Freedom from the borderline retarded Ukrainian government and a vastly improved quality of life under Russian administration?
Maybe don't talk about stuff you don't know anything about.
Aside from the fact that the entire "Russia meddling" narrative is BS, they are using extremely poor definitions to make the claims. What what I've been able to tell, "Russian actors" refers to anyone browsing from a Russian IP address or anyone who has their language preferences set to Russian. A random people in Russia placing ads is worlds away from a coordinated effort by an intelligence agency or some other state actor. In addition, many of these "actors" may be US citizens. I myself am a natural born US citizen who currently lives in Russia and often browses with my language set to Russian.
There are some local makes, like YotaPhone, but virtually all popular smartphones are represented. The iPhone is a cultural icon in Russia. On the Android side, Samsungs are ubiquitous.
My guess is that this applies to foreign phones imported for the Russian market as well as Russian manufactured devices.
Because it really was a referendum. Do you understand Russian politics? Do you speak/read Russian? Do you have friends who lived or live in Crimea? No? Then maybe you shouldn't continue to push anti-Russian propaganda. The residents of Crimea were thrilled to become citizens of Russia. Many of them were hoping for it for a long time.
Opportunity and quality of life is up big time in Crimea since they joined the Russian Federation. Why do you think all media suddenly became silent on actual conditions there? Don't you think if things sucked there we would hear about it every day in order to further the anti-Russia story? The worst hit piece they were able to manage was a couple weeks after the transition, where people standing in line to have their passport (national ID) changed, and people were complaining how long it was taking.
By that logic, the only moral problem with Iraq was that the opponent had the audacity to resist invasion. If they'd just surrendered, the US would have been in the right and could have gone further and annexed the territory.
Well sure, if Iraq had put out the red carpet, thrown a big party, then had a referendum where 90% of them voted to join the US as the 51st state, then the two situations would be exactly comparable.
Crimea was not a "war", there was no shooting, it was a country waiting to be annexed. As for Eastern Ukraine? Don't believe everything you hear on CNN.
Administrative takeover of corporations by autoritative central state, with intimidation through abuse of executive power, is textbook fascism. Mussolini would be proud.
From TFA:
It’s not clear whether URSC will gain a majority share of Energia during the shareholders meeting. Officials have spoken of increasing the government’s share of the company from 38 to 51 percent.
Ok, so lets step back a minute and consider. The CEO of Energia has problems with corruption. The government is upset because a company of such importance to the national security and national prestige as Energia is no place for corruption. The government starts an investigation into the corruption and moves to buy enough shares to bring the company under state control. What is wrong with this? This is not Chavez-style nationalization, this is a traditional hostile takeover via buying enough shares.
Lets all stop buying into the anti-Russian propaganda, shall we?
The US is about the only country that taxes citizens regardless of where they live and work. Which leads to a fun situation where the kids of US citizens born abroad are considered natural US citizens and expected to file taxes, but may not be eligible to vote depending on which state their parents were from. Taxation without representation.
Citation for this? I don't think that any US Citizen can be denied the vote based on the nationality/residency of their parents.
I hope this gets shared widely in school science classes and among the home schooled.
In my experience most of the home-drooled kids get only a very basic bit of science because it's likely to interfere with the wacky creationist/survivalist ideas of their parents.
This is a vile stereotype that doesn't deserve to be propagated. I say this as a home-schooled person currently enrolled in a Computer Science Ph.D. program at a well known state university.
Look at the CeroWRT project (http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/cerowrt). They have a fork of OpenWRT that is kept up to date quite often, and includes a lot of fixes for bufferbloat issues. The firmware gives a very low latency experience with very little effort.
More than once I have forgotten to turn off my cell phone while flying from JFK to Moscow, and more than once I have arrived to find a nice friendly SMS "Welcome to Estonia!". The funny thing is that you can pick any random place in the flight and try to get signal, and you won't...they must really have some powerful cell towers up there...
Indeed, the "cover walls with soundproof foam" idea actually seems rather more practical in a dorm than elsewhere because of the typically small size of dorm rooms...
Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and but the foam that is used for sheeting the outside of houses. It comes in manageably sized fan-folded panels, and isn't very expensive.
In an ideal world, we would be able to eliminate CO2 from our atmosphere completely. And ultimately, if we as a species are going to survive, we need to do that. But in the here and now, we have to do the best we can. And cars produce way more of that poison than anyone on a bicycle. The Congressman is just an ignorant jackass who has no understanding of how our biosphere works.
Not sure if this is a troll, or an example of someone who has their head so far up the ass of the radical green movement that their brain has stopped working due to lack of oxygen...
(Sorry I didn't mean to post as AC).
If you really want to get into game programming, the advanced math will be your friend. Supposedly even some ancient (and infurating) concepts like quaternions are coming back in computer graphics.
For anything else, it still isn't going to be a waste of time. The analytical skills and "mathematical maturity" obtained by taking a good calculus course (and actually applying yourself rather than just trying to pass) will go way further than the actual calculus will for most people.
There's a law in the states that citizens are not required to carry identification. Thus all a foreigner has to do is state that they are a resident and there's not much an officer can do about it.
There is a big difference between "resident" and "citizen." In the United States, citizens are technically not required to carry any sort of identification, although it makes things generally easier if you do. On the other hand however, Permanent Residents AKA Green Card Holders are required by federal law to have their identification document (Green Card) on their person at all times. I believe the same goes for non-immigrant visa holders (H-1B, B-1/B-2, J-1, F-1,...).
That being said, if you claim you are a citizen, there is not much they can do on the spot unless they look you up, but if you call their bluff, be prepared to face the consequences. Making a false statement of United States Citizenship carries stiff penalties which can include deportation and extended bans from readmission into the USA.
I can attest to this as well. My wife is Armenian, but was raised in Russia. While her accent is much "softer" than Natasha's it is definitely there, and she thinks she has very little to no accent. I have also become accustomed to adding articles to papers:)
Also, for some reason Slavic-language-speaking people tend to be able to understand Ws, but repeat them as Vs.
The reason for the progressive tax rate is simple. If everyone had to pay the same amount across the board, most of us would have to pony up more than we make in an entire year.
Who ever suggested that everyone pay the same *amount*?
Everyone should pay the same *percentage*. Wealthy people will pay more, less wealthy people will pay less, as a function of their income. The scale itself shouldn't slide. This is what is patently unfair.
I'm all for doing away with income tax altogether and going to a national sales tax where the amount of sales tax would be graduated based on the category of item purchased (i.e. food would be taxed at a much lower percentage rate than a yacht).
This still isn't fair. Why should the percentage be higher? Why can't everyone be on a level playing field? The tax on a yacht will be higher simply by virtue of its higher price. Why do we need to increase the tax rate? Doing this effectively punishes people who work harder.
Ability to pay is irrelevant. In your original post you implied that cutting the already absurd taxes on the wealthy is somehow wealth redistribution in their favor. It isn't wealth redistribution when it is your own money! It is wealth redistribution when a person with lesser money gets money from the government (money that was taken from people with more money). It is wealth redistribution when we take wealthy people's money and use it to buy health insurance for those who can't afford it.
Also, the statements that the administration has made regarding this issue have been very arrogant. For example: "We can't afford to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy." You don't "pay for" tax cuts. The money belongs to the person who earns it, not the government. You "pay for" government services (and waste). How about we drastically decrease federal government services that we can't afford? How about we quit subsidizing the corn industry (one of the biggest, most corrupt industries in the nation)? How about we abolish a few useless government agencies. We can start with the Dept. of Education (which has overseen the recent nose-dive in American educational quality), the ATF, the EPA, and any number of useless agencies.
How can you say that tax cuts for the upper 2% of income earners is wealth redistribution?
Do you understand our system of "progressive" taxation? People who earn over ~375k are taxed at a rate of 35% on that money. People who earn less than ~35k are taxed 15% on that money.
Until "the wealthy" are *actually* taxed less than the poor and the middle class, there is no argument for calling it wealth redistribution. Their money has been taken unfairly since long before healthcare reform. I'm sick of people complaining when the wealthy FINALLY get a break on taxes.
The point is, wealthy people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than less wealthy people. This is not fair and not equitable. The only fair system would be a system in which everyone pays the same percentage of their income. It's absurd to penalize people for being successful.
A few years ago when I was an undergrad, I did a class project on the C64 just for the hell of it...the assignment was for my Theory of Computation class, and I happened to be taking an embedded systems class at the same time. I ended up implementing a Turing Machine simulator on the C64. I used a C cross-compiler on my PC to develop it, tested it on an emulator, and eventually burned it onto a ROM chip which I put into an actual cartridge that ran on a real C64. It was a REALLY cool project that involved quite a few different aspects of CS, and I ended up taking first place at a undergrad research poster competition at a CS conference.
I new a guy that got busted for copying sony games. The swat team busted in his door with a battering ram, and sony reps where with them. He got lucky and had some 80 year old judge with no appreciation for the whole deal around digital media copying. The judge was going to give him a fine and let him go, until he found out that they also found a couple joints in his house. He ended up with 2 months in jail, and 2 years of probation.
If this is true (and it sounds like your story might be just you being silly), he had a pretty crappy lawyer. If the police had a warrant that said "stuff related to copying Sony games," even if they found a thousand joints worth of THC-containing plant, it wouldn't be admissible in any court...
Slashdot Mirror
Freedom from the borderline retarded Ukrainian government and a vastly improved quality of life under Russian administration? Maybe don't talk about stuff you don't know anything about.
Aside from the fact that the entire "Russia meddling" narrative is BS, they are using extremely poor definitions to make the claims. What what I've been able to tell, "Russian actors" refers to anyone browsing from a Russian IP address or anyone who has their language preferences set to Russian. A random people in Russia placing ads is worlds away from a coordinated effort by an intelligence agency or some other state actor. In addition, many of these "actors" may be US citizens. I myself am a natural born US citizen who currently lives in Russia and often browses with my language set to Russian.
Who makes smartphones in Russia to be affected?
There are some local makes, like YotaPhone, but virtually all popular smartphones are represented. The iPhone is a cultural icon in Russia. On the Android side, Samsungs are ubiquitous. My guess is that this applies to foreign phones imported for the Russian market as well as Russian manufactured devices.
You forgot to put "referendum" in quotes.
Because it really was a referendum. Do you understand Russian politics? Do you speak/read Russian? Do you have friends who lived or live in Crimea? No? Then maybe you shouldn't continue to push anti-Russian propaganda. The residents of Crimea were thrilled to become citizens of Russia. Many of them were hoping for it for a long time. Opportunity and quality of life is up big time in Crimea since they joined the Russian Federation. Why do you think all media suddenly became silent on actual conditions there? Don't you think if things sucked there we would hear about it every day in order to further the anti-Russia story? The worst hit piece they were able to manage was a couple weeks after the transition, where people standing in line to have their passport (national ID) changed, and people were complaining how long it was taking.
By that logic, the only moral problem with Iraq was that the opponent had the audacity to resist invasion. If they'd just surrendered, the US would have been in the right and could have gone further and annexed the territory.
Well sure, if Iraq had put out the red carpet, thrown a big party, then had a referendum where 90% of them voted to join the US as the 51st state, then the two situations would be exactly comparable.
- stares in disbelief at monitor -
Crimea was not a "war", there was no shooting, it was a country waiting to be annexed. As for Eastern Ukraine? Don't believe everything you hear on CNN.
Administrative takeover of corporations by autoritative central state, with intimidation through abuse of executive power, is textbook fascism. Mussolini would be proud.
From TFA:
It’s not clear whether URSC will gain a majority share of Energia during the shareholders meeting. Officials have spoken of increasing the government’s share of the company from 38 to 51 percent.
Ok, so lets step back a minute and consider. The CEO of Energia has problems with corruption. The government is upset because a company of such importance to the national security and national prestige as Energia is no place for corruption. The government starts an investigation into the corruption and moves to buy enough shares to bring the company under state control. What is wrong with this? This is not Chavez-style nationalization, this is a traditional hostile takeover via buying enough shares. Lets all stop buying into the anti-Russian propaganda, shall we?
The US is about the only country that taxes citizens regardless of where they live and work. Which leads to a fun situation where the kids of US citizens born abroad are considered natural US citizens and expected to file taxes, but may not be eligible to vote depending on which state their parents were from. Taxation without representation.
Citation for this? I don't think that any US Citizen can be denied the vote based on the nationality/residency of their parents.
In my experience most of the home-drooled kids get only a very basic bit of science because it's likely to interfere with the wacky creationist/survivalist ideas of their parents.
This is a vile stereotype that doesn't deserve to be propagated. I say this as a home-schooled person currently enrolled in a Computer Science Ph.D. program at a well known state university.
Look at the CeroWRT project (http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/cerowrt). They have a fork of OpenWRT that is kept up to date quite often, and includes a lot of fixes for bufferbloat issues. The firmware gives a very low latency experience with very little effort.
More than once I have forgotten to turn off my cell phone while flying from JFK to Moscow, and more than once I have arrived to find a nice friendly SMS "Welcome to Estonia!". The funny thing is that you can pick any random place in the flight and try to get signal, and you won't...they must really have some powerful cell towers up there...
Indeed, the "cover walls with soundproof foam" idea actually seems rather more practical in a dorm than elsewhere because of the typically small size of dorm rooms...
Go to Lowe's or Home Depot and but the foam that is used for sheeting the outside of houses. It comes in manageably sized fan-folded panels, and isn't very expensive.
Apparently they swam away from their trainers ostensibly in search of a 'mate"' out in open waters.
So, they left to get laid?
In an ideal world, we would be able to eliminate CO2 from our atmosphere completely. And ultimately, if we as a species are going to survive, we need to do that. But in the here and now, we have to do the best we can. And cars produce way more of that poison than anyone on a bicycle. The Congressman is just an ignorant jackass who has no understanding of how our biosphere works.
Not sure if this is a troll, or an example of someone who has their head so far up the ass of the radical green movement that their brain has stopped working due to lack of oxygen... (Sorry I didn't mean to post as AC).
So that is where all the Helium has gone...
If you really want to get into game programming, the advanced math will be your friend. Supposedly even some ancient (and infurating) concepts like quaternions are coming back in computer graphics. For anything else, it still isn't going to be a waste of time. The analytical skills and "mathematical maturity" obtained by taking a good calculus course (and actually applying yourself rather than just trying to pass) will go way further than the actual calculus will for most people.
There's a law in the states that citizens are not required to carry identification. Thus all a foreigner has to do is state that they are a resident and there's not much an officer can do about it.
There is a big difference between "resident" and "citizen." In the United States, citizens are technically not required to carry any sort of identification, although it makes things generally easier if you do. On the other hand however, Permanent Residents AKA Green Card Holders are required by federal law to have their identification document (Green Card) on their person at all times. I believe the same goes for non-immigrant visa holders (H-1B, B-1/B-2, J-1, F-1, ...).
That being said, if you claim you are a citizen, there is not much they can do on the spot unless they look you up, but if you call their bluff, be prepared to face the consequences. Making a false statement of United States Citizenship carries stiff penalties which can include deportation and extended bans from readmission into the USA.
I can attest to this as well. My wife is Armenian, but was raised in Russia. While her accent is much "softer" than Natasha's it is definitely there, and she thinks she has very little to no accent. I have also become accustomed to adding articles to papers :)
Also, for some reason Slavic-language-speaking people tend to be able to understand Ws, but repeat them as Vs.
You beat me by a few seconds... :-P
"Where's my keys?"
The reason for the progressive tax rate is simple. If everyone had to pay the same amount across the board, most of us would have to pony up more than we make in an entire year.
Who ever suggested that everyone pay the same *amount*?
Everyone should pay the same *percentage*. Wealthy people will pay more, less wealthy people will pay less, as a function of their income. The scale itself shouldn't slide. This is what is patently unfair.
I'm all for doing away with income tax altogether and going to a national sales tax where the amount of sales tax would be graduated based on the category of item purchased (i.e. food would be taxed at a much lower percentage rate than a yacht).
This still isn't fair. Why should the percentage be higher? Why can't everyone be on a level playing field? The tax on a yacht will be higher simply by virtue of its higher price. Why do we need to increase the tax rate? Doing this effectively punishes people who work harder.
Ability to pay is irrelevant. In your original post you implied that cutting the already absurd taxes on the wealthy is somehow wealth redistribution in their favor. It isn't wealth redistribution when it is your own money! It is wealth redistribution when a person with lesser money gets money from the government (money that was taken from people with more money). It is wealth redistribution when we take wealthy people's money and use it to buy health insurance for those who can't afford it.
Also, the statements that the administration has made regarding this issue have been very arrogant. For example: "We can't afford to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy." You don't "pay for" tax cuts. The money belongs to the person who earns it, not the government. You "pay for" government services (and waste). How about we drastically decrease federal government services that we can't afford? How about we quit subsidizing the corn industry (one of the biggest, most corrupt industries in the nation)? How about we abolish a few useless government agencies. We can start with the Dept. of Education (which has overseen the recent nose-dive in American educational quality), the ATF, the EPA, and any number of useless agencies.
How can you say that tax cuts for the upper 2% of income earners is wealth redistribution? Do you understand our system of "progressive" taxation? People who earn over ~375k are taxed at a rate of 35% on that money. People who earn less than ~35k are taxed 15% on that money. Until "the wealthy" are *actually* taxed less than the poor and the middle class, there is no argument for calling it wealth redistribution. Their money has been taken unfairly since long before healthcare reform. I'm sick of people complaining when the wealthy FINALLY get a break on taxes. The point is, wealthy people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than less wealthy people. This is not fair and not equitable. The only fair system would be a system in which everyone pays the same percentage of their income. It's absurd to penalize people for being successful.
A few years ago when I was an undergrad, I did a class project on the C64 just for the hell of it...the assignment was for my Theory of Computation class, and I happened to be taking an embedded systems class at the same time. I ended up implementing a Turing Machine simulator on the C64. I used a C cross-compiler on my PC to develop it, tested it on an emulator, and eventually burned it onto a ROM chip which I put into an actual cartridge that ran on a real C64. It was a REALLY cool project that involved quite a few different aspects of CS, and I ended up taking first place at a undergrad research poster competition at a CS conference.
I new a guy that got busted for copying sony games. The swat team busted in his door with a battering ram, and sony reps where with them. He got lucky and had some 80 year old judge with no appreciation for the whole deal around digital media copying. The judge was going to give him a fine and let him go, until he found out that they also found a couple joints in his house. He ended up with 2 months in jail, and 2 years of probation.
If this is true (and it sounds like your story might be just you being silly), he had a pretty crappy lawyer. If the police had a warrant that said "stuff related to copying Sony games," even if they found a thousand joints worth of THC-containing plant, it wouldn't be admissible in any court...