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Cake day: October 18th, 2024

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  • If you’ve never seen a laser shoot an aircraft out of the sky, the experience can be unsettling. The weapon fits comfortably into the trunk of a car. It makes no noise and emits no light, not even the glowing red beam that’s so familiar from the movies. When a team of Ukrainian soldiers and engineers took me to see their prototype the other day, it seemed easy to use. Almost too easy.

    The operator set up the laser cannon on the roof of his pickup truck in the middle of an empty field. It resembles a hobbyist’s telescope with some cameras affixed to the sides. For target practice, one of the engineers launched a small drone, and it flew a few hundred yards away from us, hovering in the gauzy winter sky. The laser swiveled as its cameras followed the target. The operator shouted, “Fire!” Within seconds, the drone began to burn as if struck by invisible lightning, then fell to the ground in a fiery arc.

    The Ukrainian model, known as the Sunray, is not the world’s first laser weapon system. The U.S. Navy has one called Helios, which Lockheed Martin developed as part of a $150 million contract signed in 2018. Four years later, the first Helios laser was installed on a U.S. destroyer to defend against enemy drones. The creators of the Sunray, whose existence has not been previously reported, told me they built their laser in about two years for a few million dollars, and they expect to sell it for a few hundred thousand dollars.

    O.O

    Holy shit! Ukraine has been kicking ass and taking no prisoners with their wartime weapons’ development.





  • All of this happened under the banner of peace. Throughout 2025, the US Administration actively facilitated negotiations, and reports of “progress” flowed steadily. By early 2026, talks had moved to a trilateral format—itself hailed as an achievement. But beyond the fact of talks happening, there is no visible progress. Russia’s demands remain maximalist. There is no agreed framework for a ceasefire, only vague discussions about monitoring one.

    The pattern is consistent: both rounds of negotiations in Abu Dhabi were accompanied by major Russian strikes on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure. The so-called energy “ceasefire” in early February was a masterclass in Russian deception—no one knew its exact scope, duration, or even start date. This gave Russia the appearance of goodwill for Washington’s benefit without committing to anything. When Putin violated the agreement on 3 February, Trump said Putin “kept his word.”

    tRump and Putin both lie. What I find astounding is why politicians still believe them?


  • As shocking as it may be, Musk blocked Russia’s access to Starlink. Crazy, ik. Who knew the guy would help out Ukraine?

    Two days later, SpaceX CEO and owner of X, Elon Musk, replied on his social network: “Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked.” Starlink has found a way to disable any terminal moving at a speed greater than 90 km/h on Ukrainian territory. This measure is reportedly already effective against Russian drones, but also – as an unintended consequence – against Ukrainian vehicles equipped with mobile Starlink terminals.