more books

Guns, Germs and Steel by Diamond, Jared.
Oldish book that Papa flipped through long ago but never really got around to reading it. No real need for Papa to review it. Good book.

Papa has been reading pulp fiction for a change, Warhammer 40,000 books. Nothing much to mention here.

To torment himself (now that for the past few weeks Mama seems to be not so explosive) [she's not dormant either, its like one of those volcanoes that are always active, no such luck for Papa] Papa has gotten into his grubby hands ,

An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic, From If to Is by Graham Priest.

Looks to be VERY heavy going. The mathematical symbols strewn across its pages, are the likes of which Papa has not seen before. Papa thought that Papa should study logic in order to understand madness. But then it would appear that logic has its own, ehm madness. An excerpt from the preface appended below.

Despite this, many of the most interesting developments in logic in the last forty years, especially in philosophy, have occurred in quite different areas: intuitionism, conditional logics, relevant logics, paraconsistent logics, free logics, quantum logics, fuzzy logics, and so on. These are all logics which are intended either to supplement classical logic, or else to replace it where it goes wrong.

So when logic goes wrong, we replace it with other logic.....errrr... is that logical??

As a counterpoint Papa has started on :

Masters and Commanders (no sailing ships here), How Four Titans Won the War in the West (1941-1945) by Andrew Roberts.

Papa is on page 57, out of 735 pages. This is the first book that Papa has read where the book proper starts on page 49 , the previous pages being preface and introduction.... Too early to say for Papa, but it seems a good book to read at leisure. At any rate Papa learnt just how much the United States ascended in world domination in 50 years. Papa is fond of quotes:

The Spanish–American War broke out in the spring after Marshall joined VMI, and as he told the cadets there fifty-three years later, on what was by then called Marshall Day, ‘For the first time the United States stepped into the international picture. At that period, there was not a single ambassador accredited to the United States. We were recognized in the world largely as a country of Indians and buffalo, crude and remarkable manners, and the sudden wealth of a few. By the time Marshall himself became secretary of state of the United States in 1947, it was indisputably the most powerful country in the world...."

From not having a single ambassador on its shores to being THE superpower in two generations. There is a lesson here in how one should view China, and its leap forward in the second generation after Deng Xiao Peng.

mount kina balu

This will be a really short post.

Historically....Mt kinabalu.

Once there were chinese traders who traded and lived along the coast (and inland) of what is now Sabah. Some of them married the local women. No surprises.

However, one of these traders died one day. The wife of this trader, grieving, went back to the mountain.

Widow.
Mountain.
Chinese.

So, Mt balu china. Corrupted to Mt Kinabalu. Attributed to Tan Sri Ani Arope.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

A friend mentioned that he couldn't follow the poems I had borrowed and put on this page (I guess this is not as bad as those who , em, borrow without accrediting).

Not literal enough, he said. (Got a pun there) So I put here below a literal poem. This is the only one I know actually.

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

The Charge of the Light Brigade- Tennyson

To forestall charges (ahem) of obtuseness, the historical context is as follows in the actual story as told in the House of Commons by Lord Cardogan:

We advanced down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, with the batteries vomiting forth upon us shells and shot, round and grape, with one battery on our right flank and another on the left, and all the intermediate ground covered with the Russian riflemen; so that when we came to within a distance of fifty yards from the mouths of the artillery which had been hurling destruction upon us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of fire, in addition to the fire of the riflemen upon our flanks.

As we ascended the hill, the oblique fire of the artillery poured upon our rear, so that we had thus a strong fire upon our front, our flank, and our rear. We entered the battery - we went through the battery - the two leading regiments cutting down a great number of the Russian gunners in their onset. In the two regiments which I had the honour to lead, every officer, with one exception, was either killed or wounded, or had his horse shot under him or injured. Those regiments proceeded, followed by the second line, consisting of two more regiments of cavalry, which continued to perform the duty of cutting down the Russian gunners.

Then came the third line, formed of another regiment, which endeavoured to complete the duty assigned to our brigade. I believe that this was achieved with great success, and the result was that this body, composed of only about 670 men, succeeded in passing through the mass of Russian cavalry of - as we have since learned - 5,240 strong; and having broken through that mass, they went, according to our technical military expression, "threes about," and retired in the same manner, doing as much execution in their course as they possibly could upon the enemy's cavalry. Upon our returning up the hill which we had descended in the attack, we had to run the same gauntlet and to incur the same risk from the flank fire of the Tirailleurs [riflemen] as we had encountered before. Numbers of our men were shot down - men and horses were killed, and many of the soldiers who had lost their horses were also shot down while endeavouring to escape.

They went in by mistaken order, whacked the enemy, and then rode back through the the same way. (Got to gostan, mah, dead end, jalan mati).

The French Marshal on the other side could only say "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" -It is magnificent, but it is not war. "C'est de la folie"- it is madness.

We see the two aspects of Empire Brits. Courage to the point of madness , and incompetence. When combined, what a spectacular result!

Example of bravery:

In what is popularly known as the Thin Red Line, the commanding officer told his men, "There is no retreat from here, men. You must die where you stand." To which the reply was, "Aye, Sir Colin. If needs be, we'll do that." The madness was there also, as the enemy pulled back. The commanding officer thought it was a trap, as the men assembled were so pathetic, they would have been mowed down for sure.

How about more incompetence? (plus the requisite balls...)

In the Battle of Minden, 9 Battalions of Infantry (6 British and 3 Hanoverian) in the face of cross fire from 60 cannon, marched on the French cavalry and shot them to pieces.

The English Infantry, through a mistaken order (as usual?) advanced unsupported against the French with colours flying and drums beating. (Like a march at military tattoo- except people shoot at you) Six times they were charged by the French Cavalry, and each time, they repulsed the charges. They kept on marching until they reached point blank range, whereupon they decimated the French. In that morning these guys had picked up some roses in the gardens nearby and stuck them in their berets, so they must have been in a good mood.

I'm in a military mood today.