It is related to the case. I'm reading Russian sources, but the English TFA says as much.
Basically, in 2010, the Russian FSKN (a law enforcement organization specifically fighting drugs) initiated criminal proceedings on allegation of drug contraband in poppy seeds. FSKN experts concluded that the shipment does constitute a shipment of drugs. Zelenina, as an expert witness, said that the particular shipment did not have intentionally added narcotic compounds, and that small amounts of those substances were present because it is in fact impossible to eliminate them entirely from poppy seeds. And now she's jailed on charges of being party to a contraband shipment of drugs. Interestingly, I read that a new legal standard adopted in Russia in 2005 specifies that poppy seeds must be completely free of these narcotic traces, which is a technological impossibility and thus poppy is now only imported and not grown.
Fun thing is that there's another section in Russian law that allows people to be charged for making deliberately false expert witness statements - but she was not charged with that. The punishment for false statements is considerably lower than for drug contraband.
This is actually old news (she's been in jail for a month) but is cropping up again because her appeal is being heard.
Guys, please make sure next time that your default controls are at least functional
5 minutes after launching the game, I'm in the tutorial mission. After learning to target the other ships, I'm told to bank my Viper to align with the drone - only banking is not assigned to anything in a keyboard/mouse setup and I need to fix that myself. Or maybe this is one of those games that are supposed to be played with another input device.
I played the first BtRL demo release when it came out, and I was very impressed. I am not a fan of that gameplay genre, but the demo did a great job at capturing the BSG atmosphere and having dialogue that really fit in with the series. The soundtrack was also good, mixing newly written bits with BSG sounds.
Looking forward to downloading this.
Others have already made good points here.
Satellites and space stuff? Launch systems as we know them are largely the work of von Braun's team. Nazi tech!
Computers? The Z3 was not a particularly elegant machine, but it was the first programmable Turing-complete computer. Back in 1941. A good thing for the war that the Nazi leadership denied funding to upgrade the machine.
How about jet aircraft? The He 178 was the first one to fly. Designed by whom? Oh yeah, Nazis.
The StG 44 assault rifle made by the same damn Nazis was a new designed that influenced both the AK47 and M16. Speaking of weapons, the first military night vision device? Yep, also used by the Nazis and developed in Germany. Or how about their engineers making the first proper radar?
Things aren't as simple as saying the Nazis were horrible and lost the war, thus they provided no useful legacy. They had brilliant engineers and more than a few modern technologies contain innovations developed by Germany during that time. And that's not even considering the innovations that were later developed in the USA but by scientists brought over in Operation Paperclip.
I can relate. I lived in Latvia until a year ago, and while that's a Western country by now, it's also one with much lower income levels than the "proper" Western countries, besides, the whole free market thing is kinda new there.
Thinking about the previous 10 years or so, I think I had seen people with Macs something like 3 or 4 times total. Most people I talked to didn't even know Macs existed, although starting in 2005-2006 I met a fair amount of people who had heard of Linux as an alternative option. After moving to Sweden, I literally saw more Macs being used on my first day than I had seen in Latvia, ever.
Also puts me in an interesting position where I'm a knowledgable computer geek and have used many OSes, but not OS X. The last time I used a Mac was with Mac OS 8, and even that was brief. I think I should just install a Hackintosh at home one weekend because I am curious to play with OS X, to see how it works and whether I'll find it as easy as it's supposed to be.
Oh, and if anyone is curious to the reason why Macs are essentially non-existent in Latvia, it's simple - prices. Macs there cost as much as anywhere else, which in terms of Latvian incomes places them firmly in the luxury item category (especially until a few years ago). Together with the essentially ubiquitous piracy among privately owned computers, it makes the idea of buying a Mac very strange. Case in point, with iPads. Having just checked the prices, an iPad 3 with 16 GB Wi-Fi only in Latvia costs 339 lats, the same with 4G costs 425 lats (not including data plan). MacBooks start at 895 lats. The average monthly income in 2011 after taxes for those employed in Latvia was 330 lats (about 600 USD at today's rate). Puts things into perspective.
Link to story: http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2009256
Interesting moments are as follows. There are three projects for which software has been requested. One is for "researching the methods of intelligence in Internet centers and regional segments of social networks", another is for "researching the unofficial methods of management on the Internet", and finally work on "methods for advancing special information in social networks". So essentially, it's figuring out how to make certain information popular on social networks, and figuring out the dynamics and largely emergent social structures within these networks. These are designed to work together, ultimately with the bots capable of "massive dissemination of information in specified social networks using existing user accounts, with the goal of forming the public opinion".
Given that the SVR is behind this, it's likely that the intent, at least originally, is to use this abroad, not within Russia. The article says so and quotes a source saying ex-USSR countries would be the first target. That bit certainly looks realistic given the geopolitical situation there, with Russia essentially being in a state of low-key information warfare versus some former Soviet states.
Yep, on that note.
Being born in the USSR and growing up in ex-USSR, and being exposed to US-centric culture through the Internet, I've seen a fair amount of both. And it saddens me to see how Yuri Gagarin is mostly hailed as a Soviet/Russian hero and achievement, with Neil Armstrong being hailed as an American hero. Space travel is the single most spectacular thing achieved by mankind. Gagarin and Armstrong, as the first to fly in space and to walk on another celestial body, are heroes for all of humanity and should be remembered as such. What they did was - figuratively and literally - above countries and national borders. And the next person to join their league will be whoever first walks on Mars.
With Armstrong's death now, there's a sad feeling of manned space exploration being essentially over. I'm not alone among the geeky population to be fascinated and captivated by space travel, but I've recognized for a while now that the romantic visions are not going to come true anytime soon. 8 years from the first human in space to the first human on the Moon (with space programs that were competing, not cooperating), and nothing for the last 40 years. Just as the development of some areas, computers first and foremost, exceeded everyone's wildest dreams, space travel turned out to be far less impressive. The best we can expect for the next 2-3 decades at least is a Mars landing (largely by a country wanting to signal its might), and a small research outpost on the Moon.
So that's going on a rant, but Armstrong's death is sad in more ways than one.
I have a Sony reader and find that e-ink is far superior for books. A tablet has the same screen as the computer does. I've never liked reading large amount of text from the screen. A tablet display feels like a computer screen, an e-ink display feels like a book.
I would definitely recommend an e-reader for anything except technical literature. If you have PDFs with equations, flowcharts, illustrations and the like, they should be read on a tablet or proper computer. For fiction, e-ink is far superior.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.