Mandy Lifeboats

Great. Let’s recap. We are 6th cleverest. We have got 4 that are above us. Paris, Ronald Trump and Africa. Only 3 more to go and we’ve cracked it!

We are 6th. So who are then 8 countries more cleverer than what we is? I bet one is Paris. I hate them and there fetish for bullfighting.

I think you are referring to Bakhmut which is almost encircled but not quite. Ukraine has 12,000 troops in that area forming 3 lines of defence. Those troops rotate between all 3 lines. It would take an amazing assault to break all 3 lines and encircle 12,000 troops. Ukraine has been losing ground very slowly and I get the feeling that Bakhmut will soon become untenable and Ukraine will withdraw. Russia will claim a massive victory. But the land to the west is very hilly and perfect for defence. Ukraine will have their pride dented. But defensively most people agree that they should have withdrawn by now. They are taking heavy loses. The only consolation is that Russia is taking even heavier loses.

I have been back to every house I've lived in. I had the chance to look around the house where I was born. I didn't. They can't be bothered to put up a blue plaque.

This is so simple. Why can't people grasp it? Think of the building as a white dog. The air defences are spots. Camouflage is a dog coat. If a white dog is wearing a coat it may of may not have spots underneath the coat. Even if it has spots it doesn't make it a dalmatian. If a dalmatian wears a coat with spots is does not mean its 2 dalmatians. Nor does a coat with stripes make a non-dalmatian a zebra. But a zebra is still a zebra if it doesn't have stripes. Even a child could grasp that.

That’s pretty normal. The other common occurrence is for an American F15 to fly towards the North East coast and be intercepted by UK Eurofighters. Presumably it’s NATO forces testing one another.

This is what I love about this forum. We can have opposing viewpoints. But by using intelligent and sensible discussion we can achieve a simple compromise. We agree that there is nothing there and nothing has been there for a while. We both remember a post I made about nothing being there and the actions that Russia haven't taken to camouflage something that wasn't there and hasn't been there. We agree that they need to put something there and not camouflaging it the way they originally didn't camouflage it. We both remember my post that I didn't make. That all seems perfectly simple to me.

What air defences? All I see is an empty roof. If Russians has put air defences on that roof its effectively camouflaged for the urban environment. They wouldn’t have just thrown a bright green sheet over it to make it bigger and easier to spot. If they did something stupid like that I am sure I would have posted it on this thread at the time. (hint hint)

I doubt it. If Russia tried to crash a drone into a location near Moscow we would have read about it hitting Belgium.

Russian media is openly reporting the recent Ukrainian drone attacks deep within Russia. Even TASS is reporting that Moscow is now within range and will be increasing its air defences. That’s more manpower, equipment and resources being dragged away from the front lines. This building needs some air defences installed on the roof immediately.

Russia has announced that it’s “decided” to reduce the amount of crude oil it produces by 500,000 barrels per day. (BPD). Before the war Europe imported 2.7 million BPD from Russia. That figures halved and continues to drop. There are some very easy conclusions to draw. 1. Russia hasn’t found alternative markets willing/able to buy the crude oil once exported to the West. 2. Sanctions work.

Spike was a genius.

It's interesting to see the different patterns. Today the RAF flew from the UK to the North Poland then followed the NATO border south, flew across black sea then turned around and flew a similar route to return to the UK. That's typical for the UK planes. Whereas all the other countries loiter over 1 particular area. Other highlights from today was a B52 that left Spain, flew up to Norway and flew very tight circles up and down the Norwegian coast. Techology is great. I remember filling in my Eye-Spy book of aeroplanes from the viewing lounge of Birmingham Airport. I forged my parent's signature on the completion certificate in order to fraudulently claim my completion badge.

There seems to be a set pattern to these surveillance craft. Swedish Airforce patrol the Baltic and south into Poland. The US covers the central area of the NATO border. The Italian airforce patrol Moldova. A Global Hawk from a US base in Italy covers south Crimea. British planes cover the entire area as required but don’t tend to loiter. They appear to work from the UK to Cyprus or vice versa. There is then a third layer. Turkey patrols behind the Italians and Americans. The Netherlands patrol behind the Swedish and the USA. The US provides a tanker that flies around Romania and South Poland. The UK has openly said that our planes have a fighter escort. They are rarely visible. I know the Dutch have fighters in Poland that protect the border. I presume the second line of surveillance is to protect the first line and secure the airspace.

See screenshot below. Not much more to add. Happily flying in circles.

I amended my post shortly after posting. It did NOT display a registration. A rather crucial omission. The planes were approx 200mph (170 kts).

Sorry - I didn't make myself clear. Flightradar 24 lists the registration and type of 99.9% of aircraft. The flights I mentioned did not display a registration or type on Flightradar24. You know far more about these things than most people. Is a height of 25,000ft doing less than 200mph unusual?

Flightradar24 has been a fantastic distraction on my desktop. An unknown and unregistered plane left the RAF base in Cyprus and landed in Moldova. Another 2 unknown and unregistered objects are present flying very slowly along the Belarus border in Polish airspace. They are at 25,000 feet but doing less than 200 mph.

I wrote something very similar to the following on the Israel thread. People stop believing in gods and stories written down thousands of years ago. Without that conflict we would stand a better chance of resolving far more important and relevant problems.

Questions- Could I open an EBay account and put things up for auction but withdraw them before the auction ends? Anything truly valuable would generate some interest and be worthy of further research. Could I just let the auction complete and then not go through with the sale?

Fair enough. I can see the humour in that image. But your comments regarding Israel have been in 3 threads today and it feels a little odd. It feels like you have an opinion to express or questions to raise but you are circling around the matter. If you have strong opinions or questions - why not just get them out in the open?

After the body was found he said something along the lines of "The body was definitely not there when we searched it." That's the worst thing to say because the conspiracy loons are now working on a theory that she was murdered and placed in the river after the search concluded in the area. He clearly can't be trusted to keep his mouth shut when he should.

What relevance is LGBT promoting or drag queen loving? The world doesn't need a nuclear armed despot.

Until humans stop believing in gods and stories written thousands of years ago Israel will not be a peaceful place. Which politicians are in power are irrelevant when they are all starting from the same flawed starting point. This applies to Israel and its enemies.

I am not sure what your point is. The countries you mentioned are part of the most powerful military alliance in history. Israel is nor part of that alliances and cannot possibly be so if it maintains its current policies. Israel is no more or less important than any number of countries who aren't supplying Ukraine with arms. Israel is looking after its own interests. So is every single country involved or not involved in this war. --------- invaded areas of land that they believed were rightfully theirs. --------- said those areas were necessary to maintain their own security. ----------- displaced the local population and resettled its own people into that area. You can fill those blanks with Israel, Russia, Nazi Germany, France, China, England Rome, Macedonia, Mexico, Iraq, Iran, Serbia and many, many more. All countries act in their best interests.