Mein Kampf

[BlasterBates]

[The Lone Gunman]

you're bad and must be punished (oh god here goes another thread onto light relief!)

Best offer I have had in ages. What will be your pleasure madam?

[janey]

Best offer I have had in ages. What will be your pleasure madam?

if we go down this route this thread will be banished to light relief and will come into competition with your beloved once again!

[bogeyman]

if we go down this route this thread will be banished to light relief and will come into competition with your beloved once again!

Well, so much for serious conversations then.

[janey]

Well, so much for serious conversations then.

true...

back to books....

perfumer by patrick suskind is extremely good and I'm currently reading Mao's Last Dancer if you want to stick with the autobiographical stuff

[DaveB]

Maybe the Apollo missions were enormously expensive gambles, but I can't help feeling that our parents and grandparents generations had so much more of a 'can do' attitude to everything.

They had ability, organisational skills and sheer balls to tackle the most outrageous feats - like putting a man on the moon and getting him back alive.

These days, you can chuck all the money you want at a project (in whatever arena) and nothing happens - or its a disaster. Our generation just sits around in meetings covering our arseholes.

I don't think we'll be going back to the moon anytime soon - let alone mars.

I think the main problem with stuff like this now is the huge aversion to risk that large organisations have these days. The Apollo missions, in fact all the manned space missions, were hugely risky. Not just in terms of money but human life as well. Now there seems to be no appetite to take these kind of risks, whatever the rewards may be.

[The Lone Gunman]

if we go down this route this thread will be banished to light relief and will come into competition with your beloved once again!

What a dilemma! The most promising discusion with a girly on this board in ages yet continuing it will banish this thread and set up more competition for the "test please delete" thread which your "going direct" is already in competition with and is shaping up to be a very amusing distraction.
Not only that I have far too much work to do!! AAAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggh

[bogeyman]

I think the main problem with stuff like this now is the huge aversion to risk that large organisations have these days. The Apollo missions, in fact all the manned space missions, were hugely risky. Not just in terms of money but human life as well. Now there seems to be no appetite to take these kind of risks, whatever the rewards may be.

Yes I totally agree with your summation.

People are becoming more and more risk-averse to the point that innovation, adventure and discovery are becoming foreign concepts.

These are the very ideas that propelled the human race to where it is.

Now all we want to do is sit around and live a slob lifestyle supported by junk media and 24x7 entertainment.

Going back to the original point of this thread, Hitler wouldn't have stood a chance in motivating the present German populace to get off their backsides - so maybe it's a good thing - doesn't feel like it though.

[The Lone Gunman]

Going back to the original point of this thread, Hitler wouldn't have stood a chance in motivating the present German populace to get off their backsides - so maybe it's a good thing - doesn't feel like it though.

Yes but that is partly due to the fact that they are not rebuilding a starving nation. Hitlers Germans had real reason to be well motivated.

It has always been my belief that had Hitler not been barking he could have united Europe before the end of the war had he chosen a peaceful route.

[janey]

What a dilemma! The most promising discusion with a girly on this board in ages yet continuing it will banish this thread and set up more competition for the "test please delete" thread which your "going direct" is already in competition with and is shaping up to be a very amusing distraction.
Not only that I have far too much work to do!! AAAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggh

oh b*gger, work! I knew there was somethign I should have been doing today

nice to know I'm promising tho