An amazing view of Kabul

From the Big Pictu...

Is the past another country?

Brad DeLong gave me the opportunity today to put a deeply-felt conviction of mine into words.Brad was quoting from a blog called The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, whose author, Rufus F., was reflecting on the Odyssey.[Brad]: Rufus F. on the Homecoming of Odysseus: Homer “The Odyssey” | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen: I find his homecoming strange though. After winning a test...

Photojournalism from the Planet of Slums

Scavenging at a dumpsite near Jakarta, Indonesia. From the Big Pictu...

Economics as astrology?

John Emerson over at Trollblog asks a very good question:How flawed is economics?And then he continues:How deep does the problem go? I can’t prove anything, but we need to consider the possibility that the problem goes all the way down. Everyone except Eugene Fama knows that there’s...

Jousting break (Oz variety)

I'm tired of rewriting and revising -- let's have a jousting break!Thanks to all concerned in making the video. It's gre...

A truly worthy teaching from Geoffroi de Charny

There's much to dislike about medieval chivalry, but every once in a while...From Charny's Book of Chivalry:...those who have the will to achieve great worth [who] because of their great desire to reach and attain that high honor … do not care what suffering they have to endure, but turn everything into great enjoyment. Indeed, it is a fine thing to perform great deeds, for those...

"The customer is always right" goes out the window in France

Or to be fair to what is really a very large country, one corner of France.I have to admit I was somewhat shocked by the stupidity/rabble rousing revealed in this news report from Al Jazeera English. When you hear that Muslims in Europe will not integrate with the older population, remember this.Where are those terrifyingly threatening backward baseball caps, anyw...

Two more rather odd 14th century names from the Chronicle of the Good Duke

How about: Ciquot de la Saigne and Ortingo de Orten...

Hawley and Shakell hit the stage

I have a bad feeling that someone told me about this (Will McLean?) and I can't remember who. But it's not in my blog, or his, as far as I can tell so here goes.A few of you may remember that back at the end of the year I said that there was a story waiting to be told about Hawley and Shakell, who captured a Spanish count in the 14th century wars and spent decades trying to cash...

Book title needed

I am working away at a book about French military history in the 14th century, and I've just come to the realization that my planned title probably won't work out.I was thinking of calling it Men-at-Arms, which goes nicely with my previous book Deeds of Arms. It is also appropriate...

Endeavor

Click for a bigger pic. Thanks to Astronomy Picture of the D...

Two sides of the Venice Carnival: From the Big Picture

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History and forgiveness

Once again Brad DeLong points me in the right direction, which in this case is to a column by Ta-nehisi Coates at the Atlantic site:It's been twenty years since Nelson Mandela got out. This was like the defining political event of my youth. I was either a freshman or sophomore in high school, can't remember which. What I think is pretty cliche: Whatever South Africa's problems,...

A creaky old country

That's what I sometimes think when I read the news out of the USA. The most recent exhibit is a column by Bob Herbert in the New York Times:Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to take off for Palo Alto, Calif., to cover a conference on the importance of energy and infrastructure for the next American economy, The Times’s Keith Bradsher was writing from Tianjin, China, about...

A great Canadian work of art

I have said elsewhere that I am a sucker for great ephemeral works of art, for instance (some) Olympic opening ceremonies.Last night's pagentry was not perfect, but it had perfect moments.My first reaction, sparked by the beginning act featuring representatives of First Nations,...

Them good old days

From the Chronicle of the Good Duke, describing an expedition against English soldiers in the Bourbonnois country, late 14th century. So it was agreed to go to besiege La Bruyère in order that, when the Duke their lord came he would have to do only one siege. And in this way La...

Scrope v. Grosvenor

The English lawsuit, Scrope v. Grosvenor has a prominent place in the history of heraldry, since a record of the case before the court of chivalry has been preserved. I am going to be lazy and reproduce part of the Wikipedia entry, mainly because I couldn't do better myself:In 1385,...

This is a test

...

Celebrity intellectuals

If you want to be known world-wide as wise and insightful, being wise and insightful is not enough -- or maybe even necessary. Consider the case of Bernard-Henri Lévy, a French philosopher currently being pummeled for making a dumb mistake in public. From Scott McLemee at Inside...

Endeavor leaves the Big Loony Bin

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Sun halo over Angkor Wat, Cambodia

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

"All the fuss we made over these writers, as if what they said was a matter of life and death to us."

I have just finished reading one of the most remarkable books I've read in a very long time: Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran. It is a difficult book to describe; one might say it is a memoir, perhaps somewhat fictionalized, of an upper-class Iranian woman, partly raised in...

The American experience of war

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber has some interesting remarks on an article in the American Conservative which critiques the recent faith that the USA has shown in military solutions. The author of that article, Andrew Bacevich, said, "Contra Kristol, force is an 'instrument' in the...

Spartans?

For an explanation and more pics, go he...

Why Pakistanis don't see the USA as an ally -- the long-range consequences of colonialism

US policy in the Middle East depends in part on the cooperation of the governments and populations in areas where unfriendly groups exist. But despite the fact that most Muslims in the Middle East mostly oppose people who claim to represent "Islamic government," there is very little enthusiasm for a US alliance. From a distance it looks a lot like sheer crankiness. Juan Cole...

O brave new world!

From Crooked Timber:BBC Radio 4 had a fascinating programme the other day about the use of drones in warfare by the US, British and Dutch military. It is still available at iplayer here . A guy gets in his car and drives to work in an office in Nevada. From his office he controls...

Messing with the flag?

Above is a representation of the Iranian flag. Note the green stripe.Below is a picture of a recent official ceremony in Iran, with a depiction of the flag (in the shape of Iran) in which green is replaced with blue.Why is this? Is it a technical error? Or has it been changed...

Upcoming book from Dean Bavington

Dean Bavington is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental History at Nipissing University. I expect his first book, from University of British Columbia Press in May, to have a big impact on resource debates.Here's the publisher's blurb:Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod CollapseDean L.Y. BavingtonThe Newfoundland and Labrador...

Tethys Behind Titan: Two moons of Saturn

From Astronomy Picture of the D...

Half a million visits

Today this blog passed the half-a-million visits ma...

The Chronicle of the Good Duke and "modern times"

For some fans medieval history and some medieval reenactors in particular,the 14th century is "The One True Century." It certainly is flashy, but there are times I find it difficult to think of this period as a medieval one. Here's just one point: they had guns, and throughout the...