In terms of US taking various islands on the way to Japan, was it not the case that based on the range of the Superfortresses that basically Tokyo would have been next on the list as the Yanks built another airstrip on a nearer island.

Tokyo had already been totally devastated by fire bombing. More people had already been killed there by delibertate propogation of firestorms than died in the atomic weapon attacks

Are these things available anywhere yet?

Its very difficult for any of us to comment on the rights and wrongs of it. None if us have lived through a world war

How many of use would have been happy to be the one that had to make the decision. I bet 99% of us would have bottled it and abstained

It is easy to convince ourselves that this is relevant – it is not. We live in a very different times in terms of societal values, (lack of)respect for authoritaay and easy access to information.

Even aside from the deeply clandestine A Bomb project, people on the ground – workers, civilians, servicemen / women, even the military chain of command, were not invited to partake in expressing opinions or contributing to decision making. A soldier saying “yes, good job they dropped the bomb, saved my life” is an entirely valid view point, but is utterly detached from any aspect of the decision making…

Ohh, and the European powers certainly did restrain themselves from using their most powerful weapons. Both the British and Germans expected to be subjected to chemical warfare, but weren’t because each side were too fearful of the consequences of using the chemicals weapons that they had developed.

Plenty of info in the article they came from

I just googled images – didn’t read the article. But having read it, still no info on whether it is real or a mock up.

From my reading on this…

The invasion option was already being discounted at the time. Military planners realised that they would be looking at a huge loss of life and were backing away from that after their experiences on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Interestingly though, these planners knew nothing of the Manhatten Project, due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the bomb development. They were delaying decision making on an amphibious landing on the basis of fire bombing and submarine blockade. (The USN Submarine Service rarely get their measure of credit for the defeat of Japan).

Timing / triggering of the nuclear strikes is now thought to be as much to do with US / USSR posturing. The Soviets had already occupied Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuriles. They were mobilising for an amphibious assualt of their own on the northern Japanese home island of Hokkaido – threatening a similar carve up to that expereinced in central Europe.

Regarding dropping on open ground to demo the bomb…. quite the contrary. Hiroshima was selected as a target precisely because it had not been extensively bombed during the air campaign. The US wanted to evaluate the full impact of their new weapons

This is a good example of why there shouldn’t be a zero limit on blood alcohol for driving.

Dashboard of Transcend Goggles- This is what the screen looks like

In a little screen that’s clear as an HDTV, these goggles display the temperature, altitude, time, current speed, average speed, max speed, how many runs you’ve skied, and more. Throughout your day of skiing, they track everywhere you go and when you plug in to a computer, you can download all the data, view it overlaid on a satellite map and re-live each turn.

OMG that so satisfies my infantile kit fetish

Could try posting some wildly inappropriate content – might get their attention.

Could “accidently” post a video and then claim it was an accident because it couldn’t be checked….

Yay – skiing becomes affordable again 😉

Provided there’s anyone left with a job after the PSR

becky_kirk43 – Member

Given the fact its such a tiny amount

Oh that’s fine then seeing as it was only a tiny bit……

Easily done too I’m sure – accidentally got some Stanazolol over my Crunchy Nut Cornflakes this morning, as you do.

“such a tiny amount ” is significant in two respects:

a) as per the UCI statement – not performance enhancing (therefore would a cheasting athlete really have bothered with such a low “dose”)

b) The substance may be easy to detect, but at very low concentrations the laboratory detection and reporting errors become a statistically significant component. I’d be surprised if such a result was even covered within the laboratory’s method accreditation…

How do you make sparkling lemonade?

Water, lemon juice, sugar…

… then add some sparkly glitter and shake 😀

It’s a drug that is cycled as it becomes tolerated very quickly, so my money is on there having been residual traces left in his body after a pre-tour course. I think that would be more likely than a poor masking agent – there wouldn’t be much need to mask a drug that has gone after 36hrs.

These two parts of your argument are contradictory, surely??

The quality (credibility) of the candidates has really dropped off with the last few series.

The programme makers have gone for the predictable, but actually quite dull, route of selection based on appearance and attitude, rather than aptitude (ie looks and will they kick off with other contestants).

Can’t say that there has been much beyond youthful, inexperienced bulls#ters over the last two years.

Dire

I normally look up the best of the “current” generation of CPU / mobo, and then wait until the next gen chip / architecture comes out.

I then but the still excellent mobo, and good qual, but not most mb of RAM that will fit, and the cheapest compatible cpu…

… this then gives me headroom in the system to buy more RAM and the best of that generation’s CPUs as the prices drop over the rollout period for the current latest and greatest

Used to use overclockers

…. and the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

The Pogues haunting version of Eric Bogle’s anti war song

First heard this as my grandfather’s generation were getting thinner on the ground. Brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Ohh, and in a similar vein – The Navy Hymn…

… disconcerting to see that some tossers from across the pond regard it as the US Navy Hymn – more a case of US Navy?, Hmmm…

Thing about teenagers, is that one day they will be adults. And they will have to moderate their language accordingly. The vast majority have no problem with this.

Again, I’m not convinced. From my first post, why do so many graduates, I’d say by far a majority, have huge problems with written English? Enthusiastic new grads join us thinking that the world is their oyster and then get thouroughly demoralised when they realise it will; take them 5-10 years before they are trusted to write a client report…

Knut didn’t try to stop the tide – he was demonstrating that he couldn’t

Quite right. Derided down history for being stupid – he was actually showing that he was not all powerfull. One of my forebears, I believe 😉

Plenty of room – just wrap it in some old carpet & add a few concrete blocks. 😉 Maybe room for two or three….

The SFN should fit tight on it’s own and not move. It’s function is not to ‘apply tension’ but to be solid enough for the top bolt to take the play out of headset bearings and no more.

Yes, I always thought that it was to preload the bearings??

She is absolutely right, especially this bit…

“There is the necessity to have two languages – one that you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity.”

The number of graduates that are unable to use their own native language properly is truly depressing (especially in written form)

Old piece of copper plumbing pipe and a mallet – knock it down through the base of the steerer.

HedDoctor 🙄 never managed to get one of those stupid things to work properly

stayhigh – I think the light housing units were the same across the range?? It’s one of the enduring features for me, they are pretty tough! Get hot with the 20W halogen running though! Enough to cook wet mud on the front of the lens.

Not sure about the battery packs, though, they might have changed to NiMH as the wattages were increased…?

See here – although photies have gone…

more here – same guy[/url]

Quite liked the idea myself, but time, time, time…

I remember seeing a well illustrated (with photos) blog from someone who had done this. Has Google not turned anything up??

As you say, the ABS lights had very nice head units. I still have a set of ABS 30s with two sets of batteries. They occasionally get pressed into service on MM weekend, but don’t really have enough burn time for my winter commutes.

A LED conversion would sort that out though

Same here – on all three computers that I use to browse the site:

Home desktop – XP Pro, SP3, IE8
Home laptop – Vista, IE8
Work laptop – XP Pro, SP3, IE6

All with different firewalls and anti-virus software running…

As intoxicating as the sound of a V6 might be – can’t really see any sense with current fuel prices…

… unless it’s a project car with something more economical for the day drive, or you don’t do much mileage.

Not the same car or motor, but looked at the 147GTA when it came out – the garage where I got my car serviced was running one as a demonstrator. They reckoned it was doing somewhere between 15 and 18mpg 🙁 Many manufacturers are going the way of smaller capacity engines with bigger boost pressures to replace the larger capacity motors previously in their line-ups.

Mk 5 GTi on the other hand would normally return mid to high 30s and would edge in to the low 40s on a long motorway run.

I’ve never really understood this….

My eggies have done, what 7000+ miles?. They are just on their second set of bearings. I’ve never had the cage come off the spindle (last time was close because had to wait for bearings to be restocked…), so it’s just a question of replacing the cartridge bearings when they start to get some play.

Compare that to the 80-1000 miles between bearing replacement on external BBs 🙄

Weird – I couldn’t see it…?

i could list the amount of “GT5 is released on dates”….which have then been put back….but i’d run out of space

Here you go, I’ll do it for you…

… UK / EU – No delays to release date
… Japan – Delayed end March 2010 to early November 2010
… Rest of World – No delays to release date

Hopefully will be well worth waiting for. For those that haven’t seen…

Can’t get video to work…
source here

Going to go for Gran Turismo 5…

I passed my DAS a few years ago now – unfortunately economic downturn and mrs rkk01 going cold on the “risks” side has delayed getting a bike, for a bit.

Love the little Monster 696 – but it is just that, little. At 6’3″ a lot of bikes feel too small.

Tried a couple of Honda VTRs and came very close to buying one. Loved the V twin sound and the 1000cc lump wasn’t at all intimidating – but the bike still felt very small, except in tight and twisty roads were the weight (presumably) made it much more reluctant to turn in snappily compared to the GS500 I learnt on. I guess that’s why advice is to get a good bit of experience before getting a litre bike…

I think I’d be looking at F600 / 800 GS

Time for mrs rkk01 to look / try a few different styles methinks.

I’ve got some Gore ones – they were expensive, but love the quality and they are lasting well.

Useful stuff, thanks.

We’re thinking of driving to the Aosta Valley, so probably more than we’d want to do in one hit…

Troyes looks good, but depends on the tunnel time that we book. Not too bothered what time we arrive on Sunday as we aren’t planning on getting a day’s skiing in until Monday am.

But, did the Nytol get you a night’s sleep?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were terrible events, but nowhere near as unpleasant as what the Japanese unleashed on mainland China.

It saved the lives of tens of thousands Allied troops who did not die as a result of having to invade Japan. That makes it worthwhile. It probably also saved 100s of thousands of Japanese lives as well. Unpleasant but true

As posted above, I think this view is fairly contentious these days. The US use of nuclear strike on Japan was aimed fair and square at Stalin, whose armies were massed on the Manchurian border at the time – externally, it was all about establishing the post war hegemony. Internally it was about the ascendancy of US air power and LeMay wanting to carve out a role for strategic bombing in an independent armed service…

… and yes, that opinion is partly based on the content of Hastings “Nemesis”

This thread read like it needed some NSFW content….

the idea of campaigning to put it on road signs is completely lunatic, or as they say in Cornwall, "completely lunatic".

Not at all sure that they do, actually. Certainly in terms of bilingual place names, that are increasingly popular.

Language remains deeply embedded in the fabric of any place. Understanding Welsh, West Highland or any other placenames requires the context of language – and that context is best maintained through the education of kids from a young age.

Yes, Wales.

It goes beyond place name pronunciation though, as useful as it is. Like you infer, language is a link to place. How can you understand the meaning of a place name if you are divorced from the linguistic roots?

The opportunity to learn, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Scots / Irish Gaelic (and Saesneg / Sowznak / Sasunnach) should be available to all.

Past monachist / centralist / public policies have actively discriminated against UK minority languages, so a little bit of redress to provide a supportive environment has got to be a good thing.