1:240 (approx) scale figures, accessories, etc?

Appropriate for a Bushie . . .

What's the main fuel used for the electricty grid, coal? It makes sense to me that a country with little internal fuel sources would be running a high percentage of nuclear reactors generating electricity, like France.

If the left wing propaganda of the main western news media has you convince that American soldiers, sailor, air men and marines kill innocent women and children on purpose, then there's no point in continuing the conversation Greg. You've swallowed the whole big lie.

Are they live steamers?

I've read that G "scale" runs the gamut from 1:22.5 up to 1:32, with numberous gauges too. Which are yours? Is you layout inside, or outside?

The "main fuel" is hydro power - something over 50%. Wind power looks likely to go from 5% to over 25%.

Some really really stupid people advocate nuclear power, but after 60 years no-one has figured out what to do with the nuclear waste and the irradiated power stations, which will need isolation and ongoing protection for the next million years. Factor that into the cost and nuclear power is the most expensive option so far invented.

I'm aware of the life that Iraqi people live under repressive yank occupation - even fuckwits like you have to be aware of the number of Iraqis dead under US occupation. It's obvious you've swallowed your government's lie. Unfortunately the discussion will go on until the effects of the US's brutality in Iraq has been forgotten. I'd guess that will be another 2-3 generations, just like the Nazi occupation of Europe.

No, electrically powered via radio speed and direction control. Plus steam.

G isn't a scale, it's a grouping of narrow gauge models running on 45mm gauge track. It includes British 16mm/foot and US 7/8" to 1" (1:13.7) New Zealand Railways is 3'6" or 1067mm gauge. 1067/45 - 1:24 scale. (near enough)

1:32 is "#I scale" (1 or One) 1:22.5 is "#III scale" (3 or three)

Regards, Greg.P.

So the US military justice system, which has court-martialled and convicted serving US troops for the *torture, rape and murder* of Iraqi citizens, and has other actions currently underway, is part of the left-wing propaganda media machine, is it Wayne? Are they telling big lies, too?

I reckon you've swallowed something, alright, ya fucken' idiot.

Around here we have a mix of coal, natural gas, nuclear and wind, but wind's probably providing less than 1%. Just south of Scranton PA there were 5 or

6 400 foot high wind generators on a mountain ridge (you'd probably call them foot hills :-). A few weeks ago when we were up that way again there were 12. There are 5 similar units about 3 miles from Atlantic City. However, considering the output, the cost of putting them up and the cost of maintenance, I'm not sure they are a competitive source. I suspect the politicans decided to put a few up to get the environmentalists off their back. In California there are many more wind turbines than around here, and environmentalists who bitched for decades about needing more wind power, now complain because and occasional bird gets killed by the blades. Go figure? We have been paying about 0.12 USD per kilowatt hour for quite a few years, which is about 0.16 NZD. In the U.S. northwest, where hydroelectic plants are more common, the rate is lower.

Plus steam?

Interesting. I never heard of 1:22.5 referred to as #III scale, but then I've read model mag blurbs and have seen websites with conflicting info on that range of scales and gauges. I've been collecting tidbits of model and prototype scale and gauge info for a while and compiling the details in an Excel spreadsheet. Mind if I send you a copy to see what you think? You may be able to fix some mistakes or add more info.

Are there any tourist Garretts running in New Zealand? I've never seen one in the U.S. but they are really a great design to look at. There were a couple of guys with British accents in a booth selling beautifully done O scale Garretts at the NMRA National Convention in Philly in July 2006.

I remember reading an article in one of the model railraod magazines in the last year or so about scratch building a model garrett in HO scale.

BTW, I've never heard this voiced by any local modelers, but it seems to me that the Half O 1:87 part of HO is 1/2 of the British O Scale 1:43.5, and has nothing to do with being half of the common 1:48 O scale here.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports two earth quakes on the South Island yesterday (6.0 and 6.8). Everything OK where you are?

Wayne

Mark, how many if any have been convicted of these aledged atrocities? None? 1? 2?

All conficts have a few bad actors. I would bet that the percentage of the

150,000 American military military personnell in Iraqi comitting murders is way lower than the percentage of murderers in the U.S. general population. We have about 300,000,000 people living in the U.S. and about 20,000 murders a year. Assumming each murder was committed by a different person, that works out to be 1 murderer for every 15,000 people, with an Iraq equivilency of 10 murderers and 10 murders for 150,000 military personnell. I can't remember hearing any news stories about anything close to 10 military personnell being convicted of murder, if any at all!

Just an MSS 0-4-0 destined to become an NZR Class C 0-4-2t.

Gauge/scales 1-5 were devised by Maerklin in 1891. Before that one bought a trainset that could not be extended. The larger gauge/scales slowly fell into disuse, particularly during the depression.

There's a reasonably complete listing on my website. The list now appears on various websites around the world.

There are several SAR Garratts privately owned which have not yet appeared in public. NZR only ever owned 3 4-6-2+2-6-4 Garratts. They weren't successful and got rebuilt into slightly less unsuccessful Pacifics.

Model Loco (UK) did some HO Garrett kits.

You're absolutely right - 1:48 is only US. Britain used 7mm:1 foot. Europe 1:45 and 1:43.5. France 23mm:1m.

There have been a series of fairly hefty quakes. In the South Island the fault line is the Southern Alps - real rugged and minimal population. In the North Island the fault curves from south to north-east and includes mountains and mildly active volcanoes. Here in the north it's all random volcanos.

The earthquakes have all been in the south and south-west in an unpopulated area. The nearest towns suffered tin rolling off supermarket shelves and the like - we're used to such things.

Greg.P.

The only problem with that theory is the numbers of Iraqi civilians dead since the US took control.

If you looked a bit harder you's see that over a million Iraqis have died since the US took control.

More than a dozen, if I'm counting correctly. Never heard of the

*proven* atrocities committed by US troops at Haditha, Abu Ghraib, Iskandariyah, or the premeditated rape and murder of 14-year old girl and her family in Mahmudiya? All these incidents have resulted in court martials and subsequent imprisonment and/or dishonourable discharge of the soldiers involved, in additon to civil trials. Big fucken' lies, eh Whyne, when even the US civil jsutice system gets involved...

Are you still going to claim that these military/civil justice proceedings are no more than left wing propaganda of the main western news media?

Oh well, no problems then! The Iraqis ought to be fucken' grateful, eh?

I could say that just shows what an ignorant know-nothing f****it you are, but that's already blindingly obvious. It also says a lot about the standard of US media coverage of the war in Iraq, but we'll leave that for another time. You have more than 10 murders, and more than 10 Us soldiers in the shit for committing those murders, as it happens.

But who gives a f*ck how many murdering soldiers you sent to Iraq? Your comparisons are utterly irrelevant, Whyne. You claim that "the left wing propaganda of the main western news media has you convince(d) that American soldiers, sailor, air men and marines kill innocent women and children on purpose". And yet the US military justice system is *also* convinced that American soldiers kill innocent civilians on purpose, and is punishing them for it. So by your reckoning, the US military justice system is part of a left-wing propaganda machine, and is telling lies...

Spin and bullshit your way out of that conundrum, ya fucken' wanker.

What's your URL?

I have a friend & ex co-worker who have been living in Fremont California, near the south end of San Francisco bay since the late 50s. He says the little ones don't even wake him up anymore.

Well, it is estimated that about 20,000 of the civilians that died at the hands of the joint western forces, mostly U.S. Military, were terrorists. Possibly that amount and more were killed by the terrorists, most of which are not even Iraqis, but foreign infiltrators, including from Iran.

That's about a 4000% exageration form Al Jezira and the left wing western media.

No, it isn't. It would never be OK, but no-one suggested it was.

That's not the subject under discussion, since no-one made any stupid, outlandish and false claims about the behaviour of terrorists being benign. You, however, made outlandish, idiotic and false claims about the benign behaviour and intentions of US troops in Iraq, which I might add you have completely and utterly failed to support.

Why would you even do that in the first place? Why behave even half as badly as those people whose actions you profess to despise? Are you that stupid that you can't see how such actions completely undermine your claims to moral authority?

I suspect you're not, and that most of what you post is mere trolling, but I suppose it is possible that you really are the mindless racist f****it your post suggests you are...

It doesn't matter how well they are *allegedly* treated, they're imprisoned illegally, another fact that destroys any claim the US has to moral authority.

Would that include the various foreign nationals who have been repatriated by their respective countries, and released without charge? They'd be criminals too?

Did you? Then you'd better cite some reliable news sources to back that up, if you want that claim to be taken seriously.

Ah, that famous American prudishness. It must be great to have such a long heritage of wowserism, repression and denial.

Don't you? According to who, you? When did you become the spokesman for Americans who f*ck?

Why does the word "f*ck" make you so squiffy? Because it's something you have no personal experience of?

No such organisation exists.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for you to back up your f****it ravings about the US military justice system being part of the left-wing propaganda machine...

Well, if you subscribe to the theory that everyone killed by the US occupation forces is/was a terrorist then that works. OTOH if we work on the principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty then your estimate of 20,000 civilians slaughtered by the US military is 20,000 innocent civilians slaughtered by the US military.

Imagine if 20,000 US civilians had been slaughtered in NY on 11/9!

Can you prove any of that crap or are you just mud-slinging to justfy your prejudices?

So far you're suggesting 40,000 innocent civilians slaughtered while the US illegally controls their country.

It would depend how one counts - the difference in population between the day before you illegally invaded and today's population is close enough for me. Considering the fact that the US admits it makes no effort to count the numbers killed, I'll take Al Jazera's figures, particularly as they match estimates from a variety of aid organizations.

Why would you think US figures have any credence, given that you are the criminals?

Regards, Greg.P.

I know you are smart enough to know that combat and war doesn't work that way Greg. Somebody is trying to kill you and you have to subdue him with you bare hands and take him to the police station to start the judical process? Are you one of them fanatic antiwar Quakers?

I know exactly what would happen. Exactly what happened when 2700 US Civilians were slaughtered in NY on 9/11.

The difference in Iraq and Afganistan is that very few innocents were killed, and those by accidental colateral damage.

Prejudices? Check your mirror. I get those figures from the broadcast news. Haven't you heard that many weapons, and personnell from Iran have been captured, as well as personnell from Saudi Arabia and other Muslin countries?

Illegally? The U.N. approved the action, which includes military from many countries fighting with us. And even if we were alone with no allies, every nation and creature has a right to defend itself. We are defending America against her avowed enemies. after they threw the first stone. They attached us and made us sad and sorry. Now it's their turn to be sorry. The main stream Muslims have had decades to get a handle on their terrorist problem and not only failed but aided and abetted them. So, we demand that they behave like polite human beings on the global scene, just like most of the people and nations of the world do. We demand that large numbers of Jews and Christians be allowed to move to muslim countries and buy land and build houses and Churches and Synagoges any where there is land available, and walk around safely and say anything we fell like saying and doing and get to vote etc., just like we allow the muslims to do in any of the western Crusader countries. We demand that on what is now called Muslim soil.........we can act just like we do here, in safety, to the point of instituting a secular open western type society were reliously leaders has had their testicles figuratively removed for good, just like in the western nations. That is the obvious goal.

Like I've said before...they have three choices Stay in their hate filled rat hole desert and mind their own business. Become modern and secular and polite to all people. Get pounded and controlled by outsiders.

Have you considered, regarding your delta difference theory........that about a million Iraqis have left the country since the recent invasion......like everyone with a half a brains and some money!!!!! A bunch of them smelly flea infested rag head gas pumpers have even been allowed in here, due to our liberal government, and much to the chagrin of us real Merkins. And a surlly bunch they are.

You seem like a nice guy, but you are a hopeless liberal old hippie. If I'm a criminal, how come I've not been arrested?