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As Americans I think we have reached some kind of milestone for irony when we are being (validly) lectured by the heirs to our cold war nemesis about privacy.

As Americans I think we have reached some kind of milestone for irony when we are being (validly) lectured by the heirs to our cold war nemesis about privacy. BTW, I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit, and there are a lot of brilliant engineers there.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
This smells like gamesmanship on the part of the Russians. I assume our State Department would do the same if the shoe were on the other foot. In any .case, I'm sure the Russians, and everyone else finds the irony delicious. As far as I am concerned, I welcome any negative influence from any source WRT spying on everyone, all of the time.
jstanley 13y ago
I can vouch for there being brilliant engineers. I recently went to an ACM ICPC practice week in Zurich. The teams present were mostly evenly matched, except for the Russians. They kicked ass completely. They won every single day by a long way.
- gngeal 13y ago
  I suspect that's a math-heavy competition? This goes back to the times of Dijkstra, who - when visiting Russia - wrote quite unflatteringly about most stuff Soviet but the one thing he praised was that his Russian lecture attendees were uncommonly well-grounded in math and the theory of computation.
- georgecmu 13y ago
  A friend of mine wrote a 'memoir' of his start in mathematics research as a schoolboy in St Petersburg: http://windowsontheory.org/2013/04/12/research-life-stories-ilyamironov/ http://windowsontheory.org/2013/04/12/research-life-stories-... Incidentally, he was on the team finishing in 2nd place in 1998 ACM finals.
huhtenberg 13y ago
> I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit It is, but as an old joke goes - just make sure to not confuse tourism for immigration.
kostya-kow 13y ago
Russia government is hypocritical. They criticize US government because of Prism, but at the same time they close and censor newspapers, TV channels, and websites. They also murder and imprison journalists and everyone else who disagrees with them. US was, and still is much more free country than Russia. >BTW, I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit, and there are a lot of brilliant engineers there. Unfortunately most of the engineers emigrated to US or other European countries after break up of Soviet Union. Right now, science in Russia is only remnants of the past glory. Russia has declined a lot since the break up of Soviet Union. During Soviet Union, life sucked but there was huge amounts of research, and Russian engineering, chess and mathematics were as good as US counterparts. During Revolution, most Russian intelligentsia either escaped to the west or got shot. By providing free education, Soviet Union steadily re-build the class. But when Soviet Union fell apart there was a huge brain drain. All the good scientists moved to the West. In Russia, it is much more profitable to be a criminal and steal from the people instead of contributing anything something. Before, Russia was a country run by crazy, paranoid government, and now it is a country run by criminals.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
  Sounds like Bulgaria.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

This smells like gamesmanship on the part of the Russians. I assume our State Department would do the same if the shoe were on the other foot. In any .case, I'm sure the Russians, and everyone else finds the irony delicious. As far as I am concerned, I welcome any negative influence from any source WRT spying on everyone, all of the time.

jstanley 13y ago

I can vouch for there being brilliant engineers. I recently went to an ACM ICPC practice week in Zurich. The teams present were mostly evenly matched, except for the Russians. They kicked ass completely. They won every single day by a long way.

gngeal 13y ago
I suspect that's a math-heavy competition? This goes back to the times of Dijkstra, who - when visiting Russia - wrote quite unflatteringly about most stuff Soviet but the one thing he praised was that his Russian lecture attendees were uncommonly well-grounded in math and the theory of computation.
georgecmu 13y ago
A friend of mine wrote a 'memoir' of his start in mathematics research as a schoolboy in St Petersburg: http://windowsontheory.org/2013/04/12/research-life-stories-ilyamironov/ http://windowsontheory.org/2013/04/12/research-life-stories-... Incidentally, he was on the team finishing in 2nd place in 1998 ACM finals.

huhtenberg 13y ago

> I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit It is, but as an old joke goes - just make sure to not confuse tourism for immigration.

kostya-kow 13y ago

Russia government is hypocritical. They criticize US government because of Prism, but at the same time they close and censor newspapers, TV channels, and websites. They also murder and imprison journalists and everyone else who disagrees with them. US was, and still is much more free country than Russia. >BTW, I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit, and there are a lot of brilliant engineers there. Unfortunately most of the engineers emigrated to US or other European countries after break up of Soviet Union. Right now, science in Russia is only remnants of the past glory. Russia has declined a lot since the break up of Soviet Union. During Soviet Union, life sucked but there was huge amounts of research, and Russian engineering, chess and mathematics were as good as US counterparts. During Revolution, most Russian intelligentsia either escaped to the west or got shot. By providing free education, Soviet Union steadily re-build the class. But when Soviet Union fell apart there was a huge brain drain. All the good scientists moved to the West. In Russia, it is much more profitable to be a criminal and steal from the people instead of contributing anything something. Before, Russia was a country run by crazy, paranoid government, and now it is a country run by criminals.

ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
Sounds like Bulgaria.