spyd3r

Noa Argamani, Almog Meir, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv were rescued in a joint operation by IDF, Shin Bet and police's Yamam unit.

To celebrate this amazing holiday, here is Han shooting first.

Screenshot from DS9 - 101/102 - Emissary

Processed with the Orb of Enhancement:

Raw:

For a higher quality downloadable version: https://archive.org/details/st-ds-9-rootbeer-analogy-2160p

Also, in an attempt to provide some comparison data, and to find out what is too heavy to comfortably carry, I have weighed an arbitrary selection of common lights to compare it to the E07X.

Based on these results, the weight is good, the flashlight is balanced well, and it feels good in the hand. I'd say the E07X fits nicely in the large coat/hoodie pocket carry category. It's fat head and thick tube make it uncomfortable in a pants pocket however, so you'll want to make use of the clip and clip it to a belt/webbing/pouch etc. Overall I'm impressed with it, it's a solid addition to my lineup, the new FFL emitters are spectacular, and I appreciate the improvements over the old E07.

All weights are with a full complement of batteries

Lights:
Acebeam X45: 710g
BLF LT1: 626g
Emisar D18: 480g
Sofirn SP36: 432g
Noctigon K1: 378g
E07 TiCu: 310g
Emisar D4SV2 (26800): 260g
Sofirn SP33S: 238g
-> E07X Canon: 200g <-
Emisar D4k (Mule): 136g
Sofirn IF19: 94g
Sofirn SC21: 58g

Batteries:
26800: 116g
26650: 96g
21700: 66g
18650: 44g

Screenshot from DS9 - 111 - The Nagus (Laserdisc)

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/16245170

For All Mankind (1989)

• Not Rated

• 1h 20m

An in-depth look at various NASA moon landing missions, starting with Apollo 8.

The decade long Apollo Program was the largest and most expensive undertaking in the history of Man that wasn't devoted to a war. During the four years between December 1968 and November 1972 there were nine manned flights to the Moon. Twenty four men made the journey; twelve actually landed on the lunar surface. They were the first human beings to leave the planet Earth for another world.

For the best viewing quality on Archive.org, it is suggested to download the file directly from the 'Download Options' page instead of watching via the built in player.

If you are experiencing really slow downloads on Archive.org, try using a VPN with a server near California, or use a download manager (eg: FDM).

For All Mankind (1989)

• Not Rated

• 1h 20m

An in-depth look at various NASA moon landing missions, starting with Apollo 8.

The decade long Apollo Program was the largest and most expensive undertaking in the history of Man that wasn't devoted to a war. During the four years between December 1968 and November 1972 there were nine manned flights to the Moon. Twenty four men made the journey; twelve actually landed on the lunar surface. They were the first human beings to leave the planet Earth for another world.

Arena

1989 - PG-13 - 1h 55m

A human becomes an unlikely rising star in the biggest fighting tournament in the galaxy that's dominated by alien species.

Director: Peter Manoogian

Writers: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo

Stars: Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Armin Shimerman, Marc Alaimo

Storyline:

Steve Armstrong is a human short-order cook in a fast food restaurant on a "starstation" where the most popular arena fighting tournament in the whole galaxy is held. Members of various alien species fight one on one, often dirty, to become the ruling champions of the galaxy. The restaurant's sole waiter and Steve's boss is Shorty, a short four-armed scheming humanoid alien. When Steve saves Shorty from a particularly unpleasant and violent alien guest, they're both fired by the restaurant's automated A.I. for brawling. Shorty shows gratitude and they become friends. However, without jobs, they'll both be kicked off the space station. Thankfully, Quinn, a human female no-nonsense fighting promoter, who's in quick need of new fighters, hears about Steve's fight with the alien guest and offers him sponsorship. Human fighters have traditionally been defeated easily by naturally tougher alien fighters in previous tournaments and Steve would be a real underdog. Shorty manages to convince Steve to take the offer and after some initial difficulties, Steve proves to be a really tough fighter with an actual tiny chance of success. In the eyes of humans all across the galaxy, who feel inferior to the various alien races, Steve becomes their idol and champion of humanity. Steve doesn't really want all this attention, but he understands the hope people put in him. Rogor is the tournament's crooked organizer, who's complete control over the competition and the players is shaken by Steve's surprising success. He offers one of his deals to Steve as well, but he refuses. Rogor then comes up with a plan to get rid of Steve for good, if he gets to the finals. Rogor's rat-faced yesman Weezil is eager to help. Meanwhile, beautiful Jade attracts Steve's attention.

Notes: Source is a pit-perfect Laserdisc capture, upscaled to 4K for best possible quality playback on YouTube.

Direct download link

As ST: DS9 airs its pilot episode, PM airs this 50 minute documentary as a way to spark excitement about the new show. It includes interviews from the cast and contains sneak peaks into the show's first season.

In the documentary, Farrell (Jadzia Dax) takes the viewer on a tour around the Deep Space 9 sets. The feature also has interviews with the cast, producers, writers and other production staff members and takes a look at the making of "Emissary".

To my knowledge this was only aired on TV once in 1993, then was released on VHS shortly after in the US and UK, and has never been re-issued on any newer DVD releases.

It just so happens that it was also released in Japan on Laserdisc, and I happened to find it while looking through my collection of discs. To watch this in the best possible quality, I have digitzed, restored, and upscaled this rare find to for viewing on modern devices.

Enjoy! (and download it before it disappears)

Note: For the highest quality viewing experience, download the 1.5GB .mkv file and play it in your software player of choice.

Note: The audio is in English but there are Japanese subtitles in the picture.

I know which one I'm going to, but I'd take both of these over any other coney joint in the state.

Star Trek on Laserdisc

*Available in TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and theatrical release flavors.

It's guaranteed very few Star Trek fans have ever seen these, they are as hard to find as it gets. What we have here is Star Trek on a fully analog video format that isn't plagued by digital artifacts found on streaming platforms and early DVD releases (such as the DS9/VOY releases), nor does it have any of the quality issues found with VHS tape.

The elephant in the room here is cost, so don't go searching Ebay/ZenMarket just yet. As with most analog hifi things, you have to spend a lot to get high quality results. Laserdisc is no exception, and it's even worse because of the rarity of the discs and the equipment all having antique status.

That being said, in my quest to transport myself back to the 1990's, I have amassed enough equipment and specialty gear to capture Laserdiscs in stupidly high quality, and have uploaded the results for normal people to see. Now the preferred way to watch these is in their native resolution with a high end LD player hooked directly to a retro Trinitron CRT or Plasma TV, but these direct disc captures will be the best possible viewing method on modern display devices.

Voyager LD Sample YT -- VOY LD Sample Direct Download

DS9 LD Sample YT -- DS9 LD Sample Direct Download

Hardware used for capture:

• Pioneer CLD-D704
• Domesday Duplicator
• Windows PC (i9-10900k/RTX-3080/32GB RAM)

Software used for processing:

• ld-decode
• Hybrid + Vapoursynth
• Premiere Pro
• Audition
• Topaz