Well, did you guys hear Obama at the UN today announcing the "secret" Iranian nuclear plant?
Nice cover for his new Russian politics.
The talking heads in the US - CNN already started the propaganda in that "ahh, so this is why Russia saw the light and decided to get tough on Iran!!" .... as if the Russians had no idea what the Iranians are up to.
Who goes for such cheap propaganda in the States?
Are folks there that clueless?

Well, I have no quarrel with Valeri, anyway. One suggestion - if a hotel is holding a book for you, ask them to mail it and given them your credit card reference to reimburse them. Honestly, it's nearly always the easiest way to get the book, and the hotel is happy as they get remimbursed for a cost usually under $10.

".. the difference is in scale and appearances only..."

To clarify: your dirt is larger scale, ours appears worse...

Stefcho,
Why would I matter to you so much?
I am Bulgarian, who travels a lot. India and China occasionally, Western Europe a lot. Years a go I got US citizenship, but since I can now travel with my Bulgarian passport, I only use the US one to enter the States. Nothing against the States, just got sick and tired of their imagined specialness, as if God didn't make them from the same dirt. Trust me, I know Bulgarian dirt and I know American dirt (call me the "dirt man";) - the difference is in scale and appearances only.
When Americans behave more humbly, I get along with them just fine.

Epami,
just because I bragged, I forgot Edmond Taylor's book at the hotel in Munich over the weekend! I did call though and they are keeping it for me for the next 3 weeks until I go back - what a bummer! Maybe I should've asked them to mail it to me - didn't think straight.

I did pick up Giles MacDonogh's history of Allied occupation of Germany post WWII - incredible saga of ethnic cleansing of monumental proportions... the immediate 2-3 postwar years in the West aren't that clear to me (save for some fiction, which could be informative), so this will help.

Epaminondas
Columbus,Mmegellan,Janszomm also discovered tthe existence of the
Antipodes.
The massacres of the indegenous populations there is another story
we can discuss.

Stefcho - yes, you are right. He can certainly "come across" that way sometimes, i.e. a bit ultra-focused and maybe a bit hyper-critical.

Against that, he knows a very great deal and can often post some very perceptive comments.

It's probably a question of luck as to whether you get a "good day" or a "bad day". But Valeri is definitely worth listening to, even if you don't agree with him.

None of this can be said about Peggy (from Australia) who justifies every reason why the Europeans sent their awkward people to the Antipodes a couple of centuries ago ......

Thanks for the post Epaminondas, I was just curious. He may be a good guy but he just never has anything good to say about about any country, sure they all have there faults but to harp on them each and everyday is just getting old. He sounds like a smart guy and I'm sure he is but he seems rather narrow mined.
Again, thanks for the post.

Stepcho - I think Valeri (who is really rather a good bloke and a well-informed poster on this site) currently lives in the US but has lived elsewhere before.

Just like I currently live in the UK but have lived elsewhere before, notably Poland and Belgium with excursions to France and Lithuania / Russia.

So many of us are a bit cosmopolitan (I nearly said "cosmonauts", but that would be taking foreign travel a bit too far !)

Hope this is helpful

Valeri, tell me exactly where you live? I read that your in Bulgaria, then your from the UK, I think around a week or so ago you said something about India and before that you said you lived in the states but yet your have nothing good to say about none of any of the country's you've claimed to live in, your an interesting actor.. Please for the record, what is on your passport, do you like any Country, even the one's you say your don't like but yet you say your profit well from them, does anything make you happy? Where or what do you call home? Indulge me please

Jane 184 - yes, you're quite right, and quite right to mention this important factor. President Bush was always in the pocket of the big US military contractors and suppliers like Halliburton (run by Vice-President Dick Cheney !), while the Polish government would be influenced by job-creation in its relatively poor north east region round Bialystok (similar in Czech Republic.)

Unfortunately these excellent or not-so-excellent economic reasons do not justify provoking World War III ! The Russians can be pardoned for taking these land-based anti-missile installations on their borders as provocation, especially as technically (as has now been proved) it is possible to site them much farther away, or indeed on board a ship.

Russia has its own equivalent in the "exclave" of Kaliningrad (formerly German East Prussia), which is cut off from the rest of Russia, sparsely populated, of no economic benefit to Russia except as an ice-free port (less important than it was as a factor due to global warming), but of intense military benefit if Russia wants to frighten the West. Indeed, most of the population of the exclave (or Kaliningradskaya Oblast, to give it its proper name)is either military personnel or their relatives.

And of course, Lyudmila Putin was born in Kaliningrad and has an affection for the place !!!

Kaliningrad (better known under its previous German name of Konigsberg) had one famous son : the philosopher Immanuel Kant. It also generated the famous mathematical puzzle known as the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. (Google this and you will get several different sites, all equally good.)

Hope this is helpful.

No one has mentioned the immediate losers in this announcement - the US military contractors that will not make lots of money and the local contractors and communities that that will not get the added jobs and economic boost.

Well, I'm more than a bit convinced by Chipperfield's argument, I must admit.

If the US can now relocate the entire missile detection apparatus aboard a ship, which is by definition mobile, why was it previously necessary for the US to designate fixed sites right on Russia's borders ?

Genuinely interested to know the answer.

The argument that the nuclear instalations in Poland and Chehia
were intended to defend the two countries and Europe insult the intelliegence of the people all over the world. These instalations were intended to be used against Russia= Otherwise they might have been placed some other place. The Russian protests were legitimate
and no twisting of the facts will
convince anyone in the veracity of the argument.

This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained срещу журналисти

Aries, Epaminondas

You can avoid future mishaps by registering. Not saying you have to, of course, just saying you have the option - top left, above the categories row.

This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained авторски права.

Sorry mis-typed the sender identity is Aries not Epaaninondas which is the recipient

Pour le momoment un grand merci

Aries - here is a further URL link to the international mathematicians' site about the Koenigsberg bridges, again worth looking at:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KoenigsbergBridgeProblem.html

(This is something of a "spoilsport" site as it point out that the Russians destroyed two out of the seven original bridges in 1945, thus making the puzzle mathematically easy.

This reminds me of the apocryphal story about the US/Russian "space race" in the 1970s, when both sides had to design a writing implement that would still write under zero-gravity conditions, that would not leak ink under zero gravity, and that was light enough to be used by an astronaut/cosmonaut under zero gravity.

The Americans spent two million dollars designing a brand new "space writing pen" in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Russians went down to the local "dom knigy" book/paper shop and bought some pencils.....

Each worked as well as the other...

Aries -

There are several sites about the Koenigsberg Bridge mathematical problem. Here is the best of them (but Wikipedia is good too):

http://www.contracosta.edu/math/Konig.htm

EpaminondaS
I think that both Russia and the United States should have a closer look at the Teheran-Pyomgyang link
babout the Shahab-6 and it"s further developements which must be considered the "threat" and "black-mail" to not only tnhe vincinity but to Europe and Russia
itself through the mechaninims of Fundamentalism.Rien ne sert a courir il faut partir a temps.
About the Seven-Bridges of mKoenisberg i would appreciate the link.

Epami,
a few days a go I discovered Edmond Taylor's work on the fall of the European dynasties (before and after WWI) in my library. Don't even remember when I bought it, it's a 1963 issue and I must've picked it up in a used book store - I roam those when in UK or the US.
It's incredible! So beautifully written, so informative and witty. One day I hope to learn to write like that - I'll leave my spelling problems to the editors;)
The quotations from it are priceless. I will share as appropriate, I promise;)

I agree with Valeri - and also smrstrauss. Mobile missile detectors on ships are vastly preferable - once the technology works reliably, which up to now it hasn't. And developing this on-land technology was going to be a large bottomless pit into which to pour lots of money to no good purpose. Plus of course the fact that the Russians genuinely saw it as a threat as it was virtually on their borders.

Tough luck for Kaliningrad/Koenigsberg though, as otherwise a lot of money would have been poured by Russia into this "exclave" (sorry, I am told that really is the right word !) which at present is a bit "third-world" in its living standards, to put it mildly. None of its Russian inhabitants want to stay there, and neither the neighbouring Poles nor Lithuanians have any temptation to "invade", as they have successfully into the UK. The Germans would of course like to have it back, but this would raise some contentious issues.

Meanwhile, there is always Euler's mathematical challenge, of how to cross the Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg once - and only once for each bridge.

(There is an Internet link to this if anybody is really interested.) So far the challenge has never been won, even over 200 years.

Obama is the worst President the US has had in years, bring me back Reagan anytime, at least he knew how to gain respect. Obama, we shall now call you President 1 term

This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.

One thing you got right though - "the so-called Judeo-Christians in the States and the Muslims aren't that different. I personally can't quite decide between them, when it comes to contempt and fear..."

I personally of course can say that they lack culture , they both
praise the cult $$$$$$ leaving
a 2 or 3% at most just to validate the saying "the eception makes the rule".

Susan:

"One thing to be said for the Judeo-Christian and Muslim worldview - They know there is a real war on: the one between good and evil."
Sorry, but this is the stupidest thing I've seen here, after the "I am from Manchester and I hate Liverpool" bit, courtesy some British garbage. Any one taking a permanent vacation in the land of Good and Evil is a dangerous fanatic that should be stopped. One thing you got right though - the so-called Judeo-Christians in the States and the Muslims aren't that different. I personally can't quite decide between them, when it comes to contempt and fear...



Alas, but no... Obama scrapped this idiocy because it was pointless and dangerous, creating more enemies for the US, - a very numerous club as it is... more importantly, he needs the money for his Socialist reforms - themselves in danger given the incredible deficits the US is sinking in. You see what's happening to the $... I personally think that Obama is the final touch of a perfect storm that will eliminate the remnants of the imagined American "exceptional-ism" even in the most delusional minds, but this move I approve of, as it's obvious that Russia isn't Europe's enemy. That system was meant for Russia, make no mistake about it.,..

I say a "CLASH OF CIVILSATION"
in supprt of Susan's view about good and evi
Putin is definitly not naive.

Company in paragraph 2??? I meant Country!!! Sorry.

A good move IF he receives Russia's support in shutting down the nuclear ambitions of Iran... that will never happen!

Putin is single minded, and will spend the next four years taking full advantage of the windfall that has been dropped onto the world scene. A true socialist neophyte leading the most powerful company on earth.

Putin will charm him, flatter him, pander to his ego and use him to manipulate Russia to great advantage. Then, too late, Obama will realize he has been had by a master player!

One thing to be said for the Judeo-Christian and Muslim worldview - They know there is a real war on: the one between good and evil.

The Liberal/Progressives, who roundly escue this central belief leave themselves looking like college freshmen; full of good ideas, and good intentions and no idea what the real fight is all about. (And those are the best of them.)

But like college freshmen and puppies, they keep tripping over their own inexperience, and will soon grow up or be gone. Ah! The wisdom of a 2 and 4 year election cycle.

I think its good that Obama is being nice to the Russians because im not looking for America to be nuked

The obvious place for such missiles, if they work at all, is on US naval ships between Iran and Europe.

This has a lot of advantages. It is closer to the takeoff point of the missiles, so it is more difficult for the enemy to trick the missile defense with phoney warheads. The missile that is shot down falls in the water and not on land. The ships do not have to be defended against infiltrators or terrorists. If the Iran threat were to go away, the ships can be sent to another trouble spot.

In other words, Eastern Europe was never the smartest place to put the missiles.

when i hear Koenisberg i recall
a good debator and a constructive mind though blurred a very few times we had common interests about Teutonic Kights Crusades....
He mentioned to me the Euler Koenisberg Bridge problem stil remains U nsolved.

Valeri
He just postponed the project.

That's the only smart thing he's done so far.

What else could we could expect from Obama?

A marxist is always a marxist even if an ineligible.