Their command economy was not efficient enough to produce all of the supplies they needed. They often had to buy Western grain to feed people. The leaders of the country wanted Western luxuries but, due to their restricted economy, had very limited hard money that was useful outside of the USSR. Hell, even the US relied on the USSR for some things. To build the SR-71, the CIA used shell companies throughout the world to buy titanium from the Soviets.

I moved to Florida from the SF Bay Area a few years ago. I have yet to see a hurricane. The area that I live in hasn't seen a hurricane since something like 1994. That's only 5 years more recently than the Loma Prieta earthquake. The weather is usually in the high 70's or low 80's during the spring and fall. Most of the summer the weather hangs out around 92 degrees. Some summer days are nicer here than in the Bay Area (like when you have a high pressure system over the Sierra Nevada mountains). During the winter you might see some high 20's a few times, but it usually hangs out around 60-70 degrees. This is in North Florida.

No, if you finance a car then the financier is the lien holder, not the registered owner of the vehicle. There is no way in hell that any financial institution would want to be the registered owner for Joe Blow's vehicle. The bank could be held liable if Joe Blow drove drunk and killed a school bus full of children or something insane like that.

Hmmm. I get pissed at girlfriends when they come over and leave the seat down but the lid up. I hate staring into the gaping maw of the toilet bowl every time I need to walk into the bathroom. Furthermore, at a previous home, someone put a cabinet above the toilet. Can't tell you how many times I accidentally dropped something into the bowl from the cabinet shelf. Now the seat and the lid are second nature to me.

Just finished reading the affidavit from the FBI. This guy was a dumbass. He used a gmail account to pay for the VPS service and used his home internet connection to connect to the gmail account. He used his own, hotel, and relatives internet connections to connect to the hosting provider without any sort of anonymizing service. The FBI used either an undercover agent or a confidential informant to eventually find the VPS provider. From there, he was quite easy to track. The FBI had been watching the guy for months. The affidavit suggested it was an undercover agent that was hired as a staff member on the website that lead to this case being cracked open.

Don't be naive. Of course the efficiency matters at this stage. If this is just as efficient, or more efficient than burning the fuel in a turbine, then it's ready for use now. If it is not, then we know that more research is required. The GP was asking "Is this ready for use, or is this one of those technologies they say we will be using 20 years from now?" He framed that in the question of efficiency because that is how you would measure whether this is a viable method of generation or just a technological marvel.

Are you volunteering to be the first to die for your cause? Or did you just mean that other people sh

The CIA has been using British intelligence to spy on US citizens since they were first banned from spying on citizens in 1976.

Maybe in your country credit card security is an illusion, but in the United States (where this battle is currently set to take place), it is not. If I use my ATM card at a store and my account gets stolen, I'm screwed. The bank does not have to give me back my money until after it concludes its investigation. With a credit card, the bank has to credit my account the disputed amount. All of the consumer protections are geared towards credit cards. CurrentC wants you to use your bank account in an EFT so that the retailers do not have to pay the credit card transaction fees. CurrentC provides zero advantage to consumers, and nothing but disadvantages over CC and Apple Pay. CurrentC will lose because it only benefits retailers. Unless they completely stop accepting credit card, no one will bother with CurrentC. And if they stopped accepting cards, then Amazon would be quite happy to take even more market share from brick and mortar retailers.

I know of no jurisdiction in the US that requires you to physically change license plates every year. In Florida, the license plate is owned by a person and can be registered with another car when the plate owner sells or transfers a car. In California, the plate is tied to the car and they will not issue you a new plate unless you buy a car that has been taken by lien, drug forfeiture, etc. We just have stickers that you put on the plate to show you've paid the fees for the year.

Perhaps because, in the USA, don't you physically change the licence plate every year? In the UK the licence plate is permanent and is all that the police nornally need to know. You could physically and illegally change the number plate for a false one, but so you could change my VIN in the windscreen - only looks like a strip of metal stamped with the characters.

No. He already paid for the team. So he has already realized the loss. The question is whether its a short term loss, or not. Either way, if you or I were to purchase a home and then sell it for a loss, we could choose to do the exact same thing: amortize the lost money over the course of many years. As a homeowner you're given the option of realizing the loss in a single tax year, an option he did not have with this loss. The only difference between this and a homeowner who loses money is the scale. The fact that most homeowners cannot afford to lose that kind of money is a separate issue having to do with wealth distribution.

The victim in the dongle incident was unusually sensitive. That is why a key element in such cases is that the personal has to externalize their discomfort and tell the perpetrator that they are uncomfortable in the situation. If someone is unusually sensitive then the onus is on them to let people know. If you're doing or saying something that is questionable, it should be obvious, based on the person's reaction, whether you should stop.

In any reasonable jurisdiction, harassment IS subjective to the receiver of the attention, but they must notify the culprit that they do not appreciate their attention. Any reasonable person should be able to tell when someone is uncomfortable with their behavior, and modify their behavior towards that person accordingly. Where it becomes tricky is when the harasser is in a position of authority. A subordinate may not feel like they can say no. In that case, it is up to others to determine whether or not it was reasonable for the harasser to know that their behavior was unappreciated.

How do I know what a product does without sales or marketing? Someone has to know about it in order for word of mouth to take effect. And what is word of mouth but a viral marketing campaign? I agree that most products are average or mediocre, but to say that sales and marketing is completely useless on a desirable product is naivety at its finest.