The United States Space Corps - Part II

Continued from Part I

 
The proposal to create the U.S. Space Corps "combat-ready space forces that enable the commanders of the combatant commands to fight and win wars", is still only in the house bill and thus a significant distance away from getting the level of approval required for it to become law. The Senate's version of the National Defense Authorisation Act has no similar USSC provision which means that once the House and the Senate bills are combined, it could be removed entirely, altered slightly or significantly or however unlikely - even approved. The Senate will certainly study the proposal before the two chambers combine their bills, but there's already scepticism in the upper chamber that the Space Corps concept has been proven necessary and it's possible the Senate could follow the expert advice from the Air Force themselves, who are none to happy about the bill.

Opposition to the creation of the USSC as an entity is considerably vocal and includes the U.S. Air Force itself. The Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Under Secretary of the Air Force Lisa Disbrow, Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein [left], former Secretary of the Navy and NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe and former commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD General Victor E. Renuart Jr. among others all oppose the suggestion. "The Pentagon is complicated enough. This will make it more complex, add more boxes to the organization chart and cost more money," said Secretary Wilson. "If I had more money, I would put it into lethality, not bureaucracy."

Even given the fact that Republicans control all three branches of government and the fact that it's clear from the formation of the proposal that both House Republicans and Democrats can apparently agree on it at this inception stage (it was voted 60-1 by the HASC), the battle will be convincing enough Representatives and Senators going forward that the proposal is in the best interests of the United States.

As it stands, the other two major world powers already have significant military presences in space with  their own military branches dedicated to space or space/cyberwarfare. The Russian Space Forces are one of three sub-branches of the Russian Aerospace Forces [a merger of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces]. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Strategic Support Force (SSF) has a broader scope than just space dominance as it's mission includes cyberwarfare and electromagnetic domains but it is partly composed of the Aerospace Systems Department, which has consolidated control the PLA’s space-based C4ISR systems. Many see that the U.S. Air Force appear to be concentrating more or their air-superiority citing the years long design and deployment debacle of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet which will cost US$1.508 trillion.

Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon, [right] SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander for Intelligence and Information welcomed the proposal telling reporters: ".. no other group will oppose the creation of the US Space Corps as vehemently as the Air Force themselves. They along with many at the Pentagon, are notoriously adverse to change but seem to forget that not long ago they they themselves were simply created from a branch of the US Army much as it's envisioned to create the Space Corps from them."

"I'm concerned" continued the general "that the Air Force is not spending enough on space and that instead too much of their considerable budget has been funnelled into incrementally bloated projects such as the F-35 which by 2014, was more than $150 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule. A formal entity, with it's own budget and administrative goals is needed drastically in the US to properly militarise space at least on par with the Russians and the Chinese to maintain global security and peace."

The general also cited co-operation between international space-warfare forces to unite against a potential extra-terrestrial threat was one of SPEARHEADs primary goals and it was currently the U.S. Air Force that was the weakest thread in a global security blanket against that threat. "It's such a good idea that it will never happen." concluded General Creedon.

Continued in Part III

Source: CNN

The United States Space Corps - Part I

As the US House House of Representatives Armed Services Committee prepares to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, their strategic forces subcommittee released proposed additions to the bill including a provision in their version of the 2018 US defense budget that would create a new separate military service dedicated to the cause of space as a warfare domain, calling it the United States Space Corps.

It is envisioned that this Space Corps would operate as a separate service represented at the Pentagon by a new Joint Chief but report to the Secretary of the Air Force and operate under their department just as the US Marine Corps do under the Department of the Navy.

The genesis of this idea spawned from a 2001 report from the Commission to Assess United States National Security, Space Management and Organization, which was headed by future SecDef Donald Rumsfeld. The report claims that "The US is more dependent on space than any other nation... Yet the threat to the US and its allies in and from space does not command the attention it merits."

The plan appears in the appropriations bill with the backing of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Republican Representative Mac Thornberry and the HASC ranking Democrat, Adam Smith and was put together by the ranking party members of the HASC's strategic forces subcommittee, Republican Representative Mike Rogers [left] and Democratic Representative Jim Cooper who claim that the USAF has not given adequate priority to space. US military interests in space have been traditionally administrated by the US Air Force.

In a statement, the subcommittee said: “There is bipartisan acknowledgement that the strategic advantages we derive from our national security space systems are eroding. We are convinced that the Department of Defense is unable to take the measures necessary to address these challenges effectively and decisively, or even recognize the nature and scale of its problems. Thus, Congress has to step in. We must act now to fix national security space and put in place a foundation for defending space as a critical element of national security.  Therefore, our Mark will require the creation, under the Secretary of the Air Force, of a new Space Corps, as a separate military service responsible for national security space programs for which the Air Force is today responsible.  We view this as a first, but critical step, to fixing the National Security Space enterprise.”

Reactions to this and the potential future of this proposal are outlined in Part II

Source: Ars Technica, FAS.org, Spacenews.com,

Video Game Review - Mass Effect: Andromeda

H-047c (or what's left of it)

Just a few caveats before we get into this.

Caveats: Bugs/Animation

At launch Mass Effect: Andromeda was met with much derision over the appalling state of many of it's animations (of which there are many examples and memes) and some other niggles like poor voice work and even a few serious show-stopping bugs. So before I tell you what I thought, I just want to be sure that people understand that I myself was met with only some very minor issues due to the fact that by the time I installed the game six weeks ago it had already been serviced with five or six patches which fixed most if not all the issues highlighted in those early videos.

I saw only one (1!) example of the Linda Blair head twist on a character and at most a half-dozen (six!) examples of "floating" enemies. Yes, some of the voice acting is substandard, but as to really bad performances I wonder do I only notice it because reports had drawn my attention to it? Arguably the most wooden characters are generally supposed to be wooden emotionless people, paper-pushing administrators, accountants etc. Outlaws and generally angry people don't seem as badly voiced in my opinion.

Game breaking bugs? No. An issue with Patch 1.07 did prevent the game from opening if your Windows regional settings were set to Ireland, setting it to UK worked around it until the fixed that, not a big deal. I'm declaring Patch 1.08 to be solid as now they've just started changing previously heterosexual characters to bisexual, pandering to the social justice warriors, but there are no longer any major issues that I can see. Lastly my one (1) bugged quest completion before the last patch was able to be properly completed in 1.08 after going back and speaking to the quest-giver.

Caveats: Fanboi

I'm a Bioware fanboi. I have played both Baldur's Gates (with expansions), Neverwinter Nights (with expansions), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (one of the greatest games of all time Star Wars or not), Star Wars: The Old Republic (about four years logged with 16 different characters across all expansions), the entire Dragon Age franchise (with most expansions and DLC) and obviously all three previous Mass Effects (with most DLC).

That said, I don't hold the studio with the high esteem I held for LucasArts in the 90's. With Bioware I can be critical. One of the expansions for the original Neverwinter Nights wasn't great and when I originally played Dragon Age II in 2011, I stopped playing about four hours in because I felt the changes to the gameplay were too much and seemed to be simplified for the console crowd which annoyed me. It was five years before I reinstalled (because I wanted to start Dragon Age: Inquisition) and I appreciated it a lot more for what it was in my old age. Don't get me started on the abysmal ending to Mass Effect 3 or I would be here for another several pages. Suffice to say Bioware aren't perfect.

Mass Effect: Andromeda being released as it was has damaged their brand, even to me. ME:A was the first Mass Effect title after the original I didn't purchase at launch, partly due to the issues reported, but admittedly partly due to being released at a time when I could play it. Nevertheless, damaged and if it can be damaged for me, it is extremely bad for the company and I hope that Dragon Age 4 and Anthem can re-swing things back in their favour.

Caveats: You play like a girl

In Mass Effect I do. Commander Shepard is a woman, full stop. I do not recognise the claim that there is a male version of Shepard any more. This is because I played the first Mass Effect for a day or so as a male Shepard and I began to hate Mark Meer's voice because he sounded like a prick and it just rubbed me the wrong way. As Mass Effect has a LOT of dialogue, I was worried for my future enjoyment of the game so I restarted as a female. I never regretted the decision because I recognised Jennifer Hale's voice immediately. She previously voiced Bastilla Shan in Knights of the Old Republic, Dynahir - one of your Baldur's Gate companions and Felicia Hardy/Black Cat in the 1990's Spider-Man animated series.

This time for ME:A as I had just finished 155 hours of the Dragon Age: Inquisition campaign (game of the year edition) as a male Inquisitor Trevelyan (using the British voice as he's supposed to be a nobleman), I said I would swap to a female Pathfinder Ryder for the new Mass Effect; a choice helped by the fact that Ryder's female voice actor Fryda Wolff appears to be a lot more seasoned (44 IMDB credits) than Tom Taylorson (just 4 IMDB credits) who voices the male Ryder.

Caveats: I'm too old for this shit.

My review of Mass Effect: Andromeda will be based on the "normal" difficulty setting which I left unchanged from beginning to end. I died only approximately six times in the almost 130 hours I played. In one situation I died three times against a boss-level enemy, so I came back to the mission two weeks later with better powers and bigger guns and completed the objective.

This is an acceptable solution in a game section that does not demand you kill the enemy before progressing but many games do. Due to failing reflexes, hand-eye co-ordination, cramps and various muscle fatigue that begins to kick in around age 35-ish I'm hard pressed to function in certain games that require a level of youth to complete on harder difficulties. Now that I'm on the wrong side of forty I've made the permanent decision to stop playing games above normal difficulty (with some games possibly requiring casual/noob). There are some exceptions of course, but generally this is to limit death and restarts which delay progress, an unwanted situation in the world of today where spare time is even more limited.

This decision is also to prevent risks to my expensive computer hardware which I would be more likely to break as I may get frustrated during a difficult game. Such difficulty could also cause a build up of stress and lead to heart attacks or other health issues. Games are meant to be a form of relaxation and entertainment. So if a game is causing me stress then I will now just turn down the difficulty and eliminate the stress.

Caveats: Billy no-mates

The multiplayer aspect of Mass Effect which began with Mass Effect 3 I'm sure is fun for those that play multiplayer. I haven't and so it is not part of this review.

Caveats: No spoilers!

This isn't my first rodeo. I will describe some basic concepts without specifics, maybe anecdotes but not say anything that I myself wouldn't want spoiled and I have A LOT invested in these games (see the Caveat: Fanboi above).

Equipment Specifications

Current gaming machine is "Sicarius," constructed in September 2015. Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.00GHz*, 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000MHz RAM, Asus ROG Maximus VIII Hero Intel Z170, MSI GeForce GTX 980Ti Gaming 6GB GDDR5, Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe, Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5” SATA SSD, Corsair Hydro H90 140mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler, Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower ATX – Airflow Edition, Acer Predator 4k2k XB280HK 28” 3840x2160 1ms G-Sync Widescreen LED running Microsoft Windows 10 Home v1703 build 15063.413 with GeForce Game Ready Driver 382.33 from 22/05/17.

The GPU would not handle much above 28 FPS in full 4K resolution as easily as it did Dragon Age Inquisition so I dropped to 1440p for full 60 FPS in ME:A. It's important to note that by default, the game had HDR set to on. As I don't have a HDR monitor yet, everything looked dark and it took a while to figure out what was wrong upon initial installation. Note also that not including the EA Origin platform, Mass Effect Andromeda needs 47.0 GB of disk space.

* Sicarius reaches a stable 12.5% overclock to 4.5GHz when I wish it, It's not currently required and I would only do it in winter time.

Kadara

THE REVIEW

It was clear from the appalling ending to Mass Effect 3 that Bioware had little intention to continue the story of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect franchise, they had written themselves into a hole and gave us an ending (endings) to that portion of the saga that was as daft as the ending to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series. ME3 should have had a "Return of the Jedi" ending, yes everything's in shit, millions are dead but the important people, the heroes, are alive - singing and dancing. Do that and pick up a new story with new characters years later, it worked for each iteration of the Dragon Age franchise.

Instead Bioware threatened a dreaded "prequel" route before creating the idea of The Andromeda Initiative which would depart the Milky Way in Arks, sleeper ships, before the shit hit the fan in ME3. To be honest it was an elegant solution to the problem that Bioware themselves created as it allowed you to create a new character with a clean slate and introduce new players to the franchise without needing the ten year baggage preceding it, a lifetime in video-game evolutionary terms. ME:A can be played and I'm confident, enjoyed by many whom may have never had the opportunity to sample previous entries in the series. If people wonder why Salarians and Krogans may not be on the best of terms, it's not really central to any plot but I'm sure there are codex entries copy pasted from the same entries you got in the original trilogy that explain it for you. In short, it's not important, move on with what is.

The main plot here is quite different to previous entries in the Mass Effect series. In ME:A YOU are the aliens as you have arrived the Helius cluster of the Andromeda galaxy to create a new home on some planets observed through space telescopes 600 years earlier and appeared to be capable of supporting life. Of course if it was just a case of colonising a few 'golden worlds' without any issues the game would be shit right? So that's obviously not what happens. Helius is now in the grip of "The Scourge" a massive debilitating space phenomena that damages both life and technology, the Kett, an unfriendly group of aliens from elsewhere are causing aggro, the Angara, a relatively peaceful spacefaring race indigenous to the cluster are weary of you and the cluster has been seeded by the Remnant, a dormant society of technology. To top it off, there was a serious event on board the Nexus, the mother ship which arrived a year before you wake up and many of it's crew were exiled to nearby worlds. You are pretty overwhelmed by all this as you don't have time to take it all in before you encounter your own problems and already so many things have gone wrong that your quest log is huge within a couple of hours.

It's important to understand that Ryder's not the seasoned soldier/officer that Commander Shepard was, she's just a cadet by comparison with some vague military and scientific training. No one respects her. Not before too long circumstances force you to become "The Pathfinder" a lofty title normally reserved for four elite few individuals, one from each Ark, but now it has to be you because your dad Alec (voiced by Clancy Brown, The Kurgan in Highlander) says so. You're the human Pathfinder, an AI is implanted in your head and the job of exploring the galaxy, protecting everyone, investigating what the bloody hell went wrong with everything and most importantly finding the human race a place to live and to propagate is now all on you. No pressure.

Ryder equips her weapons and armour and proceeds to venture out into the galaxy on her ship landing on planets, gathering companions, better weapons/armour and gaining XP following a bloated quest list made from both the critical path (the main story arc where the most important action/events happen) and any side quests you may want her to undertake. Some side quests are interesting, some boring, some more interesting and better written than the main arc but most seem inconsequential to the game as a whole, you only do them if you want to achieve more XP and have better weapons/armour and powers as you level - and who doesn't want that? It's helpful that quests are shoehorned into clear categories so you know which ones are going to be the most important. Hint: you can ignore everything that appears in the "Additional Tasks" tab, they are just filler for the vast open worlds. Loyalty missions though are very good and worth doing as they take you to other locations not visited anywhere else in the game and provide worthwhile interactive cinematic experiences. These missions were the heart of Mass Effect 2 and while they don't seem to hold the same importance here they're well worth the two hour or so diversion.

Character creation is pretty standard. The main feature of importance is that in ME:A, while most of the class concepts and combat/tech/biotic powers from earlier in the franchise appear for you to take, you do not actually chose a specific class, nor are you ever shoehorned into a specific combat role. This means you have more choice and can mix and match anything to your heart's desire, but if you prefer a role and stick with it, you can just chose a role and concentrate on that instead (you can always just reset all your spent points later). Appearance options are also up to Bioware's standard of creating anything from the sublime to the ridiculous. The studio copped flack upon release that while Scott Ryder looked normal and pretty much like his human model, Sara Ryder looked like a misproportioned goofy bug-eyed fish-lipped monstrosity crossed with an anime cartoon character as opposed to the stunning beauty she was modelled after. Why people chose to complain about character's default appearance in a game where you can spend like just five fucking minutes choosing better options using a few sliders I'll never understand.

My version of Ryder

Bioware also got rid of the eternal internal battle you had with your own morality which was represented since Knights of the Old Republic by a Dark Side / Light Side meter, known in Mass Effect as the Paragon/Renegade mechanic. This was with a quick even interruption or clearly marked dialogue choice, which allowed Shepard to act either like Gandhi or Hitler in certain situations. Ryder is a little less seasoned and follows either her head or her heart rather than being traditionally good or bad and I think the flow of her conversations is all the better for it. Interruptions are still a part of the game and dramatically effect the flow and outcomes of the missions in the scant few which they appear.

In addition to character levelling, you get a Nexus level - another progress meter for the galaxy itself and it's sustainability for life. Andromeda Viability Points (AVP) are awarded at a regular basis as your Nexus level increases based on the strengths of your efforts like solving colonists problems and making planets more sustainable. AVP can be spent on many different perks that make the game easier, so I recommend getting planetary viability up high. Planetary viability is interesting because you discover alien Remnant technology to assist you in terraforming. If you want to do this I recommend buying "Remnant decryption keys" wherever you see them for sale because eventually when accessing Remnant sites you will come across alien sudoku puzzles which you can do if you want or what I do, use the decryption key to solve because I want to play Mass Effect not fucking sudoku!

Mass Effect: Andromeda is the true ultimate evolution in third-person combat. Its incredible! You have great control over what weapons and powers to use (even changing them on the fly if you so wish), you can customise the weapons and load-out before embarking on a mission or exploring, you have a jump jet that automatically activates when jumping (it sounds daft but after a few hours you wonder how you've ever done without it) and taking down enemies by shooting them in the head with a sniper rifle or using crazy combinations of technical or biotic powers was so satisfying that I'm sorry the game is over now. Combat is a far cry from it's origins in Mass Effect ten years ago when it was certainly not the best part of the game. The game triumphed because it was the greatest video game space-opera ever written not because of the combat which seemed slow and clunky but thankfully got progressively better as the franchise went on. Combat is the best part of this game and it's just as well because Mass Effect: Andromeda sadly does not have a story worthy of the franchise.

Yes the writing for this instalment was lacking the "oomph!" that defined the saga before it. Previously there was a significant draw for you to progress to the main campaign, even to the point where it felt wrong to be out doing side missions out of self-interest while the galaxy was crumbling around you even during times when you knew you needed to do various other tasks to shore up resources and support or perform investigations. In this game there was so much more interesting shit going on in the background that I genuinely forgot about the larger issue at hand. Side quests by their very definition shouldn't be producing greater emotional reactions than resolving the main storyline but they do, and it's this disjointedness is a major failing of the game.

Part of the success of Mass Effect previously was how tight it was and how much it stuck to the traditional RPG video game tropes even through it's sci-fi setting. You landed on many varied and interesting alien planets and did your missions there advancing your story before flying off to the next one. Apparently the plan for ME:A was to have the Helius cluster of Andromeda to be made up of dozens of procedurally generated worlds to land and explore (some time before No Man's Sky was even announced). While that sounds like a great game in itself (yes No Man's Sky didn't get it to work but the concept is sound) it's not Bioware or Mass Effect which are cemented in storytelling as opposed to random exploration. Even though the plan shrunk down to just five fully crafted open world planets, it was the open world idea itself that was just too far reaching for this game.

The amount of driving across featureless landscape to search for a widget/person was a little too tedious for this player especially as there wasn't a pressing narrative reason to do so. Dragon Age: Inquisition did it much better, it had smaller areas which were better designed, more varied and there were more than twice as many of them. The Frostbite engine is a shooter engine and was never intended for RPGs to the best of my knowledge, whereas the previous Unreal engine appeared to be more malleable to any genre. As the planets are open worlds, there are no transitions separating different areas and thus the detail limits of many of the areas are obvious as the maximum number of assets were eventually reached. Sadly this breaks your sense of immersion and is also a black mark against the game.

All armour and weapons fully crafted.

Crafting actually follows Dragon Age: Inquisition's model pretty closely, rather than that of previous Mass Effect titles which is a plus as it's fairly straightforward even for those that dislike crafting. You can create custom weapons, always better than the stuff you pick up as loot, with different permanent effects added at the time you create them. They also have a varied number of empty slots that you add augmentations to like barrels, scopes, extra magazines etc. You get research from scanning stuff (you do a lot of scanning in this game - I bound the scanner to a mouse button) which earn you research points to spend as you level and unlock schematics for bigger, better weapons and armour. While you can just pick up exposed mineral nodes you find lying around, the only tedious part of crafting is that you may have to do a little active mining for minerals. You will do this especially to upgrade the Nomad your gravity defying 6-wheel drive light armoured vehicle. I recommend upgrading the Nomad to make the travelling easier, it's much better than Mass Effect's Mako. You mine by dropping forward stations on planets (which you will do for fast travel and resupply anyway) which reveal mining nodes and you extract minerals using the Nomad. You don't need to do this much (I did no mining at all on the latter two of the four planets you can mine) especially if you break down loot back into it's base elements instead of selling it, don't worry about enough money if you explore but if you don't, gain money through perks and selling everything. In either case this type of material gathering is far better than the terrible orbital mining experience of ME3.

Speaking of orbital mining, one of the staple points of the franchise is of course "The Galaxy Map" a top down representation of, in this game's case, the Helius cluster. As before you click on a star and you warp to the star system and scan planets. Thankfully it's mostly just a one click affair as opposed to the constant area scanning nonsense from earlier games. Some systems are filler and you not ever need go there but others need to be travelled to for major plot locations and some require exploration for side quests. The planetary transitions are nicely done but you'll end up tabbing to skip the animations after the first two or three dozen depending on your patience.

While the story may be lacking, your companions and their stories are not. Since the stellar companions of Baldur's Gate stole the show from that game, Bioware has been consistent with their quality of suitable companions which could be valorous heroes, passionate paramours and loveable rogues, often perhaps combinations of several archetypes. More often than not dialogue encourages you to seek more than a professional relationship with one or more of your companions and for the first time your romantic engagements are not limited to only those people on your battle-squad but on your ship too. It makes sense as it's not likely you'll be engaging in romance while in full body armour out in the field in mostly hazardous environments anyway. There's no influence system with your squad companions, they will ask you to go on their loyalty mission with them which are easily some of the best moments of the game but I don't think there's any negative consequences if you don't. Cora and Liam are just the squad you begin with but you meet several others and you can have two with you at any time. I recommend mixing up your squad every now and again because the conversations between different characters in the background is as awesome as it has been since Baldur's Gate.

I will say that the quality of voice talent on show in ME:A isn't quite up to the standard Bioware have employed in the past. It's quite noticeable unfortunately in a game that has thousands of lines of fully voiced dialogue. The main characters and companions etc. as well as most of the prominent NPCs are done well but some especially the background acting was poor. Disappointingly there was only a few more well known names in addition to the aforementioned Clancy Brown. Bioware enlisted the talents of Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones), Kumail Nanjiani (Dinesh Chugtai in Silicon Valley) and Dublin born Stanley Townsend who has been a prolific actor on both Irish and British TV for the past thirty years. Bioware scored much bigger names for ME3 and DA:I with the likes of Seth Green, Tricia Helfer, Lance Henrickson, Claudia Black, Kate Mulgrew, Keith David, Martin Sheen, even Buzz Aldrin himself. One would think EA games would have forked out for someone closer to this level and it may have reduced negativity over the point. Regardless, players may also recognise Reyes' voice as that of Nicholas Boulton who previously portrayed Hawke in Dragon Age II and Inquisition and must tip my hat however to a Fallout 4 voice actor Katy Townsend who is one of the only Glaswegians I can understand and who made the character of Science Officer Suzi Anwar so endearing and a credit to how well written she was.

As the tension and urgency of the Reaper conflict from ME2 and 3 wasn't part of the game, and this was a new saga, Bioware chose a new composer for the score. John Paesano (Daredevil, The Maze Runner) composed a musical soundscape more in line with what Jack Wall and Sam Hulick did for the first Mass Effect which itself was evocative of old sci-fi exploration movies. The themes, battle music, exploration music etc are all great, they're all thematically new but still evoke Mass Effect.

I think writing any more would endanger spoiler territory so I will finish up. Mass Effect: Andromeda was not designed to be the first part of a new trilogy as such, but it was designed to be added on to in some fashion. Unlike the last game, the ending is perfectly solid and the main task you were given the first day is accomplished (one way or another) to satisfaction, it's just that some things you discovered along the way could be left hanging as they were obviously being primed for either DLC which I certainly would have lapped up or even the sequel, the former now being highly unlikely and the latter not yet confirmed with the franchise being put on hiatus as the studio creates Anthem.

 

The open world elements of the game are in my opinion not in keeping with Bioware's tradition of a tighter story experience and simply create pockets of unnecessary time sinks into the big picture which mean you could end up spending 40% more time in the game than is really necessary. However your companion stories, your own personal development as you level, and the magnificent combat systems, the best of any of the franchise, are plentiful and really the true reason you should play.

Overall score: 78%

My Comparison: Mass Effect - 85%, Mass Effect 2 - 99%, Mass Effect 3 - 93%

Did SPEARHEAD silence more "Alien life" announcements?

"NASA: 'Mankind is about to discover extraterrestrial life,'" said a recent Guy Fawkes mask-wearing Anonymous spokesman in a recent video that was widely circulated since last week.

The revelations were (to Anonymous) inferred from comments made by NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen during a testimony he gave back in April to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

"Contrary to some reports, there's no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life," Zurbuchen said via Twitter, yesterday and later: "Are we alone in the universe? While we do not know yet, we have missions moving forward that may help answer that fundamental question."

During the original testimony Zurbuchen detailed progress NASA is making in the hunt for life in the cosmos, citing exoplanets spotted by the Kepler telescope, the discovery of hydrogen on Enceladus, and the possible detection of water-vapor on Europa. He said (NASA) "are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history," and Anonymous brought that to it's 2+2=5 conclusion.

Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon, SPEARHEAD Assistant Commander - Intelligence and Information said that his organisation wasn't worried about the discovery of "Namby pamby microbiological thingies in water on moons orbiting distant planets" but only about "the panic caused by individuals or organisations attempting to communicate with sentient extra-terrestrials". The General denied assertions that SPEARHEAD had Dr. Zurbuchen change his stance and issue the statements that made his original testimony appear less consequential.

Source: Space.com, The Economic Times,

Remembering the late Adam West

Long after the much too dated Batman serials of the 1940's were forgotten, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., William Dozier and Howie Horwitz developed an action-comedy version of the caped crusader to Television screens and cast the great Adam West as Batman/Bruce Wayne. 

West's Batman was a camp, dancing and delivered cornier one-liners than Schwarzenegger or Caruso ever would, but there ware many things that remained true to the Bat-mythos such as his defining detective skills sadly neglected by later incarnations by comparison. The show was a product of its time and while it can't hold up for viewing today, our memories of it while younger are fond and that's a legacy that Adam West, who passed way on Friday should be very proud of.

West had many small roles outside of Batman, but he accepted that the character had typecast him, however he embraced it rather than being embittered and accepted his status as a pop-culture icon in the 1990's and beyond. West understood and embraced how camp and dated this take on the character looked in later years and seemed to relish in every parody and tongue in cheek reference throughout his career, but never derided it. His list of voice credits as an animated Batman is extensive and he also played The Grey Ghost on Batman: The Animated Series as well as voicing the characters of Thomas Wayne and the mayor of Gotham in other series. He also voiced a parody version of himself as the mayor of Quahog on Family Guy for the past 17 years.

West defined Batman for a generation. While many of those born in the mid-late '80's will only define Micheal Keaton, Kevin Conroy or Christian Bale as the true Batman, for those born slightly earlier it has been and will always be Adam West.

Game Over Man! Game Over! RIP Bill Paxton

Tomorrow we will wake up in a world knowing it's without Bill Paxton, one of the most recognised actors of some of the greatest movies of the 80's and 90's and a more recent star of Television.

You may not remember his appearance in The Terminator in 1984, or in Commando in 1985 but if you don't know his first iconic role of Colonial Marine Private Hudson who famously uttered "Game Over Man! Game Over!" in James Cameron's Aliens which earned him a Saturn Award then you probably shouldn't be even reading this page.

Paxton had many subsequent roles, he was Floyd "God" Dane, the sniper in Navy SEALS in 1990, Detective Jerry Lambert in Predator 2 (earning him a distinction shared with Lance Henrickson of facing a Terminator, Predator and Alien on screen), Morgan Earp in Tombstone, Bill "The Extreme" Harding in Twister and portrayed astronaut Fred Haise in Apollo 13 earning him a SAG award as part of the cast.

He also had roles in True Lies, Titanic, U-571 and Vertical Limit to name but some of many. More recently he appeared in 2 Guns, The Edge of Tomorrow and in 2015 he lent his voice and likeness to the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Exo Zombies video game. Paxton had a long running role in TV with five seasons of HBO's Big Love and was nominated for an Emmy and a SAG award for his role as Randolph McCoy in Hatfields & McCoys. He most recently appeared in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was currently the lead in a TV adaptation of Training Day. 

Paxton died on Saturday from complications after heart surgery. He was just 61, but his body of work immortalises him for eternity. May he rest in peace.

RIP Richard Hatch

I was at DragonCon with a group of friends in Atlanta in 2011 and in a large hall where many stars of both large and small screens signed autographs and greeted fans. I spied a face I knew who appeared to be getting ready to pack up before going to dinner. There was no one near him at the time so we approached him quickly and I told him I just wanted to greet him and thank him for his work. He was very appreciative, but as soon as he noticed my accent he was most reluctant to let me go with just a greeting. He packed up and sat on the edge of his booth talking to us for about 10 minutes or so. He asked me about science fiction fandom in Ireland and was curious to know if we had any conventions ourselves - because he said he would've jumped at the chance to visit here. He came across as an intelligent and well informed person who was genuinely interested in meeting people and interested in what we had to say. 

The man was Richard Hatch and he was the face of Battlestar Galactica from the original to the modern series. He sadly passed away today at age 71. He will be missed.

Mattis to keep SPEARHEAD from POTUS

SecDef Mattis this week met with Gen. Dunford and the other Joint Chiefs of Staff [pictured] to discuss ongoing operations as well as future challenges that the Department of Defence is facing. He has directed reviews of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as well as the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program. The reviews are commonplace to inform the SecDef of programmatic and budgetary decisions to make recommendations to POTUS regarding critical military capabilities.

What was not revealed to the media however is that Mattis also met privately with the Supreme Commander SPEARHEAD, General "Stomper" Santorno to discuss ongoing SPEARHEAD operations as well as fiscal concerns. In a significant deviation from standard protocol for a newly installed leader, SPEARHEAD did not hold a briefing with the newly inaugurated president last weekend to explain it's purpose. It is instead understood that SecDef Mattis, who was already aware of SPEARHEAD due to his former position as a U.S. Combatant Commander, has now recommended not revealing the existence of extra-terrestrial, paranormal or supernatural activity to the 45th President at all, citing grave security concerns. 

The new protocol will have SPEARHEAD communicate directly with SecDef Mattis, who will ask for presidential authority to sign off on operations under what he will call Military Action Against Non-White Non-Christian Foreigners programme, which does not exist but he is supremely confident the POTUS will sign just by reading the title and will have little interest in the specifics. This should allow SPEARHEAD to continue to function as it has been albeit for the first time without the explicit knowledge of a U.S. President.

Mattis - Day One!

General... er.. pardon, SecDef Mattis [still getting used to it] was smiling at the Pentagon in his first hours of office as a variety of fighters, bombers and UAVs engaged in 31-strike bombing run, which saw 25 strikes in Syria and six in Iraq. In Syria, ISIS units and artillery near the town of Bab were destroyed. ISIS forces in Raqqa, received heavy losses as a dozen units, nine positions, two IED factories and an ISIS HQ were also taken out. There was an additional strike on two ISIS controlled oil wells in Deir ez Zour.

But it wasn't all fun and [war]games for the Warrior Monk. In difference to the POTUS, the SecDef signalled strong support to NATO on his first day on the job, by personally calling three major US allies and confirming that the US had an "'unshakeable commitment to NATO."

As a 4-Star general, Mattis served as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation and thus is a staunch supporter of the organisation. He phoned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as well as the UK's Secretary of State for Defence Sir Michael Fallon and Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan in Canada. Mattis emphasised the US commitment to NATO to the international partners despite POTUS not feeling as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer put it: "as though it's doing what its mission was set up to do or that it's being particularly effective." Nevertheless the DOD stated that the SecDef "wanted to place the call on his first full day in office to reinforce the importance he places on the alliance."

Stoltenberg noted Mattis was NATO's SACT and therefore "knows the Alliance's value well." With Minister Sajjan the SecDef spoke about the importance of NORAD as well as NATO including a NATO battalion that will be deployed to Latvia along the NATO-Russia frontier. Fallon and Stoltenberg spoke with Mattis addressing some of the issues that POTUS had spoken about, including that NATO is ill-suited to tackle terrorism and that members do not spend enough on defense. Stoltenberg felt Mattis made him feel sure that POTUS will be fully committed to NATO and to the transatlantic partnership.

This week the SecDef will contact some of his other international counterparts and meet NATO partners in person next month during the Meeting of Defence Ministers in Brussels in what will possibly be his first trip abroad in his new position.

SECDHS Kelly!

There's no doubt in my mind that the 45th President was watching "A Few Good Men" when he formulated the idea to put Colonel Jessop on HIS border wall. After finding out Jessop wasn't real he settled for General John F. Kelly the former commander of SOUTHCOM who retired from the Marine Corps last year.

Gen. John Kelly, USMC in 2014

I have great admiration for Kelly, his battlefield leadership during the invasion of Iraq was iconic as his opinions. During the initial assault on Baghdad for example, Kelly [who not long before had received the first promotion to Brigadier General in a combat zone since the Korean war] was asked if considering the size of Saddam's forces and their vast supplies weapons if he would ever consider defeat. Kelly's archetypal response was, "Hell these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima. Baghdad ain't shit!"

As much as I admire Kelly, it would be fair to say that there are concerns that someone with a 40 year military career is the best choice for DHS which has been led primarily by legal and security experts. Security was indeed part of General Kelly's mission in SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for the security of the Panama Canal and military operations in South America, but I feel there are nuanced differences here that would be cause for concern. 

The border between North and South Korea for example is presided over in part by the U.S. military for obvious reasons - but it would be worrying if the intention is to establish something in any way similar between the U.S. and Mexico. The military deals with security in vastly different ways to the way the legal profession and law enforcement deal with civilian security and the fact that Kelly was a 4-star military commander up to a year ago would be my concern, but my only concern.

Thankfully Kelly does not appear convinced that such a measure as a wall will be successful “a physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job’’ he said during his hearing and indicated that  technology such as drones and sensors would also be needed to secure the border.

All said, I wish every success to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly on his new appointment.

SecDef Mattis!

Amongst all the dubious appointments made by the 45th POTUS there was a single nominee that bizarrely made absolutely perfect sense - retired United States Marine Corps General James Norman Mattis to be the 26th Secretary of Defense.

Mattis is both a Marine's Marine and a general's general. Some in our community were worried that he didn't even own civilian clothes and still wore the uniform after retirement but when he showed up to meet the president elect, those ideas were assuaged to the degree that it's likely he only wears uniform items under his mufti.

Mattis has an almost cult following in the USMC and the military in general. His name is spoken alongside Marine leaders John A. Lejeune, Smedley Butler and "Chesty" Puller not so much for raw heroism or transformation but for being a keen motivator as well as demonstrating that intellect is just as formidable a weapon as a rifle when used by someone with the wisdom to know when to use which weapon. "Engage your brain before you engage your weapon," he is quoted as saying.

But Mattis is quoted for many many other things. The media dubbed him "Mad Dog" due to the perceived controversial opinions, stories and comment attributed to him over the years including an admission that he loved killing - "It’s fun to shoot some people.", but often the essence of the quote is truncated leaving out: "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them," which obviously makes him a feminist standing up for women's rights, albeit by shooting people but the ends justify the means making it OK.

Rather the "Warrior Monk" than a "Mad Dog", Mattis' knowledge of military doctrine and history is formidable with a personal library once holding some 7000 volumes. He will think on an issue before acting and isn't afraid to stand up to his superiors - already in fact there were reports that the new SecDef and the new POTUS have different views on NATO and it will be interesting to see the resulting action from that. Additionally Mattis regards the intelligence services on equal footing with the military, even indicating so in his very first message to his department earlier following being sworn in:

Change is certainly upon us, but as least this is proof that it won't all be bad.

Bye Obama!

I'll be the first to say I wasn't in this guy's corner at the beginning. But by the time 2012 rolled around and the best that was stacked against him was Mitt Romney, I was.

Colonel "Whopper" Creedon, USMC and Senator Barack Obama in 2008.

Good luck for the future Mr. President and thank you for being Commander in Chief. I may not have always agreed with you but I always respected you.

Fuck You 2016!

With the single exception of the death of dictator Fidel Castro, we say good riddance to a truly awful year. Brexit, that Gorilla that got shot in the zoo, the Shawshank tree fell down, toddler killed by Disney World Alligator, Jo Cox and Andrei Karlov's murders, football child sex abuse, war continues in Syria, the Zika virus, terrorist attacks in Brussels, Nice, Berlin, Normandy, Istanbul, Florida, the U.S. election and worst of all: Brangelina is no more.

But more than anything, this will remembered as a year of death and sorrow for all:

Colonel Abrams, 67, American musician ("Trapped")
Sir Ken Adam, 95, German-born British Oscar wining production designer (Dr. Strangelove, James Bond)
Joe Alaskey, 63, American voice actor (Looney Tunes)
Jean Alexander, 90, English actress (Hilda Ogden on Coronation Street)

Muhammad Ali, 74, American boxer, Olympic gold medallist, three-time world heavyweight champion [left]

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Beckwith Ashmore, GCB, DSC, 96, British Royal Navy officer, First Sea Lord (1974–1977)

Kenny Baker, 81, British actor (R2D2 in the Star Wars franchise)
Erik Bauersfeld, 93, American voice actor (Admiral Ackbar in the Star Wars franchise) [right]
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, Egyptian politician and diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992–1996)

David Bowie, 69, English singer-songwriter, musician ("Space Oddity", "Starman"), and actor (Labyrinth, The Prestige)

Pete Burns, 57, English singer-songwriter ("You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)")
 

PFC Hector A. Cafferata, Jr., USMC, 86, American marine, Medal of Honor recipient
Robert Carrickford, 88, Irish actor (The Irish R.M., Glenroe)
Leonard Cohen, 82, Canadian singer-songwriter ("Hallelujah")
Ronnie Corbett, 85, British comedian and actor (The Two Ronnies, Sorry!)

 
Paul Daniels, 77, British magician (The Paul Daniels Magic Show)

Steve Dillon, 54, English comic book artist (Preacher, The Punisher, Judge Dredd), 

Jerry Doyle, 60, American talk show host and actor (Babylon 5), founder of EpicTimes [left]
Larry Drake, 67, American Emmy winning actor (L.A. Law, Darkman, Star Trek: Voyager "Critical Care") 

Ronnie Claire Edwards, 83, American actress (Corabeth Godsey on The Waltons, Talur in Star Trek: The Next Generation "Thine Own Self")

Wayne England, English artist (Magic: The Gathering)
SGT Santiago J. Erevia, US Army, 69, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient

 

Carrie Fisher, 60, American actress and icon (Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise), novelist and screenwriter (Postcards from the Edge) [right]

Rob Ford, 46, foul-mouthed and controversial Canadian politician, Mayor of Toronto (2010–2014)

Glenn Frey, 67, American songwriter, musician (Eagles) and actor (Jerry Maguire)

Brad Fuller, 62, American video game composer (Tetris), Director of Engineering for Atari 

Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99, Hungarian-born American actress and socialite

George Gaynes, 98, Finnish-born American actor (Commandant Lassard in the Police Academy franchise)
RADM Paul T. Gillcrist, 87, American Naval officer (Consultant on JAG)

Gary Glasberg, 50, American television producer and writer (NCIS)
Ron Glass, 71, American actor (Firefly)

Col John Glenn, USMC, 95, American marine and astronaut (Mercury-Atlas 6) and politician, U.S. Senator from Ohio [left]

 
Dan Haggerty, 74, American actor (The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams)
Guy Hamilton, 93, French-born British film director (James Bond, Battle of Britain)
Florence Henderson, 82, American actress (The Brady Bunch)

Drewe Henley, 75, British actor (Red Leader in Star Wars)
Gil Hill, 84, American police officer, actor (Inspector Todd in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise)
John Hostetter, 69, American actor (Bazooka in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Heartbreak Ridge)

Ken Howard, 71, American actor (Rambo, Clear and Present Danger, 30 Rock)

David Huddleston, 85, American actor (The Big Lebowski, Blazing Saddles)
Gary Hutzel, 60, American visual effects supervisor (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica)

 

Barry Jenner, 75, American actor (Admiral Ross in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) [right]

Saki Kaskas, 45, Greek video game music composer (Need for Speed, Sleeping Dogs, Mass Effect 2)

Frank Kelly, 77, Irish actor (Fr. Jack in Father Ted)
George Kennedy, 91, American Oscar winning actor (The Naked Gun, Airport)

Burt Kwouk, 85, British actor (Cato in The Pink Panther franchise)

 
Melvin Laird, 94, American politician and writer, Secretary of Defense (1969–1973)
Flt Lt Keith Lawrence, DFC, 96, New Zealand-born British RAF officer during World War II, surviving member of "The Few"
Yevgeni Lazarev, 79, Russian-American actor (Iron Man 2, The Sum of All Fears, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)

Michael Leader, 78, British actor (believed to be the Stormtrooper who walked into a door in Star Wars)
Richard Libertini, 82, American Actor, (Akorem Laan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Accession", Rabbi in Lethal Weapon 4)
GEN William J. Livsey, US Army, 85, American army officer. Commander in Chief of United Nations Command/Commander in Chief, ROK/U.S. Combined Forces Command/Commander, United States Forces Korea/Commanding General, Eighth United States Army

 

P. J. Mara, 73, Irish public affairs consultant, Senator (1977–1981, 1982–1983) [left]
Don Marshall, 80, American actor (Lt. Boma in Star Trek "The Galileo Seven")
Michael Massee, 64, American actor (The Crow, 24, The Amazing Spider-Man)

George Michael, 53, British singer (Wham!) 

Edgar Mitchell, 85, American astronaut (Apollo 14)

Alethea McGrath, 95, Australian actress (Jocasta Nu in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones)
Michu Meszaros, 76, Hungarian-born American actor (ALF)
Ivan Mikoyan, 89, Russian aircraft designer (Mikoyan MiG-29)

Rick Parfitt, 68, British singer, songwriter and guitarist (Status Quo)
MSgt Richard A. Pittman, USMC,  71, American Marine, recipient of the Medal of Honor
Jon Polito, 65, American actor (Modern Family, The Rocketeer, DC Comics IPs voice actor)
Prince, 57, American musician, songwriter ("Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette") 

Nancy Reagan, 94, American First Lady (1981–1989) [right]

Debbie Reynolds, 84, American actress (Singin' in the Rain)
Alan Rickman, 69, English actor (Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
Doris Roberts, 90, American actress (Remington Steele)

Major Erich Rudorffer, 98, German Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II. 222 aerial victories. Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords

Christopher Rush, 50, American illustrator (Magic: The Gathering)
Paul Ryan, 66, American comic artist (Fantastic Four, Iron Man: The Dragon Seed Saga)

 
Andrew Sachs, 86, German-born British actor (Fawlty Towers)
Joe Santos, 84, Actor (The Rockford Files)
Antonin Scalia, 79, American judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

William Schallert, 93, American actor (Star Trek "The Trouble with Tribbles")

Garry Shandling, 66, American comedian, actor and writer (The Larry Sanders Show, Iron Man 2) [left]

Gen William Y. Smith, USAF, 90, American air force general. Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (COFS SHAPE) from 1979 to 1981
David Spielberg, 77, American actor (Cmdr. Calvin "Hutch" Hutchinson in Star Trek: The Next Generation "Starship Mine)
Trevor Steedman, 62, British actor and stuntman (Private Wierzbowski in Aliens)
Peter Sumner, 74, Australian actor (Lt. Pol Treidum in Star Wars)

 
Alan Thicke, 69, Canadian actor and talk show host
Gareth Thomas, 71, Welsh actor (Blake's 7)
Ron Thornton, 59, Visual Effects Artist (Star Trek franchise, Babylon 5)
Ray Tomlinson, 74, American computer programmer, invented email and assigned use of @ sign

 
Peter Vaughan, 93, British actor (Game of Thrones)

Robert Vaughn, 83, American actor (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Magnificent Seven, The A-Team) [right]
GEN John William Vessey Jr., USA, 94, American military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1982–1985)
Abe Vigoda, 94, American actor (The Godfather, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm)

 
Maj. John Keith Wells, 94, Navy Cross, American Marine platoon commander (2nd Battalion 28th Marines).
Kit West, 79, British Oscar winning special effects artist (Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark)

General Sir Peter John Frederick Whiteley, GCB, OBE, DL, 95, was a British Royal Marines officer. Commandant General Royal Marines, Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe
Gene Wilder, 83, American actor (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles)

Sir Terry Wogan, 77, Irish-British broadcaster

 

Anton Yelchin, 27, Soviet-born American actor (Star Trek, Green Room) [left]

and let us hope 2017 will be better.

RIP Colonel Abrams

It's with great regret that I must report the death of a fellow '80's veteran who answered the call to wear a uniform. Colonel Abrams, a true pioneer of house and dance music in the 1980s, has died at the age of 67.

The Colonel scored his biggest hit in 1985 with the club single "Trapped," which reached number three in the UK. Although Abrams had no American pop hits through his career, he had a number of entries on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, including four entries that hit number one.

It was reported last year that the Colonel had been homeless and suffered from diabetes.

May he rest in peace.

SPEARHEAD shuts down NASA's reveal

NASA published a somewhat cryptic message, Tuesday, stating that there is “surprising activity” on Europa – the most well known of Jupiter’s 67 moons and it will be holding a teleconference at 14:00 EDT, 19:00 BST Monday, Sept. 26, to present new findings from images captured by the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope of the icy moon.

NASA has been analysing data from its Hubble Space Telescope which is currently prowling the universe and astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity there and it was widely reported that the existence of extra-terrestrial life would be revealed next Monday.

However after a meeting Wednesday morning between the NASA Director Charles Bolden [MajGen USMC Ret.] and Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon of SPEARHEAD, NASA were quick to tweet: "Monday, we'll announce new findings from Jupiter's moon Europa. Spoiler alert: NOT aliens." 

So it appears SPEARHEAD has silenced NASA's true reasoning for the teleconference and will reduce them instead to discussing subsurface ocean microbes. Europa's ocean is believed to be salty, and warmed by powerful tidal forces generated by Jupiter's gravity so that it remains unfrozen. Most scientists agree that where there is water, it massively increases the chances of finding life.

Source: NASA

The election of the 45th U.S. President

The citizens of the United States will go to the polls in November to vote for a new leader of the free world and commander in chief of the worlds strongest military. This election guarantees a new face in the role as Barack Obama will conclude his terms in office in January 2017.

From only a handful of potential Democratic candidates and an almost comical amount of Republican candidates, the race finally narrowed earlier in the summer to a single candidate in each camp.

For the Democrats, Former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a person who seems to struggle with the issue of multiple E-mail accounts.

And for the Republicans; Chairman and President of the Trump Organisation Donald Trump, a man who once declared that attending the New York Military Academy [an expensive prep school where his parents had sent him to finish the 8th Grade and correct poor behaviour] gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

If elected, Clinton would be the first female U.S. President or Trump would become is the oldest person elected to the office of the presidency.

At this point I would voice 'apprehension' at having to be the person responsible for explaining SPEARHEAD's work and the truth about our existence to either of them once they're sworn in in January.

"Alien" signal is terrestrial

The impetuous scientists at SETI panicked the world earlier in the week with tall tales of a mysterious signal that they all but 100% confirmed was coming from a highly advanced extra terrestrial civilisation.

Apparently a group of Russian astronomers using the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, at the northern foot of the Caucasus Mountains, discovered the mysterious signal in 2015 from HD 164595, a star system 94 light-years away but only recently sent it to SETI for analysis and confirmation.

SETI blew it's load and swung the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) a system of radio dishes in Northern California, in the direction of HD 164595 on August 28 and has found nothing, nada, zip etc.

Brigadier General "Whopper" Creedon of SPEARHEAD speaking during a curiously timed 'inspection' of the SPEARHEAD facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome said: "... it's bad enough that SETI recklessly send signals deliberately into space, without causing mass panic by erroneously informing us that we got some sort of reply."

A statement from the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences said last night: "...an interesting radio signal at a wavelength of 2.7 cm was detected in the direction of one of the objects (star system HD164595 in Hercules) in 2015. Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin... It can be said with confidence that no sought-for signal has been detected yet."

Sources: SETI, Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences