Slashdot Mirror


User: Rei

Rei's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
16,444
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 16,444

  1. Re:Does Denmark... on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    Oh, so Denmark is going to pull a Putin and cut off whatever sections of Greenland it wants for itself?

  2. Re:Does Denmark... on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    Only half of Americans typically turn out to vote in binding presidential elections. 72% of Greenlanders turned out to vote in the *non-binding* referrendum on independence. I'd say that's some pretty serious interest. Even if every last Greenlander who didn't show up didn't want independence, they *still* wouldn't be in majority.

  3. Re:Does Denmark... on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    This is false. Greenland's GDP is 2,3 billion USD. The subsidy is under 700M USD. They would lose about a third of their GDP if the subsidy cut off. On the other hand, they would also stop *paying* about that much in taxes to Denmark.

    People in Greenland voted overwhelmingly to terms that called for eliminating the subsidy, in exchange for Denmark butting the heck out of their land.

  4. Re:Does Denmark... on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    The terms of the vote made pretty clear what the people of Greenland want. It was to terminate Danish subsidy, remove Danish as an official language, take full control of Greenland and Greenlandic waters (even foreign policy), take control of the majority of the mineral royalties, etc. So even they don't end up with, say, a UN seat, it's still pretty hard to say that's not "independence".

    And there are Danish politicians who have made clear that they don't think Greenland should be let loose.

  5. Re:No one gets the oil! on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    Macroscopic analogies help people envision what one's talking about, though. Saying "an electron does its own thing" doesn't really help people conceive just what that "thing" is.

    I think the basic macroscopic analogy for particle/wave duality is to just go with the pilot wave theory and have them picture a boat bobbing along on a frictionless lake, where its wake is so powerful and so fast-responding that it steers the boat, and it never dies out - the boat creates the wake but is governed by it. There's even an experiment to visualize it involving bouncing a silicone droplet on a vibrating fluid bath, where you can even roughly reproduce a (non-quantized) version of the double slit experiment - the wake goes through both slits, then steers the droplet on the other side.

    Of course, the analogy fails when you add quantum effects like virtual particles, uncertainty, etc....

  6. Re:duh, it doesn't have to be complicated on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's not how international law about exclusive economic zones works, because there's not a convenient pole between every disputed area in the world (and why the pole anyway, what not say the center of the arctic ocean?). One doesn't carve out a brand new approach just for this one dispute. As much as I'm sure Russia would want them too, since they'd get half of the arctic ocean.

  7. Re:Resources are not claimed by countries on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 4, Funny

    They are claimed by big ass oil companies.

    Obligatory.

  8. Re:No one gets the oil! on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 1

    No, sorry, I've been too busy learning about archaeology from reading papers published in the 1800s and reading about how physics works by reading the works of the ancient Greeks.

  9. Does Denmark... on Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... honestly think that they can keep Greenland under their thumb for that long? Greenland already doesn't want to be part of Denmark - 75% voted for independence in a nonbinding referrendum in 2008 with a 72% turnout. The wealthier they become and the greater the percentage of the wealth that Denmark siphons away, the more they're going to want it. If Greenland and its EEZ start raking in trillions of dollars annually (which is the sort of mineral wealth up for grabs), how low in the single-digits do you think the popularity of remaining part of Denmark will be? For every trillion of GDP that'd be nearly $17M per capita, at Greenland's current population.

    Is Denmark going to force Greenland to stay with them by the gun?

  10. Re: Unless it has support for Bitcoin... on Small Bank In Kansas Creates the Bank Account of the Future · · Score: 1

    What gets me is that unless they've lived elsewhere, most Americans don't even realize that they're in the banking dark ages. They assume that everyone else still has the same stupid broken kind of system that they manage their money with.

  11. Re: Unless it has support for Bitcoin... on Small Bank In Kansas Creates the Bank Account of the Future · · Score: 1

    Iceland, but you'll find that other parts of Europe are pretty similar.

  12. Re:Joke? They're real! on The Joker Behind the Signetics 25120 Write-Only Memory Chip Hoax · · Score: 1

    I think the problem is just misconceptualized. Think of read-only memory, like say DVDs. They're not *100* read-only. Data is written to them once in an irreversible manner before their operational life begins using an alternative write mechanism, and then during their design life they're read-only. If you apply the same paradigm to write-only memory, it's perfectly reasonable for, say, a datalogger: data is written during the operation of the device, then when the device has completed its task, the memory is retrieved and read in an irreversible manner.

  13. Re: Unless it has support for Bitcoin... on Small Bank In Kansas Creates the Bank Account of the Future · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is just the tiniest fraction of what we can do with our banks over here; I just can't get over how backwards US banks are and how they can't seem to get into the modern world. Not only do we have instant free transfers (and to Americans: the ability to conveniently or easily pay absolutely anyone, anywhere, any time with just a computer or smartphone is a much bigger deal than you're thinking... it's so easy that it's to the point that when people want to collect money for a gift for a coworker, rather than going around asking for cash, they just put the destination account in the email).

    The banks are also connected more closely to other major billing systems. For example, there's a page in your bank account to let you add credit to pay-as-you-go phones. Not just your phones, but anyone's in the country, all in one system, so I can fill up a friend's phone or what not.

    All our bills come straight into our bank accounts. Not most of them - ALL of them, everything from rent to the gardener. All payable with a single select-and-submit interface (with delay pay options, of course). There's a page for charity listings, too, to make it easier to give - heck, there's even a stock trading section built in and the like.

      All of your documents associated with the bills are automatically filed into your bank account, you just click on the documents section and you can view, say, your wage slips or bills, from many years in the past if you want. Not like you typically need them, everything is automatically submitted through to our taxes - for most people, taxes are just a log-in to the tax site and click through a couple pages, and they're done, it just takes a couple minutes.

    Single system (despite competition in the banking industry). Everyone's on it. Everyone uses it. And it works really, really well. To give an example: checks have become so rare that cashiers in banks look at them funny and often have to get their managers to figure out what to do with them ;)

  14. Re:class act on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    In fact, he'd be safer in Sweden than the UK. EAW regulations require that extradition to a third party requires the sent of both the sending state (UK) and the receiving state (Sweden), rather than just the sending or receiving states alone. And Sweden has among the most restrictive extradition treaties in Europe, with a flat-out ban on extradition for intelligence or military crimes - which is why Assange was applying for a residence permit and moving Wikileaks' main base of operation there in the first place (he repeatedly called Sweden his "shield" in interviews.. right up to when he became wanted for rape, when suddenly Sweden transformed into an evil US lackey... funny how that works!). Sweden is home to hundreds of US defectors and is the country that sheltered Edward Lee Howard (highest profile CIA defector to the Soviets during the Cold War) from the US. In fact, their prime minister back then is the same foreign minister (Carl Bildt) that Assange rails against.

  15. Re:Growing Isolation on Google Closing Engineering Office In Russia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think people are all too quick to credit every action Putin takes as being part of some grant overarching plan. Does one think his grand overarching plan included the Ruble falling 40% and the economy solidly on path to contraction after a bunch of failed poorly thought-out attempts to bolster them while turning Ukraine from a militarily-incompetent country with a largely very pro-Russian population into a Russia-hating country full of veterans and causing its neighbors to start clamouring for (and in some cases, getting) NATO bases that NATO had previously been reluctant to do?

    Putin's not some brilliant chessmaster pulling all the strings, but nor is he some sort of bumbling fool. He's just a person. He's made some moves in the past that have turned out to be excellent strategically. He's also made a number of blunders. But he's now committed to this path, so he has to walk it wherever it takes him. Given his style, he'll probably keep doubling down.

  16. Re:Assholes on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Which is why he's surrendered to police custody and stood trial, right?

  17. Re:Flame-bate on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    From the kickstarter page:

    We need your help to make a monument to courage. There is no room for compromise today and art is called upon to make choices and show a direction. We want to create a life-size bronze statue of Assange, Manning and Snowden standing on three chairs with an empty fourth chair next to them. It is not a simple homage to individuals, but to courage and to the importance of freedom of speech and information.

  18. Re:class act on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    something doesn't quite match rape

    The entry listed on the EAW checked as rape:

    4. On 17th August 2010, in the home of the injured party [name given] in Enkoping, Assange deliberately consummated sexual intercourse with her by improperly exploiting that she, due to sleep, was in a helpless state. It is an aggravating circumstance that Assange, who was aware that it was the expressed wish of the injured party and a prerequisite of sexual intercourse that a condom be used, still consummated unprotected sexual intercourse with her. The sexual act was designed to violate the injured party’s sexual integrity.

    Which is F'ing rape - in Sweden, in the UK, in the US, pretty much bloody everywhere. As it very well should be. And people like you who try to say that that's not really rape should be ashamed of yourselves.

    while bail skipping child rapists like Polanski are left alone.

    Wait, you think the US hasn't tried repeatedly and with great effort to get Polanski and bring him to trial?

    . He pissed off a "tyrant"

    Wow, great to know that we have the Amazing Kreskin here who knows more than all of the police investigators, the Swedish prosecutor's office, the Swedish lower court judge that issued the Swedish warrant and the EAW, the Svea Court of Appeals that found Assange for probable cause of rape, the Swedish Supreme Court who refused his appeal, the British lower court who ruled against him, the British high court which ruled against him, the British Supreme Court which ruled against him, and now the Svea Court of Appeals once again ruling against him. Nope, we don't need any damn judicial system - we have the Amazing Kreskin here to tell us how the girls are clearly just lying sluts and how F*ing a sleeping girl to work around her refusal to consent to one's preferred form of sex isn't really rape!

  19. Re:class act on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Ah, Xest, you grace us with your presence and personal attacks. Thanks for predictably showing up.

    She likes to sound intelligent by throwing in random Swedish words like the Swedish version of "the accused" as if it somehow makes her sound more intelligent, but honestly it just comes across as plain weird, I really to this day cannot understand why you'd write out a paragraph in English and just throw in a few otherwise directly translatable words in Swedish other than to try and pretend you have more of a clue than you actually do.

    Because it's one of the standard Assange fanboy tactics to say "he's not been charged with anything". Except that that's just a linguistics games. Swedish has two words which one can translate as "accused", "charged", or "indicted" - anklagad and åtalad. Neither corresponds 100% directly to the English equivalent of "charged". Anklagad is to get someone into custody, åtalad is to get them to trial once in custody. Now, if I were to say "the things Assange was charged with...." then I'd be harrassed by a bunch of Assange fanboys playing this dumb linguistic game where they call åtalad "charged" and call anklagad absolutely nothing. So I just simply use the Swedish terms to avoid this.

    Note that the UK court system has at every level ruled the fact that Assange is anklagad as being equivalent to being charged for the purposes of the EAW.

    "Rape fugitive"? yeah sure Rei, that doesn't sound like a loaded description of someone who has neither been found guilty of rape, nor even been charged for rape, but merely wanted for questioning.

    1) You know damn well that he is not "merely wanted for questioning". From the signed statement of the prosecutor to the UK lower court, point #10: "Subject to any matters said by him, which undermine my present view that he should be indicted, an indictment will be launched with the court thereafter. It can therefore be seen that Assange is sought for the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings and that he is not sought merely to assist with our enquiries."

    It's a ridiculous notion that someone who has already been found by a court of law and repeatedly upheld on appeal to have probable cause of having committed rape is "merely wanted for questioning".

    2) Gee, what a shock, you're playing the anklagad/åtalad word game. How predictable could you possibly get?

    3) A person who runs from the police is known as a fugitive. That is THE word for it. When the cause that the police want them for is rape, then they're a rape fugitive. Period. If you don't like the English language, don't speak it.

    Oh let me guess, the tired old "but Sweden can't charge someone without doing it on their soil!". Bollocks. Completely false.

    Once åtalad, there's a time limit for when the trial must begin. Pray tell, how are they supposed to manage that with a person who refuses to turn themselves in?

    I'll reiterate: the process of having someone åtalad is to bring someone in custody to trial. Assange is not in custody. Hence this is not the stage to åtala him.

    Sweden can do this and have done this.

    And your example is...?

    They haven't done it because they're not far enough along in their investigation yet.

    Right, "not far enough along in their investigation"! Over half a dozen court rulings including formal findings, upheld by other courts, of probable cause of rape, but "not far enough along in their investigation". How do you work that one?

    propagandist man-haters like Rei

    Come on, you can do better than that. Tell me that I eat kittens and torture seal pups for fun!

    Sweden isn't far along enough in it's investigation yet because it refuses to question Assange anywhere other than on it's so

  20. Lax on "Lax" Crossdomain Policy Puts Yahoo Mail At Risk · · Score: 2

    Well, you need a lax SWF policy to allow the SWFs to swim upstream and spawn.

  21. Re:class act on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Sic semper stupratoribus.

  22. Re:Nothing like a good Assange bashing on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Yep. But apparently he doesn't want to do it with his own money. Hence the need for Assange to use the Wikileaks twitter feed to promote the kickstarter.

  23. Re:class act on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Horses' asses can still serve important functions from time to time. Just ask a horse.

    Of course, that notwithstanding, even a horse probably wouldn't want a statue of their ass made and sent on a world tour.

  24. Re:Assholes on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    What he's "paying a high price for" is F*ing a sleeping girl to work around her repeated refusal to consent to his preferred form of sex, then running from the charges.

  25. Re:Flame-bate on Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself · · Score: 1

    Right, because using the official Wikileaks feed to tweet a kickstarter page whose goal is to build a statue of him isn't in any way, shape or form trying to raise money to build a statue of him?