Tero

SPOILER ALERT (?) The last 30% referred to includes a veteran SS-unit (company ?) storming a lone immobilized, seemingly abandonet tank with full strength instead of bypassing it. Typical Hollywood production. Emotional scenes timed in with a stopwatch. Tactics photogenic and thrilling rather than realistic. Mandatory and rather superfluous chick-flick scene vowen into the storyline about half-way through the movie to keep the prospective female audience semi-interested. Mandatory war-is-hell and ambiguous attrocity scenes. Still, all in all it is a decent war movie. One to add to the dvd-collection once released.

That is what you get when you order from the lowest bidder who also spends the most to grease up the system. Couple that with the leaders obsession to regard tech as irrelevant to the power of the "force" masters of which are to be counted with fingers of one hand. Which is kind of realistic.

To be fair to NASA: how often can you start a modern computer driven car once the system tanks without having to use a custom computer driven diagnostics tool ? There is a thing or to to be said in favour of solid state stuff in control of I/II gen electronics.

As I read it it separates IED's, command detonated mines, booby traps such as bunji pits, mines and other "passive hazards" from indirect and direct fire artillery. Yes, calculated together they top small arms fire but separately show "pure" artillery fire was responsible for a fraction of the casualties compared to small arms and "passive hazards". Can't say if the rocket fire refers to RPG or recoilles rifles but I assume it does as Katyusha fire is not dissimilar to artillery fire in the receiving end. Break down here is more specific. http://www.militaryfactory.com/vietnam/casualties.asp#9 It does however seem to corraborate the other sources indication. The cause listed as multiple fragmentary wounds is open to interpretation but even if they are counted solely as artillery related and not as caused by mines or other wound inflicting causes the count falls short of the small arms as cause for fatal casualties as "other explosive devices" is clearly not to be counted as artillery. True. But if statistics are used then it must follow that the number of wounded due to indirect fire artillery must be proportionate to the deaths caused. For the sake of argument the number of indirect fire KIA is 14 000. The number of WIA is I believe in the region of 300 000. If we give, say, 200 000 to artillery then for every one indirect fire KIA there should have been ~14 WIA as opposed to 18 000 small arms KIA there would have been ~5 WIA. I was as surprised as you when going through the figures.

Here's a breakdown which lists cause types in more detail. http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc1.htm According to this source small arms fire was the single most greatest cause for fatal casualties at 31,8% , followed by booby traps etc at 27,4. Artillery is "only" a third of them at 8,4%. Aircraft crashes tops indirect fire casualties at 14,7%.

It remains to be seen if he gets hitched up with a single mother of two children (from two different dads of course).

This implosion is IMO due to the fact studies have shown women spend more money than men on commodities advertised on TV (day time shopping channel anyone ?). Where the add money goes the TV execs will follow. Hence the profusion of reality shows supposedly directed at both sexes but in reality designed to attract the real person making the decisions about the family expenditure. When was the last time there was a decent long time running sci-fi or war series made ? Now we get CSI/medical/doctor shows a dime a dozen.

On the infantry casualty figures: if artillery fragments are supposed to have been the greatest cause for infantry KIA in WWII what was the case during Vietnam War for the US casualties ? AFAIK the NVA/VC relied more on small arms and booby traps than indirect fire in their operations. They supposedly grabbed the enemy belt when ever possible to negate the enemy superiority in indirect firepower. The WIA number during WWII is comparable to the Vietnam figure, despite the disparity in deployment time in years (and supposedly in days in action).

Iraqi WMD's are a good example of how unchecked politicians on a mission can really aggrevate a situation beyond repair. The Israelis are at the moment in no geo-political position to start poking at hornet nests.

With just over 5 million in the space roughly the size of Germany our trafic is devilishly poorly planned. Our cars are exorbitantly and punitively taxed and the roads are in poor condition compared to the tax revenue extracted from the drivers. Public transport is a viable option only in built up areas and is being stripped down from less densly populated areas. There are areas less than 60 km from the capital you can not get out of or into because there is no public transport from friday evening until monday morning. The reason for this is the anti-car lobby has infiltrated the trafic planning through and through. All planning is done in the capital region and the rest of the country gets little consideration. As to the shared space idea, I think it is a load of hogwash. Why not get the public transport running properly and ban the use of private cars in towns altogether ? And restrict goods deliveries to nigh time ? From health POV having combustion engine vehicles crawl among light trafic is a really bad idea for one until an engine which runs clean in low RPMs is mass produced. In general it is a very poor idea to have a single road user segment as the sole observer of trafic regulations and have them also be the solely responsible for trafic safety. Not because might is right but because the drivers are only human. The article complained about car drivers bullying cyclists and pedestrians. If the premise is they alone are responsible for trafic safety then it inherently implies observing trafic regulations is not compulsory for cyclists and pedestrians. That makes THEM the bullies, not the drivers as they are not held responsible for their actions in case trafic accidents occur. I'm all for trafic safety. But trafic is not safe if 2/3 of the road user do not and are not compelled to observe regulations and act responsibly.

Having driven a car for almost 30 years and walking for almost 50 years I think the issue of trafic safety is very important. But there is a very dangerous development afoot. The trafic laws and regulations are extensive but it seems that the anti-car lobby is vilifying cars in a way which is contrary to road safety. The drivers are being taxed and subjected to all manner of subjucation and every killed pedestrian, especially a child, is a martyr. At the same time the observation of trafic regulations by drivers is being stepped up and being made ever more effective and extensive absolutely nothing is being done to curb the pedestrians and cyclists braking of trafic regulations. At least here in Finland the statistics show that even though trafic safety is improving with lowering speed limits in built up areas the number of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists has not diminished. IMO trafic safety in built up areas will not improve until the pedestrians are prevented from diddy-popping into trafic.

By Michael Emrys Just saying in case she has some time to spend inbetween dates. Or needs pointers to where to have the date. None of us is getting any younger. Not that I would even dare to suggest Bugged is getting past her prime..... I would like to point out that Tom of Finland and Adam Lamberts boyfriend are not typical of Finnish men. Nor is Kimi Räikkönen.

Might I suggest a different kind of trip http://www.guildtravel.com/citybreaks/visa-free-cruise-from-helsinki-to-st-petersburg/ Don't know how long a visit you are planning but this is an option. Unless you are of course put off by M/S Estonia and Costa Concordia. BTW: The Finnish Tank museum is ~1hrs drive from Helsinki and the War Museum in Helsinki is hosting the Winter War exhibit until the end of 2012.

By Michael Emrys Regardless of the actual events the realpolitical status of the Russian pesant did improve as a whole, Agreed. But if you think that Murdoch could tap into private correspondence for years without any interference and now the British government wants to curtail private correspondence at leasure the message is rather clear. And rememeber how "it could not happen here" was the chant at the time of the Yugoslavian break up ?

By Vanir Ausf B Because ultimately what WE (=middle class people) think does not really matter unless we get massed votes to further "the agenda". Which is never going to be concentratrated enough to matter as the Western lower classes are local and higher classes are global. The political process is not the problem. The problem is the influence the financial system is excerting on the political system. As it stands the political system is being manipulated by "market forces" which have no vote but still excert the power. Me and my sole consumer currency are not alone enough to affect either the status quo OR the violent revolution.

By womble To sum this up: the ruling class needs to appease the middle class who have the most to lose (relatively speaking) and/or the middle class wants to perpetuate the status quo as they have the most to lose (relatively speaking) and the most to gain (relatively speaking). And that means what when it comes to opportunistic looting ? So if the working conditions improve the Chinese lose the appeal as a target for investment ?

By Michael Emrys Offhand: The French revolution 1789, the Russian revolution of 1918. I would go as far as to claim the US civil war belongs in this cathegory even if is not a revolution. True.

By Vanir Ausf B That would work only for the extremely old who were educated before and right after the war. What about the rest who have been indoctrinated to worship the individuality as defined by the Western culture ? Really ? If everybody in China would vanish from the face of the Earth simultaneously what would happen to the capitalist system ? How much is privately owned by Chinese alone and operated only to provide for the Chinese market ? What would happen if China nationalized every company overnight ?

By Vanir Ausf B What makes you think the problem is solved by replacing the bums with other bums ? When was the last time in recent history a change brought on by a peaceful democratic election of the government brought about a real change in the life of masses ? I think that is the guestion we are trying to answer here. We all think rioting and looting is not the proper solution for the problem. By the same token I think political will has to be able to overrule the "economical imperatives" if the Western society and culture is to survive without violent upheaval. That means that stripping down the government run services funded by tax revenues is detrimental to the development of the Western society. Unless of course the planned development is not what we are being led to believe. Sorry, I forgot you live in the middle of the desert.

By Vanir Ausf B What are Feng Wangs remidies to that development ? Has there been considered things like automation and improved working conditions for this diminishing work force ? Or is the movement of the industries to low labour cost areas the only solution to this "problem" ? The way I see it the core problem is the fact the markets can not function if it is based on ever expanding market and the regulation of manufacturing costs are based on labour force cost while maintaining the continuously increasing profit margin for the owners. At some point the markets will simply cease to exist because the mass consumption of goods can not happen as the majority of the population simply can not afford to buy even the cheapestly produced product.

By Bigduke6 What makes it attractive to investment, apart from the cheap and docile labour force ? Forever is not needed. Only as long as it takes to plundge the Western workforce to such a level the companies can start manufacturing goods cheaply and without too much regard for such superfluous things like safety regulations. Provided the system lasts and the planet can take it that long of course.

By Vanir Ausf B What makes it different ? What makes the Western societies so decandent that an opportunity will turn most members to robbers ? (AFAIK there has been a marked change in this in the last 50 years.) You left out the part "running the capitalist system". And that is important bit. What makes them different, in essense, apart from the sheer size ? The Chinese society is by no means an open or free society.

By Vanir Ausf B Are you under the impression the form of goverment corresponds with the level of "evility" of the government and the evil within the system correponds with the way it collects and distributes tax revenue ? In ancient world the rulers were only as good as the circuses they threw and the amount of bread they distributed. Once they twindeled the masses revolted. What makes you think the capitalists will last much longer than communists now that the communists have been outconsumed and there is nothing but the ruling class to compare with when it comes to the wealth of the masses ? Don't take it personally. The middle class has the most to lose when things go tits up. That is why they are the most vocal proponents for preserving the status quo and the prime target for appeacement by the government in power. I can still go walking in my home town at night and not be concerned about being robbed or killed no matter which part of town I'm walking. Can you ?

By dieseltaylor Except the "bread" the masses can afford is infecting them with among other things type 2 diabetes and circuses are funded by ad campaigns depicting goods and services the masses can not afford. They will eventually have to come up with a new strategy to maintain peace and status quo.

By Bigduke6 What about China ? They subscribe to the same credos the NK leadership, right ? Yet COMMUNIST China is practically the sole powerhouse now running the entire Western capitalist system. Very true. What is more people are not stupid. If the ruling class increases taxation and decrease the level or social services while at the same time the businesses are shutting down and moving to China the basis of the consumer society is crumbling at the base of the system. If you strip the consumers their buying power there is no means to consume. Thinking globally is not for the masses if they can not act locally OR they do not have any say in local affairs. The historical life cycle of a social systems seems to be winding down as fast as the life expectancy of your cheapo electronics produced in China.