The last sentence is the one important one. Any Plattform bought at the moment has it’s downsides. Grippen/Raffaele/Typhoon all have massive downsides in terms of capabilities, survivability, integration. They can be overcome by now, but the difference to the F35,F22, Su57, and similar aircraft will only become bigger - and that doesn’t even consider the sixth generation fighters that will enter the market during their lifetime.

So any European jet can only be a bridge for Europe finally get their fucking act together and get the whole FCAS Plattform up and make that shit competitive. Which is absolutely possible, necessary and mit be achieved at all costs.

It’s simply a power move to test out how submissive the UK government is

It’s how public tenders work. That is the main problem.

You can structure tenders two different ways: You can set up a tender with both pricing as well as quality benchmarks. E.g. the company putting in an offer must proof they are experienced ship builders, have this and this certification, the offer has to have these points above the minimum standard, put it delay fines.

But that opens you up to a lot of liability:

• If one competitior gets awarded the contract the other will be claiming that the tender was fixed and he will sue.
• A new company will claim that it cannot enter the market if all public tenders require them to be experienced.
• Even with certifications above the national minimum it will be the same - why this certification and not that one? Why this standard and not this one? You can’t simply define that arbitrarily.
• Additionally rating these criteria become often a matter of personal choice. Is this offer better or this one? It’s not that easy.
• And of course you can add contractual fines for late delivery. But: Every bidder has to price them in. Because they must - their business insurance must be payed. And it can be a lot. For my business (consulting for healthcare and emergency services) I will price in 15-20% depending on the time frame.
• And if you do this: It does cost money. A serious bidder will price them all in and then the average citizen will cry about how the government is spending his hard earned taxes for something he doesn’t need “as luxurious”.

Or you can write a tender that basically says: “Yo, build two ferries according to national standards, be done by that date*, lowest price wins!” (*: TBF dates are often absolutely unrealistic and often made by political or budget promises some idiot made. I stumbled over a tender for a medical device these days… Which would be newly developed in two years. EU registration takes longer for an already developed and established product…)

Now, a serious bidder can come up with a well thought off bid and…they will loose. Because some asshole will come up with a lower priced one. Calculating with minimum wage for basically everyone, unrealistic timeframes. But they win, take the money and then it’s a sunken cost falacy. Either let all the money go down the drain (and admit you fucked up bad) or spend more money to actually get something to show for.

Yeah, that is odd,but patients often do not understand their caretakers in these situations. The four days is actually a classical “lore” patients understand when they are told that they need dialysis - “if you don’t have dialysis now,you will be dead within four days”.

But let’s start from the beginning:

• With a high velocity high mass rear impact one would expect massive if not fatal neck injuries as the primary trauma. Even if her car was not yet “fully stopped” and still moving everything above a delta-v (difference in velocity) of 30km/h usually has these injuries as their primary trauma.

• Renal failure from rear collisions can have two causes: Either direct damage to the kidneys or due to Rhabdomyolysis - basically a large enough tissue damage to overwhelm the kidneys. Now, this is the first thing that is strange: While both would definitely been possible for a crash as described, the conditions for them to occur are quite special. The kidneys are fairly well guarded within the body and in rear collisions the construction of the car seat also does protect them. The resulting impact has to overcome these “protections” and therefore has to be quite substantial - and then is extremely unlikely to be isolated. With a very very high chance it goes along with major spinal injuries,often also thoracic and other abdominal injuries. That seems not to be the case here. So that leaves Rhabdomyolysis as a possible cause. But this would require a major tissue damage (e.g. like a leg being trapped for ages,etc.) & which sure can happen,but again that is not very likely here and would be much more of a concern for her in that case.

• A bit suspicious is also the photo. It must have been taken shortly after the incident based on the state of the bruises and her clothing. Additionally we find the black substance on her face that could very likely be sooth from a airbag, even though the positioning of it looks very much unlike every sooth I ever saw and the amount of it is rather big, indicating a aftermarket or old airbag. Furthermore the lone ECG dot is a bit suspicious as well - the positioning is plainly wrong for the kind of ECG used in trauma(a six lead ECG which requires four dots in different positions) and for monitoring purposes. And while it could be a (badly placed) left over from a 12 lead ECG, it brings us to the question while there is no 6 lead ECG being seen - a renal failure patient very likely would have been monitored this way, especially shortly after such a crash. (There is something white further down that might or might not be another dot) (Not to speak of things like central lines, peripheral lines, a Sheldon shock catheter or even a endotracheal tube,etc.) Additionally this is clearly not a ED stretcher but a more permanent full nursing bed.

• All emergency patients in the Perth Metro region are transported by St. John Ambulance. They are very strict about their trauma bypass rules - all major trauma patients are to be transported to the Royal Perth hospital (who have clarified that they haven’t seen her) or as a backup to Fiona Stanley or Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Only if patients are assessed as minor to moderate on scene or they are so critical that they won’t make it there they go to the other hospitals. They are really strict about it, believe me. So…that is kind of strange. Now, of course, patients get undertriaged and might not be end up in the Royal. Let’s look at what the alternatives are. Fiona Stanley and Charlie’s both are equipped with everything they would need to treat so the transfer she mentioned would not have been needed. Neither is the geographically most likely option (Joondalup) as they have their own renal service. The next option would be Midlands, they have no nephrology indeed, but they work with the large Fresenius Center Midlands- and it’s higgly unlikely that they would even have accepted her as a patient as they are known to be “trauma averse” and the Royal isn’t too far away. Armadale has a nephro service, so do Rockingham (ICU only,though)and Peel/Mandurah. There is literally no hospital within the greater Metro area, even the closer country hospitals have renal services (Northam and Bunbury). Of course there always could be the possibility that she was transferred due to a sole nephrological condition (trauma would have ended in the Royal again),but that is somewhat unlikely. (For the outsider: There is only two fully private hospital which accept emergency patients - Hollywood who has renal, and Murdoch who doesn’t but is directly next to Fiona Stanley and therefore unlikely)

• She claims to have been transferred to a “urology” department - urology has nothing to do with the kidneys in that regard unless the ureters are damaged, everything else is part of Nephrology, vulgo renal service. But patients indeed misunderstand that from time to time, so not a point against her.

Now, that’s for what we know or can somewhat base on facts.

Let’s guess a little what might have happened:

• Scenario 0: She is correct all along and took a photo at the right time, was incredibly lucky but gave different details about the accident for some reasons.

• Scenario 1: She indeed had a little accident. Happens. She was transported to one of the smaller hospitals due to the fact that she wasn’t that injured. They found out that she has a kidney condition for other reason by chance and either she or her spoksperson exaggerated the whole situation for some reason or another.

• She is the victim of an attack (kicking into ones kidneys can lead to renal failure easily) and has been “silenced” in some way or another and this is her way of telling her attacker that she will fall in line and shut up.

• The whole story is badly faked and has been done in some other hospital or nursing home setting for some reasons we cannot know. Attention? Mental health issues? A cover story? Who knows.

Yeah, that would be favourable.

But: Blackberry has acquired multiple companies that deliver government grade android devices that are fully degooglefied and heavily secured. They are the de facto market leader.

Even if they bring out a properly secured and degooglefied Android that would be a huge step in the right direction.

Or if the US fucks up enough for the rest of the world to put a UNO reverse card on the US. If China and the EU do that, the US is fucked within a few months. A “you can’t trade with either of these markets when you trade with the US” would be interesting.

And tbh, from what I gather it’s absolutely a option that is being discussed in diplomatic circles. The main reason it’s not on the table is the huge amount of debts the USA has in China. And the EU will use it as a backup arrow for “further escalation”. Maybe someone should tell Trump who actually delivers the machines for the factories he wants to “bring back”. Hint: It’s not the US.

Yes,you understand how sanctions work.

A person living in a sanctioned country can also no longer buy certain things, travel to certain countries or use certain services. You couldn’t buy a Boeing Plane during WW2 in Germany as well…

And considering that Russia is waging a fucking genocidal war and a hybrid war in Europe and a majority (according to relatively independent statistics) of the population stil supports that shit and has done so for a long time (when they still could have changed course) it’s god damn right these sanctions exist.

BTW: Cuba is being sanctioned by the US for simply nationalising US held companies (Fidel Castro wasn’t that much of a communist in the beginning) since 1960 and basically none gave or gives a rats ass.

They have been,well, complicated and uncomfortable, a few years back but gradually improved. I use both and they are alright. The WhatsApp Bridge works flawlessly for me, no issues at all, the signal bridge has occasional issues that require a restart of the container (as in “once every one to three months”),but that’s more on the signal end of things. While they are not ideal they are the best option at the moment.

Matrix is also an option and heavily audited+ federated. And unlike Signal not based in the US.

And the best? You can easily selfhost a bridge to signal and WhatsApp.

Not officially as it’s hard to determine the nationality. But it’s a drop in a bucket as NK has seen very limited action in the Kursk region.

Casualties != Death

It’s the proper procedure - they have a “ranking” how they proceeded with countries that behave like that. The US currently is not quite yet in the “travel warning” area but is getting closer and closer every day (which they, despite the usual secrecy of diplomacy, told the media multiple times).

Considering the huge ramifications a travel warning has, it’s reasonable to go step by step to gradually increase pressure, ideally together with European partners.

The formal travel warning is basically the biggest gun they have in their arsenal.

Amongst others that would mean:

• Most travel insurance providers no longer would cover travellers. This is especially significant for business travel as then individual risk assessment need to be made. (I do the later…it’s not cheap). And companies can no longer require their staff to travel to the US. So huge “risk bonuses” would be required. Even more significant for public employees and the European army personnel currently training in the US.

• Airlines would have to take additional insurance by their brokers to cover flights to and from the US. That can easily double prices for passengers and freight.

• Current trade contracts will have larger insurance costs, industrial goods and equipment that requires maintenance will have issues,etc. This is not a one way street,though,as European staff cannot be trained in the US either. Same goes for science,etc.

They will also ask you for your password for online accounts and refuse entry if you don’t. And as we have all seen recently that does not necessarily mean “next flight home”.

You are really surprised by a guy who wanted to name his car series S-E-X-Y and had a temper tantrum when model E was taken and he could not “buy” it.

Absolutly believable. People often have a rather high resistance to engage in physical altercations even when directly targeted and a lot of people don’t know how to defend themselves, even more so if facing against a group and in darkness.

A group that works coordinated,brings one member of their opponents to the ground and uses kicks to the head has a good chance to only face two opponents within 15 seconds,sadly.

Besides: There is literally no mention that no weapons were used and there is literally zero mention in the article (and never has been,I checked) that the woman stayed. (Besides - have you considered that people might get injured enough after a sexual assault that they are unable to run away)?

Wtf man, what is your point?

The problem is not her age but the lack of contingency planning - this actually happens a lot in industrial nations. The caring partner has an accident or a sudden medical illness and the person cared for dies of the lack of care.

The easiest form of backup is someone checking in regularly by phone - if the relatives (Hackman had three children and at least one granddaughter - but it seems they were estranged) or friends can form some form of habit to call each on a different day and act if none picks up unexpectedly, most of these cases can be effectivly solved.

But additional options exist: Modern medical alarm systems can be programmed to have a “death man switch” - if a certain key is not pressed once or twice a day the system sends out an alarm to the alarm company and they try to get a voice contact. For carers of bed bound patients (with no large pets - so not applicable here) the option to use a motion detector in a hallway exists - instead of the button the system sends out an alarm when none is moving in the hallway for a certain amount of time,which means something is wrong with the carer.

Lately there are ambient assisted living (basically smarthome) systems that can be used as well - e.g. you can hook up a sensor to the microwave and cutlery drawer. Neither has been opened by 2pm? So none had breakfast or lunch and something is wrong. Etc. etc.

In the end people need to plan ahead - and that is the problem. Because by doing so they must submit to their own mortality and we don’t like that.

In 22 years in healthcare I had my fair share of these cases. Most end well, but only go on our nerves as paramedics (and nurses),because it’s a really big problem if you have a patient who is the carer of someone who can’t stay at home alone, and the patient needs urgent transport. (We can’t simply take them with us most of the time)

But just to give you a few examples of cases I remember:

• The 45 y/o lady who basically died of thirst fully conscious - She was a quadriplegic, her husband was a bit older and seemed to have suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while caring for her, ripping of her communication computer of her bed while going down. She was still alive when found, but sadly we couldn’t save her, organs and brain were to far gone. That one really left a mark in my brain.

• The 80 year old lady who was mobile but had heavy Alzheimer and ran away (possibly to find help,not totally known) after her partner was unable to get up for 36h after an fall resulting in a broken hip. He literally saw her walking out but couldn’t stop her. She was found 4 weeks later, in a creek.

• The 90 year old who died of thirst and hunger after his somewhat wife died during the night. He made notes on a piece of paper about the dates… But was unable to summon help due to being bed bound. Especially bad as he had a system in place - their daughter called every day - but she had a horrific accident on “day one” and was in coma.

Anyway. It’s a horrific way to go. Talk to your elderly relatives and neighbours.

Dude, Brother is not even an US company - like most big printer companies it’s Japanese and traded at the Tokyo stock exchange.

So… You’re arguments are invalid and only show your americentric world view.

Affinity publisher can be a reasonable alternative for a lot of people - while it lacks a few features in terms of multi-user collaboration it is far better in the actual graphical design area.

I added two points that might be relevant.

No,no, that’s to broad, I think Trump will reform the FBI into that/create something like that…

It’s more like “SS-Grenzpolizei”(SS-Borderpolice - yeah,they existed)