Often the security services routinely surreptitiously break into your house and rearrange shit in your fridge
That sounds like horrifying gaslighting. Any evidence of this? It just feels like now days you need a camera in your private rooms (at work and at home) because god knows what kind of allegation someone can throw at you, or if the cops come and say you did some shit when you really didn’t etc. A camera connected to the cloud at all times.
To your larger point, I agree that humans can crack. It doesn’t take much when you are alone and no one believes anything you are saying. Imagine someone follows you around and briefly points a laser pointer near the ground. Imagine they do this daily, just for a second. Try explaining it to to others, they’ll think you’re mad. Try explaining it to cops or a shrink. You’ll go crazy in no time.
You better record every waking moment if you want to stand a chance, but by then, you’re already insane.
Yes, I have personal experience with this. It was relatively common in Moscow, and in fact was a part of that station's (and others) security briefing. This was in '92 however, when camera surveillance equipment wasn't readily available to the public cheaply. I suppose being easily detectable that sort of fuckery is less common nowadays .
That’s extremely sadistic. I fear those who can take part in something like that more so than explicit acts. Just rob the place, but don’t do demented stuff like that.
I don't want to give the impression that a Foreign Service career is fraught. My 30 years were gratifying and I often felt I was taking part in history, instead of merely reading about it.
You're not paying for rent or utilities. Your children are provided (generally) with very good, very expensive educations going to school with children of diplomats of other countries.
The pension is fantastic. It's good work if you can get it. Salaries are low initially, but as promotion kicks in, sooner or later you're making real money. My salary at retirement was a little over 160k a year, which is not bad for generic IT support. I retired at 62.
> In a series of secret memos sent back to Washington, described to me by several current and former U.S. officials who have written or read them, diplomats reported that Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet.
I feel like using Russia as an example of the standard US diplomat experience is probably misleading. I suppose I wouldn’t be surprised if similar things happened in South American or African embassies, but a combination of our history with Russia and its general temperament has got to make it a one of the places most prone to this sort of non-direct fucking with people.
Japan is very unlikely to sit and watch during a would be invasion of Taiwan.
Mr. Kishida, the next likely PM of Japan has made it pretty clear that Japan needs to work together with the US in case they have to respond to a Taiwan invasion scenario. Here's the Global Times propaganda piece regarding his recent WSJ interview:
JP plays up China threat card for domestic politics/electioneering. It's theater. Here's how you know JP will seriously engage in TW defense, if they adopt any of the recommendations US think tanks believe is necessary to make US forces survivable in TW defense scenarios. Increase defense budget substantially, hosting US IRBMs, allowing US assets to spread out over other JP islands (agile combat deployment). Non of this is politically feasible, especially the latter since it expose JP population centres to PRC retaliation. For reference Japanese won't even allow US Aegis Ashore ABM to defend themselves against NK nukes.
They are naive, they really think advertising doesn’t work. It works it’s ass off. You can’t find one identity that isn’t influenced by it.
Real programmers use vim. I could sell that for ages. Don’t play games with advertising, you are just as much of a cuck as everyone else (rhetorically speaking, not you specifically).
Anyways, real programmers read HN. I could sell that forever. You think you’re smarter than all of this? Real programmers _______, and by god, you will fucking buy it. Here’s some Rust for you, you real programmer. I’ll inundate you, this stuff works.
I guess we’ll see, right Microsoft? We’ll see in the long run if remote only companies innovate better than you. It’s been 2 years, there’s no way you can measure ‘long term’ yet. We’ll see just how creative you are in your office Mr. Microsoft. Keep making your laptops look like MacBooks, make the new windows taskbar look like OSX dock, keep having your productivity space eaten by Slack and Zoom. How how are those mobile phones going, did you make a dent against Apple or Google? You guys literally had to buy a todo list app (Wunderlist) and subsequently shut it down, because it’s so hard to innovate on a todo list app that’s literally built for you. I guess you guys worked on it remotely. Keep integrating with Linux, the poster child of remote work.
I knew a particular self-important PM that had follow up point-poker meetings that easily went into the three hour range. She was very useless, but it was almost like going to her own little tea-party with her little dolls that she fed fake tea.
Apologies for the gender connotations, but I have no better analogy. It was a little girl playing with her little dolls.
I’m pretty sure having a Manhattan headquarters for many businesses is a form of prestige/credibility. It’ll be there, but would not be shocked if Manhattan becomes just a place where tourists go if this keeps up.
If this can really show me multiple virtual screens that would be good enough for me. Sometime I just want to turn my head and see the status of something without needing a Bloomberg terminal space station setup, or the closed-ness (claustrophobic and uncomfortable over long durations) of an actual VR headset.
This was the digital trade war Trump almost started. He started banning all their tech companies because they banned our tech companies.
It’s a totally fair point, but who knows how it would have all ended. We’ll see what happens next year when Xi is up for lifetime appointment. I feel like that’s the world’s one chance to change China.
That sounds like horrifying gaslighting. Any evidence of this? It just feels like now days you need a camera in your private rooms (at work and at home) because god knows what kind of allegation someone can throw at you, or if the cops come and say you did some shit when you really didn’t etc. A camera connected to the cloud at all times.
To your larger point, I agree that humans can crack. It doesn’t take much when you are alone and no one believes anything you are saying. Imagine someone follows you around and briefly points a laser pointer near the ground. Imagine they do this daily, just for a second. Try explaining it to to others, they’ll think you’re mad. Try explaining it to cops or a shrink. You’ll go crazy in no time.
You better record every waking moment if you want to stand a chance, but by then, you’re already insane.