costard

I thought the award a little curious; but then, he's given many people hope and obviously the Nobel panel see the world situation as a lot worse than I ever dreamed. Corralling the US President?

No hair (or short hair) is best for dealing with the lice and fleas which you were almost guaranteed of acquiring. I can see the brave men of the SS presenting their pudenda to a portrait of old Adolf for minute inspection and comparison. Sergei, have you made a particular study of this, or are you just talking out your bum?

I'll be calling you as a character witness, Emrys. I figure the judge's sympathy will be stirred by such a desperate ploy.

Anyways, just goes to show that Jaweh is the one (or three-in-one) and only and that Babel is the true curse.

Codeine + brandy works well. Just don't expect anything like coherency. Currently going cold bat myself - I'm taking notes and comparing the difference in quality of road rage on the commute.

It was the tweeds, plus-fours and deerstalker. That and your Woodend-not-a-common-oik-at-all accent. Now if you'd been wearing a bluey and swigging from a can....

It was Colin Powell's testimony on the satellite photos that swung the UN. He regrets having given it, but he can hardly be blamed for crap intelligence analysis from the CIA. Bush can be. Even the Israelis were doubtful that removing Saddam was going to achieve anything worthwhile - I remember a Mossad guy saying as much; that having a stable government in Iraq was probably preferable to throwing the whole thing into chaos and waiting ten years for something to come out of it (and not knowing what it is that will come out).

Oringinally posted by JonS: Suppression fire does need to be aimed fire - this I can totally agree with, and see some direction toward with at least the first part of that paper. That list of questions he provides.... I know that aimed, three (or even two) round bursts from a .50cal would be highly effective against a building occupied by hidden enemy. Aimed at the far corners of the building or at likely occupied positions - this takes a skill that training seeks to provide - and the opportunity to develop it. A good long burst on an occupied building might well be easier for a soldier firing a vehicle mounted weapon - sweep the floor with a controlled, fluid traverse of the gun. And back, and again. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is moving up and someone pops a grenade through the door, or sumfink. Good training gives that skill to the individual as a behaviour able to be maintained under large amounts of stress. Huge - and the adrenalin is part of that. Fight and flight hormones surging, trying to maintain some semblance of mind and control to better effect the outcome of the battle. The effect can be killing, or it can be wounding, or it can be mentally incapacitating (by preciptating an overwhelming "flight" response on the part of the recipients of the available firepower), it can be suppressing, it can be mildly annoying and ruin a good days birdwatching. It can be no problem whatsoever if it is blindly wasting ammunition, pounding a lump of dirt just in front of me - provided I don't wish to raise my head. Staying cool is the secret? Nice point - is this training, again: knowing when to do the right thing, knowing what the weapon is capable of? A long burst might be used by a .50cal against a trenchline (or treeline) at 400+ meters, or tear a house to pieces at 20. Short bursts or single shots against multi-story buildings where there is a need to identify the target and the probability of civilian casualties arising from wild shooting. In the above scenario, bursts against an occupied building at 150 metres fired from a vehicle mounted weapon would most likely be more effective than spraying. Its all about angles.

Thanks for that Gunnergoz - great stuff. Made in Wolverhampton (or the gearboxes were anyway). Do you know if these tanks are left over from the White Russian war, or were they sold to the Soviet Union later on?

Heh, what was it the Marine Commandant said? "The floggings will continue until morale improves." No argument there. But a building occupied by unseen baddies should be liberally dosed first up to achieve suppression, then periodically topped up, no?

Does it have anything to do with morale? This is how I read the original post - blokes happier that some at least some of the lead is outgoing.

I can see it - sequined tights and twirling his star spangled baton. By the way Michael, don't you know who won? Here's a hint - it wasn't the Confederates.

I think 1 second to go ten meters, wait until minute ends, then dismount, another minute, then move. I've had a Marine Javelin team tooling around in their own Humvee. They had fun that day.

[wishful thinking]If we make them enough money, BF may just think again about producing another BB. After all, it must be regarded by many as the pinnacle work of their art; they may feel the need to do what they did then, for reasons other than the money?[/wishful thinking]

Tactically deployed minefields shouldn't take that long to set up - [swag] maybe twelve hours for a crew of six for a quarter acre?[/swag] Wire and mines need to be there for Normandy. This means wire and mine clearance, for preference. Any nibbles on these BF?

I'm blinded. Now I don't get to see what's in the abyss. That was uncalled for.

Go the Swiss route Aff. Relatively cheap real estate, mannered people, good schooling for kids, skiing. Don't even think about going out to eat though - astronomical prices combined with truly appalling food. Branford sounds like it might be worth a visit.

Not a bad idea. And if he wins he won't thank us, but I don't think we were in it for gratitude. And he might just have a nucleus to build on. I think Islam will have figured out where it's going in the next five years, particularly with the provision of needs to foster a first world economy in say, Iran. Basically it is about freedom of information access and expression. Its populace needs the level of freedoms found in Western societies to have a hope of competing economically. Any military hardware they buy is seconds, any they develop themselves will be narrowly applicable and of doubtful benefit for the cost incurred. The ruling clique has now found itself in the interesting position of having their mobile phone company dividends reduced because they clamped down on the use of mobile phones. Iran is a long way from Afghanistan - just over the border, in fact.

Who's this Fergus then? Is he a frog?

I give you Combat Mission:Special Forces in "Bridge to Nowhere." "You have command of a small troop of the finest soldiers, mounted in nothing heavier than jeeps . Working behind enemy lines, you will be tasked with spreading "alarm and despondancy", liasing with partisans and assassinating enemy spies. Oh, and there's this bridge, here...":cool:

Juicy bone that one. I like the idea of common sense being a requisite for good play. I really like the idea of bridges collapsing under certain conditions - so that a relatively strong concrete and steel bridge might degrade over time with say, an arty barrage. Heavy equipment can get over at the beginning of the scenario but might not be able to get over further into the game. And allowances for green tank drivers to drive over the edge, poor visibility and speed constrictions... thanks BattleFront

If you're interested in getting an understanding, but don't want to wade through a dry textbook, try Feynman's "QED" - a book of his lectures on Quantum Electro-Dynamics to non-physicists. The maths isn't hard and he gets the ideas used in the modeling across very well.

We're attracted by the smell. And the obvious display of chips - we like comparing chips. We understand very well how an inferiority complex works, so to see a crowd (make that a shower) like this having a real go at it but failing, well, we just have to get in and lend a hand.

Ah, but not all infinities are created equal. I'd argue that likely events are more common than unlikely events. Therefore, if both unlikely and unlikely events are infinite in number, the infinity of likely events is larger than the infinity of unlikely events. It turns out that we have a taxonomy of infinities - aleph null is smaller than aleph one, is smaller than aleph two,...

Well yes, but likely things happen more often.:eek: