So, your saying Russia didn't want anybody to know they murdered Politkovsaja. Litvinenko was close to revealing that the Russia government was behind Politkovskaja's death so they very publicly had him assisinated?
I'm saying that that is what may have happened. What matters is if anyone can actually prove that the government was behind Politkovskaja's death. Now they _may_ have prevented that - and in addition given a very clear signal to everyone: Do not mess with us. At the moment there is no way to prove that the Russian government was behind these assassinations. Few seem to believe that they would be bold enough to pull this off - well, maybe that's just the reason they did it. In the end, no one can prove it, and they can use the "foreign powers trying to control Russia" card to their advantage in domestic policy.
Another possibility, and one that Russian "media" is definetly going to concentrate on in any case, is that all this could be a ploy against Kremlin.
I guess we just have to see how this plays out. I'm pretty sure that no definite proof will be presented one way or the other, so it's basically a stalemate that everyone will try to use to push their own agenda.
He was not just some former spy. There are plenty of those around the world after the fall of the Soviet Union. He was investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaja and obviously got too close to the truth.
The problem with the first season is that it is slow and it contains probably 40% of the worst episodes in the whole series, but you cannot skip it. There's just too much going on there in the background even in the early episodes. Even TKO, which was a steaming pile, has a lot of important character development for Ivanova (the death of her father). For someone with a low tolerance for the worst episodes, the first season can be a steep climb.
I would still say that any sci-fi fan who has not watched the first four seasons of the series has missed out on something unique. It is no longer the series that you have to measure up to, but it used to be, and many of the later and in many ways better sci-fi shows owe a lot to this series. Nowadays writers and their vision for a series is trusted more and maybe, for some part, B5 helped pave the way.
I agree. It certainly looks cool and can probably put a couple of holes in you before it is taken out. But 200k for a machine gun is just stupid. In the developing countries (where this is marketed according to some) it's far cheaper to hire a batallion of soldiers armed with assault rifles and RPGs and send them to flank this piece of crap. As a support weapon it's a 'nice to have', but I'd rather have real soldiers with brains at my back. If you want such a static defence or block areas, just buy a sh*tload of mines and you still have cash for arming people that can actually adapt to combat situations.
And, of course, on the modern battlefield it's a curiosity, but not much more useful than anything else you can buy for the same amount of money.
True, that was one of the goals. Soviets were concerned because Finnish border was very close to Leningrad. Nevertheless, from the beginning, Stalin was very confident that Finland would be conquered easily. He actually ordered his generals to occupy Helsinki in two weeks.
In 20/20 hindsight, Finland could not have fared better against these odds.
Joint Swedish & Finnish forces? There were some Swedish volunteers in Finland, but not enough to call it a joint force (~7800 troops of a total of 250000). Sweden was a neutral country. Although the official result for both Winter War and Continuation War was 1-0 for the Soviet Union, Finland retained its sovereignity and was never invaded. Finland had to cede territory to the Soviets, but Finland won an important strategic victory. Otherwise, I'd probably speak Russian.
Approximate lineup for Finland vs. U.S.S.R. for the Winter War: men 250000 vs. 1000000 tanks 30 vs. 3000 aircraft 130 vs. 3800
"For Swedish authorities to force RELAKKS to hand over "traffic data" including your RELAKKS IP at a specific point in time, they will have to prove a case with the minimum sentence of two years imprisonment."
Some of the results may be explained by overdiagnosing. Nowadays, there are so many "new" diseases that one loses count. Every other kid has ADHD or some other disorder that needs immediate medication.
Perhaps he has lost the spirit of ninjutsu. Whatever that is. But it also the writer of the article who gets more publicity for his article by writing about "last ninja's" and flashing steel. I would rather base my opinions on Hatsumi's own writing, not some cheesy article.
Who is this "we" that is talking about assassination? Someone is confusing the popular image of "ninjas" with Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. That is what is really sad, and that is what Hatsumi is talking about.
Hatsumi's Taijutsu is not about assassination or killing people. You should really read some of his thoughts on martial arts. It is the art of survival, not confrontation. He teaches his students to avoid conflicts. If you fight, you always risk your survival.
I don't practise the art but I know it is one of the few "traditional" martial arts that is capable of change without splitting into several styles. Well, almost at least. Hatsumi's achievement has been in enabling the art to evolve.
Peter Jackson had to cut huge chunks out of the trilogy to fit it into 10 hours or so of film. How much of the content could possibly be retained in a stage show that runs about a quarter as long, and made interesting and comprehensible to a general audience?
Interestingly, he also added a lot of completely useless scenes that are not based on the books. WTF, was that part where wargs (?) attack Aragorn and Rohirrim, and Aragorn falls of a cliff. Why??? Completely useless detour from the books, and lasts probably 10-15 minutes.
So each german is buying 1 maybe 2 cds a year. And you are trying to tell me that a country that is so uninterested in music is going to download the equivelent of 5 CDs a year. I mean at the height of the sales they were only buying 3 or 4 CDs a year.
It's more like 2 - 3 music CDs. After all, one of the CDs was a CD by David Hasselehoff.
Haven't read the book (heh, too busy stashing my pr0n), but I think 80% welfare is a bit too unbelieavable. How is that possible? If the term 'welfare' could be extended to jobs that actually don't keep you alive... then most of the world is already there.
Atari XL800 was my first computer too. The first computer I touched (or was touched by) was a Salora Fellow though - brought from the States by an airline pilot relative of a friend. I think I was 5 or 6 at the time. We didn't know what to do with it, but we had loads of fun anyway. The first couple of hours we just typed in stuff and took turns "eating" the text with backspace. Those were the days.
My grandfather bought me the XL800. He was around 75 at the time, but he understood that computers were the way to go - a smart man. I just saw it in the window of the computer store and liked the module port on the top of the thing. The XL800 was a good computer and served for many years.
I also got a C64 (because everyone else had one), then Amiga 500, then the first PC (25 MHz), a Pentium (66MHz), a Pentium Pro (200MHz), a Thunderbid (800MHz upgraded later to 1,2 GHz), now TB 2600+.
The proper solution when your ISP is deliberately crippling your service is to get another ISP. You paid for that torrent traffic, and if they don't carry it that's as good as stealing. Let your ISP know how you feel, and don't do business with crooks.
That's exactly what they want you to do: leave. They want to keep the customers that don't use their bandwith, and get rid of the customers that are not as good for the business.
Some rich people say that poor people are poor because they are lazy. So, no problem for the rich people if they're broke in the future - they can just work extra hard. Cause everyone knows, it's just hard work that's needed to become ultra-rich. There's always money in sorting carbage in 3rd world countries. Or you can maybe sell a couple of organs, if they're not past the 'best before' date.
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So, your saying Russia didn't want anybody to know they murdered Politkovsaja. Litvinenko was close to revealing that the Russia government was behind Politkovskaja's death so they very publicly had him assisinated?
I'm saying that that is what may have happened. What matters is if anyone can actually prove that the government was behind Politkovskaja's death. Now they _may_ have prevented that - and in addition given a very clear signal to everyone: Do not mess with us. At the moment there is no way to prove that the Russian government was behind these assassinations. Few seem to believe that they would be bold enough to pull this off - well, maybe that's just the reason they did it. In the end, no one can prove it, and they can use the "foreign powers trying to control Russia" card to their advantage in domestic policy.
Another possibility, and one that Russian "media" is definetly going to concentrate on in any case, is that all this could be a ploy against Kremlin.
I guess we just have to see how this plays out. I'm pretty sure that no definite proof will be presented one way or the other, so it's basically a stalemate that everyone will try to use to push their own agenda.
He was not just some former spy. There are plenty of those around the world after the fall of the Soviet Union. He was investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaja and obviously got too close to the truth.
I bet Lisa would appreciate the irony.
The problem with the first season is that it is slow and it contains probably 40% of the worst episodes in the whole series, but you cannot skip it. There's just too much going on there in the background even in the early episodes. Even TKO, which was a steaming pile, has a lot of important character development for Ivanova (the death of her father). For someone with a low tolerance for the worst episodes, the first season can be a steep climb.
I would still say that any sci-fi fan who has not watched the first four seasons of the series has missed out on something unique. It is no longer the series that you have to measure up to, but it used to be, and many of the later and in many ways better sci-fi shows owe a lot to this series. Nowadays writers and their vision for a series is trusted more and maybe, for some part, B5 helped pave the way.
I agree. It certainly looks cool and can probably put a couple of holes in you before it is taken out. But 200k for a machine gun is just stupid. In the developing countries (where this is marketed according to some) it's far cheaper to hire a batallion of soldiers armed with assault rifles and RPGs and send them to flank this piece of crap. As a support weapon it's a 'nice to have', but I'd rather have real soldiers with brains at my back. If you want such a static defence or block areas, just buy a sh*tload of mines and you still have cash for arming people that can actually adapt to combat situations.
And, of course, on the modern battlefield it's a curiosity, but not much more useful than anything else you can buy for the same amount of money.
In other news today:
Scientists discover two wrongs indeed make a right.
So, this should (according to their logic) show as a very noticeable increased sales, right?
Time to make the article on the massacre today's featured article. Just to see how long the site stays unblocked...
True, that was one of the goals. Soviets were concerned because Finnish border was very close to Leningrad. Nevertheless, from the beginning, Stalin was very confident that Finland would be conquered easily. He actually ordered his generals to occupy Helsinki in two weeks.
In 20/20 hindsight, Finland could not have fared better against these odds.
Joint Swedish & Finnish forces? There were some Swedish volunteers in Finland, but not enough to call it a joint force (~7800 troops of a total of 250000). Sweden was a neutral country. Although the official result for both Winter War and Continuation War was 1-0 for the Soviet Union, Finland retained its sovereignity and was never invaded. Finland had to cede territory to the Soviets, but Finland won an important strategic victory. Otherwise, I'd probably speak Russian.
Approximate lineup for Finland vs. U.S.S.R. for the Winter War:
men 250000 vs. 1000000
tanks 30 vs. 3000
aircraft 130 vs. 3800
Ah,
You also see 'HIV virus' a lot.
Read the Relakks legal page:
"For Swedish authorities to force RELAKKS to hand over "traffic data" including your RELAKKS IP at a specific point in time, they will have to prove a case with the minimum sentence of two years imprisonment."
Some of the results may be explained by overdiagnosing. Nowadays, there are so many "new" diseases that one loses count. Every other kid has ADHD or some other disorder that needs immediate medication.
Perhaps he has lost the spirit of ninjutsu. Whatever that is. But it also the writer of the article who gets more publicity for his article by writing about "last ninja's" and flashing steel. I would rather base my opinions on Hatsumi's own writing, not some cheesy article.
Who is this "we" that is talking about assassination? Someone is confusing the popular image of "ninjas" with Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. That is what is really sad, and that is what Hatsumi is talking about.
Hatsumi's Taijutsu is not about assassination or killing people. You should really read some of his thoughts on martial arts. It is the art of survival, not confrontation. He teaches his students to avoid conflicts. If you fight, you always risk your survival.
I don't practise the art but I know it is one of the few "traditional" martial arts that is capable of change without splitting into several styles. Well, almost at least. Hatsumi's achievement has been in enabling the art to evolve.
Peter Jackson had to cut huge chunks out of the trilogy to fit it into 10 hours or so of film. How much of the content could possibly be retained in a stage show that runs about a quarter as long, and made interesting and comprehensible to a general audience?
Interestingly, he also added a lot of completely useless scenes that are not based on the books. WTF, was that part where wargs (?) attack Aragorn and Rohirrim, and Aragorn falls of a cliff. Why??? Completely useless detour from the books, and lasts probably 10-15 minutes.
So each german is buying 1 maybe 2 cds a year. And you are trying to tell me that a country that is so uninterested in music is going to download the equivelent of 5 CDs a year. I mean at the height of the sales they were only buying 3 or 4 CDs a year.
It's more like 2 - 3 music CDs. After all, one of the CDs was a CD by David Hasselehoff.
Let's see the oil companies trying to shus this pile of steaming cow dung.
That didn't come out right.
I still bet Uranus is in the mix somewhere.
Most of these sites aren't hosted in the US, or in countries that recognize torrents as being pirated material.
I don't understand how anyone can maintain that torrents are pirated material.
Brainwash the masses into submission with mind numbing entertainment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Trap
Haven't read the book (heh, too busy stashing my pr0n), but I think 80% welfare is a bit too unbelieavable. How is that possible? If the term 'welfare' could be extended to jobs that actually don't keep you alive... then most of the world is already there.
Atari XL800 was my first computer too. The first computer I touched (or was touched by) was a Salora Fellow though - brought from the States by an airline pilot relative of a friend. I think I was 5 or 6 at the time. We didn't know what to do with it, but we had loads of fun anyway. The first couple of hours we just typed in stuff and took turns "eating" the text with backspace. Those were the days.
My grandfather bought me the XL800. He was around 75 at the time, but he understood that computers were the way to go - a smart man. I just saw it in the window of the computer store and liked the module port on the top of the thing. The XL800 was a good computer and served for many years.
I also got a C64 (because everyone else had one), then Amiga 500, then the first PC (25 MHz), a Pentium (66MHz), a Pentium Pro (200MHz), a Thunderbid (800MHz upgraded later to 1,2 GHz), now TB 2600+.
That's exactly what they want you to do: leave. They want to keep the customers that don't use their bandwith, and get rid of the customers that are not as good for the business.
Some rich people say that poor people are poor because they are lazy. So, no problem for the rich people if they're broke in the future - they can just work extra hard. Cause everyone knows, it's just hard work that's needed to become ultra-rich. There's always money in sorting carbage in 3rd world countries. Or you can maybe sell a couple of organs, if they're not past the 'best before' date.
Is this a bad or a good thing?