Vapymid

As if we needed any illustration to our recent discussions - it's things like these that make the situation dangerous. Regards

I am not worried about the "rogue states". As nation-states, they know that actually using the weapons will lead to consequences much more costly for them than any military gain from the weapons themselves. Also, they know equally well that from the moment the world knows they are in possession of WMDs they will be directly blamed if they lose control over the weapons and let them slip into the hands of any non-national organisation. For example, if Hisbollah were to be found with an Iranian nuke, even if they haven't had a chance of using it yet, it will be considered as a declaration of war by Iran. The terrorist groups are a different matter. If they lay their hands on any WMD they are likely to use them. Biological agents are difficult to handle and weaponise, chemicals are difficult to deploy in sufficient scale to be effective. The nukes are the most dangerous as they may be made compact enough to be delivered and still have a big punch, tempting for a terrorist organisation. Unfortunately, I see it almost inevitable that a large chunk of a major city will sooner or later be messed up by a nuke IED. Whether it will be London or Moscow, Rome or Beijing - impossible to say. I don't recommend anyone to lose any sleep over it. If it happens to you, it happens - tough luck. If it doesn't you will still have to die of something - no one lives forever... To me, the way to make it less likely or to postpone the moment is to encourage the nation-state with ambitions to build nuclear weapons to open up their programs to international supervision and to provide them with advice and help on safety, security, deployment protocols etc. Note, that when I say "open to international supervision", I mean - drop the pretense of peaceful atom etc and admit that, yes, they are developing a bomb, so let's make sure they do it safely and without any chance of losing control over the material and technologies. I know my views on that are unorthodox and are unlikely to be shared by most people but, there you go. Regards

I'm watching with interest but nothing new is happening for the time being that would show which way it will all go... I still think the Norks are bluffing and, apparently, April 15 is their founder's (Kim Il Sung) birthday, so maybe they will conduct another test, announce that the US is too scared to attack them, claim it was a great victory for the new Glorious Great Leader and it will all calm down again. But, as always in such circumstances, things can go out of hand very quickly... As was shown in a good cold-war film: Captain - "If he fires one, I'll fire one..." Weapons Officer - "Firing one!" Captain - !!! Regards

Of course, the original I'm Still Seeing Breen Shelf Life (in 2 parts, follow the links on Yutube) 1NWB72My5_c Vae Victis (in 5 parts) w2nnM62MjJg Reign of The Disruptors (and some other Ray Koefoed's music machinimas) GQggd22ejJc The old Mighty Crane and LitFuse machinimas (now can be found on Zach Scott's and LitFuseFilms' channels) Notably: There is a good one I remember but can't find - it's called "The L.A.S.T."... Others: (4 parts + 2 part "epilogue", unfinished. Actually, the "Epilogue" is the best part of the series) Clear Skies trilogy - somewhat epic combination of Source and Eve Online. - mixed engines, 1st person, quite unusual. Also look for "The Uprising, parts 1 and 2" (un-yet-finished)... Non-Source: - by LitFuseFilms, GoW in Unreal - BF2 - BF2Double Kill and - Unreal - WoW Regards

I have to say I agree with Judas here... I like to play Doom I WADs with Doom ][ engine - get the best of both things! Regards

According to someone who just returned from the Korean DMZ area, the Norks have selected their tallest soldiers to guard their side of the DMZ in order for them to appear more "manly". Apparently, because of poor nutrition, the North Korean males are on average 2 - 3 inches shorter than their South brothers... Looks like the country itself is suffering from a Napoleonic complex. That also means that dealing with them would be straight-forward and easy, if only our own Western politicians were competent and rational people. The trouble is - on average, they are not Regards

d78wwe2CLDg Michael Scehnker's going fast... Regards

LOL! http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/28/nork_photoshop_assault/ I'm sure they are doing it on purpose, they must all be comedians at heart. Regards

I don't think Obama has a choice... Afganistan is a bonfire of vanities for the Western powers (and Russia). We come, we see, we run... Regards

Cold War was an imperial competition supported by ideological differences. Religion is an ideology, hence religious differences are also ideological ones, hence the same effect as in the Cold War. I don't know, there were no Muslims 2000 years ago. And if we are talking about Persians, they did not seem to be much concerned with Jews. If we are talking about Arabs, which Iranians are not, then they may actually have a claim to the land as Jews displaced them after the Exodus. What was before that I have no idea, neither do I care. We live today and people who live now should not use old grudges dating back 100s or 1000s of years as justification for their actions today. That equally applies to Jews and to Arabs and to Persians, IMHO. One man's extremist is another man's moderate... I personally think that Saudis or, say, Kuwaitis are more extreme than the Iranians. Anyway, compare Iran with Pakistan - Iran is supporting Hisbollah, Hamas also Assad in Syria. Pakistan is supporting Taliban, who supported Osama, who supported Al Qaeda, who supported the infamous pilot training program where pilots were not taught how to land their planes... Again, who is more extremist or dangerous? I think the jury is split. Arguably, 9/11 was much more hurtful for the US and the world and now Taliban is kicking the NATO out of Afganistan, yet Iran is on the "Axis of Evil" while Pakistan is not... Not very consistent. Regards

I haven't found found anything scientific on those pages. They mostly refer to people like Cynthia A. Janak - hardly an authority on anything. "Her expertise is as an administrative professional (emphasis mine). Her specialties are adoptee and genealogy research and research journalism. Hobbies: Writing prose, crocheting, Conservative Studies, and rehabbing houses." - this is from her own bio. She is also apparently saying that personal gun registration is bad because the US Government will know who owns which guns and will send people door-to-door to confiscate them... Regards

Why not? I also heard Jewish people were not on good terms with Romans either. And with Egypt... Oh, and with Germans not so long ago too. And Iranians are not the only Muslims around. Pakistan is also a Muslim country and they have nukes. They also have missiles to deliver them too. So, if existence of Israel depends on Muslims not having nukes, the horse has already bolted. Mind you, there are Muslims in the US too. Oh, dear! Regards

Simplified rock, nicely played... 3pNOKQT29ag Regards

It actually works well but is very expensive. The Soviet government used it regularly to ensure good weather over Moscow for various parades and demonstrations. China still uses it. Various vaccinations were mandatory in the USSR and there is no evidence that fertility was affected in any way by that. There is absolutely no scientific reasons why it should be. Regards

There is a big difference between a bunch of stowaway immigrants (not slaves - they are trying to get to the US to have a better life/make money to have a better life back home) and loading tens of thousands of troops. Actually, if you look at a container ship with few thousands TEUs onboard you should notice that one of the main problems will be to provide enough ventilation for your boxed up soldiers to not simply suffocate in their containers. Slaves don't fight well, especially starving ones and when they have lost more than half of their comrades before they even got to the fight. China's COSCO has about 10 weekly ship voyages to the West Coast US, with approximately 20,000 TEUs in total, with 1 or 2 ships per day. They will lose the element of surprise once the first "soldier" is out of the box, therefore, they will have to stay inside until other ships arrive. You cannot send all the ships at once, because a) all movements are scheduled in advance and you will be discovered if you bunch them up, b) the port won't give you the berths to offload. So, you've packed 50 souls per TEU and hope 50% will survive (very optimistic!) and you will have 500 thousand barely alive young men finding themselves in the middle of a container yard miles away from civilisation (look at any picture of a major US container port to see what I'm talking about) having to fight their way out. OK, so some of them will get ashore - what can they achieve, dazed and confused, weak, stinking, without air cover and heavy weapons? I'll tell you what - they will ask for political asylum and surrender What other country? Why do you think that Chinese people are so prepared to "slave" at it? Why do you think that their young not are motivated by the same things as you are (e.g. get rich, live well, have a family etc.)? Regards

Not really, only well-protected from strategic invasions by its geographical location. Chinese Navy at the moment does not have a real blue-ocean capability. They only have 1 conventional carrier, the rest of the navy consists of guided missile destroyers, frigates, support vessels and missile boats. Of those, most are suitable for coastal defence or commercial routes protection in littoral areas. They do have some BM and attack submarines though, but mostly conventional (limited speed and range)... With that, they will not be able to effectively protect a convoy of thousands of container/troop ships needed for the invasion. The escorts will be engaged by and preoccupied with the US Navy, while the troop carriers will be picked off one by one by shore and aircraft-launched anti-ship missiles (and bombs after the Liaoning carrier is taken out). Any WMD use will immediately turn into a nuke slagging match, which China will not win. All that will happen is that both sides will end up with a few major cities in smoking ruins and survivors thinking "how the hell did we get ourselves into this?". Because we are discussing the feasibility of a conventional-type invasion I deliberately did not mention any WMD escalation. No such things exist, unless you are talking about high altitude nuclear blasts, which then fall under the general WMD category (see above). In general, there may be many scenarios where the US gets drawn into a regional confrontation with China (because of Taiwan or Japan or something else) and it can grow into a major and costly war, with nukes etc. but the invasion (as in lots of Chinese boys with rifles marching along the Historic Route 66) is very unlikely. Regards

Don't you think that the US armed forces will be stood on alert in the case of any Chinese military build up, even with the expectation that they only plan to strike at Taiwan? There is still 11 days sailing time to the West Coast - the Chinese flotilla will be intercepted and sunk before they have a chance to commence the landings. The time is also more than enough to mobilise the National Guard, so that any stragglers which have somehow escaped the antishipping missiles and bombs will be met in force. I don't think China or any other country has a realistic chance of invading the US with any kind of prior warning. Definitely, not by sea. Mexico or Canada may hope for some initial success, through the sheer "WTF???" factor, but then what? Regards

Half-Life 1 That was the first ever game I installed that used the hardware graphics accelerator card on my new computer... Regards

Well, then please share your knowledge. I am more than willing to listen if you can propose a plausible invasion scenario which would overcome the practical hurdles I outlined in my previous posts. Regards

Oh, alright, I'm going to go, fetch my antidote against protium-hydroxide poisoning then - I'm beginning to feel a little funny... Hey! Who stole my tinfoil hat?!?? Regards

Where do you get this from, guys? Do you also believe in chemtrails? Regards

I am sorry, but it is just not possible. Every large ship's movement is routinely monitored in real time by independent parties. If you disable transmitter on one, let alone on thousands of them, that in itself will cause the alarm. All container ship voyages are planned and scheduled long time in advance, a massive deviation from the commercial schedules will be a dead giveaway. Then, it is impossible to clandestinely load millions of people onto ships without it being noticed and widely reported. There are thousands of people working in each port in the world whose job it is to monitor and report ships and cargo movements. You can hide something from some of them but not everything from everyone. Chances are - you will hear about it on Tw@ter and see pictures on Youtube on the same day. That's not even talking about satellites... Any embarkation operation of that scale will require a staging area around each port where you assemble the troops and equipment, you have to feed and water the people, provide sanitation, remove waste - the smell alone will alert everyone in the area that something is going on. Then it will take 11 days for the ships to sail to the US - you must be of extremely low opinion about the competence of the CIA for them not to notice the armada of undeclared container ships heading for the US West Coast all of a sudden. Even if the spooks will miss them, now they have arrived - how will they disembark and how long it will take them? As for paratroops - it is very difficult to open a parachute when the plane you are on is crashing down towards the ocean in flames and in pieces. As the US bomber crews knew all too well during the WWII, by the way. Regards

But there is a big difference between sending people to blow themselves up to aid your political ends and sacrificing the whole country itself (and your own political ends with it) for some obscure ideological reason. So far, the latter has never been attempted in the world's history (or so I think). I would really like to convince you to start thinking that regimes like Iran, North Korea etc are acting in what they believe is pragmatic way. I grew up behind the "Iron Curtain" and I can tell you that the Western notions about the way how Soviet people lived and thought and what motivated them were very, very far away from reality. Regards

I believe the Chinese army is based on conscription. Being Russian, I can say from experience that armies made of conscripts are inferior to professional forces. The level of training is low, motivation is even lower. Saddam had one of the largest armies in the world, relatively well equipped, yet it unraveled in the 1st Gulf War just as easily as in the 2nd. Massive conscript-based army is OK for defence if you have to defend a *large* country from a land invasion. It is not good for invasion itself. Firstly, they will never be able to cross the ocean in a massive armada required for transporting that number of men and materiel. Secondly, if any will still manage to reach the other shore, they will be mowed down on the beaches, where they will be defenceless, coming out of the water. By the way, the paratroops will all be dead by that stage, feeding the fishes, most will never have a change to open their chutes, poor sods. In the meantime the world will watch in disbelief, then laugh hysterically at the stupidity of those who attempted such a moronic feat Regards

Eh? Are you sure? Regards