There is a god, and he is Loki

Loki is the one, true, god....

"It may take explosives to dislodge a group of cows that wandered into an old ranger cabin high in the Rocky Mountains, then died and froze solid when they couldn't get out.... Rangers believe the animals sought shelter during a snowstorm and got stuck and weren't smart enough to find their way out."

"The cabin is located near the Conundrum Hot Springs...."

The cows, confused, couldn't get out ... near "Conundrum Hot Springs...."

My god, there is a god, and he is Loki.

What a frozen cow may look like:

Lost Squadron Of Spitfires Found!

Boxed, greased, sealed, buried....

What a great find!

Aviation historians and warbird enthusiasts are drooling at the discovery of at least 12 and maybe as many 20 perfectly preserved brand-new Spitfire Mark 14s buried in Myanmar, which was formerly Burma. Thanks to the tenacity (and apparently considerable diplomatic skills) of British farmer David Cundall, the lost squadron of pristine fighters was found where they were buried by U.S. troops in 1945 when it became clear they wouldn't be needed in the final days of the Second World War. At least a dozen of the aircraft, one of the latest variants with their 2,035-horsepower Roll Royce Griffon engines replacing the 1,200-1,500-horsepower Merlins in earlier models, were buried without ever being removed from their original packing crates. It's possible another eight were also buried after the war ended. After spending 15 years and $200,000 of his own money, Cundall was rewarded with visual proof of the magnitude of his discovery. "We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates," he told the Telegraph. "They seemed to be in good condition."

The aircraft were declared surplus when they arrived in Burma because the Japanese were in retreat by then and carrier-based Seafires were getting all the action. They were ordered buried in their original crates, waxed, swaddled in grease paper and their joints tarred against the elements. Cundall found some of the soldiers who buried the planes by placing ads in magazines and was able to narrow down the search before using ground-penetrating radar to confirm the burial site. The next obstacles to recovery are political. Myanmar's former military junta was under a variety of sanctions, among them an international convention that prevented the transfer of military goods to and from the country. Recent political reforms have led to the lifting of that ban effective April 23. Cundall will also need the permission of the new Myanmar government to unearth the treasure. He helped his own cause by making numerous trips to the country and earning the trust of government officials. British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to seal the deal with Myanmar President Thein Sein during a visit.

The .95 Caliber (.950) JDJ: The largest center fire rifle ever made

There are guns and then there are guns.  Calling the .950 JDJ a gun is like calling a super massive blackhole a vacuum cleaner.  This thing is huge.  It is hard to conceive just how huge.  Only a handful of people have actually shot it.  Each bullet is apparently $40.  It is, indeed, the largest center fire rifle ever made.

Here, you can watch a few brave souls attempt to shoot this monster:

Shooting the .950 JDJ

This gun weighs in at approx. 110 pounds and, therefore,  _must_ be shot from a bench.  It costs approx. $8,000, and the bullet alone costs $10 -- that thing that flies out of the end of it....

From the wiki:
The cartridge propels its 3,600 gr (230 g) bullet at approximately 2,200 ft/s (670 m/s). This yields a muzzle energy of 38,685 ft·lbf (52,450 J)[1] and a momentum of 154.1 Newton-seconds. This kinetic energy would allow the .950 JDJ to pass through several body-armored humans. It is comparable to the original tank rounds of World War I in terms of ballistic energy.

By comparison, the 5.56x45 cartridge, used in the M16 rifle, produces between 1,200–1,300 ft·lbf (1,600–1,800 J), while the .308 Winchester, a favorite for hunters and medium-range police/military sniping, produces between 2,000–3,000 ft·lbf (2,700–4,100 J) depending on the load used. The ballistics of the .950 JDJ is more similar to that of the 20mm autocannon round, which delivers approximately 39,500 ft·lbf (53,600 J). The muzzle energy of the .950 JDJ is comparable to the kinetic energy of a 2,800 lb (1,300 kg) automobile traveling at 20 mph (32 km/h). In a 110 lb (50 kg) rifle, this will develop well over 200 ft·lbf (270 J) of free recoil energy if an efficient muzzle brake is not used. This is far beyond the shoulder-firing capacity of nearly all humans.

The Full Wiki Article

WoT: Skills & Perks Pies

Thinking-over the new Skills & Perks in World of Tanks, I wanted to thump-out some experimental pie charts, sorting each Skill and Perk into respective categories.  As I thought about it, I realized that each and every one of the 25 Skills and Perks addressed only so many areas of the game.  These are, to the best of my ability:

Offense, Defense, Crew, View and Mobility

Or

Healing of Tank, Crew, Vision/View, Mobility, Attack and Hide

Some of these are overlapping and/or, these are certainly not the end to the "bins" one could toss each Skill/Perk into, but it's a start.

WoT: So what we go scout?...

WoT: Must See Fan News Video: WoT New of The Week March 25, 2012

This is well done and a must see.  Good info.  Good fights.  Just gd good....

World of Tanks News of The Week By Ghost_12

ASoTD