Welcome to what might be a news/politics-free diary entry. Oh, it's coming. Don't worry. Just not this time. Maybe a couple bits. Just read.

Have you heard about this AC-130? Oh, my gawd. We've got two of them operating in tandem over Afghanistan. An AC-130 is a transport plane that has been converted to a ground attack dreadnaught. They can fly very low, very slowly, for many hours. All guns are mounted on the left side of the plane. When a series of ground targets or an area is targeted, the plane flies banked over in a constant circle so that the guns are always aiming in and down toward the target(s) in the middle.

The crew is 14 highly trained Special Forces agents. On board is state of the art radar, sensor, and navigation systems. The plane can 'see' at night and in any weather. The armor is enormously thick and there are all kinds of countermeasures. The payload is thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo.

The guns include a 1.0 inch diameter cannon (the bullets are 1 inch in diameter) which fires 30 rounds per second, a 1.6 inch cannon which fires about 2 rounds per second, and a massive 4.1 inch cannon which fires 1 huge ass armor-piercing explosive round every 6 seconds. All can be fired at once, all fire rounds at tremendous velocity, and all use computers that instantly adapt muzzle trajectory for gravity, plane velocity and direction, wind, altitude, etc.

So they have these two huge planes flying around in circles firing giant guns with pinpoint accuracy for hours at a time. Please Mr. Omar, just turn the man over!!

Geez. In other news, I got the new Sloan. Listened on the ride home a bit but I can't say much about it yet. Also got Lambchop, Mercury Rev, and Built to Spill albums. Didn't get the new Danny Elfman, nor the Loud Family, nor the Autumns, nor the Sheila Divine discs. Mebbe later.

I really like the Mavs' chances this year. Starters: Tim Hardaway, Juwan Howard, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Michael Finley. Bench: Bradley, Manning, Najera, Wang, and others. Donald Nelson and Mark Cuban still firmly in control. And a brand new uniform and a brand new arena. We're still the team with the most multi-nationality--players from 7 different countries. Will definitely be catching a couple games this season.

Charley apparently is throwing up his hands and asking for help on the website and message boards that we've been waiting for for a while. I've offered to help him with design and I've made several suggestions and the other night he told me (on the phone) that we needed to talk about that website. I don't know that I'm the one to do the whole website (I'm probably capable, with study, but I'm short on time with all these classes and other stuff), but I'm happy to help and I'm glad it's finally going to happen. We need it!

PuF, which I abandoned a couple weeks after 911, has been destroyed. Gamespy demolished everything! It's unbelievable. They just came in and kicked everyone out, required accounts for everyone, put in clearly inferior (and ugly) forum software, dumped every single thread ever posted, and alienated EVERYone. Luckily, a few bright PuFers saved a good portion of the database and are resurrecting PuF at BeyondUnreal.

Oh here's something funny I heard today. Back in the day, NASA spent $4 million developing a pen that could write in zero gravity--they had to very delicately design a pressurization system for the ink. The Russians? They used pencils.

SpeedVision is being ripped off the air. The reason? Fox Sports has purchased it to dismantle it and turn it into (basically) The NASCAR network. Ugggghhh. Replacing the incredible variety of worldwide racing of all types with... stock car racing? Do you know how horribly boring Winston Cup racing is? Everything people who don't like racing in general don't like racing for is embodied in Winston Cup. Round and round and round they go, never making right turns, never shifting, never braking. Sometimes they bump or the lame-ass tires let go, and there's a crash, or a slide or a touch, and the yellows come out. If you're lucky, there'll be a yellow near the end of the race, cuz that's the only way you'll see a close race. Not to mention the only NASCAR racer I respect is Jeff Gordon and the announcers are complete morons. I just can't believe they're axing touring car, Motorola Cup, GP, World Superbike, and about 20 other series.

Remember that great video I posted last time? It's all over the net. It's been downloaded 19,000+ times in a week. The debate continues to rage. All kinds of grudge matches all over the country are gearing up as well. After this weekend, there should be some great new videos of car -vs- bike.

If you want to see an even faster car being destroyed by a showroom stock ZX-12R (notice, stock exhaust!), click here. How about that? That car is hugely powerful but the bike makes it look like it's putting on the brakes!!

A guy on ESportbike put together this artsy cycle collage video. Notice the sparks coming off his knee? Nice soundtrack, too.

And you MUST see THIS video! Can you believe that thing?? My gawd, the power! And the handling. Street legal, too (sort of). It is (or was) a Toyota Supra. Not your mommy's Toyota. That would be a hell of a daily driver, no? Imagine getting ready for work each morning knowing you get to drive that.

How far away is Thanksgiving? Ugh. Need a lil break. Weekends seem to last about 3 quarters of one day. Need to go but just don't want to stop? Try this. Take care.