When Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously said it was “too early” to assess the implications of the French revolution, he was referring to turmoil in France in 1968 and not — as is commonly thought — to the more distant political upheaval of 1789.
So says a retired American diplomat, Charles W. (Chas) Freeman Jr., who was present when Zhou made the comment during President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972.
Freeman, who was Nixon’s interpreter during the historic, weeklong trip, made the disclosure last week during a panel discussion in Washington about On China, the latest book by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The discussion was moderated by Richard McGregor, a journalist and China expert who wrote about Freeman’s comments for the Financial Times of London.
In an interview yesterday, Freeman elaborated on his recollection about Zhou’s comment, the conventional interpretation of which is frequently offered as evidence of China’s sage, patient, and far-sighted ways. Foreign Policy magazine, for example, referred last month to that interpretation, saying the comment was “a cautionary warning of the perils of judgments made in real time.”
The Washington Post‘s recent review of Kissinger’s book likewise referred to the conventional understanding of Zhou’s remark.
Freeman described Zhou’s misconstrued comment as “one of those convenient misunderstandings that never gets corrected.”
He said Zhou’s remark probably was made over lunch or dinner, during a discussion about revolutions that had succeeded and failed. They included, Freeman said, the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Hungarian uprising of 1956, both of which the Soviet Union crushed.
He said it was clear from the context and content of Zhou’s comment that in saying it was “too early to say” the Chinese leader was speaking about the events in France in May 1968, not the years of upheaval that began in 1789.
Freeman acknowledged that the conventional interpretation makes for a better story but added that it was “absolutely clear” from the context of the discussion that Zhou was speaking about 1968.
W. Joseph Campbell, “‘Too early to say’: Zhou was speaking about 1968, not 1789”, Media Myth Alert, 2011-06-14.
April 11, 2020
QotD: Zhou Enlai’s famous “too early to say” comment on the French Revolution
April 10, 2020
“In Flanders Fields” – Sabaton History 062 [Official]
Sabaton History
Published 9 Apr 2020“In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row.” These words, written by John McCrae in his famous war poem “In Flanders Fields”, immortalize death and dying in the Great War like only a few others. It is said, that shortly after the death of his dear friend, McCrae looked over the parapet and onto the battlefield once more. In all the mayhem, the smoke, the exploding shells and the dead bodies on the ground, he saw that the little red flowers, the poppies, still grew. After a strong wind, their pedals would fly across the field, and lay there strewn, like the blood that was shed by the soldiers that had to die there.
Support Sabaton History on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sabatonhistory
Listen to “In Flanders Fields” on the Album The Great War here:
CD: http://nblast.de/SabatonTheGreatWar
Spotify: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarSpotify
Apple Music: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarAppleMusic
iTunes: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarItunes
Amazon: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarAmazon
Google Play: https://sabat.one/TheGreatWarGooglePlayWatch the Official Lyric Video of “In Flanders Fields” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPgZn…Check out the trailer for Sabaton’s new album The Great War right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZP1…
Listen to Sabaton on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/SabatonSpotify
Official Sabaton Merchandise Shop: http://bit.ly/SabatonOfficialShopHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Markus Linke and Indy Neidell
Directed by: Astrid Deinhard and Wieke Kapteijns
Produced by: Pär Sundström, Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Executive Producers: Pär Sundström, Joakim Broden, Tomas Sunmo, Indy Neidell, Astrid Deinhard, and Spartacus Olsson
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Sound Editing by: Marek Kaminski
Maps by: Eastory – https://www.youtube.com/c/eastoryArchive by: Reuters/Screenocean https://www.screenocean.com
Music by Sabaton.An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.
© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.
Did the British Engineer the Yugoslavian Coup of March 1941? – WW2 Special Episode
World War Two
Published 9 Apr 2020As Hitler pressured Yugoslavia to join the Axis Powers, Britain tried to gain a Balkan ally. Then Yugoslavia did join then Axis… and then there was an anti-Axis coup in Yugoslavia. But just how much were the British involved in that coup? Let’s find out.
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Or join The TimeGhost Army directly at: https://timeghost.tvDavid Stafford, “SOE and British Involvement in the Belgrade Coup d’Etat of March 1941”. In: Slavic Review 36:3 (1977) 399-419, https://www.cambridge.org/core/servic….
Follow WW2 day by day on Instagram @World_war_two_realtime https://www.instagram.com/world_war_t…
Between 2 Wars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesWritten and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)Colorizations by:
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…
Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Daniel WeissSources:
Istorijski arhiv u Pančevu
IWM HU 55505, D 4311, H 10922
FOTO:FORTEPAN / MZSL/Ofner Károly
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Portrait of Ronald Ian Campbell, courtesy National Portrait Gallery
Portrait of Frank Nelson, courtesy National Portrait Gallery
Digital Library of SloveniaSoundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Reynard Seidel – “Deflection”
John Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Johannes Bornlof – “Deviation In Time”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
M1 Carbine: A Whole New Class of Weapon
Forgotten Weapons
Published 9 Apr 2020http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons
https://www.floatplane.com/channel/Fo…
Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg…
The United States developed the M1 carbine very quickly at the beginning of World War Two, once the German “blitzkrieg” made it clear that highly mobile enemy forces could threaten rear echelon troops in a modern war. The M1911 pistol was seen as a difficult weapon to use well, and a light carbine would offer much greater effectiveness with less training. It was estimated that 500,000 would be needed, and more than 6 million were eventually produced during the war. The M1 Carbine would equip drivers, artillery crews, mortar men, headquarters staff, paratroops, and many more.
The M1 Carbine was developed by Winchester, but they were not participants in the first round of trials, Instead, their design came about when Rene Studler (head of the Ordnance Department) saw Winchester’s “M2” rifle prototype, a lightweight .30-06 intended to compete with the M1 Garand. He urged them to scale it down for the light rifle trials then ongoing in 1941, and Winchester complied. The design used a Garand-like rotating bolt and a gas tappet system designed by David Marshall Williams for the .30-06 rifle. The new carbine was cobbled together in less than two weeks, and is a truly fantastic achievement.
Thanks to InterOrdnance / Royal Tiger Imports for providing this M1 Carbine for filming!
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N. Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85740
A French Air Force Rafale-B flight that could have ended even worse for all concerned
I’m guessing from what is revealed in this report, the Armée de l’air will be far more reluctant to allow unqualified individuals to get into their fighter aircraft in future:
The Rafale-B that was damaged during the accidental passenger ejection in March 2019.
Image from Bureau enquêtes accidents pour la sécurité de l’aéronautique d’État, BEA-A.
An elderly and reluctant Frenchman was ejected from a French Air Force fighter during a retirement day jolly – and narrowly missed taking the pilot with him, an investigation report littered with unintentional howlers has revealed.
The unnamed 64-year-old was éjecté from the two-seat Rafale-B in March from a height of 2,500ft in March last year after grabbing his ejection seat handle to steady himself, France’s BEA-E aviation investigator concluded.
Although the BEA’s full report is in French [PDF], aviation news website Aerotime Hub translated and summarised its contents, revealing the full comedy of errors triggered by a group of enthusiastic colleagues hoping to give their workmate a send-off to remember.
[…] a mechanic gave them both a cursory check, strapped a Go-Pro to an approved bulkhead mounting point so the hapless passenger’s gurning would be preserved for all time, and nodded to the pilot to close the transparent cockpit canopies.
Things got worse when the pilot took off from northeastern France’s Saint-Dizier Robinson airbase. Rather than the gentle ascent at 10°-15° that airline passengers experience, the Frenchman at the Rafale’s controls carried out a typical fighter jet departure and “climbed at 47°, generating a load factor of around +4G. Then, as he levelled off, he subjected his passenger to a negative load factor of about -0.6G”.
Forces exerted by Britain’s most G-force-intensive roller coaster, Alton Towers’ Rita, max out at +4.7G – or four times the normal force of gravity.
Our pensioner, loose in his straps, not really wanting to be there and totally unused to being flung around like a rag doll, reached out to grab something and hang on for dear life. He picked the worst possible handhold: the trigger handle for the ejection seat. After the customary loud bang and whoosh he ceased to be part of the jet’s payload, with the force of the ejection tearing his unsecured helmet and mask from his face.
The Rafale-B’s command ejection system is meant to fire both seats if one of the crew pulls the handle. A very confused pilot, however, was still sitting in his newly canopy-free Rafale wondering what the hell had just happened. He returned to land, conscious all the time that the seat could fire at any moment without warning. Luckily, it didn’t go off.
Approximate reconstruction of the path of the Rafale-B leading up to and following the accidental ejection.
Image from Bureau enquêtes accidents pour la sécurité de l’aéronautique d’État, BEA-A.
Char 2C – The World’s Biggest Operational Tank
Mark Felton Productions
Published 15 Nov 2019Find out the unbelievable story of the biggest operational tanks in history – the French Char 2C, and their peculiar fate.
Help support my channel:
https://www.paypal.me/markfeltonprodu…
https://www.patreon.com/markfeltonpro…Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the ‘Comments’ section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the ‘Comments’ section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.
Credits: YouTube Creative Commons; WikiCommons; Google Commons; Mark Felton Productions
Music: “Pursuit” and “Dogma” licenced to iMovie by Apple, Inc.
H/T to @AnonymousFred514 for the link.
QotD: Ketman
The problem, though, is that the sour pleasure of ketman is addictive, and like any addiction, you need to keep upping the dose to feel the same effect.
My first few years in grad school, anyone who cared to look could’ve easily spotted me as a secret shitlord. For one thing, I was the only guy in the whole damn town who actually looked happy. For one thing, professing is a 24/7 job — that’s “24 hours a week, 7 months a year,” and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. All that free time is lovely, especially in a college town with 24-hour everything and scads of scantily clad undergraduate eye candy.
But more importantly, there’s the pleasure of ketman. So long as I make a few radical noises, I can get you sheep to believe anything I say. I used to tell people I studied transgendered potato farmers in the Kenyan uplands. I told this obnoxious girl from the Gender Studies department my dissertation was on resistance strategies of Eskimos in the Waffen-SS. I cited Alan Sokal’s hoax paper on the social construction of gravity in every seminar taught by a radical feminist, and no one ever called me on it. Anyone who thinks I’m kidding obviously hasn’t been on campus in the last 20 years or so. It was fucking hilarious …
… for a time. And then it got sad, then nauseating, because I eventually realized I was no different from the fools who swallowed my bullshit. It doesn’t matter if you’re being exquisitely ironic when you tell a room full of freshmen that “gender is a social construction.” They can’t recognize irony anyway, and even if they could, parroting the phrase “gender is a social construction” is still required to pass the class. More importantly, what if they did recognize it? I’m up there thinking I’m a shitlord, speaking truth to power to anyone smart enough to figure it out, but all they see is another fat, middle-aged sellout parroting nonsense. If I were serious about my shitlordery, they think, then I’d quit. But I don’t quit, which must mean my so-called “principles” are worth … what? We’ve already established you’re a whore, madam; now we’re just haggling over the price.
Severian, “The Pleasures of Ketman”, Rotten Chestnuts, 2020-01-09.
April 9, 2020
Restore a vintage handsaw and get working NOW!
Rex Krueger
Published 8 Apr 2020Learn to restore an old hand-saw all the way from tag-sale trash to essential woodworking tool.
More video and exclusive content: http://www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
Complete Joiner’s Bench Bundle (40 pages, full color, only $10): https://bit.ly/2QZls9TTools and Materials for Saw Restoration (affiliate):
Cheap screwdriver (good for modifying): https://amzn.to/2xUP0i3
Steel Wool: https://amzn.to/2UPhNgR
Mineral Spirits: https://amzn.to/2JJQpuw
Wax: https://amzn.to/2UR4Xiw
Wire Wheel Set: https://amzn.to/34k6alx
(several wheels for mounting in different machines)
Wet-or-Dry Sandpaper Assortment: https://amzn.to/2UO18KS
Flat File (for saw jointing): https://amzn.to/3bYOoXl
Tekton Triangular File: https://amzn.to/34p908H
(These files are not great, but they work. Comes with good handle. Buy the 6in, “slim”.)
220 Grit Sandpaper: https://amzn.to/39PjmQjWood Work for Humans Tool List (affiliate):
Stanley 12-404 Handplane: https://amzn.to/2TjW5mo
Honing Guide: https://amzn.to/2TaJEZM
Green buffing compound: https://amzn.to/2XuUBE2
Cheap metal/plastic hammer for plane adjusting: https://amzn.to/2XyE7Ln
Spade Bits: https://amzn.to/2U5kvML
Metal File: https://amzn.to/2CM985y (I don’t own this one, but it looks good and gets good reviews. DOESN’T NEED A HANDLE)
My favorite file handles: https://amzn.to/2TPNPpr
Block Plane Iron (if you can’t find a used one): https://amzn.to/2I6V1vh
Stanley Marking Knife: https://amzn.to/2Ewrxo3
Mini-Hacksaw: https://amzn.to/2QlJR85
Blue Kreg measuring jig: https://amzn.to/2QTnKYd
Blue Handled Marples Chisels: https://amzn.to/2tVJARY
Suizan Dozuki Handsaw: https://amzn.to/3abRyXB
Vaughan Ryoba Handsaw: https://amzn.to/2GS96M0
Glue Dispenser Bottle: https://amzn.to/30ltwoB
Orange F Clamps: https://amzn.to/2u3tp4X
Blue Painters Tape: https://amzn.to/35V1Bgo
Round-head Protractor: https://amzn.to/37fJ6oz
5 Minute Epoxy: https://amzn.to/37lTfjK
Dewalt Panel Saw: https://amzn.to/2HJqGmOPlans, t-shirts, and hoodies: http://www.rexkrueger.com/store
Get my woodturning book: http://www.rexkrueger.com/book
Follow me on Instagram: @rexkrueger
The (former) captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt
Another example of how civilians interpret an action in a radically different way than the military does (and must):
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) underway in the Persian Gulf, 3 December 2005.
U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Matthew Bash via Wikimedia Commons.
Okay, about this USS Teddy Roosevelt captain …
No, he’s not some sort of rebel hero who fought the power for his sailors and stuff because only he gave a damn about them. That’s crap, and […] I am not happy to see him get canned. I was an O6 myself, and I would prefer O6s, as a rule, not end up fired. But that was the only course of action available to the SecNav. The guy screwed up, big time.
To believe this CAPT Crozier guy is a hero, you have to believe stupid and wrong things which you should not believe due to their stupidness and wrongness.
You have to believe that the Navy “didn’t care” about sick sailors. Libs take this further to imply that the Navy “didn’t care” about sick sailors because that would have made Trump angry.
This is, as I said, stupid and wrong.
The Navy brass has several things to think about, and there is an order of priority among those things. The priority order is 1) the mission and then 2) the sailors. Notice the order? One of the unique aspects of the military is that it is one of the very few institutions where the lives of its members are expressly and deliberately subordinated to the mission. An aircraft carrier is a major strategic asset, almost incalculably major. And this captain wanted to take it offline. Now, that could have been the decision. Command is about making tough decisions, but it was not his decision. Once he gave his input to his bosses, what he thought meant nothing.
Nothing.
We elect a commander-in-chief to make those decisions. He delegates them in a clear order of precedence to his subordinates. So, CAPT Crozier was not defying admirals or even Trump when he decided he should make the decision. He was defying you and me.
The chain of command is a thing, as he found out when he got his walking papers. And it did not stop being a thing when he did not like the orders it gave him.
If your sailors are your number one priority, you frankly have no business being in command. The mission is the number one priority. That’s hard, and no fun, but [it’s] true. And that’s not an excuse to abuse or neglect your men — far from it. But it is a recognition that you have a mission and that is your priority.
Corzier was the captain of the carrier. There was an admiral down the hall — literally — who was his boss as task force commander. Why did he not go to the admiral? Or maybe he did go to the admiral and didn’t like the answer he got. Your commander disagreed with you? Gee, welcome to military service. Salute and drive on.
There’s no scenario where he’s right on this.
The True Story of How WW2 Began | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1939 Part 3 of 3 I SEASON FINALE
TimeGhost History
Published 8 Apr 2020In this final episode of Season 1 of Between Two Wars we examine what caused the world to stand on the brink of total war in just two decades after the War to End All Wars. Events that end with three words through a phone line: “Grandmother is dead,” words that launch World War II.
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Spartacus Olsson
Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Spartacus Olsson
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Sound design: Marek KamińskiSources:
From the Noun Project:
soldier By Wonmo Kang
coin stacks By emilegraphicsColorizations by:
– Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
– Olga Shirnina
– Spartacus Olsson
– Daniel WeissSoundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “Sophisticated Gentlemen” – Golden Age Radio
– “First Responders” – Skrya
– “Easy Target” – Rannar Sillard
– “The Inspector 4” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “Last Point of Safe Return” – Fabien Tell
– “Death And Glory 3” – Johannes Bornlöf
– “Split Decision” – Rannar Sillard
– “March Of The Brave 9” – Rannar Sillard
– “Mystery Minutes STEMS INSTRUMENTS” – Farrell Wooten
– “The Charleston 3” – Håkan ErikssonArchive by Reuters/Screenocean http://www.screenocean.com
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
TimeGhost History
1 day ago
Dear friends, this is the 58th and final episode of the first season of Between 2 Wars. Almost exactly two years ago, when the first episode went live, on April 14, 2018 we were three people. We had not started the WW2 channel yet. The TimeGhost Army had less than 100 members, and we had no idea where we would end up. As it turned out, it has been a magnificent journey through twenty years of history.We are now a team of around sixteen individuals working on three channels and publishing more than five historical videos per week. And this is thanks to all of you who have graced us by watching, liking, commenting, and joining the TimeGhost Army. And it is especially thanks to the now over 4,000 members of the TimeGhost Army and their faithful contributions that we are able to do this at all. Thanks to you all, we can add a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of perspective, and hopefully a little bit of sanity (and also a measure healthy insanity) to the world.
It’s especially in times like these that we feel blessed by your support, so that we can continue our mission of remembrance and education. So it is with humble gratitude and some pride that we deliver this season finale. With your participation we will keep marching on, and try to do even more, even better, and exciting historical content.
Thank you all!
Let’s make history!
Spartacus
Definition note: when we use the term Socialist we always use the academic and dictionary definition: an ideology that aims to abolish private ownership of capital, goods, and enterprise to transfer it to the collective for use rather than profit. The means to achieve that being a violent revolution. We do not use the popular US redefinition of the word that makes it mean something vaguely like “anything the government does.”
You know you’re entering a police state when the police can just make up new “laws” to enforce
I was surprised to see the name of someone I used to work with pop up in a story about over-enthusiastic enforcement of imaginary “laws” in the Ottawa area:
On Tuesday, the City of Ottawa’s bylaw enforcement team tweeted out an important clarification to a recent news report: An Orléans man had not been and would not be issued a $700 ticket for “playing soccer with his son in an empty field.” Rather, the city maintains, he had only been issued a “verbal warning” for playing soccer with his son in an empty field.
One can understand the Orléans man’s confusion. As David Martinek told it to the Ottawa Citizen, he was kicking around a ball with his four-year-old son William, who has autism and “more energy than needed to power the City of Ottawa,” when a bylaw officer arrived, took note of his licence plate and mentioned the $700 figure. He quite logically expected a summons in the mail.
The good news, such as it is, is that Martinek is no poorer to the tune of $700 (though he could have crowdfunded that in about 90 seconds). The remarkable thing about the city’s clarification, however, is that it actually paints a more offensive picture. A ticket is something you can fight — and such a ticket would deserve to be fought unto its demise, because Martinek doesn’t seem to have been doing anything illegal. As such, the “verbal warning” serves only as intimidation against a harmless, indeed beneficial activity.
The City of Ottawa’s website lays out the “rules and restrictions” in force due to COVID-19. It notes that bylaw officers have been empowered to enforce Ontario’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. Regulation 104/20, made under said act, orders the closure of “outdoor recreational amenities that are intended for use by more than one family.”
It defines “outdoor recreational amenities” as off-leash dog parks, community and allotment gardens, “all portions of park and recreational areas containing outdoor fitness equipment,” “all outdoor playgrounds, play structures and equipment,” “all outdoor picnic sites, benches and shelters in park and recreational areas,” and “all outdoor sports facilities and multi-use fields, including baseball diamonds; soccer fields; frisbee golf locations; tennis, platform tennis, table tennis and pickleball courts; basketball courts; BMX parks; and skate parks.”
Considerable thought went into those very thorough prohibitions, you will agree. Yet they conspicuously do not prohibit two members of the same household kicking a ball around. Martinek says he questioned the bylaw officer as to whether they were on city parkland, but there’s nothing in the act prohibiting intra-household kick-arounds in parks or anywhere else. “Nothing in this order precludes individuals from walking through or using portions of park and recreational areas that are not otherwise closed and that do not contain an outdoor recreational amenity described,” the regulation reads.
Lawrence of Arabia | Based on a True Story
The Cynical Historian
Published 6 Nov 2015The classic film Lawrence of Arabia, is one of the most beautiful movies of all time, but it has its flaws.
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references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrenc…http://www.wordandfilm.com/2013/08/wh…
http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-16…
most beautiful movies list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj73a…
————————————————————LET’S CONNECT:
https://twitter.com/Cynical_History
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wiki:
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. The film stars Peter O’Toole in the title role. It is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young are also highly acclaimed.
The film was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963; it won seven in total: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography (Color), Best Art Direction (Color), Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film.The film depicts Lawrence’s experiences in the Arabian Peninsula during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence’s emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army and his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes. As well as O’Toole, the film stars Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy.
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Hashtags: #History #LawrenceOfArabia #WWI #Review #BasedOnATrueStory
QotD: Collective narcissism
Collective narcissists are not simply content to be members of a valuable group. They don’t devote their energy to contributing to the group’s betterment and value. Rather, they engage in monitoring whether everybody around, particularly other groups, recognise and acknowledge the great value and special worth of their group. To be sure, collective narcissists demand privileged treatment, not equal rights. And the need for continuous external validation of the group’s inflated image (a negative attribute) is what differentiates collective narcissists from those who simply hold positive feelings about their group.
[…]
When their own group is involved, collective narcissists have no sense of humour. They are disproportionately punitive in responding to what they perceive as an insult to their group, even when the insult is debatable, not perceived by others, or not intended by the other group. Unlike individual narcissists, collective narcissists cannot dissociate themselves from an unpopular or criticised group. Once their self-worth is invested in the greatness of their group, collective narcissists are motivated by enhancing their group rather than themselves.
My team researched collective narcissism as a characteristic that pertains to an individual. We believe that there will always be a proportion of people in any given population who meet the criteria. But collective narcissism can also seize an entire group, resulting in seemingly sudden and unprovoked outbursts of intergroup rage or prejudiced reactions towards minority groups. We believe that collective narcissism is most dangerous as a group syndrome – when the belief that the righteous group is not given its due acknowledgement becomes shared by the majority of group members and becomes a dominant narrative about the group’s past and present.
Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, “Why collective narcissists are so politically volatile”, Aeon, 2018-01-18.
April 8, 2020
If the Wuhan Coronavirus panic feels oddly familiar … there’s a good reason for it
Warren Meyer explains why his skepticism about the dangers of the Wuhan Coronavirus epidemic kicked in quickly because it followed a very familiar pattern:
I have been skeptical about extreme global warming and climate change forecasts, but those were informed by my knowledge of physics and dynamic systems (e.g. feedback mechanics). I have been immensely skeptical of Elon Musk, but again that skepticism has been informed by domain knowledge (e.g. engineering in the case of the hyperloop and business strategy in the case of SolarCity and Tesla). But I have no domain knowledge that is at all relevant to disease transfer and pathology. So why was I immediately skeptical when, for example, the governor of Texas was told by “experts” that a million persons would die in Texas if a lock-down order was not issued?
I think the reason for my skepticism was pattern recognition — I saw a lot of elements in COVID-19 modelling and responses that appeared really similar to what I thought were the most questionable aspects of climate science. For example:
- We seem to have a sorting process of “experts” that selects for only the most extreme. We start any such question, such as forecasting disease death rates or global temperature increases, with a wide range of opinion among people with domain knowledge. When presented with a range of possible outcomes, the media’s incentives generally push it to present the most extreme. So if five folks say 100,000 might die and one person says a million, the media will feature the latter person as their “expert” and tell the public “up to a million expected to die.” After this new “expert” is repetitively featured in the media, that person becomes the go-to expert for politicians, as politicians want to be seen by the public to be using “experts” the public recognizes as “experts.”
- Computer models are converted from tools to project out the implications of a certain set of starting hypotheses and assumptions into “facts” in and of themselves. They are treated as having a reality, and a certainty, that actually exceeds that of their inputs (a scientific absurdity but a media reality I have observed so many times I gave it the name “data-washing”). Never are the key assumptions that drive the model’s behavior ever disclosed along with the model results. Rather than go on forever on this topic, I will refer you to my earlier article.
- Defenders of alarmist projections cloak themselves in a mantle of being pro-science. Their discussions of the topic tend to by science-y without being scientific. They tend to understand one aspect of the science — exponential growth in viruses or tipping points in systems dominated by positive feedback. But they don’t really understand it — for example, what is interesting about exponential growth is not the math of its growth, but what stops the growth from being infinite. Why doesn’t a bacteria culture grow to the mass of the Earth, or nuclear fission continue until all the fuel is used up? We are going to have a lot of problem with this after COVID-19. People will want to attribute the end of the exponential growth to lock-downs and distancing, but it’s hard to really make this analysis without understanding at what point — and there is a point — the virus’s growth would have turned down anyway.
- Alarmists who claim to be anti-science have a tendency to insist on “solutions” that have absolutely no basis in science, or even ones that science has proven to be utterly bankrupt. Ethanol and wind power likely do little to reduce CO2 emissions and may make them worse, yet we spend billions on them as taxpayers. And don’t get me started on plastic bag and straw bans. I am willing to cut COVID-19 responses a little more slack because we don’t have the time to do elaborate studies. But just don’t tell me lockdown orders are science — they are guesses as to the correct response. I live in Phoenix where it was sunny and 80F this weekend. We are on lockdown in our houses. I could argue that ordering everyone out into the natural disinfectant of heat and sunlight for 2 hours a day is as effective a response as forcing families into their houses (initial data, though it is sketchy, of limited transfer of the virus in summertime Australia is interesting — only a small portion of cases are from community transfer. By comparison less than a half percent of US cases from travel).
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia – Victim of Circumstance? – WW2 Biography Special
World War Two
Published 7 Apr 2020A Serb royal with an English heart sounds pretty romantic, but the story of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia is far from it. Trapped by circumstance, he is forced to make decisions that go against his own personal beliefs and leave him condemned as a traitor.
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Source list: http://bit.ly/WW2sourcesHosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Francis van Berkel
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Tom Meaden
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)Colorizations by:
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Carlos Ortega Pereira, BlauColorizations
Adrien Fillon – https://www.instagram.com/adrien.colo…Sources:
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
USHMM
IWM MH 26392Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Howard Harper-Barnes – “London”
Farell Wooten – “Blunt Object”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Gunnar Johnsen – “Not Safe Yet”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
