#vf direct

[doamarierose-honoka]

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown | 2.0 Update Trailer

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan Is “Still Shaking” After Getting Two Golden Globe Nominations

On the heels of recognition for both The Apprentice and A Different Man, Stan speaks to Vanity Fair about his “surreal” journey to awards recognition, as well as being nominated in the same year as Pamela Anderson.

BY SAVANNAH WALSH

It’s not every day that an actor earns a Golden Globe nomination, much less two in the same morning. But Sebastian Stan joined the likes of Selena Gomez and Kate Winslet on Monday by getting dual Globe nominations. “It’s certainly surreal,” he tells Vanity Fair, “still sort of shaking from it.”

Stan secured recognition for both his dramatic turn as Donald Trump in The Apprentice and his more comedic performance as a tormented aspiring actor named Edward in A Different Man. It is the first time that a male performer has pulled off double nominations in the lead acting categories since Ryan Gosling managed to do it back in 2012. “Listen, one of my favorite actors of all time,” Stan says. “I’d be very glad to be in that little stat with him.”

In the early hours of nomination morning, Stan was getting some shuteye—or, at least attempting to. “I actually woke up in the middle of the night at 4:00, and was like, Oh, okay, there’s an hour and a half. I fell asleep again, and then I got a call from my publicist,” he tells VF. Since then, “I’ve been sending a lot of pictures to my mom.”

Some excitement is to be expected, especially when considering what it took to get both of Stan’s nominated films to the screen. “I never would’ve dreamt that I was going to be going to the Globes with both of these films, I never would’ve dreamt that both of the films would’ve come out in the same year,” he says.

Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man sat in limbo for two years before debuting on the festival circuit this year. At the Sundance Film Festival, it was acquired by A24 for a fall release. The film then screened in Berlin, where Stan won the Silver Bear for best lead performance. Meanwhile, The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Vanity Fair special contributor Gabriel Sherman, premiered at May’s Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews. But the film faced a treacherous road to distribution in the days before the 2024 presidential election.

“To even be in one room with both films is not something that’s ever crossed my mind,” Stan says. “So, I’ll be digesting that probably throughout the holiday season.” The recognition for each movie feels extra gratifying because “they both felt really challenging in terms of what the roles we’re requiring,” he says, “obviously one being one of the most famous people in the world, with a lot of people having very strong feelings about [him], and many, many impressions having been done. How do you go in there and find something new, or try to offer a different perspective?”

As it turns out, bringing a young Donald Trump to life during the dawn of his fortuitous relationship with Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong, now Globe-nominated for best supporting actor in a feature film) was only half the fight. Stan recently opened up about the struggle to promote The Apprentice in the wake of Trump’s re-election, including having to pass on Variety’s Actors on Actors because other participants were reluctant to talk about the president-elect.

“The movie has had a really uphill battle since Cannes,” says Stan, who also recently nabbed an Independent Spirit Award nomination for the movie. “It’s been hard for people to have permission to express how they feel about the movie, and today feels very gratifying in terms of having the Golden Globes recognize the film, and the work. It feels like hopefully going forward people can feel okay talking about it, and see it.”

Stan earned his first Globes nomination for playing Tommy Lee in 2022’s similarly controversial based-on-a-true-story project, Pam & Tommy. How does he feel to be nominated in the same year as the real-life Pamela Anderson, who became a first-time nominee for The Last Showgirl? “I’m so happy for her, and [it’s] so well deserved. It’s a beautiful film and a beautiful performance,” says Stan. “From our end, this was always part of the goal and the intention [of the series]—to somehow shine a light where it hasn’t been shined before, and hopefully contribute in a way [to her success]. So yeah, I’m ecstatic for her.”

Stan is also rooting for many of his other fellow nominees. “My two favorite films of the year are Sing Sing and A Real Pain,” says the actor, who then praises one of his competitors in the musical/comedy lead actor race. “Jesse Eisenberg, I want to say congratulations to him because he’s somebody I worked with years ago, in 2006 [via Fred Durst’s feature directorial debut, The Education of Charlie Banks], and the man’s a genius. I love that movie so much.”

He also spotlights The Substance, a film that, along with a release date, also shares themes with A Different Man—more specifically, issues of transformation and fixation on physical appearance. “There were a lot of articles that kind of put us together, in terms of the themes of the movies,” says Stan. “But they’re unique in the sense that they are original. Sing Sing, A Real Pain, I should say Anora while I’m at it—to be able to have films that are standing on their own without any IP, or anything about them that we know but their true original film storytelling, is amazing.”

The Globes are seen as something of a precursor on the way to potential Oscar gold—but Stan isn’t getting ahead of himself. “The fact that we’re here today in itself is such a massive step, but it is very much a one day at a time experience,” says the 42-year-old. “As an actor in this community, besides the work that you do on the day, when you go home at night and feel like you’ve left it all on the field, there’s nothing more gratifying than the actual recognition of your peers. I’ve been doing this for 20-some odd years, and I’m pretty grateful. So, knock on wood, and whatever happens next happens—but we’ve already won in a major way.”

[mage-sims]

Welcome to Pleasantown !

People move to Pleasantown hoping to find peace and tranquility... and not knowing about the nice mess they just got themselves into. Rivalries, tension and strange events are a common sight in this town... is it true that aliens live among us? Did people really go missing? Can anything be done to get the neighborhood feeling good again, or will the drama drive all the inhabitants away?

This was inspired by a post by @budgieflitter and I thought the idea was super cool. I added some townies, gave the lots a refresh, and here we are. Our favorite Sims from Strangetown, in an alternate timeline where they live in the Pleasantview setting and their lives took an entirely different direction. The only big difference between Budgie's Pleasantown and mine is that Ajay is deceased in this hood ; I tried to make the rest as faithful to their post as possible.

 INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS : • For the main hood, copy the PLST folder to your [Your Name] / Documents / EA GAMES / The Sims 2 / Neighborhoods folder. • For the subhood, copy the SPST folder to your C: / Program Files (x86) / EA GAMES / The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection / Best of Business / EP3 / TSData / Res / NeighborhoodTemplate folder. You will have to add it to your primary neighborhood as a business district.

The hood has seven playable families, all the townies from Maxis Strangetown and the NPCs from the DS game. I rebuilt the Pink Flamingo with some pics I found as a reference, and it is owned by none other than Hoot Howell ! Yup, he's there.

The hood also comes with a French version, for those whose game is in that language (j'ai pensé à vous les mecs, j'ai même fait l'effort de faire des jeux de mots pourris avec les noms des ex-maris d'Olivia Chimère, ce que la VF originale n'avait pas fait).

DOWNLOAD LINKS : MAIN HOOD : http://www.simfileshare.net/download/5269802/ SUBHOOD : http://www.simfileshare.net/download/5270110/ MTS :

[usafphantom2]

#TomcatTails

#TomcatTuesday

“Well whattya know? A DMZ!!”

The following story occurred during my time in the VF-154 Black Knights. We were based on Atsugi, Japan and part of Carrier Air Wing FIVE onboard the USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63). The Kitty Hawk was the last conventional aircraft carrier (non-nuclear) and was actually quite good at what she did, despite her age (almost 40 in 1999).

I was headed to the Black Knights as a Department Head (Lieutenant Commander) and on the way I went to Forward Air Controller (Airborne) or FAC(A) school. This qualification was relatively new for the Tomcat and we needed at least 3 qualified crews per squadron. My RIO “Skippy” and I got the nod to go to the school on the way to Japan, which consisted of some school in the deserts of Marine Corps Station Twenty-Nine Palms for the ground portion, and then working with the Oceana Weapons School on a good portion of the flying syllabus. We eventually got our final graduation hop after we got to Japan, but that hop deserves its own #TomcatTail, so I’ll leave it there.

What the FAC(A) does is provide Close Air Support (CAS) to troops on the ground, working with a ground FAC to target the hostiles. In a nutshell, the FAC(A) will have some “assets”, generally sections of Tomcats or Hornets arranged in a “stack” separated by a thousand feet holding some distance away from the hot area (10 or 15 miles or so). As the ground dudes generate a target (building, vehicle, people, etc.) they’ll describe where it is and talk the FAC(A) overhead to get his eyes on it. Once the FAC(A)’s got it, he calls in his assets in singles or sections and they’ll follow the route the FAC(A) gives them to arrive in the target area, where the FAC(A) will then start talking the assets eyes onto the target.

He's also maneuvering to get in a position behind the asset and will eventually follow that asset as he rolls in on the target and if the asset appears to be aligned on the correct target, the FAC(A) will say “cleared hot” and the asset is then cleared to engage.

Now that’s the “low tech version” where the FAC(A) is doing max work to get the bombs on the bad guys. Later on, we were also able to lase targets with our LANTIRN pod, or the ground dudes could lase with their mules, so we could drop more accurate PGMs. You still had to follow the guy to make sure he was properly aimed before release. While I didn't have the honor of participating, after OEF/OIF started Tomcats made their bread and butter in the FAC(A) mission due to long on station time and lot’s of “spotting ordnance” (500lb bombs). All in all, it was one of my favorite missions and was always a real hoot……..especially at night with goggles on!

For the purposes of this story, our CAS training was going to be off the Kitty Hawk and to conduct some “Korean Contingent” training for when a hundred thousand screaming NORKs started breaking south. It was also a little show of force because….we can. The scenario is that we’re going to be working a “notional target area” about 30 miles south of the DMZ and me and Skippy would have 2 sections of Hornets and Tomcats (4 jets total) to “work the battle problem”. It was by no means a large exercise, just some fairly simple CAS training to keep those skills honed. Basic holding points and patterns, simulated 500lb bombs, fairly simple 9 Line Briefs.

A 9 Line is the basic information the FAC(A) delivers to the assets and contains Initial Point, Heading to Target, Distance to Target, Target Elevation, Target Description, Target Location (lat/long, grid, or description), Type of Mark (rocket, white phosphorous), Friendly Location, and Egress direction. When you read it over the radio, it might sound like “Alpha…..010°…..15 nm….500…….blue roofed building…..large intersection…..talk-on…..500 meters north….190°.”

We brief up (FAC does the brief), man up and bang off the boat and eventually find ourselves holding 35nm south of the Korean DMZ. Neat! What could possibly go wrong! After me and Skippy take a quick tour of the target area 5 miles to our north (nothing special….just a small town with some hills to the west, a few big roads, etc.), we come back and start preparing some 9 lines. The “stack” is established 10 miles south of us with the jets as a stack of four singles starting at 18,000 feet on up. The key training here is for us to practice our craft (9 lines, talk-ons, maneuvering) and for the strikers to work some basic CAS skills (taking 9 lines, navigating, visually acquiring the talked-on target, rolling in parameters, etc.). Just another day in Naval Aviation!

It looks about like this:

______________________ DMZ

Ӧ Target

Me and Λ

Skippy

The Stack Λ Λ Λ Λ

Hornet guys are going first because….well, they’re Hornets and they’re almost out of gas already (kidding….mostly). Skippy and I devise a good 9 line and we call the first guy in from the bottom of the stack. We pick him up 6 mile from the target area and we roll in trail at a half mile. As we talk him on, he has a little trouble finding “the house with the blue roof”. As anyone that’s flown over Korea knows, damn near EVERY building has a blue roof! And no, they’re not all IHOPs. We eventually get him lined up and he rolls in; we follow just behind, check his alignment on the correct blue-roofed building and give the “SIMULATE CLEARED HOT”. A quick sim delivery and he’s pulling off and left to 190° and we pitch off right to go back to our station.

We cycle the next Hornet through on a similar pattern, then work the two Tomcats so now everyone has one run. Those runs are pretty uneventful but good training in a dynamic environment, and by this time we’ve learned to NOT use “the blue roofed building” as a target. Hey, what can I say? We’re trainable. Our plan was to bang out two more with the Hornets, kiss them off to head back to the boat, and wrap; up with the Tomcats.

Now it’s time for the fourth run. We take one more trip over the target area to select some new targets and then position ourselves south of the target area to read the 9 line. Once complete, the first Hornet calls “pushing” and Skippy gets them on radar (RIO is REALLY busy with FAC(A) and so is the Pilot). First thing he notices is that he’s not quite heading in the direction of the target, off by maybe 10° to the east, heading maybe 020°. Hmm. The Hornet is trundling along and keeping that direction, making no corrections to the west (left) to put the target area on their nose.

After a few minutes, Skippy calls out for them to “check left, 30” to get him to steer toward our target. No response, no course change. He says it again and the Hornet comes up with a “all good” or something. By this time they’re abeam the target, heading north-ish, and are 30 miles south of the DMZ. Oh shit. He's had some kind of NAV failure. Skippy gets more strident with a call like “target is your left nine o’clock, come left hard”. By this time I’ve positioned us about 2 miles in trail and we’re watching him trundle unaware toward the DMZ.

This is gonna be bad. Real bad. The story of a couple US helos getting fired on for flying over the DMZ years back comes to mind and I’m thinking “Hey, we’re about to get famous.” By this time, he's 15 miles south of the DMZ and the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up. One more strident “come left hard” call with no response and then Skippy shouts to “BREAK SOUTH, BREAK SOUTH, DMZ TEN MILES NORTH!!!”. At that point, I think the pilot snaps out of it and actually looks out the window (he was probably navigating heads down on a bad system) and we can see his jet break hard right and flow south like a scalded dog. We do the same, but not before checking out the DMZ in all its back-side-of-the-moon splendor.

There are areas where it’s not quite as obvious, but when you look at it from 20,000 feet the actual line of the DMZ is easily discernable in the landscape. Kind of like the US border in the southwest. You can see it. Which is funny because guess how my friend “Baja” got his callsign after an errant low-level flight near the US/Mexico border?

We flowed south and decided that, discretion being the better part of valor, we should probably CNX the rest of the mission that day and maybe we can sneak back and no one noticed. After getting back aboard the boat, the debrief was interesting because the lead Hornet pilot was in fact fiddle-f**king with his NAV system and when he looked out the window (the canopy is clear for a reason, kids), he thought “HolyShitTheDMZ!!!!” and broke hard. All in all, no harm now foul. We all survived the day but did have to let our CAG know what happened. He was very cool about the whole thing, especially since his “phone didn’t ring. I’m sure the Hornet dudes got max grief in the squadron (“Magellan”, etc.).

The only better end to that story I could think of is if the ship was serving Korean BBQ for dinner, but they weren’t. Sliders again. Not great, but not bad. We can live on Sliders.🍔

@RSE_VB via X

[istadris]

Trailer Analysis of Asterix & Obelix The Big Fight (Part 2) : New Elements

Part 1

Part 3

In the previous part, we have seen what elements of the Netflix will stay faithful to the original The Big Fight comic

But an adaptation can take liberties, especially for a different format than a 40 pages comic.

So what will be the fresh air brought to this story by Alain Chabat?

Let's find out!

Let's start with the most obvious additions : new characters.

While most are the Gauls we know and love, with a handful of Romans serving as interchangeable punchbags, and the specific characters of this album, we get to see some new faces.

First of all, the centurion (which I assume is named Potus, according to the cast list).

In the comic, the main Roman antagonists were Nebulus Nimbus (Langélus en vf), a loud and slightly dim-witted centurion, and Felonius Caucus (Perclus en vf), his sly and cunning advisor. Nimbus had authority and physical while Caucus came up with most of the plans and suggested underhanded tactis, but Nimbus was still wise enough to plot the demise of a too clever and ambitious advisor.

It seems both characters were fused into one, although he retains mostly Nimbus' aspects : a muscular and aggressive centurion who's in charge of the operation, but gets physically involved if necessary.

He is present in Caesar's audience room when the plot is seemingly kicked off, where he seems to fill the role of a bodyguard.

Next we have Metadata. And she's...interesting

She has the design of a Good/Ally character : young, pretty, with a soft voice and big innocent eyes. She seems to work as a scribe of some sort, with access to information about traditions like the Big Fight.

But she's also a Roman, and the one who gives Caesar the information about the Big Fight, so he's finally able to conquer the village of the indomitable and achieve his triumph. She's also shown traveling with Potus to Ceramix's village, probably to inform him of Caesar's plan and assert him. So she's, at least at first, on the side of Caesar & co. Which is logical : she's Roman, and she probably came up with the Big Fight idea because her boss' idea of a mosaic for Caesar's triumph was a terrible idea (I think she might have been confronted by Potus on the second shot below, before Caesar let her speak).

My theory is that she will change sides at some point, perhaps after befriending the Gauls or because Caesar has a horrible fate planned for them once Ceramix defeats Vitalstatistix.

I don't think Metadata's boss will play an important role, nor will Caesar's mother, who also appears in this show. Caesar's mom, in particular, feels more like a gag character about how even Julius Caesar has a berating mother criticizing his accomplishments.

There's also another centurion (decurion?) shown here and there ; I just expect him to be the centurion of the episode. You know, the one in charge of whichever Roman fort is starring in the story out of the four camps surrounding the village. And from the looks of it, he's just a Guy who's dealing with the madness of the Gauls and hoping for a quick mutation, but now has to go along with this new fancy plan of Big Fight.

Now, for the biggest change in the show : Julius Caesar.

In the original comic, he didn't appear at all. He was a ghost whose presence motivated the Romans into finding a way to finally subdue the Gauls, but otherwise had no direct impact.

This is clearly not the case in the series : not only is Caesar triggering the plot, by approving the Big Fight idea, but he even comes to the duel's stadium, determined to witness the Gauls's final defeat.

The stadium. As mentioned above, in the comic, the event of the Big Fight draws a traveling fair, which is mostly the opportunity for a gag about Asterix-world versions of rollercoasters and cotton candy stands (Ironically, this comic was written more than 20 years before the Parc Astérix, an Astérix theme park with many rollercoasters, was opened in France). The stage for the fight itself is just a boxing ring in the middle of a plain

Still, I wonder how his presence will impact the plot, outside of being, well, Caesar. There's a bit of an unspoken rule in the Asterix verse that Caesar does NOT get involved in the slapstick fights every other Roman is subjected to. EVER. If there is a battle, Caesar hangs outside on his white horse; if there is a duel, it's someone else fighting in his stead. The worse he can do is being present while a building crumble, or lose at a chariot race. But he's "allowed" to take decisions that change and impact the plot and characters, which might happen here. Which leads us to...

But in the show, the event is clearly meant with Caesar organizing it in mind : the arena is much bigger and intimidating, built right on the doorstep of the Gaul's village, reminiscent of the Circus of Rome with Caesar having the seat of honor to witness the defeat of his enemies. In Caesar's own words : a spectacular show.

One last detail specific to the show : the Gauls seem to have a council under a massive willow tree (with of course a brawl to close it off)

Obviously, this brings to mind the handful of times such a council was assembled in the comics, like in The Cauldron or Asterix in Belgium

So now, with all these elements, old and new, what story can be expected ? What themes will be explored? Are there any surprises left?

That will be explored in the next part of this analysis!

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1942 11 09 Morocco, Operation Torch, Clawed by a Wildcat - Roy Grinnell

https://mikesresearch.com/2022/03/27/air-battle-over-morocco-1942/

November 9 The battered but plucky pilots of GC II/5 were airborne at dawn with only five aircraft. They strafed landing craft at Fedhala and received such intense US Navy AA fire that three of the French Hawks were damaged severely, although all the planes returned.At 0645 hours, Tom Booth leading 7 Red Ripper Wildcats took off from the RANGER bound for Port Lyautey. John Raby’s VF-9 was close behind with eight F4F-4s ordered to patrol over Fedhala. The VF-41 pilots were straining to locate enemy targets and waiting for some direction when an air control officer with US troops radioed that a lone French plane was strafing them. Tom Booth replied to the distress call but was immediately countermanded by the ship and ordered to attack an enemy transport column on the Fedhala-Casablanca Road. In screaming dives, the Wildcats descended on the enemy truck convoy spraying it with .50 Cal machine gun fire. Booth ordered the stubby Wildcats to strafe the column again. While pulling up, they observed 6 to 8 trucks burning and another half dozen sitting at odd angles in the ditches along the chaotic road.John Raby’s VF-9 had barely reached their patrol altitude at 10,000 feet when French aircraft were spotted. A motley group of 15 LeO 451s, DB-7s and Martin 167s had just bombed landing craft on the Fedhala beachhead from high altitude with poor results. They were escorted by 16 Hawk 75s from GC I/5. Without the slightest hesitation, Raby led his 8 Wildcats against the enemy force. The French bombers got away as the fighters became embroiled in a massive dogfight.In the air battle, Wildcats and Hawks alternately became the hunter and were the hunted. The French fought and flew courageously, but the Curtiss fighters were unable to cause decisive damage to the Wildcats. On the other hand, the six .50 Cal machine guns of the F4F-4s had a devastating effect on the French fighters. Some of the French pilots had out flown the Wildcats, but they did not ready had a chance. The main reason may have been that their aerial combat tactics were those from WWI. Four planes of the Champagne Escadrille were destroyed, two pilots KIA and two other survived crash landings. Another four Hawks were damaged. VF-9 claimed 5 destroyed and 4 probables.

[annislittleshopofhorrors]

She lives in LA and NYC - both places with direct access to the ocean (Atlantic and pacific) 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Also…how will she explain why her sister and best friends sister both live in LA but don’t have time or don’t want to introduce her to new restaurants? Has she never heard of the zagat guide???

How do you think she should explain how she has live plants in her new apt that’s totally not in Lisbon when the same apt was shown by the PT carpenter who built her custom bookshelves and kitchen table who also delivered them to her? Damn, those international shipping fees must be insane! But she moved to the US three years ago! She only goes back to PT to recharge!

I mean, I guess her 5 fans want to continue to stay delusional but the writing is right there. ATP I think some people are intentionally refusing to see the light.

Why hasn’t anyone asked her why she’s back home doing podcasts that she had to beg her friend to help her get on if in the same breath she’s talking about her Hollywood career and rubbing elbows with the biggest names in the business?

She could attend VF red carpet but couldn’t get on one of the 6 million podcasts in America?

Sure, Jan. You’re doing just great.

😭🤣

She is back home and did a podcast because she has to kiss Portuguese asses. Nobody gives her job. And she never had a chance in Hollywood. Hundreds of VF articles later she still has no job - a reshoot doesn't count.

[jalwyn21]

The Vanity Fair exclusive of Kinds of Kindness didn't mention Joe even once! It was disappointing, and I kinda want the Joe fan pages on insta to call them out on it🤷‍♀️

It's always vf pulling this kind of sh!t. The vf are pretending hard that Joe is not in KOK. This is the official direction, I guess 🙄🙄🙄

Remember this trash of an article? Also, vf!

The fact that they pretend Joe is not in KOK is just pathetic now. Not one article, but two articles where they pretend Joe is not in the film. 🙄🙄🙄

How much is ts paying them for this? Maybe she promised them some exclusives 🙄

Meanwhile the KOK insta account is sharing the vf article with a pic of Emma and Joe 🥰🥰🥰

Well, tough luck for vf cause Joe is in KOK even if they don't like it 🤭🤭🤭

[sgiandubh]

"He's actually paying those PR people? Whatever for? A drunk wombat would be better at the task." I LOL'd because my god have we been asking this very question of both Sam and Cait for years. They're PR is actually the worst. It's honestly hard to believe at times. Absolutely zero idea who either of them are trying to reach. The recalibrating after that VF disaster sent Cait into hiding, I'm not sure she's done another print interview since Belfast promo ended and if the Sam articles are going to continue on this way, he can quit too. Boring.

Dear Quit Anon,

I am flattered I managed to bring a smile or even a LOL, but I am not particularly glad about it. Unlike droves of people who think this PR shitshow is sad, I actually find it mystifying.

You are right. Goddess C went into occultation after that cursed VF interview. There are clear reasons, I think, for that. Also, please take into account the fact that, despite the illusions peddled by some fuckwits in this fandom, there are many things we simply do not know (nor should we, most probably).

As for S, I guess that ever since she went totally MIA (as I said, make-up and fash-un promo don't really compensate), he is overexposing himself. On purpose. Perhaps to protect her (I think so). Certainly to hide something. Since this is no way in hell about being gay (I will die on that hill and I know I am right), the only thing he could hide is well... I don't really need to draw it, do I?

Smoke and mirrors is always a risky strategy. S simply hasn't got what it takes to play that game long term, probably for the same reasons he was never a serious shortlist candidate for Bond. At this point in time, he'd mechanically go with whatever merde du jour is thrown by his imbecile PR on the table. Still, it's high time he'd seriously pull himself together. He can do better, as I wrote in a comment: he can do NYT and he did it very well, recently. And I was glad to see that. But Metro is just disappointing, clueless and tasteless. And it's padding up a press portfolio with amiable, meaningless bullshit that goes nowhere. Or at least nowhere near he wants to be or see himself in, let's say, five years from now.

OL is going to end. It has to. It's been both a blessing and a curse, I said that before. Then, it will be high time to end the fucking Truman Show. He (abstractly) knows that, he keeps hinting about it. “I’m ready for new challenges, but also nervous about what it’s like in the real world” - for some reason, I found this phrase very telling. But I doubt he internalized what probably still feels like a safely remote occurrence, right now.

What are his real projects? For the moment, zero. Directing? I'd love to see it, but he's got no real credentials for that. Bond? I mean, publicly gushing and insisting is not going to manifest it. He needs a real movie, a good one to break that glass ceiling. Is he going to get it? I hope so. But his personal brand awareness is still low. The PR clowns should stop talking to us, in here: we are already here and not going anywhere. All of us: antis, mommies, shippers, fencers, haters, trolls. They should talk to the people who have no clue who S is, and do it differently. He should step out of his comfort zone, ditch the leeches and refuse to discuss his personal life, for a while. There, I said it.

What are her real projects? For the moment, not much. Sure, we have The Cut, where I gather her part is minimalistic, to be kind. We also have The Amateur, of which very little is known at the moment. However, if I am correct, she is not one of the leads. Enough said. And beyond that? Crickets.

Make no mistake. The real litmus test is not now. The real litmus test is 2025. And then we'll see. And I'll still be here, taking weeping Anons because I don't know who said I don't know what I don't know where. Mark me.

[doamarierose-honoka]

SEGA - VF Direct 2024

[crascet]

Honest Thoughts: The 2024 Video Game Awards and Announcements

So, a couple of nights ago, me and a discord server I'm in did a group watch for the VGAs this year. Normally, we wouldn't care that much about the awards but would just watch them for the announcements for new games anyways. The award show itself was pretty decent anyways with some fun parts here and there. Statler and Waldorf were the best part of the show hands down, as they always were in the Muppets Show. The presentations for Best Narrative from Sam Lake was also pretty good as well as the presentation for Best Adaptation from Jesse Pinkman and Lucina (I will not specify that further). Now for the awards themselves, there are some pretty good winners, especially from Metaphor and Astro Bot with the ladder winning Best Game. Glad to see those two games win awards here and I could check them both out next year. I didn't like how Best Fighting Game was relegated to the First Act as I would love to see that on the main show with a presentation instead of a quick mention. Back to presentations, the one with the two TLOU actresses was the worst part of the show to me tbh, they were just boring.

Now for the announcements themselves and WOW they were something! First, there was the announcement of a new Ninja Gaiden game with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound that seem to have both the old and new versions of Ryu Hayabusa. I'm already excited for this as a fan of ninjas and with hearing the difficulty of the first NG game and the first 3D game, which is a game I should check out some time.

There was then the announcement of Clive Rosfield from FF XVI being the last DLC character for Tekken 8's Season 1 DLC which is really cool to see as it follows Noctis being in T7 as DLC. I know most people wanted Tifa to be in Tekken (including myself), but hey, Clive looks great and the DLC stage looks great!

To a new project announced, there is genDESIGN's unannounced project, being made from the same creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian. I absolutely love SotC and I did enjoy myself with the demo of TLG found with the SotC remaster. The game itself seems to follow in the footsteps of SotC with a climbing mechanic, but there could be some cases of Ico within it. Not much is known seen in the teaser other than the gameplay and how it has a giant robot to be an important part of the game. Can't wait to see more about this project.

And then there's Intergalactic and I'm... conflicted. On one hand, Naughty Dog are FINALLY working on a new, original IP that's NOT a remaster, PC port, or both of The Last of Us Parts I and II, so thank god for that. On the other hand, Neil Druckmann is directing this game too. Now, if you like TLOU I and II, that's fine. I understand why people like those games, or at least the first game. It has a mass appeal to everyone with its narrative in both games. It's just that ND just focuses on ONLY those two games and nothing else, just shoving down our throats on how great it is, and I'm worried it'll be the same thing with Intergalactic for the next 5 years. But who knows, maybe it'll turn out great, idk.

Now for the five announcements that stole the show from two companies.

First, there is Sega with the one-two punch of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's two new projects: a new installment in the Virtua Fighter franchise and Project Century. Seeing VF come back after years of new versions of VF5 is awesome, with the only two characters being confirmed for the game being Akira Yuki and Stella who is either the daughter of Jacky or Sarah Bryant, or (and this is sort of a fan theory) a clone of Sarah created by J6 given that she looks similar to her, especially that it seems that VF6 as I could call it could take place years after VF5 and Judgement 6 could return. As for other characters coming back, I expect Pai, Kage Maru, and Jacky to be here. Lau I'm guessing is definitely dead as this point with his move set going to either Pai or to Lei Fei, but time will tell. Then there's Project Century, which seems to be a Lost Judgement-esque game taking place in 1915 Japan and it does look really interesting to play. I can check out the demo if there's going to be one of Century. These two look really great and I'm definitely interested in both, especially with RGG's track record with Yakuza/Like A Dragon, which is another franchise I'm itching to play next year.

On the same topic of Sega, there's the announcement of a new Sonic racing game with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Given from the little time it was shown with the only character being shown being Shadow, it seems to be more in track of Sega All Stars racing, which sounds really cool to me seeing a comeback from the racing series, I just hope it'll be better than Team Sonic Racing. Sonic does seem to be on a revival with the releases of Sonic Frontiers, Sonic X Shadow Generations, and Sonic 3 coming out next week, huh? Glad to see it.

And now for Capcom starting with the return of two dormant franchises.

To start, there's the announcement of Onimusha: Way of the Sword. It's awesome to see Onimusha get a new game in a nearly 20-year absence with the release of Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams back in 2006 and with the remaster of the first game back in 2019. It'll release in 2026, but it looks great from the gameplay footage so can't wait to kill more demons!

And then there's the Okami sequel being directed from the original director, Hideki Kamiya returning to Capcom and reforming CLOVER studios which is the best announcement from the VGA's this year. I have never played Okami before, but I now have both the PC and Switch ports of Okami HD, and I do plan on playing them during the winter break. I just hope that the sequel won't ignore Okamiden as I really love the puppy so much. And with the reformation of CLOVER, there's a good chance Viewtiful Joe 3 could happen in the future, but I do wonder about Kamiya's Ultraman-esque project he was working on years ago when he was still working in Platinum. Other than some worrying thoughts of me hoping the Okami sequel won't be that controversial in its development like with Bayo 3.

A pretty good and fun VGA this year with some well-deserved winners and great announcements to look forward to.

[mrs-stans]

Inside Sebastian Stan’s Winning Look at the Golden Globes 2025

With help from Frank Sinatra and hopes of a postshow burger, the Prada- and Cartier-clad Stan prepared for his first major awards show victory.

BY SAVANNAH WALSH

Sebastian Stan entered the Golden Globes 2025 with two chances at winning—nominated for both his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprenticeand his more comedic performance as Edward, an aspiring actor living with neurofibromatosis, in A Different Man. But in the lead-up to his big night, Stan was eager to put his double nominations into perspective, instead focusing on what he could control: a hearty postceremony meal. “You always read about people having burgers or somethingafter these award shows,” he told Vanity Fair.“I mean, that sounds kind of nice, to be honest.”

A celebratory nosh was well-earned by Stan, who won best actor in a musical-or-comedy film, his first-ever Golden Globe. After thanking A Different Man filmmaker Aaron Schimberg and his costar Adam Pearson,who has the genetic condition neurofibromatosis in real life, Stan advocated for more inclusive narratives onscreen. “Our ignorance and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end now,” he said. “We have to normalize it and continue to expose ourselves [and our children] to it. Encourage acceptance.”

A Different Man languished for two years before it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and the A24 movie later landed Stan the Silver Bear for best lead performance in Berlin. But The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman, also endured a beleaguered road to distribution in the weeks before the 2024 presidential election. “Both of these films started out as major risks,” Stan told VF shortly before the Globes. As such, he’s not taking any of the recent accolades for granted.

“I feel very blessed that I have good people around me, friends who I’ve had for 20 years at this point, who remember as much as I do what it was like to be in New York City and going out to auditions and not getting it,” said Stan. “Even my mother, who has been with me over the holidays, I was growing up with her in Vienna, Austria, and not even really knowing that I was going to get to America. So when I think about those moments,” he continued, “I’m immediately humbled and on the ground. Because even as it is currently, without anything happening on Sunday, it already feels like such a win.” Stan dedicated the award to his mother and stepfather during his acceptance speech, also taking the time to profess his love to his girlfriend, actor Annabelle Wallis.

Stan spent hours in prosthetics for both A Different Man and The Apprentice, getting comfortable with a bit of metamorphosis. “I kind of liken it, for better or worse, to being in a relationship,” he said of transitioning back to himself postproduction. “I always remember somebody telling me, ‘However long you’ve been with somebody in a relationship, take away half the time, and that’s how long it’s going to take for you to get over them when you break up.’ It’s a little bit like that. It doesn’t just go away suddenly, I guess. There’s a process…that happens with it. It’s sort of a slow, gradual disconnection.”

But does Stan find it harder to disappear into a character or present as himself at an awards show? “That’s a very good question,” he said with a laugh. “Sometimes it’s easier transforming into a role…. Being yourself at an award show, it can be quite tricky, because I’m not going to an award show [thinking], Oh, I’m a funny, interesting guy. I’m feeling self-conscious.”

Nevertheless, Stan was excited to venture beyond his comfort zone in custom Prada. “It’s really fun and different, and it’s something I’ve never really worn before,” he said, crediting stylist Michael Fisher with steering him toward a different era in Hollywood. “You get romantic sometimes when you see clips in black and white of the Oscars and how people dressed up. So I think I’m more old school like that in my mindset rather than, Hey, let me take a crazy swing on this red carpet. Even though, once in a while, Michael has definitely had me in pink.” This time, though, Stan opted for a black mohair coat and trouser with contrasting white piping detail, paired with a black knit wool sweater and white poplin shirt, plus black brushed-leather lace-ups.

The “timeless and classic” vibe continued with Cartier accessories, including a [Sur]naturel transformable brooch made of 18k white gold, diamonds, and black lacquer, as well as a 1968 CartierCollection wristwatch made of 18k yellow gold, sapphire cabochon, and leather. This collaboration marked a full-circle moment for Stan, who fondly remembers wearing Cartier at May’s Cannes Film Festival, where The Apprentice premiered.

Stan’s vintage-Hollywood vision also extended to his pre-Globes playlist. “I don’t mind a little Frank Sinatra,” he told VF. “We’re going to be getting ready at the Hotel Bel-Air, and that hotel itself has such history and that Old Hollywood classic style. I might be playing some ’20s or ’30s music, something that will at least keep me under the illusion that I’m in a different time, because it does feel like a different time.”

As for grooming, Stan said that with age, he’s embraced more facial hair. “I used to be more clean-shaven when I was younger, but it also depends on what I’m working on at the time,” he said. “A lot of how I was looking this year was informed by the fact that I was shooting Thunderbolts, so there was not much I could do. Even with the hair, I don’t always want everything to be perfect or slick. Maybe that just reflects my attitude in terms of staying flexible in the moment with these things—to go, All right, keep it loose and keep it fun.”

Stan never dreamed that A Different Man and The Apprentice would debut in the same year, but they have been in conversation with each other this awards season by virtue of his involvement. “Both films, to me, are about the loss of identity and the loss of self, and to some extent denial of reality and denial of self-acceptance,” said the actor. “Both of the films focus in different ways on characters that go to great lengths to abandon their true selves.”

Stan’s searching, self-conscious characters in the two films meet ego-driven fates. Edward is “obsessed with what he doesn’t have, and then he spends the rest of the film trying to deal with the shame that he’s buried, the shame that he’s never really accepted himself,” said Stan. “Then the Trump story is very obvious to me—it’s a total loss of humanity, empathy and vulnerability, and any morals, sort of at the hands of this very self-indulgent, self-narcissistic way of life. It’s also about how far one can go to deny the truth, deny reality, and lose humanity as a cost.”

Stan’s performance in The Apprentice, which was bested by Adrien Brody’s in The Brutalistfor best male actor in a drama film, has faced a particular uphill battle given the utter Trump fatigue in many circles. “Trump is part of our lives. It’s inevitable that we’re talking about him. You go to a coffee shop, and someone’s talking about him; you open your phone, the news, whatever—he’s everywhere, even in the award season,” says Stan, who believes his film will stand the test of time for boldly “challenging, or at least the attempt was to challenge, history as it’s happening rather than waiting.”

With Trump’s second election to the presidency, it feels as if perception of The Apprentice has shifted, as evidenced by its awards season embrace so far. (Stan is also nominated at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards.) Would that be the case had Trump been defeated? “I don’t know if I know the answer yet to that,” said Stan. “We’re all still trying to figure out how to feel, or to think, about the election and what happened and the next four years.”

In the days before his first Golden Globe victory, which involved a lively backstage reunion with his frequent Marvel costar Anthony Mackie, Stan was similarly open-minded about what’s next. “[In] Eastern Europe, we grow up with a lot of superstitions,” he said. “But this year I just basically surrendered to whatever’s going to happen. Wherever this wild sort of ride I’m on is taking me, I’m just going to kind of follow and really try to be in the moment as much as possible.”

[demifiendrsa]

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O | Gameplay Trailer

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. will launch for PC via Steam on January 28, 2025 for $19.99. Pre-orders are available now at a 20 percent-off discount price. An open beta test is available until December 17, 2024.

The version 2.0 update for Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, the game’s PlayStation 4 equivalent, is also available now, followed by the arcade version on December 16, 2024.

VF Direct 2024

Latest details

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Special Editions and Pre-Order Bonuses

The “Sega Hardware Customization Item 3-Piece Set” pre-order bonus includes classic SEGA hardware as in-game content for character customization. These items include the “SEGAGenesis” (known as Mega Drive in international territories), “SEGA Saturn,” and “Dreamcast”. All items can be equipped on the backs of all 19 characters from the Customization menu.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. 30th Anniversary Edition

The Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. 30th Anniversary Edition commemorates three decades of Virtua Fighter, the world’s first 3D fighting game. The Anniversary Edition includes exclusive items, such as the 30th anniversary swimsuit costume, a collection of setting document and a game soundtrack.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. base game

Virtua Fighter 30th Anniversary Swimsuit Costume Set

Virtua Fighter 30th Anniversary Anniversary Sound Collection

Virtua Fighter 30th anniversary collection of secret setting documentation

Downloadable content “Legendary Pack” and “Ryu Ga Gotoku Series Collaboration Pack”

Anniversary Edition Special Title

Virtua Fighter 30th Anniversary and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Wallpaper Set

Open Beta Dates

Starts: Friday, December 13, 2024

Ends: Tuesday, December 16, 2024

Global Tournament “Virtua Fighter Open Championship” in Spring 2025

Virtua Fighter Open Championship, a global tournament using the Steam version of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., will be held. The event is scheduled to be held in the spring of 2025. In addition, the winners of the regional qualifiers will face off at the “Grand Final Tournament” to determine the world’s strongest Virtua Fighter competitor. More information will be revealed soon.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown Ver. 2.0 update for PlayStation 4: Available Now!

The Ver. 2.0 update for the PlayStation 4 version of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown is available now.

[usafphantom2]

#TomcatTails

#TomcatTuesday

The Life of a RAG Student in El Centro or “Monkeys and Goats and Snakes, Oh My”

I know it may sound odd, but I wasn’t ALWAYS a Tomcat Pilot. I actually had to learn just like everyone else as RAG Student at Miramar back in the early 90’s. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe I was never a “natural”; I was more like the normal learning process of “monkey see, monkey do” most people need. There were some “naturals” out there but they were few and far between. Most of us knuckle-draggers just had to get in and do it.

I’ve talked previously about the phases that RAG students (Pilots and RIOs) go through. Well, one of my favorites was the air-to-ground syllabus that had just started up in the Tomcat RAG in the early 90s. I was at the VF-124 Gunfighters at NAS Miramar and restarting the RAG after a 11-month sideline time for a bad back/herniated disk and starting flying again. The back thing worked out pretty well. When I asked the Skipper if I could stay on as a RAG student, he said “Sure, why not? You haven’t f**ked up yet!” Yes, it was good to be in Fighters.

I can’t recall the class number; it might have been 9102 (second class of 1991 to crack that code) and we were trucking along. I’d redone my FAMs (familiarization) and had studied up for the Air-to-Ground syllabus where we would head to El Centro just over the hills (080° for 80nm) and fly out of there for about 10 days while our class got put through their paces in the air to ground environment. We’d be doing low levels around the Salton Sea, bomb dropping at the targets like Loom Lobby, Shade Tree, Inky Barley, and Kitty Baggage. Those strange names will bring back some serious memories for Naval Aviators. They were basically bullseyes in the desert with long run-in lines from a specific direction, and were normally at the terminus of an established low level route around the Salton Sea. You would fly the low level route (maybe 30-40 minutes) following a paper strip chart in your lap, get to the target area, and start a pop up maneuver (hard turn right 30° at 500 feet, pull vertical to 45° nose up, acquire target roll over onto it, establish the proper dive angle, and release your practice/inert bomb).

Bear in mind we’d done this same in Advanced Jet Training in the TA-4J Skyhawk so we knew the drill. The Tomcat RAG could then do some more advanced stuff for our det (larger weapons, section maneuvering down low, etc., etc.). All in all a great good time. My Dad was a Light Attack dude (A-1, A-4, A-7) so I’d always wanted to do the air-to-mud mission. Also, as you’d enter A/G phase you were a more senior student. Not that the Instructors wouldn’t give you max grief, but they realized that you’re eventually going to be part of the fleet so they started treating you a little bit more like a “Bubba”…..one of the team.

The following are a few of the most memorable stories and lessons learned on that detachment. And lesson one regards the responsibilities of “The Nugget”, the newest aviator in the squadron. I’ve mentioned Nuggets before and they are in a very unique position as the FNG (“F**king New Guy). First, they’ll probably actually get a nametag that says “FNG” on it. They’ll also be subject to a little mental harassment in the crucible of Fighters. Ya gotta have thick skin in a Fighter Ready Room, man or woman, and for the most part that skin thickening begins in the RAG.

The ”Strike Detachment” or “Strike Det” consist of a student class, a number of instructors, half a dozen jets, and a bunch of Maintainers to keep it all running (normally a 10-12 Maintainers to jet ratio). There are normally 3 launches per day in the early morning (“dawn patrol”), late morning, and early afternoon. The dawn patrol is normally a 5am brief for a 7am launch. And if you’ve got a 5am brief, the student gets there BEFORE the instructor who is going to get there at 4:30am. But as the Nugget, the students need to send a rep to get the daily morning donuts out in town. This is great Nugget training. How much time would YOU allot to drive to and from the nearest donut shop AND get to the Ready Room before all the instructors? Yes. One hour. The designated Nugget gets up and shits/showers/shaves to be ready to launch the rental van to Dunkin’ Donuts by 3:30am. Ouch.

What’s the big deal, right? A little early reveille, so what? Well, you need to not only pull all that off, but you have to get the RIGHT donuts. Two dozen of the CORRECT donuts better be on time, or you get to try it again the next day. How hard could it be? Apparently, pretty hard. What we learned after a few runs of this, the Nugget must purchase an acceptable ratio of glazed to chocolate covered (6/6), several Jellies (4), crullers and sugar twists (2/2), and a honeybun/fritter mix (2/1). So that makes 11. What we really learned was that the previous ratio was generally acceptable, but if you forgot the 12th important flavor, you were screwed. And that flavor? Monkey Butt. Yes, the all-important Monkey Butt donut.

What is a Monkey Butt, you ask? Well, it is a regular donut with pink frosting and sprinkles, very reminiscent of the ass of a Baboon. And if you came back without one, you had the donut duty the next day. I don’t know if this is still in the lexicon of Fighters, but for most of my career you could say “monkey butt” and everyone knew what you were talking about. Hey, we’re funny. Just ask us.

After a week or so of flying and the Instructor harassment package, our class decided to try and get back at them with some pranks. As are most good pranks, our plan was hatched on a Saturday night over WAY too many beers and a no-fly day the next day. We decided to get back at the instructors in what we thought was the funnies way possible. We kidnapped a sheep.

Said sheep was just outside the fence line in some very sheep like-pasture with very many little sheep-like beasts in a pen doing late night sheep things. We grabbed one up and went back to the base to the housing area. Sometimes one would stay in the BOQ rooms, much like a hotel. And sometimes at El Centro, we got to stay in base housing units that slept four people. My class had two houses, and right next to ours was an instructor house. Perfect. We snuck next door after we got back to our place, eased the instructors door open and deposited said sheep in the house, quietly closing the door after we left.

We didn’t really understand the impact until late the next morning. Apparently, the sheep had begun making loud sheep noises and the instructors, after chasing it around the house, caught it and put it in the back yard. Morning came, and they went to check on the sheep to make sure it was OK. And wouldn’t you know it, they shared a back yard with another house…..that belonged to the Base Commander. And there he was, bathrobe on, coffee in hand, eyeballing the instructors.

They gathered up the fuzzy little noise maker and banged on our door to take it back. “What?? Us??? OK, no sweat.” Sheepy was returned, but the owner wasn’t happy. He called the CO and wanted some kind of compensation. We all had to pass the hat for a hundred bucks to pay him, BUT also found out that the VF-124 CO was going to “come over the hill” to “discuss this with the class.” In the classic reprimand-while-trying-not-to-laugh moment, our CO told us to finish this det strong and stop f**king around. Message received.

And the flying around El Centro and the Salton Sea is absolutely glorious. Deserts, mountains, target ranges, trains you could thump at 100 feet, all that and more. One of my favorites was the VR-1257 that went counterclockwise around the Salton Sea staring at the southeast corner, and terminated at the Loom Lobby bombing range in Restricted Area 2510 to the west of El Centro. It was a nice long low level that had great terrain following, cool turn points, and some open desert to really get “into the weeds”. And at the end of it, you’d be on the run-in line for Loom Lobby and start a pop maneuver to the right, roll left and get your angle and speed established to drop inert Mk 76 blue practice bombs (“Smurfs”). Once there you could then “circle the wagons” and orbit over head to practice multiple deliveries for as many bombs as you had, normally 6 total.

Even more cool was in the Tomcat you graduated from the “Iron Sights” of the A-4 Skyhawk (basically stable cross hairs in your HUD) to the much more effective automatic bombing system of the Tomcat. In the A-4, you set the bombsight for your desired dive angle and speed, and then you HAD to fly that angle/speed and drop at the exactly right altitude. And if any of those were off (they always were), you had to make a correction of some sort in the last second. True manual bombing. But now the Tomcat had the AWG-15 panel that the RIO could set to the right type of bomb (aerodynamic characteristics), and it would give you a vertical bomb fall line (that accounted for wind), and symbology that told you exactly where to aim and when to drop. Yes, it was much older than today’s tech, but it was WAY more fun that manual bombing. I think I flew that route at least four times that Det and had a total blast.

And the BEST part of that route occurs northwest of the Salton Sea where it turns south near a very steep sided “knife edge mountain ridge” with the turn part on the very north end of that ridge. And what’s RIGHT at that turn point? This tall Park Ranger fire observation tower! It looks like its 60 feet tall and it’s a basically a small open-sided cabin at the very top of this mountain edge. Once you figure out it’s there, what do you THINK we’re going to do?? We’re going to “say hello to our Park Ranger friend” by wrapping the Tomcat around his tower at 460 knots in a climbing left turn to pass as close aboard him we could get. I don’t know if he was a big fan of that particular maneuver, but we sure enjoyed bringing it to him!! Oh, and right after that you had to look out for hang gliders. Heads up!

And that brings me to an event in my career that contains one of my most profound regrets for a lost opportunity in my entire career. You’ll know it when I get to it. As RAG students often did, we were trying to figure out what chances we could find for another practical joke or piece of high jinx to tweak our instructor’s noses. Turns out that we found a great opportunity, because the Ops Officer of the RAG was taking an instructor pilot on a IUT or “Instructor Under Training” strike hop to get him qualified to teach on the next strike det. Their flight was to fly the 1257 and eventually deliver 6 Smufs to Loom Lobby. “Hey, what if we drove out to the bombing range and mooned the Ops O when they were on the run-in line??” Yes, that’s how our brains worked back then. And yes, it begs a number of questions:

1. Can you actually drive out to the range? Dunno, there’s GOT to be dirt roads or something.

2. Will the rental van actually make it out there? Dunno. It’s a rental van, the fastest car on the road.

3. Isn’t there like some kind of safety observer that might see you? Who?

4. Might there be unexploded ordnance from years ago? Uhhh….maybe?

Fortunately, absolutely none of that crossed our minds and so the next day, off go four of us in search of Loom Lobby. It turns out that there ARE dirt roads out there AND the rental van handled them just FINE, thank you very much. And those roads lead to a pretty cool gate with some signs that said “DO NOT ENTER” and “DANGER” or some shit like that, but the gate wasn’t locked so we figured they were just there to scare us off.

There were some hard packed dirt roads, and we were doing our best navigating based on where the mountains were and where we thought the run-in line and bullseye were. Bear in mind, this is in the days before handheld GPS so we were just guessing. Turns out we guessed pretty good because we happened upon the halfway point of the run-in line where there was a strafing line at a 30° angle with a berm and banner on it at the far end.

We hopped out of the van, expecting that the Ops O would arrive in about 30 minutes so we had some time to look around. The strafing run-in line was cool because you could walk along it and at about the 1,000 foot mark from the berm, there were spent 20mm shells EVERYWHERE, scattered by the thousands as far as you could see. While the Tomcat kept the shells internal, the little A-4 Skyhawk gun would eject the expended shells. I don’t know how often the range was swept, but there must have been a few years’ worth of them.

Further along and closer to the berm, we saw the beginning of another expanse of expended ammo in the form of the blue training round bullets, again thousands of them. As we got to the berm, sure enough the banner was peppered with holes so I guess someone was doing some good work with the gun. We all picked up a few of each as one wouldn’t want to leave without a souvenir. By this time, we figured it was time to go start looking for the inbound Tomcat so we hiked back to the rental van and positioned it about 500 feet to the left of the Loom Lobby run-in line and at about what we thought was the 3-mile point where they’d start their pop-up maneuver, thinking there’s no way they’d miss seeing it.

Once there, we just waited for the inevitable. And sure enough, it showed up! The final turn onto the Loom Lobby run-in line is a 30° right turn just after a mountain range ends and the desert begins and there he was, haulin’ ass at 500 feet and approaching fast. We all scrambled to get our flight suits and drawers down and hunch over to moon them both before they started their pop maneuver. BOOOOSH!!!! They fly right over us but WAY lower than 500 feet so our expectation is that yes they saw us, and yes the let us know. He immediately starts his pop-up maneuver, a thing of beauty to see the Tomcat perform from the desert floor. Rolls left and pulls nose down to acquire the target, pickles and pulls off to enter the “circle the wagons” at 10,000 feet. They wrap up after five more passes and then come back from one more pass along the run-in line at 200 feet, passing over us and the rental car with a lot of smack on the jet (speed). Yes, they saw us.

Our next stop is, naturally, the bullseye to see what that looks like. We drive along the run-in line and then we can see the raised bullseye from a half mile away. We get close and realize there’s lots of twisted metal on the ground from all the Smurfs and we should probably walk the rest of the way. When we finally get in the area of the target, the first thing we notice is that we can see little white smoke trails coming up from the recently released Smurfs. They have a little smoke charge in the nose so you can see where they hit, and these were still slightly smoking. Brilliant idea number 2 of the day is “Let’s gather up Ops O’s bombs and take them back to him”, which we do. Six bent and twisted Smurfs, kinda warm, slightly smoking, acquired and put in the back of the rental van. Oh, and keep the window open, that stuff stinks.

We head back to the base, head to the squadron spaces on the flight line and find that Ops is back and debriefing, so we lay all the bent Smurfs in front of his assigned parking space. We found him after his debrief and he was rather interested in how we actually pulled that off, since it’s a restricted area. We said “the gate wasn’t locked”. Then he asked us if we’d called range schedules to see if anyone else was supposed to be in there when we were on our field trip. “Uhh….no. That probably would have been good.” All in all though, he thought it was pretty funny and gave us high marks at the Club that night.

So where is the profound regret from this story? When we were in the bullseye area of Loom Lobby, there were hundreds and hundreds of mangled Smurfs all over the area. Quite a few in the center pile of the bull, more so in the wider rings, and then a crap ton outside all the rings. My experience was only dropping Smurfs there so it was interesting to see quite a few heavy inert bombs. 500 pounders, 1000 pounders, even some weird looking stock that we couldn’t really place. And then I saw it, sitting majestically on the desert floor. An expended, absolutely pristine, no scratches or dents, set of deployed Snake Eye fins (minus the bomb, naturally; pictured).

Those fins are used to deploy bombs in a low-level environment so when you release the bomb, the fins pop out and rapidly decelerate the weapon to fall well behind you after you’ve escaped the bomb blast or “frag pattern” (fragmentation). They’re iconic in any air to ground pictures or footage from the Vietnam War and would be one of the best souvenirs you could ever have. And here sat a set, still olive drab, no scratches, dings or bends. Can you IMAGINE what a cool coffee table those would make? The Snake Eye fins upright, a 60” piece of round glass resting on top? That would be the coolest thing to grace a man’s home in the history of homes.

Did I think of that then? Nope. Did I think of it in about a week? Yep. Have I thought about it on occasion for 34 years since then? Unequivocally yes. Dammit. Ah, well. Opportunity lost.

@RSE_VB via X

[kilfeur]

Ce combat avec Adam montre la différence de pouvoir entre Alastor, Charlie, Lucifer et Alastor. Lors de la chanson entre Lucifer et Alastor il parle de ses possessions et de son pouvoir. Mais quand l'hôtel est en danger ainsi que sa fille, il montre vraiment de quoi il est capable. Donc ouais Lucifer aurait pu tuer Alastor si il avait posé une menace bien plus présente à l'hôtel. Toutefois bien qu'il y ait un marché entre Charlie et Alastor, je penche plus sur le fait qu'elle devrait le sauver à un certain point contre les anges voir même Lilith.

D'ailleurs la partie chanté d'Alastor dans la chanson final. Il y a des différences encore une fois dans la vo et vf. Dans le passage où justement où on voit son ombre puis son visage. Parlant du "Great Alastor Altruist died for his friend. Sorry to disappoint that is not( where it's end" (Le grand Alastor altruiste meure pour ses amis. Désolé de décevoir mais ce n'est pas comme ça que ça se termine) en anglais. Mais en Français ça dit "Alastor reviendra soyez bien préparés, il vous éblouira". (Alastor will be back, be well prepared, he will dazzle you) Là il ne s'agit pas d'amis mais avant tout de lui même.

Quand il se retourne en anglais il dit "The constraints of my deal will surely you have a back door". (Les restrictions de mon marché a sûrement une porte de sortie.) En français, il dit "Par mes choix, me voilà un peu plus vulnérable". Ce n'est pas les restrictions dont il parle mais les choix en français pourront faire allusion à Lilith, le fait qu'il reste à l'hôtel. Une dernière pour la route, en anglais "Once I figure out, how to unclip my wings, guess who will be pulling the strings. (Quand j'aurai compris comment enlever mes ailes, devinez qui va tirer les ficelles). Closer to the angels, but this time those wings are a hindrance to his freedom. En français "Lorsque j'aurai trouvé le moyen de me libérer, devinez qui va régner" ("When I find a way to free myself, guess who's going to rule".) Ce qui est j'avoue plus direct comparé à la vo mais j'imagine qu'ils voulaient plus se caler au rythme de la chanson qu'un traduction littérale.

This fight with Adam shows the difference in power between Alastor, Charlie, Lucifer and Alastor. In the song between Lucifer and Alastor, he talks about his possessions and his power. But when the hotel and his daughter are in danger, he really shows what he's capable of. So yeah, Lucifer could have killed Alastor if he'd posed a much more present threat to the hotel. However although there's a deal between Charlie and Alastor, I'm leaning more towards her saving him at some point from the angels or even Lilith.

Moreover, Alastor's singing part in the final song. Once again, there are differences between the english version and the french version. In the passage where we see his shadow and then his face. Speaking of "Great Alastor Altruist dying for his friend. (Le grand altruiste Alastor meure pour ses amis. Désolé de décevoir mais ce n'est pas comme ça que ça se termine.) in english. But in French it says "Alastor reviendra soyez bien préparés, il vous éblouira." (Alastor will be back, be well prepared, he will dazzle you) Here it's not about friends, but about himself.

The constraints of my deal will surely have a back door".(Les restrictions de mon marché a sûrement une porte de sortie.) In French, he says "Par mes choix, me voilà un peu plus vulnérable". It's not the restrictions he's talking about, but the choices in French could allude to Lilith, the fact that he's staying at the hotel. One last for the road, in English "Once I figure out, how to unclip my wings, guess who will be pulling the strings."(Quand j'aurai compris comment enlever mes ailes, devinez qui va tirer les ficelles). Closer to the angels, but this time those wings are a hindrance to his freedom. In French, "Lorsque j'aurai trouvé le moyen de me libérer, devinez qui va régner" ("When I find a way to free myself, guess who's going to rule").

Which is admittedly more direct than the english version, but I imagine they were more intent on keeping to the rhythm of the song than a literal translation.

[positively-knotted]

Dissertationposting 3 - The Torus

Remember that last time, by taking f=1 in Lemma 1, we showed that ʃR_Σ ≥ ʃR for a stable minimal hypersurface Σ in a manifold (M, g). In particular, if R > 0 on M, so is ʃR_Σ. But if M is 3-dimensional, then Gauss-Bonnet says that Σ must be a union of spheres! Combining this with the fact that we can find a stable minimal hypersurface in each homology class of T³, this shows that T³ cannot have a geometry with positive curvature! Let's introduce some notation to make this easier - we'll say a topological manifold is PSC if it admits a metric with R > 0, and non-PSC else. Gauss-Bonnet says that the only closed PSC 2-manifolds are unions of spheres, and we've just shown that T³ is non-PSC.

How could we make this work for higher dimensions? Well, we can still write each torus as Tⁿ×S¹, so an induction argument feels sensible. In particular:

T² is non-PSC by Gauss-Bonnet

Every (Tⁿ, g) has a stable minimal T^{n-1} by taking the homology class of the meridian by Lemma 2

Stable minimal hypersurfaces in positively curved spaces are PSC?

By induction and contradiction, Tⁿ is non-PSC for all n.

So, what do we have and what do we need to prove Statement 3?

We need to allow (Σ, g) to not have R > 0 even if Σ is PSC. The easiest idea here is to find a function to scale g (ie distances) by to get a new metric.

If we scale by φ^{4/(n-2)}, then the new curvature is φ^{-(n+2)/(n-2)} Lφ, [1] where L is the conformal Laplacian

which is a reasonably well known operator that sometimes has nicer behaviour than the regular Laplacian.

To use the full power of Lemma 1, we want another result relating the integral of |∇f|² to Vf² for some other function V.

As if by magic, functional analysis gives us exactly the result we need.

Lemma 3.

Let (M, g) be a compact n-manifold, possibly with boundary, and V a smooth function on M. Then the infimum

is attained by some function φ. Furthermore, φ > 0 on int(M), and

The proof [2] is pretty technical, but if you've done a course on Fourier analysis, the term "first eigenfunction" for φ might ring a bell. If you've done any undergrad course on ODEs, you can try thinking about how this relates to the normal existence theorem and maximum principle for the Laplacian (set V=0).

But that's all we need! Letting V = -(n-2)/4(n-1) R, Lemma 3 gives a function φ > 0 and constant λ with Lφ = -λφ; Lemma 1 and being careful with compactness gives that λ > 0; so scaling by φ^{4/(n-2)} does the job! It's worth recording that separately I think.

Proposition 4.

Let (M, g) be a closed manifold with R > 0. Then any closed stable minimal hypersurface is PSC.

Next time, we'll see how far we can push this method - in particular, it will turn out that we only actually care about the cohomology ring of M! I might even drop my first novel result, the classification of so-called SYS 3-manifolds.

[1] I'm not gonna do this for you, it's a direct calculation. I even gave you nice coefficients! I also think it's an exercise in Lee.

[2] This time, we pass to the Sobolev space H¹, where a sequence of functions approximating the infimum converges to a continuous function attaining the infimum. Showing it's an eigenfunction is fairly standard (vary φ, differentiate, divergence theorem), but the argument that it's smooth is cute. If Vφ + λφ is continuous, so is Δφ. But then φ is twice differentiable, so by induction smooth. Thierry Aubin's "Some nonlinear problems in Riemannian geometry" has all of the painful details, and a sketch is below.