On a potentially positive note, it seems that the Russians are running low on artillery systems (loss of ~25/day on a high casualty day compared to ~70/day months ago).

I believe euromaiden press estimates they have 21% of their total stock pile left and they field ~20% at a time. This would mean they have essentially no reserves left and field usage is now limited by production rates and refurbishment of equipment in bad shape.

It may be because they are running out of reserve Soviet equipment and are forced to rely on meat assaults to keep up the pressure.

I've noticed the number of artillery system destroyed per day is about half (~25-35/day) of what it was for most of the past year (~70/day).

Same with APCs, the number seems to have halved and the "vehicles and fuel tanks" number has risen to compensate. To me, that indicates the Russians are riding into battle on unarmed vehicles (motorcycles, golf carts, regular cars/trucks, etc.) and are more suseptible to becoming a casualty than earlier in the war.

If that were the case, the Russians pressure/assaults may not have increased as significantly as the casualty number increase would indicate.

I think they probably ment to put special equipment's "99" under vehicles and fuel tanks. Otherwise, they would have destroyed 3% of the total destroyed special equipment.

With ferries and heavy rail over the Kerch Strait Bridge unlikely, it seems Russia is left with the new rail line being built through lower Ukraine (don't know if its finished yet) and/or trucks across the bridge (not sure the volume it can accommodate). Seems like Crimean logistics are going to be constrained in the short term.

Relevant text:

According to the research, lab-grown P. album was observed to break down a given piece of UV-treated plastic at a rate of roughly 0.05 percent per day for every nine-day period. Which isn't nothing, but it'd take a very long time for the bacteria to get through the entirety of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, let alone the millions of metric tons of plastics that enter the ocean every year.

Relevant section of the article where it lays out what has been changing and what still needs to change:

... graft has been all but exterminated in some of the worst affected areas - for instance, government services such as issuing passports, permits and licences.

He also tells the BBC that significant progress had been made in reforming education and police.

Problem areas

Mr Kalmykov admits, however, that the government has been less successful in eradicating corruption in using natural resources (e.g. in mining and forestry), regulating monopolies and in large infrastructure projects.

"Progress has been slowest where big interests and big players meet," he says.

According to him, "in the next five-ten years the government should focus on cleansing the judiciary, which will make the general system of public administration healthier".

That's a very cute comic. Thanks for sharing the link.

The last paragraph I quoted talks about suburban population transport percentages. So assuming it's the same for inner Paris, the remainder would be walking and then public transportation.

I wouldn't mind another movie/series on the topic though and a helldriver's universe may have enough popularity to get a movie/series universe going.

Other interesting info from the article:

In a new sustainability report, the brand said this was an increase from the 2022 figure, which was 42.6 percent.

Albert Heijn is hoping to significantly increase this number in the coming years. It aims for 50 percent of proteins sold to be plant-based in 2025, going up to 60 percent in 2030.

Relevant Section, with example implementation:

With an annual budget of roughly $2 million, the program saves Eugene $14 million annually in ambulance trips and emergency room costs, plus an estimated $8.5 million in public safety costs—and has successfully diverted thousands from the criminal legal system. Of the estimated 17,700 calls CAHOOTS responded to in 2019, teams requested police backup only 311 times.

311/17700=~1.75%

Article Text Below:

What Happens When We Send Mental Health Providers Instead Of Police

For Daniel Prude, Patrick Warren Sr., and Ricardo Muñoz, 911 calls led to tragedy. They are three of at least 97 people killed just last year after police responded to reports of someone “behaving erratically or having a mental health crisis.”

Like Prude, Warren Sr., and Muñoz, nearly a quarter of the more than 6,000 people fatally shot by police since 2015 were experiencing a mental health crisis. Today, a person having a mental health crisis is more likely to encounter law enforcement than they are to get any medical support or treatment, making jails the largest behavioral health facilities in the country. Chicago’s Cook County Jail, the Los Angeles County Jail, and New York’s Rikers Island jail complex each hold more people with serious mental health conditions than any dedicated treatment facility in the country.

Numerous deadly encounters prove that police are ill-equipped to safely and effectively serve people experiencing mental health crises, yet police have been the default first responders for a range of social issues. And as with so many aspects of our broken criminal legal system, Black people become victims in disproportionate numbers. A study published in January 2021 found that police are more likely to shoot and kill Black men who exhibit mental health conditions than white men who display similar behaviors.

Advocates across the country have called for officials to develop services that curb police involvement in mental health crises, and community organizations have led the way. Approaches vary, but a growing number of cities are starting programs that rely on first responders who aren’t police, such as counselors or social workers, to respond to calls that involve mental health crises and substance use.

Eugene, Oregon, is home to one of the oldest such civilian response programs in the country, launched in 1989. The Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) program, operated by Eugene’s White Bird Clinic, pairs a medic with a crisis worker to respond to 911 and non-emergency calls involving mental health, homelessness, and substance use. The teams are trained to provide crisis intervention, counseling, basic emergency medical care, transportation, and referrals to services.

With an annual budget of roughly $2 million, the program saves Eugene $14 million annually in ambulance trips and emergency room costs, plus an estimated $8.5 million in public safety costs—and has successfully diverted thousands from the criminal legal system. Of the estimated 17,700 calls CAHOOTS responded to in 2019, teams requested police backup only 311 times.

The program has served as a model for places like Denver and Olympia, Washington, with many other cities looking to create their own programs. Of course, every community is different, so a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Eugene, for example, is more than 80 percent white. White Bird Clinic Director of Consulting Tim Black recognizes that residents have a “healthy enough relationship” with police, so they may feel more comfortable calling 911 for crisis response incidents than people who live in communities that are overpoliced.

Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program, which launched as a pilot in June 2020, similarly sends health care workers to respond to incidents related to mental health, poverty, homelessness, and substance use. As of May 2021, STAR had successfully responded to 1,323 calls, none of which resulted in injury, arrest, or a request for police backup. Denver’s police chief has said the program “saves lives” and “prevents tragedies.”

But the program faces criticism from community members and advocates, who have said that responses have been “clinical” and that responders often can’t relate personally to the people they serve. STAR is staffed by social workers who are predominantly white, and advocates envision a community-driven program that includes “providers who share lived experiences and identities with Denver’s diverse population.”

Polling shows that Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike support programs that replace police with trained experts in situations involving behavioral or mental health crises. But residents, community organizations, behavioral health professionals, and others need to be involved in the creation and implementation of any crisis response program. And stakeholders need to ensure that these programs don’t perpetuate inequities based on who they serve, which calls get diverted, and how first responders work to resolve a situation.

With American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding, local governments have an opportunity to make real investments in health-first approaches. Denver has already committed to using ARP dollars to enable an expansion of STAR, and other cities—including Charlotte, Long Beach, Phoenix, and San Francisco—are funding similar programs through ARP. Cities need to create and implement programs that actually promote public safety—and save lives.

Interesting stuff.

I'd suggest reducing the decimals (significant figures) to a more readable amount (like 1 or 2). Additionally, inconsistent number of decimals makes it harder to compare down a column. Ex: 2.23 instead of 2.23758366384763.