Niall Ferguson’s “The Pity of War” is an excellent analysis of the causes and effects of World War I. He is particularly good on economic matters, locating this quote from Polish banker and author Ivan Bloch:
The immediate consequence of war would be to send securities all round down from 25 to 50 percent, and in [...]
Filed under: Economics, History | Tagged: World War I | Leave a Comment »
Solzhenitsyn passed early Sunday evening, by the clock in the U.S. The AP obit, obviously prepared months or years in advance, is balanced in noting that the novelist was as fierce in his critique of the West as he was of Stalin’s regime.
Filed under: Obituaries | Tagged: literature, Russia, Solzhenitsyn | Leave a Comment »
Having watched the webcast of SpaceX’s latest attempt to launch its Falcon 1 booster, I can say the outcome was quite a bummer. But it also wasn’t really a surprise. As fellow watcher Dale Amon noted, there was something amiss from early on. The first-stage exhaust, as seen by the onboard camera, never really settled [...]
Filed under: Space | Leave a Comment »
