I bought a machine right before 7 launched to replace my XP machine. Vista SP2 was solid by then. I ran it for over a year because it was extremely stable.
I waited a bit over a year to install 7 on the machine when it's SP1 came out.
Russia had an absolute massive stockpile of air defense assets at the beginning of the war. Ukraine has steadily worked at degrading these assets over time. The more they destroyed the easier it was to destroy the next asset.
At the same time Ukraine has massively increased it's drone capabilities and numbers at every range. So the remaining Russian air defense has to work harder with less numbers against more drones.
The longer ranges of Ukraines drones also means that Russia has to defend more area with less equipment. Russia is forced to prioritize assets to protect.
Today Moscow has a robust air defense system but whole sections of the front have close to zero. Ukraine has total freedom to hit any target they can find in many regions.
Russia is seeking to figure out a cheap effective way to defend their airspace. At the same time Ukraine is relentlessly damaging the infrastructure Russia needs to build the new anti-air capabilities.
So more targets for Iran to shoot at.
For the past 10 years it's been $2-$4/gallon or less. The Russian government subsidizes the price of gasoline with revenues from the sale of crude oil.
"Ukraine is too far away and weak for them to fly a drone thousands of km to bomb them. So the only explanation is Russian traitors. "
The downside of extensive propaganda claiming that Ukraine is weak and about to collapse.
I think the Russian stock market is going to have a tough few decades at this rate.
That's quite the picture.
$52 oil plus Ukraine's effective sanctions on the storage and transport infrastructure....
The market is massively overvalued.
Ever left some 15% ethanol blend in a container for a year without stabalizer? Oopsy on my part but it formed small chunks. Also turned a bright yellow.
I would guess they are pushing the ethanol percentage combined with higher contaminates in the fuel.
The likely only reason they were in the air was to prevent them from being hit out in the open on the tarmac.
Since they were in the air anyway, they might as well attempt (and fail) to hit the drones.
Ukraine might already have a effective counter-measure. Some of their intercepter drones with an initial speed boost from a model rocket motor. These can get going fast enough to catch them.
What's interesting is that jet powered shaheds can go up to 600km/hr but they consume too much fuel at those speeds. This limits their range significantly. So they are being intercepted at slower speeds to conserve fuel.
https://thedefender.media/en/2026/07/jet-powered-shaheds-intercept/
My wife's fluffy white dog I drive around with for work. He likes to eat higher moisture corn and cow shit.
For silage corn the entire plant is harvested, chopped up, and packed tightly in a pile and covered with plastic or very large plastic bag. This creates an anaerobic conditions and yeasts/bacteria convert the sugars to alcohol, then acids. This acid preserves the feed for cattle for up to 2 years.
Silage corn is the most common base feed for all dairies and feedlots.
This isn't even the tallest variety out there. There are others that are 3' (1m) taller.
The machine with the spout is a chopper. They are a million dollar gigantic woodchipper. These things are fucking terrifying and you should absolutely stay out the field when they are running. Every so often a deer jumps into them.....shudder.... nightmare fuel.
Early in the season before a corn plant is waist high it takes a guess on how many kernals it can fill. Sometimes it guesses wrong and so it aborts the top kernals to fill the rest.
The entire top of the damn plant turns bright red.
As sugars build up in the top of the plant with no place to be transported to, the upper leaves start to turn bright red and die back.
You may get a bar bell ear or there may be no ear on the plant. In of field of millions of plants a bright red top narrows the search down.
Start getting your pinky in shape with this weird environmental triggered trait. It's easy to find in any corn field (to be continued...).
This right here is 350bu/acre of corn. 113 day variety on an almost pure sand field. Every damn ear looked the same. Look at that beauty, every kernal is huge and dense.
This here is trichoderma ear rot in an organic field. This 100 day variety was chewed on by an earworm. The damaged kernals allowed trichderma to enter and infect the ear. This ear rot produces many toxins and is a big no for consumption.
The twist - Trichoderma is usually a beneficial organism in the soil. It feeds on other pathogenic fungus/bacteria and is applied extensively for biological control.
Although normally a secondary pathogen, it has mutated to become a primary pathogen in both Italy and Germany in recent years.
This here is a genetically susceptible 113 day variety to fusarium kernal rot. This is a nasty little fungus that produces all sorts of mycotoxins that can give any mammal that consumes it a belly ache or even death. It's easily identifiable by the white streaks in causes in the kernals.
This 98 day little minx has a flirty pink cob. It doesn't look like much but it packs quite the wallop. The ears posted yielded 302bu. Medium high ear placement and a fast drydown makes this an excellent choice for grain.
This is pretty little 102 day number with a bright white cob that threshes very easily. It does extremely well for dry grain, high moisture grain or earlage.
The field in this picture averaged 305bu.
Probably the easiest plant to care for once you figure it out.
I water it every month or two. Fertilize it every 2 or 3 years. Redirect the arial roots into the pot when I water.
It gets 3 hours of direct sunlight in the morning.
Every 5 or 6 years I haul it outside in the summer. Then leach the pot with the garden hose to remove the salt buildup. I also hack the plant back to a more manageable size.
A few caught fire and are burning out. If you look at a cutaway of most tankers, most of the critical compones are found under the bridge. The fuel tanks, engines, pumping station etc.
The hulls can be repaired an put back into service but it will take time and considerable expense.