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Putin wants to know why Russia can only build 40 satellites a year
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Putin wants to know why Russia can only build 40 satellites a year
It might have something to do with the fact that Russia's industrial base dates back to the Soviet era. Their education system collapsed in the late 80s, so average skill levels are low. Their skilled workforce is mostly old and shrinking. So they don't really have enough skilled people or a big enough tech sector to build satellites at scale. They have pensioners building them by hand using equipment that is old. Not quite papier mache yet, but heading that way.
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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Under communism, knowledge was jealously guarded. The great object of the eastern educational system was not to ensure that the student would eventually surpass the master. Until those communists took over the western educational systems, if your students didn't surpass your knowledge, you were considered a failure as a teacher and learned scholar. Since nobody lives forever, you can easily deduce which direction your society is headed in, if the student doesn't surpass the master. For that reason alone, I've told my own children that I want them to know more than I ever could. It's my hope that their combination of education and experience will result in a better outcome for them. What they do with what they know and have experienced is a matter for them to resolve to their own satisfaction, since I probably won't be around to see it.
When coal production isn't a big state secret or a jealously guarded fiefdom of the Ministry of Coal, if there's a production shortfall then it becomes immediately visible and apparent at both a broad and high level, so that newer and potentially better minds can be devoted to solving the coal production problem. That sort of solution was an impossibility under the communist system, without the use of violence. Here we would dismiss the person in charge, rather than jail or kill them or accuse them of being an enemy of the state, because it wasn't viewed an indicator that the state or communism or the people in charge had utterly failed. The person we fired would move on to other jobs they may be better suited for, and someone else could take their place and hopefully do a much better job. The western mentality is that defects are inevitable, rather than impossible due to cult of personality, so the answer to a defect is the introduction of a new problem solver, and then life goes on.
Note how Hollyweird, which is almost exclusively leftists or communists, make so many "hero movies". It was one of their most popular products until they ruined it with overt attempts to weave anti-social political messaging into the plot line. There are no "hero movies" inside western manufacturing and industry. There probably is some hero worship inside the military, but very little that I saw. When you work with people every day, it's easy to see their numerous human faults. Very few people were "revered", and if they were, it was based upon performance rather than evidence-free belief that they were somehow "better than". I've worked for over a dozen very large American companies, and never once witnessed any sort of propaganda piece made about how they were saving the world or similar nonsense. The themes in their propaganda are "we attempt to make the highest quality products", "we're an industry leader", "we put our customers first". Nobody on the political right, which is most of the people in our military, thinks there's one all-knowing / all-wise / all-capable individual out there (someone with "super powers", or deserving of "hero worship"), who is coming in to "save the day".
The few people who made it to the rank of O-6 in the military, typically through direct first-hand experienced, have all encountered a situation where they had no idea what to do, and had to completely rely upon one of their subordinates having the correct knowledge / experience / wisdom for that particular situation, while recognizing that in the next situation that person who "saved the day" in that one instance might actually ruin the next day. From that experience, the leader typically understood that his or her subordinates needed training and experience, and in many ways needed to know more than their leader ever could, which is why the military has specialties or division of labor, and why no single person is the one driving all decision making. The Colonel comes in and says, "We need to take that island". His Lieutenants say, "I need you guys to destroy that gun emplacement or secure that beach or take that airfield." The Lietenant's Sergeants will tell the men under him how they're going to attack the gun emplacement or secure the beach. Finally, we arrive at the doers, who are specialized in picking off enemy infantry or blowing up enemy guns or guarding beaches or seizing airfields, so that more men and supplies can be brought ashore.
The Soviet and Russian system don't even have the concept of a Sergeant (a person with low-level managerial abilities who is also an expert infantry or artillery or armored branch soldier), so that the Lieutenant can be an expert mid-level manager, while his Colonel is an expert high-level manager. A Lieutenant in our system isn't supposed to be the officer equivalent of a Private Soldier (different job), nor a Sergeant (different experience level and has a specialty). One person cannot be an expert in everything, nor can you train and season enough officers to replace expert soldiers. Similarly, we also understand that expert managers can have technological or specialty blindspots where they typically don't understand all the intricacies of doing what they want done. That means they have to share authority and delegate tasking to their subordinates, and trust that their subordinates have the specialist knowledge and training to get the job done.
It's highly probable that the rest of the Soviet and Russian system operated in much the same way as their military. One person cannot be an expert in microelectronics, solar panels, propulsion systems, and launch systems. German industry definitely worked that way, although they did at least have the concept of "expert doers" in conjunction with "expert managers", which is probably why the Soviet military had such a horrendous time against a nation with a fraction of the Soviet Union's resources. Only Russian scientists seemed to operate in a broadly similar manner to western scientists. What they don't accept is that we organize the way we do in the west, specifically because of the shortcomings of trying to make one person a do-all / be-all / end-all solution to military, industrial, or scientific problems.
In our nuclear program, which is still treated as science inside of our military, a Lieutenant can tell a Captain or Colonel what they're going to do and the Captain has very little say-so in the matter, so long as the Lieutenant knows what they're doing and why they're doing it. That is the single most consequential reason behind not having any major nuclear reactor accidents in our military. The person who actually knows, in whatever specific situation has been encountered, is the person calling the shots. This is the exact opposite of how the Soviets or Russians treated "expert management" within their military-industrial apparatus, and why you had disasters like Chernobyl and K-19. If the Captain made an unreasonable request or ordered an inadvisable course of action, then it would be dutifully carried out on the basis of him being the Captain. Largely thanks to the efforts of Admiral Rickover, he nixed that problem before it could become a problem. The person who knows is the one who is allowed to decide and act, regardless of rank, because the consequences of bad decision making are so high that the alternative is intolerable to both the military and society. Western military forces frequently run into what we call "analysis paralysis" problems, but have largely prevented "unmitigated disaster based upon ignorance-based brash action" types of problems.
The leader can issue an edict under the communist system, but the ability of the people to carry out the edict will always be limited by their organizational and operational principles. Sometimes these control / authority mechanisms change during times of war, but more often than not, a lot of good people get killed trying to make an otherwise unworkable idea semi-functional.
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A Norwegian Airline Landed the “Largest” Aircraft Ever in Antarctica
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erictegler … ntarctica/
Antarctic flights are relatively routine these days. While there are no scheduled airline services, a constant stream of aircraft bring researchers, military personnel and equipment to Antarctica’s various regions. These include Queen Maud Land, a one million-square-mile region in the north-central portion of the continent claimed by Norway as a dependent territory.
The territory (also called Dronning Maud) hosts 11 nations which pool their airlift resources in order to save costs and operate in a coordinated manner. The 10,830-feet by 330-feet runway blue ice runway where the 787 landed and took off has been called one of the closest things Antarctica has to an air hub.
As such, it has seen some big airplanes. In 2021, widebody aircraft wet lease operator, Hifly, landed an Airbus A340-300 on an ice runway at ‘Wolf’s Fang” an upscale adventure camp for tourists west of Queen Maud Land. Though similar in size, the A340-300 is greater in length with a wider wingspan than the 787-9 which Norse operated.
Other large aircraft are operated in Antarctica by global military forces including the U.S. Air Force which flies Boeing C-17 Globemaster airlifters to the Phoenix Runway near McMurdo Station on Ross Island in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in south-central Antarctica.
Though a bit shorter than the 787 and A340, the Globemaster’s maximum takeoff weight is greater than the Dreamliner’s and on par with the A340’s. Other large airplanes that have crunched across Antarctic ice runways include the Ilyushin Il-76, Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules, Lockheed P-3 Orion, Boeing 757/767 and Airbus A319.
To its credit, Norse Atlantic Airways (which operates 15 787s on European, U.S. and Asian routes) did not claim to have landed the largest airplane in Antarctica. Setting a 787 down on the runway at Troll is nonetheless impressive.
Landing video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkHDFPiB6Sk
Last surviving member of Admiral Byrd's expedition to Antarctica
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FXK_U4IARc
Air Force Ships Helicopters for Remote Antarctic Science, Nov 2023
https://www.miragenews.com/air-force-sh … e-1133845/
Sometimes a Military of a Nation will build a Civilian Town with Recreation Centers these areas of Entertainment will be run by a Country's Defense Department, they might building Resorts or Complex or Lodge or Entertainment areas, a cruise ship might even be used.
https://www.chriscunard.com/history-fle … -princess/
Vegas life some say bad morality and it is a life of Vice?
but slot machines run by the U.S. military earn $100 million a year from service members overseas
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/31/11108824 … seas-bases
might also take money from dod civilians or spouse or the recent retired a older woman was always at the same machine just feeding it quarters again and again, the happiness of the win barely registers.
The slot machines, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, earn the DOD more than $100 million each year in the name of "morale, welfare, and recreation" for service members, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office that was written in response to demands from Congress.
Military daughter tries to distract mom while she's bowling!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peoplea … i-AA16V86Q
maybe Bowling and Beer some other options
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-12-04 07:36:29)
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civil rule gone, rise in crimes but maybe not full MartialLaw
New York to Send State Military Forces Underground as Subway Crime Surges
https://www.nysun.com/article/new-york- … ime-surges
New York Governor Kathy Hochul is deploying the US National Guard into New York City
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