Hands down one of the most thought provoking expositions on religion I've read

"The predisposition to religious belief is an ineradicable part of human behavior. Mankind has produced 100,000 religions. It is an illusion to think that scientific humanism and learning will dispel religious belief. Men would rather believe than know... A kind of Darwinistic survival of the fittest has occurred with religions... The ecological principle called Gause's law holds that competition is maximal between species with identical needs... Even submission to secular religions such as Communism and guru cults involve willing subordination of the individual to the group. Religious practices confer biological advantage. The mechanisms of religion include (1) objectification (the reduction of reality to images and definitions that are easily understood and cannot be refuted), (2) commitment through faith (a kind of tribalism enacted through self-surrender), (3) and myth (the narratives that explain the tribe's favored position on the earth, often incorporating supernatural forces struggling for control, apocalypse, and millennium). The three great religion categories of today are Marxism, traditional religion, and scientific materialism... Though theology is not likely to survive as an independent intellectual discipline, religion will endure for a long time to come and will not be replaced by scientific materialism." --E. O. Wilson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson

E. O. Wilson is a world renown entomologist, considered _the_ authority on ants, and has studied them for a life-time, drawing comparisons between them and human behavior.

E. O. Wilson, Father of Sociobiology.

World of Tanks: Tier V Heavies and Sprem

I made this!

Basically, I went through all tier 5 heavies and compared their highest tier guns and then what loading sprem will do to: penetration and damage.

The biggest factor or noticeable change is penetration of course, with only the T1 Heavy showing any change to damage when loading sprem.

Of course, this does not show DPM or any other factor.

The UK Churchill I pens the most at 202, with the T14 being least, with darn near close to half the penetration of the Church1.  The premium Churchill III (lend/lease) enjoys the most boost to penetration when loading sprem:

And finally, for some odd reason, the T1 Heavy loses 5 dmg when loading sprem.

Sorted by total/most penetration with sprem

Sorted by most boost to penetration with sprem

Sorted by least changes to damage due to sprem

World of Tanks: More El Halluf Gold

"A [tank] Chorus Line"

A real chorus line

The wiki.worldoftanks.com entry for El Halluf reads thusly:


A large valley filled with rocks, vegetation, and a small village surrounding a dried out river bed separate the two teams. The large hills on either side of the valley offer many firing positions, and very little cover in the valley will protect a large tank completely against all positions. Regardless of approach, attackers will face a long climb into the enemy's camp, and effective use of the cover en route is essential. The northern approach offers plentiful protection to attack either hill, but the southern approach makes up for lack of protection with shorter distances and better concealment. 

Camo Type: Desert

I offer the following edits:


A large valley filled with dead tanks, dead tanks, and small dead tanks with bigger dead tanks. The large dead tanks on either side of other dead tanks offer many firing positions, and very little cover in the valley will _not_ protect a large tank completely against all positions. Regardless of approach, attackers will face a long climb into the enemy's camp (emphasis, "camp"), and effective use of the cover en route is essential useless. The northern approach offers plentiful no protection to attack either hill, but the southern approach makes up for has a total lack of protection with shorter distances and better concealment. 

Camp Type: Desert

[Note: that edit is _not_ serious; I'm joking; calm down Francis]

Btw, whilst composing this and visiting wiki.worldoftanks.com/Maps, I see some put a "Hi" at the top of the El Halluf entry.  I did _not_ do this, but I'm thinking I'll get, "yes you did fkd!!!"  I promise, did not.  Someone fix.  I'm too lazy....

Stop writing on our bathroom walls!!!

World of Tanks: The Tank Graveyard: El Halluf

A3 ... bad tings man .. bad tings

A3 on El Halluf _has_ to be the most/best place for tanks to pile up and die.  I think it holds the record for the most dead tanks.  Show me a better place where everyone goes to die?

This screen I took tonight inspired me to post this:

Here's more of the Bermuda Triangle of tank death, El Halluf's A3:

 

 

Guy On A Buffalo

I finally finished the "Guy On  A Buffalo" series.  That's one more thing off my bucket list.  Next up: complete all the works of Tolstoy and Melville.

Episode I

The "Guy On  A Buffalo" series is a documentary based on the real life events of Amos Smith: buffalo rider and outdoorsman of the untamed west, circa the early part of the 19th century.

This series has many layers to it, as we see the struggles of a man escaping pain, reshaping his life, taming the wild, taming a buffalo.  He starts life a greenhorn, surely to be expected to die in the unforgiving harsh climate and wild of the world of uncivilized North America.  At several key points, when surely death will take him, and the earth will consume his remains, Amos emerges victorious.

The greenhorn becomes a veteran of the wild.  He tames all he sees.  Then, he becomes hero, to then become legend.

A seemingly Marshall of the wild, this man is both Robin Hood and Davy Crocket.  Good and evil collide at the nexus that is "Guy On A Buffalo."

The music is haunting and carries the atmosphere, the very weather patterns that mark the backdrop to the travels of Amos.

With his trusty Buffalo, Stewy, the rider is always underestimated, always struggling to tackle the obstacles nature throws at him -- and sometimes, things thrown at him from his fellow man.

I highly recommend this series.

-fkd

The Kee Bird

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress

Although some 4,000 B29s were built, they were all destroyed/scraped but a handful.  There is now only one flying B29 in existence, and precious few that exist at all.  This made the fabled, "Kee Bird" B29 that had to emergency land in the harsh, abominable middle-of-no-where Greenland, all the more desirable.  Thus, it attracted the elite of the flying world, who attempted to save it:

• Darryl Greenamyer: U-2 pilot, SR-71 test pilot
• Roger Von Grote: relative of Manfred Von Richthofen (The Red Baron)
• Other highly specialized engineers and machinists.

The Kee Bird, pre-1994/95 Rescue Attempt

The history and story of The Kee Bird at wikipedia.org

I watched the Nova documentary on this attempted rescue/restoration of The Kee Bird B29 years ago.  It was one of the most tragic and haunting documentaries in my memory.  I revisit the status of this plane every so often to see if there are any new attempts at getting it, but it appears the answer is: no.

Spoiler alert!!!

A mechanic died during the 2 trips that spanned 1994/95 rescue attempt of a blod clot, and after millions were spent in 4 new engines and other parts installed, an entire specialized crew being sent to the site along with a bulldozer, the plane largely burned-up due to the simple over-sight of not checking a jury-rigged fuel system in the rear.  This caused a fire upon taxing that marked the end of, "The Kee Bird."

I can't but help to find synchronicity in the drama and tragedy of both the plane that dropped the 1st atomic weapon in human history, forever changing the world, and the tragedy that is the rescue attempt of The Kee Bird.

Here are two 2009 discussion threads on the plane along with 'recent' pictures.

Recent articles even as of May, 2013, claim that it has sunk the bottom of the lake, but not knowing about the lake, I believe this only means a few feet of water, and the plane has remained largely above the lake, with the landing gear submerged and the lower part of the fuselage.

A picture (seen below) was snapped in 2011 of the B29 wreckage by the crew of a P-3 during "Operation Icebridge".

Here is a tinyurl link to the maps.google.com GPS coordinates to the Kee Bird, near Petermann Glacier, Greenland.

Just enable photos and it will show a thumbnail of the Kee Bird's location.  The picture is pre-1994/95 restoration and disaster.

I do love wise and witty quotes, of which, I came across this one from the forum links above:

"There are more planes at the bottom of the ocean than there are submarines at the top of the sky." --Old Naval Aviator

A picture snapped in 2011 of the B29 wreckage by the crew of a P-3 during "Operation Icebridge."
The half-fuselage is seen covered in snow, still atop the surface of the lake.

Camping

camping  present participle of camp (Verb)
Verb
Live for a time in a camp, tent, or camper, as when on vacation.
(of a man) Behave in an ostentatiously effeminate way: "he camped it up a bit for the cameras".