Police collecting bodies in Kherson, Ukraine, after a recent Russian FPV drone attack. Notice how fast they're moving? They're worried about themselves getting killed by follow-up attacks: Here's another recent example. A son whose elderly mother was killed. The police officer has to pull him away because they need to collect the body before a follow-up attack kills them too. I recently had an opportunity to visit the outskirts of Kherson. I turned it down, because I didn't have a good enough reason to be there to take that risk. Maybe I'll visit with a better reason; hopefully Ukraine pushes Russia back far enough that it's safe again.

Question: can I rent an Umbrel Air in the cloud? View quoted note →

So we just found a good deal on a Ford Transit van for ~4000€. Not as sexy as a truck. But the unit does need efficient transport to move soldiers and equipment around. At the moment we already have 2653€ left over from previous donations, so we just need another ~1500€ (~1725$) in donations to get them them that van.

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I also managed to do some interviews with some of the soldiers and foreign recruits of the unit. Flash Battalion is an English speaking one, so mainly from the US and UK/Commonwealth. It's telling how many of the recruits are conservative. One was even a self described MAGA Republican; another from New Zealand had previously worked in the gun industry in manufacturing. Which of course is now basically dead in NZ. Those videos should come out soonish once their editors finish. Sarah and I going for a walk to the east edge of Kramatorsk out by the (former) airport: Sadly that's getting to be a dangerous place to be. The road we were walking down had a few fibers left over from Russian fiber optic drones. Not a lot, yet. But we were about 14km away from the very edge of Russian lines. View quoted note →

The Russian port of Primorsk has received some kinetic sanctions:

How the fuck is this improv‽

“at work everyone was uncomfortable with using "master" as the main branch name on git so i changed it to "slave_coordinator"”

Fuck Russia.

Ukraine's recent air strikes on the Russia's Kremniy El microelectronics factory managed to kill 4 and wound 37. Including this guy: It's underappreciated how important it is to not just destroy factories, but also to kill and maim the Russian's working at those factories. It's a lot harder and more expensive to replace a skilled worker than it is to replace a tool bought from China. Cutting off his hand will probably prevent the deaths of dozens of Ukrainians. To that end, Ukraine should copy Russia's highly effective double tap strategy to discourage rescue operations. That man might still be able to train his replacement, or successfully work with his remaining hand. It'd be better if he had bled to death waiting for a rescue that never came.

Chełm, Poland

Merkelize the universe.

Really cool video: competent outdoorsman, making good decisions, who got into trouble and were successfully rescued in truly horrendous weather.

https://news.sky.com/story/ukrainian-family-denied-uk-asylum-told-to-use-noise-cancelling-headphones-for-child-to-block-out-bombs-13511339 They'll allow in infinity Somalian rapists but kick out a family with an autistic son who can't handle air raids.

Lots of Bitcoin donations are still flowing to Ukraine. I personally have raised about $5000 in the past few weeks in a single fundraiser to get a truck for for my friend Sarah's unit:

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The stuff he's doing in Eastern Ukraine is absolutely wild. View quoted note →