Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nerd brain recoiling in attempt to square first sentence of this comment with last one.
Reading carefully affords one the privilege of reading less.
Doubleplusgood. We have always been at war with Reddit.
The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
71–80 of 84 posts
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
the material facts of this story are the only interesting part. The facts are simple: 1. some guy made good counterfeit money 2. he got caught through a series of mistakes a. sloppy waste disposal b. over trusting This is the same pattern as for most crimes. Seriously, minus the murder bit, it's a law and order episode. What I want to know, is not the predictable sequence of events, but who would do this, why would t…
> This is the same pattern as for most crimes. Seriously, minus the murder bit, it's a law and order episode. I guess that's why the original Law & Order is one of the few TV shows I like. > What I want to know, is not the predictable sequence of events, but who would do this, why would they do this, tell me the thought process that leads to these actions. I also want to know all this, so I think you may have misunde…
Perhaps you have a perfect geographical understanding of the world, but I would have no idea what this alternative sentence would mean (which i constructed by my best understanding of what you claim to want):
A meeting was arranged in near the Cathedral in Cologne.
To me, that leaves a ton of questions:
How busy is this place? What are the odds a meeting would seem out of place? What is the tenor of the crowd? Who would be paying attention to a meeting and noticing?
Further, I would be curious, but not frustratingly so, about what the setting in general looked like. I'm a visual person, I like when an author helps me, visualize what I'm reading, it makes my comprehension easier.
I maintain that you are being disingenuous, because you are refusing to accept that others may find this stuff useful, because you don't and therefore suggest all things be done to your preference. Like I said, don't read something from a source known to do this. Find the AP feed instead, because some of us actually get better understanding from articles written like this.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally. A friend in I tried this (not in the US) using bills approximately $20 in value. We had a mediocre Epson printer and just did the approach of scan+print. We'd then handle the bills and throw them with dirt. Nothing fancy; just two kids playing around to get some extra beer money and also just to see if we could pull it off. Out of the 10 times we tried using the fakes, we only were noticed once. It's very, v…
This sounds very fishy. Imaging and scaning software, along with printer drivers have built in currency detectors to prevent this.
This wasn't always the case.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Movies are there primarily to entertain. News stories are there to inform. If I wanted the dramatic, drawn-out version, I'd see the "based on a true story!" version. There are lots of events I could be learning about in a day, and I'd like to be able to get the important stuff out of a new story and go on to the other stuff. In contrast, you can't similarly shorten a movie while sticking to its purpose (usually).
Then don't read stories from sources that are known to contextualize rather than report the facts. It's like you keep touching a hot stove, and complain how it keeps burning you.
Who said I did? Of course I ignore such stories, or skim past the first 15 paragraphs to get to the meat.
If I want a page turner, I'll get a novel. For news stories, I just want the information. Time spent learning about the color of the subjects coat is time I could spend reading another story, learning something useful, or entertaining myself through a medium actually optimized for that.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#75Never ever do this, esp in the US, even as a joke. I know of cases in my college where students counterfeited $20 bills as a drunk joke: what they found out is that irrespective of the amount federal agents and the goddam CIA got involved and they got persecuted to the maximum degree. My prof was called as an expert witness in the case.
The Secret Service is tasked with currency counterfeiting crimes, not the CIA.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because world history in America is much the same as the world series - fully encompassing of the whole world, with countries as far afield as.... Canada :) I should have mentioned I grew up and went to school in England, and learning the ins and outs of luminaries like Sir Issac Newton was part of history class. To be fair, we only touched on American history, and obviously seen from the other side of the coi…
Actually the USA is more insular than that. Almost nobody here knows even basic historical facts about its neighbors such as, "The only reason that Canada exists is to not be part of the USA."
Provide references if you want to make huge claims like that.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually the USA is more insular than that. Almost nobody here knows even basic historical facts about its neighbors such as, "The only reason that Canada exists is to not be part of the USA."
Provide references if you want to make huge claims like that.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation#Influenc... and look at the #1 external cause. That doesn't say much about the history, but does confirm that fear of US invasion was important to Canada's formation. Sure, a lot more internal reasons are given, but that external one was by far the most important and drove the timeline.
Here is more background on that. The official policy of the USA was that it was their manifest destiny to expand/conquer/control a variously defined part of the world that always included Canada. In the 1840s the USA launched a fairly unprovoked war on Mexico and annexed half the country. Coming out of that war, the USA negotiated a treaty where they took a large chunk of British territory in the great plains. Then the USA fought the bloodiest war in history to that point. (The US Civil War.) Coming out of that war the USA was hostile to Canada with the Secretary of Defense making comments indicating that Canada was next. And the Fenian raids (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids for more) were being launched from US territory against Canadian targets.
2 years and a week after the ending of the Civil War, the act of Confederation created Canada as a single country. 3 years and 11 months after that, Canada had achieved approximately its current borders. (The USA did manage to take the Alaskan panhandle from BS, Newfoundland didn't join Confederation until after WW 2, but the country was recognizable.) And the #1 goal of the new country was to build a railroad across its southern border so that troops could be moved to meet any possible US invasion.
For more historical background, the original separation of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) was to accommodate refugees from the newly created USA who wished to remain British subjects. In the USA they are called "traitors". In Canada they are still called "loyalists".
And to this day Canada has no real national identity other than, "We're not Americans."
So there. Thank you for proving how little Americans know about Canada, and hopefully you learned something. If you have any follow-up questions I would suggest doing a Google search and reading appropriate Wikipedia articles first.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Provide references if you want to make huge claims like that.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation#Influenc... and look at the #1 external cause. That doesn't say much about the history, but does confirm that fear of US invasion was important to Canada's formation. Sure, a lot more internal reasons are given, but that external one was by far the most important and drove the timeline. Here is more background on that. The official policy of the USA was that i…
:sigh:
I was talking about the claim "Almost nobody here[the US] knows even basic historical facts about its neighbors".
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then don't read stories from sources that are known to contextualize rather than report the facts. It's like you keep touching a hot stove, and complain how it keeps burning you.
Who said I did? Of course I ignore such stories, or skim past the first 15 paragraphs to get to the meat. If I want a page turner, I'll get a novel. For news stories, I just want the information. Time spent learning about the color of the subjects coat is time I could spend reading another story, learning something useful, or entertaining myself through a medium actually optimized for that.
Oh right. I forgot you are the sole arbiter of what is entertaining or useful to learn. My bad, I'll go figure out how to stop being entertained by long-form journalism stories like this. My bad.
Re: The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn’t a Crook — He’s an Artist
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation#Influenc... and look at the #1 external cause. That doesn't say much about the history, but does confirm that fear of US invasion was important to Canada's formation. Sure, a lot more internal reasons are given, but that external one was by far the most important and drove the timeline. Here is more background on that. The official policy of the USA was that i…
:sigh: I was talking about the claim "Almost nobody here[the US] knows even basic historical facts about its neighbors".
Then go and ask Americans basic questions like the one above. Or see how many Canadian provinces they can name. Or Mexican states.