nekojima's comments

From what I understand of the case, the cash was smuggled from the US to Mexico and deposited into accounts with HSBC based in Mexico. Consumer goods were then purchased in Mexico and shipped to Colombia and elsewhere (but not the US). While there should have been a lot more local oversight for money laundering, why should US government agencies have access to bank accounts in Mexico to determine if there has been money laundering activities?

This is a local matter, as it is in other jurisdictions, and the US can formally complain through the established channels, treaties, and agencies which allow for sanctions to be placed on banks and jurisdictions where there is excessive money laundering activities and low oversight.

I work as a Deputy Returning Officer for elections in Canada. This role (simply stated) involves distributing and counting ballots at a local polling station, and ensuring the Elections Act is followed. While I do not support disenfranchising the mentally disabled from voting, it should be recognized that often its a parent, spouse, or caregiver who is the one voting and making the choice for the mentally disabled voter. This can mean they are essentially voting twice, or more if they are assisting multiple people. In one case in the last federal election, I refused to allowed a man to assist both of his children to vote, instead his wife had to assist the second child. This was within the authority of the role and there was no problem.

As long as there are some safeguards in place the mentally disabled should be allowed to vote, or make the attempt. If you sat there for a few days and saw who came out to vote, you may rather wish they too weren't having an influence on helping to elect the next government or opposition parties.

Everyone knew the Canadian combat military mission in Afghanistan was finally going to end in 2011, when the Tim Hortons' outlet closed down. Donut availability can have a predictive (or reactive) nature.

Their research for the vision they have developed for the new SimCity had quite a different result from the basic Facebook poll I did earlier this week amongst my friends.

Self-selected responders replied to my post asking if they were interested in playing the new game as SP, MP or both, along with how many have purchased and how many would like to or will.

Of sixty responses, two chose MP only. Fifty-three both SP & MP(including sandbox option I hadn't initially mentioned), and five SP only. Three had purchased the game, all wanting refunds because a lack of SP and server issues (which had to do with their own connection issue in one case).

Over fifty had played one of the previous versions of SimCity. Almost none now wanted to buy/license this version, because of the issues, connectivity, and lack of SP gameplay.

Granted it was a small sample, not scientifically done, and self-selecting responders, but I very much doubt the sincerity of EA's reply that the "vision" they have developed for this new version is based on actual user feedback, or the users are an EA selected group designed to give that them the response they want.

"Pretty much any digital good you buy cannot be resold. Usually reselling your account under which you made such purchases is also not allowed. All in all its a shitty deal for anyone buying digital goods."

You aren't buying digital goods, you are either renting or buying a lease on those digital goods. The terms and conditions of those purchases of leases or by paying rent do not provide you with the same rights and obligations as a hard copy or un-DRM version would normally provide (either through terms and conditions or various national legislation & regulations). That is part of the agreement you make when you pay for digital goods.

It is for these reasons why I have stopped spending on large priced digital items and only buy a lease when the items are on significant discount, such as costing less than $10, or rent when substantially discounted. There are few things, including hot new games which I'd normally want to buy, that I'm willing to pay for a virtual copy. I have close to zero trust these services will be around in a few years, or that their servers are sufficient to not lose my purchase record in the coming year or two. While I'm sure I would get my $20-80 worth of use out of the game or book, the concept of the inevitable loss of the item is more important as an influence to me, than the utility & pleasure of the use of the item now.

Slightly higher rates would not be due to competition, but the reduced economies of scale and the perceived increased risk from relying on potentially fewer clients and a smaller loan book. A reduction in the Return on Equity could help to compensate to lower interest rate, but then the bank may not be as favoured or valued as highly by investors.

As well as the 225 scholarly reports, plus additional articles, on the dig sites. They exceeded almost all universities and archaeology units in the UK on an individual institution basis for output and quality of work. It may have been a TV series, but the folks doing the work were serious archaeologists who did real work, making a real contribution.

The technical advances used in archaeology illustrated over the past twenty years of this program have been phenomenal. While a trowel is still mandatory, the use of geophysics technology has advanced and assisted in fieldwork in so many ways. Highlighted by Time Team, its a shame to see that this won't be as public anymore to such a wide audience.

When we fly over New Hampshire in a commercial plane, does this mean the captain or flight attendants will be obligated to tell us not to take photos of the state from the air, if any buildings are visible or identifiable as buildings based on other landmarks? Unbelievably this has been possible for well over a century (including use of air ships), only now has it become an issue for excessive regulation.

A better (and perhaps cheaper) solution would be to use either Cities in Motion which has a good transportation model, or Cities XL (I'd suggest the 2011 version for price and performance over 2012) which has a good balanced play as the cities grow in size. These seem from initial new SC exposure, to be better models for teaching and from a learning perspective. As well the saved games feature (hardly a feature, more a necessity for most of us) is far more valuable for teaching lessons, which the new SC lacks.

I've heard uncensored 50 Cent & Eminem in the toy section of Japanese department stores (as well as elsewhere in the stores, but hearing in the toy section was most memorable). Many of the locals don't understand most of the lyrics, but liked the tune or beat.

Another anecdotal story would be in my classroom in 1980-90s Canada, where not all the students wrote those international testing exams, and of those that did, only a select few had their tests submitted by the school for grading. This was confirmed to the school's PTA (Parent Teacher Association) after concerns were raised about taking time from teaching for an exam that was not felt to help the students' learning.

Having discussed the issue with a senior education ministry official in Singapore, they pre-select which schools and students write the exam. Even if all students in those schools write the exam, not all exam scores are submitted. She did a study in China recently (not yet published), and there only elite urban schools are tested, primarily in Shanghai and Beijing, with a similar selection process.

I would much prefer my children to be taught in a middle-ranked Canadian school, than any I have so-far visited in Singapore or China, no matter at what level the students supposedly score on international tests.

Only seems worthwhile using and relying on online storage, if you use two or three completely separate services, all sync'ed. So if one goes down or disappears without notice, you have backups, and can add another completely independent service.

Though with bandwidth limits and limited online storage capacity (I've over 200GB of business files, plus 450,000 photos, over 1TB), still appears more cost effective and efficient to backup to a portable hard drive every few months anything new and store at a secondary secure location, with online storage only being used for short periods until that backup is made and a local drive copy of that backup used on a daily basis.

'It didn't help that the OP is a student from Venezuela which is not one of America's trading partners.'

A common misconception among Americans. Though understandable considering the state of diplomatic relations.

"The United States is Venezuela's most important trading partner. U.S. exports to Venezuela include machinery, organic chemicals, agricultural products, optical and medical instruments, autos and auto parts. Oil dominates U.S. imports from Venezuela, which is one of the top four suppliers of foreign oil to the United States. About 500 U.S. companies are represented in Venezuela. U.S. foreign direct investment in Venezuela is concentrated largely in the petroleum, manufacturing, and finance sectors."

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35766.htm

This site is the maximum you should pay, as its what travel agents & aggragators pull data from. I've regular found cheaper flights from onetravel.com, but I use the Matrix site to find flights (for years now), as all available flights & code-shares are usually on there. Some rare exceptions. I normally flight to/from or in Asia and any airline I care to fly, except for a few that only sell on their own website, are listed on the Matrix site.

Additional coverage:

http://gawker.com/5977130/could-you-be-the-adventurous-woman...

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/genforscher-georg... (in German)

Is that why when I got my own place, I never had any xmas presents under the tree? :-(

A second article and more examples:

Tencent’s WeChat comes under fire for international censorship practices

http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/01/11/tencents-wechat-comes-...

Same road in Beijing, Jan 9 vs 12, showing difference in visible air quality.

http://twitpic.com/buocrx

How are those electric vehicles powered, by coal? Coal is the only cheap and viable short & medium term energy resource solution for China, and a substantial problem (though only not the only source) for causing the pollution currently around Beijing.