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13 Oct 2016 16:49:00
There's a direct flight from Santiago in Chile to Sydney in Australia that takes just under 13 hours. On a flat earth these are two cities are on opposite sides on the disc approximately 28,000km apart (compared to to 11,300km on a globe) . For that flight to be possible on a flat earth the plane would have to fly far further than the published range of any commercial aircraft and reach speeds close to Mach 2, its route would also take it close to the North Pole instead of across the South Pacific. You can be pretty confident the world's not flat.

13 Oct 2016 15:40:08
yea i'm thinking more that way tbh, but its intriguing to think that there is a theory of a flat earth or how it would be possible.

13 Oct 2016 12:50:36
The sovereignty of the Falklands (or the Malvinas if you prefer) is in interesting one to study and certainly not straightforward. There are two claims, Britain's and Argentina's, all other nation's involved in the Falklands history have renounced their claims.

Argentina in it's current state has existed since 1816 but can trace its claim back to 1764. That year a French colony was established on East Falkland, this colony was handed over to Spain in 1766. Spain remained on the island and maintained governance till 1811. In 1816 The United Provinces of South America (a forerunner of the current Argentine Republic) declared independence from Spain and claimed all it's Latin American territories. In the 1820s Argentina made three attempts to colonise the Falklands, the first two failed but the third stuck and a colony was established. This colony was hardly successful and mutiny, murder and American attacks followed. In 1833, a British Ship arrived and ordered the Argentinian governor to leave and took over the governance of the colony.

Britain's claim can be traced back to 1690 (a Brit was the first recorded visitor to the islands) but formally starts in 1766 when a British Colony was established on Saunders Island. In 1776 the British Colony left under pressure from Spain but left a plaque asserting their sovereignty. In 1831 America attacked the Argentinian colony and arrested it's leaders before declaring the islands were free from governance. Argentina responded by sending a garrison to the Falklands in 1832 but the garrison mutinied and murdered it's commander. Britain took advantage of this period to reassert it's claim to the islands, in 1833 a British ship arrived, ordered the Argentinian flag to be lowered, expelled the governor and took over control of the settlement. In 1840 the Falklands were declared a Crown Colony.

The strongest claim to the Falklands is Spain's but Spain gave up its claim long ago. Argentina believes that it inherited sovereignty of the islands when it became independent from Spanish rule but this claim is disputed, partly because there has never been a Latin American population on the islands (the 1828 colony was an economic venture with only a handful of Argentinian 'gauchos' involved) . Britain believes that it's claim predates Argentina's giving it legitimacy. Geographical arguments are largely irrelevant (does Canada have a claim on Alaska because it's closer than mainland USA? ) . The reality is that two countries had competing claims over a deserted island and one of them did better in asserting those claims, the nature of politics then was that gunboat diplomacy was legitimate and the nature of politics now is that the population have the right to self-determination.

13 Oct 2016 13:18:34
Does anyone really want to see Iran develop nuclear weapons? It escalates tensions in a region that's already massively unstable. At the moment Russia and the west are caught up in a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking of which its Britain that's arming the Saudis for their atrocities in Yemen.

Regards the Falklands the islanders themselves voted overwhelmingly to be British. The UN has to recognise the principle of self determination. Also when Britain annexed the islands, Argentina didn't even exist it was still a Spanish colony.

Lastly it was the French supplying the Argentinians. Thatcher threatened the French with invoking the Nato article on 1 member being attacked means the whole alliance pitching in. She also got her good friend Ronald Regan to lean on the French as well. This did cause some consternation at the embassy.

13 Oct 2016 13:42:52
when you look at all types of encounters then the the opposite side has always been armed by so called friendly countries.

look at what's happening now in iraq with isis being armed with american weaponry and equipment but funded by certain countries who are meant to be so called friendly, and in earlier problems in Afghanistan for examples.

the points above point out that's its money over humanity everyday every time.

13 Oct 2016 13:00:28
What he said was repugnant. But digging up from 11 years ago is a sign of desperation. Meanwhile the whole Hilary email scandal continues with barely a peep from the media.

13 Oct 2016 14:17:48
Does this contradict the theory that there is an non-human race already controlling this world and using humans in a violent manner. Surely these peace loving aliens' gripe would be with the controllers not the humans.

13 Oct 2016 12:14:45
No problem :) Iv just lost all hope for humanity I can't express how much I hate wars and guns. For people to say the west is one of the most advanced parts of the world so to speak we are still like barbarians killing and looting developing countries, I mean c'mon those parts of the world have got it bad enough leave them alone. The sales of arms from any part of the world Is disgusting just due to the fact that people make a ton of what is essentially blood money.

13 Oct 2016 12:17:41
I'm not big on American politics but for trump to get as far as hees got and then go full retard in front of the world is definitely strange the man clearly has brains but the thing about common sense is that its not that common nowadays.

13 Oct 2016 11:06:57
A couple of years ago, someone on this site said US presidents aren't elected, they're selected. It has that whiff about it to me.

Hillary has been an almost invisible candidate, and Trump, an extremely astute man, is running a campaign seemingly in self destruct mode. It's as though he doesn't want to win.

13 Oct 2016 10:48:33
I didn't insinuate that you are ignorant Mr. x, and I'm sorry you took it that way. You can criticise Israeli policy on selling arms and technology all day long and I'm right behind you, but Britain is just as bad, as is France who supplied Mirage jets and Exocet missiles that did the real damage to the British fleet in 1982. None of them have any integrity. Certainly no hard feelings here, I always enjoy reading your posts and agree with most of what you say. All the best.

13 Oct 2016 02:22:06
At no point did I say Britain was any better or stood on the Moral high ground. Also if you look at the context my main point was was not about the "Las islas Malvinas". FYI I don't like or support any military invasion of any kind I hate war its for Neanderthals that blindly follow a leadership and an agenda that they know nothing about. Shame for jumping down someone's throat for an example to the main point I was making but no disrespect or hard feelings you're entitled to your opinion and this is a platform for sharing opinions just don't judge and insinuate that someone is ignorant because of an example they used. I didn't say we had the right to take an island, I didn't say that we don't sell weapons and I definitely didn't mention an assault on a German submarine the point was the billions of pounds/ euros that was spent on tech. That was given away and the "puppet masters" that rule / own the countries.

12 Oct 2016 23:55:37
Shame you would jump on this to make a point about the Falklands or as they are usually called, Las Islas Malvinas.

Shame that also you neglect to mention that Britain is the 2nd biggest arms dealer in the world and has zero integrity when it comes to who it will sell to.
Speaking of submarines, you completely overlook the fact that a British submarine sunk The General Belgrano in International waters, outside of the 200 mile exclusion zone, as it was heading towards Argentina in 1982 at the cost of at least 321 lives, mostly very young men.

You also decline to mention the fact that The Falklands (as you call them) are over 8000 miles from Britain, and Britain has absolutely no business declaring any rights over these islands.

Let us all hope that the people who created the Stuxnet malware can also create a code that will remove the arrogance from Britain that makes so many of its people believe it has any rights over somewhere 8000+ miles away.

12 Oct 2016 22:52:40
The United States of Israel, I mean the usa and Israel doing something like that what is the world coming too. Or to correct that what has the world become. Israel has a lot of ties with the USA especially when it comes to military aid and contracts. Its almost like the USA and its allies have a duty to Israel eg. The German gov. Just gave Israel a stealth submarine for free yep, gratis multi billion piece of high tech weaponry compliments of the German tax payer. (I'm pretty sure there not happy about it) its got to be people in power in the USA, Israel and a few other western country's that's pulling the strings like the Jewish companies, corporations and banks that own the USA. Il leave you guys to make up your own minds however in my opinion Israel are our enemies or at least suppliers and supporters of our enemies eg. The Falklands war the new surface to air / air to surface missiles that sunk our ships and took down our planes from a distance the Brits couldn't counter attack. Israel gave Argentina the tactical advantage over us and it should be known that Israeli missiles killed British soldiers, sailors and pilots.

12 Oct 2016 18:22:06
This isn't about freedom of speech, this is about this site taking responsibility for the opinions it airs.

12 Oct 2016 17:45:11
In order to defend freedom of speech then all opinions have to be allowed. The line has to be drawn somewhere. But unpleasant views should be aired. This is the point of debate. If an ideology cannot withstand criticism then its not that great an ideology is it?

12 Oct 2016 16:25:15
Thanks for posting all the articles Ed033. They make for good reading and I would never assume you endorse the views of the people who write them. We're all grown ups here and we can decide for ourselves what we agree and disagree with. Sometimes one article can stimulate the curiosity to dig deeper on a subject.

12 Oct 2016 12:05:21
Ed, surely you should be vetting articles like these before you post them. By simply sharing them with no disclaimer you're endorsing their views. As the editor of this site you have a responsibility for what is posted.

12 Oct 2016 12:02:47
Aggressor Squadrons have existed for decades all around the world, this isn't new. It's standard practice to paint them differently to make them more resemble enemy aircraft.

12 Oct 2016 09:51:21
And the Olympic gymnast Louis Smith.