A-10 Thunderbolt 2 “Warthog”
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| From Abbotsford Air Show 2006 |
Wikipedia entry:A-10 Thunderbolt 2
This is a test to see if I can embed pictures using Picassa web albums in my posts, and apparently it works.
– Mike
Archives for admin
I totally forgot/ didn’t know that there was actually a game called Red Storm Rising for the PC (Published in 1989). As I was curious to see what the game was all about, I registered at the site and downloaded the game (here is the link: http://www.classic-pc-games.com/pc/simulations/red_storm_rising.html, to actually download the game you will have to visit a sponsor site and fly through some hoops).
In the game it is World War III (just like the book) and you play a United States Submarine captain tasked with stopping the Russian Navy. You can be a captain in different classes of submarines, such as the Los Angeles class, the Permit Class, etc.
I only played it briefly last night and got stuck at one of the screens because I did not know which keyboard commands to use.
The graphics of the game are horrible but then again the game was published in 1989 and alot has changed over the years.
Enjoy!
The following table shows the ranks used in the United States Navy. The order of rank is from lowest to highest rank.
| Rank | Collar | Sleeve | Pay Grade | Abbreviation | Enlisted/Officer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seaman Recruit | None | None | E-1 | SR | Enlisted |
| Seaman Apprentice | None |  |
E-2 | SA | Enlisted |
| Seaman | None |  |
E-3 | SN | Enlisted |
| Petty Officer Third Class |
None |  |
E-4 | PO3 | Enlisted |
| Petty Officer Second Class |
None |  |
E-5 | PO2 | Enlisted |
| Petty Officer First Class |
None |  |
E-6 | PO1 | Enlisted |
| Chief Petty Officer |  |
 |
E-7 | CPO | Enlisted |
| Senior Chief Petty Officer |
 |
 |
E-8 | SCPO | Enlisted |
| Master Chief Petty Officer |
 |
 |
E-9 | MCPO | Enlisted |
| Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy |
 |
 |
E-9 | MCPON | Enlisted |
| Chief Warrant Officer |  |
W-2 | CWO2 | Warrant Officer | |
| Chief Warrant Officer |  |
W-3 | CWO3 | Warrant Officer | |
| Chief Warrant Officer |  |
W-4 | CWO4 | Warrant Officer | |
| Chief Warrant Officer |  |
W-5 | CWO5 | Warrant Officer | |
| Ensign |  |
O-1 | ENS | Officer | |
| Lieutenant Junior Grade |
 |
O-2 | LTJG | Officer | |
| Lieutenant |  |
O-3 | LT | Officer | |
| Lieutenant Commander |
 |
O-4 | LDCR | Officer | |
| Commander |  |
O-5 | CDR | Officer | |
| Captain |  |
O-6 | CAPT | Officer | |
| Rear Admiral (lower half) |
 |
O-7 | RDML | Officer | |
| Rear Admiral (upper half) |
 |
O-8 | RADM | Officer | |
| Vice Admiral |  |
O-9 | VADM | Officer | |
| Admiral |  |
O-10 | ADM | Officer | |
| Fleet Admiral (for War time only) |  |
Special | FADM | Officer |
Rank Insignia and descriptions are from the following two wikipedia pages: Enlisted – Officers
Click here to go back to the Red Storm Rising map
I found out that there is actually a board game based on the book Red Storm Rising. I had a quick look and it seems like a pretty cool game.
You can find the link here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3707
Pretty cool.
Mike.
For the last couple of days I have been trying to get some animation going on the Red Storm Rising Map, and I finally succeeded.
Luckily for me there are a lot of resources available for Google Maps. The most help I got was from this website: http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm, to make the animation work I also added the epolys.js javascript to my javascript file, the epolys.js was written by Mike Williams who is the web master at http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm
I want the animation on here because throughout the book there are some interesting things that can be animated (I think).
If you want to have a look you can find it at this location and then select “chapter 2”.
enjoy,
Mike.
The following table shows the ranks used in the United States Air Force. The order of rank is from lowest to highest rank.
| Rank/Title | Insignia | Pay Grade | Abbreviation | Enlisted/Officer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airman Basic | No Insignia | E-1 | AB | Enlisted |
| Airman |  |
E-2 | Amn | Enlisted |
| Airman First Class |  |
E-3 | A1C | Enlisted |
| Senior Airman |  |
E-4 | SrA | Enlisted |
| Staff Sergeant |  |
E-5 | SSgt | Enlisted |
| Technical Sergeant |  |
E-6 | TSgt | Enlisted |
| Master Sergeant |  |
E-7 | MSgt | Enlisted |
| Master Sergeant |  |
E-7 | MSgt (A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit) | Enlisted |
| Senior Master Sergeant |  |
E-8 | SMSgt | Enlisted |
| Senior Master Sergeant |  |
E-8 | SMSgt (Same as Master Sergeant, A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit ) | Enlisted |
| Chief Master Sergeant |  |
E-9 | CMSgt | Enlisted |
| Chief Master Sergeant |  |
E-9 | CMSgt (Same as Master Sergeant, A diamond on the insignia indicates special duty held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit ) | Enlisted |
| Command Chief Master Sergeant |  |
E-9 | CCM | Enlisted |
| Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force |  |
E-9 | CMSAF | Enlisted |
| Second Lieutenant |  |
O-1 | 2d Lt | Officer |
| First Lieutenant |  |
O-2 | 1st Lt | Officer |
| Captain |  |
O-3 | Capt | Officer |
| Major |  |
O-4 | Maj | Officer |
| Lieutenant Colonel |  |
O-5 | Lt Col | Officer |
| Colonel |  |
O-6 | Col | Officer |
| Brigadier General |  |
O-7 | Brig Gen | Officer |
| Major General |  |
O-8 | Maj Gen | Officer |
| Lieutenant General |  |
O-9 | Lt Gen | Officer |
| General |  |
O-10 | Gen | Officer |
| General of the Air Force |  |
n/a | Gen USAF (This is a Honorary rank) | Officer |
Rank Insignia and descriptions are from the following two wikipedia pages: Enlisted – Officers
Click here to go back to the Red Storm Rising map
Imagine this scenario:
You are the proud owner of a new iPod Touch or iPhone and downloaded an audio book from Audible.com to listen too. Lets say you downloaded a fictional novel and the story talks about fighter pilots and their planes.
So you are happily listening along and the story talks about an F-14 fighter plane taking off from an aircraft carrier, after the sentence ends the audio player pauses. You look at the screen of your audio player and there is a button that indicates a video is available, you press the button. After you press the button the audio player displays a movie of an F-14 fighter plane taking off from, you guessed it, an aircraft carrier.
How cool would that be?
Of course if you do not press the button the story will just continue for your listening pleasures.Can you imagine if this technology was added to a download of Dan Brown’s
You would be able to see a clear picture of the Mona Lisa or the last supper, track the path the two main characters travel on Google maps, reference material from the Knights Templar, etc.It is almost like an interactive game.. or interactive TV…
just some ideas…
– mike
I was looking at the Kindle on the Amazon website and this struck me as cool; what if the Kindle or any other e-book reader was capable of displaying Google maps. Meaning that when you read your book on the Kindle and on one of the pages a reference is made to a location on earth or mars or somewhere in space, you can then highlight that reference and display it in Google maps.
Cool? I think so…
– Mike
I have created a google map that follows the events that can be traced to a location in a Google Map. Hopefully I can update this map often as I re-read the chapters of Red Storm Rising.I am still tweaking the design a bit as I’m learning more and more about google maps, the following website helped me enormously:Â http://econym.googlepages.com/index.htm and of course google map API website as well.You can click here to view the page.Let me know what you think or give me any suggestions at highcarbbooks@gmail.com -Mike
Date: 01-31-198?
The killed guard had an AK-47 which after he was killed was used by one of the terrorists to kill all the scientists. What is an AK-47? well this is what I found out:
AK-47 Kalashnikov
Image from: Olive-Drab.com
The AK-47, also called Kalashnikov, is the standard riffle of the Soviet Army and many other countries in the world. It has been the weapon of choice of the Soviet Army since it entered into service in 1951.
The AK-47 is designed based on the assault riffle principle. During the Second World War the German Army discovered that most modern combat situation happen at a short range (less than 300 meters) and a regular riffle or machine gun, which used a long range powerful cartridge, was usually too much for the situation (too heavy, too cumbersome, or too big).
The German army came up with a design called the Sturmgewehr 44 (STG44) a compact lightweight and easy to handle riffle that uses a smaller less powerful cartridge then a regular riffle. Because the STG44 is a smaller and lighter riffle, and the bullets used are less powerful the weapon is easier to handle and more accurate in close combat.The Russian army liked the idea of the assault riffle and after WWII asked their weapon designers to come up with an assault riffle. One of these designers was Mikhail Kalashnikov and he took designs from other riffles and used it to come up with the AK-47.
The AK-47 uses gas to cycle the next round into the chamber. When a round is fired the gas build-up behind the bullet is redirected back to the chambering mechanism and the next round will be chambered into the breach (as shown in the animation below). Using the fully automatic setting the rate of fire is 400 rounds a minute.
The features that made this riffle such a big success are; the easy of use, maintenance, and ease of manufacturing. That is why there are over 100 million riffles made all around the world. Besides the Russian manufacturer IZH several other countries (mostly communists) have build their own versions of the AK-47.
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