dieseltaylor

But for the designer the map could presumably be 2km*4km as both are within the 4km limit and therefore not a square map. The 4*4 size is therefore slightly better than CMAK with additional depth to allow the shifting of troops around the backfield - currently a gripe about the shallower CMAK limitations is that often the terrain tactically screwed the position.

I have always liked this piece and it is good to see how the US Army got its act together. I do have a couple of gripes in that the piece did not adress the German side of the coin in terms of whether the defenders were attrited to the extent that the opposition was getting skinnier and skinnier. No I know it is not part of his papers defined terms so will forgive him that : ) It is an interesting thought to see if there are matching German articles on defending in the bocage. There is also some mismatches in terms of a 2500yard advance requiring thirty-four hedge breachings - contrasted to average fields being 200yards x 400yards. [because the fields are small, about 200 by 400 yards in size, and usually irregular in shape, the hedgerows are numerous and set in no logical pattern] There is also the comment regarding the unknown: And I do wonder how far, for reasons of security, that hedgerow fighting was not taught. Or was it genuinely that nobody considered the problem pre-invasion. Or that they assumed Hitler would run? Not part of Doubler's remit!. : ) His website: http://www.michaeldoubler.com/

Anyway back to the thread: It really is quite scary when you think of all the hype that has surrounded some of these theories. Rather like the mortgage bubble there is more to "made" by talking these things up rather than burying them or defusing them. Here again surely making the discoveres liable in some tangible sense will make them more rigorous in experimenting and cross-checking.

I suppose given the taxi driver knows your address the desire to remedy the sleeping taxi driver problem is tempered with self-preservstion! I must admit I might not have tipped afterwards : ) I suppose an enquiry to the Sidnet taxi licensing board on whether they routinely test drivers - or only after a fatal crash might be interesting. Is their a limit/mechanism for how many hours they can drive?

OM - it was a reply in the Guardian to Monbiots piece. You do raise the probability issue. The Indonesian quake in 2004 was a 9.1 so bigger than the Japanese quake. We must think ourselves fortunate that they had not built any of those reactors they want. Anyway that was recorded as the third biggest since 1900 which makes me wonder how you can be sure that any fault will be dormant for 1000 years. http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/earthquakes/ Here are the biggest recorded quakes on a map: http://www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/list.do?isRegionSelected=false&region=WORLD However the destructiveness of a quake is surely to do with the depth under the earth and the way the tremors act. Wikipedia is actually more useful than the Australian site. Now earthquakes are the release of prssure caused by the tectonic plates moving so one would like to think tht they would occur infrequently. However the great earthquakes 8+ do seem to cluster somewhat.

Rather an intriguing start to an article from The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269 Apparently a lot of testing is dubious.:

Re: Monbiot. Unfortunately he seems to be coming wiser by degrees in some areas. To be honest whilst concerned with humans, it is the long term poisoning of the earth which is more of a problem. And waste storage is a problem unless they can get thorium to work or something better. As for most power it depends how you do the costings as to whether it is truly cheap. This from the Swedish nuclear industry site: 100000 years is a very long time indeed. I have no doubt that if mankind does not relapse into chaos a solution would be found in the next two centuries .

OM that chart was very good. I like it. The interesting thing is the mixing of daily and annual amounts and I was wondering if there was a third way to plot. The daily rate for the two sites near Fuku quoted mean that there is certain damage after a month - if the rates remain at that level, and over a year 50% of the way to certain radiation poisoning. What is not clear is to whom this relates - I imagine it is for adults and the doses to damage children and foetuses is a lot lower.

I find this a very interesting aggregator of science stories, so to give you the flavour and to save me cherry-picking! :

Regarding coal and waste, it is a newish technology but it is to burn it in situ. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_coal_gasification This would remove some of the current objections. SO taking historical coal problems is not a guide to the necessary future use. Perhaps those who are quoting the kill rate of other power generation technologies ought to bear in mind currently how few nuclear plants there are and the comparatively short time span they have been in operation. I am not suggesting nuclear power is of no use now and in the future. What I am finding difficult to live with is the jumping in by proponents lauding how safe it is and quoting some very biased figures.

Other Means - you really are batting on a very very sticky wicket. To base your deaths figure at a very narrow point in time makes all your postings seem fantastical. Even more so when the death figures for Chernobylare highly suspect even 6 months after the blast let alone 3 years or 20 years. And what about land no longer truly habitable by humans? In Japan there is not lots of spare land as there is in Russia. 1. Basically Cesium-137 has now been found 25 miles from Fukushima at such dangerously high concentrations that they far exceed the threshold of land abandonment used by the Soviet Union following the Chernobyl catastrophe (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/w...). This is raising questions of whether the evacuation zone around Fukushima should now be expanded. The New Scientist article from yesterday reports " Notice that the use of averages screens out the dnagerous areas - rather like the USSR did for its hotspots. Imagine how dismissive one would be if the national average number of road accidents was used to declare there were no accident blackspots. Baloney. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/health/research/18cancer.html For the length of time that damage to human lives continues.

"Sometimes" In the Des Moines site two panels would pretty well cover their annual requirements, and bear in mind that is giving a family of four 60 gallons [uS] per day which I suspect is rather more than most nations would use. BTW consider "fashion"

Re - Monbiot: Do not totally disagree with him but ... Nothing on power use reduction then? And given 5 million people work in the Chinese coal industry is 2300 deaths per year truly shocking? Before we get excited about that we might compare it with the 100,000 dead in Iraq over 10 years. Or the 1.3 m traffic fatalities worldwide each year. It may seem a red herring but the West can be extremely precious about dying when someone wants to make a case. When it comes to waste/power reduction consider that it was the Koreans and then the Chinese who went for standardising USB chargers for electronic devices. Now given that chargers should become permanent rather than something different every time you bought a device what is the grand saving in landfill, wasted resources , and wasted production cost and power now chargers are reusable. At some stage I trust battery powered TPMS will be standardised on a universal non-battery system. I am sure that there a hundreds of wasteful practices - street lighting, shop displays at night, dozens of uses. Base power requirements exist for the Grid but is there was substantial benefits like generating hydrogen using the baseload then there would bean alternative fuel for relatively little cost.

Speedy - perhaps you did not read the underlying paper fully:

OM? Did I say anything about relying on solar power in the UK? Or solely on renewables? I understand the Severn Barrage could manage 5% of the UK's needs. Does Mr. Mackay consider the importation of power. Not that I have seen in his discussion of solar power which seems to be based on growing crops/algae alone. Here is a link to a company that sells home hydrogen generation solar kits, it also sells hydrogen engined motorscooters. http://www.actagroup.it/applications_bike.asp If petroleum/gas fuels become inordinately expensive is there just a smidgeon of a chance that governments might tax very heavily non-HGV fuel to the point that people shift to electric/hydrogen use? Now on a global scale there are vast areas of the planet where sunshine is actually quite common where producing liquid hydrogen for shipping to other countries might be an attractive option. Poor countries with poor soils , little water and lots of sunshine who might currently be the ones with plenty of gas and oil infrastructure where going to generate liquid hydrogen might actually be sensible and affordable. BUT, lets not forget that for many months of the year most houses could use solar energy to heat all their hot water requirements. According to a US site an 8*4 panel in Des Moines would be adequate. I would have preferred an English site however the Energy Trust site provides some unbelievably useless figures such as savings based ona average semi- with 3.4 bedrooms . WTF - I thought people used water not bedrooms using water. I note your claims on people killed by nuclear [to date] - lets wait a little longer. As for the claim on people likely to die during the Japanese summer I must admit to being shocked - I had no idea how many generations of Japanese have succumbed to heat before the invention of air-con. I thought humans adjusted to climate generally - that is what science shows. Incidentally my plumber who is currently here lived in Japan for 9 yeras and for most of the time had no air-con. Anyway the flipside of the coin is what can be done to reduce power consumption in the UK. My possible suggestion is that people have an initial power allocation based on residents declared or possibly bedrooms and then over a certain limit punitive rates come into effect. It may be there is a trading situation where those who use little can sell their unused capacity. That may well encourage people to be more careful. I will look at Mackay further. I have not ruled out nuclear at all but it is my least favoured solution.

On the basis this is not a Kettler-stoning thread the administrators may allow this thread to proceed. I thought the current situation is proving an embarrassment to the people who suggested that the tsunami and earthquake had demonstrated how well a nuclear reactor had resisted. I had, with some reluctance, decided that nuclear might be the base-load provider of energy whilst other sources became more economic. However the problems with existing spent fuel and contamination are making me wonder. The thorium based reactor is yet an unproven design and modern reactors do seem to have more redundancy built in. Personally I am particularly keen on a hydrogen fuel economy using solar energy to do the work. safety http://www.naturalnews.com/031848_Fukushima_cover-up.html The New Scientist has a catalogue of "problems" with Japanese nuclear reactors. It also has figures showing how few deaths are caused by nuclear incidents compared to coal. Arguably human deaths are not that important compared to poisoning the earth as humans will dies anyway. Contaminating land for generations is a different line of thought. AND quite majorly coal mining employs an awful lot of people - which nuclear does not. Possibly why Obama has agreed to the release of more Federal land in Wyoming for coal extraction http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/03/28/what-caused-the-wyoming-coal-disaster-last-week-ask-warren-buffett-and-president-obama/

I was hoping for more French skills .... : ) Incidentally in the current climate and judging by the local personal adverts I would say there is plenty of women prepared to do their bit in saving life. Some even have a nurses uniform already - apparently : )

When young it is easy to have a high hit rate and changing girlfriends keeps the fresh feeling : ). And of course there are a whole load of new tricks to try out. Eventually though sex becomaes just one of the reasons you stay with a girl. Sense of humour, intelligence, compatability, even looks come into it. However reverting back to the topic in the UK the National Health Service recommends sex!. Which is excellent. " Under the heading 'an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away', the leaflet says: 'Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?' The advice, which also claims regular sex is good for cardiovascular health, has been circulated to parents, teachers and youth workers. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199132/NHS-recommends-pupils-orgasm-day-reduce-risk-heart-attack-stroke.html#ixzz1IAHM3s2g" Now I have visions thta in future years this may become a service under the NHS : ). Nurses sent to keep us healthy!! Well I can dream can't I?

Decades ago as a student I new a couple hwo had shacked up and got a kitten. ANyway they are on the bed banging away and the kitten having clambered to bedhead leapt on to his buttocks. Surprised hardly covers it : )

http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/10-surprising-health-benefits-of-sex That not tonight honey routine proves she is out to lower your body's general well-being. ** Never clear in most of these reports on whether maturbation is sex.[Of course if I were a women it would be "lovemaking" not sex]

from WeBoB "Got sent this link http://www.scamorama.com/fadgina_petter.html Thought it was funny"

Which? is the Consumer Association in the UK and they are championing transparency, better products , more choice etc. Anyway I can across this thread and prize!! But you have to Twitter to enter! It is kind of funny that as a Consumer Association they are discriminating against people who do not Twitter. Even more bizarre they want people to sign up to a US based commercial firm to post comment in the UK. http://conversation.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/bank-rules-for-world-consumer-rights-day/ I don't think it is restricted to members and says nothing about where you are located either. Are Twitters universal - I imagine so and therefore your winning slogan could get the prize. Could some overseas see if it works? : ) However bear in mind that anything you contibute becomes their exclusive use*, and you may be required for pictures .... I kid you not the terms here , and I imagine many sites, seem to overreach what is reasonable. *11. All copyright in the rules submitted in response to this competition will be owned by Which? and Which? shall be free to use any of the rules submitted whenever and however it likes. * 3. Other important things you need to know You grant us an exclusive licence to use the content you add to our website whenever and however we like. For example, we may use this information in the Which? magazine or in marketing materials for Which?. While we will usually display your name or username when using your content in this way, you agree that we have no obligation to do so.

: ) Excellent Affy

I have always taken the view that male homosexuality improved my choice of females. However in some countries it is a case of life and death, or imposing its legality offends other sections of socieyt. This is interesting despite the included caveats. It does raise interesting ethical considerations if it is found to be true. Is it like vaccination for polio good for society, or should it be a life style choice at an early age. In which case the adoption of boys by gay men might be seen in a new light. A huge can of potential worms ... but at least it is not political. : ) .

Looks like American Humane Society might be finding a use for Wikileaks in the future: http://www.alternet.org/story/150312/big_ag_wants_to_make_it_a_crime_to_expose_animal_abuse_at_factory_farms?page=1