I would imagine you are spot on. I cant imagine another country training as much as we do. Also - In a real fight, i’d imagine other assets would come into play which would change the balance even more towards the U.S., including picket ships, AWACS, satellites, etc.

As one who participated in many combat exercises with our Asian allies, I can say that the press realeases of ‘who won what’ or ’ kill ratios’ or ‘who was better’ will never be released. Asian nations do not want to be embarrassed and our Generals are kind sorts when the State Department is monitoring the exercises.

What I wonder is, if there was another mass extinction event (like the great freeze), would the ape-like hominid rise up randomly again? Or would something completely different evolve? Is the path so totally random that upright bipedal mammals may never be seen again on Earth? Or even mammals?

One of the best patches anywhere.

By making the suspension essentially rigid and incompressible for transport they don’t have to worry as much about blowing out the suspension dampers when they strap the car down hard to the train and or truck that will take the car to it’s delivery date at the dealer. If they just strapped the car down but did not…

Sitting here waiting.

I’m an adjunct at one of the most expensive universities in the country. I certainly make more than the adjuncts all over the metro area, but not enough to be above the poverty line. My students actually asked me to bring them pizza for finals week, and I had to admit that I couldn’t afford to buy one (to the children…

You’re sort of implying here that legacy kids are getting in because they have superior qualifications, resulting from the opportunities they’ve had in their lives. But the colleges don’t even pretend that— they are pretty open that being a legacy makes you more likely to get in, regardless of your actual…

Except that’s how her life has always been, and always will be. It doesn’t bother her because why would it? She’s gotten everything because of Dad.

Yeah, I love the books - although I will never love Tom Bombadil - but your phrase "never that fussed about pacing" is an excellent way to describe Tolkien's style.

Actually he was a people person, as shown in both his personal/professional life and letters, and in his prose. But he was writing a legendarium, not a stream-of-consciousness novel. When you start with the creation of the universe and finish four epochs later, you're going to zoom in sometimes and zoom out at other…

Agh, quit it, you're making me HEAR THOSE SONGS AGAIN.

Early on in the first book, it can be a little like that, yeah. Tolkien was never that fussed about pacing, so his books can be a little 'lumpy', and LoTR suffers from a slow start.

That's certainly true of the movies, but not at all of the books. The books are far, far more concerned with human emotion and suffering than the grandiose settings and battles. A lot of the time, Tolkien's descriptions of places are relatively sparse, except where necessary to demonstrate the superiority of advanced…

He just called the Eagles when he needed to fly.

Here the Company approaches Smaug's cave. I think Tolkein would approve. The tiny figures admist the looming forces of mountain, water, and fire seem very Scandinavian, no?