dieseltaylor

Truly a neat site

How many people die in Ford vans before you need a recall versus how many in a Toyota is the vague wonder. http://www.vanangels.org/ the deaths and injuries are understated as these accidents also occur in Mexico and Canada. The videos include Fords response. Lying bastards. In any event rolling a van load of passengers at speds as low as 35mph seems basically wrong. In fact if the passengers are not wearing seatbelts I bet you can roll it at a lower speed

So midi you are agreeing with Affen?

Do you mean nominally Protestant? I am sure that the church-going Protestants are a minority in all the countries : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine and from the wiki link to the film U 571

Very sad. I am not sure that the West could have done a lot . Not totally in jest I believe that it is not uncoincidental that for the least corrupt countries - most of the top ten are monarchies. If you like it is enshrined corruption embedded in a family however in order to keep their throne they need to be reasonably straight. What it does is remove a level of patronage and corruption that exists when "politicians" lie scream and cheat to gain the top position for giving patronage to his/her supporters. From the populations point of view they have a family who will be there decades hence and the succession is obvious. Loyalty to the embodiment of the state is more satisfying than to a politico. Rationally you have two power channels. The elected , and the unelected monarch who should have the judiciary and the forces swearing fealty to him/her. This should provide a power balance. he long-term interests of the monarchy are a happy population whilst those of the politician and his cronies is money and power. The US fathers thought that their fako Roman system would work well. I think not as it is effectively a two party system with rotating emperors - and the pork barrel to support their teams. And funnily enough the number of dynastic families does tend to show humans vote for them. Given that the US has a reasonable legal systerm and a free press it could be a lot worse. However the number of free press resources is declining coming under control of media companies. See Berlusconi?italy for what happens to country with few independent sources.

I hope that was you being witty ... : )

Interesting point regarding the telephone lines. I suppose the drawback would be if your exchanges were taken out and thus you had to have a courier system. Semaphore might have been too obvious .... but My father was trained on the teletype at the start of the war - and it was rare beast. And just to put that into context he was an officer and ended up looking after military signals in Bengal - see if you master the latest technology you can go far : ) PS when researching I cam across this formidable lady: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Nourse_Rogers

Is this to do with the FiVeFingers?

I agree with feet rather than metres as that would indeed be slightly over an acre. 130 yds times 60yds being slightly under 2 acres. I have found something else and bearing in mind that an American footbal pitch is just over an acre .... but then this author may be repeating previous info.! http://www.history.army.mil/books/OpArt/us3.htm Secondbrooks - the quality of the German fighting man was no doubt superior and that was due to training/mindset. Their has been discussion before here whether a language is important in forming the way in which people think ....... : )

Like an idiot I forgot Doubler covered this in his preamble: One thing Doubler states which I believe to be wrong is that the average field was 200 metres by 400 metres: I get the feeling Doubler is not familiar with Normandy. The size he quotes is equivalent to a 16 acre field which is larger than the average Welsh field even now. The average field size in Devon about 150 years ago was 3.5 acres when horses did all the work. Devon has good bocage type hedges. This also appear tougher than Doubler makes out:

BD6 - nicely put. However I think the bocage should be seen as a force multiplier of considerable value that allowed the Wehrmacht to hang around longer than otherwise. The German weapons were better than the Allied equivalents but then the Allies had more men, more artillery , and more airpower to even things up to the point where there could only be one winner. I think you might underestimated the number of men in the Allied Armies who had commanded under fire - but I am guessing. Its just that there was the BEF and what might have returned from Africa. But in both cases that was a different war only Italy was "modern" and relevant.

Someone maintains in the other thread that pre-war Patton had been in the bocage country. In any event bocage type terrain does exist in the UK but it is concievable that it simply never occurred to anyone that it would be a problem that needed thought, or more likely someone else was sorting this sort of thing out - early "Not my Problem"

Glad you mentioned it KR. I must admit my mind had drifted to fivefinger exercises - which strangely are not what I thought!!!. Bugged I love the top by-line : ) I take it you were not enamored of the shoes then, from what I read its a great way for people to start talking to you. You can get socks with 5 toes, and the fitting have to be very precise.And they cost a lot. ME - Don't see much of Harpers in the UK. But science is fun : ) Apparently comedy sparks upto 8 areas of the brain which is quite something.

Two polar bears are perched on a block of floating ice. One says to the other:" Do you know, I keep thinking its Thursday" I do like the cartoons BTW. neitzche too near the truth to be funny. The joke above did you find funny? Just its the start of an article about comedy and the brain. I think its really funny but the next two peopl I told thought it not at all. Is that because its better read than said or simply not funny?

Compared to a failed attack? Good point though. Perhaps they could have limited to experimenting to refine the tactics that might work. As the fields are generally very small the amount taken out/damaged need not be huge. And given the other ranges and training going on .....

Just quick but amusing points: 1.Crows remember individual faces. If you upset a crow they will remeber your face as enemy whilst allowing other humans to approach. More to the point it was the face as it was the mask of a Neanderthal and it was that which would set them off even if warn by different people. 2. Botox. Botox not only freezes the muscles but also affects the emotional response of those who are injected. !! http://www.gizmag.com/can-botox-stunt-your-emotional-expression/14031 Incidentally someone has twigged that botulism being a poison its perhaps not very wise having its unrestricted production and use .... 3. Running on tiptoe is smart. Or at least natural and lessons the stress. Trained endurance runners land heel first which means three times your body weight on the heel each stride. I see that Vibram have the rather neat five fingers http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

Interesting thread here http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=162240&p=1426555#p1426555 One thing to come out was whether the Allies deliberately did not train on bocage busting tactics to avoid alerting the Germans. Interesting thought which had never occurred to me as I am a SNAFU theorist. Anyway you can go add to the thread!

I have always had a fond feeling for the concept that learning is passed on generationally and that the evolutionary theory was not the whole answer. An example of this would be that why do giraffes have long necks - can it only be that giraffes with longer necks survived better because they could see danger sooner/eat from higher trees. Or is it something that occurred faster in generations as each generation passed on the benefit. Not a complete answer but very interesting is an article in the New Scientist showing a laboratory bred mother crickets managed to pass on the their future off-spring behaviour for when seeing a spider. SO young crickets who had never seen a wolf-spider ,but whose mother had, froze longer [the best defence mechanism] when exposed to spider silk/droppings than cricket offspring whose mothers had never seen a spider. Exposing the eggs or juvenile crickets to spider cues made no difference so the warning had to be done during egg production. Seriously freaky huh! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism BTW I am stretching a behavioural response when linking into a skeletal growth analogy but hey perhaps science has not got that far yet. : )

In game in October 1943 a platoon of 3 T34/57 is 180 points more than a platoon of 5 Valentine IX - essentially seven Valentines for the cost of three of the T-34. The T34 gun is marginally superior head-on at close range and better at 30degreees offset so you make your choice. I prefer the Valentine and its numbers because it means there are more chances of flank shots and both tanks will do penetration out to 1000 metres, Tactically for the Russian you are playing to cripple his Tiger usage rather than kill head on - you may get a penetration but it may not be a kill and you will be dead ...... Incidentally in game the ROF of the two tanks are 7 to 6 not hugely different. Six Valentines will always outface a Tiger head-on as the ROF actually sees Tiger's cower as they apear to know that the 6pdr can kill so if they do not die early they generally go into hiding. This is against the computer though - as I have never had a battle where I have had the luxury of having 6 Val's to a Tiger. : )

I am sure there are many more threads. I am an exponent of the Valentine IX [57mm] which mobhanded can do in a Tiger. They are cheap but low rate of fire means you may not want to buy them faced with ordinary German tanks. I quite rnjoy the enmeny buying Tigers provided we are a huge map - on a small map it is pants as you cannot work the angles.

Kind of interesting though: http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/pure-genius/ten-misconceptions-about-soil/1577/ One thing not included there was that smidgen of info that those who worked in soil seemed happier and the possibility of micro-organisma in the soil being mood enhancing.

And now for some of the sound without the cost! http://www.soundracer.se/ Tempting but they do not do it for my car. : (

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozntieZs8Bg And examples of a death wish of the audience! : ) Very exciting on a inappropriate level

Nice Gorge joke : ) BTW Affy your wife from Brittany? Thinking it was primarily a naval area I a was surprised by the number of deaths per village.