Free Republic

Kinder, Gentler Artillery by Nat MoffatPosted Sep 29, 2005By any historical standard, Americans at war are scrupulous to avoid inflicting collateral damage (which is why those brave Iranian mullahs dig their bunkers next to shrines and mosques). Now even artillery fire is getting compassionate, which is amazing when you think about the physics involved: Artillery hasn't been all that helpful in the Iraq counterinsurgency. Even in trained hands, heavy, indirect fire is pretty indiscriminate. Bystanders often get killed, while intended targets slip away.Which is why the Army has been bankrolling "Excalibur," a Raytheon effort to build a 155mm artillery shell...

Tuscan 'Excalibur' Mystery to be Unearthed By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News The Sword in The Stone March 1, 2004 — Archaeological digging might soon unveil the mystery surrounding a sword buried in a Gothic abbey in Tuscany, Italian researchers announced. Known as the "sword in the stone," the Tuscan "Excalibur" is said to have been plunged into a rock in 1180 by Galgano Guidotti, a medieval knight who renounced war and worldly goods to become a hermit. Built in Galgano's memory, the evocative Gothic abbey at Montesiepi, near the city of Siena, still preserves the sword in a little chapel....

Putting the dirt back into politics US Democrat Bob Mulholland introduced Labour to the Excalibur computer system, and they haven't looked back since Ed Harriman Thursday May 31, 2001The Guardian Bob Mulholland is the US Democrats' leading dirty trickster. He's been an informal adviser to Millbank for years. Mulholland is widely hated by American Republicans, especially in his home state of California."That guy's brought political discourse down to a new low level," Mike Madrid, former political director of California's Republican party recently told me. He thinks that Mulholland is totally cynical, destroying opponents personally and driving down voter turnout. "Total...

Excalibur, the rock that may mark a new dawn for man Paleontologists claim 350,000-year-old find in Spanish cave pushes back boundary of early human evolution Giles Tremlett in Madrid Thursday January 9, 2003 The Guardian They have called it Excalibur, though it was plucked from a pit of bones rather than the stone of Arthurian legend. To the ordinary eye it is a hand-sized, triangular chunk of ochre and purple rock, its surface slightly scratched. But to the palaeontologists who found this axe-head buried in a deep cavern on a Spanish hilltop, it is proof of a terrible and defining...