Perennial

I'm "conceding" easily on the basis that democracy development in former soviet states has not really been what I expected it to be, irrespective of who seems to be running the show. I'm all for Yushchenko in this, what I don't get is how does it appear to be as difficult as it is to get rid of all the rotten remains the oligarchies have put in place. I hope your facts turn to daily life in the Ukraine asap, I can't say I see the situation quite as clearly, I'm still trying to figure out why an earth Yanukovych has even the support that he has (and trying to hear what the their side is trying to say, even though everything I've heard pretty much states that I shouldn't bother).

No, I was just being inaccurate ... on some other forums this has popped up, I'll see if I can find links to those threads and whether there is anything worthwhile ... and since I at least haven't seen it turn one way or the other I see this thread more than worthwhile.

Yeah, as you said it's a topic long debated ... I've seen many long threads which haven't really arrived at a resolution of any kind. How I go along personally is that I keep mine on all the time ... except for the periodic reboots when XP (on a laptop btw), firewall etc. develop memory leaks, virtual memory "fragmentation" etc. Haven't noticed any problems on my PCs either way ... e.g. currently use one periodically with on/off each day and my main piece of hardware being on all the time.

Tensor is essentially a mapping ... I'll probably confuse you less by providing you this one first : http://vishnu.mth.uct.ac.za/omei/gr/chap3/frame3.html

If someone actually considered the prison system as being not that bad of a place to hang around, makes you wonder whether we'll ever be able to do much for the problem as long as the gap in standard of living is as large as it is (on a large scale that is, if we consider the majority of crimes etc.). Don't think penalizing more and heavier (if that is even possible ... ok, you can come up with stuff) changes much (and it would be preferable to treat the issue differently than locking up a large percentage of the country's population, there are countries where this actually works & crime figures are low).

Running diagnostics (if don't have e.g. a CD which came with your machine you can find the stuff from manufacturer's site, at least usually) might not be a bad idea to see if there is something fundamentally wrong. Hmmm, don't these kinds of "warm up" problems usually have something to do with, say, motherboard battery or something of that kind ?

That is so not the point. Locking people up and throwing away the key does not work, I think the current US system has done good work in proving that. After the fact there is nothing more to be done that try to make sure it never happens again and help those been in the receiving end to pick up the pieces and continue their lives. It's pretty obvious that the first, nor the second, can not be accomplished by letting anyone get off scott free. Exacting revenge should not have a role in modern judicial system.

What do you think about C++/C# in terms of parallel processing / multithreading (I'm not all that familiar with C# and what features it might have in this regime) ?

I consider it a top priority that the offender were to never commit a crime again, the punishment aspect of it is totally secondary.

With respect to conservatives I would call this at least as "hilarious".

If it sounds usable PM me an email address and I'll send it to you.

You're probably right about that .... but I still believe that in long term its better to be influenced by the EU and the west than Putin's Russia, considering the direction Russia seems to be going.

Fatigue crack propagation is essentially what happens when a pre-existing defect (~crack) propagates over a period of time due to fluctuating loading (take as an example a steel axle in a car, they usually have small defects in them, and after repeated loading the defect grows to be large enough to lead to catastophic failure). The case I was referring to has the basic material properties (elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture toughness and other bit more obscure material parameters), some figures about the locally failed area and a pretty detailed (quantitative) analysis on how the failure took place.

Yeah, I'm right here in the old continent. Travelling overall I think is something that ought to be favored as much as possible just because of the perspective it gives. As many above have pointed out the first priority is to find something interesting and then a good place to exercise it ... that's why my favorite place in the US is Boston, for the very same reasons as was given above (+love the town). I think just as long as you find a good place for you to educate yourself with something you really will drawn into ... other things usually have a way of sorting themselves out, especially if you don't think about them all that much.

I was once involved in a fracture mechanical case study analysis which concerned about fatigue crack propagation / fracture of fibula (? quite sure, some bone it was at least) ... I think I can get you the material if it sounds interesting ?

On short term the differences may be minute, but on long term the policies Putin & the eastern sphere are enforcing will in all likelihood backfire with a pretty big bang.

Actually we could throw everything out except a body preparing laws and someone introducing them on tv, people could have green - yes & red - no buttons added to their remotes and could vote on acceptance of every single law. Would give the power of decision to senior citizens, though.

Ain't Kansas the synonym for stagnancy ? Getting away from relatives is the best reason to move. If you want a real change, then going really far like the UK would probably be an option. US and Europe differ in atmosphere and overall quite a bit in my mind, that would really be a change of scenery. Probably playing it safe and staying somewhat close to your turf might be a good start though. If you want to get some new options what to do, in the US from your list I'd pick NY ... it has its own feel and everything you could possible want (personally, my fav in the US is Boston ... but that's just me).

Putin is sure starting to look like a greater "problem". He's quite jealous about the sphere of his, and looks willing to go to great lengths to enforce it. I think the situation in several ex - soviet countries is even worse than in Ukraine (especially if looking eastward) making the current events & whether a honest democratic ending can be found ever more important.

Didn't know the coverage of the first election was as thorough. At least the local parliament declated the election result illegal ... gives some hope for a reasonable resolution.

I heard that at least the EU is planning on sending a bunch of observers to monitor things if they redo the election, don't know how much healthier would the elections be as the result of that. Anyways, in this case it appears the opposition are the ones aiming for a more open society, the "winners" want to create an ever more closed and controlled one a la Russia which ought to be avoided as its still possible.

OK, I'm willing to say that its a VERY special case if you can dodge it (I've had a pretty good year, that's probably the reason for my optimistic argument). Just reminds me that got to do some funding applications for next year ... that is really gonna hit a bull's-eye. Weird enough, a year or two ago I was under the impression that the amount of crap just can't exceed the levels it had back then ... but been proven wrong bigtime.

As above, I think getting a Master's is a good start. I think it is unfortunate how things go, but it also means that researchers/engineers etc. get profiled more than they used to ... previously you had all guys doing scientific or otherwise heavy duty assignments, now e.g. in our department (research centre) you got like 20% doing admin, 60% doing projects, and the remaining 20% are responsible for the basic science (and actually know what is going on in the scientific front). Someone's always got to know how things really are (if you're in a place where that is required naturally) ... and the scientifically oriented guys will for that very reason be able to dodge quite a bit of the "crap" flying your way, and enjoy the science & work as it is.

As weird as it seems even some of the most passionate guys just seem to lose the spark for "pure science". They get held up in pursuing applied like, commercial , assignments and research, project management, and management overall, and it seems that the working life is doing its best to make it easy to avoid doing any "real work" (=science) by flooding with all sorts of junk (=a la red tape and related, once you attend for example a company strategic workshop you start to act a bit like Wally in Dilbie). Then there are these guys who just keep pushing for the science and don't care about the fuss around them, I suppose one of the most affecting factors is why you started pursuing science in the first place ... passions don't die out that easily, surely situations in life can affect but I think you get the picture. The whole "transition" in my mind is a really sad thing, people end up doing more or less trivial stuff and after a couple of years that is all they can really do.

Good point, myself I'm under the impression that the "punishment" aspect is ensured too maliciously whilst rehabilitation is considered a second order priority.