Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Funny Stuff: The BA-K-47
April 12, 2009(from the creator of the BA-K-47)
We had our first annual Bacon Day this past Saturday. As a huge fan of bacon, and all the great bacon blogs out there, I decided it was time for me to make my own bacon creation. I came up with the BA-K-47, a 1:1 scale AK-47 made out of bacon. It took a total of eight hours to create, a lot of bacon, and a blowtorch… oh yeah, and our good friend beer helped too.
Blog Here.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
War Art:’Teammates’, by LMS Defense-The Comics
Monday, June 1, 2009
Iraq: A Quiet But Undeniable Cultural Legacy
There is a part of this article that is missing. That part is the cultural legacy of Iraq on all of us that have been deployed there. I find myself using the Iraqi arabic lexicon all of the time. Hell, I gave my blog a name that came from that experience (Jundi is Arabic for soldier), complete with a photo of an Iraqi Jundi. I personally know of two contractors that have married Iraqi women. Even drinking tea is viewed differently after working in Iraq, because tea is such an important drink for business and interactions there. There is much that has worn off on me and the thousands of us that have interacted with the Iraqi population during this war, and I think that would make for a great follow up article to this story. –Matt
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Mark Apram is the most popular tattoo artist in Baghdad, and his room is a potpourri of American influences. “Anything American, I love it,” he said. (Nada Bakri – The Washington Post)
A Quiet but Undeniable Cultural Legacy
U.S. Occupation of Iraq Will End, but a Host of American Influences May Linger
By Anthony ShadidWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, May 31, 2009
BAGHDAD
Across the street from the tidy rows of tombstones in the British cemetery, mute testimony to the soldiers of an earlier occupation, Mustafa Muwaffaq bears witness to the quieter side of the United States’ six-year-old presence in Iraq.
In wraparound sunglasses, shorts and shoes without socks, the burly 20-year-old student waxes eloquent about his love for heavy metal of all kinds: death, thrash, black. But none of it compares, he says, to the honky-tonk of Alan Jackson, whose tunes he strums on his acoustic guitar at night, pining for a life as far away as a passport will take him.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Cool Stuff: The Bionic Shirt, by Ranger Up
This is a great shirt, and for you war machines out there, this one is for you. I am also amazed at the development of prosthesis these days. The rate things are going, more and more amputees will be able to join back up in their units because of bionics and these advances. Even contractors will be able to continue to work with these types advances, and as this war continues, I think we will see more and more of this type of thing. I guess my point is, if soldiering or contracting is in your blood, then an amputation should not stop you from continuing. Especially when bionics actually start to enhance capability.
I can even attest to some body modification/enhancement. I had laser surgery for my eyes back in 2002, and it was the best thing ever for this kind of work and for smokejumping. My vision sucked before hand and I had to depend upon eye glasses. That wasn’t good for parachuting, and I wanted to kick my dependence on those things. I got the surgery and now I have 20/15 vision! The outcome was way better than I ever expected, and for contracting, your eyes are extremely important for the observation part of your OODA.
In my leg, I have a titanium alloy rod holding together my femur. This does not really enhance my capabilities, but I guarantee that my femur won’t break there anymore. ha ha Now that is nothing like actually losing a leg or arm, but it does give me a profound respect for those that have prothesis and have to live with that metal and plastic in them and on them, just in order to walk or grip something. It is my hope that all of you guys and gals out there that are amputees or wheel chair bound, will one day not only live a normal life based on the advances of bionics and prosthesis, but be enhanced by it. It will happen, just like it happened for my vision. –Matt
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Bionic Shirt
This shirt goes out to all the folks in Ward 57 at Walter Reed, and to the men and women that have weathered far more than we can imagine and kept driving on. Whether they managed to stay in the service or not, these men and women are our heroes, and we thank them with the full measure of our hearts.
Buy Shirt Here.