It's hot!

Yes Tall Paul; I agree. Except when that Yankee Brad Putt blows it up!
I will be sad.

Nope… poor dude has been missing though. He had great contributions to threads! I enjoyed his thoughts on subjects.

GG

No, the address in not correct. As you say, Complejo de la Moncloa is correct (I also checked the official page)

But there is not “Republic of Spain” since 1939. That country doesn’t exist now. Spain, now, is a kingdom and her king is Juan Carlos I. That should say “Kingdom of Spain”. It’s funny because it’s not the first time: Jeb Bush also made the same mistake in a conference in Spain a couple of years ago, and in a tennis championship in Australia, they put the republican national music (Himno de Riego) instead the used now (Marcha Real). Imagine the face of Spannish tennists  :lol:

And Rodriguez Zapatero is not the Prime Minister. He is the President of the Government (even if he makes basically the same than UK Primer Minister)

Is also funny that such errors sometimes happen in Spain. Not the republican"" error, but sending letters to a non-existant minister or to a place where the official building was there 5 years ago but now is in another place  :-D

oh man, rough.  coming from nebraska, i can understand that pain.  never had the piss, but pig shit flying out onto your car aint fun either, but at least the smell was contained to outside the car.

Wrath of Khan is not bad, but i prefer First Contact.The borg are scary and Borg Queen is the ultimate enemy!

Eh, I’ve got no particular take on ‘em. I suppose they could be cool, but I’ve never liked the whole atmosphere of collectable stuff. Give me good ol’ Diplomacy any day :D.

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

http://imdb.com/title/tt0290296/

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

Guests and staff are associated with the following countries:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Italy,
Australia,
S. Africa,
UK,
France,
Canada,
Peru,
Spain,
The Netherlands,
Latvia,
Belgium,
Costa Rica

Components are also made in places around the globe.

Main Participants:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Canada,
Brazil,
UK, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Luxemburg, (Euro Space agency)

Up there, all alone, on the front porch to the final frontier…
They are up there advancing the cause of humankind. 
I just checked out the IMAX DVD.  Comments by astronaut and cosmonaut alike both speak of seeing the earth below without any borders.  One even said that we will not set up permanant residence on the moon as individual countries, but as allies representing all mankind.

The Imax special features pointed out a how a shot from the porthole on the Soyuz was not directly available due to the bulkiness of the camera.  The quick problem solving ideal of one cosmonaut and the skills applied by rest of the crew, they set up mirror reflective shots that were angled just right.  You would not know it was reflected if they didn’t tell you.

These people live, eat, work, sing, and make movies together up there.  Sharing for them is essential to surviving.  The main crew is 3, which will go up for a while as Soyuz and Shuttles dock to trade out crews.

All of the space agency crews are highly educated and heavily trained.  Touring guests are also well trained.  The guests so far have been highly successful technology entrepreneurs, so they also understand the discipline needed for successful trips up there.  The tourism bill at ~ $20 mil cash is high enough to prevent a fraudster from getting on board.

The contrast  to the UN is dramatic. 
Maybe its because its mostly enlightened nations that are making the effort, so the petty dictators don’t have a say.  The Russian and US space agencies show a very unified front to all the other participants, so unity of purpose for any new objective is quickly achieved.  They also have the strongest communications links for station ops.

Thanks. And you weren’t bored?