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Stalins Organ

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Posts posted by Stalins Organ

  1. As expected, and predicted by members of this forum, after initial attacks by "coalition" aircraft and cruise misiles, Gadafis forces stormes the city of Bengazi. The objective is mostly to use the city as a "human shield" for its forces, aswell as looking for the coalition to cause collateral damage.

    He was going there anyway, so ascribing continued movement as something that has resulted from the UN resolution and attacks seems a bit odd.

    Reports today say he has failed to make significant inroads into the city - eg BBc

    Interesting video:

    A rebel plane (MIG-23) is shot down by friendly fire over the skies of Bengazi

    Still of it are all over the news - who identified it as rebel?

  2. I think saying the 60's was better in the USA than now is like saying 10 years ago was better in Egypt - in both cases "better" pretty much just means the public was ignorant of the corruption, venality, back room deals, duplicity, tec of the powers that be.

  3. There have been some major tsunami's (or things that might have been tsunamis) in the UK, such as the one in the Bristol estuary in 1607, and the North Sea is known to generate the occasional tsunami too.

    And there is enough seismic activity in the UK to make monitoring and addressing it worthwhile.

    One thing about tsunamis is their ability to affect at a distance, and their ability to be generated by events that do not require fault-lines - eg continental shelvs can have "landlsides" at their edges due to errosion, etc. And hte tsunami can then travel many hundreds of miles to cause destruction on land.

  4. I think this has been a ringing endorsement of nuclear safety.

    Force 9 earthquake, 7m tsunami, 40 year old design - zero dead.

    Generally I agree, however I read a report this morning (can't find it now :() the death toll at he reactors is at least 4 from fires and collapses,

    and the media are now pumping the "50 heroes" - the crew still trying to work around the reactors to evaluate teh damage, etc - as if they have all sworn to commit suicide if need be to do their jobs - it's all a bit bizarre/morbid - and I wish those individuals all the luck in the world!

  5. APP...Eye in the Sky........yeah - that was a while ago - many girlfriends!! ;)

    These days I mostly just buy music from artists performing at the blues club & other local venues - all sorts - lots of blues, rock, alt-country, a little jazz (although I have a special loathing for "discordant" jazz some other varieties are nice).

    Not a "pop" purchaser any more - last non-local CD I bought was Leonard Cohen at his concert

  6. I'm curious how the U.S. government would measure the radiation in the air to tell whether or not it's a danger to US people. How could they possibly tell how much of it is blowing over here?

    Basically with particle filters ('cos radiation resides in particles, not in "the air" per se (AFAIK)) and a geiger counter or some other equipment to measure the decay present in those particles.

    Plus probably some means of identifying the exact materials - particularly isotopes - I think that's how they used to identify how well the PRC & USSR were going with their nucelar bombs once upon a tim - by identifying the isotopes released by atmospheric tests.

  7. I'd say it's too late now anyway. The Benghazi Handicap has been run again.

    I don't think so - Gaddafi has firepower....but very limited numbers. KO some tanks, artillery and a/c and suddenly he's not got any advantage at all.

    And even with his firepower advantage his numbers of actual fightnig troops has to be a problem simply keeping combat-ready garrisons in newly retaken towns.

    And the 2nd biggest oil company is now funding the rebels......dunno what that means in terms of money....but it means some.

  8. News that iodide was being distributed is "old hat" now - there has certainly been leakage of radioactive materials - some of it deliberate to relieve pressure.

    that doesn't require a melt down.

    At least some of the places that recorded high levels are now back to normal.

    I've yet to see any evidence that the amount of radioactive material will cause anything like a disaster other than to the workers and residents nearby who copped it at short range.

  9. Hey SO any info on what aviation assets were lost at the Sendai airport? I'm pretty sure I saw a few military aircraft smashed up onto a hangar there.

    There's some photos here that show light a/c among the cars, and a video here that shows the wave coming in, but no a/care obvious in it - there may be 1 or 2 in the background - it's hard to tell - but I haven't seen or heard anything other than the news reports.

  10. Unless one or more of hte reactors does actually melt down, the amount of radioactive material released is pretty much insignificant unless you are directly in the path and close to it - if any makes the Americas it will be able to be detected only by the most sensitive systems - if at all.

    Of course if a reactor does melt down and breach containment it's another story.

    However this is also an exercise in risk management - backup cooling was provided by diesel engines ....but the engines themselves were taken out by the tsunami and apaprently there's no 3rd level backup - "rapid shutdown" takes power production down to about 6% of max...which is still a lot and has to go somewhere for a at least several days until it slowly runs down further.

    Perhaps the sea shore is not such a great place to put a reactor??

    Fukushima_I_NPP_1975.jpg

    From here - blog on Nuclear Energy 101 particularly in relation to the Japanese reactors, their design considerations, what is going on inside the cor and why, etc. - a good woo-less read.

  11. Well I think the same about the whole pirate thing. What's so great about pirates? If you say to the mum of a toddler that it's a pirate themed birthday party, they will think it's cute and dress their little one up. But if you say it's a rape, murder, theft and slavery party they won't be so keen.

    tell them it's training for a career with a potential average $1.5 million annual income.

    It is piece work tho....

  12. Sure. You can't prove a negative, it's logically impossible.

    Actually given a limited enough environment you can prove a negative - do I have any London underground tickets in my pocket at the moment? (do they use tickets?? dunno - pick anything else I don't have in my pocket!! :))

    Nope - and I can empty my pockets to prove it...postively! :)

    Now I don't know whether the situation here lends itself to that certainty or not, but in some cases it is worth bearing in mind.

  13. Just hijacking the thread....

    Antietam is referred to as the bloodiest day in America's history - with about 22,000 casualties but less than 4000 dead - is that the case??

    It's not actually all that much on the historical scale of things - perhaps 80,000 at Borodino, at least 60,000 roman DEAD at Cannae (minimum....army was supposedly 80,000+, 10,000 survived, 10,000 captured). someone mentioned Waterloo - 50,000 casualties

    This page purports to list battles by death toll

    And this one by casualties in chronological order

  14. We do have one left living here but he served with the British (RN). Then with the RAN in WW2.

    He just celebrated his 110th birthday.

    Looking at the article it strikes me that one of hte reasons for the "popularity" of volunteering for war in the 1st half of the 20th century was that no-one actually knew a damned thing about what it actually involved - all teh young men, on all sides, were imbued with the idea that it would all be a bit of an adventure & a glorious lark.

    the flip side is that fewer people have that naivety these days!

  15. SO - I think you are deliberatley , I hope it is deliberate, looking at this arse about face. PS3 GT5 may have made him better but it without a doubt did find many better than average drivers.

    Who are the others? This story is about 1, and is a self-described fairy tale - I see nothing in at all about it making him better in the first place either.

    Compared to having parents rich enough to support you through karting and up through the ranks here is a cheap method of finding who has the savvy, reflexes, and desire to race. Not perfect but what a talent pool.

    Certainly it is cheaper - but does it actually do this? I see nothing there that reflects your certainty.

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