Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts • Hacker News Board

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#61

Post by NeedMoreTea » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 4:04 PM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #60

azangru wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've already done it in the past numerous times - I know damn well since I come from former Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a part of the Soviet Bloc, wasn't it? During the time of Cold War? With Soviet Union being, in effect the ruling center of the bloc and considering the rest of the Soviet countries its sphere of influence? I mean, it doesn't justify what Soviet Union did then, but what happened to Czecho…

> Czechoslovakia was a part of the Soviet Bloc, wasn't it? Nope, we were a sovereign country, with socialistic/communistic government, but completely standalone. Same for Poland, Hungary, Romania etc.

Sovereign nation under Soviet influence is how we, in the West, understand Soviet bloc. Completely standalone except for the Brezhnev Soviet invasion after the Prague Spring, when Dubcek tried to liberalise and remove some of the Soviet yoke.

Czechoslovakia, Romania and Poland were all Soviet Bloc - from a Western Europe understanding - not part of the USSR, but certainly subject to their regimen and control. Like being required to sell goods at below market to USSR.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#62

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 4:12 PM UTC

zaro wrote: post #58

_iyig wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Russia recently invaded a European country, assassinated several people in the U.K., got caught using spies to infiltrate U.S. political parties, hacked the emails of a U.S. presidential candidate while meeting secretly with her opponent (who may or may not be massively in the Russian government’s debt), and resumed air attack drills on NATO countries. So, a lot of English-speaking people see Russia as the “bad…

> So, a lot of English-speaking people see Russia as the “bad guy” right now. So a lot of English-speaking people are falling for mass media lies. And frankly it's getting ridiculous now days. It seems that whatever US media starts pushing out ( and it's usually w/o proof ) people will just eat it up. Not trying to defined anything here, but I kind of try to read news from all kind of source , and I can tell you http…

Did the US media fabricate the invasion of Ukraine?

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#63

Post by Flourescent » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

I thought the Russians were partial to giant squids

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#64

Post by azangru » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 4:22 PM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #60

azangru wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've already done it in the past numerous times - I know damn well since I come from former Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a part of the Soviet Bloc, wasn't it? During the time of Cold War? With Soviet Union being, in effect the ruling center of the bloc and considering the rest of the Soviet countries its sphere of influence? I mean, it doesn't justify what Soviet Union did then, but what happened to Czecho…

> Czechoslovakia was a part of the Soviet Bloc, wasn't it? Nope, we were a sovereign country, with socialistic/communistic government, but completely standalone. Same for Poland, Hungary, Romania etc.

Oh, it certainly wasn't part of the Soviet Union, if that's what you are referring to, but wasn't it part of some political configuration that made it possible for the Soviet Union to treat it as a satellite state and as a battleground of communist ideology against western democracy? Wikipedia, in the article on Soviet-Czechoslovakian relations[0], states that: "After February 1948 Czechoslovakia was firmly set into the Soviet sphere of influence."

Again, I am not arguing from any ethical perspective; I am not saying that the USSR had the right to do what it did; I am merely saying that a bit disingenuous to suggest that Western European countries, including modern-day Czech Republic or Poland, are under any risk of Russian invasion. Ukraine might be; but even that doesn't seem all that likely.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia%E2%80%93Soviet_...

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#65

Post by wDcBKgt66V8WDs » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:05 PM UTC

lm28469 wrote: post #20

sgift wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. You sound like someone who gets a speeding ticket and answers "but everyone else is speeding too! Why do you punish me?!"

I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews, but not a day goes by without the regular anti chinese/russian propaganda, especially concerning military and/or technology.

I see plenty... often times it's more corporate focused but frequently it's about how those corporations interact with the government/society in ways that implicate government/society as well.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#66

Post by inflatableDodo » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

CharlesColeman wrote: post #57

inflatableDodo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII.

> True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII. Not really. Russia was de facto involved in many of those conflicts (e.g. supplying fighters and pilots to North Korea during the Korean war to fight the UN ), and had many of its own (e.g. the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, to name a few).

I'm not defending Russia, or whataboutism. Is the international politics version of, 'yeah, but what are you'. All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. Also, the overall problems we are dealing with as humans are systemic and not specific to one country, so if trying to solve them, pointing fingers at others just does not really help. The current situation with Trump, for instance, is an interesting reflection of the installation of Yeltsin.

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#67

Post by CharlesColeman » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:12 PM UTC

Chris_Chambers wrote: post #5

Clepsydra wrote: post #2

The removal of the harness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXOPZfuOow

That video does not show the removal of the harness.

> That video does not show the removal of the harness.

This article includes that video and also pics of the removed harness. Apparently the buckle is marked with the brand "Equipment St. (logo) Petersburg."

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/27716/did-this-beluga-...

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#68

Post by CharlesColeman » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:36 PM UTC

inflatableDodo wrote: post #66

CharlesColeman wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII. Not really. Russia was de facto involved in many of those conflicts (e.g. supplying fighters and pilots to North Korea during the Korean war to fight the UN ), and had many of its own (e.g. the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, to name a few).

I'm not defending Russia, or whataboutism. Is the international politics version of, 'yeah, but what are you'. All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. Also, the overall problems we are dealing with as humans are systemic and not specific to one country, so if trying to solve them, pointing finge…

> All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators.

I don't think that's actually true. If you're of the mind that you're going to find fault in the messenger to ignore/distract from the message, you're going to find some fault regardless of how well the messenger behaves (and the fault you choose does not have to be related to the topic at hand).

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#69

Post by nwmcsween » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

zaro wrote: post #58

_iyig wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Russia recently invaded a European country, assassinated several people in the U.K., got caught using spies to infiltrate U.S. political parties, hacked the emails of a U.S. presidential candidate while meeting secretly with her opponent (who may or may not be massively in the Russian government’s debt), and resumed air attack drills on NATO countries. So, a lot of English-speaking people see Russia as the “bad…

> So, a lot of English-speaking people see Russia as the “bad guy” right now. So a lot of English-speaking people are falling for mass media lies. And frankly it's getting ridiculous now days. It seems that whatever US media starts pushing out ( and it's usually w/o proof ) people will just eat it up. Not trying to defined anything here, but I kind of try to read news from all kind of source , and I can tell you http…

There has been lots of third party proof, I think you're just being selective in what you want to believe. There is no 'mass media lies'

Re: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts

#70

Post by nwmcsween » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 5:41 PM UTC

The comments here are getting border line conspiracy theory crazy, its honestly sad to see that people think the invasion of another country was justified (Ukraine) and 'mass media' lied about it all.