None that I have been able to find; probably just hearsay, or a misrepresentation of what a pundit said on cable news somewhere.

I agree that the 600K figure is a mis-read of the article; however:

According to figures from Ukraine's General Staff, Russia has lost 217,440 troops since Jan. 1, 2025.

The discrepancy tallies with Western analysis of Russia's staggering losses.

"They lose somewhere in the ballpark of 35,000 to 45,000 people per month, and perhaps they recruit a little bit north of that number," George Barros, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told the Kyiv Independent earlier this month.

I am generally inclined to believe Ukraine’s official figures of over 1 million dead, injured or captured Russian soldiers so far in this “3 day special military operation”.

I agree with each and every point that you’ve made above, however I disagree with your original statement that Iran is a paper tiger.

A paper tiger would have crumpled already under that level of sustained pressure. For better or worse (and I would definitely argue the latter), Iran is far tougher than we in the West tend to give them credit for.

As a non-American, I find that whole concept absurd - and that’s before learning of its ties to monarchy!

Qualified immunity; because there is no explicit guidance against police “shooting blonde, female Australian news reporters live on the air while covering an LA protests against ICE on a weekend” - he will be let off with a stern talking to, and a wink.

We can only hope, and to add Putin’s name to that list.

Based AF Symmetry: Poland 🇵🇱 and Indonesia 🇮🇩

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.

An absolute masterpiece in terms of blending and transitioning between live action and animation; plus the whole Disney/Warner Bros character crossovers… just 👌🏼

Bonus Points for the Undertaker’s (uncredited?) cameo appearance: ^{you’re a dead man, Ramsey!}

…oh, and extra credit for birthing the “I wAs FrOzEn ToDaY!!” meme too!

Fuck me, that’s somehow creepier than it has any right to be.

That definitely may have been the case post-‘70s oil crisis, but it does feel as though the current Bibi administration has gone feral.

The US is not going to ever admit that it has lost control of the leash, as doing so would probably hurt them more than tacitly endorsing the genocide - but I still would argue that fear is one of the primary driving factors.

I honestly think that the primary reason more Western Governments refrained from speaking out against Israel isn’t tacit support, but rather fear.

Israel is a nuclear armed nation with a notoriously efficient spy network (Mossad), finances, and next to no scruples.

I legitimately wouldn’t put it past them hold blackmail material against a large number of world leaders, or at the very least have credible plans to stage a false-flag dirty bomb explosion anywhere they see fit.

It’s the only cope I have as to why so much of the world remains paralysed while the Palestinian people of Gaza are systematically eradicated.

They’ve largely disappeared, as the foreign disinformation campaign has successfully concluded. Only the most pretentiously loud and gullible are left.

What do you mean by News Max onboarding - did Disney buy NewsMax?! …or am I misunderstanding?

See - that’s the problem with me writing comments at midnight right before bed, I don’t communicate as clearly as I think! 😅

What I was wishing for, was a product that looked like an MD remote (similar to the RM-MC35ELK ideally), which could wirelessly connect to a smartphone, allowing for tactile media control, and the use of higher impedance wired headphones/in-ear monitors.

Because currently having to use wireless earbuds means I have to randomly squeeze the earpiece stems an arbitrary amount of times to change tracks, and good flipping luck trying to change the volume or switch albums otherwise without having to remove your phone from my pocket.

I haven’t been able to find something quite like it available already - so I do wonder if there would be enough demand to kickstart a Bluetooth/wireless DAC/receiver remote to bring back that tactical functionality…

But anyway - thanks for the heads up! I’ll check it out in the morning and see if I can connect my N910 and NH1.

Come to think of it, I hope I can find the correct cables, and that they still work… wish me luck!

I would legitimately switch back to one of my old MD players in an heartbeat if I had access to a decent software to load music on. Those little wired remotes with LCD screens were when technology peaked, IMO.

Any recommendations for an alternative to SonicStage (or whatever Sony’s proprietary crapola from back in the day was called)?

The act of ‘burning’ an optic disc was to write data onto a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray. It was called that because a laser would literally burn the information into the disc.

Oh, absolutely!

My morning caffeine clearly hadn’t kicked in because I stupidly forgot to circle back round to that point. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Ultimately, my biggest worry is that Trump’s absolute piss-poor understanding and implementation of tariffs has very likely ‘poisoned the well’ to the point that they could probably never be successfully implemented in our lifetime by an actual competent Government - assuming the US ever gets another chance to elect one ever again.