Anyone else up watching things unfold?

The Older Gentleman muttered

Des is being far too literal, as usual.

OED - superpower: noun any of the few most powerful and influential
nations of the world. (note, no mention of nukes....)

Britain had not only the capacity in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries to wage simultaneous naval wars against its two greatest
rivals, France and Germany, but could have fought the combined navies
of the United States, Germany, and Russia.

By any measure, Britain was a superpower.

 

It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black.

 

For which the only justification I've seen is 'superpower means
nuclear weapons, they weren't invented yet'. (which I hear in an
incredibly whiny tone)

Once again you miss the opportunity for wider debate by focusing on a
single phrase and shaking it like a jack russell. In fact that is
increasingly how I picture you, small, over excitable and doesn't know
when to stop. Someone fetch me a shock collar.

I've not found that. But that may be because I don't have a personal
axe to grind.

The only immature sniping I've seen today is from you. Considering the
fora that's quite an achievement.

No, not understanding the significance of the 11/11/11 - you have
googled now I take it? You do know why that particular combination is
relevant?

Des, I'm one of the few people here prepared to give you a chance, do
yourself a favour and stop digging eh? I'm starting to piss off people
who matter to me because they think I'm wasting my time and being too
soft hearted, prepared to see the good in everyone.

I've never met Tog, I've never met you, I've heard people slag you
both down, I prefer to make my own judgements.

 

Get someone to take dictation then, I'd like to listen in to that one.

 

"Are you hoping that by posting it as many times as possible, it'll
appear
slightly less ludicrous ? "

You've made a number of points about the use of the term "superpower":
that it means a nuclear power - which the OED refutes, and that it
means the ability to wage war unaided, which the UK certainly was able
to do at the apogee.

Now you also suggest that the term is modern and therefore somehow it
cannot be applied retrospectively (which I would suggest is wrong
anyway). But the term was first used in 1922, at which point, although
not at the height of its powers, the UK was still the most powerful
nation on earth.

Give it up Des. You've backing the wrong horse.

 

<fondles mp3 player/voice recorder>

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

Doesn't alter the fact that the BE was the superpower of the day. Note
the word 'especially' there, lending weight to the notion that
superpowers existed before nukes.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

It's the easiest date ot enter in test data, so has probably been left
embedded into all sorts of control systems that will go wrong,
destroying the world at 11 minutes past 11 GMT.

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

A diplomat of my aquaintance made sure his children went to university in
the US because "I want them to have plenty of friends on the other side when
the USA and Europe go to war".

 

You know about the secret IBM plot don't you? BTW we're having
fireworks, sparklers (ooo pretty) then watching Wayne's World (it's
Thursday, it's retro night) tonight if you want to come round. Make
sure you bring something to burn if you do, I've run out of firewood
and I want a bonfire.

 

Bwaahaahaaha. What an apposite image.

 

tallbloke wrote:

Well, yes, the US was one of only two colonies to declare UDI and get
away with it.

But look at your choice of date - I deliberately chose 1805 and 1815 as
the pivotal dates that set the seal on British power. In 1776 we were
nowhere near as powerful, and certainly nothing like where we were 100
years ago, which is the main period of time I've chosen to illustrate
our superpower status.

 

Lady Nina wrote:

Me? ME??? Infamy! Name them! Now!
(and let's see how many binary filters the posting trips)

 

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged. It is the skin of a
living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the
circumstances and the time in which it is used.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

"Imfamy, infamy, they've all got it in-fer-me."

 

TOG@toil, , <>
wrote in

Which was the other?

Granted. My point was that world superpowers go, Britain was the dominant
global trader, but was never in a position to go back and subjugate
America after 1776.

 

<waves>

Your arguments rather than your good self of course.

 

<TOG@toil>; <>; <>
wrote in message

Well there's the British Bike Industry for a start.

 

I'm *sure* that should be ignoramii

SKA#'s at the ready.

 

Rhodesia