Tongan Mega Tsunami Evidence?

Huge coral boulders on Tonga's main island of Tongatapu were possibly tossed hundreds of feet inland by one of the largest tsunamis ever triggered by a volcano.

Researchers believe the ancient wave may have hit the island's shore sometime within the past 7,000 years, after the melting of the most recent ice age brought sea levels to roughly where they are today.

The largest of the seven boulders is 50 feet (15 meters) wide and estimated to weigh 1,600 tons. It currently sits more than 300 feet (100 meters) from the sea and 30 feet (10 meters) above sea level, an anomaly on the South Pacific island's flat landscape.

"We suspect that this may be the largest [object] moved uphill by a tsunami," said Cliff Frohlich, a senior scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin.

"It wasn't like we found these rocks everywhere in Tonga," Frohlich noted. "We found them just in one place on one island."

By comparison, the 130-foot (40-meter) waves triggered by the 1883 eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatau—the most powerful explosion in recorded history—are known to have moved a boulder only about a third that size the same distance, Frohlich said.

It's possible there simply were no larger boulders for that tsunami to displace, he added. But he and his colleagues believe the Tonga tsunami may have been as big or larger than Krakatau's.

The team will be presenting some of its findings at a geology conference in Houston on October 5. Their study is currently under peer review.

kewl.

Putin: NATO Expansion a 'Direct Threat to Russia'

President Putin says NATO’s expansion eastwards is a direct threat to Russia’s security. He made the comment after talks between Moscow and NATO broke up without agreement in Romania. One of the major sticking points is NATO’s support for a U.S. anti-missile defence system in Europe.

Go read. Very interesting: joining NATO would "sacrifice part of our sovereignty to create the illusion of increasing our security." I wonder what the French would say to that!

I's Hates Meeting Days

yuck

Giant Theropod Was Pneumatic

The remains of a 30-foot-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina's Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how birds evolved their unusual breathing system.

University of Michigan paleontologist Jeffrey Wilson was part of the team that made the discovery, to be published Sept. 29 in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE and announced at a news conference in Mendoza, Argentina.

The discovery of this dinosaur builds on decades of paleontological research indicating that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Birds have a breathing system that is unique among land animals. Instead of lungs that expand, birds have a system of bellows, or air sacs, which help pump air through the lungs. This novel feature is the reason birds can fly higher and faster than bats, which, like all mammals, expand their lungs in a less efficient breathing process.

Wilson was a University of Chicago graduate student working with noted dinosaur authority Paul Sereno on the 1996 expedition during which the dinosaur, named Aerosteon riocoloradensis ("air bones from the Rio Colorado") was found. Although the researchers were excited to find such a complete skeleton, it took on even more importance as they began to understand that its bones preserved hallmark features of a bird-like respiratory system.

Arriving at that understanding took some time. Laboratory technicians spent years cleaning and CT-scanning the bones, which were embedded in hard rock, to finally reveal the evidence of air sacs within Aerosteon's body cavity. Previously, paleontologists had found only tantalizing evidence in the backbone, outside the cavity with the lungs.

Wilson worked with Sereno and the rest of the team to scientifically describe and interpret the find. The vertebrae, clavicles, and hip bones bear small openings that lead into large, hollow spaces that would have been lined with a thin layer of soft tissue and filled with air in life. These chambers result from a process called pneumatization, in which outpocketings of the lungs (air sacs) invade the bones. Air-filled bones are the hallmark of the bellows system of breathing in birds and also are found in sauropods, the long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating dinosaurs that Wilson studies.

"In sauropods, pneumaticity was key to the evolution of large body size and long necks; in birds it was key to the evolution of a light skeleton and flight," Wilson said. "The ancient history and evolutionary path of this feature is full of surprising turns, the explanations for which must account for their presence in a huge predator like Aerosteon and herbivores like Diplodocus, as well as in a chicken."

In the PLoS ONE paper, the team proposes three possible explanations for the evolution of air sacs in dinosaurs: development of a more efficient lung; reduction of upper body mass in tipsy two-legged runners; and release of excess body heat.

When are we going to get the Theropod Vertebra of the Week blog? EXTINCT theropod, please.

Congratz to SpaceX

Especially since I hope to use them and their Falcon 9 LTC variant launch vehicle in the future.

EU Struggling with Space Funding

The European Union wants to become a major player in space projects, EU ministers agreed Friday, amid concerns that member states and industry are unwilling to provide the astronomical costs involved.

The EU ministers agreed on "the need to develop instruments and financial schemes for European space policy," announced French Research Minister Valerie Pecresse, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

However a statement issued after the ministerial meeting gave no details on the funding needs or means, highlighting the problem.

The 27 EU ministers in charge of space and research just stressed "the need to find long-term financing for space infrastructures, particularly in the field of observation".

The EU is currently developing two headline space projects; the Galileo system for satellite navigation and Copernicus which will use satellites to monitor the environment.

So far the community budget has earmarked 1.2 billion euros for 2007-2013 for the development phases of Copernicus, with none yet budgeted for its subsequent operation.

The much-delayed Galileo project was finally given the green light in April with a 3.4 billion euro budget up to 2013 scraped together from unused farm funding.

[...]

The space war is raging with some member states wanting to cut the community spending and not prepared to give space exploration its own budget, an EU source said.

"We are not in a position to send people into space or to bring back material which we launch. We have to ask for help from the Russians," said Verheugen.

"The question is; do we want to remain dependent or are we capable of making a collective effort to become independent?" he asked member states.

Interesting contrast with China there. The US...we're kinda unique.

Two Dicynodont Papers

A New Species of Emydops (Synapsida, Anomodontia) and a Discussion of Dental Variability and Pathology in Dicynodonts

Jörg Fröbisch and Robert R. Reisz

Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississagua, Ontario, L5L 1C6, Canada, E-mail: jorg.frobisch@utoronto.ca, E-mail: robert.reisz@utoronto.ca

An enigmatic dicynodont specimen from Tweefontein in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, represents a new species of the Middle to Late Permian genus Emydops, E. oweni. Taxonomic revision of the genus reveals that, of the thirteen previously described species, only E. arctatus is valid. The holotype of E. oweni, SAM-PK-3721 is unusual in that it bears two tusks on each side of the skull, a symmetrically developed double-tusked condition being a very rare if not unique case in the dicynodont fossil record. The possible pathological causes for this occurrence are discussed and the production of the supernumerary teeth by mutation is considered to be the most likely explanation. Phylogenetic analysis supports the sister-taxon relationship of the two species of Emydops and their position at the base of Emydopidae. Emydops oweni shares a number of derived characters with E. arctatus, including its small size, wide temporal region, prominent lateral dentary shelf, embayment on the medial surface of the palatal rim, and squared-off profile of occiput. In addition to its aberrant dentition, SAM-PK-3721 can be distinguished from the type species by a number of autapomorphies, including the absence of the small maxillary foramen lateral to the postcaniniform keel, the presence of a distinct ventrolaterally projecting pterygoid flange, and the diagnostic shape of the lateral dentary shelf. The identification of two additional tuskless specimens referable to the new species excludes the possibility that the autapomorphic characters are associated with the double-tusked condition, allowing us to conclude that E. oweni has both tusked and tuskless morphs.

Full paper here.

Diictodon Feliceps (Owen, 1876), A Dicynodont (Therapsida, Anomodontia) Species with a Pangaean Distribution

Kenneth D. AngielczykA and Corwin SullivanB

A. Department of Geology, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA, E-mail: kangielczyk@fieldmuseum.org, B. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 643, Beijing 100044, China, E-mail: csullivan@ivpp.ac.cn

Dicynodont therapsids were cosmopolitan members of Middle and Late Permian terrestrial ecosystems. Despite occurring in nearly all places where tetrapod fossils of these ages are found, it is unclear whether any individual dicynodont species ever achieved a Pangaean distribution, with populations located in both Gondwana and Laurasia. Diictodon feliceps (Owen, 1876) is perhaps the best candidate for a species with such a broad distribution, but this depends on whether D. tienshanensis (Sun, 1973) from the Junggur Basin of China is a valid species. We use qualitative morphological characters, as well as linear measurement- and landmark-based morphometric techniques, to demonstrate that IVPP V.3260 (the type and only known specimen of D. tienshanensis) falls well within the range of variation displayed by D. feliceps, implying that D. tienshanensis is not a valid species. The occurrence of D. feliceps in China poses a biogeographic puzzle, since this species is otherwise known only from southern Africa. We predict that D. feliceps will be discovered in areas between southern Africa and China. However, if its absence persists in the face of continued exploration and collecting efforts, it may imply that a dispersal route and/or intervening populations of D. feliceps existed in areas in which an Upper Permian terrestrial fossil record was not preserved. Finally, if dicynodonts were adapted to exploiting components of the Gondwanan flora, the presence of D. feliceps in Gondwana and Laurasia indicates that such trophic interactions were not an insurmountable barrier to their dispersal.

Full Paper here.

Sweetness. Anything Permian Therapsid-ish is tres kewl as far as I am concerned.

A Juvenile Skull of the Primitive Ornithischian Dinosaur Heterodontosaurus Tucki from the 'Stormberg' of Southern Africa

Richard J. ButlerA, Laura B. PorroB, and David B. NormanB

A. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom, E-mail: R.Butler@nhm.ac.uk, B. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom, E-mail: lbp24@esc.cam.ac.uk, E-mail: dn102@esc.cam.ac.uk

Heterodontosaurids are an enigmatic group of primitive ornithischian dinosaurs best known from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Because fossil material is rare and often poorly preserved, the taxonomy, systematics, and palaeobiology of this clade are controversial. Here we describe a new partial skull of a juvenile Heterodontosaurus tucki from the 'Stormberg' of South Africa. This skull provides new information on the cranial anatomy of this taxon as well as insights into cranial ontogeny, sexual dimorphism and tooth replacement in heterodontosaurids. Few ontogenetic changes in dental morphology occur in Heterodontosaurus, supporting previous suggestions that tooth characters are informative for species-level taxonomy in heterodontosaurids. Furthermore, the presence of well-developed caniniform teeth in the juvenile specimen does not support the hypothesis that these represent secondary sexual characteristics in heterodontosaurids. Computed tomography reveals that replacement teeth are absent in both juvenile and adult specimens of Heterodontosaurus; however, the difference in the absolute size of the teeth between the juvenile and adult specimens demonstrates that replacement must have occurred during ontogeny.

Link above! Heterodontosaurs are one clade I find really fascinating simply because they seem so different than the other dinos.

No Good Will Come of This!

The Foreign Ministry says pirates have seized a Ukrainian-operated ship off Somalia.

The ministry says the Faina was sailing with 21 people on board under the Belize flag, though it is operated by Ukrainian managing company Tomax Team Inc.

The ministry says in a statement that the ship's captain reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men Thursday afternoon.

The ship's passengers include 17 Ukrainian citizens including the captain, as well as three Russians and one Latvian citizen.

The ministry had no information on the ship's cargo. But the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the ship was loaded with about 30 T-72 tanks and spare parts for them.

Oh shibbit...with a blink tag.

Go Read: Annual Carbon Budget Numbers Commentary

Most striking is that, despite years of effort, carbon dioxide emissions are increasing at an alarming rate of 3.5% a year– faster than the 2.7% predicted by the IPCC in their worst case scenario, and miles ahead of the 0.9% annual rise in the 1990s. Worst still, current measures have been based on a middle-ground IPCC scenario. Pep Candell from the Global Carbon Budget told me that this was “astonishing”.

For the first time, we have hit 10 billion tonnes of carbon emitted annually.

The other thing to note is that China and India are galumphing their way up the table of biggest carbon dioxide emitters. Ten years ago the top four were: USA, China, Russia, Japan. Today that list reads: China, USA, Russia, India – and I am assured by Candell that next year India will have jumped into third place.

This is a worry – when the Kyoto Protocol was first talked about, the countries of the developing world were overwhelmingly the highest emitters of CO2. But in the meantime, whilst decisions were made, details argued out and paperwork signed, the developing world has taken pole position.

China has, since 2002, jumped from being responsible for 14% of the global carbon dioxide emissions, to 21%. At the same time the US has been hovering at around 20%.

Oh, yes, global warming is inevitable.

Looking forward to Wilmington, North Carolina's climate, Carlos? I've heard a few people here joking they're all in favor of getting San Diego's here. (oy)

Actually, neither statement is correct: I'm being flippant. There's a lot more going on (less snow, more rain, a lot more catastrophic rain, etc) than merely the climate zones marching north some 300 odd miles. It's much more of a fundamental climate change than a climate latitudinal shift.

No, it won't be a repeat of a past climate despite my flip comments (also) to the effect that we're headed to a Neo-Eocene. It's going to be something completely new. And exciting. And without the extinction of humanity. Sheesh.

Alternate History: Any Interest?

I have been without alternate history discussion forum since I abandoned SHWI. The various dotcom equivalents or near equivalents haven't been as appealing: their culture's are just not rigorous enough for me. *sighs*While Epylium Aurelia has passed the 150 page mark and Zach, Scott, and I have been plodding along with our alternate Permian discussions. its not satisfying as far scratching the itch as far as the different history books I read and spinning out something each time.

There were several points in the book about Byzantium and the Crusades that could ahve been spun out as WIs. There are so many that its dizzying in the book on Mexico I am reading now. There have been others in the past. There will definitely be more in the future: I am considering two more books on Byzantium, the Crusades, and Arabs, a history of the Persian Empire, and about the Caste War. Each of these are fertile ground.

Is there any interest by my readers in discussing ah here? hrm. I wonder if there would be any interest in an ah blog carnival. probably not enough writers...

CO2 Emissions Booming, Shifting East

Despite widespread concern about climate change, annual carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement have grown 38 percent since 1992, from 6.1 billion tons of carbon to 8.5 billion tons in 2007.

At the same time, the source of emissions has shifted dramatically as energy use has been growing slowly in many developed countries but more quickly in some developing countries, most notably in rapidly developing Asian countries such as China and India. These are the findings of an analysis completed by the Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

"The United States was the largest emitter of CO2 in 1992, followed in order by China, Russia, Japan and India," said Gregg Marland of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division. "The most recent estimates suggest that India passed Japan in 2002, China became the largest emitter in 2006, and India is poised to pass Russia to become the third largest emitter, probably this year."

The latest estimates of annual emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere indicate that emissions are continuing to grow rapidly and that the pattern of emissions has changed markedly since the drafting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. It was then that the international community expressed concern about limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.

In the Kyoto Protocol, 38 developed countries initially agreed to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases in an effort to minimize their potential impact on the Earth's climate system. At the time of drafting the United Nations Convention, those 38 countries were responsible for 62 percent of carbon dioxide emissions attributable to all countries. By the time the Kyoto Protocol was drafted in 1997 that fraction was down to 57 percent.

The recent emissions estimates show that by the time the Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005 those 38 countries were the source of less than half of the national total of emissions (an estimated 49.7 percent), and this value as of 2007 was 47 percent. More than half of global emissions are now from the so-called "developing countries." The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 181 countries, but not by the United States.

Ahem. Global Warming is Inevitable.

Shenzhou-7 Launched

China successfully launched its third manned spacecraft on Thursday with three astronauts on board to attempt the country's first-ever space walk.

The spaceship Shenzhou-7 blasted off on a Long March II-F carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gansu Province at 9:10 p.m. after a breathtaking countdown to another milestone on China's space journey.

Onboard pilots Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng are expected to orbit the earth for three days, when one of them will float out of the cabin about 343 kilometers above the earth.

When they make it, China will become the third country in the world who is able to conduct extravehicular activity (EVA) in space following the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Huzzah!

Methane Heat Bomb Triggered?

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia's northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

It'd be nice to see another source for the information. Methane is a far more dangerous greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is...however, it doesn't last nearly as long.

Skulls

I found this while googling for something else. I was under the impression that anapsids were no longer considered basal most due to some dna testing found that turtles are derived diapsids. What that does to the other anapsids place in the world, IDK. In fact, many books/papers I have read have brought that up making it sound as though there are exceedingly few Permian anapsid specialists. Anyone really know?

Can We Forgive Dixon's _New Dinosaurs_ Even More?

Remains of Cretaceous 'anteater' found during Albertosaurus dig reveal new species of tiny dino

An unusual breed of dinosaur that was the size of a chicken, ran on two legs and scoured the ancient forest floor for termites is the smallest dinosaur species found in North America, according to a University of Calgary researcher who analyzed bones found during the excavation of an ancient bone bed near Red Deer, Alberta.

"These are bizarre animals. They have long and slender legs, stumpy arms with huge claws and tweezer-like jaws. They look like an animal created by Dr. Seuss," said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences. "This appears to be the smallest dinosaur yet discovered in North America."

Called Albertonykus borealis, the slender bird-like creature is a new member of the family Alvarezsauridae and is one of only a few such fossils found outside of South America and Asia. In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Cretaceous Research, Longrich and University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie describe the specimen and explain how it it likely specialized in consuming termites by using its small but powerful forelimbs to tear into logs.

"Proportionately, the forelimbs are shorter than in a Tyrannosaurus but they are powerfully-built, so they seem to have served a purpose," Longrich said. "They are built for digging but too short to burrow, so we think they may have been used to rip open log in search of insects."

Longrich studied 70 million-year-old bones that were collected on a dig led by Currie at Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park in 2002 where the remains of more than 20 Albertosaurus sarcophagus individuals were found. Albertosaurs are a type of tyrannosaur. The bones were placed in storage at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and Longrich came across them while trying to compare Albertosaurus claws to another dinosaur species.

Wow. Dixon may need even more forgiveness than Darren has given him for his book, The New Dinosaurs. Disturbed yet, Zach?

Speaking of the Future of Tanks...

Future Combat Systems program managers announced today that its much-touted Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) Prototype successfully fired its first artillery projectile.

The mobile cannon, which is crewed by two soldiers, has a fully automated ammunition loading system and on-board projectile tracking. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McVay, Army Product Manager for NLOS-C said in a statement that “This marks the first 155mm round fired from a fully automated howitzer mounted on an FCS hybrid-electric chassis and remotely commanded through its on-board computers and controls.”

Contrast with the crew of 8 that the current American SPH has. It's much smaller too. However, it still doesn't fire on the move though.

LLC Delayed

We have a change of venue. Holloman had some testing that trumped us. This will cause a delay. From our POV since we've been having manufacturing issues, this is a good thing. However, some of the other teams are having serious issues with conflicting schedules if it slips. It will slip: that's a given at this point. It's only a question of for how long. No matter what, it has to happen before March in NM due to the winds. Or in mid to late May. We'll see what it is.

Monday Russian Militaria

And Their Commander Shall Be Russian (or that's what this article ought to be entitled):

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), long regarded by Western military experts as something of a “paper tiger,” will become increasingly active in Central Asia as Russia’s President Medvedev presses for the militarization of the organization. CSTO General Secretary Nikolay Bordyuzha has referred to the creation of “‘a powerful military grouping of five countries in Central Asia.” This may include up to 10,000 personnel, apparently tasked with responding to external threats to the region; but the timing of the announcement, after the war in Georgia and as Russia’s relations with the West continue to be strained, suggests that Moscow is also trying to convey a “signal” to NATO over the region that in the current political climate, however, may be easily misconstrued.

From here.

However, even if they do put together such a force, will it matter? Their weapons, despite the big boost in spending on the military recently are 20 - 30 years out of date:

The 27,000-strong Georgian military is a 40th the size of the Russian military of over one million. Only several thousand solders from each side were directly involved in the war last month, which lasted three days before the Georgian forces were ordered to withdraw. Russia emerged victorious, taking full control of the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; but this short war revealed serious deficiencies in the arming, training, and battle readiness of the Russian military. Last week at a special meeting in the Kremlin on military development, President Dmitry Medvedev announced that new weapons would be procured and developed and soldiers’ pay and battle readiness increased. "We need modern, effective armed forces ...because of recent problems, including Georgia’s aggression and its continued militarization," Medvedev announced. "This is the highest state priority in the coming years."

The Russian military did not have a single spy drone in the sky, did not know for certain where the enemy was, and could not use precision weapons effectively. Until the Georgians retreated, Russian forces could not suppress Georgian artillery. The Russian Air Force did not manage to provide effective battlefield air support or reliable intelligence information because of Georgian anti-aircraft fire that shot down, according to Russian sources, seven bombers, including a strategic Tu-22M3 Backfire. According to the military, the Georgians used Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missiles, obtained from Ukraine (Vedomosti, September 12).

The Russian generals are making no secret of the shortfalls and problems their forces encountered during the invasion of Georgia, apparently hoping that this will help lobby for increases in defense spending. The tactic seems to have been at least partially successful. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced substantial spending increases for 2009. Defense spending is planned at $50 billion, an increase of 27 percent over 2008. National security spending in 2009 will be $43 billion, an increase of 32 percent over 2008. National security includes the budgets of Russia's federal law enforcement, Interior Ministry forces, and intelligence services—the former KGB (Interfax, September 16).

The increases in spending are substantial, but will they help refurbish the military? In 2000 when Putin came to power, defense spending was $5 billion and has grown by some 10 times since then, but the solders who invaded Georgia were armed exclusively with old weapons of Soviet stock, produced in the 1970s or 1980s. Fortunately for them, the Georgians were also armed mostly with the same equipment. Some Georgian weapons were partially modernized, but the Russians outnumbered and outgunned them.

Experts express doubts that the increase in defense spending will result in a major modernization of the military and predict that the money may be misappropriated (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 15). The Russian defense industry today is in a crisis, its technology outdated, its well-trained workforce old and shrinking, and its capability to make new weapons withered away.

From here.

That's just it. The rest of the world moved on. $TECH has incremented a few times since the fall of the soviet union in 1991 - 17 (!) years ago. The Russian forces in Georgia were using largely unupgraded equipment from the 1970s rather than that from the 1980s. They were using some of their "best" pilots and theater level bombers that they had for recon. And they still had it shot down. By Georgia. Georgia!

Any new Russian miltech is not a threat. Russia has far more to fear through its actions than be feared. Except if you happen to be an xUSSR republic. Then there's some fear involved. If the West were to give guarantees, let the Ukrainians or whomever into NATO, or just plain old rapidly upgrade their military, the Russians would be a toothless bear. In fact, that would be a good idea no matter what. Don't make them buy the kit, gift it and the training: it'd bring them in line with NATO standards anyways.

That's really an interesting idea. German Leopards, French Rafale, British Warriors (?), and what have you over five years. A modernized Ukrainian army would be a force to be wary of for the Russians.

oh whoa

Rocket news soon. On the concall and I want to give the X Prize Foundation to get their news release out first. Boggle.

I'll link when they have it up.