Of Arms and a Man

New Blog

2011-05-31T11:19:00.000+08:00

Hi

This blog has moved here:

Arms and a Man

Come and take a look when you have a moment!

Cheers
Anthony

English Help in Taiwan

2010-12-29T16:58:00.000+08:00

Do you need help with editing of university assignments? Or college application essays? Are you in Taiwan?

There's help here:

愛寫英文 Blog

Triathlon Gear in Taiwan

2010-12-16T20:17:00.000+08:00

Well, I've struggled along here - trying to get triathlon stuff that fits me. Not just to get any stuff that fits me but also a variety of stuff that fits me. Finally, I ordered from the USA.

I ordered from TriSports and they were great. A good selection of everything you need, good prices and efficient and friendly service.

Then.... I had to get a triathlon wetsuit. The only way to swim in Taitung in the winter! (It took me a while to convince my wife.)

After much looking around I decided on a Synergy wetsuit. And the company was magnificent. They offered me discount immediately - it was part of a clearance deal - and got my suit safely to me in six days through the USPS.

I CAN'T wait to get into the water.......

2010 123K Taitung Triathlon

2010-10-19T19:15:00.001+08:00

Race Day found me stressed out at 5am. I had slept little but the adrenalin was pumping. I ate half a bagel, drank some green tea/isotonic drink and started checking and re-checking my stuff. I walked into the transition area at 0600. Everything was very well organized. I found my spot, parked the bicycle and started unpacking my kit.

Then to the lake and an agonizing wait before the start.

Once I was going it was great. Swim went well and I held my pace. Finished in 58 minutes. A great relief. The morning was beautiful. A light drizzle for a bit and the amazing scenery made the bike ride an absolute pleasure.

My 21 K started at noon. It was hot and windy.

But all worth it in the end.

Finish time: 7 hours 25 minutes. A towel, two shirts and a medal. Beautiful!

Thank-you so much to the Taiwan Super Triathlon Team for organizing such a great race.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with a question.

See you there next year!

2010 Taitung 123K Triathlon

2010-10-18T21:58:00.004+08:00

In August 2010 I spent three glorious weeks in Taitung. Braaivleis, sunny skies and Chevrolet - I think that's how the advert went. And I bought a bicycle. It's just impossible to be in Taitung without a bicycle. Roads are wide. Air is clean and the scenery is breathtaking. So I purchased a GT Mountain bike. Cost me 5000nt. A lucky deal that my wife identified on PC Home - the Taiwan shopping website.

This photo was taken in Taitung. Just another beautiful day...

I was riding up and down and finally rode the 50km north to Chenggong and the 50km back. I had run two marathons in Taipei in 2006 and 2007 and suddenly I started to wonder if there was something similar I could do on the bike with a run thrown in. ( I preferred not to think about a swim...)

An internet search led me to Craig John's Taiwan Racing blog. There I found a link to the Taiwan Super Triathlon website Taitung Triathlon here.

The Taitung Triathlon is held in April and October. The swim is here.

Taitung Flowing Lake. 1,1km to the other side. You'll swim there and back for the 123K. The first time I swam it, I did breaststroke and it took me almost 2 hours. I was so slow. Small woodland creatures crawling along the banks outpaced me.

When I got back to Tainan I went straight to the pool and started swimming. I cut back on the beer and dropped a few kilograms. Then I bought a road bike. A Fuji Roubaix 3.0. It's an entry level road bike - but it really made the difference. I cut an hour from the mountain bike time. I love the GT- but the Fuji ... there are no words...

I focused mainly on the swimming and I swam five nights a week. For an hour a time. I was on youtube constantly watching swimming and triathlon videos. And in the pool I tried to push myself. I started freestyle swimming and it was hard. Sometimes I only made 25m before stopping. But I kept at it - always seeing how much further I could swim before I sank. And finally I swam 2000m one night without a break. This was about 5 weeks after I started in the pool.

I ran maybe three times a week. At first 9 km a time.

And the bike never more than 60km and only on the weekends. The traffic was driving me crazy and in the end I found a huge block in the Science Park that was approximately 4 k in circumference and I did laps to train at a good pace. It was boring but it paid off.

The week before the race I went down to Taitung and rode the bicycle route and swam the lake. It was reassuring to have the opportunity to recon the course but I started struggling with an ear infection that kept me out of the water until the day of the race.

In the next post I'll talk about the race.

Back...

2010-10-18T14:51:00.002+08:00

Well, it's been a while. More than five months to be more precise. Suffice to say that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

There's a good reason I want to post now. I had a mind-altering experience when I completed the 2010 Taitung 123K Triathlon over the weekend.

There's precious little available in English about this kind of stuff for people (foreigners) ~~stuck~~ living in Taiwan. So I wanted to post a couple of pictures etc.

Check the following post.

What's the point?

2010-05-02T17:25:00.003+08:00

I thought this was amusing. The leader of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, was shown this PowerPoint slide as a way to lay out the current situation in Afghanistan.

His dry response: " When we understand that slide, we will have won the war."

More on this from the New York Times here.

The Old and the New

2010-04-29T20:58:00.003+08:00

The 2010 Soccer World Cup is soon to be reality. (I remember when it was announced that SA had been awarded the cup. Quite a few guys contacted me with a "see you here in 2010". Now they've all left... And I might be going back - for a visit at least.)

I'm filled with some kind of nostalgia, I have to admit. I remember vividly the final of the '95 Rugby World Cup. Driving through the streets and having to stop for all the people cheering, dancing and laughing. I don't expect the same thing this time. It's not supposed to be the same, I know.

So, if you'd like, take a moment and reflect on these two videos. One - the new soccer world cup anthem - and the other - a clip from the 1995 world cup with P.J. Powers. I'm guessing if you're over 30 years of age, South African, and you know the smell of dubbin on a leather rugby ball - then the second video will give you goosebumps.

The Beach Boys?

2010-04-28T21:11:00.001+08:00

Well, everyone has to make a buck. And in these economically challenging times, a few are forced to turn to the "oldest profession". Unfortunately, the authorities do not always take kindly to this kind of thing and so we have the following article from Bali in the Taipei Times:

Beach boys’ rounded up in Bali after gigolo film

Indonesia has detained 28 “beach boys” accused of selling sex to female tourists on Bali after a documentary on the resort’s “gigolos” hit the Internet, an official said yesterday.

The "Kuta Cowboys" have always been part of the Bali scene. They were already around in '98 when the wife and I were there.So this ~~over~~reaction is as a result of a documentary.

They’re young, fit-looking and tanned, mostly surfer beach boys,” said I Gusti Ngurah Tresna, the chief of security on Bali’s main Kuta beach.

Next challenge - who are they? Apparently anybody with a gym membership and a tanning lamp could be on the list.

“They will approach foreign female tourists, especially Japanese, on the beach, befriend them and the women will pay for their company and food during their stay here. Sex may be involved,” he said.

Okay, that explains why I wasn't approached. I'm not Japanese.

“All this while we’ve been selling our beautiful waves, sunsets, turtles, culture and nature conservation, and suddenly now we’re seen to be selling gigolos? Such films are really harmful to our image,” he (the security chief) said.

The irony is that this is the same place where the 2002 and 2005 bombings occurred. Surely there are more pressing concerns for the security chief? You've got to know - somewhere behind this there is a confused politician.

Of course, in South Africa we have no gigolos...

Scotland from home

2010-04-26T22:03:00.003+08:00

To follow on from my whiskey post yesterday. Here's Bruce Campbell - mad as a hatter and making trouble at the Singleton Distillery as well as Knockando where they produce J&B.

This is a link to the website.

April 23, 1915

2010-04-24T09:45:00.006+08:00

On April 23, 1915 one of the most famous poets of World War I died of blood poisoning en route to the Dardenelles Campaign.

He is forever remembered for the lines:

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.
There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home

It is not often realised that he was not a soldier but a Sub-Lieutenant serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve ashore. Brooke was originally buried by his fellow officers. His body was carried to the olive grove during the night and a simple stone cairn was constructed. A wooden cross bearing the above inscription was erected

Here lies the servant of God, sub-lieutenant in the English Navy
who died for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks

At the end of the First World War, at the instigation of his mother, this grave was replaced by the current tomb.

From Free Market Fairy Tales

Pirates and Q-ships

2010-04-23T21:10:00.005+08:00

The following article is from Reuters:

PARIS, April 21 - French forces have captured six suspected pirates in the Indian Ocean after a command and supply ship was attacked by gunmen in speedboats, the French military said on Wednesday.

Pirates in two skiffs attacked the "Somme" ship overnight on Monday, some 300-km (190 miles) off the coast of Somalia. The French fired back and the speedboats fled.

No one was injured and after a brief search of the area, the Somme discovered the assailants' mother ship.

"We found the suspected pirates, petrol and equipment that could be used for anything but fishing," said Colonel Patrick Steiger, a spokesman for the military.

It was the second time in six months that the "Somme" had come under attack while taking part in a European anti-piracy operation in the area.

"In a funny way, the boat looks like a civilian vessel and we think that it was attacked by mistake," said Steiger.

So, as I understand it, the pirates are apparently confused by the innocent-looking ship and on two different occasions have attacked it. Exactly how clever are these guys? Or are they using their spare time for drinking rum and drawing up treasure maps instead of correctly identifying their targets?

Of course, if the pirates are weak in the target identification area why not exploit that? This seems the perfect place to deploy a couple of Q-ships.

Q ships were used during WWI and WWII with varying success to fight submarines. Basically, the Q-ship was a well-armed merchantman that was disguised to look like a "soft" target. Since submarines carried a limited number of torpedoes the plan was to entice a submarine - in this case an unsuspecting German u-boat - to surface and destroy the ship using his deck guns. Once the submarine had surfaced and approached the ship, hunter became hunted and the merchant ship opened fire with its concealed weapons - often successfully destroying the u-boat.

This excerpt is from First World War.com:

Introduced towards the close of 1914 by the British and French - and later deployed by the Italian and Russians navies - Q-Ships were deployed as an initially although decreasingly successful anti-submarine weapon. Alternatively referred to as Special Service Ships or Mystery Ships, the purpose of Q-Ships was straightforward: to trap enemy (usually German) submarines.

Invariably comprised of small freighters or old trawlers they were loaded with hidden guns in a collapsible deck structure. In practice U-boats would hail Q-Ships flying (in the case of the Royal Navy) the merchant red ensign and, in the period before the implementation of Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, a so-called "panic party" would apparently abandon the Q-Ship prior to the usual German policy of approaching the enemy vessel so as to sink it with the minimum depletion of ammunition.

At this stage the use of torpedoes to sink relatively small vessels was officially frowned upon.Thus with the U-boat effectively lured towards the apparently abandoned vessel the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship's crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire. Initially successful the Q-Ship ploy resulted in the sinking of some 11 enemy U-boats by the British and French. As the war progressed production of Q-Ships notably increased so that by the war's close the British alone deployed 366. However the Germans quickly developed a certain caution in approaching small enemy vessels, wary of decoys.

Torpedoes were increasingly used to sink Q-Ships at longer range; and with the introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare the crews of Q-Ships were not given time to abandon ship before being fired upon. The British lost 61 Q-Ships in total. By 1917 the effectiveness of Q-Ship deployment was minimal and the overall endeavour could not be termed a success.

Wikipedia also has some information here.

Beware of the Acronyms

2010-04-22T21:18:00.004+08:00

Acronyms are cool. They sound impressive and smack of urgency. Where would we be without ASAP, OK, NATO and NASA. And don't forget internet favorites like LOL, LMAO (laugh my a#s off) and of course, WTF (what the f**k). Certainly my army days taught me that a good acronym and a carefully chosen swear word can get a group of men moving with astonishing alacrity.

Now Victor Mair, one of the contributors to Language Log, has posted the following about a Chinese government "initiative" to ban acronyms which use the letters of the Roman alphabet. This seems to be part of a plan to purify Chinese of English expressions.

Many people have written to me about the proposed ban of roman letter acronyms in China that was recently featured in a number of newspaper reports...When I asked the opinion of my Chinese friends (both in the PRC and elsewhere) on the proposal to outlaw English acronyms, they uniformly responded with adjectives such as "stupid," "silly," "futile," "unworkable," "impossible," "retrograde," "outrageous," and so forth. Not one expressed approval of the proposed ban. Similar opinions were widely expressed on Chinese blogs.

Two things stand out in the way the ban was presented. First of all, various media outlets stated that they "had received notice from an unnamed government department" that they were to stop using expressions like "F1″ (Formula One [racing] — very popular in coastal China), NBA (National Basketball Association), CBA (Chinese Basketball Association), WTO (World Trade Organization), and so on. In the English language reports that I have seen, there is no mention of exactly which government department proposed the ban. Many of my informants expressed the opinion that this is a typical ploy by the government authorities when they wish to institute some radical change that they suspect may not be well received by the public. Thus word of the proposed regulation will be leaked or floated through one or another outlet, and then the government will step back and see what the response is like. In this case, the response was uniformly negative, so I suspect that the new regulations will not be promulgated or, if promulgated, will not be enforced.

The second aspect of the announcement of the proposed ban is that it was issued to (and through) the likes of CCTV (China Central Television) and BTV (Beijing Television). CCTV and BTV are universally known and promoted through their Roman letter, English acronyms, and it is almost unthinkable that their acronyms would be expunged. In the CCTV logo, for example, the four Roman letters are noticeably larger and more prominent (the second, red "C" stands out conspicuously) than the seven Chinese characters (中国中央电视台 Zhōngguó Zhōngyāng Diànshìtái) beneath them, and often the Chinese characters are dispensed with altogether.

It is claimed that the directive to ban English acronyms was actually issued by the almighty State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. The supreme irony is that this powerful agency of the PRC (!) government is known everywhere as SARFT! That's certainly a lot easier to write than 国家广播电影电视总局 Guójiā Guǎngbō Diànyǐng Diànshì Zǒngjú!

Challenging English

2010-04-21T20:43:00.003+08:00

Taiwan is an interesting place to live. That's the understatement of the ... blog, so far.

One of the more curious aspects of living here is the poor English ability of the locals - I'm not talking about academics, people working at schools, business people etc. Unlike Thailand, Bali and - of course - Singapore and Hong Kong, the average "man on the street" here is usually incapable and certainly unwilling to try and speak English. This is strange in a country that appears to worship the US and seems to want to mimic it in every conceivable way. We have HBO and Cinemax, Miller Draft and Marlboro Lights. And while Fords, Chryslers and Buicks roam the roads, F16s patrol the skies. It's a sort of strange paradox - a nation desperate to emulate another and yet, almost spitefully, unwilling to try and speak like him.

Look, don't get me wrong. If Taiwanese people choose this way, that's okay. It's certainly forced me to speak Mandarin in taxis and 7 Elevens, in supermarkets and pubs. And once in a post office, where I forgot the word for aeroplane, and tried to send my sister's stuff to South Africa by tomato.

So, in this environment, one is constantly confronted by amusing spelling errors and confusing mispronunciations: Rappers become rapers, walkers are wankers, beaches are bitches and amazingly, cement can sound like semen.

These mistakes cause amusement and sometimes a little embarrassment. Over at You Don't Say, however, John McIntyre has the following comments on a typo that cost $18 000.

Penguin Group Australia is pulping 7,000 copies of The Pasta Bible cookbook because the recipe for tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto called for sprinkling the dish with “salt and freshly ground black people.”

How people came to be substituted for pepper was not announced. It is not at all uncommon for the wrong synapse to fire in a writer’s brain, particularly when concentration is momentarily relaxed, substituting the wrong word for the correct word. Some errors are the result of a category called a cupertino, in which the electronic spell-check function does not recognize a typed word and substitutes the one most nearly resembling it in its dictionary file.

Then, of course, comes the embarrassment of the proofreader, who let this mistake slip through his or her hands. Once again, if attention flags even momentarily, the brain is given to pass quickly over words it recognizes. The wrong word correctly spelled is one of the great hazards that editors and proofreaders encounter.

You may snicker, but you too could have committed this error, or overlooked it. So could I. So could anyone.

I'm not bothering to check for typos today...

Pick up

2010-04-20T20:59:00.003+08:00

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 or so to 1400) was an English writer that is probably most famous for his collection of Canterbury Tales. Chaucer was a ground-breaker in that he chose to write in English - it was Middle English then - rather than in the more popular French or Latin. His characters were also most realistic - to the point of coarseness and even complete vulgarity. Which is of course one reason why high school English students will still consider reading it. The pronunciation of Middle English is difficult and confusing - some say it is a little like a modern Scottish accent.

Anyway, the connection is tenuous at best but I found these Middle English pick-up lines here.

GALFRIDUS CHAUCERES LYNES OF PICKE-VPPE:

-Do sheriffs administere thee to those who breke the kinges peace? Bycause thou lookst “fyne.”

-Ich loved thy papere, but yt wolde looke much better yscattred across the floore of myn rentede dorme roome at dawne.

-Art thou a disastrous poll tax? Bycause I feele a risynge comynge on.

-Thou lookst so mvch lyk an aungel that the friares haue lefte the roome yn terror!

-Thy beaute ys more intoxicatyng than the OVP openne bar.

-The preeste telleth me that we aren more than VII degrees of consanguinitee. Game on!

-Ich notyce that myn demense and thyn do abutte. Wolde yt plese thee to consolidate ovre powere-base in the midlands?

-Makstow a pilgrymage heere often?

-Let vs breake oure mornyng faste togedir tomorrowe. Shal ich sende a page wyth a message for thee, or shal ich wake thee wyth an aubade composid ex tempore?

-Ich coude drynke a yearlye tun of thee.

-Ich haue the tale of Lancelot yn myn roome. Woldstow rede of yt wyth me?

-Howe abovte a blancmange and the acte of Venus? Whatte, blancmange pleseth thee nat?

-If ich sayde that thou hadde a bele chose, woldstow holde it ayeinst me?

No Sweat

2010-04-19T20:39:00.003+08:00

So, just when I paid my gym fees the New York Times destroys my grim determination to lose weight by publishing this article:

Weighing the Evidence on Exercise

How exercise affects body weight is one of the more intriguing and vexing issues in physiology. Exercise burns calories, no one doubts that, and so it should, in theory, produce weight loss, a fact that has prompted countless people to undertake exercise programs to shed pounds. Without significantly changing their diets, few succeed.

Okay, this is the bit that stopped me.

“In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss,” says Eric Ravussin, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and an expert on weight loss. It’s especially useless because people often end up consuming more calories when they exercise.

And that's true. I usually run either an 8K or a 12K on a non-gym night. And I get back ravenous! I'm walking the house literally looking for something to eat - like a pillaging army I assault the fridge and eat everything from leftovers to the kids' vitamins. Apparently, this is normal.

The NY Times goes on to say that this is especially true for women who are biologically programmed to replace lost calories to maintain energy stores for reproduction.

Also that exercise is good for keeping weight down ... you just have to lose it first.

And lastly, since we succumb to this horrific calorie-compensation if we exercise hard, low intensity workouts are probably the way to go. The report shows that simply standing at work instead of sitting (or lying down - I suppose a lot depends on your line of work) forces one to burn many more calories without the need to eat afterward.

I'll think about this on the way to the fridge...

Julius (Not the Roman)

2010-04-18T09:38:00.003+08:00

Julius Malema: The man who turns expats into exiles ...

Arma virumque cano

2010-04-18T09:13:00.001+08:00

Just out of interest.

For those readers who did not have the good fortune (?) to study Latin at some point, the name of the blog you are reading right now is a direct reference to the opening line of the Aeneid - an epic poem by the Roman writer, Vergil. The poem tells the story of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who is destined to become the ancestor of the Romans. According to legend he was one of the last men to escape the destruction of Troy - leading his wife and son out of the burning city while carrying his father on his back. He travels around the Mediterranean, including a pause in North Africa for a romantic interlude with the Carthaginian Queen Dido , before settling in Italy and defeating the local Latins. It's a good story filled with action and romance. But not too much. And the hero doesn't hesitate to abandon even a queen so that he may complete his mission - without considering the political ramifications.. (This leads to poor relations between the Carthaginians and the Romans for the rest of time.)

Anyway, Aeneas' direct descendant, Rhea Silvia, falls pregnant after an affair with Mars, the Roman god of war. (They meet in the forest...). Her sons are Romulus and Remus, who are raised in the forest by a she-wolf - with Romulus eventually founding Rome.

If you're interested there is more information here and here.

The Cape of Storms

2010-04-16T19:41:00.004+08:00

Three weeks ago I actually got out my Stormers shirt and went and ran in it. I never thought that would happen. But after today's game I think I can also post this...

Enough said!

Back ...

2010-04-16T19:34:00.002+08:00

Well I didn't go anywhere. But for some reason work overwhelmed my life there for a bit. But back on track - work to live ... not the other way round. Following on from my F 35 post a while ago this caught my eye in the Taipei Times:

Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 A US$2.5 billion contract to sell 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters to the Taiwanese Army, sent to US Congress in October 2008 for approval, is on schedule, Defense News reported on Monday.

Since the notification, and especially in the wake of the announcement of a US$6.4 billion US arms sale to Taiwan earlier this year, there had been speculation that Beijing would pressure Boeing Co, the manufacturer of the AH-64, into canceling the deal.

Boeing, a subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas, was among the US firms singled out by Beijing as facing potential retaliatory sanctions for participating in the deal. It also sold Taiwan US$37 million in Harpoon training missiles.A letter of offer and acceptance was signed last year between Taipei and Washington and a joint US government-Boeing team is expected to visit Taipei in the middle of next month to finalize the deal, the magazine reported, citing sources in the Taiwanese and US defense industries.

Okay, I'm not going to go into China vs Taiwan and who can force whom to buy (or not to buy) what ... but why is this happening. That's an awful amount of money for 30 helicopters. And don't we need more? Like say 300? Or a 1000?

When my brother-in-law trained at artillery school in Taiwan, he was very excited about shooting the M2 (50cal). Much to his disappointment, live fire turned out to be pointing the weapon at the target, pulling the trigger and hearing a taped recording of the gun firing. Literally, "rat-a-tat-tat". These guys aren't training for war anymore. So why purchase weapons that are not going to be used? And the argument that these weapons maintain a balance of power across the strait holds no water. This is a huge amount of money that can be used to build schools in the mountains and probably save the National Health System.

This all brings back fond memories of firing off countless rounds of various calibers during infantry training. There were so many live fire exercises that the instructors did not want to haul back leftover ammunition. And we literally lined up after fire-and-movement and fired off the remaining 5.56., 7.62, AP 65 rifle grenades, 60 mm mortars etc. Ah...those were the days...

Okay ... I've had a look at the Apache. And it's beautiful. We have to get some.

Sgt. Q.G.M. Smythe - S.A. Victoria Cross Holder

2010-03-28T10:06:00.003+08:00

In June of 1942, Sgt. Smythe - of the 1st SA Infantry Division - was involved in action in Libya for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The citation for his medal reads as follows:

War Office, 11th September, 1942 The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the VICTORIA CROSS to:
No. 4458 Sergeant Quentin George Murray Smythe, South African Forces.

For conspicuous gallantry in action in the Alem Hamza area on the 5th June, 1942.

During the attack on an enemy strong point in which his officer was severely wounded; Sergeant Smythe took command of the platoon although suffering from a shrapnel wound in the forehead. The strong point having been overrun, our troops came under enfilade fire from an enemy machine-gun nest. Realising the threat to his position, Sergeant Smythe himself stalked and destroyed the nest with hand grenades, capturing, the crew. Though weak from loss of blood, he continued to lead the advance, and on encountering an anti-tank gun position again attacked it single-handed and captured the crew. He was directly responsible for killing several of the enemy, shooting some and bayonetting another as they withdrew. After consolidation he received orders for a withdrawal, which he successfully executed, defeating skilfully an enemy attempt at encirclement.Throughout the engagement Sergeant Smythe displayed remarkable disregard for danger, and his leadership and courage were an inspiration to his men.

Smythe, who eventually rose to the rank of Captain, hailed from Natal and passed away in Durban in 1997.

Below is a graphic depiction of Smythe's actions from the British National Archives.

Tensions across the Strait

2010-03-27T09:41:00.002+08:00

This is the latest from the Taipei Times:

US military chief confirms build-up
Admiral Robert Willard also said Taiwan would need to improve its fighter jet capabilities to counter military imbalances with China.The top commander of US military forces in the Pacific on Thursday confirmed reports that the Chinese army has been upgrading and deploying larger numbers of missiles across the Taiwan Strait. “The PLA has focused considerable effort on building up its integrated air defense capabilities and has deployed an increasing number of upgraded Russian SA-20 PMU 2 along the Taiwan Strait,” Admiral Robert Willard said, confirming earlier reports by a Canadian defense magazine that said China has deployed eight battalions of advanced missile systems in Fujian Province.

Willard also said that Taiwan must someday improve upon its existing fighter jets to keep pace with China’s increasing air power. Some of China’s other military modernization programs highlighted by Willard’s testimony to the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee include the development of sophisticated shipboard air defense systems as well as supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.

Yesterday, media reports in Washington said that some US officials are insisting that China’s buildup of both conventional and nuclear forces is aimed solely at possible conflict with Taiwan.

I have yet to speak to a local resident here that believes Taiwan and the PRC will go to war. Everybody here always says the two countries share far too many common factors - not least that they are joined economically at the hip ( and probably a few other places). In addition, nobody here is that deranged to believe that any armed conflict would go the way of Taiwan. A middle-ranking officer in the Taiwan armed forces told me (not that confidentially) that a war with China would be unlikely to last more than two days.

That's a weekend we're talking about here.

So, much of the weapon talk is posturing and political noise-making. There is also a story (that was told to me by another member of the military) that the close ties in culture, and often family, between Taiwan and the PRC make Taiwan a security risk. By that I mean that the US may be reluctant at times to make cutting edge military technology available to Taiwan for fear that it may end up in China. This could explain why Taiwan is using 2nd generation (or perhaps 3rd) Patriot missile defense systems - when probably the Saudis and certainly the Israeli's have the latest of everything - with all the bells and whistles.

So there is little chance of the following happening right now. From the Taipei Times again:

Meanwhile, [DPP legislator] Tsai said that Willard’s testimony should give the government ample reasons to pursue an aggressive weapons modernization campaign, adding that the MND should explore different ways of acquiring the new F-16s and even F-35s, the US’ newest combat fighter jet.

Battle of the Bulge

2010-03-24T19:53:00.005+08:00

I started at the gym today. And let me tell you it's been a few years since I saw the inside of one of these establishments. This one is very pleasant though. Clean, well-organised and not too many patrons at the time I was there. So I was able to do the exercises I wanted and use the equipment I needed. There is also a sauna/ jacuzzi etc, but you won't find me there. I'll never understand that kind of stuff. A good shower and I'm good to go!

I had no idea where to start out with workouts and I ended up at bodybuilding.com. I have to recommend this website to anyone who is looking for information on exercise or nutrition. They have lots of advice, great instructional videos - all geared towards specific age and gender groups - and you can buy just about any gym-related product at their online store.

Well, my shoulders ache and my hands are shaking so much that it's a miracle I can type. Feels great though!

Important Facts About Beer

2010-03-23T20:10:00.002+08:00

Take a moment to visit the very amusing Oatmeal website. This is an excerpt from their highly informative 20 Things Worth Knowing About Beer :

The Lee-Enfield SMLE

2010-03-23T18:09:00.006+08:00

A while ago I posted some information about the Mauser. Specifically, those used in the Anglo-Boer War. Mostly as a result of the lessons learned by the British during that conflict, the following rifle was introduced - and proved hugely successful.

This is from the Discovery Channel Website:

THE LEE-ENFIELD SMLE (Short Magazine Lee-Enfield)

Type: Bolt-Action Rifle
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Caliber: 7.7 x 56 mm (.30 inch)
Cartridge Capacity: 10 rounds
Muzzle Velocity: approximately 2,438 feet per second
Rate of Fire: 15-20 rounds per minute

The standard infantry weapon of British troops from World War I to the 1956 Suez crisis, the Lee-Enfield SMLE (pronounced "smelly") built its reputation on reliability, accuracy and a phenomenal rate of fire. Its magazine carried 10 bullets, the largest capacity of any rifle on the battlefield during the first half of the 20th century. Its short bolt action cocked on closing, and its muzzle cap prevented dirt from clogging the weapon. In the hands of a well-trained infantryman, the Lee-Enfield could perform what was called the "mad minute," i.e., thirty rounds hitting a target 200 meters distant in one minute, a volume of fire that rivals modern semiautomatic weapons.

Visit the website when you have a chance. There are videos of different rifles in action and a poll to vote for the best rifle of all time. The AK 47 leads at the moment.

Five Sons to the Navy

2010-03-22T20:26:00.003+08:00

The following excerpt is from the most fascinating website - Letters of Note. The editor states that his aim is to gather interesting letters, faxes, telegrams etc. I choose this letter because it so clearly shows the personal side of loss in war.

November, 1942: Five brothers, all serving on the same vessel during World War II, are killed in action as a result of said warship sinking at the Battle of the Solomons. Two months later, after hearing no word from the Navy regarding her sons' well-being, Alleta Sullivan writes the following, deeply moving letter to the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Alleta promptly received a reply from President Roosevelt. That letter can also be read below.

As a result of the Sullivans' plight, the U.S. military introduced the Sole Survivor Policy. The policy attempts to ensure that, should a family member be lost during military service, any remaining siblings be exempt from service.

Transcript

Waterloo, Iowa
January 1943

Bureau of Naval Personnel

Dear Sirs:

I am writing you in regards to a rumor going around that my five sons were killed in action in November. A mother from here came and told me she got a letter from her son and he heard my five sons were killed.

It is all over town now, and I am so worried. My five sons joined the Navy together a year ago, Jan. 3, 1942. They are on the Cruiser, U.S.S. JUNEAU. The last I heard from them was Nov. 8th. That is, it was dated Nov 8th, U.S. Navy.

Their names are, George T., Francis Henry, Joseph E., Madison A., and Albert L. If it is so, please let me know the truth. I am to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA, Feb. 12th, at Portland, Oregon. If anything has happened to my five sons, I will still christen the ship as it was their wish that I do so. I hated to bother you, but it has worried me so that I wanted to know if it was true. So please tell me. It was hard to give five sons all at once to the Navy, but I am proud of my boys that they can serve and help protect their country. George and Francis served four years on the U.S.S. HOVEY, and I had the pleasure to go aboard their ship in 1937.

I am so happy the Navy has bestowed the honor on me to christen the U.S.S. TAWASA. My husband an daughter are going to Portland with me. I remain,

Sincerely,

Mrs. Alleta Sullivan
98 Adams Street
Waterloo, Iowa

Reply

My dear Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan:

The knowledge that your five gallant sons are missing in action against the enemy inspires me to write you this personal message. I realize full well there is little I can say to assuage your grief.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I want you to know that the entire nation shares in your sorrow. I offer you the condolences and gratitude of our country. We who remain to carry on the fight must maintain spirit, in the knowledge that such sacrifice is not in vain.

The Navy Department has informed me of the expressed desire of your sons, George Thomas, Francis Henry, Joseph Eugene, Madison Abel, and Albert Leo, to serve in the same ship. I am sure that we all take heart in the knowledge that they fought side by side. As one of your sons wrote, "We will make a team together that can't be beat." It is this spirit which in the end must triumph.

Last March you, Mrs. Sullivan, were designated to sponsor a ship of the Navy, in recognition of your patriotism and that of your sons. I understand that you are now even more determined to carry on as sponsor. This evidence of unselfishness and of courage serves as a real inspiration for me, as I am sure it will for all Americans. Such acts of faith and fortitude in the face of tragedy convince me of the indomitable spirit and will of our people.

I send you my deepest sympathy in your hour of trial and pray that in Almighty God you will find the comfort and help that only He can bring.

Very sincerely yours,

(Signed)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Indian Country

2010-03-20T21:15:00.004+08:00

Today I was supposed to go into Tainan City for 'business". But was side-tracked by coffee and the internet. Suddenly it was lunch time. Loaded the platoon into the car and headed into town. I was looking for somewhere to sit outside. And which served cold beer. Got both at the Indian restaurant - on Guanting Road.

Food was good. A plate of five Tandoori Lamb chops cost me R50 (200NT) and they were everything they were supposed to be. The lamb also cooperated most admirably with the Kingfisher beer. This lager does the trick. (Photo from my wife)

According to the Kingfisher website it's India's No 1. selling beer with a 34% market share. And here's an amazing statistic:

Four beers are sold every second in India! (Is that better than the University of Stellenbosch at Intervarsity?). And one of those four beers is a Kingfisher.

I like to think that I played a role in maintaining Kingfisher's commanding presence in the beer market - at least this afternoon.

This is a link to the Kingfisher website.

Taiwan Birth Rate and the NHI

2010-03-19T22:10:00.004+08:00

And so we're in the news again. Apparently the Taiwanese aren't producing enough children. This could be quite problematic in the future. The Taiwan NHI (National Health Insurance) relies on contributions from working people to fund the medical care of the elderly and seriously ill who are not able to. In the future there will most likely be a steadily growing number of retirees taking NHI benefits with a steadily decreasing number of younger people putting money into the fund. As it is, the NHI is already in massive debt and negotiations on adjusting the contribution criteria are currently taking place in the Legislative Assembly.

On a personal note, the NHI is fantastic. Both my sons were born here and the medical expenses were... zero. On both occasions my wife was in a single room with en-suite bathroom, TV etc. In addition my second boy spent a week in hospital after his birth and again it cost me nothing. My monthly contribution amounts to R900 for the four of us together. A visit to the doctor costs 100NT (or about R25). The doctor's examination and most prescribed medication is completely covered by the NHI. Same for the dentist. Last year I was in a motorcycle accident. I was walking wounded and taken to a nearby medical centre. A shoulder and knee were x-rayed and examined. I was bandaged up, given an injection, met with a doctor and was issued with pain medication. I flashed my NHI card, paid R25 and ~~walked~~ staggered out.

Here's the news article from the BBC:

Taiwan seeks baby-boosting slogan

The Taiwanese authorities are offering a cash prize for a new slogan to boost the island's falling birth rate.

The interior ministry said that it wanted a creative slogan that would make people want to have babies.It said the best submission would receive a prize of one million Taiwanese dollars ($31,250, £20,763).Taiwan has already tried a number of measures to increase its birth rate, which is at a record low and still falling.Last year, Taiwan's birth-rate stood at 1.0 births per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1.

In 2009, the number of births fell by 3.7% from the previous year to 191,310.
"We are seeking a creative slogan that would appeal to the public and make everybody want to have children," an interior ministry statement said.Last month, the authorities announced plans to help finance fertility treatment for young couples struggling to get pregnant, in another effort to arrest the decline in births.

Taiwan is not the only country in the region trying to tackle this issue, amid fears that falling birth rates will cause social and economic problems. On Wednesday, the Japanese lower house passed legislation increasing the amount of child benefit to be paid to families in an effort to make child-rearing more affordable. And in January, South Korea's health ministry began turning out the lights early one day per month to persuade civil servants to go home and "get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing".

South Korea's plan to turn out the lights early to boost procreation had me thinking. Does Eskom management have some sinister long term strategy that has hitherto gone undetected? Or are they angling for appointments to executive positions in the Asian power grids?

From Madam and Eve

District 419

2010-03-18T22:06:00.002+08:00

Normal is a Cycle on a Washing Machine

2010-03-18T21:20:00.004+08:00

The above is the motto of the U.S. Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group. The motto is actually in the Blackfoot Indian language.

The term asymmetric warfare refers to a warfare when one side is far more powerful but the other responds with new and deadly tactics of its own - Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are good examples. The motto " normal is a cycle on a washing machine " seems to have originated from the Vietnam-war era.

According to the Stars and Stripes:

The AWG is composed of senior enlisted, company-grade officers and contractors [and] the group is deployed, often in pairs, to advise combat units on various asymmetrical warfare threats and how to counter them. One major distinction, according to Greg Melcher, a contractor with the group, is "We don’t conduct operations."

Instead, they’re sort of expert consultants, "operational advisers," who, when deployed, go from unit to unit dispensing their expertise that’s ultimately supposed to save U.S. lives and win the war.

Selection for operational advisers happens only twice a year and includes, in addition to psychological and physical fitness tests, scenarios in which applicants are supposed to demonstrate problem-solving, communication and creativity skills.

The group also has a sort of research-and-development function. One of their claims to fame is a fogger devised to obscure snipers’ views.The Army already had a smoke grenade, but it took a while to actually put out smoke.Something quicker was needed, and they figured out how to do it, Lafferty said, after "blowing up some fire extinguishers."

Then they got it distributed quickly, another distinguishing group characteristic. "Our doctrine teaches us to ‘Do it this way,’ " Melcher said. "It doesn’t allow for that freedom of thought. We’re designed to augment the doctrine." The group also takes credit for the airdigger — which remotely shoots dirt off suspicious mounds to see if bombs are buried.

Language Log has also had a look at this article. Mark Liberman writes:

Versions of the saying "Normal is (just|only|nothing_but) the|a cycle|setting on the|a washing machine" has been around for a while, and it sounds like a Vietnam-era kind of sentiment. The phrase apparently is used in John McAfee's 1993 Vietnam novel Slow walk in a sad rain, and given the description of the AWG in Stars and Stripes, and the description of the book in this review, it may well be the source of the motto:

The story begins in Special Forces A Camp, number 413, twenty miles from the Cambodian border. The camp's Green Berets, dividing their time between boredom and terror, are ostensibly led by a captain, the narrator of the story. But the officer actually takes his cue from an aggressive sergeant named Shotgun who is alternately crazy and wise, but always irresistibly, frighteningly dangerous. The altogether appropriate motto of A Camp is "Normal is a cycle on a washing machine." Commanding officers issue orders that have no meaning; weapons are used in ways that are the grotesque opposite of their original design. And in an experience that has a real-life counterpart, the Green Berets stumble on a shocking alliance between the CIA and North Vietnam, something they realize they must destroy — even at the cost of bringing both sides down on them.

Sandstorms...

2010-03-17T21:35:00.003+08:00

I went for a run this evening. It's always dark when I get back so I'm running mostly in something that I think my father refers to as the "gloaming". Tonight, however, there was a decided fuzziness in the air and now I see why. From the China Post:

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday warned the public of a wave of sandstorms arriving today, which will affect air quality across the country, local media reported yesterday. Since last weekend, dust storms have been looming over some of China's provinces and they are moving towards Taiwan, according to the EPC's statement.
The sandstorms are to blanket the whole island today, together with a cold air mass and a cold front, the EPC added.

Wow! This is happening more and more often. I guess those guys across on the mainland aren't watering the plants.

On the plus side all this extra ground will negate the affect of the rising water from the melting ice caps.

Okay, it's not this bad....yet.

Keeping our Borders Secure

2010-03-16T20:53:00.003+08:00

This is from the Taipei Times today:

Tough smoking laws keeping Japanese away

The Tourism Bureau said yesterday it would coordinate the establishment of smoking rooms at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after a Japanese tourism association complained that the nation’s strict airport smoking ban had kept Japanese tourists away.

During the third Taiwan-Japan Tourism Summit Forum in Nantou, the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) said that an amendment to the Tobacco Hazard Prevention and Control Act (菸害防治法) passed in January last year that limits smoking to certain areas at airports was “threatening” Japanese tourism.

Liu Hsi-lin (劉喜臨), chief secretary of the bureau, said Japanese tourists frequently complained that there were no smoking facilities at the airport, which prompted the airport to create two outdoor smoking terraces in January.

In addition to the smoking terraces, the airport is mulling whether to set up indoor smoking rooms with air-filtering equipment. Liu, however, said that this could not be accomplished until the legal issues were resolved.

The airport had previously unveiled a plan to set up nine indoor smoking rooms, but it was aborted after anti-smoking groups said it violated the act.

Given the high number of smokers in Japan, many have decided not to visit because of the strict anti-smoking laws, Liu said, citing the report by JATA, a national organization of travel agents and related industries.

Liu said that as Japan is one of the main sources of visitors, the bureau as a government agency in charge of local tourism promotion had a responsibility to coordinate and help resolve the problem.

One can't help wondering how much s%*t this country could have avoided if these anti-smoking laws were in effect in the late 1890's ...

The Heat is On

2010-03-15T19:38:00.002+08:00

I knew this would happen! Suddenly the humidity has rocketed up, it's hot and sticky and generally unpleasant. I went for a run and now I can't stop sweating.

I am typing from the children's room - the only one with air conditioning.

What's really amazing is that my wife took a coat with her when she left just now. And last night she slept under a thick blanket.While I moaned and complained and crawled around looking for a breeze under the window.

This is from the Gatorade Sport Science Institute:

Most cases of exertional heat illness occur in the summer months (Kark et al., 1996), but the incidence rates are greatest when the weather is hottest, summer or not (Sparling, 1997). Risk for exertional heat illness in military training increases progressively as wet-bulb-globe temperatures (WBGT) rise above 65°F (18.3°C); cases occur primarily with strenuous exercise (e.g., running) and after several consecutive days of hot weather (Kark et al., 1996). A lack of heat acclimation is an important factor for heat intolerance (extreme sensitivity to the heat or discomfort in the heat) and heat illness (Armstrong et al., 1990a). Likewise, US Army recruits from northern states are more susceptible to heat illness than are recruits from southern states (Carter et al., 2005). This latter observation suggests that persistent heat exposure early in life might provide protective benefit later.

So basically my wife just doesn't feel the heat...

Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor - SA Victoria Cross Holder

2010-03-14T00:44:00.003+08:00

Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1918. He was a South African from Mossel Bay.

This is from Wikipedia:

He was attending the University of Cape Town studying engineering when the European war broke out. He took leave from his studies to join the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Rifles. He served as a signalman in the German South-West Africa campaign. In August 1915 he was demobilized with an honorable discharge. He promptly went to work with the South African Field Telegraph and re-enrolled in university. He managed to complete his third year of college before re-enlisting, this time into the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), in March 1917.

This is beautiful:

Beauchamp-Proctor's piloting skills can be judged by the fact he had three landing accidents before he ever shot down an enemy plane.

Apparently he was a poor pilot - and struggled because he was too short to use the airplane's rudders - but he was a deadly shot. This is his VC citation:

"Between August 8, 1918, and October 8, 1918, this officer proved himself victor in twenty-six decisive combats, destroying twelve enemy kite balloons, ten enemy aircraft, and driving down four other enemy aircraft completely out of control. Between October 1, 1918, and October 5, 1918, he destroyed two enemy scouts, burnt three enemy kite balloons, and drove down one enemy scout completely out of control. On October 1, 1918, in a general engagement with about twenty-eight machines, he crashed one Fokker biplane near Fontaine and a second near Ramicourt; on October 2 he burnt a hostile balloon near Selvjgny; on October 3 he drove down, completely out of control, an enemy scout near Mont d'Origny, and burnt a hostile balloon; on October 5, the third hostile balloon near Bohain. On October 8, 1918, while flying home at a low altitude, after destroying an enemy two-seater near Maretz, he was painfully wounded in the arm by machine-gun fire, but, continuing, he landed safely at his-aerodrome, and after making his report was admitted to hospital. In all he has proved himself conqueror over fifty-four foes, destroying twenty-two enemy machines, sixteen enemy kite balloons, and driving down sixteen enemy aircraft completely out of control. Captain Beauchamp-Proctor's work in attacking enemy troops on the ground and in reconnaissance during the withdrawal following on the Battle of St. Quentin from March 21, 1918, and during the victorious advance of our Armies commencing on August 8, has been almost unsurpassed in its Brilliancy, and. as such has made an impression on those serving in his squadron and those around him that will not be easily forgotten. Capt. Beauchamp-Proctor was awarded Military Cross on 22 June 1918; D.F. Cross on 2 July 1918; Bar to M.C. on 16 September 1918; and Distinguished Service Order on 2 November 1918."
VC citation, Supplement to the London Gazette, 30 November 1918

Sadly he was killed in 1921.

Beauchamp-Proctor was killed on the 21 June 1921 in a training accident flying a Sopwith Snipe, in preparation for an air show at the RAF Hendon. His aircraft went into a vicious spin after performing a slow loop, and he was killed in the ensuing crash. At least one observer remarked that the loss of control and subsequent crash of the aircraft could have been linked to Proctor's diminutive size.

It seems this was a remarkable man. These South Africans have been lost in history.

A Real Hamburger in Tainan City

2010-03-13T19:27:00.005+08:00

We met some friends for lunch today. And ate next to the NCKU (National Cheng Kung University) campus.

I love that area. It has a real authentic "student" feel. Lots of serious, focused-looking young gentlemen with engineering textbooks and plenty of nubile women zipping around on scooters and bicycles.

We landed up at the Yellow Bee which specializes in hamburgers. And we were very pleasantly surprised. A serious burger and a good bun (extra cheese, bottomless coke etc. available for a bit more). Basic cost: 148NT (R37) for the beef hamburger. There were two teenage boys at the table and they just managed to finish their orders and their extra fries.

Tables inside and outside. Well worth it.

Here's a link to a local blog with photos.

Shanhua Beer Brewery

2010-03-12T22:10:00.005+08:00

I have long been a staunch supporter of the TTL (Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation) and for good reason. Their alcohol - I'm mostly familiar with their beer - is cheap and decent. In fact, their Gold Medal beer has won a few international awards - thus the name.

The TTL has breweries around the island. I think that there are four or five. But one, the Shanhua Brewery, is less than five minutes drive. There is cheap, acceptable food and the beer is 50NT (R12) per 500ml draft. In addition, there are tables outside and a pond with ducks and fish to amuse the kids.

We are VERY regular patrons.

My wife first read about this place in the paper and brought me here. Talk about the way to a man's heart...

She took this picture:

Some more information from FYI South Magazine:

There are two kinds of beer on tap: standard Taiwan Beer, and an unusual Mango Beer, which is enjoyably fruity without being overwhelmingly sweet. Both are NT$50 for 500cc. If you're driving, try one of the many coffees (NT$32 to NT$80), teas or other soft drinks. The choice of food runs from spaghetti to soups to rice. Set meals are NT$100 to NT$140. Shanhua Brewery is owned by Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor (TTL), The brewery is about two kilometers east of Shanhua Train Station, and about two kilometers west of the Shanhua Freeway Interchange, on the corner of Road 178 and Provincial Highway 1.

(06) 583-8511
2, ChengGong Rd., Shanhua Township, Tainan County
Hours: 10 am-10 pm
www.ttl.com.tw

Work

2010-03-12T21:52:00.001+08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts for a while. But it's been back at work.

Setting up schedules. Setting up schedules for meetings. Setting up meetings to set schedules for meetings. It goes on... Still it's good to be doing something constructive, I suppose.

I also ran one 5K, two 8K's and two 12K's this week. Helped not a little by the cold weather that suddenly descended from the north. Crisp, dry air - that's the way it's supposed to be. So, better enjoy it and use it while it's here.

South African Sago Pudding

2010-02-28T19:28:00.003+08:00

I don't know what brought this on. But I was filled with huimwee (Did i spell that correctly?) So I turned to food and made some sago pudding. This is an eternal favorite with my sons. And this recipe works well:

South African Baked Sago Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

4 c milk .
1/2 c sugar (extra) .
5 tbsps butter .
5 tbsps apricot jam .
1/2 tsp salt .
4 eggs .
1/2 c sugar .
1 c sago .
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon .
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Step #1 Oven: 325F deg F/160 deg Celsius.
Step #2 Grease a large pudding dish lightly.
Step #3 Heat milk to nearly boiling, then add sago, salt, & nutmeg or cinnamon.
Step #4 Simmer over very low heat until sago is transparent.
Step #5 Add the 1/2 c sugar, butter & vanilla, & stir in the well.
Step #6 Remove from heat.
Step #7 Separate the eggs, & whisk the yolks.
Step #8 Add yolks to the sago mixture, whisk or mix through well, & pour the mixture into the prepared oven dish.
Step #9 Put blobs of the apricot jam all over the pudding mixture.
Step #10 Whisk the egg whites until stiff, & add the extra 1/2 c sugar slowly, whisking until incorporated.
Step #11 Spread this meringue over the sago pudding.
Step #12 Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 - 45 mins, until set, & the meringue is light brown on top.
Step #13 Serve hot, warm or cold.
Enjoy the South African Baked Sago Pudding recipe

Okay..., I copied it from here.

I think I am going to arm myself with a single malt and watch District 9 one more time. Just to hear those guys swear.

My wife says the soldiers look more more intimidating than any American actors she's ever seen. I replied that it's our European heritage tied in with lots of brandy and coke...

District 9

2010-02-27T20:20:00.001+08:00

Last night I watched District 9.

What's going on? Are we the flavor of the month? Or is this more permanent? We had DiCaprio playing a South African/ Rhodesian in Blood Diamond - which I really enjoyed. Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar in Invictus and then this Sci-fi movie set in Joburg (of all places).Or maybe not. It's a crazy place. And it works. I don't see the prawns diving around between the vines in Stellenbosch.

Okay, I loved the movie.

Not because it had a great plot or special effects or acting. It was just so cool to hear a South African say "f%k" or "d**s" in a real SA accent. And under amusing circumstances. It made me miss home.

We are special people - no matter where we are.

The Price of Power

2010-02-26T21:26:00.004+08:00

And so it's come to this. Years of poor or no planning and no apparent concern for maintaining or improving infrastructure (specifically the power grid) ... and now South Africans face a 24.8% increase in the price of electricity. From the BBC.

South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%.

Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue.

And it gets worse...

However Eskom has also been permitted to increase electricity prices by a further 25% next year and again in 2012.

Well, this is obviously not good for the economy. This is the point of the article. But what about the average consumer who suddenly has to pay an extra 1/4 on his electricity. And who faces a future of further price hikes. When I was just starting out in Cape Town years ago, this would have killed me.

Who's running this show?

Khaya Dlanga at the Mail and Guardian says that SA "prisons have a propensity for creating greatness". And he refers to Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela all of whom spent time in an SA prison or some form of captivity (Churchill) and then went on to be a great leader somewhere.

Okay, let's not forget current President Zuma was also in jail. ~~And Julius Malema probably should be~~.

But what about that guy, Skollie? From Vyfster. I think he was great and the way things are going now he'd probably do as well as or better as SA president.That guy could organize! There would be electricity that everyone could afford. Not just Malema to light up his houses and Zuma to keep his platoon of children and grandchildren in functioning PlayStations.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE.... Yeah, right!

Running Man

2010-02-25T21:32:00.002+08:00

After the Chinese New year break I started running again. This is an act born out of necessity. The Lunar New Year involves gluttony and egregious drinking to the point that I started hiding in my room by Day 5. After the descent to sanity it became clear that if I was ever again to wear my existing pants and shirts with any vestige of dignity, severe action was called for.

Ergo the running.

Now I am no stranger to running. I learned how to do it at school, the SADF injected it into my DNA and my wife reminds me about it every morning when I dress. In years before, I ran long and even completed a marathon in each of 2005 and 2006. Although I did not qualify for the Olympics, I also was not casevaced by the Bus of Shame that picked up the DNFers.

Yet, now I feel as though I'm starting from running kindergarten again. My legs ache before, during and after I run. It's no fun and I believe neither am I pretty sight.

Also I fear that this plan will either drive me to religious fanaticism or alcohol as I alternately hallucinate about beer and pray on my evening runs...

Peking

2010-02-24T21:06:00.001+08:00

I have just finished reading Anthony Grey's Peking. This is an amazing book written by a man himself held in captivity by the Chinese government for 27 months. He was released in 1969.

If you are out in the East working or are even remotely interested in understanding how the PRC ended up where it is now - then this is a must-read.

Grammar Challenges

2010-02-23T10:56:00.002+08:00

Okay, I know I'm in Taiwan and that sometimes even the best schools and universities produce weird grammar and spelling. But perhaps these can be forgiven - or even smiled at, on occasion. Anyway, I cannot take the moral high ground when my Mandarin pronunciation has my wife forbidding me to speak outside of the home and my reading only just allows me to identify the men's bathroom.

But look at this - also from the Language Log. It seems the Australians, or perhaps just the guys from Queensland, have lost contact with Grammar Base.

According to Justine Ferrari, "Grammar guide an 'education disaster'", The Australian 2/20/2010:

ONE of the world's most respected authorities on grammar has written to every school principal in Queensland, warning them of an error-strewn grammar guide distributed by the state's English Teachers Association.
University of Queensland emeritus professor Rodney Huddleston says he was forced to write to schools directly because the English Teachers Association of Queensland refused to acknowledge or correct the 65 errors he had identified in its teaching guide on grammar, printed as a series of eight articles in its magazine.

Some examples:

In The small boy won't eat his lunch,"won't" is an adverb.
In The small boy is capable of eating his lunch, "capable of" is an adverb.
In a set of bowls, "set of" is an adjective.
In Sam's folder, "Sam's" is a possessive pronoun.

Oh my goodness! Maybe they got some of my students - the younger ones - to write this stuff.

A Metaphorical Toyota

2010-02-22T16:33:00.001+08:00

Back at work. It's not pleasant. But one day my children will thank me .....right?

First thing that I came across was an interesting post from Language Log, a linguistics site that I frequent on occasion. It would appear that Toyota - once most trusted of all motor vehicle brands (my father swears by them) - is now an effective metaphor for things that need to be repaired and apologized for. Look here:

“This book is a Toyota,” said Robert S. Norris, the author of “Racing for the Bomb” and an atomic historian. “The publisher should recall it, issue an apology and fix the parts that endanger the historical record."

The background to this quote:

William J. Broad, "Doubts Raised on Book's Tale of Atom Bomb", NYT 2/20/2010, discusses a minor scandal of historical documentation: the descriptions of a claimed "secret accident with the [Hiroshima] atom bomb", revealed in a recent non-fiction best-seller, turn out to have been based on lies and fabrications.

Can this be right?

2010-02-21T11:05:00.005+08:00

This has very recently come to my attention...

As a former South African national serviceman, I know that it is the duty of each soldier to support the government of the day. As I recall very few conscripts were jumping up and down from excitement at the prospect of joining the army. We went because we had no choice.

And then the next government comes along and basically says that it wants nothing to do with its own fallen soldiers..?

This is from the Voortrekker Monument website.

The Wall of Remembrance has been erected on the VTM Heritage Site to honour members of the SA Defence Force who died on duty. Members are honoured who died between 1961 (foundation of Republic) to 1994 (change to the SANDF). The Wall was erected without any state finance and the VTM raised all the funds through donations. The Wall will be inaugurated on 25 October 2009.

... without any state finance...?!?!?

Marine Sniper

2010-02-20T13:22:00.003+08:00

Today, I would like to take a moment to talk about this man.

Mark has let me know that sniper in the photo above is in fact not Carlos Hathcock but Dalton B Gunderson. Thanks, Mark for bringing this to my attention. I was thinking about taking down the picture but in truth it's an amazing photo and - with Mark's permission, of course - I'd like to keep it up here.

Below is a photo of Carlos Hathcock.

Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock II , United States Marine Corps. Hathcock holds the record for the longest confirmed sniping kill of the 20th Century. Unlike modern military snipers in Iraq and Vietnam who use vastly superior weapons and technology when engaging the enemy, Hathcock relied on a 30 year-old rifle, the Winchester Model 70 and stalking skills.

This is from a USMC site:

After his training was completed Carlos began his new assignment. Operating from Hill 55, a position 35 miles South-West of Da Nang, Hathcock and his fellow Marine snipers renewed a Marine tactic which had been born in the islands of the Pacific in World War II. Within a short period of time the effects of the Marine snipers could be felt around Hill 55. Carlos rapidly ran up a toll on the enemy that would eventually lead to a bounty being placed on his head by the NVA.

As a result of his skill Sergeant Hathcock was twice recruited for covert assignments. One of the them was to kill a Frenchman who was working for the North Vietnamese as an interrogator. This individual was torturing American airmen who had been shot down and captured. One round from Carlos' modified Winchester Model 70 ended the Frenchman's career. On another occasion Sergeant Hathcock accepted an assignment for which he was plainly told that his odds for survival were slim. A North Vietnamese general was the target, and the man died when a bullet fired by Carlos struck him from a range of 800 yards. Hathcock returned to Hill 55 unscathed. In one incredible incident an enemy sniper was killed after a prolonged game of "cat and mouse" between Carlos, with his spotter, and the NVA sniper. The fatal round, fired at 500 yards by Hathcock, passed directly through the NVA sniper's rifle scope, striking him in the eye.

Hathcock would eventually be credited with 93 enemy confirmed killed, including one Viet Cong shot dead by a round fired from a scope-mounted Browning M-2 .50 caliber machine gun at the unbelievable range of 2500 yards. (I see Wikipedia puts the distance at 2347 yards or 2146 meters. The .50's cyclic rate was slow enough to adjust it to fire single rounds.)

The M2 .50 Caliber Browning

I have Hathcock's biography Marine Sniper written by Charles Henderson. It's well worth the read!

Seafood

2010-02-19T21:27:00.001+08:00

Here's a good reason to avoid buying fresh seafood in China..

This is why spelling is everything.

Love in China

2010-02-19T21:23:00.002+08:00

This year, the most popular new Valentine's greeting in China is "I LAO3HU3 老虎 U," where LAO3HU3 (which means "tiger") allegedly sounds like "love" to Chinese speakers."I LAO3HU3 老虎 U" is a current favorite for texting or e-mailing friends, advertisements etc.

Pretty silly...

The "I Jong Dui" - Taiwan Aboriginal Soldiers

2010-02-19T17:08:00.008+08:00

The Taiwan I Jong Dui ( 台灣高砂義勇隊 ) were a group of Aboriginal Taiwanese soldiers who fought in WWII alongside Japanese forces in the South Pacific. There are conflicting opinions on how willing these young men were to leave Taiwan and go and support their colonial masters.

Approximately 8000 men served in these units. At first they performed maintenance and support roles but as the war intensified in the South Pacific the Takasago Giyutai, as they were known to the Japanese, began fighting in the frontlines. Aboriginal soldiers fought and died in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Phillippines and other parts of the Pacific theater.

However, for three reasons little is known about this group of extraordinary warriors. First, as it became clear the war was ending the Japanese army began destroying a great deal of its military records for fear of prosecution during possible war trials. Second, the Aboriginal soldiers fought under Japanese names and it is very hard for historians to distinguish them from Japanese soldiers in documentation. And third, upon their return, many Aboriginal soldiers were persecuted by the KMT government that had taken control of Taiwan after WWII. Thus they chose to reveal little or no information about their actions in the war.

One thing is clear based on reports from their Japanese officers. These men were gifted warriors. They had superb hearing, moved silently through the jungle and were capable of amazing feats of physical endurance. More here.

Today this remains a highly contentious issue for many Aboriginal Taiwanese.

An amazing ending to the war of one of these men can be found in this article from Time magazine (1975) Japan - The Last Last Soldier. Here is a short excerpt:

Private Teruo Nakamura was motivated to hold out both by fear of capture and fidelity to orders. After a final banzai charge against invading U.S. troops failed in January 1945, radio contact between Tokyo and Morotai was lost. Nakamura, who was separated from other members of his commando unit, managed to avoid capture and built a grass hut deep in the jungle. He survived by raising potatoes and picking bananas off the trees. "My commanding officer told me to fight it out," he explained. Last month he was spotted by a Morotai native, who alerted Indonesian authorities. Four airmen lured the naked Nakamura out of hiding by singing the Japanese national anthem and waving the risingsun flag. Then they pounced on him.

Primitive living seemed to agree with Nakamura, 55, as much as it did with the other two holdouts; doctors in Jakarta pronounced him "exceedingly fit," even though at week's end he was suffering from a mild case of malaria. A member of the Ami tribe from Taiwan—long reputed for their bravery, stamina and ability to absorb hardship—Nakamura would like to return home and join his wife. She has long since remarried, but says that she will still be happy to see him.

He was "captured" in December 1974...

Kavalan Whiskey

2010-02-18T21:44:00.004+08:00

Having just returned form the East Coast I think this would be an appropriate time to mention this:

From the Taiwan News:

Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) A Taiwan-distilled whisky has shocked connoiseurs by beating a trio of top Scottish blends in a blind taste test arranged by an English newspaper. According to a report in London-based The Times, Taiwan's Kavalan brand came out on top in a recent test against three Scottish and one English whisky in a historic hostelry in Leith, Scotland, north of Edinburgh.
The Times organized the test itself, in what it called a "piece of mischief-making" in hopes of catching the experts by surprise with Scotland's traditional "Sassenach" English rivals, but to the newspaper staff's surprise, it was the Taiwanese whisky that took the honors.
"It's tropical fruits. Tropical fruit jam, " said author and whisky connoisseur Charles MacLean, who headed the jury panel, after Kavalan, which is not marketed in Britain, came out on top with 27.5 points out of a possible 40.
Langs, a three-year-old Scottish premium blend, scored 22 points, and was followed by another Scottish blend King Robert with 20 and the English three-year-old malt with 15.5.
Quadruple-distilled Scottish blend Bruichladdich X4+3 came in last with only 4.5 points.
"Asians are not only some of the world's most sophisticated consumers of Scotch, but have begun distilling malts that compete with the best Scottish distilleries," The Times wrote.
The blind taste test was also organized to mark Scotland's annual Burns Night festivities, named after 18th century poet Robert "Rabbie" Burns. The festival competes with St. Andrew's Day as a focus for traditional whisky-fueled celebrations in Scotland and by Scots around the world.

Kavalan is distilled on the East Coast of Taiwan in Yilan County, which is really just tall mountains and clear, clean mountain streams. It is named for a group of Aboriginal Taiwanese who lived in the mountains years before. The obvious whiskey enthusiast at Whisky for Everyone has more to say about the whiskey.

The link to the Kavalan website is here.

And here is the advert.

Computers

2010-02-18T20:15:00.003+08:00

Settling in at home. And, of course, everyone runs for a computer. I like to think that I have priority access to the internet but that is - apparently - not the case. Both sons all over the PC. Wife on the notebook.

I think I need an Ipod.

South African Security

2010-02-18T20:08:00.003+08:00

It would appear SA cyclists also have to prepare for crime...

Thank-you to Gerhardt for this.

Return to the Gulag

2010-02-17T19:16:00.001+08:00

Driving back to the West Coast today - work looming...

Lamb on Fire

2010-02-16T11:42:00.002+08:00

A friend sent a whole leg of lamb from Taipei. The actual lamb - with all four legs - originated in Australia. This put me in a spot. The in-laws have a oven that shouldn't even qualify for the word. It's about large enough to roast an anorexic hedgehog. Not much good for anything else.

So I employed the braai ... again.

(This photo after 3 hours)

Filled with slight trepidation, I inserted small bits of bacon and garlic at several strategic locations in the leg. Salt, pepper, a bit of olive oil. Then wrapped it in some foil. It was on the fire - not over the coals - for close to five hours.

And it was beautiful. People came down from the hills to try some as word spread. On the table there were also lots of clams fried with ginger, garlic and chilli, sashimi with wasabi, oysters in a black bean sauce, some red wine and - of course - plenty of ice-cold beer.

More on China ...

2010-02-15T00:40:00.002+08:00

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying the PRC is the perfect place. But anyone with any sense and any interest in the future has to keep their eye on China. Take a look at this...

"It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.

“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”

Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down.

We missed the boat then, and lord knows we’re missing it now. Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to take off for Palo Alto, Calif., to cover a conference on the importance of energy and infrastructure for the next American economy, The Times’s Keith Bradsher was writing from Tianjin, China, about how the Chinese were sprinting past everybody else in the world, including the United States, in the race to develop clean energy.

That we are allowing this to happen is beyond stupid. China is a poor country with nothing comparable to the tremendous research, industrial and economic resources that the U.S. has been blessed with. Yet they’re blowing us away — at least for the moment — in the race to the future."

More here from the NYTimes again.

A case in point. Shanghai - a bit north of here - and the place to be if you're in Asia. This from Flickr.

Shanghai is the largest city in China in terms of population and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level status.

Originally a fishing and textiles town, Shanghai grew to importance in the 19th century due to its favourable port location and as one of the cities opened to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The city flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became a multinational hub of finance and business by the 1930s. However, Shanghai's prosperity was interrupted after the 1949 Communist takeover and the subsequent cessation of foreign investment. Economic reforms in 1990 resulted in intense development and financing in Shanghai, and in 2005 Shanghai became the world's largest cargo port.

The city is an emerging tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as the Bund and Xintiandi, its modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline including the Oriental Pearl Tower, and its new reputation as a cosmopolitan center of culture and design. Today, Shanghai is the largest center of commerce and finance in mainland China, and has been described as the "showpiece" of the world's fastest-growing economy.

Will Americans learn to speak Chinese?

2010-02-14T00:21:00.004+08:00

From the The New York Times.

Imagine that your monthly mortgage bill arrives, unremarkable except that it’s suddenly written in Mandarin. Then, your bank sends over a Chinese translator to explain that you are falling deeper into debt. Mind-boggling? Well, this is America’s contemporary predicament as the Chinese finance a growing share of [its] national debt. Beijing holds $1.8 trillion in U.S. bonds and other instruments of borrowing. [The US] is fused at the hip with the Chinese, economically speaking.

So, we better get to know them. They certainly want to know us, sending over hundreds of teachers to spark our children’s interest in Mandarin and East Asian ways.

We are pathetically slow in realizing that East Asia will soon dominate the global economy. We believe, as did the last living Romans, that the American empire will reign forever.

Well, on that note - Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Tiger be a wonderful one for you!

The Mauser Model 95

2010-02-13T10:37:00.009+08:00

Which (see below) got me to thinking about those Mausers...

A Model 1895 (Mexican Army)

In the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, Boer Commandos - armed with Model 1893/1895 Mausers - proved to be an exceedingly tough match for the Brits. One of the constant themes of the conflict was the accurate, long-range fire the Boers rained down on their adversaries. As the Boers would put it, "Vertroue in God en die Mauser" --"Faith in God and the Mauser."

This is interesting. "The Model 95 (7x57) was adopted by Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Persia, China, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In fact, some of the Chilean Model 95s carry the code "O.V.S.", standing for the "'Orange Free State." Reportedly, because of the success of the British blockades, these rifles never reached South African shores, were returned to the factory where the Chilean crest was applied to the receiver ring, and sold to Chile as part of the contract." (From Guns Magazine, August 2007)

And this article from Wikipedia discusses the 7x57 ammunition. Here's an excerpt:

The qualities of the 7x57mm as a military round were shown in the Spanish-American War and the Second Boer War in South Africa. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders took very heavy casualties attacking an inferior force armed with 7 mm Model 93 Mauser rifles. Likewise, British soldiers fighting in South Africa were obliged to re-evaluate rifle and ammunition design and tactics after facing Boer sharpshooters and snipers armed with Model 1895 Mauser rifles firing 7x57mm rounds with withering effectiveness, easily outranging the .303 British cartridge as regards accurate long-range fire. The .303 cartridge at that time was still using cordite propellant, in contrast to the Mauser's higher-performance ballistite type smokeless powder.

I found this photo of a slightly newer Mauser rechambered for a NATO 7.62mm.

That's beautiful...

The Battle of Rensburg

2010-02-13T10:11:00.007+08:00

Here's a bit of history from the Second Anglo-Boer War. The narrative sets out to praise the courage of the British and Australians which is not to be denied. But it is quite clear that the South Africans' superior shooting skill and tactics held the day.

On February 13, 1900, at Pink Hill (also known as Hobkirk's Farm) , in the Cape Colony, the Battle of Rensburg was fought. Australian and British troops were attacked by a superior Boer force resulting in the deaths of 7 Australians and the wounding of 22 others.

The following account of the battle was given by a Boer prisoner to a correspondent from the Daily Mail:

I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us.

It was a cruel fight. We had ambushed a lot of the British troops - the Worcesters, I think they called them. They could neither advance nor retire; we had them penned in like sheep, and our field cornet, van Leyden, was beseeching them to throw down their rifles to save being slaughtered, for they had no chance. Just then we saw about a hundred Australians come bounding over the rock in the gully behind us. There were two great big men in front cheering them on.

We turned and gave them a volley, but it did not stop them. They rushed over everything, firing as they came, not wildly, but with the quick sharp upward jerk to the shoulder, the rapid sight then the shot. They knocked over a lot of our men, but we had a splendid position. They had to expose themselves in order to get to us, and we shot them as they came at us. They were rushing to the rescue of the English. It was splendid but it was madness.

On they came and we lay behind the boulders, and our rifles snapped and snapped again at pistol range but we did not stop those wild men until they charged right into a little basin which was fringed around all its edges by rocks covered with bushes. Our men lay there as thick as locusts, and the Australians were fairly trapped. They were far worse off than the Worcesters up high in the ravine.

Our field cornet gave the order to cease firing and called on them to throw down their rifles or die. Then one of the big officers -- a great rough-looking man, with a voice like a bull, roared out "forward Australia! no surrender!" These were the last words he ever uttered for a man on my right put a bullet clean between his eyes and he fell forward dead. We found later that his name was Major Eddy, of the Victorian Rifles.

He was as brave as a lion but a Mauser bullet will stop the bravest. His men dashed at the rocks like wolves; it was awful to see them. They smashed at our heads with clubbed rifles or thrust their rifles up against us through the rocks and fired. One after another their leaders fell. The second big man went down early, but he was not killed. He was shot through the groin, but not dangerously. His name was Captain McInerney.

There was another one, a little man named Lieutenant Roberts; he was shot through the heart. Some of the others I forget. The men would not throw down their rifles; they fought like furies. One man I saw climbed right on to the rocky ledge where big Jan Aldrecht was stationed. Just as he got there a bullet took him and he staggered and dropped his rifle. Big Jan jumped froward to catch him before he toppled over the ledge, but the Australian struck Jan in the mouth with his clenched fist and [he] fell over into the ravine below and was killed.

We killed and wounded an awful lot of them, but some got away; they fought their way out. I saw a long row of their dead and wounded laid out on the slope of a farmhouse that evening - they were all young men, fine big fellows. I could have cried to look at them so cold and still. They had been so brave in the morning, so strong, but in the evening a few hours later they were dead, and we had not hated them nor they us.

Right-clicked from here

South African President Jacob Zuma

2010-02-12T13:22:00.002+08:00

From Madam and Eve.

Father of (a considerable part of) the nation...

Jack Daniel's Old No.7

2010-02-12T00:01:00.001+08:00

Today, I would like to address one of the great questions of our time.

Why Old No.7?

Here's the great man himself.

It seems Mr.Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel had a fine temper - probably why nobody was brave enough to ask him the origin of the name of his most famous creation. From Wikipedia.

Daniel died from blood poisoning at Lynchburg in 1911. The infection allegedly set up originally in a toe, which Daniel injured in kicking his safe in anger when he could not get it open early one morning at work — he had always had trouble remembering the combination and his last words were "One last drink, please". This incident was the subject of a marketing poster used on the London Underground in January 2006, with the line "Moral: Never go to work early." A common joke that is told during the tour of the distillery is that all Jack had to do to cure his infection was to dip his toe in a glass of his own whiskey to clean it.

A quick internet search produces these possible explanations for the name Old No.7.

"While a college student in Tennessee, not far from the Jack Daniels distillery, the story I heard was that in Mr. Daniels' first distiller's competition he was assigned number 7 as an entrant. May or may not be true, but the locals all believed it."

"A shipment marked No. 7 was lost. The first part of it sold so quickly that the sellers requested more of the No. 7. When JD found the lost portion of the shipment, they stamped it Old No. 7 to make sure the customers knew it was a part of the original number 7 shipment and not a new brew."

"They quote the legend claiming that Jack Daniels and his six friends invented the No7 whiskey; therefore, No. 7 stands as a tribute to his friends."

"Some say that Jack Daniel had 7 girlfriends, or that the way he wrote his “J” looked like a 7. Some say he chose the number 7 simply because it’s lucky.
One story goes that the recipe for Jack Daniel’s was Mr. Jack’s 7th recipe or 7th trial batch.
Another story says that it was the railroad shipping number on a barrel. We’ll never know for sure – Mr. Jack took that secret to the grave."

It's all put together very nicely in this commercial. Click here.

Well, I suppose there are greater mysteries to be pondered ....

"I am the Old Ghost of the Shangani Patrol And the last bullet will be mine..."

2010-02-11T00:31:00.012+08:00

I found a reference to this battle quite by accident a few years ago. As a South African I find this kind of history fascinating. And the truth is - much like Zimbabwe - South Africa also has great stories like this but time and politics have meant that few know or care much anymore.

The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland (now in Zimbabwe) in 1893.

During the First Matabele War, a column of soldiers were despatched to attempt the capture of King Lobengula, leader of the Ndebele nation. The column camped on the south bank of the Shangani River about 40 km north-east of the village of Lupane on the evening of 3 December 1893. Late in the afternoon, a dozen men, under the command of Major Allan Wilson, were sent across the river to reconnoitre. Shortly afterwards, Wilson sent a message back to the laager to say that he had found the king, and was requesting reinforcements.

The commander of the column, Major Patrick Forbes, unwilling to set off across the river in the dark, sent 20 more men , intending to send the main body of troops and artillery across the river the following morning. However, on their way to the river the next day, the column was ambushed by Ndebele fighters and delayed. The Shangani Patrol, numbering 34 men, were cut off by a rising river and they faced three Matabele impis alone. None survived.

Then came the development they had all been expecting and dreading. In the half-light they heard the clicking of rifle bolts and from behind a tree stepped a warrior wearing the induna's headring. He fired his rifle. It was the signal for a scattered volley which intensified as more warriors came running through the bush. More here.

There were no survivors, and this is the proud epitaph on their memorial. No one knew of their fate until two months later, when James Dawson, the trader, was led to the spot by a party of natives and found their skeletons. The trees all round were scored by bullet marks. The Matabele spoke of them reverently and had been so impressed by their bravery that they had refrained from mutilating their bodies and had left them where they fell. Dawson dug a large grave and gave them temporary burial close to a tree on which he cut a cross and the words, "To Brave Men". Their bones were later interred at Zimbabwe, since they had all come from Fort Victoria, and in 1904 removed to the Matopos, to the hilltop "consecrated and set apart for ever for those who had deserved well of their country."

Slow Afternoon

2010-02-10T09:20:00.010+08:00

Made a fire yesterday. By putting the meat on in batches I skillfully managed to stretch the braai out all afternoon.

It was very hot and the ice cold Carlsberg beer complemented the sun just perfectly.

Carlsberg Beer (also called Carlsberg Lager and Carlsberg Pilsner) is the beer most people expect when ordering a Carlsberg. Carlsberg Special Brew is a very strong lager (sometimes known as premium lager) brewed in Denmark and the United Kingdom. It comes in a can with a distinctive gold and red colour.Special Brew was first brewed by master brewer, Thomas Marfleet, and was brewed by Carlsberg to commemorate a visit to Denmark of Winston Churchill in 1950. In May 1951 two crates were delivered to Churchill's London home. In a thank you letter Churchill called the drink "Commemoration Lager".

The Carlsberg's tagline "Probably the best beer in the world" was created in 1973 for the UK market. It began to appear in company corporate ads around the world from the 1980s onwards. The voice over for the original advertisement in 1975 was voiced by actor Orson Welles. More here.

The Fairburn-Sykes fighting knife.

2010-02-09T00:03:00.009+08:00

Shortly before World War II William Fairburn and Eric Sykes designed this weapon, the Fairburn-Sykes fighting knife.

The knife was used by the British commandos ( including the just created S.A.S ) in WWII but became popular with many other special forces units as the war progressed. The knife also saw service in Korea and Vietnam. This is from Wikipedia.

The length of the blade [ 7 inches]was chosen to give several inches of blade to penetrate the body after passing through the three inches of the thickest clothing that was anticipated to be worn in the war, namely that of Soviet greatcoats. Later production runs of the FS fighting knife have a blade length that is about 7.5 inches.

The F-S Fighting Knife was designed exclusively for surprise attack and fighting, with a slender blade that can easily penetrate a ribcage. The vase handle grants precise grip, and the double-edged blade is integral to its design. Fairbairn's rationale is in his book Get Tough! (1942).

"In close-quarters fighting there is no more deadly weapon than the knife. In choosing a knife there are two important factors to bear in mind: balance and keenness. The hilt should fit easily in your hand, and the blade should not be so heavy that it tends to drag the hilt from your fingers in a loose grip. It is essential that the blade have a sharp stabbing point and good cutting edges, because an artery torn through (as against a clean cut) tends to contract and stop the bleeding. If a main artery is cleanly severed, the wounded man will quickly lose consciousness and die."

Fairfield himself had a colorful history.He served as an instructor in the Shanghai Municipal Police for many years and trained UK, US and Canadian Commando forces, along with Ranger candidates in close-combat, pistol-shooting, and knife-fighting techniques during WWII.

I have to include this excellent quote from Richard Dunlop's Behind Japanese Lines :

British Major Fairbairn, who had been chief of police in Shanghai before the Japanese capture of the city, taught the Fairbairn method of assault and murder. His course was not restricted to Camp X, but later given at OSS camps in the United States. All of us who were taught by Major Fairbairn soon realized that he had an honest dislike for anything that smacked of decency in fighting.

The Gladius

2010-02-08T10:05:00.011+08:00

The military successes of the Roman legionaries stemmed from their intensive training and very strict discipline. And this weapon - the gladius.

Which literally means sword. The word gladiator comes from this word as well as Gladiolus - a flower with sharp, sword-shaped leaves.

The gladius was a short sword that was used by Roman legionaries from the 3rd century BC and designed specifically for making short, powerful thrusts.

The weapon was about 60 cm (22 inches) long and generally weighed 3 pounds (1.4 kg) . In battle the Gladius was used in a thrusting action together with a large rectangular shield, the scutum.

This stabbing technique was most effective on the battlefield because its result was a deep stabbing wound to the midsection of an opponent. Unlike other swords that were used in strike to inflict glancing lacerations the thrust of a Gladius was almost always fatal.

On another continent, Shaka Zulu came to a similar realization about the deadly effect of stabbing in close quarter combat and virtually did away with the primary Zulu attack weapon of the time, the assegaai throwing spear, and introduced the iklwa .

The iklwa [was] a short stabbing spear, with a long, sword-like spearhead. It is said to have been named after the sounds made by its penetration into and withdrawal from the body.

The gladius and iklwa are separated by more than 1000 years, the Zulu weapon emerging later, but I have to wonder what would have happened if a Roman legion had met a Zulu impi in battle.

My money would be on the boys from Rome.

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet" Damon Runyan

Just found this. Nike Gladiator Sandals. For if you take your training really seriously, I guess.

Rice Paddy

2010-02-07T08:33:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I was mainly here - helping on the farm. It looks a little like a scene from Platoon - Is that Charlie moving in the treeline ... ?

Platoon was filmed in the Philippines. (Hey, Tears of the Sun, the SEAL movie set in Nigeria was filmed in Hawaii.)

This is interesting. Below, the iconic picture of Sgt Elias Grodin (Platoon) dying as the US helicopters depart the LZ.

And this is the photo it was based on.

As fellow troopers aid wounded buddies, a paratrooper of A Company, 101st Airborne, guides a medical evacuation helicopter through the jungle foliage to pick up casualties during a five-day patrol of Hue, South Vietnam, in April, 1968. (AP Photo/Art Greenspoon)

On this day in ...

2010-02-06T00:29:00.000+08:00

1838 - During the Boers Great Trek, Boer leader Piet Retief was murdered by the Zulu king Dingane's warriors.

1922 - The Washington Conference between the United States, France, Japan, Italy and Britain ended with agreement on restricting use of poison gas and submarine warfare.

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II succeeded to the British throne upon the death of her father, King George VI.

1971 - NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard took a six-iron stashed inside his spacecraft took a swing at three golf balls on the surface of the moon. Shepard whiffed the first swing. The others were good shots that went a few hundred yards in space's vacuum. Because his moonwalk suit was so bulky, he didn’t get enough of a swing to launch the golf balls into orbit. But he did get a couple of divots.

The Longbow

2010-02-06T00:26:00.014+08:00

An old friend - a former marine - has taken up bow hunting. Ghillie suit, sweat, stalking in the bush under the African sun. Recently, he took a deer at 20 m. Just look at that bow!

Which got me to thinking about the English - or Welsh - longbow. Most famously used at the Battles of Crecy and Agincourt where men armed with these bows destroyed waves of attacking cavalry - specifically, killing hundreds of heavily armoured knights.

Typically made from yew and around two metres in length, the longbow was a powerful weapon in the right hands. It was accurate and could kill at ranges of up to 230 metres. However, it was its use as an area weapon (i.e firing massed volleys at specific areas rather than individual targets) which proved most effective. It was hard to draw the bow - probably impossible for most men today - and skeletons of longbow archers show deformations such as enlarged left arms and bone spurs on wrists, shoulders and fingers.

This account in Wikipedia testifies to the penetrating power of the arrow of the longbow:

In the war against the Welsh, one of the men of arms was struck by an arrow shot at him by a Welshman. It went right through his thigh, high up, where it was protected inside and outside the leg by his iron cuirasses, and then through the skirt of his leather tunic; next it penetrated that part of the saddle which is called the alva or seat; and finally it lodged in his horse, driving so deep that it killed the animal.

Saxton Pope, the author of Hunting with the Bow and Arrow ( available through Project Gutenberg), describes his efforts to test the power of the longbow:

"To test a steel bodkin pointed arrow such as was used at the battle of Cressy, I borrowed a shirt of chain armor from the Museum, a beautiful specimen made in Damascus in the 15th Century. It weighed twenty-five pounds and was in perfect condition. One of the attendants in the Museum offered to put it on and allow me to shoot at him. Fortunately, I declined his proffered services and put it on a wooden box, padded with burlap to represent clothing. Indoors at a distance of seven yards, I discharged an arrow at it with such force that sparks flew from the links of steel as from a forge. The bodkin point and shaft went through the thickest portion of the back, penetrated an inch of wood and bulged out the opposite side of the armor shirt. The attendant turned a pale green. An arrow of this type can be shot about two hundred yards, and would be deadly up to the full limit of its flight."

Up in the morning before the sun...

2010-02-05T05:37:00.006+08:00

Following on my Macbeth cauldron theme from yesterday.

Made a South African traditional "potjie" yesterday - on a charcoal fire. One Chicken. The whole bottle of wine went in to keep it company. The family dog ( a combination of husky and another - as yet unidentified - canine) did not leave my side for the 4 hours of cooking. The stew fed what seemed to be an entire platoon of kids.

Up at 0415 this morning. This is what happens when you take your vacation on a farm.

There is a company of marines up on the side of the hill nearby - they're attached to the very large Air Force Base that lies just north. I haven't heard them yet but I will soon. They make an ungodly amount of noise screaming at each other in the early morning. I don't get that. A nicely hidden base, camo nets etc. but everybody within earshot - and that's a distance of about 3 clicks on a cold morning - knows where they are.

Of course, if it was a training base that would be different. Nothing makes sense there. See below. Nobody would normally do this.

Ah, 20 years and 30 kilograms ago...

On this day in ...

2010-02-05T04:39:00.000+08:00

1945 - United States troops under General Douglas MacArthur entered Manila, Philippines.

1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz excitedly received their first of several Emmy Awards at the 4th Annual Emmy Awards banquet in Los Angeles. I Love Lucy won for Best Situation Comedy and Lucille Ball won for Best Comedienne. Other winners at the event included Robert Montgomery Presents for Best Dramatic Program; Dragnet for Best Mystery, Action, or Adventure Program; Your Show of Shows won for Best Variety Program; and Time for Beany was chosen Best Children's Program for the third year in a row. Emmys were originally going to be called "Ikes," a short form for the television iconoscope tube, but the name had problems, as it was also the nickname of war hero and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ultimately, the nickname chosen was a feminization of "Immy," a term commonly used for the early image orthicon camera tube.

1983 - Klaus Barbie, wanted Nazi war criminal, was imprisoned in Lyons, France, following extradition from Bolivia.

1997 - Switzerland's three biggest banks, galvanized by international pressure, said they had created a 100 million Swiss franc Holocaust memorial fund as a gesture of good will toward their critics.

Salinger and Shakespeare

2010-02-04T12:27:00.010+08:00

J.D Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye), the creator of Holden Caulfield -the most famous teenager in the world (well, after one of those Jonas brothers) - died last week. According to the The New York Times:

J.D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died on Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

Salinger responded to letters on occasion. Eleven years after The Catcher in the Rye was released, he wrote the following letter in response to a request for writing advice by an 'angst-ridden' first-year college student. Advice was certainly present in Salinger's reply.

Oct. 21, 1962

Dear Mr. Stevens,

I must tell you first, offputtingly or no, that I am at best a one-shot letter writer, these days. Along with that, I really never have anything to say when I`m done writing fiction at the end of a day. One thought, and one only, hits me about your letter. Entirely "materialistic," I'm afraid. You need a new typewriter ribbon. Get one or don't get one, but unless you make an effort to deal with things as unabstractly as that, you're stewing quite unnecessarily. You've decided that Things are what matter to people. Of course. Not only with "people" but with you, too. Everything in your letter is a thing, concrete or abstract. Avidya and vidya are things. For me, before anything else, you're a young man who needs a new typewriter ribbon. See that fact, and don't attach more significance to it than it deserves, and then get on with the rest of the day. Good wishes to you.

(Signed, 'JDS')

For more go to this great website: Letters of Note

John Hinckley Jr., would-be assassin of Ronald Reagan, as well as Mark Chapman, John Lennon's killer, both had copies of The Catcher in the Rye. Hinckley's was in his room and Chapman apparently carried his copy around with him. (I should mention that this gives the novel a certain morbid appeal among high school students.)

And the word assassin has its own story. Apparently, originating from an Arabic word meaning "takers of hashish (cannabis)", it refers to a group of Shia Muslims who specialized in taking out members of the Sunni elite - as well as Crusaders - during the Middle Ages.

Most notably, the word assassination was created by William Shakespeare and first used in literature in the ultimate tale of ambition, regicide and the power of a nagging wife, Macbeth. Some controversy surrounds this piece of writing, too. There are those who claim the play is cursed and when performing the drama, actors superstitiously do not refer to it by name but as the Scottish play. The curse has caused theaters to burn down and actors to be killed or injured during productions. Supporters of the curse theory believe that Shakespeare wrote actual incantations provided by real witches into the play. Double Double Toil and Trouble Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble... Skeptics state that Macbeth is simply a dangerous play to perform with many fighting scenes and lots of poor lighting. Mmmm...

Latin Verbs

2010-02-04T02:14:00.001+08:00

This might mean something to you if you struggled with Latin at some point in school or university...

Project Razor

2010-02-04T00:07:00.012+08:00

The China post editorial of February 2nd caught my attention. It seems there is a proposal to create a museum dedicated to a group of Cold War pilots - known as the Black Cat Squadron. These R.O.C. pilots flew 102 reconnaissance missions in U2's over what was North Vietnam, North Korea and Mainland China in the 1960's and 1970's. Five pilots were shot down - 3 died and two were imprisoned for for almost two decades. Another seven men died when their U2's crashed. This from the China Post:

Jointly operated by the United States (U.S.) and the R.O.C, “Project Razor” had U-2 aircraft deployed at what is now a naval aviation base near the Taoyuan airport.
At the time, it was the only deployment of U-2 aircraft to bases not controlled by U.S. forces, and these were the only U-2 aircraft piloted by non-U.S. personnel.
Each of the 102 missions flown by the Taiwan-based pilots had to be authorized at the highest levels of government both in the U.S. and in Taiwan.
In essence, R.O.C pilots took all the risks for the missions, while the U.S. provided the equipment and intelligence for the reconnaissance objects.
Starting in 1961, members of the Black Cat Squadron flew at heights reaching 70,000 feet to snap photographs of strategic locations and troop movements during the height of Cold War tensions.
An ordinary mission would usually require at least eight hours of flying over hostile territory in a fragile plane possessing no defensive weapons that was easily damaged by enemy fire.
The information they collected played a major role in maintaining security in the region.
Information they supplied confirming movements of troops and weapons to the Soviet border also played an important part in convincing Washington that the split between communist powers in Beijing and Moscow was genuine.

And...

The proposed museum would also bestow belated respect and honor to the R.O.C pilots who lost their lives or spent years languishing in mainland Chinese prisons after being shot down on the dangerous missions.

More here.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time that a government "forgot" about its own soldiers.

This is a website that is dedicated to some of these pilots.

On this day in ...

2010-02-04T00:02:00.004+08:00

1927 - British driver Malcolm Campbell broke the world land speed record in his car Bluebird, driving at 174.224 miles per hour.

1945 - Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and to decide on the post-war future.

1976 - Lourenco Marques, the capital of Mozambique, was renamed Maputo.

1997 - 16 months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges, a civil trial jury blamed him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

On this day in ...

2010-02-03T22:46:00.005+08:00

1953 - Marine archeologist Jacques Cousteau became renowned worldwide for documenting his deep sea explorations. His first and most-lasting work, The Silent World, was published on this date. He attracted world attention when he salvaged a 1,000-pound Roman freighter near Marseilles. While in the French navy, he and engineer Emil Gargon invented the aqualung. However, Cousteau is best known for his documentaries and book.

1960 - British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan foreshadowed the decolonization of Africa, telling the South African parliament: "The wind of change is blowing through the continent."

1972 - In Sapporo, Japan, the first Winter Olympics held in Asia took place.

1994 - President Bill Clinton announced the lifting of the United States trade embargo against Vietnam, marking a dramatic shift in relations chilled for decades by war and postwar hostility.

Taitung, Taiwan

2010-02-03T22:20:00.006+08:00

I find myself back in Taitung - on the East coast of Taiwan - for the first time since August, 2009.

It's winter here, of course. But that means it's only marginally cooler than Cape Town in the summer. The locals think it's cold, though. Ergo, beach to ourselves. What's really astounding is the amount of driftwood - perhaps, the term doesn't quite cover it - still on the beach after Typhoon Morakot. And huge amounts have already been removed.

And this is the infamous hotel/timeshare facility that was apparently constructed illegally on a public beach. (In addition, the beach was closed to local residents.) After much protesting construction was halted and now here it stands...

How did this construction get this far? Some kind of skulduggery, methinks. Somebody better do something about it soon, too. Right now it's only good for filming low budget supernatural thrillers or Urban COIN training.