Walsingham

You'd still have to fox the other senses. Reminds me of Mujaheddin talking about how Spetsnaz were excellent, except tehy smoked, and hence could be smelled a long way off. Still, sniper-tastic.

What is supposed to happen to dead Scientologists?

I was listening to it all on BBC5 live, and it strikes me as quite positive for Britain this time.

The copper is going to be quite expensive, unless I can get some second hand. *thinks* why DIDN'T I think of that?

One thing is clear from the pictures on the BBC: the soldiers themselves are scared of another Chechnya. They're all riding on the outside of the APCs because they are worried about mines and RPGs.

I've decided that my house needs more art, and also more metal. Thus a plan is born. I intend to get sheets of steel, and copper, and acid etch designs on them. These will be placed around the house, depending on how cool they look. They can be as small as 10cm x 10cm, up to 2m x 8m. I thought I'd kick out the idea to you, and see if you could suggest any neat designs. Note: one purpose of all this is to have lots of reflective surafces, so anything which covers most of the metal won't really work.

Ever heard of Lucid Dreaming? I've never achieved it myself but I've heard a lot of people saying they do it regularly. Heh, neat. Seems very familiar indeed. I've done this a few times within recent memory. They are always really surprising though because once you realize that you're dictating the dream to yourself, your brain usually figures out that you are, in fact, dreaming. And at that point, the dream is over because you'll wake yourself up. Not necessarily. I worked it out once, and then went on an exciting tour of the world by flying on a paper bag.

I don't _think_ I've ever objected to regime change per se (correct me and win a prize). but I do think the regime you change things to is important. I don't know the first thing about how democratic Saakashvilli is, but I can't credit a new forcible pro-Russian regime very highly. If for no better reason than that the Georgians won't look highly on anyone who is acceptable to Russia.

Dagnabbit, how I yearn for the old days, when our enemies were also their own enemies! Interesting article, Moati. I guessthat wrecks my points above!

And remember: spoilertags are good.

That's great. I think the reason the opening ceremony was so fantastic was that it really highlighted all the amazing accomplishments of the Chinese people over the last couple thousand years. It certainly did job of how far they've come in the last fifty.

ROFL. And the price of oil is up again. With Russia totally dependant on oil for hard currency I am sure we can expect a peace move soon. I was thinking about this this morning. I don't normally rekect counter-arguments completely, but I've totally discarded the notion that Russia isn't the aggressor. I mean, the counter-argument is that 1. Georgia started a fight against an opponent with a crushing superiority in numbers and equipment. 2. It did so while two thousand of its best troops were away. 3. It did so without securing the single and extremely vulnerable road tunnel link to Russia 4. It did so when it's ally, the USA, could not possible support it. 5. EDIT: And it does so, when a short wait would have landed it inside NATO, first. This seems to me as likely as the old joke about the policeman claiming a young man brutal landed his groin on his boot cap, badly scuffing the shoe-leather.

I'd be grotesquely hypcritical if i didn't agree a bit with julianw. Governments do change. I am the first to say that HM govt. and the British Army are not the same ones who brutalised the Irish for hundreds of years. Forgiveness is important, or all we have is a ratchet on hate; a spiral into oblivion.

I don't think the Russians are stopping. I suspect the next move will be to use the Spetsnaz units to try and seize anyone pro-American politicians, and have them tried on genocide charges.

I had one of those too. I ended up in a psychiatric ward at the end of the dream :< I kicked their arses all the way back to Narnia.

I began the day with a beer and a home-made all beef burger with fresh juicy tomatoes and dijonaisse sauce. I am become a God.

You mean the way it NEVER stops anyone invading anyone? Since Korea?

I honestly wouldn't describe 1919 rum as being typical rum. And I like rum. But it's my drink for guests and it NEVER fails to impress. Nut , vanilla, and semi-sweet.

Actually I do take the view that Cuba has a perfect right to choose its strategic allies. Perhaps that comes from sitting with Ireland at our backs...

Well, you have a good point about being secessionist for just as long. On teh other hand, recognition for this region as a sovereign state, and hence able to choose is rather sparse. Even bonkers places like North Korea haven't agreed. I think you're being needlessly jingoistic about taking things in the 'back yard' 'lying down'. It's only the back yard according to an excessively aggressive legacy from Ivan the Terrible/Joe Stalin. I'd like to think we could move on from that, unless we want to go back to the old days of Cold War, and I don't. Or, to put it another way, if i were a Georgian, why the hell should I have to kowtow to Russia?

Alright Brdavs, you have a point that we're biased up to a point. But go easy willya? I'm happy to compare the situation with the Balkans, but it's far from identical. As for being Soviet-phobic, yes I'm old school, but you'd have an even harder time convicning me that the Russians are friendly at the moment.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2...2573830138.html Note that Russia is playing the 'intervention to prevent humanitarian crisis' card. As I have said in our iraq threads the precedent exists to use this as a legal support for declaring war. While I'm hardly in favour, you can't deny they've done their homework.

Actually mists do have a massive effect on sound, because you're talking about the sound transmission medium being saturated with water droplets. Except being from a country with nice weather you've clearly not had to struggle through the Edwardian pea-soupers we have here.

OK, update: BBC News footage of Russians entering region I made a mistake earlier in stating these are not first grade troops. That's a T-80 tank, and it looks in good nick. There's also 2S3 SP arty travelling along with BMP-1 (as I said earlier). This is consistent wit h asserions that the 19th Motor Rifle Division has entered the country. EDIT: Can anyone tell me what this vehicle is? I can't find it on any websites. POST-EDIT: It is a 2S9 "Bereg" artillery piece.

I have a question. How come we're so awesome?