As with any set of statistics, it depends on where, when, and how the measurements are taken. Visit this page, and play with the various settings to see how well Opera does in different countries. It seems that anyone who uses eastern European languages prefers Opera.
Every bloody piece of technology you own was PRODUCED with Linux, and it more than likely relies on Linux. Wanna know why? Because Linux is reliable. I maintain 38 intrusion machines, 5 extruders, and 7 sonic welders, as well as dozens of table/bench machines that rely on Linux. In the entire plant, only ONE machine runs in a Windows (NT4 SP6) environment, and it crashes frequently.
If/when you fork over half a ton of money, do you want to bring YOUR high tech gadget home, just to see a BSOD? Just for fun, Linux users can experience the BSOD. But, why?
So, what would happen if web designers world wide just STOPPED double checking for IE compliance? Suddenly, everyone can view your site, EXCEPT IE users. The average IE user probably tries to reload the page a couple times, then calls his support geek. Support geek checks that there is a problem, then examines it more closely to determine what that problem is. "Ohhh, they didn't check that their page would load in IE!! I'll just send them an e-mail, and remind them that the world runs on Microsoft!" The reply to his email says, "We are sorry, but in the economically difficult times, we are unable to employ the number of personnel required to rewrite our pages for a non-compliant browser. Please upgrade to a compliant browser."
Our geek kicks the support problem up to the elder geeks, then what happens? Does anyone have the balls to tell Admin_on_the_Mountain that it's time to stop dicking around with Microsoft's shitty browser, or not?
Personally, I'd love to have that job.
"Hey Boss! Teh Intartubez iz BR0KE! And, if we don't upgrade, they are going to STAY BR0KE!!"
And, no, I do not mean that 12 or 15 site designers just stop supporting IE, I mean, world wide, everyone just stops.
I'll bet that Microsoft could roll out a standards compliant browser in 60 days or less. You can bet your ass that the people who maintain it already know exactly how and why it is broken. If MS wants market share, they would get it fixed in record time. Or, if MS wants to abandon the browser market, fine, they don't fix it. The rest of the the world will be a much better place, either way.
And, that is exactly where the REST of the world is screwing up. We (meaning all the world outside of Redmond) need to set the standard, then comply with it. If/when pages don't render in IE, we need to shrug, and say, "So what?" IT IS NOT THE WORLD'S PROBLEM when MS chooses to break things. Ballmer wants to throw a chair, few of us notices, and even fewer give a damn. Ballmer wants to break IE, I don't notice, and I don't give a damn. Why does anyone else?
The correct procedure for website design, would be to test the site in FF, Opera, Safari, and/or any other standards compliant browser, and say you're done. Don't even TRY to load it in IE. If it loads, fine, if not, tough. If/when someone complains, just tell that individual that the page renders perfectly in any standards compliant browser, and that they should get one.
It is not the rest of the world's responsibility to "fix" MS screw ups.
"can't even keep track of the facts for your own sacred white elephant. i'm sorry this has escaped your attention, oh genius student of world history"
You lose again. The only way Russia figured into the equation at all, was peripherally. The fact that the West controlled Iran's oil, denied the Soviet any opportunity of topping any bid we might make for the oil. Don't even TRY to bring the cold war into the Iranian coup. Iran wanted money that the US and UK were unwilling to pay, so they toppled the Iranian government.
And, no, I'm not discussing the rest of your strawmen - there is little reason to believe that you'll discuss them any more intelligently than you have discussed Georgia or Ajax.
Your assumptions about my beliefs are getting almost amusing - please, continue. I may actually begin laughing at you if you continue.
"solid fact: the propaganda reasons russia gives you for invading georgia, that you swallow unquestionably, are just as flimsy as the ones american apologists give for operation ajax: it was the cold war, we couldn't let iran fall under russian influence see?"
Yeah. Right. Okay. Obviously, you know nothing about Ajax, and you are now bluffing your way along. I don't mind terribly when someone keeps an argument going, just for the sake of argument, but you could at least argue rationally.
Try reading, stupid. Ajax had absofuckinglutely NOTHING to do with the Cold War. The Soviets weren't a threat, there was no reason to believe that they were going to become a threat. Ajax was all about MONEY. Nothing more, nothing less.
Stop blathering. You've already made an ass of yourself, the blathering is totally unnecessary for the effect.
The FIRST thing I did was to look at my Firefox to see if I had this search function. Nada. I opened up Synaptic to see if it were available. Nope.
So, I checked out the links offered in the article.
WHOOO-HOOO!!
We are talking about an ALPHA thingamabob. Alpha. Test stuff. Meaning that, the people who have the addon VOLUNTEERED to install and TEST the thing.
TFA is a little bit of grandstanding by a drama llama. This addon is going to be tested, the community will determine if it's useful, and whether it should be modified. Unless you CHOOSE to VOLUNTEER to use this thing, you won't even see it for some time come. At which point in time, you will have a CHOICE as to whether to install it.
FUD me!! I spent 5 minutes of my remaining life looking at a total non-issue.
Ossetia (os'shu, Rus. usye'tu) [key]or Alania (älän'yä) [key], region of the central Caucasus, divided between the Republic of Georgia and the Russian Federation. On the northern slope is North Ossetia-Alania. (1990 est. pop. 641,000), 3,100 sq mi (8,029 sq km), a constituent republic of Russia; Vladikavkaz (formerly Ordzhonikidze) is the capital. This region extends north beyond the Terek River. On the southern slope is South Ossetia. (1990 est. pop. 100,000), 1,500 sq mi (3,885 sq km), an autonomous region in Georgia; Tskhinvali is its capital. The region extends southward almost to the Kura River.
Both sections of Ossetia have valleys that produce fruit, wine, grain, and cotton. Lumbering and livestock raising are important in the mountains. North Ossetia-Alania has lead, silver, zinc, and boron deposits and nonferrous metallurgical, oil-extracting, and food-processing industries. Ossetian artwork includes wood, stone, and silver carving.
The Ossetians, an Iranian-speaking people, are mainly Sunni Muslims in the north and Eastern Orthodox Christians in the south, where Georgian culture prevails. They are descended from the medieval Alans (see Sarmatia). During the 17th cent. the Northern Ossetians were subject to Karbada princelings. From the 18th cent. they came under strong Russian influence, and between 1801 and 1806 all of Ossetian territory was annexed to Russia.
In Mar., 1918, the entire area was declared an autonomous soviet republic, and in Jan., 1920, was renamed the Mountain Autonomous Republic. In 1922, South Ossetia was made part of Georgia; in 1924 North Ossetia-Alania (then called North Ossetia) became an autonomous region in the RSFSR. In 1936, North Ossetia was made an autonomous republic. North Ossetia-Alania was a signatory to the Mar. 31, 1992, treaty that created the Russian Federation (see Russia).
The republic has not been immune to the turmoil in neighboring regions. In 1992, after several days of fighting, tens of thousands of Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia-Alania's Prigorodny region, once part of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR and to be reincorporated into it under a 1991 Soviet law, fled or were expelled to the newly established republic of Ingushetia. The city of Beslan was the scene in 2004 of a Chechen-Ingush terrorist seizure of a middle school; the siege ended violently, with the death of more than 300 hostages. North Ossetians have been strong supporters of the nationalists in South Ossetia, and the leaders of both regions have called for their unification as a republic in the Russian Federation.
South Ossetia lost its autonomous region status by an act of the Georgian Supreme Soviet in 1990. Following Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union, Ossetian nationalists in the South demanded either independence from Georgia or incorporation into North Ossetia-Alania. In Apr., 1992, the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was reestablished in Georgia. Fighting in the region between Georgian and Ossetian forces was ended by a truce in July, which left South Ossetia under the control of the Ossetians. Further accords were signed in 1996, but the political situation remains unresolved, with South Ossetia dependent on Russia for support. Tensions increased in 2004 as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sought to reassert Georgian supremacy over the nation's independence-minded autonomous republics and regions, and two years later South Ossetians voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that was not generally recognized internationally.
"Scientology is as real as any other religion. That you chose to put it in a separate category says more about you than about them."
The rest of you post could be thought provoking. With that last bit, though, you remove yourself from serious discussion. I suspect that you are arguing for the sake of argument. But, that bit about scientologists is something that I can't respect at all.
Russia didn't invade Georgia. Ossettians declared their independence from Georgia almost two decades ago. Recently, Georgia decided that they were going to force Ossettians to pay taxes and whatever else Georgia demanded at the point of a gun. They weren't doing extremely well at conquering Ossetia, just generally mucking about and making a mess of everything. Russia decided that it was unhealthy to have such a cesspool on their border, so they came in to help the Ossetians.
I'm finished arguing whether Russia had any right to invade Georgia, because they did no such thing.
Sorry. The Russian people are a rational and coherent group of people. Scientology is a set of pretentious make-believe faiths designed to extort money from fools. I can't compare a nation or a people to a fake "religion".
because havana has political disagreements with the population there"
In the framework of THIS DISCUSSION, you specifically compared an imagined action taken by the US of A, with an action taken by Russia. The two scenarios don't compare, because Isla de la Juventud never was a part of the US, nor do I see any indication that they have close ties to the US, ethnically, politically, or historically. They seem to be Cubans.
Since you specifically ASKED people to compare the two scenarios, I did so, pointing out, among other things, that the people "invaded" by Russia were in fact Russian - historically and politically, if not entirely ethnically. I also compared that skirmish to the action taken to evacuate Beirut.
"The 1953 Iranian coup d'état deposed the democratically-elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq." Note the phrase "democratically elected government". We claim to be pro-democracy, until some democracy or other threatens our profits. Then, we just kill it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your insightful comments. Rant, actually. Insightful rant. You have provided insight into your mind, to be honest.
Perhaps, now that you have finished with your tantrum, you will provide a list of crimes committed by RUSSIA. Today's Russia, that is. Not the old Soviet, but today's Russia. You have blathered on and on about this and that, you have avoided comparing Russia to anything or anyone else, and you seem to believe that Russia is evil. Got evidence? Citations? Surely not Georgia - I maintain that the "invasion" of Georgia was a justifiable action, comparable to actions that the US has rightfully taken. Chechnya? Possibly - the jury is out on that one, IMO. They are battling zealots there who look an awful lot like the terrorists that the US is battling. List some crimes, alright? Is Russia evil, or not?
If/when you come up with a list of crimes, I will probably compare them to things that I know of, and things that I understand. People do that.
BTW - you have not yet given any indication that you understand anything about operation Ajax. A passing reference to it, is all.
And, finally, NO, YOU CAN'T CRITICIZE A NATION (or it's people) with any honesty unless you demonstrate that you understand how and why it operates. Russia doesn't exist in a vacuum, any more than Japan or Korea does. Any action taken by a nation or by a people as a whole is the result of some sort of stimulation in it's environment. A short study of Nazi Germany will make that clear. The loss of WW1, combined with the hardship and suffering of the Great Depression, aggravated by callousness and greed on the part of WW1's victors all contributed to creating Nazi Germany. You've got to look at the BIG PICTURE if you want to understand anything at all.
Go ahead, fire back now. It's not like I take you seriously enough that the personal attacks mean anything. Take your best shot.
Or, you could just drop all the bullshit, and make a meaningful post. Your choice.
Some drama llama found a potential problem, posted to a blog, upset the idiots who don't know any better, and has been proven to be an ass. Nothing more to see here, move along, get off my lawn.
"basically what you are saying is "russia doesn't have to be accountable for anything bad it ever did, because somebody, somewhere else, did something bad once""
Bullshit. This is not what I said.
"no, idiot: america does plenty of bad things. russia does plenty of bad things. you admit to them."
When? Taking operation Ajax, for example, when has the US ever said, "Hey, Iran, we're sorry for fucking your lives up - how can we help make things right?" President Obama sort of hinted at a near apology, recently. As a rule, the US does NOT admit to anything, period.
The Katyn massacre? I fail to see exactly how the actions of the Soviet relate to actions by today's Russia relate, exactly. The Soviet failed, remember? It crumbled, it's gone. Nowhere, in all my writings and ramblings have I EVER defended the Soviet, or any of it's actions that tended to subjugate people. Murder is murder, yes, but can you point to instances of murder commited by today's Russia?
"you don't have any intellectual honesty"
You, on the other hand, don't have any honesty at all, intellectual or otherwise, to take my statements, and read into them all that you have read into them.
"i have a job for you to do: criticize russia. criticize something bad it did. you will find out an amazing thing: you can still criticize the usa after you do that. that you can criticize BOTH the usa and russia"
Wake up, dude. You will find that the vast majority of Americans simply accept that America is good, and Russia is evil. Most of those Americans have no concept of what Russia is.
You want me to criticize Russia and it's people? Easy. There are thousands of instances of criminally insane actions committed by the Soviet, beginning with genocidal purges within Russia, purges of the intelligentsia within Russia, and political purges within Russia. The Katyn massacre that you refer to was "business as usual" for the Soviet. It was no more, and no less, horrible than sending millions of people into exile in Siberia for offenses ranging from petty theft, to being descended from royalty, to voicing an opinion, or even hoarding bread crusts bought on the black market.
I'm aware of wrongs commited by Russians, at least as much as I'm aware of American wrongs. After all, they are trumpeted far and wide by our media. It's the wrongs that we try to cover up that concern me more.
I thank you for your rant, though. Obviously, I got under your skin. Now - do you even understand what Operation Ajax was all about, and what the consequences were? How about the Bay of Pigs fiasco? And, the CIA's operation with a shot up boat that got us involved in Vietnam? How many of our own sins are you aware of, and willing to admit guilt for?
If we use the word "Ossetian" to signify an ethnic group, yes, you are right. If we use the word to signify the residents of the region, you are only partly right.
Try this site: http://ossetians.com/eng/ Browse around. Look at the number of Russian army generals, and later, the number of "Heros of the Soviet". Whether we are discussing the ethnic group, or the territory, Ossetians have a long and rich relationship with Russia.
Still to black and white. There isn't a "right" and a "wrong" side in every issue. You can bet your ass though, that there are always multiple political sides to every issue, all of which are probably "wrong".
If you cannot condemn American actions when they are obviously done for selfish reasons (operation Ajax?) then you can't condemn Russian actions when they are done for what you consider to be selfish reasons.
Georgia being under discussion here, it is easy to compare Russian intervention on behalf of ethnic Russians (many of whom carried dual citizenship, by the way) to the United States intervention in Beirut City in 1978 to rescue American nationals. We didn't want to see Americans killed in 78, Russia didn't want to see Russians killed last year. Same-o same-o.
Maybe not pertinent to this conversation, I was awarded my first Humanitarian Service Award for participating in the evacuation of Beirut. Maybe that helps understand my perspective, maybe not. But, I can see right and wrong on the part of the Russians, just as I can see right and wrong on our part. We ain't lily-white, and they ain't deep-space black.
"People are a resource to be acquired, used up and disposed of"
Just curious here. Are you attempting to imply that traditional newspapers "valued" their human resources, more than AOL might? I hope not. For every recognized name that traditional media has pampered, there have been thousands of names that they threw away as useless. And, I'm sure you'll realize that the difference often depended on back office politicking. Little nonsense things, like, "Who is sleeping with whom", and, "That guy's an ass when he's drunk".
You really should study Russian history, from the Russian perspective. For starters, can you tell us, without googling, how many times Russia has been invaded in the past? Invaded, and defeated, it's people enslaved, murdered, and starved? In fact, starvation in Russia is an ever present spectre - America's spendthrift and wasteful habits combined with American attitudes about freedom and liberty would be fatal to the Russian people.
Mod parent up. History almost always plays a major role in friction between nations. Osettians are Russians, Georgians are not. Georgia invading Osettia may very well have been the prelude to some good old genocidal ethnic cleansing. Just because Georgia's president went to college in the USA, and he's nut-to-butt with a lot of American politicians doesn't make him clean, or right, or even human. American has spawned it's share of despicable low life SOB's. Jim Jones, and Guyanna, anyone?
"but if you had the position in Apple to make that decision"
I see your point. I have stockholders to answer to, as well as being responsible for honoring contractual commitments.
Even so, I think the RIGHT thing to do, is to announce that Apple will not support jailbroken and/or unlocked telephones. It's cool to only support the thing as it was sold, with proper updates and company approved applications. That is perfectly cool. Using the phone in a manner not approved by Apple voids any and all warranties is cool. (except the battery issue - I don't think Apple can legally drop any liability related to a phone that burns up due to the battery)
What is NOT COOL, is attempting to block people from jailbreaking and/or unlocking their phone. Nor is it cool to obstruct this competing app store.
Obligatory automotive analogy: Ford may very well tell you that modifying your car for stock racing voids all warranties, but they can't prohibit you from making said modification, nor can they prohibit you from racing our stock car.
Ahem. Yah. I exaggerated a little, maybe. But, take a look around you. If you live in the US, east of the Mississippi, it is a pretty sure bet that you live on old forest land? Virgin forest, without houses, roads, factories, schools, and government buildings. Literally millions of trees have been cut down to make way for people. There should be a Google map or some such thing, showing how deforestation of the earth has progressed over the last - ohhh - 300 years maybe. Even the last 100 years would be alarming, if it could be graphically displayed. It would look much like the recession of ice age glaciers - almost solid green continents giving way to patchworks of green, grey, brown, with speckles of glass and metal scattered all through it.
Thanks to the population explosion throughout the world, even ancient lands like China are being deforested to make room for people to live. (Check out China's population throughout history) http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/china/geog/population.htm As recently as about 1850, the population of China was less than.5 billion, then it skyrocketed, just like the rest of the earth.
We humans certainly don't do much to help the earth's vegetation to sustain itself. We burn it, we cut it up to build stuff, we chop it up for paper, we eat some of it, we even bulldoze it and bury it to make room for more houses, farms, or whatever.
Northern Illinois is home to dozens of factories that I visited as long ago as 1980. I drove through miles of farmland and forest back then, to get to those factories. Those same factories today sit among housing developments. Ditto for Texas, north of Dallas, as well as all of the Houston area.
Yes, we have deforested a very significant portion of the earth's surface. That contributes more to global warming, IMHO, than our wasteful use of fossil fuels.
And, people still demand that we expand our highway systems, build bypasses, and make it easier to drive to their favorite shopping center, where they can park on acres of paved parking lot.
If that doesn't make you think, I don't know what will.
Slashdot Mirror
As with any set of statistics, it depends on where, when, and how the measurements are taken. Visit this page, and play with the various settings to see how well Opera does in different countries. It seems that anyone who uses eastern European languages prefers Opera.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-RU-daily-20080701-20090808
"Keychain integration"
They are offering a Firefox keyfob now? Cool, I want one!! Can we get them with early logos, like FF 0.5a ? That would be REALLY COOL!!
Every bloody piece of technology you own was PRODUCED with Linux, and it more than likely relies on Linux. Wanna know why? Because Linux is reliable. I maintain 38 intrusion machines, 5 extruders, and 7 sonic welders, as well as dozens of table/bench machines that rely on Linux. In the entire plant, only ONE machine runs in a Windows (NT4 SP6) environment, and it crashes frequently.
If/when you fork over half a ton of money, do you want to bring YOUR high tech gadget home, just to see a BSOD? Just for fun, Linux users can experience the BSOD. But, why?
So, what would happen if web designers world wide just STOPPED double checking for IE compliance? Suddenly, everyone can view your site, EXCEPT IE users. The average IE user probably tries to reload the page a couple times, then calls his support geek. Support geek checks that there is a problem, then examines it more closely to determine what that problem is. "Ohhh, they didn't check that their page would load in IE!! I'll just send them an e-mail, and remind them that the world runs on Microsoft!" The reply to his email says, "We are sorry, but in the economically difficult times, we are unable to employ the number of personnel required to rewrite our pages for a non-compliant browser. Please upgrade to a compliant browser."
Our geek kicks the support problem up to the elder geeks, then what happens? Does anyone have the balls to tell Admin_on_the_Mountain that it's time to stop dicking around with Microsoft's shitty browser, or not?
Personally, I'd love to have that job.
"Hey Boss! Teh Intartubez iz BR0KE! And, if we don't upgrade, they are going to STAY BR0KE!!"
And, no, I do not mean that 12 or 15 site designers just stop supporting IE, I mean, world wide, everyone just stops.
I'll bet that Microsoft could roll out a standards compliant browser in 60 days or less. You can bet your ass that the people who maintain it already know exactly how and why it is broken. If MS wants market share, they would get it fixed in record time. Or, if MS wants to abandon the browser market, fine, they don't fix it. The rest of the the world will be a much better place, either way.
And, that is exactly where the REST of the world is screwing up. We (meaning all the world outside of Redmond) need to set the standard, then comply with it. If/when pages don't render in IE, we need to shrug, and say, "So what?" IT IS NOT THE WORLD'S PROBLEM when MS chooses to break things. Ballmer wants to throw a chair, few of us notices, and even fewer give a damn. Ballmer wants to break IE, I don't notice, and I don't give a damn. Why does anyone else?
The correct procedure for website design, would be to test the site in FF, Opera, Safari, and/or any other standards compliant browser, and say you're done. Don't even TRY to load it in IE. If it loads, fine, if not, tough. If/when someone complains, just tell that individual that the page renders perfectly in any standards compliant browser, and that they should get one.
It is not the rest of the world's responsibility to "fix" MS screw ups.
Still ranting?
"can't even keep track of the facts for your own sacred white elephant. i'm sorry this has escaped your attention, oh genius student of world history"
You lose again. The only way Russia figured into the equation at all, was peripherally. The fact that the West controlled Iran's oil, denied the Soviet any opportunity of topping any bid we might make for the oil. Don't even TRY to bring the cold war into the Iranian coup. Iran wanted money that the US and UK were unwilling to pay, so they toppled the Iranian government.
And, no, I'm not discussing the rest of your strawmen - there is little reason to believe that you'll discuss them any more intelligently than you have discussed Georgia or Ajax.
Your assumptions about my beliefs are getting almost amusing - please, continue. I may actually begin laughing at you if you continue.
"solid fact: the propaganda reasons russia gives you for invading georgia, that you swallow unquestionably, are just as flimsy as the ones american apologists give for operation ajax: it was the cold war, we couldn't let iran fall under russian influence see?"
Yeah. Right. Okay. Obviously, you know nothing about Ajax, and you are now bluffing your way along. I don't mind terribly when someone keeps an argument going, just for the sake of argument, but you could at least argue rationally.
Try reading, stupid. Ajax had absofuckinglutely NOTHING to do with the Cold War. The Soviets weren't a threat, there was no reason to believe that they were going to become a threat. Ajax was all about MONEY. Nothing more, nothing less.
Stop blathering. You've already made an ass of yourself, the blathering is totally unnecessary for the effect.
The FIRST thing I did was to look at my Firefox to see if I had this search function. Nada. I opened up Synaptic to see if it were available. Nope.
So, I checked out the links offered in the article.
WHOOO-HOOO!!
We are talking about an ALPHA thingamabob. Alpha. Test stuff. Meaning that, the people who have the addon VOLUNTEERED to install and TEST the thing.
TFA is a little bit of grandstanding by a drama llama. This addon is going to be tested, the community will determine if it's useful, and whether it should be modified. Unless you CHOOSE to VOLUNTEER to use this thing, you won't even see it for some time come. At which point in time, you will have a CHOICE as to whether to install it.
FUD me!! I spent 5 minutes of my remaining life looking at a total non-issue.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0837004.html
Ossetia
Ossetia (os'shu, Rus. usye'tu) [key]or Alania (älän'yä) [key], region of the central Caucasus, divided between the Republic of Georgia and the Russian Federation. On the northern slope is North Ossetia-Alania. (1990 est. pop. 641,000), 3,100 sq mi (8,029 sq km), a constituent republic of Russia; Vladikavkaz (formerly Ordzhonikidze) is the capital. This region extends north beyond the Terek River. On the southern slope is South Ossetia. (1990 est. pop. 100,000), 1,500 sq mi (3,885 sq km), an autonomous region in Georgia; Tskhinvali is its capital. The region extends southward almost to the Kura River.
Both sections of Ossetia have valleys that produce fruit, wine, grain, and cotton. Lumbering and livestock raising are important in the mountains. North Ossetia-Alania has lead, silver, zinc, and boron deposits and nonferrous metallurgical, oil-extracting, and food-processing industries. Ossetian artwork includes wood, stone, and silver carving.
The Ossetians, an Iranian-speaking people, are mainly Sunni Muslims in the north and Eastern Orthodox Christians in the south, where Georgian culture prevails. They are descended from the medieval Alans (see Sarmatia). During the 17th cent. the Northern Ossetians were subject to Karbada princelings. From the 18th cent. they came under strong Russian influence, and between 1801 and 1806 all of Ossetian territory was annexed to Russia.
In Mar., 1918, the entire area was declared an autonomous soviet republic, and in Jan., 1920, was renamed the Mountain Autonomous Republic. In 1922, South Ossetia was made part of Georgia; in 1924 North Ossetia-Alania (then called North Ossetia) became an autonomous region in the RSFSR. In 1936, North Ossetia was made an autonomous republic. North Ossetia-Alania was a signatory to the Mar. 31, 1992, treaty that created the Russian Federation (see Russia).
The republic has not been immune to the turmoil in neighboring regions. In 1992, after several days of fighting, tens of thousands of Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia-Alania's Prigorodny region, once part of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR and to be reincorporated into it under a 1991 Soviet law, fled or were expelled to the newly established republic of Ingushetia. The city of Beslan was the scene in 2004 of a Chechen-Ingush terrorist seizure of a middle school; the siege ended violently, with the death of more than 300 hostages. North Ossetians have been strong supporters of the nationalists in South Ossetia, and the leaders of both regions have called for their unification as a republic in the Russian Federation.
South Ossetia lost its autonomous region status by an act of the Georgian Supreme Soviet in 1990. Following Georgia's independence from the Soviet Union, Ossetian nationalists in the South demanded either independence from Georgia or incorporation into North Ossetia-Alania. In Apr., 1992, the South Ossetian Autonomous Region was reestablished in Georgia. Fighting in the region between Georgian and Ossetian forces was ended by a truce in July, which left South Ossetia under the control of the Ossetians. Further accords were signed in 1996, but the political situation remains unresolved, with South Ossetia dependent on Russia for support. Tensions increased in 2004 as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili sought to reassert Georgian supremacy over the nation's independence-minded autonomous republics and regions, and two years later South Ossetians voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that was not generally recognized internationally.
"Scientology is as real as any other religion. That you chose to put it in a separate category says more about you than about them."
The rest of you post could be thought provoking. With that last bit, though, you remove yourself from serious discussion. I suspect that you are arguing for the sake of argument. But, that bit about scientologists is something that I can't respect at all.
Last statement here, for me.
Russia didn't invade Georgia. Ossettians declared their independence from Georgia almost two decades ago. Recently, Georgia decided that they were going to force Ossettians to pay taxes and whatever else Georgia demanded at the point of a gun. They weren't doing extremely well at conquering Ossetia, just generally mucking about and making a mess of everything. Russia decided that it was unhealthy to have such a cesspool on their border, so they came in to help the Ossetians.
I'm finished arguing whether Russia had any right to invade Georgia, because they did no such thing.
Later.
Sorry. The Russian people are a rational and coherent group of people. Scientology is a set of pretentious make-believe faiths designed to extort money from fools. I can't compare a nation or a people to a fake "religion".
"if the usa invaded isla de la juventud?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_de_la_Juventud [wikipedia.org]
because havana has political disagreements with the population there"
In the framework of THIS DISCUSSION, you specifically compared an imagined action taken by the US of A, with an action taken by Russia. The two scenarios don't compare, because Isla de la Juventud never was a part of the US, nor do I see any indication that they have close ties to the US, ethnically, politically, or historically. They seem to be Cubans.
Since you specifically ASKED people to compare the two scenarios, I did so, pointing out, among other things, that the people "invaded" by Russia were in fact Russian - historically and politically, if not entirely ethnically. I also compared that skirmish to the action taken to evacuate Beirut.
As for Ajax - well, the wikipedia has a fair synopsis of that tragedy. Note, that it was entirely motivated by monetary greed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
"The 1953 Iranian coup d'état deposed the democratically-elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq." Note the phrase "democratically elected government". We claim to be pro-democracy, until some democracy or other threatens our profits. Then, we just kill it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your insightful comments. Rant, actually. Insightful rant. You have provided insight into your mind, to be honest.
Perhaps, now that you have finished with your tantrum, you will provide a list of crimes committed by RUSSIA. Today's Russia, that is. Not the old Soviet, but today's Russia. You have blathered on and on about this and that, you have avoided comparing Russia to anything or anyone else, and you seem to believe that Russia is evil. Got evidence? Citations? Surely not Georgia - I maintain that the "invasion" of Georgia was a justifiable action, comparable to actions that the US has rightfully taken. Chechnya? Possibly - the jury is out on that one, IMO. They are battling zealots there who look an awful lot like the terrorists that the US is battling. List some crimes, alright? Is Russia evil, or not?
If/when you come up with a list of crimes, I will probably compare them to things that I know of, and things that I understand. People do that.
BTW - you have not yet given any indication that you understand anything about operation Ajax. A passing reference to it, is all.
And, finally, NO, YOU CAN'T CRITICIZE A NATION (or it's people) with any honesty unless you demonstrate that you understand how and why it operates. Russia doesn't exist in a vacuum, any more than Japan or Korea does. Any action taken by a nation or by a people as a whole is the result of some sort of stimulation in it's environment. A short study of Nazi Germany will make that clear. The loss of WW1, combined with the hardship and suffering of the Great Depression, aggravated by callousness and greed on the part of WW1's victors all contributed to creating Nazi Germany. You've got to look at the BIG PICTURE if you want to understand anything at all.
Go ahead, fire back now. It's not like I take you seriously enough that the personal attacks mean anything. Take your best shot.
Or, you could just drop all the bullshit, and make a meaningful post. Your choice.
Some drama llama found a potential problem, posted to a blog, upset the idiots who don't know any better, and has been proven to be an ass. Nothing more to see here, move along, get off my lawn.
"basically what you are saying is "russia doesn't have to be accountable for anything bad it ever did, because somebody, somewhere else, did something bad once""
Bullshit. This is not what I said.
"no, idiot: america does plenty of bad things. russia does plenty of bad things. you admit to them."
When? Taking operation Ajax, for example, when has the US ever said, "Hey, Iran, we're sorry for fucking your lives up - how can we help make things right?" President Obama sort of hinted at a near apology, recently. As a rule, the US does NOT admit to anything, period.
The Katyn massacre? I fail to see exactly how the actions of the Soviet relate to actions by today's Russia relate, exactly. The Soviet failed, remember? It crumbled, it's gone. Nowhere, in all my writings and ramblings have I EVER defended the Soviet, or any of it's actions that tended to subjugate people. Murder is murder, yes, but can you point to instances of murder commited by today's Russia?
"you don't have any intellectual honesty"
You, on the other hand, don't have any honesty at all, intellectual or otherwise, to take my statements, and read into them all that you have read into them.
"i have a job for you to do: criticize russia. criticize something bad it did. you will find out an amazing thing: you can still criticize the usa after you do that. that you can criticize BOTH the usa and russia"
Wake up, dude. You will find that the vast majority of Americans simply accept that America is good, and Russia is evil. Most of those Americans have no concept of what Russia is.
You want me to criticize Russia and it's people? Easy. There are thousands of instances of criminally insane actions committed by the Soviet, beginning with genocidal purges within Russia, purges of the intelligentsia within Russia, and political purges within Russia. The Katyn massacre that you refer to was "business as usual" for the Soviet. It was no more, and no less, horrible than sending millions of people into exile in Siberia for offenses ranging from petty theft, to being descended from royalty, to voicing an opinion, or even hoarding bread crusts bought on the black market.
I'm aware of wrongs commited by Russians, at least as much as I'm aware of American wrongs. After all, they are trumpeted far and wide by our media. It's the wrongs that we try to cover up that concern me more.
I thank you for your rant, though. Obviously, I got under your skin. Now - do you even understand what Operation Ajax was all about, and what the consequences were? How about the Bay of Pigs fiasco? And, the CIA's operation with a shot up boat that got us involved in Vietnam? How many of our own sins are you aware of, and willing to admit guilt for?
The longest I ever spent on a novel was a couple weeks. Millions of years? That's one long novel.....
If we use the word "Ossetian" to signify an ethnic group, yes, you are right. If we use the word to signify the residents of the region, you are only partly right.
Try this site: http://ossetians.com/eng/ Browse around. Look at the number of Russian army generals, and later, the number of "Heros of the Soviet". Whether we are discussing the ethnic group, or the territory, Ossetians have a long and rich relationship with Russia.
Be sure to hit some of the links on this page: http://ossetians.com/eng/index.php?showcat=jump&f=38
Still to black and white. There isn't a "right" and a "wrong" side in every issue. You can bet your ass though, that there are always multiple political sides to every issue, all of which are probably "wrong".
If you cannot condemn American actions when they are obviously done for selfish reasons (operation Ajax?) then you can't condemn Russian actions when they are done for what you consider to be selfish reasons.
Georgia being under discussion here, it is easy to compare Russian intervention on behalf of ethnic Russians (many of whom carried dual citizenship, by the way) to the United States intervention in Beirut City in 1978 to rescue American nationals. We didn't want to see Americans killed in 78, Russia didn't want to see Russians killed last year. Same-o same-o.
Maybe not pertinent to this conversation, I was awarded my first Humanitarian Service Award for participating in the evacuation of Beirut. Maybe that helps understand my perspective, maybe not. But, I can see right and wrong on the part of the Russians, just as I can see right and wrong on our part. We ain't lily-white, and they ain't deep-space black.
"People are a resource to be acquired, used up and disposed of"
Just curious here. Are you attempting to imply that traditional newspapers "valued" their human resources, more than AOL might? I hope not. For every recognized name that traditional media has pampered, there have been thousands of names that they threw away as useless. And, I'm sure you'll realize that the difference often depended on back office politicking. Little nonsense things, like, "Who is sleeping with whom", and, "That guy's an ass when he's drunk".
You really should study Russian history, from the Russian perspective. For starters, can you tell us, without googling, how many times Russia has been invaded in the past? Invaded, and defeated, it's people enslaved, murdered, and starved? In fact, starvation in Russia is an ever present spectre - America's spendthrift and wasteful habits combined with American attitudes about freedom and liberty would be fatal to the Russian people.
Here's a stratfor link, from which you might browse around, and glean additional intelligence:
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090602_geography_recession
Mod parent up. History almost always plays a major role in friction between nations. Osettians are Russians, Georgians are not. Georgia invading Osettia may very well have been the prelude to some good old genocidal ethnic cleansing. Just because Georgia's president went to college in the USA, and he's nut-to-butt with a lot of American politicians doesn't make him clean, or right, or even human. American has spawned it's share of despicable low life SOB's. Jim Jones, and Guyanna, anyone?
"but if you had the position in Apple to make that decision"
I see your point. I have stockholders to answer to, as well as being responsible for honoring contractual commitments.
Even so, I think the RIGHT thing to do, is to announce that Apple will not support jailbroken and/or unlocked telephones. It's cool to only support the thing as it was sold, with proper updates and company approved applications. That is perfectly cool. Using the phone in a manner not approved by Apple voids any and all warranties is cool. (except the battery issue - I don't think Apple can legally drop any liability related to a phone that burns up due to the battery)
What is NOT COOL, is attempting to block people from jailbreaking and/or unlocking their phone. Nor is it cool to obstruct this competing app store.
Obligatory automotive analogy: Ford may very well tell you that modifying your car for stock racing voids all warranties, but they can't prohibit you from making said modification, nor can they prohibit you from racing our stock car.
and hello! Free Market!
And, it really doesn't matter if this "hurts" apple. Sometimes, a little pain aids in growth and learning.
Ahem. Yah. I exaggerated a little, maybe. But, take a look around you. If you live in the US, east of the Mississippi, it is a pretty sure bet that you live on old forest land? Virgin forest, without houses, roads, factories, schools, and government buildings. Literally millions of trees have been cut down to make way for people. There should be a Google map or some such thing, showing how deforestation of the earth has progressed over the last - ohhh - 300 years maybe. Even the last 100 years would be alarming, if it could be graphically displayed. It would look much like the recession of ice age glaciers - almost solid green continents giving way to patchworks of green, grey, brown, with speckles of glass and metal scattered all through it.
Thanks to the population explosion throughout the world, even ancient lands like China are being deforested to make room for people to live. (Check out China's population throughout history) http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/china/geog/population.htm As recently as about 1850, the population of China was less than .5 billion, then it skyrocketed, just like the rest of the earth.
We humans certainly don't do much to help the earth's vegetation to sustain itself. We burn it, we cut it up to build stuff, we chop it up for paper, we eat some of it, we even bulldoze it and bury it to make room for more houses, farms, or whatever.
Northern Illinois is home to dozens of factories that I visited as long ago as 1980. I drove through miles of farmland and forest back then, to get to those factories. Those same factories today sit among housing developments. Ditto for Texas, north of Dallas, as well as all of the Houston area.
Yes, we have deforested a very significant portion of the earth's surface. That contributes more to global warming, IMHO, than our wasteful use of fossil fuels.
And, people still demand that we expand our highway systems, build bypasses, and make it easier to drive to their favorite shopping center, where they can park on acres of paved parking lot.
If that doesn't make you think, I don't know what will.