I don't get it. Germany is the most dependent on Russian gas and Angela Merkel has been the one most dragging their heels on even sanctions. Why would the open letter be addressed to her? Why all the Iraq WMD comparisons when the open letter even admits Germany didn't even want to get involved there? The Baltics states will be the only ones pushing for direct action, and Britian the only one able to take any.

In fact reading through their previous open letters they all seem a bit confused. The only common thread appears to be Russia should be allowed to deny Ukraine access to NATO and a bunch of odd vaguely but not really related historical incidents being thrown in to make the letters appear longer. Their language such as calling the separatists "anti-coup federalists" makes the letters appear to come from a Russian rather than a non-Russian perspective.

I think the "bury out heads in the sand and hope Russia doesn't do anything" is a little late. He's already invaded Georgia once and Ukraine twice. His home propaganda is a resounding success, with the people prepared to back future invasions, and the parliament is filled with his puppets. Ukraine joining NATO or falling under New Soviet rule seems inevitable and they probably prefer the former.

Phillip.

The invasion of Europe by Russia is pretty big news, and will have an impact on everything from the economy to space exploration. NATO has direct evidence of the invasion, and Russia is hardly trying to hide it any more apart from the loopy puppet Sergei Lavrov (the new Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf). Ukraine has already introduced conscription, so that's already a pool of potentially talented young programmers off to get slaughtered by Russian tanks. The Russian murder of those Dutch people in the airliner also has affected air traffic.

As Europe gets sucked unwillingly into war with Russia, this is going to get quite brutal as the Putin doesn't care how many people die on either side even his own. He's got a fair amount of cyber-warfare talent to call on too. Maybe this will be the wake-up call to start putting in place proper encryption EVERYWHERE. War with Russia is a little more important than the NSA passing on tips on drug dealers.

Phillip.

Thirded. I wasted so much time (and some money) trying to get Plex up and going on my server/devices and the quality of the video is crap. I use ES File Explorer now on all my devices to browse the NAS and play videos. This and K9 Mail are two I install and it's not even worth looking for a replacement as they do their job so well.

Phillip.

Is this the Russia that denied having any active units in the Crimean region of Ukraine? Hmm... who to believe...

Phillip.

A bit like they were not invading the Crimean region of Ukraine?

Phillip.
PS you should probably look at a map. Ukraine is quite big.

Russians are being paid to flood the site with propaganda. Unfortunately it doesn't make any sense so you can't argue with it. You just have to sift through the crap to find the real comments.

Phillip.

I'm bewildered. Is this a real post or something computer generated? If the latter then the algorithms need some tweaking as it's the most bizarre drivel I have ever read.

Phillip.

It hasn't. This latest invasion by Russia is of interest to all free countries in the world. Putin has provoked that start of WW3, and we can forget for now this "economic crisis" which pales into insignificance compared to this Russian aggression. And to get ourselves completely off Russian gas is going to need some new tech otherwise we are going to suffer a lot of economic pain.

Phillip.

It's a shame /. doesn't have a way of allowing Anonymous comments but the ability to kill them off based on an IP. Then I could read this thread without all the spam from the Russian troll above.

Phillip.

Wow that is some pretty powerful Russian propaganda you have been drinking there. Calling normal peaceful Ukranians "fascists"? Check. Calling it a "violent overthrow" despite it not being one? Check. Calling the government "ultra nationalist"? Check. Blaming the US despite them having nothing to do with anything? Check. Russians have a "right to use force"? Check.

Thanks for popping in Putin, but your deluded views aren't welcome here.

Phillip.

You've been listening to too much Russian propaganda. A peaceful revolution kicked out a corrupt Russian puppet president in Ukraine (you notice Yanakovich has gone to live with his mate Putin in Russia?). Ukraine wanted to build strong trade links with Europe and Russia. Russia wanted Ukraine to itself. Now Putin has had a tantrum and has vowed to destroy Ukraine.

Of course the West wants peace. However when a crazed dictator starts invading European countries then you need to sit up and take notice. This is the 3rd time he has invaded Europe recently.

Phillip.

Putin's first instinct is to go to war. He has invaded Ukraine once and gotten away with it. He is invading a second time. Next will be Moldova. Then Georgia. Then Latvia. Then the rest of Europe until it is under Putin's rule. Better to stop him on his doorstep, rather than wait until he is parading himself through Paris.

Phillip.

I think you commented on the wrong thread. This one is about the 2nd invasion of Ukraine by Russia, not the US going into Iraq.

Phillip.

Depends on the exposure the publisher wants. Daily if they are paranoid, or weekly seems sensible. As Bitcoin spreads the volatility goes down. Then it could be monthly. But you are missing both the points I made. You can now spend Bitcoin a lot of places, so you can spend directly from your Bitcoin account as (a) it reduces the amount of time you are holding it and (b) there are zero transaction costs for both parties making it currently the world's best currency for transactions. The second is that it doesn't matter if there are a zillion transactions of a zillionth of a dollar. There are no transaction costs, it just goes into the Bitcoin wallet and you end up with a dollar.

At the moment you can pay the Washington Post using all those currencies. There are yanks abroad you know! WP does it by plugins that take (I presume) Paypal or VISA. They do the same thing but take a large chunk of revenue for doing very little. Bitcoin has the potential to eliminate transaction charges, that's why it's interesting.

Phillip.

Except the Catch-22. It will never get adopted if it doesn't gain traction, that requires the early adopters trading what they have to get momentum going to make it worth others mining it. I thought about buying a few for novelty value but didn't bother when I saw it had already broken the $2 barrier. I remember early adopters boasting of the profits they had made when it reached $11. There was that story of one early adopter who mined what became $2M worth but had thrown away the hard drive with them on, and fruitlessly hunted around his local rubbish tip. Despite the paranoid Bitcoin haters infesting this thread, it really doesn't sound like there was any nefarious get-rich-quick scheme involved here.

Phillip.