OneGuyFromBarlick

Tizer wrote: ↑18 Aug 2021, 10:16 China, Russia and Pakistan have already stated their recognition of the Taliban's leadership of Afghanistan. We can see which way things are moving now. The Indian government will be getting the jitters.

Why ? All India has to do is dress up suicide Covid sufferers in native dress for Pakistan and Afganistan and spread covid among them. !

The Russian Bear moves again. Kipling's Great Game will start again on the Khyber Pass.

I've reached for my Complete Works of Kipling in the last few days. Mahbub Ali was a Pashtun.

Like Cathy - I'm also in my own little world. They can't touch you for it.

For Tripps
.

Wonderfully appropriate. Spot on - thanks.

`Wildfires rage across Europe' Short BBC video
From Portugal to France to Montenegro, a look at some of the fires spreading across Europe - and the rest of the globe.

It seems to be accepted now that the intensity and frequency of wildfires are increased by climate change. But I I've not heard or seen any recognition that these fires are pumping out a massive amount of extra CO2 which will further accelerate climate change, not to mention the direct effect of the heat generated from the fires.

Another thought...we are rushing to plant millions more trees. These will raise the oxygen content of the atmosphere and that in turn will favour more outbreaks of wildfires. I wonder if anyone has calculated how significant or not this might be? We know from geology and palaeontology that wildfires were more frequent when there was more photosynthetic activity from an abundance of trees.

Yet another interesting thought...
In the Carboniferous era the trees were not the ones we know now. In the coal-bearing strata the fossils show that the trees then were Lepidodendron, giant versions of the club mosses and horsetails that we know now. What I've just learnt is that they grew very fast (up to 100 feet in 15 years), grew very close together (like telegraph poles covered in scaley leaves and with palm leaves at the top) and had a spongy wood structure unlike modern trees. They would have been very effective at absorbing CO2 and cooling the atmosphere so it's another example of a feedback mechanism, bringing the hot-house Carboniferous era to an end. It's ironic that humans burning all the coal from those dead trees have brought us back to a hot-house Earth!

Planting trees is only a stop gap solution when the trees die the bacteria will break it down back to Carbon dioxide. When the coal measures were laid down this bacteria had not evolved to do this conversion. The Earth will never produce any oil or coal again.

Some good photos and film in this video about the invention and testing of the ejector seat...
`The NI inventor who saved thousands of lives' LINK

1956 saw my brother finish his apprenticeship as a sheet metal worker but in the RAF they had him as an armourer installing and testing ejector seats. He said that the normal fitters were good but had no idea on things that had to slide. He saw some very nasty accidents where the fitter did things in the wrong order.

I saw that link (Martin-Baker) and had a look the other day when you pointed us at the BBC site Peter.

`Why a US military base became a centre for Chinese Covid conspiracies' BBC
A disinformation campaign claiming that the Covid-19 virus originated from an American military base in Maryland has gained popularity in China ahead of the release of a US intelligence report on the virus origins. In May, US president Joe Biden ordered a 90-day probe into whether the Covid-19 virus came from a lab accident or emerged from human contact with an infected animal. Until then, the "Wuhan lab leak" theory had been dismissed by most scientists as a fringe conspiracy theory. But now as the report is due to be released, China has gone on the offensive. In the past few weeks, Chinese sources have been amplifying a baseless claim that Covid-19 was made in the US. Using everything from rap music to fake Facebook posts, experts say the propaganda efforts have been successful at convincing the domestic Chinese audience to cast scepticism on international criticism of the country's role in the Covid-19 pandemic. But, experts say, it has done little to legitimise China to the outside world.

The roots of that may be in the latest theories about the gestation of the the flu that gave us the pandemic at the end of WW1. There are reasons to believe it started in the USA.

The Telegraph reports that extra-long lorries could be allowed on the roads from next year to cut the number of freight journeys and ease the present logistics problems. They will be `longer semi trailers' which are 6 foot longer than the present limit. This is going to make over-taking more risky. Also it could cause chaos as road junctions are closed to make them suitable for the longer vehicles. In Bridgwater there was a year of chaos while one junction was modified to allow longer vehicles to reach Hinckley Point - don't ask me why it took a year, everything seems to take ages now! We've already got lots of road works here in Taunton because they've built so many new housing estates that they're having to build new roads and new junctions to cope with the massive increase in traffic.

As of 2009, vehicles are limited to a maximum of 6 axles, and limited to an overall maximum weight of 44 tonnes (43.3 long tons; 48.5 short tons) and 16.5 m (54 ft 2 in) in length for articulated lorries, and 44 tonnes (43.3 long tons; 48.5 short tons) and 18.75 m (61 ft 6 in) for drawbar lorries.
So you can already have longer vehicles but drawbar trailers are no problem at road junctions. If they want to have greater capacity they should go for a two trailer road train but with shorter trailers. These would give the extra capacity but with no length problems on corners and roundabouts. Axle weights would not rise either.

I found this government page on the trial: LINK

Unbelievable that the Americans gave the Taliban (their new best friends) who are looking after 'security' outside the airport, the full electronic details - biographical, fingerprints, eye scans etc of all those who had ever worked for then in Afghanistan, presumably to sort out who was allowed into the Airfield.

There will very soon be no Americans in the country, and throwing away their paper documents will not now protect those who have worked with them over the years. Incredible.and totally shameful.

You must be joking David.... Did they really do that?
Later.... There are reports that details of Afghan employees were left lying round at the British Embassy. The Foreign Office says that they did their best to destroy documents. Evidently their best was not good enough!

This is the clip I saw. I may have misunderstood the means by which they got the information, and surely no one could have been so inept? Many news outlets are reporting today that the Taliban have the data. Whether it was given or seized it seems they have it. Apologies to all who are allergic to the words 'Daily Mail'.

Congressman Jim Banks Indiana

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PS I couldn't take my eyes off the 'syrup' of the guy standing at the back. Why do they bother these days?

Image David, image! I think the senator may be giving an accurate report. It reinforces what a kack-handed operation this has been.



Here's what a wig did for me.....

A nice little windfall for the Taliban...
`Afghanistan: Black Hawks and Humvees - military kit now with the Taliban' LINK

Of course the politicians will say that they haven't the skilled people to maintain such equipment. I recommend they go to Youtube and dial in Pakistan truck repairs and prepare for a shock! HERE'S an example. You can find similar videos on repairs to arms and other equipment. The politicians have no concept of the skills non politicians possess.

They'll be swapping them with the Russians or Chinese for a few thousand goats and some old tractors.

They do a great line in converting old Toyota 4x4 pickup trucks into the equivalent of the vehicles the Long Range Desert Group used to good effect to harass Rommel's army in WW2!

That's always been a favourite Peter. Mount a 50 calibre browning on a stand in the back and you have a souped-up Bren Gun Carrier.

Have a look at THISBBC report on child abuse. Not easy reading but more reasonable doubt about how and why reports have been buried in the past. Distressing reading.