Monday, April 15, 2019

The Notre Dame is burning and the heart breaks

This is an unfathomable tragedy and I only hope that if it can't be saved, that the Notre Dame will be rebuilt.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

A face only a mother(land) could love

Alternate title: The Soviet Yak-28 "Brewer-C" is one ugly aircraft.

Via Wikipedia.
I get that the Reds valued function over form, but even that has to have proper limits! Some comrade really looked at the final product and thought "Yeah, this looks good." The wings look so thin and narrow in that picture that I'm surprised that they could support the weight of those engines. Probably why they needed landing gear on the ends.

Monday, September 11, 2017

A horde of Roman Legion artifacts unearthed near Hadrian's Wall

Remains of the Vindolanda fort.
Credit: mramoeba.
This should interest both ancient history buffs and wargamers. Archaeologists discovered a previously hidden room under a Roman-era fort named Vindolanda and as they put it, won the lottery:

The room, which was sealed when the Romans covered it with a concrete floor, contained two Roman cavalry swords, lances, wooden practice swords (one of which has a gemstone set in the hilt, fancy!), and even mundane items such as bath clogs, styluses, combs, hairpins, and more. The concrete floor itself apparently is what preserved all of these items by creating an airtight seal.

It's really fascinating to think that all of that stuff was just laying there for near two millennia and is now just being found. It really goes to show how much history is still left buried in the ground and that archaeology is not a field that will be going away anytime soon.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Under Renovation - Keep Clear

A seawall under construction in Galveston, Texas.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Without intending to, I let this blog lapse into nearly two years of inactivity, which is unfortunate because while I never posted with any kind of frequency, I did enjoy posting here. I also let the focus of this blog slip into more modern, less historical concerns and that I regret. So, I'm going to try and remedy it and bring A Matter of Expedients back. Here's some ideas I have in mind:

I don't think I ever had any kind of limitation imposed on what time periods I posted about, but it did seem like most of what ended up on here was 19th century stuff. I'm aiming to maintain that but at the same time, I want to avoid touching on anything recent, so I'm going to impose a limitation: nothing beyond the 1950s. Maybe I'll push that line further back later on, but for now, I just want to avoid touching on subjects that are still sensitive or have become heavily politicized by today's political climate.

So basically, anything from the very beginning of history (or even before) up to December 31, 1959.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of my posts are military history related and while that's fine because wars and battles and such interest me, I want to post non-military history items too. There's a tremendous amount of meat there, with major events and larger than life figures to post about, so it's not like I'm going to be scrapping the bottoms of any barrels for subject matter.

In terms of posts, I'm aiming for both long and short. The former will roll out less often than the latter because I want to take my time crafting them and not everything needs a 1000+ word article.

On a minor note, there might be a blog redesign in the works. Blogger added new templates a few months back and I think one or two might work for this.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Well, that's a bit bothersome: Stalin's making a comeback in Eastern Ukraine

Credit: Alexey Filippov/AFP/Getty Images
Saw an article on The Guardian about how portraits of Josef Stalin are being installed in Donetsk, the capital of the rebel-held and unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic. In fact, the rebel government is also reviving other artifacts of the Soviet-era.
The previously taboo display comes as the rebels revive Soviet customs to cement their Moscow-backed rule – while glossing over Stalin’s atrocities.

The portraits went down well with one young woman walking past. “I think the portraits of Stalin are a good thing. It’s our history and a lot of people have forgotten he even existed,” said Yekaterina, a 22-year-old student.

The horrors of Stalin’s repressions and the deaths of up to five million Ukrainians in the 1930s due to famine caused by forced collectivisation go unmentioned.
The Donetsk rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, said how he regretted the break-up of the Soviet Union.

“The Soviet Union was a great country and it was a huge mistake that it was destroyed by the CIA and other secret services,” said the 39-year-old former field commander who prefers to dress in camouflage gear. “Europe and other countries were scared stiff of us.”


The Donetsk rebels’ deputy defence minister, Eduard Basurin, wears a badge with Stalin’s profile on his uniform.
Side note: Donetsk was also once named Stalino, so I wonder how long until that gets revived as well.

Friday, November 14, 2014

The pro-Russian separatists and their T-54

So I was derping around on Wikipedia, reading up on what kind of weapons and equipment the military of the self-proclaimed (and little recognized) Federal State of Novorossiya was using to fight against the Ukrainians. I noticed something interesting under the section about tanks: they've got a T-54. Now that itself isn't noteworthy because a lot of countries had them, thanks to the Soviet Union's foreign policies. What I did find amusing however was that they got the tank from a museum.
They've been erected new barricades on the streets of the city of a million people - and have even nicked a World War II tank from a local war museum.
The armed men arrived at Donetsk museum with heavy lifting gear, winched the Soviet era T-54 tank onto a flat-bed truck and drove it off. Squatting on top of the tank, one of them told a local online journalist: ‘‘We have got an engine to go in it. We have got some experts. We have to add the engine, ease the turret and it will be a working battle tank.’’
Well, necessity is the mother of invention, so I have to tip my hat to their improvisation. I wonder who these experts were and from which side of the border they hailed from? Actually, the separatists have a nice little armor corp, the bulk of which is made up of about 40 or more T-64s (apparently from Crimea after the Russians took over there), some T-72B1s, and a small number of other armored vehicles.

Friday, August 15, 2014





What do you think of this whole mess?


Monday, July 21, 2014

The Plantagenets by Dan Jones

(via Barnes & Noble)
I was at the local library the other day and not seeing much that interested me at the moment, I went to check out the bookshelves where they keep books they sale and found this. Two dollars well spent, in my opinion. Oddly, my copy looks brand spanking new, like somebody bought it and then just got rid of it without touching it. Maybe they bought it just to donate it to the library, figuring that it would end up in circulation? According to Amazon, the American edition of The Plantagenets was published April 18, 2013, which also happens to have been my birthday by coincidence. Anyways, here's the blurb, which differs from the one on the dustjacket:
The version on the dustjacket is much longer and I might edit this post later on to include it, since I like it more than the condensed version Amazon and others are using.

As of right now, I'm on the final chapter of Part 1 and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. Dan Jones' writing isn't stale or stuffy and he hasn't tried (at this point, anyways) to make a connection between the Plantagenet era and modern times. He's 32 years old, according to Wikipedia, and that apparently makes a difference. He knows how to write for a more contemporary crowd who aren't interested in sitting through a history lecture.

Point of interest is that The Plantagenets is only the first book of what is so far a two book series. The second book has two different names: The UK and Canadian edition is called The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors, while the U.S. edition is The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors. No idea why they removed "The Hollow Crown" from the title for the latter, because I liked it. Here's the blurb for the American edition:
The UK edition drops this September and the American edition drops in October. If the rest of The Plantagenets is as good as it is so far, I'll be eagerly waiting for the sequel.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Zulu is quite a good movie
One of my all time favorite war movies. It was Michael Caine's first big acting role and he and Stanley Baker were excellent. The battle was top notch and it was really cool seeing what late-19th century fighting might have looked like.

The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British and the Zulu Empires in modern day South Africa. The war is famous for the Zulu's surprise victory at Isandlwana and the Battle of Rorke's Drift, where less than 200 British soldiers defeated a force of 4,000 Zulu warriors. Zulu depicts the latter battle and a prequel, Zulu Dawn, centers on the former. The war ended the same year it started with the fall of the Zulu Empire and its annexation into the British Empire.

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to survivors of Rorke's Drift and even if the movie isn't 100% historically accurate, the medals were definitely deserved.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Fun fact: If Prince William becomes king, his regnal name will be William V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Provided that either of those states still exist by that point. If Northern Ireland goes back to Ireland and Scottish independence ends the United Kingdom, then he would just be William V of England.

Or maybe William the Bald
would be more appropriate?

(via Wikipedia)
If Prince Harry somehow, someway were to become king, his name would be Henry IX and would be the first King Henry since 1547!

Hopefully he'll avoid the
relationship issues of his predecessor
(via Wikipedia)
William's son, George, would be known as George VII.

Prince Charles, meanwhile, would be Charles III. Hopefully, he won't be like Charles I, who ended up losing his head - literally - over a change in management, nor Charles II, who was partly responsible for his successor, James VI being overthrown in the Glorious Revolution by...William III.

Let's be real though,
this guy is going to be senile or dead by then
(via Wikipedia)
And what of the Duchess of Cambridge? If her husband were to ascend the throne, she would be known as Katherine, Queen Consort.