As usual, TFA is short on some important details. Wind turbines, great. Floating, anchored in (relatively) deep coastal waters, great. How does the power get back to shore? The northern coast of Scotland isn't really a very highly populated area, how does this project tie into the existing power grid?
T. Boone Pickens had an idea a few yeard ago - build wind farms across the panhandle of Texas, then run the power back along railroad right-of-ways. Trains might run through the middle of nowhere, but their destinations are always in towns.
It's more populated than you think - most of the towns in that neck of the woods are coastal. Also Peterhead has a 3 gas turbine power station plus Aberdeen is just down the road with a population of 200,000. Finally Scotland is criss-crossed by the National Grid distribution system due to amount of Nuclear Stations that were [and some still are] dotted around : a network which is of course tied into the UK as a whole.
Labour didn't "kick their asses". Labour didn't win enough seats for a First Past the Post system. Even if you add in the SNP fruitcakes, the Libs, the Greens and those ardent warriors for peace Sinn Fein it's not enough.
The Tories need the Unionists for a coalition.
If Corbyn had the numbers with Sinn Fein included he would be talking to them trying to get them to take their seats although I would suggest that large combination would be as stable as a one-legged stool.
Mind you according to Momentum Corbyn has won Government and Diane Abbott thinks they have a majority of 12 million.
The UK population is going to quickly discover that the government and media are the cause of most of our social and economic problems, not the EU.
The areas of the country that were solid Labour areas for decades swung to the pro-Brexit camp for the exact reason that the European model has seen their jobs evaporate to Eastern Europe and the population rocketing due to immigration from Eastern Europe. That response may have a racial tinge; it may be wrong but it's there and putting your head in the sand and going "La La La" wont' change it.
The Pro-European campaign before the Referendum treated the population like mugs and the establishment and the Government got hammered for it. We even had the wonderful sight of a multi-millionaire Irish Citizen [Bob Geldof] sitting on the private yacht belonging to a Global Financial Firm flicking the V to a group of Fisherman who wanted out of Europe - a group whose livelihood has been destroyed by EU Fishery policy [hint : The huge factory ships that haul in everything that swims in the Sea aren't British]. That for me summed up the Pro-European movement : "Shut up peasents and do what you are told".
Why do pro-European advocates always talk about the amount of money Regions in the UK receive from the European bodies ?
Heads-up : It's the UK's money so start with. We are a net contributor to the EU so we pay in more than comes out.
Switch out the funding source from Europe to the UK.
As for some of the poorest areas voting leave it's those poorest areas who getting hammered hardest by free movement and businesses relocating to cheap plants in Eastern Europe.
As for people voting leaving and regretting- bullshit. All polls show the vote to be higher now - people want it done. Oh since you are obviously a labour party activist [Momentum ?] please square your pro-Eu standpoint with your Leaders avowed wish to get out. Both the Labour and Conservative parties support Brexit in their manifestos, the only difference is the end state.
p.s. Labour still lost the election.
I can't see this happening in the UK unfortunately.
It's notoriously difficult, time-consuming and mind-bendingly expensive to obtain the land and permissions to build any new transport infrastructure corridors in the UK. The Rail lines High-Speed Route 1 was bad enough and High Speed Route 2 is bogged down in inquiries, corruption and phenomenal cost projections.
High Speed Route 2 is 400km and is sitting at a cost of 56 billion pounds which will be well south of the final bill. Whilst hyperloop may be orders of magnitude cheaper per route km the fun and games in getting the land will be the same. And no, you can't put it in the air on pylons as "air rights" belong to the land holders too. Land ownership in the UK is incredibly fragmented so even a short distance means engaging with thousands of land holders.
One approach would be to piggy back down the middle of major arterial roads on pylons as most trunk roads are now owned by the Crown although that's not a hard and fast rule - many minor roads sit on land still theoretically owned by someone else.
It's certainly technically feasible - the Russians run Nuclear Ice Breakers, the US had the N.S.Savannah and of course there are lots of Nuclear Submarines.
The cost of it is the killer; there is no way you would see a return on investment at the moment plus many ports would ban you outright.
Apparently though when oil was expensive in the 70's the running costs were the same.
Nuclear Cargo Ships are like Concorde - a technically brilliant idea that could, with time and investment, have evolved over a number of iterations to be something truly game-changing and different - but was eventually stillborn. There are no technical reasons why not flying around the world at Mach 2.0, at least over the oceans or seeing fleets of nuclear cargo ships.
Britian has never been alone. Before there was the EU there was the British Empire. Now they have no influence and no friends.
The EU is losing it's 2nd largest economy and its 2nd largest net contributor - that's a lot of influence in my book.
As for the EU, Britain never had any friends there anyway: that's been clear for decades. The EU does what is right for Germany and France.
The writing has been on the wall for Britain in the EU for a number of years but successive EU and British Governments stuck their heads in the sand over it.
In this case Scotland would not be alone but part of the EU instead of the UK.
Aye, but the slight flaw in the plan is "it's a load of pish" as they say in Glasgow. It's been made abundantly clear that if Scotland leaves the UK it will be in limbo for many, many years before it has a chance of joining the EU. Oh, and it's major trading partner by a country mile will not be in the EU anyway.
and how many wars between European countries were there in that 1000 years? How many since the EU?
The militaries of the US, UK and France kept the Soviets from rolling into Germany and onto the Channel - not the EU.
The nuclear weapon capabilities of those countries kept the Soviets from rolling into Germany and onto the channel - not the EU.
Have look at this Wikipedia entry : rather a lot of conflicts since the foundation of the EU wouldn't you say. The UK's contingent poured into that was the largest of any country.
This is the tax system. The concepts of "do the right thing" and "their fair share" are ambiguous concepts. What is the right amount ? 10%? 20%? 30%? On what income is it levied ?? It's an easy slogan to use without having to put any meat on it.
Nothing in this is illegal. If you are pissed off about it lobby your government and representatives to amend the tax laws.
Apple as a corporate entity are obliged to make a return for their shareholders. Minimising the tax burden is one of the ways to do it.
Is Slashdot now promoting the policies of the "progressive" left ?
It's not uneducated parents that are the problem. It's a lot of middle-class mothers who are totally convinced by the pseudo-science and rubbish that's peddled on the internet and by "Wellness" gurus. Australia seems to be infested with them.
The Paleo Diet is alive and well here, pushed by a chef who somehow has become a dietary-science expert and made a mint from pushing books that contain dangerous pseudo-diets.
We also seem to be very susceptible to charlatans spruiking special-cancer treatments that do nothing but give false hope, drain someone's bank account and leaves them dead quicker.
Considering one of the persons involved was a Solicitor it doesn't seem like he showed superior judgement.
FFS You pay quarter of a million quid for a flat and the person below wants to turn their "Guest House" into a bail hostel ? [ = huge amounts of money from the Government] FFS You would have the cast of trainspotting trooping in and out 24 hours of the day - say goodbye to your house value.
It really does smell of payback doesn't it ?
I would sell up and get out of there - that neighbour is going to be a continual pain in the arse for years.
Google "Murrayfield Park Guest House" for more info - hardly glowing recommendations it looks like a right toilet. Mind you the complainant must have had rocks in his head for buying an apartment above a Guest House. It's close to Murrayfield so a tick in that box.
Yes, regional stability is one of the many reasons.
Bollocks - regional stability has sweet f-all to do with the EU, despite what the EU administration would like you to think.
The only reason there is peace in Europe is because of NATO - something which pre-dates the EU political concept. Three of the largest contributors to Nato in manpower, money, equipment etc are non-mainland countries: US, UK and Turkey. The only mainland country who takes it seriously are the French.
Oh and the fact the previous uppity German leader was finally removed. Before that the European mainland has had 200+ years of war none of which, funnily enough, were started by the UK but always involved someone from the Mainland who decided their current boundaries weren't adequate.
This sounds more like a PR puff piece from the company involved.
Let's just ignore all of the Chip and Pin or "wave your card over the machine" payments systems in the rest of the world whose transactions must dwarf by many orders of magnitude anything India can manage.
Slashdot is a shadow of it's former self - most of the articles it uses are really terrible bits of journalism or pure PR puff.
Ah Saturday Mornings.
On the BBC we had the safe, middle-class, colourful jumper version with Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin etc.
On the the other side it was anarchy and chaos with Sally, Chris, Bod, Lenny and John. The dying fly; The Phantom Flan Flinger. Lenny Henry got his career rolling on that although I'm sure his will disavow it now. One of the best bits was when he was pretending to read the News as Trevor McDonald and the real Trevor came up behind him. Although stuck for words, his comment "Well hello daddy" was a cracker.
All of this of course is completely lost on non-UK people and those below a certain age.
p.s. People moan about the UK and how racist it is but if that's so how does a black journalist born in Trinidad become such a much-loved icon ?
This is Scotland, part of the UK. There are no medical bills to rack up as it's one of the more enlightened countries on Earth which has free medical care for EVERYONE regardless of need or ability to pay. It's not perfect but it's a damn sight better than losing your house because you hurt yourself. Oh and if you can't work due to injury the state will pay you benefits.
Also note that UK Health and Safety laws are very, very tough. If employees were being injured at an Amazon warehouse due to heavy manual labour they would be dragged through the courts by the Government.
This is the UK.
No patients are billed excepting for the occasional private room one and ambulance chasers for medical cases are very rare in the UK purely because even if they do win [Medical Negligence is not easy to prove in the UK and cases are dealt with by a judge only] the payout does not result in a huge legal payday.
Speculative lawsuits in the UK are a non-starter.
30% of the money came from the IMF not the EU. The EU banks made money on the deal too; Ireland didn't default on the loans. The UK put it's own money on top of that due to exposure of the UK economy also.
The Saudi's already have nuclear weapons - who do you think paid for the Pakistani program ? It just happens that they are stored in Pakistan arsenals.
If things went tits-up and the Saudi's [specifically the Royal Family and Government] found themselves on the wrong end of a Nuclear-armed Iran those weapons would quickly be moved to Saudi territory.
Note the Saudi's bete-noire isn't, and never has been, Israel. [The Saudi Government considers Israel a convenient whipping boy but that's just to keep the punters in the Mosque and Souk happy. In reality they know that tangling with Israel would be a very, very bad idea and anyway they both have the same enemies]. The threat comes from Shia-dominated Iran whose population and ruling Theocracy are very, very unhappy with the way the Saudi's treat their own Shia minority in the East. Iran is not, and never has been an Arab country.
This really is a moronic article. Programming language choice is not about "popular" or "cool" - it's whatever tool gets the job done.
The article also takes a whack at COBOL and Fortran. They might be old but they have been around a long time and are still in heavy use in many areas.
The article also ignores things like microcontrollers, arduinos etc whose development tooling invariably uses C.
The whole thing reads like it was written by a newly minted graduate.
I think you will find most people are NOT freaking out about it. The media are throwing their toys out of the pram somewhat but day-to-day it has had little impact. Business are still investing as the realisation sets in that the UK economy is so big [5th largest in the World after Germany] that the EU cannot shut the door completely and keep them out. I notice also that large non-EU economies are tripping over themselves to position for new trade deals with the UK. Australia and New Zealand for example are quick out of the blocks. The UK isn't some tinpot 3rd world country - it's a huge financial and economic power with the 5th largest military in the world, for a tiny country who also happen to own lots of shiny missiles that can turn cities into glass carparks [and no they are not under US control].
Brexit, more than anything else, was a two-fingered gesture to the political establishment in the UK and in the EU whose lack of democracy is somewhat breathtaking. The leave mob might not have had a plan but the scare tactics of Remain really blew up in their face. Wheeling out Obama who basically threatened the UK economy was a complete disaster. You could have heard the slapping of foreheads all over London. Centuries of history have proved quite categorically is you threaten the UK people or put their backs to the wall they will lash out.
As for science there funding in theory would be replaced by the UK funding. I suspect those whose funding is spent on Climate Change and fluffy Environmental research are sweating as the current UK government may not be quite as keen to throw money at them.
Some of us aren't quite so keen to live in a Germany-dominated super state. It didn't work out too well last time and Greece is a good example of what happens when you surrender to the central EU establishment. Other EU countries might have lost a competitor but at the same time a huge market is being shutoff.
One final comment - Remainers were claiming that the EU meant peace in Europe for 70 years. Funny, I thought the presence of the thousands of US and British troops in Germany plus the US, UK and French Nuclear Deterrent had something to do with it. Or maybe the Cold War didn't happen.
Slashdot Mirror
As usual, TFA is short on some important details. Wind turbines, great. Floating, anchored in (relatively) deep coastal waters, great. How does the power get back to shore? The northern coast of Scotland isn't really a very highly populated area, how does this project tie into the existing power grid?
T. Boone Pickens had an idea a few yeard ago - build wind farms across the panhandle of Texas, then run the power back along railroad right-of-ways. Trains might run through the middle of nowhere, but their destinations are always in towns.
It's more populated than you think - most of the towns in that neck of the woods are coastal. Also Peterhead has a 3 gas turbine power station plus Aberdeen is just down the road with a population of 200,000. Finally Scotland is criss-crossed by the National Grid distribution system due to amount of Nuclear Stations that were [and some still are] dotted around : a network which is of course tied into the UK as a whole.
Yet another stunningly useless Article
Yes once but they are getting fewer and fewer All of the non-US readers are going "I've never heard of this, it must be some weird US thing".
Some of the Slashdot stories these days would be better off on Facebook click-bait links
Labour didn't "kick their asses". Labour didn't win enough seats for a First Past the Post system. Even if you add in the SNP fruitcakes, the Libs, the Greens and those ardent warriors for peace Sinn Fein it's not enough.
The Tories need the Unionists for a coalition.
If Corbyn had the numbers with Sinn Fein included he would be talking to them trying to get them to take their seats although I would suggest that large combination would be as stable as a one-legged stool.
Mind you according to Momentum Corbyn has won Government and Diane Abbott thinks they have a majority of 12 million.
The UK population is going to quickly discover that the government and media are the cause of most of our social and economic problems, not the EU.
The areas of the country that were solid Labour areas for decades swung to the pro-Brexit camp for the exact reason that the European model has seen their jobs evaporate to Eastern Europe and the population rocketing due to immigration from Eastern Europe. That response may have a racial tinge; it may be wrong but it's there and putting your head in the sand and going "La La La" wont' change it.
The Pro-European campaign before the Referendum treated the population like mugs and the establishment and the Government got hammered for it. We even had the wonderful sight of a multi-millionaire Irish Citizen [Bob Geldof] sitting on the private yacht belonging to a Global Financial Firm flicking the V to a group of Fisherman who wanted out of Europe - a group whose livelihood has been destroyed by EU Fishery policy [hint : The huge factory ships that haul in everything that swims in the Sea aren't British]. That for me summed up the Pro-European movement : "Shut up peasents and do what you are told".
Why do pro-European advocates always talk about the amount of money Regions in the UK receive from the European bodies ? Heads-up : It's the UK's money so start with. We are a net contributor to the EU so we pay in more than comes out. Switch out the funding source from Europe to the UK. As for some of the poorest areas voting leave it's those poorest areas who getting hammered hardest by free movement and businesses relocating to cheap plants in Eastern Europe. As for people voting leaving and regretting- bullshit. All polls show the vote to be higher now - people want it done. Oh since you are obviously a labour party activist [Momentum ?] please square your pro-Eu standpoint with your Leaders avowed wish to get out. Both the Labour and Conservative parties support Brexit in their manifestos, the only difference is the end state. p.s. Labour still lost the election.
I can't see this happening in the UK unfortunately. It's notoriously difficult, time-consuming and mind-bendingly expensive to obtain the land and permissions to build any new transport infrastructure corridors in the UK. The Rail lines High-Speed Route 1 was bad enough and High Speed Route 2 is bogged down in inquiries, corruption and phenomenal cost projections. High Speed Route 2 is 400km and is sitting at a cost of 56 billion pounds which will be well south of the final bill. Whilst hyperloop may be orders of magnitude cheaper per route km the fun and games in getting the land will be the same. And no, you can't put it in the air on pylons as "air rights" belong to the land holders too. Land ownership in the UK is incredibly fragmented so even a short distance means engaging with thousands of land holders. One approach would be to piggy back down the middle of major arterial roads on pylons as most trunk roads are now owned by the Crown although that's not a hard and fast rule - many minor roads sit on land still theoretically owned by someone else.
It's certainly technically feasible - the Russians run Nuclear Ice Breakers, the US had the N.S.Savannah and of course there are lots of Nuclear Submarines.
The cost of it is the killer; there is no way you would see a return on investment at the moment plus many ports would ban you outright.
Apparently though when oil was expensive in the 70's the running costs were the same.
Nuclear Cargo Ships are like Concorde - a technically brilliant idea that could, with time and investment, have evolved over a number of iterations to be something truly game-changing and different - but was eventually stillborn. There are no technical reasons why not flying around the world at Mach 2.0, at least over the oceans or seeing fleets of nuclear cargo ships.
Britian has never been alone. Before there was the EU there was the British Empire. Now they have no influence and no friends.
The EU is losing it's 2nd largest economy and its 2nd largest net contributor - that's a lot of influence in my book. As for the EU, Britain never had any friends there anyway: that's been clear for decades. The EU does what is right for Germany and France. The writing has been on the wall for Britain in the EU for a number of years but successive EU and British Governments stuck their heads in the sand over it.
In this case Scotland would not be alone but part of the EU instead of the UK.
Aye, but the slight flaw in the plan is "it's a load of pish" as they say in Glasgow. It's been made abundantly clear that if Scotland leaves the UK it will be in limbo for many, many years before it has a chance of joining the EU. Oh, and it's major trading partner by a country mile will not be in the EU anyway.
and how many wars between European countries were there in that 1000 years? How many since the EU?
The militaries of the US, UK and France kept the Soviets from rolling into Germany and onto the Channel - not the EU.
The nuclear weapon capabilities of those countries kept the Soviets from rolling into Germany and onto the channel - not the EU.
Have look at this Wikipedia entry : rather a lot of conflicts since the foundation of the EU wouldn't you say. The UK's contingent poured into that was the largest of any country.
This is the tax system. The concepts of "do the right thing" and "their fair share" are ambiguous concepts. What is the right amount ? 10%? 20%? 30%? On what income is it levied ?? It's an easy slogan to use without having to put any meat on it. Nothing in this is illegal. If you are pissed off about it lobby your government and representatives to amend the tax laws. Apple as a corporate entity are obliged to make a return for their shareholders. Minimising the tax burden is one of the ways to do it. Is Slashdot now promoting the policies of the "progressive" left ?
It's not uneducated parents that are the problem. It's a lot of middle-class mothers who are totally convinced by the pseudo-science and rubbish that's peddled on the internet and by "Wellness" gurus. Australia seems to be infested with them.
Someone has just been hammered for this.
The Paleo Diet is alive and well here, pushed by a chef who somehow has become a dietary-science expert and made a mint from pushing books that contain dangerous pseudo-diets.
We also seem to be very susceptible to charlatans spruiking special-cancer treatments that do nothing but give false hope, drain someone's bank account and leaves them dead quicker.
Considering one of the persons involved was a Solicitor it doesn't seem like he showed superior judgement. FFS You pay quarter of a million quid for a flat and the person below wants to turn their "Guest House" into a bail hostel ? [ = huge amounts of money from the Government] FFS You would have the cast of trainspotting trooping in and out 24 hours of the day - say goodbye to your house value. It really does smell of payback doesn't it ? I would sell up and get out of there - that neighbour is going to be a continual pain in the arse for years. Google "Murrayfield Park Guest House" for more info - hardly glowing recommendations it looks like a right toilet. Mind you the complainant must have had rocks in his head for buying an apartment above a Guest House. It's close to Murrayfield so a tick in that box.
Yes, regional stability is one of the many reasons.
Bollocks - regional stability has sweet f-all to do with the EU, despite what the EU administration would like you to think.
The only reason there is peace in Europe is because of NATO - something which pre-dates the EU political concept. Three of the largest contributors to Nato in manpower, money, equipment etc are non-mainland countries: US, UK and Turkey. The only mainland country who takes it seriously are the French.
Oh and the fact the previous uppity German leader was finally removed. Before that the European mainland has had 200+ years of war none of which, funnily enough, were started by the UK but always involved someone from the Mainland who decided their current boundaries weren't adequate.
This sounds more like a PR puff piece from the company involved. Let's just ignore all of the Chip and Pin or "wave your card over the machine" payments systems in the rest of the world whose transactions must dwarf by many orders of magnitude anything India can manage. Slashdot is a shadow of it's former self - most of the articles it uses are really terrible bits of journalism or pure PR puff.
It certainly wasn't patronising like the BBC offering
Ah Saturday Mornings. On the BBC we had the safe, middle-class, colourful jumper version with Noel Edmonds, Keith Chegwin etc. On the the other side it was anarchy and chaos with Sally, Chris, Bod, Lenny and John. The dying fly; The Phantom Flan Flinger. Lenny Henry got his career rolling on that although I'm sure his will disavow it now. One of the best bits was when he was pretending to read the News as Trevor McDonald and the real Trevor came up behind him. Although stuck for words, his comment "Well hello daddy" was a cracker. All of this of course is completely lost on non-UK people and those below a certain age. p.s. People moan about the UK and how racist it is but if that's so how does a black journalist born in Trinidad become such a much-loved icon ?
This is Scotland, part of the UK. There are no medical bills to rack up as it's one of the more enlightened countries on Earth which has free medical care for EVERYONE regardless of need or ability to pay. It's not perfect but it's a damn sight better than losing your house because you hurt yourself. Oh and if you can't work due to injury the state will pay you benefits. Also note that UK Health and Safety laws are very, very tough. If employees were being injured at an Amazon warehouse due to heavy manual labour they would be dragged through the courts by the Government.
This is the UK. No patients are billed excepting for the occasional private room one and ambulance chasers for medical cases are very rare in the UK purely because even if they do win [Medical Negligence is not easy to prove in the UK and cases are dealt with by a judge only] the payout does not result in a huge legal payday. Speculative lawsuits in the UK are a non-starter.
Toilet Humour is a proud British Tradition.
30% of the money came from the IMF not the EU. The EU banks made money on the deal too; Ireland didn't default on the loans. The UK put it's own money on top of that due to exposure of the UK economy also.
The Saudi's already have nuclear weapons - who do you think paid for the Pakistani program ? It just happens that they are stored in Pakistan arsenals. If things went tits-up and the Saudi's [specifically the Royal Family and Government] found themselves on the wrong end of a Nuclear-armed Iran those weapons would quickly be moved to Saudi territory. Note the Saudi's bete-noire isn't, and never has been, Israel. [The Saudi Government considers Israel a convenient whipping boy but that's just to keep the punters in the Mosque and Souk happy. In reality they know that tangling with Israel would be a very, very bad idea and anyway they both have the same enemies]. The threat comes from Shia-dominated Iran whose population and ruling Theocracy are very, very unhappy with the way the Saudi's treat their own Shia minority in the East. Iran is not, and never has been an Arab country.
This really is a moronic article. Programming language choice is not about "popular" or "cool" - it's whatever tool gets the job done. The article also takes a whack at COBOL and Fortran. They might be old but they have been around a long time and are still in heavy use in many areas. The article also ignores things like microcontrollers, arduinos etc whose development tooling invariably uses C. The whole thing reads like it was written by a newly minted graduate.
I think you will find most people are NOT freaking out about it. The media are throwing their toys out of the pram somewhat but day-to-day it has had little impact. Business are still investing as the realisation sets in that the UK economy is so big [5th largest in the World after Germany] that the EU cannot shut the door completely and keep them out. I notice also that large non-EU economies are tripping over themselves to position for new trade deals with the UK. Australia and New Zealand for example are quick out of the blocks. The UK isn't some tinpot 3rd world country - it's a huge financial and economic power with the 5th largest military in the world, for a tiny country who also happen to own lots of shiny missiles that can turn cities into glass carparks [and no they are not under US control]. Brexit, more than anything else, was a two-fingered gesture to the political establishment in the UK and in the EU whose lack of democracy is somewhat breathtaking. The leave mob might not have had a plan but the scare tactics of Remain really blew up in their face. Wheeling out Obama who basically threatened the UK economy was a complete disaster. You could have heard the slapping of foreheads all over London. Centuries of history have proved quite categorically is you threaten the UK people or put their backs to the wall they will lash out. As for science there funding in theory would be replaced by the UK funding. I suspect those whose funding is spent on Climate Change and fluffy Environmental research are sweating as the current UK government may not be quite as keen to throw money at them. Some of us aren't quite so keen to live in a Germany-dominated super state. It didn't work out too well last time and Greece is a good example of what happens when you surrender to the central EU establishment. Other EU countries might have lost a competitor but at the same time a huge market is being shutoff. One final comment - Remainers were claiming that the EU meant peace in Europe for 70 years. Funny, I thought the presence of the thousands of US and British troops in Germany plus the US, UK and French Nuclear Deterrent had something to do with it. Or maybe the Cold War didn't happen.