dieseltaylor

I am pleased that the UK does pure research and do feel a little gutted when it becomes a commercial proposition we fail [sometimes] to make the most of it. What about the oceans of earth? Admittedly there on our doorstep and therefore not quite so blue-sky thinking : ) There are very practical reasons for looking at the sea bed as a logical place to start thinking of maximising what is achievable in the next two decades. And in some ways I would think colonising the sea might actually have some useful similarities with space exploration and colonisation. The UK with its inventiveness and plenty of shallow sea would seem to be at a considerable advantage in this regard. Unfortunately there is no lobby for this sort of thing despite the sea providing splendid insulation from tornadoes and extremes of heat. And with sea based wind turbines and bags for storing energy they could well be self-supporting for energy. But I am merely scratching the surface of what technologies and uses that might be possible. BTW I trust you got the e-mail re books.

http://www.yesasia.com/global/for-those-we-love-dvd-english-subtitled-hong-kong-version/1005196189-0-0-0-en/info.html

2007 Japanese Drama Movie - YAMATO - w/ English Subtitle Shido Nakamura, Kyoka Suzuki, Tetsuya Watari, Tatsuya Nakadai Takashi Sorimachi (Primary Contributor) | Format: DVD

I would agree with you but you are in the land of the RIGHTeous and being normal does not cut it. Send a donation to the Koch Brothers and all will be good : )

I am with you on this Affy. The chances of getting anywhere useful in the next thirty years are skinny, And I do mean useful as opposed to the Mount Everest effect so beloved by mankind. Womenkind being more sensible. The way research is going on new construction materials etc will be helpful in the future but now one might really really think mankind has more pressing but unexciting problems. Given that most of planet Earth remains uncolonised you might think perhaps we are missing a trick.

I know of its history of "Geronimo" in the US Army. : ) Perhaps it was remiss of me not have indicated the use in my original post but then I assume we are all grogs enough to know!!! I will bear it in mind for the future. However on the basis that most of the world will not know its Army use it does mean the name does have a significance in the white US Army going out killing Indians even in fact this guy was Arab. Great of course for US audiences but not subtle. The Doctor Who connection of course explains a lot. *P.S. Geronimo was not killed by the US army but died of old age.

Battlefront Playing CM:SF has not make me love modern warfare, or for that matter playing the CM:SF representation of it. So that is one. : )

Your leftist leanings have marked you down for permanent exclusion from the Internet [ apart from Mums net] and they are just testing it : )

The "Pakistanis" - the quote is actually "the Pakistan Government were not informed of the operation in advance" which is a different meaning to the Pakistans were not aware that the US had found the target. Or to be more precise sections of the Pakistan intelligence service might have known more than their Government. .... Now does anyone but me find calling the target Geronimo a little bit too reminiscent of "the only good injun is a dead injun". Would it have been better to go for a neutral name like Pacific or is that frowned upon in military circles. Secondly I really do think that the US heads goggle-boxing whilst the raid occurred to be an unfortunate photo. It can be seen as macabre. Alternatively that there was nothing better to do in running the country. Or there was long range quarter-backing going on. My preference would be that the world is told " the President was advised that the operation had been successful". But am I being sensitive to image management?

What I don't understand is why people might prefer playing the AI rather than each other. Winning or losing to a computer means nothing to me - but then perhaps I like humans and playing mind games too much.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/27394899/Microsoft-Spy Microsofts guide to what they hand over to law enforcement requests. Assange says that Facebook gives direct access to all its information to the FBI as it is easier[ more economic?]. Read about it here. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/wikileaks-assange-facebook-open-to-us-intelligence/9772?tag=nl.e539 Perhaps the most important for non-US people is that if it is stored in the US , or off-shore by an owned US company, their details can be accessed.

This looks like a very interesting approach. An dit looks like it will be in Lake Ontario first. http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/compressed-air-energy-storage-has-bags-of-potential/1008374.article

Doh! So why do we have police and prisons? To help people remember that there is punishment if they break their society's laws That is just silly to suggest if you break the law you are no longer protected by it. Should people should be executed for stealing? Perhaps you should have quoted the full part of the paragraph about extending laws outside of society so it made sense. I am making a distinction between laws that operate with the consent of society inside a country and those which are foisted on countries in the international arena. I think this is an important distinction to make. Within a society ech individual has a place, and probably family and associates so there is a degree of peer pressure to reinforce the norm. In the international setting it is purely a vicious "war" to get the most for your country/group and all the nice cosy ideas that fit so well at home just seem stupid. For kick-off the death penalty. Dear Adolf you have done wrong go to prison. I do not think the general population would have been in favour of life imprisonment - with suitable visiting rights. But that is what is being touted around as justice and humaneness. I almost imagine you did not read what I writ : ) Somalian pirates. Our civilised hands off approach has lead to a bigger problem growimg over the last decade.

Rule of law? Rule of law is what happens in society where people play by the rules which they themselves or their ancestors have set. Extending ones views to a larger arena where no consensus has been agree is daft - pretty much. That many governments may have subscribed to some general laws favoured by the "civilised" nations works if it is a formal war. However perhaps the great and could should realise that some nations and some groups are quite happy to operate outside of the law. Now we talk about what would be nice, or what would be correct, but that is just baloney, hot air, bull****. People who operate outside the law do not get the protection of those laws. And until it is realised that fannying about actually causes more problems than it solves , in some cases, people will suffer. Witness the Somali pirates and their prisoners. Mar 2011

For designers : ) Driving through Normandy on a big road : ) Note that this is around 70 years later and is probably in slightly better nick and wider than it was. Note the mix of serious bocage and not serious. Also fields are probably bigger to accomodate tractors. And then a single road. Both of those videos are in pretty flat terrain so probably not into the bocage proper and more towards the coast. This video is from Somerset in the UK and is actually probably the right sort of vintage width : ) Not particularly hilly or the hedges particularly high [ possibly because of arable fields or barbed wire being introduced] but the road is sunken.

BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13257330 Rush job then Affy? Or possibly I am correct and it was arranged in agreement woth trustworthy Allies who might be expected to be at risk from a dramatic AQ response ....oops could that be the UK? : )

Affy, IF that WERE the case then I would agree it would seem strange not to launch. However we do not know that is truly the case. BTW how do you rate the risk of running choppers at night across an unreliable friendly territory and the possibility that that OBL has no AA assets local? And that the Pakistani's do not open fire on the wrong people. Now if I had operatives who were near and had worked out a rough idea of the defence, and also had the ability to bring down a missile if there were people leaving then I might be relaxed enough to go with a helicopter mission. However by your argument Affy they should have launched a missile as soon as they were confident enough.

JonS - I think you will find conspiracies are by their nature secret. As for nominating some past date when it would not have been a "convenient" conspiracy I think you are being a trifle myopic. The Tora Bora mountains leaps immediately to mind as convenient and non-conspiritorial. If you wish to pursue a game of looking for other dates convenient or inconvenient for conspiracy to kill OBL I am afraid you are on your own. It seems a waste of time to me but please yourself. If you wish to discuss the upside and downsides of the recent mission in terms of risk then perhaps it might be more interesting. However I am not going to spend a lot of time on it as it is fairly fruitless at this early stage, and in a decade we may now a bit more about it.

I am bemused. The killing of Osama would have been convenient for the US whenever it happened. The point is why did it happen now. If we assume the US did not just find out and launch an immediate mission then we can say perhaps they chose a date. And we can wonder if they knew OBL was unlikely to be moving. Lots of hypotheticals as one would expect given that the main parties are not necessarily telling the truth - and very logically should not. As to whether it is exactly as the US says, or if in fact there is more to it, make up your own mind. Lets consider the option of the guided missile which was rejected - relatively safe for malfunctions. Consider option two running helicoptors across territory and not suffering a crash, meeting very light resistance at the point of disembarkation, no AA missiles etc to make the US look completely stupid. No misunderstandings with local Pakistanis troops who take over .... Yep. Beautifully executed. : ) Low risk and successful.

JonS/ SO Well if you wish to believe that the recent events in the Arab world have not put pressure on some Arab states who like the current status quo thats fine with me. Not everyone understans subtle : ) There was a suspicion voiced in the UK media prior to Osama' death that the Royal honeymoon was deferred "for security reasons". I just mention them as items of interest. The timing in the midst of Trump's show is rather cute. I thought Obama was just being slow in doing his speech but now it looks like exquisite timing. As to the question - when in the last decade was it not convenient ...... who in the hell do you think was going to spill the beans to the US? Incidentally just to add to the mix - kidney disease?

At the back of my mind I have to admit to a strong feeling of cynicism regarding the back story. I realise this might be seen as raining on the parade but ... I am happy Bin Laden is dead it is just the timings seem convenient. This is with absolutely no research into the detail as I was actually waiting for someone else to raise the thought. Timings. USA support for regime overthrow in Arab areas goes into mute mode. Strike takes place after Royal Wedding. Now just suppose there was some horsetrading between the Saudi's [paymaster], the "rogue" elements of the Pakistan SS, and the US. And as to be expected the Pakistanis could not possibly want to know that a raid was scheduled, but they certainly would have wanted Osama dead so he could not talk. A tidy arrangement for the Saudi's and the Americans. And I suspect some more oil money to goes to Pakistani military personnel. Incidentally a 40 minute firefight with 4 dead - seems light. If it seems like a tin-foil conspiracy ... well fair enough. I am just thinking what could happen in the real world. ; )

Nice stuff BD6 - again. : )

Nice to have the medal and the contact through to an important event. From my point of view also a little bit more history learned : )

Perhaps a specific case would be helpful in illustrating the point. In CM*1 there was a detailed map and TOE for Wittmans last action. What really screwed the game was the inherent tactical AI would target vanilla Shermans rather than Fireflies for a possible higher % chance to hit. This meant it would re-set manual targets and despite it being German practice to target Fireflies first as they could hurt kitties at range. So basically the game engine queered the historicity. Whether this also applies in CM:BN I know not but the example remains true.

I read many years ago a book where a crewman was describing the dangers of attacking a hedge with a Cuilin plow. The tank stopping dead forks embedded , the shock to tanks and crew. Bouncing off if not square too, Dangers of doing on a side slope, and in damp conditions just the tracks not gripping well. I do long to find that book and be able to quote it verbatim ... page number and title : ) Ramming things is not good. I tis weell-documnted where two Tigers went over a railway embanjkment for an attack and damaged their guns and had to be hauled back .... meaning the other Tigers were involved in saving the sorry mess. Italy.