On 02/04/2022 15:30, ChrisND@privacy.net wrote:
> On 02/04/2022 03:54, Don Stockbauer wrote:
>> On Friday, April 1, 2022 at 5:53:23 PM UTC-5, RustyHinge wrote:
>>> On 01/04/2022 20:37, RustyHinge wrote:
>>>> On 01/04/2022 20:05, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>>>> On 31-Mar-22 20:50, Nicholas D. Richards wrote:
>>>>>> In article <t24f7o$t4s$1...@dont-email.me>, RustyHinge
>>>>>> <rusty.hinge@foobar.
>>>>>
>>>>>>> And because some of them used grown-up air-rifles which were quieter
>>>>>>> than those hfvat gnupowder, as well as not leaving tell-tale
>>>>>>> cloud of
>>>>>>> smoke to betray the sniper's position, he announce that anyone
>>>>>>> caught
>>>>>>> with such a weapon would be executed.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Who he? Wellington? When?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Made me think of the PIAT spigot anti-tank mortar. While it had its
>>>>>> disadvantages, it was pretty quiet, left no tell tale smoke trail
>>>>>> back
>>>>>> to the shooter and could be fired from an enclosed space under cover.
>>>>>> Try that with a bazooka or Panzerfaust.
>>>>>
>>>>> In George MacDonald Fraser's wartime memoir 'Quartered Safe Out Here'
>>>>> he has a long description of firing one of them at a boatload of
>>>>> Japanese soldiers.  Since the thing is powered by a girt big spring,
>>>>> the 'cocking' procedure involves a great deal of physical strongth -
>>>>> and the range & accuracy are nothing to write home about.
>>>>
>>>> These had a reservoir which was pumped-up to a high pressure and could
>>>> have a longer range and did have much greater accuracy than military
>>>> muskets.
>>>>
>>>> IIRC they fired a ball of about ·36" - the same as a Navy Colt. These
>>>> were usually cast (alloy of lead and a hardening metal such as tin or
>>>> zinc) in a long gang-mould, and the balls were cut off <eeeeewww!> the
>>>> sprue with a rounded pair of snips rather like nail clippers.
>>> aDnm! I gooved I was answering an allegation in another psot which
>>> impugned the air gnu's effectiveness.
>>> --
>>> Rusty Hinge
>>> To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the
>>> BOFH.
>>
>> What do you call someone that makes allegations?
>
>  An allegator - obvs!
> HTH

Owsabout 'an accuser'?

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

On 02-Apr-22 3:54, Don Stockbauer wrote:

> What do you call someone that makes allegations?

A cai man?

--
Sam Plusnet

On 02-Apr-22 15:45, Bernard Peek wrote:
> Another Russian revolution that results in them joining the EU is probably
> the best that we in Europe could hope for. What the US would think of that
> is another exercise for the reader.

Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support
for his "Special Military Operation"?

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet said:
> On 02-Apr-22 3:54, Don Stockbauer wrote:
>
>> What do you call someone that makes allegations?
>
> A cai man?

I thought that was some islands ?

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

In article <875ynwov9m.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere>, Mike Spencer
<mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> on Wed, 30 Mar 2022 at 02:37:57 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>
>Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> writes:
>
>> Yep it certainly used to be the case that if you wanted people to
>> charge into battle for you then you had to be in front and when you went
>> down they went home. There seems to be a lot to be said for it, but I note
>> that in those days they *did* go out in front quite a lot so it's probably
>> not the deterrent I'd like to hope it was.
>
>Henry V was the last one to do that was he not?

<Cough> Richard III appears to have been killed leading a charge,
against the host of the future Henry VII.

George II was nominally in charge at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
Others were making the decisions although he was technically on the
field of battle.

Wellington escaped harm at Waterloo, his second-in-command led a number
of cavalry charges and in the closing stages of the battle was hit
losing his leg.

It would appear that both George VI and PM Churchill had to be dissuaded
from being present off the coast of Normandy during D-Day. If the
Germans had reached London I have no doubt that Churchill would have
gone down with a machine gun in his hands. George VI would have not been
allowed to risk the same fate
>
>And BTW, didn't he get a binding agreement that would make HM queen
>of France?
>
>

--
0sterc@tcher -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

Sam Plusnet wrote:

> Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support for his
> "Special Military Operation"?

I don't xabj about the percentages, but from what I see, yes he's winning the
special propaganda operation at home.

On 02-Apr-22 20:47, Richard Robinson wrote:
> Sam Plusnet said:
>> On 02-Apr-22 3:54, Don Stockbauer wrote:
>>
>>> What do you call someone that makes allegations?
>>
>> A cai man?
>
> I thought that was some islands ?

No Dracaena guianensis is an island (to parrotphrase John Donne)

--
Sam Plusnet

On 03-Apr-22 7:56, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
> Sam Plusnet wrote:
>
>> Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support
>> for his "Special Military Operation"?
>
> I don't xabj about the percentages, but from what I see, yes he's
> winning the special propaganda operation at home.

Controlling all the media - and jailing anyone who dare deviate from the
official line into the slammer - does tend to have that kind of effect.

--
Sam Plusnet

On Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 2:18:34 PM UTC-5, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> On 03-Apr-22 7:56, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
> > Sam Plusnet wrote:
> >
> >> Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support
> >> for his "Special Military Operation"?
> >
> > I don't xabj about the percentages, but from what I see, yes he's
> > winning the special propaganda operation at home.
> Controlling all the media - and jailing anyone who dare deviate from the
> official line into the slammer - does tend to have that kind of effect.
>
> --
> Sam Plusnet

What do you call someone that makes allegations?

A lot of people will say alligators, silly twits that they are.
I had to look it up , imagine my surprise when the answer is alleger, forming a polysemy with "a ledger",
I would suppose

On 2022-04-03, Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
> On 03-Apr-22 7:56, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>> Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>
>>> Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support
>>> for his "Special Military Operation"?
>>
>> I don't xabj about the percentages, but from what I see, yes he's
>> winning the special propaganda operation at home.
>
> Controlling all the media - and jailing anyone who dare deviate from the
> official line into the slammer - does tend to have that kind of effect.
>
It's a promble. I have Russian friends too. Ukraine should get a trillion
dollars in reparations but the Russian public is not really responsible.

--
Bernard Peek
bap@shrdlu.com

Sam Plusnet said:
> On 02-Apr-22 20:47, Richard Robinson wrote:
>> Sam Plusnet said:
>>> On 02-Apr-22 3:54, Don Stockbauer wrote:
>>>
>>>> What do you call someone that makes allegations?
>>>
>>> A cai man?
>>
>> I thought that was some islands ?
>
> No Dracaena guianensis is an island (to parrotphrase John Donne)

"He's a peninsula" - Jefferson Airplane

Boodly hell, I waited a long time to use that one.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On 4 Apr 2022 09:08:48 GMT
Bernard Peek <bap@shrdlu.com> wrote:

> It's a promble. I have Russian friends too. Ukraine should get a trillion
> dollars in reparations but the Russian public is not really responsible.

Quite so, blaming the people for the actions of their leaders is
one way to create and perpetuate hatred. One thing I always find jarring is
the attitude towards Germans exemplified in Tom Lehrer's "MLF" - singing it
today would probably get you arrested for hate speech. I'm really glad we
got past that, although even as late as 1974 while preparing for a youth
group trip to Germany I was filled with advice about not mentioning the war.

All of which was immensely unhelpful when I found myself being
enthusiastically shown a carefully painted and displayed collection of
Airfix models of *British* WWII planes by my German host who expected me to
know something about the planes as he nattered on about the differences
between the variants he'd lovingly recreated. He was easily old enough to
have fought in the war - I did *not* ask.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 13:19:21 +0100, Ahem A Rivet's Shot
<steveo@eircom.net> wrote:

>On 4 Apr 2022 09:08:48 GMT
>Bernard Peek <bap@shrdlu.com> wrote:
>
>> It's a promble. I have Russian friends too. Ukraine should get a trillion
>> dollars in reparations but the Russian public is not really responsible.
>
> Quite so, blaming the people for the actions of their leaders is
>one way to create and perpetuate hatred. One thing I always find jarring is
>the attitude towards Germans exemplified in Tom Lehrer's "MLF" - singing it
>today would probably get you arrested for hate speech. I'm really glad we
>got past that, although even as late as 1974 while preparing for a youth
>group trip to Germany I was filled with advice about not mentioning the war.
>
> All of which was immensely unhelpful when I found myself being
>enthusiastically shown a carefully painted and displayed collection of
>Airfix models of *British* WWII planes by my German host who expected me to
>know something about the planes as he nattered on about the differences
>between the variants he'd lovingly recreated. He was easily old enough to
>have fought in the war - I did *not* ask.

I'll see your MLF and raise you my Noel Coward singing Don't Let's Be
Beastly To The Germans. It's always been my belief that the vast
majority of people, whatever their nationality, language, religious or
political affiliation, are kind and generous and only sometimes react
badly and usually then only when they feel personally threatened. This
of course does not go for some of their (our) leaders and their
cheerleaders and hangers-on.

It's a lesson I learned from childhood from a grandmother who
delightedly billeted her "lovely" Polish airmen during the war and
from my father who was in love with the German language and culture
before, during and after the second great unpleasantness. It's a
lesson I continued to learn when I was in Venezuela and Caracas was a
madhouse ruled by Chavez and his henchmen yet most of the citizens
were just doing their best to get by and the further away one got from
the capital, the more ordinary life became. It was a lesson I
continued to learn from friends who visited Syria and Iran: I
particularly remember the picture postcard from Tehran, the message
which was written, not for me but for the Revolutionary Guards they
knew would be reading it on its way out and when they returned I
particularly remember the joy and happiness with which they spoke
about the ordinary people they had met throughout the country and who
had welcomed them into their homes.

How did I get here? Oh yes, I remember now: the German host and his
Airfix kits. Let's skip back, past the delightful time I spent
teaching English to a charming Argentine Air Force pilot, some twenty
years after the Falklands, further back to the days when I used to
visit Germany regularly to exhibit at or write about music industry
exhibitions.

This time I was working for one of the exhibitors at the Frankfurt
Musikmesse and we had an appointment for a meeting with one of the
other exhibitors, a famous manufacturer of musical instrument parts
and accessories whose company was named after it's founder. The now
elderly founder had long ago handed over day-to-day running of the
business to his now middle-aged children but he still liked to be a
part of the affair.

It was about 11 in the morning when we approached their stand and we
were greeted personally by the company founder himself with the
immortal words, "And who, please, are you?" While we were telling him
who we were it became obvious that the sun must have been over his
particular yard arm since at least seven that morning and he had the
open schnapps bottle to prove it.

"Ah!" he said, standing between us and giving us each an immense hug
around our shoulders. "From England, you say?"

Then he turned in front of us and wagged his finger in our faces. "If
we had been meeting a few years ago then I would have had to shoot you
both! But today.....? Let's have a drink!"

Nick

Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:

> Quite so, blaming the people for the actions of their leaders is
> one way to create and perpetuate hatred.

Russian people in general, are not to blame. Other than Putin, some of their
military want large slabs of blame attaching to them, so it seems

Sam Plusnet wrote:

> Bernard Peek wrote:
>
>> Another Russian revolution that results in them joining the EU is probably
>> the best that we in Europe could hope for. What the US would think of that
>> is another exercise for the reader.
>
> Wasn't there a (very) recent poll which gave Putin around 75% support for his
> "Special Military Operation"?

The better informed Яussians on ubend do seem to know what's going on, give the
impression that it's turning against Putin more recently, they have to be
careful what they say if they have left the country and still have family back
home, but they realise they aren't getting any answers to why penc is going
down, I don't think as normal people they can see any way of doing anything
about it before March 2024, and really see their country will be down the tubes
by then.