Octopodial Chrome

Thanks to Mom for forwarding this clip of a submarine rescuing airmen some seventy miles off the coast of Japan. Neat seeing it in colour too.

Back in the Bad Old Days, it was the custom in India to burn widows alive. Eventually the British conquered the subcontinent and outlawed the practise. When a delegation of Hindus took General Sir Charles Napier to task for this interference, he replied with these immortal words:

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

That’s my kind of multiculturalism!

Here’s a nifty bit of history: in 1929 USS Lexington was used to power Tacoma, Wash. for thirty days. How cool is that?

Last year about this time I had the honour of touring USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). Off the galley there’s a small room with some historical items relating to the battle of Iwo Jima, including a memorial with the names of the 6,822 killed taking the island—including my dad’s uncle Robert Victor. I was lucky enough to be able to return later and snap a picture:

It was almost exactly 65 years since the day he died, 14 March 1945. According to my grandfather, Great-uncle Robert Victor had previously parachuted with the assault group onto Vella Lavella in 1943; we still have one of his silk parachutes. If I remember the story from when I was a boy correctly, he rallied his men and led a charge on a machine gun nest or pillbox, which is how he was killed. He was awarded a Silver Star posthumously. Just one story in about almost half a million.

It was a real privilege to see his name there. May his memory be eternal.

Here’s one for my sisters-in-arms: photos of women aiding effort to win the Second World War.

2,059 years ago today (if I got the year difference right…) Julius Cæsar crossed the Rubicon and started the Roman Civil War. Under Roman Law, an appointed general from the provinces was forbidden to exercise power within Italy (only elected magistrates were allowed to do so); it was in fact a capital crime to do so, or to obey orders thus given. By leading his army across the Rubicon which marked the northernmost Italian border, Cæsar and all his soldiers irrevocably became outlaws under Republican Roman law; they had passed the point of no return. As he noted at the time, the die is cast.

As it turns out, this worked out well for him and them, and rather poorly for the Republic. The city which once cast out its king now found itself with an emperor.

…that the current Bishop of Rome had a cousin his age who was killed by the Nazis for having Down’s Syndrome. Nowadays, of course, we’re not nearly so coarse as to euthanise 14-year-olds; instead we quietly tear apart or poison about 60,000 children a year.

As he and his party of polar explorers slowed and died, Robert F. Scott wrote a letter to his wife. And what a doozy!

’Scuse me, I think I must have a speck of something in mine eye…

Some time ago I discovered a log of the first winter-over at Concordia in the Antarctic. For someone like me with an interest in subsistence and survival, the feats involved in sustaining a small community alone in the dark are deeply intriguing.

Particularly amusing is how much they tried to live well (the group was European). The author’s birthday dinner consisted of pickled gizzard and smoked duck breast, farfalle with smoked salmon, génépi sorbet (a tasty herb from high up in the Alps), frog legs, orange duck, chocolate fondant in mint sauce with raspberry sorbet. I’m pretty sure that an American equivalent would be chocolate cake from a box, and an ordinary USDA Quality-Free carb-loaded, factory-ranched dinner.

Today I learnt that the Romans invented the multitool. Not the Swiss Army, not Gerber, not the Leatherman company—the Romans! Pretty sweet.

I think most of us have experienced flamewars online. People adopt silly names on Usenet and in Web forums; they get peeved and blow stuff out of proportion.

Our ancestors were no different: in the winter of 1872 the Letters page of the New York Times hosted a nineteenth century flamewar. The topic? That dish loved by some and hated by others: scrapple. And yes, the letter-writers had pseudonyms, and cast invective, and were generally indistinguishable from anyone today.

People are people, no matter their era. I wonder if educated Sumerians ranted about Ninkasi.

We’ve all heard about Polish cavalry charging German tanks in the Second World War—but it turns out that the story isn’t really true, and the the truth is far more interesting (no surprise to students of history).

Little-known fact: during Prohibition the US government poisoned alcohol. Roughly 10,000 people died as a result.

David Rohde, a reporter for the New York Times, was held captive by the Taliban; he has now told his story. It’s an amazing read, detailing how he returned to religion, coöperated with & opposed his captors and dealt with captivity.

Of course, it’s his story in his words; no doubt there are inaccuracies of memory as well as of fact. But it is an excellent tale nonetheless, and a good example of what happens when a Westerner meets Islamic extremism face-to-face.

One of the things that annoys me is folks who have dogs instead of children. A dog will last maybe 14 years or so, and when he dies that’s it; in the normal course of things, a child lasts longer than his parents, and produces children of his own, and perhaps even affects the course of history. There’s nothing wrong with dogs, of course, but they’re not people.

Well, it turns out that this over-affection for beasts isn’t a new thing after all. In Geoffroy IV de la Tour Landry’s Book of the Knight of the Tower (written for the instruction of his daughters) we find the following story:

Of The Woman That Gaf The Flesshe To Her Honndes

I SHAL save to yow an Ensample of a lady that yaf the flesshe and good morsels to her lytell houdes. Ther was a lady whiche hadde two small houndes, whome she moche loued and had soo derworthe that she took in them greete playsaunce. She made for them dayly dysshes of sowpes, and after gaf to them flesshe and other fryandyses delycyous. And on a tyme there was a frere mendycaunt that said to her that it was euyll done to gyue suche metes to the houndes, that were grete & fatte, where as there were moche poure peple lene and drye for hogre. Thus he prechyd, vnto the lady, but for al that she wold not leue it. Soo thenne a lytel afterward this lady bycam seke vnto the deth, and ther happed a wonder thyng whiche was sene al apertely. For ther cam vpon her bed two lytel black dogges, and whan she drewe on and was in a traunce they were about her mouthe and lycked her lyppes. And where as they lycied her on the mouthe it bycam as black as a Cole. This I haue herd of a damoyselle that said that she had sene al this, and named to me the lady. This is a good ensample to euery good lady and woman, how they ought not to haue ouer grete plaisyre in suche thynges, ne to geue flesshe ne lychorous metes to the houdes, for lack of whiche the poure peple of god dye for honger, the whiche ben the creatures of god made to his semblaunce and lykenes, and be his seruauntes. Suche wymmen vnderstande not the word of god in the gospel, where as god sayth, He that dot wel to the poure doth to me seruyce. These wymmen resemble not vnto the good quene blache, that was moder of sayni lowys, whiche dyd do gyue in hir syght the mete to the moost nedy and meseased. And after saynt lowys dyd in lyke wyse, for he vysyted the poure peple and fedde them with his own honde. The Plaisire of euery good woman is to see the faderles and moderles children and lytel poure children and them norysshe and clothe, as dide the holy lady that was Countesse of Mauns, whiche norysshed wel thyrtty orphanes and the lytel poure children for pyte, and therin was al hir disporte. And therfor she was louyd of god and had an holy lyf and a goode ende. And ther was, sene at her deth a grete clercnes and lyght alle full of lytel children. These were not the smale houndes that were black whiche were sene with the other, as ye haue herd to fore.

Here’s my rendering, for those who don’t wish to dig through early modern English:

Of the woman who gave meat to her dogs

I shall give to you an example of a lady that gave meat and treats to her little dogs.

There was a lady who had two small dogs whom she loved so much and dearly that she took great pleasure in them. She made them nice meals every day, and gave them meats and other delicious food. One time a mendicant friar said to her that it was an evil deed to give such food to fat dogs when there were many skinny poor people dying of hunger. Thus he preached unto the lady, but she would not listen. So a little later this lady took deathly ill and there occurred a wonder which was seen by all. When she was in her final minutes and had fallen unconscious two little black dogs walked onto her bed and licked her lips, and where they licked her mouth it became as black as coal. I was told this by a girl who had seen it herself, and gave me the name of the lady in question.

This is a good example to every good lady and woman of how they shouldn’t take over-large pleasure in such things, not to give meat or luxurious food to dog when poor people—made in the image and likeness of God, His servants—die from hunger. Such women don’t understand God’s words in the Gospel that He that does good unto the poor does me service. These women are unlike good Queen Blanche, the mother of St. Louis, who fed the poor and abused. And St. Louis did likewise, visiting the poor and feeding them with his own hands. The pleasure of every good woman is to feed and clothe orphans and poor children, like the holy Countess of Mauns, whose only past-time was to feed thirty orphans and poor children out of pity. And therefor she was beloved by God and had a holy life and a good end. When she died there was seen a vision of light surrounding little children, not black hounds as were seen with the other lady.

So you see, you really shouldn’t treat dogs like people. Unless you have a really good mortician I guess.

Gentlemen, the Lord’s Prayer

With these words, five American officers attempted to start Sunday services while imprisoned by the North Vietnamese, and were tortured for their trouble—but the sixth attempt succeeded. I’ve recently been reading up on the Code of Conduct instituted after the Korean War; this is exactly how one’s expected to behave.

90 years ago this month the Paris Peace Conference opened; its decisions and the treaties which codified them into international law would have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the 20th century and even down into the present day (ever wondered why so many of those Middle Eastern countries have straight-line borders which ignore geography?).

An old college professor of mine is now blogging the Paris Peace Conference, I believe in ninety-year-delayed realtime. Professor Hunt Tooley was hands-down my favourite professor; his teach style was inimitable (you gotta love a prof with a greenbottle-fly tweed coat!) and his insights heavily influenced my own thinking on Middle East, Russian and German history.

I’m really excited my this new blog; any student of history should be likewise so.

Divers have discovered 4,000,000 rounds of .303 ammo in the hold of RMS Lusitania. Those of you who’ve studied your history may recall that her sinking was one of the reasons we entered the Great War on the side of Britain and France and against Germany and Austro-Hungary.

Now it turns out that she was a legitimate military target after all. Whoops.

I recently found the first newsreel documenting Nazi atrocities. It’s disturbing, powerful stuff and serves as a reminder of just how evil that regime was.

Now here is a treat: an audio recording of gas shells being fired by the British on 9 October 1918 outside Lille.

I happened upon Television under the Swastika, a documentary concerning Nazi television. It’s pretty interesting stuff: cabaret acts, political interviews, cooking shows—all designed to show the greatness of the Party and its benevolent Leader.

Watching stuff like that always gets me wondering about that lost world. It’s not a sense of nostalgia, of course—the Nazis were one of the great evils of the 20th century—but one does wonder what it was actually like to live in that world.

It’s also strange to see actual pictures of the era, as opposed to movie interpretations. In the movies, everyone is a blond-haired, clean-shaven Aryan stereotype, but in the films one sees a lot of old-fashioned Imperial Germans with their forked beards and dark hair.

I also wonder about what was going on underneath the surface. The barbers being retrained as hairdressers, for example: did they ask for the retraining, or did the party simply tell some quota of barbers that they had to submit for retraining? What dark secrets lay behind the sunny scenes?

Back in 1994 Bruce Bartlett wrote a great essay about the fall of Rome. Basically, Rome’s foolish economic policies (driven by the emperor’s desire to destroy the senatorial class and prop up their armies) destroyed the empire and paved the way for the Dark Ages. Pretty cool stuff, and an object lesson to nations the world over.

This article on war pigeons is serious and interesting, but I’m shallow enough to just love the phrase war pigeon. It’s absolutely wonderful, really. Loose the war pigeons! Beware the mighty war pigeons!

I want to have a boat so I can name it the S.S. War Pigeon.

I don’t usually read Mother Jones (I’ve better things to do than read fascist claptrap—I use fascist advisedly), but it has a top-notch history of the anti-slavery movement in Britain. Their achievement was really quite remarkable: in less than 80 years slavery went from being accepted over the entire world to being illegal in the entire civilised sphere. When they started, slavery was just accepted as part of life; by the time they finished it was universally unacceptable.

The story gives hope to those of us who would fight other seemingly impossible battles. The anti-infanticide movement in particular should learn from the fight against slavery. Infanticide is considered a perfectly acceptable practise by much of the world right now, but a lot can change in a few years. Eventually, reason wins.