The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

desider, the monthly corporate magazine for DE & S or Defence Equipment and Support of UK’s Ministry of Defense, offers an interesting insight into the varied and increasingly high-tech support required for any modern armed forces, from the high-profile weapon and munitions research and development to more mundane but equally important services – logistics, medical and even clothing and catering.

Some of the more interesting articles from the past issues.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The Future Carrier Class in the June 2008 issue. Two ships of this class, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, each displacing 65,000 tons, will enter service in 2014 and 2016 and remain in service for half a century thereafter.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

Bulldogs, uparmoured versions of the FV430 series of vehicles which entered service in the 1960s. See June 2008 issue.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The Banshee unmanned aerial target for live gunnery training for air defence units of the Royal Marines and Royal Artillery as featured in the July 2008 issue.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The October 2008 issue shows the Royal Logistic Corps using Virtual Battlespace 2 developed by the same guys who created Armed Assault to train military vehicle commanders, drivers and gunners on convoy operations.

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The procurement of the “Golden Hour” container as seen in the Nov 2008 issue, designed to transport blood products and other temperature-sensitive medical supplies

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

The December 2008 issue contains an article on the Commando Logistics Regiment of the Royal Marines who organize Combat Logistical Patrols of up to 150 heavy vehicles each to provide vital supplies of food, fuel, ammunition and equipment to 3rd Commando Brigade troops in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

In the first two months the regiment commpleted:
• 11 Combat Logistical Patrols – through some of the toughest terrain in the world.
• Transported more than 2,000 tonnes of stock and supplies
• Covered more than 3,000 miles – mainly through desert and mountains.
• Delivered 680,000 litres of vital military fuel

© Defence Equipment & Support, Ministry of Defence UK

Also in the same issue, >Gordon Ramsay of Hell’s Kitchen fame gives the new Defence Food Services recipe book a thumbs up

Download desider magazine.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
MINDEF Commemorative Books – Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks
Steve Mumford’s Baghdad Journal
PEO Soldier Portfolio 2009
Armada International’s Complete Guides

Caught these updates to Shin Tanaka’s series of Hoophy paper toys during my monthly visit to my list of bookmarked websites. Four new designs by David Flores, Superdeux, David Horvath and Skwak (my favourite!) have been released for download. If you’re a fan of his Spiky Baby or Mask Hoody paper toy series, I’ll sure you’ll love these

   
   
   
© Shin Tanaka

The links to the first two templates illustrated by Shin Tanaka himself have been removed from the official site but you can still catch the direct links to these two PDFs by entering the Google search string below:

site:www.ohashi-lab.bse.kyutech.ac.jp/~shin/hoophy/ + hoophy filetype:pdf

Download these Hoophy paper toys at Shin Tanaka’s official site at www.ohashi-lab.bse.kyutech.ac.jp/~shin/hoophy. (these links aren’t going to stay up forever so don’t wait)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Marvelous Papercraft – Boxpunx by Harlancore + Friends
Cool Papercraft Links From MIT
Cubee Craft – Marshmallow Man, Master Chief, Imperial Stormtrooper Paper Toys
Gundam Papercraft Downloads
MS-06S Zaku II Papercraft Model Plans

Two rather obscure freeware games from MyPlayCity which can be played with just the fingers on one hand. Excellent for those times when you’re having the itch and need one hand free for scratching

Anyway, both games involve manuevering your vehicle – a scrambler bike in Trial Bike Ultra and a monster truck in Mountain Car around an obstacle course. Can’t really say that the physics models in both games are that realistic but they’re still entertaining enough for the ocassional short gaming break.

Although the objectives in Trial Bike Ultra and Mountain Car are similiar, each vehicle has its own peculiar handling characteristics to make the gaming experience significantly different. Shifting the scrambler bike’s centre of gravity by leaning your rider back and forth allows you to navigate the obstacle course quite easily without flipping over and crushing your rider’s head. On the other hand, the heavy and slow monster truck requires a beter appreciation of momentum together with timely applications of nitro to traverse the tracks.

Download Trial Bike Ultra and Mountain Car from MyPlayCity.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Motorstorm : Pacific Rift Wallpapers
UAZ Racing 4×4 Series Wallpapers – Offroad Vehicle Galore
Be a Despatch Rider!
Bus Driver Demo Review

© Tizzy Bac

Official promotional wallpapers for Tizzy Bac, a Taiwanese indie rock band comprising Chen Hui-ting (vocalist / pianist), Hsu Che-yu (bassist) & Lin Chien-yuan (drummer) and my bro’s band of the moment. The couple of wallpapers above feature artwork from their recently released 3rd album I’m Not Afraid of Demons If I’d Seen Hell (如果看見地獄，我就不怕魔鬼), which you can preview to at their official site. (I’m not really a fan of rock music so no comments on the music ). More info at Taipei Times.

© Tizzy Bac

These three wallpapers come from their music video for the first track 鐵之貝克. (Youtube link)

Download these wallpapers from Tizzy Bac’s official website.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Elphonso Lam – Artist / Toy Designer / Punk Rocker
Android Jones – Musical Art & Much More
Ken Ishii – Extra MV
Audiotool – Virtual Music Production Studio

Got tagged by Kenny of The Mediation Chamber for this little game. I don’t usually bother with this kind of stuff but since it’s Mr Kenny we’re talking about here, let’s get to it

The Rules of the Tagging Game are:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Write six random things about yourself.
4) Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5) Let each of the six persons know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

1) Music

I listen to at least around four to seven hours of music everyday at work – mainly mixes of dark pounding techno from the likes of DJs/producers Surgeon, Takaaki Itoh, Go Hiyama and the guys at Audio Assault (Bas Mooy, Radial, etc). Some podcasts/radio shows that I download on a regular basis are Resident Advisor Podcasts, Anton Banks‘ The Vault and James Fusion’s Fusion Radio. I also enjoy the occassional drum & bass mixes recommended by breaksblog.biz or Dogs on Acid as well.

2) Gaming

Haven’t been buying many commercial PC games recently due to silly online activation checks and whatnot in games nowadays. Company of Heroes was a bloody cool game that I bought recently but its irritating Relic Online integration drove me nuts – hence unless a game is in the bargain bin (or truly DRM-free like GOG.com’s brilliant re-releases of oldies but goodies), I wouldn’t bother buying it. Besides there’s a ton of excellent affordable (or even free) games championed by sites like JayIsGames.com or IndieGames.

3) Trucks

I have a soft spot for trucks and heavy vehicles. I love the sight of sleek speed demons like the Nissan GTR or Lamborghini flying past but nothing makes my day like a 16 or 18 wheeler crane rumbling along On a more practical note, a old skool Toyota Hilux pickup would be my choice of a daily ride. Then again, I’m too lazy to go get my driving license, so one of Tamiya’s RC version of the Hilux (above) would be cool

4) Writing

Despite running this site for more than two years, I find that I actually don’t like writing a lot, primarily because it’s sometimes very hard to find the exact words to describe and express what I feel about stuff other than using words like awesome, excellent It’s especially bad when I try to write about the excellent (again!) art that fills places like deviantART or GFXArtist but my writing fails to convey the beauty of each artwork. Maybe I should just drop Art Friday and just concentrate on writing about games

5) Doodling

I love to doodle but since I have my hands in too many pies – it’s real hard to progress beyond my pathetic amateurish skills without time or effort to seriously practice. Back then when I was really inspired to draw, I set up thedemonking.wordpress.com as a pictorial journal for me and my wife. It has largely been abandoned due to other time committments but you’re welcome to take a look Just don’t complain that you don’t get what the pictures are trying to depict because my crappy skills can’t seem to express the ideas I originally had in mind.

6) Mixing

I’m currently trying to learn basic DJing on a Numark Total Control and Traktor 3 LE. It’s not the perfect setup but since I spend so little time on practicing and my current skills suck so much, it shouldn’t really make a bloody difference even with better equipment. Of course, I would love a traditional two turntable setup with Serato ScratchLive or Traktor Scratch Pro (hint, hint) the new Numark NS7 (hint, hint, hint)

The six people I want to tag are … oh crap, I’m too lazy to do this