3,000 troops to evacuate an embassy seems excessive? How many diplomats are there?
Nonetheless A terrible situation for Afghanistan; I wish the world could help them but I'm not sure what else could be done after trying for two decades.
The 3000 troops aren't solely to hold the embassy, they're to hold the Kabul airport, and to handle the evacuation of diplomats and Afghans who assisted the US, such as translators and non-diplomatic embassy staff.
3000 staff is tiny percentage of the staff of an international airport, even a small one.
> The troops, consisting of two Marine battalions and one Army battalion, will be based at the Kabul airport. They will provide security for an airlift that will fly out U.S. diplomats, as well as Afghans who have worked with the U.S., and the family members of those Afghans.
The US Embassy in Afghanistan is absolutely massive. From July 6 2021:
> the embassy is currently down to 1,400 U.S. citizens and about 4,000 staff working inside the compound the size of a small town.
It's a huge complex and those are the reduced staff numbers. Granted they may or may not actually be evacuating all the local staff (the US has been... not great about getting people who risked their lives to help the US in Afghanistan).
If I recall correctly, some US embassies that have been built in turbulent areas are more accurately described as military bases that just happen to host an embassy. They're heavily fortified and don't resemble what we'd typically think of as an embassy.
It is being demolished now. The company doing the demolition must be very proud of destroying things, because they make drone & time-lapsed videos of it:
Why shouldn't they take pride in their work? Its honest and important work. Not every building can/should be preserved, tearing down these structures is important to remove dilapidated safety hazards and/or build something new
A few years ago they were demolishing a building across from my office. They had various demolition equipment, mainly big backhoes including some equipped with grabbing. They were taking their time ripping stuff apart, and then sorting through what they'd broken off to separate out all the rebar and other metal.
What I liked was, at the end of each day, the crew lined up all the equipment and put each in what I would call a "majestic" pose, like with its arm looking purposeful. I thought it gave a cool, and professional look to the construction site, and showed they obviously cared about what they were doing, to clean up and pose the equipment, vs just leaving it where it was when the shift ended.
Random tangent: This is the most bizarre thing I've seen in a while. At the bottom of the page is a "Protected by Recaptcha" logo that follows the page around. Clicking on it does nothing and no Recaptcha is displayed. What is it supposedly protecting and how is it doing that protecting if no Captcha is displayed? (I browse privately and am constantly hit with Captchas, but this one didn't prompt me.)
Recaptcha version 3 doesn't need to show you a CAPTCHA. It just calculates a score in the background, and of course it's up to the website to determine what to do with this score.
(spoiler warning) I gave up on the ExForce series after a half dozen books; it was good, just repetitive. But I couldn't force myself to purchase the Bobiverse #2. While the Bobiverse author's style was irritating to me, I thought the alien interactions in Bobiverse were laughable compared to ExForce and Hail Mary (spoiler sorry). The antagonist also left much to be desired.
But Ray Porter's voice needs to be applied to many more books. I generally only stop reading audiobooks if I can't listen to the reader any longer
I totally understand abandoning ExForce. It got better once the writer went full time but it still leaves a lot to be desired. I put up with it because I’m a completionist and the author has a plan to end the series in just a few more books so I’ll stick it out but I get it.
I think the core ideas in Bobiverse keep me hooked as I just enjoy them but I see your point and don’t begrudge anyone who gave up on it.
This is a totally random question but have you ever read the Honor Harrington series? They aren’t related at all (other than “sci-fi”) but I’m always interested in other series people have read and enjoyed (or not enjoyed) and Honorverse is one of my favorites.
I recommend the audio because the narrator does a very good job IMHO. I tried to read the books after listening to them first but felt it was lacking compared to the audio.
I will say that this series is pretty technical (in that I talks about the speeds of things and how fast things are moving) which I greatly enjoy but I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Putting the Checking account into a fund/security and then selling the fund/security for ATM withdrawals, or individual expenses etc will be a headache come tax time. How does your product simplify this?
From your description, it sounds like this is not FDIC insured?
Every year you will receive the necessary paperwork from us to file your taxes. While there will be many trades, you can usually combine them into just one line on your tax return that sums them all up.
That's correct, because your money is invested, this is not FDIC insured.
> > Irony” is a term that everyone uses and seems to understand. It is also a concept that is notoriously difficult to define.
In information terms, the "understand" in that sentence is a false positive.
Q: Do you know what I mean?
A: Yes.
The response above is not a verification. To be valid as a verification, the response would have to contain a restatement of the proposition, ideally in different terms that have the same meaning.
e.g.
A: You are saying that when someone claims to understand something, they have to demonstrate that understanding by regurgitating the meaning they have in mind, so as to make their understanding transparent and verifiable.
Nonetheless A terrible situation for Afghanistan; I wish the world could help them but I'm not sure what else could be done after trying for two decades.