UK_Widowmaker

I just LOVE the Direct.gov e-petition site...some of the petitions are hilarious! For the benefit of Non-Brits...our Government have set up an e-petition website, where members of the public can put up a petition. If it gets over 100,000 votes...it will be discussed in Parliament, and may change/add Laws. Great idea in principle...and often highly amusing!!!...as it allows every loony in the UK to put forward their particular brand of potty ideas ..here's a few of my favourites... Protect airline passengers against hijack by nerve gassing entire cabin PREVENT PAEDOPHILES FROM Driving Copper Thefts - should be classed as an act of terrorism Bring in Lashing as a punishment (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 -100 lashes) per crime Remove the Prime Minister Immediately & Restore Democracy To force Kim Gandy AKA Boadicea Iceni to stop showing her breasts in her FB profile Bring back some form of legalised Cocaine Aren't the British Wonderful????...hahahahaha

A Chimpanzee called 'Ham'...who at 5,857MPH...has to be the fastest Chimp on record! Ham was named in honor of Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, New Mexico, where the chimpanzees lived and also in honor of Holloman commander Lt. Col. Hamilton Blackshear. In training for his suborbital flight to space, the four-year-old chimpanzee practiced with three other chimps pulling levers to receive rewards for correct choices. Eventually, Ham was blasted off inside Mercury capsule number 5 atop a Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 31, 1961. His mission was to prove that live animals aboard a spacecraft could carry out their jobs during launch, weightlessness and reentry. Unfortunately, Ham's rocket overshot and boosted the chimp in his capsule to a speed of 5,857 mph. That was 1,457 mph faster than planned, which resulted in Ham experiencing 1.7 more minutes of weightlessness than projected. He was weightless for a total of 6.6 minutes. The excess power also shot the capsule 122 miles off course. Even so, Ham was able to perform his tasks almost perfectly. The Mercury capsule landed far outside the Atlantic Ocean target zone at 12:12 p.m., 60 miles from the nearest recovery ship, the destroyer Ellison. Lying on its side in the water, the capsule was battered by waves. Tears in the landing bag capsized the craft. An open cabin pressure relief valve let sea water in. It was beginning to submerge when Navy rescue helicopter pilots found it. At 2:52 p.m. a helicopter managed to snag the craft and lift it and 800 pounds of sea water out of the ocean. After dangling all the way to a ship, the capsule was lowered to the deck. Nine minutes later Ham came out in good condition. He happily accepted an apple and half an orange. Ham survived in good condition to retire to the National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C., on April 2, 1963. The success of his Mercury capsule flight led directly to the launch of Alan Shepard on America's first human suborbital flight on May 5, 1961.

Well...I'm afraid you will all be disgusted with me....self confessed Animal lover that I am....but I lived in a four storey apartment as a kid..and I had a GI Joe (or action man as he's called here)...and it included a Space Capsule for him to sit in. It was the late 60's, and the NASA moon landings were big news....So me and my brother filled a Trash can full of water...with the intention of doing a simulated splashdown, by dropping the capsule out the window...and into the Trashcan full of water. Two test runs later, and all was going well... So we decided to try it with a Live Astronaut. Unfortunately, the only live specimen we had, was my Sister's pet Gerbil...Stanley. So, in true pioneer spirit...Stanley became the new British Space program volunteer. (well, perhaps Volunteer is the wrong phrase, under the circumstances) He was strapped in (ok, forced in through the hatch) and prepared to make History...he was duly dropped four storeys....onto the Sidewalk!....missing the trashcan by mere feet. We rushed downstairs...to find a very traumatised, but unhurt Gerbil still in the wreckage!...to this day, I don't know how the poor little thing survived!...but he did. And was duly returned to his cage...if not a National hero...certainly a hero to my Brother an I. I'm sorry little Stanley, for what we put you through...but it upset me to think what might have happened to him....and in some strange way..I think I learnt respect for Animals because of that Childish episode! (ps...My sister never knew about this...and if she reads it...I'm a dead man walking!...she loves animals even more than me!)

Absolutely!..Poor Laika comes to mind

What a Guy!

Every Mum's worse nightmare!...I showed this to the wife...and she felt physically sick Thankfully, all ended happily http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8311289.stm

Just noticed..it's quite old story (2009) so apologise if you've seen it

Indeed!...a reverse parachute?... does that mean he goes up instead of down? Respect to him for his quick thinking...and also for helping the Vulture escape!....I would have been tempted to twat it!

Nice 1...happy flyin'

My Lord..it's bloody hard at times! Son is nearly fourteen...He's a Good kid...but very hormonally challenged at the moment..and was being downright lippy to Mrs Widowmaker and I....and I'm afraid I lost it a bit...grabbed him by the arms, chucked him down on the Sofa...and verbally ripped into him! He felt worse for that for about 15mins...I feel worse for it several hours later...I really hate losing my cool...I have always felt, it's a weakness....but, y'know....sometimes! Anybody else feel like that?

Testament to a Job well done! Consistency is a major factor...If you misbehave, this is what will happen 100% of the time..is a useful tool in many circumstances

Lets not forget 'Airplane' classic (though, hardly an aviation film!!) Although...if you've ever flown on a Budget Airline!,,,hmmm

Nature?...Nurture?.... Bit of both I guess

True enough guys..thanks. I was really beaten as a Kid...I mean, if my old man did today, what he did to me as a Kid...he'd be doing time at her majesty's pleasure! I think therefore, on the (very, very) rare times, I lose my rag...it harks back to those days for me...which is very uncomfortable to say the least. I've never hit my son for that reason.... Beating people (certainly in my case)...just makes them even more rebelious...and difficult to deal with... My mum died when I was 10..and I stayed at home with my dad until I was 15...and then ran away from home...never to return....I know it was hard for him, trying to bring up an unruly teenage Boy on his own...but hey...no excuse for violence...certainly not at that level methinks. I reckon, in some respects I've been a little too soft at times with Matt... but, he did apologise...and in the circumstances, and reading what you guys have said.... all's well that ends well

You shouldnt be having any issues at all!.... I think you have something else going on there!...you don't use any 'Registry cleaners' do you?

http://takeonthegame.com/ (also available on Steam) sorely tempted!

Main reason I dont play online anymore....cheats...stupid perks...bunnyhopping 12 year olds!...yuk!

You make some good points Dave...my main dissapointment is SP.. MP is just not my scene...therefore, the game is flawed (imho) and not worth the money

Exactly Slarti...Lazy developers (and EA are the worst)...churn out the same old stuff, year after year... concentrate so much on eye candy, that they lose track of what a fully rounded game should be! If Bethesda had done Battlefield 3....I would have sold my soul to the devil for it!...but EA?...nah They have never made a game to come even close to their original MOHAA (for which they should be congratulated, as it was groundbreaking stuff however)

Well, sorry to be the outcast here...same old same old

HE'S ALIVE!!! Hello James...good to see you (cool vid)

I'm sure it will be a super game...but, as per usual...it will be the clever modders who will turn it into a classic I suspect!

I have been playing it, yes... my personal score 2/10 Hey Hellshade!...you don't work for Bethesda do you?

Have to add, that I havent been dissapointed in any Bethesda product yet. Love all the Fallout games too. Unlike companies like EA and Ubisoft...they stick to one type of genre..and do it extremely well