They still have to make stuff and not end up fighting each other. China wasn't anything like the power it potentially could have been until the last 30 years or so, despite its population. (View Post)

Putin has been very careful to bolster his army so far with criminals, mercenaries and volunteers from the back end of beyond - none of which matter very much to him or indeed the Russian people in g… (View Post)

On topic, yes. Also, methodology. You have to select a theoretically representative sample in the first place, even before the vagaries of random chance in the opinions of those people come into play… (View Post)

Dictators like a wannabe-dictator who likes dictators (and is squeamish about violence when they're not). Shock. (View Post)

OnT / OfT Or we could just write it out. It's really not many letters and we're not using first generation mobiles. (View Post)