Russia Fines Google 2×10³⁶ Rubles over YouTube Bans | Hacker News Reader

Russia Fines Google 2×10³⁶ Rubles over YouTube Bans

themoscowtimes.com

13 pointssmartmic12 comments

Somewhat off-topic, but this reminds me of an old bit about Niklaus Wirth[0][1]:

   Whereas Europeans generally pronounce his name the right way ('Nick-louse 
   Veert'), Americans invariably mangle it into 'Nickel's Worth.' This is to say 
   that Europeans call him by name, but Americans call him by value.

[0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Niklaus_Wirth

[1] In looking this up, I discovered that Wirth passed away on 1 January this year. You will be missed, sir!

Edit: Fixed typo.

Did you mean to post this elsewhere? This is really non sequitur.

>Did you mean to post this elsewhere? This is really non sequitur.

No. I thought of it because Russia fined Google 2*10^36 Rubles. While it falls far short of a Googol (10^100), it's still a ridiculously large number and, as such, it made me think of that anecdote about Niklaus Wirth.

As in: Russia calls Google by value rather than by name. ha ha ha.

Why was someone insulating Wirth like that?

What's the idea behind this? It can't be to act foolish.

Often when Russia does something that appears foolish to the west, it's because it is for internal propaganda purposes. The west is not the intended audience.

Interesting, how would this be used as propaganda inside Russia?

As foolish as stealing assets of Russians

Either way it is noise used to serve propaganda

If this has any effect at all it could put downward pressure on the ruble.

something is wrong with one of their numbers, because 2 undecillion rubles is roughly 21 decillion USD, not 2.5 decillion USD

>something is wrong with one of their numbers, because 2 undecillion rubles is roughly 21 decillion USD, not 2.5 decillion USD

Given that the world GDP is just north of USD$100x10^12, and Russia fined Google ~USD$2x10^33, does it really matter as it's orders of magnitude greater than the output of the world?

Makes me think of Putin as Doctor Evil[0] with his pinky in his mouth saying "two undecillion Rubles!"

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Evil

It's not much different than a judge sentencing someone to multiple life sentences.

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