I think the chemists should come up with a flourescent dye (non-toxic of course!) that can be administered via water cannon – it should last a month or two…

That way, the ‘respectable’ individuals who got ‘caught up in the moment’ and do actually have something to lose could be identified and punished sufficiently by their peer group/school/employer/parents/family which would hopefully involve enough loss of face/respect/wages to deter them without completely criminalising them and clogging up the judicial system.

This would give the Police a free hand and more resources to deal with the real hard knocks, repeat offenders and other dross.

As for the punishment – these people don’t need prison, they need an outward bound course. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking…

‘Mozambique’

‘Landmines’

‘Plastic cutlery’

Go fetch…

Well of course the riots were all Thatcher’s fault:dev2:

Don’t forget that so called s***te paper is the one that had the guts to keep digging into the NOW scandal

Before you ask, yes I do read the Guardian online, but then I also read the Telegraph online, the Sunday Times, the Independent online etc. the only paper I draw the line at is that hate rag the Mail

And the same ****e paper that championed wikileaks – one rule for a chavy red top and another for the parlour-room pinkos rag – I hate ’em all 🙂

I don’t see how FMJ can be considered an anti-war or an anti-Vietnam movie – other than that it showcases some of the hideous viscera of war and how people are profoundly affected by same as well as how some people aren’t cut out for even preparing for war (Pyle) – in that sense every half decent war film can be considered ‘anti-war’… as they probably should be.

Yes, Joker wore a peace ‘button’ on his lid and some of the characters hint at the futility of war but I thought it was a fairly dispassionate examination of ‘the era’ and what young boys do when they’re let away from home for the first time in much the same way as ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ or ‘The Deer Hunter’ weren’t.

Not sure that anyone can say the characters are exaggerated, perhaps they are an amalgam of all soldiers – they seem to represent every average bunch of squaddies – the comedian, the straight bat, the average Joe and that one guy, who everyone is a little bit afraid of who does his best work under fire and is probably a reincarnation of Ghengis Khan and completely unsuited to civvie street…

As for the sets, I thought they were tremendous. Having to do without the verdent splendidity apparent in ‘BAT 21’ or ‘Hamburger Hill’, the urban battle scenes and the defoliated desolation as the M-60s rumbled towards Huy really put me in the movie….

IMHO, way better than ‘MASH’ which seemed to share the same Californian valley as all the Dukes of Hazzard Car chases and way better than ‘Battle of the Bulge’ which looks like Colorado or Gawd knows where… I was wainting for the Indian Scouts to appear on the ridgeline…

Battle of Britain Ju-188 relic

http://cgi.ebay.ie/JUNKERS-JU-188-BLITZ-RELIC-CYLINDER-GENUINE-ITEM-/190549087375?pt=UK_Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item2c5d9c548f

Exceptionally rare I’d say – from the 1943 Battle of Britain…

Do these old propliners things not have gear warning/ground proximity systems for such occurences or are they still reliant on checklists?

How and when do they ‘eject’ or ‘break free’ is the question that still is one for the experts to answer. Also will this action be followed by an automatic inflation of a floatation collar or something similar.

Assume it would have to be at the last second before impact to avoid losing data. They’d also have to be careful to design something that didn’t eject inadvertently, thus leaving a flying aircraft without a recorder.

I think overall, exactly the right thing was done.

-I’d have hated to see him brought to trial and get off on a technicality (not unthinkable and I’m pretty sure the Seals didn’t have a search warrant signed by a local judge).

-He does seem to be a largely symbolic figure but it puts to the sword the recycled myth that ‘westerners’ are morally weak and incapable of defending their beliefs all the way to an eventual conclusion. Hitler, Tojo and Osama all fell into that arrogant, lazy mindset – and they all came a cropper in the end.

-It shows that America/’the West’ does not forget it’s enemies and can harbour a grudge just as well as the Islamic fundamentalists & Continuity IRA… something for Gaddaffi and his ilk to digest with their corn flakes.

I was struck by the similarity between the celebrations in Washington & NY and the average footage of ullulating locals stomping on bits of American whatever from Somalia to the Balkans – people are people wherever you go and will react the same.

I was booked to fly to NY on 9/11 for business but rescheduled at the last minute – I have no other connection to events that day but I did get a chance to visit Ground Zero not long afterwards (smoke was still rising) and I admit I was a little emotional when I saw the news yesterday.