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stumpy lou lou devcloud bpachair markstone02 p8068 purplebadger skydive84 vt1977 gremlin yoink bethuk ibanfield unclecharlie109 verticalflyer vanillaskygirl conundrum diablopilot quade dgskydive ltdiver alanab and I'm sure many many more who i've missed out, including many who either lurk or hardly ever post but are members. And I know that some of the above will not even be aware they met me... but they did.

See if you can try before you buy somewhere - maybe a local gun range has some examples you could use... not to try out specific pistols but just to see whether you prefer BP or cordite. BP shooting is a whole other sport of its own... it's not about getting off hundreds of rounds in a day... but setting up each shot absolutely perfectly and communing with each and every element of your weapon and ammunition... least that's how I looked at it.

Black powder weapons can be a lot of fun. If you're going original though make sure it meets a modern proof - the last thing you want to do is blow your fucking hand off. Or there are many modern replica's about.

hehe - try that in an English winter.

The ops manual doesn't say where the camera is attached - only that you have to be C licensed to "use" one. At the end of the day though it's up to the CCI.

Ok; Jonathan Maitland hosting, with John Sergeant and Kelvin Mackenzie on the pannel would make one interesting relatively high-brow show... but Lorraine Kelly????

You're right to be skeptical of simply this writers thoughs... but I do buy it. There are dozens of instances of the US and the UK for that matter putting covert units into foreign countries and stiring up a shit-storm there. Declaration of war or not, such actions are far from unlikly. Our governments are not affraid use these sort of tactics when the mood takes them... in this instance I think there could be disasterous consequenses.

That's not what the article itself says:

Yup... I just think that there is a high risk that were we to start cross border counter insurgency activities inside both or either Syria and Iran we would run a high risk of provoking them into open engagement.

That's not quite what I'm saying. I said action against targets inside Syria or Iran would be a "really bad idea". I didn't say that it would necessarily be "wrong". If there was evidence that those states were sponsoring terrorism then in an ideal world action could be taken. The problem is that the position in Iraq is far from ideal – coalition forces are so heavily engaged and overstretched that in the linked article the “senior military officer” states they are “losing”. Think what could easily happen if the US started to hit targets in Syria and Iran… Those two countries have very powerful armies on the borders of Iraq and they've not exactly shown a fear of using them in the past. Doing things such as attacking targets in their country and killing their innocent civilians (there is always "collateral" damage) when your military is so heavily engaged elsewhere in my book most certainly falls into the “really bad idea” category… i.e. it’s not the principal I have a problem with so much as the very real risks involved in carrying it out.

Yeah - that's attacking the insurgents - that's fine. The problem is the article discusses (amongst other more laudable ideas) attacking insurgents inside the sovereign territory of another nation. The US would probably be pretty pissed off if the Iranian or Syrian military drove through Florida shooting at people - even if those people were bad. Conducting counter insurgency operations cross border into countries like Syria and Iran is a realllly good way to escalate the entire conflict and drag in two of the more powerful militaries in the world. Sure they're not a great match for Western troops - but they enough of a match for heavily outnumbered, bogged down and overstretched troops to cause thousands more casualties. In summary: counter insurgency = good cross boarder counter insurgency in the middle east = a really bad idea

Those are the sort of actions which de-stabilize the entire region and bring in other nations against the coalition. Things are very badly stretched at the moment - how bad would things be if Iran and Syria both invaded because they were pissed about repeated cross boarder raids?

True - but the clips I've seen of this sort of attack involve either dirt/poor roads or piles of rubble - both of which are relatively common in Iraq. There was a clip released last week (I think - certainly v. recently) of a large blast taking out an armoured vehicle. That appeared to have been hidden in a large pile of rubble along side the road. Or you just build it into a car and park her up by the road. Moving it before hiding it is another question altogether as you rightly point out.

I have no idea about the more specific issues going on in the US at the moment but on a more general note I've found that many people don't fully understand the importance of a strong separation between the legislative/executive and the judiciary. It's a common fundamental strength of both our constitutions and something which should be fought extremely hard to preserve. Trust me; you do not want to give government the power to mess around with the judiciary. Many countries before now have found that a strong and independent judiciary is the last mechanism by which an errant government may be held to account. If the courts have been rendered impotent by government control, the populous is left to resort to civil disobedience and in the most extreme cases armed resistance.

That's pretty much what you're seeing. Just cos you don't see it breaking and it only reaches it's greatest hight after several minutes... doesn't mean it's not a "wave", just that the wavelength is much longer. The high tide you describe is simply a very long wave... it still travels across the Ocean fast and is still 20-30 ft high.

That's far from being the first such event. If you're using unexploded munitions it's a lot easier to simply leave the thing whole rather than attempt to deconstruct it and produce many smaller explosives out of it. Thus if you start with an unexploded 1000lb bomb you make a big bang when you detonate it... it doesn't really matter what you're in when that sort of thing goes off.

Most (AFAIK) will use a seal on request if you're traveling back to the states. Otherwise it's by far the norm not to use them here. Other EU nations vary.

We keep being teased with the prospects of helicopter jumps at South Cerney - your closest DZ. They were cancelled at the last minute last year due to some scheduling hitch or something. The guy who runs the heli is a regular at the DZ and we've been promised it will happen again soon only this time without the cancellation hopefully. I have no idea how much notice we’ll get though or how widely it will be advertised. Other than that I’m sure you’ll get some further responses below which will give you some choice.

Technically yes there are a tiny number of people out there using JVC's and Panasonics... but essentially no. It's virtually a Sony only club. You should be able to pick up a nice Sony PC style camera very reasonably though.

pssst.... you mean "perris".

Hmmm... a worthy dilemma. I once had to use a toilet similar to that in France. I was visiting the Mont St Michelle and was half way up the mount when I made the mistake of stopping for a piss break. There was a section of guttering attached to an exterior wall into which men lined up and peed. To our rear was a wall about waist height and above the roof over hung a little. Beyond the facility was open to the elements. To our left there was a door through which women could enter the stalls designated for their use. The main problem was that they had to walk between the men using the urinal and the small waist height wall in order to access the door to the ladies conveniences. So basically imagine your predicament but with women walking behind you as you attempt to relive yourself in this tourist hell hole. I don't go to France any more.

Take a shit in their hats.

You're doing them a favour. Go Fast is the only decent energy drink.

It's a custom rig - just cos it aint on the form doesn't always mean the won't do it for you. See what VSE says about the handle.

No one ever checks your room number when you go in for breakfast... thus it's free.