Russian aggression

[cc3]

Basic universal Russian male boorishness responsible for Putin's geopolitical aggressions?

http://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/russian-aggression

[Boethius]

I am not certain I buy the idea that Russians are any more boorish than Americans.

[Slumba]

I am not certain I buy the idea that Russians are any more boorish than Americans.

But not Canadians, right?

[Boethius]

As a generality, Canadians are more polite than are Americans.  It is one of the things my better half noted when he first travelled to the U.S.  He was sort of shocked at how aggressive even pedestrians were in L.A.    The only place he's been which he claims is politer is Hawaii.

[jone]

STFU.  We're more civilized/polite than those fricking Canucks any day of the week in LA. 

[Brasscasing]

Brass

[cc3]

As a generality, Canadians are more polite than are Americans.  It is one of the things my better half noted when he first travelled to the U.S.  He was sort of shocked at how aggressive even pedestrians were in L.A.    The only place he's been which he claims is politer is Hawaii.

Not too many Americans left in LA...

[Anotherkiwi]

Not too many Americans left in LA...

Central and South America are still America...

[Brasscasing]

Pffft...We can classify this along side the poster depicting the laser shooting giant robot...

Russia Says Leak of Secret Nuclear Weapon Design Was an Accident

..."MOSCOW — The Kremlin’s chief spokesman has confirmed that a report broadcast on Russian television this week revealed the design of a secret nuclear weapon delivery system: a drone submarine that could attack coastlines.

Russian officials said the revelation of the submarine, which has not yet been produced, was accidental. But it came to light in the Russian news media in a way that suggested that the Kremlin wanted the West to know."...

..."At one point, the camera zoomed in on something one of the military officers was reading: a binder opened to a page showing the weapon design.

“Maritime Multifunctional System Status-6,” a headline said, in block Cyrillic letters, above an illustration showing the submarine and a text in easily decipherable large letters explaining the weapon’s effects."...

..."The submarine would “defeat important economic objects of an enemy in coastal zones, bringing guaranteed and unacceptable losses on the country’s territory by forming a wide area of radioactive contamination incompatible with conducting military, economic or any other activities there for a long period of time,” it said."...

..."RBK, a Russian newspaper, cited an unidentified weapons expert as saying that Soviet designers first conceived of the pilotless submarine in the 1960s as a vehicle for transporting a large nuclear device into shallow coastal waters to create a radioactive tsunami.

The submarine, the newspaper said, had been called “Sakharov’s Torpedo” after the Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov, but had never been built."...

..."At the height of the crisis in Ukraine last year, a Kremlin-linked commentator, Dmitri Kiselyov, spoke of Russia’s ability to reduce the United States to “nuclear ash.” Later, a Russian ambassador to Denmark warned the country faced nuclear destruction for having backed the United States’ missile defense plans."...

Full story here...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/world/europe/russia-says-leak-of-secret-nuclear-weapon-design-was-an-accident.html?_r=0

Brass

[cc3]

Central and South America are still America...

Citizens of no country in Latin America are primarily considered, nor, would they want to be, "Americans" rather than "------ans" (Brazilians, Hondurans, Chileans, Mexicans, etc.) based on the names of their respective nations. "Central' and "South America" denote continental landmasses, not national origination names. One nation in the Western Hemisphere has "America" as part of its official name: the United States of America.

[cc3]

...and, DEFINITELY, don't call a Canadian, an "American"!

[Anotherkiwi]

Citizens of no country in Latin America are primarily considered, nor, would they want to be, "Americans" rather than "------ans" (Brazilians, Hondurans, Chileans, Mexicans, etc.) based on the names of their respective nations. "Central' and "South America" denote continental landmasses, not national origination names. One nation in the Western Hemisphere has "America" as part of its official name: the United States of America.

While I understand what you're getting at, you've missed my point.  When I see comments like this, I'm always reminded of the story I read about the Argentinian diplomat at a conference where some callow attaché from the USA was pontificating about how "America" would do this and that to make right whatever the conference was about.  In no uncertain terms, he told this youngster that the United States might be an important country, but it was only part of "America," and that resolving whatever issue this was about would take work from all of America.

[Anotherkiwi]

...and, DEFINITELY, don't call a Canadian, an "American"!

North American? 

[Gator]

Central and South America are still America...

The continent, yes.  Culturally, there is Latin America.  Politically there is Canada, United States, Mexico, etc. 

Question:  is NZ considered part of the Australian Continent or the Pacific Islands?  Tas?

[Anotherkiwi]

The continent, yes.  Culturally, there is Latin America.  Politically there is Canada, United States, Mexico, etc. 

Question:  is NZ considered part of the Australian Continent or the Pacific Islands?  Tas?

The Americas are connected by land - New Zealand and Australia are not.  You can travel by land all the way from the north of Canada to the south of Chile - you would need James Bond's wonderful aquatic car if you wished to drive from Sydney to Auckland.  Even with a decent tailwind it's still a three hour flight.

Tasmania is far closer to Australia than Hawaii is to the continental United States, so it's not surprising that it is considered part of Australia geographically, as well as politically.  Culturally, of course, New Zealand and Australia have similar backgrounds (apart from the early convicts), although the two countries are now diverging more and more as the immigrant populations are slightly different.

New Zealand is not normally regarded as part of the Pacific Islands (in this part of the world, anyway).  Most people define those as starting with Fiji as the southernmost, along with Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu and so on.  Think dusky maidens and palm trees.    New Zealand does have them, but not on coral-fringed lagoons!

[cc3]

In that its indigenous population, the Maoris, are Polynesians, many consider New Zealand to be closely linked to the South Pacific islands, regardless of how different its flora and non-human fauna. As a previous Hawaiian resident, we always considered NZ to be the southwestern extension of the 'South Pacific' island grouping. Hawaii is closely related to Tahiti, but it is in the North Pacific and as far from the Societies as NZ.

Wikipedia's view:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands#/media/File:Pacific_Culture_Areas.jpg

[Anotherkiwi]

In that its indigenous population, the Maoris, are Polynesians, many consider New Zealand to be closely linked to the South Pacific islands, regardless of how different its flora and non-human fauna. As a previous Hawaiian resident, we always considered NZ to be the southwestern extension of the 'South Pacific' island grouping. Hawaii is closely related to Tahiti, but it is in the North Pacific and as far from the Societies as NZ.

Wikipedia's view:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands#/media/File:Pacific_Culture_Areas.jpg

The Maori are NOT indigenous to New Zealand - they migrated here in several waves from around 750 A.D. Legend has it that the original voyages of Kupe and Toi were eventually followed by the great canoes around 1000 or 1100.  The general view of their original homeland (the fabled Hawaiki) is that it is somewhere in the Pacific Islands.  However, more recent research indicates that the true origin may well be somewhere in Asia - China, or even India.  If so, and if true, these voyages (without any sort of navigation instruments) leave the circumnavigations of Magellan and Cook in the shade.

As for the view that New Zealand could be considered the "southwestern extension" of the Pacific Islands - most people here would beg to differ, simply because we don't consider that to be the case at all.  When people talk about visiting "the islands" they don't mean going from the North Island to the South - the nearest of what we consider the "true" Pacific Islands (Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Rarotonga) are each a three hour flight away.  Once there, you can island-hop to the other nations far more quickly.

[cc3]

Well, you may be right. I guess that's why my former employer, Continental Airlines, stopped flying from HNL to AKL, seemingly eons ago.

[cc3]

However, Wikipedia thinks Maoris are indigenous:

"The Māori (Māori pronunciation: [ˈmaːɔɾi], About this sound listen; Eng. pron. [ˈmaʊri]; N.Z. Eng. [ˈmaori], [ˈmæuri], [ˈmari], [ˈmɒəri])[6] are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand."
 
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ori_people

[Gator]

The Americas are connected by land - New Zealand and Australia are not......  Even with a decent tailwind it's still a three hour flight.

I infer you are saying New Zealand is a country without a continent.  Or you do not wish to admit the "connection" with the nation of Australia? 

New Zealand is not normally regarded as part of the Pacific Islands (in this part of the world, anyway).  Most people define those as starting with Fiji as the southernmost, along with Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Vanuatu and so on.  Think dusky maidens and palm trees. 

Yes indeed.  I have always enjoyed Paul Gauguin's art.   The sensual colors and high breasts still speak to me.   

[Gator]

The Maori are NOT indigenous to New Zealand - they migrated here in several waves from around 750 A.D.

That seems so long ago as to be considered indigenous, certainly many centuries before the white skinned round eyes arrived.    No offence intended, this sounds like the same rationale  the whites used in South Africa to claim those lands as theirs. 

Before you say it, I admit the US policy was to kill by disease or war its indigenous people and confine the remainder to small enclaves.   

By the way, who are the indigenous people of NZ?  I have not read of any accounts of a human species evolving in NZ, so someone had to migrate from somewhere.   You are called Kiwis, so maybe the Kiwi are the indigenous people of NZ. 

[fathertime]

The Americas are connected by land - New Zealand and Australia are not.  You can travel by land all the way from the north of Canada to the south of Chile - you would need James Bond's wonderful aquatic car if you wished to drive from Sydney to Auckland.   

I get your point, but there is a small gap in Panama, called the Darien Gap....hence there are no roads that connect all the way through.   


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap


Fathertime! 

[Anotherkiwi]

I get your point, but there is a small gap in Panama, called the Darien Gap....hence there are no roads that connect all the way through.   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap

(Edited after seeing Sandro's later post)

I stand corrected as far as roads go, but what I actually wrote was:

You can travel by land all the way from the north of Canada to the south of Chile

It would obviously take a lot of effort through the Darien Gap, but I imagine that it would still be physically possible to complete the journey. 

[Anotherkiwi]

I infer you are saying New Zealand is a country without a continent.

Yes, in the same way that other island nations exist (in each of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans).  New Zealand is the largest discrete island nation - others, such as Ireland (via Great Britain), Papua New Guinea-West Irian, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Japan, The Philippines (via Indonesia) and Iceland (via Greenland) are close enough to the actual continents to be considered extensions of them.  Of course, all parts of the world are connected underwater! 

Or you do not wish to admit the "connection" with the nation of Australia? 

Can I plead the Fifth on that one? 

[SANDRO43]

but there is a small gap in Panama, called the Darien Gap....hence there are no roads that connect all the way through.

The absence of roads does not imply a separation between the two land masses concerned. Read the beginning of your quote more carefully :

The Darién Gap (Spanish: Región del Darién or Tapón del Darién) is a break in the Pan-American Highway consisting of a large swathe of undeveloped swampland and forest within Panama's Darién Province in Central America and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department in South America.