There have been a lot of things done with no long term testing based on assumptions that were flat wrong. The problem is that no one does anything after the problems are discovered, and no one admits any responsibility.

It will be interesting to see how cell phones are judged in another ten years or sooner. I can’t believe that they don’t have some effect on your body.

Australia was the obvious base for US operations in Asia, as everything the US “owns” is on small islands, many of which are subject to earthquakes and/or volcanoes.

I know this all probably sounds as if it was just a great big load of fun for the years I was involved, but it wasn’t. We (Australia) spent a lot of our time being mediators between the Russians and others. I suppose we were seen as a kind of *neutral* territory, and in many ways, we were. Mostly because of our position way down here in the southern hemisphere. But that is really an illusion by people who think in terms of distance via the Arctic (North Pole). 🙂 If you go the other way, South, we are not very far at all. There was a good reason the USA kept a base here capable of landing a squadron of B52’s, until we closed it because it made everyone else *uncomfortable* to say the least! (Now we just have a *secret* base in Qld that have underground hangers that can house B-117’s etc. Thanks to Howard. What a moron). The USA has been trying to base ICBM’s here for decades, and when I was working intel, I heard there was a base hidden somewhere in the desert. I never did know if it was true, but I heard it from a Russian Scientist, so it could have been. It was a Russian that also told me about the Omega base here in Vic actually being one of 4 Global US VLF Submarine communications stations and was on the USSR’s ‘first strike’ list. The secondary control station for it is not very far (in miles) from where I live. *shrug* 🙂 The USA (and officially the Aus Gov) deny it of course, but now we have undeniable proof that something more than what they say is there. The cancer and other health problems in the area (roughly 100km radius) have increased significantly since it was built, and livestock mortality rates are high as well as birth defect rates for all creatures (human and not). And Amerika are our friends (as the Russians would take pleasure in taunting us whenever they could!) 😉

What a World.

i can’t say, from firsthand knowledge, anything about iowa, but winters in indiana are dismal.

dis. mal.

it’s pretty much a straight shot from indianapolis to here, so not much mystery there. as for the iowans, maybe they head east first, and turn south at the first big city they come to. which would perhaps be indianapolis.

“Sweetie” must be a Midwestern thing, because the only person I know who ever says it is from Iowa.

The polite form of address is the surname and patronymic, even for the Tsar. Addressing someone by their title, or even by their title and surname is demeaning, as it means you didn’t bother to learn their names.

The use of the first name alone indicates a close association, or, in the case of serfs being addressed by their landowner, control equivalent to that of a father for a child.

There are diminutive forms of first names, i.e. Ivan becomes Vanya, or even Vanuchka for a very young child. That indicates a very close association, or is extremely demeaning when used by a stranger. When Chekov writes about Uncle Vanya, a Russian already knows he’s going to be a bit dotty.

In the military sergeant majors would normally be addressed by their patronymic alone as a sign of respect.

In other Slavic countries they never went beyond given name and patronymic until very recently and the patronymic of the “founding father” became the surname. You see this in the -ic endings of Serbian names which is pronounced -ich. This is how Milos became the grandfather of the Milosevic family. [Note that the better transliteration would be Miloshevich. The “sh” is why the soft form -evich is used instead of the -ovich that would follow an “s”.]

Even today, the surname is not used a great deal in Russia. News reports will write about Vladimir Vladimirovich, not Putin, because everyone knows who is being discussed. Now they will discuss Dmitri Anatol’evich.

a generalization i’ve noticed: women really do call all kinds of people sweetie — men, women, children, pets — but men only call women, children, and female pets sweetie.