caesar novus

I might have to read A. Speer's book about his role as Minister of Amaments. It seems he wrestled with the tradeoffs of futuristic engineering vs practical use. I read some bits about him realizing early on that US/UK/USSR manufacturing ability was going to swamp that of the German empire. One of his responses was to shut down the ambitions of engineers, drastically cutting back refinements and planned projects. He was extremely successful in raising aircraft production, even as bombing ramped up (except in German occupied France, where they could never get production above 10% of Britain). Well, he had other techniques like firing department heads older than 55 and deputies older than 40 (to avoid routine and arrogance). Maybe some of these are applicable to improving business conditions today. Anyway, towards the end the emphasis had to swing back to exotic weapons because nothing else had a shred of hope except for a wild gamble.

I am more of a Hawker fan, so permit me to mudsling. The Supermarine Spitfire was an expensive short ranged racehorse that would have been inadaquate on it's own, but served well in smaller numbers to defend Hawker Hurricanes that were doing the real bomber interception work. I say inadaquate because frills like the eliptical wing took forever to construct, which would reduce producable aircraft numbers. Also the sleek design didn't accommodate heavy upgrades in weapons and engines easily, and I hear later fast models maneuvered poorly. In spite of it's short range, I recently heard that it was a couple of Spit's that strafed Rommel's car in France - good show! I'm not saying the Hurricane was better, but oh man, have you seen the Hawker Tempest 2 in the north London museum? Not the models with droop intake but the svelte ducted-radial, like an Fw-190 mated with a Spit. It had great promise, but never got the chance to be fully debugged by war end. Also what about the similar macho design Hawker Sea Fury, which not only carried over to Korean war but apparently played a big role in Castro defending Bay of Pigs 1961. OK I realize these aren't WW2 battle tested (as I was about to bring up the Fiat G55 which Kurt Tank supposedly liked enough to recommend replacing his Fw190). I've seen the Corsair do mock battle with a Mustang and it was so utterly dominant that I wonder if it was more than just pilot differences. Both were uninteresting until late war refinements, then they flew in different theaters. I do realize an early version of Corsair was flown by England, and don't recall how they rated it besides wresting with the carrier landing quirks. So the Spit may have been top dog early on, but by late war I think Corsair, Mustang, and maybe a long nosed or long tailed Focke Wulf were stronger contenders.

I hate weight training and wish I could find a hobby that accomplished the same. But a series of wellness lectures by some phd made the claim that toning up your muscles has amazing benefits in increasing your resting state metabolism. They claim that the majority of your energy expenditure come from hours of resting state, so basically you can diet less by suffering thru brief gym episodes. Also said strength leads to better health even if you stay heavy (for one of the major killers like heart disease?).

Maybe the bf109 started as a German peoples defensive weapon, but in 1939-45 German weapon designers knew they were enabling the Nazi goals of aggression. Von Braun, Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank (best aircraft), and Ferdinand Porsche (worst tanks) are sometimes spun as well meaning folks caught up in a police state, but... That was spun more positively when we needed to borrow such folks to help oppose communism. An Austrian scholar details the escape of many Nazis thru postwar Italy in book/video http://www.booktv.org/Program/12710/Nazis+on+the+Run+How+Hitlers+Henchmen+Fled+Justice.aspx where a pattern of acceptance by German speaking Italians, the vatican, and the red cross were eventually joined by the US gov't in getting such Nazi's across the Atlantic.

What aspect of that story interests you? I seem to recall that old documentary as slow paced and not as good as others in it's class of Nazi leading edge engineering. Not as bad as some that bordered on science fiction, but there was a particularly good one about 2 hours long that covered many such advanced Nazi aircraft designs. Probably shown on History Military or Discovery Military channels about twice a year. This makes me nostalgic for "real" documentaries, which are virtually never shown anymore on National Geographic, History, or Arts&Entertainment. It's just those "nowcasting" reality shows (whatever they are called) where cameramen follow blue collar drama queen workers doing somewhat adventurous jobs like lumberjacks or offroad truck drivers or state troopers. Oh, that and things like pawn shops and auctions are wildly topping the ratings. Military themes seem banned in favor of handbag fights by bluecollar toughs. Only the somewhat dry Smithsonian channel seems to buck the trend here. Or are you thinking of the technology content? I'm fascinated by German technology, both now and WW2. My last visits to England centered on museums featuring masses of Nazi aircraft and tanks. In air and water sports I have used eccentric German technology. My present car is of the same design line that Hitler had 50 of. Although mine is used, humble, and small (especially the engine, which putters easily in stop and go traffic), it has a big teutonic SUPERcharger that turns it from a kitty to a lion at times. I don't mean one of those neanderthal TURBOchargers that teens adore, but a stealthy velvety warp drive as used by all dragsters and fuhrers ready to flee assasination attempts. Or were you thinking of the historical implications? Nazi Germany was on the brink of amazing weapon technology at the end of the war. Not only fast stealthy aircraft, but long time submersable subs that would have drastically threated Atlantic convoys again (they carried their own oxygen, and were potentially going to carry missles). Maybe not nukes, but enough weaponry to hold off Allies. If you look into the details of these programs, their main holdup seemed to be cutoff of critical supply components. Not just from the derided "carpet" bombing, but time after time their oil or special metal or fabrication centers were pinpointed. Thank you Brits for blocking Rommel from oil country. Thank you Ruskies for blocking Nazi southern thrust towards oil country. Thank you Yanks who apparently did make that Norden bombsight succeed a few times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob#Legal_incidents sez that violent flash mobbing has been experienced and dealt with in the US and Germany with enforcement and preventative measures. It said in the UK it was addressed by police "urging" to refrain.

I got lost in Amsterdam recently, and stumbled around for hours too proud to ask for directions. I consider that good and right behavior, although it has been ridiculed as a typical male weakness. I say "has been" because maybe the issue has become mute with so many people walking with phones displaying map locations or driving with gps stuck to their windshield (doesn't this obscure vision and kill people?). I think finding your way on your own is a fundamental issue of your relation to the universe. If you can't do it, you must try harder to master it's principles rather than get yourself off the hook with a plea for help. Some people like to ask directions because they are needy for social interactions, and it's sort of a mutual backscratching. Fine, but do that for some issue other than navigation which needs to be mastered. So what benefit came from my masochistic stumbling? First note that I criss-crossed all of Amsterdam like a genius for several afternoon hours. I had a tiny cartoon map with several areas I wanted to photograph and surprised myself with the ease of finding them by just blazing a compass course based on the low sun position. After it went dark I got disoriented by the way everything is in a uniform curve like Manhattan bent in a semicircle. I took hours to find my hotel even when I knew I had gotten close. Well, I think the lesson is I got lazy with normal reliance on sun position (ignored the moon) or else high landmarks (ignored differences in church steeple gingerbread). I got mesmerized by the uniformity of the canals, but didn't notice there was one bigger canal with a lack of bridges that kept turning me back, but should have served as a landmark. So I lost sleep, but a lesson was learned to be more flexible for clues (or to carry a map detailed enough for the lengthy Dutch street names). Some might say visual navigation isn't dependable due to clouds or fog, but normally under those conditions there usually is a breeze in a consistent direction vs the random gusts kicked up by local heating. I once carried a compass to explore the backstreets of Cairo, but that wasn't needed due to their sun and landmarks. All you normally need to do is to fix in your mind a map of prominent landmarks before heading out. I never navigate in the sense of a word problem - "second left then right" type of thing just means you are totally lost when you miss or can't take one turn. Anyway, that is my wisdom - or silliness - for the reluctance to ask directions. Actually I did ask a very rare directional question on a previous brief stopover in Amsterdam. A young women was tagging along who was on our tour group into Africa, and exuded delicate sensibilities that I thought might be offended by us blundering into the red light district. Later I found that protectiveness was very misplaced, as she loved to go alone into African bars where glass was being smashed and no other tourists dare tread. Wouldn't it be funny if someone piped up to say "I was that women"... I await an internet reunion.

There are observations of imbalances of gender ratios thru history or in sectors of a society. The most recent example is a deficit of perhaps 100 million baby girls in Asia - said to be due to modern sex selection technology in http://www.unfpa.org/gender/selection.html or more in depth at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/27/where_have_all_the_girls_gone?page=full . But there is a Trivers-Willard explanation that could apply to not only recent times but all thru history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivers

There is a pantheon webcam sometimes panning the entrance from about the same angle of your photo here (although mounted lower) where you should be able to see the below effect (if not the March equinox thingy). Easily found on the web, although I like to use the android app "rome webcam" in spite of it falling out of date and not showing other Roman sites very well.

It faces north, so the sunbeam can slant in towards the entrance from the south. I found a picture of the supposed Vatican reconstruction of the original pantheon interior, and it is obviously just a loose allusion or a mistake of intentions by a guidebook:

I believe I saw the whole pantheon temple complex depicted in this Yale class session http://academicearth.org/lectures/hadrians-pantheon-and-tivoli-retreat

Just some unrelated observations... I think the Pantheon's exterior is ugly, hulking, and of awkward proportions. However it was pointed out to me that it was originally tightly surrounded by wings of related buildings, and thus mainly seen from inside perspectives. Sorry, but I also think the lower level interior clashes with the Roman vibe. It's sort of Catholic baroque, but I hear the original interior look is recreated in a room of the Vatican. I vaguely recall this as pagan grandiose, but didn't appreciate it too well because the crowds are at a particular chokepoint there. Also it looks a bit new and stagey, so I didn't make the connection until hearing about it afterwards (maybe someone can post a picture?).

I think there are both good and bad misspellings (sp?). English has all kinds of irregular historical oddities that may or may not contribute meaningful distinctions. When it doesn't, I can appreciate a change to a more regular form, like swimmed rather than swam - especially from non-native speakers. There is a grey (gray?) area... do we absolutely need the who/whom or effect/affect distinctions? A related issue is choice of words such as the BBC list of 50 worst Americanisms http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796 . I think some are a step forward, some a step backward, and others neutral. Like the included notes from American readers in that article, this is a process of evolution. Mutations can be thought as random, and most misfits will die off but a few improved innovations will survive. There once was intelligent creationism in the form of spelling simplification by Ben Franklin or somebody of the American revolution era where various British spellings were shortened and regularized, although not all caught on. Meanwhile misspellings offer a window into the mind of the writer - are they obviously unaware of the roots of the words they use, or do they cover up a mess with a spell checker which lets them insert many (rightly spelled) wrong words that sound the same?

I wonder in what phase of the war the worst of the artifact damage happened? Too bad Germans didn't recognize that Heidelburg was being purposefully spared (as a culture center, just as Kyoto was) and sent artifacts there. They could have used Hitler's personel train bristling with AA guns, which he didn't use towards the end. Oh right, they would have installed secret weapons and elite villas instead. I will risk brainstorming a bit more, even though my WW2 knowledge may be fractured... It's interesting to think whether the damages were particularly needless (although not known at the time). The final intense bombings of Berlin had a solely psychological purpose IIRC since there were few useful ground targets or defensive planes to worry about. It was actually trying to save more damage and killing by forcing surrender before the ground forces swept in. The Russians were very close, but maybe Allies didn't have Hitler's psychology profiled right to see that a combined, imminent, apocalyptic threat did not tempt surrender (did tempt Hitler's deputies tho). But previous to that, at least in the latter half of the war, the Berlin bomb damage was not for psychological reasons. It was a successful program of tying down masses of 88 guns and fighter planes so that the Russians and later the Normandy invasion could proceed without overwhelming opposition. The bomber crews were explicitly sacrificial bait for the German fighters to approach and be mauled by P-51s and P-47s. Russia gets credit for 4 out of 5 allied casualties, but maybe this would have risen unsustainably if not for artifact-busting bombing which gave them air superiority. Earlier in the war the bombing may have been less useful due to less impact on German defenses (and of course psychology). In the case of Italy, isn't it a shame the fake invasion plan they so skillfully convinced the Germans of (thru a covert operation in Spain) didn't go into effect. Sardinia (after Sicily?) was to be captured and project airpower from southern Germany to the surrounding Med. There was optionally going to be incursion into Macedonia, Albania, or Yugoslavia. Think of the saving to the Italian mainland, not only to such prime artifacts of western civilization but to casualty rates in the mountainous boot that favors defense over offense. I think there is little in Sardinia worth preserving, and if the Germans could be convinced that the island invasion has merit, then why not. Instead a roll up the Italian boot occurred with a particularly skillful German general and klutzy US one.

The "naked archeologist" had a program on how thieves or at least illegal amateurs had brought to light the most interesting artifacts in Israel. Of course the legal archeologists countered that the biggest loss then was inability to examine artifact's embedded context. Maybe in centuries the items could be properly dug up - or on the other hand destroyed by construction. Lake Nemi was such a heartbreaker. Those fabulous Roman ships brought to light by Mussolini draining the lake - a documentary recently examined the tunnels drilled to make this happen. Then the ships being burned by retreating Nazis (I take it an alternate theory that Allies did it accidentally is whispered among scholars - I so much wish the Allies used plan B invading Sardinia rather than the mainland boot). I wonder if Italy completed a reconstruction of 1 ship that was shown laying a keel in a long ago documentary?

I have a medieval england course http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/Course_Detail.aspx?cid=8410 playing on my ipod and I believe the lecturer said both the Viking and Saxon "invasion" was oftentimes more like a stream of settlers, according to the archeology. She gave specific reasons why the history was long ago spun to emphasize the wave or invasion aspect due to identity politics. I don't recall if she claimed many women came by sea - you can put Viking bangles on a Brit bride. I may have muddled some of this narrative because I play this series while walking along busy traffic.

Borders drove me away from bricks and mortar stores and towards online. The freeloaders blocking the shelves in their eternal reading or headphone positions started getting territorial and relishing keeping genuine shoppers away from their interest areas. I remember years ago when these bookstores started this library/coffee theme when such opportunities weren't taken for granted. It was also a time vagrancy was uncommon even during recessions, but now the default attitude seems to be cynical assumption of entitlements. Well, I guess this approach still works at some fringe bookstores that attract esoteric demographics.

Sorry - I guess his "new" findings date from the early 1990's which he is just consolidating (not introducing) now. I am out of date due to immersing myself in WW2 decades ago at a military library with no followup. Now I have started to follow a book called something like "the third reich at war" and almost falling out of my chair due to stuff I didn't know (but probably widely known). Anyway I jumped the gun since I hadn't seen his video yet. I saw another one he did and some overenthusiastic book reviews, but this video was poor. I guess cspan book site is in a summer slow period and not so great now - but don't lose heart and be sure to check it around September!

Here is a heads up before they post the video on the page below, but some WW2 enthusiasts may want to check it out on the weekend TV broadcast times they indicate. The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War http://www.booktv.org/Program/12498/The+Storm+of+War+A+New+History+of+the+Second+World+War.aspx by Andrew Roberts who seems to be taking a fresh look at the whole war and reassigning blames and credits for various developments. Not just knee-jerk revisionism that you'd expect from modern monday morning quarterbacks, but pretty thoughtful. His conclusions almost seem disturbing (you're going to upset THOSE assumptions?) but they sound somewhat persuasive after getting over initial shocks. There is also an author broadcast on WW1 and other clashes this extended independence US holiday weekend. Both of the schedules near top of the first post may prove more fruitful to history buffs than last weekend due to this. These are usually about an hour long.

That WAS an unwatchable series. Jones' main reason for emerging from obscurity was by making a career out of knee-jerk irreverence in Monty Python. Wikipedia says he currently passes his time by demonizing in print the efforts to contain terror. I wonder if he was the "python" who John Cleese suggested as having had a distrustful childhood making him paranoid about any authority. He had a funny way of describing this, but only would criticize in name the "python" who died. About the same year, UC Berkeley held a class which is now downloadable that demonized the Romans in the same revisionist way, even within their borders. Also then, another "python" Micheal Palin did some present day travel documentaries pushing the victimology angle.

Applying for your own job throws up a scare, but may be less jeopardy for most than it appears. It could well be a veiled way to justify sacking specific people they have been unhappy with a long time, and may have repeatedly informed them of how to improve their status but with no cooperation. A bit brash for me to say though, having decided to early retire just before a re-app was sprung on our group. I think business exists for the customers and owners. If you hire a worker-bee plumber, is it acceptable if they can't make it but will charge you $500 per day for them doing training classes or back therapy or employee sleep in? The customer must be pleased with results, and the investor/owner/manager has to be pleased with the income or else should put their (sometimes considerable and essential) money elsewhere. Employees should find their profitable niche only by being as valuable or better than employees of competing companies, or else find a more productive niche (even self employment). I don't think the employee should be a charity or the whole transaction/responsiblity between owner and customer is perverted. For instance, gov't workers often don't give value to taxpayers because their management isn't answerable to taxpayers but rather to political factions like employee unions or voting freeloaders immune to the costs. That said, I did gravitate to a company famous for low employee turnover.

I thought I might prevent some grumpy meanderings in my forum entries if there was a place off to the side to unwind, such as here. And actually I feel guilty to not responding to a gun entry posted here somewhere months ago. Someone blogged about finding a really old family 10 gauge pump shotgun as I recall, and was thinking of testing it. At the time I remembered seeing such a thing in my dad's closet and him saying ammo is hard to get (and wondered why - huge 10ga was rare but legal). Later I heard some appraisal show saying these were mostly black powder guns and could not stand up to modern ammo. Well, it must be a testament to my values that alarm bells did not fully ring until I heard another appraisal show saying these were very valuable due to being the first pump/repeating shotguns. So while I didn't intervene then to try to save face wounds or loss of an eye (will heal by itself, or at least another eye is left), I now want to point out that sale of such a thing might help fund a visit to Roman sites! I also remember fiddling with 2 rifles from that closet. One was a WW1 gun which my dad had me convert to a "sport" rifle as a learning experience. It was still heavy for me as a kid so he used that and I got a modern semi auto. Having fiddled with bolt action, I could hardly imagine how it could repeat so took it all apart and reassembled - with one spring left over, to my horror. I didn't dare admit this, and went on a ritualistic deer hunt with my dad. I think we both had no interest in bloodsports, but it was a supposed to reveal it's value afterward according to myths of the time. After the unsuccessful hunt I emptied the gun, swung it vaguely towards a dirt pile by the car, and pulled the trigger to unspring the firing pin - BLAMMO! Maybe the missing spring would have revealed how there was still a round in the chamber. Anyway, it's good I always used the rule to point even unloaded guns away from people (many ignore this). And it's good I ran across a couple of poor squirrels before butchering any bambi, and got so sick at the sight of wounds that I eventually became vegetarian and save a chain of deaths that way. Not that I'm sentimental about it, I just don't want that vaguely unclean feeling.

Wow, I would love to be a WW2 archeologist. But the neutrality of Republic of Ireland was a sordid affair, indirectly stemming from a secret WW1 sabotage mission ordered there by the Kaiser. He also had some responsibility for the cold war, due to his secret WW1 support of Lenin's re-entry to Russia. He even affected my Norway holidays, by paying to rebuild Alesund (destroyed by fire) in a uniform art deco style. All by an oldtimer titled like Julius, who wore a pickle spike on his head. So this nonsense gets past BBC editors now? Maybe the Spitfire was marginally best on it's introduction, but even the later enhanced versions probably ranked below the top all time 5. Even Nazi top aces can be seen in documentaries giving a nod to that tiresome candidate, P51. The new generation of BBC editors no longer seem to know history or their heritage of understatement. (A Korean war documentary relates that a British tank group was not rescued due to the commander reporting to a UN coordinator only that things were "a bit sticky" when they were totally engulfed with enemy even atop their tanks)

I just went Trondheim->Bergen as a non stateroom passenger in 2003. Staterooms were chronically sold out even one could cope with their cost. My trick was to stop overnight in pretty Alesund and catch the opposite direction Hurtigruten which went into Geirangerfjord (maybe over rated in spite of Unesco listing), then catching the next southbound ferry continuing to Bergen. From this documentary, I feel I missed the best scenery that was north of Trondheim. But this documentary is even better because the northern towns were breaking out into festivities. I really like how this captures the feel of the voyage, including the soothing hours of how the hull just rhythmically hisses thru the swells. Reminds how I watched bronze summer sunrises among still snowy peaks from a deck vacated by people more interested in breakfast. How it feels to see deep blue sky and green coast after umpteen hours of grey drizzle... wouldn't it be nice to have this constantly running as a screen saver or on a tablet device on a bedstand to lull you to sleep. I think it will be a couple of years for hardware to be capable of handling the size/complexity of these files, or for Norway to condense them. P.S. In some lectures tracing Norwegians before vikings, I seem to recall the only early written record was of a Greek traveler reporting to Rome. I cannot find more mention of this, and anyway they couldn't tell at all how far along the fjord coast he got.

Some further thoughts after reading the scholars epilogue and forward and such: I didn't see any mention of disease notoriety, although the next expedition by DeSoto seems famous for that, along with brutality. Cabeza's trip thru the SE US actually had quite rare interactions with inhabitants. He probably would have led the DeSoto expedition (with very different legacy?) if not being delayed getting back to Spain by weather, a sinking ship and French pirates. Contrast that with Cabeza's later stranding in Texas and Mexico where the inhabitants took them as shamans to treat the sick (and made him breathe over each of the well as a protection). At least in the short term, all "patients" got better (psychosomatic?) including one who was thought to be dead. The half of a village that I mentioned dying on his arrival seemed to expire due to dysentery which I think is passed locally and not via Europe. Cabeza supposed he was leaving a trail of peace because he insisted in neighboring tribes stopping hostilities before he would treat them. He was horrified by Spanish slavers, and seemed to have a vision of how the Americas could be a symbiotic paradise once friction among the indians and with the Spanish could be turned positive. If that sounds delusional, you would have to read his account to see how his self-deprecating style seduces you into believing it. I guess he went on to an ill fated South American quest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/