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Comment Re:to-belgium-with-900-strong-entourage-45-vehicle (Score 1) 289

Kirkpatrick was originally - in her words 'an AFL-CIO Democrat'. She switched sides over this issue.

Also let's look at her prediction

Moreover, the history of this century provides no grounds for expecting that radical totalitarian regimes will transform themselves. At the moment there is a far greater likelihood of progressive liberalization and democratization in the governments of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile than in the government of Cuba; in Taiwan than in the Peopleâ(TM)s Republic of China; in South Korea than in North Korea; in Zaire than in Angola; and so forth.

That turned out pretty much spot on didn't it? All the pro US authoritarian states apart from Zaire liberalised. And anti US totalitarian ones did not - not even after USSR collpased

So right now Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Taiwan and South Korea are all democracies. I've worked in Taiwan, South Korea and China and Taiwan - which Carter sold out completely - is a lot more civilised than China.

Comment Re:to-belgium-with-900-strong-entourage-45-vehicle (Score 1) 289

Even if all that were true he still wouldn't be as bad as Carter

http://www.commentarymagazine....

The foreign policy of the Carter administration fails not for lack of good intentions but for lack of realism about the nature of traditional versus revolutionary autocracies and the relation of each to the American national interest. Only intellectual fashion and the tyranny of Right/Left thinking prevent intelligent men of good will from perceiving the facts that traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies, that they are more susceptible of liberalization, and that they are more compatible with U.S. interests. The evidence on all these points is clear enough.

Surely it is now beyond reasonable doubt that the present governments of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos are much more repressive than those of the despised previous rulers; that the government of the People's Republic of China is more repressive than that of Taiwan, that North Korea is more repressive than South Korea, and so forth. This is the most important lesson of Vietnam and Cambodia. It is not new but it is a gruesome reminder of harsh facts.

Carter took a hard line with traditional US allies but a very soft one with traditional US enemies. The end result was predictably that US enemies gained and US allies lost. The problem was that those US enemies were actually even more repressive than the most dubious of the US's allies. Khomeini was worse than the Shah. The PRC was worse than the ROC.

Comment Re:Why are they posting old source code? (Score 5, Insightful) 224

That doesn't mean that Windows 8 is 'based on Dos' anymore than a Linux box with the Dosbox emulator running Dos apps in a windows is.

Incidentally in 64 bit Windows there is no NTVDM or support for 16 bit Windows - you can have 16 bit apps running on a 32 bit kernel via a thunking layer (Windows On Windows), or 32 bit apps running on a 64 bit kernel via a thunking layer (WOW64) but you can't have 16 bit apps running on two thunking layers on a 64 bit kernel. Since Microsoft won't support memory above 4GB using PAE on 32 bit Windows you pretty much have to use 64 bit Windows on a machine with more than 4GB. In fact even on a 4GB machine you'll have more usable memory with a 64 bit OS than a 32 bit one - there's a hole under 4GB for PCI memory mapped space. The only way to get access to the memory the hole covers up is to see it about 4GB. With current Microsoft OSs that is only supported on 64 bit OSs. So in the long run most machines are going to come with a 64 bit OS and that means no NTVDM.

Of course part of it is probably that 16 bit Windows and Dos apps have pretty much ceased to be commercially important. And if you want retro games you've been better off with something like Doxbox than NTVDM for some time.

Comment Re:False info (Score 1) 551

First, whatever source you are getting 41% from, were they there? Did they actually count the votes? Or are you getting this information from western media, who logically did not even have access to Crimea at the time of vote? To recap you don't know who is lying (Russians or the West), but the source that you choose to believe literally has no way of knowing the truth in either case.

Gallup did opinion polls in 2011 and 2013

http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-...

Incidentally doesn't it seem a little suspicious to you that western media ' did not even have access to Crimea at the time of vote'? The reason for that being that the Russian army and pro Russian militias wouldn't let anyone into Crimea from Ukraine or the West - the whole country was under lockdown with anyone who wasn't repeating the mantra that "you're either with Russia or you're a Nazi" was either kept out or beaten up.

Second, I have seen pictures of ballots (I also happen to read Russian since I was born in Ukraine, thought it was USSR at the time). The choices are "Would you like to join Russian Federation" or "Would you like Crimea to stay an autonomous republic as part of Ukraine".

If you look at the ballot here you can see one option is to join Russia and one is to restore the 1992 constitution.

What does that mean?

http://www.reuters.com/article...

According to a format of the ballot paper, published on the parliament's website, the first question will ask: "Are you in favor of the reunification of Crimea with Russia as a part of the Russian Federation?"

The second asks: "Are you in favor of restoring the 1992 Constitution and the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine?"

At first glance, the second option seems to offer the prospects of the peninsula remaining within Ukraine.

But the 1992 national blueprint - which was adopted soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union and then quickly abolished by the young post-Soviet Ukrainian state - is far from doing that.

This foresees giving Crimea all the qualities of an independent entity within Ukraine - but with the broad right to determine its own path and choose relations with whom it wants - including Russia.

With the pro-Russian assembly already saying it wants to return Crimea to Russia, this second option only offers a slightly longer route to shifting the peninsula back under Russian control, analysts say.

The option of asking people if they wish to stick with the status quo - in which Crimea enjoys autonomy but remains part of Ukraine - is not on offer.

Like I say you can vote to join Russia or restore the 1992 Crimea Constitution. Under which, incidentally the Crimean Parliament could decide to join Russia without another referendum.

Third, I have friends living in Crimea. They would rather be part of Russia, because they would rather have stability than being a part of a failed and corrupt state where revolutions occur every 3-4 years. Also, since you believe that all Ukrainians are held at gunpoint here's a Ukrainian (me) telling you that Russia did the right thing. I assure you nobody is holding me at gunpoint.

I've got friends in Russia and they would rather Putin - who they call 'the Russian Mugabe' loses this gamble because it means he's likelier to lose power.

But hey anecdotes have a small sample size. If you want a decent sample size look at the Gallup polls. And note that the most popular option with 53% support in 2013 - autonomy inside the Ukraine - wasn't even on offer. Also note that 97% in favour is a very unlikely number to get in any referendum.

Comment Re: At this point, just take their territory from (Score 1) 551

Because they almost certainly don't? Objective polling before the election put only 41% of Crimeans in favour of becoming part of Russia. Russia invaded, installed a puppet Crimean government (kicking the democratically elected one out) took over the airwaves, spread propaganda everywhere, refused to allow impartial international observers in and then called an election which they "won" with 97% support - the jump from 41% to 97% isn't within any sane margin of error.

It's less than 41% actually. In 2011 it was 33% and in 2013 it was 23%

http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-...

Also the leader of the puppet government - a Russian gangster nick named Goblin - was from a party which got 4% of the vote in the last elections. And it's not even clear that the votes in Parliament making him PM and organising the referendum were quorate. Also Parliament was surrounded by gunmen who only let in MPs who would vote the right way

http://time.com/19097/putin-cr...

So far, the most revealing aspect of his time in power has been the way he came to possess it. Before dawn on Feb. 27, at least two dozen heavily armed men stormed the Crimean parliament building and the nearby headquarters of the regional government, bringing with them a cache of assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades. A few hours later, Aksyonov walked into the parliament and, after a brief round of talks with the gunmen, began to gather a quorum of the chamber's lawmakers.

It is not clear whether the parliament was seized that day on his orders. On the one hand, the masked gunmen identified themselves as members of Crimea's "self-defense forces," all of which are, according to Aksyonov, directly under his control. On the other, he claims the seizure of the buildings was done "spontaneously" by a mysterious group of fighters. "We only knew that these were Russian nationalist forces," he tells TIME in an interview Sunday. "These were people who share our Russian ideology. So if they wanted to kill someone, they would have killed the nightwatchmen who were inside."

Instead, they let the guards go, sealed the doors and only allowed the lawmakers whom Aksyonov invited to enter the building. Various media accounts have disputed whether he was able to gather a quorum of 50 of his peers before the session convened that day, and some Crimean legislators who were registered as present have said they did not come near the building. In any case, those who did arrive could hardly have voted their conscience while pro-Russian gunmen stood in the wings with rocket launchers. Both of the votes held that day were unanimous. The first appointed Aksyonov, a rookie statesman with less than four years experience as a local parliamentarian, as the new Prime Minister of Crimea. The second vote called for a referendum on the peninsula's secession from Ukraine.

Oh and the referendum offered people a choice between independence (and joining Russia later) or joining Russia immediately - "yes, now" or "yes, later". There was no way to vote for the status quo of staying inside the Ukraine.

https://www.kyivpost.com/conte...

The ballot for March 16 Crimean referendum gives two choices, to join Russia or become independent.

Voters in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea who vote in the March 16 referendum have two choices - join Russia immediately or declare independence and then join Russia.

So the choices are "yes, now" or "yes, later."

The referendum took place only two weeks later during which posters told people they could choose between Russia and Nazism, Ukrainian TV was taken off the air and pro Ukrainian campaigners were beaten up.

Plus the 97% figure voting to join Russia is unbelievable.

You really have to want to believe that anything anyone anti US says is true to accept all this as being the will of the people in Crimea to join Russia.

Comment Re:Correct me if I'm wrong... (Score 1) 298

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

The F-4's biggest weakness, as it was initially designed, was its lack of an internal cannon. For a brief period, doctrine held that turning combat would be impossible at supersonic speeds and little effort was made to teach pilots air combat maneuvering. In reality, engagements quickly became subsonic, as pilots would slow down in an effort to get behind their adversaries. Furthermore, the relatively new heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles at the time were frequently reported as unreliable and pilots had to use multiple shots (also known as ripple-firing), just to hit one enemy fighter. To compound the problem, rules of engagement in Vietnam precluded long-range missile attacks in most instances, as visual identification was normally required. Many pilots found themselves on the tail of an enemy aircraft but too close to fire short-range Falcons or Sidewinders. Although by 1965 USAF F-4Cs began carrying SUU-16 external gunpods containing a 20 mm (.79 in) M61 Vulcan Gatling cannon, USAF cockpits were not equipped with lead-computing gunsights until the introduction of the SUU-23, virtually assuring a miss in a maneuvering fight. Some marine corps aircraft carried two pods for strafing. In addition to the loss of performance due to drag, combat showed the externally mounted cannon to be inaccurate unless frequently boresighted, yet far more cost-effective than missiles. The lack of a cannon was finally addressed by adding an internally mounted 20 mm (.79 in) M61 Vulcan on the F-4E

The notion that air to air combat is going to be missile based implicitly assumes the US will only fight countries which are enormously inferior in military capabilities or where people don't want to fight - e.g. Iraq, Libya etc. Put the US in a battle with North Korea, China, Russia etc and things will change.

Comment Re: WTF! No posts?!?! (Score 0) 217

LTTE is Long TTerm Evolution, a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements. The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9.

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