I just want to mention their are 3 really good pirate pc games out right now.

Pirates of the Carribean- The graphics quality of this one is spectacular, especailly the sea fighting. The game play is very realistic.

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove- This one is sort of done in Age of Empire fashion where you have to build up a community on your island in order to wage what ever campaign. Its even like the Sims in that you have to keep track of personal needs of the people in your charge.

Pirate Hunter- This is really good if you like fast moving sea battles. If games like old sea fareing, but Age of Sail puts you to sleep, then youll like this one.

And I got the name Rackham also….ho hum and a bottle of rum

Heres a J-10 done by Stinger

GD- Very nice. Im wondering if you have planes that will import into FS2004 or CFS3? Ive been learning 3D graphics myself, although Ive put it hold while I concentrate on learning programming. Sofar Ive done a .avi file of a spitfire, but at 466k its to big to post here. I recall on the last graphics thread on here you said you use Amapi 7. I downloaded the demo for that off their site, and it looks interesting.

Well Hurricane, speaking of special animals, doesnt prince Harry (whatever his name is) going to ranch in Australia so he can experience some kind of normal life seem kind kind of pathetic. I mean if a normal rich person wanted to have fun in Australia, they would just get in their private jet, fly over, then drive all over the countryside and see and experience all the things there are to do there. But no, it takes millions of dollars and planning just to get this prince to go over and ride horses and what not in this one ranch. He is a ranch animal. He cant leave that compound, he can only jerk around by himself and go slowly mad like his Dad. Yeah, thats quite a life.

I think the Royal family should be scraped, but on behalf of the Royals not the British tax payers. They are celebritys, and I think they should start charging for their celebrity status. That means no more free interviews, no more free public appearances. In the past the Royals have publicly opened up about their private lives to the press. This has surely helped them as far as popularity as world celebritys, but I think it has also ruined their marriages, and made it impossible to pursue ANYTHING in private, whether it be friendships or hobbys or what have you. The Royals should take their money that their family has earned. And if you read British history, no royal family has had a greater positive impact on a nation than the British Royal Family, so its THEIR MONEY AND PROPERTY that they should take untaxed. Then should all go and pursue their private lives and bussiness in the private sector so that they can become proud citizens of the UK, and live off their own profit.

Well Ainu, I thought the name Ainu was something you just chose for some kind of personal interest. But I guess you must live up there. Are you Ainu yourself? I heard there is only a few thousand of those people remaining.

And to answere your question more directly, it would be very interesting if Japan and Russia went through some kind of Falklands conflict to finally settle that matter. Russias military isnt in such good shape, I actually think it would be an equal fight both in the air and sea. You can imagine some kind of area of hositlitys that would be cordoned off around the disputed islands as they wouldnt want the war to spread to the mainland of either country.

I think in picking a digital camera you have to be really honest about what your going to use it for. When picking film cameras, most people are satisfied with instant cameras, but when choosing a digital, they go out and buy something really exotic. For me, I only send pics to people on the internet or save them on the disc. Gone are the days when you have print photos that you put in a photoalbum. So 1 megapixel is more than enough for the highest resolutions and large size you have on a pc screen. If you really think that your going to use photos to frame and put on a wall or something, then you should go 3 megapixel. Since taking photos with a digital cam is almost free, it makes using high end photography more accessable to what it was before, so if your willing to learn, an SLR might not be bad idea.

Sean- If someone sold cookies and excluded irish people (like yourself Im assuming) or excluded women or anyother european group in the US, there would be angry sign carrying, stone throwing protesters who would squash that within hours. But for some reason when Black people try to assert their rights for equal hiring rights, its something to be laughed at. The only reason their are Blacks working in white collar jobs is because of affirmative action. I dont know why but by around 1980 the affirmative action movement lost steam which is why Blacks have contiued to occupy poverty level. The reason affirmative action slowed to a stop is up to debate, my feeling is that to many Blacks were comfortable with the welfare system, but thats neither here nor there now. Try going to South Africa and sell dicount cookies to Blacks their to make fun of their Black empowerment movement thats going on now to put Blacks in high job positions, and then see what happens.