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[Mrhappyface]

Haha, finally watched that South Park episode. What's kind of ironic is that Saint Nicholas is actually the patron saint of military intelligence. But then again, he's the patron saint of timber merchants, Murano glassmakers, murderers, and more!
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/people/

[Darvi]

What's kind of ironic is that Saint Nicholas is actually the patron saint of military intelligence.

Well he does know if you were naughty or nice...

[misko27]

St. Nicholsd id sctuslly the patron Saint of my family, so let me assure you those are not all in one religion. In the Orthodox Church at least, he is the Patron "Children (not surprising), coopers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters (Significantly more surprising), the falsely accused, repentant thieves, pharmacists, archers, and pawnbrokers".That's what the wiki tells me. I knew about the sailors and fishermen, and the children and archers and theives, but not the others.

[miauw62]

In Belgium, the Netherlands and I assume Luxembourg too Saint Nicholas has his holiday which is basically a second christmas for little children at the start of december.

[10ebbor10]

It depends on where you look. Some people have Sint-Nicholas, other celebrate St. Marten . (Who comes a month earlier). Interesting stuff, actually.

Also, saying the obvious, but Santa Claus is a cheap knock-off of Sinterklaas.

Also, patron saints are funny bunch. Saint Isodore of Seville is patron saint of "the Internet, computer users, computer technicians, programmers, students". He's traditionally depicted with a beehive.

Particulary ironic is the patron saint of Astronomy, falsely accused people, and scientists. Saint Dominic*.

*Founder of the Dominicanes, dogs of the Lord, and the main force of the inquisition.

[Max White]

So this happened...

[Sheb]

Hear it on the radio this morning. Of course, the US deny ever spying on Merkel, but do I need to explain to anyone why we can't trust them?

[Max White]

To be fair they never denied ever spying on her, they denied currently spying on her or planning to in the future. When you are dealing with these people it is important to take very careful note of the tense.

[Sheb]

Right. It is true that even if they were tapping her phone, they'd be stupid to continue right now.

[Zangi]

To be fair they never denied ever spying on her, they denied currently spying on her or planning to in the future. When you are dealing with these people it is important to take very careful note of the tense.

Of course, new plans can be made in the future, when things have died down.

[Frumple]

Not really a major powers thing. That's something that happens from the ground up and from the top to the bottom.

Can I get a preach it from Brother Tzu?

Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory.

[misko27]

Not really a major powers thing. That's something that happens from the ground up and from the top to the bottom.

Can I get a preach it from Brother Tzu?

Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory.

I heard the snappier English version:

Know yourself, know your enemy: a 1000 battles, a 1000 won.

[Frumple]

Eh, there's like a half dozen snappier english versions, misk. I just went with the first one google pulled up

I usually remember it as "Know yourself as you know your enemy and you need not fear the results of a hundred battles,"* and completely forget the wording for the remainder of the saying. The other two parts are equally important, though, which makes consistently forgetting them unfortunate.

*Though that actually distorts the meaning somewhat. That as is tricksy.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

So Lightbeam came out today. It's a program by Mozilla that shows you an interactive map of your internet browsing in its totality....including who may be watching you, and how. It also meshes with ABP.

Thought it was pretty relevant to this thread.

[GlyphGryph]

Ah, Merkel. "Spying is perfectly okay! If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about! ...wait. Wait. They were spying on me!? THAT IS UNCONSCIONABLE! This is an outrage! Spying is WRONG! You promised I wouldn't be targeting when I sold my people out to your government, and now you're just casually casting me aside like some sort of... commoner!? I won't stand for it!"