Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (191612)	10/12/2001 9:10:42 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769667

Heavier vehicles are demonstrably safer in accidents (on average, all other things being equal) than lighter ones.... And, particularly so when one of the vehicles in the accident is 'heavy' and one is 'light'... simple physics, what? But so are vehicles designed with better safety features demonstrably safer: better tires, airbags, padded dashes... maybe auto pilot one day on the interstates, who knows. So, to a certain extent, these benefits we are after (lower fuel consumption / safety in accidents) are trade-offs. I guess the thing to do is to attempt to maximize BOTH to the extent feasible, as they are not pure trade-offs... not 100% in opposition to each other. There can be reasonable mediums found.

To: greenspirit who wrote (191612)	10/12/2001 9:16:39 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Article...US 'army of ghosts' billeted in former Soviet air base... By David Rennie in Tashkent (Filed: 12/10/2001) portal.telegraph.co.uk THOUSANDS of American troops sent to the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan have become a ghost army, hidden from view by a regime that took a gamble by letting them arrive in the first place. Neither US officials nor their Uzbek counterparts are saying anything about the forces gathering at the Soviet-era airbase of Khanabad, on a dusty plain 125 miles north of the Afghan border. Locals and foreigners alike have been kept miles away from the new arrivals, behind multiple security cordons and road blocks manned by machinegun bearing Uzbek paramilitaries. Some 1,000 American soldiers are to be based in Uzbekistan, but their role has been limited to support and rescue missions in Afghanistan. The handful of local civilians being hired by the American military have become ghosts themselves. Local translators who enter the base at Khanabad have been told they must stay there, unless given special permission to leave by American commanders. Such precautions are understandable. Uzbekistan, the first part of the old Soviet Union to play host to American forces, is 90 per cent Muslim and has suffered fatal bomb blasts and cross-border armed raids, blamed on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is closely linked to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The presence of American troops has angered the country's small minority of fundamentalists, while even moderate Islamic clerics have publicly expressed sorrow at attacks on their Muslim "brothers" in Afghanistan. But Uzbekistan's gamble appears to be paying off. The mood on its streets is remarkably peaceful. A Western diplomat said: "At the moment, there is no widespread anti-American sentiment here. It is calm and people who sent their children home are now regretting it." He added: "Ninety-nine per cent of Uzbek Muslims are tolerant, generally educated people, who do not believe that this is a war between the West and Islam."