You might be interested in this course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pWv7GOvuf0
Readit NewsKepler-327b commented on Ask HN: Real world examples and advice for applying reinforcement deep learning? · Posted by u/akiselev
> You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated.
Well, I think this is bollocks. I think what you described is what the western media would like you to believe: Russia and China assassinate, whereas the USA "only" makes up bogus charges against you and encarcerate you.
I don't know much about China, but there are endless examples of Russia making up bogus charges, and endless examples of US assassinations. These two are closer than most westerners are comfortable thinking.
I'm sure you can find counter-examples, but there are qualitative and quantitative differences in the oppression styles
List of journalists killed in Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...
List of assassinated American politicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_...
In America, they have to at least keep up the pre-text that you are free. Because of the statue of liberty etc. The idea is that if people believe (falsely) that they are free, they are less likely to resist. It's definitely a different style.
Also don't worry I'm not a shill for mainstream media :)
I don't believe he's been assassinated, no. I believe it's just that his internet access has been cut.
It's simply not their style (to assassinate him). You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated. If someone speaks out against the establishment in the West, the response is far more insidious, they will run smear campaigns against you, call you a rapist etc, try to control information. Not unlike Scientology. An assassination is typically the last resort because of the extra paperwork involved.
Kepler-327b commented on LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia techcrunch.com/2016/11/17... · Posted by u/DyslexicAtheist
As a Russian citizen, I used LinkedIn heavily to find jobs in Europe (along with stackoverflow.com/jobs). I keep a lot of contacts there (e.g. former colleagues and European recruiters, some of them are very helpful).
I found it's alarming that LinkedIn is blocked in Russia. Blocking LinkedIn significantly reduces chances to find a job in Europe.
But I expected that since I watched closely on new laws restricting internet freedom in Russia.
Official motivation behind this law is to prevent US spying on Russian citizens (this law was proposed after Snowden's scandal).
Of course, this motivation was a lie as everything else which came out of dirty rotten mouths of nasty Kremlin bastards.
The real motivation is that the Kremlin loves to spy on its own citizens. And they already did that for a long time.
The problem is that these anti-freedom laws do bother only very small percentage of Russians. The rest of Russia won't even notice if Kremlin completely shuts down access to the global internet. Heck, the majority of Russians doesn't even bother to learn elementary English!
Stupid people buy everything Kremlin tells them, including version about protecting Russian citizens from US NSA.
The general principle is that any government is constantly trying to expand itself and limit citizen's freedoms. The only force which can prevent government from endlessly limiting citizen's freedoms is the majority of citizens (definitely not a minority of non-rich citizens). Every freedom above what masses asking for is only at mercy of the government's bueracrats.
It means that in absolutely any country masses fully deserve their government.
I wrote more details about this principle here:
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-living-in-totalitarian-s...
So I consider myself as a part of absolute tiny minority of Russian citizens which has no voice at all (thanks to backward masses).
That's why I left Russia and I hope forever!
I think LinkedIn could be unblocked if LinkedIn agrees to meet these crazy requirements. Even if LinkedIn would be unblocked, it won't change sad state of freedoms in Russia.
P.S. I hope to get rid of toxic Russian citizenship in the future.
It sounds like you have the Curse of Knowledge.
Take a look at this experiment, it shows that what is self-evident to you may not be as self-evident to others.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/83l/overcoming_the_curse_of_knowledg...
"In 1990, Elizabeth Newton did a fascinating psychology experiment: She paired participants into teams of two: one tapper and one listener. The tappers picked one of 25 well-known songs and would tap out the rhythm on a table. Their partner - the designated listener - was asked to guess the song. How do you think they did?
Not well. Of the 120 songs tapped out on the table, the listeners only guessed 3 of them correctly - a measly 2.5 percent. But get this: before the listeners gave their answer, the tappers were asked to predict how likely their partner was to get it right. Their guess? Tappers thought their partners would get the song 50 percent of the time. You know, only overconfident by a factor of 20. What made the tappers so far off?
They lost perspective because they were "cursed" with the additional knowledge of the song title.Chip and Dan Heath use the story in their book Made to Stick to introduce the term:
"The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it's like to lack that knowledge. When they're tapping, they can't imagine what it's like for the listeners to hear isolated taps rather than a song. This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has "cursed" us. And it becomes difficult or us to share our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our listeners' state of mind.""What is the easiest way to explain to the average citizen that the "Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument is not a good reason to let the Government keep tabs on your online activities? Most people don't give any thought to online privacy that it truly scares me.
Many of the responses given to this question are fairly weak, eg. "but what if you don't want people to see you naked?". Invasion of privacy affects someone's dignity, sure, but it's the fact that it makes one _politically neutered_ that's the actual issue and is harder to explain.
Here's one response: "Imagine if you ever wanted to join the Occupy Wall Street movement or something like that. All of a sudden the government, who will now see you as a threat, can go through everything you've ever done and hold it against you. Remember that one time you pirated a movie? Jail time. Remember that one time you experimented with drugs? Jail time. They will dig up something from your past and use it against you. Oppression is not a theoretical idea and not only an historical problem. Having all information about yourself available essentially makes you politically neutered."
I'll be putting together a set of real-world examples to further emphasize the point.