MINI WARGAMING: "May MWS Meeting & Life" (4 June 2008)

.

TOP: A Babylon-5 Centauri starship, the Primus battlecruiser.

Hi All,

It's been a busy past few weeks... I have so much on my plate and gaming has been lower priority for the most part... NOT that I haven't been getting some in! I still have some priorities! May was a good month. The MWS meeting was pleasant and we had about sixteen attendees. Two games were run.

TOP: An ASL game... Without miniatures.

The first game was a 6mm ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) miniatures adaptation game run by Eric, our local microamror houd (...other than myself, of course). He had an interesting WWII Eastern Front battle with Russians advancing across a river bridge against determined German defenders. The game went well and I was sorry I missed it. I did, however, get to help set up the board... nothing like placing some six-odd zillion littles trees down... LOL ;o) Thanks, Eric!

TOP: A Babylon-5 starship, a White Star destroyer.

The second big game was run by Russel, a local Babylon-5 Starship Maniac, and was alot of fun. Russel is well-known by my friend Chern ,who recently had a birthday (Happy Belated Birthday, Chern!), and they often see each other at local gamign conventions playing B-5. I haven't played B-5 in ages (...probably at least two to three years ago with Chern) so it was alot of fun. Russel set up two sides, an Earth Federation side with lots of fancy hardware and a League of Unaligned Planets with Brakiri and Vree ships. I, of course, took a Vree battlewagon or two nd my side was... of course, slaughtered. The Earth ships have a great mix of defensive systems (interceptors) and offensive sytems (long-range missiles and powerful beams). Of course, it didn't help that my side lost nearly every initiative round. It was a great game and I really enjoyed seeing my friends and rolling the old "knucklebones" (dice).

On the miniatures front, I've been slowly and steadly pumping out 28mm orcs & pirates. This past weekend, I built some RAFM 28mm armored orcs as well as the beginnings of a 28mm orc & gobbo pirate crew. I will hopefully have some time to put out some photos soon...

In other news, Israel Independence Day or Yom Ha-Atzma'ut just passed and I enjoyed celebrating that.

To learn more about the holiday, please check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Ha-Atzmaut

And to keep this post from becoming just a boring news spread, I'm sharing an amusing article I read on the Modern Crossfire Yahoo Discussion group:

TOP: The venerable Moisin Nagant rifle.

AK-47: It works though you have never cleaned it. Ever.
AR-15: You have $9 per ounce special non-detergent synthetic Teflon infused oil for cleaning.
Mosin-Nagant: It was last cleaned in Berlin in 1945.

AK-47: You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from inside.
AR-15: You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from 600 meters.
Mosin-Nagant: You can hit the barn from two miles away.

AK-47: Cheap mags are fun to buy.
AR-15: Cheap mags melt.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a mag?

AK-47: Your safety can be heard from 300 meters away.
AR-15 You can silently flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a safety?

AK-47: Your rifle comes with a cheap nylon sling.
AR-15: Your rifle has a 9-point stealth tactical suspension system.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has a dog collar.

AK: Your bayonet makes a good wire cutter.
AR-15: Your bayonet is actually a pretty good steak knife.
Mosin-Nagant: Your bayonet is longer than your leg.

AK-47: You can put a .30" hole through 12" of oak.
AR-15: You can put one hole in a paper target at 100 meters with 10 rounds.
Mosin-Nagant: You knock down everyone else's target with the shockwave of your bullet going downrange.

AK-47: When out of ammo, your rifle will nominally pass as a club.
AR-15: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a great wiffle bat.
Mosin-Nagant: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a supreme war club, pike, boat oar, tent pole, or firewood.

AK-47: Recoil is manageable, even fun.
AR-15: What's a recoil?
Mosin-Nagant: Recoil is often used to fix shoulders dislocated by the previous shot.

AK-47: Your sight adjustment goes to 10, and you've never bothered moving it.
AR-15: Your sight adjustment is incremented in fractions of minute of angle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your sight adjustment goes to 2000 meters, and you've actually tried it.

TOP: The modern AK-47 automatic assault rifle.

AK-47: Your rifle can be used by any two-bit nation's most illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide.
AR-15: Your rifle is used by elite forces worldwide to fight two-bit nations' most illiterate conscripts.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has fought against itself - and won everytime.

AK-47: Your rifle won some revolutions.
AR-15: Your rifle drove Saddam out of Kuwait.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle won a pole vault event.

AK-47: You paid $330.
AR-15: You paid $900.
Mosin-Nagant: You paid $59.95.

AK-47: You buy cheap ammo by the case.
AR-15: You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
Mosin-Nagant: You dig your ammo out of a farmer's field in Ukraine and it works just fine.

AK-47: You can intimidate your foe with the bayonet mounted.
AR-15: Your foes laugh when you mount your bayonet.
Mosin-Nagant: You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the stream without leaving the comfort of your hole.

AK-47: Any fool can be taught to field strip it.
AR-15: Anyone with an IQ over 160 can be taught to field strip it.
Mosin-Nagant: What's field stripping?

AK-47: Service life, 50 years.
AR-15: Service life, 40 years.
Mosin-Nagant: Service life, 101 years, and counting.

AK-47: It's easier to buy a new rifle when you want to change cartridge sizes.
AR-15: You can change cartridge sizes with the push of a couple of pins and a new upper.
Mosin-Nagant: You believe no real man would dare risk the ridicule ofhis friends by suggesting there is anything but 7.62x54 R.

AK-47: You can repair your rifle with a big hammer and a swift kick.
AR-15: You can repair your rifle by taking it to a certified gunsmith, if it's under
warranty!
Mosin-Nagant: If your rifle breaks, you pick up another one.

AK-47: You consider it a badge of honor when you get your handguards burst into
flames.
AR-15: You consider it a badge of honor when you shoot a sub-MOA 5 shot group.
Mosin-Nagant: You consider it a badge of honor when you cycle 5 rounds without the aid of a 2x4.

AK-47: You can accessorize you rifle with a new muzzle brake or a nice stock set.
AR-15: Your rifle's accessories are eight times more valuable than your rifle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's accessory is a small tin can with a funny lid, but it's buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest.

AK-47: Your rifle's finish is varnish and paint.
AR-15: Your rifle's finish is Teflon and high-tech polymers.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's finish is low-grade shellac, cosmoline, and Olga's toe nail polish.

AK-47: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for a stiff shot of vodka.
AR-15: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for hot dogs and apple pie.
Mosin-Nagant: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for shishkabob.

AK-47: After a long day the range, you relax by watching Red Dawn.
AR-15: After a long day at the range, you relax by watching Black Hawk Down.
Mosin-Nagant: After a long day at the range, you relax by visiting the chiropractor.

TOP: The Stoner rifle, which later became the M-16 AKA M-4 series.

AK-47: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold yourrifle over your head and shout "Wolverines!"
AR-15: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie from room to room.
Mosin-Nagant: Late at night, you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench in the yard to sleep in.

AK-47: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Mikhail Kalashnikov.
AR-15: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Eugene Stoner.
Mosin-Nagant: Are there even photographs of Sergi Ivanovich Mosin
and Leon Nagant?

A link to the Modern Crossfire Yahoo Discussion group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/moderncrossfire/

And one more link to an interesting set of miniatures photos from the recent Enfilade gaming convention:

http://max.velocity.home.comcast.net/~max.velocity/enfilade08/

Have a great Wednesday!

Good gaming to you!

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

HASBARA: Happy Yom Ha'Atzmaut! (24 April 2007)

.
Hi Everyone,

Today is the day that a small country survived against all odds to provide a place of hope in a dark corner of the world...

Happy Yom Ha'Atzmaut! (Israeli Independence Day)

Chag Sameach!


Which coincidentally also provides all of this:

Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population, can lay claim to the following:

1. The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
2. Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
3. The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel.
4. The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
5. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
6. Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
7. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
8. According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
9. Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
10. Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
11. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
12. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people -- as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
13. In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the second largest number of startup companies after the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
14. With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, US.
15. Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.
16. After the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
17. Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
18. On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
19. Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -- ranking it third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland -- and 12% hold advanced degrees.
20. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
21. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.
22. When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
23. When the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.
24. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.
25. Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.
26. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."
27. Israel has the world's second highest per capita rate of publishing new books.
28. Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
29. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
30. In the field of medicine, Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
31. An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in US hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
32. Israel's Givun Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.
33. Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
34. Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the US, over 70 in Japan, and fewer than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.
35. A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the ClearLight device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surroundings skin or tissue.
36. An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant (in southern California's Mojave desert).
37. Israel did all of the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction and an economy continuously under stress by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.

Learn more about Yom Ha'Atzmaut here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Ha%27atzma%27ut

Have a great Tuesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Hat tip to Elder of Zion, Michelle & BlueStar PR. Todah Raba! (Thanks!)
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2007/04/yom-haatzmaut.html

P.S.S.
A joke for the celebration:

Digging to a depth of 1,000 meters last year, French scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1,000 years. The French came to the conclusion that their ancestors had a telephone network centuries ago.

Not to be outdone by the French, English scientists dug to a depth of 2,000 meters. Shortly thereafter headlines in the U.K. newspapers read:"English archeologists have found traces of a 2,000-year-old fiber-optic cable and have concluded that ancestors had an advanced high-tech digital communications network a thousand years earlier than the French.

"One week later, Israeli newspapers reported the following: "After digging as deep as 5,000 meters in a Jerusalem marketplace, they found absolutely nothing." They thus concluded that 5,000 years ago Jews were using wireless technology.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).