ArthurShould have served in the Dutch navy then…
Matt, the Seventh Circle was a reference to Dante. He describes seven circles of hell in his Divina Commedia.
ArthurI don’t think the Ninja designation is official. During development when it was still the OH-X it was called Kongata Kansoku. I don’t know if that one stuck or not but at least that one was official. As for the workshare of the design and production: the main contractor is Kawasaki which does 60% of the work. The remaining part is split evenly between Mitsubishi and Fuji, and if you are thick you’d like to know that these two each do 20% of the job 🙂 Mitsubishi’s part of the OH-1 is mostly the engine, and they got to build the RP1 engine testbed from an Sikorsky S76.
Deliveries are currently underway, and the acceptance tests have been completed. The Koku Gakko at Kasumigaura operates the first production ones, this being the Aviation School. Apart from these, a few OH-1s including the prototypes are also with the Kaihatsu Jikkendan at Akeno, this being the test unit.
ArthurAs for the cost of living: Brussels is definately cheaper than London, and from what i remember, your daily shopping will also be a few Europennies cheaper (which is probably the real reason why Britain hasn’t joined the Eurocircus 😉 ). If you stay employed by your British employer and actually manage to keep under a British contract (for example with you being detached in Brussels, rather than stationed there – basically choosing your pay either in Sterling or Euros) you could probably even get away with paying the lowest income tax of the two, although i don’t know if the Belgian or British one is cheaper.
I would definately do it if i were you, and add me to the list of people dropping by at some point (the centre of Brussels used to be a one hour drive from my place, but speeding fines in Belgium have gone up tremendously so make it an hour and a half these days).
For the rest: food is excellent, drink even more, the city and surroundings are beautiful, you won’t be the first ExPat in Brussels, public transport is quite decent but so is driving (when compared to other major cities), and the Muzeï Aviatsiya at the Park Yubileynaya has got a brilliant collection.
ArthurArthur,
From an American perspective, there are very few areas where the government does a good job. There are far more areas where the government does an inefficient, wasteful, and inferior job. The less government the better! A population or nation who rely on the government for their well-being is a stagnant, listless, and uninspired people.
Take care,
TTP
That’s an understandable point, and from what i can tell over here that is roughly the basic philosophy of American libertarians and a good part of the Republicans. But what i absolutely can’t understand in this respect is that US foreign policy has been the total opposite of this philosophy: while domestically, the US government (primarily the federal, but from what i know in most states also the local ones: state, county, what else have you got) try to keep a hands-off approach trying to keep their involvement (and with that, spending and with that, taxation) to a bare minimum. Now i find it perfectly agreeable that you need to drive cars with sloppy suspension because you don’t allow your governments to spend any money on decent roads, nor do i mind that your parks are often barren wastelands of former grass with an occasional sponsored tree or veteran’s memorial (especially not if the latter is a nice Skyhawk 😉 ). After all, if there is one country which can claim it has grown the sort of government it’s population wants it is the USA.
On the other hand, the US government is far more intrusive on the lives of people outside it’s own borders than any government i can think of. It’s even more paradoxical: while the US federal government hardly spends money on education or infrastructure in the US itself because (basically) the US people refuse to pay taxes for such issues and doesn’t trust the government to do a good job, that very same US government is using US taxpayer’s money either destroying and/or rebuilding that sort of infrastructure all around the world.
So while, according to you, the US government (just like any other government) can’t be trusted to be working effectively for the people it actually depends on (being the voters of course), then how can you expect that very same government to be doing a good job for the people which have absolutely no influence on that government?
I’ve said it a number of times before and it will be rightfully ignored again this time: if the US would like to live up to it’s moniker of being a Democracy (not only in a political sense, but in an Ideological sense), it should either back off to being a domestic-oriented government or allow some sort of international influence in it’s election process 😉
ArthurI never served myself, but lots of friends have served or still serve. From what they tell me, the “peace and tranquillity that rarely comes in service life” is actually seventh circle of boredom 🙂
ArthurAnd it should inspire us to… what? Test metal fatigue of CH-46 entrance doors by having some girl sitting on them?
ArthurBack in the days when Charles still called himself Black Francis, he did occasionally shout a few words to the audience: “This is a sing-along, it’s called Tame.” Not too much though, i remember Kim being a bit more communicative with the audience. Although that could be totally subjective memory, of course 😉
ArthurI won’t be seeing them at Pinkpop, for now at least. I just didn’t think that the Pinkpop-rundown this year was all that spectaculair, and i definately had enough of Lenny Kravitz performing there. Can’t they leave that guy at Madame Tussaud’s where he belongs? But one never knows though – Pinkpop being a twenty minute walk from my flat, so…
I’ll be at Werchter though. And i don’t mind having the Pixies programmed a bit early. At least i will still be somewhat sober.
ArthurThe EU is beginning to look way too much like the US for my liking. Too many people who are totally paranoid about the Big Evil Conspirationalist Government who are, in fact, totally clueless about what that government actually entails.
But i’m sure Speedbird, Minidoh and Sauron have actually read the new constitution (or at least a synopsis of it), and know to compare it with the current treaties concerning the organisation of the EU as a political entity, right?
:rolleyes:
ArthurTwo more months waiting for me… thanks for the heads-up. I’m really looking forward to it.
ArthurToo bad those screwed up Arabs can’t understand this!
The only thing those screwed up Arabs understand is that freedom & democracy means getting tied on a leeshed, and have a torchlight jammed up your rectum, right? :rolleyes:
ArthurPensacola Wings of Gold that was… pretty terrible if you ask me.
It’s been far too long ago since i’ve seen SAC, but it is indeed brilliant and thoroughly amusing propaganda. It does help to compensate for that by watching Dr. Strangelove straight after it, and if you can get hold of them: there are some absolutely stunning Soviet propaganda films with aviation footage in them. Squadron-sized formations of Su-7s rippling their rocket pods, stuff like that.
Another one with great Eastern bloc footage is a wonderfully charming Kazakh film from the early 1990s. It tells the story of three boys living in the vicinity of an airbase, who either waste their time watching aircraft at the airbase or listen to an old man’s stories about The Sea – very impressive stories, those boys of course growing up in the middle of the desert. This goes on for hours and hours ( i t – i s – a – v e r y – s l o w – f i l m – ) until the boys have finally found an old railway locomotive which should bring them to The Sea. Unfortunately for the boys, the locomotive is inside a bombing range and a few Su-24s end the boys’ maritime aspirations. Unfortunately i forgot the title – my Kazakh has never been that well, alas.
Two films come to mind with impressive helicopter footage: the obvious one is of course Apocalypse Now (the totally insane waste-a-village-to-the-tunes-of-Wagner scene), but for a truely chilling scene with a few Mi-24s, i can seriously recommend Kavkazki Plennik, or Prisoner of the Mountains. A Russian film about two POWs held in some Caucasian village. Definately worth watching.
ArthurA HUD perhaps?
ArthurFull-scale model on the Minsk. There are a few modelers in the PRC working on scale 1:1, the Apache in Datang Shan is another example.
ArthurUfa definately has a reputation considering it’s female population, and from what i can tell it isn’t completely unjustified. And i don’t know your definition of unisexuality, but the female bits are most definately there. Just like with Dutch girls.
Besides, how unisexual do you want people to be? I thought you’d be glad if a girl doesn’t look like a uranium miner who spends her spare time lumberjacking 🙂 ?
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