A bit of Iraqi reality leaks through

Of course it comes from the admirable Inside Iraq:October 30, 2009Dumb and DumberThere are more than 200 checkpoints in Baghdad; some of these checkpoints are manned by policemen, some by Iraqi army and some by both. Many of these checkpoints are equipped with explosive detectors...

An opinion on the Afghan war

I found this here, in comments: Paul McGeough of the Sydney Morning Herald: by R.Howe on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 2:21pm "McChrystal, I fear, has arrived too late – for Afghanistan and for Washington. He is asking for a huge act of faith on two fronts – first, by the international community; and second by the Afghan people. But after almost a decade of these...

Another Reality: the Forgotten World

This post at English Russia is typical of much of the most striking material at that photo-blog, which covers 1/6 of the Earth's surface.Have a look. It might prove to be a philosophical moment. It certainly is a philosophical tit...

Brad DeLong provides an approach to the last 20 years of world history

He calls it: Six Issues for a Panel... and it's US-centric, but worth some thought:Twenty years ago--with the end of the Cold War--American policy got dammed up: It was clear we needed to do something to balance the long-term social-insurance spending promises both parties were making with the long-term tax base, and we haven't.It was clear--first for national-security and domestic-congestion...

Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary

From the World Wide Words e-mail list. (The associated website is here).Review: Historical Thesaurus of the OED-------------------------------------------------------------------Lexicographers know from historical example and the nature of thejob that they're in for a long haul. Samuel Johnson thought hisdictionary project would take three years, but even with the helpof his amanuenses...

More on the war

Yes, there's a war on -- more than one!Juan Cole at his most optimistic has an article in Salon,Obama's foreign policy report card.Matthew Hoh, an American official and ex-Marine with extensive experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigns. Why? The war in Afghanistan makes no sense. See his letter of resignation and the Washington Post article describing his backgrou...

From Phil Paine's reading list: the The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea meets Google Earth

Here is Phil's whole entry:18180. [2] (Anon. 1st Century AD) The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century [translated from the Greek and annotated by Wilfred H. Schoff]I first read this in 1989, when I became fascinated by ancient India. Along with the work of Megasthenes, it gave me a vivid picture of the travel,...

You can make a real contribution to the exploration of the universe

Read about Galaxy Z...

An answer to a Charny Question

Some of you readers know quite a bit about Charny and his questions but let me explain to the rest why this little discovery is a thrill for me.Geoffroi de Charny was a prominent French knight in the 1350s who wrote a book of chivalry and a series of questions on the law of arms....

A very important point in my understanding of religion and its history

Over there at MEDIEV-L, we were discussing Islam, and someone mentioned Karen Armstrong, the prominent writer on religious issues. This clause was a side remark in a long argument:...the question is not who armstrong thinks is a "real representative" of a religion that is not hers ...And that impelled me to say this:And for me that opens up another question: even if the religion...

A Most Holy War: the Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom, by Mark Gregory Pegg

My review of this book is at The Michigan War Studies Review, specifically here.Here's an excerpt:A sense of the attractions of this book, as opposed to the several others available on the subject, may be gained from its last paragraph: God's homicidal pleasure lasted another eighteen years. Mountaintop ...

Saturn!

More he...

Le Siècle de Libanios : littérature, culture et société du IVe siècle après J.-C. dans l'Orient méditerranéen

On the off chance one of my readers has both a reading command of French and an interest in the cultural, political, and intellectual life of the late 4th century AD, I include this link. Have fun, o lucky read...

Opportunity on Mars

If we were a sensible species, we'd be building new countries in the sky instead of blowing up the ones we already have.Image: See APoD for an explanation of the pic and the mission (not a euphemism for "war" in this cas...

Wimps?

I would love to hear some informed commentary on this article from Reuters and The Independent:Modern man 'a wimp', says anthropologist Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions....

King Hrothgar's hall?

Is there anything to this story from the Copenhagen Post?Could a large mud building unearthed in Lejre have been a cult place or beer hall of the ancient Viking kings?The hall, 48 metres long and seven metres across, overlooks the site of a Viking palace unearthed in 1986 in what is an historic area of Denmark.‘We are sure we have found a royal building of some sort,’ said Tom...

Chunkey --- another elite sport, from pre-conquest North America

Included in my scholarly interests is the history of chivalric sports, which has made me sensitive to the influence that other elite sports and festivals have had. So I was really interested to read about the sport of "chunkey" as practiced by the Cahokia culture of North America...

Star-forming region Sharpless 171

For a bigger view, click on the pic, or here. Thanks to NASA and Astronomy Picture of the D...

What's happening in Pakistan?

The Independent out of the UK has the best connected account I have seen. Note this passage:Ordinary Pakistanis have been left bewildered [by recent terrorist attacks], unable still to believe that the danger comes from within the country. "Only God knows where such people...

Jokes Iraqis tell each other in traffic jams

From the McClatchy-affiliated blog written by Iraqi journalists, Inside Iraq. There are other solutions than bothering the people. Yesterday was one of my worst days. I left the office around 5:10 pm and arrived home around 8. I had to spend two of three hours on...

Review of The Medieval Cook by Henisch

From TMR, a great source for timely reviews:Henisch, Bridget. The Medieval Cook. Woodbridge, Suffolk:Boydell Press, 2009. Pp. 245. $47.95. ISBN: 9781843834380. Reviewed by Gina L. Greco Portland State University grecog@pdx.eduStudies of cookery in the Middle Ages, whether...

I'm shocked! Shocked!

From the New York Times Magazine:Worse yet, for all of America’s time in Afghanistan — for all the money and all the blood — the lack of accomplishment is manifest wherever you go. In Garmsir, there is nothing remotely resembling a modern state that could take over if America and its NATO allies left. Tour the country with a general, and you will see very quickly how vast and forbidding...

"We should avoid simple dichotomies."

I had a pleasant shock this weekend. I found out that I had already read, some years ago, a key work by one of the most recent winners of the Nobel Prize in economics, Elinor Ostrom. Her book Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, is relevant...

Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, 2009

The Big Picture has a great portfolio of Fall pictures. This one is from Highlands, New York on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. Click for a larger vi...

Fencing: A Renaissance Treatise, First English translation, edited by Ken Mondschein

I haven't actually seen this book yet, but it is in an area I have some interest in. Here's part of the publisher's blurb:Camillo Agrippa’s widely influential Treatise on the Science of Arms was a turning point in the history of fencing. The author — an engineer by trade and not...

Obama's Nobel

When something big (or at least noisy) like this happens, I don't feel obliged to add an opinion that has already been expressed, more or less.However, if anyone actually cares what I as an individual think, here are two posts that are close to my take:Juan Cole, Obama as Nobelist,...

If you want to slam academia...

...you don't need to go after advanced literary theory. In fact there are juicier and more important targets. From D-squared Digest, via Brad DeLong:Part Five - How Freaked Is Economics?Well, I promised myself I'd finish this before the sequel appeared in the shops, and the conclusion has been made, shall we say, somewhat easier by the fact that the burden of my conclusion -...

Don't underestimate those little guys

Phil Paine has added to his ongoing reading list. I found this review particularly interesting:Antoine de la Sale,[Petit] Jehan de Saintré [c. 1455]This fourteenth century French prose work is an odd item. It's a "roman" — prose fiction. But it's nothing like the fantastic fantasies that dominated the era. No quests, no dragons, no trips to the moon. Instead, it's a realistic...

A new translation of the Menagier de Paris

An excerpt of the review on the e-mail list, TMR-L (The Medieval Review), a useful and timely resource you can subscribe to free.Greco, Gina L. and Christine M. Rose, translators. The GoodWife's Guide (Le Menagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book.Ithaca: Cornell University Press,...

A big-city kid in the 1920s and 1930s

This account, by science fiction writer Frederik Pohl, sure feels like "early history" to me.Some excerpts:I count it one of the great good fortunes of my life that I grew up with all the resources of one of the world’s greatest cities within my reach. Young kids of the present, I do devoutly pity you, stuck in your pasteurized suburban developments except when Mom chauffeurs you...

Heart and soul

In the next little while I will be reviewing Mark Pegg's A Most Holy War (on the Albigensian Crusade) for the Michigan War Studies Review. I am just now looking at it. It is a rather slim volume, and I rather expected that it would be an up-to-date -- or not -- summary of what is known about this 13th century crusade in southern France. But now I don't think so. For one thing,...