WTF? (**NSFW**)

[Royal]

Good thing he has pictures. I'm thinking his insurance company would never believe him otherwise.

That's the first thing I thought of, too. "Honest, Officer, I haven't had anything to drink! A 150 ton whale did it!" And the officer replies, "Sure it did, son."

[DFRESH]

Mall Ninja's:

http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

[TMFan]

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/sauna-world-championships-turn-fatal?GT1=39002

A Russian man trying to win the Sauna World Championships died after collapsing with severe burns in the final stage of an event that required contestants to sit in a 230-degree (110 Celsius) room as water was tossed onto a searing stove, officials and witnesses said.

Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy was pronounced dead late Saturday after he collapsed in the sauna alongside reigning champion Timo Kaukonen of Finland. Medical workers pulled both men out of the sauna and administered first aid in front of nearly 1,000 spectators in the southern Finnish town of Heinola.

TRAGIC SPORTS DEATHS

Sports has lost many athletes way too soon. We list a few.Both were shaking and bleeding from what appeared to be severe burns, said Hakon Eikesdal, a photographer with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

Kaukonen was hospitalized in stable condition Sunday, contest spokesman Ossi Arvela said.

The annual contest, which had over 130 participants from 15 countries, had been held since 1999. It will never be held again, Arvela said.

Half a liter (a pint) of water is added to the stove every 30 seconds and the last person to remain at the sauna is the winner.

There was no prize other than "some small things" Arvela said. He declined to provide details.

Arvela said Kaukonen - the defending world champion - had refused to leave the sauna despite appearing sick.

Sauna bathing is a popular past-time in Finland, which has an estimated 1.6 million saunas for a population of 5 million. Temperatures are normally kept around 158 to 176 degrees (70 -80 degrees Celsius).

"I know this is very hard to understand to people outside Finland who are not familiar with the sauna habit," Arvela said. "It is not so unusual to have 110 degrees in a sauna. A lot of competitors before have sat in higher temperatures than that."

Arvala said all rules in Saturday's competition were followed and the temperatures and times were similar to those in previous years.

He said police are investigating the death.

[Jughead]

A Russian man trying to win the Sauna World Championships died after collapsing with severe burns in the final stage of an event that required contestants to sit in a 230-degree (110 Celsius) room as water was tossed onto a searing stove, officials and witnesses said.

Any tanker toad who's been to the desert is pre-qualified in this event....

[contraildash]

What a brilliant f'n idea. Those two dudes pretty much got cooked alive. Darwinism.

[Vertigo]

Mall Ninja's:

http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

Someone should have gave them a link to our Gun thread. I'm sure M2 or Timbonez could of gave them some sage advice on the reliability of their intended duty weapons.

[Guest]

Any tanker toad who's been to the desert is pre-qualified in this event....

Only if the gaining unit accepts previous qualifications...

[Spoo]

Mall Ninja's:

http://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

Wow. Favorite line:

BTW, I am, of course, usually carrying a pair of ceramic plates in my briefcase so that I can shield my head.

Oh, of course.

[DFRESH]

Yeah, I hope to God that's just a couple of trolls, if not, I'm never going shopping in NY. Did you make it to the end? The Mods there pulled a classic "prentend to be one of them" to get them to stop.

[outbreak]

Yeah, I hope to God that's just a couple of trolls, if not, I'm never going shopping in NY. Did you make it to the end? The Mods there pulled a classic "prentend to be one of them" to get them to stop.

Yeah, the guys were trolls. They are legend (infamous?) in some of the online shooting forums. I have a theory that the movie "Observe and Report" was loosely based on that thread. Lots of parallels.

[Spoo]

Damn, that makes it all the funnier. Time to reread with new perspective.

[Guest StreamOfTheSky]

Video of British cops pursuing an elderly man at a breakneck 30 mph for not wearing his seat belt, and then immediately running up to smash his window and climb up on his car when he stops. He thought the stop was over and left when it apprently wasn't, but they really thought he was so dangerous?! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300608/Robert-Whatleys-car-window-smashed-OAP-dragged-police-officers.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

I guess it's because it's a GPS unit made overseas, but kinda wierd to see it being measured in miles instead of km, considering it's the UK. Also, 60,000 pounds sounds like an awful lot of money to spend on an ugly car.

[schokie]

I guess it's because it's a GPS unit made overseas, but kinda wierd to see it being measured in miles instead of km, considering it's the UK. Also, 60,000 pounds sounds like an awful lot of money to spend on an ugly car.

The Brits still use MPH and Miles for distance on roads. They have a mix of English and Metric standards, depending on what's being measured. You have to go to the Continent for strict Metric.

[Royal]

Guy runs from baseball, girlfriend bears the brunt of his cowardice. After this sissy pranced away from a foul ball at an Astros game, his sexual preference was immediately called into question by 20,000 fans at the stadium. The video on the link pretty much confirms the dude brought the girl to the game as a front.

[SurelySerious]

Article: Giant Mecca Clock Seeks to Call Time on Greenwich

BL: "Scientists" would like the world to start new days based on Arabian Standard Time, to now be defined from the 2000ft clock, instead of GMT( or UTC really, but in either case it resides at 0 Longitude).

But Islamic scholars hope the clock's influence will stretch far further than the sands of Saudi Arabia, as part of a plan for Mecca to eclipse the Greenwich Observatory as the "true centre of the earth". For the past 125 years, the international community has accepted that the start of each day should be measured from the prime meridian, representing 0 degrees longitude, which passes through the Greenwich Observatory.

Here's the real winner:

According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric known around the Muslim world for his popular television show "Sharia and Life", Mecca has a greater claim to being the prime meridian because it is "in perfect alignment with the magnetic north." This claim that the holy city is a "zero magnetism zone" has won support from some Arab scientists like Abdel-Baset al-Sayyed of the Egyptian National Research Centre who says that there is no magnetic force in Mecca. That's why if someone travels to Mecca or lives there, he lives longer, is healthier and is less affected by the earth's gravity," he said. "You get charged with energy."

If there were no magnetic variation there (which there is), you might be able to claim the first bolded part, but the lack of magnetic force and lessened effects of gravity are just ridiculous.

Edit: A native Saudi who views the clock itself with disdain

Edited August 12, 2010 by SurelySerious

[MKopack]

Article: Giant Mecca Clock Seeks to Call Time on Greenwich

From the article, with a quick edit for accuracy:

The clock’s four faces are 151ft in diameter and will be illuminated by 2million LED lights along with huge Arabic script reading: “In the name of Allah”. The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time which is three hours ahead of 1,800 years behind GMT.

[Tex]

The big brains at DARPA strike again.

My link

Sorry the link didn't work. Cut and paste below.

Darpa To Demonstrate Unmanned CAS

Aug 12, 2010

By Graham Warwick

Washington

Unmanned aircraft responding to calls for fire support from ground controllers, who directly command their sensors and weapons, could become reality if a Pentagon demonstration of advanced close air support technology is successful.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Precision Close Air Support (PCAS) program aims to develop a kit that enables joint tactical air controllers to take command of sensors and weapons on manned and unmanned aircraft to increase the speed and accuracy of fire support for ground forces.

With a wearable display, the controller would be able to use the aircraft’s sensors to improve situational awareness; visualize the effects before launching a weapon from the aircraft to assess likely damage; and monitor the weapon’s fly-out and send target updates via data link if needed.

Compared with the voice communications now used, a direct digital link between controller and aircraft is expected to reduce response time to within 6 min. from 30-60 min. to get a bomb on target from an aircraft orbiting within 30 nm. The “machine-to-machine” link is also expected to reduce errors.

Darpa plans a live-fire demonstration of PCAS at the end of Fiscal 2014 using a Fairchild A-10 modified for optionally manned operation. The A-10 will be equipped with dual Litening targeting pods to demonstrate that one aircraft could attack multiple targets, or service multiple controllers, simultaneously.

The A-10’s 30-mm. gun, laser-guided 2.75-in. rockets, GPS-guided 250-lb. bombs and AGM-56E Maverick laser-guided missiles will be used for the live-fire demonstration, as they have different targeting errors and blast effects that must be modeled and presented to the ground controller on a head-up display.

Although PCAS would increase the speed and accuracy of manned close air support, the program’s intent is to unlock the potential for unmanned aircraft to provide persistent CAS. The U.S. Air Force sees close air support as one of the missions for its proposed MQ-X next-generation unmanned aircraft.

Planned to be fielded around 2020, the MQ-X would have a high-subsonic speed equivalent to manned aircraft but an endurance of 12-18 hr., compared with 6 hr. for the A-10, while carrying a larger payload of weapons than the MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper.

Proposals for PCAS are due by the end of September, with award of one or two contracts for preliminary design, and up to six for enabling technology development, by the end of November. After the 18-month first phase, plans call for one team to be selected to proceed with the demonstration.

Edited August 12, 2010 by Tex

[Guest]

Darpa plans a live-fire demonstration of PCAS at the end of Fiscal 2014 using a Fairchild A-10 modified for optionally manned operation. The A-10 will be equipped with dual Litening targeting pods to demonstrate that one aircraft could attack multiple targets, or service multiple controllers, simultaneously.

Huh?

The A-10’s 30-mm. gun, laser-guided 2.75-in. rockets, GPS-guided 250-lb. bombs and AGM-56E Maverick laser-guided missiles will be used for the live-fire demonstration, as they have different targeting errors and blast effects that must be modeled and presented to the ground controller on a head-up display.

Ladyfingers and bottle rockets. Awesome.

Planned to be fielded around 2020, the MQ-X would have a high-subsonic speed equivalent to manned aircraft but an endurance of 12-18 hr., compared with 6 hr. for the A-10, while carrying a larger payload of weapons than the MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper.

Six hours? Really?

[SurelySerious]

ground controllers, who directly command their sensors and weapons... The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Precision Close Air Support (PCAS) program aims to develop a kit that enables joint tactical air controllers to take command of sensors and weapons on manned and unmanned aircraft to increase the speed and accuracy of fire support for ground forces.

Someone else will be dropping weapons off of the pilot's airplane? WTFO?

[brabus]

Someone else will be dropping weapons off of the pilot's airplane? WTFO?

2. How does anyone think it will be better in a non-pilot on the ground controls weapons off an aircraft? And I'm sure they're proposing that it won't be any big deal for the dude on the ground to find shit in the soda straw of the pod. You can't replace the dude at 15K looking outside.

[SurelySerious]

ACLU and CCR recently lanuched a legal challenge to the military targeting American al Qaeda members.

Awlaki vs. Predator: Other lawyer-types say : "American members of al Qaeda aren't merely criminal suspects. They're active enemy combatants who can be targeted like other terrorists."

It's a subscription-restricted article, so here's the text; I thought it was interesting. As for the ACLU, WTF.

Awlaki vs Predator, WSJ; August 13, 2010

By DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. AND LEE A. CASEY

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) recently launched a legal challenge against the president's right to kill al Qaeda operatives. If the suit is successful, it will undermine the Constitution's separation of powers and make it virtually impossible for the United States to successfully defend itself with military force in the future.

Since 9/11, the courts have increasingly encroached on the legitimate war-making powers of both the president and Congress. Federal judges now scrutinize the president's determinations regarding the detention of enemy combatants and pre-approve wartime electronic intelligence-gathering operations. But the courts have not yet claimed the right to review the president's decisions regarding whom to attack, or how to carry out an attack. Such determinations are at the very core of the president's power as commander in chief.

Lawyers from the ACLU and the CCR are mounting their challenge on behalf of the father of Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki is an American citizen whom the government believes was connected both to al Qaeda's abortive effort to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009, and to Nidal Malik Hasan, the U.S. Army major who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, last November.

According to published reports, President Obama has authorized the use of Predator drones against Awlaki, who is believed to be based in Yemen. Because of this, the ACLU and the CCR will soon argue in court that Awlaki is a "civilian" located thousands of miles from the "battlefield" in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that he is entitled to due process before he can be attacked. "President Obama," said the executive director of the CCR, "is claiming the power to act as judge, jury and executioner while suspending any semblance of due process."

The president is doing no such thing. Like his predecessor, Mr. Obama is fighting a global war against al Qaeda and its allies, who remain determined to strike the U.S. wherever and whenever they can. The battlefield is not limited to Afghanistan or Iraq but may extend to anywhere al Qaeda and its co-belligerents operate, as has always been the case in wartime.

The laws of war permit attacks on the enemy—including on particular enemy combatants—at any time and anywhere they can be found. The limitations on such attacks are only that American forces must comply with the rules of distinction and proportionality (which protect civilians and their property) and respect the rights of neutral countries.

It is this respect for neutral rights that prevents U.S. forces from attacking al Qaeda in the streets of Europe or anywhere else in a country that objects. The ACLU and others who assert that the U.S. is demanding the right to send cruise missiles against men like Awlaki in Paris or Berlin are flat wrong.

Yemen is a different story. Al Qaeda has operated in Yemen at least since it attacked the USS Cole there in 2000, and the Yemeni government has since cooperated with the U.S. (to varying degrees of openness and effectiveness). U.S. forces operate in that country with its tacit approval and have carried out a number of strikes on al Qaeda, including a 2002 missile attack that killed an American citizen thought to be al Qaeda's liaison to the "Lackawanna cell" of American recruits in upstate New York.

That Awlaki is a U.S. citizen gives him no special immunity from attack. The Supreme Court recognized this more than 60 years ago in the "Nazi Saboteur" case, Ex parte Quirin (1941). The court noted then that "citizenship in the United States of an enemy belligerent does not relieve him from the consequences of belligerency."

One of those "consequences" is that Awlaki can be attacked and killed by U.S. forces without notice and without a Miranda warning. Al Qaeda operatives and their relatives can't use the fact that al Qaeda is a decentralized, irregular and unlawful military force to claim "civilian" status. Put another way, combatants do not become civilians (entitled to immunity from direct attack) by refusing to comply with the most basic laws of war, which require them to wear uniforms and carry their arms openly.

Giving judges a role in the targeting process would violate the separation of powers. The Constitution makes the president commander in chief. Whatever limitations exist on that authority regarding how captured terrorists are detained and tried, the Supreme Court has never suggested that decisions on actual combat operations—particularly when and how to attack the enemy—are anything other than discretionary for the president.

Bringing the courts into the targeting process whenever an American citizen is involved would put an even greater premium on al Qaeda's recruiting efforts in the U.S. If American al Qaeda operatives are entitled to a judicial process before they can be attacked, they become instant human shields for all those around them. This is true whether they are on a conventional battlefield in Afghanistan or engaged in shadowy conflict in Yemen.

This effort is one of the worst causes the ACLU has ever championed. It should be quickly and definitively rejected by the courts.

Messrs. Rivkin and Casey, Washington, D.C.-based attorneys, served in the Department of Justice during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.

Edited August 15, 2010 by SurelySerious

[Learjetter]

You have an ACLU subscription?

[Guest]

You can't replace the dude at 15K looking outside.

15k? You can't see shit from 15k.

FWIW, you can replace "the dude at 15k" very easily. You can replace him with a dude in a LGPOS at 25k looking inside or a pilot in a Hog at 5k looking out.

[SurelySerious]

You have an ACLU subscription?

No, I have a Wall Street Journal one though.

[nsplayr]

And I'm sure they're proposing that it won't be any big deal for the dude on the ground to find shit in the soda straw of the pod.

Agreed. JTACs are good at what they do but they're not super men. I can see it now...

"Oh, so you not only want me to insert by helo at night in the mountains, hump it in for several km, run the stack, give weapons clearances, dodge bullets, and return fire, now I have to strap on this HUD, control a ball/pod, push the fire button, and sit there and lase the weapon on target? YGBSM."

I can see in some situations where there would be a JTAC on the ground in a relatively calm infil and a UAV overhead loaded out with tons of weapons and you just have him do the target designating instead of having to talk on to coords over sh*tty satcom to some guy back in Vegas, but CAS isn't exactly a walk in the park and to lump in sensor work and weapons release/lasing from the air into the skill set of a dude who's already got a lot going on doesn't make sense to me.