Kosmo

Me too. I was there half an hour after them.

Nice! What was the purpose of this trip? Military training?

then you run around in circles until you're high as a kite.

Vlad Tepes was definitely a romanian. Hungarians have no relation with Atilla. And Draculea it's good for tourism

"Attila is the greatest figure in European history, many still tremble at his name." This hunnic obsession that some hungarians have it's extremely funny and pathetic.

There are many theories about the soviet collapse, Probably more then about the Fall of Rome. Today I found this one: "Exhibit A: the Soviet Union. High oil prices in the 1970s suckered the Kremlin into propping up inefficient industries, overextending subsidies, postponing real economic reforms and invading Afghanistan. When oil prices collapsed to $15 a barrel in the late 1980s, the overextended, petrified Soviet Empire went bust. In a 2006 speech entitled

"ATHENS

Because the rulers did not give a damn about the people. The system fell down when they tried to improve it, to give hot water all the time. Gorby did not realized that the if he shakes the system it will fall down. It was not the catatonic leadership that brought down the system but the young, bright and energetic reformer. I'll love him for ever for his fortunate idealist error. If the financial problem was the only one the SU would still be around. And the space program was cheap compared with the size of the Army and KGB, the war in Afghanistan, stupid foreign policy (at one point SU was supporting both sides in an Ethiopia-Somalia war), excessive donations that kept alive entire states (Cuba, N. Korea, Vietnam etc) insurgents (almost around the world) and parties (even in richer countries). And as N Korea reminded us space technology started with V2. Sending a satellite in orbit it's the same like sending an ICBM. Large parts of the costs for all space programs were and are supported or done directly by the military. The Apollo programs were the only time when the Americans beat the SU in the space race. After that they started the failed shuttle program that was much more expensive then rockets, so the soviets recovered the spotlight with the Salyut and Mir space stations. It took 30 years and several accidents for NASA to admit the failure of the shuttles while the soviets were so accustomed to copy the US that they made their own shuttle, Buran, that had just 1 flight but took off and landed without crew.

The soviets usually led in the "space race" from the beginning to the end. Even if it did not came cheap they got some benefits from national pride (russians are suckers for it) to their superpower image. It had also a bad side for the government when people started thinking "you can send a space station in orbit but you can't give me hot water in the summmer? boooo!!! "

Significant space exploration for prestige reasons like the 50's and 60's space race it's hard to believe now. China and other competitors are more likely to do again what was done 40-50 years ago then make some dramatic, difficult and expensive new moves like manned flight to Mars. The industrial period it's over and excepting IT&C our technological level it's the same like 50 years ago. The IT&C evolution makes it more easy to use robots for space exploration while technological stagnation makes it unlikely to see man in space for complex missions. The presence of man in space flight was from the beginning usually unnecessary and very costly. It was/is done only for propaganda reasons.

Did you change your Display Mode form the Options button located above the post number? I ask because nothing changed for me. I usually click only on the green arrows to see only the new posts.

It is the human flight part of space exploration that is most questioned. It is very expensive and unsafe to send humans in space. Extensive data was gathered about Mars for example from robots like those 2 impressive rovers (MER) that are working there since 2003. You can't beat that with a human that has to take a sizable chunk of earth's environment with him just to waste time and resources sleeping, eating and going crazy. I doubt that long range space exploration will ever be cheap or will bring profits. What will be done will be done by robots. In orbit we have the large ISS, more states and business competing for satellite launch and maybe soon more space tourism so things don't look so bad.

Playing basketball on the Moon at 1/6 g would be interesting.

My guess was a watermill.

Cordoba?

The Pirates Party has a seat

I was among the 20% percent of romanians that voted today, but this low figure it's an indication of the disgust and distrust toward romanian politicians rather then anything against the European Parliament. Romanian politicians don't want people to vote so they can buy voters. A clear example of this was the election of Elena Basescu in theory an independent candidate but she is the daughter of the President and was supported in reality by a major party (PDL) that provided voters. Anyway, this first Europe-wide elections provided a boost for far-right parties and a slap for leftist parties that failed to use the economic crisis to their political advantage.

The European Union brought unprecedented peace and prosperity and it's one of the few political ideas that makes sense. The national state was a fiction because nations are not very real and building strong borders cuts across ancient links. EU it's not an empire and not even a federation. I'll go vote later.

Cartagena?

Romanian contributions must include also O-zone

In the Late Empire not only slaves but anyone who did not had 50 gold coins had his testimony taken under torture.

The 2 Voltaire links don't work for me, for me, for meee!

A Nazca drawing of the head of Klingan's cat?

I am clearly out of step with the news here - which bunch of multinational mercenaries was playing which, and what was the result? Just the Champions League final and FC Barcelona beating Manchester United 2-0

Why I took it: "Would You Slap Your Father? If So, You’re a Liberal By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF If you want to tell whether someone is conservative or liberal, what are a couple of completely nonpolitical questions that will give a good clue?How’s this: Would you be willing to slap your father in the face, with his permission, as part of a comedy skit? And, second: Does it disgust you to touch the faucet in a public restroom? Studies suggest that conservatives are more often distressed by actions that seem disrespectful of authority, such as slapping Dad. Liberals don’t worry as long as Dad has given permission. Likewise, conservatives are more likely than liberals to sense contamination or perceive disgust. People who would be disgusted to find that they had accidentally sipped from an acquaintance’s drink are more likely to identify as conservatives. The upshot is that liberals and conservatives don’t just think differently, they also feel differently. This may even be a result, in part, of divergent neural responses..." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28kristof.html A test about disgust (and others tests) is here: http://www.yourmorals.org/disgust_process.php named disgust scale (second from the top) You have to register to see the result. My total score was 1.7 a bit higher then the average. The result did not comment on my political views.