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Post by simon darkshade on Apr 10, 2024 5:52:44 GMT
Steve, 1.) It is the regular April Fool's Day event, with a tie into the earlier disappearance of Constitution. You are absolutely on the money with the ship in a bottle trick being how the historic frigate was stolen; the Statue of Liberty disappearing through visual illusion tricks is a bit of an Easter Egg reference to David Copperfield making it disappear in 1983. 2.) The @ tiger population was 100,000 in 1900, falling to ~1827 in 1970, largely through unrestricted hunting and uncontrolled killing. Here, there has been a drop, but not the same 98% fall. 3.) Jefferson is the @ one in Northern California and Southern Oregon: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_(proposed_Pacific_state). This is an isolated situation of Shasta looking like it might erupt and everyone not wanting it to occur; the name of the Lieutenant Governor is the same as in Henrik Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People', so what I'm working for here is a modern day transposition of that main idea. 6.) Absolutely. There is no way of knowing, but when there are enough bullets flying around in the Southern Cone, someone ends up getting hit. 9.) It will be regarded as a bit of a curiosity for quite a long time to come; as you would know from lived experience, in the 1970s and 1980s in Britain and Australia, fast food restaurants were considered a special treat/outing than a regular mass market food trough. The general pattern/level of prevalence for usual dining is home cooked meals in the overwhelming first place, followed by chain restaurants and British Restaurants (both supplying 'sit down' dining), then various foreign restaurants, then fish and chip shops and takeaway food right down at the bottom. Pizza/pitza will remain a niche food in the final category, lagging behind fish and chips, pies and various sandwich permutations. Insofar as the pineapple/Hawaiian pizza thing is concerned, I'm firmly in your camp. Pineapple works well with salty meats and cheese; a grilled pineapple ring also makes an appearance on the 'Aussie Burger' or the Australian version of the hamburger with the works, which has a beef patty, cheese, fried onion, bacon, a fried egg, pickled beetroot, said grilled pineapple ring, lettuce, tomato, onion and tomato sauce. The acid in the fruit and pickled veg does offset riches and too much meatiness/umami flavour. My inclusion of the pineapple on pizzas here is a bit of dig at those people who are so uptight about what someone else likes on their food that they get into conniption fits. 10.) Absolutely. Ethiopia has a much better future without famine and with freedom. 12.) Star Wars was historically filmed in Britain at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. It was originally owned by Associated British Picture Corporation in the 1930s, who were then bought out by Warner Bros and EMI. In Dark Earth, the Big Five of British film production studios are ABPC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_British_Picture_Corporation ), Imperial Studios (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_Dominions_Imperial_Studios ), the Rank Organisation's General Film Distributors (pending a different name), British Lion Films (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Lion_Films, backed up by the clout of EMI) and finally Hammer Film Productions. Hammer's role in Britain is analogous to 20th Century Fox in Hollywood, being the 'youngest', but one of the biggest in terms of success. They have branched out further from their meat and bread in horror films into science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, historical epics and most recently, war films. I'm going to have to do an extended piece on DE cinema and trends 14.) Historically, the Austin Allegro was a disastrous dog of a car. Here, it is a different design in the same category/class, and being something of a combination of the best features of the Honda Civic (hence the reference to a 'civic car') and the later Austin Maestro. 16.) Surely nothing bad could come from disturbing a long sealed mysterious tomb! 17.) Emperor Max is ambitious, but he realises that if Mexico remains completely focused on the United States, it will only exist as a southern adjunct to someone else's story. 20.) An Iberian union is unlikely, as there isn't any huge outside pressure forcing them together, positioned as they are on the edge of the European/Mediterranean/Atlantic worlds, unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, who have the 'Polish problem'; that is a little joking phrase I picked up from a talk by Lech Walesa I once attended, where he stated that Poland's chief historical mistake was being located between Germany and Russia, who were such good friends that they always wanted to visit each other. 24.) It certainly is very ominous. Combine the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak with certain elements of Warhammer 40K... (This is not to say that it is W40K, just that there is a certain localised dimensional weakness that was probed and almost ruptured, with some nasty influences/forces seeping through the cracks in the brief moments that there was a connection) 26.) Very much so. Taking a long term view means copping losses sometimes, whilst retain the capacity to bounce back and recoup them, as compared to the modern tendency for governments of all ideological characters to throw the kitchen sink at whatever problem crops up; eventually, you run out of kitchen sinks. The final sentence shows that this is not a universally endorsed position, with there being a not insubstantial level of support for greater public spending in the here and now, whatever the costs; however, for now, there is a feeling that all types of spending levels are quite comfortable. 27.) Different laws of physics, the influence of magic and some things that simply can't quite yet be explained. If you wish to experience the heights of frustration mixed with exasperation and fear, become a certain type of scientist in Dark Earth. You can come up with a perfectly logical theory, then along comes some spiffing bloke in a cape or a flying lizard or a man in a funny hat who breaks your theories with words and gestures. 28.) They are very wealthy men with a lot of resources, who have similarly sweeping ambitions. The whole ~4300 mile distance seems huge, but it is 520 miles from NYC to Pittsburgh, 190 miles from there to Cleveland, 520 to Chicago, 420 miles from there to St. Louis, 740 miles to Oklahoma City, 840 to Albuquerque and 530 to Phoenix, AZ and thence 575 to LA. Tack on some extra distance for the nature of indirect railroad routing and then we get to pondering the various comparisons of a 12-15 hour rail journey in luxury with your car onboard vs a 2 hour Boeing 2707 or Concord flight. As a whole, it ends up being difficult to justify, but it creates a whole lot of useful little 'parts' in the form of the high speed links between urban centres in the Midwest, South and South West. 30.) There is something that scientists are puzzled and even alarmed by and some very long term thinkers are intrigued by. Titan, for example, is the size of Earth and is regarded as a future prize for settlement, along with the Jovian moons visited earlier. Curious.
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Post by simon darkshade on Apr 10, 2024 13:44:44 GMT
1973 Statistics
1973/74 Largest GDPs 1.) USA: $12,759,578,439,922.13 (+ 4.28%) 2.) USSR: $6,105,609,224,823.79 (+ 7.64%) 3.) Germany: $4,936,604,492,206.17 (+ 4.32%) 4.) Japan: $4,726,684,284,657.89 (+ 10.03%) 5.) Britain: $4,685,044,589,435.96 (+ 4.84%) 6.) France: $2,643,926,632,069.69(+ 3.95%) 8.) Canada: $2,344,421,195,962.22 (+ 3.78%) 7.) India: $2,380,686,207,741.98 (+ 6.77%) 9.) China: $2,311,783,104,315.28 (+ 7.85%) 10.) Italy: $1,789,642,340,962.36 (+ 3.43%) 11.) Austria-Hungary: $1,511,954,147,188.87 (+ 4.35%)
1973/74 Populations 1.) China: 1,115,333,864 2.) India: 745,249,839 3.) Soviet Union: 413,456,253 4.) USA: 374,587,219 5.) Indonesia: 279,126,235 6.) Japan: 278,346,110 7.) Germany: 205,496,887 8.) Brazil: 195,034,198 9.) Mexico: 157,248,237 10.) France: 150,962,250 11.) Britain: 142,876,539 12.) Austria-Hungary: 132,989,336
1973/74 Share of World Industrial Output 1.) USA: 21.7% 2.) Japan: 13.9% 3.) Soviet Union: 12.1% 4.) Germany: 11.7% 5.) Britain: 7.6% 6.) China: 6.6% 7.) India 5.4% 8.) France: 4.8% 9.) Canada: 3.8% 10.) Italy: 3.1% 11.) Austria-Hungary: 3.0%
Steel Production 1973/74 (millions of tons) 1.) Japan 254 2.) USA 240 3.) USSR 210 4.) Germany 132 5.) Britain: 100 6.) China: 98 7.) India 84 8.) AH: 75 9.) Poland 72 10.) France 60 11.) Canada 59
Coal Production 1972 (millions of tons) 1.) USA: 748 2.) USSR: 724 3.) China: 618 4.) Germany: 602 5.) Poland: 567 6.) Britain: 554 7.) India: 489 8.) Austria-Hungary: 460 9.) France: 300 10.) Australia: 266 11.) South Africa: 255
Oil Production 1973 (Thousands of bbl/day) 1.) USA: 17,396 2.) USSR: 13,852 3.) Arabia: 12,679 4.) Persia: 7013 5.) Iraq: 6129 6.) Canada: 4532 7.) Trucial States: 4497 8.) Venezuela: 3428 9.) Britain: 3384 10.) Kuwait: 3276 11.) Mexico: 3066
1973 Wheat Production (millions of tons) 1.) USA: 178 2.) USSR: 125 3.) China: 101 4.) India: 95 5.) Canada: 90 6.) Australia: 72 7.) France: 64 8.) Argentina: 62 9.) Austria-Hungary: 60 10.) Germany: 56 11.) Britain: 54 12.) Italy: 42 13.) Turkey: 37 14.) Spain: 33 15.) Poland: 26
1973 Barley Production (millions of tons) 1.) USSR: 67.5 2.) Australia: 32.4 3.) Canada: 26.8 4.) Germany: 25.2 5.) France: 21.3 6.) Britain: 18.4 7.) Spain: 16.3 8.) Argentina: 14.7 9.) Turkey: 11.1 10.) USA: 10.4 11.) Poland: 9.9 12.) Austria-Hungary: 8.4
1973 Potato Production (millions of tons) 1.) USSR: 143 2.) India: 72 3.) China: 69 4.) Germany: 42 5.) France: 39 6.) Canada: 38 7.) Britain: 33 8.) Poland: 32 9.) Peru: 26 9.) Turkey: 25 11.) Netherlands: 22 12.) Persia: 19
1973 Corn Production (millions of tons) 1.) USA: 257 2.) USSR: 105 3.) China: 87 4.) Brazil: 82 5.) Argentina: 69 6.) India: 50 7.) Canada: 48 7.) Mexico: 45 9.) Indonesia: 32 10.) Romania: 29 11.) France: 27 12.) Australia: 24
Automobile Production 1973 1.) Japan: 13,542,919 2.) USA: 12,976,538 3.) Germany: 7,980,375 4.) Britain: 5,256,923 5.) France: 4,578,017 6.) Italy: 3,892,888 7.) USSR: 3,752,964 8.) Canada: 3,566,895 9.) Austria-Hungary: 2,823,500 10.) Mexico: 2,572,235 11.) Spain: 2,106,398
Merchant Shipbuilding 1973 1.) Japan: 40,743,922 tons 2.) Britain: 27,561,356 tons 3.) USA: 20,456,547 tons 4.) Korea: 4,860,239 tons 5.) Germany: 3,791,523 tons 6.) France: 2,014,960 tons 7.) Italy: 1,627,075 tons 8.) Canada: 1,428,050 tons 9.) USSR: 1,299,624 tons 10.) China: 984,226 tons 11.) Sweden: 920,249 tons
Aircraft Production 1973 1.) USSR: 6520 2.) USA: 6084 3.) China: 3842 4.) Britain: 3793 5.) Germany: 1829 6.) France: 1434 7.) Japan: 1150 8.) India: 1028 9.) Canada: 980 10.) Italy: 654 11.) Austria-Hungary: 583
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Post by simon darkshade on Apr 24, 2024 14:04:13 GMT
May May 1: The BBC’s Tonight program features a special sequence on ‘A Tale of Two May Days’, contrasting the grandiose and warlike military parade conducted in Moscow with the joyful innocent family activities of the May Day holiday in Britain and closing with a split screen image of a young laughing May Queen and a scowling Red Army conscript. May 2: Japan pays off the last remaining instalment of its postwar food aid debt to the United States, with the $200,000,000 payment being channeled directly into the new aid programme for the reconstruction of South Vietnam. May 3: President Ronald Reagan arrives at Heathrow Airport in London on the first foreign state visit of his presidency to Britain and is greeted by Ambassador Walter Annenberg, Prime Minister Stanley Barton and Foreign Secretary Sir James Callaghan, before being received by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip at Windsor Castle and reviewing a brigade of the Queen's Guard, followed by the traditional twenty-four course royal state banquet. The visit is to include an address to both Houses of Parliament at Westminster and a naval review of the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy at Scapa Flow. May 4: The 1670ft tall Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out, becoming the tallest skyscraper in the United States and the world, just shading the new World Trade Center towers in New York City, with both overtaking the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow to restore American leadership in the somewhat secondary measure of the world's tallest buildings. May 5: The Sports Federation of the German Democratic Republic initiates the State Research Plan, a blanket programme for the distribution of performance enhancing drugs, steroids and experimental alchemical concoctions to athletes competing in international competitions, particularly the Olympic Games. May 6: The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance presents a 10 Year Project for the improvement and modernisation of the Italian economy, based on a reduction in inflation, increased domestic production of energy to transform costs, increasing exports by 60% and continued investment in the continued development of the South. May 7: Opening of the Royal Military Exhibition, a special exposition of Britain's land, sea and air forces and their equipment, held at the Royal Exhibition Centre at Earl's Court. The prize exhibits are a new RAF Supermarine Spitfire, the Army's new Medium Combat Vehicle version of the FV525 Warrior and the Royal Navy's new Coastal Forces hydrofoil Super Fast Attack Missile Craft. May 8: US forces kill several hundred rebels in a brigade sized ground sweep and clear action in Sudan, with heavy air support from USAF strike fighters and bombers and USMC attack helicopters. It is estimated that the objectives of the joint punitive mission will be achieved by the end of June. May 9: Resignation of the Prime Minister of the Lebanon after his failure to resolve the cabinet impasse over military cooperation with Syria and other members of the Arab Union, which is driven by Lebanon's position as the only majority Christian state in Levant. May 10: Debut of The Great Adventurers, an ITV series based on the book by Sir Winston Churchill, the Duke of London, on the greatest explorers, adventurers and discoverers in the history of the British Empire. May 11: The Hawke Labor government in Australia successfully introduces a programme of free tertiary education for approved students as part of their raft of reforms aimed at modernising and diversifying the burgeoning Australian economy, following on from the introduction of the Prices and Incomes Accord with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and a programme for the further encouragement of nationally significant secondary industries, specifically the automotive, steel, electrical, textile, clothing and footwear and consumer goods industries. May 12: Completion of the Soviet space station Mir, joining Krasnya Oktabyr and Vostok as the USSR's major facilities in Earth's orbit, in addition with the smaller Salyut stations operating in lower orbits for more temporary reconnaissance and experimental purposes. May 13: German arcanologists working with the Kaiserliche Anstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung develop a new industrial enchantment for the separation of different components of commonly used plastics into easily reusable base compounds which, in line with last year's law on the prevention of waste in rubbish management and the promotion of re-use and 're-cycling', opens up the potential for upwards of 96% of commonly used plastics to be recovered rather than go to landfill. May 14: The Kustartilleriet of the Royal Swedish Navy begins deployment of the new Bofors 125mm light coastal defence gun in fixed single and twin mounts and in the mobile role; it is intended to fill the role between the mobile 105mm and 152mm guns and the heavier 152mm, 254mm, 375mm and 610mm pieces. The new Swedish gun is thought to have been designed for maximal capacity with the British Royal Ordnance 125mm Light Gun and the US M125 as part of the latest manifestation of the longstanding Anglo-Swedish Defence Pact, along with the joint development of a new mobile assault gun system, provisionally designated the Infanterikanonvagn 105. May 15: Rhodesian Army and security forces overrun a major guerilla base in the far south west of the country in Operation Scarecrow, eliminating or capturing hundreds of fighters. The success of the operation is hailed as a major victory by The Rhodesia Herald and as, whilst not the beginning of the end, then the harbinger of a new phase in the Bush War. Some professional foreign observers ascribe a large part of recent improved performance to increased US aid in the aftermath of American victory in the Vietnam War, as well as more advanced RAF aerial support and intelligence gathering capacities. Whatever the causes and contributing factors, the outcome of Scarecrow marks a notable shift in the tides of Cold War conflict in Central Africa. May 16: A joint Anglo-American Peaceful Nuclear Explosion is conducted by the US Department of Energy and British Ministry of Atomic Energy at the Nevada Test Site to test a new experimental device designed for potential use in the construction of a Nicaragua Canal, exploitation of the Athabaskan oil sands and iron ore mining in the Pilbara region of Australia. May 17: The Air Ministry issues Specification B.24/73 for the development of a very long range strategic heavy bomber to augment and possibly eventually replace the RAF’s fleet of Avro Vulcans. It calls for a multi-engine supersonic jet bomber capable of carrying a bombload of 60,000lb to a range of 6400nm at a cruising speed of 875 knots at 75,000ft, with considerably greater maximum speed, altitude and bombload and provision for a range of defensive armament. Avro, Vickers, Handley-Page, Armstrong-Whitworth and BAC are invited to submit designs for the ambitious specification. This move towards the future is accompanied by C.25/73, a curious shift to the recent past, which sets out a requirement for an updated and enlarged version of the Bristol Britannia powered by the new Rolls Royce Severn 16000shp turboprop engine; the ostensible fuel economy advantages of the engine present a compelling case in the considerably different strategic circumstances of 1973 compared to 1964. May 18: Militant dissidents attempt to hijack an Aeroflot jet in Dushanbe with a view towards fleeing to Persia, but are subdued by an elite team of Omega Group commandos fortuitously on standby in Samarkand; the GRU special forces eliminate all five dissidents in the process, having been instructed not to take prisoners. May 19: The Ministry of Agriculture and Food publishes a study on emerging technologies, enhanced alchemical fertilisers, agricultural enchantments and new seed varieties and their impact upon crop yields. It forecasts an increase in potato production to 32 tons per acre by 1980, whilst wheat and barley productivity, particularly in England’s great breadbasket of East Anglia and in Lyonesse and Leinster could rise from the current 112 and 94 bushels per acre to above 200 in the same time frame. May 20: The heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and Patriarch Demetrios of Constantinople issue a joint declaration following a conclave in Constantinople that the Chalcedonian and Miaphysite Churches, whilst having differences of some Christological formulations, there is no fundamental difference of belief and that they will work together towards a unified Christianity. May 21: The Committee of Imperial Defence authorises the fourth stage of the Long Range Missile Defence of the United Kingdom Plan, which will complete the deployment in the British Isles of 640 Violet Friend long range ABMs (with a top speed of Mach 10, a ceiling of 500 miles and a maximum range of 750 miles), 640 Black Beauty medium range weapons (Mach 6, 250 miles ceiling and 250 miles range) in both their mobile and silo based versions; and 1280 Blue Sky short range point defence missiles (Mach 12, 25 mile ceiling and 50 mile range) by the end of 1975. Additionally, in the medium term, four further Skyguard energy weapon facilities are to be established, providing direct coverage over the west and south; RAF Fighter Command's 48 Bristol Blue Envoy squadrons are to be equipped with advanced new long range Mark IV missiles and four airborne battle stations equipped with air launched Black Beautys; the Army's Air Defence Command will increase to forty squadrons of English Electric Broadswords in the home air defence role; and the Royal Navy is to increase the assignment of missile cruisers to the Home Fleet from three to five. May 22: The US Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes statistical data on national economic activity computed by Alfie, their intelligent IBM Super Multivac 9000 supercomputer, indicating that the United States is emerging from recession based on small business sales, retail trends and stronger manufacturing output. Across the Atlantic, the British economic outlook remains more grey, with pressure growing from the Labour backbenches for direct investment and interventionist policies to further ameliorate the broader effects of the recession, whilst Prime Minister Barton and the Cabinet remain committed to the current course of action, with a suspension of all immigration save for special cases to stabilise the labour market being the only significant new measure taken in the second quarter of the year. May 23: Formation of the Organisation d'Action Secrète by the French DCRG as a domestic counterpart to the SDE's Action Service, combining a number of previous separate groups utilised by the French government for the suppression of internal security issues and the provision of an 'active response' to the same. May 24: British Oil’s exploration team submits a report on the discovery of five new major oil and gas fields in the Irish Sea. Investigations by drill ships and submersibles into a suspected larger deposit around Rockall continue. May 25: Representatives of United States Air Force and Royal Air Force sign a memorandum of agreement for the cooperative development of a range of high precision laser guided bombs. May 26: The Jordanian Prime Minister and Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban meet in Jericho for a fruitful discussion on general rapprochement and economic cooperation, with both countries keen on pursuing the benefits of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal and on the export of Israeli electricity to Jordan. May 27: Brazil signs defence sales agreements with the United States and Britain in response to the Argentine armament of recent years, with the former being for a range of land based equipment (headlined by 1600 M60 tanks, 2000 M113s and hundreds of modern artillery pieces) and the latter package including both land and air surplus weapons, consisting of 960 Chieftains, 800 Bristol Bloodhounds, 1200 PT.428 Rapiers, 240 de Havilland Tornadoes, 300 Hawker-Siddeley Merlins, 120 Vickers Thunderbolts, 240 Fairey Delta IIs and 240 Supermarine Sunstars along with new radar systems and 100 Vickers Vimy supersonic heavy bombers. The British aircraft order for the Imperial Brazilian Air Force comes after a decade of careful cultivation of high ranking officers and Air Ministry officials and the accompanying fillip of resource purchase agreements and investment in Brazilian industrial development. May 28: Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Princess Anne and Prince Christian of the Netherlands, with the union seen as a masterly means to cement ties between Britain and the Netherlands, and by extension with the increasingly strongly integrated Benelux Union. May 30: A coup attempt in Yemen is barely suppressed by Arabian troops, leading to the widespread unrest and disorder as long-running tensions emerge to the surface of Yemeni society. The perceived economic weakness of the regime, which is the only one without substantial oil discoveries to date, is seen as being an underlying reason for the instability. May 31: Opening of a great bridge spanning the Bosphorus in Constantinople, providing a direct link between Europe and Asia for the first time since the far off time of Emperor Darius the Great of Persia. The ongoing tensions and simmering hostility between Byzantine Greece and Ottoman Turkey makes the full potential of the continental link a question for hopeful future resolution at this time.
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Post by simon darkshade on Apr 25, 2024 12:41:19 GMT
May Notes - The 'Tale of Two May Days' is just one example of how Britain is at least trying to compete at the top level, even culturally. Their point is quite well made, with a peaceful, free society without needing to lock its people in being rather more attractive than the Soviet alternative. Actually saying so is an example of a Britain that is far more confident in itself than the @ of the 1970s nadir - Japan's payment to the Americans isn't as needed for balance of payments purposes here, but comes as both a welcome gesture and a sign of Japan's burgeoning strength and confidence - Reagan visits Britain earlier than in his @ first term, showing the relative importance of the Anglo-American relationship; there is more emphasis upon this in Britain, but the power balance is slightly different - The heights of the Sears Tower and WTC here are part of the never-ending Cold War competition between the USA and USSR - GDR doping will be a bit more 'effective' here, at least until exposed - Italy is bobbing along reasonably well, but increased exports of luxury cars, clothing, shoes, furniture and other valued added consumer goods/desirables is in their favour - The Royal Military Exhibition is a bit of an attempt to push up economic activity through events, as well as trying to advertise British defence equipment to the rest of the world. The Medium Combat Vehicle version of the Warrior is a 90mm/25pdr vehicle that tries to straddle the line between AFV and 'medium tank', mainly as a sales attempt, as it is unlikely to see service in the British Army due to the Ikv 105 dalliances outlined later on - Bob Hawke's Labour (note different spelling to the @ Americanised version of the ALP's name, adopted thanks to King O'Malley) is on a different wicket to its @ advent in 1983, with there being much, much less scope for economic rationalist policies or moving away from industrial protectionism; the removal of university fees also reflects the priorities of the time - Mir is larger, as are the other Soviet stations, with crews of 250+ and looking like hybrids of the Von Braun style rotating wheel space station and the first picture on this page: www.lakesidepress.com/fictitious-reviews/spacestationguide.htm The next stage, taken by the Americans and British, has been to add more rings above and below, eventually forming a sphere that then is secured with external plating as in the 8th image on this page imgur.com/gallery/4faJG then progressing towards the class Frank Tinsley sphere here: www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/images/spacestations/station.jpg- German researchers have effectively developed a method that will resolve one of the big issues with regard to recycling - that of plastics and plastic coated cardboard. The future consequences are interesting - The Swedish 125mm gun is a Bofors product made with a fair bit of British input and is quite the performer. The flipside of accepting 'cooperation' here was to get a quid pro quo for orders of the Ikv 105, which will have a limited role in mechanised infantry battalions - The Rhodesian victory is a tactical one, but does signal a shift to the next phase of the Bush War. More change to come - PNEs will see a fair bit further use as the decade proceeds, in the East and the West - The potential Vulcan replacement is a very ambitious and complex aircraft and will encounter some issues; the return of the Britannia, or a version thereof, represents one manifestation of the same issue, whereby replacing aircraft with the speed accustomed to starts to shift - Omega Group (the GRU counterpart to the KGB's Alpha Group) is a different development who will see some foreign use. The Soviets are seemingly not immune to domestic terrorism - Crop yields are growing markedly above the @ averages for this point towards some record figures; the postulated equivalents of 13.45 tons/hectare (200+ bushels/acre) is pushing up towards the @ world records set in the last 10 years by a Lincolnshire farmer who got 17.96t/h for wheat and 16.2t/h for barley. By the end of the 1980s, those type of figures will not be outliers, but fairly common yield equivalents not just on English and Irish farms, nor just in France, Hungary and Germany, but in the world breadbaskets of the US Midwest, Argentina, Canada, the Punjab and Australia. The consequences of this are fairly wide reaching - A move towards reconciliation between the Oriental Orthodox/Miaphysite and Orthodox Churches creeps closer, with the Nestorians observing its progress with interest - The LRMD of the UK Plan is progressing well, with the deployed ABM force providing a substantial defence against the Soviet IRBM/MRBM threat and SLBMs to boot; the Violet Friends and laser defences are two of the four measures to counter missiles that are even longer range/faster, meaning those in the ICBM/LRBM class - America starts to roll out of recession (as a point of interest, the BEA's computer, Alfie, is named after the computer in Barbarella ) whilst Britain remains in a bit more of a rougher patch, for the moment. The effective suspension of immigration to relieve labour market pressure is a step that is different from @ policies and might continue for a little, leading to some observations on other such moves - Here, the OAS being an arm of the French state and secret service is one of the little ironic crossovers of DE and @ - There is a lot more Irish Sea oil, on a par with a significant fraction of the @ North Sea and there is thought that there might be a very big field out near Rockall - The Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal, hydroelectricity and development project is something that will bind Jordan and Israel closely together - Brazil goes American for the Imperial Army and British for the Imperial Air Force and air defence units of the Army, with the Chieftains being the anomaly coming from clashes of opinion between two powerful aristocratic generals. The size and nature of the order is definitely something that has cost a lot of investment and creative promotion - Princess Anne has a different match here
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