Cartoon Time.

Happy Valentine's Day! Go hug a Loved One - STAT!

So, you say you want a Revolution…..?

I’ve been thinking a bit (OK, a lot) lately on where my R4 reading - Revolt, Rebellion, Resistance and Revolution – is taking me and felt it was about time to tighten things up and focus where I want to go rather than wandering in a revolting open-ended desert. So, here are my thoughts….

My future focus will be directed much more at Rebellion and Resistance rather than Revolt or Revolution. Such things as the American, French and Russian Revolutions will come up no doubt but will only form background or context reading rather than anything else. Another aspect of the new focus will be time. Rebellions and Revolutions have occurred across the globe throughout recorded history. That’s a lot of ground to cover along with everything else I’ll be reading. So, the focus will be on modern examples of Rebellion in the post-Industrial Revolution period and, generally, dating from the 19th Century onwards. I think that the General Strike in 1926 has more relevance to what I’m trying to achieve (or understand) than the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. Likewise the focus will be much more on street level rather than Dynastic or Factional power struggles within ruling bodies. I’m much more interested in what happened to the people than their so-called masters. Naturally this leads onto a number of iconic Civil Wars throughout history. My focus would indicate that the later Spanish Civil War would draw much more of my attention than the American Civil War and definitely more than the English Civil Wars of the 17th Century although, no doubt, all three events will get some coverage in my reading to come.

With an increasing emphasis on the modern age it’s inevitable that I will be reading about Revolutionary and, most probably, Terrorist organisations that we have grown all too familiar with over the last 50 years. Some of this reading will, no doubt, be uncomfortable especially as we continue to exist in era not too dissimilar to the 1970’s in so many ways (though thankfully without the questionable fashion sense). So expect books about Urban Terrorism and gangs such as the Red Army Faction in Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy. Bringing it more up to date I’ll also be dipping my toes into the dangerous worlds of groups like FARC and the PKK. The Kurds in particular are exhibiting an interesting pull on my attentions presently so expect to hear much more of them over the next year or so. Closer to home I will be reading some more about the situation in Ireland over the past 100 years or so and might even be able to acquire something on that fascinating little group known as The Angry Brigade who so vexed the British authorities back in the early 70’s. Moving away from Europe I’ll also be looking at American radicalism in the 70’s with the SDS and the Weathermen Underground before bringing things up to date with Occupy and Black Lives Matter.

So where am I going with all this? To be honest I’m not completely sure yet. I have been fascinated with acts of rebellion for as long as I can remember. After all I AM a child of the 60’s! What I’m hoping for is that I discover something, a nugget, which I can delve into and build around enough to allow me to create a project for a PhD. At least that’s the longer term dream. I think I’m much more likely to find such a nugget if I narrow my focus in the way I’ve outlined above. I guess that we’ll see where I end up.

Cartoon Time.

Asteroid set for 'close' 43,300 mile flight past Earth on Friday

From the BBC

9 February 2018

An asteroid up to 40m in size and only discovered five days ago, is due to skim past the Earth on Friday. Asteroid 2018 CB will pass by at just less than one-fifth the distance between the Earth and the Moon. It was first spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona, a Nasa-funded project to record potentially hazardous asteroids. However, while the pass is relatively close in astronomical terms, it's nowhere near enough to be a threat. The 15-40m space rock is set to make its closest approach to Earth at 22:27 GMT. "Although 2018 CB is quite small, it might well be larger than the asteroid that entered the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, almost exactly five years ago, in 2013," said Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.

"Asteroids of this size do not often approach this close to our planet - maybe only once or twice a year." CB 2018 will buzz us at a distance of 69,700km (43,300 miles), which is roughly twice as far as the belt of satellites which orbit Earth in geostationary orbit. Another small asteroid passed within lunar distance this week. Known as 2018 CC, the object made its closest approach to Earth on 6 February at a distance of about 184,000km (114,000 miles). That asteroid, also discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey, was estimated to be between 15m and 30m (50-100ft) in size.

[OK, the most disturbing thing about it is that they only discovered it 5 days previously….! I’m hoping that, if it had been much larger, that it would’ve been spotted sooner – at least that’s the hope. I do wonder if they’d tell us if it was going to impact though. Thankfully the one that exploded over Russia 5 years ago didn’t happen during the dark years of the Cold War. Can you imagine if such a thing caught the Russian missile defence system napping or during a tense internal crisis! It just doesn’t bear thinking about…. I guess that sooner or later one of this Near Earth Asteroids will impact somewhere. I suppose it’s only a matter of time. With luck it’ll hit somewhere harmless and the next time we’ll be ready for it. Either that or we’ll have a tragedy followed by a global tourist attraction….. I’m starting to realise who the dinosaurs felt – if they were aware of what was going on……………………….]

Just Finished Reading: The Guns of Heaven by Pete Hamill (FP: 1983)

Journalist Sam Briscoe has made a deal with his editor. For the price of a ticket to Switzerland to see his daughter he’ll go back to Northern Ireland and use his contacts there to write an inside story from the Catholic perspective. Meeting up with family members he is introduced to the new rising star in the IRA hierarchy and the two make an impression on each other. But when his uncle is killed by Protestant gunmen all Sam can think of is leaving and putting his past behind him – but an anger is building up inside and the IRA commander uses this to persuade Sam to carry a message back to the US. Arriving back in New York and good to his word Sam brings the message to a famous Irish pub, has a drink on the house and leaves. But as he reaches his car and looks back a huge explosion rocks the pub killing his contact and leaving the building in flames. Someone else, it seems, has followed Sam back and is intent of thwarting the IRA plans and Sam in right in the cross hairs. Confident he can take care of himself he thinks little of the danger he’s walked into – until a phone call and a familiar voice changes everything. A stranger’s voice wants the information Sam brought with him from Ireland and they have his daughter. The deal is a simple one – co-operate or she dies. But Sam has other ideas and not just for his daughter’s safety. If anything happened to her his ex-wife would never forgive him and she’s already pretty pissed off with him to begin with. 

For a journalist the main character here had quite a few hero qualities – he seemed to know everyone: IRA hitmen, US gangsters, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, lawyers, hotel owners and a myriad of others all who seemed to owe him favours. He obviously had advanced driving tuition, was an army sharpshooter, amateur boxer, escape artist and well, you get the point…. He seemed to be able to out think, out drive, out run and out shoot everyone else in the book. Why his wife left him (apart from the fact that he never seemed to be around) was beyond me. He seemed perfect…. Which was, of course, a huge problem. He was just too perfect. The rest of the cast basically revolved around the main character and did things largely to move his story on with little regard to their own lives – such as they were. The whole tone of the book was as if the author had spent a lazy weekend reading a handful of magazine articles about the Troubles in Northern Ireland and, when no other ideas came to mind and his editor was bothering him for a book decided to write this one. I can’t say that I’m anywhere near an expert on Northern Irish politics but I still think I know more about the area than the author did. Romanticism just doesn’t start to describe the feel of the whole thing. Although it was just readable – in a comic book fashion – it had few redeeming qualities so I’m afraid that I won’t be recommending it to anyone. Poor. 

Cartoon Time.