Random Thought

Yeah, well, except for the site admin member's reply do have a week-long delays. But imho it's nice to still going on.

Btw. what does the library say about Adobe's "new" PDF reader sending reader information back to them? AFAIK the reader has always been keeping reader records. Besides imho Adobe was always delivering leaky software (bad garbage collection & performance eater w/o reason) that's why I was never happy with them.

With the discussion going on about quarantining people unconstitutionally I wonder why not use those ankle monitors. In the worse case they could help to determine places that got contaminated.

Looks like Darth Vader didn't won in the Ukraine. The Empire/Sith have it hard.
On the other side, surprisingly Brazil's President got reelected with just 51%.

Nasa's launched a cygnus capsule to ISS which exploded. Looks like engine (pump) failure to me. Aside from supplies a secret (crypto) payload was also lost. The interesting thing is that the russians immediately send their supply run, which arrived hours later using the new approach procedure. The AirForce responded by launching their Atlas V. Although superficial, it looks so much like a little race here.

A serious error was discovered in Mathematica. It seems to be a bug that appears when you change parameters in matrices. Or when some subroutines re-arranges things for solving them internally...

I have been observing numerous time driver (trying to) cutting pedestrians crossing the streets on greenligh. This time it was a woman... They should be arrested.

The rocket blowing up reminds me of the early days of NASA when that was pretty much a weekly
occurence.

Yeah,I've noticed that whenever I have to walk across the street a lot of drivers don't pay attention to
passerbys in the crosswalk,they only notice other vehicles,and sometimes not even that.

Ankle bracelets would be an interesting idea.Unless you have someone who knows how to undo them.
Though you do have to admit the nurse who was forced into quarantine in New York/New Jersey(forget which)did have a point since she wasn't showing any sign of contagion and they seem to have stuck her in basically a jail cell.

I think I said this before but the people who are calling for all of this stuff like quarantines are acting more like isolationists than the people they are accusing of being isolationists.

Anyways we had to take the car down to have looked over for the Winter.

Oh...now I am on to ordering Girls Und Panzers for November.And my October order came with
a Sailor Mars card!

Btw. there's a 6 episode OVA of Girls and Panzer. There was an article at crunchyroll:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/04/07-1/video-girls-und-panzer-ova-preview

Jail-like isolation is too extreme when people aren't sick yet. Imho it's best if for example if a military base is used for isolation. People can still go around and most have mini-town like facilities e.g. shops etc. But I guess the most important problem people have is they want to work "normally".
Also note testing negative means nothing. People have been tested negative to only turn positive later on...infecting other people etc. The reason being it's a virus. When it's inside a cell it can't be detected. When it's out in the blood it also means it can infect people. The (21) day isolation time is the most effective way to be sure.

Russia has stepped up it's provocation with lots of air force activities (like last time with the sub). This time they broke trough the GIUK gap and came down to Portugal. I guess they probably also tested their long-range capability as an on-going upgrade/race with the B-1 Bones. *shrugs* In any case it's definitely directed at Europe and not e.g. Japan. Dunno what else Putin is planning other than showing off his ruler-ship.

The first disastrous Virgin Galatic accident has happened. It appears SpaceShipTwo (engine) exploded after ignition. It's a simplified composite engine with solid and LHO fuel. It will be difficult to find the reason for the accident. This will definitely delay it for many months.

Now some news from japan for a change.
Sony has made another billion in loses. And most surprisingly it's most money earning section is about insurance. Gaming is the only viable technology sector it earns anything. Looks like it's going down in the long run. Well, we have been seeing it's downfall for years so it's not that surprising. It's just unfortunate regarding the history of its innovations.
Japan has injected billions more in support of the economy. This is about the 3rd/4th (?) times or about a trillion overall. They are desperate... but how much longer can they keep this up I wonder.
Japan has been trying recently to get foreigners into the country e.g. tourism/work etc.  But it's not just fukushima that's the problem, there's been a rise in racism and violence against foreigners in recent years (not to mention several murder cases).
BBC has even an article on the "violent" side of the japanese web (which says something)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9699982.stm
Several people have resigned this month due to misuse of election/party money like going to a sex-club (declared as such for tax). *heh*
Despite nationalist calling for a military build up and actually having introduced a bunch of new military systems the public seems to have calmed down. So we won't see regular international deployment or the like or such constitutional changes after all. Disappointing.

Well you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over again...

The nurse decided to take a bike ride with her boyfriend and everyone freaked out.I think that being a
medical professional and having been to West Africa she should know whether or not she's a danger to anyone else.Since when do we take medical advice from politicians?
btw:In the old days when you were quarantined you stayed home where you could be nice and
comfortable.
Also it was only AFTER you or someone in your family came down with something.I don't think anyone was ever quarantined on a mere suspicion.

I was reading Reason.com today and their Hit And Run section had a story involving candy,the pic
next to it was of a sexy blonde dressed up in some sort of Bavarian costume(I think)..my mind immediately went to:that's what Mami would probably look like if the Dessert Witch hadn't killed her off and she had time to grow up!...yeah...my mind goes to strange places!

Looks like Ukraine and the rest of Europe are going to get the gas from Russia now.

Hey there,
i'm rarely have a minute for internet these days with all that is going on around, but I guess you probably see this idioticy anyway, although truth is worse as always.
It feels crazy when you see the contrast. Major cities live like they never read the news and somewhere else entire villages are summoned to the army and return in coffins, many are left lying there in pieces, eaten by the crows. The dead are many, oftenuncounted, unburied. At least is inspired massive protests and someone realized we need better command.
The only capable forces atm are professional contractors and vulunteers who survived till now to get some experience. Because goverment doesn't have much money - they finally prefer to pay the professionals to hold strategic points while trying to make impression of "cease-fire" to finish  the elections and get $ from EU.
Most of the real work are done by professionals, whats left of the trained army and volunteers who survived first chapters. We're basically down to guerilla war and it seem very efficient against terrorists because they are used to fight from a distance, knowing where enemy is and retreat, but are bad at close encounters and defense.
Here's a first person action for you to get the feel of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwQvBWBY7is
Most of it is one of the agressive reconissance and artillery spotting works

Welcome back.
Yeah, I thought as much. The modern war with grenades everywhere I'm not surprised on the condition of the battlefield with body parts scattered everywhere.
It's a wonder there are survivors at all after all the shelling. I have no doubt anyone who signed up early on is on a death row. The government obviously wants to keep the "damage"/effect on the country low, so those people are gonna be "used" until they perish. I guess the whole region is being sacrificed. I don't think it's good but I can't offer anything other than giving up to save lives. It's very sad and tragic.
The separatists have ordered festive mood and that everyone goes voting...with one party to choose. I predict the winner wins with over 90% approval.

We have heavy censorship in western media so the majority of people don't even know or realize the cruelty of war. Only the net and reports from trusted media people show the true picture. Even now no documentation show the cruelty happening during the Georgian war.

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China has completed another milestone: Sending a probe around the moon and returning it to Mongolia, Earth. It won't be long until the actually send people. It all depends on the completion of rocket. My guess it will be very like the Saturn-V in design e.g. 5 engines. Imho there aren't many practical/efficiency choices. Even Nasa is reusing the engine for the next generation.

The latest IPCC reports says we should stop using fossil fuel by 2100. Not like we will have much choices when oil/coil runs out by then. And it's not like there's going to be any good climate change for the next x0000 years. It seems people start to realize it's long past the point-of no-return. Well, I said this for a (over) decade by now about global warming and pollution/trash. And this was based on looking back on 50+ years of pollution. It's not like we didn't know.

So it's finally out. Bokko Harem has forced marriaged on the girls which imho is a coverup for sex-slavery according to sharia law. They won't ever get free unless dead.  Not surprising rather disappointed on the negotiators.

IS has killed a whole [males?] (Al-Bu Nimr) tribe and left the bodies in the water well (to poison it).  

According to the paper it was 40 men, 6 women and 4 children.The irony is the Al-Bu Nimr is a
Sunni tribe.

The paper also noted that there were elections in the break away regions in Ukraine.Any word on that in
Ukraine Alex or is the government keeping it quiet?

On the more positive side of things biologists have come up with a clever way of studying the Emperor Penguin:they've made a camera disguised as a penguin chick.The only problem is that the
penguins make sounds when the camera comes by expecting an answer and the scientists didn't equip it to reply so it frustrates them.

It's because IS also kills muslims that those arabic countries joined the coalition otherwise they wouldn't have. Another christian couple got killed by the mob for supposedly blasphemy again in Pakistan.

Yeah, the separatists promised secured pension and that you can afford a vacation in Australia every year and hunt kangaroos. Very realistic! Even if they can afford to pay such vacations I doubt australia would let them in.
The Ukraine is deploying more troops ... looks like another surge in fighting.

AFAIK that penguin is well made, but frankly, someone claimed to have build one and claimed the name! (Penguinbot??) on wikipedia some time ago.
Tsk. I hope it got deleted.
Now the question is when will we realize that we are surrounded by robots?

Back to election! By how much will the GOP win the Senate? People are wary of OB so I think up to 2/3 of the seats in questions.

Looks like SpaceShipTwo is being blamed on pilot error by deploying the feather wings too early at Mach 1.02 instead of 1.4. This seems strange to me. If it can deal with the forces at 1.4 there shouldn't be a problem at 1.02 after all the resistance/vibration at 1.4 is 1.4^2 / 1.02^2 =1.88 times higher given same altitude. I dunno about the actual altitude but the air density should be less the higher it goes. *shrugs*

+5 is what I saw yesterday.Though I'm a bit pissed that Orman lost in Kansas.I mean I don't live in Kansas and probably wouldn't agree with everything he stands for but at least he lives in Kansas and knows what the people there actually want and is not some carpetbagger who only rents a room every election cycle from a donor!
end rant.
Seriously I think it shows just how much big money and media play in even local elections.
In the end it only means that we traded one big government party for another big government party.

We had rain for about the last week so this was the first time I was able to get out and rake the leaves again.Still pretty wet but glad I got that little chore done for now.The leaves are basically all gone by now too.

Yeah, I know what you mean.
Well, it's all showbiz these days and frankly it's very much american, although, other countries are doing more or less the same now. Each year it costs more and more. The trend has been going for so long and has become so costly...mortal people like us or worthy candidates don't have much chances against the heavy guys.
It's all about "dynasties" or "aristocrat" families.

Hmm, Google(youtube) forwarded personal data on a staff of Al Hayat TV, an anti-islamic channel, to IS members. Now that person is being hunted worldwide.
IS misused copyright complains to get the data revealed.

What else is new?

Going back to the elections there were two referendums here regarding gun control: 1-594 that passed
was the one that everyone was talking about.It was the one that means that you have to have
a background check even if the person who you're giving a firearm to is your own spouse or other
family member.Supposedly it was meant to stop people from using loophole in the law that criminals were using to get guns and other firearms.
The other one that failed was I-591 it basically stated that the State of Washington couldn't change
existing firearm laws unless it was to comply with any change in Federal Law.
Needless to say I voted yes on I-591 and no on I-594.

Oh...and Reason.Com had a link to a interesting political personality quiz in their Hit And Run
department this week.My results are that I'm a:Right-Leaning Anarchist Total Isolationist Bleeding Heart Traditionalist
Yeah...basically a cross between Pat Buchanan and The Riddler!

I also took a Evolution/Creation personality at Helloquizzy and came out as a Progressive Creationist though really I'm more of a Theistic Evolutionist.I think I would have gotten the latter if I had changed a couple answers around.(to be specific a Allegorical Theistic Evolutionist as I view the first 11 chapters of Genesis more and more as being allegorical in nature.

Like 95% of search etc. request according to anti-terror law is actually not related to terror? That in the end big brother/the top dogs misuse power for their own purposes? This is true through all ages and kind of folks. You got to be naive to think otherwise.

Imho its too late to do anything about guns. They are everywhere and accroding to statistics every american has 2-3 guns. And the death rate is like 4000x times higher than e.g. Japan. But you got to note that in Japan or the japanese are very skilled with knives, hence, those related crimes are quite higher than anywhere else.
Switzerland has been called the best example for having not gun related crime despite everyone having a gun but in the past few years there have been numerous incidents. AFAIK Switzerland tends to coverup a lot things happening or keep total silence afterwards. Statistically it doesn't look better to me than the in states. According to the latest research an armed experience cop only hits (<80%) of the times at best. The conclusion is that armed citizens don't create more safety when dealing with someone running amok.
Besides there's big money involved. The military alone in peace time spends 600+ million small caliber rounds just for scheduled certification shooting. In last war time it was up to 800+. Adding mission related spending, the police force, the civil sector it easily comes to billions of rounds a year. Guns, ammo, accessories...it's a 2-3 digit billion business. Like other (business related) things in the states we are stuck with this. They do more bad than good. You will realize this when you actually see and understand other developed countries.

I guess I will try the tests when I got the time, just for the fun.

On other news that got lots of attentions
There's news of a certain austrian PR company manipulating forums by the millions. Heh. In times of big data, companies and governments do this on a daily basis. If you don't realize or recognize when it happens you better stay away. And this is just the lesser evil, though.

The new Star Wars movie is named "The Force Awakens". Like many I find this crappy a title. It's 30 years after the last movie, Luke is an old guy so what the heck? "The return of the Jedi", "The Force unleashed" as in the new Jedi order taking action, would have been better. Anyway, Star Wars' style kind of fits Abrams action style so I doubt he will disappoint the fan, although, the crappy story might be felt.

Hmm, O'Neill gets a lot of attention according to google's eyes. I'm only bothered by his breaking the rules. The public seems rather on to all kinds of "things" for all kinds of reasons, though. The really important thing is that he's putting himself and his family on the list of certain people. What's he thinking? is my question.
Sure, it's for fame, the history books and social status but risking everything for such a fleeting things (when it's already the end of it)...

O'Neill?

One of the science related blogs I've been reading lately is The Panda's Thumb,it has some nice
nature photos to go with the articles.

According to NOAA we should be getting freezing weather this week.It already was cold enough today.
And tommorrow I have my doctor appointment...

Think of stargate shoot first ask later

Yeah, I think this winter is gonna be quite cold (despite being quite some weeks ago). The jet stream's been acting "irregularly" again.

Well, the Panda's thumbs looks good as far as presentation goes but I'm wouldn't be too trusting regarding the information. Certainly not wrong in general but who knows which detail might be wrong. What I mean is: If you are desperate for e.g. research/medical reasons better get professional help or read at least a hundred papers. Otherwise I think it's a great site for starters.

The white house considers using robots to undress medical personal in the case of Ebola... I serious think this is a bad idea. We humans are still more dexterous than robots, while robots could become a serious source of infections. They are expensive and probably not easy to get clean. Seriously I don't think you can be sure they are clean. The virus could be hidden in some micro cracks. Just having people take a decontaminating chlorine wash/bath is a lot safer and cheaper.
And I think chlorine should be reuseable after going through a ceramic filter (just to be sure).

The APEC summit is taking place now, frankly, BBC talks or lets the chinese side making the news...posting chinese state media material.    It's strangely "silent" otherwise. Wonder if it's cause of a Brit is being under murder investigation in Hong Kong. There are no pictures to be found this time either other than what the state media lets us see. It looks like most of the representatives this times are chinese born. Maybe they took over asia earlier than me thinking. *shrugs*

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Recent so called scientific breakthroughs is that there seems to be as many "homeless" stars as there are stars in galaxies.

New particle accelerator technology gets high speeds in short distances
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/11/new-particle-accelerator-technology-gets-high-speeds-in-short-distances
It's actually, something people have been working on for a long time => "Plasma acceleration" If it's worth noting maybe I will add a line in the pedia just for completeness.
It's basically using ions of the plasma as atom-sized magnets. Since they can come closer to the target particles they can transfer the magnetic force more efficiently than the large surrounding magnet. Of course there's a limit on how many target particles this can be used since they would interfere with each other in large quantities. It's good for scientific experiments but I doubt it's useful for particles/plasma/ion/etc. weapons

Yeah,on the O'Neill thing I wasn't exactly thinking as I forgot who he was.Some how I was thinking
O'Reilly.Meh...The rest of the Team seems unhappy with him hogging all the lime light.Then again
with the War on Terror still going it doesn't make sense to want to brag about something like that.

IIRC Stephen Jay Gould wrote a book once entitled The Panda's Thumb so I wonder if the blog got the name from the book.I take their comments section with a grain of salt of course as I would take any comments section of any other website.

AFAIG:Not having a science background it gets hard to weigh some of the arguments.Though you do have to learn to use common sense.

Went to the doctor for my annual checkup.Also got my flu and tetanus shots.Because of the wind
the worse part was having to walk back and forth.But hopefully with the new State insurance it won't cost as much.We'll see.

I agree that having robots undress medical personal in case of Ebola is a bit stupid.We're not talking
C3PO here,we're talking about machines that still have to be programed.

Anyways it looks like Bruce Campbell is temporarily at least coming back to episodic tv,his first time
since Burn Notice went off the air.He,Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are going to do a tv version of The Evil Dead with Campbell reprising the role of Ash.It will run on Starz for
10 episodes.

Yeah, I find common sense is still most useful even if some research says otherwise especially the ones that are somehow connected to commerce. For example doctors used to say drinking wine/alcohol is fine for pregnant women now it came to light it was BS.

A little wave of news about governments able to crack stuff easily is making the rounds...cellphones, computers harddrives using truecrypt... Pft. Nothing new imho. Cellphones are know to be weak for over a decade, with classes teaching on how to do it in France for over7 years. And communication companies sharing keys for who knows how long. If you are in the an arabic country all your comm. goes through them. That was a requirement for companies to open up over there btw. Decade old joke Blackberry has nothing to hide.

Anyway, there's been a surge in discussing new graphic chips coming next. One is that true 4k ability is coming next year. Two is that stacked memory will be used soon. The koreans (SK Hynix) say theirs will have 1024 data lines per memory IC.
Current GPU have only 512 data lines with 4+ IC this means they need 4096+ lines.
I dunno how they will get that done without putting it all on the same die ...but one thing is sure the monster chips are coming.

These days russian troops are crossing in masses into the Ukraine. Looks like Putin wants to create facts with lots of hammering. I don't see any possible resistance in the face of such firepower. The best is probably guerrilla & sniping the heavy machinery and supplies.

Putin still lets aircraft flying on both sides of the Atlantic. Warships are crossing near the G20 summit in New Zealand. Another case proofing his long months planning and execution. Not long ago he raised interest to 9.5% and now the economic sanctions dropped the ruble down from -25% last week to -40% this week. It won't be much longer before the high interest becomes nil. Heh. Of course he knew this would happen, hence, required the EU/Ukraine to pay upfront for the recent gas selling agreement. Even thought he needs to keep sales up he still can use gas to put on pressure. From what I hear most militaries advice against direct confrontation with the russian (mercs) troops. It's a safe move but I think the Ukraine has much choices.

So it appears the Philae lander bounced off, reaching 500 m altitude and came back 2 hours later to bounce another meter high before coming to rest on the side.
It's said the ground was supposed to be soft so people are still in the dark as to how this could have happened. My guess is the softness was the cause for the 2/3 anchors not firing except one leg (the one that fired) hit some rock and bounced it off. Despite the batteries gonna be out soon and its orientation the ESA still insists it's perfectly fine to use its instruments. We'll see,

So Obama insists on using executive power to pass over congress on immigration law. Uhm...This is definitely not the kind of situation this power was supposed to be used for. Lawmaking is still the domain of the lawmakers and not of the president except emergencies of course. His recent counter to what he's been doing (surveillance, internet, deportations etc.) is kind of puzzling.

I got my results from the doctor today.Same as usual.Mostly good but the chlostereol is still high at
252.

Maybe I should stop eating altogether.
Seriously though it might end up meaning I have to take medication to handle it.

That sounds more like Obama being Obama than anything else.His pen and phone comment coming to life.

The scary thing though is that the Dems actually gave Elizabeth 'Fauxahontas' Warren a leadership
position in the Senate.Really is that the type of person they want leading them?Someone who for
decades lied about having Native American ancestry in order to get a cushy university job?

AFAIG:Looks like Philae also ended up under a cliff(comets have cliffs?)so it can't generate enough
to do all that they want it to do right now.

Or become Vegan for a year?

Agree on "Fauxahontas" but I guess they thought it wasn't that important as opposed to the House. *shrugs*

Philae is now hibernating. I think it's in a crater, hence, the "cliff". Anyway, it looks like it won't be that useful after all.

Putin released a photo of the MHL170 incident showing an aircraft doing the deed.
I think it's fake. For one its resolution is too high meaning they have to have been keeping an eye on the aircraft from the beginning which is very doubtful. If they keep a general observation of the whole area the resolution would be bad due to wide area view. Unless they got dozen's of satellites and hundreds of cameras. Yet the resolution is too low to determine if it's manipulated or not. Second why release now and not then?

ISIL has beheaded Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an american aid worker & hostage and convert. My condolences to the family. He didn't deserve it. But not really surprising considering IS, Al Quaeda & co. are racists who view everyone not arabic&muslim as less and only worth as slaves. It doesn't matter for them if you convert or not especially if you are male. It's kind of ironic that the african groups are supporting their own doom.

At least the males only have to worry about being killed,females are of course put into sexual slavery which is far worse.

I read yesterday that astronomers were surprised to learn that Uranus has storms that have never before been detected on its surface.They knew about the other gas giants but Uranus was a complete
surprise.

I forgot where I found this,but I read today that ironically the Institute for Creation Research's
sponsored RATE studies on radiocarbon and other dating methods only wound up confirming
the old age of the Earth.They of course tried to get around it by theorizing ways in which the findings could be flawed.One way is that they insist that there has been a change in the carbon decay rate in part because of Noah's Flood.

Reading:The Everything Guide To Understanding Socialism.Should be interesting.

True. It's an unimaginable nightmare. And from what I have seen a certain rescue group is doing in africa. The women are a psychological wreck and may tend to snap or lose their mind and attack people(men). It's difficult for everyone. It should also be mentioned that in Thailand for example Ubekistan muslim women are also forced into sex slavery.
Heh. Muslim men are supposed to stay virginal until marriage but that doesn't seem to apply to sex slaves.

Well, I don't see why it should be different to jupiter & neptune who are known to have storms. Unless it's a bare rock there's always some kind of storm whether it's "air" or "fluid". I said the same regarding a water world years ago in connection with someone setting an up a RPG game world. Here the main issue was gyre streams and vortexes. I pointed out that the polar region will have huge ones. And since there's nothing stopping the winds there will be huge waves. Realistically it's not really an ideal playground or habitable planet

The creationists shouldn't have used the enemy's weapons (science). Of course they will always lose. They should have gone with their own lore as they did with the Flood thesis. Oh btw. there a new paper on the rise of lactose tolerant people. How using cow livestock and consuming dairy products promoted the genes for lactose tolerance in Europe. Staring somewhere from Rumania/Hungaria (?) and spreading to the nordic regions (highest rate). REvolution!

Hey there,
Finally found a moment to write something about how it looks like from the first row
Honestly - i can't see where it's all heading at the moment. Ukrainian goverment has gone va-bank by cancelling funding of occupied regions. This will surely create economic and social disaster as separatists could barely manage it in the summer with all gas/electricity/money coming from Ukraine. This will force Russia to either intrude openly, or retreat. Second option will force separatists to negotiate surrender one way of another. The other option...can't even imagine. But in any case - we are not capable of holding real russian full scale invasion, not for long.

Also, there's a lot of internal problems within Ukraine that are about to surface. There are talks about new Maidan and that goverment have failed to complete what it promised. However - many people do not like maidan methods and already hate those radicals/activists/nationalists for making it happen. If it wasn't for the east - many of these frozen conflicts would surface already. But if molotov coctails will start flying again - i can't imagine what will happen. There's 3 types of people in here - pro-maidan people, pro-russian&anti-maidan people, and anti-maidan and anti-russian people which remain silent mostly because of east and russia for now.

So honestly - we are as screwed as we never been for 20 years of independence. The only real chance is if east negotiates, surrenders or conquered, then we can deal with internal stuff.

As for war itself - now it's mostly local fights, especially in donetsk airport. They keep attacking and bombing and we keep holding. But airport is completely isolated by large open sapces.
Here is unloading of supplies under fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwV2OeNFWT4

Thanks for the sitrep.
A new Maidan will make it worse. It's only worth it if you actually have new or alternative people for leading on but you don't. I have no doubt Putin will send troops whether with or without your doing anything.
I can't see any light either.
There's been a lot of talks from about a new Cold War to War in western media for the past 2-3 weeks. But it seems it all comes down to some more sanctions again.