CyberMurph

Around here people try to pick their own nicknames. But without fail NO ONE uses it. They will eventually earn one. More than likely one they dopnt like!

Fred Thompson should run. (Admiral from "The Hunt for Red October) R-Tenesee. We seem to do well with actor presidents.

http://www.talsorian.com/lisarant.shtml

Here is the official word from R Talsorian

http://www.talsorian.com/lisarant.shtml

Here is the official word from R Talsorian

Yeah Dubya is an idiot. Most folks with MBAs from Harvard are. Daddy can get you into that school, but he cannot get you out.

And if Dubya is so stupid, then that does not say much for Al Gore. An incumbant vice president of a popular president during a good economy and no threat (at the time) of war. He should have won by a landslide. No thanks. That makes him twice the loser in my book.

OK dude. Now you have got me all worked up. THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING. I even checked with the US Army Field Artilery School at Ft Sill, OK (the same army that fought in Vietnam). Naval rifles are NOT more accurate than field artillery.

What you are misunderstanding is this.

In the 1960s naval gunfire firing data was determined with computers. This allowed 100% ACCURATE firing DATA every time (assuming the data the forward observer sent was correct). It also allowed for very high speed calculation of fiiring data. Field artillery meanwhile was calculating data with "charts and darts". Slide rules, firing charts and tabulated firing tables (TFTs). This allowed for 1)human error and 2) much slower calculations.

Therefore I am sure NGF was more preferable because it was more responsive.

Also, since the US had dominance of the seas you could move a battleship or other boat up and down the coast at will. In order to emplace a firing battery you had to either 1) secure an LZ or 2) build a fire support base to position the howitzers which of course was more resource intensive.

NGF in the 1960s had more accurate firing DATA. But because the firing platform is unstable NAVAL GUNFIRE HAS AN ENORMOUS PROBABLE ERROR IN RANGE. therefore field artillery is more accurate than naval gunfire.

For instance danger close for 155mm artillery is 600 meters. Danger close for 5" (approx 150mm) naval rifles is 750m due to that PEr (probable error in range).

If you do not believe me I challenge you to research the data yourself. It is available on US Navy and Marine Corps doctrine web sites as well as the US Army Field Artillery school web site.

Believe me the grunts you talk to or read about may have called for fire on real NVA, but they did not calculate the firing data.When a trigger puller calls for fire all he knows is he reads a six or eight digit grid (NGF prefers 10 digit grid due to it's innacuracy) and minutes later the rounds impact.

I have been an artilleryman for 11 years and have put more rounds down range than I can count. I have been both a Fire Direction Officer and a Forward Observer. Also I know a lot has changed since Vietnam, but I don't think PHYSICS has.

Since we are all giving our opinions of Berlin I'll give mine. Apparently I had a really good time there. So I am told. I saw the Brandenburg gate from the horizontal in the back seat of our rental car.

I seem to remember having a lot of fun at a club in east Berlin. It still had not been rebuilt after the bombing. THe back wall of the building had been sheared away. THere were bars and clubs in it and the top floor was this REALLY out there art gallery.

VERY goth-cyberpunk.

It's not. That's a myth. Battleships (when we had them) had a probable error in range of +/- 600 meters. In other words an 18" round will be long or short up to 600 meters as often as not. US Navy, Marine Corps and Army doctrine states that when calling for naval gunfire the observer/target line be perpendicular to the gun/target line in case of an over or short. That's also why they require 10 digit grid coordinates, so as to be as accurate as possible.

The most accurate indirect fire cannon system ever fielded by the USA was the 8" M110A2 Howitzer. For some reason that caliber/cannon system was the ideal combination for accuracy, though to be honest I have no idea why. I think because the heavier round did not drift as much, or something.

One of the biggest contradictions of Cyberpunk 2020 is almost total econimic and social collapes in conjunction with consisitant and significant leaps forward in technology. If the money isn't there, and the social structure isn't there the technology will never develop. More likely the world will revert to more affordable, older technology. Like Horses and telegraphs.

FPF= Final Protective Fire. You're a grunt?

Yeah, ya'll laugh until it's time to start screaming "FIRETHEFPFFIRETHEFPFFIRETHEFPF!!!!!"

Well, Attack of the Clones is supposed to sound like a 1950's Saturday morning Sci-FI serial which is what Lucas was trying to re-create with Star Wars originally. (Note all the rope-swinging/damsel rescuing Luke does!) Anyway, he seems to have not noticed that most of his audience does not share his affinity for those old serials. Even when I was a kid (in the 70s) they were being removed from re-runs.

Temple Bar...mmmmm...Guiness.....

Iran-Contra got American hostages home, and the Hawk missiles we sold to Iran are not longer functional, and completely incapable of targeting modern US aircraft. I think we came out ahead on that one.

No one knows who offed Kennedy. There is a LONG list of possibilities, and I still fail to see what the CIA would have gotten out of it. Despite what Oliver Stone says all Kennedy ever actually DID was get us more involved in VIetnam. Hell he founded the US Aemy Special Forces jsut for that purpose.

Also I am a Captain in the Field Artillery. Althoug it should amuse some of you to no end that I am currently serving in a PSYOP billet.

It's long, it's boring, but you should read the recently signed campaign finance reform bill.

Also, why does it shock some people so when they discover that rich people rule the world?

Pseudomilitary? My ass. I am a commissioned officer in the US Army. Pseudo nothing.

Bladerunner was a terrible adaptation of a novel but a great film. I think it's the best "Cyberpunk" movie out there. They way I see Cyberpunk anyway.

I think the award for the most cyberpunk story has to go to "The Usual Suspects" which is not a Cyberpunk movie, but that's how I run my games. The Players are NEVER in control, the NEVER figure it all out and they are almost ALWAYS wrong when trying to figure out the story. But they really seem to like it that way.

I did not realize Gibson's books were part of two trilogies. As it does not sy "Part 1 of the Whatever Cycle" on the cover. So I just bought whatever the book store had. Imagine reading them in this order....

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Virtual Light

Neuromancer

Idoru

All Tomorrows Parties

Count Zero

By ATP I figured it out. After reading CZ I went back and read them in order. Thank God they are short.

I am reading War and Peace now.

Saw it three times. Yeah it was OK.

Nyah, it'll never pass. Half (or more) of congress wont understand it, and it wont get them re-elected. Or on "Hardball".

30. But I think I am gonna stop there. Nice round number. Yeah...

Rigghhht. And the CIA gets what exactly out of this? Ever known anyone in the CIA? Real cold blodded killers let me tell you. They just HATE the good ol US of A. Especially rich, conservative WALL STREET. You know, Manhattan, where the WTC is? Big into killing Americans. Yup. In fact they do it JUST TO FILL THE IDLE FANTASIES OF LOSER GAMERS AND CONSPIRACY THEORISTS! I mean what would you all do without the Agency?

Because I am the guy who actually LIKED Star Wars: Epidsode I

Um, I'm an artillery officer in the US Army. Would you ask a football (American) coach why he lost the game in the middle of the 3d quarter? Also, you are getting somewhat less than complete news. It was six years before a complete account of what happend to TF Ranger (Black Hawk Down) was written.

Also, I dont think we pulled our gruntz out of a nasty fire fight because they forgot their sleeping bags. Not a lot of crawling into sleeping bags in the middle of a firefight.