North Korea Pledges Nuclear Assault on USA

@farmerman,

For what it is worth, Farmerman...I heard the expression "throw weight" for the first time a few days ago...in this thread.

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@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

For what it is worth, Farmerman...I heard the expression "throw weight" for the first time a few days ago...in this thread.

I am completely sure at the moment but I think in the Kennedy/Nixon debate concerning the so call missile gap, that was supposed to exist but did not exist in fact, the term throw weight was used if memory service me correctly.

You guys must had not been paying attention as young men as you both seems to be of the same generation as I am.

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@BillRM,

Quote:

You guys must had not been paying attention as young men as you both seems to be of the same generation as I am.

Could be. I was into lots of ganja in those days.

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@gungasnake,

Quote:

I mean, nobody had GPS in 1955 and nobody had computers much smaller than a house in 1955 and whatever was guiding those early missiles was basically a glorified sllide-rule, and you don't think anybody other than Uncle Sam could do better than that today???

Still not that simple and take note that the Iraqs with a far wealthy nation with a far better infrastructure could not get their few hundred miles "long" range rockets to do anything but hit very wide areas.

But if you need to fear empty threats for your own strange reasons be my guest.

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@Frank Apisa,

Quote:

Could be. I was into lots of ganja in those days.

An I was the nerd with a log log slide ruler on my belt so to each his own.

Still I was under the impression that Farmerman were a member of the same nerd tribe as I belong to.

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@Frank Apisa,

For what it's worth, Frank, why haven't you taken Farmer to task for his ignorance on language?

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gungasnake's bullshit throw weight is definitely in the multi-megaton range.

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Nerd status and ganja aren't mutually exclusive, I think.

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Yeah, I must admit those model plane guys who flew their model across the Atlantic are kinda cool.

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@FBM,

Quote:

Nerd status and ganja aren't mutually exclusive, I think.

Very few as in zero nerds that I had known was into ganja but we was into beer to a degree at least.

Remembering when we would have the lights turn up in the corner of a beer/pizza joint and then break out the slide rulers after ordering a large pitcher of beer.

When the most bashful member of our group had drunk enough beer to make a move on the waitress we knew it was time to call the study session over.

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

Yeah, I must admit those model plane guys who flew their model across the Atlantic are kinda cool.

Very very cool but the technology needed to do such and the technology to lob a nuclear warhead on an ICBM around the world is not one and the same thing.

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@Frank Apisa,

I've heard it many times. It means useing your authority to impress people. Oh wait, thats throwing your weight around. Sorry.

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@JTT,

Quote:

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5281279)
For what it's worth, Frank, why haven't you taken Farmer to task for his ignorance on language?

If you feel farmerman is ignorant on language...YOU take it up with him. He is more than able to handle himself in those kinds of discussions.

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@Frank Apisa,

I am admittedly ignorant on language. I live for ignorance cause it gives me a chance to learn new things Now that Ive gotten "Throw weight" and "Total Payload" squared away, I suppose I should move onto learning about other things , like "Rusty Trombone" (which, I understand , is something JTT is also quite knowledgeable about)

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@Frank Apisa,

Let me start off by saying that I truly appreciate your honesty in not kowtowing to the cowards who frequently whine about people on their 'ignore' list being quoted.

Your courage is commendable.

Quote:

This oughta be interesting.

This, above, was you, Frank, in Post: # 5,280,608 .

It completely escapes me what there could be anything that's interesting about a person who knows nothing about the grammar of English attacking another for their grammar?

It seemed that Farmer somehow grasped that he was being ignorant [peeking perhaps?] but still it doesn't seem that he has apologized to Bill.

You can consider my questions as rhetorical musings.

Again, I commend you on your courage and honesty.

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@farmerman,

Quote:

I am admittedly ignorant on language. I live for ignorance cause it gives me a chance to learn new things Now that Ive gotten "Throw weight" and "Total Payload" squared away, I suppose I should move onto learning about other things , like "Rusty Trombone" (which, I understand , is something JTT is also quite knowledgeable about)

Wouldn't a simple apology to Bill be a much better solution than going out and renting a Hy-Hoe, Farmer?

I'll leave you with a few short comments from the co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

So just lay off the syntax. It seems like you're trying to make yourself look more highly educated, and enhance your readers' level of respect for you, by making them believe falsely that you know grammatical analysis when in fact you don't. But doesn't that count as "simply not telling the truth"? In fact, isn't it exactly the sort of belief-manipulation we call "fraud" when it's perpetrated in the financial domain?

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3667

Or when it's perpetrated in academic circles or by academics?

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Latest propaganda out of NK:

Cliff's Notes version: We'll kill every American at the slightest provocation.

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@farmerman,

I am surprised by the definitions of throw weight which i am finding online. There seems to be a collective ignorance in operation. The term has actually been in use for centuries. So, for example, HMS Victory was said to have a throw weight of metal in excess of 1100 pounds. She was commissioned for the first time in 1765.

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It has been many years since i've read it, but i believe that Winston Churchill's history of the Second World War, when he compares HMS King George V to USS North Carolina, he speaks of their respective throw weights. If someone has access to the book, they might check it out. It seems to me rather strange that people would speak of the throw weight of ballistic missiles, rather than payload, unless the term throw weight were already in use in military terminology. What i've found online attests the first use in 1969, and i'm certain that is wrong.

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@Setanta,

Ive been consulting several sources on the term also and Ive found the same thing. Apparently a "cannonical term".

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North Korea Pledges Nuclear Assault on USA

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