The Sun Came Out!!

The sun came out! The SUN! It has been so long that I had to take a picture of it with my iPhone to identify it. 

The colors today!! oh 

I got to learn today, which was nice. 

Ten years ago I worked at a college. I attended an event because it sounded interesting. To my complete shock, students at this school had to be required to attend things. They got points for attending educational opportunities, they had to get a certain number of points, they had to be forced to attend educational events/presentations. I never got over that. 

Where I went to school everyone wanted to learn. We, on the other hand, had to be forced to go to parties. Seriously. The administration decided we were too stressed. They threw an ice cream party. The president and the deans dished out ice cream. No one went, we were too busy studying. They forced us to go to a party by closing all of the dining halls and feeding people on the grounds with a band playing. People still brought their textbooks, but at least they didn't open them. 

I attended a class today. It started yesterday but I didn't know I'd been accepted and I was so busy I didn't notice. Two people told me I was welcome to be in the class but wouldn't get credit because I missed yesterday's class. I don't need credit, I just wanted to learn. This was apparently very difficult to comprehend. It was a good class, an important class, explaining how different agencies of the government worked and how to work effectively with them. It wasn't something painful and boring like cybersecurity. 

Fine, I'm a nerd. 

Speaking of hotshots, Ukraine has consistently surprised Russia with its competence and tactical ingenuity." There was an article in the Economist about how and why Ukraine has done so well militarily. The third reason is that there is an asymmetry in innovation and command philosophies. Ukraine understands how the Russian military thinks and operates, but they moved away from those approaches and they allow their soldiers to innovate and their leaders to exploit opportunities. Russia does not, all control is centralized, and it will get even worse with inexperienced conscripts who don't want to be there. Simultaneously, they fight for hearts and minds with an outstanding social media campaign. The world is watching and Taiwan, for one, is learning. 

Another Economist article lets us know that Russian spies suck. Do you remember earlier when Norway arrested a Russian spy pretending to be a Brazilian immigrant? They arrested ANOTHER one, on October 26th, who was pretending to be a Brazilian immigrant. They arrested him a few days after arresting yet another spy for flying drones in the Arctic. Agents are taking increasing risks and thus getting caught. 

The FSB, the current Russian spy agency, responsible for spying in Ukraine, failed badly. America got Russian war plans for Ukraine. They were so obviously preparing for war that they convinced America and Britain that the build-up was not for show. In spying before the war they spoke only to Ukrainians who favored Russia. They exaggerated their agent networks. They convinced Putin that Ukraine's government would fall quickly. They are so sloppy that some officers have been exposed by using a Russian food delivery service. 

Ever since they attempted to assassinate Sergei Skripal, a former officer, in Salisbury, in 2018, the West has gotten much better about sharing intel on them. 

And then you have the corruption that is so bad you can tell who they are because they are the young graduates of the FSB academy driving luxury Mercedes. 

The Senate of Poland officially recognized Russia as a terrorist regime. 

This could be temporary, but Europe suddenly has a glut of natural gas. Conservation, renewable energy, and massive amounts of shipped gas, plus unseasonable warm weather, have resulted in vast supplies of gas in storage offshore. Dozens of LNG tankers are floating offshore. Prices have fallen 70% from their late-August high.