Sorry, I've been away!

I recently obtained a 2nd hand Playmobil Roman Arena. Unfortunately the lions were missing…

catarena.jpg

@Tall:

By the way,….this is reported as the World’s Tallest Flagpole, and it is so large,….

Actually this is North America’s tallest flagpole. I believe the tallest in the world are in North and South Korea.

Either way, very impressive and inspiring. Thanks for the read Paul.

Thanks for finding time to comment Cromwell.
The 30th Jan, and this event,is not an anniversary I forget: it is Al’s father’s birthday. He has always enjoyed its place as he  is  anti-monarchist and anti privilege, despite his (state funded) public and Oxford education. It is funny as his wife’s parents worked in the colonies after the war, so politically they do not see eye to eye!

The worst invention in my opinion ever invented would be Video games. Talk about a waste of time and money for kids. About 99.5% of all video games may bring joy, but do nothing for the people plying them. They spend hundreds of hours playing them only to end up with NOTHING in the end. Nothing!

Not to mention it is the universal agreement between these companies to continue upgrading as fast as they can to get new systems to the market. It’s like they can’t wait to make these machines obsolete and squeeze another 300-400 bucks outta some family.

Oh, ……and I think Nuclear Weapons is a dumb invention also. I see many people already said this one. Good for all of you.  :-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.

Wait! The truth is out. Rush is finding a way to bow out ungracefully, TKO’d by drugs, rather than lose, KO’d, to the new challenge!
SOURCE :
http://bismarcktribune.com/articles/2003/10/28/news/state/sta01.txt

The liberal democrats have him against the ropes!!!

@Mr:

I disagree a bit here. I don’t think this war is a question of legal or illegal.
I don’t think you can sum up this war in one question at all. It is a clouded and complicated iusse.

It truly is, and everyone has different emphasises of importance on different questions on that issue.

If one is going to agrue the legality of this war than one has to say that action in Kosovo was illegal and should not have been done. The UN, as a body, did not approve it. However, the question is was it the right thing to do? I would think yes.

But the situation was different: First it was NATO going in, second the UN later de facto approved the action.