tal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia

As of 2024, the total fertility rate across Russia is estimated to be 1.41 children born per woman,[18] which is below the replacement rate of 2.1 and among the lowest in the world.[19] Subsequently, it has one of the oldest populations in the world, with a median age of 41.9 years.

I mean, I agree that they've got to do something, but I don't think that that this is likely going to do it. I don't think that the limiting factor here is sex appeal.

I'm also dubious about the information-control thing they've been doing:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-battling-birth-rate-dip-is-working-child-free-ideology-ban-says-putin-2024-09-24/

Russia, battling birth rate dip, is working on 'child-free' ideology ban, says Putin ally

Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Russian parliament is working on a law that would ban what the authorities cast as the harmful promotion of a child-free way of life with heavy fines for "childlessness propaganda", a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

I think that the larger issue is people not wanting to raise children.

The 15 inch version comes with a 100 Wh battery, which is a rare find.

They admitted to using a fucking app over established communications to avoid being on the record

January 20, 2025, Inauguration Day. Trump releases a statement on his top priorities for his presidency:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/01/president-trumps-america-first-priorities/

President Trump’s America First Priorities

DRAIN THE SWAMP

President Trump is taking swift action to end the weaponization of government against political rivals and ordering all document retention as required by law.

March 11, 2025. Jeffrey Goldberg receives chat group invitation for Cabinet-level officials for planning attack on Yemen.

I see that top Trump priorities on swamp-draining lasted

assuming, perhaps generously, that this was the first such incident with Signal

almost seven weeks.

Well, okay. I don't know about the weaponization of government against political rivals. I seem to recall what looked like rather a lot of that, actually. But at least the document retention.

There's an already-extant ground-based vessel navigation system, Loran-C, though I'm sure that it's possible to improve on it and I have no idea how much of the receiver hardware is still out there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loran-C

The introduction of civilian satellite navigation in the 1990s led to a rapid drop-off in Loran-C use. Discussions about the future of Loran-C began in the 1990s; several turn-off dates were announced and then cancelled. In 2010, the US and Canadian systems were shut down, along with Loran-C/CHAYKA stations that were shared with Russia.[2][3] Several other chains remained active; some were upgraded for continued use. At the end of 2015, navigation chains in most of Europe were turned off.[4] In December 2015 in the United States, there was also renewed discussion of funding an eLoran system,[5] and NIST offered to fund development of a microchip-sized eLoran receiver for distribution of timing signals.[6]

The National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2017, proposed resurrecting Loran as a backup for the United States in case of a GPS outage caused by space weather or attack.[7][8]

Upon actually investigating the article, it appears to mention it as well. :-)

I'm sure not, but even without looking at any technical details, it will have at least a couple benefits:

• First, it's short range. GPS satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, which is a pretty high orbit. Wikipedia says about 22,000 miles away. For GPS, the jammer is going to be far closer than the legitimate signal.

• Second, I'm guessing

though we'll see

that this is going to be a civilian system, and I suppose that they could even try to mandate that militaries not use it. GPS was, from the beginning, a military system, and there are weapons being used in Ukraine that use it for guidance. Unless you're solely out to be a dick

which isn't impossible

probably not a lot of benefit to stomping on civilian-only frequencies.

which is vulnerable to jamming

This has, in fact, been a serious problem in the Baltic region, as Russia's military has been jamming GPS there for some time, and it dicks up navigation for ships and aircraft there.

“How did a Trump-hating editor of The Atlantic end up on your Signal chat?” Laura Ingraham asked.

“You know, Laura, I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” Waltz replied. “But of all the people out there, somehow this guy who has lied about the president, who has lied to Gold Star families, lied to their attorneys, and gone to Russia hoax, gone to all kinds of lengths to lie and smear the president of the United States and he’s the one that somehow gets on somebody’s contact and then gets sucked into this group.”

Honestly, I really hope that the next administration, regardless of which party it is, dispenses with the constant and unending stream of bullshit. I really don't want this sort of thing to become established as the new normal.

It's not even over a significant issue here; it seems like an insane thing to use credibility on. Like, Waltz could say "I clicked on the wrong person", and I don't think that anyone is going to wig out about it. The fact that they were on Signal in the first place, not to mention using poor operational security while on it is the much more concerning issue, but he's not denying that.

They can just interleave requests to different hosts. Honestly, someone spidering the whole Web probably should be doing that regardless.

That probably works for some people. But, look at the departments that were cut:

Firings at U.S. centers deemed the pinnacle of science have been announced week after week including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Like, okay. I can believe that the CDC people may very well have a skillset in demand in the medical industry, say. Depending upon what they specialize in, there are probably places in private industry that could use knowledge from some of the people at the USGS, like oil or gas extraction.

But how many non-governmental places want the NOAA people? Weather forecasting companies, maybe? Not that many of those.

I mean, the problem is that if you're doing work on climate change, you're banging on a public good. And generally-speaking, private industry doesn't address public goods, because they can't make a return doing it. You'd have to have government hire them, and at that point, might as well just make them part of government.

EDIT: Honestly, realistically the best way to fund climate change work would be through a global fund, with everyone pitching something in, because it's pretty much everyone being impacted.

My understanding is that buying Greenland has been a long-standing Trump goal. I watched an interview with John Bolton where he was talking about how Trump kept bringing it up during Trump's first term. And it's something that a few past US administrations have made efforts toward as well.

Problem is, as Bolton also pointed out, Trump is doing a really effective job of undermining any effort to do so by being abrasive as all hell. Greenland's a democracy. Denmark's a democracy. You can't go piss everyone off and then have any chance of making such a purchase. Not how things work.

Iceland looked pleased.