Agiel

Loved that touch too.

I think that's an F-22 You would be correct. The F-35 is a single-engine fighter in the vein of the F-16 where the F-22 is dual engine like its direct predecessor the F-15 air superiority variants. Also the F-35 has forward swept air intakes. As a sidenote I believe that artist made another one with Bill Clinton: Somewhat odd that he's a gunslinger in this image given that he signed the Assault Weapons Ban into law.

Well I've learned to say "Never say never." It's amazing how someone born in the 1920s would see planes evolve from rickety bi-planes to Spitfires and Me 262s dueling over the Europe to F-14 Tomcats to remote control craft that are exploring Mars. Hell, if you had told me in 2004 that in year's time there would be a hastle-free video streaming site that anyone with broadband could view and upload 10 minute videos all for free, I would have laughed in your face.

There is an unwritten law amongst military aviators that those who are caught singing "Danger Zone" are to be shot down. For those who sing "Take My Breath Away" guns are clear on the offending aviator after he has successfully ejected.

It's certainly a cracking yarn. Perhaps my favourite sections were the ones involving Colonel Hugo Martínez who lead Search Bloc against the Medellin Cartel. He's an interesting guy in the sense that he showed inhuman amounts of bravery (He was only supposed to serve as the head for 2 months before being rotated out; he ended up serving for nearly the entirety of the hunt that lasted nearly a decade) and integrity in the face of efforts by the cartel to either buy him out or intimidate/assassinate him, yet at the same time he looked the other way when the men he commanded resorted to underhanded tactics in fighting the cartels (something he denies to this day). If you've got time for a doorstopper, Guests of the Ayatollah is also another great book by Bowden.

It looks like they got an Mi-26 to lift a portion of the Versailles palace and flew it all the way to Ukraine.

Oblivion (modded, obv) was actually the most fun I ever had with an Elder Scrolls game, warts and all. My very first Gamebryo RPG was Morrowind, and I suppose after that high watermark of New Vegas, I was sort of burned out on that form of game after some hours through Skyrim, so it didn't really click with me to the extent previous games had. Oh, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a way more cohesive game than the original Deus Ex was, and I actually totally agree with Tom Chick's review of that game.

I recall Kurt Vonnegut's list of rules for writing fiction that was to the effect of "Every character must have a motivation, even if it is a glass of water."

While we were shooting the s*** over Skype, a friend of mine came to a rather disturbing conclusion: "I just realized I prefer eating insects (shrimp) to eating ovulations (chicken eggs)."

USN has been there, done that: Fun fact: I guess the artist did not know that the thing on the F/A-18's centerline hardpoint is not a bomb, but an external fuel tank.

The same can be said for the Executor Super Star Destroyer that can be built by the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars mod of the same game.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/04/weekinreview/20100905_gilbertson.html?_r=0 <<Une armée marche à son estomac>> "An army travels on its stomach." Napoleon Bonaparte At least the French one I think I could keep down. I'd be concerned about suicides in the field with the Scandinavian ones.

It's a bit presumptuous to say that the Ukrainians are totally blind to the situations in Greece, Spain, Italy, and the like. In spite of that, some of the Ukrainians I've spoken with who support integration with the EU understand that if the deal had gone ahead things would remain bad for a while (if not get worse) before they got better. And those who don't, well, they think making their own path apart from the influence of the Kremlin is an end in and of itself (the type of mentality amongst some Slavic nationalists that "Little Russia should be one with big Russia again" sums up the issue nicely).

Been shopping for a new network card back home for when I'm at my apartment while at university. Look up this one card on Newegg that's got 5-star reviews across the board and people universally saying: "Oh, this **** works perfectly." Go to the local Fry's Electronics and it's sold out.

That actually kind of brought me down for the day

I think this is what he had in mind:

At the moment I find myself enraptured by Warframe. In the weeks I've played it I've managed to get to Mastery Rank Six, thereby unlocking the gamebreaking Soma. Also, given that it is a free-to-play game, I'm pleasantly surprised it hasn't been invaded by Brazilians who can't speak English yet.

I would imagine the forged documents industry in the former SSRs is a booming one with plenty of high-quality talent to go around, so I don't know if that was the smartest move.

"But the worst thing of all are their antitank missiles, and these missiles work all too well." The younger man gestured with his hands. "Three men in a wheeled vehicle. One driver, one loader, one gunner. They hide behind a tree at a turn in the road and wait. Our column comes into view and they fire from a range of - say two kilometers. As often as not the first warning we have is when the first weapon hits. They fire one more and kill another tank, then race away before we can call down artillery fire. Five minutes later, from another spot, it happens again." -Tom Clancy and Larry Bond, Red Storm Rising Trying out a new scenario in Steel Beasts and I now have a new favourite steed. ...a humble Humvee, with a TOW missile launcher mounted on top. It dies to a sneeze, the launcher isn't stabilised, and you have to stand still while the missile is in flight. But it's nimble, the TIS of the launcher is still a cut above most non-NATO developments, and the TOW 2B (2B, or not 2B, that is the question) series with its top-attack explosively-formed penetrator can render many protection measures irrelevant, meaning over open ground I can keep armour at arm's length, as this unfortunate T-90 discovered: (Green line indicates the path of the EFP that was fired downwards from the missile) *Boosh*! And/or *Ka-kow!*

Raise you the 140mm Smoothbore tested for the Leopard 2 and the Abrams Component Advanced Technology Test Bed: I swear that thing would send the turret of a T-80 flying all the way back to Kharkiv

Oh how far man-portable anti-tank weapons have come, from the humble Boys Anti-tank rifle to the Panzerfaust, to the AT-3 Sagger to the MILAN, then finally the RBS-56 BILL and the TOW 2B.

As an addendum to this. With the drag factor of a combat-loaded A-10 and its canopy left on the runway I'm surprised that Eagle didn't stall while trying to fly fingertips with your friend.

Imagine how it would be if it was the Finns who utterly dominated in Biathlon.

Great games are a potent combination of gameplay and storytelling. Though if you must be without one, do without the story.

Comintern had also liquidated the existing Polish Communist party during the purges in the run-up to the Second World War, replacing it with one far more amiable to the Soviet Union's interests. From that we can glean that Stalin's plans for Poland had been on the cards for as long as Hitler's. And, you know, Katyn.