Facebook photos, posts, etc., can play an important role in income tax investigations

As an example, people merrily post photos, videos, etc., of their foreign and domestic trips on social platforms such as Facebook. Government agencies such as the one tasked with investigating proper income tax payment can obtain valuable information from the stuff posted by people on these social networking websites. For example, if someone has posted a hundred photos of his 21-day trip to South America on FB, but hasn't declared/disclosed the purchase of international air tickets, foreign currency, etc., then these photos can serve as a conclusive evidence against him.

So it seems that governments can, and perhaps will, start using data uploaded to social networking websites for not only criminal investigations, but also for other, less serious purposes.

China is being kept/left behind the US because of, among other things, this

China is being held back because of inefficiency and wastage. Look at how much time, money, fuel and other resources are being wasted in such traffic jams. These people could've/should've utilized this time and this money for either work or leisure. However they did nothing in this time. The fuel spent in this jam did no useful work. And so on. This is not development. This is sheer wastage, and it's keeping China back, although it might seem to profit oil companies.

Is it possible to smuggle a small-sized nuclear bomb to the US via a visiting presidential plane?

Just wondering. Could Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, carry a small-sized nuclear weapon to the US in his presidential Il-96 aircraft, to be secretly handed over to GRU's Spetsnaz assassins covertly operating in the US? I'm not sure if this is possible, but it doesn't seem unfeasible.

Putin could get this done while visiting the US for a UN meeting. He could hand over the package while staying at his hotel.

Update [Dec'15]: Just watched The Peacemaker. Smuggling of an atomic bomb into the US using inviolate diplomatic baggage is also shown in this movie.

NYT and other MSM outlets have used "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" in a vulgar manner

This so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been a frequently and widely used "source" on Syria by almost every major Western and Western-supported news outlet, including The New York Times. A search on NYT shows that it occurs on no less than 1,715 different pieces of content produced by NYT.

It's a fact that this sophisticated-sounding "Observatory" is run by one man, and even calling this one-man outlet an "organization" is a stretch. Using his information as a primary and key source in hundreds of articles by dozens of major newspapers isn't just irresponsible, it is blatant and malicious propaganda. More so because the major Western newspapers which so frequently quote the SOHR never explain why they trust and use this "source", or how does the SOHR get its information. Western media continues to quote SOHR as if it's a sophisticated and trustworthy source of on-the-ground information on Syria, using sentences such as "...the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in a statement...". What observatory? What reporting? What statement? The SOHR is actually a one-man blog with zero credibility, unless you're trying to fool hundreds of millions in the general public and dozens of governments.

More disturbingly, the NYT and others can sometimes give the reader an illusion that more than one source is reporting the same news, making the reader feel that the information is likely to be correct, whereas in reality all the roots go back to this one-man blog.

What can one decipher and infer from all of this? Only one thing. That the NYT is fully in bed with the CIA, Pentagon, and others, as a powerful media propaganda branch of these institutions.

Update [24-Oct-15, 24-Nov-14]: More SOHR trash here and here.

Update [23-Jan-16]: More SOHR shit here on Reuters. It's all Western propaganda packaged as authentic news.

Update [23-Dec-16]: SOHR called out as an unreliable [and likely biased] one-man outfit.

Netflix is one of those few online video platforms which can challenge Google's YouTube

In order to successfully challenge Google's seemingly-insurmountable YouTube, at least the following three qualities are needed:

• Massive technology infrastructure to upload, transcode, search and stream user-generated videos.
• Large user base running into tens of millions, which is interested in watching movies/videos.
• A popular brand name.

I strongly feel that among the few contenders that seem to have the ability to successfully mount a challenge to YouTube, Netflix has a prominent position. Its technological infrastructure and capabilities cannot be questioned, considering its existing business. Equally importantly, it has a massive, paying customer base, and this customer base can be used to both upload user-generated videos [like YouTube] and to watch these same videos [either supported by ads or included alongside the customer's premium Netflix streaming subscription package].

Update [9-Jun-17]: Amazon [especially], Facebook [especially], and also Microsoft can mount a challenge to YouTube.

Europe already has a great, European-made alternative to Google - it's called Yandex

Much has been made of Europe's desire [and in particular of France] to have its own Web search engine, to [rightfully] reduce the dependence on America's Google and Bing, for cultural, economic and even national security reasons. Barring one product, there aren't decent European alternatives to American search giants. If dirty politics and foreign policy had not come in the way, the quest of Europeans for a European search engine would have [happily] ended long back at the one exception - the great search engine called Yandex.

Yandex, a powerful search engine from the exemplary computer scientists, programmers, mathematicians and researchers at Yandex LLC [the topmost technology company of Russia] is also available in English [apart from some other languages], and brief usage quickly indicates to anyone that it's a very good search engine.

Europe doesn't need Quaero. What Europe needs is more localized versions of Yandex [French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, etc.]. European nations such as France, Germany, etc., could've setup local branches of Yandex, and could've funded these local branches instead of trying to reinvent the wheel from scratch in the very costly game of Web search.

Update [3-Oct-17]: Qwant is wrong when it says that it is the only European search engine.

Tupolev Tu-144 and Concorde could've had military applications too

The two main assets of the Tupolev Tu-144 [world's first supersonic passenger airliner] and Concorde were their supersonic speed, and the capacity to transport 100-140 passengers. It immediately becomes clear that there's a potential military application here, especially since no contemporary military transport place is supersonic. These two birds, if revived, can introduce the ability to transport men and machines of military to distant places at supersonic speeds, something that's unique to these planes at this moment. There's no other way today to rapidly transport 100-140 men of military that's faster than what these two planes provide/provided.

On a second thought, modified versions of these two planes could also have been used as supersonic bombers [for free-fall bombs, carpet bombing]. Modified versions could've been designed such that these could drop free-falling bombs through a door that would open at the bottom of the fuselage. Similarly, it might have been possible to "drop" cruise missiles such as the BrahMos from such modified-for-warfare planes, assuming that the recoil to the airframe during the drop/launch is negligible.

It's far more easy for Russia to conduct airstrikes in Syria, than it is for US, et al.

The simple reason why it's much more easy for Russia to conduct aerial strikes in Syria, than it is for the West, is that for Russia/Syria, both IS/ISIL/ISIS and the so-called rebels are enemies, whereas the West wants to strike only IS/ISIL/ISIS, and wants to preserve the extremists/terrorists who are opposed to the Syrian President.

As a consequence, the West has to take extreme care when conducting aerial bombing/strikes in Syria. In contrast, Russia, in coordination with the Syrian Arab Army, can strike anywhere where there is armed opposition to the legitimate Syrian government - whether it's from IS/ISIL/ISIS or from the terrorist rebels financed and supported by the West.

Wide rift between Russia and Ukraine is not good for both the countries - it is exactly what the West wanted in the first place

Ukraine has banned Russian airlines [another link], and Russia has reciprocated the measure by banning Ukrainian airlines [another link]. Score settled, right? Wrong. If we look at the broader picture from the above, it is the #1 SSR of the USSR fighting with the #2. Fellow Slav people have become thirsty for the blood of each other. And in this whole process, the real victor is West. Both Russia and Ukraine are losers, as are other SSRs of the USSR. This wide rift between Russia and Ukraine is exactly what the West wanted always, in order to weaken both of these nations, and especially West's perennial target - Russia. West wants to divide Russia and Ukraine on the lines of what Britain did to India and Pakistan [a FB post by me; alternative link].

The West wants to, first of all, break cultural, emotional and legendary historical ties between Russia and Ukraine by distancing these two peoples. Incidents such as Russians walking out when Poroshenko spoke, Ukrainians walking out when Putin spoke, Ukraine banning Russian movies/news channels/TV shows, etc., are, to put in simple words, not good at all. Banning flights, barring trade, imposing sanctions on each other, etc., will together have the effect of creating a rigid wall between these great nations, weakening both of them. Exactly the kind of thing that the West wants to do to Slav people - especially Russians.

UPDATE [OCT'15]: New developments here and here.

UPDATE [NOV'15]: More new developments here and here. Thiese tit-for-tat steps by Russia and Ukraine will, in the end, only strengthen the West and help its nefarious long-term goals.

UPDATE [DEC'15]: More worrying development here [Westernization of Soviet Union's legendary Antonov An-124]. And more Westernization of other Antonov aircraft [at the behest of Western puppet Petro Poroshenko]. Plus frequent and many tussles over An-70.

UPDATE [JAN'16]: The move by Petro "Puppet" Poroshenko to replace Russian language with English is yet another sign of the dangerous rift between fellow Slav people, orchestrated from Washington. This Westernization of Ukraine will weaken the Slav people as a whole.

•  Ukraine not participating in regional events held in Russian territory [link]

Why did China and India order several aircraft and helicopters, respectively, from the US and not Russia?

China/Chinese airlines recently ordered 300 aircraft from Boeing [including both narrowbody and widebody planes], while India ordered several Boeing military helicopters. At this point one is forced to wonder - why did China order 300 passenger planes from the US - it's biggest adversary - and not from Russia, especially when the latter needs all the help it can get at this point? In the case of India, the decision to get even closer to the US is more understandable - shrewd Boeing officials most likely paid bribes to the guys responsible for making the decision, and the Americans thus won the lucrative Indian order.

But what about China? Why didn't China instead order Russia's 21st century airliner, the Irkut MS-21 [MC-21]? If immediate deliveries are a concern, then with such a large order, China could've ordered a mix of Boeing and Russian planes, especially when the MS-21 is expected to be a comfortable, efficient, modern and safe airliner on a par with contemporary Western narrowbody planes. This is hard to understand. China could've single-handedly propped up Russia's legendary but needy civil aviation industry and would've surely secured a two-way win-win deal for both the countries in the process.

I'm pretty confident that if Boeing's Completion Center was a strong attraction for China, Russia's UAC would've also been happy to setup a similar center in China for the MS-21, if it had been promised a 100+ or 150+ order for the plane from Chinese airlines and also the flexibility to export.

Why didn't China help Russia in this time of need?

[UPDATE]: Even more curiously, why does Iran have plans to buy several Airbus/Boeing planes? Why doesn't Iran buy planes from its friend/savior Russia instead [Superjet 100, MC-21, Il-96, etc.]?

[UPDATE]: I just realized that I have little right to complain and protest about China/India/Iran not purchasing Russian passenger aircraft, when top Russian airlines [example, another example, and another] themselves prefer and operate Airbus and Boeing planes. Sigh!

[UPDATE]: China just placed a massive order with Airbus and with Airbus Helicopters. Sigh.

[UPDATE]: And indeed, Iran confirmed plans to buy 114 Airbus aircraft soon. Nothing Russian. Sigh. What's more, this WSJ article says that "Iran keen to re-establish ties with Boeing".

[UPDATE]: And Iran "invites" Boeing for "talks". Sigh.

Update [21-May-19]: The China-US trade war is in full swing currently, and US is punching China with its full might, yet China still won't use its buying power / market power to severely hurt Boeing and give a much-needed boost to the only credible challenger to the Western duopoly - the Irkut MC-21. Sigh!

Update [1.10.21]: These days there's much ongoing talk about the US choking China's C919 program by blocking / delaying American components. What I don't understand is, why wasn't this scenario anticipated earlier by the Chinese? After the ZTE saga, it should've been obvious. Even more so after the strangulation of Huawei. And it isn't like there aren't alternatives - Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Russia, China itself, etc. The de-risking of C919's components should've been done right from day 1. Hopefully the CR929 will be protected from these issues.