking without lifting your feet (also used for shuffling a deck of cards), you probably meant “brushed”.

That said: it often seems like they take us for granted, but you can’t not love the little bastards :D

I would really love an international language with consistent spelling and where the spelling matches the pronunciation. For me the chosen language doesn’t have to be artificial, but the selection process should be: a scientific choice based on consistency, ease of learning, clarity in meaning, … Everyone who knows a few languages, knows English is probably the worst choice when it comes to these objective criteria.

It’s like the system of measurement: leave it to the people and we’d all still be using wacky thumbs, feet and elbows for measuring, but smart people came together in France (a few times) and now we have an easy to understand consistent system of measurement.

I don’t think there’s an “at this point”, rather it’s something he’s always tried doing. Corrupt authoritarians/fascists constantly try to push the boundaries and once they go too far, they either go “it was a joke/accident/misunderstanding” or they double down on it. Putin doubled down the last time he went too far, I wonder what Netanyahu will do.