the bills all had sequential serial numbers - apparently a common sign in counterfeit currency.
They're kidding, right? Any sane counterfeiter would either have non-sequential serial numbers, or if lazy, they'd all be the same serial number. There's no reason at all that they'd be sequential. Sequential numbers just means the purchaser got a whole pack of new bills direct from the bank.
If you REALLY want to have fun, you can buy 'uncut sheets' of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 US currency from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They come in a 'grid' pattern, but you can then cut them into strips that roll up.
Buy an sheet of 32 $1 bills. Cut them into strips of 8. Bring the strips to the cash register with scissors and cut them off individually to give to the cashier. They ARE the same, official US currency.
It's something to do for fun, but there's a bit of a premium charged for the uncut sheets.
There were a few in the 80's when the mintage of Canadian Half dollars was in the six digits. They minted hundreds of millions of quarters one year, and under 300,000 half dollars.
I've bought a few rolls of those years half dollars and expect over the long term they will be worth a lot of money.
Cuba still maintains that they are Communist, and hold a considerable number of political prisoners.
(not 'political prisoners' of the rhetorical sort that the American left likes to spout about. *real* political prisoners, i.e. in Cuba someone like Jesse Jackson would be in solitary confinement)
Also: the Cuban government stole ('nationalized') the property of a lot of Americans. There are reparations issues involving a considerable amount of money.
In the Soviet Union you describe, you had to have *permission* to do said traveling. Which is a far cry from your 'papers' being checked at points, wherever you choose to travel within your country.
IBM walked away from the India market this way in the 1960's. It was a delicious moment for those of us who despise government bureaucrats bearing demands.
Microsoft themselves, at the Office 2000 launch, made fun of 'Clippy' with a 'Clippy is Dead' segment of the presentation. There are a whole handful of 'help agents' now.
Can't you progress beyond your old hatred of Office 97??
I've seen photographs of cities before the government 'decided to meddle a long time ago.' Big, absolutely HUGE messes of wires and cabling, on huge multi-tiered telephone poles. You have to look at photos of big cities in the early 20th century.
And yes, a well regulated monopoly on the infrastructure WAS an improvement at the time. That it's not necessary in the same ways today means we have to work toward change, not bemoan our history.
Almost always when I hear the term 'move forward' I hearken back to the Marxists I remember in college. 'Move forward' is one of their catch phrases.
Usually, it involves them having some idea of how things SHOULD be, and a half-baked plan of how to get there.
Cheap broadband may be necessary for YOUR plans, and YOUR ideas. I happen to like it, too. But it's not absolutely imparative, nor is 'all of culture' held back if broadband remains pricey. Might make it harder for people to shuffle around the same bits everywhere (canned recordings of mass-marketed culture) though.
Slashdot Mirror
They're kidding, right? Any sane counterfeiter would either have non-sequential serial numbers, or if lazy, they'd all be the same serial number. There's no reason at all that they'd be sequential. Sequential numbers just means the purchaser got a whole pack of new bills direct from the bank.
If you REALLY want to have fun, you can buy 'uncut sheets' of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 US currency from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They come in a 'grid' pattern, but you can then cut them into strips that roll up.
Buy an sheet of 32 $1 bills. Cut them into strips of 8. Bring the strips to the cash register with scissors and cut them off individually to give to the cashier. They ARE the same, official US currency.
It's something to do for fun, but there's a bit of a premium charged for the uncut sheets.
There were a few in the 80's when the mintage of Canadian Half dollars was in the six digits. They minted hundreds of millions of quarters one year, and under 300,000 half dollars.
I've bought a few rolls of those years half dollars and expect over the long term they will be worth a lot of money.
Get out your flashy plastic card. Drive your Jetta to the Apple Store...
You're sadly correct. And it is rank hypocrisy for us to have the warm cordial relations we have with China, with their human rights abuse.
Doesn't mean tennis shoes should start being imported from Cuba.
My experience was the opposite when I lived in Northern Minnesota. But then, shopping for anything in Duluth.....
I like Canada. A lot. Don't go there and screw it up. Go to France.
Thanks.
Unfortunately, they were all talk, and many haven't left.
I mean, Alec Baldwin promised to GTFO in 2000.
I have a feeling that if I took off for Yellowknife or something up that way, no one would know the difference anyway.
The polar bears would know the difference. You would taste different than caribou, and they'd likely appreciate the dietary variety.
Cuba still maintains that they are Communist, and hold a considerable number of political prisoners.
(not 'political prisoners' of the rhetorical sort that the American left likes to spout about. *real* political prisoners, i.e. in Cuba someone like Jesse Jackson would be in solitary confinement)
Also: the Cuban government stole ('nationalized') the property of a lot of Americans. There are reparations issues involving a considerable amount of money.
Actually, what's fucked up around /. is that topics like this even get put on the site.
Come on. Isn't this more the kind of thing for political bitchsites like democraticunderground or lucianne.com?
In the Soviet Union you describe, you had to have *permission* to do said traveling. Which is a far cry from your 'papers' being checked at points, wherever you choose to travel within your country.
Funny. I always go north to Canada for cheap shopping.
Are you, say, one of those people who doesn't live in a state bordering Canada?
Child soldiers on dope with loaded weapons are quite dangerous.
Only until the grease spot where they formerly stood is properly hosed down with bleach.
You'd be surprised at how undemocratic the history of the EU has been up until now.
At the crossing between Thunder Bay and Duluth I have never, ever, had to show ID or any identification, going either way.
and they've finally found a court capable of pushing back.
The Belgian army is going to send a battleship to Lake Washington?
Wrong.
Microsoft is protecting their property, their source code.
They do not prohibit the Wine project from recreating a 'Microsoft-like' environment that makes it possible to run Microsoft binaries on other OSes.
But they have no obligation to make the task the Wine developers have set out on easy.
Why is the format so sacred?
Because the format is protected by Copyright law.
Do away with Copyright law and you've also obliterated the 'muscle' behind the GNU license.
IBM walked away from the India market this way in the 1960's. It was a delicious moment for those of us who despise government bureaucrats bearing demands.
Microsoft themselves, at the Office 2000 launch, made fun of 'Clippy' with a 'Clippy is Dead' segment of the presentation. There are a whole handful of 'help agents' now.
Can't you progress beyond your old hatred of Office 97??
I've seen photographs of cities before the government 'decided to meddle a long time ago.' Big, absolutely HUGE messes of wires and cabling, on huge multi-tiered telephone poles. You have to look at photos of big cities in the early 20th century.
And yes, a well regulated monopoly on the infrastructure WAS an improvement at the time. That it's not necessary in the same ways today means we have to work toward change, not bemoan our history.
Almost always when I hear the term 'move forward' I hearken back to the Marxists I remember in college. 'Move forward' is one of their catch phrases.
Usually, it involves them having some idea of how things SHOULD be, and a half-baked plan of how to get there.
Cheap broadband may be necessary for YOUR plans, and YOUR ideas. I happen to like it, too. But it's not absolutely imparative, nor is 'all of culture' held back if broadband remains pricey. Might make it harder for people to shuffle around the same bits everywhere (canned recordings of mass-marketed culture) though.
I think they're referring to the stridently politically left journal you mentioned first.