negah

Go Brazil!

Germany vs USA was not the most interesting match ive seen, still the Germans played very good IMO. I hope they were just trying to play safe not risking injuries and cards. That last minute action of the US team was pretty awesome though.

Because then someone pretending to be world police would look pretty stupid. It's totally ok to bomb prosperous countries because they wanted to sell oil in Euro instead of Dollars. Concentration camps are however not a problem. You see, Guantanamo is a concentration camp too where people are held and tortured without trial just because they were suspected of being terrorists. Even if they werent, they are now I guess. Oh btw, the region of Guantanamo is actually occupied by US, they have no legal claim for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base

Dude really? US allowed him to escpae so that he could live? Is it why they forced a plane with the president of Bolivia to land because they thought Snowden is on that plane? http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/02/world/americas/bolivia-presidential-plane/ He will be executed in the USA that's why he fled. And Putin does not give a fuss about Ukraine, Baltic States or Poland, he wanted Crimea and he got it. The ongoing insurgence in the Ukraine is russian attempt to sabotage US control of Ukraine, or why is that a son of US vice president is now member of the board of directors of one of the ukrainian gas companies. In fact that company is entirely controlled by the americans. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27403003 http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/biden-und-ukraine-sohn-des-us-vizepraesidenten-arbeitet-fuer-gaskonzern-a-969348.html It seems indeed that that whole conflict is about gas in Europe, but I highly doubt that Russia is the sole instigator of that conflict.

What the hell was Germany doing there? Do they think they can win by simply standing? I hope they'll show more effort next time.

In fact gas ist still broadly used in Germany. Dont know about other countries. But I guess Europe would not make so much fuss about it if it were not so dependant on it. Just remember that shitstorm in 2009 in media when Russia cut the gas because Ukraine was stealing too much. It was winter and the reserve tanks had to be used, but the crisis was solved pretty fast back then. Still its summer now so we have a lot of time I guess. As for that former SAS serviceman, I guess he's most likely a mercenary. Just like that Italian guy or those Chechen fighters in eastern Ukraine.

You cant just blame one religion, for example Turkey's main religion is islam, yet they are not leading a "holy war" against others. In fact there are a lot of Turks living in Germany and Ive never seen a religious fanatic among them. Ive been in Turkey on vacation once, and observed the same there. IMO the reason for religious (or whatever) fanatism is based on the cultural evolution of people. Remember that during the crusades the muslim world was better developed than the cristian one. In that time the cristians were leading a holy war against muslim people. Hoever Europe has made a leap in evolution at one point and could conquer most of the islamic states later on. Turkey, which was the Osmanic Empire back then, was strong enough to defend itself and could therefore develop itself (culture, science, economy, politics) further. Other countries that were not so lucky and became colonies were prevented by their masters from evolving so that they could be controlled easier. So now, roughly 70-60 years after the end of colonial era we have a lot of countries which are (roughly speaking) mentally at the level of Middle Age Europe. Religion is just one aspect of their culture, but it can be used to brainwash people to move them to do something and it is broadly abused by their leaders. In fact its not that different in countries which are arrogantly believed (usually by those who live there) to be centers of civilization today. Look at the USA, it has got christian preachers who burn Quran and agitate their followers to hate all muslims. And what they call patriotism, is called nazism in Germany. Look at Europe, all those liberal ideas (I wont name them, some people here feel themselves offended by everything and are quick to report, but I guess you know what I mean) are totally exaggerated and are actually not that much supported by the broad mass of people, but hey its what seems to be the new ideology of the EU. So instead of religious fanatism we got ideoligies, movements and so on.

There are far more accessible options for schools to teach children basics of programming. We have to remember that Education is a department, for which our governemts are very eager to cut the finances, instead rather giving money to save some bankrupt EU countries or on other shady business. So the schools most likely dont have the budget to get something like ArmA (you have to remember youll need many copies), besides there is the questionable military background of ArmA of course. Instead, you can teach programming simply with editor. There is not much needed to write a simple "Hello World" or calculator program in C or Java, which is what most likely will be taught in schools. For more complex programs, where syntax highlighting is essential if you dont want to debug each your typo, you can use Notepad++, it supports pretty much any programming language with the help of some plugins and its free. For Java you can also use Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEs, which are also free (or have more simplified free version) and have pretty much everything you need to create runnable Java programs (for example Android apps). So you have quite a ton of tools you can use for which they are explicitly designed for without paying for them. The only way I can see why use a game with coding capabilities is because it would attract children. However it would work only as long as they can play, as soon as it becomes routine programming homework exercise, most of the kids will most likely lose interest. Besides you have to utilize a game which would interest everyone. I doubt girls are that much interest in military stuff, besides tactical shooters/simulator genres are niche games anyway, whereas minecraft is accessible and interesting for a lot of people.

Yeah, thats a parade tank for you. They have also white stripes everywhere, I highly doubt they'll send tanks with such paintings into combat where you can as well scream out loud "HERE I AM, KILL ME!!!". Besides look at those pictures of T-64 Bulat: https://www.google.de/search?q=t+64+bulat&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=kayhU-e3EdLX7AaQgoGADQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=912 That pic is the only one where tanks have actual markings.

I linked T-84 too just to show more examples of other ukrainian tanks. It seems you have to explain every word here. As for camo, besides the obvious idea, that you can simply repaint a tank for it to look like a Russian or a Ukrainian one, here are some pics of Ukrainian T-64 tanks in plain green: http://www.ste.com.ua/upload/t64_41.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/T-64BM_pre_parade.jpg Note that according to Wikipedia, only about 100 T-64 are modernized to T-64BM version (the one in pics) in Ukraine. Just to prevent the "But they have different ERA than those obviously Russian tanks in the video" comment.

Here are some links with many pictures of the Ukrainian T-64BM and T-84 tanks. I dont see any identification signs, maybe they are "under" the camo pattern or somewhere inside the tank :rolleyes: http://www.military-today.com/tanks/t64bm_bulat.htm http://www.military-today.com/tanks/t84.htm

The concept of one nation one country is no longer existant since the ancient times, when everyone warred with each other and some nation has swallowed others leading to first empires (e.g. ancient Egypt, Roman Republic/Empire). I admit today it is much easier to be a little country and do not fear an invasion. Examples are Switzerland and countless european city states. Still you must be either not worth the trouble of conquering, or have some powerful friends or else you'll have the same fate as Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Lybia and Ukraine just to name the more recent ones. Looking back at the 20th century, we see that not much has changed since the ancient times/middle-age/early-/late-modern periods, just the reasons to start a war and the outcome of such wars (mostly becoming a puppet state/protextorate instead of occupation and inclusion into conqueror's territory). So if we go back to "one nation - one country" phase, we might as well restart our history and change nothing.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-23/lng-sellers-to-chase-japan-south-korea-on-china-russia-gas-deal.html http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/19/russia-northkorea-debt-idUKL6N0NB04L20140419 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-25/first-russia-locks-china-holy-grail-gas-deal-now-rosneft-prepares-mega-deal-india As for Europe, while German politicians talk nonsense about fracking-gas or more gas from Norway, German economists say there is no alternative for Russian gas at least for now. Dont know about other countries. http://www.dw.de/noch-keine-alternative-zu-gas-aus-russland/a-17561547 Still if you dont pay the price after a couple of months, three moved deadlines and countless failed negotiations, Russians had to stop giving them gas for free. Otherwise they would look like someone who can only threaten, but is afraid to fullfill those threats. No one would take them serious on corporate/national level anymore. (Remember Obama and his "Red Line" in Syria?)

If you or me don't pay for our internet or electricity or yes, even gas, our supplier will cut it off. If you tell your provider that you don't want to pay 40 €/month for your internet, like everyone else, but only 20€, he will most likely laugh into your face. Of course in this case it is something completely different. Its the good Ukraine, which can use gas without paying, and its the bad Russia that sees it otherwise. Oh and now we have the problem, that Ukraine will steal the gas supplied to Europe.

Its 3:0 for Germany after the first half. And although im totally for Germany im kind of disappointed by the Portuguese. They dont put much of a fight, and if they do, they overdo it.

According to N24.de ISIS have published photos showing that they have been executing captive iraqi soldiers on the internet. The amount of victims counts in hundreds, according to ISIS. Some photographs picture men in civilian clothes with cuffed hands being forced to lay down into a pit. Other photographs show ISIS fighters firing into that pit. Apparently the authenticity of the photographs cannot be proved. http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Politik/d/4895956/isis-rebellen-sollen-exekutionen-vollstreckt-haben.html It seems ISIS want to demoralize Iraqi army even more, but such photographs would rather prevent Iraqi soldiers from surrendering. I dont understand what they wanted to achieve here. Photographs were not linked in the article and I dont want to look for them anyway.

Maybe to remove Iraq from cotrol by Iran? Or maybe because no one cares anymore. USA have more urgent concerns for now, their economy was ruined by two simultaneous wars (while their industry bosses celebrated their biggest party and filled their pockets) and politically they are no longer that strong as they were ten years ago. No source, just guesses :P

Its a shame, my bet was on England :( Well tomorrow is Germany vs Portugal, thats going to be interesting. Im obliged to place my bet on Germany :D

Well they might strike Assads residences now and call it collateral damage :D

Or they dont have any motivation to fight for their government. They might be even switching sides with their whole equipment. EDIT: well basically what Misty said. I was a bit slow with typing.

It seems ISIS have not only captured military hardware, but also 500 billions iraqi Dinar (approx. 318 millions Euro) in the town of Mossul making them the richest terrorist/separatist faction in the world. SOURCE (in german): http://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/krisen/id_69823460/isis-rebellen-ruecken-im-irak-auf-bagdad-vor-usa-raeumen-stuetzpunkt.html

I bet on the guys in orange.

It may sound pretty utopian and quite offtopic too, but I wonder when will our governments stop comparing who has the biggest war club and stop bashing at each other's heads and start investing their money into something useful. Just imagine what would happen if there wouldn't be militaries, where you can waste so much money. Hell I might be planning my vacation in Mars City this year. Maybe they would solve the problems with the lack of food in some african countries. Instead they'd rather kill each other, no people, no lack of food --> problem solved.

Why wont anyone invade USA or Russia, they have WMDs too and are threatening other countries. Oh wait, they actually have WMDs.

Everyone has only his own interests in mind, so thats not really surprising that USA are spying on their "friends". I bet the Russians do the same, no one has caught them yet though. Speaking of friends, I'd like to know, what do they know about Merkel. She behaves like the most loyal lapdog of the USA. Maybe it has something to do with Germany's own Intelligence Service spying on Germans or something about Merkel's past in the GDR. And I'd also like to know, when Germany will stop being a US occupied territory. I've been in Grafenwöhr Base for Training once, and the US personell did everything to show who's the boss here, including one US soldier spitting on our boots. Not like we poor grunts could say something there.