Ok World of Tanks pros...explain this!

Blow up the above pic and explain to me why the top damage dealing player on my LOSING team didn't end up with high caliber!

I read all the explanations (and yeah Spudman...I'm a tomato) but your previous explanations just don't jive with what I'm seeing above.

Explain please!

Africa is on the verge of a full blown pandemic...

First check out the above video.

Now check this out from Shepherd of the Gurneys...

Apparently, someone seems to have found whatever was keeping the needle stuck.
To wit:
24 Oct 2014 12,008 cases 5,078 deaths
19 Oct 2014 9,936 cases 4,877 deaths
17 Oct 2014 9,693 cases 4,811 deaths
2000 new cases in the last FIVE days?!!
Sweet blazing hell! If you're in Africa, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Look at the chart on the page; it hasn't increased by 2000 cases in the last 3 weeks.
Earlier today, I was about to note that I missed a WaPo news report a couple weeks back that related the Pentagon has revised their timetable for completing the 1700 beds; it's now going to take until early December, rather than mid-November, i.e. another 2-3 weeks.
I was going to note how far behind they'd be when they finally get to December.
But now, that whole post is pointless.
Those 1700 beds just became obsolete between last Sunday and last Friday morning.
And it's taking us 9 weeks to make 1700 beds' worth of facilities.
Ebola is making 400 new patients per day.
For the love of God, get our troops the hell out of there right fucking now!
Just tell them to drop their shit where it is, grab their duffel bag, and be on the runway ready to go in 5 minutes, fly in, pick them up, and just GO!

I couldn't understand the State Dept memo.

Yeah, it was a leak, but something like this to be leaked this close to an election made me pause.

Then I read the article that SoG's posted and it all made sense.

Africa is on the verge of a full blown pandemic.

For those that are of a certain mindset get ready.  For those that think all is well...it is.  I stand by my initial assessment.  They're gonna try and keep a lid on things till after the Christmas holidays...and then watch out.

Oh and consider this.  This administration has been lurching from one crisis to another.  This will just be par for the course.

Breaking! NASA unmanned supply rocket to the space station explodes on the launch pad.

More to come I'm sure.

A once great agency is such a joke.  Its really sad.

IDF's 7th Armored Brigade upgrades to Merkava 4's...

via Jerusalem Post.

The IDF's 7rh Armored Brigade is in the midst of a modernization process that will see all tank battalions equipped with the Merkava Mk. 4 tank by 2016, a senior army source said Tuesday.
The brigade's 75th battalion will complete the switch over from the Merkava Mk. 2 tank to the Mk. 4 on Thursday, and an additional two tank battalions will complete the process within two years, he added.
The tanks will come equipped with Raphael's Trophy active protection system against anti-tank missile attacks, making them suitable for combat in complex and hostile environments saturated with guerrilla cells armed with anti-tank missiles, particularly, in Lebanon against Hezbollah, according to the source.
The Seventh Brigade's fourth battalion is an engineering corps unit, and the brigade is also supplemented by a specialized infantry company that travels around in armored vehicles.
"The last time we got a new tank was in the 1980s," the officer said.
"This will enhance our ability to fight in closed spaces and hilly areas, against an enemy that disappears," he stated.

Israel's recent fight is causing a serious back to basics movement.  Good to see.

Warning! Not Safe For Work! Is this what "Women in the Infantry" crowd want for America's daughters?

I've called them animals.

I will never publicly speak my true feelings about the "radical" Muslims that are rampaging thru the Middle East.

What I will continue to harp on...is this simple fact.  War is barbaric.  Do we really want to subject America's daughters to this?  Are we really ready as a society to accept the possibility of this happening to one of our own?

Women in the Infantry is an awesome campaign slogan.  It excites feminists, makes lesbians wet themselves and the liberal elite can claim that they're fighting for equality.

The reality is much more harsh.  Busted knees, a bad back, sore shoulders, aches when it rains---and even sometimes when you wake, are all by products of the life style...and that's if you don't go to war.

If there is one issue where cold facts and not wishful thinking MUST take precedence then its this one.  Women are NOT physically designed to participate in infantry action as its currently conducted.  In the future?  Maybe.  But not now.

Bold Alligator 2014.

Read the article here

Note:  My first reaction to this exercise was to slam it.  Crisis Response?  For a multinational exercise to focus on small unit activities?  I'll hold my fire and wait to see how this plays out.

More evidence of F-35 death spiral? UPDATED!

Eric over at ELP Blog has a couple of short posts up about the F-35 that made me pause.  Read them here and here.

The stark reality?

The F-35 isn't seeing the massive production ramp up that the Program Manager/Lockheed Martin insisted was needing to get the "cost curve" down.

Production has been flat for the past four years.  Orders from Israel, and Italy have almost been cut in half.  Japan isn't buying as many as fast as hoped and S. Korea appears to already be suffering some type of buyers remorse.

But the real kick in the pants should be this realization.  The plane is still eating up an inordinate part of the budget, other more needed programs have been cut to protect it and we can't buy enough to force the price down.

This is just more evidence that the death spiral is already here.

UPDATE:  Its worse than I initially thought.  I was reading the comments over at ELP's Blog and ran across this...

Don Bacon • 33 minutes ago
This just in -- The UK shoe has finally dropped, and it's a size four not a fourteen.
BBCNews, Feb 10
UK to spend £2.5bn on [14] F-35 fighters
The UK is about to commit to the F-35 fighter project, a US-led effort to produce 3,000 aircraft which is set to cost more than £600bn globally. The initial UK order for 14 F-35Bs will, with support costs added, cost about £2.5bn, Newsnight has learned.//
UK has been "about to commit" for eight months and now--
DailyMail, Oct 28
Britain says agrees to order four F-35 stealth fighter jets
(Reuters) - Britain has reached an agreement in principle to order four more of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets, the Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
The contract, part of a plan to purchase 14 of the stealth fighters over the next five years, will be placed within the coming weeks, the ministry said. The aircraft are due to be delivered from mid-2016.

The above information is verifiable.  Additionally I remember the much ballyhoo-ed announcement and then nothing of the British Defense Minister signing a contract for the F-35's earlier this year and now...in the fourth quarter we get the news that the Brit order has been cut from 14 to 4.  Aviation and Defense journalist should be all over this!