Ecclestone tells Mosley to quit...eventually

I'm a little baffled by this if Mosley can't function now then why then hold on until November? It's not like after he makes the announcement all the people who refused to talk to him will suddenly change their mind. Ecclestone can't believe that. Can he? There's no chance at a legacy.

Quotation [occasional]

"SATC[Sex and the City] spent its entire run TRYING to convince us that NYC was filled with great looking, rich, talented guys who wanted nothing more than a veiny-handed skinny broad in a nurse's uniform and stilettos." From an anonymous comment to They're Just Not That Into You

Fortress Without a Roof: The Allied Bombing of the Third Reich by Wilbur H. Morrison

Fortress Without a Roof: The Allied Bombing of the Third Reich by Wilbur H. Morrison. This book tries to do 2 different tasks. The first is to be a history of strategic bombing against Nazi Germany from the American perspective. The second is to further the American argument that daytime precision bombing was more damaging to the German economy than the British nighttime attacks on German cities. Unfortunately this second task makes the book rather polemic in places. Part of Morrison's argument is that Germany could have been defeated through bombing alone without the cross Channel invasion. This seems quite fanciful considering that the German leadership was unwilling to admit defeat until Berlin had been taken and the linkup between the Allied armies had taken place.

The history of the 8th Air Force is decent enough. Descriptions of heroic actions are sprinkled into the narrative of bureaucratic infighting. If an individual supported daytime precision bombing they are complemented if not they are criticized. This gets rather tiresome after a while. I get the idea he could have made the book about 100 pages shorter and not lost any of his argument.

Recommended for its perspective on the bombing but not as a history.

Is available through Abebooks.

Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes

Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes is a science fiction novel written by an Australian. This is first in a series, the fourth book has just been published. Spacejock is a chronically broke freighter pilot who needs to make some quick money fast. He has some nasty bill collectors who will not just take his ship but his life if he doesn't pay. Fortunately there happens to be a transport mission for robot parts. At the same time he has to drop off a robot who thinks he's going on a refit actually he's going to be junked for the tax write-off. A desperate competitor also wants the cargo.

The humor is decent enough. I did chuckle a couple of times. There are only a few puns which is nice. That sort of humor tends to be overused in most books like this. Sarcasm is wielded with great effect frequently by the ships navigation computer or Clunk the robot.

This is a fine summertime read. There really isn't anything profound here but it's still quite nice. I'm going to have to figure out a way to order them from Australia because I want the second book. If only the shipping from Australia was reasonable or for that matter if an American publisher picked up the series.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Berlin 1945: End of the Thousand Year Reich by Peter Antill

Berlin 1945: End of the Thousand Year Reich by Peter Antill is part of the Osprey campaign series. As usual for one of these titles this is a decent enough introduction to the battle, units and personalities. There are photographs or maps on just about every page. The text is readable but also has quite a bit of information in it. I was quite happy to see an extensive further reading bibliography section. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to whether one is included or not in a particular title.

there is particular coverage of the operations around the Reichstag and Hitler in the bunker. One minor criticism I do have is that the book actually tries to cover the campaign from the Soviet invasion in to German territory. I would've preferred if it had focused more on the battle for Berlin itself.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian [2 volumes] by J. B. Bury

History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian [2 volumes] by J. B. Bury. This is a narrative of Roman history that spans approximately 395-565. It is written in the grand tradition. I suppose in many respects it helped create this tradition. There is a narrative of events with substantial footnotes that often argue points of analysis as well as provide citations. This is primarily political and religious history with occasional nods towards warfare and the citizens. It was originally published in 1958.

Bury is trying to show that the collapse of the Western Empire was less of a fall then a continuation by the barbarian peoples. They often looked to the Byzantines to provide legitimacy and support. They also continued many Roman traditions both legal and political.

A substantial chunk of the second volume is taken up with the Byzantine conquest of Africa and Italy by the general Belisarius. The descriptions of the military campaigns are pretty good. For once I don't have to quibble about this. More than likely this has to do with the work being published prior to social history rearing its ugly head.

There's quite a bit on church history particularly different theological debates within the Christian Church. There is also a discussion of Justinian's codification of Roman law. Not being an expert I was a little worried going in but the argument is laid out in a way that I could follow.

When reading through something this old the question arises of how much it stands up to modern revision. I still see this referenced in modern works so I presume it has stood the test of time. An important piece on of Byzantine history.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Rachel Ray is not a terrorist!

Okay she's kind of annoying but still. I have no words to describe the level of stupidity this is. Probably the nicest smack down is on John Scalzi's blog.

Maxime Bernier goes

It's about time. Truly a terrible choice. His lack of judgment and ineptitude will be remembered. An example for future ministers on not what to do. The talent pool is probably starting to get thin for Harper, if he has to go to David Emerson as interim.

Note: to BBC. I'm not sure a minority government is "swept into power".

On blog traffic

When I put up a quick post on the passing of Rob Knox I didn't think it would be responsible for the highest traffic day in my blog's history. For a while yesterday for Google's blog search it was number 3 in relevance. Currently its 4th. Funny how things like that work.

Two comments on racing coverage

ABC, very classy prerace to the Indianapolis 500. When we weren't seeing Danica Patrick's breasts we were hearing from crying family members about the deathtrap that is racing.

Fox, so NASCAR says Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't endanger the safety teams during the Coca-Cola 600. Maybe you could show us a videotape so we could judge it ourselves. Unless of course you're covering up for NASCAR's favoritism like with all the fake debris cautions.

Rob Knox RIP

Condolences to the friends and family of Rob Knox. He was killed in a bar fight. He played Marcus Belby in the upcoming Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince film.

Nephew

Congratulations to my sister on the birth of her first born, 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches. Yes I'm being vague the kid doesn't need to be entered in the big government database quite yet..

Note: he was born on the 22nd apparently blogger ate this message instead of posting it.

Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia by John Prevas

Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey Across Asia by John Prevas is a colorful popular history of the Greek conqueror. What becomes quickly apparent is that Prevas really doesn't care much for Alexander. He considers him to be a megalomaniac. Unfortunately the book contains many of the faults of popular history.

The narrative starts with the Greek seizure of the Persian capital. Prevas says that this was the beginning of the madness that took hold of Alexander. With the seizure the war of revenge against Persia had been successful and it would be possible to break up Alexander's army. He didn't do this because he wanted to take control of the rest of Persia and kill the king. That would give him the authority to rule. Even after this was accomplished Alexander wanted to expand his empire through modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. This led to a series of disastrous campaigns for the locals. Only after the mutiny of his army did he turn back.

Much is made of the relationship between Alexander and his Macedonian contemporaries. The tension between Alexander's desire to be treated like an Eastern potentate and God with the traditional ideas of Macedonian leadership and law. The various assassination attempts and reprisals are described in gory detail.

There are some quasi-fictional sections to the narrative that I don't think are supported in any existing source. There's description of palaces and cities which sound like they've been polled right out of a novel. The most colorful stories of Alexander's cruelty and other failings have been trotted out without many provisos about the sources they are drawn from. Not much here from a military history perspective if you are looking for that. Some of the references to current conditions in Afghanistan and Pakistan were mildly interesting but were nothing new at least to me.

Not recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

2nd year anniversary

Today marks the second anniversary of this blog. I'm actually a little surprised it's lasted this long. This post will be the 539th that I have put up. Most are book reviews naturally. This past year I had a 70% increase in unique visitors over the first year. No idea if I'll be able to keep that pace up I guess we'll see. Probably the centerpiece of last year's activity was my rereading of Harry Potter in preparation for the release of book 7. You can revisit that through the Great Harry Potter Reread .

In the upcoming year I'm going to try to be more sociable in the blogosphere. There will probably be an announcement in the next couple of weeks. Which reminds me Maggie if you're reading this I need to ask your advice about something.

Tag changes

Over the next little while I'm going to be changing how I tag my posts. I have over 530 to work my way through so it may take a couple of weeks. I'm going to add subject tags to my book reviews and clean out some of the ones that I haven't used that much. I've fallen behind with my bookshelf subject posts. I'm going to discontinue updating them but I will leave them up. I'll provide a link to the relevant tag. Hopefully this will make navigation around here easier.

For instance here's my new and up to date British history tag.