RIP 2025
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RIP 2025:
Oleg Gordievsky. KGB colonel who was a British double agent during the Cold War. His info on Soviet nuclear thinking did much to avoid WWIII and improve the West's understanding of Soviet thinking.
Former KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky dies in Surrey aged 86
Soviet spy defected to Britain from Moscow under threat of exposure after supplying information to MI6 and MI5
Never heard of the guy. But it sounds like he was an invaluable asset and surely took crazy risks to leak intel
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RIP 2025:
Oleg Gordievsky. KGB colonel who was a British double agent during the Cold War. His info on Soviet nuclear thinking did much to avoid WWIII and improve the West's understanding of Soviet thinking.
Former KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky dies in Surrey aged 86
Soviet spy defected to Britain from Moscow under threat of exposure after supplying information to MI6 and MI5
Never heard of the guy. But it sounds like he was an invaluable asset and surely took crazy risks to leak intel
Yeah, he warned the West the Soviets were convinced they were going to pre-emptively attack the USSR. NATO changed their exercises as a result to reassure the Soviets. Def. one of the good guys on either side.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RIP 2025:
@Victor-Meldrew said in RIP 2025:
Oleg Gordievsky. KGB colonel who was a British double agent during the Cold War. His info on Soviet nuclear thinking did much to avoid WWIII and improve the West's understanding of Soviet thinking.
Former KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky dies in Surrey aged 86
Soviet spy defected to Britain from Moscow under threat of exposure after supplying information to MI6 and MI5
Never heard of the guy. But it sounds like he was an invaluable asset and surely took crazy risks to leak intel
Yeah, he warned the West the Soviets were convinced they were going to pre-emptively attack the USSR. NATO changed their exercises as a result to reassure the Soviets. Def. one of the good guys on either side.
After everything that's happened it is crazy that Putin still thinks the West wants to invade Russia. Otherwise why does he need buffer states. The guy sounds like a friend to both sides, almost singlehandedly de-escalated the Cold war
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How the Brits smuggled him out of the USSR reads like the plot of a Le Carre novel. Well worth a read.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RIP 2025:
How the Brits smuggled him out of the USSR reads like the plot of a Le Carre novel. Well worth a read.
How has this not been made into a movie?
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I've read the Gordievsky book by SAS Rogue Heroes author, in fact I just finished it yesterday. It's well written and interesting, but not as good as SAS as not that much happens. However what did happen was pretty bloody impressive! Very much Craig Thomas, not real life. The extraction was so out of the ordinary, normally they were left to their fate or given the cyanide capsule.
Gordievsky himself was an impressive bloke and inspired by personally seeing the Berlin wall go up, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia. He did it all because he had values, RIP Sir
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Former world champion boxer George Foreman dead at 76
Former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman has died at age 76, his family has announced.
Wow.
An icon of the sport and the last of the "big three" of the 70s.
Massive, intimidating, chin like granite, hit like a mule and had surprising skill too. Unbeatable until Ali did the impossible.
The only man who looked more intimidating WITH hair than without.
Funny humble guy too, the loss to Ali made him a much better person.
.....sold a shitloads of grills.
Named all his sons George. Brilliant.
and this fight here, amazing.
What a toll that sport takes on a person. Sad that none of Ali, Frazier, Norton, Shavers, Quarry, Lyle, Berbick, Spinks, Young and now Foreman saw 80.
RIP champ
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Amazing that he has three public lives. The champ #1, George Foreman grill George TV personality, and George Foreman boxer #2. And still died quite young
You forgot ordained minister.......
Being punched by anyone isn't pleasant. Being punched by elite heavyweights repeatedly fucks a person up like nothing else.
It's no coincidence that Frazier, Norton and Ali had issues later in life from their epic trilogies ( Ali doing a trilogy against each of these guys is mind boggling ) and much more recently Fury and Wilder have both declined hugely after their three fights.
Foreman did it a bit different as he essentially "retired" pretty young the first time and with much less damage ( one could argue as he himself did that the knockout vs Ali was more down to exhaustion ) before making his huge comeback later on. Granite chin as I mentioned earlier but he took A LOT of shots as an older, slower man.
For what it's worth prime Foreman beats prime Tyson reasonably comfortably. KO in the 4th.
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( one could argue as he himself did that the knockout vs Ali was more down to exhaustion )
That's the universal consensus isn't it? Ali knew big George had never had to go far in any of his wins and would be pretty much punched out by the end of the fourth in the heat of a Kinshasha night.
One of the few true redemption arcs in boxing.
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( one could argue as he himself did that the knockout vs Ali was more down to exhaustion )
That's the universal consensus isn't it? Ali knew big George had never had to go far in any of his wins and would be pretty much punched out by the end of the fourth in the heat of a Kinshasha night.
One of the few true redemption arcs in boxing.
Yep, that’s why Ali was the greatest.
But big George was right up there with him.
Foreman destroyed Frazier, Ali struggled against Frazier, Ali beat Foreman……
The old adage of a puncher beating a swarmer, a boxer beating a puncher and a swarmer beating a boxer…..( I think I’ve got that right )
Class guys, all three of them. RIP legends
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Richard Chamberlain.
60's heart throb who became a serious and well-respected actor on stage and screen. Quietly raised millions for AIDS research. Def. one of the good guys.
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B booboo referenced this topic
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Trevor Lock. Police officer who kept everyone calm during the Iranian Embassy siege - while concealing his gun. Saved an SAS soldiers life when they raided the building. Donated his George Medal to the police museum after storing it in his wife's knitting basket for years.
From the same mould as blokes who do stuff like disabling terrorists and walk off before any fuss can be made of them.
Trevor Lock obituary: hero of Iranian embassy siege
Unassuming PC who raised the alarm and calmed hostages before fighting an armed terrorist as the SAS went in
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Val Kilmer, Star of ‘Batman Forever,’ ‘Tombstone,’ Dies at 65
Val Kilmer, star of "Batman Forever" and "Tombstone," has died. He was 65.
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Escape or Die: MI6’s Daring Extraction of Russian Spymaster Oleg Gordievsky
