Historical claims related to the Soviet Union or Russia are often exaggerated or blown out of proportion.

Another example of this phenomena, in addition to the one, which I mentioned in my previous post, - the Tsar Ivan the Terrible executed during his reign of half a century less people than were executed during the St. Bartholomew's Day(!) massacre. Still he is called the Terrible, but not Catherine de' Medici or the King Charles IX.

The highest number of prisoners in the Soviet Union's GULAG was less than 2 million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

In the USA nowadays there are 2.5 million prisoners http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

Even one political prisoner or an innocent person in prison is too much. But I just wanted to say that USSR's prisons were not like on Star Wars scale, not the largest in the world.

Almost everybody has an HD photo-camera nowadays. Why not make some images from the excavation site and publish them together with the text about the discovery?

Drawings are OK, but nothing can substitute an HD JPG image.

It is quite common in Europe to speak two or three languages fluently. If there are 2 - 3 engineers who speak 2 - 3 languages fluently then most of the major languages are covered.

By the way, it is often just a stereotype that all people are drunk here or there. Brazil economy grew 2.5% in 2013, it is certainly achieved by hard working people.

Then at least she could avoid blaming a carnival, and concentrate more on her linguistic skills. Or hiring Portuguese speaking engineers instead of non technical interpreters to run a computer system in Brazil.

Many people around the world speak English at different levels. Sometimes it is just Globish or an Airport English. But Brazil is an enormous country where people do speak Portuguese. No way around it.

She works with a whole system in Brazil via an non technical interpreter? Did it ever occur to her to learn Portuguese language?

Buy a silent mouse, which is used for recording studious. A quality silent keyboards. And most important the best monitor you can afford, and use it as a second display for your notebook.

Plus the fiber-optic internet access.

A good chair and a foot-rest will not harm too.

I would expect that the Curiosity with the nuclear power source would blow out of the water all other rovers.

Is it wheels' design that slows Curiosity?

It is a lot. Why car industry does not make cars like this?

It is really funny :o)

Privacy is about getting out. Put on light t-shirt, thin-sole running shoes, light shorts and go with your partner to a park, a stadium, etc.

Or go to a beach for a swim.

Have a meaningful private conversation while running, walking or swimming. Speak in a calm quiet voice, not louder than necessary.

So getting out is good not only for health, but for privacy too. Besides, it is much safer to run together or to walk together.

There are nowadays portable hi-tech rockets capable to fly to very high altitudes with enormous speed and precision. They are obviously very expensive and out of reach of Ukrainian or DNR military.

How do we know that it was a DNR or Ukrainian rocket? It could also be a portable hi-tech rocket smuggled into Ukraine by a 3rd, or 4th, or even 5th party of this conflict.

I wonder if it is possible to prove or disprove a human landing on the Moon irrefutably?
And if yes - how and when?

Or why it is still one large black box, but not, say, 20 orange 64GB flash drives, which fall all over the place?
An aircraft costs hundreds of millions and 20 flash drives cost peanuts. And it is not a problem at all to write to several flash drives simultaneously.

The Russian society is divided in numerous socioeconomic groups, the same as the US or any other society.

These groups have different understanding of security, and completely different interests in general. For some, security means keeping control over their power and billions, for some finding at last a job or starting a modest web-based business.

There are not only Russians, French, Americans, etc., but also socioeconomic groups with very similar interests and aspirations.