Slashdot Mirror

Is it really going to be cheaper than (say) paving large areas of desert with ever-cheaper solar cells? Or building the really large wind-farm projects in the many available on/off shore locations?

Yes, with a capital 'Y'. Much, much cheaper, much, much more scalable, and also more environmentally friendly.

Nuclear is really the only option, and it's great that your government is going with what's right rather than what the misinformed majority think about nuclear power.

But, dammit, nuclear energy has no alternative for the moment.

Not true..

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=46415
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/worlds_largest_4.php
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/21/BUG9VJHBLB1.DTL
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1321857,00.html
http://www.pvresources.com/en/top50pv.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6031995.stm

All of Americas power needs could be supplied by (for example) covering 100x100 km of the Nevada Desert with PV cells. Why not just bite the bullet and do it?

there are risks in nuclear energy production

Hmm.. People dont realise just how close 3 mile island came to being as bad as Chernobyl - by sheer luck the vessel held the molten glob of reactor fuel. For a little exersize, extrapolate a Chernobyl scale incident to the 3 mile island area..

http://americanhistory.si.edu/tmi/tmi03.htm

> EU Considering Regulating Sale of Violent Games

WTF? They want to regulate games, while at the same time selling weapons willy nilly to anyone with the cash to pay for them (no questions asked)? The US and Russia leads the world arms trade, but runners up have suspiciously European-sounding country names:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2605823,0 0.html

I think this is what we call a Cluster of Clusterbombers:

http://apps.sipri.org/milap/world_aprod_map.html
http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/aprod/si pridata.html

Some of these sales are self-defense, but a lot of it feeds third-world conflicts:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/11/ 13/us_is_top_purveyor_on_weapons_sales_list/

* If WalMart disappeared these people would never work again?

What, disappeared like something from a child's story book? Please explain how Walmart could 'disappear'
---
Sometimes others are better at the job.

World's Biggest Retailer Wal-Mart Closes Up Shop in Germany
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2112746,0 0.html

Thanks, I've already added a couple of those sites to my bookmarks, too bad they don't have RSS feeds. Ill look at some of the rest of them in a bit.

As for me, being Canadian, (but living in Europe) and using a lot of politics with my teaching (English teacher), I try and keep a diversified list. I'll try and list them more by theme than amount visited.

Canadian:
The CBC - Dissapointing RSS feed, they don't have too much/day, but it's always good to see what they have to say on Canadian politcs.
The Globe and Mail - The best site for at least a bit thoughtful Canadian news.
The CTV - OK, pulp, but once in awhile it's interesting to see what pulp has to say about things.
TSN - Sports, got to keep up with hockey and curling, none better.
Macleans - The Canadian equivalent of Time, some of their stuff is really great.

International:
The BBC - Probably the best English language news in the world, enough said.
The Guardian - Better analysis than the BBC, but not the sheer volume.
Al Jazeera - More balanced than what you'd think, at least the English version ... well, except for the editorial cartoons.
NY Times - Amazingly crummy RSS feed, seeing as it's one of the biggest newspapers in the US (but probably still better than the CBC).
Deutche Welle - Not the best site, either, but as I'm living in Germany ...

For actually thinking:
The Christian Science Monitor - I'm not religious, and except for a few things (see their "about us"), neither are they. What they are is the most balanced news in the US I've ever seen. They are thoughtful, honest and as far as I can see don't pander to any particular point of view.
Sign and Sight - This is only if you want to spend some time actually reading, as it's not meant for the masses. It takes articles by thinking people from across Europe and translates them into English.

Others: The Register - Tech news with a British sense of humour, and people think they are biased because of it.
Neil Gaiman's Blog - Not as interesting as it used to be, but I've learnt a lot about the book/publishing world through his blog.

Yes, I'm an information hound, and I like to see as many points of view as possible. I've tried fox news a couple of times, but most of the topics I'm interested in they've just taken things off the wire, so nothing new. What I also do is search google news when I find an article I want to get more points of view on. I don't use the service itself, but they are great for finding out who is saying what about a particular topic - you might even find a new angle that hadn't been said 100 times before.

The publishing industry also realizes it does not have the balls nor lobbyists to enforce these whims on the world. They cannot change legal deposit. They cannot close down the Library of Congress. They cannot kill Gutenburg.org. They cannot stop Google and Harvard and Amazon and Yahoo from scanning books. And yes Virginia, they do get a special stipend from Library purchases, and annual fees for copying provisions. (At least in Canada. Dunno what you Yanks do except allow school teachers to show commercial videos in classrooms. Scandalous!!)

The issue with these slippery slope "where's my money?" arguments is they never know whom to blame. Is it Xerox for letting me photocopy? Is it HP for letting me scan? Is it the security guard for not tasering me as I approach the photocopier? Is it the bus driver for taking me downtown to commit a felony? Is it the library for buying a book I never heard of, which made me decide to go out and buy the entire series to read over and over and over again? "You only paid once, that's not fair!"

Four hundred years ago the publishers complained because it was too hard to sell obscure books, and now they complain because there are so many obscure books people aren't buying enough of theirs. Libraries are the only customer that actually want one of everything, and they actually enable citizens to purchase more for themselves. Libraries grow the economy across the board. If all knowledge or literature had to be purchased before it was read... well where would all these starving authors go to get their ideas? You've hit the big time when every city in the country promises to make your words available for 50 years, not when someone pays $5 for a PDF with a click-wrap agreement.

Information wants to be free. If you want to make money and become famous, stick to paperback thrillers. Just don't complain when some less successful author sues you for having read their ideas too.

source one. source two. source three. source four. source five.

I've found it in like 5 minutes. You're not at googling are you? Here "Germany's parliament passed legislation in 1985, making it a crime to deny the extermination of the Jews. In 1994, the law was tightened. Now, anyone who publicly endorses, denies or plays down the genocide against the Jews faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail and no less than the imposition of a fine." - And that is in addition to such countries as France (1990) and Switzerland - both having lost the war, presumably?

Who was talking about robbery et al? The incidence of psychotic and destructive behavior is orders of magnitude above any antisocial tobacco or alcohol behavior but there's absolutely zero evidence that I can find on 2nd hand smoke damage for meth smokers. I'd suggest that the dosage for area effects is very likely much lower than for tobacco and that even getting rid of the drug war entirely would leave smoking meth vulnerable to the exact same restrictions as tobacco in terms of public smoking.

Regarding abortion, what jurisdiction are you in? The US permits 3rd trimester abortion without limit and we have only recently mandated that botched abortions that result in live births shall not be subject to infanticide by exposure/neglect. It's a US political story up top so it's reasonable to assume that if a country is not named, we're talking about the US.

On healthcare, I'd agree that it's a complex issue. Two of the big problems with unraveling the current state is that public provision via medicare up to now has completely ignored the pharma revolution of the past few decades. US policy has just been corrected so it no longer favors expensive surgery over inexpensive pills. That's one positive for the Reps and science based to boot. Another positive has been the progressive experimentation and enlargement of what are now called Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) which tie a high deductible policy to a tax deductible account. HSAs inject a population into the mix that actually demands price justification, negotiates discounts, and seeks the low cost reputable provider. This is all to the good and was passed as part of medicare reform.

As for Europe, it manifestly does not work as all the European systems are either scandalously decrepit and going broke (the eastern ones that came out of the Soviet system) or are just going broke (the EU systems like the FRG's krankenkasse system). It's the shame of Europe that Germany ended up retaining conscription when the military wanted rid of it because the cheap labor kept the hospitals going. The Germans are violating their own basic law and pretending that everything is OK. It is not OK and the US should certainly not follow down that dead end road.

It looks like you have more then just a processing facility in Germany. Looks like they are eating out of your hands over there.

Dude jews really really love freedom of speech

well, I'll reference a
German article about the current state of the US belief system (look near the bottom), since I can't find a better one quickly. While not as strong, Germany has 63% believing in some form of ID (compared to 84% in the US), and the poll was structured better - as I recall, there wasn't an option in the US poll for God guided evolution - it was God only, no evolution, God only, humans didn't evolve but everything else did, or no God. It only added up to 96%, so that may be the other 4% (or maybe that's other religions; e.g. Hindu).

Anyhow it kinda makes sense - people came to America to avoid religious persecution, so you have to expect to find more deeply religious people there. My ancestors on my mom's side came to America for exactly that reason (they were Mennonite). My dad's side (Catholic, converted to Lutheran) fled to America so great-great-great grandpa's boys wouldn't be conscripted into the Prussian army (he served in the Austrio-Prussian war and Franco-Prussian war, leaving before Germany was recongnized by the US, though I can't remember the exact year offhand - 1871 or 2, I believe).

Hmm... I just realized that my dad's ancestor crushed both my mom's ancestral homeland (Austria) and my wife's ancestral homeland (French).

...France, Germany and the U.K. start argueing over trivial issues.

Trivial issues, you mean like theEuropean Constitution or farm subsidies, which are a substantial portion of the EU's budget?

The EU has been arguing over very, very substantial issues for a long time. The question is whether or not the Union will survive them. My money used to be on no, and is slowly moving towards yes. This is mainly because I believe integration will slow down; we'll have a European identity, and a great deal of cooperation, but I do not think Europe will ever become a superstate.

Personally, I think that's a good thing.

Actually, it is the same comparison.

There are companies now that test potential employees to see if they are smokers and refuse to hire them if they are.

Example, Example 2, Example 3.

Actually there are more than four million government-controlled surveilance cameras in the UK - one for every fifteen people. That makes even this rabid right-winger a bit nervous...

The United Nation is not a for-profit organization? Really?

were arrested over bribery involving millions of dollars

in which one U.N. staffer, Alexander Yakovlev, was convicted in a Manhattan federal court this past August

step down from his post Monday amid allegations that he and the governing

Bailey's Compass Sacks Three Execs In UN Scandal

Germany Shocked by Damning Report On UN Scandal

More?

WMDs? Absolutely! Just look at this poorly disguised rocket base!

Yup.

and were wrong for a. not continuing with the invasion of Iraq after the first Gulf War

Err.. nope.

and b. not following through on their resolution to attack Iraq after weapons inspections failed.

Nope. Not only there was no such resolution (to "attack" Iraq) but they was clearly no reason to do so, as I have shown conclusively, multiple times, thanks to Mr. Ritter. Iraq was actually in the right to throw UNSCOM out after it has become a CIA operation and the UN knew it.

Not to mention all the other repercussions and highly unlikely positive outcomes of any such nonsensical military invasion.

Read: you are attempting to discredit a quote which obviously debunks your position, since you cannot support your position directly. Result: you lose.

The only thing this "obviously debunks" is your sanity. Beyond that, this is not a game and you are not a referee. Reserve these "You lose", "I am telling Mom" and similar missives for your fellow kindergarten classmates.

Actually quoted from CNN. So far you've claimed to know more than both CNN and the BBC. Pardon me if I disagree.

The CNN also disagrees with you. I am not sure if you realize this but quoting Powell from CNN and then insisting you are quoting Annan tells volumes about your mental state.

Your debate style is pathetic - when your ignorance is illustrated you either attempt to misdirect the conversation, claim to know more than the source that is being cited, or just go on ad hominem attacks.

Ah, another classic. Accuse your opponent of employing your own tactics. Do you really think this is going to work?

Interesting that you equate taking action with simply issuing a mission statement.

There were actual demonstrations which followed. The one I pointed you to was in New York, October 1, 1998 at the Times Square. Since you claimed that no protests occurred, even one example disproves your claim. If you think I will dig up every demonstration that occurred since then until the invasion, you are sorely mistaken. Google yourself.

The fact of the matter is nobody was taking out full-page ads, picketing in front of embassies, marching on Washington, calling their Congressmen, or burning flags over sanctions.

I am not sure about flag burning and full-page ads but the rest was definitely done. Multiple times.

Perhaps you can explain why the US and Canada both provided materiel for the war before the US was attacked?

Canada being part of the British Empire had little choice (I find that air of proprietorship of yours in regards to Canada telling by the way). As to the US, it did so at first for profit. There was absolutely no appetite for joining any silly European wars in the US. As a matter of fact, Herr Hitler had a number of admirers in high places in the US. But there were piles of money to be made on shipments of arms and supplies. Some were quite confused as to which side the shipping was to be made to. The business bonanza was followed by growing panic due to massive losses of -- then "neutral", even though they were carrying weapons and ammunition to war -- US merchant ships as they encountered U-boats. Lend Lease was not enacted until March 1941 after Hitler already occupied most of Europe and a good chunk of Africa. Followed by Pearl Harbor few months later. Which changed everything.

In fact, if the US were as evil as the fantasy you whack off to, wouldn't we have sided with the Germans? After all, then we could have had Anglo control of the world, including all the oil.

US is not essentially evil. There are

http://www.dw-world.de/einsteinyear/
http://www.dw-world.de/einsteinjahr/

http://www.dw-world.de/einsteinyear/
http://www.dw-world.de/einsteinjahr/

A little more digging finds a number of news articles (most rather sceptical) about the bomb test claims, some of which mention analysis of supposedly radioactive material from a site or sites in Thuringia:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4348497.stm
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1518173,0 0.html
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7090178/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1511154, 00.html

There's a particularly sceptical article in Spiegel that makes the whole thing sound a bit 'Da Vinci Code':
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spie gel/0,1518,346293,00.html
Also according to Spiegel, the Jonas Valley in Thuringia is turning into a sort of German Area 51, attracting an army of crackpots looking for everything from stolen art treasures to evidence of nuclear weapon testing:
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spie gel/0,1518,260784,00.html
("[Conspiracy theorist] Stade also believes that the Führer's telephone system inside the tunnel network is still connected to the public telephone system. In fact, he claims that it's buried deep in the archives of the German Reichspost, and that he found Hitler's number there. It's 03624-1200500... Although the Führer's number is a working number, it's always busy.")

I wonder how much longer that can sustain it self with unemployment numbers in the double digits.

There are also audio lessons and more stuff there in mp3 format, you can take with you offline on your mp3 player.

All free too. http://german.about.com/ is alright too.

Similar to the BBC language program, Deutsche-Welle radio also has an online language program to teach its internet audience German. The course modules are in MP3 format so you can download them to your music player of choice and study where ever you wish.

Deutsche Welle has an article available in German here http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1510851,0 0.html/

Non german speakers can use their preferred machine language translator.

It's mostly a fluff piece, but good promotion for Wiki.

Indeed, an example where an actual communist party was elected (if you people out there think that Stalin represented actual marxism/communism, then I'm not sure I can break through that ignorance) and was deposed by forces quite decidedly undemocratic. (Anyone sketchy on the facts can brush up on them somplace like wikipedia). The sad truth is, the factions and people that believed in Communism as an actual expression of what is best for the people, well, they were often put down by heavy-handed measures on the parts of their opponents. The ones that espoused the ideology but really were just in it for power, those were the successful ones (and when they weren't, afterwards they were taken care of by those that were; Trotsky actually believed in what the Soviets claimed to, but Stalin, in it only for himself and unencumbered by any ideology otherwise, easily ousted Trotsky).

Note, also, the times that communists have been cheated out of elections; in the Weimar Republic in germany, near the end, both the Nazis and the Communists were making significant gains in the elections. The Nazis spread fear about the Communists, burned down the Reichtag building and blamed it on communists, and just generally used underhanded methods to manipulate people into handing power over to them.

And sometimes communists (or movements that started out as communist, but later became just power hungry regimes, a common story with revolutions in general, the French Revolution being a shining example of good intentions gone bad) had no option of democratic elections, because there were none in the country in question. So the fact that few communists have been elected worldwide is not that much of a strike against them; the number of examples when fundamentally different systems were elected to power are few as is, it's hardly a show of superiority when the status quo is re-asserted.

Although, to go to the literal wording of the grandparent: name a communist that was elected in a real election. Well, that isn't very hard at all, there are even communists elected at this very moment around the world, maybe not as the ruling governments, but if you're looking just at communists that have been elected in real elections you don't have to look very far. I searched for about half a second and already came up with some evidence of communist activity and success in the democratic process.

Methinks the grandparent is perhaps a tad irrationally biased, to make such blanket statements.

The rejection of guest workers is a carefully considered policy in Japan. There are some disadvantages to losing a common culture, as the Dutch, the Germans, and the French are discovering. Can't say I blame the aging Japanese for not wanting to deal with cultural strife or learn Tagolog or Mandarin in their dotage. But pardon me, I'm off to my Spanish class...

Oh, they didn't then. Perhaps you should update your information a bit. Most everyone with a voice (worker unions too) agree they can't keep going like that for long. That certainty is behind Siemens' menace of moving jobs to Hungary, which forced longer work hours so they would stay. And there's more companies thinking or acting alike (Daimler-Chrysler, for example). Just read the related article in Deutsche Welle.

The U.S. firefoxers are badly lagging behind here: The German local group "Firefox kommt!" had their ad with about 2,400 signatures in Germany's premier economics paper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) on the 2nd of December 2004. You can see the ad here (includes various mirrors). The response in the German press was fantastic.
... and firefox-kommt was started after the US campaign. And I really liked the ad ...
Firefox Declares War in Germany
Firefox ad published in Europe
Now, quite a lot of people tried to post this on Slashdot, but for some reason, these stories seem to have been rejected wholesale. I fail to see the reasoning behind this: Being U.S. centered is one thing, trying to supress the first example of an ad that the world has been holding its breath for quite another. It would be nice if the editors forced themselves to give a reason when they rejected postings or at least created a section where people can look at them.
So true.

Not to mention that 60% of the world's population is coming to hate our guts with religious passion

Not quite that many muslims in the world, but the war definately made the US a greater target for terrorism, and worse alienated us from the rest of the world.

It's not just muslims that hate the USA. Here in Australia there's always been a resentment of the stupid arrogant attitude that seems to pervade almost everything done by the USA and its citizens. Now GWB's war in Iraq seems to be the very height of stupidity and arrogance. Almost everything the man said about Saddam Hussein could equally have been said about the USA and GWB e.g massive stockpiles of weapons, threatening other countries, cooperating with terrorists, etc.

I'm white anglo-saxon. I was raised with mostly protestant religious teachings, although I've broadened my horizons somewhat since then. My native tongue is English. Culturally and ethnically I'm 99% compatible with the USA. But events in the last few years has caused my simmering anti-American feelings to come to the boil. And I'm not alone. Bush has seriously damaged the image of the USA with the rest of the world.

Just today I saw a snippet about railcabs on DW-TV. Individual cars on legacy tracks that have been updated with magnetic propulsion. Cars apparently attach and detatch themselves from trains, making them fairly autonomous. Cars can carry people or cargo boxes. Various early prototypes are in progress now. The researcher suggested that a serious prototype is maybe 5 years away, with commercial deployment in 10 years.

Just today I saw a snippet about railcabs on DW-TV. Individual cars on legacy tracks that have been updated with magnetic propulsion. Cars apparently attach and detatch themselves from trains, making them fairly autonomous. Cars can carry people or cargo boxes. Various early prototypes are in progress now. The researcher suggested that a serious prototype is maybe 5 years away, with commercial deployment in 10 years.

Uhm... I think you woke up a bit too late... The trend up untill two years ago was that work weeks would drop to 36 hours. A lot of government agencies all over europe have 36 hour weeks, and in some countries there are laws forcing companies to allow 36 hour weeks if employees want them (for less pay of course).

But now the trens is upwards again because we can't compete with the rest of the world if we only work 36 hours a week (or so they say).
See:
this story about siemens increasing the work week of it's german workforce.
If you're going into negotiations with your employer now I'd pray he had his head in the sand the last few months.

Yea even condoms...

Wow thanks for that. Germany's own global news service Deutsche Welle also has their own German language course, right here.

Indeed there are better technologies being tried in Australia, such as this effort by a German company.

However, at the moment, photovoltaic cells are one of the most accessible technologies for remote communities. The technology is there, ready to roll out, and accessories, like 12V appliances are readily available in Australia.

I see PV technology as a stop-gap until better technology becomes readily available.

Here is a good article about Phoenix and Hopper.

In Australia, in 2005 is the completion date of a solar power tower, they, sbp of Germany are building.

In short, the sun heats the air at the 7km diameter base 'glasshouse'.
This hotair rises, up the 1km tunnel, spinning turbines as it moves.

it's cool. (and hot)

Here another article I found.

So with more advances like this, we will get in the right direction ! :-)

Maybe if the Europeans didn't keep selling nuclear technology to nutjobs the US wouldn't feel the need to develop counter measures.

Univision is owned by NBC, and thus General Electric. They're just as tainted as FOX or CNN.

Also, I believe it's Deutsche Welle . The pronounciation sounds like "wella" in English, but it's an -e, not a -a, in German.

If anyone owns DW or al-Jazeera, I don't currently know about it. But then, neither of them has much of a presence in North America, and of the ones that are available, they're almost all part of one or another conglomerate. The main exceptions I can think of would be PBS, NPR, and (if your area or cable provider offers access) BBC World -- but then people. But then, they're driving under the influence, too...

If you have an ogg or mp3 player then these are two great sites:

• http://radio.cbc.ca/
  
• http://science.nasa.gov/

If you have RealPlayer then http://www.dw-world.de/english/ is worthy of a weekly visit. Their Tomorrow Today has some great material from time to time but no archive as far as I can tell.

If anyone else can recommend any other sites that provide archived multimedia documentary material, I'd be interested.

Cheers... Clark
--
This hand crafted, one of a kind .sig streamed live from C.Mills' keyboard.

Ok.

I saw a programme on DW-TV a few months ago on this subject. Why has Estonia made such progress while its neighbours are still languishing in the soviet era?

The reason of such a profound change in Estonia is because of one main reason- change of guard. Young people control the majority of Estonia's power. Be it politics, architecture, medicine..you name it. The older generation has handed over a lot of the responsibilities.

The prime minister himself is 35 years old. All the members of his cabinet are younger to him.

What is so special about young people? They carry no baggage. They want more economic progress and they will do whatever is needed to achieve that. Politicans/businesspeople/engineers work towards a common goal i.e economic progress. Nobody cares a damn about communist crap.

Here is a quote taken from (DW-TV).

YOUNG ESTONIAN LEADERS

One of Estonia's youngest politicians was asked this week to be the country's new prime minister. 35-year old, Juhan Parts - who was 24 when he started in politics - was chosen by the victorious Res Publica party after recent elections in the Baltic state. Described as 'boyish and brainy', Parts belongs to a tradition of young leaders in top positions within Estonia's government. The country's first prime minister after independence was Mart Laar who was 32 years old when sworn in.

Here is a related article about young people in Estonia.

(mod me down, but you can't avoid the facts)

Hey did you know the US gets %55 of its oil domestically?
Hey did you know that Iraq only accounts for %3 of that?
Hey did you know the only reason we get _any_ oil from them is because of the oil 4 food program
Hey did you know that all oil on the planet is the same price no matter what country it comes from?
Hey did you know we could buy all the oil from Iraq we wanted, but we aren't a morally impotent country
like France who is funding Iraq dispite the laws _they_ put in place against such a thing?

I wanted to mod this down but the thread was too long.
How this got modded +5 is nothing less than insanity to me. And shows how uninformed people are.
Instead of their knee jerk reaction to bash America you should attempt to inform yourselvs on your
views instead of hearing it on BBC, CNN, FOX, ETC. accepting their bias view as your own.

If America puts in a fake government (they wont)is that so much worse than the puppet government already inplace?
France built a nuclear plant in Iraq, It's documented fact and it was destroyed by the Israeli's
China is the one who set up Iraq's communications system to disable GPS guided bombs, and the missles
lauched today at american troops from guess where?
Guess who Frances biggest trade partner is?
How about the 40 BILLIONdollar Russia/Iraq deal, not to mention the 7 billion they're already owed?
Notice a trend here yet?
Okay how about Germany being Iraq's #1 weapons supplier

I am only saying all this because It's obvious to me why there is anti-american rhetoric comming from all these countries (who fundsthose anyway?) THEY WANT TO GET RICH off a tyrant who gasses his people, starves them, A man who wants to take over the middle easts oil and defend it with the weapons from countries mentioned above. He thought he could do it in '91 with the worlds #6 ranked military.
well I've ranted enough already

Recently Gerhard Schröder took out an injunction against a British Paper (the Mail on Sunday) to stop them printed a story about his marriage.
The paper turned round and said they were a British paper under British rule and could print what they liked.

So I could read a story in the Mail on Sunday about Germanys leader that Germans couldn't read!

Good Article from Deutsche Welle (in English)

Or risk another Sputnik. The European Space Agency Has it's sites on Mars for 2025. Some Russian scientists want to be there by 2015 - And good luck to them!
Here's some links:
The BBC
Space Daily
Deutsche Welle

Editorial Comment.
I've concluded the recent sabre rattling is a ploy to raise $675B to get the nation on course to Mars. After everyone realizes we don't need to war with Iraq or North Korea.
Divert that war chest! GO USA!

I think that's about all the time I have to research this.