Palacegalleryratio [he/him]

I’m guessing India either doesn’t actually stop, or starts buying a very similar quantity of oil from Kazakhstan that definitely isn’t Russian, no, don’t think too hard about it.

-Get off social media, comparison is the thief of joy. People post their best moments and they make them look better than they are in reality. It’ll make you feel bad or FOMO and subconsciously damage your confidence and happiness. The insidious thing is even though we all know social media is fake, our lizard brain deep down doesn’t so even though you know it’s all bullshit your subconscious reads it as real. Best thing to do is to get off it completely but that can be impossible socially so limit your time and exposure to it. Use it to make real world plans with friends and then call it quits for the day.

-You’re young, now is the best time to increase your bone density! Work out, lift weights, train with a weighted vest. Do so safely and your bones will thank you, that way when you’re in your 80s you won’t be so brittle. A broken hip is a life changing event- and not for the better!

-Start to play a team sport, football, netball, hockey, baseball whatever. If you git gud now as teen you’ll have the confidence to join your chosen sports amateur club in whatever city or town you end up in though your life, it’s a cheat code. You get to move to a new place and immediately have 5+ mates who are local. That’s SO good. If you can’t find a team sport, try getting into running, and join a running club, same reason, but team sports are better for bonding.

What the fuck… are you me? See my comment. I’ve never seen (heard?) anyone else with this ringtone!

It was the ringtone from Crank for a while… but now I haven’t a clue what my ringtone is - whatever came by default on my phone. I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally turned it off silent.

The first Transporter is a genuinely good film, the 2nd is also pretty decent. But I’m not sure the third and 4th are worth the time of day.

I do not believe so! They’re not superhero films, are you thinking of Unbreakable?

Con Air is an amazing “Sunday evening after eating too much dinner” film.

I’ve not seen it since it came out but Crank (2006) is a terrible, dumb action comedy that has no right being that entertaining. It’s sequel Crank High Voltage is less good but also still enjoyable. I should rewatch them see if that’s rose tinted glasses or not!

Yes and no.

Doing pull-ups will make you stronger, but it’s lats and biceps, if you’re wanting to be a boxer they aren’t the most important muscles to target. Also at a point you’ll be training endurance not strength. You’ll need to add weight to overload.

Losing fat through cardio. Ehhh… like technically yes. Practically though not really. It’s really hard to out-train a bad diet. Losing fat is something best done in the kitchen not the gym. Problem is losing fat requires a callorie deficit, and gaining muscle requires a surplus. It is possible to do both but you’re really fighting biology. Do do cardio though - it’s its own benefit. Better lungs and heart is so important for everything else.

Yeah training will work endurance. Much like strength. But the way you train for the two is different. You can train both but again it’s non optimal.

The good news is that as you’re just starting out the gains should come easy so you don’t need to be optimal just yet. Keep it up and decide what you want to be your goals. Then build a focused training plan for those goals. You don’t have to do it forever either. You can initially try lose fat, then pivot into strength training, then pivot into endurance or back to fat loss or whatever suits your goals at the time.

Mr Sumlenny said German post-war thinking plays a role too. “They were designed by a generation of German manufacturers that hadn’t seen war, and so tended to overcomplicate the system. “Older systems, designed in the 1960s by those who actually saw war, are far more useful on the battlefield but have weaker armour.”

Yeah but Rheinmetall can’t charge the government megabucks for a simple system can it? They have to justify bumping another 0 on the end of the price somehow, an increase in complexity is the perfect way to do this.

That was a really good video!

If a fascist man, who nazi salutes at public events and who publicly supports nazi and fascist aligned governments around the world cannot be called a nazi, who can?

I have also heard this line of thinking, it’s very dark and does not paint a hopeful picture for the emancipation of humanity. But I kind of see the logic to it. Europe doesn’t have the martial strength to impose a European empire, especially not in the face of the American war machine. Nor does it have the economy to make one, especially with neoliberalism ripping the copper out the walls of European economies preventing reinvestment and industrialisation (see: the Bank Of England’s policy of quantitative tightening ruining the plans of the uk Labour Party, and all of Europe’s industrial capital looting its own assets).

In this proposed reality Europe must look to the other powers, America being the default choice, but an increasingly unfriendly one, does Europe fancy itself being an extraction zone for an exploitative empire? The boot on the other foot for them. To look the other way, would BRICS even be interested in Europe coming cap in hand? Maybe, but certainly not with terms Europe wouldn’t be too proud to accept. However individual BRICS countries maybe. Russia - a weird one, some countries may be happy to side with them (Germany possibly would consider it in a role as Russias workshop?) but I don’t see other countries like Poland going that way without a fight. China - too remote, too far away and too hated by most of Europe, maybe some nations like Turkey could look to them though. Brazil? Surely too busy with the American empire to its north to have time for Europe. South Africa - who knows? It’s a very different future to the one we grew up in.

If Trump starts an inter nato war or just dissolves nato due to America invading one of the other founding members, that’s going to be the biggest geopolitical win for America’s enemies who won’t have to lift a finger.

Well the way to avoid dust is to not have any soft furnishings including carpets and rugs because they shed fibres that form dust, not have any clothing, because that also sheds fibres and forms dust, not have any skin because that sheds and forms dust, also have no hair, pets, unsealed surfaces, open windows, wear outside shoes inside, etc etc…

But if the above sounds too tricky then yeah the alternative is you just have to vacuum, mop and clean. I hoover several times a week, my partner dusts roughly weekly. It sucks. Entropy is a cruel mistress. But the upside is, having less dust in the house a) looks cleaner, b) is better for your respiratory system. So it’s worth doing, especially if you have someone in the house with something like asthma that would make them more sensitive.

Haven’t you heard? China is collapsing the same collapse that the west has been wrongly predicting since the 90s…

Western economists keep doing the “Ah! Well. Nevertheless, ” thing about Chinas economy that Libs do regarding Trump’s legal Teflon.

“They can make cheap junk, but can’t compete with high tech manufacturing” - they are now better at high tech manufacturing.

“They’re building railway infrastructure they can’t afford” - they could afford it and now their railways are world leading.

“Their housing market is a bubble” - they just nationalised the companies and make houses for homes not for commodities

“They can compete on high tech manufacturing but not do their own designs” - their own designs are now eating western designers markets (electric cars anyone?)

“Western investment in china is drying up, which will slow their advances” - Chinese state investment makes up the slack

“Global demand is slowing” - the domestic market is growing

Etc… etc… etc…

looking at a Jewish guy thinking “well the antisemitism charge isn’t going to stick…”

Then having the brainwave:

“wait, antizionism, is this… terrorism?!?”

By German industry I really meant German post industrial financial capital e.g. the automobile finance companies who incidentally make cars. Not German steel producers.

And in fairness Germany tried its hardest to keep importing cheap Russian energy for as long as possible, despite American requests. I’d say that was probably why America blew up Nordstream2. So I wouldn’t precisely say they enthusiastically chose to sanction Russia.

Also German car manufacturers have been moving car manufacturing out of Germany and even Europe wherever possible (profitable) for decades. It’s not (only) manufacturing costs that’s holding them back. They’re failing to compete as their cars are overpriced and out of date. This was true before Ukraine war. They’re simply uncompetitive. That’s why Chinese car manufacturers are having their breakfast. They’re providing newer cars, with new platforms new styling and new drive trains, with new infotainment and new comfort tech all at better prices.

On the back of VW profits dropping 60% the EU is protecting German industry at all costs. Even if it means preventing the wider adoption of electric vehicles and keeping them out of reach of poor people.

Ok so you do accept that history can provide legitimate motives for an event?

Ukraine did not invade Russia

Cmon you’re almost there, one nations invasion isn’t the only thing that could justify another nations invasion. Other acts of violence across the border of another nation could be legitimate grounds for an invasion too.

And to the second part, so to your logic, every country that is weaker than a neighbour should just let them in taking all the land?!

Again, I literally did not say that, that’s your logic not mine. I don’t believe in nations full stop. It’s a very dumb concept that seeks to divide and control. I believe all nations should be dissolved and we should all live in stateless queer communist paradise.

But…

How I think the world should be is irrelevant. What I believe other countries should and shouldn’t do is irrelevant. This is idealism. Idealism is nonsense.

The only thing that matters is the material reality of a situation. The material reality is nations exist. Nations use violence to further their interests. Some nations are stronger than others. Some nations band together in defensive pacts to prevent aggression from larger neighbours. Some strong nations band together in pacts to assert their will and control over weaker nations and dole out violence with impunity. Whether anyone should or shouldn’t do these things is neither here nor there, the simple fact of the matter is that they do engage in these actions, therefore what matters is how you react to the current situation. And the material reality of the Ukraine war, as it is right now, is that Ukraine will lose and Russia will win. So what is your desired course of action given the existing material reality?