Lorindól

Ukraine has lots of valuable natural resources, but Russia has much more of everything. The biggest reason for the invasion is most likely that Putin could not let a “brother nation” prosper and drift towards Europe and being a functioning democracy.

Russia’s population might get wild ideas if they saw that their Ukrainian cousins’ standard of living starts to rise rapidly while they have to endure living under a fascist dictator. And substandard and underdeveloped infrastructure, due to the rampant corruption and a government who doesn’t give a shit about the areas outside the larger cities.

I have not claimed any profession.

In my original comment I did state that I got into officer training, perhaps you assumed that as a career officer? I admit that the conscript army system is so profoundly different that I could have been more precise.

I assumed that the later mention of university studies would have made it clear that I was not a career soldier.

It is also true that I cannot verify my claim about the IQ test. Like I said earlier, it was a part of another student’s thesis. We got to hear the results after the test, then the gathered data was processed anonymously. If I recall correctly, the study was more about the qualities of the test itself, the qualities of the participants were not important. I think everyone got a free movie ticket for taking the test and I spent mine on “Kill Bill” 1 or 2.

But tell me, why would I want to lie about this? To what gain?

No edits have been made and you know it.

Just admit you made a mistake and we’ll laugh this off.

Are you familiar with the concept of “projection” in psychology?

Yes! If you know how to look up edit history, please do so! There has been no editing on my part.

You’re getting quite incoherent.

I have edited nothing, so it matters not if the edit history is publicly available or not. If this is your attempt to discredit me, it’s pretty pathetic. You just didn’t bother to read what I had written, right?

Our universities do not use IQ tests to select students nor have I claimed that they did. This is your own mental fabrication.

Depending of the situation, in my country we DO refer to ourselves as “officers” or “reserve officers”. Spesific rank is used in the garrisons and drills or when an individual is interviewed by the media. In the refresher drills the reserve officer ranks are equal to career officer ranks.

I understand that this all may be new and confusing information to you, but some things can be done very differently in different countries.

You are quick to leap to wild conclusions.

The army test is taken by every conscript at the beginning of the mandatory military service. It is an aptitude/IQ test which had a lot of similiarities with the Mensa type test I took later. You need a high enough score to get into NCO or officer training. The ones who graduate from the officer training may apply to the military academy after their mandatory service is over.

And like I clearly wrote in my original comment, the test I took later was a Mensa type test, using similar questions. It was a part of cognitive science or psychology department’s student thesis, not a Mensa test. I majored in educational psychology, so I do have some understanding of what IQ tests are. I got a high score in one and it resulted in absolutely nothing in my life.

I have not claimed to be a career officer. I am a reserve officer, I did not wish to apply to the military academy, therefore the refresher courses. And even if my soldier’s oath would not prevent me from discussing service matters with aggressive strangers on the Internet, my common sense would.

You are indeed a peculiar one. On my first comment I tried to validate the very point you made of IQ tests being poor indicators of true intelligence by sharing a personal experience (even though I know the fallacy of empiric experiences) on the matter. Yet you vehemently attacked my statement and accuse me of lying.

Lastly, your opinion of me is irrelevant, only the truth is relevant. One would gain nothing from lying to strangers. Perhaps practising some restraint on your part would result in more fruitful and pleasant dialogue in the future?

I’ve never taken any preparatory courses for anything and I’m not really good with mathematics, so no and no again.

And why I put the quotation marks around good is a reflection of my native language, we do that when one wishes to express their personal disbelief or doubt. I am well aware that the ~140 score is considered a good one by the designers of the test.

I served in the late 90’s and there have been several refresher courses but I’m not at the liberty to discuss any specifics of service matters publicly. If you have done military service you know this.

No.

The whole point - which you seem to have missed - was that getting a “good” score in some test can mean very little or nothing in real life.

It just means that you’re good at that sort of mental exercise.

We had to take a mandatory IQ test at the beginning of military service, my score was in the highest percentile and because of this I ended up in officer training. It wasn’t the Mensa type test, they measured our language, math and pattern recognition skills with a vast battery of questions with a time limit.

Many friends of mine got average IQ scores in the army test but they are the ones who are really smart and extremely succesful.

In university I got a chance to take the Mensa type test and got ~140 points. I just laughed it off since at the same time I was struggling to pass my courses, while my friends who got average scores passed them with ease.

I do not consider myself really “smart” in any way, I just have a very good memory and I’m pretty adept at solving problems. Otherwise I’m just about as average a guy can be.

Although we never even seriously discussed giving up conscription, we Finns also made mistakes. Like cutting down the war time troop numbers from ~500 000 to current ~240 000 in the early 2000’s. It did seem like a moderarely reasonable action at the time, but luckily it will most likely be remedied sooner than later.

When TOS aired the first time in my country, I was 9-10 years old. I found it mind-blowingly good compared to other shows at the time. I had learned to read when I was 4 and I read a LOT. And not just books for children, I also read classics and nonfiction natural science as much as I could.

I was a strange kid, but all my reading had made me ready to understand the social commentaries in TOS and the fictional scenarios really opened the concepts up for me. I often went to the library to research stuff that was explored in the latest episode to make sure I had understood everything.

My son is 13 now, we started to watch the TOS DVD-set together and he loves it. Although he is older than I was, he is not an avid reader like me. He needs many of the concepts explained and subtle guidance to understand the underlying larger themes, but he has shown advancement and after every episode we have a small discussion. I love teaching him this way.

We just finished season 1 and my son noted: “Athough this show is ancient, this stuff is still relevant and happening even today, isn’t it?”

I had this book when I was a child.

The illustrations are permanently burned to my mind’s eye.

All hail the Gerbil King!

My last brew was a pale ale-weißbeer - hybrid and it turned out fantastic. I used Magnum and Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops and weißbeer yeast, the resulting flavour has a tinge of aniseed/licorice root in it. The IBU is somewhere near 30.

I made a 23 litre batch for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, I should have made 2 batches. Guests shared my opinion of the quality and yearned for more ;)

Playstations 3, 4 and 5 are capable of playing Blu-Rays and DVD’s. I guess the same goes with the later Xbox-models, assuming they have an optical drive.

I cannot fathom why one would purchase any console without one.

Andrew Robinson’s vision of the Garak’s character was that he was sexually attractred to Bashir right from the start. Playing this openly would have been way too much for 90’s TV, so he stuck to the idea but downplayed it. Which most likely is the reason why the interaction between these two characters was so great.

Parkside’s value-for-money quality has been astonishing these past few years. I took the risk with them maybe 4-5 years ago and not one power tool from their lineup has had any problems yet. Today I just set up their quiet compressor at my garage, and the damn thing really is so silent that you can even have a discussion using your normal voice when it’s running.

This is worse than terrible. Now Trump gets to play martyr and it rallies up his base, even the ones who were in doubt after his conviction.

And as the chaos ensues, Putin is laughing at his throne.

I wish they had left the 32nd century as a “Discovery - only”. After the jump to the future it felt like the show had no stakes. Everything felt disconnected.

It feels like an easy excuse for the writers to pull just about anything out of their asses, “because it has been so long” and “tech has evolved exponentially”.

SNW proved that there was a lot more to explore even in the 23rd century. So much could have been done with the fallout of the Dominion War in the 24th.

But it’s all up to the writers. If they’re good the show can be good.