“According to a December 2021 opinion poll, three-quarters of Ukrainians said that rising oil and gas bills were their top worry – not the prospect of a Russian invasion.”
Maybe they know something we don’t.
I take issue with that article’s last paragraph:
That doesn’t suggest a surge of patriotic resentment against Russian threats, but rather a glum mood of national resignation and concern about the petty problems of daily life.
If paying your heating bill is consuming 90% of your income, that’s hardly a “petty problem.”
I wonder if Yuzhnoye will survive a Russian takeover? It’s in the Russian-speaking part of the country. Antares first stage is made by Yuzhnoye, and equipped with Russian engines. No reason they shouldn’t put an Improved Blok I stage on it and fly it out of all four Russian cosmodromes. It’s about the same capability as Soyuz 2.1.
Yuzhnoye once built the Zenit, and is now building the Cyclone 4M for export to Canada. I doubt the Russians will want Zenit back because native Russian design bureaux are about ready to fly Soyuz 5 (using RD-170 and RD-180 series engines). Antares and Cyclone use the old Zenit tooling. Angara flies from the old Zenit pads.
This farming magazine was once being sent to our household, and the one article that caught our attention was that there are three regions in the world that have really good farmland.
One is Iowa, the second is in Argentina someplace and the third is Ukraine. Not only that, whereas the topsoil in Iowa may be measured in a large number of inches, the topsoil depth in Ukraine is in feet. The article concluded that Ukraine is a “last frontier” for increasing food production for a burgeoning world population.
But what is so sad about a sparse population when farming is heavily mechanized?
Not buying the “regardless of what Russia does” part. Russia after all invaded Crimea and has been sponsoring rebellion for years in the Ukraine. Any place is going to have long, enduring economic problems when that happens. I won’t say that Ukraine would get magically become perfect, if Russia suddenly became a good neighbor, but it’d probably help immensely.
“According to a December 2021 opinion poll, three-quarters of Ukrainians said that rising oil and gas bills were their top worry – not the prospect of a Russian invasion.”
Maybe they know something we don’t.
I take issue with that article’s last paragraph:
That doesn’t suggest a surge of patriotic resentment against Russian threats, but rather a glum mood of national resignation and concern about the petty problems of daily life.
If paying your heating bill is consuming 90% of your income, that’s hardly a “petty problem.”
I wonder if Yuzhnoye will survive a Russian takeover? It’s in the Russian-speaking part of the country. Antares first stage is made by Yuzhnoye, and equipped with Russian engines. No reason they shouldn’t put an Improved Blok I stage on it and fly it out of all four Russian cosmodromes. It’s about the same capability as Soyuz 2.1.
Yuzhnoye once built the Zenit, and is now building the Cyclone 4M for export to Canada. I doubt the Russians will want Zenit back because native Russian design bureaux are about ready to fly Soyuz 5 (using RD-170 and RD-180 series engines). Antares and Cyclone use the old Zenit tooling. Angara flies from the old Zenit pads.
This farming magazine was once being sent to our household, and the one article that caught our attention was that there are three regions in the world that have really good farmland.
One is Iowa, the second is in Argentina someplace and the third is Ukraine. Not only that, whereas the topsoil in Iowa may be measured in a large number of inches, the topsoil depth in Ukraine is in feet. The article concluded that Ukraine is a “last frontier” for increasing food production for a burgeoning world population.
But what is so sad about a sparse population when farming is heavily mechanized?
And about to become fully automated…
https://www.cervusequipment.com/john-deere/blog/john-deere-announces-autonomous-8r-tractor/
Not buying the “regardless of what Russia does” part. Russia after all invaded Crimea and has been sponsoring rebellion for years in the Ukraine. Any place is going to have long, enduring economic problems when that happens. I won’t say that Ukraine would get magically become perfect, if Russia suddenly became a good neighbor, but it’d probably help immensely.