If by that you mean, that it was you talking out of your ass (the inside of it), then you are probably right.

Maldives is yielding to pressure both from the US (which probably did kidnap the guy) and from Russia. Russians see Maldives as THE PRIME DESTINATION for anyone with money. The name "Maldives" in very, very common in modern Russia. But the reason they were pressured to take responsibility is that kidnapping a direct relative of a Parliament Member makes this potentially an Act Of War. US doesn't want the possibility of such such interpretation being made. And neither does Russia. Russia is in no position to let go of even a minor act of war right now. The internal Russian media has been blaming the West for Ukraine's asserted independence and has created a war-path climate. Russia would HAVE TO respond to even a minor act of war at this point. And they don't want to be forced into this position over someone nabbed on fraud charges.

Cooperating with the US would have been (and still is) a terrible PR move for Maldives. Russian oligarchs are their main customers.

Maldives doesn't give two craps about the US. The reason it would lie (if it were to lie) would be to placate Russia. Russian tourism money is one of its main sources of revenue. Not just general tourism, but specifically Russian. Vacationing in Maldives is the considered the main indication that one "has arrived" in modern Russia. It's where the Russian Big Money go when they want to prove that they are BIg Money. If there is even a hint that they served as US lap dogs, this particular little vacation destination will be abandoned. They are gonna have to prove now that a son of an MP was on Interpol watch list. Because he almost certainly was travelling on a diplomatic passport and was most likely outside of the reach of Interpol's jurisdiction.

It's your father's microkernel. A more elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

I was going to say something about people who are financial tools themselves...

However, I guess you're right. I want to be responsible for my money, and I want to be able to use it freely, without government snooping. If that makes me a money launderer, so be it. It's like those politically organized pirates that simply want to use a free Internet, rather than rape and pillage.

Bitcoin isn't even particularly anonymous. If you want to launder your coins, you need to trust a third party, which kind of ruins the point of a decentralized/free currency. There are much better cryptocurrencies out there for anonymous purposes.

Then your company was rich. Not the regular user's typical monitor.

If you were rich. The typical monitors back then were still 15-inch non-flat CRTs.

How can that be "typical", when most monitors at the time did up to 1024x768?

Obligatory "me too", via Saunalahti/Elisa @ .fi for a couple of years now.

Indeed. And in this review, the guy explains how to build a solid gaming PC for $500, same price as the quite weaker Xbox One (before they got rid of the Kinect).

What language exactly are you writing in? It appears to be english but you appear to not understand english. I quote the first amendment.

Where in that set of phrases do you see a freedom "from" religion? It enshrines the principle that the "government" can neither establish a state church or prevent the free exercise of any religion. It does nothing to protect atheists from having to live around non-atheists. You have to make that choice yourself and move elsewhere if you don't like your neighbours. It binds the government to prevent them from interfering and it does not grant you any rights as a citizen to lord over others who choose to practice a religion.

What was the typical resolution for playing games at the time? The Dreamcast did 640x480, and it looked fine with a VGA box or an S-Video cable.

Nothing but light!

We're cooking with green energy!

Note to self: sell industries connected with mercury for CFLs, but LED makers

He didn't say Nye is not a scientist, but that climatology is not Nye's field (it is mechanical engineering, actually).