Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 2h

Military procurement usually filters out blatant scams unlike subcontracting (see Fat Leonard for that one), but we're now close on a decade of DOD across admins pushing to cut or simplify testing so new gear can be delivered faster and hopefully cheaper. The VC backed vaporware are the end stage

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 3h

It also wasn't until relatively recently that the glass ceiling on ethnic Malays' career progression in the Singapore Armed Forces was broken, and the beliefs behind it are still very prevalent in society in a bizarre mirror image of recruiting issues in Malaysia geraldgiam.sg/2007/03/saf-...

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 does the wet and green part pretty well

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

k

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

It's got its moments of competence thanks to Schogol, but generally they're TWZ if you replaced that site's conviction in their wisdom with a need to not offend their target audience, as well as a clickbaity YouTube channel responsible for a lot of the hatred towards the brand

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

hell I just got told that a certain racist whose writing still sucks after 3 years is roaming the AUSA floor, but I can't exactly tell everyone on bsky also at AUSA to find him and give him a wedgie now, can I? bsky.app/profile/albe...

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · Jul 26

I have had the dreaded "conversation with a govt official" that a surprisingly large amount of aspiring foreign service applicants even outside the First World have logged time on HOI IV

of course, those who hitched their train to the global reactionary movement have very interesting mods installed

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

also it is strictly speaking 3.5% defense spend + 1.5% on critical infrastructure and dual use stuff, but fit that in your headline or under character limits

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 16h

I recall some journo putting the question about the Spanish PM saying "no, we're not gonna do 5% GDP spend on NATO as we can reach capability obligations without it" to Trump, and then it just sort of joined the roster of obsessions he cycles in and out of www.cnbc.com/2025/06/25/t...

Trump threatens tough trade deal for Spain after it refuses to meet NATO defense spending target

"We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal and we're going to make them pay twice as much," Trump said after the country refused to meet the spending target.

www.cnbc.com

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 21h

bsky.app/profile/albe...

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 21h

With the report on the deficiencies in their C2 prototpes you better believe this is a risk. Lifted viciously from: x.com/EXCEL__/stat...

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 21h

With the report on the deficiencies in their C2 prototpes you better believe this is a risk. Lifted viciously from: x.com/EXCEL__/stat...

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 22h

There is one specific Coastie I would like to see get a specific "don't pay him" cutout, but based on my last interactions with the dweeb he probably landed on the "out" side of "up or out" a while ago

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Well when you mention it it's more protracted than my preference

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

We just try to teach media literacy while access to disinformation that reinforces your beliefs gets easier

But any attempts to "play the game" that aren't Voice of America or the BBC World Service that become public knowledge is viewed as a betrayal of democratic principles

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Since I've already ranted on a similar topic already today, I'd argue that there is definitely a perception problem in the civilian space where hostile influence campaigns that are already ongoing are just something we're expected to accept because we're free societies that don't censor

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

I am not exaggerating when I say that my parents will only eat non-Chinese food that aren't curried whatevers from a handful of chain establishments for very special occasions, and their opinions on people who are not 100% Pure Han are definitely unpleasant

SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 1d

the two types of racist are food racist and sex racist. all racists fall into these two categories. hitler? sex racist. mussolini? food racist.

stephen miller? sex racist. jd vance? food racist.

despite being racist about food sometimes, donald trump is a sex racist

LOWρUF🐸 🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 @lowrhoufo.bsky.social · 1d

Food racism drives you crazy faster than most forms of racism

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

This guy I know through friends of friends will absolutely not stop using ChatGPT to render backgrounds for models he built years ago

also as pointed out Gunpla is wildly popular

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

"Mervyn's inability to perform 'the classics' with flair was more than compensated for by his ability to gently persuade anyone that he was never there"

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Some very serious people can argue why Delhi is needed in the Quad, but their influence campaigns supporting the Anglosphere reactionary right will keep corroding democratic norms the way they already have at home if there are no consequences

and the people they're boosting still hate Indians

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

The closest thing you will get to me ranting about psyops is that the Indian press is not suddenly rocketing up to the top of search results for international news stories not because of some newfound curiosity, but because Modi's government is doubling down on its influence gamble with MAGA

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Happy birthday Sarah!

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Do you think he will be on the podcast circuit this time next year to make rent?

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

That said a lot of artists went to Misskey first even before BlueSky's own controversy over NSFW content. Makes it a bit dicey over whether the Misskey post is just marked adult because the artist felt that way or I'm about to be flashbanged by their insanely niche fetish

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Japanese Twitter until relatively recently (thanks, Indian/Turkish bot campaigns) was fairly insulated from the Anglosphere stuff and so broad takeup has not materialised. Even with artists who are upset over increasingly random shadowbans and their work feeding Grok

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Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

The default Pax Armata getups have subtle lime green hex patterns on flat dark earth gear like holsters and helmets over dark uniforms. Haven't really made progress on unlocking the alternate skins, but the PlayStation reward for playing the open beta was blue... goggle straps.

Albert Lee @albertl.bsky.social · 1d

Who funds this stuff, since if you gave me its budget to blow on something of dubious artistic merits it almost certainly can't be this offensively bad

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