Archive for September, 2006

The rat situation in the neighborhoods along Charles River remains unsatisfactory. The rats are easily spotted just about anywhere you walk and a few nights ago I was even treated to the spectacle of a fight (or possibly a mating ritual, for all I know) between two rats in our backyard. They went at it [...]

A brawl between Charlestown High School students and residents of a local housing project apparently resulted in a shooting aimed at some other students. Reports the Boston Globe: “I believe it is common knowledge that there is Blood activity in the projects around the school,” said Michael Contompasis, the interim school superintendent. “That’s what the [...]

A couple of days ago I mentioned Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin, a German World War II general and the author of Panzer Battles, in which he described the German campaigns in Poland, France 1940, the Balkans, North Africa, Russia, France 1944, and, finally, Germany itself, with a strong focus on the operations in North Africa, [...]

A cement factory next to one of the Boston Public Schools’ bus parking lots exploded today, sending some sixty bus drivers to local hospitals after they were covered in white dust. It’s the kind of contingency I had in mind last year when I commented Boston’s evacuation plans. Things go poof and all of a [...]

So you don’t have the technology or economic resources to take on America in a big decisive war for all the marbles. What do you do? Something like this, perhaps, as imagined in 1997: Bashing The Laser Range Finder With a Rock The United States has global commitments and interests which will come into conflict [...]

I recently finished reading Friedrich von Mellenthin’s classic Panzer Battles and I decided to Google around a little bit to check some things. That lead me to a fascinating document, a summary of a 1980 conference on tactical warfare where von Mellenthin and General Hermann Balck discussed their experiences fighting the Russians in World War [...]

**Updated with links to blogs and quotes from Belichick’s press conference** Denver Broncos played a solid game and defeated the New England Patriots 17-7 after building a 17-0 lead. New England’s sole score came on 10 play, 80 yard drive that consisted of 10 completions tossed by Tom Brady to his depleted corps of receivers. [...]

My brother is an astrologer (yes, my brother is an astrologer) so I asked him if the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet has any impact on the horoscopes he writes. Here’s his response (my quickie translation): Not at all. Our kind has been creating horoscopes since before 1930 with the assumption that [...]

The Swedish folkhemmet (The Folk Home) has deliberately been financed through broadbased taxes as a way to obscure the true cost of the welfare state, but as the system has grown increasingly expensive, more and more use-fees have been added to the mix. Sweden’s capital Stockholm introduced toll roads after the 2002 election, euphemistically referred [...]

The final score indicated a close game, but the New England Patriots 24-17 victory over the New York Jets at Giants Stadium in New Jersey was mostly a lopsided affair. The Jets used two turnovers and two freak plays to cut New England’s lead after the guests had taken a 24-0 lead, but Patriots superior [...]