[BREAKING] News Thread

[Moonface]

For anyone curious, here's what was left of the wreckage from that Titan sub that won a Darwin award last week: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66045554

To give context on the images, everything seen was on the outside of the pressurized hull, which meant the pressure on those pieces equalized as it descended whereas everything inside the hull was at a different pressure. I also love this statement from OceanGate:

In a statement last week, OceanGate said it was "an extremely sad time for our employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss".

I wouldn't be grieving as an employee that my imbecile of a CEO decided to get this death trap built and then died in it. Out of everyone who went on this thing I'm honestly glad this guy was one of them considering it is entirely his fault in the first place instead of just sending other people down in it on this voyage while he stayed topside.

[Maniakkid25]

For those that don't know, the submersible was apparently largely constructed of carbon fiber. This legitimately made my eyes bulge out like a cartoon when I saw that headline! Carbon fiber is notoriously a strong, lightweight material, but has the well-documented tendency to fail absolutely catastrophically. See, unlike metals, carbon fiber is very brittle, and brittle things tend to not bend or buckle, but immediately break apart when they fail. This is why ceramics are so dangerous; they don't buckle in response to overstressing it, meaning you just have no warning. This is why we don't have things like carbon fiber construction beams. So, when the sub finally failed, the people inside had basically no warning; it gave way and instantly collapsed. A titanium sub or similar construction would have crunched a bit before failing, which would have been heard, giving them potentially the chance to resurface before destruction.

While I feel bad for the other people there, thank god the CEO was the test monkey for this rig, so he learned the hard way that when people say "this is a bad idea", he should listen. Shame he won't be able to actually make use of that. Fuck him.

[ShiraNoMai]

My favorite part was the choice to use that carbon fiber was because the dude got it at a massive discount from airline manufacturers who deemed them no longer suitable for aircraft construction. I swear there's nothing but air between rich people's ears.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah, I can just imagine them reading up about how strong carbon fiber is but stop before the information goes on to say how bad it really is for something like a freaking sub. Yeesh. RIP to the rest of the crew though.

[Maniakkid25]

So, this is a few weeks old by this point, but if anyone hasn't been following the war in Ukraine, June ended off with Russia's premiere Private Military Contractor, the Wagner Group, effectively trying to throw a coup by marching on Moscow, only to turn around at effectively the last possible moment. The event is so insane and momentous, that it has it's own Wikipedia page.

This event is just the latest in the insane series of events that I like to call "WTF, Russia?!" To give you an idea of how the situation on the ground has been, just a few months ago Russia reactivated their T-54 series tanks (so, T-54s, T-55s, and T-54/55s. It's complicated). These were considered obsolete about a half-CENTURY ago, and should have all been scrapped or sold to third-world countries, but apparently Russia still had a stockpile of them just in case? Yeah, this war has been going that insane, if you haven't been following it.

[Moonface]

I forgot to reply to this back when I read it and just realized, but yeah I'd heard about the Wagner thing as it was happening and found it weird how they just suddenly stopped at the last moment and turned around.

As for the old tanks and stuff, it doesn't surprise me. If not for the war in Ukraine would we even be aware really that Russia has all this old shit just sitting around instead of it being newer stuff? I'm just wondering if Putin would be viewing it from a standpoint of "Well I can claim I have x tanks; doesn't mean they're new tanks and doesn't matter if nobody checks" or something like that.

[Maniakkid25]

Actually, the reason is even dumber. Keep in mind, people didn't even know that Russia still had T-54s and T-62s in stock; Russia said they sold or scrapped them all. That count was for all their "modern" vehicles (T-72s and later). But, more than likely, that count was also leftovers from when the Soviet Union fell, because Russia famously doesn't update their supply depot counts despite being notorious for selling them to whoever has the cash for a quick buck. It's actually impressive the level of corruption that runs through the Russian military. Granted, that's not to say other militaries are squeaky clean, but Russia is just on another level. There's actually a joke that's been rolling around for years that whenever Russia gets into a dust-up, they'll eventually send in T-34s, because they have those, too. Granted, these are known parade vehicles, so it'll probably never happen, but it's still funny.

Probably the sickest part about the T-54s and T-62s is that, if Ukrainian intel is to be believed, Russia is using them not as front line fighters, but as assault guns to level fortifications and the like. And it's working.

[Moonface]

I feel like lying about their numbers though is incredibly risky; once people figure out they're bullshitting and see that they're claiming to have better and more than they really have wouldn't it just expose Russia as not being as strong as it was thought to be and as such be like a show of weakness for them?

[Maniakkid25]

Yes, it does. Which is why, now that Russia has exposed its soft underbelly, so many other countries that know what it's like to be under Russian occupation (Poland, the Baltics, etc.) have been rushing to Ukraine's aid and pushing for higher defense spending. Poland alone wants to spend upwards of 5% of GDP on defense spending. That, by proportion of GDP, eclipses all other NATO members, including the US. Hopefully, now that we know how badly Russia has botched, it will lead to a situation in international affairs where Russia doesn't influence foreign affairs whenever it doesn't get its way like it has for nearly a century.

Speaking of military action, a military junta has taken control of Niger, and currently ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) is meeting to decide what avenues they have to restore the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum to power. Believe it or not, this isn't just "another coup in Africa, probably caused by colonials"; this is a straight-up nightmare scenario on the world stage. Niger is central to West African interests for both America and France, and was one of the burdgeoning success stories of African democracy. Even worse, if military intervention by ECOWAS is required (as increasingly likely as that is), experts fear it'll create a power vacuum that will be taken up by Islamist extremists (Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State are all known to operate in this region). And, as icing on the cake, Russia is tangentially involved in this, because anti-West sentiment in Africa is often symbolized by Russian flags and cries of "long live Putin". So, yeah, this is...bad.

[Moonface]

It makes me wonder if North Korea is doing a similar thing to Russia where it claims to have more power than it really does, given the amount of showboating ol' Kim was doing about having X and threatening to do Y. Not saying they're on par with Russia when it comes to claiming to have more than they do, but the stuff with Russia wouldn't make me surprised to see that any country trying to brag about their power isn't actually as strong as they want everyone to think.

I think I saw a little bit about something going on with Niger; if I recall correctly it was something about the world bank refusing to do business with them or something. Or maybe that was somewhere else.

There's also been those fires in Maui going on that I have barely seen breaking into the front pages of Reddit or being mentioned a lot on other social media platforms. I saw this image last night showing the amount of damage the fires did with this before/after image.
It makes me wonder if that sort of scene will get more common when stuff like wildfires happen more frequently, worse, and in more areas as the climate continues to change for the worse.

[Dragon Lord]

It makes me wonder if North Korea is doing a similar thing to Russia where it claims to have more power than it really does, given the amount of showboating ol' Kim was doing about having X and threatening to do Y. Not saying they're on par with Russia when it comes to claiming to have more than they do, but the stuff with Russia wouldn't make me surprised to see that any country trying to brag about their power isn't actually as strong as they want everyone to think.

I think I saw a little bit about something going on with Niger; if I recall correctly it was something about the world bank refusing to do business with them or something. Or maybe that was somewhere else.

There's also been those fires in Maui going on that I have barely seen breaking into the front pages of Reddit or being mentioned a lot on other social media platforms. I saw this image last night showing the amount of damage the fires did with this before/after image.
It makes me wonder if that sort of scene will get more common when stuff like wildfires happen more frequently, worse, and in more areas as the climate continues to change for the worse.

Most definitely on the note about North Korea. Little Kimmie Boy is all bark and no bite. Threatens missile attacks, but can hardly get one to go further than the borders of his own country. Dude is too busy stuffing his face with all the country's food so he can starve his people to be an actual threat to the world (he just relies on China keeping their promise to have his back so he can continue to bark at other countries).

[Moonface]

@Dragon Lord: Good point, I had completely forgot about the tests they ran where it revealed the respective weapons didn't have a lot of range. I also reckon anything said from North Korean officials is more for the internal propaganda machine they have going than trying to have an effect on anywhere outside, since it's no secret they're all about painting themselves as doing no wrong and any problems the citizens face is the cause of the evil West.
I do wonder why China cares to have their back so much though when they do so much business with everyone else that I'd think being chummy with everyone but NK would be far more beneficial to them.

[Maniakkid25]

It's because of South Korea. Whether they like it or not, NK is opposed to the US, so they can act as a "buffer" between the US bases in Korea and itself. It's been acting chummy with other nations because it's trying to break the US's grip as the global superpower, putting itself into positions where it can tell its trading partners "Hey, fall in line, or you don't get [insert vital resource here]." Xi wants China to be the final say in how the world operates, he's trying to use "soft" power (i.e. trade agreements) to reorient the global power structure. Whether or not you see the US as the global superpower as a "good" thing, I think we can agree that China being that power would be, at the very least, the greater of two evils.

[Moonface]

It's because of South Korea. Whether they like it or not, NK is opposed to the US, so they can act as a "buffer" between the US bases in Korea and itself. It's been acting chummy with other nations because it's trying to break the US's grip as the global superpower, putting itself into positions where it can tell its trading partners "Hey, fall in line, or you don't get [insert vital resource here]." Xi wants China to be the final say in how the world operates, he's trying to use "soft" power (i.e. trade agreements) to reorient the global power structure. Whether or not you see the US as the global superpower as a "good" thing, I think we can agree that China being that power would be, at the very least, the greater of two evils.

Yeah, I can't imagine China being the leading global superpower to be good, just because they seem to have far more leverage over other countries than the US does for the reason you said of being the producers of a lot of the goods the rest of the world buys. They don't even need to actually attack anyone to cause a problem, whereas the US doesn't come off as a country that can pull that same sort of stunt, at least not to the same extent at all.

[Maniakkid25]

So, this is a few weeks old by this point, but if anyone hasn't been following the war in Ukraine, June ended off with Russia's premiere Private Military Contractor, the Wagner Group, effectively trying to throw a coup by marching on Moscow, only to turn around at effectively the last possible moment. The event is so insane and momentous, that it has it's own Wikipedia page.

I'm quoting this becauss this is more an update than anything new. The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is currently assumed to be dead after his private jet crashed. The details of the situation are, at best, very murky, but we do know that the Wagner Group themselves has confirmed he is dead, as has Russian state media.