TIL: Today I Learned

[Hrothbern]

TIL: Sweden has activated its entire Home Guard for the first time since 1975 and has been telling its population to prepare for war and sending out emergency preparedness manuals to Swedish households.

What does Sweden know that the rest of us don't?

They know there are elections coming end of this year.

Sweden has a policy of neutrality since a very long time, including WW1 and WW2 (a bit stained) and never wanted to join NATO for that reason.

Since the increased tension with Russia, right-wing parties want to join NATO, and Putin sees that as a threat to Russia, poking as well in the porridge brewing.

With a Social-Democratic government against joining NATO, in line with the traditional position of Sweden, all the ingedients are there for a lot of attention on the Sweden-Russia tensions until election day

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Today I learned that 1950s America had a "German" wrestler with a Nazi gimmick.

Hans Schmidt from Munich (actually Guy Larose from Quebec) was the archetypical evil foreign wrestling heel. He turned his back on the American flag at every opportunity and said in interviews that he despises the fans and only wants the title to take it "back to Germany where it belongs".
He had to play it up to differentiate himself from other evil pseudo-German wrestlers.

Article (of course in German) here:
http://www.spiegel.de/einestages/sh...ans-schmidt-der-boese-deutsche-a-1211279.html

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There have been over 220 proposals to partition California. In the early days many proposed the creation of a new state called "Colorado." Then Colorado came along and stole our name.

I know that the recent ones that have made it to various ballots were backed by Russian money. That's not a joke or exaggeration, they linked the organization/individual who was pushing partition back to Russia.

Here's one on secession (not partition) that I just googled. I haven't read this one myself yet.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...hind-a-secession-effort-in-california/517890/

 

[sophie]

Also the partition schemes almost never make any sense, geographically.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

And they will keep popping up on ballots until we get serious about disallowing foreign influence on our elections.

 

[Synobun]

C'mon guys, Southern BC, Washington, and Oregon are jonesing for Cascadia. Secede, secede, secede!

 

[Takhisis]

C'mon, Synsensa, declare your building an independent country. And then join it to somebody else's country.

 

[Ajidica]

Also the partition schemes almost never make any sense, geographically.

 

[Commodore]

And they will keep popping up on ballots until we get serious about disallowing foreign influence on our elections.

Foreign influence aside, you seem to be against partitioning California. Why? You don't want to live with the Republicans in California and they don't want to live with you, so why not just split amicably? Is it because it would create another Republican stronghold that would make it just that much easier for them to keep control of Congress as well as more electoral votes in presidential elections?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Foreign influence aside, you seem to be against partitioning California. Why? You don't want to live with the Republicans in California and they don't want to live with you, so why not just split amicably? Is it because it would create another Republican stronghold that would make it just that much easier for them to keep control of Congress as well as more electoral votes in presidential elections?

Actually he would be stuck in this "Republican stronghold," because he lives in the proposed Republican part. Which is why even his neighbors are against it. California has a couple of the very rare Republican dominated urban centers. All of the 'divide California' schemes count on those urban centers to provide the economic engine to support the vast Republican economic wastelands and prevent them from falling into standard backward red state economic decay. So among the most vocal opponents of these division plans are the urban Republicans, because they know that the rural Republicans are a burden already, and if they had to shoulder that burden alone it would really hurt.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Foreign influence aside, you seem to be against partitioning California. Why? You don't want to live with the Republicans in California and they don't want to live with you, so why not just split amicably? Is it because it would create another Republican stronghold that would make it just that much easier for them to keep control of Congress as well as more electoral votes in presidential elections?

Actually he would be stuck in this "Republican stronghold," because he lives in the proposed Republican part. Which is why even his neighbors are against it. California has a couple of the very rare Republican dominated urban centers. All of the 'divide California' schemes count on those urban centers to provide the economic engine to support the vast Republican economic wastelands and prevent them from falling into standard backward red state economic decay. So among the most vocal opponents of these division plans are the urban Republicans, because they know that the rural Republicans are a burden already, and if they had to shoulder that burden alone it would really hurt.

In addition to what @Timsup2nothin said, the Republicans here are nothing like the Republicans back in Missouri. I have yet to see a Barack HUSSEIN Obama (in turban) or graphic anti-abortion billboards. I've only seen a single lifted F150 with a giant confederate flag and unnecessary smoke stacks cruising the highway here (instead of every other cul-de-sac. I have yet to see a restaurant owner chase an interracial couple out of the store. There's no local lynching tree that white men take their children to in order to remind them not to cross racial lines. Etc, etc.

Plus this state is awesome as it is. Why would I want it to break up?

 

[sophie]

Plus this state is awesome as it is. Why would I want it to break up?

This is the main reason I'm anti-breakup.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

This is the main reason I'm anti-breakup.

Me too. Plus, a lot of problems result from having a Republican controlled neighbor state, so why would anyone want another one?

 

[Broken_Erika]

Besides, You can't have a New Californian Republic if California breaks up before the US does.

 

[The_J]

"Air gapping" is the principle of keeping electronic devices secure via physical separation.

It should be mentioned that this does not necessarily work.
e.g. the Russians managed to wiretap typewriters with radio transmitters connected to the mechanical arms of the typewriters.
There's also some interest in academia for this. E.g. it is possible to have an infected computer with a connected scanner receive light signals via the scanner. There are obviously a lot of practical problems with this, but proof of principle exists.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

It should be mentioned that this does not necessarily work.
e.g. the Russians managed to wiretap typewriters with radio transmitters connected to the mechanical arms of the typewriters.
There's also some interest in academia for this. E.g. it is possible to have an infected computer with a connected scanner receive light signals via the scanner. There are obviously a lot of practical problems with this, but proof of principle exists.

Ultimately, nothing 'necessarily works.' Air gaps can be gotten around by a 'bad operator' intentionally attaching a device to at least temporarily bridge the gap...or even by a well meaning operator doing something dumb. But it is reasonable to say that air gapping works better than not.

 

[Takhisis]

Besides, You can't have a New Californian Republic if California breaks up before the US does.

There's two Californias in any case. Remember, the Mexicans kept their own half.

 

[Cutlass]

There's two Californias in any case. Remember, the Mexicans kept their own half.

The Mexicans kept what we didn't want at the time. It's not like they had a say in the matter.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The Mexicans kept what we didn't want at the time. It's not like they had a say in the matter.

Poor planning on our part there.

 

[Cutlass]

Poor planning on our part there.

The parts we kept had a trivial number of Mexicans in them at the time. The other parts had more. And the Americans at the time didn't want a lot of Mexicans in the country. Too brown, too Catholic.