Posts by Robert Barrett6

rowdypanther12 said:That’s actually the core issue right there.
A 4.0 GPA should be the exception—something unique and standout—rather than just a basic requirement for getting into a good prep school. Honestly, if everyone was hitting a 4.0, it wouldn't mean much anymore. It's supposed to be a rare achievement, not a baseline entry requirement for high school enrollment.
In my class, absolutely NOBODY had a 4.0. Not one person.
They were all brilliant kids who went on to graduate from top universities without any trouble at all.

👍

Back in my day, we had four classes of about 25 to 30 students. I was in one for a year, and a buddy of mine was in another for two. One year, I actually got recognized as top of my class—I placed in four national competitions and two state ones—but I still didn't have that legendary 4.0.

Sarah Hall53 said:Look, if you literally have to kill yourself just to hit the GPA needed for enrollment—whether that's a 3.2, a 3.5, or a perfect 4.0—then honestly, you probably aren't a good fit for that track to begin with.
Does that make sense?

Plus, nobody is stopping New Yorkers from just applying to a high school in a different city where the GPA requirements are lower—since everyone seems so incredibly bitter about the cities where you need a perfect 4.0 just to get in. ☕

And thirdly, I still haven't had anyone explain to me how high school admissions are somehow responsible for all the hysteria regarding GPAs and those "honor roll" certificates people obsess over during the first four years of middle school.

The problem is that every school and every teacher uses different standards. Your premise would only hold water if there were a universal benchmark, like a standardized final exam.

brightheron64 said:It is an intriguing thesis, certainly.

How else would you explain the fact that up until the 70s, the Chinese weren't even capable of building what the Germans and Britons were producing for Bismarck or Queen Victoria, yet here they are today...

Just consider this one little detail:

Nearly a quarter of all cars newly registered in China are now electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, meaning that the country is ahead of Europe and well ahead of The US in adoption of Thes technologies. Half The world's EVs ara sold in China.

Do you honestly think the Chinese—unlike the Russians—are just importing electric vehicles? That they aren't developing their own tech and manufacturing capabilities along the way... Can you even begin to imagine what the landscape will look like in five or ten years, and who will actually be leading the world in EV production?...

And that is exactly where the catch lies. Honestly, please just view this as a bit of lamentation or a debate... rather than some attempt to take the side of the Russians. I am simply wondering if, in the long run, these sanctions might actually force Russia into a new era of industrialization, transforming them from arrogant exporters and importers into genuine technological competitors...

Of course, it's a process that takes time, but once you learn a lesson like this, you'd hope it would prompt some reflection, much like what happened with the agricultural sector...

It won't force them to do anything except make them even more insufferable. A massive chunk of the people who actually matter have decided to pack their bags because of this war. And honestly, they were already leaving in droves long before the fighting started.

People can claim an expert is sacrificing themselves for the greater good, giving up a comfortable life for their family and living in constant uncertainty just so uneducated resource owners can fund their private castles and yachts.

link1, link2

With this war, Russia has lost a huge portion of its remaining "brains" and human potential, while driving up desperation levels to the worst ratio in the world for both men and women.

Metaphorically speaking, they shot themselves in the foot.

And if you want to know how to best recruit top-tier experts, just look at the USA. China, Germany, France, the UK... they all try to copy that playbook, but they aren't particularly successful at it, but that's a whole different conversation.

rowdyraven112 said:A world war would prove you wrong... Same goes for Vietnam, where millions of Vietnamese lives were lost.☕

How does that disprove it? Look at the data—Russia has one of the most skewed male-to-female population ratios in the world because of WWII.
In Russia, there are about 11 million more women than men.

They're facing massive demographic crises.

Arthur Miller7 said:I'm with you on that, it's all pretty obvious to me. My question is actually for this group of forum users who are fighting so hard against sanctions. Like, what's the actual alternative here? What was the West supposed to do? That old-school logic about "we need to maintain good relations with Russia" just doesn't cut it anymore. The Russians are blackmailing us. After Ukraine, if they start demanding something else—and let's face it, they will, because why would they stop?—what is the West even supposed to do then? Since you guys are all squawking so much about how things should have been, why don't you come up with those big, grand solutions to bring world peace and keep everyone warm?

The only thing we could've—or should've—done was not to cave from the very start. Look, we're here right now because everyone was too worried about the financial fallout, and now we're right back in the same financial crap. We should have been phasing out Russian energy step-by-step so that when we finally said "enough," we wouldn't be in this pathetic situation. But yeah, easy to say now, right? You can't just flip a switch overnight. If we had started planning nuclear plants and other alternatives earlier, Putin would've seen the writing on the wall and launched his "special operation" way sooner. By being soft on Russia, we basically just made them stronger than they ever were (even back in 2008), while they just kept us on a leash and squeezed us slowly.

There is no other way. Anyone with a memory longer than a goldfish knows that. And just like Roko pointed out, this economic war between Russia and the West didn't just start this year.

Back during those previous two "special operations," Russia responded to political sanctions with massive economic retaliation. They didn't give a damn.

The era of playing nice is over. We need to focus on making sure Ukraine joins the EU once this war is finally finished.

rowdyraven112 said:Looks like those US sanctions are actually doing something. ☕

And honestly? We’re just here making jokes about it. Everything is fine as long as this winter stays mild. It might get messy in the European Union if people start freezing in their homes—that's when you see half the population hitting the streets. Here in the States? Nobody’s even going to blink. ☕

Chinese sanctions on the USA would work just as well as they do ☕.

And honestly? They’d probably hit harder than the US sanctions ever could...

Amanda Flores88 said:Doing all that in apartment buildings or crowded cities is a bit tougher—not every place is set up with chimneys, and you actually need space to store firewood.

(And chimneys... man, that's a whole other headache since getting that done is a massive job in itself here😢)

Those "short sleeves" tips seem like some gimmick, much like those national "savings advice" segments aimed at a country where hundreds of thousands of people are scraping by on less than a couple thousand bucks a month. Anyone actually struggling with high heating bills doesn't need this kind of advice.

The "wisdom" basically boils down to just bundling up with whatever you've got. Don't spend money on stuff you don't need—if you can't afford groceries, then don't buy them.

I wasn't talking about that; I was just correcting the warped idea people have regarding wood usage.
The whole concept of panicking and switching to wood isn't making any sense either.

Amanda Flores88 said:Doing all that in apartment buildings or crowded cities is a bit tougher—not every place is set up with chimneys, and you actually need space to store firewood.

(And chimneys... man, that's a whole other headache since getting that done is a massive job in itself here😢)

Those "short sleeves" tips seem like some gimmick, much like those national "savings advice" segments aimed at a country where hundreds of thousands of people are scraping by on less than a couple thousand bucks a month. Anyone actually struggling with high heating bills doesn't need this kind of advice.

The "wisdom" basically boils down to just bundling up with whatever you've got. Don't spend money on stuff you don't need—if you can't afford groceries, then don't buy them.

I think that mostly applies to district heating systems without calorimeters or individual meters. I'm not sure if there's still a legal mandate for them—I know there used to be one before they scrapped it.

Basically, there were times when there weren't even meters at the central plant. You just paid for whatever amount the utility company estimated you needed. In those buildings, people would just waste thermal energy because it didn't cost them an extra dime.

I remember when I was buying my place, a guy told me something like, "We have district heating, it's plenty warm. We keep the heat halfway up all winter and leave the windows open. Keeps the air fresh while staying cozy."

As for how billing and consumption tracking works in buildings with district heating these days, I honestly haven't a clue.

Megan Thomas5 said:I mean, is there really a need to be lounging around the house in short sleeves?

Short sleeves and windows wide open. That's the move.

dustyowl29 said:Someone actually has to stoke the wood stove, but if we’re all stuck at work from 7 to 6, there’s nobody around to get things burning by 6 PM just so the house is warm by 10.
That’s easy for families where Grandma is always home to handle it.

It doesn't matter what kind of stove you're using, from an old cookstove to a full central heating system. Even if the fire dies down, the heat lingers. In our 3,000-square-foot house, we only had to light the central furnace about three times a day.

Besides, with central heating, it’s standard practice to install a thermal storage tank. You'll have hot water running through the system for hours after the flame is completely out.

Joshua Myers432 said:Of course you chose Sweden as your example—a massive country with a tiny population that pulls a huge chunk of its power from hydro, wind, and biomass because they’re sitting on those resources. You didn't pick a place like Poland or, God forbid, Germany, where trying this kind of idiocy would be a disaster. You could have even used Andorra to argue that this crap works in practice. It just doesn't hold water for most countries that lack a solid foundation of nuclear or fossil fuel plants. Winter is coming, so we'll see how things go once we're relying on slightly less Russian gas. Nothing drastic has actually changed yet.

Two years ago? Sure, I’d have agreed with you. But the last two years have seen massive leaps in energy storage tech. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about where this is headed.

Here are a few links. I won't bother with Lithium-ion since everyone already knows about that stuff:

flywheel
Redox Flow Battery
"sand batteries"
Sodium-ion
Sodium-ion printed Zinc-ion batteries
NanoBolt lithium Tungsten
Proton-based
Aluminum-ion
Potassium-ion
...

Now, this is "old school" tech, but they're actually building several new sites over in Greece, Spain, and Norway:
Nant de Drance´

Bottom line: energy storage is the field seeing the most intense development right now, and it's only going to accelerate.

feralhawk45 said:If you want to prove you’ve actually made it—that you’ve got real money in the bank—you live in a tank top during the summer (AC cranked down to 65) and short sleeves in the winter (heat blasting at 78).

I guess I just haven't adapted. In the winter, I'm perfectly fine in shorts and a t-shirt when it's sitting right around 70.🤷

George Robinson43 said:They are so ridiculous that even Sergey Lavrov is now bringing up sanction relief during negotiations.
Unfortunately, selling oil at a discount isn't working out for them because, apparently, only India wants those 15 million barrels, and that's it. It’s highly doubtful they can actually deliver it all since finding tankers is getting difficult, and nobody is exactly lining up to sail alongside the Russians right now.
As a result, oil is piling up in storage, and production at the wells is starting to taper off.

Well, obviously it isn't working when roughly 60-70% of the market is boycotting them. The rest of the market is tied up in existing contracts; they can't just swap all their oil or gas for Russian supplies overnight, nor would they want to. They'll buy what they need at a discount, but it's nowhere near the volume the Russians need to offload.

I don't get the people who think India and China are going to suddenly start buying 200% more oil and gas just because there's an opportunity. Where on earth would they even store it all?

Andrew Miller102 said:The issues we’re seeing right now are trivial compared to what happens if Russia decides to go after and wipe out the Ukrainian grain silos.If things escalate to that point, there won't be anywhere left to store the upcoming harvest, which means the crops just rot in the fields.

I can only assume Zelenskyy and the European Union are accounting for this exact scenario, because once that threshold is crossed, we’re looking at a massive, large-scale crisis. Since Ukraine serves as a major breadbasket for the European Union, the folks in Brussels had better be preparing for an escalation that isn't exactly a surprise.

We'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out; we'll deal with the consequences when they arrive, so by all means, just keep piling those sanctions on Russia.☕

Ukraine isn't some EU breadbasket; it's more like North Africa or Southeast Asia.

https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/explor...Year=undefined

shortage of canned goods

https://www.walmart.com/search?q=canned+goods

sticky tape

http://foodmarkets.us/news/topic/40349

carrots and cabbage

mr

chips, ABS, ESP modules, semiconductors, airbags


https://www.autonews.com/automotive/chevrolet-equinox

They’ll be rolling out stripped-down Chevys without any features

Packaging shortages are hitting hard. Since Tetra Pak pulled out, it’s anyone's guess if we’re actually low on milk or if they just don't have any way to box it up.

https://logos44.ru/v-kostrome-zagovo...-opusteli.html

Even basic bearings—the literal foundation for basically everything—are gone.

https://globalmsk.ru/news/id/59096

https://www.business-vector.info/sha...ijskie-138921/

Tires.

https://www.tatar-inform.ru/news/def...arstan-5860926

Microchips for debit cards.

https://abnews.ru/index.php/2022/4/7...astikovyh-kart

They still have white goods, consumer electronics, and stuff like that sitting in warehouses, but if these sanctions drag on, expect shortages in three to four months. Sure, they might be able to cover 60-90% of the domestic market locally, but the real bottleneck is going to be the components needed to actually put things together.

Contact lens shortages in America

https://lenta.ru/news/2022/04/07/linza/

Servers and hardware

https://www.cnews.ru/news/top/2022-0...evaet_defitsit

Paper

https://www.currenttime.tv/a/bumazhn.../31779756.html

Sugar

https://newizv.ru/news/economy/18-03-2022/produkt-osoboy-vazhnosti-pochemu-v-rossii-nachalsiya-defitsit-sahara

Diapers and pads

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5259462

Medicine

https://www.fontanka.ru/2022/03/22/70523984/

Someone on another thread actually accused me of "swallowing everything Western media feeds them" just because I posted export data pulled straight from the UN, IMF, and OECD.

If you look at the Harvard atlas, you can see the visual and numerical breakdown of exports by sector. I didn't dive too deep into the weeds, but honestly, looking at the numbers, Russia looks unexpectedly pathetic—even for my low expectations.

atlas

For anyone who thinks comparing data is wrong, check out this comparison of exports between Russia, Spain, and Slovakia. It caught me off guard that Slovakia actually out-exports Russia in textiles, vehicles (that category covers land, water, air, motorized, and non-motorized, so don't get bogged down in details), machinery, and electronics.

US agriculture - $66bn, Russia - $39bn, Slovakia - $6
textiles - Spain - $26bn, Russia - $2.4bn, Slovakia - $4
chemicals - Spain - $52bn, Russia - $27bn, Slovakia - $6
vehicles - Spain - $63bn, Russia - $8bn, Slovakia - $32
machinery - Spain - $31bn, Russia - $9bn, Slovakia - $12
electronics - Spain - $18bn, Russia - $4bn, Slovakia - $13
bricks, blocks, stone - Spain - $2bn, Russia - $0.5bn, Slovakia - $0.2
ceramics - Spain - $4bn, Russia - $0.3bn, Slovakia - $0.08
glass - Spain - $1.5bn, Russia - $0.8bn, Slovakia - $0.5
metal processing - Spain - $27bn, Russia - $40bn, Slovakia - $8
rare metals and stones (unprocessed) - Spain - $1.5bn, Russia - $18bn, Slovakia - $0.4
minerals - Spain - $24bn, Russia - $230bn, Slovakia - $3

After that, I went digging through some Russian sources and stumbled onto even more interesting stuff. I’m using the websites of their major trade fairs as a reliable proxy for what's happening on their side.

Machinery and equipment average imports sit at 46%.

1
2

Caterpillar – 95%
Drilling & boring equipment – 50%
USA – 50%
USA – 60%
John Deere – -57%
John Deere – -52%
John Deere – -51%
Cargill – -50%
Forage harvesters - -49%
Cultivators - -47%

And here is a bit from those Russian sources regarding where they stand with medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.
3

Bryan Booth82 said:The pressure mounting on the German government to immediately halt all imports of gas, oil, and coal—following those horrific war crimes committed by the Russian military—is becoming impossible to ignore.

It’s even being whispered that calls for an immediate shutdown are coming from within their own administration, specifically from the Secretary of Defense.🤔
I can't help but feel that if they finally decide to cut ties with Russia, they could actually pull it off and lead the entire European Union to follow suit. Is it really too much to ask?

Best,

Personally, I’m against it. This whole situation is already going to trigger some level of global financial crisis and leave a lot of people hungry—mostly because of the war itself, not the sanctions—especially in developing nations.

A total boycott right now would probably trigger the worst global recession we've ever seen.

But yeah, we need to switch over to alternatives as fast and painlessly as possible. Germany has run a rational fiscal policy for years, so they have plenty of room to borrow and then aggressively—but not necessarily overnight—pay it down.

George Robinson43 said:The real issue facing Karine Jean-Pierre and her team isn't about reliability—it's that they simply can't pivot quickly enough to find new customers when old ones vanish. It's like a retailer who loses their biggest client and realizes they don't have a backup plan ready to go.
Just as the European Union is currently scrambling to find alternatives, Russia will face the exact same struggle. They’ll have to build out an entire infrastructure from scratch—relying on partners like China, India, and Southeast Asia—to try and replicate the massive systems Europe already has in place.
It seems to me that we are looking at the eventual end of the natural gas era. It’s bound to happen because there simply aren't any vast, open plains stretching toward the east or south of Asia to sustain such long-term demand.
The real knockout blow for Russia will come when they find themselves unable to offload those 150-160 billion cubic meters of gas they used to supply to Europe every single year. It’s like having a massive surplus of inventory with nowhere left to ship it!

The big question is whether they can even find replacements at all. The USA, Canada, China, Japan, and North Korea basically represent 90% of global economic output and manufacturing. That accounts for roughly 75-80% of total oil and gas consumption. If you take China out of that equation, you're still looking at a 50-60% market share that has decided to boycott them, either right now or in the near future.

Christian Torres3 said:You've got it wrong. The US economy isn't some isolated island; if things tank in the European Union, it's going to hit us hard too.

A recession in any of the big three—the US, China, or the European Union—drags everyone else down with it.

Joshua Wilson17 said:It’s just impossible with these green extremists. Just look at the Midwest and parts of the Great Plains. We have regions with way too much water struggling through droughts, and then suddenly facing floods. It's nearly impossible to capture that excess water in reservoirs to irrigate fields during a dry spell. But no, we can't touch anything because of butterflies, bugs, or some rare species of worm... apparently, we'd need to bulldoze three small towns to make progress. So instead, we just let the floods and droughts keep happening...

Honestly, it might not be such a bad thing having the Greens in power in DC. The way things are going, this has become a direct problem they actually have to solve. If they were still in the opposition, they’d just be rambling on about butterflies and other nonsense. Now, they'll actually have to get on the same page about building new pipelines and ramping up production on existing ones.

link