Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fewer than a quarter of a million people died in both atomic attacks combined, including post-war illnesses. Why is your desire to defend the Soviet Union more important to you than accurate information?
Dude saying less than 250000 civilians died is not the defense you think it is
Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
171–180 of 185 posts
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#172At least Laika server for a noble cause. What I think is terrible is the fact that Soviet Army tied up bombs on dogs and let the run after enemy tanks on the WWII. Humans sometimes acts disgustingly.
• copied the Soviet anti-tank dog programme[0];
• glued bags filled with napalm to bats bodies and caged the live bats inside a bomb casing[1];
• used foxes caught in China and Australia whose fur was painted with a radioactive radium paint[2] to have them released on Japanese shores to unleash rampant fear onto the superstitious Japanese;
– the US did it in the name of democracy and freedom of humanity. And when the British procured and euthanasied hundred of rats to fill their bodies with explosives[3], they did it in the name of His Majesty the King and to defend and to save the British Empire.
Granted, the Soviets were the preantepenultimate evil with their anti-tank dogs, and nothing else counts.
[0] «In 1943, U.S. forces considered using armed dogs against fortifications. The aim was for a dog to run into a bunker carrying a bomb, which would then be detonated by a timer. Dogs in this secret program were trained at Fort Belvoir. The dogs, called "demolition wolves", were taught to run to a bunker, enter it, and sit while waiting for a simulated explosion. Each dog carried a bomb strapped to its body in canvas pouches, as with the Russian method» – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog#Use_by_other_cou...
[1] «The bat bomb was conceived by Lytle S. Adams (1881-1970), a dental surgeon from Irwin, Pennsylvania who was an acquaintance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt […] In his letter, Adams stated that the bat was the "lowest form of animal life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexplained". He went on to espouse that bats were created "by God to await this hour to play their part in the scheme of free human existence, and to frustrate any attempt of those who dare desecrate our way of life." Of Adams, Roosevelt remarked, "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into» – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb#cite_note-Couffer-4
[2] «The United States Radium Corporation provided an answer in the form of its glow-in-the-dark paint, which contained radium. The health risks associated with the paint weren’t unknown. As early as 1917, women detailing watch dials with the luminous paint suffered from anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw, a result of them using their pursed lips to shape the contaminated brush tips into a fine point. Despite that danger, the OSS continued with Operation Fantasia» – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unsuccessful-wwii-plo...
[3] «But the most exotic device was the "explosive rat". A hundred of the rodents were procured by an SOE officer posing as a student needing them for laboratory experiments. The rats were skinned, filled with plastic explosive, and sewn up. The idea was to place a rat among coal beside a boiler. When they were spotted, they would immediately be thrown on to the fire, causing a huge explosion» – https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontayl...
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#173(Same musician who wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone for Portal)
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bringing up the atrocities committed by others as a defence of Russia is an interesting angle. You know that more than one country can do bad? The killing of millions is hard to dispute. Take just one incident, the Holomodor. That engineered catastrophe killed millions and Russia now appears to be trying to wipe out Ukraine again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
It's disingenuous to pretend all of the USSR criticism in this thread is in good faith. Yes, multiple countries can be bad, but clearly one of them is getting way more airtime than the others.
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they'd squeeze anything to make russia/ussr look bad, however little. You don’t need to squeeze anything to make Russia/USSR look bad.
You do. How would you otherwise demonize a Country that reached peak industrialization in a couple decades starting from a rural, semi-feudal society? - That established the 8 hour work day in 1917, - legalized abortion in 1920, - erradicated illiteracy and achieved a literacy rate of 75% starting from 25%, - Was the first country to build satellites and men to space? - Provided a decent standard of living to all the…
> legalized abortion in 1920,
and later banned it. But then again tankies tend to be quite lose with facts
> Provided a decent standard of living to all their citizens while also suffering inmense pression from the First World?
What?! Is this sarcasm? Millions of people starved to death to a large extent due to misguided bolshevik policies between 1917 and the 1940s. That is arguably true only starting in the 50s and 60s.
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Millions starved to death in collectivization, even more millions displaced from their homes and sent to gulags. Intelligentsia eradicated as a class. The biggest and potentially richest country in the world collapsed due to planned economy. And that’s just my layman knowledge typing on a phone, I’m sure many historians can decimate your comment even harder.
> Millions starved to death in collectivization, even more millions displaced from their homes and sent to gulags. Intelligentsia eradicated as a class. The biggest and potentially richest country in the world collapsed due to planned economy. Communism didn’t work, for sure, but I’m not sure how this takes away from the things that the Soviets did accomplish, which op listed above. I also find it interesting the sta…
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
The embargos weren't out of spite; the Soviet Union was an aggressive bad actor in a myriad of ways. I'm not sure why implementing a wartime economic measures is supposed to be a knock. The US economy is far from a textbook definition of capitalism, just like Communist China is nothing like the dictionary definition of Communism. All economic systems are hodgepodge of economic systems, full of good and bad ideas, som…
"The embargos weren't out of spite" hahaha. Let me laugh more: HAHAHHAHAHA. You are the kind of guy who believes that American sanctions against Venezuela are "well-meaning", that the bombing of civilian populations are "shameful errors", that lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was "an honest mistake", that the invasion of Afghanistan was done to "combat terrorism" and that the bombing of Syriah was to "…
So you’re implying that US should cooperate with autocratic regimes and empower their rulers to further oppress the people living there? Obviously they tried that as well and I’m sure you’d criticize it as much. So which one is the right option?
They should’ve hanged Sadam back in 91, the only problem is that it took two wars for that to happen. Getting rid of the Taliban was the right thing to do as well, but again the fucked up there miserably as well. Same in Syria (obviously you have the Russians involved there to which complicates things)
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#178I saw the picture at the top of this article on facebook a few weeks back and for some reason it really affected me: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/remember... Look at that good girl :-( We really don't deserve dogs.
We genuinely don't. I treasure every minute with my dog.
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
> not a good reason to be murdered Nobody said it was; and he wasn't murdered for any good reason.
but what was the point in what you said? do you really think that the decision to own that dog had some sway in his assassination? why? What you said just comes off as a snide comment about someone murdered that you didn't care for, which is to say that I think the comment was low-quality and purposely inflammatory. >and he wasn't murdered for any good reason. do you have some insider insight you'd like to share with…
Not the dog directly, but it's indicative of an attitude. It was okay for that US President to be keeping some dog or any other form of gift from the Cold War enemy side.
Look at what Shinzo Abe got murdered over: a personal vendetta over his ties to the Unification Church.
All it takes is one whacko, that's all I'm basically saying.
(No inflammation was intended and I didn't see one, luckily; in any case, I'm not about to participate in some flame war, let alone on this kind of topic. Actually, I had been about to delete the comment myself, but my attention was taken away and I became busy. My 10 minute posting delay went by, and someone replied to it. I not only don't like my comment, but the whole topic area. Anyway, having it thankfully flagged isn't deletion, but better than nothing.)
Re: Laika, the space dog, and her one-way trip into orbit (2018)
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 2) The vast majority of people who eat meat do not support the farming and slaughter of dogs. They're tremendously emotionally intelligent, social creatures. How about farming those pigs? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/2013...
I didn't say that dogs are both emotional and intelligent, I said they're emotionally intelligent, meaning they can understand the emotions of humans. Pigs and octopuses may be more objectively intelligent than dogs by most measures (problem solving, memory, etc.). But much worse at empathizing with us, so in return, we empathize less with them.
If dogs rather than pigs and octopuses gain human empathy through the appearance of understanding the emotions of humans, is intelligence in this sense equivalent to manipulative capability?