dieseltaylor

For completeness, and for general information: I was asked weeks ago on the Axis History Forum for details of Crocodile use in the bocage by some poster. A Pictorial history of the RTR by George Forty page 179 "Before the battalion leagured for the night a Crocodile flamed the hedges round the field and 40 Huns came out" Seems then it waas effective for persuading Germans to give up - as I suggested. : ) Possibly the fact that the flame is not aimed at anyone in particular makes the concept of "Thay can't see me I will be safe" seem totally illogical and that surrendering is better than being accidental toast.

Someone going for a defence! http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/thinking-tech/the-real-problem-with-student-laptops/3147/#comments

Made me laugh : )

I think the causeway is a completely separate incident as the details do not tally in any respect. I think the next paragraph covers the original quoted section. The idea of a Churchill charging across a 200metre causeway is good for a laugh as top speed is, depending who you read between 12 and 17mph [25kmh]. So slower than Usain Bolt over 200 metres.

Luck is over-rated! Don't mention cut & paste - he probably does not get enough exercise anyway : )

I am astonished at the collective stupidity behind this. Very worrying - I feel sorry for the Board who no doubt never even knew of the problem and now will suffer.

Wiki is made better : )

Excellent resource with some interesting bits http://www.lonesentry.com/brassingoff/index.html TD's as spotters, flares at night, German tanks popping smoke to move ....... well you cannot get everything into a game!

And for airlines generally this so sucks. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0013264 one of the items in the excellent article

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398804575071370640933954.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines#articleTabs%3Darticle Essentially a report on the eight queues including security checks at Toronto airport - so the checks are longer than the journey. I had gone off air travel years ago as I think its inhumane for people to be treated like cattle! Anywya apparently flight numbers are down and I suspect the frivolous journeys are not being taken anymore. Good for the planet then.

I am impressed with this: FlexibleLove model 8 can accommodate up to eight people. When folded it measures 25 x 21.8 x 5.1 inches and it stretches to 25 x 21.8 x 140.4 inches. It can support weight up to 2116.44 pounds (averaging out at about 264 pounds per person) and weighs 28.66 pounds. The FlexibleLove model 16 will seat up to 16 people and when folded measures 25 x 21.8 x 8.8 inches. Weighing 55.12 pounds, it can be stretched to a length of 280.8 inches and will support body weight of up to 4232.87 pounds. Currently available for sale in the U.K from FlexibleLove UK the model 8 is priced at GBP220 (approx. US$347 at time of publication) and the model 16 is priced at GBP390 (approx. US$615 at time of publication). Not a bad price for eco-friendly, strong pieces of furniture that offer adaptable, flexible seating.

Armour? The big problem is infantry where the HQ tends to end up in front of his men whch is a bad place to be. Pauses will make sure he starts moving after them. For armour and infantry you can pause so as to stagger the appearance to the enemy so that your later units can be advantageously placed for a shot. This relies on the AI getting bemused as to which target to go for and can be very effective.

Watching I suppose : ) BTW not German women surely - far too practical

Perhaps B. owning the press and TV has a bearing on the Italian problem

And do we complain about all the Saxon, Latin, and French words! We do complin about the Yanks but thats because they are awesome and have gross words like buglarize for burgle!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time

Sergei - you have way to much time on your hands : )

I think so - and for afters: Cherie Blair is touring the countryside in a chauffeur-driven car. Suddenly, a cow jumps out into the road, they hit it full on and the car comes to a stop. Cherie, in her usual charming manner, says to the chauffeur: 'You get out and check - you were driving. ' The chauffeur gets out, checks and reports that the animal is dead. 'You were driving; go and tell the farmer, ' says Cherie. Five hours later, the chauffeur returns totally plastered, hair ruffled, and with a big grin on his face. 'My god, what happened to you?' asks Cherie. The chauffeur replies: ' When I got there, the farmer opened his best bottle of malt whisky, the wife gave me a slap-up meal and the daughter made love to me. ' 'What on earth did you say?' asks Cherie. ' I knocked on the door, and when it was answered, I said to them: "I'm Cherie Blair's chauffeur and I've just killed the cow"'.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publikenthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

: ) but cruel

I see we can all agree that the thesis does pin the balme correctly with poor command and tactics top of the heap. I do think the the Sherman was a good tank albeit with some problems most of which got sorted. Now the crux of the matter is was faulty doctrine or what that lead the US to believe that the Germans were unaware of the vulnerability of the MkIV and would not be working on a replacement that would be designed to defeat the US 75mm and the Russian 76.2mm. I know this up-gunning issue has been covered previously so will re-read it : ) Interesting stuff JK on the French. Rather like Alexanders giant armour the effects go beyond the actuality and can be potent.

Is this the ostrich defense? I personally cannot see it so it does not exist? Did the Russians advise there Allies of the advent of the Tiger in September 1942 ? As for repeating the personal recollections of a serving officer I cannot see what is wrong with that. It would be nice to translate proving ground figures to the battlefield and they would always work but is just possible that on rough ground the armour plate was not square on to the cannon? And of course some of the shots may have done some damage but nothing sufficient to give a kill. And if the thesis author is to be trusted he has quoted Gabel correctly though it id seem a strange claim. Possibly Ordanance were more aware of the general trend to increased armour and larger cannon. In any event the story does record the M3's being successful and killing several tanks from the side and rear. Of course compared to BF's souped-up 37mm penetration figures ......... there is quite a difference. Is quite good for penetrations but does not handily give introduction dates. http://www.tarrif.net/cgi/production/all_penetration_adv.php?op=show_pen&penX=40 BTW Sherman 105mm's to take on Panthers and Tigers - I had not realised this happened - are there any sites to see this? Also I found this on one site: Is that right?

Thanks JK. Very interesting to see the work on transposons and to realise how science has moved on from my day. Whether this is taught in schools now I have no idea. I do find it difficult to accept imediate effects, if they happen, as being anything other than chemical.

More highlights from a really interesting read

Sorry for being absent through the thread so far. This first paragraph below is a precis of a New Scientist article 1. The human genome project expected to find about 100000 genes but in fact found about 20000. A review of the genetic sequences found that these genes made up 1.5% of the human genome and 9% of the DNA is derived from viruses. Furthermore another chunk of 34% is derived from virus-like entities called retrotransposons who seem to do nothing but replicate themselves. Viruses appear to have a symbiotic relationship and in fact may be a powerful change force. They cite myxomatosis as wiping out 98.2% of the rabbits in Australia - and only those rabbits with a suitable gene variant survived. Survival of the fittest ... for that particular threat. Now the virus is a persistent partner to the rabbit. Interestingly in the edition was a test for an increase in schizophrenia in the children of mothers who had flu whilst pregnant. Thought to be true a test with monkeys found that the 19 off-spring off 12 infected monkeys had brain development similar to schizophrenics. Non-infected monkeys did not. SO it would appear that viruses have a very potent effect on human development now and in history. So now the nature vs nurture argument perhaps needs to add illnesses and pregnant mothers eating habits etc to the mix of why humans turn out the way they do. Simple ...not. Not quite off the point but a slime mold apparently has the intelligence to "move" toa food source. The interesting report this week was that if faced with two equidistant sources it would split equally to go after them!