Alexey Leonov. American ignorance is AMAZING. And unlike A.Leonov I don't have financial grant from the US Govt. to believe in US Moon travel story. Sorry.

But, now we have Putin and prospects for TRUE travel to the Moon are higher. Moon is a very good base for retaliation nuclear warheads/missiles. Easy to launch from Moon to Earth, but impossible for the US to launch a missile to the Moon, especially in terms of timing. Thus, military Moon base is one very prospective strategic (MAD) defence project for Russia.

Sergei Korolev is very popular (cult) figure in Russia and city next to Moscow is named after him. That's not exactly "largely forgotten".

Technology is such a thing that has to be continuous.

How comes, that most powerful engines that NASA has NOW (RD-180, thrust 4.15 MN), are designed/made in the USSR/Russia, and they have half of the thrust of the engines from the cancelled Soviet Moon travel project - the missile named H-1. The most powerful carrier rocket in existence now is also Russian - namely "Energy". NOTHING (nothing!) is left from the engines (F-1, thrust 6.77 MN) that supposedly brought Apollo ships to the Moon (Saturn V). Documentation is LOST.

In contract - first men in Space - Russia still is the only county that is capable of bringing man to space now. DESPITE all the hardships of the 90s. All this is even stranger then 9/11.... War Is Peace / Freedom Is Slavery / Ignorance Is Strength ?

Usually, I don't side with Iran bashing. But THIS particular case upsets me.

I do not accept US imposing its laws outside of its borders. Remember that case of a Russian programmer that as part of his job in Moscow had written code that was removing some form of DRM by Adobe? How he was then grabbed by US authorities and threatened with 20 year sentence or so?

Now - 20 years is better then death penalty, BUT, he was not a citizen of the US. Yet arrested for violating US laws, not Russian laws, while doing job, assigned to him by his supervisor, as an employee (not owner) of the company he worked for.

Fortunately EFF and others got involved and this way or another he got back to Moscow, but I doubt he will be visiting US again, although Russian people are known to be crazy enough to do things like that :)

Maybe EFF should get involved, if they are not, with this case as well.

Remember this day! 20121216
Notice this pattern - in almost mysterious way, forces that can adversely effect this new organism are deterred.

With the advance of the Internet it is impossible to hide the truth - existing human civilization is misguided. Near absolute power is given to the wrong people, and these wrong people are then getting absolutely corrupted by the power. Be it Government., be it Business, be it Religion - ANYWHERE where power is given to few "chosen" - it is abused.

Who would win? The FARE future or CORRUPT yesterday?

That is the issue of human race existence now-days.

I got serious doubts about Japan in reality vs. Japan in virtuality after these nuclear disaster events.

I'm a member of Russian Pirate Party ( http://pirate-party.ru/ ). Of course it is not officially registered one, since until now regulations are rather tough for new party registration in Russia. One attempt was declined in 2011 with a reason given - "High Sea piracy is illegal in Russia".

Official Powers in Russia are tolerant with PP agenda - one can remember famous Microsoft vs. school director Ponosov case (Putin sided in favour of Ponosov, who was acquitted eventually), Government Order No. 2299-p, that mandates transition to Free Software by 2015 for all Govt. agencies (which is an official term for Govt. documents), and few months ago President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with Internet activists where the Pirate Party of Russia was invited.

Having said that, there is multitude of criminal cases on basis of Criminal Code articles 271-272 (unauthorised access and viral software) and 146 (copyright related violations), mostly against people selling unapproved software and anti-copy protection code on CDs, as well as people installing same as a service. So far, very few cases of prosecution attempts (without much success) for personal/private use of unlicensed software are known.

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

An important tag is happening in the US now - almighty corrupt Industrial Society vs. CYBORGENIC Life form commonly known as the Internet, that consists of interconnected data/content/code transmission Networks, all the servers with their data and software, all the client systems, all on-line payment systems, all Humans using those as both consumers and producers of information.

Yes, in 2012 the Industrial Civilization as we know it MAY end - what is coming though? Some call it the Singularity, some called it Communism, some call it The Matrix and Bible gives a good metaphor - "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed" (Mt.13:31) - so, this anti-mustard-seed SOPA happening in the US has to end sooner or later - Life on Earth, Progress and Evolution WILL move on - with those that have ears and eyes to see and understand, WITHOUT those Homo species that don't.

Ongoing and upcoming financial mega-crisis is going to emphasize these processes and weed out ruthlessly those nations and societies that are not willing to adopt - and use of modern information technologies mentioned above in a grass-roots, decentralized non proprietary way is an absolute MUST.

US vs The Internet? We know where SOUND bet is.