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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

lunarchick - 07:48pm Mar 25, 2001 EST (#1501 of 1509)
lunarchick@www.com

Political systems of C20 could be made to be closed systems. Travel and individual knowledge were less widespread, together with a political ability to manipulate the media and via propaganda control minds. The classic theatrical battles were most often related to 'mind control'. Is an individual free to think, or only free to think within the manipulated contrains of a national environment? (C21 the internet can act as a stabalising factor towards an internationally truer equilibrum.)

lunarchick - 07:51pm Mar 25, 2001 EST (#1502 of 1509)
lunarchick@www.com

If a communication model between 'negotiators' from the current agencies of Russia and the USA were devised, how complex would it be, and which aspects would create 'noise' that prevented proper understanding in negotiations ?

The communication model illustrated is often the input, (noise) receipt of message, giving feedback lessend by noise.

So how much NOISE is there in these communicative instances? And how can the Noise be cleaned up?

lunarchick - 07:52pm Mar 25, 2001 EST (#1503 of 1509)
lunarchick@www.com

Are there instances of 'models' for complex communication?

lunarchick - 11:11pm Mar 25, 2001 EST (#1504 of 1509)
lunarchick@www.com

On the lighter side, a Russian Team, for the second year in succession have won an international computer programming challenge. Demonstrating a high standard of achievement.

lunarchick - 11:39pm Mar 25, 2001 EST (#1505 of 1509)
lunarchick@www.com

A singing telegraph perhaps:

Fergie tells of trials of tea with the "Boss"

Last updated: 24 Mar 2001 22:14 GMT+00:00 (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) - The Duchess of York, the former wife of Prince Andrew, has told of the perils of taking her daughters to tea with their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the Duchess revealed the tough table manners demanded of her daughters Princess Beatrice, 12, and Princess Eugenie, 11, by the "Boss" -- as she calls the queen.

"If we go to tea at Windsor Castle we do it properly," the duchess said.

"We offer Granny the sandwiches first, before we take the whole lot on our plate. We don't take the raisins out of the scones halfway through a conversation -- or flick them across the table.

"We don't ask for ketchup when the Duke of Edinburgh is sitting there. We don't say: 'We don't eat pate sandwiches.' We just shut up and eat what we are given," she said.

But Fergie, as the flame-haired duchess is popularly known from her maiden name Ferguson, did pay tribute to her former mother-in-law.

"Her Majesty has a wonderful sense of humour," she said. "She loves to sing. She is the widest read woman in the world and yet she has this wonderful compassion and total and utter understanding.

"She doesn't poke her nose in," she added.

Divorced from Prince Andrew in 1996, the duchess still lives with her former husband at the prince's Sunninghill Park mansion near London.

She has been largely shunned by the royal family since her marriage broke down in 1992.

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