The Sakura Dojo

Ninety years ago today, the Great War ended. The guns of the Western Front fell silent and Europe, and the world, passed into what was hoped to be another great era of peace.

To all of the brave men and women who served their country, in war and peace, we remember and honor you.

This day always brings to my mind A. E. Housman's poem:
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

In regard to my earlier observation, I have been watching the news about the Russo-Georgian conflict. Interestingly enough, the International Criminal Court is also trying to find out what happened in South Ossetia and Georgia to determine if any war crimes were committed.

So, what seems to have happened is that the South Ossetians kept provoking the Georgia forces with minor attacks until the Georgians finally snapped and struck back, admittedly with excessive force. When they did, the Russians had their excuse and it was on.

A sad and rather humorous, in a dark way, article in defense of the Russia actions by Mikhail Gobachev. He does say one important thing, "The region is a patchwork of ethnic groups living in close proximity." But neglects to mention that it was Russian (and then Soviet and now Russian again) policy to encourage, support and sometimes create such a patchwork to insure their ability to 'intervene' as needed.

The Russian military, intelligence and diplomatic services mounted a very well coordinated and effective campaign, though not everything went the Russians way, overwhelming force tends to make up for small mistakes.


And a minor kerfuffle in the gaming blogosphere, one of McCain aides made a statement (in reference to questions about a story McCain tells about his path) that was insulting to D&D players. However, he has since apologized.

Edit: The apology was from an earlier kerfuffle apparently. Though I am quite amused by it in any case.

A copy of the full original negatives for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, not seen in 80 years, found in a Buenos Aires museum. The original story was much longer and more complex than the version that is widely know.

Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, a short webcast series by Joss Whedon starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day!

Pneumatology is the study of spiritual beings (and other things too).

Think your job is bad? Look over the worst jobs in history.

The Oracle opens upon the heart of the Vortex, revealing . . .

Finished Rosemary and Thyme, Season 3, which seems to be the end of the series. Still delightful. People who like this sort of thing will like this sort of thing. My Grade: B-

And watched, over two days, The Patriot with Mel Gibson and a young Heath Ledger with Jason Isaac playing the villain of the piece with panache. If I could have turned off my historian brain, I would have enjoyed this more. Good points: Touching on the civil war-aspect of the War of Independence, reminder that the British had the upper hand for sometime and it was a close run thing to the end. Bad points: Bad history, atrocities that did not happen, lack of mercenaries under British command, French not given enough credit. Still, the battle scenes were impressive and there were a lot of good "player character" moments with Mel Gibson's character. My Grade: C

The Wikipedia article on the movie has some solid points about the historical controversy it stirred up. Also researching the move led me to a very fun webpage about Banastre Tarleton upon whom Jason Isacc's character was based.

Design by some of the early 20th Century's best Germany architects from 1920s Berlin, fascinating building. These building are currently seeking UNESCO world heritage status. Social housing in Germany came out of the Weimar Constitution which included the right to "healthy living" and tied into many innovative housing and design trends of the post-Great War era.

Or Kraft durch Freude in German, the Nazi leisure organization. They ran tourist camps and foreign tours for Germany and sought to make Germany a tourist destination. An interesting article about them on Spiegel Online with brochures! Again, seem like a great place to set a pulp adventure.

The Luxtorpedia, a gasoline powered single car luxury train that ran in Poland between the world wars (and used as a "Germans Only" form of transport during WW2). A perfect place for a confrontation with pulp villains! A short film from 1936 shows it in operation (starting at about 0:35 in).

The Chinese Government likes to forget about the Cultural Revolution as much as it can, but you should remember it. (The first part of the documentary can be found here on YouTube.)

From the tragic to the comedic, some commentary on the numbers of potential presidential candidates for the 2008 US election.

I so need to figure a way to work Dean Reed, the 'Red Elvis', a pop singer, cowboy actor, revolutionary and, eventually, defector to the Eastern Block, into a Heroes Inc character.

. . . so I though I would share it.

This is LBJ's 1964 ad that attacked Goldwater, not by name but by implication and feed into the whole LBJ campaign about how Goldwater was an "extremist" who would get us into war. This is considered the classic attack ad, it is mentioned is alomost every American history book I have read on the 60s but I had never actually seen it until today. And for those keeping score, it was LBJ who got us fully sucked into Vietnam and Goldwater who was all for limited govenment.