regnull

I'm a little confused about the point the author repeatedly makes in this article, complaining about the #includes on top of the file. Genuinely curious, where does he propose to put the includes?

I don't think it's a question of who deserves what. They deserve a living wage. The kids deserve to get their presents on time. I deserve a pony. The question is how whether to see it as a smart tactical choice to get that they "deserve" or a cynical move to strike when they get maximum publicity and do maximum damage.

I'm sure Brodsky is a great poet, but there is also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Independence_of_Ukraine

> Why is the farming subsidies seen differently

Because you can live without private militias but you can't live without food?

The solution is to project strength and hit them where they don't expect. You are dealing with a thug, not a cost/benefit accountant, as Obama seemed to mistakenly believe. As long as they do things and we respond, nothing good will happen. They have already calculated the response and found it acceptable. Instead of this, go to the mattresses. Oh, your bridge has suddenly exploded? Shame.

I wonder for how long the satellites in the Earth's orbit would stay in orbit and be detectable as artificial entities.

You can't just say it's unreasonable without providing some justification for this point of view.

I suppose it’s my belief that he gave everything he got to FSB vs your belief that he’s telling the truth and he didn’t. I base my belief on the first hand knowledge of how Russia works, and the fact that it held all the cards and Snowden held none once he stepped on Russia’s soil - and probably before.

It’s a fact he went to Azerbaijan at the same time Putin did. It’s also a fact that he flew to the Paris right after. Putin spokesman said they did not meet. There were speculations that they did - references are on Wikipedia page.

There is no "law" in Iran or North Korea or Russia or China. So, yes?

You should also look into who's screaming bloody murder following his arrest. Basically, all the usual Russian characters - the foreign ministry which somehow managed to put together a protest super fast on the weekend, all the Russia TV personas, "independent journalists", and the Western useful idiots - Musk first among them. That would never happen for a regular "dissident".

He didn't have to escape to Russia with a bunch of laptops filled with classified documents, the majority of which he's never made public. If he cares so much about exposing the US government, he should stand up for his beliefs. Yes, it might mean arrest and prison. If he's not ready for this, he shouldn't get involved. Your convictions mean nothing if you are not ready suffer for them.

We are talking about France, no?

Ok, before everyone loses their minds over this, let me point out some interesting details:

- Durov was an author of VKontakte, I suppose you can say it's Russian Facebook, then there were some events resulting in him leaving VK, and leaving the country;

- He started Telegram, and supposedly at this point he was a dissident, but strangely, in Russia everyone and their brother were using Telegram. This includes government officials, military, etc, etc.

- The latest developments occurred after he visited Azerbaijan, where it was speculated he met Putin. Right after that, he boards his plane and goes directly to Paris, where he knew he was wanted. There are some speculations that he wanted to be arrested, because the alternative was worse. How worse? It's a speculation, obviously, but we know what Putin can do to people he disagree with.

Bottom line, there is much we don't know about this. Reducing it to "free speech" issue is simplifying it. Somebody like Snowden, who said nothing about free speech in Russia (where basically everything is censored), should refrain from commenting.

Finally, I find it's unacceptable that we have to rely on software provided by PRIVATE COMPANIES to securely communicate between individuals. This is what the Internet was supposed to be about - a set of communication standards. With the current state of cryptography, we should be able to solve this as a public standard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Durov

You might not notice them because they look like regular BMW. For example, you wouldn't know i4 is electric just by looks. But I'd recommend anyone who is thinking of buying a Tesla to give BMW EV a test drive, you might end up getting it (like I did).

Weird. Also:

> And so, Britain traded the land illegally.

Whoa, strong claim. Probably backed by facts below? Nope. At the same time, Wikipedia:

> In November 1965, the UK purchased the entire Chagos Archipelago from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

So, they bought it for 3 million pounds. Doesn't seem illegal to me.

December? Ha! It's probably self-paving right about now.

There is little doubt that nothing like this would've happened without Russia invading Ukraine.

Management. The a company grows, top management becomes risk-averse, and middle management cares more about their carriers than the company future. They will kill anything perceived as even slightly risky coming out of engineering. And guess what, anything good and new will be controversial and risky.

Yes, email has evolved from an open standard to a closed system dominated by only a few big corporations. I don't see how is this situation acceptable - such a fundamental functionality is out of reach to all but a few of us. Well, Gmail and such are free and convenient (until you get banned for no reason), so it's good enough for the most. Trying to get back to the open decentralized ecosystem is a waste of time.

But we do it anyway - and we start with the identity layer. Email based on blockchain identity, free and open. I've been working on this for a while, still WIP but check it out: https://ubikom.cc

Hersh is clearly a douche. But what if the US did, indeed, destroy those pipelines? Great job, guys. Blow up the rest of them. The last I’ve heard, South Stream is still operational.

The US does use metric system (you can easily go and buy 2 liter bottle of Coke). What you probably mean, why the metric system is not mandated as the only one acceptable for basically everything? Why indeed.

Google had a perfect solution for this, Google Voice (formerly Grand Central). This amazing product was languishing for years due to the lack of attention on Google side. They don't let it die, but it doesn't look like they let it live, either. Shame, could be a total game changer.

> In reality, the Wikipedia Foundation is doing just fine. In fact, they make so much money from donations, they spend (read: waste) massive amounts of it on various social ventures instead of using it on the service that caused people to donate in the first place.

That's a strong statement that requires some proof and links to the sources.

I guess we need to apologize to Russia and Putin and just hope that maybe, maybe he will be kind enough to give Europe cheap oil and gas.

I feel that if you make a claim like this, you should link to the full text of your exchange.

Ukrainian troops have entered Kherson city, the regional capital, and residents have flooded the central square, waving Ukrainian flags, according to social media images geolocated by CNN. The main bridge across the Dnipro River has also been destroyed.

Putin has invaded Ukraine in 2014. The war was ongoing since then.

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 when NATO membership was nowhere on the actual agenda.

The Russian annexation of Crimea had at least some ambiguity. Yes, it was illegal, but Crimea used to belong to Russia, it had majority Russian-speakers, and there was no violence on any significant scale during takeover. The question was, if they are taking over your territory, why don't you fight back? The answer is obviously complicated (and for the record I fully support Ukraine, and I think Crimea and all other occupied territories must be returned to Ukraine). Russia has succeeded, to some extent, making it a "one-of" issue. Now, of course, they've completely destroyed their previous position, it turns out Crimea is not special, they basically try to annex any territory they have any sort of control over.