Mfd4567 - Olio

Jacob H. Myers’ 1890 patent for improvements on the voting machine, giving the voter the “means whereby an honest vote can be had and counted without the liability of voters being intimidated”.

Ah yes, a Stuart with a PaK 40, the perfect SPG

An historic naval armada for our time….

WESTERN PACIFIC (Nov. 12, 2017) – For the first time in ten years, three United States Navy aircraft carriers – and their escorting carrier strike groups (cruisers, destroyers and submarines (not visible)) – are operating together in the far-Western Pacific….enroute the Sea of Japan for a show-of-force to threatening nuclear, biological and chemical weapons rogue-state North Korea (DPRK).

The American warships are accompanied by – and training with – naval forces from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) (South Korea).

The three American aircraft carrier strike groups, along with Japanese and South Korean warships….will transit from the Western Pacific Ocean along, roughly, the yellow-green track above….into the Sea of Japan….as a show of force against North Korea….over the next couple of days.

This is one of the greatest – and the most powerful – naval armadas ever assembled.

Those three United States Navy carrier strike groups are crewed by roughly 18,000 sailors and Marines….and account for around USD$50 Billion of military ships, aircraft and support resources.

The naval forces from Japan and South Korea are all state-of-the-art warships crewed by outstanding sailors.

                                             *          *          *          *

The three navies are working together as a team….in hopes of bringing about peace through strength….but ready for hostilities with strength and purpose.

A rational nation and its leadership would most likely get the message. But, don’t expect rationality out of North Korea nor its dictator, Kim Jong-un….

                                       _________________________

>>CLICK any of the nine photos above to scroll/swipe through larger, high-resolution versions….and captioned details on each image….

>>Top photo: LTJG James Griffin, USN

>>Second photo: Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Rivera, USN

>>Third thru Sixth photos: LT Aaron B. Hicks, USN

                                      _________________________

One-minute aerial video of the three American carriers in formal formation with their strike groups, and warships from Japan and South Korea….as the international armada approaches the Sea of Japan on 13 November 2017.

A nearly 5-minute version of the first video above….this one giving much more in-depth look at all the ships, aircraft and formations….from close-up and afar, 360-degrees around.

Check it out

Maitland Ward

Hey Tumblr I can't wait to see how much you lose, you can go fuck yourself!

A better, more positive Tumblr

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Jeff D’Onofrio CEO

It took 200,000 years for the humans to reach 3 billion in population. It took 40 years for the next 3 billion.

Two soldiers sleeping at the entrance to their shelter in a trench. Eaucourt L'Abbaye. November 1916.

Could you compare the Stryker and BMP? Or just pros/cons?

Let’s compare the latest variants, the BMP-3 and the M3 Bradley:

BMP-3/Obyekt 688M 

Weight: 18.7 metric tonnes

Length: 7.14 meters

Width: 3.2 meters

Height: 2.4 meters

Crew: 3 (commander, gunner, driver) and 7 troopers (+ 2 additional seats)

Armor: Aluminium alloy and steel

Main armament: 100 mm gun/launcher 2A70 (able to fire shells or the 9M117 Bastion ATGM), 30 mm autocannon 2A72

Secondary armament: 3×7.62 mm PKT machine guns

Engine: UTD-29M diesel 500 hp with a power/weight 27 hp/tonne

Suspension: torsion bar

Operational range: 600 km 

Speed: 72 km/h on road, 45 km/h off-road 10 km/h in water.

M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle

Weight: 23–28 metric tonnes

Length: 6.5 meters

Width: 3.2 meters

Height: 3 meters

Crew: 3 (commander, gunner, driver) and 2 passengers/troops

Armor: Steel and aluminum

Main armament: 25 mm M242 Chain Gun,dual TOW Anti-Tank Missile Launcher

Secondary armament: 7.62 mm M240C machine gun

Engine Cummins VTA-903600 hp with a power/weight 19.74 hp/tonne

Suspension: torsion bar

Operational range: 480 km

Speed: 66 km/h on road, 7.2 km/h on water

In everything but armor the BMP beats the Bradley, as she has much better weaponry, in the form of her 100mm gun, capable of both launching missiles (which are easy to reload from inside the vehicle) and conventional AT rounds, coupled with a powerful 30mm cannon, vs the Bradley’s 25mm chaingun, and her couple of TOW missiles, which have to be reloaded from the outside manually once expended.

But the Bradley has much better armor, capable of withstanding 30mm rounds all-around, and reactive armor capable of stopping RPG’s, BUT the BMP can also equip reactive armor, and thanks to her ability to mount the Shtora electro-optical active protection system, she’s effectively inmune to the TOW once equipped, contrary to the Bradley, which has to rely on her armor to defeat any AT missile. 

So, the BMP-3 wins, a much more modern design born from the ashes of the Afghan war, VS a committee-designed vehicle plagued with problems from her inception, that still, nevertheless proved her worth against Iraqi second-generation tanks and armor.