Can’t tell if I’m missing a joke here, but see those two small knife looking protruding from the opposite side (above) where they’re measuring, those are used for measuring internal diameter.

The side they’re using is for outer diameter.

And though you can’t see it in the pic, the thin bit of metal that extends out from the bottom can be used for measuring depth.

How is that relevant to the article?

Russia: a capitalist oligarchy, which hasn’t been communist for 30 years.

Wagner Group: A private military/mercenary group/soldiers for hire.

I curious how much people dying of a broken heart plays into that?

My sister whose an MD said it was a known thing that when people get up there in age, it’s not uncommon for someone to pass relatively soon (taking like within 5 years) after their partner passes.

For some people it can be days/weeks if they’re not in good health, for others it can be years.

I think it’s a similar reason to why folks will often struggle with memory after their partner passes; in lifelong partnerships people build shared memories where one half will remember some details which the other half won’t and visa versa. That and the decline in socialisation, human interaction combined with the depression and isolation that follows the passing of a partner.

I’m curious as to whether people who lose their partners whilst still relatively young (40s) experience the same decline in life expectancy, and whether them having children correlates with higher life expectancy or not in those scenarios.

Origin of the term didn’t originate with China and the Tiananmen square massacre…

From wiki:

The term “tankie” was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.