Trip to the War Museum

Several weeks ago, I took my youngest, S to the War Museum here in Ottawa.  We had an interesting time; we had to leave on my insistence due to my inability to stand & walk more than a couple of hours due to my back. He was interested enough to stay longer- inheriting my interest in history? Perhaps...
The highlight for me was the war paintings. I bought this book on the way out (http://store02.prostores.com/servlet/cyberboutique/the-1087/Canvas-of-War/Detail ), which is terrific, but doesn't really do the artwork justice. Many of the murals are 10 feet tall by 40 feet wide, or more; they're breathtaking and hypnotic. At the time it was a new type of war art- the public were acutely aware that World War 1 was not like past wars, and the art style of past wars (Generals on horses, clean and smart-looking soldiers marching, etc.) didn't resonate well. This new art depicted the reality of the common soldier's plight- mud, blood, terror and despair. I wish I could present some photos here, but the museum isn't keen on the use of flash photography of their paintings, understandably...
However, I did take some pickies; here are a few of them:

A couple of the artillery piece that I remember so well from my first visit to the museum some 40+ years ago:

 

Apparently the entire gun crew was killed. I can only suppose that in the heat of battle, the crew was unaware that there was a misfire, or assumed that the shell was a dud, and was long gone--it was likely jammed in their gun's barrel. The next round struck it, and that was the end. Pretty gruesome. Quite an unforgettable artefact.

The next is S in front of a destroyed German tank destroyer. I think it's a Sturmgeschütz (Stug) III. And I'm pretty sure it was used for target practice, either that, or it met an extremely violent end....

Next up is an extremely(!) small Italian tank, a Carro Leggero 3 (L3). It's smaller than S!!:

I recall reading Rommel's memoirs, about how insufficient the Italian tanks were in the desert war in World War 2. How would you like to go into battle in one of these? Yikes! Especially if you were up against a British Matilda or an American Grant or Sherman.

Here's S in front of a Sherman:

The Sherman was a fine tank, but it wasn't as good as the best German tanks, or even the bast Soviet tanks.

And here's a pic of a Grant tank (er, I guess its a Lee (same thing)):

Now this beast was obsolete right off the assembly line, but it fared okay in the desert. It was at a disadvantage against the better German tanks (Panzer 3's) and the German anti-tank weapons (even the smaller ones), but it was a behemoth compared to the smaller Panzer tanks and the little Italian jobs.

Here's some pics of some of the big boys. A Soviet T-34, and a German Panther:

These were the state-of-the-art tanks at the end of WW2. Now my buddy Frank will cringe when I say this, but the Panther was a much better tank than the T-34. More refined, better gun, better armour, better everything. Looking at the build quality of the two up close is very telling. However, to be fair, the T34 was first, and it was the most influential tank of the war. Everything built after it used it's main design attribute: sloping armour. And the Soviet's understood war economy- build lots of the same thing. The Germans never quite got that. Enough of the lesson; and more pics:

First a Churchill tank, one of the better British types (they weren't the best tank builders):

And this is a British Valentine tank (older design, and not quite so good as the Churchill):

There were many other sights at the War Museum, including a lot of older and newer artefacts. From ancient native artefacts through to the Seven Years's War, the War of 1812, the Boer war, and finally the 20th century world wars, and all of the business since. 

One of Hitler's limousines is there, a complete Spitfire, all sorts of rifles and hand guns, uniforms of all sorts, and those haunting paintings. 

There's a fair exposure to the horror of war; the museum curators didn't overly focus on the glory aspect- a welcome balance.... We don't want our kids thinking that war is cool (as suggested by every friggin' video game in my house... don't get me started!). 

The War Museum is a really informative and interesting walk through (military) history. Highly recommended for those so inclined.

Lawrence of Arabia- the book

I recently finished reading the book on which the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" was based. I highly recommend it. Here are my thoughts on it:

Seven Pillars of Wisdom
By T. E. Lawrence

Quite a large book for someone without much time for reading. But after learning something about the man, and watching the movie many times, I had to dive in. His prose is often almost poetic, and flows effortlessly, and his description of the seemingly mundane is rich and interesting. His description of the desert turns what one might think of as featureless and endless into a vast array of differing landscapes, vivid terrains, coupled with the human interaction with the different landscapes. All through the book, he provides a wonderful commentary on the uniqueness of every one of the journeys that he took through the Levant and Syria.

Being written at the height of the British Empire, during a time when the British presence was felt throughout the world, and when notable Englishmen were well known, Lawrence tends to assume the reader’s general knowledge of recent (at the time) events, and prominent British figures involved in them. This can be frustrating to the modern-day reader.
He also went to great lengths to describe in considerable detail, individuals who participated in the events- the individuals’ physical appearance, their dress, mannerisms, even his opinion of their mental make-up and capacity, in some cases. Often the reader longs for more information on these people, but in most cases, this information is either lost to the ages, or was never noted by anyone other than Lawrence.

Lawrence is tormented by the conflict between his loyalty as an Englishman in the service of his country on one hand, and his loyalty  the Arabs, on the other. As an Englishman- and no matter what his appearance- he is an Englishman to the core- he is aware of the need to do anything required to promote victory for his homeland. But as a leader of revolution, he feels an affinity to the Arab people, and is torn by his promise of a free and independent country for the Arabs for service aiding the English against the Turks; a promise he knows he cannot keep. This is a key conflict that influences his mood and actions throughout the book.

His religious nature is not made very clear in the book. He does mention that he prayed, but only in passing, never discussing the content of his personal prayers at all. He also mentions God in a respectful way in many passages in the book, but doesn’t offer up much in terms of his own beliefs. However, the title he chose for his book must carry some weight in the matter.

His sexuality has always been under question, and the book does little to clarify things. One passage about an encounter with Gypsies in the desert seems to hint at heterosexuality, while his observations of young Arab fighters seems to hint otherwise. Further, his description of his experience under torture in Deraa seems to point to some masochistic tendency. The book really settles nothing in this area, not that it is of any great importance...

Lawrence’s contempt for the Turks is apparent throughout the book, but his contempt seems most acutely directed at the leadership and ruling classes. He seems to regret the loss of life and poor treatment of the enlisted man’s existence in the Turkish Army (to a point), but seems to have no respect for the intellect or general capability of the Turkish Army’s officers. It may have something to do with what happened to him personally in Deraa, but it seems unbalanced when compared to his more generally admiring opinion of the Arab leadership, as well as the German Army leadership in this theatre of the war. One might tend though, to believe that there is merit in his views on these matters, for he seems quite honest and forthcoming in his views of the British Army leadership both in the middle-east and in Europe; that is, he admired some, but did not so, many others.

Any historical document of this magnitude must be accompanied by appropriate maps. My version, a Vintage publishing from 2008, has decent maps, better than many.

Winston Churchill calls this book one of the finest ever written in the English language. I don’t know about that, but it was definitely compelling, colourful and engaging throughout, despite its 700 pages. Oh, and it is unforgettable, too.

My love (HATE) affair with Microsoft.

Just bought a new Windows 7 machine from my local computer store; spend some serious money for a desktop system, with a i5 board, 2 decent graphics cards, 1TB hard drive, 6G memory, and more.

The pain started in the second day.

First issue was mapping to my existing server (a Windows Homer Server system) drives. ‘Been using them for a year from my old XP system. Found out that mapping network drives from a Windows 7 system isn’t as aesy as it is from an XP system - should it be that way? No. Partly my own fault; I didn’t buy Windows 7 Professional edition, I bought Windows 7 Home Premium. I thought that the word “Premium” and the $200 price tag meant something serious. Apparently not.

The system could see my network drives, but they weren’t visible in the Map Network Drive dialogs. (Why the hell not !??!)  After 6 hours of fumbling and bumbling (including some of my own special breed of incompetence), I was finally able to get it done.

So then I started loading up my mission-critical apps: Acrobat, MS Office 2007, Google Chrome, MS Security Essentials, FileZilla, iTunes, and the drivers to my HP mega-printer and my Nikon camera, Corel Graphics Suite x4, and a few other things.

Then when I powered down on the 2nd day, it insisted on loading 12 or so updates, which it did, and then promptly gave me the BSOD. DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. Sounds like a fun thing to research instead of doing boring stuff like work... Turns out that a out of date driver can cause that. Took a shot in the dark, and uninstalled my Nikon camera drivers, and that seemed to work. The end of the problems? No, sir!

Now, my work documents use a particular font not supplied by either Microsoft or Corel, but I’m prepared, as always. My now accessible network drives contain the needed fonts. Install them, and presto- MS Word has run out of memory. Because I installed one font. @$%#$@#%@#$!!

And that could be caused by an out of date Normal.dot file. Okay fix that. Now it works.

So now, maybe I’ll be alright.

But why does all this crap happen? I am really sick and tired of dealing with this crap. Every hour I waste on fiddling with this crap is an hour lost from serving clients and spending time with my family. Why can’t computers just work?

I swear, I could even find myself looking at a Mac at some point. Okay that won’t likley happen, but Android? Maybe. We’ll see...

Pilot Hero

Just saw a documentary on the Discovery channel about an event that took place many years ago, that I need to tell you about. The date was July 23, 1983. An Air Canada pilot and co-pilot successfully landed a Boeing 767 that had run out of fuel at an altitude of over 40,000 feet. As if that weren't enough, the landing was made at a decommissioned military airstrip in the middle of nowhere, some 75 kilometers from Winnipeg Manitoba. There was no control tower, no staff, and no emergency services available there. Still worse, the aircraft was approaching the runway too fast, with no way to control the descent.

Pilot Robert Pearson was an experienced glider, flying 1200 pound gliders, but had no experience gliding in a 150 ton 767. To control descent, he had to employ a technique called "slipping" - turning the aircraft's nose away from it's heading, increasing drag, thereby slowing the aircraft's speed. Pearson had never tried this technique before, even in a glider, but he came through in a big way, and saved the day.

Have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFXJb19E4To&feature=related. Is that one hell of a bit of flying or what!?

The experience, composure and guts of the cockpit crew was directly responsible for saving the lives of the 61 passengers that day, and are therefore big-time heroes in my book...