Magpie_Oz

It is thought that FOO then Chad then Kilroy all had some form of basis in fact. Usually attributed to some form of Quartermaster person.

Killroy was the son of Foo !

You are forgetting the Crusades and a good 2000 years of various acts performed in the name of Christianity

Many of the emplacements were sited for all around defence but yes they would be generally looking East not West, particularly when you look at the mutual support and depth layout. I guess that is the main downside of fortifications, you can simply go where they are not and there isn't much they can do about it.

The first game like combat mission that I played was .... ummm Combat Mission, I had never come across anything like it before, it was for me the Holy Grail of ASL on the computer. I did play some the early Steel Panthers and others similar to that who's names elude me now (old age) but none of them really came close to what I wanted. I did write my own ASL for PC game once but I finished it about the time that VASSAL came out which was made by people who knew what they were doing.

(Psssst) It is the designation for a Nuclear Powered Submarine, it seems to hold some special place of scorn for the strange creatures of this tread. My suggestion is that you, like I, observe from the safety of a hide for awhile and attempt to decipher their strange ways. You will become none the wiser but it does pass the time. You could of course SOD OFF but I have a team working on what that is with little result as yet.

That kinda applies to all people, Law Enforcement, Military or Civilian. It is just that determining if someone poses a threat varies on the situation. Soldiers in a declared war for example can be reasonably expected to see all enemy combatants as a threat to their lives. If you shoot an enemy and wound them that is OK, if you shoot them when they are incapacitated that is murder. Is AQ a declared enemy? Yes they are, Can a member of that organisation who is unarmed been seen as a threat to life ? It would depend on their actions. I think that if that person is uninjured and does not have their arms up or is lying on the ground they would have to be considered a threat for many reasons. In the end it comes down to the judgement, training and disciple of the soldier and I think we can trust that SEALs have all 3 in abundance.

What about the Siegfried Line ?

Sounds like a proper game to me !

Here is a beaut picture: http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2020/completerifleammunition.jpg

1. British would call it 0.315" (like .303) 2. they, and we and the Japanese who make the most cars, drive on the correct side of the road as it dates to ancient times when you needed your right arm facing in, in case there were wrong-doers on the road. Later a Pope decreed that the left side was the side to ride on then it was the French (of course) who in thumbing their nose at the Pope changed to the right. 3. Yes the "Mk whatever" is such a bad way of referring to things. I much prefer the American set up, it makes everything so easy. I can wake up to the ring of my M1, grab my M1, put on my M1's, go out through the M1, get into an M1 drive to the tank park and get into my M1, go and pick up my M1, M1, M1, M1 and M1 not forgetting my M1 of course and then head out to the range and test fire my M1 by loading it with an M1 and aiming with the M1 and shooting at an old M1. I can then have a coffee in my M2.

There is no logic and I am not suggesting there is nor am I suggesting that one is a crime and the other isn't. What I am suggesting is that any killing regardless of the reason is a bad thing. Sure maybe sometimes killing is unavoidable and justified, still doesn't make it good. I would prefer nil on either side. What about the legitimate boats who can't afford an AIS? What about the criminals who CAN afford an AIS? Who will monitor the AIS? How will you detect the boat's that do not have AIS and if you do manage to detect them, which is not easy as they are very small and do not turn up on radar very well, what will you do about it? My solution is to build the Somali economy and society to a level where there is no motivation to be a pirate, rather than declaring a free fire zone. Rather than pour money into fixing the symptoms I believe the money is better spent on the cause.

Short term , in defence of the US Congress (which I never ever ever do) BIG advances are being made in commercial enterprises into space, Virgin being one of them but there are many others. Removing the Government funded space programme opens the market up. Often the way, a Govt does the initial work and then private enterprise takes over. Mid-term, VERY VERY real possibility a recent launch placed a telescope in space that has as one of it's tasks the mapping of the numerous near orbit objects that could hit us. Long-term - there was a break through just recently can't remember exactly but basically a new type of "string" has been theorised that brings tis on a bit closer. I think the big problem in recent years is tat our presence in space has become part of the everyday so some of the hype has gone. Also many of the advances that have been made in recent times are so incredible that most of us cannot understand why they are significant. Perfecting a nanobot power plant is nowhere near as tangible and cool as a massive noisy rocket exploding it's way to the moon and back. But it is just as, if not more so.

You realise now that given your heritage, service history and the words you have just spoken you are damned to Hell where you will be Beelzebub's Drum Major for eternity ?

That explains it. I couldn't find a photo of the T95 that shows the right hand side and so couldn't work out the IR Searchlight bin. Great pic's by the way, wish I had half your talent.

True enough but I am thinking that for all the money spent on making it invisible to radar, which they didn't need, they could have perhaps worked on the engine airflows or what have you, that they did need.

http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/New_Zealand_TV.html Canberra Bomber, bit faster

The market for Cm might be small but I have seldom seen one more dedicated and loyal.

Perhaps they should have worked on the engine more than stealth ? Why would they need a stealth helicopter? The Pakistanis knew they were there and OBL doesn't have a lot of air search radars, or if he did spotting his house would have been pretty easy.

It's easy, don't give them any reason to kill you.

1/ Cancer is being cured, an Aussie/Scot came up with a vaccination for cervical cancer a few years ago. Crack addiction is a personal choice like smoking an there is no "cure" as such. There are extensive programs working on Malaria. 2/ Social issues not really solved by research as such. 3/ We already know and they are actually made of rocks/dust not gas.

You should drop the patronising tone mate. No one is without sin in all this, killing breeds killing total count in Iraq is up around 1.2 million these days, around 24000 insurgents have been killed and about 5000 allied combatants. Whether the killing is justified or retaliation or murder is simply a matter of perspective. Al Qeda believes it is doing the right thing just as much as we believe we are and thus it just goes on and on and on without end. "and I have no great problem for killing to be punished by killing either" That is the root of the problem, until such time as we gain the maturity as a species to move beyond the law of the jungle we are doomed to continue on this path.

+1 I am old enough (just) to remember very dimly the Apollo missions. Funny thing is as a tiny child I didn't really know too much about what was going on but I do remember this profound sense of joy and hope for everyone in the world not just the USA.

Yes it is busy up there. Pity our Andy didn't rate a mention. I note that a Kiwi is one of the first on V Galactic.

I think games of this nature are very much a niche market, not sure if BFC would get a lot of new comers from main stream.