AngusThermopyle

Do you actually read what you post? Its rather ironic that you should condemn all serving members with such a descriptor when your posts are often barely legible. Not to mention the fact that you are as wrong as anyone else who indulges in such a vague and broad generalization of an entire group of people.

Thats easey. Thomas Pynchon, Gravities Rainbow. Thats actually the first sentence of the work. I'm not a big fan of post modernism myself and Pynchon is far too obssesive in his writing for my taste.

I'm a movie addict. I love all genres and subjects. The one stipulation that I have is that it has to be well made and be boith informing or entertaining. Thats actually a pretty broad and demanding stipulation when you think about it. I'll try to categorize this but it'll be tough, after all. Does "The Deer Hunter" fit the Drama/Human Interest section or the War section, you be the judge of that. So what are your choices for your favourite/ best movies of all time? The ones that left a lasting impresion on you, the ones you still remeber to this day. These are a few of my favourites. Drama and Human Interest The Graduate - The young Dustin Hoffman, He was also exceptional in The Straw Dogs. The Deer Hunter - The young Robert Deniro with an equaly young Kristopher Walken. Christiane F - A true story about the stark and unforgiving nature of life in West Berlin during the late 60's/early 70's. The Apartement - This one is rare. very hard to find. It also defies catagorization. Lorenzo's Oil War/Conflict Zulu (1964) - The story of the epic battle that garnered more Victoria Crosses than any other single engagemeent in recent recorded history. Das Boat- The best Submarine movie ever made, a rare classic. Schindlers List- This is such a very important movie. Eveyone should see it. Apocalypse Now - The quintessential Vietnam movie. Full Metal Jacket - Willem Dafoe at his best, also Charlie Sheen. Science Fiction The Forbiden Planet (1956)- Arguably the first of the the new age in science fiction movies/stories. This movie was the best of it's genre and competed directly with the War Of The Worlds which was released a couple of years earlier. Logans Run - Of special note. This was the first movie to win an Academy Award for the newely created category of Special Effects bck in 76. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Alien+Aliens Comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy - A rare and under appreciated comedy gem from some little production firm in Africa. Monty Python And The Search For The Holy Grail The Life Of Brian - Controversial but a masterpeice of humour from the usual culprits. Shawn Of The Dead - I just love this movie. Typical understated low key British humour mixed with the absurd. Trailer Park Boys - Home grown comedy that just makes you laugh no matter how stupid you think it is. Labrynth Willow The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy - What needs to be said? The ultimate Fantasy movie and story. Pans Labrynth - This is a fantastic movie. From the first moments it grabs you and keeps you riveted to the story. Tin Man- A really long but really entertaining update to the Wizard Of Oz story. So? What are your picks? And what are your reasons for those choices? Purely for entertainment sake, or for ideas that will stimulate a different point of view?

And thank you for once again showing what a superior twit you are. Never heard of laughter? The concept of humour somewhat alien to you? Twit.

That is very dishonest of you eyeball, no where did I say that. What I said was we need more meaningfull sentences. Thats a far cry from throw more people in jail. However since you raised this point (made it up) I must ask you something. If I had said we should throw more gang members in jail what would your point be? They are already gang members so worrying about them being recruited into a gang seems more than a little brain dead, dont ya think?

Now I think about it I believe I've seen them somewhere before as well. The one I really like is the 20 seat flight trainer, 20 people all trying to fly the same aircraft at the same time would be a sight to behold.

Here in alberta its the Hobema reserve thats a major problem. There are shootings on a weekly basis. Just this week a 20 year old woman was killed, the really telling fact is that the house she was in was the subject of a gang shooting two days earlier. Hobema is the place where that little girl was shot a month or two ago. Both Standoff and Brocket have pretty big gang problems but they don't compare to whats going on in Hobema. Of course one has to be carefull with the subject or one can be branded as racist for directing legitimate criticism towards these gangs. Theres also more than a few people who flat out deny that any gang problem exists on the reserves. Those people aren't helping the situation at all, in fact in their own way they actually make the situation worse.

Actually it does, anything else would be out and out stupid. It wouldn't work too well if they allowed themselves to be destroyed as a country because of a matter of principle. An analogy would be if your home was invaded and the lives of your family were in peril. Would you just say go ahead and kill all of us, I wont do anything to stop you because I believe in non violence.

You really are a sanctimonious prat aren't you. Learn something of life. I'll wager that outside of a vacation you haven't been anywhere. I guess being involved in different countries for the majority of my life doesn't count as "learning something". Being in the business of life and death must be a real impediment to leaning something of life too. I choose not to waste my time learning a dying language that is of zero use to me, just because you think I should does not mean jack sh*t. Pull your head out of your ass long enough to realize that what you think amounts to a great big hill of beans as far as I'm concerned. If you learn to curb your arrogance long enough you just might learn something of life.

Of course. The only thing I objected to was your free use of the word massive. I wont deny that they prepared themselves and planned to secure this province that was breaking away with outside influence and assistance. That would be the only prudent thing to do in that situation and I'd wager that a lot more countries would do the same thing in that kind of scenario. If you want to know I actually don't think NATO should be involved at all. It should be a UN problem, however the UN has repeatedly shown itself to be useless and in most cases a hinderance so some official body has to replace them and act. On the other hand if Georgia wants to join NATO to help secure their safety why should they be denied? All I can say with certainty is that we live in interesting times. Very interesting.

Check out this blog, very cool, its all WWII. If you scroll down about 2/3 of the way you'll come to the wierd aircraft of WWII section. The whole page is fascinating though, lots of great pictures, facts and testimonials. Very cool site.

What facts? The fact that the numbers you posted all indicate a small armed forces for a small country, hardly "massive", as you continue to claim. Or are you under the impression that Canada has a large armed forces so Georgias must be huge? Now lets go back to your other statement, you know, the ludicrous one about "massive missile launchers", that one. How are they any more "massive" than any number of comparable systems owned by any number of countries around the world? Please do explain these mysteriously "massive" launchers to me, are they way more massive than the hundreds that the Russians have? Did the Georgians get the jumbo version? Come on now, you made all these dramatic claims about "massive" this and "massive" that so the least you can do is show this massiveness. Maybe you were refering to the Deorgian navy as massive, after all they do have what...three gunboats I think. Wait a minute! Wasn't one of them sunk? Well two gunboats are still a pretty massive navy I guess. Maybe you meant their Airforce. I must admit, it is a huge Airforce, roughly equivalent to their navy. Now I think about it you're right! The magnitude and power of the Georgian Armed Forces is truly "massive". Contemplating it leaves me with a feeling of awe that can only be described as "massive".

That made my beer come out my nose. It burns! It burns! Okay...I'll do it I guess.

Well considering that I spent 20 years in the military and served with all three elements I do sort of have some interest in the subject. As much as some would bemoan military technology and development it can not be denied that this development has spawned and encouraged a great many advances that have beneffited everyone. A prime example of this is what we're using at this very moment, the internet.

Interesting system, still 80's tech but interesting. I'm wondering how it will fair when the American High Fly research project produces the new missiles, pretty hard to hit a small target travelling at Mach 6+. Russia is producing some decent weapons systems, that can't be denied. However the west is producing better ones and also producing systems that Russia has no equivalent for, such as Laser and supersonic cruise for instance. I don't believe they have much in the way of stealth as applied to surface warships either. Certainly nothing that can compare to the new Zumwalt class of ship. This thing is awesome, it will also utilize the new "advanced gun", the gun will have a range of about 100 nm and use smart ammo, its a 155mm and can fire 12 rounds per minute. The guns alone make the Kashtan obsolete and ineffective. Check it out. Zumwalt, she's a beaut.

Stay until the Afghani's can control the situation. It would be reprehensible and cowardly to just say "screw you, we're outa here).

Russia doesn't. The Western Press is free to lie or tell the truth as they wish.

A really neat aircraft is the "double decker" Cessna. It can carry twice the amount of passengers and payload that a regular Cessna can. Of course fuel consumption is higher and entering and leaving the top portion can be a little awkward but its a small price to pay over all. Innovative Cessna

Thank you for clarifying your agenda KGM14, it always comes down to "show me the money" doesn't it. All I have to say to that is screw you, get a job and earn your own money. Canada, the land of outstretched hands and demands, a never ending supply of freeloaders, enough is enough.

So what are you trying to say here? That Canada has a tiny military so Georgia's must be massive? I think you're the one who's kidding here. America has a massive military, China has a massive military, Russia has a massive military. England, France Germany etc have large militarie's, Georgia does not. A listing of Georgian equipment was posted earlier, did you even check it out? They have minimal numbers when it comes to equipment. Just because in some areas they have a few more pieces of kit than us does not make it massive. And what the hell is this about "massive missile launchers", they're the same size as any other countries fielding these pieces. Did you think when they bought them they said"oh, and supersize the missile launchers please". As for them having a respectable sized force who can blame them? Just look at who their neighbour is. Yep, Russia has always been a first class neighbour, no need for any military with those dudes living next door, after all their track record as the worlds leading humanitarians speaks for itself. Now, having observed the fact that you are incapable of admitting you are wrong I expect you to continue with your ridiculous premise that the Georgians have a "massive" armed forces.

So you would prefer that they they have no capability to defend themselves? Nice! Just give Georgia to Russia with a ribbon wrapped around it. Earlier you were also talking about Georgia's "massive" military build up. What a crock of sh*t! Do some research, they can not have a "massive" military build up because they don't have a "massive" military. So your whole point about a "massive" military build up was nothing but hot air and empty rhetoric. Dramatic ina juvenile sort of way but meaningless for those who don't buy into that kind of propaganda.

Well put. Thats what I was trying to say in my overly cumbersome way.

One should also keep in mind the type of flying that has to be employed with the 117, or any other aircraft for that matter. They are all at their stealthiest when flying low. Altitude equates to visibility as the aircraft is way above the horizon and any ground based cover or obstructions. The big difference between the 117 and other aircraft was that once it went above 30,000 to 35,000 feet ( I think thats the correct altitude, have to check that ) it became very stealthy again far more so than anything else in the air, and very very difficult to see. Because of these characteristics unconventional tactics were employed, in some case a low aproach to target with last minute "pop up" release or fire, dive, and dash was used. In other cases a high altitude aproach combined with high speed dive and low escape was preferable, I believe this tactic was especially good for desert type targets as there are not too many mountains, canyons or elevation changes in the desert. BC mentioned that they are old tech, this is true, the F-22 is new tech, as I said earlier its a hell of a lot more stealthy than the 117. Not just in radar cross section or the abilities of the RAM to absorb energy but also in the entire avionics and munitions systems. As everyone knows Passive systems merely detect emitted energy so obviously the solution is to reduce the energy required to operate all systems, things like radar altimeter or navigation for instance. That was a major focus of the development team. The aircraft is amazing really, its radar cross section is minimal, I forget exactly how small it appears but its something ridiculous. As for its emitted energy, well lets just say that the toasters belonging to some posters on this site emit (or talk) 10 times more than the f-22. (Okay, so I cant prove that last statement, but you get the gist of it.) There is no doubt that Tamara and Kolchuca are very good systems and against the majority of aircraft would be lethal, however the F-22 is an entirely different bird. Even though they are passive there are other ways to detect them and as was pointed out, they can then be removed. Stealth is still evolving in all areas and aspects, everything from ships, aircraft and tanks to individual soldiers and rf emissions is being made more stealthy. Its actually a pretty old discipline, it used to be called camouflage or concealment and now it appears that we are about to enter a whole new stage in this evolution. As I mentioned earlier they've made ground breaking advances in "bending" light, science fiction stuff but there are researchers actually doing it with varied degrees of success. When I say bending light I dont mean just using a simple prism, although that is the basic principle behind this, these guys are manipulating it in order to control what is seen. Well why not, about three years ago they were successful in storing photons and then releasing them at a later date, also slowing them down and a newly released theory states that faster than light travel may be possible ( based on string theory, way beyond my ability and knowledge to really understand ). Given all these factors it becomes fairly clear that systems developed ten to twenty years ago are now outclassed by the new generation of technology, thats why I originally said "dream on" when the Tamarra and Kolchuca systems were first mentioned in relation to the F-22. And, just think, eventually a lot of these advances and developments will "trickle down" into all of our lives. Boy! I love science and technology!

Well I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim it a masterpiece but it was entertaining in its own way. By no means was it a 2001 A Space Odyssey or Alien, and most certainly didn't have the ground breaking impact of 1956's The Forbiden Planet, but it was entertaining. In the case of science fiction I think its fair to say that life imitates art. Look at 2001 for instance. when it was released skeptics laughed and poo poohed it as being fantasy and so on. Now in 2008 just about everything it predicted has become reality. Of course one should also keep in mind that Arthur C Clark was a brilliant man. Just after WWII he predicted that the earth would be ringed with satellites by the turn of the century, he was laughed at, but the reality speaks for itself.

Actually I was reading an article about the latest "stealth" developments. Researchers have been making great strides in the area of "light bending" in other words refraction. They were saying that they are very close to figuring out how to actually make objects invisible. They have even had some success with actual objects in controlled environments Of course they wouldn't be entirely invisible, as they stated in the article it would be a similar effect to the "Predator" one in those ridiculous movies. It appears that once again science fiction has predicted things to come. Not even good science fiction at that! So...who knows...ten years from now, invisible men and equipment, cool.