Shaleesh
This is my comfort film and I think I've watched it at least 10 times, I stopped counting in 2020. The first half of the movie is very entertaining but the rest of it drags a lot up until the climax at the end. When you buy the DVD from the guy himself you get a post card with a topless glamour shot on the front and an order form for his clothing line on the back. I love this film but it is also deeply misogynistic and paints women mostly as vindictive nags that take advantage of, and then destroy "good men" like Johnny.
Kodama Naoko enjoyer spotted. Based.
It might just be my experience but it seems like people have forgotten how to behave in movie theatres over the past half decade or so. Theres definitely been more people talking, phone noises, and generally rude behavior coming from audiences. Theres a couple people I refuse to go see movies with because they do shit like this. Its like the effect of everyone staying inside for a couple months and then getting covid anyways kinda fucked up some peoples ability to conform to social norms.
Also, from the article...
Travers then countered that Scorsese, 82, likely behaved in a similar way when he was younger. “‘Come on, Marty,’ I said, ‘we couldn’t keep our mouths shut when we were kids.’” Travers added: “His [Scorsese’s] eyes darkened. ‘Yeah, maybe,’ he conceded, ‘but when we talked it was always about the movie and the fun we had chewing over the details.’”
Scorsese is totally lying out of his ass in that last bit lmao.
The wide availability of FLIR is practically inevitable at this point given how much cheaper and more compact the they've gotten. Countermeasures are taking a long time to catch up though.
Im a little late to the party on this one but there are a number of grenade rifles employed by the PLA.
They have a series of 35mm magazine fed grenade launchers that acts as an infantry support weapon, posessing anti-materiel and anti-infantry capability. The most recent one is designated QLU-11 and it has a rangefinding optic that works with programmable airburst munitions as well as normal 35mm grenades.
The QTS-11 is more or less an analogue to the US OICW program. It has a single shot, bolt action 20mm grenade launcher paired with its own rangefinder mounted above what is ultimately a short-barreled QBZ-03. It is believed to be the lightest of these kinds of weapons at around 7kg/15lb fully loaded and the specialized optic attached. The nifty thing about these is that instead of having one high-tech round that does everything it has multiple ammunition types that include both programmable "smart" rounds and traditional "dumb" rounds. The optic pairs with a headset that allows the shooter to look around corners but it can be removed and used with iron sights. Some reports suggest that around 50,000 have been made and that they have been deployed with some mechanized infantry units, which would make it the most successful of the OICW-like weapons. However, I have some doubts about those reports because these rifles haven't been spotted very much, if at all since the mid-2010s. Personally? I think the whole concept has been shown to be a dead-end and that weapons like this just aren't useful enough to justify the downsides of weight, safety, and cost.
also heres a picture of Xi jinpeng holding one
This is a fair point, however the programmable infantry airburst rifle concept runs into issues those don't, largely because of the mode of usage and size.
One of the problems with the OICW and XM25 systems was that fitting the electronics that would allow for the programming of the rounds meant there was less space for the explosive charge. Something like a 105mm artillery round would sacrifice a small fraction of the space for the same capability compared to say, a 25mm round. Unlike artillery, which is static when it is being used and fires a number of rounds at the same target, infantry airburst systems are used much more dynamically. They are expected to be banged around and have to repeatedly "re-zero" targets in rapid sucession.
Basically, it works in big guns because theyre big and the technology is matured, and it doesn't work all that well in small guns because theyre small and have additional design challenges.
Russia has begun to field a helmet-mounted laser warning system that can detect the presence and direction of infrared laser emissions. Similar systems are being developed elsewhere and will likely proliferate in the coming years. Experience in the war in Ukraine has shown that in some instances infrared emissions can give away positions as much as gunfire will.
This development is very interesting in light of a trend we are seeing with this and the NGSW program. The US military is developing infantry small arms that are largely reliant on the frequent use of infrared laser rangefinders. Given that future doctrines may require "laser discipline", it is possible though not guaranteed, that these new US systems may be a developmental dead end.
Also lol @ the fact theyve been trying this shit for 40 fuckin years and every time they just stick with 40mm bloop tube grenades. Zillions of dollars poured into this stuff and the latest hotness is issuing standalone UBGL systems to grenadiers, not laser blazing airbursting spaceguns. This shit doesnt even work out when its tripod mounted lol.
To be fair and balanced(tm) it should be mentioned that programmable 40mm grenades do exist and could be used with existing systems after some modifications. Things like that have been floated as potential anti-drone weapons but it doesnt seem like thats gone too far as of yet.
Theres quite a few attempted mountain dew flavors out there that have been around for over a decade. They just cant use the name for legal reasons and PepsiCo probably thinks its a dumb idea to get involved in vapes at this point.
The craziest thing about all this is how it clearly shows how few, if any consumer protections exist in the gun industry. People have spent years trying to argue with the manufacturer that they are selling an unsafe product, theres been lawsuits, but still there haven't been any meaningful repercussions for Sig. This might be a poor comparison, but childrens toys get recalled on suspicion alone whereas these have recorded instances where they've shown to have a potentially lethal design flaw.
https://archive.ph/
It works to get past the paywall but its not an elegant solution by any means, youll probably have to keep re-archiving the URL to get the updates.