I'm from Chicago as well so there's that.

Well I was speaking of Russia in regards to who is in power and there it is not Communists but strongmen. Ideology (the church, nationalism, and others) and economics are tools to create a power base and elevate it to the point where almost everyone is happy to go along with what you say since you're helping make…

As an actual atheist and not someone raging on the internet I say this with all the honesty and love in my heart: No thank you but please continue doing that yourself, I'm going to search satellite data instead and probably donate money to a legit charity in regards to this.

It is helpful to remember that the Communists in Russia are some of the people protesting the current government and wistfully remembering the good old days of communism. What we see in power now is much closer to Czarist era with the close ties to the Russian Orthodox church and the way pow is controlled and…

You have lovely cats but Kinja is fecking with me and I will have to try later to get my pics up.

They are beautiful creatures.

They are beautiful creatures.

I have to say I love how this comment string went from commenting on political actions to cat food. Yay the internet.

Built in 1965 in a no-flight zone near the East German border to eliminate all prying eyes, it's the world's largest test facility and the only one with a high speed circuit that has a 5.4 mile straight. If you zoom in below, you can see Volkswagen taking advantage of that right when Google has snapped their shot.

And from looking around I see that your Felix is our Friskies, both being Nestle products. Though some of the ad campaigns seem kinda disturbing:

Good to see that you're still alive.

Fair point and a failure on my part to assume American. Sorry for that.

Over here Felix is generally the name of a cat.

If that is your actual name congrats for having a kinda rare one that's pretty cool to boot.

Ugh this is the third attempt to post a response and new Kinja failing me and I'm not feeling like doing another rewrite. All I'll say it there is more to it than this and I highly recommend reading this lovely short pice that gives a great overview on the the foreign BF-109 varients. http://www.airvectors.net/avbf10…

Well the Spanish used Merlin engined 109's after trying to fit a small variety of Hispano-Suiza engines unsuccessfully. The resulting aircraft was a good flyer but was primarily used for ground support until the 1960's. This was done since they had airframes but all the engines were reserved for German use so they…

The tone was a bit. We do not need to be belabored of the evils of Nazism since it's really apparent. But, it does help to point out that getting there can be a slippery slope from nationalism.

Compulsory? Probably not but it probably seems like a good idea anyway.

So you are a reader of John Steakley's Armor as well? :D

How about covering the Christie tanks? Made for the US Army for cavalry operations: fast moving but lightly armored tanks for rapid advancement and behind enemy lines operations. To achieve this they used a unique suspension system with horizontal springs to allow superior cross country movement at speed, they were…

It's a good point to make but they also hated those things as fighter planes due to that bomber engine out front and the issues it introduced in the flying.

The Daimler DB 603 which powered it was a true monster. A 44.5-liter V12 straight out of use in bomber aircraft like the Messerschmitt Me 410, it was fueled by a mixture of alcohol and avgas, with a pinch of ether, too. It put out near-as-makes-no-difference 3,000 horsepower, with the help of methanol and water…