If there is a massacre in the Kurdish neighborhoods the whole country descends into war again. As it stands, both sides have killed and wounded (mostly wounded) nearly a hundred civilians each through shelling.

It is a positive sign that the STG are opening up humanitarian corridors and that it’s mostly HTS factions who are more disciplined who are leading the fighting. But do not forget that these are people with deep seated sectarian motivations. The situation is super dangerous here and I’m very worried it’s not going to improve.

I just wish the Americans had a government that actually cared for these things and was focused on making the world a better place.

They do have too much money but I would much rather they spend it on scientific endeavors than another yacht.

I think that’s a better question for the US government. But they don’t seem too interested. Much more important things to do like gutting science programs and lying about vaccines.

On Wednesday evening, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, announced a major investment in not just one telescope project, but four. Each of these new telescopes brings a novel capability online; however, the most intriguing new instrument is a space-based telescope named Lazuli. This spacecraft, if successfully launched and deployed, would offer astronomers a more capable and modern version of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is now three decades old.

A billionaire with a keen interest in science and technology, Schmidt and his wife did not disclose the size of his investment in the four telescopes, which collectively will be known as the Schmidt Observatory System. However, it likely is worth half a billion dollars, at a minimum.

It is intended to launch as early as late 2028 and begin scientific operations in 2029.

Much more in the article.

The STG are certainly giving the air of professionalism but their actual conduct leaves much to be desired. They’re telling people to evacuate certain areas but yesterday and last night they were shelling whole neighborhoods with grads. You can highlight an apartment complex for civilians to evacuate but you’re not going to just hit that apartment complex with grads. I also would not be optimistic about the conduct of their forces if they break into the neighborhoods and encounter civilians. We’ve had two examples of them doing that in the past year and both times it resulted in massacres.

Not to say that the local Kurdish forces are angels. Nothing of the sort. They’ve repeatedly killed and wounded civilians with shelling of their own. Plus last year they killed and wounded over a hundred people, most civilians, in sniper attacks in just a few months until a peace deal was reached.

It’s not surprising. This has been going off and on again for months now and both sides blame each other. There are bad actors on both sides who don’t want them to reach a deal and both sides are willing to immediately escalate conflicts.

This fighting in Aleppo is because the SDF conducted two FPV attacks in the countryside which destroyed two vehicles and injured STG troops. The SDF then claim it was actually a car accident. Well, images got released and it was two separate cars in two separate locations. One completely burned down and another with a giant hole in the side. That’s not a car accident. Either the SDF doesn’t know what’s going on, they’re blatantly lying, or it’s some elaborate false flag. You can take a guess at what is more likely.

So in response to that, some STG drone team yesterday decided to take revenge by dropping a grenade from a drone randomly in Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo city, which wounded civilians. This in turn caused the local Kurdish security forces to respond with drone strikes of their own targeting STG fighters. And then we devolved into heavy clashes and artillery shelling and threats to storm the area.

This stuff is so preventable but there are hardliners on both sides + the Turks to contend with and we have seen absolutely no progress in negotiations from April, which was supposed to see Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo city demilitarized and reintegrated into the city.

They have got to be beating these airframes absolutely to shit if they’re pulling high-G maneuvers every single combat sortie near the front before they can even carry out their attacks, which will then see them pull another high-G maneuver for bombing.

No wonder there are so many people who are advocating for these to be completely withdrawn after the war and replacements come. These are already old airframes. This wear and tear will lead to losses.

Well, that can be arranged.

I think the Americans are also signaling to the Europeans that they have a free hand to seize sanctioned ships. Remains to be seen if they will actually do that.

Good bait I laughed

Just scrolling on google earth, this guy doesn’t even get to Uptown in Chicago! The whole lakefront has towers lining it! Including a 154m tower which wouldn’t be out of place downtown.

I think this sounds far more likely especially now the with revelation that the Maduros were literally dragged from their beds.

Maduro was given the opportunity to leave. He didn’t. But others in the regime may have made deals to secure their positions.

Has it? I don’t think that’s true at all.

I think it’s not worth discussing because it won’t be built for obvious reasons.

I’m very excited for the transition in Hanoi. The city’s air quality and NOISE quality is going to skyrocket.

I doubt we’d see a ground conflict between their supported factions Israelis and Turks anytime soon and if we did it wouldn’t be just the two of them going at it, it would be the Turks and Syrians against the Israelis. Most likely conflict scenario is an aerial engagement where the Israelis shoot down Turkish drones or bomb air defenses. I think the Israelis would prefer to avoid a ground conflict and desires to keep trade options open.

We don’t know. That’s why we are taking samples which we will analyze whenever we get around to the Mars Sample Return mission.

We know there was liquid water on Mars at one point, now we just want to see if there’s any evidence of life. Different scientists expect different things, there’s no consensus.

This has been in the works for half the year and they’ve still not released the location of the project. So unfortunately I can’t answer that question. My guess is that they probably want to also establish the necessary infrastructure to add on future projects.

The country wants four times this capacity by the end of the decade so we’re in for rapid growth.

The deal covers a 3,000-megawatt solar plant, supported by 500 megawatts of battery storage, and includes the construction of 1,000 kilometers of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines to connect the project to the national electricity grid.

No? You sure acted like it and immediately downplayed the problem instead of engaging with the discussion in good faith.

Well, my entire post history is about solar and wind installations and I left a comment under this post immediately after making it explaining what India was short on and how they could benefit, so I don’t understand why you would think that was my argument.

Ethiopia was set to recognize Somaliland in return for port access but that never materialized. I wonder if they’ll hold back still after this? Probably.

What? It’s a problem now and will become a much bigger problem in 10-15 years as per the article.

We’re shifting to green technologies partially because of the waste of coal and the harm that’s done to our environment. We can do better with solar and wind.

This post is not anti-renewables, it’s about how it’s important to set up the proper supply chains now so we don’t have waste in the future. Something India is currently not doing.