Things are happening in Iran and the internet gets smug about it 
A gyroplane with revolutionary guards crashed and an earthquake happens (not related probably, I mean how fricking fat could they have been?) 
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1853055000005509256
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 3, 2024
4.6 magnitude earthquake strikes near Tehran, Iran pic.twitter.com/Ochq1LcBIp
Neither of these worth it's own post frankly, so I put them together 
Lots of conspiracy theories that Iran either tested or messed up a nuke, or that SUA and/or Israel bombed one of their nukes. I don't know anything about Iran's tectonic history so whatever, but if anyone wants to check there are lots of 
twitter comments.
https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1gjaifz/two_of_irans_revolutionary_guards_die_in/
And the gyro crash. I'm impressed these guys even had the guts to climb the pseudo-copter considering what happened last time 
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The earthquake is a
.
This gyroplane thing, that's weird. It's definitely not training, these guys were on active duty. Sirkan is right on the border with Pakistan, Baluchistan in particular. There's been quite a bit of fighting there over the last few decades. Some because the Baluchis feel they're getting screwed by both Pakistan and Iran. Some because there's a lot of heroin coming out of Afghanistan and the drug dealers are willing to fight.
I remember Israel provided some limited support (I dunno, probably a little money) several years ago. And they were nice enough to lie and say they were Americans when they did it.
But I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. These people don't really have that much to offer to the Israelis. They can smuggle people and weapons across the border but that's about it.
Tension has been ramping up here already over the last several years. IIRC there's been quite a few cases of the Iranians and Pakistanis shooting at each other across the border, not to mention at smugglers. This place is the Wild West so it wouldn't assume this has global implications or something.
The real scandal is that a once-proud nation has fanatical incels flying autogyros when they used to have really good pilots flying F-14s.
Yes, that's IIAF not IRIIAF. Deal with it.
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I assumed both of them are nothingburgers on their own, which is why they've been lumped together
Might still be worth a few coins like this 
I guess it's more likely that the gyro crashed due to lack of parts/maintenance, there's only so much you can push something like that and helicopters and their relatives are notoriously finicky
Even Russia is starting to have problems with them.
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The autogyro is something they could easily make themselves. There's a misconception here that Iran is some kind of backward third world shithole populated by ignorant r-slurs, but it's quite different. They just have a really horrible government. They're quite capable at using technology to solve their problems. (Compare to North Korea, where they're smart enough to build ICBMs but you can't order a second helping of rice.)
In fact, my guess is it's an autogyro because building a better aircraft would require them to get the regular Air Force involved. The regular military has the normal people who actually know how to be engineers and stuff and not just yell "allahu akbar". So the IRGC has always been wary of them. They've been gradually over all these years building themselves into more of a state-within-a-state where they control their own businesses and have their own parallel economy that normies aren't allowed into.
(Now that I think about, that's a fascinating parallel with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the way they've developed during the exact same time. Somebody give this idea to a qt graduate student but only if she agrees to go on a date with me first.)
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I wasn't talking about them being technologically challenged, I was talking about the West sanctioning them into oblivion. And that the countries they do take parts from either aren't known for caring about quality are struggling with sanctions themselves.
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The Shah grew up in the 1930s-1940s when Britain and Russia dominated the country. Anything modern had to be imported from one of them if they felt like it. He was taught that his mission in life was to break that and make Iran a strong nation again. Now I'm no monarchist, but he actually did a really good job of that. He's derided for paying so much for weapons, but he was actually pretty smart. He didn't just buy the planes and leave them in his parking lot to impress hookers the way Arabs do. He had Americans come over to train his people how to do the maintenance so they could be self-sufficient. Unfortunately he got cancer before his plans could be realized, but he built a foundation for self-sufficiency. The 8 year war with Iraq when they had the entire world against them of course reinforced this. The Shah also set up a major steel industry.
Anyway my point is, they have the know-how and the infrastructure that they could easily build something like that making all the parts themselves. (Except some electronics.)
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Yeah, it's sad Iran ended up the way it did. Maybe they can still crawl out of that hole within this generation, at least things are changing really fast in the modern age.
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The regime will fall soon, I think probably in this generation. And then it's right back to same questions they had in 1979. What do we do after the revolution?
At least they can't end up worse off then they are now.
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I doubt it. Competition is heat up between the US, Russia and China. The Iranians will have plenty of support from Russia and China.
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Gyrocopters are cool.
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Okay that one was cool in its setting, but I'm pretty sure Maverick could have taken it down in a heartbeat in his F-14.
Somehow Men's Journal has the best picture of him being hot.
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have s*x incel
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There's a reason why I'm up this late and you wouldn't know it. Because I don't keep you in the loop.
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