StationCommander

@SLagonia2626 @BasedMikeLee I agree with your Woodrow Wilson ranking.

@BasedMikeLee My preliminary list. I reserve the right to edit it.

FDR dangerously undermined the Constitution by deliberately weakening the Constitution’s twin structural protections: federalism and separation of powers Calling him the GOAT president is blasphemy

Watched The Last Starfighter. Comparisons to Star Wars, Tron, and other sci-fi of the era are inevitable, but it still stands strong as an underrated 1980s classic. It's your traditional coming-of-age story where a reluctant protagonist learns to fight for something greater than himself, yet it's also full of so much imagination and creativity. Similar to the original Star Wars, we only get a small glimpse of the wider galaxy, but The Last Starfighter still feels appropriately epic thanks to the strong world-building. It's also a surprisingly funny movie with how it develops the residents of a middle-of-nowhere trailer park town. From the first ten minutes, we already get a good idea of who these people are and why Alex Rogan wants to escape his dull life. Visually, the special effects and CGI were absolutely mindblowing for 1984. It of course looks dated by today's standards, but you still appreciate how the filmmakers were able to take full advantage of miniatures and whatever primitive computer technology existed at the time. The rousing score by Craig Safan is also splendid and fits well with the extraterrestrial setting. The cast isn't full of the most famous names, but they all do a great job. Lance Guest is effective as an everyman who gets pulled into a vast intergalactic adventure, while his chemistry with Catherine Mary Stewart is sweet and believable. More fascinating, however, are the appearances of Robert Preston and Dan O'Herlihy. These were veteran actors born in the 1910s, so it's quite interesting seeing them appear in this film which was a transitional work in between classic Hollywood and the more modern stuff we're used to today. The Last Starfighter sadly isn't as remembered as other sci-fi films, but it's certainly worth checking out. It's more than just a rip-off of Star Wars. It's an earnest picture that believes in its material and in retrospect it's one of the most charming movies of the 1980s. They never got around to doing a sequel or turning it into a franchise, but you know what? That's perfectly fine. It reminds me of an alternative timeline where A New Hope was all Star Wars ever got and it stayed frozen in time as a cult classic. The Last Starfighter works so well because of the era of arcade games and filmmaking it was released in. If they ever did another one, it would be a difficult task trying to recreate that magic.

@mechanikuma The T-6 was not so easy to fly in some ways. It is an advanced trainer to prepare students for difficult to fly fighters, so it is designed to have some challenges in flying quality.

零戦乗った人たちが 「思ったとおりに飛べる、スポーツ機としては最高、ただしこれで戦争はしたくない」 と異口同音に言うので本当に飛ばしやすいんだろうなぁ 余談だけどT-6テキサンが割と似通った形(後にガワが零戦に改造される)なのは空冷で飛ばしやすく操縦にクセの少ない形にするとああいった形に収斂していくのかもしれない

@HiddenHistoryYT The British didn't have a carrier group to help support the extraction?

In a single afternoon on May 22, 1941, the Royal Navy lost two cruisers and a destroyer off the coast of Crete to German dive bombers. The fleet commander was urged to withdraw what was left. His reply has been quoted ever since, but the situation that produced it is less well known. By the morning of the 22nd, the German airborne invasion of Crete was four days old and on the brink of failure. Of the seven thousand paratroopers Kurt Student had dropped on the first day, roughly half were already dead. The Germans had taken huge losses trying to capture Maleme airfield in the west of the island. Without an airfield, no reinforcements could land. Without reinforcements, the invasion would collapse. What the Germans needed was a seaborne convoy of mountain troops, heavy weapons, and ammunition. Two such convoys were assembled in Greek ports and put to sea under Italian destroyer escort, hoping to slip across the Aegean to Crete. The Royal Navy intercepted the first convoy on the night of May 21. In a confused action in the dark, British cruisers and destroyers tore through a fleet of small Greek caïques crammed with German soldiers. Roughly three hundred Germans drowned. The convoy was destroyed. But by morning the Royal Navy was south of Crete in clear daylight, within range of the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps VIII, the most experienced and lethal dive-bomber force in the world. And the British ships were running low on anti-aircraft ammunition because they had spent most of it sinking the convoy. The Stukas came in waves. The cruiser Gloucester took two direct hits and capsized, taking 722 men with her. The cruiser Fiji was hit by a single bomb that ruptured her hull. She sank slowly, with most of her crew getting off, but 241 men were lost. The destroyer Greyhound was bombed and went down in fifteen minutes. The battleships Warspite and Valiant were both damaged, Warspite badly enough that she had to go to the United States for repairs. By nightfall on May 22, Admiral Andrew Cunningham, commanding the Mediterranean Fleet from Alexandria, was looking at a casualty list that included two cruisers, a destroyer, two damaged battleships, and roughly fifteen hundred dead British sailors. The army on Crete was asking for naval evacuation. The army on Crete also had thirty two thousand troops on it. Cunningham's staff, looking at what the Luftwaffe had done in a single afternoon, urged him not to commit the rest of the fleet. He could not protect transports from Stukas in daylight. Anything he sent into the waters north of Crete would be sunk. The navy had taken enough. Cunningham listened, and then he gave the order that is still quoted at Dartmouth Naval College. "It takes the Navy three years to build a ship," he said. "It would take three hundred years to build a tradition. The evacuation will continue." The fleet went back. Between May 28 and June 1, the Royal Navy evacuated 16,500 men from the south coast of Crete under continuous air attack. They lost three more cruisers and six more destroyers doing it. Thousands of British soldiers were left behind and became prisoners. But the navy did not abandon the army. The German victory at Crete was so expensive that Hitler never authorized another major airborne operation for the rest of the war. The paratroopers had taken the island, but the airborne arm as a strategic weapon was effectively destroyed in the process. Cunningham's decision was not a calculation about morale. It was a statement about what kind of institution the Royal Navy was, made in the moment when the institution was being tested. He was sixty years old. He had spent forty four years at sea. He understood, in a way that staff officers in London did not, that an institution that abandoned its soldiers in 1941 would still be remembered for it in 2041. Three hundred years to build a tradition. Eighty five years ago today, the bill came due, and Cunningham paid it.

リアル映像 Ｚガンダム オープニング を ご覧くださいね♪⬇️

Precision landing and Viking funeral all in one! Also, I think I still notice some orange colour on there

@HiddenHistoryYT Fortunately, the Japanese vastly underutilized their submarine fleet. Meanwhile, of 50% of all Japanese surface vessels were sunk by American subs.

Inspection Process of Japanese Submarines I-401, I-14, and I-400 — September 1945 Following the end of World War II, US military personnel and surrendering Japanese crews were photographed unloading cargo from three aircraft-carrying submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The three submarines moored side by side on the right side of the photo are: • Japanese submarine I-401 — far left, directly alongside the submarine tender USS Proteus • Japanese submarine I-14 — positioned in the middle • Japanese submarine I-400 — far right and the largest submarine class of the war Known as “underwater aircraft carriers,” these submarines surrendered in the Pacific before they could launch their planned surprise airstrikes. This photograph stands as one of the final visual records of Japan’s advanced naval technology during the Pacific Theater of the war.

@h1xTba7knjJloPj @HiddenHistoryYT Yamato, Musashi, and Shinano have entered the chat.

@HiddenHistoryYT It consumed vast amounts of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s manpower, time, and resources, yet ultimately achieved nothing.

@MuseumCommodore Maybe you could join the conpany?

A bleak period in Commodore history. Up for sale: the USA Commodore headquarters at 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA 19380. I still remember the day my friends told me Commodore had gone bust! I didn’t believe it — Commodore was huge! They made the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500. How could they be broke?! That night on the TV news it finally hit me… it was real. Commodore was no more. Love it or hate the new Commodore comeback, I hope we can all agree it’s exciting to see Commodore alive and well again! That’s a funny statement when you think about it. The community has kept Commodore alive in our hearts all these years by sharing content and comments here on this platform. But at least Perifractic and his team are doing something with the brand… finally, after all these decades. I actually spent a couple of years trying to get funding and interest from different wealthy individuals to buy Commodore from the Dutch holding company… but as a nobody in little ol’ New Zealand, I constantly came up against brick walls. Then I discovered Perifractic had done exactly what I was desperately trying to do — he successfully purchased Commodore. When I watched the announcement video I was a little disappointed. I had such great ideas and goals for the Commodore brand. As I carried on with my day thinking about it all, my disappointment slowly turned to acceptance… which then turned to “Good on you!” At the end of the day, my couple of years of trying every which way to buy Commodore proved it wasn’t going to happen. And I’m just glad someone finally did it. Here’s a quick timeline of the new Commodore’s revival: - June 2025 — Perifractic (Christian Simpson) of the Retro Recipes YouTube channel announces he’s in talks to buy the Commodore brand and trademarks from the Dutch holding company. - Late June 2025 — Share purchase agreement signed with a group of investors. Perifractic becomes acting CEO. - July 31, 2025 — Full payment completed and the deal officially closes. Commodore International Corporation (a new U.S. company) now owns 100% of the original trademarks and IP. - July/August 2025 — New official website (commodore.net) launches along with pre-orders for the Commodore 64 Ultimate — the first new official Commodore hardware in over 30 years (FPGA-based with modern upgrades). - 2025–2026 — Pre-orders roll in strongly, new products and community initiatives are announced, and the brand begins its official return under community-focused leadership. What an incredible full-circle moment for Commodore fans everywhere! If you want to buy a Commodore 64 Ultimate, save $10 here -> checkout.commodore.net/referral/nUgZn… Do you remember where you were when you heard the announcement that Commodore had gone bust? Drop your memories below 👇

@Rainmaker1973 No one talks about Mars Club

If humans colonize Mars, what should be the first rule we all agree to follow?

海外のみんなへ。 日本のアニメで、最初に好きになった作品って何でしたか？

Visitors to this museum will be able to experience Iconic Starfighters: Rivals of the Silver Screen beginning this Friday, when the temporary exhibit opens in the Museum’s fourth building. This will be on display through Dec. 31, 2026. nationalmuseum.af.mil/Upcoming/Press…

@Rank1Apples @Shr00msy Think the American Revolutionary war. But with robots. And the Americans are kind of the bad guys. But then the British also become bad guys . And Cornwallis and Washington have super powers. And the war never seems to end. Oh and Rhode Island gets dropped on Jamaica.

@Shr00msy I really dont understand gundam

@Shr00msy Always loved this song. Ending one not too bad, either.

大阪ストフェス初参加！ ZZガンダムの予定でしたが、パトレイバーがタイムリーで良かったです。

@exQUIZitely Loved this game, but t had an annoying bug~quark. When shooting at a P-38, anything but a deflection shot would miss.

"Give it full throttle!" Aces of the Pacific was released in 1992 by Dynamix (under the Sierra umbrella). It's a WWII combat flight sim and an absolute gem. You jump into the cockpit of legendary planes like the F6F Hellcat or the Zero and fly real Pacific theater missions - Pearl Harbor, Midway, Leyte Gulf, and even the Yamamoto intercept. The career mode lets you join either the US or Japanese forces, racking up kills and surviving the war. The graphics were stunning for the time, and the variety of aircraft and historical scenarios was quite large. It was followed up a year later with Aces over Europe. I think it was pretty much a "must have" for any flight sim fan, a match made in heaven for anyone who loved that genre, and for those who also liked other classics like Their Finest Hour, Red Baron, or Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. Early 90s flight combat sims were pretty epic, despite the hardware limitations that were still common then.

@RobProvince @GSWIndiana

@GSWIndiana I’ve literally tried to help by going over my budget and how to save and they just get angry and yell.

This is where Millennials and Zoomers lose their argument and the compassion some might feel for them being in a poor economy goes out the window. I as a 52 year old man & make my lunches every weekend for around $3-$5 each. And when you suggest they do the same it’s like you just pissed on their shoes. So it’s ok for me to sacrifice and do all the little things to save money at 52. But you at 30 consider it an insult. Ok then…. fuck off.

@KenRowland77 @CynicalPublius Hail Mary and The Martian books are what I call 'engineer porn'. I mean that in a good way.

@CynicalPublius The book is 100X better than the movie (which was pretty good). You will be astounded at how anyone could dream up the technical things he writes in the book. My wife and I are engineers and we think it is the best book we have ever read.

So I watched Project Hail Mary last night and REALLY enjoyed it--I highly recommend. (No, I have not read the book yet, but now I will.) This is movie is apparently a box office smash. What mystifies me is how Hollywood completely misses how most Americans yearn for this kind of story in their movies. It's such an easy formula to follow: 1. Hero's journey. 2. Charismatic leading man (or woman). 3. Thoughtful plot and writing that make the viewer think. 4. No DEI, no political messaging of any kind. 5. Interpersonal story of love and sacrifice between the main characters. 6. High adventure. 7. Happy ending. It's such an easy formula to follow, and it was once the norm in Hollywood. How did they manage to lose sight of this and destroy their own industry?

Battlestar Galactica released 47 years ago today. 18 May 1979 🚀