i didn't mean that any of these was on purpose.

Oh really? Poor choice of words then:

"of course, russian govt is the most knowledgeable - they shot down the damn plane"

They supplied the stuff but didn't pick the target. Pretending otherwise, besides being stupid, is playing into the hands of those that want to go back to the good old cold war days were they could sell plenty of goofy military hardware that never had to actually work.

How many factory workers were middle class, during this heyday of which you speak?

That's a distinction without a difference.

It looks like they thought it was a Ukraine military plane and were a bit too trigger happy, not realising it was a civilian aircraft until too late.

Here's the thing: if the Ukraine were responsible, then Russia would have a vested interest in a visibly transparent investigation and be in a position to ensure that it happened. If they could convincingly portray the Ukraine as having shot down a civilian aircraft then that would significantly alter the political sympathies in the current conflict. Instead, they have done everything in their power to block it.

The problem is in your phrasing of it as 'government abuses'. In the most part, it's not 'the government', as a monolithic entity acting based on policy that is abusing the power, it's individuals whose abuses are enabled by the government's programs. There's a political split over whether you can trust 'the government', but both sides agree that you probably can't trust an underpaid civil servant with a napoleon complex.

Your post above seems to imply that. We don't know yet which criminal, hair trigger idiot or whatever caused this tragedy. What is disgusting is people getting political milage out of it to push their own "Good Old Days of the Cold War" barrow.

for the kremlin

Don't be a tool. The fallout for this is a massive pain in the backside for the Kremlin. Putin may be an utterly evil prick but he's not an idiot that would plan something like this to play directly into the hands of the idiots that want to bring the cold war back.

Sounds interesting. Was there any data about a radioisotope that was organically bound? The studies I read show radio isotope analogues became more mutagenic in that scenario.

Perhaps the low energy characteristics of the radioisotope trick the cell into duplicating more errors in the DNA that it normally would. Still mutagenic radioisotopes inside the body - doesn't make for a happy ending.

Perhaps another low energy beta emitter, it seems the low energy beta characteristics of tritium make it a prime cause of transgenic disease. Like I said, I would really like to see that study - if you find it - you know who/where to find me.

Funny. I don't recall seeing any Boeing pens last time I was there. I did see a number of pretty attractive female engineers and pilots.

Maybe Lockheed makes the pens.

I just ran out of mod point - this is probably one of the most interesting "where were you when they landed on the moon" stories I've heard.

Apart from actually being on the moon

same.as.it.ever.was

also, the terrorists are sent and controlled by russia

Was my "Yorktown captured by French Terrorists" comment something that you have too poor a grasp on history for you to be able to get the point? How about this then: we know where the missile was made but everything else is still being worked out, we especially have no idea how much control is being exerted over various groups in the region either.
You may be right but it's far too early for either of us to know.

But that was -totally- different. That naval captain made a totally understandable mistake in the fog of war,

Subsequent reports showed that he was well out of his depth and exceeding his authority when an ill-conceived "show the flag" mission hit contact with real sea mines (reconditioned WW1 mines made by Tsarist Russia!) and other problems such as friendly fire from the Iraqis they were sent in to support. Under such pressure he was unable to operate and took a variety of shortcuts that resulted in shooting down an airliner sticking to it's schedule. Admitting the mistake in any way was not seen as acceptable so he was just quietly promoted to an appointment on land.

News from two centuries ago - "Yorktown captured by French Terrorists".
Looks stupid doesn't it? That's what you get when you oversimplify these things and assume that the backers are equivalent to the perpetrators. The backers in this case may be just as unpleasant as Napolean or more so but we still don't know which bunch shot it down (the "admission" was poor translation, like "plane was shot down" vs "we shot the plane down") and they all (including the Ukranian military) have Russian made rockets.

I still have a copy of that issue. :)

The "mankind" thing was just poetry for a domestic audience, read Kennedy's speech and it's crystal clear that the Apollo project was a military response to the "threat" posed by sputnik.

The day they landed on the moon, I landed on a plate of spaghetti. I was 10, I had put my meal on my chair and gone to get some juice, I came back and was so enthralled with the TV I sat back down on the chair without looking.

I'm not sure which came first, the fake landing theory or the movie Capricorn One.