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Interesting is what will happen now. As the EU can run on current treaties there is no immediate disaster but for reform to happen there will need to be a lot of negociation and for europe the status quo it will be.

Still there is always a possibility of a wide EU with a small group going it alone to create a core EU which will be a lot closer bonded. For France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and possibly spain this is a possibility that has been forwarded over the years. And there is still the possibility that the EU becomes a lot weaker.

Wow.

This actually gives me a little bit of a concern to any base where such a dramatic flood could hit. Mayhaps some form of flood defence or flood wall may be a necessity.

It is not the world that is built on "plunder and occupy" it is the people. Still people change and with luck we will get over this, but right now and with the recent history and the state we find the world in it means it will be a long while before this happens. pity

The US is not the only country in the world that plans to increase its prescence in space but for the US it has the problem that these other countries are catching up to the USA quick in science and financial power. If it wishes to appear to be a superpower it has to have the ability to show power all across the world and still defend its assets. At the moment for the USA its dominance of military space is giving it this advantage. It has to protect this. Still in historic terms there has been really too effective ways that colonisation has happened. One was for commercial benefit of the host nation and the other was as a result of military technical improvement allowing for the host nation to expand.

It seems to go in waves with a military rivalry that results in an improved transportation method that then allows commercial benefit which then begets military involvement with another rivalry and then to commercial again, each time the transportation improves. And with improved transportation you get people able to more freely move and this means colonisation.

Well a little flair up between Boeing and Airbus has both the EU and the USA going to court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4594581.stm]BBC Article

The USA blames the EU over the subsidies it has given to fund research in the civilian Airbus planes where the EU states its just a more open standard as the USA supplies a lot of military research funds to Boeing. In the end it is all down to aparent market share where boeing with its aging standard of planes has lost to Airbus. And Airbus has plans to produce a new smaller class that will be a direct threat to the dreamliner which Boeing hopes to be its saviour and give it back its market share. Anyway of to the WTO we all will go.

Great another spammer  :angry:

http://www.newmars.com/cgi-bin/ikonboar … 27;t=8]New Mars, Youth Group, Worth a look

God I hate them,

Well for the UK which was likely to reject the treaty by a very sizable majority up to 75 to 80% the rejection of it in France feels like a bit we have been cheated. We had hoped to do it ourselves.

Still the spotlight now falls on the Dutch who are likely to reject it on wednesday and so basically cripple it. But then again there is a possibility that since all countries must have ratified the treaty by November 2006 that they continue with the referendums and give all contries a chance and then in Next years vote they try again.

Another option is to try to negociate a new treaty that would make it more appealing to the French and Dutch but this would inversely make it less appealing to the UK and certain others. Still one of the tenets of the constitution was that any country that had not voted in the treaty by November 2006 was that they would politely be asked if they wished to stay as part of the EU at all.

Edit
Esa is a seperate agency inside Europe and not directly tied to the EU. In theory this rejection should not have any problems for ESA at all and could actually boost ESA with extra funds.

Ah but you dont understand how weapons are made either it comes down to one up manship as well. If you dont build that weapon then your enemies will as they want to be top dog.

It is all to give one country the edge over another. The USA has the edge at the moment but like everything there are enough countries snapping at its heels.

If they have the ability to hit objects in space then they have the ability to hit mainland USA. At least its harder to hit a moving target than one sitting on land. And in space you have up,down and sideways to dodge and it is very easy to miss.

What has always happened is that an army is designed and prepared to fight the last war when the new one starts. For the USA it means they have to look who they will be fighting and what it will take to do so.

The obvious threat now is not the insurgents/terrorists in Iraq but it is China and the armed bases where these terrorists are trained.

Conventional aircraft are extremely vulnerable to very cheap radar and air defences and so if you wish to take out that very important bunker or base another means must be found. Certain technologies like mass drivers give you long range bombardment from the sea, but cannot reach every where. Rods from god though are perfect bunker and base destroyers. These rely not on explosive force but on their kinetic force which acts like an earthquake on the target plus one large explosion..

So for the USA to be criticised for forward thinking is rather silly, and I would rather have someone who is friendly to my own country with the capacity to take out the badguys painlessly.

It does seem that the charges that Britain and Tony Blair in particular are Americas poodle annoy a lot of people in Britain. Certainly it gets worse when the same charges are used by politicians in the UK as well. Unlike in the USA where the war in Iraq has reasonably broad support the population in the UK where not that enamoured of the idea of the war in the first place and the ones who did support it have quickly gone sour to it.
Anyone who has been paying attention will notice that Tony Blair is looking haggard even after having one the last election. This election was one where even without a credible opposition alternative the labour goverment recieved a vastly reduced majority and an almost unworkable goverment but for labour it could have been a lot worse except for belief. This is the popular belief is that Blair will step down and soon to allow his chancellor Gordon Brown to take over. For all intents Tony Blair is no longer ruling the goverment as Gordon Brown has as the almost annointed successor been the focus of the MPs and pressure groups that run the country. It is only a matter of when that Blair will step down and when would be best for the country and his party. Still for all intents the UK is considered the bad man of europe. First of all we tend to go our own way politically and would not join the Euro and are highly critical of the waste that is the beauracracy in brussels. Add to that that unlike europe we are being very effective economically and as such with a much stronger voice amongst the new states in europe. An example of problems between Europe and Britain is what is called the rebate. European countries put into europe about 1% of there gross income. But most countries recieve the majority of this back in grants to agricultural producers. The UK though does not due to the nature of the produce made and being an Island. Margaret Thatcher won back a rebate of the money as compensation and it has been a sore point with europe ever since as every year we get about £5 Billion back. Every time that Europe and in particular France tries to have it cancelled as Britains economy is so much stronger and getting stronger Britain warns it will simply use its veto.

When it comes down to europe most people in the UK look at it with major suspicion and there is even two political parties that are activally wanting Britain to withdraw from the whole buisness.

It actually takes a lot to detonate a Nuclear weapon and a meteorite or solar storm is very unlikely to be able to do this. The problem though is if the weapon itself is pushed back into an earth reentry it will litter a very large area with the most extremely hazardous material which will enter the food table.

NASA to make a map of the Moon.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05 … Spacedaily article

This shows that we have actually a very poor base knowledge of our nearest neighbour. Until this probe is operational and its data added to Smarts and clementines we will have +or- of 300 km in knowing where an object actually is.