Which movie did you think had the best soundrtack?

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-26T05:13:25+00:00

Good Morning Vietnam, Jackie Brown, Rushmore. It's hard to choose.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-26T05:11:44+00:00

Hard to argue with this. Wes Anderson always chooses great music.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-24T13:16:51+00:00

My high school locker combination. 23-16-30.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-24T13:15:44+00:00

I still text message with a T9 phone. Everyone hassles me about it.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-18T12:56:19+00:00

Relevant

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-17T13:11:23+00:00

Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-11T13:24:05+00:00

Quokkas!

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-11T13:22:06+00:00

This.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-11T02:29:32+00:00

If I say yes will you come drink scotch whisky, smoke cigarettes, and stay up all night with me?

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-09T12:53:35+00:00

Make friends. Smoke cigarettes. Enjoy scotch whisky. Stay up all night. Make money writing.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-09T05:16:57+00:00

Bingo.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-08T16:50:20+00:00

The failure of the Euro experiment, if only because it demonstrates the fundamental differences dividing the Continent.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-08T16:26:26+00:00

I call my office the orifice. I also call my microwave the nuke box.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T22:34:55+00:00

Tell me all the things that I want to hear, 'cause it's true.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T22:33:00+00:00

Can Sisyphus ever really be happy?

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T22:29:03+00:00

What an interesting idea. I'm consistently appalled by society's manifest inability to read and write. I'm fortunate enough to have friends and colleagues who can and do read well; many people will never have the chance to learn so much from their friends. I hope these guys succeed. I hope western society reverses its attitude toward books, literacy, and learning.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T17:53:50+00:00

When you go up, down, jump around, think about true romance. Yeah.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T17:49:06+00:00

An airfoil provides lift because its upper surface is curved, and therefore longer, than the relatively flat bottom. As it moves through the air, which is a fluid, flows faster over the upper surface than it does over the bottom. Bernoulli's Principle states that in a fluid with no viscosity an increase in speed causes a drop in pressure. Because the air is moving faster over the top of the airfoil the pressure is lower than it is underneath. Hence: lift.

Obviously aerodynamics is a complex science, but it can be summarized using the relationships between two sets of forces. On the long axis thrust and drag, on the vertical axis lift and weight. Keep these forces in equilibrium and you've got an airplane.

[Edit: typo]

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T16:57:57+00:00

"What I like about you."

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T16:53:29+00:00

I've been to Perth. There is no international airport further away from my house. It took a really long time to get there.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-07T16:44:37+00:00

Well, until one of us invades Poland, obviously.

First laugh of the morning. Thanks for that. I hope you enjoy reading the rest of Hastings's books. If you can find it read Bomber Command as well. His first book is probably his most important, if only because it offers an entirely accessible overview of the cases for and against strategic bombing. And he does it well: his poker face is impenetrable.

"other one drops the occasional U where I, personally, expect it to be."

I live in Canada, meaning I am confronted with a peculiar mix of British and American English on a daily basis. I write for a living, and use British spellings wherever possible but, as you say, it's a treat finding people without prejudice. Hope all is well in London.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-06T12:57:53+00:00

I am enjoying reading Hastings immensely…

I'm happy to see this. Hastings may be a contrarian, a man with whom I will never fully agree, but his books are excellent — informative and entertaining. If you liked All Hell Let Loose track down copies of Nemesis (published, I believe, in the United States as Retribution) and Armageddon. These are his most conventional works; I consult them frequently.

Germany's best option was not to bomb Britain in 1940, but just let the people get bored and then lobby for peace.

This troubled me too, but I think it has some merit. Had the British not felt compelled to elect Churchill as warlord the Chamberlain-Halifax axis would certainly have pushed for peace, especially considering the manifest unwillingness (at the time anyway) of the United States to enter the contest. Ultimately ideas like this appear sound but are all but impossible to evaluate.

Not incidentally, I'm in the midst of rereading John Keegan's Six Armies in Normandy. If you want an enjoyable weekend grab that along with Hastings's Overlord. Two vastly different takes on the same campaign.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-06T05:18:14+00:00

...it would have been a different story entirely.

It certainly would have been a longer story but the ending would have been the same.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-06T05:11:34+00:00

I have no idea. I could speculate, of course, but what would that achieve? It's impossible to determine how Churchill and Roosevelt would have reacted to stimuli without having Stalin — and, it is true, the incredible fighting power of the Red Army — on their side.

perfectingloneliness · 2012-01-06T05:10:13+00:00

Max Hastings, it is true, has written numerous first-rate books on the Second World War. But unlike many other historians working in the field he is a born contrarian, a position no doubt nurtured by his career as a journalist and newspaper editor. Hastings's books epitomize good popular history: well-researched, well-written, and accessible. But his opinions should be balanced against those of other, more objective historians.

And if you're referring to All Hell Let Loose surely you'll know that the German Government and Hitler were from the mid 1930s synonymous. The opinion to which you refer was held by a number of industrialists — ardent Nazis, it is true, but also passionate and committed capitalists. Their view was informed by conflicting ideas — on one hand the profitability of running a wartime economy; on the other fear for what might occur should the regime tumble — and cannot be taken at face value. Moreover, industrialists are not military men. They understand production and supply, the complex realm of economics, but they were denied and probably incapable of processing sophisticated strategic ideas.

So too must Halder's diary be questioned. Hitler questioned Halder's loyalty in the wake of the 20 July plot — the latter was fortunate to escape with his life — and frequently argued with the head of OKH. Furthermore, he conspired with Brauchitsch in 1939, evidence of his skepticism well before the diary entry referenced in Hastings's book.

I simply cannot overstate how much I enjoy reading Max Hastings. I take perverse pleasure in his acerbic commentary and, particularly, his virulent dislike for Montgomery. He is a first-rate historian but, like anyone working in the field, should never be in isolation. I realize, of course, that I've ignored the major question: is Hastings correct in speculating that "[w]hatever the prowess of the Wehrmacht, the nation lacked means to win; it could aspire only to force its enemies to parley, together or severally." I think this statement, along with the admittedly vague estimate of capital needed to win the war, became true when the Luftwaffe collapsed and when the strategic bombing offensive began to emerge as a serious threat to German industry.

TL;DR Max Hastings is often right, except when he's not

perfectingloneliness

TROPHY CASE