Tag Archives: Russian

After 4+ Years I Finally Get A New Watch Face For My ‘Garmin’.

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by Anura Guruge
on September 12, 2024

Click to ENLARGE.

I need at least 8 fields of data, in addition to the time & date.

You would think that getting watch faces with 8 data fields will not be a problem. WRONG!

Ironically BOTH watch faces are from the SAME Russian developer. You can, however, pay him (donations) via services of an intermediary (reseller) via PayPal or Stripe. That is good to know.

But, I am NOT getting carried away. I did install this watch face last week — & lost my color customization after 24 hours. So, I have got my fingers crossed. I still have my old face. So, I can always go back.

Tearing Apart The Chinese Spy Balloon With A $400K ‘Sidewinder’ Missile Was So American Machismo Gung Ho — Better To Have Riddled It With A Machine Gun.

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by Anura Guruge
on February 6, 2023

Click to ENLARGE. From the U.K. ‘Daily Mail’.

Using a $400K missile was an unnecessary & COSTLY show of FORCE by Biden & the U.S. Yes, wanting to show their STRENGTH. But, that strength really was never in question.

We have been bringing enemy balloon downs since BEFORE WW I — & that was well over a century ago.

A missile is EXPENSIVE & just makes a BIG mess.

The fabric of the balloon, can be punctured with bullets. Aircraft machine gun. They should have sent out some OLD WWII era fighters & riddled the envelope with bullet holes when this damn balloon was still a few miles inland from the coast.

Then it would have slowly & gently DEFLATED. It is Helium gas. It would not have burned or exploded. The balloon would have slowly drifted to sea — not that far out.

Using a missile was just COSTLY & unnecessary.

BIGGEST Question Re. Chinese Spy Balloon — Why Wasn’t It SPOTTED By U.S. Radar?

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by Anura Guruge
on February 3, 2023

Click to ENLARGE. From ‘Google News’.

It was spotted, FOR THE FIRST TIME, by passengers on a regular, commercial jet flying over ‘Billings’, Montana. Not even by the pilots. By passengers. That is crazy & SCARY.

It was NOT detected by U.S. radar?

That alone is THE STORY.

That has to be the biggest intelligence that China or Russia wanted. Must have exceeded all expectations. They could get this huge balloon, three times the size of a school bus that far into the U.S. without detection.

There has to be more to this than we are being told.

But, I don’t like it. It is scary. It is UNREAL.

India’s 12,000HP “WAG-12B” Electric Locomotive.

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by Anura Guruge
on February 2, 2023

Click to ENLARGE. For this post on ‘Facebook’.
Click to ENLARGE & read here. Wikipedia link.

The post shown at top appeared on my ‘Facebook‘ timeline last week (no doubt because I belong to a number of train-related groups). It immediately caught my interest — especially the claim that it was the MOST powerful & that it was ‘homegrown’. I made a note to check on these when I had the time.

Yes, I did do some quick checking. Both claims are what I think of as “Indian truths” — they have to be taken with a large grain of salt since they are not exactly true.

Wikipedia, to its credit, has a list of the “World’s Largest Locomotives” — some of them, by their sheer nature, also happening to be the “Most Powerful“. The WAG-12 is listed as the LARGEST but in terms of horsepower (HP) there appears to be at least two Russian locos that supposedly produce 17,000(+) hp.

But, I enjoyed the few minutes I go to look up this stuff. I love trains — or to be really truthful I love train engines. Train carriages, whether passenger, freight or caboose, doesn’t move me. But, I love all engines.

THREE (3) main things I learnt, & if & when I have time I sure plan to look into these more.

1/ That Russia & India made such big, powerful engines — way, way bigger than anything being built in the U.S. That is pretty amazing.

2/ That steam engines could deliver more power than diesel, diesel/electric or electric locs. Wow. Had no idea.

3/ That there is some difference as to the power — to the wheels — delivered by steam compared to the other methods. I really need to understand this better.

Just wanted to share this with you. Hope you find it interesting & maybe even useful.

Total Mismatch Between The English Dubbing & English Subtitles In Netflix Foreign Movies.

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by Anura Guruge
on July 26, 2021

Click to ENLARGE.

Of late I have been watching, with gless, a lot of foreign-made movies on Netflix — from India, Russia, Turkey & even Georgia (& I had to go check Google Maps just to refresh my memory). It has been an eye-opener in multiple ways; a window into the current culture & dynamics of those countries.

The English dubbing on all the movies I have watched have been very good, if not outright excellent. Unless you really concentrate you cannot really tell it is dubbed. Not like in the old days.

As I have gotten older I have also got into the habit of having English subtitles on ALL the time, whether I need it or not — just so I do not have to stop & rewind if I didn’t catch anything (& I like to hear/see every word that is uttered). So, now I get the English dubbing & the English subtitles. And this has been hilarious. They rarely match. Most of the time they are wildly apart — both in terms of words, style & structure.

There isn’t even any consistency. So, within the same movie, minutes apart the dubbing may have a strong swear word (e.g., the F-word) while the subtitle says something totally different & then you will get vice versa! It is OK. It is fun. But, why?

I have NOT seen that with English movies. As some of you know much of subtitling is now done by computer. So, you do get some phonetical errors, but the wording, more or less, is the same. But, not so with foreign movies. The English dubbing & English subtitles are done separately. It is possible that the voice-over artists are allowed to ad lib as they go along, while the subtitles follow a script. I don’t have an explanation, at least as yet. Just lots of proof that they, i.e., dubbing & subtitles, do NOT match.