von.hitchofen

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• Commented on Short Story: Bit Rot
  The version printed in "Engineering Infinity" is fine, no mistakes ;-) But then, I paid for it...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  Contains some strong language You bet it fucking does. Considering the interviewees situation I'm surprised there wasn't more! The full length version iPlayer was very touching, and very quotable "The narrator is an 18-year-old boy who's on one or two...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Glasshouse
  This is one of the reasons I am a republican. I don't expect the House of Windsor to start burning heretics any time soon, but it still has that troubling claim to legitimacy based on divine intervention, which puts it...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  The thing is about the Culture novels, is they don't entirely describe the life of a Culture citizen, or the civilisation itself...such a book would not contain the necessary drama. The one book that tries to the most is Excession,...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  Annalee Newitz, writing on io9 http://io9.com/11-rules-of-good-writing-that-iain-m-banks-left-as-his-512191076 well worth a read, a nice antidote to the "oh yes, he wrote science fiction as well" brigade...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  In the eighties it was rare to find a future in SF that wasn't a grim techno-dystopia, a post-nuclear wasteland - or a loathsome pan-galactic empire. Believe me, I read all those books. IMB's secular heaven, in which no sentient...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  I'm not surprised there are a few Formula One drivers who have written books, but the number of writers who look on driving a Formula One car as a break from the day job, is vanishingly small http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/Iain-Banks-drives-a-Formula-One-car-CAR-magazine-June-2000/ and now...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  When I think of the Iain Banks in the 1980s and 1990s, this picture springs to mind http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/dynamic/00336/STN0703S3_336401k.jpg it says to me "I don't rob the poor, I don't sell arms to tyrants - I write books, books that would...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  That's the gulf I look across when I look at Iain's body of work. As good as I can be I simply wouldn't have what it takes to fill those shoes. Being who I am only makes his achievements more...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  One of the giants of 20th and 21st century Scottish literature has left the building. indeed he has... A life and legacy to envy, in my opinion. There's not many people who decide what to do aged 11, do it...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Iron Sunrise
  Sixty years ago, the only 'planes with swept wings in the flypast were some RCAF Sabres. ...and the 7 Swifts, the Valiant, and the Victor and the Hunter, plus the Vulcan and Javelin deltas The Canberra stayed in RAF service...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  I, personally, would not touch the F-35 with a sterilised flagpole, especially not the version the RAF and FAA are going to be lumbered/ equipped with. an airforce equipped with say, 10 squadrons of Super Tucanos, 5 Squadrons of combat-optimised...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  I'm dubious about the idea that modern AAMs would be useless against WW1 era biplanes. Those biplanes tended to have large lumps of metal in their nose (or tail) in the shape of engines, often with lots of exposed metalwork...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  I am effectively marketed in the UK as an imported American author Really? I've never noticed - until I started lurking around this blog I was under the [mis]apprehension you were as Scottish as white pudding... of course, you SF-novel-writing...
• Commented on Books I've written
  [i]U or non-U[/i] invented by Alan Ross and popularised by poet Stephen Spender and writer Nancy Mitford http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English I remember the younger son of a peer telling me his father said "mirror" and "cemetery" - but that words like "pardon?"...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  and BASF, IG Farben, Daimler-Benz, and Auto-Union [and Ford and General Motors] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Thyssen#Nazi_Germany Fritz Thyssen was among the first to realise what a disaster Hitler was going to be for the German people and economy, reneged on his support and...
• Commented on Books I've written
  cheaper than buying it off Amazon...:-D...
• Commented on Books I've written
  "Scratch Monkey"? never 'eard a that one...?...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  The infantry battles are pretty much the worst numbers of casualties a military can endure, even dropping a tactical nuke on a tank division in in the Fulda gap wouldn't create such horrific numbers But no modern government or air...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  The Past really is a foreign country. It sure is - the US government wouldn't tolerate the fifteen B-52s lost on "Linebacker" II in 1972 - four men crew X 15 = 60 dead/MIA/POW... let alone the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission of...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  HOW, precisely do you get the IJN to surrender or even “honourably cease futile resistance” so that they could be tried ….given what we know now, never mind the more limited information at the time? quite, though it was...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  and one ex-Aeronavale Lanc is preserved in Lincolnshire - and I've been inside it [on the ground] http://www.lancaster-archive.com/lanc-pic-nx611-4.jpg http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/59/54/595435_5c924c73.jpg...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  the Avro Shackleton MR.3 [Phase 3] was the only six-engined aircraft ever operated by the RAF, AFAIK - four Rolls-Royce Griffons and two Armstrong-Siddeley Viper jets the example at IWM Duxford is one of the six-engined variety the AEW variant...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  The Liberator was the main MRP of RAF Coastal Command during the latter stages WWII, and the Avro Lancaster GR.3 was the main MRP of Coastal Command after the war. A specialised US Navy version, the Privateer, was also made....
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  the biggest second order effect of Churchill, Portal, Lindemann and Harris' area bombing policies were the Vergeltungswaffen - their consumption of manpower and raw materials crippled the Nazi war machine With the resources involved they could have manufactured 24,000 single-engined...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  I think that the appropriate response is trial for the culprit, not descended to their level Still, if you think that Allied soldiers have sunk to their level, what can they be charged with, without bringing international law into...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  Certainly better performance from a Lanc or Lib than a Lockheed Hudson, Avro Anson or AW Whitley - none of which had the capacity to carry the big 450lb depth charges Harris has to be one of the most myopic...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  On the subject of hitting submarines, you can't just switch your heavy bomber force over to attacking submarines. Except that's what the RAF, USAAF, USN did do...in 1942 44 Squadron Bomber Command, much to Arthur Harris' disgust, transferred 5 Lancasters...
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  It's proof, if proof were needed, that governments, even those of self-styled liberal democracies, are authoritarian in nature and are more than willing to suspend the rights of citizens/subjects and the normal functioning of society if they feel circumstances demand...
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  ...but there's no substitute for ammonium perchlorate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cy0bd-TdmA...