Introduction A FEW DAYS ago I joined a dozen or so like-minded souls for a country ramble and litter pick, facilitated by Canoe River Cleaner, Jim Elliott, in partnership with Grimsby Community Organisation, Centre 4. The walk, which started out from Centre 4's hub on Wootton Road took us out onto open fields to the …
WRITING ABOUT Master & Commander recently stirred memories of a visit I once made to HMS Victory, lying in her permanent berth at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. If ever a ship embodies the spirit of Nelson’s navy, it is this one. HMS Victory at her berth in Portsmouth I remember stepping onto her decks and immediately …
Introduction IF YOU'VE READ my posts 'Fallen Eagle' and 'Lost Souls' you will know that my son Josh was, for several years, a member of one of the UKs premier World War Two re-enactment groups. (Right) Josh portraying a Gefreiter [Lance Corporal] of the German 21st Infanterie Rest time at the field kitchen (Left) Manning …
On this Day STANISLAV PETROV was born on September 7, 1939, just days after the outbreak of World War II—a world already teetering on the edge of disaster. Decades later, this modest, unassuming man would make a single, split-second decision, one that is widely acknowledged to have prevented global nuclear catastrophe. (Right) Stanislav Petrov, born …
Introduction: Flags, Fear and the Manipulation of Public Behaviour THROUGHOUT HISTORY, populations have been guided, swayed, and at times manipulated by those in positions of authority. The mechanisms of control are not always overt. More often they take the form of subtle nudges—engineered crises, health scares, product shortages, price hikes, media campaigns, symbolic gestures—that channel …
Nordic Folk Since August, 2023 I've presented on here several pieces of music, compositions which may be best described as 'Nordic Folk.' Ulvetime On August 18 that year I posted 'Ulvetime (Hour of the Wolf)' by Northern European group, 'Songleikr.' The song’s captivating lyrics confront mortality with a mood of dread and restlessness, yet my …
The State-Sanctioned Murder of Derek Bentley ‘By killing, the evil killer rips a jagged hole in the fabric of society. The jagged hole makes everyone edgy. Edgy people respond with panic. What if the fabric rips some more? What if the next rip is closer to home? What if it rips up my street? My …
‘The nation which first learns to plot the paths of air masses accurately and learns to control the time and place of precipitation will dominate the globe.’ General George C. Kenney, Commander of the US Strategic Air Command, in the 1940s. Project Cirrus, the first explicit, military rainmaking effort in the West soon followed. IT'S …
SOME FASCINATIONS begin in childhood and never let go. For me, one such allure was the silent menace of submarines—sleek, powerful vessels gliding unseen beneath the waves. In later years I found something similarly captivating on land: the commanding presence of smartly painted, intelligently-designed heavy lorries—powerful machines that appear as stunning and substantive as any …
TWENTY YEARS AGO, on July 7th, 2005, a series of coordinated bombings struck London’s transport system during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700. Within hours, the public was told the attacks were carried out by four British-born Muslim men acting independently, radicalised by extremism and driven to murder. But …
RAVEN MOON 