@ James Monnett

re “An autonomous region which had previously been part of Georgia prior to the Russian take over several hundred years ago”

Really. This would have been Czarist russia, not the USSR; and if you’re going to talk of that kind of timescale then perhaps we ought to discuss the genocide perpetuated by the US on the indigenous population....

for the records @ James Monnett

in reply to:

"@ AC's again (if one has the courage of their convictions why be anon?) "

nowday one never knows what it takes to land in a no-fly list and its interesting catch that one you land there you cannot be taken off

in reply to:

""Stop right there, you are commenting something that you do not know, Assuming what someone else knows, or doesn't know is rather foolish. "

I do not assume, I read what you write and compare with the facts

in reply to:

"Historically speaking Ossetia was a part of Georgia prior to the Russian take over. They got along before the Russians as well as any two ethnic groups sharing the same country did in the middle ages, and would likely get along "

stop, are you talking about Georgia? the one under Arab rule (sec VII) and the invaded by Mongols in sec XIV and later ruled by Turks sec. XVII-VIII?

for that reason the "Georgian" asked to be under the protection of the Russian Empire? Please check a history handbook that reports only date and what happened by yourself.

"now without Russian immigrants, and Russian politics fanning every little flame. Yes they had their own identity, but they were part of Georgia none the"

Stop again, are you talking of Russian? or are you mixing Ossetes (Iranian descent, claim also being the descendor of the Alans), currently ostly muslim by the way, with Russian ??

in reply to

"Now those same regional governments are National Goverments in their own right fully and those nations more established should, barring truly horrific problems let them have the time it takes to work through things."

in fact Ossetes (valid also for Abhkazia) started to fight from day one to be free form the Georgian, I think we have a clear point here.

Let me make a simple question:

do you believe that X has the right to self-determination?

Answer for X=Ossetes and X=Kosovars

NASA = Joke

First, I am a US citizen. Born and raised. Raised in the 70s and 80s on past glories of moon landings and shuttle launches.

Is the shuttle out dated? Absolutely.

Does it make sense to take a HUGE ASS leap backwards and use fire and forget rockets and capsules to recover? Hell no.

Scaled Composites has it in the bag. While NASA takes a GIANT step backwards for man kind, SC is taking steps towards a truely economical and intelligent space craft launch and recovery system. I don't know the exact nubmers, but a very large percentage of the fuel in that big ass tank under the shuttle is used just to get its sorry ass off the ground. So, you spend tons of fuel to get it moving, then once it is up to speed, you ditch the gigantic torches. Same thing with the current idea for the moon rocket.

Now here you have SC re-visiting an idea that worked during the early years of supersonic flight testing: use something else to get it up to speed, then launch from a high altitude. What a novel concept!

Can't wait for SC to show NASA (and the rest of the world) how it's done and put their own lander on the moon in time - and for a profit too!

Mine is the one with the moon dust on it...