Shadow

Glad to see the pilot is ok and no one else was hurt or worse. How many Hornets does the RCAF have in its inventory though?

My biggest nitpick with the evolution of the Ninja costumes is the face covering thing turning from simple ninja-style face-cloth to some football-esque hard facemask thing. Same with the samurai shoulders.

I agree but I loved the facemasks from the original movie. Each one had its own design and matched well with the character. I didn't like what they did with Reptile in the series, constantly changing his design from human to man-lizard to dinosaur basically. He's gone back to that man-lizard look in the upcoming MK9.

In my country, soccer is for girls.

I disagree, it takes more physicality then you seem to be giving it credit for. It's just a different type of physical conditioning, more cardio then sheer muscle building.

Sadly, I missed the Uruguay/Ghana game. Seemed like an epic game from what I read. I'm hoping for a Netherlands/Germany final though.

I'm down to one team left to really support and that's Germany really.

The US, Portugal and Japan are gone now. I was disappointed with Bob Bradly's decision to put in D-men like Findley in and not play the same roster we used against Algeria. Some of those defensive lapses with the US may have been avoided but what's done is done.

I'm a fan of the animated series and have been rather skeptical of the movie since I heard of its inception. I was still hopeful and still thinking about seeing but after reading some of the reviews, may not waste the money now. I was most surprised that it has an 8% on Rottentomatoes. Ouch is all I can say.

Putin boasts new jet fighter better than U.S. plane

MOSCOW

Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:26pm EDTMOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the cockpit of Russia's newest fighter jet on Thursday and said it would trump a U.S.-built rival, the F-22 Raptor.

Meh, let's let Putin put his money where his mouth is and test it against an F-15.

A MiG-25 would have a good shot at it too.

If the Foxbat already has a good amount of speed yeah, I could see that. If it had to catch up from a lower speed, an F-15 and MiG-31 would have the edge in catching the shuttle just due to better engines and less weight for the F-15.

The F-22 sure looks beautiful... but it has yet to 1) shoot down a real aircraft, 2) dropped a single bomb 3) deployed overseas ... juuuuust kiiiding! don't shoot.

Technically it has dropped bombs. (dummy bombs but you get the picture)It can be converted to carry 2 1000Lb JDAMs.

The F-35C does look more imposing than its siblings with that larger wingspan.

I think the 35C looks best.

Agreed though I haven't really liked any of the stealth aircraft designs with the exception of maybe the B-2 and YF-23.

My personal take on this for the UK hasn't really changes in the last few years - the Royal Navy should drop the STOVL variant, stick cats and wires on the new carriers, and buy F-35C / Superbugs / Rafales / naval Typhoons. the RAF can replace their harriers with either F-35A, more Typhoons or maybe Gripens (Gripen would probably be quite a good fit for harrier replacement as it's meant for dispersed operation & has good STOL capabilities).

this whole thing has dragged on that long now the the RAF also need to be thinking about what's going to replace The Tornado GR4s in the bomb truck role, as those are going to be positively ancient by the time whatever is going to replace them comes into service.

So, you don't want any future VTOL capable aircraft in the RAF or Royal Navy? Just found that kind of odd considering how big a role the Harrier has played with the British services.

Nice Mitsu. I test drove a new Lancer GTS. My only complaint about it was the spoiler hindering my rear visibility. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on an Evo VIII or IX but they're pretty hard to find in my area and within my budget, not to mention ones that haven't been abused. WRX's and STi's are alot more common though.

I took this while touring a preserved village just outside Takeyama.

This was taken while walking around Ginza.

Unfortunately, I never got to see Shinjuku.

Hmm, I need to play FF4 sometime. I liked the music in FF9 and 6. For FF13, honestly there was no track that stood out to me.

The battle system was fun and kept me on the edge but that leader KO status drove me nuts and is one thing I wish wasn't included.

Heard somewhere in Kotaku magazine, Square Enix tried to explain some of the negative Western reviews. Basically saying, Westerners are into the free-roaming, little storyline RPGs (Fallout 3) and that's why it got more negative press on this side of the world. Sounds like they were alittle sore.

I think the most negative experience I had was having myself and a few other students I was traveling with being told to leave a bar because we were American (foreign). Basically told us "No Americans". This was in Kurashiki. We were the only ones in there too. I knew about such incidents from others who had lived in Japan long term so I wasn't surprised to finally encounter this. We left and found another place that was pretty friendly. I've heard such "no gaijin" policies are fairly common in the public baths.

Other then that, I had a great time there.

Question though. How helpful is a TESOL certification for applying to public school ALT positions in Japan or the JET program?

I apologize for going off-topic but does anyone have any experience teaching in Korea too?

Nice pic sil80. I spent alittle time in Japan on an intersession trip. Part of it was spent with a host family. I remember meeting the grandmother and hearing her use "gaijin" quite abit. There was no negativity in her use of it so I didn't let it bother me. She was actually the most friendly/outgoing person in the family.

I've tried to go back to Japan via JET but it's just too tight competitively.

Looking at that display, I keep half expecting to see the blue screen of death pop up.

Final Fantasy X: This game just didn't impress me and the voice acting made my ears bleed at times.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo

Final Fantasy XIII: Almost finished with this game but just not enjoying my experience with it. The plot is confusing and hard to follow and many of the characters don't really stand out to me. Doesn't feel like an FF title to me.

Sonic Heroes (PS2)

Sonic Adventures 2 Battle (PS2) The Sonic and Shadow stages were cool but the other character stages just bugged me, especially the Eggman and Knuckles ones. Don't know why cheap rap music fits in with Knuckles.

Is there an ideal combo of characters to use against the final boss in Chapter 9? I'm using Light/Sazh/Vanille. I'm just having a really tough time dealing with him. Mostly it's when he ups to the higher level magic attacks that I start getting backed into a corner.

Acura has come up with a vehicle that's just as ugly and useless as the BMW X6.

Bah. Honda/Acura should make a new variant of the NSX. Only thing remotely sporty they have going now is the Civic Si since the S2000 was ended.

Saw this on CNN today: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/25...dex.html?hpt=T2 I didn't realize they had their own version of the B1.

The Blackjack was designed strictly to just fire long range cruise missiles correct? Unlike the B-1 which can carry a load of unguided ordinance.

Found this story just pop up. Robert White who flew the X-15 just passed away.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100324/ap_on_..._robert_white_2

LOS ANGELES – Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert M. White, who flew high enough as a test pilot in an X-15 rocket plane to earn astronaut wings in the early 1960s, has died at age 85.

White died March 17, NASA said in a statement. His son, Greg White, told the Orlando Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times that his father died in his sleep in Orlando, Fla.

White was a veteran combat pilot before he came to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and began flying X-15s in the hypersonic, high-altitude research program that contributed to the U.S. space effort.

X-15s were carried aloft under the wing of a B-52 bomber and released at 45,000 feet. The rocket engine was ignited to hurl the slender, stubby-winged craft on altitude or speed runs that ended with an unpowered glide to a landing on a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles.

On July 17, 1962, White flew to an altitude of 314,750 feet, more than 59 miles high. That was well above the 50-mile altitude the Air Force accepted as the start of space, earning him the service's first rating as a "winged astronaut." At the time, only four other Americans, all Mercury astronauts, had gone into space.

During the previous year, White had become the first person to fly a winged craft several times the speed of sound at Mach 4, Mach 5 and then — at full throttle — to Mach 6, or more than 4,000 mph.

Born in New York City in 1924, White joined the military in 1942 as an aviation cadet.

He served in the 355th Fighter Group in Europe during World War II, flying P-51 fighters from July 1944 to February 1945, when he was shot down over Germany on his 52nd mission and held as a prisoner of war until April 1945, according to his Air Force biography.

White received a bachelor of science degree from New York University in 1951, the year he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, serving with units based in the U.S. and Japan.

In 1954, White went to the Air Force's Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards and was eventually selected as an Air Force representative in the X-15 program, which also involved NASA, the Navy and aircraft builder North American Aviation. In all, he flew 16 X-15 missions between April 13, 1960, and Dec. 14, 1962.

There were 199 flights in the X-15 program, which ran from 1959 to 1968. At the time, only the Air Force pilots were awarded astronaut wings.

White returned to Edwards in 2005 when astronaut wings were awarded to three civilian X-15 pilots, two posthumously, according to Alan Brown, a spokesman at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

After his X-15 flights, White served in various Air Force assignments and received a master of science degree in business administration from George Washington University before being sent to Southeast Asia. He flew 70 combat missions in F-105 aircraft over North Vietnam in 1967 and earned the Air Force Cross.

White later commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards before retiring in 1981.

He and his wife, Chris, who died previously, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

___

I've been playing this game at a casual pace. Currently up to Ch. 5 and have been rather overwhelmed by certain aspects of the ATB system and upgrading weapons. The game has been interesting so far but I'm admittedly disappointed at some of the changes made from previous FFs. I'm surprised to hear the ability to gain gil doesn't improve much in the game atleast til Ch. 9.

Be interesting to see if and when they replace the F-16 as the T-birds aircraft with most likely the F-35 in the future. F-35 in T-bird colors.

Been a fan of Final Fantasy since VII came out so I'm looking forward to trying XIII out. Though I've been rather skeptical with the direction Square is taking this game and the single player games in the series. X was good. XII, I got about 20 hours into it and just stopped playing. I just couldn't get into the story. VI is still my all time favorite.

Mind you, it would be pretty cool to see them in their airshow colours, causing all sorts of hell on the enemy, in a very acrobatic fashion. They would have a perfect operational record this way.

The enemy gawks, and marvels at the impromptu airshow, and then for the finale, they go boom! laugh.gif

Not sure about the acrobatics while carrying a couple 500 pounders. Though a close aerial engagement could get a response.

"Thunderbird F-16 and MiG-29 merging"

MiG-29 Pilot: What the %#$@ is with this s#@$!

So they actually want to replace the A-10 with the F-35 in the 2020s? Can't picture the Lightning going low and slow to support troops on the ground. Atleast not in situations where it has to linger over a potentially hot AA area.

Too bad there isn't any real hope of opening up the F-22 line again. Given that plane at least isn't having these developmental teething problems.

One could hope though. I figure another 187 (what a weird #) F-22 would be nice.

It's all politics, as usual. Sometime down the road, there will probably be a need seen and they'll open the production line back up again. I think the original 240 craft was a good number though.

I was more recently annoyed when I heard the Orion was being canned but that's off-topic.