ICTChris

Death toll has gone up to more than 150. Russia claiming to have either killed or capture the attackers. ISIS outlets have released video of the attack, complete with extreme violence, knife attacks etc. There’s also a video of one of the captured attackers being tortured - special police hold him down and cut off his ear which is then force fed to him. One of the rifles used has been identified as an updated AK12, the most modern Kalashnikov variant. For all the schizoid pro Russian weirdos who have attributed attacks by everyone from Hamas to Mexican cartels to Ukrainian weapons sold on the black markets turns out its highly likely that the weapons used in this attack have been sourced from Russian forces.

You watch golden retriever puppies, I watch videos like this. we are not the same.

I don’t think the subjects of the study were trying to make excuses for their behaviour! I do think that if you grow up with a parent modelling certain behaviour then that’s bound to have an impact.

ISIS-K have claimed the attack, saying they were attacking Christians. ISIS-K is the ISIS affiliate in Central Asia, mainly focused in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, as well as some former Soviet republics in the area. Earlier this year they claimed the bombing at the tomb of Iranian general Soleimani. Not sure they’ve ever attacked so far outside their home area before. Reports are that at least some of the attackers managed to escape.

I remember reading years ago about Ryan Giggs’ dad, who was a rugby league player from Cardiff. He was something of a legend for the Manchester based Swindon Lions team, a mercurial talent who could destroy teams in his own but had discipline issues and off field problems. You can see a couple of his highlights on this clip from 2 minutes showing the kind of athleticism, pace and balance that Giggs would display throughout his career. Giggs became estranged from his dad when his parents split up (hence the name change from Wilson to Giggs, his mothers maiden name). Giggs hasn’t spoken to his father for around 35 years, resulting from the traumatic split, which involved serial infidelity from Danny Wilson, and domestic abuse. When Giggs’ affair with his brothers wife came out his dad did a few interviews condemning his older son but in a few of them he basically admits that Ryan is behaving very similarly to the way he did. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12325045/amp/My-Ryans-rat-womaniser-fact-hes-chip-old-block-havent-spoken-years-unflinching-interview-Ryan-Giggss-father-Danny-admits-footballer-learned-lot-bad-ways-him.html It’s just fascinating to me that Giggs obviously realised that being unfaithful to your wife causes terrible pain and problems and he reacts by cutting his father out of his life but he then behaves in almost exactly the same way. How much of it is conscious, who knows.

The apartment bombings in 1999 took place just as he took office as Prime Minister under Yeltsin. A number of apartment blocks were blown up in various Russian cities, hundreds were killed. This pre-empted the outbreak of the Second Chechen war. In Ryazan, local police arrested a number of men who they found planting a bomb in the basement of an apartment building. After being hailed as great police work, it was quickly established tbh at the men arrested planting the bomb were local FSB agents. The FSB then stated that the agents had been taking part in a drill and the bomb wasn’t viable, they were testing local police reactions. The cops who found the bomb were certain it was viable. There are lots of proponents of this as a false flag - it could well be one but it’s also true that the war in a Chechnya was probably inevitable and that elements of the Chechen rebels would happily have blown up Russian apartments.

Here’s the screenshot from the TASS website of the reaction to the warnings.

There seems to have been a pretty large scale gun attack in Moscow. Several attackers have targeted a concert hall in the city, reports of dozens killed. This sort of attack has been seen before on Moscow, Chechen and other Islamist groups carried out similar during the Chechen wars. Infamously a theatre was occupied with hostages taken in 2002, which ended with Russian special forces pumping gas into the venue and killing hundreds. There were reports of militants in Inigushetia a few weeks ago fighting local police but there hasn’t been a large scale attack on several years. Most of the radicals in the Caucausas went to Syria in the mid 2010s and almost all the leadership have been killed. I’d be surprised if this was anything directly related to the war in Ukraine but as ever with Russia, who knows what will come out or what conclusions can be drawn? Edited to add - the US publicly warned a few days ago of a potential terrorist attack in Moscow, specifically mentioning crowded venues and concerts. Putin dismissed this as “blackmail” and “an attempt to destabilise our society”.

Trying to think of worse media work than whoever was handling the press for the royals on this one. Appalling.

A study has found that infidelity is approximately 40-60% genetic in origin. This is approximately the same as the genetic contribution to high blood pressure, depression or suffering migraines. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dating-and-mating/202403/the-surprisingly-strong-link-between-genetics-and-infidelity No specific gene has been identified as influencing infidelity and researchers pointed out that they are not suggesting that our behaviour is non modifiable. Will any P&Bers be using the “it’s in my genes!” defence when their other half catches them in flagrante? Do any P&Bers have top shaggers as parents and feel their coitus-enthusiast families have the shagger genes?

Great advice for those looking to build a business

News reporters and readers have a duty to maintain strict impartiality and any suggestion that a story might be frivilous could in itself be an indication of bias. However, even seasoned pros have their limits

Conservatives polled 19% in the latest YouGov poll, almost within the margin of error for Reform UK.

Shogun is very good. Two episodes in and it’s gripping. Not being a writer or director or having any creative talent I’m always amazed when things that shouldn’t be so compelling are - a translated conversation about maritime treaties between a Japanese feudal Lord and a prisoner should not be high drama, but it is.

I can take or leave marmite.

I was trying to think why I hated this so much. Comes down to a number of different factors I think. There are spoilers in this but you should read it as it’s better to have it spoiled than waste your time watching it. I can’t actually believe it’s been praised to high heavens, it was utterly shite.

Sound like a nice bunch of lads https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-68616180

I didn't think hipsters were real but then I saw a guy with a beard riding a penny farthing in Edinburgh. It happened and we let it happen.

A fucking tune is what it is

Hipster Rangers fans are definitely a thing.

Just to add, I was speaking to my wife about the battery farm - she has no interest in football or Highland council planning process. I told her that if the battery farm was built it would be good for Caley and she said "not so good for the poor hens though!"