Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Laxie]

If I recall correctly, Oklahoma City is not in Oklahoma - is that right?

oklahoma city is in oklahoma. kansas city is in missouri

Whoops. But you can see my thought train. Kansas City is not in Kansas, right?

Correct.

[dousche]

as for you old folk... creation of the state of israel?

Best not get that one started again  

sorry, i tried my best to read a way back in the thread.... obviously not far enough

[gatso]

as for you old folk... creation of the state of israel?

Best not get that one started again  

sorry, i tried my best to read a way back in the thread.... obviously not far enough

I believe that last time we discussed that one 3 people were killed in the resultant war

[dousche]

as for you old folk... creation of the state of israel?

Best not get that one started again  

sorry, i tried my best to read a way back in the thread.... obviously not far enough

I believe that last time we discussed that one 3 people were killed in the resultant war

thereby supporting the case for inclusion in the top ten??

[tikay]

Around school leaving age for me (late 80's), which is a great time in anyones life, there was a series of disasters sort of annually which I still recall pretty vividly.  It was also around the time the European map seemed to change over night.  There was a succession of huge political events which meant nothing to me at the time, but far more so now in retrospect, interlaced with far less significant domestic but more personal disasters which I can recall vividly.

The Herald of Free Enterprise going down in 1987 was awful -  more appalling to me at the time than something like Tiananmen Square two years later in 1989 because it was so much easier to imagine being involved in it - as was Hillsbrough -  whereas the struggles of those Chinese students couldn't have been further away from my life in the Cotswalds geographically or metaphorically.  

The Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 was another event that sticks in my mind.  Finally from that era, something which was relevant to me at the time because it involved football not because of it's wider significance, was the riot in Zagreb when Red Star Belgrade played Dynamo Zagreb - the one where Zvanomir Boban sort of kung-fu kicked a Serbian riot cop because he'd realised the police were only attacking the Croatian fans.  Considered the catalyst for the Yugoslav civil war.   Again - retrospectively I think that was a huge moment in European history and an incredibly brave thing to have done, I think at the time though I just thought it was cool that a player would kick a policeman.

Piper Alpha! Great shout.

There was a Radio 4 Documentary on that recently - ugh. A beautifully made Docu, too, not dumbed-down ITV-stylee.

Guys, stranded on a Heli-Deck, atop a burning oil rig, jumped into the sea, far, far, below, to escape the inferno. The Piper Alpha was as tall as a 6 or 7 Storey Building I think. Imagine that jump.......

The whole Piper Alpha tragedy revolved around a simple maintenance error, which caused a massive build up of pressure in an oil pipeline, & was compounded by an almost farcical communications failure, as stupifyingly wrong as the East Mids Airport/M1 BMI 'plane crash comms error, in which the pilot shut down the wrong engine. (Another one missed!).

[Laxie]

Not sure if top 10 is even close to enough.  At the rate we're going you'd want to consider a top 50 at the very least.  We're no spring chickens ya know.

[tikay]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

[tikay]

as for you old folk... creation of the state of israel?

Best not get that one started again  

Err, one concurs!

[dousche]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

thats cos of the aliens.

wasnt there somewhere else in the pacific (bikini atoll???) that the usa nuked to bits, still not safe for human visit decades later

[tikay]

I seem to remember that after the storming of the Iranian Embassy siege an ex-SAS top brass complained bitterly to the Beeb about the interruption to the coverage of his beloved snooker.

At the time I would have agreed with him. We only had Pot Black, the UK from Preston, World from Sheffield and the team thingy from the Hexagon, and it was fantastic. All on the Beeb in the days when the Beeb was the proper channel for sport.

Then ITV decided they needed to get in on snooker so we had minor tournaments from other places on and it all got too saturated so became boring. I really can't watch it these days.

There was a collective & almighty nationwide sigh when they cut away from the snooker, but blimey, what great viewing the storming was.

As for snooker, yeah, sadly, ITV, & Snooker's so-called ruling body, led by Rex Williams & his cohorts, destroyed snooker as a tv spectacle.

[Claw75]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

would put money on me not being the only one who tried to view Area 51 when Google Earth was born. It's a big blacked out rectangle (or was)

[tikay]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

thats cos of the aliens.

wasnt there somewhere else in the pacific (bikini atoll???) that the usa nuked to bits, still not safe for human visit decades later

The USA has nuked lots of places to bits, sadly.

[tikay]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

would put money on me not being the only one who tried to view Area 51 when Google Earth was born. It's a big blacked out rectangle (or was)

Surely not? Blacked out?! Wow. The Americans really are sick, sick, peeps.

[WarBwastard]

Was just reading up on the "Fat Man" Bomb, I didn't realise that America has "Lost" 60 nuclear weapons? I know they are a bit backward when it comes to war (friendly fire etc) but lost nuclear bombs?

They tested a lot of those "Fat Man's" in the Neveda Desert - "Area 51" - quite close to Las Vegas. The area remains off limits.

would put money on me not being the only one who tried to view Area 51 when Google Earth was born. It's a big blacked out rectangle (or was)

Surely not? Blacked out?! Wow. The Americans really are sick, sick, peeps.

Dick Cheney had his house (the vice-presidents home) pixellated on Google Maps but the White House and Capitol building have always been clearly visible.  Very odd man.

[tikay]

Bed beckons. I shall try & pull a list of all candidates together tomorrow. Be about 50 items by the look of things.

Dawn might remember this, but Patty Hearst was a terrific tale, with a great, great, twist in the end. I loved that one.

And the geezer who faked all the art paintings - can't recall his name?

And the "Hitler Diaries", where the Sunday Times got well & truly grimmed.

Proper stories, none of this Katie & Andre nonsense.