F-ZeroOne

I read somewhere that Paramount's a slight bit worried abotu the movie, as with the sex and violence, it's almost a guaranteed NC-17...

Puppet sex, now that's a scary thought.

Wouldn't be the first time. You may wish to investigate the early career of Peter Jackson (yep, that Peter Jackson).

British TV viewers also always did wonder about Troy Tempest and Marina, too...

omigod japanese rock. I mean what does the rest of the world have? Lego Mindstorms what a buck of crap!!!! Even our best and brightest (ie Caltech and MIT) I doubt they are making such sophisticated robots.

Funnily enough, I'm just reading a book by Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics, at Reading University, UK. His team were the first to have one robot programme another with skills it had learnt over the Internet (effectively "teaching"!). Professor Warwick also recently had a computer chip implanted in his arm that allowed him to control a robot arm through his own nervous system.

Also, up until a couple of years ago, Robot Wars was a very popular programme on BBC television, and although many designs were of the "dustbin on wheels with an axe attached" type, some, like the awesome Razer, were very elegant.

The main advatange enjoyed by the Japanese is a rich history of robots in popular culture, backed by large development budgets - hence the Honda Asimo and Sony robot, whose chief designers have stated they were inspired by Astro-Boy!

Speaking of which, the guy in some of the images that looks like your favourite uncle (well, if you're Japanese!) - thats Go Nagai.

Yes, that Go Nagai...!

DUDE please link or post pics of the dragonly from hell dual engine afterburning VTOL!! that wil KICK ASS!!

I don't have any pictures myself, but this link should tell you all you need to know:

http://www.harrier.org.uk/history/history_p1154.htm

One description I've heard of it is that it would have been a "Harrier with Phantom capability".

This is an interesting tale from someone who has apparently had some experience that I found while looking for the other link:

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=1&c=1&t=17694

If you follow the pages, note what this chap has to say about his choice of fighter...

Something else I forgot about the Harrier - the original design team was led by none other than Sydney Camm - designer of, among others, the Hawker Tempest and Hawker Hurricane!

I believe Argentine pilots during the Falklands Conflict referrred to Harriers as "Black Death"... (though it should be pointed out that both sides were operating under rather less than ideal conditions and the Argentine pilots did pretty well, considering... )

One of the big mistakes made when the Harrier was introduced to US service was people thinking "Hey, its a jet that hovers - like a helicopter! So lets get helicopter pilots to fly it!" - a decision that apparently caused a lot of accidents...

Hawker-Siddley had plans for a kind of ultra-Harrier at one point - a twin engined, afterburning, supersonic metal dragonfly from Hell - that unfortunately got cancelled, though there were doubts about whether it was technically viable at the time - apparently, twin engine VTOL is a tricky one...

I always understood the Harrier (any Harrier) was subsonic except in a dive, but David probably has much more up to date information than I do!

I wasn't being serious about ASRAAMs on helicopters - it was intended as a comment about the state of the UK defence industry... latest story doing the rounds is that some of our military "kit" is going to be procured from China!

Having recently been introduced to Mamoru Naganos wonderful high fashion mecha saga, Five Star Stories (English version), I'm hoping someone can help me get hold of some more! Back-issues seem to be a bit thin on the ground, and I'm trying to obtain volumes 4 - 8.

I would prefer a UK based supplier if possible, but am prepared to look to the US if necessary. Any help would be apprieciated!

Of course, with the Sea Harrier gone in a year, and the JSF not coming for quite I while, I wonder what they intend to use their carriers for in the mean time.

What we always do... cross our fingers and improvise in the meantime. Wonder if one can fit ASRAAMs to Sea Kings...?

Edit: one other thing about the Harrier - for its size, it must absolutely be the noisest aircraft on the planet!

The Macross Plus dub is pretty good. Guld does come across sounding a little gruff and Lucy is a bit too, I'm not sure - "girly?" - but very decent overall.

One thing, though - the VHS version of the dub had the English language version of "Voices" playing at the beginning of volume one. Not sure if that applies to the DVD versions...

Edit: changed Guld from "rough" to "gruff", which is what I originally meant!

In the interests of balance - and on behalf of all of us who have, or had, jobs related to customer service, I think the following link will be enlightening:

http://www.actsofgord.com/

I'm very much aware its a two way street; 99% of my customers are great but there are always those that stick in the mind (usually for the wrong reasons); while I'd be the first to admit I'm not perfect and have made, and will no doubt continue to either make mistakes or have situations which I wished I'd handled differently.

I will say, though, that every so often my company sends me on a "customer service" course. There have been occasions where I've felt that its not the staff that need these courses...

but that's why red is soo cool on a mech or a plane!

What? You want to get shot at?

F-ZeroOne, thanks for the additional links.

Terpfen, you're welcome. And if you're as good as Milia, you won't get shot - well, unless the other guys called Max, anyway!

5th & 13th pics down on this link gives an idea of the Spitfire "blue" scheme:

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.sear...inct_entry=true

Edit: Oh, and if you head over to the toys section right now theres a custom Valk there done in the Blue Angels scheme!

This may be off-topic, but it's still on-topic, so I'm posting it here.

I've got a friend working on a 1/72 VF-22S. He wants to paint it up realistically, kind of like how this F-15 is a real version of a possible Millia plane. So...  does anyone have some photos of planes painted blue?

Couple things to look for - some photo-recon Spitfires used to be painted blue. And theres also US Naval aircraft of World War II, many of which were painted a very dark blue.

macross pre-dates transformers by several years, diaclone as well

A quick check of Diaclone chronology reveals that yep, Macross does indeed pre-date them (I really should have thought of checking that first!). Which makes the Valkyrie all the more remarkable; partly for being such an accomplished design, and partly for being more elegant than many Transformers designs.

(I want to point out I'm not bashing all Transformers here - I loved them as a kid and some of the designs are still favourites of mine; however the Valkyrie seems to have been most able to combine good looks in all modes without looking like a car with legs... )

While it's commonly stated as a fact on the net Kawamori had nothing to do with Machine Soldier Dorvack which is where Whirl and Roadbuster came from.

Huh. Well, where does that rumour come from, then?

The Macross Compendium has a list of animes on which kawamori has worked in various capacities. See it here. Dorvack is not mentioned, but then again the Compendium's list may not be complete.

Graham

Considering Transformers and Kawamori, Transformers might be where Kawamori got the idea from...!

I remember seeing a thread on Robot Japan that claimed that Kawamori worked on some of the designs for Diaclone - and we all know what Diaclone became, right?

However - I have not been able to get that verified anywhere else, and have been wondering how much truth there is to the statement. I'd be very grateful if anyone else can either confirm or deny it!

Some bombing trivia thats always got me (fighters get all the attention!). During the early part of World War II, RAF Bomber Command had trouble finding targets. How much trouble?

Well, it was estimated that 33% of bombs dropped were landing within 5 miles of the target.

Those were considered the accurate strikes.

Things, fortunately for the Allies and unfortunately for a a great many Germans, got better later. 617 Squadron - the famous "Dambusters" - eventually recorded an average bombing error of within a hundred yards of the target. Even precision guided munitions today sometimes have trouble being that accurate!

Among the techniques employed was one devised by Leonard Chesire - thats Leonard Chesire, Victoria Cross, among many other things - to deal with small "point targets" like V-1 lanuncing sites. This entailed dive-bombing the sites to ensure maximum accuracy.

Nothing special, you might think.

Except that the dive bombing in this case was done with a Lancaster bomber!

Thanks for the bigger images!

Probably the most interesting thing shown is a small color pic of the cover art for the upcoming Macross Zero episode # 5 DVD, which shows Sara at the bottom of the pic with angle wings coming from her back.

Hmm. Kawamori getting Escaflowne pangs?

War has its fashions too - in the 50s, everyone was flying at Mach 2 plus and shooting missiles at each other 50 miles away. Then Vietnam seemed to prove that close air combat was actually a good thing, and a lot of 70s designs were built with at least some dogfighting in mind.

Then came stealth, and now everyone seems to think that long range is the in thing again. But if everyone starts using stealth, won't you have to get closer to actually detect an opponent...?

The same things happening with ground combat. World War I rifles were sighted to a mile or more. The someone invented the submachine gun and the assault rifle, and war got close again. Now there are reports that the US Army is looking into long range small arms again, because technology gives them an edge over shorter-ranged assault weapons...

...theres an old military maxim that the next generation often prepares to fight the last war, rather then the new one...

Can I just point out that the Tornado is not "occasionally" used for fighter bomber roles - the Tornado is a fighter bomber in its IDS variant. In fact, the Air Defence Variant - the fighter (though interceptor is perhaps more accurate) - was developed from the fighter bomber version...!

Edit: I don't know how often the QF-2001 appears in Macross Zero, but perhaps its a competing design to the - 3001, under test? Or maybe its very heavily modified variant?

Any chance of a slightly larger wallpaper version so that Windows doesn't need to stretch it? Would be much appreciated - awesome picture!

Although I think as well that the character is just wearing a typical Chinese dress, Gainax have been known for their Macross love - look at Otaku no Video, or the design of Captain Nemo from Nadia for examples!

So, what have they replaced in the cockpit? The BDI system?

Oops.

Wrong universe.

Very interesting news. Whatever the benefits of the YF-23 vs the F-22, theres no doubt it was the most futuristic looking. Heres hoping Northrop get some good news for a change; they always seem to get messed around.

well the news is in! the Fantastic four have been cast...

IGN Report

Reed Richards: Ioan Gruffudd (King Arthur)

In case you're wondering, we in the UK don't know how to pronounce this guys name either!

When I first saw his name linked to "Reed Richards", I thought "Mmm... ". Hes best known in the UK for being the title role in Hornblower, based on the naval warfare book series of the same name. He looked about 18 years old in that!

However, there was a picture of him in the newspaper today, and I have to say, he does actually look quite a bit how you'd imagine a younger Reed Richards to look - Richards in his late 20s or mid-30s. If they're planning a fresher "take" on the series, in looks at least I think he looks the role.

Wait a minute... hes British.

Why isn't he playing Dr. Doom? I thought only British guys could play movie villains!

The Area-88 manga actually has Mickey, in flashback, remembering being deployed to 'Nam, I believe with F-14s. I can't remember if he gets involved in dogfights for sure, but I seem to recall him getting sad over losses or something.

Also not anime, but perhaps more on-topic than most: the most inept military has got to be the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force, in every Godzilla movie ever made.

I thought it was very nice of them to lend some real tanks for filming the last Godzilla X MechaGodzilla, after being shown getting generally stomped, crushed, and melted for 50 years...!