Regardless of the side, if the convicts have proper training, supplies and aren’t used as pure cannon fodder I don’t have any issues with it personally.

Honestly, I am surprised that Ukraine wasn’t doing it sooner. Unfortunately, the front has been somewhat slow for the last year or so (with an exception or two) and that means both sides are dug in fairly deep.

If Ukraine decides to push back harder and start retaking large portions of land, their losses are going to skyrocket. Regardless is you agree or not, using convicts to push the lines makes sense and doesn’t risk better trained troops.

That is just how wars of this type work and the offensive side will need to absorb more damage.

Personally, if I had the option of fighting or rotting in prison, I would fight and would probably volunteer for some of the hardest work. The thing is, it would need to be my choice and I hope that any convicts, Russian or Ukrainian, get a choice in that.

Ukrainian convicts are probably going to get decent training first. It’s also likely they are going to go into some of the worst spots. Ukraine is outnumbered and they can’t afford to lose anyone, criminal or not, but it doesn’t mean they are going to have it easy.

Russia/Wagner hardly gave their convicts any training, maybe gave them guns and supplies and sent them to the front blind to find artillery locations. They were cannon fodder, pure and simple. Bakhmut was a slaughter.

There are some major differences here.

I have heard a few things, TBH. Everything in the range from simply vaporized and hot to the vaporized metal being in a near plasma state. Shrug.

Wikipedia gives a few numbers ranging from 660K to almost 1200K (copper melt temp is 1358K) from testing it quotes. It seems to be dependent on the cone alloy and the explosive type.

In practice, it’s probably is all over the place in regards to temperature. If you can round up a few RPGs, I would totally be down for some testing…

As an example, RPGs use shaped charges to send a jet a molten copper through armor steel. Even though the devices may seem antiquated, they are extremely effective at burning holes through tanks. If that molten jet happens to come in contact with ammunition, it’s generally game over.

False perspectives, sure. That is a possibility. False or not, that reasoning forms memories which must be stored somewhere. Those memories are what you might consider “new data” that comes from “new connections”.

Understanding something is based off what you already know or just learned, which is memory. Logic and reasoning is partially instinctual and mostly memory. Decision making is likely not strictly based in memory, but more based on memories.

I think where you might be getting something mixed up is undersanding vs. memorizing and how the brain stores information. If I am understanding you correctly, you are thinking of data like a computer handles data: A zero or a one is a bit. Eight bits are in a byte. PC memory can hold X bytes until it gets full, and then game over.

Our brains simply don’t work like a PC and we naturally store patterns, not specific raw data.

So, if a neuron has 3 inputs and 3 outputs, it has 6 connections to other neurons. With a computer, you need to lay out a few arrays and map each connection to each other. If we had a mess of neurons on a table in front of us to stick together, we would just need to remember to connect outputs to inputs and follow any other simple conditions we are given without strictly needing to memorize a 1:1 connection map.

Pattern matching is core functionality for our brains. So much so, we actively seek out patterns whenever we can. (Reference: apophenia and pareidolia)

For things like simple number memorization and even speech, our brains are able to do those things based on a series of different patterns that we stick together automatically. By doing so, we can use and reuse groups of the same neurons for seemingly different tasks. Its essentially built-in data compression, for lack of a better term.

If we were to ignore real constraints like the time it would take to map out all of the connections in our brain, we would naturally start to store patterns of neuron connections, patterns of how those neuron clumps interact and other key features of operation.

My reasoning is that we would start to get extraordinary “compression rates” for this data. If we memorized a complex pattern of 100 neurons, we could likely reuse that “data” a million times over for other major components of the brain.

By the very nature of how we store information, data loss will happen and it’s unavoidable. We would need a new form of brain that was capable of storing blocks of data 1:1.

Also, your question is also a paradox. if we were to say we a brain would need to be double the size to store itself, then you would need a brain four times the size to store both of those brains. A brain storing itself is still a single brain so this turns into a recursion nightmare fairly quick.

If we doubled the size of our brains, we could probably do some amazing things and our memories might become phenomenal. However, the way we learn and store information is basically the same and probably still wouldn’t allow us to exactly store a million prime numbers in order.

The summary of all of this is that you aren’t accounting for memory patterns and natural data loss and there are very simple reasons that a brain doesn’t “fill up”.

Edit: Psychedelics are not inherently dangerous. Neither is THC or many other compounds. Mixing drugs and/or improper dosages is what is actually dangerous. There are probably more legal drugs that are riskier than illegal ones, actually. I would consider alcohol to be a substance that carries more risks, mainly because it is legal almost everywhere.

I don’t get it. The key still gets declared, but it’s value is null. “name” in an empty object would return undefined, not null, correct?

(Yes, this joke whooshed, but I am curious now.)

I have been to some interesting places in my own brain with the help of psychedelics. While I have experienced different levels of self-awareness, the possibility of that “filling up my brain” is likely not possible.

There is a part of the brain that psychedelics specifically affect that functions as kind of a traffic regulator. It typically only directs signals from one part of the brain to another part. Psychedelics open these pathways up and allow for information to flow to in all kinds of directions. (Synesthesia, sensory confusion, is an example: Feeling colors and seeing sounds.)

What the experience does for me, is that I seem to gain more awareness into how my brain works. It’s like I can stand back and watch how my brain processes things. My subconscious is pulled into full view and I can almost tinker with it, in a way. Some theories suggest that the colors and geometric patterns people tend to see is our actual brain operations being leaked into the visual cortex and/or the fractal patterns are the result of actual “data loops” caused by psychedelics allowing information to pass around freely. (Not my theories, btw.)

Now, you may read this and think: That dude is just tripping! (And you would be very much correct.) The thing is, every experience I have and anything that I feel is already in my brain. The data is already there, but how that data is processed is vastly different. Even if I am perceiving parts of my brain that I couldn’t before, it’s still just the same neurons that were always there.

So, what I am basically saying is, is that my self-awareness temporarily becomes self-aware. It’s a shitty description, but it’s the closest I could get to matching the situation you were asking about.

I still develop memories, almost as normal. Some memories stick and some fade. All that really happened is that a few neuron weights got shaken up and it all becomes a few new pathways with a similar number of neurons as before. (Neurogenesis and dendritic growth as a result of psychedelics is a different subject and I wouldn’t think it would be part of the recursion-type situation you are asking about.)

Memories become integrated with existing ones, basically. While vastly different in many ways, our current AI tech has a set number of “neurons” it can work with in any given model. You can train those same bunches of neurons with millions of different patterns, but the actual size of the neural network doesn’t change, no matter how much data you cram into it. With slight changes to when neurons fire, you are using specific pathways of neurons to save data, not necessarily using the neurons themselves.

Really? I thought they would be sitting back drinking mojitos while watching the show.

Most US Navy ships have had CIWS systems since the 70s and have had many upgrades to their tracking systems since then. The US Army adopted the LPWS (C-RAM) which is basically a portable CIWS for land use. (The Russian version of the CIWS is called a Kortik.)

It wouldn’t surprise me if there are already CIWS-type systems for commercial ships operating in hazardous zones.

I have had the pleasure of standing next to a few CIWS systems during live fire testing and it’s quite the experience.

Wut?

Oops. I read the title as “menthol”, not methanol, so this article really confused me at first.

Still, I found a paper on death by menthol that was an interesting read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830155/ (Who knew there were hidden dangers in peppermint factories?)

Thanks for tracking that down, detective!

( Tumblr link: https://www.tumblr.com/jubilationsart )

Can anyone source this? The closest match I found was a storyboard artist (Josh Shepherd) that has done a lot of dogs. The exact source is elusive.

It’s a bad article anyway. It’s not wrong in the words it uses, but they purposely left out most of the political dynamics after 2014. Context and full history is important.

The Volkswagen is of actual Nazi origin, but that doesn’t seem to ruffle any feathers these days.

Now, if you really want to hear something confusing, there are Russian citizen units that actually are fully far-right, are open about it, are fighting against Russia and using Ukraine as a staging point for incursions into Russia.

There is plenty of things to complain about in that part of the world, for sure. Considering Ukraine is being invaded, we can put some political gripes on pause for a second. Ukraine needs every person it can get right now as long as they are fighting for similar enough causes. The past can be addressed soon enough but it won’t matter if there is no Ukraine left to resolve those issues.

It’s also worthy of note that this specific messaging has been amplified 10x by Russian media and I am sure plenty of half-truths have been implanted as fact in many articles and stories. Unless I missed something, there wasn’t a listed author for that article. Given that it is essentially a cherry picked blurb out of Wikipedia, makes the actual purpose of it suspect. (However, I have seen many times where author names are left off of controversial articles. It’s likely a safety thing.)

I was more of a compulsive liar when I drank. To be honest, I was always more prone to say what is on my mind when I am sober.

Yeah, I don’t believe that a person is their true self when drunk either. In my case, I was damn near a completely different person.

This is not about agreement. It’s about your history. You are posting crap from right-wing conspiracy theorists. Period.

People can do what they want and read what they want. Totally fine. By that token, if you can post this garbage, I have the same right to call you out on it.

This isn’t a one way street. You are posting your opinions, and I am posting mine, and I ain’t mad about it. I am just calling a spade a spade.

This isn’t Russophobia. This is straight up Kremlin propaganda from a group of people that are known for their misinformation campaigns.

Russians are fine. Generally good people, if I had to guess. However, all you need to do is turn on some Russian state TV to see the commonalities here. I watch more Russian media than I should, to be honest.

Specifically, the subject of nuclear weapons and the threats of Putin and his gang to nuke the world is what I am focused on. If you haven’t noticed, Russia needs the constant threat and fear of nuclear war to help advance their agenda in Ukraine.

You are assuming that I conflate Russian media with the Russian people themselves and that is just a stupid assumption.

This isn’t brigading. You posted on an instance where people don’t tolerate garbage like this.

I am sticking to what this post is about: You are spreading bullshit from bullshit sources. You amplify Kremlin propaganda and QAnon theories. (Hell, even Helga Zepp-LaRouche hasn’t hid her association with Chinese state media.)

Oh, cool! Good to see that I might be wrong on location, but that doesn’t change much. You are still doing the same shit: Spreading Russian, far-right and QAnon garbage. My theory is irrelevant, but your actions are consistent.

Like all trolls that I interact with, I always give them the option of self-awareness. If you believe you are doing what you do for good and you were corrupted by political B.S., there may be hope. If you are on a very specific path to spread misinformation, sow discord and FUD, there isn’t much we can do.

Here. Have a read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5724570/

Edit: Just calling it now. You should be trying to distract the topic of the thread with insults here in a second. It usually starts at this point… It’s a very distinct commonality with the type of account you have. (Well, there is also the type that will post a copy-pasta wall of links to distract further. Troll accounts are surprisingly formula-based, so there are a couple of more options you have.)

That is actual bullshit. You are in the business of spreading as much misinformation as possible, so why should I give two fucks about your little “story” that you just made up?

You aren’t fooling anyone, bub.

Actually, if I had to wildly speculate, you are part of the .ml propaganda ring that I believe is based out of India. I have no proof of that, of course. Your M.O. is exactly the same though.