Miscellaneous News

Chevalier said:

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supercat said:

With 20/20 hindsight, I think the vast majority of the people in that era was duped by the MIC, which had an unquenchable thirst for more military budgets. By the time of the digital revolution, with the advent of computers and internet, the USSR no longer had any realistic hope of catching up the US and the West in technology and economy.

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From its early days, Silicon Valley has been a place where Jews could succeed. As a place that valued brains and chutzpah, the nascent computer and tech industries that developed there may have actually been the perfect place for Jews to make their mark, which they’ve been doing since the name Silicon Valley was coined in the 1970s.

Of course, there have been many Jewish superstars of the tech industry, but behind every Steve Ballmer of Microsoft or Larry Ellison of Oracle was a host of Jews filling up the rank and file of what became the world’s innovation hub.

Their ranks included refuseniks. In 1985

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by Paul Freeman of three Russian Jews, Vladimir Alexanyan and Lucy and Boris Zats, who had left the Soviet Union for the fertile tech grounds of California.

“We left because we are Jewish. In Russia, if you are Jewish, no matter how hard you work, you have no real future,” Boris Zats told Freeman.

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gelgoog said:

You guys really underestimate the Soviet economy. They had more population than the US back then. And in a lot of hard stats like steel production, coal production, and electricity production they weren't behind either. Militarily of course they were the only other country with the capacity to wipe out the US and all its allies from the face of the Earth with their nuclear arsenal. So of course they couldn't be underestimated. Even today Russia is competitive with the US in a lot of hard stats.

Had the Sino-Soviet split not happened history could have been quite different.

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and the number of visits from US ranked first among overseas visits.

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BoraTas said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1747335608912036139

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Biscuits said:

Well yeah, so far the strikes has done seemingly nothing. Not even some middle commander hit. It seems that they warn the Houthis to run away first and then destroy hardware that can't be moved, like the Iranian strikes on US bases before.

Even the recent random bombing from Iran in Syria and Iraq did more.

I think neither US or Houthis afford an all out war with eachother.

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Serb said:

The strikes did nothing against Houthis, but they made Houthis target their and British ships also directly unlike before.

They probably raised oil prices and supply costs even more with that, and they should worry about inflation, not low-inflation China for example.

Also, I doubt they got much Houthi hardware, as Houthis have been bombed for nearly 10 years already from the same positions with the same equipment, even in the same places that the US hit, so if they didn't manage to hide their hardware better, they are idiots.

To be honest, like everything that the US does, it does it without any thought, in complete chaos, as they are run by low IQs.

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Insurers Seek to Exclude US, UK Ships From Red Sea Coverage​

(Bloomberg) -- Some ship insurers are starting to avoid covering US and UK merchant ships against war risks when they navigate the southern Red Sea, another sign of blowback since the two nations’ airstrikes on Yemen last week.

Houthi militants have stepped up attacks on commercial ships in the past few days, making good on a threat to respond to airstrikes that the US and UK carried out on Friday. They’ve struck two commodity carriers with missiles since Monday, although both were able to continue their voyages.

As a result, underwriters are seeking exclusions for vessels with links to the US, UK and Israel when issuing cover for trips through the area, according to Marcus Baker, global head of marine and cargo at Marsh. It essentially means they won’t provide insurance.

“Underwriters are adding clauses saying no US, UK or Israeli involvement,” he said. “Just about everybody is putting something like that in, and many include the words ‘ownership’ or ‘interest’.”

It’s the latest development showing the fragile security situation in the southern Red Sea, where western naval forces have warned that it’s unsafe for merchant shipping to pass.

On Tuesday, the Greek-owned commodity carrier Zografia was hit by a missile while sailing in the south of the waterway. A day earlier, a US-owned bulk freighter called the Gibraltar Eagle was struck.

Swaths of the world’s top owners are pausing voyages in the area, although many are continuing to do so.

READ: Ships Keep Running Red Sea Gauntlet After US Warnings

Yemen’s Houthis said that US and UK ships were legitimate targets for attack, after the two nations launched their barrage of airstrikes.

British oil major Shell Plc halted tanker transits through the region, according to the Wall Street Journal. Japanese shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., with a fleet of about 800 vessels, also halted transits, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Nikkei reported on Wednesday that two other Japanese shippers, Nippon Yusen KK and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd., are also suspending all routes going through the area.

The insurance exclusions run the risk of creating problems because of their breadth.

While ownership is a relatively straightforward term, “interest” can be interpreted more widely, Marsh’s Baker said. It could span more tangential factors like charterers or previous port visits.

While attacks have been frequent, there is yet to be a missile strike that has prevented a ship from carrying on its journey.

Many vessels are suffering damage to cargo holds, or superficial damage, rather than more destructive impacts, meaning insurers are continuing to provide cover for many vessels sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb.

But risks for the wider shipping industry ares evident.

While Monday’s ship involved a US-owned vessel, it’s unclear why the Greek-owned carrier was hit on Tuesday. In the past, some ships — notably two carrying Russian oil — appear to have been targeted in error.

War risk rates have gone into a frenzy in recent days following the US and UK strikes, with cover surging to 1% of a ship’s value from about a tenth of that a few weeks earlier. That would mean it costs about $1 million to cover a vessel worth $100 million.

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“Underwriters are adding clauses saying no US, UK or Israeli involvement,” he said. “Just about everybody is putting something like that in, and many include the words ‘ownership’ or ‘interest’.”

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War risk rates have gone into a frenzy in recent days following the US and UK strikes, with cover surging to 1% of a ship’s value from about a tenth of that a few weeks earlier. That would mean it costs about $1 million to cover a vessel worth $100 million.

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