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 Post subject: Ukraine
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 5:52 pm 
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They're having a hard time these days.


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 6:50 pm 
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Ukraine is game to you?

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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 8:05 pm 
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:lol: :lol:


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 8:25 pm 
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The Ukraine is not weak!

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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 10:02 pm 
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I am from Ukraine!

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McParadigm wrote:
lol


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Sun February 23, 2014 11:10 pm 
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Simple Torture wrote:
I am from Ukraine!

What Ukrainian stereotypes do you conform to?

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RM's resident disinformation expert.

“And truly, if life had no purpose, and I had to choose nonsense, this would be the most desirable nonsense for me as well."


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Mon February 24, 2014 1:05 am 
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I wonder what the consensus will be next winter with limited natural gas and heating oil.


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Mon February 24, 2014 2:21 am 
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BurtReynolds wrote:
Simple Torture wrote:
I am from Ukraine!

What Ukrainian stereotypes do you conform to?


I ruin people's games of Risk.

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McParadigm wrote:
lol


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Mon February 24, 2014 3:53 am 
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My heart goes out to the people of Kiev, and their buttered filled chickens.


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Mon February 24, 2014 4:22 am 
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Their priests look kinda badass.

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RM's resident disinformation expert.

“And truly, if life had no purpose, and I had to choose nonsense, this would be the most desirable nonsense for me as well."


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Mon February 24, 2014 6:00 pm 
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... _weak.html

The Ukraine Really Is Weak

Until breaking into the news recently, the country of Ukraine was probably best known to most Americans from its role as a territory on the Risk board. In particular, Ukraine-From-Risk is central to a very memorable Seinfeld scene

This naturally raises the question—is the Ukraine weak? The answer, I believe, is yes.

Key to analyzing this question is Garrett Robinson's paper performing mathematical analysis of Risk (ht to Walt Hickey whose summer 2013 writeup of the paper I recalled when looking into the issue). To understand the weakness of Ukraine, we need to start with the map. Here's Robinson's version, slightly annotated by me to make an important point:

Image
One issue that arises here is that many Risk boards out there don't have a Ukraine territory. That's because the territory traditionally labeled "Ukraine" on Ukraine-having Risk boards is not even close to replicating Ukraine's location in the geography of the planet earth. The same territory is sometimes called "Russia" (and it does, roughly, correspond to European Russia's location) or "Eastern Europe." You can consider this ambiguity over Ukraine vs Russia to be somewhat emblematic of the current political crisis over there. But for our purposes, that's Ukraine all the way up to the Arctic Sea.
To analyze the situation correctly you want a schematic. Here's Robinson's:
Image

Now you see two things here. One is that there are only two territories on the board that are capable of being attacked from six different territories. One is Ukraine and the other is Ontario. But there's a big difference between Ukraine and Ontario—all of Ontario's borders are with other provinces in North America. So while Ontario is a hard space to defend, it's also frequently not a territory that will require defense, since a savvy player will concentrate forces in Mexico, Greenland, and Alaska to control the whole continent. By contrast, Ukraine is both crucial to the defense of Europe and unusually vulnerable to attack.
Which is to say that Kramer was right: The Ukraine is weak (in Risk, at least).

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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.

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people change. people stay the same. people are so often disappointing - random PM, person unnamed


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 1:23 am 
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Matt Yglesias really is a good writer, even if I don't agree with him all the time.


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 3:08 am 
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I've never played Risk before, so I may just be misunderstanding something, but, if I'm reading that schematic correctly, there are at least 5 territories that are located in such a way that they could be attacked by 6 neighboring territories.

/killthejoke


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 5:20 am 
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Green Habit wrote:
Matt Yglesias really is a good writer, even if I don't agree with him all the time.

i wasn't entirely sure if he was talking about the game of risk or not :/

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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.

Spoiler: show
people change. people stay the same. people are so often disappointing - random PM, person unnamed


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 12:58 pm 
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So when ellis and I make jokes about a mass murder in Norway, we're forever branded as assholes, but it's okay about the Ukraine because the name was also a Seinfeld soundbyte?


gotcha.

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Hang on I check on my Grindr


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 1:32 pm 
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You were forever branded as an asshole long before that, weren't you?


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 2:37 pm 
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Are we letting people onto RM who aren't assholes, now? When did that start? I don't care for it.

At least none of them are posting in this thread.

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(patriotic choking noises)


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 3:55 pm 
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@SkitchP wrote:
So when ellis and I make jokes about a mass murder in Norway, we're forever branded as assholes, but it's okay about the Ukraine because the name was also a Seinfeld soundbyte?


gotcha.

i don't remember this at all, link?

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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.

Spoiler: show
people change. people stay the same. people are so often disappointing - random PM, person unnamed


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 3:58 pm 
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here

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(patriotic choking noises)


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 Post subject: Re: The Ukraine is weak
PostPosted: Tue February 25, 2014 4:09 pm 
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McParadigm wrote:

it was the the willie gault line, right?
totally agree with skitch then.

hey, @skitchp - could you explain please? I don't think you're an asshole. I mean, I do think you're an asshole, but just in general, which I appreciate in people, but I'm pretty baffled by your comment.

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Dev wrote:
you're delusional. you are a sad sad person. fuck off. you're mentally ill beyond repair. i don't need your shit. dissapear.

Spoiler: show
people change. people stay the same. people are so often disappointing - random PM, person unnamed


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