You might have already noticed…I'm back!

Not exactly they type of Shake I was thinking of.  I imagined a well spoken moderate religious guy……

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2013/02/27/20614336.html

Perhaps there is hope in the world if the phase “Never trust anyone over 30” is adapted by the youth of Islamic countries!

Burp!

I meant before you took the 4 year break or whatever…

Nope… poor dude has been missing though. He had great contributions to threads! I enjoyed his thoughts on subjects.

GG

@rjclayton:

@ncscswitch:

nor’easters for starters…

The storms or the people?

Both!  :mrgreen:

We tried the Bradley method…

HUH? like in milton bradley? damm you are a hard core AA fanatic… you even got names for birth positions based on axis and allies game companies. Awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

http://imdb.com/title/tt0290296/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_Space_Station_visitors

Guests and staff are associated with the following countries:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Italy,
Australia,
S. Africa,
UK,
France,
Canada,
Peru,
Spain,
The Netherlands,
Latvia,
Belgium,
Costa Rica

Components are also made in places around the globe.

Main Participants:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Canada,
Brazil,
UK, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Luxemburg, (Euro Space agency)

Up there, all alone, on the front porch to the final frontier…
They are up there advancing the cause of humankind. 
I just checked out the IMAX DVD.  Comments by astronaut and cosmonaut alike both speak of seeing the earth below without any borders.  One even said that we will not set up permanant residence on the moon as individual countries, but as allies representing all mankind.

The Imax special features pointed out a how a shot from the porthole on the Soyuz was not directly available due to the bulkiness of the camera.  The quick problem solving ideal of one cosmonaut and the skills applied by rest of the crew, they set up mirror reflective shots that were angled just right.  You would not know it was reflected if they didn’t tell you.

These people live, eat, work, sing, and make movies together up there.  Sharing for them is essential to surviving.  The main crew is 3, which will go up for a while as Soyuz and Shuttles dock to trade out crews.

All of the space agency crews are highly educated and heavily trained.  Touring guests are also well trained.  The guests so far have been highly successful technology entrepreneurs, so they also understand the discipline needed for successful trips up there.  The tourism bill at ~ $20 mil cash is high enough to prevent a fraudster from getting on board.

The contrast  to the UN is dramatic. 
Maybe its because its mostly enlightened nations that are making the effort, so the petty dictators don’t have a say.  The Russian and US space agencies show a very unified front to all the other participants, so unity of purpose for any new objective is quickly achieved.  They also have the strongest communications links for station ops.

@Deviant:Scripter:

Well, if you give them money, there’s a lot more things that they can do to put it to use, including “fighting terrorism” (hint,hint :wink: ). Plus, you can put stipulations on what they are/are-not allowed to do with the money.

I take it you have some problem with this whole arrangement CC? Countries ask us for things everyday, that doesn’t neccessarily mean we have to cater to them. :-?

i don’t “have a problem with this”. It’s just the ironic sad laugh that comes out when you see America funding another country (middle-east, strong Islamic ties, a population that does not appear to embrace America they way “they should”) to help them deal with terrorism. In my mind this might well be another term for “the cold war” or “Iran” in 10 years.