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The 'Never Say You've Seen It All' Thread


Machor

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8 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

For some reason flying models have never appealed to me (my dad liked them though).....I guess part of it is that they're never truly to scale and the flying experience via RC is somewhat remote for my liking...

I would have liked to have gotten in to flying models, but control line just looked like a way of getting dizzy, and RC was out of my price range. Free flight might have been okay, but I would have needed a partner to go chase them down. So, just another might-have-been...

Michael

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Modern paragliders amaze me, in the video I posted the pilot completely luffs the wing at 3:10 (due to upside-down-ness), but it snaps back open almost immediately.....Watched a video of one of Ozone's pilots testing a new beginners' foil, he was deliberately collapsing one half of the wing and then just letting go of the controls, it didn't so much as bat an eyelid.  :o

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Brother George summoned me to Messenger, which is where I found this possibly posted before video of high weirdness which ensues when a P-51 goes after a North Korean T-34/85 during the Korean War. As if that's not confusing enough, the unknown to me film is subtitled in what I believe is a Southeast Asian language and voiced in I have no idea what!

Regards,

John Kettler

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Today's offering was a bit of an idiomatic shock when I encountered it last week, the usage of an idiom I thought was from the 70s--in a 1941 defense contractor ad! See for yourselves.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/keep-on-keeping-on

il_570xN.1079221104_mzvg.jpg

Image Credit: 1941 Bibb Manufacturing Company ad from The Saturday Evening Post via

AzVintageVariety on Etsy.

 

Regards,

John Kettler

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11 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Today's offering was a bit of an idiomatic shock when I encountered it last week, the usage of an idiom I thought was from the 70s...

Well, I clearly recall hearing it during the 1950s, and I was still a child then; so it would not surprise me to learn that it was part of the idiom during the early '40s and even earlier.

Michael

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Have I got a doozy today!  I could list all kinds of wonderful adjectives by way of characterization, but I think it's better simply to let you see for yourself. Art, architecture and engineering come together in ways you'd never imagine. Nor did I imagine I'd find such a thing on the Weather Channel's site,

https://weather.com/travel/news/weirdest-bridges-world-photos-20140730

Regards,

John Kettler

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This excites me greatly, though it is more in the nature of an impractical fantasy: no rolling ladders and unsurvivable in the event of a quake. Still, a man can dream, right? I used to get such a thrill men on TV or movies I got to see one of those amazing British libraries in a manor. Always figured I'd know I'd arrived when I had one. Not there yet!

tumblr_onc6dtEUhZ1uojcg9o1_500.jpg
 

Image Credit: 68.media.tumblr.com

 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Michael Emrys,

How truly sad! Recall you said something about having to move into a nursing home for a time. Is that right? when I get out your way perhaps you can tell me the story? Can definitely relate, for when I had to crash leave California with everything including me in collapse, I lent my library to a thought to be (always was before that) good friend, who also agreed to sell my furniture for me. That was March of 2010. The brand new furniture sold quickly, netting me (in theory) $2K, except he got in a jam, turned my money into his. That September I got him to admit what happened and to commit to payments. Remain sans sou and sans library, not to mention family keepsakes, to this day. This is why I say my library, moolah (could've had a car ages ago with that $2K), other items, including practically every game I owned including "Up Front" and other goodies are in a quantum state, a situation complicated by measures he's taken to mask his location. Finding someone whose utility bills are in an unknown person's name is tough, but I think I've got him narrowed down to a small city. Hasn't responded to either E-mails or calls to his work contact info. Thus, practically everything I theoretically have is in a quantum state within a quantum state. Someone else can do the math. I think the guy doesn't want to give back my books and also doesn't want to have to come up with $2K. At times like this, I can see real value in being a Mob loan shark. Imagine the vig! 

Regards,

John Kettler

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John,

Re erstwhile friends: I had quite a few turn into disappointingly broken reeds. But things got much better once I learned to make accurate estimates of how much stress I could subject them to and stayed within those limits. Since then, I have done rather better, and even have found help where I hadn't expected to.

As for losing my library, it was a wrenching experience but mostly for reasons of nostalgia. The great bulk of them I was very unlikely to ever read again. Some I needed for reference and I was able to keep a fair few. Some I have been gradually replacing with fresh copies. Others had come to me as almost miraculous finds and are truly irreplaceable. Their loss has occasioned much gnashing of teeth.

Michael

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As I was away from the forum for a while I have a long backlog to clear in this thread. :)

In the meantime, a phenomenon that I have long suspected to exist was made official today: the battledress fashion industry...

"Pentagon 'wasted $28m' on Afghan camouflaged uniforms"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40350047

"US taxpayers unnecessarily spent $28m on uniforms for the Afghan National Army, according to the US inspector general tasked with overseeing the war.
In a scathing report, John Sopko said that officials bought "forest" pattern uniforms, despite the country's landscape being only 2.1% wooded.
The decision was "not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment", he wrote.
A former Afghan defence minister chose the pattern in 2007, he says.
In the 17-page report, Mr Sopko writes that Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak chose the privately owned pattern over a cheaper pattern that the US military already owned.
US officials, who had been searching for patterns online with Mr Wardak, authorised the purchase because he "liked what he saw", they wrote at the time.
"My concern is what if the minister of defence liked purple, or liked pink?" Mr Sopko told USA Today in an interview.
"Are we going to buy pink uniforms for soldiers and not ask questions? That's insane. This is just simply stupid on its face.
"We wasted $28 million of taxpayers' money in the name of fashion, because the defence minister thought that that pattern was pretty.""

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Wardak was one of the original 'Gucci-Muj':

Quote

Just as Abdul Haq was, behind the scenes, the most respected of the Peshawar-based mujahidin, Rahim Wardak was the most laughed at.

Robert Kaplan

Quote

This is a penknife. I open letters with it. That's more than Rahim Wardak does with his knife.

Abdul Haq

http://www.pakhtunkhwa.pk/sites/default/files/Publications/Soldiers of God With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan [blackatk].pdf

So surprised I am not!  :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rahim_Wardak

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Machor,

You should read about the Navy's "blueberries," which are flammable, Natick's fuzzy boot (a really good idea first used in WW II and killed by spit and polish nuts) and more. Suvorov/Rezun has said every new Minister of Defense feels compelled to change the uniforms as a way of making his mark--for the entire then gigantic Red Army. One genius insisted on brass buttons on the greatcoat, which were, of course, ruined by belly crawling. Consequently, the buttons had to be cut off to preserve them for parade and hurriedly put back on before it. Believe the normal closing devices were smooth wooden toggles, but not sure. As for the Afghan uniforms, I see graft and corruption are doing just fine. Perhaps Chinese methods of solving such problems should be applied? Let's just say the recidivism rate is zero.

Andy,

Gucci Muj? A true first on all counts.


Regards,

John Kettler.

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It's all there in the first link JK (it appears to contain a big chunk of 'Warriors of God').....Kaplan has his own rather strong opinions (he really liked Abdul Haq it seems), but in this instance I think they are pretty thoroughly borne out by recent events.

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Andy,

I love pit bulls. We  (technically, brother Charles) had a wonderful bruiser of one named Conan, aka Cone Dog from when his ears were taped after they were trimmed, who always was at heart a puppy, ever ready to play. This included racing back and forth in a tiny backyard with a 3" long, 2-3" diameter branch in his mouth ('ware shins!), a branch he chewed down to practically a ball, and playing tug of war with a big thick stick or jeans. Either way, you quickly learned to alway keep tension on it so he wouldn't march his teeth ( chomp, chomp, chomp) up to your hand! And you haven't lived until you've swing a 70 pound pit bull round and round while his teeth were clenched firmly into an old pair of jeans. He was very protective, as annoying door to door salespeople found when Mom opened the door and he trotted up next to her and smiled at them. All it took, not even a growl. Dog was child proof, too. Loved kids, protected them and would never hurt them even if they were doing things many breeds would snap or bite over. If you weren't careful, he'd flatten you when leaping to greet you. He was a brindle and blended in with the carpet we had when it was twilight, making for some exciting encounters.

Locked myself out one time, returned after dark and knew he was out back. There I was climbing up onto the wooden gate when I heard the unmistakeable skittering sound of dog nails on the concrete sidewalk, for he was coming my way at speed. Managed to avoid getting chomped with a quick "Conan, it's me!" which allowed me to get up onto the roof and into my open window.

Quite the workout not getting dragged around the block, during which he was friendly with all the other dogs, save one which kept going at him through the fence. Was chill for weeks until the other dog made a bad mistake and suck its head out through the rails while barking furiously. Next thing you know, the dog's entire head was in Conan's mouth! He didn't bite, but it took some persuasion to make him let go. Never had a problem with that dog again. Pit bulls have a bad rep because nasty people used to abuse them and use them for fighting and such. Hope the law's been repealed, but in the early 1990s they were outlawed in Los Angeles County.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

Edited by John Kettler
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