Bullethead

All these critters, along with many types of fish, are essentially tasteless. But life's too short to eat bland food. Thus, proper gourmands view them as blank canvasses upon which to paint with spices and sauces. You could, of course, just pour the sauces in a glass, stir in the dry spices, and suck it up with the a straw, and you'd have the same taste, but then you'd miss the nutritional value and tummy-filling volume of the meat.

Congrats! Now, where's my cigar?

But where was my Lufbery Circle for the Fees? :)

Good to hear from you, Tranq. Best wishes on a speedy recovery, and pinch Nurse Gladys on the butt for me ;)

Thanks for the info, Gepard. That's not how we hear it over here, but with propaganda that's not surprising. Thanks for providing new (and I assume better) data.

I saw "Prometheus" yesterday in IMAX 3D. Excellent movie in general and if you can see it on the huge screen, by all means do so. Anyway, to get this thing back on topic more or less, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that one of the main characters (in 2094 or whenever this happens) is sporting an RFC tunic that Lou would be proud to own ;).

True, but I'm unfamiliar with any other work of hers. The whole "Dragon Tattoo" trilogy wasn't the sort of thing to make somebody a star because the title role was minimally challenging from an acting POV. The real "star" is the journalist, in terms of actually doing acting. Salander is more of a puller of strings from behind the scenes, although with countless sex scenes, more porn than actual acting, and without the looks for that job. I do, too, but Rapace has instead the chest of an 80-year old. I'm reminded of a single, wrinkled pancake topped with an olive. Well, to start with, you might recall in the original "Alien" movie they found the Xenomorph eggs in the hold of the "Space Jockey's" ship. The Xenomorphs are animals, not very bright at all, certainly incapable builing interstellar spacecraft. Yet all subsequent movies have followed them and totally blown off the advanced "Space Jockeys". In fact, they were so ignored that even their name "Space Jockey" was simply an in-house description of the set of the ship's bridge--they never had an official name in the movies. But "Prometheus" is about the "Space Jockeys", now called "Engineers". And "Prometheus" answers the questions of what the "Space Jockeys" were doing with a hold full of Xenomorph eggs anyway, and why the "Space Jockey" looked like he'd grown out of his chair, and quite a few other things. You have to violate (as in maliciously rape) both Newton and Einstein to have interstellar travel in timespans measured somewhere this side of Doomsday. If you don't believe we'll ever figure out how to do that, then the only science fiction that will meet your tastes is confined to very small-scale expeditions taking years to cross just this solar system. Things like "2001" and "2010". Anything involving actual colonies on the Moon, Mars, or (Gods forbid) even further away is pure hogwash until we learn how to beat Earth's gravity with something larger than a minivan. As to your point about the biology involved, that's a serious spoiler so I'm afraid I can't answer it now.

Guess you'll have your dog practicing building sheep pens (especially hanging the gates) full-time between now and then, eh? :D

I dunno. I mean, in the entire "Dragon Tattoo" trilogy, Rapace had maybe 5 articulate spoken lines (which, being in Swedish, I had to read subtitles for), and never more than a single sentence at a time, stripped down to its bare minimum of subject-verb or verb-object. She did by far the most of her "talking" via texting (including tattooing words on people). The vast bulk of her vocalizations were grunts while having sex with quite a few different men and women. And she's tragically flat-chested so that wasn't much fun to watch anyway. So to be honest, I was very surprised to discover in "Prometheus" that she actually has a voice and can do something other than get naked or type at a keyboard. As to the movie itself, IMHO it was exactly what it promised to be. Visually spectacular, tying up several HUGE loose ends from the "Alien" series, and going off in a different direction. It all made sense to me, but then I'd walked to the theater (as is my habit and custom) after a large and delicious lunch, washed down with several strong ales, at the adjacent brewpub. Such a repast makes all annoyances in the world go away, so I'm able to take movies as they come without any of the preconceptions I might have had before lunch. It's just sit back, watch, and enjoy (or not) what I see in total isolation from everything else in the world. I greatly enjoyed this movie and plan on buying it on disc (especially because Rapace doesn't get naked yet again {shudder}).

Next time your want your BC to return to you, call "Ofi Okla mentih!" That's Choctaw for "Red Dog, come here NOW!". I'm betting your dog will understand it perfectly because my BC did (except I say "Ofi Losa" for Black Dog).

My dog enjoys digging the post holes but has great difficulty hitting nails that straight ;).

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this. So-called "climatology" is so far removed from actual science that it's "not even wrong". It's just pure garbage. To be a scientific, a theory must not only make testable predictions for the future, it must also explain all previous observations. Climatology fails this initial condition. It cannot explain how there have been periods in the Earth's history where there was zero polar ice at all, or how there has been ice all the way to the equator. So, at present, climatology is at the same level as saying UFO aliens taught people how to do anything other than make fire, especially wnen it comes to saying everything happening today is the result of human actions. Pure crap! Don't misunderstand me. I'm not denying the world's getting hotter. However, I wish to point out that it's not yet hotter today than it was back in the 1200s. IOW, we're still just seeing the planet recovering from the Little Ice Age. And note that prior to the whole climate issue becoming a political meal ticket, the 1200s were called the "Medieval Optimum". Since then, they've been called the "Medieval Warm Period". But if anything, since the 1200s, the net human impact has been to decrease greenhouse gases. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of people in the world lived on family farms, which they'd created by clearing forest. And they relied on having a wood fire going perpetually for cooking, light, and heat. Nowadays, we get way more agricutulture out of much less land and relatively few have fires in their houses except on special occasions, so most folks live in cities. Thus, there's today much more forest than 200 years ago and there's much less wood smoke and animal-produced methane. Yet still the world's getting hotter. Sure, everybody's got a car these days, but those cars only run a couple hours a day at most. Not like everybody having a 24/7 fire going, plus at least 1 cow and several horses constantly producing methane from the products of mass deforestation. And contrary to popular belief, the Earth isn't in the "Goldilocks Zone" where liquid water occurs naturally. We're inside it and we only have liquid water due to the presence of greenhouse gases. So greenhouse gases, up to a point anyway, are a good thing. We reduce them at our peril. Anyway, the only measurably siginficant impact on Earth's climate comes from this totally unshielded fusion reactor that's about 1,000,000 times the size of this whole planet, and is only 8 light-seconds away. Because of the relative sizes, an unnoticeable flucuation in the Sun, multiplied by 1,000,000, could easily be a change of several percent here on Earth. To think human activity is even on the same scale as this is ridiculous. I should also point out that there are no private sector jobs for climatologists. They only exist because of government subsidies, which are provided to for them to support the political agenda of the politicians. So guess what the climatologists are going to say? I should also point out that the not-even-wrong pseudoscience of "climatology" is only a couple decades old. Meanwhile, meteorology goes baqck to Neolithic times, has ample private-sector employment, and absolutely disagrees with the conclusions of the "climatologists". Who would you rather believe?

I have to disagree with your assessment here. The simple fact is, unless we start building nuke plants quite rapidly, we're going to run out of electricity in the not too distant future. All the current hoopla about wind turbines and such "green" things is just BS. Those things don't make enough juice to matter and are only built at all because of massive government subsidies given to fool the green voters into thinking the government is actually doing something worthwhile about the coming energy shortfall when it's really not. And just to be clear, the fact that we have a radwaste problem is entirely the fault of the idiot greens. We spent vast amounts of money to built a long-term storage facility at Yucca Mountain, which at the minimum would have totally held everything for at least 10,000 years, and the greens shut that down saying that wasn't a long enough time. Huh? Anyway, because of this, radwaste has nowhere to go so it's just sitting there at each reactor, where yes, it can eventually get into drinking water. And who's fault is that?

Best of luck, Typhoon! I figure you'll be OK if you didn't even notice having a heart attack a while back, but I'll ask the spirits to look out for you anyway.

I agree that the RN's blockade was just as pernicious as the U-boat war. However, from the POV of neutrals on the outside, it looked a lot better. The RN blockade was imposed by cruiser warfare following all the accepted rules of the time. Would-be blockade runners were intercepted and sent into Brit ports with no lives or ships lost. And because the Brits needed the same things from the same suppliers as the Germans, they didn't want to offend those suppliers. Thus, they'd often buy the contraband cargo instead of just confiscating it. And this meant a lot of shippers got paid twice for the same load, because they'd make the Germans pay in advance due to the blockade catching more than 90% of ships bound for Germany. So, this process was a lot more acceptable to neutrals than having their ships and people blown out of the water with no warning. The RN blockade also largely controlled the flow of information from Europe. Very little the Germans said ever crossed the ocean, at least in quantity sufficient to influence public opinion. But the taps of Entente propaganda were wide open. For every German complaint about starving civilians, there were hundreds of headlines about the atrocities of the "Beastly Hun". And of course, the U-boat campaign compared to the RN blockade, as they both affected neutrals, played right into this. There were plenty of German-Americans who'd have fought for the Kaiser in the same way, if given the chance. However, it was much, much harder for them to get to Germany than it was for Entente-sympathizers to get to France. Again, because of the RN blockade. Too bad Gen. Butler didn't oust FDR. That man was an actual communist. He even sent is Secretary of the Interior to Stalin's USSR to learn about the collectivization of agriculture, so he could apply it to the US. But anyway, what's the problem with war being a racket? At least it serves some practical purpose that way, instead of just being senseless violence. Since the 1st 2 tribes of cavemen fought over access to hunting territory, most wars have been fought for economic reasons. What "defending our way of life" actually boils down to is "preventing others from lowering our standard of living".

Long time no see Last post I remember from you, you were asking who here was a fireman and for pics of our stuff. I posted some but never heard back from you. Anyway, welcome to the insanity that is the fire service... probe-ee :). It's the next best thing to combat. Geez, I made 49 a couple months back. You kids have it so easy these days. When I started, we were using steel SCBA bottles that were friggin' huge because they were only 2500psi, so our armor alone was about 80 pounds. And the old bunker gear soaked up water like a sponge so in a few minutes your load about doubled. And this before you factor in doing very hard manual labor with very heavy tools in temperatures of several hundred degees F. These days, armor is about 60 pounds and shed water so things are a lot easier, weight-wise. But it's never been the weight that's gotten to me, it's the heat. All the insulation that keeps external heat out also keeps internal heat in, so you very quickly start stewing in your own juices. It's thus all about hydration. This time of year, I drink about 2 gallons of water every day just so I'll be hydrated enough before the balloon goes up. Glad you're enjoying it. 3/4 of American firemen are volunteers, and there are never enough of them. Thanks for joining the fight.

I'm sure he denied saying this; I find it hard to credit him making such a statement. I mean, Churchill's on record many times saying how he wanted the US in and was doing all in his power at the Admiralty to make that happen. The whole Lusitania thing was largely his doing, for example. I personally don't think the US entry into WW1 combat was in any way decisive. By the time US troops were finally in the line in enough strength to be noticed at all (mid-late 1918), the war had already been decided; only the end date was in doubt. So if the US entry did anything, it was merely to hasten the inevitable conclusion. Where the US played a major role was in providing huge quantities of supplies and equipment to the Entente, which would have continued whether or not US troops ever set foot in Europe. What defeated Germany IMHO, and what ultimately brought in the US, was the Royal Navy's blockade of Germany. Once Germany failed to capture French Atlantic ports in 1914, her fate was sealed up between Dover and Scapa Flow, and she was going to collapse no later than 1919. To get to the blockade, which was out beyond the Shetlands, the High Seas Fleet had to go through the Grand Fleet, and it was incapable of doing that. So from the Race to the Sea on, Germany had only 2 options for victory: inflicting a 1940-style defeat on France to acquire the Atlantic ports, or starving the UK out with U-boats. The former wasn't attempted until 1918, the latter was tried twice in 1915 and from 1917 on, but failed both times. Prior to the war, the Germans made no plans for dealing with the long-term effects of a British blockade because they, along with everybody else, believed the war would be too short for that. When the war proved to be of indefinite duration, the Germans had to scramble to deal with the blockade. To begin with, Kaiser Bill maintained the belief in a short war, if not with outright victory then a negotiated settlement. Thus, he refused to risk his navy, of which he was exceptionally fond. Thus, he frittered away the High Seas Fleet's best chance of beating the Grant Fleet. By then, the blockade was beginning to hurt so Germany had to do something. Thus, Germany tried unrestricted U-boat warfare in 1915, but lacked the number of submarines to make it decisive, and backed off a US sabre-rattling over things like Lusitania. So in 1916, Germany reverted to trying to break out with the High Seas Fleet. After Jutland showed this to be hopeless, they tried U-boats again in 1917. Germany's decision to use U-boats again in 1917 was a desperate, calculated gamble. If this didn't work, then the war was lost. The Germans knew the U-boats would bring in the US but they also knew it would take over a year before US forces would be significant. In that time, they hoped to achieve land victory on the Eastern Front while starving the UK out of the war and breaking the blockade. Once that happened, they assumed France would throw in the towel. And they came very close to success with this strategy, thanks mostly to British refusal to adopt convoys until it was almost too late. Once the U-boats failed and the US was on the way, only then did the Germans attempt a direct land victory over France in early 1918. These Kaiserschlacht battles were stopped without much direct US battlefield intervention, and that was that.

Howdy Tamper- I'm afraid it's download only, either via Steam or Xbox Live. But it's definitely a lot of fun. Just pure silliness. For instance, the tanks all have wind-up keys sticking out of them and when infantrymen die, the break up in a shower of cogs and springs. Plus, at the end of the battle, there's a stats section that shows things like the highest altitude a dead soldier got blown up into the air :).

Yup, they winch on down, provided of course that their archie doesn't get them first. It was to avoid the archie problem that I developed the above tactics. After all, to me the mission is a failure unless I personally kill the balloon. And if I'm going to run the risk of messing with them at all, I'd better have the kill to show for it ;). Anyway, once the alarm for that area gets sounded, the balloon starts loosing altitude quite rapidly. The ideal approach is to dive vertically and come in horiztonally just above the AAMG ceiling going as fast as you can. This makes it much easier to spot the balloon because it will usually still be somewhat above you, easily seen above the horizon. By the time you come in range, however, it should have winched on down to just about your altitude. But if you're in a Halberstadt, you'll see the balloon winch on down way below you before you get into range.

I rather like the Halberstadt myself. As you say, it's quite sturdy and has no vices. It's perfectly adequate for its time period. But I have to disagree with you on the dive speed. With me, the thing acts like I left the parking brake on--it only gets a little faster than it goes in level flight. I had a balloon-busting mission one time so I did my usual flight profile to set up the attack. This entails starting high and some miles behind the balloon so as not to scare it too soon, diving vertically while still a few miles away, then coming in fast on the level, hopefully catching the balloon still relatively high and then right on out for home. This tactic doesn't work in a Halberstadt. During the vertical dive, I gained so little speed that I undid my seatbelt, climbed out of my seat, and started jumping up and down on the instrument panel in an unsuccessful effort to make it dive faster ;). When I finally got low enough to pull out, I was going no faster than I had been before the dive. Surprise was achieved; there was the balloon still a little above me. But I closed the remaining distance so slowly that it was winched down to the ground before I came anywhere close to effective range. Fortunately, I was safely above all the AAMGs but all the archie in the neighborhood had a good time knocking me about. The one good thing was the Halberstadt absorbed numerous splinters with no apparent effect, but the mission was a total failure.

Well, I had to get it myself. Thanks for the tip ;)

I once tried to use Johan Gambolputty de von Ausfern-Schplenden-Schlitter-Crassenbon-Fried-Digger-Dingle-Dangle-Dongle-Dungle-Burstein von Knackerthrasher-Horowitz-Ticolensic-Granderknotty-Spelltinkle-Grandlichgrumblemeyer-Speltwasser-Kurstlich-Himbleeisen-Bahnwagen-Gutenabendbitte-EineNurnbergerbratwurst-Gernspurtenmitzweimache-Luberhundsfut-Gumberaber-Schonedanker-Kalbsfleish-Mittler-Aucher von Hauptkopf von Ulm. Unfortunately, the Armistice came before I finished typing it in.

I have avoided this problem by having my 1st 4 pilots be lab rats for QC only, 1 for each playable nationality. They are set to never die and do the dirty work of familiarizing me with any new airplane I want to do a career with, and also testing the in-game appearance of my skins. All my "real" pilots are #5 and higher.

I'll have to check this out. I love M&B as-is but have found previous user modes aimed at the Napoleanic era to be rather lacking, due to the silly 1-man line formation that shooting units assume. OTOH, I much liked the 1866 Wild West mod because it was all irregulars so the unit formation thing wasn't a big deal. However, I haven't tried "With Fire and Sword" yet. That'll have to come first :). I LOVE that series of books.

I'm going to fly OFF2 like I fly OFF1: I'm going to create a pilot (probably in No. 20 Squadron flying Fees in Bloody April), and go for it, hoping very much to see the Lufbery Circle implemented as a new wingman command. After I get tired of that (Lufbery Circle or no), I'll go see how things stand with the French. Will they have any of their own 2-seaters at all? Will it now be somewhat more realistic to fly for either side in French sectors? After that, a check of the US sectors, to see if they have any 2-seaters (but if the French don't, I don't expect the US will, either). Then I suppose I'll do a few 2-seater careers on both sides to see how well the promise of squadrons being assigned primarily to certain mission types holds up. And of course I'll have to try the Gothas and HPs. Only after all this will I get into a scout career. I suppose I'll start in 1917 where enemies are fewer, to see how the new AI works under closer observation. Then finally, what I want most to do: fly a D.VII in 1918 to see if the massive furballs I'm used to are still there with the new AI.