The Economist reports the "Iranian threat has now officially gone steampunk." ("The fully-operational flying-boat squadron", Sep. 30th 2010, by M.S.) Despite the mocking tone, this might just be yet another nice way to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, if Tehran wanted to. To the Ekranoplan, Boy Wonder!

The things Wikipedia knows. There was a frigate, USS Harold E. Holt, involved in a hostile boarding of the Mayagüez in May 1975 near Cambodia at the back end of the Vietnam War.

(Harold Holt was an Australian prime minister who died, presumably from drowning, in 1967.)

Five Months at Anzac, A Narrative of Personal Experiences of the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force is the recollections of Col. Beeston's time at Gallipoli. It's rather entertaining and full of dry humour, far from the official histories of the campaign.

The difficulty of obtaining sufficient exercise was very ( Read more... )

I've finally finished reading Antony Beevor's "Stalingrad". I didn't know anything much about the events there in WWII, other than a vague idea of prolonged bloody fighting. It's not a nice story.

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...today is ANZAC day, a public holiday in Australia and New Zealand.


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Giant war-balloons of death.

I find myself in two minds this morning. Watching Channel Nine's Today show, I'm struck by the nationalism their coverage excludes. Talk of "heroes" and "sacrifices", it's grand and stirring stuff. Premiers lay wreathes, flanked by boy scouts. Long live the Empire. I wonder if Australians have always taken this stuff more seriously than the ( Read more... )

So today Baghdad fell, as abruptly and unexpectedly as these things can be expected to happen. I see shots on the news of hospitals without electricity or water, and running out of medicine, and I ask myself: "where is the army of doctors and construction engineers? where are the air-transportable, be-there-in-24-hours mobile field hospitals? ( Read more... )

Huzzah! I'm here. Thanks for the prods, guys.

Let me start by stating what will probably be an admirable goal: Keep the signal-to-noise ratio high!

Here's some initial amusement for fans of the war:
propagandaposters for the home or office ( Read more... )