Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless antitank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was among the first generation of rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat. Featuring a solid rocket motor for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armored vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine. The bazooka also fired a HESH round, effective against buildings and tank armor. The universally applied nickname arose from the M1 variant's vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a "bazooka" invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.
During World War II, German armed forces captured several bazookas in early North African and Eastern Front encounters and soon reverse engineered their own version, increasing the warhead diameter to 8.8 cm (among other minor changes) and widely issuing it as the Raketenpanzerbüchse "Panzerschreck" ("Tank terror").
Bazooka is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, comic books and cartoon series. He is the G.I. Joe Team's missile specialist and debuted in 1985.
His real name is David L. Katzenbogen, and his rank is that of sergeant E-5. Bazooka was born in Hibbing, Minnesota.
He was operating as an Abrams tank driver in the Third Armored Division, when he came to believe that they were too vulnerable to rocket launcher fire. He put in for a transfer as soon as possible. Bazooka trained at the Advanced Infantry School, Fort Benning, Armor School, Fort Knox, and is a qualified expert with Dragon Anti-Tank Missile, Milan System, LAW rocket system, recoilless rifle, and all Warsaw Pact RPG systems. He is noted for being a swift, strategic thinker.
Bazooka was first released as an action figure in 1985. The figure was repainted and released as part of the Tiger Force line in 1988. A new version of Bazooka was released in 1993 as part of the Battle Corps line.
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Bazooka was a musical band active in the early 1990s, and led by drummer Vince Meghrouni. Their music could be broadly classified as jazz, but also touched on other styles. All their albums were released by SST Records.
The first line-up was Meghrouni, bass guitarist Bill Crawford and saxophonist Tony Atherton. This lineup of Bazooka record three albums: "Perfectly Square", "Blowhole", and "Cigars, Oyster and Booze."
Songwriting was split about evenly between the trio's members, with a healthy dose of jazz standards written by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Lee Morgan. The music was generally in a bebop or hard bop vein, though a few pieces were freely improvised, and there was a strong punk rock or hard rock quality, particularly in Crawford's playing.
In his review of 1994's Blowhole, Richard Foss wrote, "It is difficult to articulate just what makes Bazooka such an interesting band and Blowhole such a fine album. There are other bands that play jazz with rock fervor and wild abandon, but few who do so with anything approaching this level of pure musicianship."
The Eureka Seven anime and manga series features an extensive cast of characters created by Bones. The central protagonist of the series is Renton Thurston, a young boy who joins the renegade group Gekkostate to fight against the U.F. Force, led by Dewey Novak.
In naming the characters, writer Dai Sato drew inspiration from club bands and the music culture of his generation. He said, "The youngest generation is represented by references to dance music, techno, and house. Hip hop represents the next generation, and rock represents the oldest generation.” Although the show is primarily targeted towards the kid demographic, he hoped to draw in some viewers who might have hung out at clubs at night.
Gekkostate is an anti-government militia and counterculture collective led by Holland, who also pilots the LFO Terminus typeR909. Eureka, an aloof, pale girl, pilots an LFO called the Nirvash typeZERO. After joining Gekkostate early in the series, Renton co-pilots the Nirvash with Eureka. Stoner is a photographer who writes Gekkostate's illegal magazine, ray=out. Talho is the head pilot of Gekkostate's aircraft, the Gekko (月光号, Gekkō-gō, lit. "moonlight"; "Moonlight" in the English manga) and also ray=out's covergirl. Hap is Holland's childhood friend and the second-in-command of the Gekko. Ken-Goh is the weapons specialist and owner of the Gekko. Jobs and Woz are the ship's engineers, for hardware and software, respectively. Mischa is the resident doctor. Moondoggie is a secondary pilot and operator of the launch catapult. Hilda and Matthieu are the pilots of the Gekkostate LFOs Terminus typeR808 and Terminus typeR606, respectively. Gidget is the communications operator. Finally, Gonzy is a fortuneteller.
Eureka (sometimes referred to as Eureka!) is a British educational television series about science and inventiveness which was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1982 to 1986, and repeated until 1987. Devised and written by Clive Doig and Jeremy Beadle, the series told the stories behind the inventions of commonplace objects.
Presented by Jeremy Beadle (series 1, 1982), then Sarah Greene (series 2, 1983), Paul McDowell (series 2 and 3, 1983 & 1985) and Wilf Lunn (series 4, 1986), the show featured an ensemble cast who re-enacted the moments of invention or performed humorous sketches to deliver key facts and information. Notable cast members included Sylvester McCoy, Simon Gipps-Kent, Bernard Holley,Madeline Smith, Mike Savage, Julia Binsted, Philip Fox and Jackie Clarke.
Each show also featured a segment showcasing a madcap and not always reliable invention by Wilf Lunn often to the bemusement of McCoy or another of the regular cast. In the fourth and final series, the format changed slightly and Lunn became the presenter, playing the Doctor of Alternative Invention at the Eureka Museum of Invention.
Eureka was a monthly British science magazine, launched in October 2009, published by The Times newspaper. It closed in October 2012, after 37 issues.