Capitaine Vengeur

The weather is just becoming quite snowy and icy down here in Normandy. I can imagine that's the model of pointy shoes the acrobat clowns should wear to perform their sudden take-offs and crash landings. Indeed, such red shoes would perfectly match with a white plaster around one arm. Or both.

A friend has just send me this news and pictures. The plane is the latest generation Airbus A340-600, worth USD 200,000,000. She was to be delivered to Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) and had never flown before her fatal accident on runway at Toulouse-Blagnac, France (Airbus headquarters).The plane was manned by an ADAT (Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies) crew for engines tests on the ground. They first rolled on the taxiway at full take-off thrust with a plane as light as possible. The plane's calculators thought the plane was about to take-off in a bad configuration (flaps up, etc), so the take-off warnings began to yell. The noise probably bored one of the crewmen, so he switched off the Ground Proximity Sensor to have the warnings shut up. The plane's calculators then thought that the plane was in the air, and released the wheel brakes (an automatic security to avoid inadvertently landings with blocked brakes). None of the panicked crewmen thought to reduce the engines' thrust. The result can be seen here. This event's date is not given. My friend's post says that there has been a black-out in media to avoid humiliation to the wealthy and powerful Emirates, but that some pictures begin to circulate on the Net. Nothing is known about the crew's fate. The post says that these guys are paid USD 300,000 a year (which is much, much more than the average US pilot, considering the latest movie from Michael Moore). Their main qualification was probably to be the nephews of some important boss or sandbox prince, as it often seems to happen in such desert principalities.

Well well, so... Well-informed investigator:1 / Half-drunken dilettante urban legend propagator: 0.

Berlusconi is 25% Mussolini, 25% Jim Carrey, 25% Don Corleone and 25% Alexander Borgia (you know where these last 25% sit !), the four of them I would have greedily seen punched. Oh yes, I would have preferred to have that sexual maniac punched under the belt by an outraged woman, but the world is not perfect. I could say I disrespect Italians for having voted once more (once MORE !) for such a degenerated buffone, but seeing the president we have here in France, I prefer to keep silent and look at my own feet.

An advert for a good movie about this subject: "Joyeux Noël" ("Merry Christmas"), nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards 2006, starring Gary Lewis, Diane Kruger and Guillaume Canet ("The Beach"), amongst excellent actors. A German, a French and a Scottish units fight and bleed in the same snowy sector around a ruined farm in Northern France, December 1914. On Christmas Eve, all sides take advantage of the presence of a famous German tenor, serving as a common private, his Danish girlfriend singer on tour (Diane Kruger), and an open-minded Scottish Roman Catholic priest (Gary Lewis). Although Jewish, even the German lieutenant enjoys the Christmas spirit of this improvised party. For some days, the boys enjoy the priest's Christmas songs and the tenor's recitals, plant Christmas trees, freely come and go from one trench to another, play soccer between the lines, exchange goods and gifts... Of course, all of the participants get punished (the German unit being transferred to the Russian front, the Scottish priest being replaced by another preaching the infamous London Archbishop's sermon of hatred, etc).

By the way, I enjoy heavily modded EECH, but just hate the default keyboard configuration. Is there a way to adjust your own keyboard/ joystick/ throttle/ pedals configuration?

Hello you people of taste. French cuisine is often considered to be one of the best by self-pretended gourmets and other snobs. But I'd like to know how deeply some cultures in the wide world could feel disgusted by some of those dishes (concerning their tastes, or morale convictions): Frog legs of course, having given to the Frenchies their most common Anglo-Saxon nickname (not often consumed that much in fact, usually served with a sauce to give to the dish the taste it misses) Escargots (snails), usually served with garlic butter Horse meat or horse sausages (popular since Napoleon's campaigns, sold in specialized butcher shops, not much consumed nowadays) Numerous tripe-based dishes all over the country, like andouille (tripe cooked in smoked cold sausage), andouillette (in smoked grilled sausage – very smelly, believe it), tripes à la mode de Caen (with apple cider and Calvados, a distilled cider), tripoux, Marseillese pieds-paquets using also pig's trotters... Pig's trotters, usually breaded, or in jelly, or even cooked until the bones inside get reduced to powder! Foie gras (fattened by force goose or duck liver) Goat cheeses (seem to be not produced in the Anglo-Saxon world, safe for some Celtic counties in UK) Blue cheeses with localized areas of mould, like Roquefort (sometimes melted in sauces accompanying mussels or red meats) – said to be smelly New wines like Beaujolais Nouveau, immature because fermented only a few weeks, tasteless in the good years and barely drinkable in most other ones, but celebrated in France in an annual national Beaujolais Day, I still don't understand why (the past Thursday actually, which has inspired me this post). Please be frank, but keep the rude words into the vomit bag.

Actually, for about the two last decades, one of the most, perhaps the most consumed dish in France seem to have been North African couscous (or kuskus), due to immigration. I think that's the same thing in England with Indian/Pakistani cuisine, or Mexican food in Southern USA. It's not a bad thing in itself: a very complete and tasty dish, with numerous sorts of recipes, provided you make no abuse with Harissa sauce: opening your windows for 3 days wouldn't be sufficent to refresh your air!! By the way, about snails, do you think that Jabba the Hutt would look more or less disgusting if he were cooked with a quintal of parsley and 20 drums of garlic butter?

I enjoy a large Portuguese restaurant next to me, but reading you, it seems that the dished served were quite, say, consensual (feijoada, churrasco, chanfana, cabrito assado, things like that - the pastries are quite tasty, too). Never heard of tripe recipes or dishes like snails with tomato sauce, but it seems original. And agree for the wines: I dislike syrupy wines like Madeira or Porto, but nothing beats a good chilled sparkling Lancers when the summer is hot.

"There's only one way to win a battle: five to one, and from behind!"

About weather over North/ Northeast France, I would say: Rainy in March, Mixed in April and May, perhaps Sunny in early September. Add a general touch of Rainy for Northern France (Somme, Flanders, the English front).

I have visited the Mistral last Sunday 15 at the docks in her homeport of Le Havre, just before her departure for St-Petersurg. She's a fairly new, interesting ship. As a command ship, she has very few defensive armament. Six LZ for helos, including one reinforced for the huge US double-rotor carriers, one lift at the rear. A docking bay large enough to accomodate four landing ships, or one of the giant US hovercrafts (many joint maneuvers with the US Navy and Marines). A crew of ca. 170 only, with accomodations for 400 to 500 ground soldiers and their vehicles. The ship has yet made some operations in the help of refugees (Liban, especially), hundreds of them receiving a basic accomodation in the large bays (in a gangway, one can see an impressive wall of photographs of all the helped refugees). In addition, she seems to be quite a cheap model (even if she needs a devoted escort). The petty officers that have guided us in the depths of the ship the previous week-end have not told anything about this possible deal, but they have said that some of the Mistral's dates had been delayed or cancelled for this important visit at St-petersburg to be made.

Roastin' hornets with hoods in China, roaster WASPs with hoods in Dixieland. Earth is still round.

Agree. Seems that 2010 will see a remake of Red Dawn, a bunch of teenage rednecks against the whole Chinese Red Army. They must have tortured their own gray matter to s**t this !

I am no believer at all, so I'm not feared about death and rubbish about after-life, judgement, reincarnation as a bad-looking insect, etc. I think death must only look like a powercut with total memory erasement and no possible backup. The people left behind will just have to deal with the corrupted hardware, possibly saving as many spare parts in working order as they can, and take care of the next generation. But on the other hand, I'm simply terrified by the idea of pain, a pain so huge that it could provoke death. I don't know what I will die from, but my arteries are still by large number one on the black list of potential murderers... ...Unless the Mayans' prophecy gets right and there's no Year 2013!

File Name: WWI Alternative Medals Pack for FE - December 2015 update File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 20 November 2009 File Category: First Eagles - General Files - Hanger, Menu Screens Welcome to my latest update, December 2015, for this Medals Pack intended to provide your campaigns on the Western Front with a more complete immersion into the WW1 universe. Compared with my latest update in July 2010, you will notice many changes, especially the appearance of new lists of awards for the Belgians and for two more German States, and some conspicuous increase in the already existing lists. The available panels now cover Germany, the United Kingdom & British Empire, France, Belgium, and the United States. About Germany, four panels are actually provided, allowing you to embody a pilot from either one of the main four federated kingdoms of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, or Wurtemberg – and to receive awards accordingly. Each Allied panel includes several awards from other Allied countries, each panel for the German Kingdoms includes several awards from other German States. Two Nations lists are provided, the first one devoted to campaigns and missions taking place before early 1918, and the second and default one reassessing the state of the belligerents from early 1918 on. You’ll have to juggle with both lists according to the period of the War when you plan to fly your campaigns. Everything has been designed, when swapping the pre-1918 for the 1918 medals file during an extensive career, for the decorations you were awarded before April 1918 both to be preserved with original look and citations, and not to be awarded a second anachronistic time thereafter. The pre-1918 list grants much more lenient criteria to be awarded the same distinctions you could also receive later spending more sweat, and prevents you to get awards unavailable before 1918. This pre-1918 list also allows you to explicitly fly as distinct nations both of the British air components existing before the Royal Air Force: the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Naval Air Service, both of them with their own lists of ranks, awards and citations. Generally speaking, the requirements for awards for enduring service have been now revised upwards by large, to hang on to Ojcar’s Armchair Aces dynamic campaigns allowing to go through that long-term World War in its seemingly never-ending aspect. Each panel includes several decorations from allied countries (or from other German States in the case of the Second Reich). I chose to have the citations display the decorations’ names in original language without subtitle, as you can notice on the screenshots. Be easy, the awards you deserved are still announced in English on the Debrief Screen, and listed in English on the Medal List Screen. A complete set of musics for all occurrences has been enriched, and sometimes modified since my latest update in July 2010. Several themes from the soundtrack of “The Blue Max” replace the game's default themes (Main Screen, Base Screen, Options Screen...), while national anthems and marches are devoted to each nation's overtures and successful debriefings sequences. This Pack is a huge lot, and has been many, many times entirely re-engineered on a new basis. Each list of medals includes many links to other files, and not all of the available panels have been tested on the long term. Please report all of the quirks, crashes, and other non-appearances of medals or citations you could experience. I shall then edit the Pack according to the problems found. VERY IMPORTANT : Be aware that in comparison with the former July 2010 update of this pack, this updated version has reshuffled orders of precedence and that the decorations in each panel had their code names modified and their individual numbers reallocated. This may certainly alter the lists of honours received already in any of your ongoing Allied or German campaigns. So think twice before installing this December 2015 update if you have current campaigns underway, and prefer installation when beginning new campaigns. Click here to download this file

Have you ever thought that dying in such a frenzied drug & sex orgy would probably be the best way to have your dead body outraged by a whole gang of horny degenerated junkies? Oh yes, you 'd certainly not care at that time, but...

Let's keep on the off-topic for a while. Yeah, I can confirm that French is a very difficult language. For every, every rule, you have a handful of exceptions. In fact, that's the same thing for French law or everyday life. And in the case you have succeded in speaking it, the next nightmare will be to write it correctly, having to deal with numerous written but unpronounced letters (unlike English). That's probably why French had been considered so an elitist language in the European past. As an anecdote, in the 19th Century, a special dictation, full of vicious traps and rare words, had been proposed to the Court of Emperor Napoléon III. The Emperor (not said to be a very clever man) made 75 errors, the Spanish-born Empress 62, and the Ambassador of Austria-Hungary only 1.5.

Never anything in LA? Phuuuhh... You forget all seasons of Jack Bauer's 24, with permanent NBC alerts on LA, Valencia twinned with Nagasaki, and a common rate of casualties at the local CTU worse than in a Kamikaze squadron (the worst affectation for a Fed, for sure).

A French singer and poet had once said: "Life is the most lethal of all the sexual diseases".

File Name: WWI Pilots Pack for FE File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 10 November 2009 File Category: First Eagles Hanger, Menu Screens You can see here a very small sample of an extensive lot of new pretty faces for your flying machine's log book / carnet de vol / Soldbuch. Now with more than 200 pictures! Huns, Frogs, Aussies, Limeys and Yanks, I hope everyone will find what he's after. This mod exists in two files: with or without national flags inserted. Click here to download this file

File Name: Counters for WoI & WoV File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 06 Nov 2009 File Category: Planning Maps/Icons/Base Mods Here are some new counters for WoI and WoV maps: smaller, softer-coloured, more readable (especially for heavy stacks), with national colours and flags/roundels. Also includes a new list of IAF/IDF ranks, in Hebrew. Click here to download this file