USSR-1

USSR-1 (Russian: СССР-1) was a record-setting, hydrogen-filled Soviet Air Forces high-altitude balloon designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's stratosphere. September 30, 1933, USSR-1 under Georgy Prokofiev's command set an unofficial world altitude record of 19,000 meters (60,698 feet).

After the crash of Osoaviakhim-1 in January 1934 USSR-1 was retrofitted with a gondola parachute and a new gas envelope. June 26, 1935 it flew again as USSR-1 Bis. The balloon reached 16,000 meters where an accidental release of hydrogen, probably caused by a faulty valve, forced it into an unexpected descent. After expending all available ballast, two crewmembers bailed out on personal parachutes at low altitudes; flight commander stayed on board and managed to perform a soft landing on a crippled aircraft.

Design

Auguste Piccard's high-altitude flights of 1930–1932 aroused interest of Soviet Air Forces and Osoaviakhim, the Soviet paramilitary training organization, as well as individual pilots, designers and flight enthusiasts. Civilian projects by Osoaviakhim and the national Meteorology Committee were delayed by lack of finance, and in the first half 1933 the military stratospheric program had a solid lead in time.

Picnic (chocolate bar)

Picnic is a brand of chocolate bar consisting of milk chocolate and peanuts, covering chewy nougat, caramel, biscuit and puffed rice. Picnic bars are lumpy in shape. It is sold in Australia, parts of Canada (such as Quebec), New Zealand, New York City, India, Ireland, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The UK and Indian versions differ from the Australasian version in that they also contain raisins. The Cadbury Picnic bar was first released in the UK in 1958.

A popular slogan for the Picnic, released in the early 2000s, was "Deliciously ugly". During the 1970s the Australian slogan for Picnic was "More like a banquet than a picnic". Picnic is manufactured by Cadbury UK.

In Australia, limited-edition variants Picnic Honeycomb (a Picnic bar with honeycomb pieces), Picnic Hedgehog (a picnic bar with biscuit pieces) and Picnic Rocky Road (a Picnic bar with mini marshmallows and gumdrops) have been sold in recent years. In 2010, a limited edition Almond Picnic bar was made available in New Zealand and is now also available in Australia under the name Roast Almond Feast. A Picnic ice cream is also manufactured by Cadbury UK.

Picnic (1975 film)

Picnic is a 1975 Indian Malayalam film, directed by J. Sasikumar and produced by CC Baby and VM Chandi. The film stars Prem Nazir, Lakshmi, Unnimary and Adoor Bhasi in lead roles. The film had musical score by M. K. Arjunan.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. K. Arjunan and lyrics was written by Sreekumaran Thampi.

References

External links

Picnic (album)

Picnic is an album by Texas-based folk singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen, released in the United States in 1997 on Arista Records.

Track listing

All tracks written by Robert Earl Keen, except where noted

Sniper

A sniper is a marksman or qualified specialist who operates alone, in a pair, or with a sniper team to maintain close visual contact with the enemy and engage targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the detection capabilities of enemy personnel. Snipers typically have highly selective or specialized training and use crew-served high-precision/special application rifles and optics, and often have sophisticated communication assets to feed valuable combat information back to their units or military bases.

Most sniper teams operate independently, with little combat asset support from their parent units; their job is to deliver discriminatory, highly accurate rifle fire against enemy targets that cannot be engaged successfully by the regular rifleman because of range, size, location, fleeting nature, or visibility. Sniping requires the development of basic infantry skills to a high degree of skill. A sniper's training incorporates a wide variety of subjects designed to increase value as a force multiplier and to ensure battlefield survival. The art of sniping requires learning and repetitively practicing these skills until mastered. A sniper must be highly trained in long range rifle marksmanship and field craft skills to ensure maximum effective engagements with minimum risk.

The Deadly Tower

The Deadly Tower, also known as Sniper, is a 1975 television film directed by Jerry Jameson. It stars Kurt Russell and Richard Yniguez.

Plot

The film is based on the true story of Charles Joseph Whitman, an engineering student and former Marine who murdered his own wife and mother and then killed 14 more people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage at the University of Texas at Austin on the afternoon of August 1, 1966.

Cast

References

External links

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 mod Team Fortress for Quake and its 1999 remake. It was released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows and the Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed on December 11, 2007. On April 8, 2008, it was released as a standalone title for Windows. The game was updated to support OS X on June 10, 2010, and Linux on February 14, 2013. It is distributed online through Valve's download retailer Steam; retail distribution was handled by Electronic Arts.

In Team Fortress 2, players join one of two teams comprising nine character classes, battling in a variety of game modes including capture the flag and king of the hill. The development is led by John Cook and Robin Walker, creators of the original Team Fortress. Announced in 1998, the game once had more realistic, militaristic visuals and gameplay, but this changed over the protracted nine-year development. After Valve released no information for six years, Team Fortress 2 regularly featured in Wired News' annual vaporware list among other ignominies. The finished Team Fortress 2 has cartoon-like visuals influenced by the art of J. C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell and is powered by Valve's Source engine.