Bryon's Striking Back Expo Hardware

I have always wanted to visited the Bryon Expo to see the Striking Back show. Saddly, that show stopped over a decade ago. But lots and lots of rc model pilots remembered that show. You can see the Striking Back production on YouTube, but here are some videos below (and links) that showed the huge model aircraft carriers, the smaller boats that cruised the flooded driveway when the show was underway. And finally, the Bryon hangar where the models were built and prepped for the show.

Back in my youth, the summer between my 8th and 9th grade years, I stayed up late at night writing out in longhand in what turned out to be two 5-subject spiral notebooks and thus my second novel (I had done the same thing the previous summer). It centered on RC model airplanes and re-fighting World War Two in miniature. Those aircraft carriers (that you can see in the video here) were about the size that I wrote about way back when.

Now I am 50 years old and think back on the impossibility of being able to do what I wrote about back in my youth. Take landing a model airplane. As a pilot of a model airplane, it takes lots of practice to be able to land on the same spot all the time. Add to that wind conditions, actually having to fly a 10 pound model airplane right at yourself (even if you were protected by a net in my story). Now days, you can have micro cameras and via tele-link systems; you could actually be in the cockpit of your model airplane flying around. Always wanted to be a U.S. Navy pilot, but didn't like the idea of joining the Navy to do it? Well, now you can.

Then there is the final link below of someone who actually went so far to make a function RC model airplane aircraft carrier.

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Ref.

1. USS Hornet and Akagi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQnuAvqM2zE).

2. Background ship at Bryon site (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTQKH5AKryw).

3. Bryon behnd the scenes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sb9CVsXahA).

4. RC Aircraft Carrier KARE 11 News - April 2, 2007. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKGV-0-74FI).

5. Nitroplanes.com (http://www.nitroplanes.com/88e-camera-mount-system.html).

6. Nitroplanes.com/FPV gadgets (http://www.nitroplanes.com/gadgets.html).

The Sci-Fi Air Show Webpage!

Picked up on this neat website thanks to the Okuda Log - the Sci-Fi Airshow. The name only gives a hint as to what you will find on that webpage. There are some hints of Star Trek stuff in the hangars, but the main "attractions" are like the Orion space shuttle from "2001: A Space Odyssey"! Or Eagle 4 from "Space: 1999."

"Battlestar Galactica" is represented by 3 Vipers and the big shuttle. Even the Spindrift and Flying Sub from Irwin Allen's TV shows "Land of the Giants" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea!"

Always wanted to know about the Spindrift's Landing Gear - now I know!

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Ref. Okuda Log (http://web.me.com/michaelokuda/michael_okuda/Blog/Entries/2010/6/20_SCI-FI_AIRSHOW!.html).

Sci-Fi Airshow (http://www.scifiairshow.com/index.html). Picture of Spindrift from this site.

Whats the Point of It?

File this under what? stupid? illogical?

Burqa-clad Afghan women (or we think its a woman?) is taking her picture for registering for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Herat, Afghanistan. Picture comes from the London Telegraph.

Just read the comments that went along with this posting on Weasel Zippers blog.

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(http://weaselzippers.us/2010/06/17/pic-of-the-day-afghan-woman-having-her-picture-taken-for-voter-registration-card/).

Red Dawn Movie Re-Make on Machelle Malkin's website

This was a very interesting article by guest blogger Doug Powers. His article was about the remaking of the 1984 movie "Red Dawn." Now this movie is planned to hit the American movie screen this November.

This time, it will be the Chinese Communists who invade the United States of America. The pictures that went with this article was the center piece of Mr. Powers article.

But the comments afterwards are worth a read. If you get a chance, please do so. Aside from screams of "Wolverines!" that is.

While there were comparsions to movies/tv shows like "V" and re-hashing the original "Red Dawn" movie, there were some posts that stand out in my mind.

Like quoting some lines form the movie. This was (post #50): On June 8th, 2010 at 2:13 pm, Rogue Cheddar said: Well obviously the following dialogue will have to be rewritten.

Col. Andy Tanner: …The Russians need to take us in one piece, and that’s why they’re here. That’s why they won’t use nukes anymore; and we won’t either, not on our own soil. The whole damn thing’s pretty conventional now. Who knows? Maybe next week will be swords.

Darryl Bates: What started it?

Col. Andy Tanner: I don’t know. Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they’re gonna fight.

Jed Eckert: That simple, is it?

Col. Andy Tanner: Or maybe somebody just forget what it was like.

Jed Eckert: …Well, who *is* on our side?

Col. Andy Tanner: Six hundred million screaming Chinamen.

Darryl Bates: Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen.

Col. Andy Tanner: There *were*.

[he throws whiskey on the fire; it ignites violently, suggesting a nuclear explosion] (end quote).

Post number 78 really caught my eye for some reason. Here it is (post #78): On June 8th, 2010 at 7:50 pm, RetFireman said: The sad/scary part is that the Art Department didn’t have to look any farther than an anti-Bush/pro-Obama rally to get their slogans. It truly is scary to see just how parallel the posters for this movie and the Liberal / Progressive / Democrat slogans and posters run. One can only assume that those protesting and complaining are doing so because they are afraid it will finally awaken the sleeping people who will finally realize what we have been telling them for years; If it claims to be “Progressive”, “Liberal”, “Tolerant”, “Non-Racist”, or anything else they claim, you can rest assured that it is the exact opposite. (end quote).

Then there was this post (#82): On June 9th, 2010 at 5:18 am, Apostic said: I also note from the pictures some propaganda style similarity with Amerika, but I guess propaganda posters tend to all look alike after a while. (Reminded of something in that old miniseries: how the Soviets allowed the locals to have their annual “Lincoln Day” celebration, but the approved banners juxtaposed images of Lincoln and Lenin….) (end quote).

Then finally this post (Post #86): On June 9th, 2010 at 9:18 am, Mach1Duck said: War with China is a possibility; however the Chinese governmnet fears its own people more than it does the United States. The U.S. would have more to worry about if there were a Chinese revolution, who or what would replace the current government. (end Quote).

UPDATE (March 18, 2011): Call if a "Oh My God" moment when I came across this bit of news. MGM was redoing their remake of the classic Red Dawn movie so that - get this. So as not to OFFEND the Chinese, the USA will now be invaded by the North Koreans! (http://littlemissattila.com/?p=21231). There is also this link within that same article about all the troubles the movie company was having producing the remake. Here is that link (http://www.theblogmocracy.com/2010/07/26/red-dawn-2010/).

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Ref. Michelle Malkin's blog. "Red Dawn Remake" June 8, 2010. by Doug Powers (http://michellemalkin.com/2010/06/08/red-dawn-remake/).

Midway-Turning Point of World War Two

There will be a lot of remembering about D-Day on June 6th this year and for the next few years as well I suppose. But for me, the true turning point of the Second World War was the Battle of Midway - June 4, 1942.

My friend from way back in our shared college days-Anthony P. Tully co-authored a book with Jonathan Parshall a few years back entitled, "Shattered Sword. The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway." It recounts the battle from the Japanese point of view and by in large recounts the mistakes they made and shoot down some famous myths in the process.

If nothing else this weekend, when you go out and maybe rent the DVD of the movie "Midway" or "Private Ryan" or of the John Wayne movie "D-Day," if you have the extra money, go ahead and pick up a copy of this book.

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Ref USNI Blog "Remembering Midway – 68 Years Later" by SJS, June 2010 (http://blog.usni.org/2010/06/01/remembering-midway-68-years-later/?utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=June%202010%20USNI%20Newsletter).