Books still beat out Wikipedia

@CWO:

@Der:

It’s hard to believe that powder can still be good after 70+ years!

That’s actually part of the problem.�  If I’m not mistaken, certain types of explosives can destabilize over time and become more sensitive to shock.�  I think this is particularly the case with nitrocellulose explosives, whose nitroglycerin component apparently re-liquifies and seeps out of the solid matrix when it gets too old.�  It’s sort of an extreme example of the concept of the “best before” date that is more ordinarily applied to packaged foods and pharmaceutical products.

This is true. The picric acid used in hand grenades still during WWII reacts with the metal casing of the grenade to form picrate salt, which is highly unstable.

WWII era hand grenades are problem also in Finland because of the “Weapons Cache Case”. As the Continuation War against Soviet Union was turning bad, some of the Finnish officers decided to hide large amounts of weapons and explosives all around the country in case the Soviets would occupy Finland. Those supplies were meant to be used in guerilla warfare against the occupation. Since this never happened, some of those caches still remain untouched and are discovered from time to time during house renovations, building excavations etc. The weapons are still functional and often sold on black market, and the hand grenades pose a serious threat to anyone handling them and to those nearby.

edit: some typos

A large percentage of Canada’s national debt is the payments for the trans continental railroad from the late 1800’s…

I was referring to the now missing post where you mentioned Gargs name specifically and in my opinion a derogatory way.

Again… No such post existed. How could i mention your opinion when i never once replied to you here let alone anywhere in like 4 months or more? I am more interested in what you think i said about your opinion…sounds crazy yet provoking.

I see somebody posted that this post was an edit, but usually that means a post is attached…go figure.

AS for the other issue, i just adopted something new on the advice of others who are tired of trolling…silence. I don’t even want to say whom.

And since this topic/thread got derailed, I will make a new thread for Bunny so people can help out and find him?

Hard to say. A large part was that I identified so much with one of the main characters, Larry. Not so much in his appearance, personality, or relationships with people (though one relationship he had in particular I saw as very similar to one of mine), but more in his character, his interests, his motivations, and his mannerisms. I saw a lot of myself in that (and I make that evaluation without considering it either inherently good or bad), so a lot of his experiences and choices in the book resonated with me, and made me consider my own. Additionally, the manner in which much that happened in the book was regarded by the author (who is, incidentally, the narrator), I found very appealing, and agreed with it to a substantial degree. It wasnt even that this led to an outright challenge to my previously held beliefs, just that they offered such a fresh new way of looking at things (from my perspective anyway), that I was struck with how simple and reasonable these opposing ideas seemed.

The thing is - this isn’t news. I’ve read about similar circumstances - innocent people fingered by mean neighbours and sent to be tortured and die in US prison camps. Even in medical journals.

Sadly this also undoubtably happened under Saddam as well - the only difference is that the US is now the criminal here. This is not to say that the US is as bad as Saddam was (this is more difficult to judge but IMO most US forces refrain from these practices). But no question in my mind that the US has not been acting with clean hands. The questions I have is exactly how widespread is the US misbehaving with regards to the big picture? Atrocities happen in all wars by all sides - war is hell. The clear difference now is that it gets reported more often. Maybe it happens (with US forces) more often than before, but again who knows for certain?

The other point is that sometimes, rarely, it may be necessary to resort to these sorts of tactics to prevent a worse disaster. When/if this is ever the case, I am glad I will never have to be the person to make this call (what if you are wrong :cry: ). But clearly in the case of Lyndie England, et al, this was a case of some evil miscreants who have not been punished sufficiently, IMO for their crimes.

Berard Cornwell-

The man is a genius- Sharpe’s series, Starbuck, Archer’s tale etc.

Jefe- if you are going to read AnnCoulter’s recent book then I
Highly reccomend Sam Tannenhaus’ biography Whittaker Chambers.

I read TR Frehenbach’s This Kind of War (it’s about the Korean War)
every June for the last 4 years.

I also reccomend, Stanley Karnow’s, Vietnam.

Recently, I’m reading Ernest R. May’s, Strange Victory. It’s about how the French lost against The Germans in 1940.

-Joseph Ellis’, Founding Brothers.

-John Earl Haynes & Harvey Klehr’s Venona:
Decoding Soviet Espionage in America.

And Reading the Lord of the Rings Books with my oldest.

thanks

Being anonymous and all, I would like to recommend two/three most excellent books:

-The rise and the fall of the Thrid Reich, by William L. Shirer. This book is fantastic! All you wanted to know of the German stirde to power and their downfall is in here. Has won alot of awards. Should last you 6 months.

-The second world war [a very innovative title] by martin Gilbert. This book has a more general overview and is more focused on the how the civilians and soldiers had it during the war.

-Rommel as military commander, by Roanld Lewis. This book has the biography of herr Rommel and all the tactics he used. The book I have is rather old (1968), but it is probably out there somewhere.

Enjoy,

Vinnie