Preferably we’d be self-sufficient since Europe has a lot of, if not most of the rare earth minerals in various deposits. But, no wants to deal with the ugly process of extraction and processing, not to mention the upfront costs. Until someone steps up I guess we sadly have to deal with China.

I’m nowhere near being an expert on languages and phonology, but I think the Ø-sounds in the Nordic languages are more or less the same. With some tiny differences on pressure, pitch, and maybe tone. Close enough to be considered the same in my opinion. It probably boils down to what would mostly be accent and dialect differences between the languages.

Experience with English and Norwegian (should probably have sourced it), but also from wikitionary. There are some audio examples here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/slut

IPA for the word “slut” is /slʌt/, the upside-down V sounds like this. While not exactly the same sound as Ø, the audio examples on wikitionary for “slut” sounds closer to Ø for me, as I use Ø daily in Norwegian.

Edit:

Norwegian uses this sound for the “u” in “slutt”, the full IPA for it is /ʂlʉtː/. For some reason there isn’t IPA for “slutt” in Bokmål, but the Nynorsk pronunciation is the more or less the same. Sadly there isn’t an audio recording of the word on wikitionary, but it has a double consonant which is a fun rabbit hole in Norwegian.

Sure, except the Norwegian spelling is “slutt”. The pronunciation is a bit different from the English word “slut”, the English one uses more of a ø-sound for the u. “sludd” is the Norwegian word for sleet, which is a mix of snow and water, this is even stated by your sources.

Can they standardize some kind of ice road driving experience requirement if you are driving somewhere it gets cold in the winter? It’s a constant problem with people who have never seen snow before racing around like maniacs on slippery ice roads in the Nordics, often with summer tyres. Both cars and heavy lorries from central and southern Europe often crash in the winter, and they’re always surprised at ice being more difficult to drive on than plain asphalt. There’s a reason it’s an obligatory part of driving education in the north.

They’ve been ramping up acquisition and production as much as they reasonably can the last few years. The rest of us should really follow their example. Luckily the production is increasing all over Europe, though it should have begun much much sooner than this. The hard part going forward is manpower (as stated in the article), and all the command structures needing to be rebuilt without the US. And, over time removing the dependence on America for air defence, both planes and land-based missile defences. Fully local drone production is also going to be a game changer, as we have seen the importance of drones in Ukraine.

God, they’re so desperate for the smallest possible propaganda win to spin into something big. They really aren’t update to date on what goes on outside their own backyard.

Shit, I hate mines as much as the next guy, but against a Russia who doesn’t care about any kind of laws or rules of war you have to use all the tools at your disposal to keep them away.

Europe should probably invest in some kind of European FASCAM alternative. So in the event the Russians actually do launch an attack we can absolutely cover the roads, fields, and forests their side of the border several kilometres deep with mines. While we bunker down and just keep draining their resources on clearing mines in their own land.

There’s some serious NIMBY’ing going on with new manufacturing. People understandably don’t want to live next door to a explosives factory. So the next option is to build the factories far away in some forest, but then environmentalists get up in arms over forests being cut down. Also, the longer commute makes it harder to get workers.

All in all it’s a lose-lose situation. Hopefully someone can cut through, find an agreeable solution somewhere in the middle, and start building new factories.

It’s impressive how much Fico and Orban keeps whining about LGBT, considering how firmly they’ve got their faces planted in Putin’s crotch.

It’s good to see Poland green shifting their electrical grid. Hopefully this can alleviate the dependency on coal plants during peak hours and nurture more renewable energy over time.

But, I really don’t like Europe’s general dependence on China for green energy. I hope politicians will finally learn to not trust autocratic regimes with the whole ongoing Trump thing.

I wonder what Trumps response is going to be when Putin rejects the offer. Doubt he’s going to go as hard on him as he did with Zelenskyy.

Does he wake up every morning and do a d20 roll on what his opinion is going to be that day?

Seriously though, I guess he REALLY wants his name on the peace deal, whatever the cost, so he can go on to demand a Nobel Peace Prize. I expect him to get real pissy if he doesn’t get one, whining about how Obama got one.

Can’t have a trade deficit if you don’t have trade.

So it’s going to be 4 years of “Say thank you” in addition to the already established bullshit? What’s the next thing they’re adding to the list?

Europe really should have a fully local drone industry, from the mines to the air. We’ve seen how incredibly crucial drones have been in Ukraine. Being able to produce various types of drones without relying on external sources for parts will be very important going forwards.