Driver to drive?

[John Larkin]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:03:44 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:

With only 73 years separation between Henry VIII's death and the
Mayflower Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock, one would think England
would still have been pretty much under Rome's influence at the time.

COMPLETE GARBAGE. As is all the rest of your idiotic speculation. The Pope ceased to
have any influence and there was the official Protestant Church of England instead.

Your knowledge of history is appallingly bad.

In the light of yours being nonexistent

Blah blah blah blah blah.

Do they specially edit history books in the USA to be anti-British ? And plain WRONG ! Seems
like it to me.

It doesn't matter who wrote the books, if you never read them. Seems
like it to me.

I got a Grade One in History actually along with the majority of my 11 'O levels', taken between
age 15 -17.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_Level

Only one A pass sadly at 'A level' out of 3 (Physics of course).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-level

And also an 'S level' in Physics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarship_Level

Graham

And I'm reading a Trollope novel right now. Lots of interesting stuff
about the British aristocracy, great Lords and tenent farmers, a bit
about Ireland, and some interesting stuff about the civil engineering
of the London Underground and the prominent role of alcohol in the
19th century. Just finished Walter Lord's superb book about the Battle
of Midway.

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

I find it often depends on the teacher and the presentation. The year I took the exam we were
studying the post WW1 era until close to (then) modern times which I found fascinating. My teacher
was well pleased at my grade, as was the teacher who later took us for Biology in spades when about
half the class got grade ones.

It was a good school of course. And one of the oldest schools in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_School_(Hertfordshire)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_schools_in_the_world#Tenth_century

Stephen Hawking is an Old Albanian btw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_School_(Hertfordshire)#20th_Century

Graham

All faded glory, and by reflection at that.

Read any good history lately?

John

 

[John Larkin]

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields
<jfields@austininstruments.com> wrote:

On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

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

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

John

 

[Vladimir Vassilevsky]

John Larkin wrote:

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0500, John Fields
jfields@austininstruments.com> wrote:


On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:13:03 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:


The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

---
Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

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



Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

If in doubt, you should read the book of the holy Ronald. He said
something like "the meaning of the history lessons is that they are been
forgotten".


VLV

 

On Oct 29, 4:51 pm, John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:41:50 -0700, John Larkin

jjlar...@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:
And I'm reading a Trollope novel right now. Lots of interesting stuff
about the British aristocracy, great Lords and tenent farmers, a bit
about Ireland, and some interesting stuff about the civil engineering
of the London Underground and the prominent role of alcohol in the
19th century. Just finished Walter Lord's superb book about the Battle
of Midway.

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

JF

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

MD

 

[Joerg]

Martin Brown wrote:

On Oct 29, 10:53 pm, Joerg <notthisjoerg...@removethispacbell.net
wrote:
Jan Panteltje wrote:

[...]

I do not recommend to use this scaler, but an other one:
http://www.mir.com/DMG/Software/
But I have not tested that one for aliasing....
Mine was just to demonstrate the need for lowpass when sub-sampling.
Actually it is a nice fft and reverse fft exercise (using the wild wild west fft package).
I don't think they do much outside the time/space domain (and in medical
we rarely do either) but it is rather complicated. You can see
differences between TV sets when interpolating fast moving scenes. Very
important to check that thoroughly before whipping out the credit card.

That is certainly true. I don't find any of the current 50Hz sets
acceptable at all for fast moving sports events. The worst thing I
have seen in shops was water skiing on a dark pond in bright sunlight.
The sets for the most part could not handle high contrast fast dynamic
changes at all and the spray pixellated in a visually offensive
manner. It is not for nothing that all the demo CDs and feeds in shops
are smooth panning of detailed scenes to show off the system
performance to maximum advantage.

Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I
do not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise
will be destroyed which is sad in many ways. But with one small Philips
TV I bought they were not willing to allow me to switch channels in the
store. Back at home motion artefacts were horrible. Tried it on the PC,
yuck. I returned it the next day. Packaged it very carefully, just like
new. The store clerk: "Didn't you at least open it?" ... "Oh yeah, tried
it for a whole hour." ... "Hmm, really? Well, then we'll have to scrap
it, can't re-sell it" ... "But it's all packaged like new, I was very
diligent about that" ... "Nope, it's the policy" ... How sad.

I bought a set with the 100Hz frame rate which uses more processing
power but gives a much smoother image.

Amusingly last night for about the last 15 minutes the UK's flagship
BBC1 programme (in my neck of the woods) was broadcast on DTV with a
random soundtrack that appeared to be a live ambience mike at some
football match. The bad soundtrack continued into the adverts
(trailers since BBC officially doesn't have adverts). This was a
little odd since the programme was about the reintroduction of the
doormouse (subtitles were OK).

DTV continuity announcer wants shooting - in the good old days they
would only broadcast a few seconds or tens of seconds of junk on a
major channel before someone stepped in. In these digital days it is
assumed to work until the phones start ringing with complaints. The
analogue BBC1 broadcast was fine it was only their super new DTV
signal that was screwed to blazes. No mention of it after the
programme and no apology either.

What happens a lot here: A nice Western is announced in the TV guide. Me
all happy. 8:00pm approaches and some stupid horror thriller starts.
Huh? Ah, we have that new channel guide menu. Click ... click. Shows the
Western (_while_ the wrong movie is running!). 2nd Western announced to
follow at 10:00pm. Needless to say that wasn't going to happen either
and nobody bothered to type in the right title. So we have some useful
technology features that are rendered useless by either incompetence at
the stations or sloppy management.

Be interested to know if the fault was national or some local cock up
in the NE.

If it's anything like here I am afraid nobody may bother to get to the
ground of this.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Glenn Gundlach]

On Oct 28, 12:50 pm, Martin Brown <|||newspam...@nezumi.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
<snip>

The "BIG BANG" conversion technique so loved by expensive
management
consultants. No safety net or adequate system testing so that when
it
all goes pear shaped you have to fork out for more of their over
priced "services" to undo the total mess. I guess the current
administration is not expecting to win and are leaving a time bomb
for
the new lot.

The UK which is a much smaller proposition is converting to digital
gradually. And I expect the major cities and London in particular
will
be the last areas to lose their analogue feeds. So far the test
zones
for switch off have been in the northern boondocks.

Incidentally Joerg if you already have broadband are there no ISP
based DTV on demand services in the USA?

Regards,
Martin Brown

By 'Big Bang' do you mean switching all at once? It isn't all at once
as we've been watching DTV since Dec '03, neary 5 years now and many
of those stations (LA) were running by 2000.

GG

 

[Jim Granville]

Ulf Samuelsson wrote:

FYI: Todays press announcement

San Jose, CA, October 29, 2008.AtmelŽ Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), today
announced that, after careful consideration, its Board of Directors has
unanimously determined that the October 1, 2008, unsolicited proposal from
Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) and ON Semiconductor Corporation
(NASDAQ: ONNN) is inadequate in multiple respects, including value,
conditionality and complexity, and is not in the best interests of Atmel's
stockholders.

Of course, Atmel stockholders may decide otherwise.
This just means the Board will not actively assist, hostile takeovers
are not uncommon.

Personally, I think Microchips move is a bad idea for Atmel customers.
Especially, there is a risk the CPLDs would fall thru the cracks.

-jg

 

[Joel Koltner]

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news8oOk.3547$hc1.2706@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com...

Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I do
not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise will be
destroyed which is sad in many ways.

I suspect it will end up as "refurbished" goods on Woot.Com, Geeks.Com, etc...
or perhaps sold as part of a "return pallet" at an auction where people will
then piecemeal it out on eBay. I just can't imagine that something like a
fully-functional big-screen TV would actually be stuck in a landfill.

So we have some useful technology features that are rendered useless by
either incompetence at the stations or sloppy management.

My current pet peeve with respect to sloppy management is HD radio stations
syncing their analog and digital broadcasts: The radios start out in analog
mode and then, if a digital signal is detected, cross-fade over to the digital
signal. This is all supposed to be unnoticeable and seamless -- other than
the bonus of the background noise going away once the digital signal is picked
up -- but of course that's only the case is the analog and digital feeds are
aligned in time. Otherwise you get an audible "stutter" during the
cross-fade. :-(

I came across some guy's web site where he took measurements on a bunch of
radio stations down in the California Bay area, and it was something like 2/3
that were out of spec for time alignment... and some were really gross, like

1 second apart!

---Joel

 

[Eeyore]

mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:

Well, the winner _does_ get to write the history books. ;-)

You don't look like you're winning anything at the moment I'm afraid.

Well, we _did_ win the Revolution, didn't we? Ergo, we get to write
the history books. ;-)

That's a pretty limited subject area but then Americans aren't reknowned
for any interest in affairs in other parts of the world.

And we haven't forgotten you were years late into both World Wars. Until
your cosy existence was disturbed you didn't give a fuck.

Yep, and we saved your asses too... D-Day, Normandy and all that.

The British asses weren't at danger. Hitler had tried an invasion plan and
failed miserably. The cause was to liberate Europe don't you know ?.

You're most graciously welcome.

Not that we can claim all the credit... Russian winter did much of the
work too. "Coat, dear?" "Nein, I'm fine..."

To try and bring this back to topic... I'm curious... why do you so
often recommend the LM3886, designed by an American company? Does any
European company produce a chip amp of comparable quality at
comparable cost?

STM do a couple of nice DMOS ones. Forget the part numbers offhand but the
LM3886 is more readily available since it's popular with hobby builders using
the so-called 'Gainclone' circuit.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

John Fields wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

And I'm reading a Trollope novel right now. Lots of interesting stuff
about the British aristocracy, great Lords and tenent farmers, a bit
about Ireland, and some interesting stuff about the civil engineering
of the London Underground and the prominent role of alcohol in the
19th century. Just finished Walter Lord's superb book about the Battle
of Midway.

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Likewise. Not to mention odd little facts that come out that were
suppressed at the time.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

Yes, that particular aspect was very heavily emphasised on my O level
course.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

John Fields wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:

With only 73 years separation between Henry VIII's death and the
Mayflower Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock, one would think England
would still have been pretty much under Rome's influence at the time.

COMPLETE GARBAGE. As is all the rest of your idiotic speculation. The Pope ceased to have
any influence and there was the official Protestant Church of England instead.

Your knowledge of history is appallingly bad.

In the light of yours being nonexistent

Blah blah blah blah blah.

Do they specially edit history books in the USA to be anti-British ? And plain WRONG ! Seems
like it to me.

---
Seems like it to you because you're so entrenched in believing that
everyone but the UK is shit that you can't see past your nose.

All the stuff I posted(which you snipped, tsk,tsk,) didn't come from any
history books around here, it came straight out of Wikipedia, so if you
think it's wrong, get your lard ass over there and edit it so that it
reflects "the truth".

The bit about England being Catholic at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers ?

Bwahahahahahahahaa !

Graham

 

[Joerg]

Joel Koltner wrote:

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news8oOk.3547$hc1.2706@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com...
Luckily most stores in the US grant you the right to return stuff. Now I do
not do this light-heartedly because often the returned merchandise will be
destroyed which is sad in many ways.

I suspect it will end up as "refurbished" goods on Woot.Com, Geeks.Com, etc...
or perhaps sold as part of a "return pallet" at an auction where people will
then piecemeal it out on eBay. I just can't imagine that something like a
fully-functional big-screen TV would actually be stuck in a landfill.

It was a 19" or smaller, don't remember. Definitely not up to snuff with
respect to DSP know-how and/or technology. It's sad, those used to be
the old name brands. Now companies like Insignia and Vizio run circles
around them.

So we have some useful technology features that are rendered useless by
either incompetence at the stations or sloppy management.

My current pet peeve with respect to sloppy management is HD radio stations
syncing their analog and digital broadcasts: The radios start out in analog
mode and then, if a digital signal is detected, cross-fade over to the digital
signal. This is all supposed to be unnoticeable and seamless -- other than
the bonus of the background noise going away once the digital signal is picked
up -- but of course that's only the case is the analog and digital feeds are
aligned in time. Otherwise you get an audible "stutter" during the
cross-fade. :-(

You also observe an interesting effect with digital TV sets. The audio
delays can differ and you'll hear weird room echoes if two sets of
different architecture are running at the same time.

I came across some guy's web site where he took measurements on a bunch of
radio stations down in the California Bay area, and it was something like 2/3
that were out of spec for time alignment... and some were really gross, like
1 second apart!

I once called a station that their audio was messed up. Guy at the other
end turning on his radio. "Whoops! Sorry, thanks for letting us know."

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:07:34 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:

Well, the winner _does_ get to write the history books. ;-)

You don't look like you're winning anything at the moment I'm afraid.

Well, we _did_ win the Revolution, didn't we? Ergo, we get to write
the history books. ;-)

That's a pretty limited subject area but then Americans aren't reknowned
for any interest in affairs in other parts of the world.

And we haven't forgotten you were years late into both World Wars. Until
your cosy existence was disturbed you didn't give a fuck.

Yep, and we saved your asses too... D-Day, Normandy and all that.

The British asses weren't at danger. Hitler had tried an invasion plan and
failed miserably. The cause was to liberate Europe don't you know ?.

It didn't fail miserably, it came very close to succeeding. The
outcome was strongly influenced by the food, vehicles, ammo, and fuel,
especially aviation gasoline, that the US supplied to Britain. If the
US had been truly neutral, the RAF would have been demolished and
Operation Sea Lion would have been on.

The Merlin engines that the Hurricanes and Spits used, ran on
high-octane gas brewed specially for them in Texas. It allowed a
compression ratio that the Germans didn't think possible. It saved a
lot of RAF fliers' lives.

I have a very nice book of Spitfire blueprints that I found in a
little bookstore in Oxford, back on a dusty shelf.

You're most graciously welcome.

Not that we can claim all the credit... Russian winter did much of the
work too. "Coat, dear?" "Nein, I'm fine..."

Hitler turned east after being stopped at the Channel.

John

To try and bring this back to topic... I'm curious... why do you so
often recommend the LM3886, designed by an American company? Does any
European company produce a chip amp of comparable quality at
comparable cost?

STM do a couple of nice DMOS ones. Forget the part numbers offhand but the
LM3886 is more readily available since it's popular with hobby builders using
the so-called 'Gainclone' circuit.

Graham

 

[John Fields]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:33:04 +0000, Eeyore
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

John Fields wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:

With only 73 years separation between Henry VIII's death and the
Mayflower Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock, one would think England
would still have been pretty much under Rome's influence at the time.

COMPLETE GARBAGE. As is all the rest of your idiotic speculation. The Pope ceased to have
any influence and there was the official Protestant Church of England instead.

Your knowledge of history is appallingly bad.

In the light of yours being nonexistent

Blah blah blah blah blah.

Do they specially edit history books in the USA to be anti-British ? And plain WRONG ! Seems
like it to me.

---
Seems like it to you because you're so entrenched in believing that
everyone but the UK is shit that you can't see past your nose.

All the stuff I posted(which you snipped, tsk,tsk,) didn't come from any
history books around here, it came straight out of Wikipedia, so if you
think it's wrong, get your lard ass over there and edit it so that it
reflects "the truth".

The bit about England being Catholic at the time of the Pilgrim Fathers ?

Bwahahahahahahahaa !

---
Mary took the country Catholic during her 5 year reign, which ended in
1558, and then Elizabeth I took it protestant again, where it's remained
ever since.

After Edward VI, Mary took the country Catholic during her 5 year reign,
which ended in 1558, and then Elizabeth I took it protestant again,
where it's remained ever since.

However, that's not the point.

What I was arguing was that England, when the Mayflower Pilgrims left,
_was_ a religious state with Catholic influenced laws, and that's why
they left.

Go back and read the thread and you might find that I never said that
England was Catholic when the Pilgrims left, I stated that the reason
they left was because England was a religious state with Catholic
influenced laws.

Do you think that in the 62 years between the end of Mary's reign and
the Pilgrims' leaving England all of the hundreds of years worth of
English laws which were influenced by Rome were thrown out and shiny new
protestant ones were brought in to replace them?

If you do, you're a goddam fool.

JF

 

[Eeyore]

John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:

Well, the winner _does_ get to write the history books. ;-)

You don't look like you're winning anything at the moment I'm afraid.

Well, we _did_ win the Revolution, didn't we? Ergo, we get to write
the history books. ;-)

That's a pretty limited subject area but then Americans aren't reknowned
for any interest in affairs in other parts of the world.

And we haven't forgotten you were years late into both World Wars. Until
your cosy existence was disturbed you didn't give a fuck.

Yep, and we saved your asses too... D-Day, Normandy and all that.

The British asses weren't at danger. Hitler had tried an invasion plan and
failed miserably. The cause was to liberate Europe don't you know ?.

It didn't fail miserably, it came very close to succeeding.

It failed. And even if the RAF had been overcome the Royal Navy would have sunk
any invasion fleet with great ease. They had hundreds upon hundreds of ships back
then.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

John Larkin wrote:

Hitler turned east after being stopped at the Channel.

Yes and had you lot not been attacked at Pearl Harbor and Germany then declared
war on you, all of Europe would have finally fallen to Russia.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

John Fields wrote:

What I was arguing was that England, when the Mayflower Pilgrims left,
_was_ a religious state

Only in the sense that men were expected to turn up at a Protestant ( C of E ) Church on Sundays.

with Catholic influenced laws, and that's why they left.

Wrong.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

mrdarrett@gmail.com wrote:

John Fields <jfie...@austininstruments.com> wrote:
John Larkin wote:

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

---
Neither was I but, as I grow older, history fascinates me.

Especially the part about using the lessons taught earlier in order to
keep from falling into pitfalls which could have been avoided by paying
attention to the past.

JF

Not as though WE Poor Unwashed Masses can do anything about not
repeating the Vietnam war all over again... (whoops, did I say that
out loud?)

History may repeat itself yet again...
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/euthanasia.htm

Especially with this lot around !
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

" The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational
organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American
leadership is good both for America and for the world. "

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

John Larkin wrote:

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:03:44 +0000, Eeyore
rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:



John Larkin wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
John Larkin wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
John Fields wrote:

With only 73 years separation between Henry VIII's death and the
Mayflower Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock, one would think England
would still have been pretty much under Rome's influence at the time.

COMPLETE GARBAGE. As is all the rest of your idiotic speculation. The Pope ceased to
have any influence and there was the official Protestant Church of England instead.

Your knowledge of history is appallingly bad.

In the light of yours being nonexistent

Blah blah blah blah blah.

Do they specially edit history books in the USA to be anti-British ? And plain WRONG ! Seems
like it to me.

It doesn't matter who wrote the books, if you never read them. Seems
like it to me.

I got a Grade One in History actually along with the majority of my 11 'O levels', taken between
age 15 -17.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_Level

Only one A pass sadly at 'A level' out of 3 (Physics of course).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-level

And also an 'S level' in Physics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarship_Level

Graham

And I'm reading a Trollope novel right now. Lots of interesting stuff
about the British aristocracy, great Lords and tenent farmers, a bit
about Ireland, and some interesting stuff about the civil engineering
of the London Underground and the prominent role of alcohol in the
19th century. Just finished Walter Lord's superb book about the Battle
of Midway.

I don't remember much about my high school history classes. I guess I
wasn't very interested in history when I was 16.

I find it often depends on the teacher and the presentation. The year I took the exam we were
studying the post WW1 era until close to (then) modern times which I found fascinating. My teacher
was well pleased at my grade, as was the teacher who later took us for Biology in spades when about
half the class got grade ones.

It was a good school of course. And one of the oldest schools in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_School_(Hertfordshire)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_schools_in_the_world#Tenth_century

Stephen Hawking is an Old Albanian btw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans_School_(Hertfordshire)#20th_Century

Graham

All faded glory, and by reflection at that.

What's faded about it ? It's still a top school.

Read any good history lately?

This is first person history. You might find it fascinating. I did.
http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Neutral-Soldiers-Two-Year-Japanese/dp/1592281079

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

bill.sloman@ieee.org wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
John Fields wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

The US's biggest critics are the Europeans, which is sort of ironic,
since we saved thaie asses a couple of times, and have been stuck
cleaning up their messes all over the world.

Actually you've been MAKING messes all over the place since the end of WW2.

Yup.

Re. saving their asses:

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

Old Chinese proverb: If you save someone's life, they will hate you
forever.

Grateful as we were for the US help in winning WW2 (when you finally
got around to it) we are obliged to be even more grateful to the
Russians, who did the bulk of the work.

Of course, the Russians didn't have a lot of choice about joining in,
since the Germans chose to invade their country.

Since the U.S.A. was never invaded by the Germans, you could perhaps
have sat out the European war,

Aside from Hitler declaring war on the USA and sinking US and USN ships.

but only at the expense of seeing
Europe becoming part of a Russian empire. Roosevelt's administration
had enough sense to realise that this wouldn't be in your national
interest.

Since we owe the Russians a larger debt of gratitiude, we presumably
ought to hate them more than we hate you.

In fact nobody hates America (with the possible exception of Osama bin
Laden and his colleagues) but we do think that you ought to get around
to cleaning up your act sometime fairly soon.

Quite agree.

Graham