Pilot's Log

Yes, a Japanese vending toy company is marketing reproductions of the old PP/TimMee "Army Men" postWar toy soldiers that Baby Boomer boys used to have by the bucketload.  I still have about 300 in storage, myself.

...And I Tank You!

"Red Division Of Justice" and "World Peacekeepers" are one and the same.

PS: The Video On YouTube.

Bought it at HobbyTown in Knoxville at the IPMS meet Tuesday; got the usual club discount on it. With my Internet service interrupted badly by storms yesterday, I put it together and painted it tootsweet. Photos after more paint and decals.

Overday I bought a copy (to replace one I gave my brother) and binge read it. The reason I bought it (again) was to see if it could mesh with the existing Hackett Continuum...and so far so good, even though World War Three lasts a little longer in Tom Clancy's version of events. Two things that had been lacking in Gen. Hackett's vision were the political and economic causes of the War and Clancy's novel fills in some of that dimension. But beyond that I can shift the dates six weeks and most of it matches.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that the Date/Day of the Week patterns for 1984 and 1985 match those for 2012 and 2013, so for planning and reality checking in that regard, I can simply use my current date book (which has calendars for both '12 & '13).

Today in the mail I received...my wall calendar for next year. It's a freebie from Agilent Technologies' Aerospace & Defense division. (www.agilent.com/find/AD)

I've got loads of other things to do before January 2011 rolls around...but I'm already working on them. How about you?

( Toho War Movie Trailer #1 )

( Toho War Movie Trailer #2 )

( At Least The Jets Are American, If Not The Air Force )

Explanations: Toho Movie #1 is Taiheiyo no Tsubasa/Wings of the Pacific, also known as Attack Squadron and marketed on home video as Kamikaze, which is a misnomer. It's the true story of a Japanese squadron whose commander refused to allow himself or his pilots to be used in suicide missions. One of the actual planes of this same squadron survived the War and is in the collection of the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL.

Toho Movie #2 is Ozora No Samurai/Samurai of the Blue Sky about the pilot Saburo Sakai, who became an ace against the Allies during the Guadalcanal campaign but then was wounded in the eye and forced to make an epic flight back to base alone and in horrible pain. While the fight that caused his wound isn't faithfully depicted here, it was the subject of an episode of PBS' Secrets of the Dead last year.

Rounding out the triptych is a video tribute to the F-5E Tiger II in the service of the Taiwanese (Republic of China) Air Force.

Last week in East Knoxville a teenage girl was killed by a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting. She was hit in her own house; the bullet came in through a wall.

Last week I read in a technical magazine how a nanotech process called "boronizing" can make ordinary fabrics bulletproof.

Idea I had overnight: Boronize the insulation in houses' external walls.

Who do I have to talk to, to make this happen?