Yeah, I get it wrong all the time. I’ve made my phone as dumb as me so it corrects it when I spell correctly.

This gendered argument has been raging for a while and still no headway made? Why is that? Could it be because the reasonable middle are being drowned out in the noise of the screaming?

I’m all for making the world a safer place for everyone, but leave the buzzword bingo at the door because it distracts from an open and honest debate.

My question is always the same, irrespective of gender, why is it that there is an overwhelming number of people who seem hell bent on inflicting serious physical, psychological and emotional harm to one another?

Where are these thought processes and behaviours being learned and what the **** are we going to do about it?

Excusing one side of the population from any scruntiy or responsibility in this equation. The JP worshippers and MRA’s can go **** themselves along with the rest of the buzzword bullshit bingo enthusiasts.

MOLGRIPS, I’m more than aware of the threat to women, I’ve had to deal with the aftermath of serious issues and try and help reintegrate a couple of female soldiers into work afterwards. Only one stayed, the other was too affected. Which is sad because she was a decent human and rising star. So I’m well aware of the human cost in this.

Like I said, I’m not interested in discussing the semantics of gendered arguments, I’ll happily engage with anyone about their issues and how I can help, but labelling everything only creates division and clouds objective thinking. And in my soon to end line of work, there’s no traction in dividing people, it has disastrous consequences.

…And male white priviledge is trotted out. This is as predictable as an Andy Mcnab storyline.

I’ve witnessed what are deemed traits of ‘toxic masculinity’ in many a female soldier. We have had same-sex DV cases to deal with and same-sex sexual offences. It’s why I don’t buy the gendered discussion, it should just be a discussion on toxic behaviours, how they start and what to do to try and prevent them.

@mikewsmith good post, but very slanted. This line of discussion for me is always a problem, it seems to only talk about the end result, which is brutal and insidious. but there is never a discussion on what shapes men to become like this. Maybe because that discussion would mean a closer look at how young children are treated and parented and the long term effects that the negative experiences have on them. And those issues aren’t restricted to one gender, we are only just starting to talk about the effects of children being weaponised in custody disputes, the effects of parental alienation and the mimicking of learned behaviour from one or both of the parents.

I think the constant gendering of the discussion gives rise to more fighting than movement towards decent and thought-provoking debate and prevents any meaningful and practical prevention suggestions. It’s a shame because kids are being infected daily with the most toxic slow-release poison and starting on a path that leads to misery and worse, the loss of life.

Positive: At the moment every day creeps closer to me leaving the Army after 24 years, looking forward to a new challenge.

Negative: The bloody days are dragging!

New chesty V2 is good, padd3d which is better than it’s predecessor. V1 caused me some serious bruising after a crash a while ago.

I have a one up. Bloody brilliant. As is all their stuff.

Bathroom sealant. Squidge some out and rub your digit in it. Make sure it’s an even thin layer on the pad. Works a treat on any glove.

Get to a decent physio and have an MOT of all your connected tissues, my initial diagnosis was a back spasm from the GP, but after all the rest and meds, something didn’t feel right, so i paid to see a private physio, diagnosed tight hip flexors, overloading lumbar vertebrae combined with week thoracic muscles, a good few months of structured rehabilitation consisting of yoga, lots of stretches and targeted strengthening (quite a few sports massages and a couple of chiro visits) and I’m pain free and enjoying riding more than I ever have.

TL:DR, your back is complex and can be affected by things you may not even think of. Go get it looked at by someone who specialises and work from there. Good luck.

https://www.mountainwarehouse.com/mini-rucksack-rain-cover-10-20l-p20227.aspx/

Any good?

He’s a **** troll, not a very good one at that.

@matt_outandabout

We have to wargame this at work, it’s one of the possible threats of both conventional and non-conventional warfare now. I work within rotary aviation, where they are a bloody pain. But we obviously share ground and airspace with large fixed-wing aircraft.

Really? Didn’t realise they were at the back, I thought they were in the nose, controlled by a steering wheel.

Like I said, been used to good effect elsewhere by people with a similar ideology. Even disruption is a good tool, that Airport is now haemorrhaging money. Who knows, could just be some dickhead hobbyist.

Maybe, but they have drills for engine failure, so you’d need to have a bloody damn good knowledge of when is the exact vulnerable moment to cause maximum damage to cause a crash. Either way, a COTS drone with a small IED would cause havoc, but there’s just too many available now, especially on the second-hand market. They’re not hard to weaponise and can be bought in a pretty untraceable manner.

I think you’d have a hard time with anything you could legally get hold of bringing down anything with 3 spare engines (guns and drones).

You don’t go for the engines, you go for the control surfaces.

COTS drones have been used by IS in Syria to attack Russian aircraft while on the ground, small charge of explosives and aim for the vertical stabilizer.

Wouldn’t be hard to hit a massive target like an airliner. Scary times.

Yup, even if it’s a roadie puke. ;) I carry one of those cheap Halfords bike toolkits in the car with a track pump. Mainly for the day I forget my own admin.

Hands get cold due to the blood dropping in temperature as it moves down the arm. Warm it there and he should find he’s a bit warmer.

The hand warming pads you can get for skiing are quite good. Place a couple on each forearm under a tight fitting baselayer.

^Well said. I see enough of that bullshite within the military when walts are outed. **** disgusts me, just like this. They may get away with it, grow up and move on. Or, go take your chances with the law, don’t fancy them though. Affray is a bitch.

And Rews.

Missus sister is music teacher and professional violinist (she did the part on Brim Full of Asha) asking her now.

Shame they’re not using Hero 7. 4k HD of these little shits bouncing down the road would be great.

Well that didn’t take long. 🙄

First day of a MHFA facilitators course today, that’s me doing my bit to try and help someone who needs it. Too many guys iIve served with are taking their lives post-service. So yay, our own day to think about the pretty somber stats. The rest of the noise, well, it’s just that.

I have a tap. I either in Yorkshire or hampshire. If anyone wants it, let me know.

If you have new form, stick it in the pump. If your fork is out of warranty, get it in the steerer, mine works a treat. Made a couple of adjustments to my kit and I can roll out on day rides with less metalwork in my bag.

Good stagging on jacket. Although as someone has pointed out, Montane took the concept and improved it quite significantly.

Nickc, have a look on instagram, it’s littered with this lot running ‘tactical’ drills in high end military equipment. Making up utter toss shoots and ‘developing’ new tactics and techniques. They cater for a market, one that is growing as the divisions and hate grow. No better time to be in that business, fascists vs libtards, etc, etc.

I’m not disagreeing with you, but the circles I move in the US, many prep for the bloody apocalypse and think long barrels are for shooting people too. I have met a few good ol boys who simply have bolt actions for hunting and shotguns for pests. They’re good fun to hunt with and have a huge respect for weapons, animals and life in general.

But I’m in agreement with you, it’s the attitude and culture that needs to change. 12 people died in that bar in California, I imagine that’s a drop in the ocean when you look country wide. The Why is the most important question here.

Note to add, this particular shooting was done with a legally owned pistol. A .45 Glock, with an illegal extended magazine (anything from 22 -33 rds). Close confines of that bar it would have made a mess. Poor bastards.

Getting caught up in the semantics of a name is one of the reasons why this debate rages on. The question is; do members of the public need a long-barrelled, semi-automatic weapon, capable of a high rate of fire, with 30 round magazines?

I have access to a wide variety of firearms through work, knowing the amount of time it takes to remain proficient in their use, time which gets reduced every year, it’s quite scary to imagine someone in possession of these thinking they could actually do a good job. Or worse, this incident ad infinitum.

I am pretty glad we don’t have them, the amount of John Rambo wannabes we already have (airsoft/milsim), makes me glad we limit them to BB guns.

Indeed. But the parents are either in denial their little diamond could do such a thing, or they’re mouth-breathers that don’t care.

Bullies are usually acting out due to an external stressor, shame there’s no real way of holding parents to account.

Wow! I really didn’t know kids are actually evil little shits…

I kid. Only a little. I sympathise with her, bullies are shits as are their hangers-on. Unfortunately schools and teachers are pretty powerless to stop it.

In war you end up compromising more than your life, you compromise your conscience, your morality, your humanity. No matter which side you’re on, what you ‘believe’ in, when you’re alone with your thoughts all of this eats away at you. The guilt for surviving, the guilt at killing other humans, all of this never leaves you. You can try and ignore it, but it’s always there, in the back of your mind.

Crack on and debate the legalities and morality of military decisions from decades ago, you achieve nothing apart from foaming at the mouth, mostly talking about things you know little of and could never understand, none of us could, we weren’t there with the German war machine knocking on the door. The pressure on those in command, to try and win a war against a superior enemy, as soon as was viable, is hard to imagine. What I know is it’s easy to become the very thing you fight, to follow them down the path of darkness. When it happens, the important thing is recognising that and to walk back from that, not to continue. Ask yourselves what you would do if you were in their shoes, tasked with winning a war. Tactical hindsight is always 20/20.

The military, it’s leaders and soldiers may not be perfect, they will falter and make some absolute heinous decisions, but they will be based in the context of the moment, flawed as that may be, but the pressure from being responsible for lives other than your own can on one hand cause a detachment from consequence; you just see unit names and numbers, on the other a pressure like no other; to order soldiers to their job, knowing some will never come back, I pray that none of you ever have to shoulder that burden. I wish I never had.

The poppy was meant as symbol for unified remembrance of the pure horror of war and a time for the nation to unite and acknowledge the absolute brutal slaughter of millions of people: soldiers, civilians and those permanently damaged by war. It has been hijacked by all comers to twist it one way and the other, everyone who cares about other humans above their own self interest should wrestle the meaning back for all of those poor bastards who died and every bystander who witnessed the slaughter.

Do I wear it with pride? Not really, I wear it because the intent of it was pure, the reason was altruistic before the mouth-breathers of both sides perverted it. I wear it because it makes the old boys and girls who genuinely fought for my freedom happy one day of the year. I’ll keep wearing it even after there’s none left, even though I don’t need it to remind myself that there were once ordinary men and women willing to do the unthinkable to give me and my family a safer future. That was their honest belief, and that’s a good enough reason for me.

What’s the payload and sensor capability on that thing?

EDIT: The Taranis, I’m more than familiar with the Pred/Reaper.

So we still need people in planes to do this stuff? Drones do so much so why continue to insist in meatshots on every launch?

Different roles, Drones work for ISTAR really well and the use in COIN ops to target HVT’s and the like. Although slow moving (compared to jets) they have a good loiter time. But as of yet no DAS so in contested airspace would get turned to dust.

I’m sure someone somewhere is playing about with an unmanned fighter capability, the tech required to immerse an operator to be able to have the full sensory simulation to enable reaction time, etc. That’s quite expensive.

I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time though.

So do all of the options allow us to bomb nations who’s air defences we have obliterated with cruise missiles?

Yup. And if the CMDS is as good as they say, it’ll also do it with AD still operating.

@kerley, not yet, but when he goes YT premium…

It’s another means to which she can interrupt you mid-conversation and stare at her wrist instead of her phone?

Who knows, but I bloody hate the things almost as much a mobiles.