* Posts by Mr Mark V Thomas

82 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jul 2008

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Deal inked in US Navy 'R2-D2' raygun robo-turret plan

Mr Mark V Thomas
Welcome

Re: 100KW

Didn't you know, by installing a smaller fusion reactor on said Charger, & upgrading it's Internal Structure to Endo-Steel, you can mount a couple of PPC's on said mech...

Mine's the mech with Variable Speed Pulse (VSP) Small Lasers fitted....

Israeli robo-kamikaze selling like hot exploding cakes

Mr Mark V Thomas
Unhappy

Re: Check Your Facts Before Publishing !

Try telling that to the Palestinians, who also claim Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, if ever a Palestinian state ever gets founded on the West Bank...

Flying-rifle robocopter: Hovering sniper backup for US troops

Mr Mark V Thomas
Black Helicopters

Leathal Toys ?

Re: last post

Yes, but how many points do you get for trashing a Volvo...?

(As I recall, that was part of the Plot for the Robin Williams/LL Cool J 1991 film Toys, after Michael Gambon's character, a ex-U.S Army General has taken over the Toy factory, & started producing a far more destructive military orientated product, piloted by children)

Russian schoolgirl invents inertioid-driven Venus rover

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re: Crystal Children

So I'm a "Crystal Child" according to those New Age fluff bunnies, as I was born what would be now called Asperger's Syndrome, in the mid 60's, & when I was young, medical treatment proposed for me, & my behavioural problems, included Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT for short) , & a possible lobotomy, if that failed ...

Reading the description of said parents of Indigo Children, I can't help wondering if they have undergone ECT...

Mine's the one with the Psi-Corp pin on the lapel, a pair of black leather gloves in one pocket, & a Phased Plasma Gun in the other....

Sky calls for access to cable network

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Pot Calling Kettle Black Redux

Ok then, let Sky have access to Virgin's cable network, on the condition it sells the 18% of ITV shares it holds, which as I recall, was a "Poison pill" strategy in order to stop Virgin Media mounting a takeover bid for ITV , a couple of years ago . ..

Will this happen...?

I Think Hell will probably freeze over first..

US lost Cold War bomb under Greenland ice

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re:Bluegreen's post

With regards to the Dichoroethyl Sulphide (Mustard Gas) issue, the United States at the time, were not signatories to the Geneva Convention restricting the use of Chemical Weapons...

As such, the U.S Army Chemical Corp were responsible, at the time, for the transportation of U.S Chemical weapons, most notably, mortar bombs for the 4.7inch "Goon Gun" Mortar...

Said rounds were reportedly transported near to the battlefield, ready for use...

However, as the knowledge of the "Goon Gun", & it's related ordanance was classified, most U.S Army personell did'nt know of this weapons existance...

The result, of this policy, was reportedly 1000 U.S servicemen were either killed, or very badly wounded as a result of the Bari Incident, in which a Luftwaffe air raid on Bari Harbour, in response to a somewhat bombastic radio speech, by a high ranking Allied Officer caused the cargo of a U.S freighter, which included Goon Gun rounds, to "cook off", causing mustard gas to enter the sea & air...

Top aero boffin: Green planes will be noisy planes

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Engines Over Wings

The Antonov AN-72/74 had it's engines located on top of it's wings, in order to increase STOL performance, by means of the Coanda effect...

When they delevoped a civil version, the AN-148 for airline use, the found that putting the engines under the wings, made them easier to maintain, & also they found that the overall fuel consumption decreased by some 20% compared to the AN-72...

The Honda Business Jet, due to enter production next year, in the U.S does have it's engines over the wings, but given the "credit crunch", will it sell...?

Google Willy Wonkas park fighter jet on NASA

Mr Mark V Thomas
Gates Horns

Re: Alpha Jet - Which Version ?

The German version of the Alpha Jet, I seem to recall, also had the capacity to be used as a light Ground Attack/Counter Insurgency (COIN) aircraft & as such, the wings had mounting points for weapon pylons, in addition it could carry under the fuselage, a pod mounted BK 27 cannon...

US forces want man-hunting robot wolfpacks

Mr Mark V Thomas
Black Helicopters

Re: Farenheit 451

Does the Instruction manual for the (proposed) "Mechanical Hound" come in a handy comic book format, one asks...?

US Air Force outlines combat raygun safety

Mr Mark V Thomas
Coat

Re: Aircraft Mounted Particle Accelrators....

There was a programme (I'm not sure if this was a U.S Navy or U.S Airforce Program) in the 1980's codenamed White Horse, which would have used 2 co-axial particle accelerators (1 accelerating Protons & the other Electrons) to essentally fire Hydrogen atoms, abeit at speeds close to light at a fast moving target... If they are intending to put such a device on a aircraft, then could it be a sucessor to the ABL (Airborne Laser) programme, due to enter service in the next few years...?

The original codename for said program, Sipapu, had to be changed after protests from the Native American community,as it meant Sacred Fire, in a Amerindian dialect...

Mine's a suit of Powered Armour, with the optional Particle Cannon on a shoulder mount...

Laser raygun plane gets $30m 'extended evaluation'

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re:So exactly...

It might not be the cost of the fuels/reactants themselves, but the cost of disposing of the reactants after they've lased...

One chemical laser design uses Hydrogen & Flourine, in their liquid states, as the lasing chemicals...

The chemical product formed after the process of lasing has taken place, is Hydrogen Flouride gas, better known in its liquid state as Hydroflouric Acid...

How would Paris Hilton cope with the concept of Excited Dimers...?

Blackswift hypersonic plane cancelled

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re:@ Matt Bryant

The F-22 is not allowed to be exported either, much to Japan's chagrin, as they've asked the U.S Government several times to be allowed to buy it, in order to counter Mainland China's purchace/licenced manafacture of Su-27's, but have been refused each time...

Rumour has it, that the Japanese are now very intrested in the Eurofighter Typhoon as a F-4 replacement, as the Japanese are unlikely to get the US'es preferred next generation aircraft for export, the F/A-35 until 2014-2016...

In-body electric eel tech to make 'leccy from body fat

Mr Mark V Thomas
Flame

Re: Good for BK & Mucky D

And after they do that, they impersonate Argon from a certain Kentucky Fried Movie sketch, & use the fat from the fryers, to run their delivery vans on...

UK asks to buy next-gen spy planes from US

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re: Just get some damn UAV's

Why do you think BAE showed off their Mantis UAV concept, at Farnbrough...?

I suspect that the MOD will use a Sentnel's (ASTOR) datalink to act as a relay, from a Elint equipped Mantis & do the analysis work at GCHQ...

As for the containerised Elint gear, I suspect that will turnup as a possible A400M payload, whenever that aircraft gets off the ground (if at all)....

DARPA seeks ultrasonic auto-scab tourniquets

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Joker alert

Said Kate Bush song title was Experiment IV, as I recall, & seemed to follow Monty Python's "Killer Joke" skit, in said researchers were trying to find "A sound that could kill someone from a distance ...".

New hydrocarb X-51 scramjet ready for flight

Mr Mark V Thomas
Flame

Re: Ordinary JP-7 fuel...

The main reason why Liquid Hydrogen fuel was mooted for hypersonic aircraft, was it was used to combat kinetic heating, as the Cryogenic fuel was heated by the airframe, thus dissipating heat & converting it back into it's gaseous state, before reaching the scramjet for combustion...

JP-7 was the fuel used on the SR-71 Blackbird, & was specially refined to have a high flash point, for the Blackbird's J58 "Turbo-ramjet" engines to use...

LHC downed until after Xmas - Boo

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re: last comment

No, it costs too much, to run in winter due to higher electricity costs....

Basically the LHC will use more power than the City of Geneva, when operational...

How would Paris Hilton explain the concept of Charge Parity Violation...?

NASA chief blasts US space policy in leaked email

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re: Space Break:Good Thing ?

And when the resurgant U.S, finds a Esa space station orbiting the Moon, in low lunar orbit, supplying a International, though non U.S, Moonbase (Alpha ?), which was launched by a couple of Ariane X booster's, & assembled in Earth orbit, what then...?

(Ariane X is a proposed stretch of the existing Ariane 5 ECA design, using 6 boosters rather than the current 2, & 2 Vinci engines for the second stage.

According to the proposed specifications, it could have ferry a 50 Tonne payload to LEO...).

Mine's the uniform with the black right sleeve, a comlock on the belt, & a stungun in the pocket...

'Water bears' survive in outer space

Mr Mark V Thomas
Joke

@Kanhef

Re:John Latham's 11th Sept 08:03 post

Now can we send Chuck Norris into space, minus a Pressure suit...?

After all, we need to find out he can last without air, for the comparison to be valid...

Elon Musk might deliver new plasma drive to ISS

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re:Obligatory Sci-Fi ref #2

By the time Arthur C Clarke wrote 2010:Odysssey Two, the Discovery's plasma engine had somehow changed fuels from Hydrogen to Ammonia...

Apparently Mr Clarke had found out, that the liquid Hydrogen fuel, would have

"evapourated", at the molecular level, from the Discovery's fuel tanks, over the 9 year period, before the Alexi Leonov arrived to investigate....

Mr Mark V Thomas
Coat

Re: Obligatary Sci-Fi Reference

Considering that the British Interplanetry Society held a Warp Drive Symposium dealing with said subject last November, they concluded a working warp drive might exist within a time period of 30-300 years, depending on when we can generate "negative energy", & assuming we survive that long....

Mine's the labcoat with the Dilithium crystals in the pocket....

Hadron boffins: Our meddling will not destroy universe

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

Re: Now what's the question again...?

No, No, No...

The answer displayed on Cern's VDU's is not 42, but 601, as all Cern's computer systems have just "locked up" trying to cope with the data ...

<< Begins polishing his crowbar & portal gun...

Columbia set to resurrect Ghostbusters

Mr Mark V Thomas
Coat

What about the Merchandising...?

Does this mean we get the actionfigures with accessories, bathtowels, slime (with & without worms), tents & finally the remixed theme tune on iTunes ready for download...?

Mine's the slime resistant lab coat, with the remote for the orbital laser cannon in the pocket...

Lockheed demos AI-based roboforce command tech

Mr Mark V Thomas
Black Helicopters

Re:Dave's comment

The Sargeant York Air Defence System was as Dave mentions, cobbled together from various spare parts...

The Hull was recycled from a M48A2 tank, not a Bradley MICV, although there was a later, Bradley based proposal, that recycled the 20mm Vulcan from the system that York was to have replaced, & added 4 Stinger man portable SAM'S in a external pod ...

Again, as Dave mentions, the the system was a kludged mess, which testing found out...

Reportedly, the Radar could not detect a helicopter sized target, even when it's radar cross section was "augmented" by the use of radar reflectors,(Luneberg lenses) bolted on the helicopter's rotor head, it's fire control system kept "crashing" at the worst possable moment & finally, the M48A2's engine could only run on petrol (the U.S Army at the time was standardising on JP-8 equivalent fuels)...

Prof says fatties a bigger menace than bin Laden

Mr Mark V Thomas
Paris Hilton

The Next Target For Demonisation...?

And what's the next target for tabloid/media "Demonisation", I wonder...?

Sex, maybe...

Mine's the Holdall containing 10,000 doses of Flabbon...

Project Kangaroo gets more time to defend anti-trust claims

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Snake Plissken's post

Sky do run a similar service called Sky Anytime, that currently runs on PC's.

However to get it, you either have to have a Multiroom subscription (+£10 a month addon to your subscription, & the cost of a second box) or if you're not on their Multiroom scheme, pay £10 a month extra on your subscription...

Either way, you're paying £120 per year to access their service...

No wonder the possibility of a "free" rival/competitor to their service, that can run on say, Nintendo Wii's or PS 3's via broadband for example, fills Sky with alarm & dread...

Depp for Dark Knight follow-up

Mr Mark V Thomas
Happy

Re: Future Batman Villians

Anyone care to bet that Manbat turnsup as a opponent in a future film...?

Mine's the rare, & completely untameable Giant Condor...

"Now where did I put that Sonic Controller thingy...?"

Extra-heavy minicopter 'Jetpack' astounds world+dog

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Mythbusters "Ducted fan" flight pack

They did build one, and it did'nt fly...

Third time unlucky for Elon Musk's Falcon rocket

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Reliant Robin Space Shuttle

The people who made said shuttle were awarded a "Arthur", by the British Interplanetry Society, for their work, as it was the largest rocket to be launched in the mainland U.K...

Apple is Fisher-Price of sound quality, says Neil Young

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Compression

Well, I'm using MP3's to store my CD collection on my audio server (a old computer with a 500 Gb hard drive) abeit at 192Kbps, & find the quality excellent, though with increased hard drive size, I am considering lossless/wav to backup my Cd's on ...

Mine's the baseball bat made out of Shen Mook...

BAA 'invented green superjumbo' to OK Heathrow plans

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: Heathrow expansion

Ironically, with regard to a third runway, this was considered in the late 1940's/1950's when Heathrow was under delevopment, and the recommendation was made, at the time, that the land necessary for the construction of said 3rd runway, be bought "in case" that future expansion required it...

The proposal was rejected....

UK's future super-stealth jumpjet 'rock solid' - Brit test pilot

Mr Mark V Thomas

Re: P1154

Contary to the last poster's statements, the P.1154 project was not called Kestrel as that was the initial name for the P.1127 prototypes ( I suspect that if P1154 had ever been constructed, it would have recieved the Harrier name).

P.1154 was designed to meet a NATO requirement for a V/Stol strike fighter (NBMR - 3), & at the time (the late 1950's), speed was considered a primary requirement.

( A previous submission, P.1150, which was capable of Mach 1.3 had been rejected, as it was considered too small to meet the requirement ).

To meet this requirement, Bristol delevoped a engine based on their Pegasus design, using Plenium Chamber Burning (PCB for short), effectively a afterburner for a vectored thrust engine.

By contrast, the French submission, for NBMR-3, the Dassault Mirage III V/Stol "Balzac" used a dedicated Rolls Royce lift engine coupled with the Mirage's existing Atar engine to meet the requirement...

P.1154 however fell foul of interservice rivalries, as the Royal Navy had a pet project it wanted funding for, namely the CVA-01 "Supercarrier" programme a/k/a the Queen Elizabeth class, which was due to enter service, in the mid 1970's as a replacement for the Ark Royal...

As a result, the Royal Navy allegedly tried to scuttle every project that competed with CV-01 for funding, including P.1154 & TSR-2...

Ironically, CV-01 was itself cancelled, as a indirect result of the U.S devaluing the Dollar in late 1967, in part to pay for the Vietnam War.

As a result of the devaluation of the dollar, the pound in turn, had to be decoupled from the Gold Standard, & massively devalued in order to prevent a balance of payments crisis, (By contrast, the U.S had decoupled the dollar from the Gold Standard in mid 1963).

As such, a austerity programme had to be initated, with regards to Government spending, & CV-01 had to go.

A attempt was made In the mid 1970's, by BAC, MacDonnell Douglas & Rolls Royce to sell the P.1150 concept to the U.S Marine Corps, under the designation AV-16...

For more information about P.1154,& TSR-2, then I would recommend reading Derek Wood's classic work on the post war British Aircraft Indrustry, Project Cancelled...

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