h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for that. Not IT literate. Appreciate the reference.

Mazin that's a duff address. Dead end.

Something I heard on the radio this morning - the WTC death toll has been reduced to 2745 or something close to that... She didn't provide any context it was the breakfast show of a commercial station, ) and I know that doesn't make it any easier to bear, but I thought that was interesting...

Acknowledged Della.
73s

I've come across a few conspiracy theories about 911 here, Shotgun. There's a French book I'd like to read about them, but it's not available here.

Della the publishers want to make money. The authors are washed up academics. The printers in the 3rd world are desperate. Save yourself for a good novel.

shotgun, perhaps you'd be interested in this post from mudhoocks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/FFM122145?thread=248834&skip=1660&show=20#p4294089
It contains a number of references.

The answer to my gun question was simplistic and somewhat silly but I would leave that discussion for another thread.

Oetzi - I belive shotgun was more interested in the opinions of non americans

As long as you tell me straight when I 'm on line Appy that's fine..otherwise..

Interesting questions.

I'm a Brit living in the Southwestern USA so my views are slightly coloured by actually living in the States.

Bush: deals with other nations the way most leaders deal with other nations - bags of rhetoric and then leaves the actual work to real diplomats and others who know what they are doing. His stance on actually dealing with Iraq seems a little half hearted. Shouldn't reconstruction be furtyher along or are the security issues still a worry? As for his haircut...it's small and inoffensive. The sort of haircut you could take home to Mother.

Sept 11th: was bound to happen sooner or later. After all, the WTC was one heck of a target. America is also one heck of a target and the country's subsequent actions are those of a community suddenly and terribly aware that it's not quite as safe as it thought it was. Someone once said to me that the difference between Europeans and Americans is that for Americans, wars happen abroad and for Europeans wars are things that happen in your own back garden.

Handling of Iraq: the war was successful in terms of news and TV ratings but I wonder whether the whole thing wasn't a bit botched. These things often are and very few people have any sympathy for the military while they attempt to achieve what may well be impossible goals. I am reminded of the profusion of comments on various 'net boards asking why Saddam wasn't taken out by a sniper (stating..."hey! How hard can it be?"). I also believe that Iraq was not the immediate threat to security that either the US or UK government made it out to be and that the entire debacle was probably about something else entirely. I shall leave the supposition over what that might be to conspiracy boards. I think the first thing that the American public should do is educate themselves; there is a general lack of understanding about the real reasons the US/UK coalition went to war and there is an even greater lack of understanding of how the USA is seen in other countries. One of the most endearing aspects of American people generally is their generosity of spirit - the people I have met genuinely believe that they have the best lifestyle in the world and want to share it. Some of the people I have spoken to really don't understand that the USA's desire to promote the political and economic ideals and practices that have made it successful would be seen as hostile, offensive or simple cultural imperialism by other nations.

When enough people catch on to what other nations really think, and then understand what it is they object to, the people of the USA might want to use the rights they have been given to make serious changes to the way their government does business abroad...and the way their businesses do business too.

"As long as you tell me straight when I 'm on line Appy that's fine..otherwise.."

Here was I thinking you'd finally grasped the concept of timezones

I live in Sweden, and I should say that Gnomons generalisation of Europeans view of Americans, is valid in Scandinavia -very much so.
Thank you for expressing it so well. I know that this is not true for the whole country, but it is certainly the general impression.

The prisoners (of war?) in the military camp at Guantanmo, from Afganistan, horrifies me.

Izzybelle

Bush is the only dude out there brave enough todo what needs doing, so lets not bash him.
Iraq needed liberating, wether there were weapons or not. Just ask the Iraqis.
Afganistan is a very nice place to live now. Just ask all the s who are now attending school.

Someone has to take care of the world. Everyone expects the US to give money and arms to third world nations and all the UNs latest inspirations, but what about smashing the bad guys? You can give SAdaam $$ to feed his people, but he fact is, they arent going to get it. So lets say the way was to recall a few debts.

Some of the people who live outside the US are pretty dumb and shortsighted. But not everyone.
Go Bush.

LeoAlpha
The US gives the lowest % of GDP in foriegn aid of all the western nations. I'm excluding military aid from that as I'm doubtful about how helpful that is.

Some one has to take care of the world?

So this will be the country that armed people like Saddam, supports Israel against the Arabs, gave money to the IRA to fund a terrorist campaign against the UK?
Need I go on?
Vietnam, Hiroshima, Korea, any number of South American states, these have all had the benfit of US care?

In the cases of both Afganistan and Iraq, the US is just a playground bully. Now the " hostilities " are over it doesnt know what to do.

Go Bush?

Has any one else noticed that whilst the US is pretty much sespised mow, its last president is all over the place doing good and decent work?

Go Bill is more like it.

Did any one else read the survey that said that a large percentage of the US population think that the country is protected by God and that the US is the only super power because of divine will?

And these are the people you want me to trust with the worlds safety?


MMMMM!

Another common view of Americans is that they are very insular, and don't really know what's going on outside of America. And in some cases this is true - I've heard of people going to America and saying they are from Britain, and Americans turn to them and say 'I've heard it's a nice city'...

I believe it's called "curtain wall construction", referring to the notion that the floor is suspended between the posts of the exterior wall and the "core" of the building (where the electrical systems, plumbing, and elevators are.

I agree that that particular version will not be used again. However, I am concerned that it and it's variants have been used since the towers were completed some 30-odd years ago, up to now. My husband was an architect and most modern high-rises employ that scheme, including a number that he worked on. Has something to do with maximizing the floor space and increasing window size.

SC

Big OOPS! forgot to refer to the post:

"Damn it I've forgotton the name for the suspension of the floors in the twin towers. Essentially they were truss beams with 60deg struts I think from memory. As hanger says steels turns plastic quickly beyond yellow heat. The problem was that the steel did not have adequate insulation, I believe. That system will not be used again. "

Please insert the above quote before the previous post for reference.



SC


--------------

A further thought:

I agree with the previous post which referred to the fact that our former president has been seen acting like a president and diplomat. instead of a bully (like GW)

The thing that I will NEVER understand about the relationship between the American people and our last two presidents: We will let one lie to us about the handling of our foreigh affairs and spend us into debt so deep we will never get out, and the majority will tolerate it with remarkably little SERIOUS grumbling.

What the American people find unforgivable is the president who was competent at being a president, who came the closest to balancing the budget than anyone else over the past 40 years, and who was fairly adept at foreign relations, but who lied about his illict LOVE LIFE! And it isn't even because of the turmoil he put his wife through: She was and is hated even more than he was!!!

SC

Appy I do not want to fall out with you. I will fall out with anhanger though. See my posting on a parallel thread. Surreal statement that..very "Star Trekkie"!

As regards the constuction of the twin towers. I'm sorry your close to an architect. I'm close to a civil engineer.

That particular technique was used 'cause it was cheap. The fact that NY City Building Control Dept let them do it was, in my view, a major failure.

I don't want to continue discussion of this theme. That memory upsets me.

"Another common view of Americans is that they are very insular, and don't really know what's going on outside of America. And in some cases this is true - I've heard of people going to America and saying they are from Britain, and Americans turn to them and say 'I've heard it's a nice city'..."

True. Well, nearly. I have had fun with folks I meet playing "Guess the accent". So far, I've been an Australian, a New Zealander, a South African and from Georgia. All this with my standard north London accent.

What folks have to remember is that the USA is HUGE! It's basically fifty small nations welded together by a federal government. Each one has it's own distinct identity, pride in its state government, it's own state sports teams and insititutions, news programs, celebrities etc etc etc. Move from state to state and the laws change, the people change and the environment changes. Being as there is so much of the USA to cover and only a limited amount of time to broadcast news and foreign events the coverage of anything not happening in the immediate locale is usually given less time than things that are happening on the doorstep. Heck, I live in Phoenix and I have no idea what's going on in Flagstaff, so you can imagine how little I know about what's happening in the UK. Right now, the biggest "foreign" news is the fires in California but, thanks to the internet I also know that Ian Duncan Smith lost his job recently and that didn't even rate a ripple out here.

This tends to add to the general ignorance of world events and there is a certain amount of media spin in each broadcast - isn't there always? - so I'm never entirely surprised when folks pop up and say things like LeoAlpha who probably hasn't seen images of the schools operating in buildings that were bombed and have yet to be rebuilt...or any of the other unpleasant images that would tell you that maybe the USA isn't doing so well in it's attempts to bring the world Democracy.