In this video taken by [bass]-The Black Knight, we see TBK and Grisha hunting Nomad Aliens with about 600 million credits worth of hardware on the 24/7 Freelancer Universe Server (Playing Microsoft Freelancer of course.) That hardware is of course [bass]-Rook-[BS} (A Battleship of Bretonian Manufacture that is the [bass] Flagship) and the [bass]-Athena-{GB] (A curiously named Rhinland Gunboat, that takes it's inspiration from the ship of the fan-fiction story "WTF is Humor," which can be found here:http://www.baseandsystemservices.com/neural-nets/wtf-is-humor-or-space-cade­ts.html

Now that's an odd piece of fiction with many different authors that...we'll its explained at the site.

As for the Nomad hunt featured in the video, for the most part it goes well...

Related links:

• http://www.baseandsystemservices.com/neural-nets/wtf-is-humor-or-space-cade­ts.html
• http://www.freelancer-universe.com

The programmers over at EA games have to be going crazy. You know they’re already hard at work on the next Madden Football game. How are they going to program Tim Tebow for the next game?

I’m not talking about the fact that he’ll be a New York Jet either.

Is he going to be the Tim Tebow we were introduced to last year? You remember Tim. He came in when the team needed a spark—and to prevent rioting amongst the fans—and took the Broncos to the Divisional playoffs. He was as likely to run as throw, and thus was a nightmare for defenses. Essentially, he was the perfect video game quarterback. Whatever surprise you want to spring on the person sitting next to you on the couch, Tebow was your man.

With the signing of Peyton Manning in Denver, instantly Tebow is the worst quarterback ever. He seems to be under attack from every direction. Most of the pundits were warning against taking him. Jet Antonio Cromartie tweeted that he didn’t want Tim on his team. (Hopefully their lockers aren’t next to each other. Talk about awkward.)

Joe Namath called his trade a publicity stunt. Do I need to make the standard reference about the pot and the kettle or is it that obvious?

Warren Sapp got on his case, which is what Warren does, so there’s not too much of a burn there. Yester day he accused Jeremey Shockey of being the “snitch” that exposed the Saint’s Bounty program. (And don’t even get me started on the “Old, Slow, and Done” Steelers that made it to the playoffs again this year—only to be beaten by a Tebow Touchdown.)

Hipsters are saying they were down on Tebow even when he was winning—and a lot of them probably were. The big question in Denver for most of the season was “Has Tebow proven himself?” After a win against my beloved Steelers in the playoffs, most people put that question to bed. Yes he got crushed against the Patriots the next weekend, but getting crushed against the Patriots is about as normal as eggs for breakfast. It happens. Ask Peyton Manning how easy they are to beat. (The Patriots, not the eggs—eggs aren’t too hard to beat.)

And of course from every direction there is criticism of his faith in God. The New York Post ran a headline today that read “PRAY BALL,” while others wondered if the move to NY would corrupt him. There’s no question his morals will be tested by playing for the Jets. Ask Brett Favre and Mark Sanchez about the scandals that can befall a Jet quarterback. Sure Tebow being sent to NY might seem like Jonah being sent to Nineveh, but would they have questioned Peyton Manning the same way if he was wearing the Jets jersey?

Reportedly the coaching staff wants him to live near the practice facility in NJ so he doesn’t get tempted to go clubbing. Considering the trouble Homes and Burress got into in clubs, this is not bad advice. But shouldn’t it be directed to a player who has shown a propensity for clubbing? You mean to say that Denver has no night life, and Tebow was never on the road where there was a club available?

Tebow is demonstrative of his faith, and that irks people across the board. I had a friend say recently that “He’s just pretending he’s not a dirt bag to get attention.” That’s a possibility, and religious pride is a particularly heinous form of pride. But none of us are in a position to know what is in his heart.

In the meantime, the wail of religious criticism hurts far more people than Tebow. Every religious slam against him quietly strikes every person of faith in some way or another. All are being mocked. Some will become afraid to share their faith. Others will push back with abuse. Some will have their faith weakened; others will only gain strength from the persecution. All will resent those who disseminate such hate speech. Increasingly, any criticism of Tebow will be classed as religious persecution, as people become oversensitive.

It’s nothing new. It’s just sad to see it in this day and age. We’re supposed to be more sophisticated than this, aren’t we?

Thankfully, the programmers at EA games don’t have to worry about the strength or veracity of Tebow’s faith, or the value of religion in society. They just have to decide whether he should be awesome in the next Madden or totally weak.

I say go with awesome. No one enjoys playing a game with a weak character—especially if they’re fans of the real article.

I just hope they don’t put him on the cover. He’s got enough to deal with as it is.

Leg 16: Sakhalin to Kamchatka

Start: Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia (UHSS) 46°53′13″N 142°43′19″E

End: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Airport, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Krai, Russia (UHPP) 53°10′3.72″N 158°27′12.96″E

Start Date: (Sim Time): 17/11/2010 2:05pm (flight on same day in real life, but not same time)

Flight Duration: 1.9 hours (day), 2.4 hours (night), 1.4 hours on instruments.

Flight Distance: 821 miles (713 nautical miles)

Estimated Burn 133.2 gals

Actual Burn 111.0 gals

This marks the first touchdown on the massive Eurasian Continent, the largest land-mass on Earth and home to 72% of world's population! When thinking about landing here, my first thought was that I could jump on a train and in a few weeks time find myself in Paris, but unfortunately there is no road or rail access between the cities and towns on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the rest of Russia. This isolation has been a feature of Kamchatka for all of it's history. The native people are the Koryaks who numbered around 12-25,000 before the region was mapped by Russian explorers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of those explorers were killed by the Koryak people and this resulted in a number of punitive raids. By 1820 their population was reduced to around 1,900, mostly as a result of disease and attacks by Russian settlers. Today their number is around 8000 compared to the over 300,000 Russian residents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula

The city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was established in 1740 and for a while was an important transit point on journeys between the more populated areas of Russia and the Russian colonies in North America. In 1854, the city was the site of a battle in the Crimean War when an Anglo-French force of 2600 men in 6 warships with 218 cannons attacked the Russian fort defending the city. Despite having only 920 men, 67 cannons and one frigate, the Russian defenders successfully repelled the larger force and inflicted five times the casualties they received. Today the city has a population of 268,000 people and for reasons that will become clear below, has an active tourist industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Petropavlovsk

With the sale of Alaska to the United States, the region became less strategically important for a while and was spared attack in WWII. However the cold war once again made Kamchatka militarily important and the Soviet government established a number of military sites, including the main Russian submarine base in the Pacific (which still exists today). I can imagine the frequent encounters between US and Russian aircraft near Kamchatka, as the US spy planes probed the Soviet defenses (and patience). After WWII, casual travel to Kamchatka was prohibited for both Russian and foreign citizens alike.

As the Soviet regime collapsed and relations between the superpowers began to improve, Kamchatka was once again opened to casual travel. Russian citizens were allowed to travel there from 1989, and foreigners from 1990. It was quickly realized that the isolation of Kamchatka during the Cold War had meant that it suffered little from human development. Vast portions of the peninsula consist of pristine sub-arctic forests with large populations of seals, wolves, arctic fox, bighorn sheep, moose, reindeer and other animals. In fact, Kamchatka is famous within Russia for the size and numbers of bears living there. It is also a breeding ground for Stella's Sea Eagle, one of the largest eagles in the world. Importantly, it has a large variety of salmon species and it is estimated that between a sixth and a quarter of all Pacific salmon originate in rivers in Kamchatka.

Another natural wonder in Kamchatka are the spectacular and numerous volcanoes. The Kamchatka River is flanked by no fewer than 160 volcanoes with 29 still active. The largest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka which at over 4700m is the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere, while Kronotsky is famous for it's beautifully symmetrical cone, similar to Mount Fuji in Japan. 19 of these volcanoes are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, recognizing them as having "...outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klyuchevskaya_Sopka

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_List

According to the map, the trip from Sakhalin to Kamchatka is the longest so far, but unlike the previous leg, I was vectored on a fairly direct approach to the airport and ended up burning less fuel. I also flew at a slightly lower altitude of 8000' (compared to 11000' in the last leg). The effect on fuel efficiency seemed to be negligible, however the more direct approach no doubt helped in that regard. I traveled through a fairly dramatic storm over the Sea of Okhotsk, but it cleared up before reaching Kamchatka. This was a very bumpy ride, but not as bad as the trip from Tokyo to Sakhalin. The sun began to set slowly around 3:30pm and by the time I arrived it was night. As we proceed northward in winter, we can expect the days to grow consistently shorter. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky tower requested that I land on runway 34L, despite the fact that runway 34R was much better lit and had an ILS system and would seem the logical choice. Whether this is a bug, or just a reflection of parallel runway operations, I don't know. The visibility was fine and I was close enough to 34R to use it's ILS for guidance on the rate of descent. There was a small crosswind, but it didn't present a problem for the landing.

Leaving Sakhalin:

Kamchatka at night:

A nice screen-grab of me leaving the bad weather over the Sea of Okhotsk, just as the sun sets.

Here's the route:

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=YSBK-YSCH-YLHI-YSNF-NWWM-NVSS-AGGL-ANYN-PTSA-PTPN-PTKK-PGUM-PGSN-RJAW-RJTF-UHSS-UHPP

I made this video for the Shuta Multimedia Website and I thought I'd share it here. Happy Holidays Everyone. You can hear me exclaim as I blog on this site, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

On behalf of everyone at Shuta Multimedia, I'd like to wish everyone the Happiest of Holidays, whatever holiday that may be. And I also wish that you take that in the true spirit in which it was intended. Don't know where I'm going with that? Check out the video. :-)

Special apologies to Andy Williams, who is not Dean Martin as I thought. Check out one of my favorite holiday classics here:

And of course as an extra special bonus, Check out "A Pumped Christmas" by our friends at Community Film Project: