eugimon

Just like to add Neal Stephenson and David Brin to the list of recommended authors. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Diamond Age are two of the best 'cyberpunk' books written and his other books like zodiac and cryptonomicon are excellent reads as well. David Brin has written a great many books and some of them have been turned into horrible horrible movies, but his uplift trilogy (original) should appeal to macross fans who like the whole progenitor aspect of the mythology.

ah, that's a very good point Noyhauser. I was referring more to America being stationed in Japan and being expected to take the brunt of any real threat to her. But yeah, america's refusal to sell the F-22 to even our most trusted ally nations is pretty interesting.

Well, I'm not trying to make this a political discussion on the US military, just giving my 2cents on the question (rhetorical?) of why Japan isn't fielding homegrown fighters.

which is a tenth of what the USA spends. It's a big step from number 1 to number 2... considering all of the EU spends a little more than half of what the US spends. Referring back to the question of why Japan isn't fielding "high tech" homegrown fighters, consider this quote from wikipedia regarding the F-22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-22_Raptor : By the time all 183 fighters have been purchased, $34 billion will have been spent on actual procurement, resulting in a total program cost of $62 billion or about $339 million per aircraft. The incremental cost for one additional F-22 is around $138 million;[4] decreasing with larger volumes. If the Air Force were to buy 100 more F-22s today, the cost of each one would be less and would continue to drop with additional aircraft purchases.[3] 62 billion dollars, or 14 billion dollars more than the entire Japanese military budget for 1 year. Or, little less than a 1/10th of the budget for American military expenditures for 1 year. So, other than nationalism and to quench fanboy desires for cool military aircraft, what reason does Japan have to invest that sort of money when they can just reap the benefits of America's investment?

we're just used to the legs being presented as flat and rectangular in front, but the line art has them tappering the way the new 1/60s are. well, to be fair, gerwalk mode is drawn with 1/48 style legs and battroid is drawn with 1/60 ver 2.0 style legs. *shrug*

I get what you're saying, and in most cases I agree with you. But the rules change when you're responsible for the life of another. And honestly, knowing not to lock your infant up in a car in the middle of the night by himself shouldn't be something that needs to be taught... like don't feed honey to kids under 1 years old. At some point, common sense and the ability to think out a situation needs to come into play. But then again, I think it's crazy that you need to prove you're a responsible pet owner before you can get a dog or cat from the pound but any two idiots can bring a baby into the world.

No, I'm sorry, but a parent who would leave their 2 year old, locked up in a car, in the middle of the night in a parking lot while he watched a movie, doesn't deserve to be a parent anymore. The point is, he wasn't thinking, at least he wasn't thinking of the child. This guy could have gone to see the movie on any of the nights when he didn't have custody. But rather than wait a day or two, decides to leave his baby in car? overnight? I mean, even if the car was a safe and nurturing environment for a 2 year old, what about the risk of a kidnapping? I dunno, maybe whatever part of the world you're from is full of safe and loving people who would never harm a child (and please let me know where that is so I can talk to my wife about moving there) but here in America.. gods, just log into cnn.com. Just the other day there was some bride to be who left her kid in her SUV while she got her nails done. There's some other mom who police think killed her own kid and has been lying about it. There was a deranged lunatic who cut a baby out of her friend and tried to pass it off as her own. No my friend, america isn't a safe place for a 2 year old left alone at 2am. And to tie this back into the thread... and this is why we need a real Batman.

and contrary to the myth of war being good for the economy, building and fielding a large military is a signifcant money drain. As long as the USA is providing the bulk of their military protection, Japan is free to divert that money to other interests.

cars get hot at night, especially when you have a 30 lbs baby running 98 degrees, using up all the oxygen. Oh, and then there's some of the heat of the engine conducting and radiating into the cab. edit: and babies run hot, they're usually bundled up and because of their small size, have a hard time dissipating excess heat or generating heat if they get too cold. Oh, and he's 2 years old, if he woke up in the middle of the night, strapped into a car seat without someone around him, he would have freaked the hell out. edit: actually, I think if anyone woke up a 3am and was strapped into the seat of a car with no one around and no way to get out and sucking on their own carbon dioxide, they would freak out. This guy should be sterilized, a complete idiot.

gah, thanks for posting the technique and I think you're right... the surgery sounds worse than the disease. Considering Graham's reviews and the various demo units that people have played with.. I'm hoping that the shoulder breakages are limited to a few bad runs and not common to all. Otherwise, I hope yamato provides 'improved' replacement arms.

so what can be done? knock the pin out and rebore the "plastic part still holding the pin" so that the pin is free to rotate?

the original books are pretty good, but I'd stay away from the various sequels gets really repetitious and tedious.

w'oh, that's a rough sort of innocent virgin puppy love you guys got going on over there....

hmmm, when I wished for another cowboy bebop movie, this wasn't what I had in mind. Didn't watch scanner darkly so I have no idea if these guys are worth their salt or not.

no no, end of the world! doom, thousand eyes, epa epa!

So CNN is reporting that it was allegedly "verbal" assualt that got Bale arrested.

I'm still hopefull.

nah, your poses are perfect for the background. Would look odd to have valks doing flying kicks and ryu style upper cuts in the middle of a hanger Keep up the good work man, your pictures are like quick fixes for my valk addiction.

I have a pretty straightforward theory on what this is really about, but I'll keep it to myself, don't want to pull a ratchet.

yeah, it's not as bad, but it's still wrong. The long neck bothers me more than the long nose cone on the 1/48 ever did.

that shoulder hinge does look awful fragile. I have my fingers crossed though. the 1/60 yf-21 was such a solid release, it will be sad it they slip up again.

d'oh! So is it a case of his family trying to cash in on his success?

news outlets are reporting Bale is in jail for allegedly assaulting his mom and sister... ! http://omg.yahoo.com/news/report-batman-ac...sister/11062?nc http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/...d.ap/index.html

Man, that canopy is so glossy and polished it looks like chrome. awesomeness.

aw, and it still looks better than the DX