The FBI has been recovering filed off serial numbers for at least a decade based on the changes in metal grain that result from stamping. Is this just a more sensitive method for doing that?

I'm amazed at the number of people who feel qualified to comment on a network they've never watched and know nothing about.

Japan was doomed by the decision to go to war against the United States.

Japan was pushed into it by the US. By that time oil was critical for conducting a sustained campaign, and we had orchestrated an embargo in July that cut them off from 88% of their oil supplies. Roosevelt had the US in the war already, if not officially - between the embargoes in the east and US destroyer attacks on German submarines our full participation was inevitable. That being the case, Japan felt it would be better to strike first. I probably would have done the same.

While clearly unable to hold off the full might of the US economy as it was brought to bear, the Japanese government felt it might be able to convince the US people actually carrying on an all-out campaign at the same time we were at war with Germany would be too expensive, and a settlement could be negotiated. Germany was supposed to be their ace in the hole, soaking up enough war materials to enable Japan to survive.

World War II broke a pattern that had held for a century. Wars weren't fought to the death - you fought until the winner was clear and then you negotiated a peace. I suspect the people in power believed the worst case would involve surrendering Manchuria and French Indochina, something they would have to do anyway as a result of the oil embargo.

This is the dumbest, self-serving crap I've read in a long time. You are not entitled to other peoples' work, and Congress is not obligated to set copyright terms at lengths you find convenient. They absolutely have the constitutional authority to keep extending copyright, and if you don't like it you need to get involved in the politics. Breaking the law is bad enough, but expecting Valve to help you when it's not in their interest to do so is just dumb.

I wish the president would stop saying that so people would stop aping him without thinking about what they're saying.

No, that's far less accurate. For one thing the USPS is a government sponsored monopoly.

Would you go to Walmart's site and leave links pointing to instructions for shoplifting at Walmart? Valve's site; Valve's rules.

This is dead wrong. Read the history of the Guadalcanal campaign; it was surface ships that carried the day. Aircraft were ineffective at night and are best used in an offensive role, they can't effectively protect ships bringing in troops and supplies.

The only reason gunships look effective in Guadalcanal is we were fighting other gunships. Otherwise we would have lost. It's only dark for half the day.

The answer is "no". People who say submarines are obsolete are the same people who say "stealth doesn't work". They're missing the point. The point is not to be able to sidle up to your enemies without detection and tag their ships with slogans. The point is to gain a tactical advantage by detecting the enemy before he detects you. Detection isn't a yes/no thing - it's all about range.

The Japanese were more invested in the battleship than the USN, wasting their limited resources on two mega battleships that ultimately accomplished nothing,

The reason they built Yamato and Musashi was because they knew they had no way to match American industrial capability and that they would always be outnumbered. So they decided to build ships that could destroy multiple enemy battleships. But remember, the ball got rolling for this in 1934, long before it was obvious battleships were obsolete.

This was always the advantage that the United States Navy had which the Japanese couldn't even dream of duplicating.

At the outset of the war IJN doctrine was to use torpedoes against capital ships. The marriage of radar and analog targeting computers caught them somewhat flatfooted. Not that it mattered, really, since by the start of the war battleships were really only useful for providing shore bombardment and as AA platforms.

They were also used decades later in Lebanon.

It means Intel is exploiting every opportunity to bring more people into the field and keep wages down. Apparently they didn't get enough H-1B people to do the trick.

Yeah, but coming down is inherently safer. The difference in the amount of damage it can do with and without fuel is quite large.

It's a pet peeve of mine as well, but it's a small pet.

I don't want it to affect my holy war on the criminal misuse of the apostrophe.