gunnergoz

If 25mm can do it, that should be good enough. It is supposed to be a target specific neutralization weapon, and not an area suppression weapon like the low-velocity 40mm GL, is it not?

Whatever your religious beliefs - or none whatever - enjoy the season commercially intended to make us spend more to feel better about how we treat each other the rest of the time. And do have a great New Year, for sure.

No wonder you guys are always complaining about being single or divorced or whatever...look at the weird kind of women you find attractive! The anti-alien-hat wearing kind! Beam me up Scotty, no intelligent life on this rock!

Actually, the real aliens sponsored the design of these hats because the hats allow for total control of the human avatar from miles away, while the human thinks they are actually free of alien influence. Devilish, these aliens...

In WW2 the Allies - and Russians - beat the Germans with quantity over quality. The Soviets planned to do that for WW3 as well. They are only now disposing of a tank reserve of over 50,000 1970-1980 era tanks that would have done the trick nicely if they'd been turned loose on the West, back when. We might have given them a run for their money, but if they struck quickly and crippled NATO airpower early on, the Sovs might have pulled it off. The wild card, as always, is the nuclear question - who would have used them first, and how? Much depends upon that issue. Or so think I.

Am I mistaken or are the photos really small? I couldn't enlarge them very much at all. Is there some way to get the full-size or at least larger versions? Edit - OK, now I see, you have to order physical copies. Nevermind...

Perhaps the US "low carry" has evolved in practice due to the fact that I've seen the US military also use female pall bearers and this may be a concession to their relative stature, if not strength. As for the USMC practice, well we all know how traditional they remain so an all male detail may be their preference. Just a guess on my part...

Congratulations and best wishes to you and your family for a healthy, happy and prosperous future!

Best wishes to you Pinetree and to your mrs. and of course to the pinecone...

So you didn't stick around for the bug-eyed monsters? That's when it got interesting, when they discovered they were being dispatched with an alien aboard one of the cargo canisters. Episode 8 ends on the discovery, but did not let me see the critter. I hope that someday they release the DVD of the entire series and I can finally see episodes 9-13. I concur that it was not high art or high science, but I seldom see much sci-fi that appeals to me (Transformers? NOT) and this was at least moving in a promising direction. It's moot now, anyway.

The other day I had to be up all through the night and having a PC nearby, I turned to Hulu.com to see if there was something on that would keep me awake. I'd already seen most of the worthwhile documentaries and then decided to see what was in the sci-fi section. I found a program called "Defying Gravity" which was a multi-part serial about a crew of astronauts who embark upon a six-year journey to Venus and presumably other planets. Mind you, I never, ever watch commercial TV. We have satellite for Russian channels for the wife and mother in law and I have cable for a few HD documentary and news channels, but I never watch anything on the commercial side because it all seems to be crappy "reality" shows and similar tripe. I was actually pleasantly surprised by what I saw on Defying Gravity. While it was not the greatest sci-fi I'd ever seen, I liked the cast and the premise and the segments kept my interest and got me wanting to see more. Hulu said it only carried 5 of the 8 episodes. OK, I said, after watching what there was, I'm hooked, lets see when the rest of it airs. That's when I discovered that ABC had canceled the show after the 8th episode, although Canadian TV aired the remaining 5 through episode 13. After that, the sets were destroyed. It turns out that ABC, even with millions invested, did not really wish the show to succeed for some reason. It never advertised it, put it in a terrible time slot and did nothing to let even the sci-fi fans know about it. It was run for a few episodes and then yanked like some diseased thing that annoyed corporate. I was pretty upset to read about how the show had been cut off at the knees. Mind you, it was not Oscar stuff, but it was pretty engaging and had nice sets and effects. Mostly I liked the main star, Ron Livingston, who had impressed me a lot when he played sidekick to the main character in the serial Band of Brothers. So all I can say is, don't trust the commercial networks, because all they are interested in putting out there is crap, crap, crap. If a show has any signs of requiring an IQ above 90, it is bound to be treated as this one was. No wonder we are raising a nation of idiots... //Rant mode off// Thank you for putting up with this tirade my friends.

Years ago I managed an independent MacIntosh software sales and repair and upgrade store; back when Mac's were little cubes on the desk. I saw many horribly filthy Macs - the worst were owned by smokers of course. And those early Macs did not have a fan (Steve Jobs overruled Steve Wozniak, who wanted a fan but Jobs said they made too much noise) so you can imagine how stuff build up in them. Pretty gruesome and very toxic to handle. Now I would not go near one but back then, we knew no better. And what was found in the keyboards and within the floppy drives defied belief too.

I stopped after watching two episodes. There is a great disconnect between what the series says it is showing and what is actually being depicted. I've become really familiar with much of the WW2 color over the years and can see how they've patched together film from different battles (sometimes even different theaters) to attempt to depict some sort of "action flow." It is total BS. One segment showed German panzergrenadiers on the Eastern Front in SDKFZ 251's deploying and then flowed to US Infantry in the Bulge and next moved to German Artillery firing (Italy perhaps) and then to US Marine Rocket Launchers under Japanese fire on Okinawa, all supposed to make you think it is all the same battle. What hogwash! It is pretty shoddy and not worth the aggravation to me. This is not history, it is hucksterism.

I don't concur with your analysis, but you are of course entitled to your opinion. I probably should have added your run of the mill GOP conservative to the list, but I thought I'd made my point. Apparently not. As to the merit of the award, I do think that almost any US president with half a brain and heart would have won this award, after the catastrophic global setback that the last one was. If nothing else, this award demonstrates that the USA is back in the positive column of world opinion again, which is where it deserves to be: and that is due to the actions and attitude of the man now in the White House.

Anything that pisses off the neo-cons, racists and fascists, suits me just fine.

Here's the article that prompted me to reply earlier: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17751-innovation-the-scramble-to-give-tv-a-third-dimension.html I'd not be inclined to hold up a TV purchase just to wait for this technology to sort out, however. It is years off before a standard is settled upon and the tech matures sufficiently to make it be commonplace. And like others, I have trouble with 3-D glasses, so they'd need to have some other technology in place that is easier on my old eyeballs.

That's coming soon.

I don't think my mother in law would go for that. As it is, HD makes it difficult enough to look at clothed people close up. Any closer and one can qualify as an MD.

Yep, that's why I include the link, having been spanked here before for not having one in the body of my post. And thanks for the Lugansk tip, I'll look into that.

Give the Russians a quiet night, some heavy weapons, some ammo, some vodka, shake well and here is what you get: http://englishrussia.com/?p=5238#more-5238 In all fairness, I can't say the article mentioned vodka, but they are Russian soldiers, after all...

BlackVoid, stop trying to cheer us up.

Here's something you don't get to see every day: http://englishrussia.com/?p=5241#more-5241 The article does not say where this is, so I'm going to have to look into that, but I'm glad that someone is preserving these old beasts. It's just too bad it is not indoors where the interiors could have a chance of not corroding away.

Photos of China's 60th anniversary parade: http://www.defense-update.com/newscast/1009/news/amphibious_armor_011009.html Video here: Its clear they are flexing their muscles and enjoying what they see in the mirror. The technology may not be 1st class yet, but it sure seems to be a major jump over what they had 10 years ago or even 5. (And I know, it is only a parade and even Mussolini knew enough to run the same tanks around the Colosseum 3 or 4 times to increase their apparent numbers.) But, realistically and given enough time, this sort of force will be a real challenge for the neighbors to deal with. We're not talking about infantry hordes any more, it seems. And they might even have the economy to support a major mechanized force. As for the fuel? I don't know enough to even guess. But their neighbors, the Russians, seem to have plenty. Hmm, must make some folks in the Kremlin a bit nervous to see this and think of the ramifications. No matter how you look at it, it does change things somewhat to have China as a major industrialized nation. Can global power be next? Superpower status? I'll let more informed minds answer that. I'm going to go enjoy some scotch...

That's Michael's attempt at glowing praise... :D

We drink diet coke around here by the gallon. My wife survived Chernobyl and I survived the nuclear tests of the '50's (I was living at Ft. Carson, near Denver, and saw the horizon light up all the time with them) so we figure there's nothing the DC can do to us any worse that what we've been exposed to already.