rabas

Agree, that's why I said ordinary jewelry. I too would test a gold bar.

I would be more worried about someone in Thailand making fake 23K gold jewelery out of spent Uranium, which is easier to work with, and, radioactive.

Use a steel nail or file, won't touch tungsten. (Mohs harness) gold 24K 2.5 gold 14K 3.5-3.8 iron nail ~4-4 steel nail 5-7 steel file ~7.5 tungsten 8-9 Though I doubt anyone would make ordinary jewelry from tungsten. It melts at 3422 °C (6,191.6 °F) and is so hard it will dent a steel hammer used to shape it.

Russia has one, it has been in repair since 2017. [ref] In July, Russian state media reported that Russia's sole aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, could return to active service by the end of 2024. Kuznetsov has been undergoing repairs since 2017, and its return to duty has been delayed repeatedly by mishaps and malfunctions. (Other sources add corruption.) More: WIKI Ship repairmen warned the military that the condition of Admiral Kuznetsov does not allow it to be deployed due to the high probability that it would sink or capsize. ... the metal structures below the third deck were significantly corroded. The holds are filled with muddy water, which makes it impossible to examine the ship in detail from the inside.

Cold hard claim: "IPAC is probably the most powerful lobby group in the world bar none. From your reference "AIPAC spent $3.5 million on lobbying in 2018". Can you find for me AIPAC's position in the graph of relative US lobby spending? If not, how do they control the US? [source]

Ahh, a quick sound byte quip versus reams of linked factual information.

No one needs a crystal ball. If You can't see that western "civilisation" is rotten to the core, that's up to you. IMO it's all circuses for the mob now, just like Rome before it fell. -- thaibeachlovers in post I responded to.

Truth incoming... Ukraine corruption is a vestige of Russian influence. LINK The modern period of Ukrainian corruption can be traced back to the integration of individuals linked to Soviet organised crime into the nomenklatura (Soviet, including Ukrainian, ruling elite) in the 1980s. After achieving independence, Ukraine faced a period of rather violent corruption in the 1990s and early 2000s. United States diplomats described Ukraine under Presidents Kuchma (in office from 1994 to 2005) and Yushchenko (in office from 2005 to 2010) as a kleptocracy, ...

Back on subject. US taunts Iran by releasing high quality video showing B-1B long range bomber bases, pilots, pre-flight room, and how easily they can fly lots of bombers round trip from Texas. https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1754112382027059311 More bomber porn from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota showing lots more B-1B bombers at the ready. https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1754112401014767812 The US is clearly trying to deter.

OK, agree to agree. Not sure about bombing but there have been a couple of recent mysterious explosions in their centrifuge plants. Search this source for "damage". 2020 July 2 - A mysterious explosion extensively damaged Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz. The blast damaged a factory producing advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges that enrich uranium faster than the IR-1 models allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal. [note: this is a factory making IR-6 centrifuges, whoever it is is targeting centrifuge manufacture.] 2021 April 11 - An explosion at Natanz hit the power supply for centrifuges and caused damage that could take up to nine months to fully repair, The New York Times reported. It was the second major attack to sabotage operations at Natanz in less than a year.

What negotiations? You mean before the agreement? They lied and no one new? As for the agreement, same outcome.

The time to make such a factory is not for the building, it's the time to design, make, manufacture highly specialized tooling and equipment, including special control software, all of which is required to make the high prescription parts for advanced centrifuges. It is not trivial. Anyway, it's a mute point. At least Iran claims it was not covered in the agreement. Whether they cheated or it was not covered is immaterial. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

The Reuters link and I discussed having built the factory to make centrifuges. Not a learning thing. (Reuters) - Iran has built a factory that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, the head of its atomic agency said on Wednesday [weeks after the deal was broken] The point you skip is the factory that defeats much of the agreement's purpose was built during the agreement.

If you are responding to my post, you need to discuss it with Gary Kasparov, the opinion's author. He's a strong advocate of Democracy, claims Russia has none under "Putin's dictatorship", and now lives in America after Putin drove him out. He sometimes works in a NY coffee shop and discusses politics with Americans. He continues to champion good causes within and outside America. What you believe comes from state propaganda. Q. Why would anyone believe you over a brilliant Russian who is deeply intimate with both sides?

How about giving Israel the north where they are now and give Gazans and Palestinians the south? Seems vastly more practical. The hardest part of such agreements is getting parties to agree.

While I understand the value of a minimal border, simply dividing Israel in half looks a bit like what's known as a spherical cow approximation, simple but not practical. Is your diagram a suggestion not meant to be taken literally, or do you mean to give the Palestinians everything the State of Israel has built from day one, Tel Aviv, buildings, airports, factories, universities,military installations, and likely nuclear weapons infrastructure? If so, it doesn't seem a legitimate attempt at peace.

A detailed description of exactly what and who the first retaliatory strike targeted from PBS. https://twitter.com/NewsHour/status/175355681486659999

A technical aside on Iran Uranium enrichment. The only hard part about enrichment is having many extremely high precision centrifuges. The only difference between 4% reactor grade and 90% bomb grade uranium is a simple valve, i.e., more or fewer centrifuges in parallel. "Arman, turn the valve, now." Iran has long known how to build a bomb[ref]. Just weeks after the Iran deal was broken, Iran announced that it had already developed a factory capable of mass producing rotors (hard part) for 60 far more powerful centrifuges, per day. Each new IR-6 was equivalent to 6 of their current IR-1 centrifuges. IOW, Iran could produce the equivalent of 11,000 IR-1 centrifuges per month, every month, a staggering number. This capability was developed during the agreement.

Statement from Lloyd Austin, "This is the start of our response..." https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1753545717266645027

The message seems to be look at what we can do. After 140 Iran/proxy strikes on US regional assets in four months, the US destroyed more than 85 Iran IRGC targets in one go. For this, the US included two intercontinental B1-B heavy bombers that can carry 45-68 tons of ordnance flown directly from the US. "Yo Iran, we have 100 B1-Bs, 45 of which are kept in service."

I'm in the same position except my account used a Thailand address so I was caught up in the Thailand Paypal mess. Good for you, wish I had done the same.

AFAIU, that was the original plan for 'Thailand' Paypal, a restricted account only useful for purchases. Paypal (whom I talked with many times) fought the restrictions and Thailand eventuality said screw it and required all Paypal users to have the Thai national ID, killing the whole thing. I'm guessing the Thai national ID restriction has now been lifted because it was also necessary for my Thai business Paypal account, which they just turned on. I checked and my personal account is still restricted from making money transfers to/from banks and credit cards. So great for shopping but not useful for selling things.

Wake Up! PAYPAL'S BACK. Whats going on? I just received an email saying my new Paypal business account is approved, logged in, and it works. I applied in 2022 when my old personal PP account died like everyone else's. The business account application eventually failed for the same reason, no Thai genes. On a hunch, I tried to login to my old personal account, after a couple of tries it said 'click here to download new app' to my mobile (I'm on a desktop). It proceeded to do so and Shazam! there is my old personal PP account with old banks and contacts with whom I had exchanged funds. It appears fully functional though I've not used it. I don't have a clue what happened but thought I would give a heads up and see if anyone else received an email from them.

Hollowed out? You mean Russia, right? To quote a famous and brilliant Russian: "Every country has its own mafia. Putin’s Russia is the first where the mafia has its own country.” -- Gary Kasparov

Defending the West that guarantees your right to criticize it endlessly is more than worth the money and effort. Putin jails people for less, a least when the windows are closed. You have never been in Russia and seen authorities grab innocent people off the street for no reason. I have. You don't know Russians who have suffered. I do. The good news is the rest of the world will do the heavy lifting for you.